Holiday Weekend

I have Monday and Tuesday off work next week because the 8th December is the Festa dell'Immacolata Concezione (feast of the Immaculate Conception). I have lots of Christmassy things planned. First of all I want to go to Florence to do some Christmas shopping. I fell in love with Florence the first time I went there on holiday several years ago. I still can't believe how lucky I am to live a 2 hours train journey from this magical city.

Next thing on the list is to do my Christmas clean and put up my Christmas decorations. At the moment we are living in an appartment in Matteo's parents' house which we share with his sister and her boyfriend (it's cosy!). This is not an ideal sitiation but we need to save money for the house renovation. His family don't really go in for Christmas decorations so I'll have to limit my decorating to our bedroom. I like using as many decorations from nature as possible and last year I collected loads of pinecones from the nearby woods. I just put them in a big basket with some greenery and some tea lights and they looked amazing. Here are some pictures of last years decorations when we lived in a beautiful appartment in the centre of Perugia. (sorry about the poor photo quality)

Also on the list is Christmas card making. Every year I decide to make my own Christmas cards and then never get round to it so this year is going to be the one I actually do it. I just need to find some inspiration.

Hopefully after all of this I'll still have time to put my feet up next to the fire with a cup of tea and finish off some of the Christmas presents I'm knitting.

Have a good weekend x

Wedding Plans

There's not much happening on the house front at the moment. Matteo is busy drawing plans on the computer using the measurements we made. He's doing an amazing job considering he's never used the programme before and the plans are looking great.

I thought I'd share some of our wedding plans since there's no house news. Matteo and I are getting married on 7th August 2010 in Scotland. The ceremony will take place in my parent's garden surrounded by the Scottish hills. We will then have drinks and canapes in the garden before going to our local rugby club for some good food followed by lots of music and dancing. We are going for a vintage country garden theme. Here's some of my inspiration:

I'm aiming for a relaxed atmosphere like this stunning wedding which I came across at Beautiful Things to Share I love the hay bales for seating and the horses in the background.

I adore this picture, it's just so dreamy and magical.

Some lovely refreshing homemade lemonade for after the ceremony because obviously on my wedding day there will be glorious sunshine and not a typical Scottish downpour (I'm determined to remain optimistic about the weather!)

I plan to have a few games in the garden to keep people occupied while we have photos taken, croquet, petanque......any other ideas?

I'm in love with these tea light holders.

I've collected so many more pictures and am bursting with ideas, it's so much fun organising a wedding and I can't wait to put all of these ideas into action x x

Buon compleanno

Today is my birthday! These are some of the things on my birthday list:

I have a bit of an obsession for hooks and pretty things hanging on hooks. This would also be great for my fiancee since he is pretty forgetful! It's from here.

I'd love something from my favourite shop back in Scotland.

My other obsession is baskets and this lovely one from here would be perfect for harvesting the fruit from the garden.

More House Pictures

It's taken me a while to get back to my blog. It's been a bit busy the past week or two. I've been helping with the olive harvest which is a lot of fun but quite tiring. School's getting busier too as we start to prepare for the run up to Christmas.

There's been no progress on the house as we are waiting to get rid of some of the furniture that is being stored in there at the moment. Here are some more of the pictures we took a few weeks ago.

The front door. It's in pretty bad shape but hopefully we'll be able to restore it. I love how the key hole is upside down!

This is the view from the side of the house. There's not much of a garden but I'm hoping that we'll be able to buy a plot of land nearby for growing vegetables and keeping chickens!

Beginnings

I've only recently discovered the inspirational world of blogging and decided I'd give it a go. My fiancee and I are about to start work on a 16th century property in Italy. My main reason for starting a blog is to keep a record of our progress on the house and to share ideas and inspiration with others. I'm also planning a wedding and working as a teacher so there may be bits and pieces about those projects too. I'll start off with a picture of our house as it is now. There will be more pictures and details to follow.