I just want them to look good

I was thinking today about how the pictures of the adorable baby dress and socks just didn't seem right.  The colors of the yarn are so pretty and the picture just doesn't do it justice.  You really can't see how cute and soft these colors are.

I told Brian tonight, "I think I need you to teach me how to take better pictures of my knitting projects."

His response was, "It was a good picture.  Your white balance was just off."  Or something to that point.  I think I went blank after he mentioned "white."

And I was, like, "Well, I just need to know the best places to take these pictures."

And my daughter was, like, "Well, natural lighting is the best."

And Brian was, like, "Yeah.  Natural lighting is good."

Here's the point.  I want to be able to take good pictures of the things that I make.  I'm not trying to sound prideful, but, I get pretty excited about the things that I make.  I love the fact that I can create something with my hands, sticks and yarn.  Sometimes it feels like toothpicks and floss.

I want to be able to take good pictures with our little point and shoot, which does take good pictures.  I guess that I would like to be able to showcase what I do better.  I don't want Brian to take these pictures....I want to.  Because, I don't want to use The Mistress, which it what I am officially naming his camera.

By the way, I am not at all jealous of The Mistress.  The Mistress and Brian make beautiful images together.

Back to a normal pace

Life seems to have resumed back to a normal pace for the moment.  May is our big month of celebrations.  Mother's Day, both of the kids' birthdays, and our anniversary.  We have managed to make it through, and I have yet to hear either of the kids say, "For my birthday next year...."  I know that it will come soon though.

We have three weeks of school left.  I placed my last order for library books for this school year today.  Yay!  I have three months of not needing to order books from the library!  Brianna's last day of art class is next Tuesday and her last science co-op day is next week.  Alex will finish his science this week.  Most of our major school work will be done by June 15th.  We will have some math to finish up this summer and music lessons will continue.

Summer plans have started.  The kids and I will be heading back to Illinois in July to visit family.  Illinois in July.  I love my family, but honestly, it's my least favorite time of year to go back there.  No other huge plans made yet - except for Brianna's tickets to see American Idol the day after we get back from Illinois.

I have put on hold looking for a job.  At this point it seems best to wait until we either get back from our trip or to wait until the end of summer when I know what our school plans will be.

These two constants still remain:  knitting and reading.  Yes, that same project.  Soon...done soon!  I also picked back up "Pillars of the Earth," which I haven't read since we left for our trip.  It's such a good story and I've loved getting back into it.

That's all on this end.  How's everyone doing out there?

Isn't everything cuter when it's small?

A new baby girl has been born at Saint Child, the maternity home where I volunteer.  So, once again, the super secret knitting project was suspended to make this adorable dress and socks.  It's a tiny dress fit to welcome a tiny new girl into the world.

20 years already?!

20 years ago today I married my best friend.  He's been with me through thick and thin and I trust him to remain by my side till the end.  He knows how to make me laugh and when to leave me alone.  He has supported me in everything that I do, as I do for him.  I think we make a pretty good team as we work through this adventure called "life."  I wouldn't ask for anyone else to be along side me.

Happy anniversary Brian!  I love you!

Making limoncello

We wandered around the duty free shop while waiting for our plane in Rome.  At the front of the store, we noticed that one of the sales clerks was giving out samples of limoncello.  I had heard of this drink before but had never tried it.

It was delicious!

Four of us huddled around the limoncello stand talking about how good it was and wondering how it was made.  After talking with the sales clerk and one other man standing with us, we decided not to spend the money on a bottle and we would try to make it on our own.  I guess that's what happens when you brew beer in your house.  You get a bit braver and think that you can brew anything!

After Brian did some searching online, we first soaked the peels of eight lemons with a bottle of 100 proof vodka.

After a week of soaking, we added a simple syrup.

After a week of mingling we placed a little bit in a glass in the freezer to chill and tried our first sip.  Honestly, the first taste was not quite as smooth as we had remembered the one at the airport.  But, after a couple of more sips, it was quite good.  And, that's not the vodka talking.  We're letting our concoction mingle a little bit longer and we'll strain it and try another sip again later.  We're hoping it mellows a little.  If not, there are always more lemons to buy!

Italy - Days 6, 7 & 8 - Rome - The last day

Our last full day in Rome is finally here!  Before I begin, let me tell you a little bit about the hotel we stayed in.  This would have to be the most unique hotel that I've ever been in since it was attached to a church.  In fact, that "random" church picture that I put on the post about our second day was the inside of that church.  Brian snapped that picture before we saw the "no photo" sign.  The church is functioning and the hotel rooms are on both sides of the church.

