Tag Archives: Tuscany

The Plant That Launched A Thousand Others

Posted on June 9, 2012 by | 2 Comments

It was glowing in the setting sun in Tuscany. Yellow flowers reaching for the rays:

This was the last image, burned forever in my mind, of the glorious garden. Before we backed out of the gate and swung the doors shut and latched the lock. Thud. Our week there was over.

Will we ever return? I don’t know. But while we pined over wanting breakfast with that view every day, my husband shared wise words from elders. Because no matter how wise and worldly we think we are, we can always learn from others, right? Here’s what they say:

You do have it, because it’s yours for now.

How logical. I decided to make it mine. I’d bring a garden back to Chicago. Thus, the visions of gardens outside our sunroom were sown there at that wooden table. It all started with that glowing Tuscan plant. The vision embraced plants slightly odd for gardens in our suburban Chicago neighborhood: euphorbia, sedum, ornamental oregano, mosses, sedges, oats. Quinoa, even. Colors of caramel, golden yellow and burning orange, set off with purples and burgundies. Nearly black leaves next to tea color leaves.  I like the garden when it’s dead too … the brown spikes and fluffs and tufts in the fall and winter. And pods. Yes I’m one oddball gardener.

This weekend I found a plant very similar to the glowing Tuscan memory. It’s different, but it’s close enough:

This is an Angelina Stonecrop.

Does anyone happen to know what that plant is in the first photo above? It looks like a sedum, but I don’t know the variety. Let me know in comments, please! After four years I can close my eyes and see this plant as if it’s right here:

Don’t we all like to hold on to favorite images from our travels …

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Posted in Garden

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Eight-t-t-teen D-d-d-degrees?! Let’s Warm It Up …

Posted on January 4, 2012 by | Leave a comment

{shiver}

It’s c-c-c-c-cold.

{teeth chatter}

Did it suddenly get really cold in Chicago? Or have I just not gotten out much lately? Well in addition to the first blazing fireplace this winter (sorry I missed shooting that), here are some attempts to warm up our family room …

Candles on an old Chinese trunk used as a coffee table:

The candles — votives with an exotic scent — are sitting on a Diwali diya tray gifted by my sister-in-law, and making the golds shine on a piece of lacquerware and a wood/rattan basket both found in Thailand. Hidden in the basket was a surprise and just what I needed — matchbooks! From restaurants. What restaurants carry matchbooks anymore? These things are almost antique! Plus you mean to tell me this basket has been sitting around forever with matches in it, silently jeering at us while we ran around looking for matches? Well, yes. But with a tip of the lid, it’s now a secret no more.

Oh, and what’s that over there?

It’s a Maine Coon cat, and you know they’re warm because they’re built to survive in the cold. And at 17 pounds, this warm cat can cover a lot of lap. He’s  like a big bear blanket.

And there beyond the big warm cat is an old Chinese burl wood cabinet.

Hey what’s that shiny thing hanging down? I get distracted by shiny gold things.

It’s the end of a brass chain, leading up to this bell found at a temple in Bangalore:

Er, not found as in, you know, stolen found from a temple … I purchased it. Then I hauled the heavy thing across the world.

I love the wood on the Chinese cabinet. It doesn’t give off heat, but it is another kind of warm.

Also to keep the chills at bay, a bottle of vin santo and almond cookies to go with it.

We were introduced to vin santo in Tuscany. It’s a dessert wine. So delicious, we sought sources of it as soon as we returned home. This is a 22-year-old bottle that I found in a liquor shop that had recently changed ownership. The cork was even sealed with wax. The crate was in the very last aisle of the store in a corner so dark you could barely see the words “vin santo,” and with webs to brush away so I was afraid to stick my hand in the crate. But stick my hand in I did, and I found a bottle so underpriced, it made me gasp. This place was far more used to pricing and selling tequila and beer. So I filled my cart with all the vin santo bottles. Clearly these jewels were forgotten. And believe me we’ve given them a good home!

We figured the wintery cold called for opening a bottle, and a good evening was had by all. Sigh. Sounds like a fairy tale. Some evenings can be.

