Three little cakes

Cheers! On my birthday we spent quite a long time sitting in one of the pavement cafes by the pantheon. I think the Peroni went to P's head judging by how he's managed to chop off my hand with the wine glass. We only had two :)

You can just see the beautiful ring P bought me. I was so surprised when he gave me the little yellow box. I really wasn't expecting it. And he chose so well! I absolutely love it :)

Portrait Painting in Stages

I've been asked to paint a portrait as a wedding gift.

Unfortunately this means working from photos rather than having a live person in front of me (which is much easier!). However I'm quite pleased with the progress so far and have been taking photos of each stage of the work so I can post them here.

Other news...

...We have pulled out of negotiations for the purchase of the cottage we had been so excited about after discovering planning for houses on the beautiful fields behind the property which the vendors had conveniently forgotten to tell us about. Very disappointing but a relief in some ways that we found out when we did.


...The robins who had built their nest on our balcony actually excavated a hole in the soil and built up the edges with leaves and moss. It was lovely to watch. The female sucessfully laid 5 eggs and by the time we had come back from Spain they had hatched.

The robins went nuts everytime we tried to sit on the sofa and mind our own business. To be honest it started to get a bit annoying! We felt like we were being bullied out of our own home! We were here first!!

I would have taken some photos but I was scared of P finding me pecked to death on the balcony after work. I was even more worried that the evil magpies who live in the nearby tree would see the commotion and fly down to eat the little fellows.

The babies made the jump off the balcony really early one morning and haven't been seen since.

I love the beautiful tiles that are used to decorate the buildings in Spain. This is watercolour with Crystal Laquer to create raised glossy areas.

Sending you all baci (kisses)! Baci are delicious chocolate and hazelnut truffles. Each chocolate has a slip of paper with a quote tucked inside its wrapper. You can also get Baci flavoured icecream in Italy. Yum Yum!

Roma

Well I reached a big milestone in my life last week in the glorious city of Rome. The grand old age of 30.



P whisked me away to Rome for my birthday and it is one of the most amazing places I've ever been to. So friendly, crazy and laid back all at the same time. And soooo romantic!



Yes I know this is turning into a bit of a travel blog! I am completely spoilt! But I'm sure these things do affect and influence my artwork so I will blog about them anyway.



Where to start though? We saw and did so much - we took a pedometer with us and each day we both took more than 20,000 steps. 40 miles in a pair of sandals is quite an achievement! And it did mean that we could eat LOTS and LOTS of gelato! Nocciola (hazelnut) was my favourite.



At the Trevi Fountain I turned around and threw a coin over my shoulder into the water to make sure I would return one day.



Ahhh Roma! Te amo!