Moonstruck. Aahhhh....one of my favourite movies ever. Remember this post? If you haven't seen the movie.....sigh...just watch it.
I've never been to the opera but I've always wanted to go. Since I don't know anything about opera, I thought that La boheme would be a good place to start. Watch this video from the movie, it will give you an idea. DO. IT.
Yesterday, I remembered that I had heard somewhere that La boheme was playing somewhere in Victoria. I mentioned it to Brad and we started looking for tickets. There was a performance this Thursday night that we were looking at going to.
Then as Brad's finger was hovering near the 'purchase' button...
"But wait!" (imagine me singing that, super dramatic opera style, while putting my hand on Brad's forearm....)
"What if La boheme is playing in Rome when we get there?! Let's just LOOK."
Frantic typing ensued until we discovered......ohmigod yes it's playing when we are in Rome. What are the chances?! We desperately looked into each others eyes as......
We bought tickets.
Here is the theatre.
I'm still struggling with the idea that we are going to Rome in 17 weeks.....now I have to absorb this! Can you believe it?! We have to go - it's totally meant to be!!!
I am starting a project today that I'm really excited about. In fact, I haven't sewn much all year in order to save myself for this.
I'm making a quilt for my squishy little nephew! Can. You. Handle. The. Fabric?! The jellyfish. The submarines - it's too much.
Also, it's not that sickly 'baby blue' colour and because there is a lot of orange I'm happy with it. This could even be a quilt for a little girl. I'll do some progress posts too, I'm hoping to have it finished by April at the latest for his birthday.
It was Brad's birthday last month. He is super hard to buy for and I usually keep a list throughout the year for him. This year I gave my best ideas for him away to his family because it's even harder for them to figure out what to give him.
What better gift for that person-who-has-everything than cockroach bowls?!
Ah, gotta love Etsy. (Here is a link to the shop I bought them at if you are interested.)
His face lit up when he opened these up. They are pretty creepy, but lovely at the same time.
Cats don't like other cats. It's a fact of life. They hiss, howl, growl, moan and swipe at each other. No matter what.
Unless you are Ziggy.
When he sees a strange cat, he makes the cutest, most friendly sounds (think high pitched: "Hi! My name is Ziggy! Let's be friiieends!") and gets right in their faces. I've seen him chase cats under stairs trying to be friends....it's ridiculous and totally abnormal cat behaviour.
And it makes other cats want to kick the shit out of him.
Now I have proof. Brad shot this video over Christmas in the basement at my in-laws house. Watch it - DO. IT. It's only 60 seconds.(Make sure your sound is on so you can hear the friendly noises he makes.)
He has no idea the black cat is totally STALKING him in the beginning. Then he goes right in for more 5 seconds later!
We don't take "coffee breaks" at work. We take a one hour lunch and work through the morning and afternoons. I take "micro breaks" throughout my work day. Literally a two minute break, I pull up Etsy.com and see what's on the front page.
Well, yesterday I saw this dress on the front page and....I bought it.
(image from Zwzzy)
My first impulse buy! But seriously? It was $30. And most importantly: can't you see me in Rome wearing this dress on a warm evening in a little cafe near the Pantheon sipping a cappuccino???
A few days ago we found a cute apartment to rent in Florence and emailed the owner to inquire about it. She was super nice and wrote us back saying that it's available.....oh but it's 50 euros more than advertised......and there is a 30 euro charge for cleaning....and she only accepts bank transfers for the deposit.
HA! What's a bank transfer?
So we head down to RBC and give them all the information she had given us to transfer the money and find out: 1. It was going to cost us $45 to do a bank transfer and 2. She didn't give us her home address, which we needed to do the transfer.
But we found out we could do this transfer thing online and it would only cost $13 so we decided go to through with it. She emails us her home address and says she doesn't understand why we are having troubles because "she does bank transfers all the time from all over the world....". Uh huh.
We went online to do the transfer and found out that the address she gave us for her bank isn't coming up. Hey - this is RBC - not some tiny credit union - I kinda trust the source.
We email her again and ask her to confirm which bank to use from the list we are getting. She suggests that we send her a personal cheque instead.
Well I suggest that she get her ass on PayPal. Does she want our money or not?!
In the meantime we paid the deposit on the apartment in Rome in 2 minutes over PayPal and all we needed was an email address.
So we decided to look for another apartment and found one. We've booked it and paid the deposit (with PayPal) and I can't handle them already. Click on this screen grab - do it.
Now I just feel bad because I have to write the first woman and tell her that we won't be coming after all. I know she will rent her apartment out - it's super cute and in a perfect location. I just hate stuff like this.
But on the positive side, this is where we will be staying for 7 nights in Florence.
It's been a busy week. Lots of meetings, sample boards and I'm trying to get a set of drawings out for building permit. You can tell from the state of my desk......
I'm sure the guy I sit next to hates me - his desk has NOTHING on it. When a single piece of paper lands on it, he files it or recycles it as soon as humanly possible.
Anyway......it was a good week to head over to Flight Centre and book a flight to Italy.
It's only my number one coveted destination ever. The food, the art, the food, the architecture, the food, the coffee......
We are staying 6 nights in Rome, 7 nights in Florence and one night in Venice. So we spent the rest of this week searching for apartments to stay in. Okay are you ready for this? On June 18th I will be sleeping in Rome in this bed:
Can you handle it?! I don't know why, but the round bed heightens the whole experience for me. A round bed. in Rome. Oh and it's in this room:
A few weeks ago I found a new pattern for a super cute bag on a craft blog I like to read. I was considering buying it to expand my Etsy shop. Things got busy and I didn't jump on it right away.
(Photo: Rebeka Lambert, Artsy Crafty Babe)
The other day I noticed that there was a give away on her blog for the pattern so I commented...
I'm still struggling with the idea that we are going to Rome in 17 weeks.....now I have to absorb this! Can you believe it?! We have to go - it's totally meant to be!!!