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Posted in In Our Chicago House

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Travel Memento: Old Key Framed with Scrapbook Paper Scraps

Posted on January 2, 2012 by | 1 Comment

During a vacation in Tuscany, we strolled along the cobblestone streets of an outdoor weekend market in the village of Radda in Chianti. And there, we found this key. When we returned home I wanted a reminder of Tuscan villages so I could revisit them in my memory every day. And here is the reminder:

Looking at this image now, it’s all coming back … in Radda in Chianti, we found a lunch menu on an iron stand, just outside a thick wood carved door. Peeking inside, the place looked dark and all we saw was a big bar. We weren’t sure. But the menu descriptions made us salivate, and as we’re vegetarian the options are a bit slim, so with faith we stepped inside. We were escorted through the bar’s dark stone galley to doors that opened onto the most glorious stone terrace overlooking mountain views and blue sky and olive groves for miles. And there, we had a two-hour (maybe three, who’s counting on vacation) lunch of antipasti cheese, wine, breads and soups all underneath the gnarled arching branches of a huge fig tree. Afterwards, a bit tipsy from all the wine, we walked through the outdoor market where wares were displayed under white tents, and we found this key among many other wonderful things.

Yes, this shadowbox literally contains the key to bring back all these memories!

You can make a “travel memory box” like this too, and I hope it’s just as powerful for your memories …

I already had the shadowbox. I tied the key with saffron color string to suspend it in the box. I made some extra knots in the string. No good reason – ”just because.” The string is simply taped onto the frame’s cardboard backing to suspend the key. Then, I covered the back of the shadowbox and the existing matt with a mix of scrapbook papers. I love scrapbook papers with script, so I worked some of that in. I made some paper edges ragged and some edges clean for contrast:

I honestly never noticed the wine grape bunch on the key until just now! How perfect for a memento from Chianti. Photos really do make you look at the world with new eyes.

I chose scrapbook paper colors to coordinate with our dining room rug:

These paper colors also remind me of Tuscany — the olive groves and the terra cotta rooftops.

It’s a very easy project to do, and it’s much more interesting to use scrapbook papers to decorate frames than a plain color matt, isn’t it!

On the back of the frame, you can write about the travel memory on more scrapbook paper, and glue that to the back. I’m glad I did that, so I was reminded of which Tuscan village we found this key.

You might also like:

Wall Art with Scrapbook Papers

DIY: Magazine Box Decorated with Scrapbook Paper

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Posted in DIY & Crafts

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Sur La Table Kitchen Favorites

Posted on January 15, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Last night we went to dinner at a Chinese-Indian fusion restaurant, Inchin’s Bamboo Garden:

Afterwards we wanted to visit Arhaus, but unfortunately the store closed at 7 p.m. We must have looked like two kids peering in a closed candy store.  Oh the things we could see in there! I know right now they have old Indian doors in their frames. We could see a collection of block prints arranged on a wall.

As a consolation prize, we visited Sur la table around the corner. We saw a few things that would be perfect to pack up and take to our India pied a terre …

Linens in beautiful colors:

See the flatware in the photo above? We saw that at the store too, and talked about how we could just “see it” on the India dining table. It comes with wood handles as well as red and an ivory color handle. Here’s a close up:

Absolutely I would buy this and haul it in my suitcase to India! Actually all the silverware in our Chicago home is from a lady in the Chatuchak market in Bangkok. We look unique flatware. We bought pieces from her in 2001 during our first visit to the skinny winding and visually overwhelming aisles of the Chatuchak market. But we miscalculated. We didn’t buy enough, for when you have many people over for dinner. Uh-oh! Thankfully, we were able to find her again in 2004 or 2005, whenever was the next time we visited Bangkok. I forget now. It’s like we’re birds. We can fly anywhere on the planet, and then find our way and return in the future to the same little spot.

We love coffee so for certain, we will have a french press in the India kitchen. It’s simple low-tech and wouldn’t require cleaning tablets and filters like our Jura-Capresse does. Here’s a Bodum french press:

Here’s another version:

Of course, I need to learn to make a good Madras coffee because I love the combination of Madras coffee and payasam! I love the combo of bitter and sweet.

I liked the bright colors and “old time” printing on these storage canisters:

And of course this would match our Tuscan kitchen theme:

The yellow canisters would pick up on some yellow in the kitchen tiles, but of course color contrast is visually interesting too:

I did not see these in the store, they’re on the Sur la table website; I really like this canister style too:

I liked this hot rack that hangs from a wall. There’s a spot next to the fridge that would be hidden from view of the dining area where I’ve been thinking a pot rack could hang on the wall, like this one:

That’s all we had time to see — the store was closing in only half hour after we got there. But we saw quite a bit in that time for India pied a terre ideas.

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Posted in Home Decor

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