I'm in Love!

With my beautiful new purse!



Last week a friend told me she went to a local purse factory store, (it's called Nicoli), and they were having big sales on last season's collection. Since I could care two hoots about whether something is "last season" I wanted to go check it out myself. She said all purses were marked down from 5-40 euro.

Today my friend Kristen and I decided to go check it out and see what they had. We started off in the main showroom and I found THE purse. I just knew it wasn't going to be marked down since we weren't in the sale room, but it was 50 euro. 50 EURO!!!! Do you know how incredible of a deal this is?! I went into the sale room, which did have some awesome items, but nothing caught my eye like the first purse. It was beautiful and soft like buttah. When I paid for it, the lady told me it was a very special purse and I was getting a great deal. I kinda guessed that, but when I checked online how much the bag I bought was selling for I was shocked. Let's just say it was more than three times what I paid for it in the store.

I'm hooked on these purses! I haven't bought anything really "Italian" since we moved here besides ceramics at Nove. I can tell where a lot of money is going to go before we leave here. The purses are seriously amazing and so beautiful. If you're ever around this area, email me and I'll tell you where to go so you can see for yourself.

5K: Part Deux

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that on a whim I decided to sign up for my second 5K despite being a total slacker in the running department the last couple of months.

Well, the run was this past Saturday and I'm happy to say that I improved my time by 2 minutes. My time yesterday was 34:12, by my next 5K I'm hoping to hit 30:00.

I got a shirt out of the deal, even though I'll never wear it since it's a size XL, but I figure when I finally make a t-shirt quilt one of these days, it can go in it.

Here's a close-up shot of my number:



I actually have a full shot of myself, but Sean is a horrible picture taker and shot me from an angle where I appear to have a double chin, so I won't be sharing that.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In

Join in over at Wife of a Sailor!



1.During military separations (whether short or long) how do you keep yourself positive and motivated?
I keep busy with my list of goals and I talk to my friends and family a lot.

2.What is your favorite concert you have ever been to?
I've only been to a couple of concerts, but I'd have to say George Strait was my favorite. I've loved George for a long time and he sounded exactly like he does on the radio.

3.What do you miss most about your “hometown”?
The fact that most of my family is there and the delish Mexican restaurant we have in town. Best salsa EVER! Also, I hear they've upped the ante and now have a mariachi band that plays in the restaurant, I'd like to see this.

4.If you could run in any race, which charity would you choose to support?
Something for the homeless, pets or education.

5.You find out Willy Wonka is your father, what 3 course meal do you INSIST he create in that stick of gum?
This is by far one of the most fun questions that's been asked on Friday Fill-Ins, I'm going to go with Mexican food because I miss it so much. So..chips with salsa and guac. Tacos and enchiladas with rice and then some flan.

Sew What?

Some of you may remember that one of my goals this year was to sew five items. I bought this little beauty last year:



And...it's still sitting in the box.

So, the other day I was browsing around the web trying to find some cute dresses for spring/summer without much success and I thought, "Why don't I just make the dresses I want?"

I started looking for some patterns and this is what I've come up with so far.







That's as far as I've gotten though. I haven't ordered the patterns, looked for fabric or anything. For those who actually sew, do those look like difficult dresses to make? What online fabric stores do you recommend?

I'm thinking about when my mom comes to visit this summer having her help me a little with a dress. Sneaky I know! She comes expecting to travel and instead I have her doing Mom duties.

Carnevale

Yesterday I braved the crowds of Carnevale to capture some pictures of the event. A lot of people I know like to go to drink and to just enjoy the ambiance of Carnevale, I'm not really that person.

Although I love the costumes and overall vibe of Carnevale, I don't enjoy the massive crowds and flying elbows of Italians. So...I only went to Carnevale for photos and frittelle (small doughnuts w/ various flavors). I ended up taking about 200 pictures yesterday, but I'm including just a few of my favorites.













