Back from Italy

Happy Friday - have you missed me?  After nearly four years of daily posts - I took a break for a week!  As I posted last week, we took a quick weekend trip to Italy for a reunion with some friends and former work colleagues.  This group has met every two years since we left England 12 years ago.

Our American friends live in a lovely part of Tuscany, near the old city of Lucca.  The scenery is wonderful and we were fortunate to have good weather while we were there.

Lucca is a walled city as you can see on this street map.  It is one of the few that still has a full intact wall from the Renaissance era.  If you look near the top center of the yellow area, you can see the oval area that is the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro.

The Piazza is surrounded by buildings that form an oval shape with shops, apartments and lots of cafes in the center.

While we were in the Piazza, a bride and groom were having some photos taken - her gown was beautiful.

We were in the Anfiteatro to meet the Segway rental company.  We had an adventure with six Segways and a special bicycle cab that is built for six!

We rode from the Piazza up to the wall and then drove all the way around the city. Riding the bike is a little tricky - only the people in the four corners can pedal and, even though there are two steering wheels, the one on the left is the only one that controls the cab.

From the wall you have a view over the city and on to the surrounding hills (more like small mountains!).

There are many, many churches within the walls - I have forgotten the exact number but it seems disproportionately high for the size of the city.

Some of the churches have very elaborate facades.

The stones used for the arches alternate in color for a checkerboard effect.  I love to see all of the architectural details and often can find ideas for paper cutting designs from buildings.

The stones and ironwork are fascinating to see and of course I took lots of photos to help me remember some of the ideas.

There are many examples of intricate iron work - this is the base of a lamp post on the wall.

Here is the top of the lamp post with all sorts of fanciful animals set into the curves and swirls.

The wide paved area on the top of the wall was perfect for riding the Segways.  It was the first time most of us had tried this and it was a lot of fun after about a ten minute learning curve.  I definitely want to try it again - maybe in Boston.

I had to laugh when I saw the name of the cycle rental company - I checked a translator and it does have the same meaning as the English word bizarre!

There is always so much to see when you are in another country.  I think the glass holders around the window are for candles but I am not sure when they would be lighted (I am guessing that it would be in connection with some sort of religious festival).  The fleur-de-lis ironwork also caught my eye.

The site in the shop windows are also intriguing - look at all of the yummy flavors of gelato...

I don't know how anyone could walk on the cobblestone streets in these shoes but I am sure that some people try!

The shops have lovely displays and in this one the merchandise spills out from the building into the piazza.

I have taken many photos of the ironwork in the arches over the doors on previous trips so I only took a few this time.  I thought the reflection of the other buildings was very pretty in this photo.

When we returned to the States, I had a fairly major bout of jet lag and I decided the best way to get over it was to take it easy for a few days.  Some packages arrived while I was gone and today I will be trying out some of these recent purchases, including lots of punches.

So what's new with you?  What sort of projects are you working on?  Do you decorate for Halloween - a little or a lot?  Do you send Halloween cards (I make them but hardly ever send them!).

I have a few surprises planned for next week.  I hope you have a great weekend!


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Shopping and Snowflakes

I have done entirely too much internet shopping over the past week!  There have been great "Early Black Friday" deals and I just couldn't resist...now I won't be able to spend on the real Black Friday (but I don't like going out in the crowds so that's OK).  The only cartridges that I have left on my wish list are Paper Lace and Quarter Note, at least until the next batch are announced!

One of the best features of Design Studio (or the Gypsy) is the ability to thoroughly preview the content of a cartridge to help you decide if you would like to add it to your collection.  I prefer Design Studio for this purpose because I can do color previews and really get a good Idea of the way things will work.  The absolute number of cartridges is overwhelming and you need to be able to make intelligent choices about the cartridges that suit your style and needs.

One of the cartridges on my "must have " list was Ornamental Iron.  There are so many great design possibilities with the shapes on this cartridge - and yes...I made another snowflake.  I can't wait until my order is delivered and I can cut this one out!

You can even get fancy and do layered snowflakes.  There are so many possible variations - just as there are with real snowflakes. 

If you don't share my fascination with snowflakes you may also like the images that look like chess pieces on this cartridge.

The ironwork will make a beautiful Christmas wreath card as well.  The intricate filigree in this cartridge is just the sort of thing I like to use for my designs.

I haven't had much time to look through all of the possibilities but I thought I'd give you fair warning - there will be some posts coming your way showing projects with this cartridge very soon!  Don't worry if you are not a fan of this type of artwork - I bought a lot of other cartridges too!

One more day until the Creative Memories Cricut Cruise contest starts.  I wish I was better at using Facebook.  I am counting on all of you who are pros to help me "get out the vote."  Thanks again for all the lovely comments and support you have sent my way about this contest - and please keep your fingers crossed for me!


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Italian Inspiration

I want to say "Thanks" again to all of the people who have purchased the exclusive Creative Memories cartridges Cheerful Seasons and Reminisce Accents through my Creative Memories personal website.  Thanks to your support I was able to meet the goal for the first stage of the "Cruisin with Cricut" contest.

I am excited to let you know that I received an email on Wednesday and I have "officially" been invited to the next stage of the Creative Memories contest to win a spot on the Cricut Cruise.  Now I have to create a layout which will be included in a Facebook contest to determine the winner.  I can't decide if I should make a "serious" layout using Reminisce Accents or a more whimsical one with Cheerful Seasons.  If you have an opinion about which would be more appealing in a Facebook contest please leave me a comment!

I couldn't do a snowflake video because I am still suffering from laryngitis so I thought I'd share some photos from my trip to Italy.  I have noticed many variations of gates, grids and ironwork popping up in the papercrafting world. There is even a new Cricut cartridge called Ornamental Iron.  When we were in Italy last month I was fascinated by the ornate grills in the arches over the doors. 

Most of the doorways in the old towns and cities we visited feature large wooden double doors with an arch above. This particular pair of doors was very beautiful, with a clamshell design carved in the wood.

Here is a closer view of the doors.

The more modern doors might have very simple designs like this - I think the horseshoe is for good luck but shouldn't it be hanging the other way around to hold the good luck?

This door has a simple lattice grill.

This is a bit more elaborate with some fleurs-de-lis added.

This one is basically just fat and skinny hearts pointed in opposite directions.

Here are some more hearts.

While the grids are almost always semi-circles, once in a while you see something like this.

 

Some of them can get rather frilly with lots of extra curls.

The lines in this one are a bit more free form and organic.

This grill is very heavy and ornate, with thick bars and lots of ornamentation.

But at the very next door the grill might be much more plain and geometric in design.

I noticed that many of the doors incorporated initials at the center.  I wonder if these would be the monograms of the original owners.  This grill reminded me of a hand quilting pattern.

This is another fairly simple  one.  I like the teardrop shape and the secondary pattern it forms.

The stonework is also interesting and appears in various styles.

 

This is the only one I saw that had two separate arch designs with initials at the bases and then a large medallion with another letter added at the top.

The grills are nearly always black.  This is one of the few painted ones and it gives a much more feminine impression with the curvy shapes.

People often ask me where I get ideas and inspiration.  There is inspiration to be found everywhere.  Sometimes it helps to take your camera with you on a walk to "discover" your own town.  You will see so much more if you get out of the car and take the time to really look at things that you pass by every day.

I will be using these grids as a jump start to create some of my own half circle designs for cards or pages.  The repetition of images and the geometric patterns will produce some interesting results.  If you are inspired by these door grills and try to create some of your own designs in paper I'd love to see them.  They would also be good for digital projects.

It has been very rainy here today - I hope the weather is brighter where you are!

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