COLOURS OF BURANO

Somewhere far far away (or maybe actually not that far away for some of you) there is a small island famous for the colours of its houses. The legend says it all started with people who wanted to stand out from their neighbours and chose a different colour for their house. The island looks more than amazing these days...





Images by Arek and Olga

Milano

Visiting Milan was a part of our ski trip this month. Pity, my leg didn't allow me to savor all the experience... I might have not enjoyed the city in full, but I'm sure that's just my leg talking. I guess I will have to come back some day, because I'm sure it is totally worth it.



A placard which attracted attention...




Best lunch we had during our stay in Italy this time - prosciutto, cheese, olives, fresh crispy bread, refreshing Lambrusco - very simple but extremely savoury and immensely enjoyed (so much better than that offered in the hotel..)


All images by Arek

SKIING

Images by Olga

Some images from our unfortunate ski trip - as promised. The weather ranged from super sunny to snowy and cold and at times foggy with the fog almost palpable! All in all great time first 4 days...

Once Upon A Summer ...

It is so cosy to spend nice relaxing evenings at home after work when everything around is calm and quiet and the positive and pleasant things come to mind... Today I was thinking that getting to know creators and crafty people and learning the best one can from them is probably one of the great things one can do in life. It is so inspiring! There are amazingly many interesting and incredible people in this world who are great talents - thinkers, observers, artists, creators... It is overwhelming knowing this and also the fact that it would take me more than one life to learn about all of them and admire all their work. This post is to the grand and unique ideas and people who stay true to themselves and keep creating and doing what they like no matter what!

Image by Arek

These lamps were hand made and sold by a man on the street in Venice late at night - he couldn't have chosen a better time for the stunning light effect. The man looked simple and was accompanied by an old dog of his... And he was telling stories about his lamps...

Tradizioni Culinarie Continued

Although the Mediterranean food is awesomely great I think I just can't miss out the drinks part... Although most coffee in Italy comes from South America, Italy is the first country to come to mind when you mention coffee. Although the beans are grown elsewhere, Italy is considered the home of coffee and is where many of the beans are roasted, where the espresso machines are made and where making the perfect espresso, cappuccino or latte has been elevated to a high artform.

Image by Olga

But along with coffee it is definitely worth to mention some other drinks very typical of the region. The absolute favourite I tried is called Spritz! It is a typical Veneto drink, tasty, bittersweet and wonderfully refreshing! Here is a quick recipe in case you feel you wanna try it out (I especially recommend it to all campari lovers!):

1/3 prosecco, /3 campari, 1/3 soda
Stir with ice in an old fashioned glass. Decoration: a slice of orange and a big olive.

Image by Olga

You can find a lot of sparkling wines from the family of prosecco in Venice, and along with Spritz another very popular cocktail is Bellini, which is also sold ready - in bottles. The recipe can be found here.

Image by Olga

One of the interesting experiences is bying 'vino sfuso' or 'bulk wine'. This basically means that you go to the wine shop with your own bottle and purchase wine by liter - the variety depends on the shop - usually these are local wines of course - and the quality is very good!

Image by Olga

Finally it would be totally improper not to mention Limonchello - lemon liqueur mainly produced in Southern Italy. It is bright yellow in color, sweet and lemony, but not sour since it contains no lemon juice.

Image by Olga

Tradizioni Culinarie

Image by Olga

Mediterranean region countries are very well known for their culinary traditions. And definitely there is a reason for this.

Image by Olga

The ingredients are fresh, the variety is incredible the food CULTure has a very very long history.

Image by Arek

Image by Arek

The people are proud of these traditions and pass them on from generation to generation.

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

They do a lot of cooking at home and make a lot things themselves - even bread and pasta!

Image by Arek

Image by Olga

One of the indispensable meals of the day is a substantial breakfast...

Image by Olga

And of course one can enjoy lots of fresh fruit!

Image by Olga

PURSuE Happiness

Image by Olga

I think every person at some point of time in his or her life collects something. There are so many things, which can possibly be collected - starting from good old stamps and coins, ending with... coat hangers or doll faces... Collecting definitely brings positive emotions and - often, but not always - develops the knowledge or skills - or at least this is what collectors like to think ;)

Image by Olga

These wonderful purses were photographed by me in Venice and they all are produced locally. I found a great variety of colours, shapes and sizes - all too beautiful to be true! It was really hard for me to resist the temptation of buying many of these sweet little things at the local leather shop...

Image by Olga

Image by Olga

My collection is not very big as I started it not long ago plus I only buy purses for everyday use... But I can still say that I already have several rather cute items :) For some reason I think purses are charming - they are so small, a bit old fashioned yet exquisite... just like this one:

Image by Olga

I came to thinking that one good way to collect things without actually storing them would be just to photograph them. Then you can have a collection of something and it won't take up any space at all :). It also has a practical side of not having to spend too much on your collections - plus you could collect pretty much anything!

Colour Me Pastel

There is a cork board I hung in the hall of my home, where I pin up random things I come across pretty much anywhere because I find them beatiful-funny-weird-old or worth looking at for the second time. One could call it an inspiration board or a mood board. You can see more of them here and here. This one was inspired by my trip to Venice and by pastel colours, which seem to be everywhere this spring!

Image by Olga

Colour Theory aside - there are amazingly many beautiful words and expressions for color in English (blush pink, see green, sky blue, canary yellow...) - and I'm very sure this would apply to any other language.. I like them so much I even made a small list of 'color words' and I want to keep 'collecting' them. How do you like dove gray, emerald green, poppy red and peacock blue? Other color words (and colors!) I'm fascinated with at the moment are powder blue and mustard yellow... I think I also came across 'vintagey peach' the other day.. What words for color come to your mind when you read this? Maybe some really great names haven't been even invented yet :)

Sweets For My Sweet..

Someone is in for a real treat today :). Don't you find this candy lovely and utterly delicious? At some point I started to regret I couldn't try these colourful little things... because they look amazingly real!



Through time and across continents, stories of sweets and their inventors intrigue and entertain us. These ones are made of coloured glass, in the best traditions of Murano glass makers. I came across this little 'candy shop' while exploring the picturesque island of Burano, where also every house has a different colour. I find these little sweets incredible - it seems they could be any imaginable colour!

Images by Olga

Ex Libris

I can't stop coming back to the things I saw and discovered in Venice - for example how the city is famous for its paper. I came across a number of old paper shops founded in the 19th century, which are still using traditional methods to create their paper and hand print it. Legatoria Piazzesi was founded in 1851 and was the first to invent the new art of covering objects of everyday use with refined hand printed decors. As the founders claim they try to keep their unique atmosphere, full of history, culture, elegance, simplicity, refinement and authenticity.. Here is how things wrapped in this this paper look like:

Image via Legatoria Piazzesi

And some more paper designs from Venice:

Images by Olga