Our last day in Rome happened to be on May 1st, May Day.  This is a huge holiday in Europe, equivalent to our Labor Day.  We didn't even take this into consideration when we planned our trip.  So, that meant that the city was extra crowded.  It also meant that down the street from our hotel, a stage was set up for the biggest concert venue of the year.  There was a park that lined the entire street between our hotel and the concert venue.  The first couple of days that we were there, a few people were in the park.  On this day, the park was crowded with people, tents, booths representing political parties and tables selling everything from jewelry to marijuana smoking appliances.  The street itself was closed off and lined with food carts.  We decided to avoid the potential debauchery that would be happening throughout the day.

The concert stage.  It looked like such a small area, but lots of people were crammed in.

Revelers hanging out on a statue of St. Francis.

We made our way to the Metro again and went to the Spanish steps.  This area was filled with lots of people and beautiful azaleas.

We made our way to the top and purchased some art from one of the local artists.

From the Spanish steps we made our way to Trevi Fountain.  Here we were met again with a horde of tourists.  We squeezed our way through the crowd to get a better look at the fountain.

After Trevi Fountain we actually ate lunch at McDonalds.  Don't judge - it was cheap.  We ordered three small hamburgers and all of them were prepared differently.

Just follow the crowds to McDs.

We made our way to the Pantheon, which, next to David and the Colosseum, was one of the most incredible things to see.  I found it to be amazing because it was built in 27 B.C. (and reconstructed in the 2nd century A.D.) and it's still standing today.  The only down side to seeing it was that you could tell where graffiti had been removed.  I was very disappointed to see that someone would desecrate a building such as this.

A street performer we saw on the way to the Pantheon.  I imagine Alex doing something like this one day.

After the Pantheon we made our way to the Piazza Navona, which was where the Stadium of Domitian once stood.  Where once chariot races zoomed through, now stands a fountain, restaurants and merchants.

It also began raining pretty steadily by this point of the afternoon.  We decided to make our way back to our hotel (avoiding the debauchery).  On the way we stopped, once again, at the gelato place by the hotel to grab yet another delicious flavor of gelato and a bottle of wine.  When the rain finally stopped, we made our way up to the terrace of our hotel.  We sipped our wine from our fancy plastic cups, enjoyed the view and listened to Italian rock n' roll.

After dinner we decided to head back to the Colosseum for Brian to get some night shots.

Remember that concert venue and the streets filled with people, trash, and food?  The next morning when we left the hotel to go to the Metro, you would have never known that anything happened there the day before.  The streets and park was swept clean.  All of the food carts and people were gone.  Even the stickers that had decorated St. Francis were removed.  The only sign remaining of a concert was a deserted stage.

All-in-all, we decided that one goes to Rome to see the history.  Along with history, you see a very dirty city littered with trash and graffiti sprayed buildings.

At the airport in Rome we tried lemoncello for the first time.  It was delicious and we decided that we needed to try to make some of our own.  That's a post for another time.

We traveled home without any problems (Except the fact that JFK in New York has the worst TSA process.  For the 6th largest airport in the world, all of us going through customs had 1 security point to go through.  It was a bit ridiculous.).  We arrived home late and crashed.  Brian went to work the next day and I gathered the kids and the dog.  We had a great reunion.

Our 20th anniversary is officially this week.  This trip was a great way to celebrate 20 years with my best friend!

Italy - Days 6, 7 & 8 - Rome - The second day

We've had a bit of fun around the house over the past couple of days.  Today was a quiet day, which was much needed.  Since I have the computer to myself right now, here's our next day in Rome.

On our second day in Rome, we decided that we couldn't possibly walk to every place that we wanted to see.  So we decided to purchase a three day Metro pass, and it was a time (and leg/foot) saver!  We hopped on the Metro to St. Peter's Basilica.  This would be the only day, out of our two remaining, that we would have a chance to get into the Basilica or the Vatican since both were closed the next day.  And, this would be the day that we waited in line.

I'm throwing in this random picture of a church we visited.  I have no idea what church it is or when we saw it.  But, it's pretty!

We followed the faithful to the square.

When we arrived, we saw a huge crowd of people.

We took our time looking around.

