Caio Y'all #5 !!!!

This is a photo of my cousin, Jeanne, and my sister, Janice on the long uphill path in the quaint village of San Gimignano . . .
This is my brother-in-law, Bob, and his wife (my sister) Norma . . .
I was totally surprised at my older sister walking straight up to the top of the hill . . . Jeanne and I pooped out and ate a Gelato (Italian Ice Cream) YUM!! YUM!!!

Caio Y'all #4 !!!!

Here's a photo of my sister, Janice, in our room at the Hotel Berchielli on the Arno River about one-half a block from Ponte Vecchio . . . it was very nice . . . one of the cultural differences we noticed was that their wash clothes were made of linen instead of terry cloth . . . something we would not have thought of . . .

We walked to the train station many times to catch our tour buses . . . this time we went to Pisa where we saw the Piazza dei Miracoli . . . construction which began in 1063 . . .

This is only a "fair" pic of me "holding up" the Leaning Tower of Pisa . . . my sister took a better one, but it's still in her camera . . . there were lots of us tourists taking pictures like this one!!! LOL!!!

Caio Y'all #3 !!!!!

The Palazzo Vecchio (Old Palace) is the town hall of Florence . . . what a magnificent building . . .
I apologize for the blurry pictures . . . this was at night and it was difficult to get a clear picture of the stores on Ponte Vecchio where lots of jewelry and leather could be found for sale . . .
This is a photo of Ponte Vecchio across the water from the neigboring bridge . . .
My two sisters, cousin, and brother-in-law had lunch in this quaint restaurant between buildings . . . the land is so valuable that so much is built up . . .
My brother-in-law just loves his new BlackBerry phone/text-messaging/internet access/email toy!!!

Caio Y'all #2 !!!!!!

Florence is a city of many narrow streets, churches, and vendors . . . it reminded me of the condominiums and shared wall residences we have here in the cities of the United States, but they thought of it first!!!! LOL!!! There is lots of walking . . . lots of Vespas (motorcycles) . . . and very small cars (Peugeot . . . Fiat . . . Honda Jazzy AKA Fit . . . Toyota Yaris . . . etc.).

The Duomo (cathedral) has a distinctive skyline . . . it was started in 1296 . . . it is fascinating to see the different styles change in parts of the cathedral as the centuries changed from Romanesque . . . to Gothic . . . to Baroque in some of the buildings . . . how totally fascinating!!!!

Caio Y'all !!!!!

October 11th through October 20th, 2008 . . . I was fortunate enough to visit parts of Italy with my two sisters, cousin, and brother-in-law . . . dh#2 stayed home to take care of my MIL . . .

We spent 6 days in Florence seeing the most incredible sights . . . Santa Croce was the first sight . . . this Franciscan church was begun in 1294 . . . the building itself . . . the paintings, scultures, tombs in the floor, were all incredibly beautiful . . . it is breathtaking to see it and imagine what it was like to have lived back then and all the artisans who created it and the patrons who financed it . . .

WOW!!!!! . . . another blog award!

Double OMG!!!! I won another Blog Award . . . this time from Val Foster . . . what an honor!!!! THANK YOU, Val!!!!

In accepting this award, I agree to:

1. Display the logo and link to the one who award it.

2. Nominate at least 7 blogs to receive the award.

3. Add links to those 7 blogs to my blog.

4. Leave the nominees a message that they have been nominated to receive the award.

These are the names and links to the artists/bloggers I choose to nominate. It is SO hard to narrow down the number of incredibly BEAUTIFUL and TALENTED bloggers down to just a few . . . I chose these blogs because of their beauty, artistic talented, the generosity of sharing their knowledge, and just downright nice people!!!!!!!

1. Marilyn Gallas

2. Trisha Too

3. Diane

4. Vicki Potter

5. Wanda Hentges

6. Jennifer R.D.

7. Teesha Moore

8. Susan Chong

9. Judy Cantrell

10. Kelly Snelling

11. Randi Feuerhelm

12. Linda van Vliet

13. Dianne King

14. Kathryn McAllister

15. Nicole Kowalk

16. Neda, Austin, Texas

17. Patty Szymkowicz

18. Gaby-Cajubrasil

19. Linda Cain

20. Dede Warren

21. Sarah Whitmore

22. Anne, Bullesdorees

23. Kimmie

24. Diana, Ravenna, Ohio

25. Cathee

26. Roberta

27. Robin Willis

28. Sandie Reid

Audrey

Ohhhhhhhh . . . I'm behind in my posting, again . . . here's one of my favorite cards from waaaaaay back . . . the image is from The Stampsmith owned by a fine and sweet lady, Estelle Lander Smith, who makes AWESOME images . . . when you look up her website . . . be sure to email her and ask her to email you her movie star images . . . Eeeeeeeeee-YAOW!!!! They are incredibly WONDERFUL!!!

Directions . . . the main image was stamped in Ranger Adirondack Denim ink . . . the other images were stamped in Colorbox Chalk Inks in Olive Pastel . . . Prussian Blue . . . Pink Pastel . . . Using a speckle stamp, Printworks, stamp texture on background with chalk inks . . .

Using a 6" square quilters ruler . . . pencil a rectangle around the main image . . . using a metal ruler and craft knife . . . cut out the rectangle . . . line rectangle with gold leafing pen . . . mount on navy blue cardstock . . . mount onto background . . . line background with gold leafing pen . . . mount on folded navy cardstock . . .

Using craft tweezers . . . arrange the pressed flowers until you are happy with the design . . . use a very small flat angled brush to apply PVA glue and adhere to the card . . . let dry . . .

Have fun!!!!!!!!!!!!