Friday, May 29, 2009

PhotoHunt: Books - Blurb books

I print up all of my digital scrapbook layouts into photo books using blurb.com

I am currently making my 13th book - half of those I have made have been presents for my relatives. I have to say, they look pretty good in the bookcase or on the coffee table.

This is one of my favorite pictures that will be in my next book.



Alessandro at the Gold Coast, when we went up for my Digital Scrapbook Place conference a few weeks ago.

This is my latest entry.

Friday, May 22, 2009

PhotoHunt: Plastic - Chairs outside Cafe Lavena, Venice



Journaling:

Lavena Cafe doesn’t open ‘til 10am. Pity I’m two hours early.

The Piazza San Marco glossy cafes don't open until 10 or even later, in the morning. So we have to get our first cappuccino a few blocks away. Then we go and sit on the plastic seats outside the cafes and people watch.

This is my latest entry.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Certaldo Alto, Italy



Double click on the picture to see it more clearly.

I first heard of Certaldo Alto when I studied Boccaccio at University, where I majored in Italian studies. A few years later I found myself standing inside the church of SS. Jacopo and Filippo, built in the thirteenth century. It contains a fourteenth century font, Boccaccio’s tombstone on the floor, and the della Robbias up on the walls.

On my long stay in Italy – the time I went for three months, I took my two sons into the church. The oldest was fascinated by the resident saint, well preserved in her glass cage. The youngest and I sat in a pew for quite a while, enjoying the serenity and the quiet beauty of the artwork.

In 2005 when I walked up to the top of Via Boccaccio, where I am standing in the photo, there was a handwritten card by the bell on an apartment door with the surname of my children and the first name of their grandfather. A coincidence.

I have a watercolor painting of Certaldo, that is one of my favorite pictures. I like to have a cappuccino from one of the cafés there, stroll from one end of the town to the other, look across at tiny San Gimignano, way over in the distance – and check out the current cats.

Monday, May 18, 2009

More black cockatoos

Hey Maria - I had never seen them before this year either. They arrived earlier in the year from down south, where they were forced to leave because of the bushfires. They are very noisy and very tame. Giancarlo walked in an hour after I posted the youtube and said they were still in the tree outside the front door. He walked past them and was only about five feet away from them.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

More from the Gold Coast Conference

I'm in this youtube as well. I'm in the shirt with the hot pink and green squares on it, with shoulder length hair.

Friday, May 15, 2009

PhotoHunt: Painted - Scenes from the Gold Coast

"As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

Water, water, everywhere"

The theme "painted" reminded me of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and also the painted looks of many of the backgrounds, overlays and elements in digital scrapbooking. Put that together with thoughts of the Gold Coast where I just attended a Digital Scrapbooking Place conference...



Me in the center, with the blue shirt, and Alessandro is also with the blue shirt in the middle of the next one.



This is my latest entry.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

I'm at an international conference at the Gold Coast

Learning a new line dance.



I'm on the left in the front.

Friday, May 8, 2009

PhotoHunt: In Memory - My First Birthday



This photo was taken in Marysville, California, in memory of my first birthday. My mother was holding me and I had just put my foot in the cake!

Friday, May 1, 2009

PhotoHunt: Walking - In Venice



After walking around Venice on our eighth day there, Alessandro and I went for a cappuccino at my favorite bar in Italy - Lavena Cafe in Piazza San Marco.

This is my latest entry.