This is going to be a brief posting because we leave our little 'home away from home' in Milan at 6:00 a.m. for home (9:00 p.m. Tuesday night 'store time'). We're packed and I need a couple of hours shut-eye! It was difficult to say our good-bye's to Cecilia, Kristen and Marco. Cecilia has stolen our hearts and we can't even imagine not seeing her until August of next year.


These are a sampling of the stamps that arrived from Magenta yesterday. Anytime we have a new delivery of stamps from Magenta, they sell quickly . . . just sayin'!

Marj's European card class was a big hit last night! Dianne took some photos to share with you . . .

by Marj Marion

by Marj Marion

From Dave's blog at Memory Box . . .

Design Team Focus {Jennifer Van Pelt}

"Looking for an amazing way to give a present this month? The very talented Jennifer VanPel from the Stamp Addict sent in this neat project. At first it looks like a beautifully decorated box....which would be great....but then you open it up and surprise!

Here is the gorgeous box when it is all closed up. Didn't she do a fantastic job of combining papers and inks and stamps? I think it's wonderful.

Would you ever imagine that all of this was inside? How cool is this?

Wouldn't this be a nice gift box for someone? you could put little notes and presents into each individual box and the recipient would be so happy to open each one!

Here is a close up of all the gorgeous layers in the flower on the top of the box. Are you inspired? I am!"

It was another beautiful day and we ventured up to Lago Maggiore and the little town of Stresa. It was incredibly beautiful and the town was very quaint and charming.

Lago (Lake) Maggiore is surrounded with little towns
and villages, as well as several islands that small
boats ferry you to; in the background is one of the small
islands near Sestra.

The little Ristorante Pizzaria Bar on the right
is where we enjoyed the nicest lunch; the vitello with
funghi porcini was sooooo good. I have more info
from this ristorante a few pics down.

another of the small islands

this tall building had these murals
on the underside of the terrace floors

the little ristorante where we enjoyed lunch;
all of the holiday 'art' on the walls are made with cross-stitching

this very nice gentleman is the proprietor, 3rd generation family
to own and operate the ristorante. he drew the sketch of his
ristorante and uses that sketch for his placemats. he let me take
one that he had autographed for me.

this is his wife who is from Singapore. she is
the one who cross-stitched all of those holiday patterns, like
the one below. I told her I had a favorite Christmas cross-stitch
pattern that I'd always wanted to do and I would send it to her so she
could make one for the ristorante.

unfortunately, I wasn't able to take photos of the
many beautiful homes.

Back in Milan, our last meal of the trip was in a neighborhood wine bar. Marco enjoyed steak tartare (not something I would order or enjoy) but I had to take a photo of the plate because it was so colorful!

I don't know if you can see the detail or not; the
owner writes the price of the bottle on the front
so you know immediately what the cost will be.

See you back home Wednesday evening! Of course, I may not surface for a day or two after our 15-hour flight.


Ciao! from Grandpa and Gammy!