Excitement with a stamp on it

Look at this! This gorgeous surprise arrived in my mail box all the way from Janey! She has created this fabric postcard of one of her fabulous drawings by stitching with various machine embroidery stitches onto patterned fabric (ingenious! I would never have thought of that!) and then, it looks to me like she has also added some ink into the mix just to finish it off. THANK YOU JANEY! I love it! And what Janey didn't know was that it arrived just in time for my birthday! And what a lovely birthday I've had. I had a nice one last year - this is the sketch I drew in San Gimignano last birthday.

And a year ago today I went to the Uffizi Gallery in Firenze (Florence, Italy). I LOVE art and (strangely) I love kitch. And I love it when the two coincide. This pencil case is what I bought in the shop at the Uffizi.

I said I've had a lovely birthday this year and here is just a small portion of it...
But the excitement that comes through the mail with a stamp on it won't be ending just yet. For my birthday I'm getting something I'm really excited about, and all I have to do is wait for it to turn up in the mail... Don't worry, you'll be the second to know (after me)!

Notebookism Notebookism NOTEBOOKISM!

They say "three times lucky". Well, an image from this blog is featured on Notebookism today - my third time! Check it out, and most importantly, check out Notebookism. It is a fabulous website where stationery lovers and the visually minded are constantly tantilised with images and ideas, paper and pens, and history and history-in-the-making. So in the Aussie vernacular - "Do yourself a favour!"

'The Path to Rome' Part 4 - Roma!

Aah Roma! What a crazy place! Had an 'incident' (well not just one! but this bit is about one of them...) on a bus...















...but it all turned out well in the end.















My favourite thing in Rome was the trees. Those pines (what type of pines, does any one know???) are incredibly elegant. I saw the way the formed natural colonades and just KNEW where the ancient Romans got their inspiration for all those beautiful marble ones.














I drew this at the Forum. It is of 'Dominus ........' (don't you just hate that! You start typing and the words just won't come!) Dominus someoneus. It was beautiful!
Those trees! I love those trees!

'The Path to Rome' Part 2 - Siena

Siena! Spent a couple of days there and really enjoyed it. The Duomo at Siena is famous for its inlaid marble floor. Because it is old and precious AND a floor, they keep it covered 11 months of the year. We were lucky enough to see it during our visit. Took some great photos of it, but you know, I never thought of drawing it, not once, until I started to type this. Oh well, another place I will just HAVE to go back to...














In the evenings we would go down to 'il campo' for a drink and some antipasta, just like everyone else! I drew as many of them as I could, but it was the end of a big day, and there was that cool wind, and I had to stop to drink something warming...















I love food anyway, but the food in Tuscany was amazing! It's hard to pick a favourite, but this is definitely one of them. A delicious regional salami with fennel seeds in it. Devine!

'The Path to Rome' Part 3 - San Gimignano

I'm having one of those post-holiday-blur moments. I started this post, and then realised San Gimignano should be Part 3, not Part 2 (as this post should have been titled)! I think I was just plain in a hurry to revisit such a beautiful place in my mind.

My guide book listed the name of the hotel that Cher, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench and co. stayed in while in custody in San Gimignano in the movie "Tea With Mussolini". So we went straight there after arriving at the gates to the medieval town by bus.
"Would you like a room with a panoramic view?" "Yes, please."
"Would you like your view of the square or the countryside?" "The countryside!"

San Gimignano - beautiful inside and out. Wish we could have stayed longer. Aaahh, we'll just have to go back.












(Stay tuned for "The Path to Rome Part 2 - Siena")