arthur, clark and stella

a friend asked me to paint a couple of pet portraits of their two dogs and cat for his wife's birthday. i was honored. here they are...
arthur the cat

clark the dog

stella the yorkie

all three



happy birthday holly!

i heart italia

tuesday i returned from my trip to italy. it was so incredibly awesome and i had such a fantastic time. the "purpose" (aka excuse) for the trip was attend a wedding in tuscany of some great friends that i used to work with. the first half of the trip was spent at this amazing place, castello di modanella.


i got to stay in this farmhouse, how cool is that? i mean seriously, my dream is to one day own an old stone farmhouse and i was able to pretend that i did for a couple of days.

the first night we were treated to amazing persian chicken made by the groom and his brother-in-law. it was GOOD, like seriously, deliciously good. i learned the secret recipe, but i'd have to kill you if i told you.


the next day was spent on a wine tour of tuscany. we drank lots of delicious wine and ate amazing italian meats and had a delicious lunch made by an italian grandma! it ruled.




that night we had homemade pizza that was made in the pizza ovens in "my" farmhouse. you might have noticed a theme so far: food and wine. my favorite things.



the next day was the big day-the wedding! the ceremony was held at the town hall of luciano. the room was incredible, rounded ceilings and completely covered in paintings.


after the ceremony we returned to the castle to eat, drink and party.



the food was delicious, of course. an 11 course meal and if i had to pick a favorite it would be the ravioli.

during the dinner we snuck up to the bell tower, which was found by a guy at our table. he later looked for the dungeon to no avail. this was the view.

the following day we left and headed for rome. we stayed in an apartment (which is cheaper than a hotel, who knew!) and this was our entryway. it was right near piazza navona and was perfect. i forgot to take pictures of the inside, so these will have to do.
looking towards ths sky.
i got to see my friends who live in rome and they showed us all around, what great hosts. we went to a flea market (porta portese), which was enormous! here they are, trying to open the olives we bought, which were delicious (and check out alex's hip new haircut, she could shave her head and still look good).

i bought some chandelier prisms from garbage bags for one euro each.

we then headed to see the main highlights of the city. the pantheon:



even the floors were amazing.
me at trevi fountain. i threw a coin into it to ensure my return (it worked last time!)



palantine hill


roman forum (read about it, it is awesome)

our last full day we spent mainly at the vatican museum and st. peter's. it is completely surreal, even for the second time around. you can't even grasp the scale of st. peter's, it so is gigantic. the thing you have to keep in mind is that the marble, granite, travertine, etc... that you see was "taken" from all of the historical sites that are now in ruin.





i wish i was still there! (but only if dave could have been there of course)
if you want to see hundreds of additional pictures, click here.

off to rome...

i will be leaving tomorrow to go to rome and attend a wedding in tuscany. i am beyond excited! i'll be gone for a week, but once i come back i will have LOTS of pictures to share with you.

summer 2008 soundtrack

if this summer could be summed up by one record it would be the hold steady stay positive. there are a lot of f*cked up things going on in this world and sometimes we need to remind ourselves of this. staying positive is really the easiest thing you can do to change your life and the things around you.
if you haven't bought it yet, drop what you are doing and run out to the music store (do they even exist anymore?) and buy it, immediately (or go to their myspace and take a listen.) it was pretty much on repeat all summer. and dave was lucky enough to go on tour with our buds the loved ones, who were on tour with the hold steady for two weeks this summer. if lord i'm discouraged doesn't make you sad or constructive summer doesn't make you rock then you are inhuman.
they are playing philly again on november 8. can't wait.

summer is coming to an end

i love the summer, and hate to see it end, but there is nothing like the feeling of fall. the air is starting to feel fall-like already and i am looking forward to the cooler days and nights, sweaters, pumpkins, leaves (except raking), upcoming trips, and my favorite-apple dumplings. i'm hoping we get to go camping this fall, something we don't get to do often enough. last year we went to hickory run state park and had a great time, despite the slightly crappy weather and too crowded-and-not-enough-trees campsite. if you haven't ever been there you should go. there is a boulder field that is amazing to see, pictures really don't do it justice. it is a huge field of boulders (16.5 sq acres) that were brought to the area about 20,000 years ago, during the last ice age.



oh and this is how we roll, beef stew cooked over the fire in a cast iron dutch oven. it was delicious. (oh and i had nothing to do with it, it was all d.a., chef extraordinaire)

moz loves camping too, or so we think he does. he's content anywhere, so maybe he doesn't. haha. unfortunately he recently hurt his "good" back leg so he's a full time limper now. vet appointment is saturday, wish us luck.

rummage and garage sale finds

this past saturday morning i hit up a rummage sale in chestnut hill and a garage sale by our house. first of all the houses in chestnut hill are amazing, i mean, really amazing, old, stone houses. i got lost on the way home, but didn't care because i saw so many awesome houses.
so here is what i got, juice glasses, salad bowls, fabric...

painting of awesome old lady...

and canisters...

they are hornsea pottery, labeled england 1973, bronte design. i adore the pattern and colors.
oh, and not pictured, "obama bulbs," which i just had to buy because of how they were labeled. they are tulips from a neighbor, and i'll have to plant them in the fall, keeping my fingers crossed that the damn squirrels don't eat them.
anyone else find anything good this past weekend?