Yeah, soon

Okay, so I know now that I am home I have like zero readers, but I have not written in a while, and it is midnight so now seemed an appropriate time. Though sleep is probably the wiser choice, as I have class tomorrow. I am working on this quilt at the moment. Well, I mean not at this moment, but I have been working on it and I am about half way done with the piecing. Also, my mom made me a beautiful dress last weekend. Also, we have been making aprons. Lots and lots of aprons. If you need an apron, I am your girl. Well maybe, I have been promising myself I would do other things, like read this book for my fall class and work on some sketches, and make some leg warmers that I owe someone from about a year ago. BUT I am at the moment (again, not this particular moment) making up a little pattern, for a little project for people departing for college. Or for people who like to have an identifying sign on their door. It is easy and fun and involves some applique and embroidery work. Basically I made it with scraps I took from my mom and thread I found lying around. So yeah, that is happening soon. As soon as I start doing something other than napping in my free time. Actually it is not so much napping as lying on my bed pretending I am napping so that no one bugs me. Though usually it is when no one else is home....hmm...I will figure out what I mean later. For now I am going to watch something silly then go to sleep.

These are some pictures from Rennes, France taken back at Easter. I kind of wish I was there right now looking at books and buying fabric with my friend Becca. That is basically what they illustrate. Also, Becca's super cute, super French haircut.

Spring Market Take Two

 

Amy Butler's new line of yarn, I can't wait to knit something with it.

Anna Maria Horner signing my books.

 

Adorable baby booties from her new book Handmade Beginnings!!

 Anna Maria and I on the lovely couch in her booth.

Heather Bailey and I (my bag is made from her Saturday Market Tote pattern, in Nicey Jane Fabric, her newest line.)

                                My mom and I with designer Joel Dewberry


I am currently sitting on my bed, watching episodes of Daria, while I try to recount the highlights of my first Spring Quilt Market. One would definitely be Pam twirling in the middle of the street and pretending to toss a hat up in the air like Mary Tyler Moore (the conference was in Minneapolis.) Others are meeting Anna Maria Horner and Heather Bailey, two of my favorite textile designers. Sample Spree was interesting...a bunch of crazy quilters running, literally running, to get fabric at super discounted prices. We did get some cute things though, some nice fabric from art gallery, kokka, and seven islands, and a few really cute patterns. I met a lot of nice people and generally had a good time hanging out with my mom and Pam.

Spring Market

Umm...here I am? Well sort of... at the moment I am sitting in the hotel in Minneapolis listening to Camera Obscura (thanks Erick, for posting them on FB) waiting for my mom and her friend Pam so we can go eat. I took what I am going to say was a three hour nap while they were off doing stuff. It may have been longer but I think it was needed since we got up at 5 AM to get to the airport this morning.

Tomorrow I am going to the Mall of America. I'm not a huge fan of malls, but I don't think I can miss this one, then to some of Spring Market. expect silly picture of my mom, Pam, and I with out favorite fabric designers, buying things we don't need.

Home Home

So I have been back home for about a week and a half. Last weekend I headed down to Greensboro with my mom to visit all my friends at Guilford while my mom hung out with her friend Flo. It was an interesting weekend. Seeing all of my friends after three and a half months was wonderful. It was a little weird, everything is different. That is the hard part about being away for a long time, not only that my life continues without the people I love, but that everyone else's lives continue as well, and I am not there to see it. I came to Guilford on a perfect weekend. Alethea was heading up WQFest. For those of you who don't know, WQFS is one of the top rated college radio stations in the country and I happened to come to Guilford on the weekend of the first ever WQFest, getting to spend all of Saturday listening to live music with some of my best friends.

But I am getting ahead of myself. Back to the whole getting home part. There was this huge volcano in Iceland that spread a huge cloud of ash over most of Europe making air traffic impossible for almost a week. I left on April 23rd, one of the first days that airlines were flying, and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be getting home. I flew from Florence to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt to DC. I was relatively sure I was going to be camping out in the Frankfurt airport for at least a night. But I got lucky. My flight from Florence to Frankfurt was delayed an hour (not the lucky part) so I had about five minutes to make my connection. I got off the plane and there was a bus to drive all of us going to DC directly to our gate (well sort of) we got to the terminal, skipped security, had our passports stamped and sprinted to the gate.  I got on the plane and it took off ten minutes later. It was a pretty surreal day. I was sitting next to a very sweet German couple who did not seem to mind my snoring through half the flight.

I was home for a day, then headed down to Guilford. I got there in time for the Senior Thesis Art Show. It was one of the best thesis show I have ever been to at Guilford. There were nine seniors displaying art,  and all of them had beautiful work, from drawing and print making to painting to photography to sculpture and installation.

