Gelato & Waffle Cones

Since we loved our daily gelato fix while traveling in Italy, I attempted to recreate one of my favorite Gelato flavors. The Gelateria called it Ambrosia, but my youngest calls it "sugar & cream". Either way it's delicious. My Mother has an ice cream maker that we used, so while it's not exactly gelato- it is only three ingredients and three steps to a yummy treat.

Sugar is optional- if you prefer sugarless. I love it with sugar as it tasted more like the Ambrosia Gelato from Italy. The Little Misters will eat it with or without sugar, especially in a homemade waffle cone.

Speaking of Waffle cones...I found a yummy recipe online but I don't own a waffle cone iron. Enter my Mother to the rescue again. She had a KrumKake iron, slightly smaller than a waffle cone iron but works just the same.

My Mother and I spent a wonderful time in the kitchen together making these cute mini Waffle cones. I worked the KrumKake Iron and she got in the groove rolling the cones. She even figured out how to pinch the ends to contain melting gelato.

Now doesn't that love Heavenly?!

Family Albums

I wanted to get photos off my computer and into a book that I could share. I loved how my travel journal turned out, so I decided to use Blurb again to make a few more books.

The first book I wanted to make was for my Little Misters. One book for every year of their lives seemed a little daunting since my oldest was already 5 years old. Instead I opted for one family book for those fives years. Starting with the birth of my firstborn in early 2008 to this past Christmas 2012.

My young sons LOVE having a book to flip through, seeing their younger selves. It's so fun to be able to look through all our past adventures and see all our family photos so easily.

 

I wanted to keep the same look for both books. For the first family album I made a word cloud of positive things I hope to teach my sons. On the second books cover I used the same looking word cloud but changed it to places we visited in Italy and the different transportation we took through out the trip. 

Our Italy travel album is a larger book in size as well as pages, 240 pages in total. I think I managed to squeeze over 700 photos into it. Yup, I took a LOT of photos during our two month trip. In addition to the photos, I included text: my daily journal entries to help complete the story of our trip. And I'm so very glad that we can flip through our new Italy album to re-live the adventure.

Hooray for getting family photos off my computer and into our hands. I treasure every moment I can get with my family and I can't wait for these new books to make their permanent home on our bookshelf for future flipping.

out of "retirement"

I offered to make wedding invitations for my father-in-law's upcoming wedding. While I was cutting paper this afternoon I felt like I was coming out of retirement because it's been so long since I made invitations or cards.

I made about 45 invites for them, it'll be a small wedding. The Bride and Groom pretty much gave me free reign on colors and design. The bride did tell me the flowers were pink, to match the pink flowers on her dress. I'm not a huge fan of pink, so I was excited when I saw these grey envelopes. I thought they complimented the pink nicely, making the invites less over the top girly.

To add a bit of fancy, I used textured paper to print them on. I love the grey "love" on the pink back of the invites. I hope my father-in-law and his bride like them.  I forgot just how much I enjoy myself putting paper projects together and stuffing envelopes.

More hats made in Italy

I made these two cute hats while we were still in Italy. Unfortunately, on one of our adventures we lost the Red hat. However I did buy some more Italian red yarn before we left for home, so I can make a new hat for my Little Man. (The red neck cowl we bought in Italy. I was going to make one until we found this one super cheap)

Last week, the day after we arrived back home again, I finally met my newest nephew. He was born a month ago while we were across the sea. I knit for him this cute little white pointy elf hat. He really likes it, and looks so adorable in it.

Knitting in Italy

While packing my suitcase for our two month trip to Italy I attempted to think crafting tools to take with as space was very limited. I knew there would be an occasionally bit of downtime (possibly during one of many flights) to find time to craft something. All I could think to bring were two knitting needles and a couple of photocopied patterns; along with one whole skein of yarn and a small unfinished project.

I had this hat nearly complete before I left but brought it with to finish it and be able to wear it while exploring the beautiful city of Florence. I've made several attempts in the past to make a hat for myself but am never quite satisfied with the fit. I am loving my new hat- this one is pretty perfect.

Then, using the brown skein of yarn I brought with I decided I'd knit a new Pointy Elf Hat for Little Mister. I made the child/small adult size this time because the orange toddler size one was getting a bit snug.

With a solid brown one complete, I thought I'd finish up the skein and make a second hat. My Best friend had told me before we left that she'd love a elf hat for her youngest. Well, looking at what was left of the brown I thought I better add stripes to this second hat, using the last of the blue from my own hat. Good thing I did because their was just enough of both to get to the end. Only an inch or two to spare. Whew!

Kind of glad I used both colors- I love the stripes and so does Little Man. He's already taken the striped one as his own and put the brown one away for his friend (my best friends son). My boys being silly modeling the finish projects.

Happily I can say these were both handmade in Italy. Now I'm off to find a yarn store...

Happy New Year

It's early January 2013. I'm popping on to post that my family and I will be traveling in just a few short days. I'm busy packing and getting ready to spend 60 days overseas in Italy. Very exciting way to start our year off.

On the sad side of things, I'll probably not be posting my crafts anytime soon. If you like checking in from time to time, know that there might not be anything new to see till March or April. I'm hoping to take a knitting project or two with me to have something to do on the planes and trains. Maybe I can find a few craft stores while traveling... that'd be super fun.

Till I post again- Happy crafting!

Travel Journals for my Boys

My Little Mister made watercolor paintings at his school. I wasn't quite sure what to do with them, save them, toss them, hang them up. Then I had an idea...

Decided I'd fold them in half to make coloring/ travel journals for both boys to take on our trip. I cut paper to the right height and length to fill the books.

I didn't have a stapler big enough to reach the binding, so I pulled out the sewing machine to stitch them together. Hopefully they'll hold together through all the plane rides, airports and train rides we'll be taking.

They sure look nice and they didn't cost me a penny. Completely handmade. Excited to see the little misters fill these with they're thoughts and experiences of our big trip.