{SHOPSTYLE - Decor Silver Ball Ornament}

Showing you our present wreath with Silver Ball Ornaments.

Angels, Cherubs and Candles are sheer magic don't you agree?

This was my inspiration from Italy...

Giovanni Raspini from the heart of Tuscany, creates these Heirloom Silver Balls, filled with red satin.

I've opted for this Silver Trio!

There is only ONE left of this beauty!

Click:→ Spectrenoir for going to my  online Boutique.

Got one out in the mail today, for a client in Germany.

Sold out...

The red satin is so perfect with the silver!

Lucky for having some natural light today, as the sun is out and shining bright!

This is the other, larger Decor Silver Ball Ornament in our wreath...

Cherub Angels!

Sold out...

Each Decor Silver Ball Ornament arrives in such a signature red box from Giovanni Raspini, Italy.

This Decor Silver Ball shows TOYS

From the trio being shown here, I have only the two on the left, inside our wreath.

From each of these three is only ONE still available... #1859

At ShopStyle  you could have bought some very plain ones.

When you select: Decor and put Silver Ball Ornament in the search box you can further select from the drop down menu: Seasonal Decor and Store. All is marked yellow.

Neiman Marcus did sell out completely!

Are you also having any special Silver Ball Ornament

{Angels from Italy Are Selling Out}

If you are looking for unique and valuable hand carved wooden Angels, Cherubs or Putti, have a peak at my Zen Cart powered on line Boutique. Several of them have already taken flight... so you better don't miss out on them. Enjoy visiting and browsing!

Sorry Sold out...

Related links: {5 Angels - Putti from Italy & Germany} | previous post by me {6 Antique & Vintage Italian Angels, Cherubs Putti} | previous post by me Our Living Room ANGELS - CHERUBS | previous post by me {Conrad Moroder, Italy | Angels & Cherubs} | previous post by me

{Our Cerdomus Italian GREEN Tiles}

Our balcony needed to be renovated. In the past we had tiles put onto it but they were not very well laid. Water had gotten underneath them and after frost, the grout had cracked and even caused a moist ceiling in the storage room beneath. So husband Pieter went ahead and took them all off, using a crow bar, he could lift big segments of them so that did indicate they were 'loose'... This time we had selected Cerdomus Italian GREEN Tiles. Of course we do have a special spot in our hearts for Italy, the country where we once lived and worked... 

This photo has been taken on April 18, the day before we went on vacation to Curaçao.

Husband Pieter had hauled these CERDOMUS ceramiche tiles home inside our Toyota RAV4, that by the way, just turned 16 on July 9. Still a loyal work horse. 

These Italian tiles are 30 x 30 cm

Cerdomus Green Tile; Durango Ambra...

Cerdomus Green Tile link

You can read about their Environmental specifications by scrolling down on that page.

They do use 40% recycled material, which is great for the environment! 

Europe is far more strict on Environmental issues than other parts of the world and we ought to become more conscious no matter where we live. Recycling; Repurposing; Upcycling in order to keep the amount of trash produced at a minimum! All of us have to work on making our Carbon Footprint as small as possible. 

This is just a screen shot from their Durango Ambra tile pdf, featuring special irregular edges.

These Porcelain Stoneware Tiles have been baked at high temperatures reaching 1220°C

We also selected these tiles because they did go perfect together with our GREEN aluminum slate Interlock® roof in Aged Copper

The tiles are already laid by husband Pieter and we are just waiting for the Polyurethane baluster rails to arrive from Vintage Woodworks, Texas... The PVC corner posts from Vintage Woodworks are already placed. By the end of this month the balcony will be completed I hope!

Related link:

CERDOMUS at CERSAIE 2013 | video from October 9, 2013, about this very modern concept tile production

{Our Balcony} | previous post by me where you can see the balcony as it was

{We Both Watched Silkworms Chew Mulberry Leaves in Italy}

• When we went together on one of our consulting trips to Italy, we had quite an experience on June 6, 1986. We will never ever forget this day. After our work day, before our friend Tommaso did drop us off again, at our favorite four star hotel Bellavista in Montebelluna, Treviso, he brought us to the most unusual place we've ever been. A Sericulture or Silk Farming place! Wow, we had never ever seen anything like that! Sericulture or Silk Production... just click those hyperlinks. 
• During my fashion study we did cover the qualities of the various silks, like Japanese and Italian silks being of very high quality. I knew Thai silk as my husband had a very special tie made from Thai silk, I knew raw silk, silk georgette, silk charmeuse etc. etc. 
• But NEVER I had seen those actual silk worms. Yes, there are different types of silk worms, yielding those various silk qualities. But here we were in a kind of a huge greenhouse where racks were build and one could hear those thousands and thousands of silkworms actually chew!

• This is the actual photo that my husband Pieter made of such silkworms being on the racks. In the back you also see some cocoons.
• The entire family in this Italian town were involved. Cutting up the leaves from the mulberry trees for feeding them to those silkworms.

• This is a ready cocoon that will be good for collecting!

I got one but gave it away to my nephew for taking it to school...

• They yield 600 to 900 meters (2,000 to 3,000 feet) when unwinding, after dropping them in hot water. Poor silkworms...

• From friend Tommaso I received this Italian book about Modern Silk Worm Culture.

• Instead of copying some photos from this book, there is a link below this post where you will find plenty of silkworms eating mulberry leaves!

We did have a weeping mulberry tree near our gazebo. We cut it down as it grew so big and completely blocked our pond view. But this would be the leaves that they do prune off and chop them up like making salad, for feeding them to the silkworms!

In our wood garden we also do have a mulberry tree that does yield mulberries. Mostly they fall off and I guess the birds will feast on them. The tree is way too tall for us to get any for making jam.

