Team Orlando 4 Life.
Inspiration to Paper // Love Scrapbook Layout
When we were in Spain I found myself constantly photographing street art. Murals, door art, graffiti. My camera was FULL when we came home.
One of my favorite images was this door. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to emulate it on a scrapbook page.
Today I finally had a chance to play around with the GORGEOUS Gossamer Blue August Kits and Add-Ons.
I found these BasicGrey wood shapes in the August Main Add-On Kit and knew the triangle was perfect to use as a template.
I chose seven double sided papers and got to work tracing triangles.
When I cut them out and assembled them (using the photo above for guidance) here’s what I came up with.
A sprinking of embellishments here and there, a doily, and a cluster or two…and voila!
I’m so happy that I finally got that idea out of my head and onto paper. And that officially wins the weirdest way I’ve ever been inspired to create a scrapbook page. A door in Spain.
How about you? What’s the most random inspiration you’ve ever found?
Ciao y’all!
xo
Barcelona | Meeting Gaudí
My favorite thing about Barcelona was the amazing architecture. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t know much (if anything) about Antoni Gaudí before this trip. But it’s fair to say that I’m now in love (obsessed?!?!) with his signature whimsical modernism. We spent much of our time in Barcelona touring his creations, as well as creations that were inspired by him.
1. Casa Batlló –This was our very first stop on the first day we were in Spain. I had seen this crazy amazing building on Pinterest and knew it warranted a quick stop. It did not disappoint. All six of us sat on the curb in front and just stared for a while.
2. La Sagrada Família– Okay. I don’t even know where to start. There are no words to adequately explain how beautiful this experience was. I have goose bumps thinking about it.
We opted to do the audio tour (all six of us) and I’m so glad we did. I learned about everything you can imagine. How the church was conceived, the story behind the stained glass, columns, and ceiling. Fascinating.
Around this time in the self guided tour, a choir started singing The Lord’s Prayer on my headphones and I lost it a little bit. I just stood there for a moment with tears streaming down my face and then I collected myself.
How great thou art indeed.
How cute are the littles with their headphones? SO SERIOUS.
3. Park Güell– I felt like Alice in Wonderland at this park. It was simply magical. The girls kept saying they felt like they were in a fairy tale. And I must agree.
So there you have it. Our experience meeting Gaudí. I can’t wait to go back again!
xo
Stephanie
Wordless (ish?!?!?) Wednesday – Video Edition
Truly Y'all. There are no words for this one. Just so so so so many HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAs.
GWOSS
xoxo
S
Questions About Italy #2
Hey y’all! Today I’m answering more questions about Italy. This is so fun for me to do and often encourages self-reflection. I always learn so much when I type these up. Thank you so much for the questions!
A: We are very lucky in that we have English speaking landlords. It’s very easy to get things done when I can easily speak the language. With that being said, I have had some tricky situations (getting XRays where no one spoke English, enrolling the littles for Italian preschool) where the Google Translate app has been my best friend.
I’ve also made Italian friends and they have been INVALUABLE. I can muddle my way through most conversations now but there are certain things that I have no idea how to express verbally! It’s super intimidating and overhwhelming!
A: We live downtown, so our “neighborhood” is pretty much like the downtown of any city. As far as the layout of our apartment goes, one thing I had to quickly get used to is that Italian homes don’t have wide open spaces/great rooms like American homes do.
We have three floors and each has a small atrium with rooms that open up off of it. The ceilings are really high and this apartment actually has quite a bit of square footage, but it took some getting used to because the layout is so different!
The kitchens here are A LOT smaller than American kitchens. The appliances are different too. Our freezer can’t even hold a gallon of ice cream!!! We shop as we eat much more, as opposed to big grocery trips like I did in the US. There’s simply not room to store everything!
There is no central air…we have a few small units in some of our rooms. It seemed so hot last summer but we’ve adjusted and no longer notice. I feel that the US is going to seem so COLD to us when we move back!
Our washer and dryer are small and take much longer to do laundry. A wash cycle (the short one) is one hour. And it takes at least an hour and a half to dry laundry. It’s been a major adjustment to say the least!
A: Oooooh. Hard one. Florence was probably my favorite, closely followed by Positano/Amalfi. I also have an affinity for Venice. Out of the country, we have most loved the south of France and Spain.
A: H and S attend American school on post. They had some very real worries and fears about being in a school where they didn’t understand the language so we chose to honor their wishes and keep them in American school.
C and L will be attending asilo (Italian preschool) in the fall and will hopefully have two full years before we move back to the states.
I am on post a lot…that is where I drop the girls off for school and that is where I pick up our mail. We have a US address/APO address. I also buy a few things at the commissary, though I MUCH prefer to purchase meat and produce locally. I do love having a PX for purchasing our toiletries and American books,etc. I’m also at the library on post often. I’d say it’s about 50/50. I love spending time around Vicenza!
Okay. That’s it for today. If you have any questions about what it’s like to be an expat in Italy, leave a comment!
oxox