Author: Marina

The 52 project: week 3

I’m jumping in late into this project, but I’m just happy I decided to take the challenge. It came at the right time. Just last week I was stressing myself out thinking how a year had gone by since Olivia was born and all the memory keeping I was planning to do resolved in a massive archive of bad-ish photos without any comments or thoughts. Right after sharing my concerns with my not-so-bordered other half, I discovered the 52 weeks project. It was through one of my old, if not one of the first, favourite bloggers bluebirdbaby. I liked the idea, I liked what I saw, I like what it could come out of it. So here it goes.

Bath time – our favourite time of the day

Dinner time – Having fun with your hair
This week:
You slept in your bed until the morning for 2 nights in a row.
You played hide and seek with your plate and had food stuck in your hair.
You learned to stay up late.
You laughed at your papa doing the moonwalking.

30 drawings in 30 days – Part 2

#11/30 – La Capanna – Roccelletta di Borgia, Italy

#12/30 – Spiaggia – Roccelletta di Borgia, Italy

#13-14-15/30 – Doodles

#16/30 – La Terrazza – Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#17/30 – Living Room – Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#18/30 – Hibiscus – Catanzaro Lido, Italy
#19/30 – Wet-on-wet excercise

#20/30 – Golfo di Squillace, afternoon mist – Catanzaro Lido, Italy

I was hoping to get a new scanner soon, after my old one broke down a long while ago. But since that hasn’t happen yet, I got my drawing scanned at work. Here is my second set of drawings which were done back in August. I loved the challenge of finding the time everyday to do a little sketch. I must confess we were on holiday back then visiting my parents, and it was not much of a time issue, more like getting the inspiration going…trying to fight the apathy that comes with doing (almost!) nothing all day and a 40degC average temperature! But I stuck to it and I’m glad I did.
These were mostly on the spot sketches, with the exception of #18 which was done from a photo I took in my granddad’s garden and #19 which was an example exercise from one of Cathy Johnsson mini classes. And the doodles of course are pure imagination…

Christmas Holidays wrap up

It was awesome! We spent the holidays in Italy visiting our families. We were up on the mountains until Boxing Day and down to the beach until the Epiphany. We had snow, Miss O met her first cousin, we exchanged presents, we had cappuccino and cornetto for breakfast (almost everyday!), we walked on the beach, we went skateboarding, we enjoyed the sunshine and the warm weather, we loved have family around, we had our first sleep through the night (pure bliss!), we had lots of good food, we went to the local market, we had ice cream. WE.HAD.A.REALLY.GOOD.TIME.

Letter to my almost one year old

Dear Olivia,
This time last year you were about to join our family. We knew you were arriving but didn’t know when exactly.
It all started after lunch on Sunday, the 4th December. We went to the garden centre with your grandparents because your mum wanted to get a nice winter plant to put outside the front door. Everything was ready for your arrival except that one thing! They didn’t have the plant that your mum was looking for, but your grandma, knowing how important that was, suggested we take a red poinsettia…it was almost Christmas after all. And so we did, we took the plant home and left your grandparents planting it outside while we went to the gym. And there it happened, you decided that it was time to get ready, you had enough of hearing muffled voices, of floating around, of not be able to see a thing…it was time you start to get ready to come to this world. It was 4.50pm when I heard you complaining for the first time. We headed back home, excited and scared, oh so scared! We sent your grandparents to the hotel and we started to get ready ourselves….bag for mummy-check!, bag for papa-check!, bag for baby-check! All set then, what’s next? We watched some tv, until we had enough of waiting at home and headed to the hospital. I will skip what happened between 2pm and the time you were born, let’s just say that it was intense and that I don’t remember all the details. But one thing I do remember, your dad was next to me the entire time helping me through the hardest part, nervously waiting to meet you. And there you arrived, at 8.17am all squashed and red, screaming with joy or disappointment, we’ll never know. And we loved you straight away, you were there, within our arms, filling our hearts with joy. It has been almost a year since that moment. And we do love you even more. You are our biggest, and most successful, accomplishment. Thank you for choosing us, little Miss O. We love you. Your mum and dad xxx.

Pumpkin, pine nuts & honey cake

My mum got us a big pumpkin from the farmers market last week. The intention was, as one would expect, to carve it, make a pumping soup with the flesh and maybe toast the seeds, in time for Halloween. But life had other plans, so the weekend passed and by monday morning the pumpkin was still waiting for some attention on the kitchen table.
Then yesterday I went to the supermarket after work and grabbed one of those promotional booklets which had an entire section dedicated to pumpkin recipes, and there it was…a new recipe for a pumpkin cake. But best of all, I had all the ingredients needed at home (except for the eggs, which I realised half way through the baking process and had to rush to the off licence!). So, after putting little miss O to bed last night, I did some long due baking and enjoyed a slice while watching the new season of Revenge. 
This recipe will definitely go into my book!