Some of the stuff i've been working on

I've been trying to get my jewelry groove on and do some pounding and twisting in time to sell some presents for the holidays. I know the pictures suck, but i just take them so i can keep track of what im doing, what im selling and how much ive hope to sell them for, and apparently to blog, altho the latter is an after thought.

Miss Sophia

The good news is, for three days in a row Sophia has gone to bed by herself without getting out of the crib 10 million times. It's been so fabulous, for the last month or so its been a losing battle getting her to go to bed. We've tried all the techniques in the book, not even Super Nanny was helping this time! The bad news is Sophia has been ill for 2 of the three days (fever, cough etc) so we're not sure if it's the new technique, she has grown out of the bedtime battle stage or we just got lucky because she is ill.

I dont know if its the fever or what...but a little Michelangelo is expressing itself thru Sophia! She has been drawing up a storm lately, and not just scribbles. She did flowers, that actually look like flowers! She's done a car, celery, a potato - but they are always on the etch-a-sketch thing so there has never been any proof of her genius...so I took a picture! Im so proud of my litle artist!

I got Elfed!

O & G came over to help finish Thanksgiving leftovers. After dinner we had a little fun getting elfed: http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9603161895

The Return of Thanksgiving, 2007!

This year due to scheduling problems Thanksgiving was postponed until the 2 days after the thirds Thursday of November...but it was an awesome Thanksgiving! The party was smaller, but there was a suprise visit from Uncle Bruno and Whiskey. But despite the smaller numbers, more turkey was eaten (which means we will only be eating left overs for 1 month instead of 2!!). Thanks to everyone who came and made it a special night for this displaced American!

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The day after Thanksgiving

It's the day after Thanksgiving. Finished American Gods while preparing dinner for tomorrow (we are celebrating 2 days late due to Max's work schedule). Awesome book. Sophia has been really good about asking to go to the toilet (except when there are cartoons on, she forgets). Glad we bought those plastic covered cloth diapers a while back when I thought that I would not contribute to global warming with regular diapers (that only lasted until her poops were still little). I think those help a lot, I've been using last years Little Swimmers too because they dont really hold in the pee, but enough not to have puddles everywhere. Sophia's been a funny girl lately, every time she gets in trouble she calls Grandma (the American one), back when we were in the US and her Daddy was still in Italy, she used to call him when she got in trouble with Grandma. My how the tables have turned.

the Roxy 1000W

We got a new vacuum cleaner, free with the points saved from the local grocery store. Max never offers to clean the house...we should have gotten the vacuum sooner! It was like Christmas for him (and me!).

Dinner at the Cicciarello's

We were treated to a fantastic dinner at Fabbio and Maria Luisa's house tonight! Everything was amazing!

Chillin at the Dawson's

Tonight we went to Brescia to do some commercials for the new biz O, C and M are putting together. Which was cool because we got to finally meet O's dad (its like looking at future oliver - they look, talk and move just alike) and his new Texan girlfriend. And we got to see the really cool set up of the basement. It was like going into an adult rumpus room. There is a full on recording studio (decorated with antique recording equipment, star trek paraphernalia, tickets to a random rainbow of concerts from david bowie to blink), a tool time corner, a miniature train set with people and stuff, loads of computers and other random big boy toys. It was fun to hang out with Jerry and Dee while the boys chatted, smoked and recorded. Only bad thing was that when it was my turn, nobody warned me that O and M took the piss out of C and he sweated all over the headphones!! I got a nice Criss Sweat Shampoo - arggghhhh! I feel so connected and intimate with him now! We didnt get back until 4 am, tomorrow is gonna be hell! PS if you are asking yourself where sophia was all the time, we dressed her in jammies, got in the car, she fell asleep on the way and slept on the couch at the Dawson house. Always a trooper that girl!

Casa Wilhelm

Went to Paolo, Francesca and Pietro's house for dinner. Food was great as usual! Paolo made Gremolada and Risotto allo Zafferano,




which was really good...So good Max and Francesca sang a song about it....




The kids had a really good time playing with each other all night, they are much more interactive now, which is nice because then we actually got to chat together for the first time!!!



And Franci made Dulce de Leche, which was really amazing.

All in all it was a really fun night! Sophia was exhausted from all the fun by the time we got home.

Casa Wilhelm

at the end of the night, we found the kids jumping on the futon together...

Silvia

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Valeria's

We made Max a big birthday breakfast today...bacon, eggs, home fries and pancakes. Then Leo and Alexandra came over after lunch. Went to Valeria's to celebrate Max's birthday. It was small and intimate and lots of fun. The girls really had us cracking up!

Lordy Lordy, He's almost 40!!!

Happy Birthday Max and Mike! Poor Max had to do the 6am shift this morning...and then he had a meeting and then shopping for the party. Luckily Carrefour wasnt too crowded. We even got a phone call from Holly in Mike from Australia to exchange happy birthday wishes! Poor them, they were actually supposed to be back in california, but got stuck in OZ. But at least we got to hear from them! Then I had to hurry and make some quick appetizers and the cakes. Okay here is a new little thing I just made up out of desperation for something new to have instead of the same ol' same ol', it was pretty good... I did pasta sfoglia (filo dough) pinwheels filled with: tuna, cream cheese, oregano and chopped sun dried tomatoes (i just dumped everything in so i dont know the proportions). I made a lot of them and they were gone by the end of the night. And because Ilaria is allergic to flour I made up some flourless cookies that were not bad either:
1 egg,
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cacao (bitter, no sugar),
1/2 cup butter softened,
1 tsp bkg powder,
1/2 cup walnuts

seperate egg, add half the sugar into the the whites and half into the yolks. Beat whip the whites till they peak and the yolks til fluffy. Whip the butter til no lumps, add in caco and bkg powder. fold in eggs, add nuts. spoon small dollops onto a greased bkg sheet, cook 5-7 minutes at 325. Not bad. Im gonna try something similar with rice flour next time. I bet that the bkg pdr didnt even do anything to help so im gonna also try them with out that.

Leo and his girlfriend Alexandra (who is Russian born, but lived in Italy since she was , and is the cutest sweetest girl!) came over and we got some pizzas delivered. Then it was off to Mauro's for the party. The pictures tell the rest...

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Marghera 37

Lily and Salvo are in town. Went out to dinner with the gang.

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The Hat

Sophia is really into this hat. She wont take it off...our little Holden Caulfield.

Halloween

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