6.26.2011

I'd like to live in a barn.

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{Virginia Creeper Bike Trail, Spring Break 2011}

Not this exact barn, of course. A girl would like to stand up straight while tweezing in her master bath...no-can-do in this little shed.

But we're going with the vibe of the rustic barn, not literal. The open space, inside and out. The golden ground, the blue skies that wrap around you. Rope swings. Hay bails. Provident living. calloused hands. Quilts and rocking chairs. Shelling peas. Things as they really are.

I'm kinda bored with sidewalks and cement.
I need a barn.

And a potty trained Old Yeller dog.

6.18.2011

shabby apple winner...

Adelle!

awesome. Congratulations, Adelle.
this baby's yours:

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6.14.2011

kacie wants it to snow.

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good luck with that, sweetheart.

6.10.2011

Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway - CLOSED

One thing I noticed on our vacation was skirts. Yes, I stared at people's food and at their clothes, and they were all wearing cute dresses and skirts. Where are the jeans, ladies? I need to move past jeans. So I've begun paying attention to simple, wearable, modest women's dresses.
Enter: Shabby Apple.
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Shabby Apple is my favorite place for vintage inspired dresses and skirts. They also have awesome accessories, aprons, little girl dresses, maternity dresses, and swimsuits - which I love.

As I was browsing their site, I found their Oh La La collection, straight from the streets of Paris! It was so fun to see all their photos and be able to say "I was just there! Really there for real!"
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After I compared my own ham and cheese baguette picture to this one taken in front of the VERY SAME fence (mmm hmmm), I found their Roamin' Holiday Collection! Swoon. I love it.

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This cream flower applique dress is called the Spanish Steps Dress - and Shabby Apple said you can have it! For real! I love this fancy tee shirt dress. I kinda want to win my own giveaway.


Just leave a comment, and be sure to leave a way for me to contact you if you win.


The winner must be willing to supply me with their address, phone number, and dress size so Shabby Apple can send the dress directly to you.


This giveaway will be open for one week,

closing at 11:55pm on Friday June 17th.

I will randomly pick a winner and email her Saturday morning.


AND...Shabby Apple is giving you 10% off your next purchase! Just enter the code calico10off when you check out, and its yours.


they're on facebook, too. If you "like" them, you can get even more exclusive discounts and promotions.


Hooray! A free dress and discounts! What could be more exciting?



gelato.

tickets are on sale!!

at Fandango

6.09.2011

Ciao, Roma.

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{Palatine Hill. Cassy and I stared at this garden forever trying to figure out what kind of awesome parties were held here 2,000 years ago.}
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Palatine Hill is where all the Emperor's, and the important people lived. Legend says this is where the Lupercal is - the cave where the twin brothers Romulus and Remus were found by the she-wolf who raised them. They grew up, killed their great-uncle who had the throne, and decided to build their own city. Romulus killed Remus, and Rome became Rome.

Then you have the Roman Forum...a giant marketplace where most of the government activities took place. Kinda where Hercules knocks down all those pillars in the movie.
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Here's a good example of the city being built around ruins...we were walking along and saw this hole in the side of a beautiful building. This is what was inside:
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Totally. Real live ancient architecture. They built the place around it. If you look in deep, you can see the ruins go all the way inside under the building. My brother in law speaks a little Italian and he overheard a tour guide telling his group that most of the buildings there in Rome have ruins like these in their basements. Seriously? hey Fred, let's take our lunch break in the cellar and eat our pastrami on rye amongst the 2,000 YEAR OLD ANCIENT ARTIFACTS!! fascinating.

This is Piazza Navona:
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This was one of my favorite places. There was music everywhere, gorgeous art of the city, and crazy performers dancing to "Livin' in America". I bought a painting of this window, that now sits on my mantel next to the legos and the library books we're pretending to read.
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Vatican City:
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I didn't get many pictures of the inside of the Vatican Museum. I was too busy staring at the ceilings. The picture above is the Sistine Chapel. You weren't allowed to take pictures in the Chapel, but I snapped this one behind the gate on my way out. This place was fascinating. You walk into this incredibly crowded hall, and everyone is staring up. There are guards standing on a platform yelling "Quiet Please! No photo, no photo!" It was loud, which was sad. This a very sacred place, and it wasn't treated that way while we were there. I could have stayed forever listening to our audio tour of Michel Angelo's paintings, but my neck hurt. And I got claustrophobic. And hungry.
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{Restaurant Bistrot 23 by the Vatican. The best gnocchi I had the entire trip, and I ate a lot of gnocchi.}

Okay, this is St. Peter's Basilica:
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Can you see all the tiny people at the very tip top of the dome up there? No? That's right, you can't, because it's SO HIGH! When all the guys said "of course we're going to the top of the dome", I thought "well yeah! how cool. of course we are! We're in Rome! Why wouldn't we go to the top of that wimpy little dome?" um.....hello. Never call a dome wimpy. Especially this one.