And not we are back to where I began. WQFest. The headliner was The Tallest Man on Earth, one of my favorite singer/songwriters. I saw him live in Barcelona and it was one of the best shows I had ever seen, so I was really excited to see him again, at my school with all of my friends. This picture is of me and Alethea watching is awe, if you look closely you can see us there in the dark.  The Tallest Man on Earth's real name is Kristian Matsson. He is from Sweden and it actually not very tall. We talked to him before and afterwards. He was so nice, and was glad I enjoyed the show at Guilford and in Barcelona. He even gave me hug.

Some other highlights of the weekend include Greenleaf dinner on Friday night (African curried soup,) shopping at Target with Alethea, and going to Jan's House at midnight with Fran and Justin, my former flatmates.

Now that I am back home I need to work on finding a job. At the moment I am filling in at The Artful Quilter, where my mom works. In my free time, i.e most of my time, I have been watching bad tv and knitting or sewing (new books!), not to mention napping. Oh and some yoga thrown in there.

Arrivederci Italia

So soon, so soon, so soon. I come home. If that volcano doesn't strand me here. So this may be my last post for a bit. These last few days are going to be busy, and these past couple weeks have been pretty wonderful.

First of all, Claire and I made dinner for our host family last Wednesday. We made them a spinach salad with strawberries, goat cheese, walnuts, and balsamic vinegar. Then we made roasted chicken and potatoes with greenbeans as a side. We wanted to make sweet potato fries, but the grocery store did not have sweet potatoes. I would say the chicken went okay...but they really loved the salad. Everyone had seconds and Luigia has made it twice since then. Virginia told us they had never eaten raw spinach before. Overall, I would call it a success, Lucrezia was not crazy about the greenbeans (she thought they were too crunchy) but other than that we were very proud of ourselves. Especially considering we had to convert temperatures to celcius. I have acutally had this dream where I forget to do that...and it is bad.

Last Friday we went to Florence again. This time we went to the Uffizi, which is probably one of the biggest museums I have ever been in. You think it ends and then there are just more rooms, full of masterpieces. We saw Bottecelli's Birth of Venus, and Primavera, Da Vinci's Annunciation and the unfinished Adoration of the Magi, as well as Michelangelo's Doni Tondo. The museum was full of other beautiful works of painting and sculpture. I could have spent the entire day there. Afterwards, I met my friend Ian, from high school. He has been studying in Florence this semester. We went to a bakery for lunch where they had bagels! It was very exciting for me. We also got a red velvet cupcake, mmm. After lunch we walked around and shopped a bit. We talked about out summer plans and were delighted to realize that we both would be in Northern Virginia for most of the summer. We got gelato and headed to the Duomo to meet my friends. I have to say, I think the gelato in Siena might be better....but maybe that is because the place we go to in Siena is the only one with the chocolate pear flavor.

On Saturday night Claire, Kristyn, Izzy, Chelsea and I went to the discoteque. Before we left we split some champagne in Piazza Del Campo in honor of Izzy. If she was in America Saturday would have been her senior prom. Then we headed to the disco. It was quite an experience. We had to take a bus almost thirty minutes outside the city. My host sisters go there almost every weekend, and I don't know how they deal with that bus ride each time. But once we got there it was really fun. Granted, the club scene is not really my thing, and I am not a huge fan of how forward Italian men can be, but we all had fun dancing together and drinking long island ice teas. It was fun, but I think one time is enough.

Yesterday we had our farewell dinner at Carla's (our Italian teacher's mom) house. She lives just outside Siena on a beautiful farm overlooking the Tuscan countryside. It was really nice for everyone to hang out and eat good food. Our music history teacher Massimo was there, as was Sylvia our Italian teacher. As much as I am excited to come home, and as much fun as last night was, it made me a little sad. I am going to miss Sylvia a lot. I feel like I have been looking forward to this experience for a long time and now it is ending. I don't know, it just makes me feel strange. And it makes me feel even more strange that I wil be a senior at Guilford when I come back.

But that is a while off...I have a whole summer to look forward to, not to mention a few more days in Italy to soak it all in. So ciao Italia, arrivederci, it has been a lovely three months, but I have to go. Home soon, home soon.

