A Crafty Family (comes in handy when planning a wedding!)

While I was back in Scotland during the Easter holidays I spent some lovely time crafting with my mum and my little sister. I enjoy nothing more than sitting with them by the fire, drinking cups of tea (or g&t!), each of us busy with some little project or other. My mum always has several projects on the go and recently quite a few of these have been wedding related. She's busy making yards and yards of bunting and she's also making my little flower girl's dress. She even managed to whip me up these pretty hand knitted dish cloths. I don't know where she finds the time! They're far too pretty to use for washing dishes so at the moment they're carefully stored away in my 'bottom drawer' ready for when we have a kitchen to use them in!

My little sister, Loulou is a design student studying constructed textiles at Heriot Watt Uni so she gets to spend her time crafting and calls it work! I love looking through all of her sketch books and seeing all the things that she makes. I've got her working on a couple of things for the wedding too.

The only thing missing from these crafty sessions is my big sister who lives with her family in Perth, Australia. However, she'll be back in Scotland for 6 weeks before the wedding so plenty of time for her to get involved in the wedding craftiness. She makes lovely hand-made gift cards so I have her lined up for making programmes, place cards, menus etc. It's handy having such a crafty family!

Have a happy weekend everyone xx

Spending Hiatus Conclusion

My 7 week spending hiatus ended on the first day of the Easter holidays. I fully intended to go on a mad shopping spree while I was in Scotland as a reward for my efforts. However, once I actually got to the shops I realised I didn't really want to buy anything. There was nothing in particular that I needed and although I saw lots of things that I liked I didn't feel like parting with the cash that I'd been forbidding myself to spend for weeks. In the end I bought a couple of balls of wool and I saw a cardigan I liked in White Stuff which I'm going to try and copy by customising an old cardigan I already own. I also decided that instead of wasting my money buying clothes that I don't really need I'm going to save up for the next few weeks and splash out on a really expensive dress in a simple, classic style that I'll wear for years.

So overall the spending hiatus was a huge success. I didn't actually save that much money as we've had quite a few other necessary expenses these past few months (i.e. large solicitor's fees!). However, the more important outcome is that I've completely changed my shopping habits. I now think more carefully about what I'm buying and ask myself if I really need it or if there's a way I could make something similar myself. I'll definately be repeating the exercise in the future.

Here's a picture of my first unnecessary purchase in 7 weeks. I'm making myself a scarf which is about as much as my limited knitting skills can cope with!

Good News!

After several visits to the notaio (solicitor), the filling in of many forms and the payment of a hefty fee the house has finally been changed over into Matteo's name. Before, it belonged to his aunt but since she has no children of her own she wanted to give it to Matteo. Now that this is out of the way we can hopefully get moving with the planning permission. It's all taking a lot longer than I'd hoped but after this week we're one step closer.

I'm back

I've had a 2 week break from blogging while I was back in Scotland for the Easter holidays. It was so nice to be home even if the weather was a bit Christmassy rather than Eastery! I spent a week at home sorting out wedding plans and spending time with family. I managed to tick quite a few boxes on my wedding to do list including ordering flowers and the men's kilts. I also had my first dress fitting which was so exciting. I can't wait to wear my beautiful dress. It was such a busy week I didn't get a chance to take many photos and the ones I did take were on my mum's camera and I didn't get round to putting them onto my computer.

When I got back to Italy this lovely package was waiting for me..........

It came here all the way from the South of France. Inside was the lovely little giveaway I won last month.

Thanks again to Sonia from Cozy Homemaking for such a pretty little parcel. It was such a nice feeling opening this gift that was so carefully packaged up and sent off, especially for me by a lady I've never met. I'm inspired to do a giveaway of my own now to pass on the kindness. For now I'm looking for recipes to make some tasty flower shaped treats. Not sure yet what I'll do with the lace - any ideas?

Home Sweet Home

I'm back home in Bonny Scotland on my parents farm for the Easter holidays. I've got a busy week ahead with a huge list of wedding plans to sort out and helping my dad on the farm. The lambing season is about to start so there is so much to do in preparation for the arrival of lots of little lambs. The weather forecast is for more snow this week so it doesn't feel very Spring like here at the moment. This picture of the farm house was taken last Spring. My favourite flowers, daffodils, have yet to make an appearance this year, their lateness due to the unusually cold winter we've had. Hopefully a few will be brave enough to push through in time for Easter.

I have two thank yous to mention before I disappear for the rest of the week. The first is to Amanda of Homely One for awarding me the Sunshine Award. Thank you so much Amanda for supporting my blog and leaving lovely comments.

My second thank you is to Sonia of Cozy Homemaking. I was lucky enough to be the winner of a prize in the generous giveaway she ran last week. I now have this lovely little package of goodies to look forward to recieving in the post.

I'll be back next week with pics of all I've been up to during the holidays.

Happy Easter everyone xx

A Sunday in Tuscany

Sunday was a lovely warm Spring day here in Italy, the perfect day for a lazy afternoon reading in the garden or going for a leisurely walk in the countryside. We didn't do any of these things however, instead we spent the day underground in a damp gloomy cave in Tuscany. This might not be everyone's cup of tea but for people like me who love being covered in mud and getting up close and personal to nature then it's an ideal day out. The excursion, organised by CAI (Club Alpino Italiano), involved a 4 hour tour of caves on the West coast of Tuscany. Here we are all bright eyed and bushy tailed at the start of the tour.

The going was tough as we had to scramble and climb our way through the tight passages and round the underground lakes.

The caves were breathtakingly beautiful and so peaceful and quiet. It felt like we were in another world. We lost our concept of time and space as we followed the tunnels deeper and deeper inside the mountain.

When we came out again I had no idea how long we'd been inside or how far we'd travelled. Here we are at the finish, muddy, exhausted and happy.

The final part of the excursion was a visit to the hot water springs of Saturnia. What better way to relax those tired muscles?

Image from here

On the way home we came across the beautiful town of Pitigliano completely by accident. We didn't know this place existed before but we'll definately be back to explore it better another day.

Image from here

Abandoned Houses

It has always been a dream of mine to renovate an old derelict property and I still can't believe that this particular dream is turning into a reality. I love our house and I relish the task of turning it into a beautiful home. Our house is not the only one around which needs a bit of TLC. Every day I spot another beautiful property which has been left to rack and ruin. I wish I could buy them all and restore them to their former glory. The house in the picture is just along the road from us and every time I pass it I have to stop and have a look and imagine what I'd do with it if it was mine. Maybe one day.............

Spring has sprung!

After a cold, snowy week here in Perugia finally today the temperatures rose and it felt like Spring had finally arrived. Matteo and I went for a walk and I had my first photography 'lesson'. Since starting my blog I've been so inspired by all of the amazing photography I've seen and I was ashamed of my own poor photography skills. So, I decided that it's about time I learned how to take half decent photographs myself. Matteo is really good at understanding the technical side of photography so today he showed me the basics, just enough to get me started. I was quite pleased with the results although I definately need a lot more practise. Here's a few of the pictures from today.