Lullaby Design

Yesterday was my niece's 26th birthday and we wanted to get her a little gift.

Whenever I'm looking for a gift for a female friend or relative, there's only one place I turn to anymore...

Lullaby Design (click on the name to see the shop's site)

This small shop, located in my town's historic center, offers some of the most colorful and creative costume jewelry I have ever seen.

The necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, key rings and more, are made from metals, stones, glass beads and handmade ceramic beads.

Each piece is a one-of-a-kind original piece of art.

The jewelry designer and shop owner is Grazia, a friendly and professional young woman who has clients who come to her shop from all over our region.

We ended up choosing a key ring for my niece, and, of course, she loved it!

Rome - Luxury Fashion

There's a street in Rome called Via Condotti where every shop sells luxury fashion goods.

It starts in Piazza di Spagna and is only three blocks long.

But in the space of three blocks you can find the most important international luxury fashion brands in shops one next to the other.

Kind of like an all-luxury fashion mall.

Hmm, where should I stop...Bulgari or Cartier? Decisions, decisions!

Would you wait in a line that wraps around the block for the chance to buy something Louis Vuitton on sale?

I love clothes and fashion and these clothes are unquestionably lovely and of excellent quality.

In one store window the prices were displayed for menswear.

A suit cost €3,000, a polo shirt was €650 and a leather belt cost €800.

Personally, I have a hard time justifying spending enormous sums of money on fashion...

...when there are so many people in the world who have nothing.

They sure are pretty, though.

But the truth of the matter is...I can't afford any of this stuff!

I wonder if I would buy designer labels if I could afford them?

Would you?

The Birth of a Bracelet

Yesterday I made myself a bracelet. Okay...maybe "made" is too big of a word here. Let's just say I "assembled" a bracelet. Or I "created" a bracelet...there, that has a better ring to it...I created a bracelet!

I'm sure I don't have to tell you that bangles are the "it" bracelet this year. All colors and materials work. A whole pile of silver ones that clink around on your wrist are particularly " in."

What to do, though, if you, like me, have a teeny tiny bone structure and bracelets just fall right off you? I lost my first bracelet when I was 9. I remember it had been a gift that a friend of my mom's had bought for me in India, it was made of strands of elephant hair and gold. It seemed the height of exotic to me at the time and I was devasted when suddenly it wasn't there on my wrist anymore.

Since then I guess I haven't grown much proportionally. On those rare occasions when I do find a bracelet that won't fall off, it's still usually so loose that it immediately flips around and whatever charm or decor it has will hang down under my wrist where no one can see it...and gets in the way anything I do with my hands.

So, I decided to take the situation into my own hands, so to speak, and see what I could come up with. Here's the first version of my creation...

 

I took the chain from an old necklace that I never wore (it had a cheap-looking pendant on it) and wrapped it around my wrist. Then I took this four-leaf clover pendant off of another necklace with a fabric string that was frayed and falling apart.

This first system still swung around my wrist too much, though. The pendant slid around to the bottom, so I came up with version two...

Here I ran the chain through the pendant twice and then hooked it into the clasp. It feels better on the wrist and moves around a lot less.

What do you think? Does it work as a bracelet? Have you ever created new jewelry from old pieces?

Mowing the Lawn, Italian Style

I have lived so long in Italy (18 years now) that it's often hard for me to pinpoint the cultural differences between life here and life in the US. Everything here, which was once so interesting and different and even very strange at times, just seems normal now. Italy has become my normal.

But, every once in a while, there's a special moment that you know you'd probably never see repeated in the US.



That's my husband, mowing the lawn in his bathing suit! Don't tell him I showed you this video...but I couldn't resist!

My parents used to live in a high-rise building where a lot of gay men resided. And that's wonderful, quickly let me say that gay men are wonderful in my book, just like everyone else! But the funny thing was that my parents would have a minor panic attack about Francesco's very European speedo style bathing suits every time we came to visit. They even went as far as to buy him a boxer style bathing suit because they were afraid that their neighbors would make a pass at him in the condo pool! Too funny.

They're not too comfortable with me wearing a bikini either, now that I think about it. But, hey, I'm sorry, you're not going to catch me dead in a skort! No way, no how!

Summer Style

Have you seen the new sandal boots that everyone is wearing this year? Well, I think they are rather strange and probably would never have bought myself a pair but for a happy set of circumstances.

I went out for a coffee with a friend at the local mall. After a shot of caffeine and a chat we took a walk around the mall and ended up looking at shoes. I spotted this pair by Dive & Co. for only €42 and was so curious about them that my friend talked me into trying them on. Once they were on my feet, I was sold. They are the most comfortable shoes I have ever had. I don't know how, but they don't rub on any part of my feet, they are fantastic.

Of course, my sons thought it was a riot that I bought shoes when out with my friend Anna Scarpa (scarpa means "shoe" in Italian)...

The next problem was trying to figure out how to wear them. They are kind of tricky because visually they cut off the line of your legs and make them look shorter. One way to go is with skinny jeans, but it is too hot these days to even think about jeans.

What do you think, does the look above work?

Or are they better with a shorter skirt? My husband took this picture and missed the whole idea that the focus of the photo was supposed to be on the shoes...

There you go, now you can see the shoes!

No shoes here, but I wanted to show off another one of my bargain purchases. I found this cute summer dress at H&M for only €10. That was full price, not sale price! If I look a little exhausted in this photo, that's because I was. And hot, too.

My photographer of choice is my 10-year-old son. Not because he has talent or the desire to take pictures of his wacky mamma, but because he is a good kid and will actually do it when I beg him to.

This last photo shows my true nature. Gabri was not into the picture-taking and here I'm saying, "well, are you gonna take the picture or what?!" Bad Mamma!

Think Cool Thoughts

It's been so hot and humid over the past few days, it's really just unbearable. Add that to the fact that I have been been "unwell" for the past two days and stuck in bed...and the mind starts wandering.

First of all, I shouldn't complain about the heat. I love summer. I love the warm sun. I'm what they call in Italian "freddolosa" which means that when everyone else says, "oh what a lovely day" I am piling on the sweaters and complaining about the cold.

But, this excessive heat has got me dreaming about cool autumn days. I think I have chosen my new look for Fall/Winter 2010.

(Dolce&Gabbana)

What do you think? Can I pull that off in the classroom at the university this fall?