Did any of you ever see this kind of silkworm farms?

Or does any of you have a mulberry tree?

Related link:
Silworms eat mulberry leaves | link from Bing with lots of photos for getting the idea

{My Italian Boots & Escada Leather Vest and Shorts}

Having done consulting for the Italian company near the Venice area, before we actually started working and living there full time, did yield me some buttery soft Italian boots as a GIFT. Leave it to the Italians for presenting you with the most elegant and luxurious gifts! They know how to do that. These boots were bought in Montebelluna, province of Treviso, Italy on November 2, 1984. They are entirely lined with the softest leather and have a little heel.

That's me out for a walk. Nancy Sinatra sang it already: These boots are made for walking...

Leather vest from Escada with leather shorts from Escada; both entirely lined and also buttery soft.

Wool sweater by Escada and my old lace tights...

With the sun out it is hard to look at you...!

So let's turn around and you get to see my lace tights with back seam and the little heels.

Our kittens are well disciplined; evidence that those tights survived many, many years!

Are you wearing anything made out of leather; besides your shoes, belts and handbags?

Related links:
{My Old Boots Rejuvenated & New Sweater} | previous post by me
{My Favorite Boots} | previous post by me

{My First Trip to the City of Romance | VENICE, ITALY}

On my Venice, Italy blog header, I got several comments so let me show you my very First Trip to the City of Romance | VENICE, ITALY. Indeed, that was quite some years ago, as a matter of fact this was thirty years ago, early September. It also was my very first International Consulting trip. As usual, we always managed to combine business with pleasure while indulging in the fabulous Italian culture. 

This is what I used for my header at present, a little bit cropped but the very same photo.

Looking at Piazza San Marco in Venice.

Now, travel with me by car from The Netherlands, via Germany, Austria into Northern Italy...

Snacking on an apple at the Brenner Pass, the border between Austria and Italy with a tunnel through the Alps. 

The weather in the Alps is always quite different from the coastal area in Italy on the Adriatic...

Destination JESOLO & VENEZIA or VENICE in English...

Dreaming alongside the River Piave...

I had no idea  that I once would WORK & LIVE there!

Our VW Golf with the sticker HORST from my hometown in The Netherlands - NL

Here I am, standing in bikini, on the balcony of our apartment in Jesolo, a beach resort near Venice on the Adiatric Sea...

By boat we went from Jesolo to VENICE, the Queen of the Adiatric! 

The Gondolas from Venice...

Do you see our Moby Dick Venezia coming?

Wow, admiring all the architecture around Piazza San Marco...

Taking it all in... Proudly wearing my Italian PE® Florence purse that I got at a wholesale store in The Netherlands, Bohamij B.V., with my pass on Mom & Dad's Market Garden business. 

I still do have that quality purse!

Like the pigeons, I would love to get high... for a broader view!

Behind me you see Palazza Ducales.

Enjoying a small ice cream...

We ate HUGE coupes with ice cream in Jesolo, that was during my years of ice cream addiction!

A one day visit is by far not enough for Venice...

You can shop till you drop!

Standing on one of Venice's 400 foot bridges...

So that was my First Trip to the City of Romance | VENICE, ITALY

Birthplace of explorer Marco Polo and composer Antonio Vivaldi...

Have you been to Venice?

Many visitors here...

From Venice we went to Pederobba where I did some consulting work for Funghi del Montello.

We also visited Asolo and Montegrappa, with 1775 m the highest peak of the Veneto Prealp region between the rivers Brenta and Piave.

In Possagno we visited the Mausuleum, a neoclassic imitation of the Pantheon in Rome by and for Antonio Canova the famous sculptor who did e.g. The Three Graces. 

Possagno was also the birthplace of Antonio Canova and he's buried there in his own Mausuleum, Il Tempio.

For a fabulous 360° view of Antonio Canova's Temple in Possagno you can click on the previous hyperlink. All four pink ones  are hyperlinks, as usual in my posts.

Hope you enjoyed going to Venice and Il Veneto with me!

{2013 Fiat 500 versus Fiat 500 Topolino}

Last year, actually last week, we went to Atlanta, Georgia, for stocking up at our favorite stores: Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Cost Plus World Market and Costco. We also stopped at Lenox Square Mall to go to Neiman Marcus. Quite surprised to find a 2013 Fiat 500 parked in the mall as being the Best Gift You'll Ever Get... Or Give.

It instantly did bring back memories from Italy, from the time we worked and lived there in Il Veneto.

At that time when we had moved from Pennsylvania to Italy, there was a strike at the harbor of Genua so our containers did not arrive in time. But my Dad did lend us his Ford Fiesta to drive down to Italy. That's what we did for our trip of about 12 hours one way to Cornuda, TV in Italy, all the way from the south of The Netherlands.

Here is the 2013 Fiat 500 at Lenox Square Mall

From Fiat USA of Atlanta 

My husband Pieter standing in front of those cute Fiat 500 models at Lenox Square Mall... 

Wearing his wool Fedora hat and lambskin leather jacket from Pond's India's Leather Garment Factory. 

Just had to snap these pictures with my iPhone!

Hah, here is my Dad's Ford Fiesta parked at work (seen left in photo), beside one cute red Fiat 500 Topolino and there is another one in front... It was quite a change in car-size, coming from Pennsylvania, USA to Italy!

Actually the Fiat 500 is born on July 4, 1957. Just click that hyperlink for some videos of this cute Little Mouse as it translates to in English from the Italian Topolino.

Fond memories of Italy!

Are some of you driving a Fiat 500 at present? 

Or any cute little car for that matter?