I ended the day with a delish sopressa, funghi and formaggio panino and 2 frittelle.

Question of the Day

Because I went to the last day of Carnevale and braved the crowds, flying elbows (I know I'm going to have bruises on my arms) and because I have a horrible headache, I'm going to do a Question of the Day.



What is your favorite go-to recipe? If you want you can post the recipe, if not, just post the name.

Madrid: Pics and Commentary

Let me start off by saying that Madrid was Sean and I's favorite city that we stopped at. In fact, Spain in general was just awesome. The food was amazing, it was probably the cheapest western European country we've visited and we had pleasant weather while we were there. Our flight from Amsterdam was delayed a few hours, but we still made it in plenty of time to enjoy a good 1.5 days there.



One of the first things we did after checking into our hostel, was to get some lunch. I had a calamari sandwich and Sean had a tortilla espanola sandwich. Both sandwiches were delish, but Sean's was my favorite.

I really don't have much to say about where we stayed. It was a hostel (Las Musas Residence) but it wasn't anything special. The location of it was nice, but I found the beds incredibly hard and noisy (we had bunkbeds). The breakfast was also less than stellar. I don't think if I'm ever in Madrid that I'd stay here again.



This is standing in Puerta del Sol looking at the Tio Pepe billboard (the only billboard that is allowed in the square)



After we walked around Puerta del Sol and the surrounding area, we decided to try our hand at tapas. Boy am I glad we did! I could probably live off tapas because there are so many choices and they are simply cooked and delicious! The above picture is pigs' ears with some spices and oils. I think they're fried, but don't quote me on that. I found them to be pretty tasty, similiar to bacon, but with some cartilage.



These are Pimentos de padron. Grilled jalapenos with salt, spices and oil. They were very, very tasty!



These covers have the official seal of Madrid on them: a bear with a Juniper tree.



An early morning, more expansive view of Puerta del Sol.



I loved these street signs with pictures on them. From what I understand, the pictures come from when back in the day when many people were illiterate and couldn't read the names, so they put pictures on the signs to help them.



This is Casa de Correos in Puerta del Sol. It is now a post office, but I believe when Franco was in power, his political prisoners were kept there.



There is a convent here where nuns make cookies/other sweets and sell them throughout the week. We came by on a Sunday when they are obviously closed (as the sign says) and we meant to come back the next day to get some, but forgot. I was so disappointed!



This is supposedly the oldest door in Madrid. How they know this, I have no idea, but it does indeed look quite ancient!



This is the Royal Palace of Madrid. You can go in and tour it, but we chose not to. For one, it was a bit pricier than we wanted to spend. Also, I've been in one palace and I got bored just looking at room after room after awhile. Besides Versailles, I'm not sure I'm really that interested in seeing another palace.



I liked this sign, just because it was eye-catching and it also has the last name of one of my friends on it.



We had a simple, but delish meal in the Museo del Jamon (Museum of Ham) There are several of these in Madrid and we wanted to try it out. We got two sandwiches, a plate of cheese and water for about 6 Euro. The ham in Spain is amazing, I think I almost like it better than prosciutto.



Blue roses at this huge antique market near our hostel. Seriously, it was massive. It had a huge number of stalls and a large crowd of people. I wanted to buy some old bullfighting posters, but again...no space in the suitcase.



This camera was at the antique market. I'm not sure I've ever seen one of these for sale. Would have been awesome for my collection!



The street performers in Spain were by far the best I've ever seen. I still have no idea how this guy was hanging out like this.

While we were in Madrid, we checked out the Prado Museum which was on my "must-see" list. I was not disappointed. We happened to catch it when it was free, but of course the trade-off was that it was very crowded. I still was able to see some great works of art and really enjoyed the collection they had there. If you go to Madrid and you love art, I really recommend you checking it out.



If you ever go to Spain, get the churros and hot chocolate. You will NOT regret it!