Il est bon, cette fondue

That title is french, by the way, not Italian. I was in Rennes, France this weekend visiting my lovely friends Becca, Scottie, and Natalie. It was wonderful, definitely one of the best weekends I have had since being in Europe. I flew to Paris then took a train from Paris to Rennes. Becca met me at the train station, which was actually quite funny. I was so excited to be there that I was skipping down the platform, but in my excitement I was not really paying attention and just sort of followed where everyone else was going, assuming that is where Becca would be. Actually, Becca was on the platform...and I ended up near the metro...but we found each other on the stairs and had the best hug. Becca just got her hair cut and looked very french with her scarf, not to mention she was carrying a bag of brioche for our breakfast the next morning. It was a little after eight at this point so we headed to dinner. We went to an adorable little creperie and had galettes, which are similar to crepes but made with buckwheat, and filled with eggs or mushrooms or smoked salmon or...other things...I had one filled with chevre, salad and walnuts. Afterwards we of course had crepes, they were banana chocolate and the chocolate was literally like brownie batter. It was so delicious. We headed back to Becca's host home, where her host mom asked me several questions in french before realizing that I couldn't understand anything. She was very cute though, and said in English, "Oh, you don't speak any French?" with an adorable accent.

The next day we got up and made french toast with brioche, then headed to the market. There were so many different fruits and vegetables, and huge loaf of bread and about a million different types of cheese. We bought some bread with nuts, goat cheese, pears, and dried apricots for lunch, then headed to the park to eat. This park looked like something out of Alice in Wonderland. There was also a bird sanctuary filled with these tiny neon colored birds all singing as little kids ran around chasing the pigeons, which were, in turn heading towards Becca and I hoping for some bread. After lunch we went to the best knitting/fabric store ever. It was called "La Droguerie." They had the best buttons, and the girls that worked there were very nice. I bought some fabric for myself, and my mom of course, as well as some buttons. Now I just have to knit a sweater to put the buttons on. After lusting over everything I couldn't by we decided it was time for baked goods and possibly hot chocolate. We headed to a little coffee shop where sat and knit for a couple hours. It felt like I was back at Guilford. Except in France....Natalie and their friend Hayley met us there and we decided to cook lentil soup and naan for dinner later. After knitting a bit more Becca and I headed off to get the ingredients. Scottie met us back at the house. She and Becca sang songs and played guitar as we prepared the naan dough. Once Natalie and Hayley got there Becca's host mom decided it was time to bring out the champagne and we all sat around talking and laughing (but by talking I mean they spoke french, and I listened, and translating happened.) Becca's host mom was so sweet and so generous for letting me stay with them. After dinner we watched Beauty and the Beast in french, and I understood everything because I have seen that movie so many times. And it was kind of perfect in french, because I never realized it before, but Belle is so french....

The next day Becca and I went to this tiny town called Becheral for a book festival. This town had something like eighteen bookstores. We walked up on the ramparts and generally had a good time exploring. Becca found some good things to enhance her french skills, and we ate crepes and galettes for lunch. After drinking tea and knitting some more we headed back to Rennes. At Becca's house her host family was already preparing the food for Easter dinner. We were having fondue and creme brulee. We even watched her set it on fire, which was really cool, if a tad bit nerve racking. Becca and I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies as well. Scottie came over for dinner. In total there were about fourteen people there, including a tiny french baby. Becca and Scottie play music while we had appetizers. They translated for me, and some of the people some a little english, and as more wine was consumed, more english was attempted, which was nice of them. Dinner was delicious, as was dessert. We all definitely entered food coma. But Becca and Scottie still managed to play a few more songs. One of the guests requested wonderwall, which resulted in a everyone singing along. It was a long, but wonderful meal, a great end to a lovely weekend.

Hiking and Wine Tasting in Chianti

I woke up and the sky looked pretty grey. My throat felt scratchy, and my nose was stuffed up, and I all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. But Italian class was waiting. And after Italian class we were going to Chianti. But it looked like it might rain, and I couldn't find my shoes, and I was sleepy. I sort of refused to be excited. Even after Italian class I couldn't get excited. But then we were in the car and leaving the city. And the sky started to look a little more blue. As we kept driving the city fell away and we were surrounded by vineyards and beautiful green hills covered in cypress and olive trees. We wound up and up into the hills of Tuscany. Then we were there. In the middle of nowhere. And we started hiking. The trail was beautiful, as we turned a corner there was a stunning view of Chianti. Vineyards covered all of the hills, set against the blue afternoon sky. We hiked for about an hour, then returned to the cars and headed to the town/city of Chianti. It was very tiny, much like other the other Tuscan hill towns. And finally we headed to the winery. Our guide led us to the freezing cellar, where massive oak barrels held the wine (or a similar wine) that we were going to drink. He explained how they make the wine, when they pick the grapes, why they have to import the oak from France (the oak in Italy has too many branches, which makes knots in the wood, which is bad for the wine,) the types of flavors a wine has, etc. Then we tastes the wine, a red, chianti of course, and a white, something similar to chardonnay. Both were delicious. As we drank he explained what each of the movements you see people do mean, and why they do them. And he showed us the proper "elegant" way to open a bottle of wine. Then, I open my first bottle of wine. I was not as elegant as him, but I managed not to break the cork.