M & Co

Sicilian Holiday part 2

Photo of perfumes me, Hogan Shoes Raffaello Network, Corals at Manjoh 

The mainstreet in Taormina, Corso Umberto, is a slice of shopping heaven! The street is a mixture of small fashion shops, craft shops, luxury brands and gorgeous...but oh sooo expensive antiques and jewellery! A slight note though...if you're planning to go wild ...you certainly need a larger budget than me ;-)!!

Every time I visit Taormina I make sure to visit Narcisse, a tiny parfumerie, with the best perfumes from all over the world. This year I also noticed they've got their own perfume collection, under the label Narcisse.  The owner is super charming, and so is her little Cocker Spanial, always with her in the boutique :-) I got my "signature" scent Artemisia from Penhaligon's, and Antonio de Curtis for the husband. He looooved it :-)

I also made sure to buy a new pair of Italian Hogans Interactive at Scandurra, as they are not avaliable in Norway. I've worn these since I bought my first pair at Harrods 9 years ago... and I can testify to them beeing the best shoes ever! This time I bought just black, like the ones in the picture (Over)

The last thing I bought in Sicily was a vintage coral bracelet, unfortunatly the fragile thread broke....so its just a mess at the moment... so therefor no picture of it yet ;-)

Otherwise I also got a lot of Italian design magazines .....and ofcourse I'll share with you when I get my scanner working!!

Over to something completely different; Issue Two of Mankind Mag is out so drop over to Erin, and indulge in her fabulously creative magazine!

                    

Sicilian Holiday

View of the Ionian Sea,  Italian woman with head scarf, Corso Umberto, Jewellery by Sicilian designer Massimo Izzo 

I promised some pictures from Sicily so here is my "report" ;-) Most of the time we stayed in Taormina, a beautiful village on top of the Monte Tauro cliff, overlooking the Ionian Sea. The main street Corso Umberto is definitly Italian chic, filled with beautiful people, expensive designer clothing, antiques, jewellery and local crafts like ceramics and new and vintage lace products.

View of Taormina and Etna in the background, Corso Umberto and Isola Bella.

From Taormina we had a stunning view of Etna, which were throwing temper tantrums while we were there. In the evening we could see the fresh lava running down the mountain side! Quite a view! :-) The beach Isola Bella is reached by cable car, and its very charming! And so is the people running the small beach club! :-) Isola Bella was very popular with the moviestars of the golden age, but today the crowd is mostly Italians on holiday, although I did notice some people having Champagne lunch on the beach every day...which they actually had the last time we were there as well...and I'm pretty sure it was the same group of people ;-) Probably kept on doing it since the 50's ;-)!!

While in Sicily I figured out I need to do something with my social skills in order to take better photos.... most of my pictures are of the scenery, as I'm just to shy to ask people if its ok to take their photo, or even photos in shops....gosh.. anyone else feeling the same way as me?!  But I've no problem asking cats though...and I made a few new animal friends ;-)

Hotel Vello d'Oro 

We stayed in a modest, but beautiful hotel, Hotel Vello d'Oro. The hotel is decorated by local craftsman Guiseppe Cuscona, who had his studio, and showroom in the building in the 1950's. I was extreamly fascinated by his work, especially a gorgeous ceramic Madonna in the stairs.

Castelmola  

Castelmola is a small village situated above Taormina, and everyday during the summer months they have a falcon show. It was very interesting, and very intimate compared to other falcon shows I've seen. Also the location for the show, on top of an old castle made it quite spectacular!  The village of Castelmola also has several wonderful crafts women creating stunning Sicilian handwork. Otherwise the village was  quite ruined by rather rude postcards, and aprons...who on earth is buying that stuff?!

More pictures tomorrow ;-)

Fastelavn

Photo: NRK

Some of you asked about Fastelavn after I wrote that we celebrated it on Sunday. Fastelavn marks the beginning of Lent. Original this was the day to eat, celebrate and fatten yourself up for the coming fast period. In our country Lent has disappeared, but we continue celebrating Fastelavn. Today the fattening comes in the form of buns with whipped cream. Yummy :-)

Photo: Mat og Drikke 

Another tradition is the Fastelavnrice; bare birch branches decorated with feathers, paper, flowers etc. The most common is the ones with colored feathers made by The Norwegian Women's Public Health Association. Most schools and play schools also keep up this tradition by letting the kids make their own rice. The tradition of the rice is believed to originate from old fertility rituals but the connection with Fastelavn is not quite clear, but old sources say parents spanked their kids to make them feel the suffering of Christ on the cross...needless to say this tradition has not been kept up....

So next year you'll know how to celebrate Fastelavn for yourself ;-) I'll remind you of the date in advance!!

The easter bunny has arrived...

Seems like the easter bunny was hatched abit early this year....  As I've told you earlier I love crafting for holidays so I started early with easter this year. I'm planning to make a lot of these to hang on a small tree.

Its quite easy but abit time consuming since you have to be careful not to brake the egg. This is how I did it.

1. Make a hole in the egg with a sharp knife. Remove eggshell so that you get the opening that you want. Be careful when doing this.

2. Laquer the egg several times inside and out to build up durability. Dry between layers.

3. Even tough you do'nt see it on the picture the egg is covered in Ice glitter. I add decoupage glue and srinkle glitter on top. I build up several layers to get the right look.

4. With a needle make a small hole on top of egg. Careful!! Enlarge hole with needle. Insert ribbon. Tie knot on the ribbon inside the egg.

5. Glue a piece of white floral oasis on the bottom of the egg. Glue White feathers on top.

6. Print any image you like on thick paper. (Or as I did, use sprayglue to mount normal paper onto cardbox)  Cut out.

7. Glue a match stick to the back of the bunny. Stick match into oasis. (If you make several figures in different sizes you can create a layered effect.)

8. Decorate with fake flowers, pearls etc around the opening. (I did'nt have any white flowers like I wanted...so I just kept it simple with feathers)

Its time for The 2007 Virtual Holiday Home Tour

Welcome to my holiday home! I hope you enjoy the tour. For more Holiday decorated houses visit Notes from A Cottage Industry or BooMama's Christmas Tour 2007

   

If you want to se the images in a larger size,click on them and they will pop up in a new window.

My green, white and silver christmas tree!

The ornaments are a mixture of bought and created. I collect white and silver decorations, so I can change the "theme" color each year. This year its bright green :-)

White/Nature Christmas wreath with deers 

 

No christmas without fresh flowers. I love fresh flowers and during christmas I have boquets everywhere like here in a giant urn my husband bought me som years ago.

The fresh green color of white lilys before they bloom tie well in with my green christmas theme. Another good thing is that they are really long lasting ;-)

Christmas sweets for you!

 

One last peek ;-)

Thanks for visiting me! Have a wonderful Christmas!

To all my friends and everyone leaving comments;  I will reply on your comment, but I'm having some computer trouble at home so I have to use the work computer after hours, so be patience with me :-) To all my dear blogging friends I really miss your wonderful, inspirational blogs! I sneak peek from work but its not the same as having lots of time browsing your site, talking to you etc.

My beautiful niece, my two cute Rottweilers (Hector & Luna) and myself :-)