Swiss Guard standing at the entrance of a driveway.  Brian tried to get him to smile and he did his best not too.  Doesn't he look threatening?  Chances are, even though he doesn't look threatening, he's probably licensed to kill.

We noticed a huge line of people, which we assumed was to get into the Basilica.  I overheard some English-speaking tourists talking and asked them about the line.  They told me that it was free to get into the Basilica, and, yes, that was the line.  It would be a couple of hours of waiting in line to get in.  They also said that we should try standing in line for the Vatican museum a couple of hours before the doors closed since we would have a better chance of getting in.

Since we wanted to go into the Basilica, we got in line.  We happened to be standing next to a mother/son couple who were traveling Europe for three weeks to celebrate his graduation.  It started to rain and the line thinned some.  I ran to get paninis for us to eat while we waited and we chatted with the mother and son.  They were fun to talk to.

When we finally got into St. Peter's, it was a sight to see!

You can actually schedule baptisms at St. Peter's!

Michelangelo's Pieta - It sits behind glass now since someone tried to vandalize it in the 70's.

St. Peter.  There was a line of people waiting to touch his feet and get their picture taken with the statue.

Between walking around outside, waiting in line, and spending a good hour or more inside the Basilica, we had spent the entire morning just in St. Peter's Square.  We made our way over to the Vatican Museum line and started our wait there at 2 p.m.  We were behind a tour group, and we decided that if the tour guide thought that there was a chance of getting in, it was a good idea to wait with them.  We chatted with the tour guide for a while and she told us that she had been leading tour groups for 30 years!  Can you imagine all of the people (interesting and not so interesting) that she has meet in 30 years?  I was also impressed that she spoke several languages.

The doors to the Vatican Museum closed at 4 p.m., but the Museum was open until 6 p.m.  By 3:50 p.m. we were still far away from the door.  Before we knew it, they just started letting everyone in.  It was as though they wanted to cram in as many people as they could.  At 15 Euros a pop, I guess I would be doing the same thing.

So, we made it in.  This was something that Brian was really looking forward to.  The only problem was that we were in with a mass of people.

Another inclined walkway?!  My legs can't take it!

I read in our tour book that there are several paths to take to view the Vatican Museum, and each path seems to lead you to the Sistine Chapel.  We, along with the mass, were led to one path.  So again, we waited in line.  I think that this was when my patience with people, and my tolerance level with people, began to dwindle.  I admit that I was a bit tired by this point of standing all day.  We wound (and climbed stairs) our way through the museum with the mass.  People seemed to be most interested to get to the Sistine Chapel, so we took our time and looked at some of the beautiful artwork and architecture as we made our way there.

When we got to the Sistine Chapel we inched our way through the mass to try to get to the center.  Here's what everyone was waiting to see.

I have to admit, when I looked up I thought, "This is it?"  And then I felt horribly ashamed at myself for thinking that.  Here I was, in the same place that Michelangelo had once been, and I thought, "This is it?"  Honestly, I think that when we see the picture of God and Adam touching fingers in a book, we're led to believe that the picture is large.  It's actually very small and very hard to see the detail.  Thank goodness for telephoto lenses!

We slowly made our way out of the Vatican Museum.  Even though they were closing, we took our time.

Beautiful stained glass.

Our way out of the museum.  Of course, what goes up, must come down.

View of the streets outside the Vatican Museum.

That was our Vatican experience.  Pope Benedict didn't seem to care that we were there.  He didn't bother to call and arrange a meeting.  Honestly, I think that if we could have gone through without being herded like cattle, I would have enjoyed being there more.  Being tired and smothered and smooshed is not my way of enjoying a museum, but at least we can say that we've "been there, done that."

We rode the Metro back to the closest stop to our hotel, freshened up, and headed out to find a place to eat dinner.  Here's where you might find something interesting/disturbing.  This was the night that we found the only restaurant that had decent Italian food!  Gasp!  To say that we were disappointed in our food during the trip is putting it mildly.  I grew up in an Italian home, and, with a Mom who is a great cook.  It seemed like every restaurant we went to had the same bland food to offer.  The restaurant that we found on our second night was wonderful!  It was run by a husband and wife and their kids worked there too.  It was obvious that the food was fresh and homemade.

After eating a good meal, we stopped at the gelato shop to get a scoop of some new flavor that we had never tried.  A good meal and a good scoop of gelato seemed to make the evening end wonderfully.