This is inside the church:
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You go inside the dome first, where those windows are way up top. I got a little freaked out while we were watching these tiny little tourist ants at the bottom. My stomach kept doing flip flops like I was going to somehow fall through the giant mesh fence that holds you in, down into the sacred ceremony below. But I kept my cool, took some pictures, and Hooray! We went to the top of the dome! nope. we didn't. Then you take more of these tiny little turny hallways you have to squeeze through, higher and higher and higher and higher and higher, and then out you pop ON THE VERY TIP TOP OF ROME! Like, with the birds. I've never been afraid of heights before.
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Cassy and I both hung to the wall for a bit, then I finally convinced her to step to the edge so I could take a picture...hello...we're in Rome for heavens sake. No room for chicken's in Rome.
I told her she didn't have to open her eyes.
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We eventually warmed up to the edge, enough to say goodbye to Italy.
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Goodbye Italy.

6.08.2011

I'm absent.

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{Joey's pretty sure he's awesome. He's the one ready to dive.}

Summer has taken control. All the kids are doing swim team this year, which I think I love more than they do, so we've been at the pool every morning and evening for the last two weeks. My house is a wreck, dinner's are quick and boring, and there is no clean underwear...but Dani's back stroke is rockin'. The pool rules.

I'll have the last of Rome posted tomorrow (it's time to let go), and then an awesome giveaway from Shabby Apple on Friday. if all goes well.

I'm dying to sew something. anything. If only I could have all the time in the world. I'm not asking much, just a token really, a trifle.

yay, summer.

6.01.2011

From Paris to Rome.

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We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast in Rome, behind this big beautiful door:
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The best thing about where we stayed was this:
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Right next door was this basement bakery, open 24 hours. So we'd get something on the way to the metro in the morning, and stop on the way home 16 hours later. Those were long days. Our bedroom window opened up into the courtyard of this building, and the smells from the bakery would fill our room while we were gone all day. I fell asleep to patries. Now cake smells like Rome.
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There are springs all over Rome, so they have these drinking fountains everywhere. You just put your finger at the end of the spout, and it shoots up for you to get a drink. So cool.

Rome definitely had a different feel than Paris. Much more relaxed, and "grungy", if that's an appropriate word. Not dirty or rough, just more edgy. More grit. Just different.

After we dropped our stuff off, we headed to the Coloseum.
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The Coloseum was amazing. It was completed in 80 AD, which makes it 1,931 years old. It was called the Flavian Amphitheater but later got the "nickname" Coloseum from the gigantic statue Emperor Nero made of himself, named the Colossus (because it was HUGE). Nero had the statue moved from Palatine Hill in front of the Amphitheater during his reign.

The Colossus remained there for years, being remodeled into the Sun God Helios, and then with the heads of different Emperors. It was believed to be magic. Hence the 8th century prophecy, "As long as the Colossus stands, so shall Rome; when the Colossus falls, Rome shall fall; when Rome falls, so shall the world."

The statue was brought down during the medieval era to recycle the bronze it was made from. They also recycled all the marble from the Colosseum, leaving only the concrete brick skeleton.
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The arena was covered with wood and canvas, and a layer of sand to soak up all the blood. In fact, the word "arena" derives from the Latin word for sand. The numbers our guide gave us for how many animals and people were killed here was astonishing. During the opening festival, which lasted 100 days, over 5000 wild animals were killed. And I don't know how many gladiators. It was sobering.
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{I caught Seth, the paparazzi man, trying to sneak a picture of me acting natural}

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Okay, here's my big Rome tip, for anyone who plans on visiting the city some time in their lifetime: Don't get the sandwiches from the carts. Those tomatoes were sliced in half and slid all the way to the front of the sandwich to join the tiny slivers of cheese and the one half sprig of lettuce. lame. Those Italian cart guys are sneaky smart. taking advantage of us poor, ignorant tourists. shame.

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{Circus Maximus. Think Ben Hur.}

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Walking the streets of Rome was amazing. You'd be passing an apartment building, and then this. Ancient ruins, molded into every crack of the city. Actually, a modern city molded into each crevice of these thousand year old ruins. The whole place was fascinating. There aren't many subway lines in Rome, because they keep running the tunnels into ancient artifacts and discoveries under the city. It truly is amazing.

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{Trevi Fountain at night.}
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{holy cannoli}

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{Spanish Steps. Seth took this picture; I love it.}

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{metro home to my bakery smellin' bed}