Road Trip

Did you wonder where I'd gone (again)? We took a week's break over half term and headed back to Florence. This time we also went to Rome, just for a day - on the high speed train it only takes an hour and a half from Florence.




The last time I was in Rome was over 20 years ago and boy, have the crowds grown. Admittedly, then I was a student and spent weeks there so could amble at my leisure, but we didn't actually get to go in St. Peter's or the Colosseum - we would have spent the whole day in a queue. Instead we walked round the city to see as much as we could - as you can see from the photograph the weather was great that day.





In Florence, we climbed up to the top of the Campanile (over 400 steps and I am way out of condition, believe me). I took this quirky view through the stonework.




And this is one of the vegetable stalls in the market at San Lorenzo looking very seasonal. I caught up with some reading too, never started 'Reckless' which I had put on my sidebar as the next up to read but have read three others (all recommended) and am halfway through a fourth - I can read at the speed of light if I've got no work, no cooking and no sewing to do!


Next up - I must get started on my Secret Santa Swap - I know what I want to make, it's just a question of converting the plans to reality.

My Fall Quilt Swap arrived! And isn't it gorgeous? It was made by Darlene at Quilting Daze and I am absolutely thrilled with it. She is such an accomplished quilter - it's just perfect - thanks Darlene! I know that mine also made it safely across the ocean to my swap partner Alice.

This afternoon I'm going to see the exhibition by Lutterworth Piecemakers so I might just see Jane or Lynda there if I'm lucky.

A Tiny Bit of Creativity

I'm still here! Hate to whinge but whilst I actually love my new job I am sooooo tired it's untrue. It's on the same sort of level as the tiredness you feel when you have a new baby. It will get better but right now I haven't got much energy for anything other than work and I am hopelessly, hopelessly behind in my blog reading (sincere apologies for not leaving comments - I will improve!). So, in a bid to restore the old work-life balance I thought I'd work on something small. I had seen the idea for a celebration banner on a couple of blogs and had been wanting to try out something similar for a while.

As you can see, I have only got as far as making the letters for the first word. What I'm thinking is that if I make enough letters I can do a kind of mix and match to be able to put them up to say Happy Birthday, Happy Christmas, Happy Easter etc. etc. I made them the same way you make fabric postcards with Timtex in the middle but they are only 3 X 4 inches. I hung them up with these dinky little pegs I bought off e-bay - I put a ruler there for scale so you can see how tiny they are. My goal is to make enough letters for DS's birthday at the end of November.