It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

I absolutely love this time of year.  All of the stores begin to decorate their windows for the holiday season and the streets are filled with lights and the people are out and about. Chestnuts and hot chocolate and Christmas markets in the piazzas. I can't get enough, and its not necessarily the holiday itself, its more the spirit and the creativity that comes out and the special winter treats that we only get once a year. Since there are so many wonderful things to see and smell and eat, I don't think that just one post will be enough, so I have decided that from now until the new year, I will make a weekly posting of all the holiday happenings. Here is the first installment. Divertitevi!

Fabulously Festive Window in Piazza Duomo, look carefully you can its reflection in the top left

I Always love the windows at Coin

Ok, so maybe its not exactly holiday theme, but I just can't resist a dog in clothes! And I'd never seen a dog mannequin before either! Brilliant!

The window has a very 1930's feel so I thought it would look really great in black and white

Just gorgeous!

La Bella Vita - On Tuesday

Click the button for more Dole Vita

Sorry about the late post, but yesterday I was still recovering from a very busy but very fun finesettimana.  Not only did we celebrate our Thanksgiving on Sunday so that more of of our friends who had to work on Thursday could join us, but we also celebrated a very good friends 30th birthday by way a of a surprise party! It was so much fun.  But with all of that fun and food (and maybe a little too much wine) I was out for the count yesterday and busy taking care of all of the things I usually do on the weekends, you know the necessary stuff like cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping. But I will never complain because I truly feel like the luckiest person in the world to be surrounded by so many wonderful people and some of the best friends that I've ever had, they truly are my family.  I really don't know what I would do without them. It can be hard, especially around the holidays to be this far from family, but somehow, being in the home of one of my best friends with my other best friend and all of our significant others, felt completely natural.  This is now the 5th year in a row that our host has made such a beautiful turkey and opened her home to us.  For me this is Thanksgiving.

The bird. Yum!

This is view from our Thanksgiving table, the pumpkin pie was made from fresh pumpkins that were grown in this garden

It was wonderful to be able to share one of our American holidays with all the Italians again. Sure some of them needed a little convincing to try some of the not so familiar side dishes like sweet potatoes and desserts like pumpkin pie, but they all loved it! We ate, we drank and we laughed all weekend long and if that isn't life enriching, I don't know what is!

And this is the view from the kitchen window, it was a beautiful afternoon!

Are you a creative person in Florence? Join us

As many of you know, over the past few months I have been  working on forming a group here in Florence for artists of all kinds. The intention of the group is to meet other artists and creative people to discuss our work, inspire each other and develop our portfolios.   One of our group members, Birgitte Bronsted of My Sweet Florence, My Sweet Rome and My Sweet Copenhagen had the wonderful idea of creating a facebook page for the group.  I am very excited about this since it will really work as a platform for us to announce events and meetings and also discover some unknown talent.

Below is a description of the  group. We hope you'll join us.

Artists, writers, photographers, designers, bloggers... all kinds of creative people in Florence are welcome to join the group and participate in the network. Once a month we will meet for brunch, lunch, aperitivo or something else. At these meetings members will have the opportunity to meet, chat, exchange experiences and - who knows - maybe create events, exhibitions or other kinds of collaborations. There are absolutely no obligations attached to being a member. You can participate in all events, some events or you can join the group to simply follow us.  

When you join the group it would be great if you would post a few lines about yourself and what you do. Also feel free to come up with ideas for the network, and do share your work with us by posting photos and links.

La Dolce Vita- La Creativita`

For more about La Dolce Vita click here

In collaboration with my new blogging buddy over at Ciao Christy I will now be participating in her Dolce Vita series every Monday on my blog. It's really a wonderful idea that will help me to stop and think about all of the things I am thankful and grateful for. The idea is that each Monday a group of bloggers will write a post about something that enriches our lives by living in Italy or something that enriches our lives in general.  It is easy to get caught up in the daily stresses and rushes of life and that means we tend to take certain things for granted, its a great way to start the week on a positive note and remember how fortunate we truly are.  So thanks Christy for coming up with such a great idea and for inviting me to participate! 

Creativity is a fundamental part of my life. Not just being creative myself but also being surrounded by other creative people and things.  As we know Florence is full of art in all its forms, from the classics to the contemporary to the sculptors to the painters to the fashion designers to the chefs, its all here in this beautiful city. Since quitting my 'day job' in January of this past year, (the best thing I ever did)  I have had the opportunity to get to know Florence in a new way, to remember all of the reasons why I feel in love in the fist place.  For many years I was jaded by an environment that was not my passion nor my calling and caused me to overlook some of the fantastic things that this city has to offer.  Contemporary art has been gaining a lot of speed around here in Florence lately and more and more artists are attempting to get their work in public spaces. La Rinascente, the countries biggest department store chain has made their windows available for exactly that purpose for the weeks surrounding the holidays. 

I was very excited on Saturday night as I was crossing town to find these gorgeous window displays, so of course I had to take some photos! They made me happy for so many reasons. Not only are they fun to look at but they are also giving contemporary art a broader audience.  So I do indeed feel that they enrich my life but instilling joy and giving me inspiration as a contemporary artist and designer myself.  What I love so much about this is the materials that are used, I am noticing that it may be a little hard to tell from these photos but each work is made of recycled materials such as paper, plastic bottles, writing pens, bottle caps and plastic cups.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! Oh and I took A LOT of pictures!

Progress and Possiibilities

Lots of new things have been happening around here! New developments and new ideas and of course new inspirations.  I recently had the pleasure of working with some great artists and models to put together my first semi-professional photo shoot.  And I say semi because essentially we are all still learning the process but it went amazingly well for out first try.  You can see the best shots on my facebook fan page or on my websites collection page.

I learned so much from the experience, mostly, that I still have a lot to learn! Fashion photography is hard, but the girls did really well.  We all worked great together and it was really nice getting to know new people. I'm happy that the idea came together in the end. This photo shoot was the result of one of my previous post and a little ad I put up on craigslist. Hopefully this is just the first of many more to come.  So if your in Florence and your interested in joining us contact me and I will add you to our email list of events.

Next new development is a small one but one I am very excited about! Of course I dream of having my own gallery/shop one day, but until then my little hallway will have to do! My handyman hubby helped me out by painting the walls, hanging my drawings and paintings and a couple of shelves for me to display my work! YAY!  So I now a mini showroom where I can actually invite people to see my work.

It still needs work and its not much space but it will do for now, that is until I'm famous that is!

I'm now off for a glass of Chianti with my favorite girls at a great little cafe` that I hope to be adding to my Hip Hangout page!

A presto!