Kat Eye Studio

Archives for February 2010

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Breathtaking Moments


“Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by its breathtaking moments.”
– Michael Vance

This photo started out as a fun photo of Brandon in Alpe di Siusi, he had scrambled to the top of a big snow hill and stopped for a moment to celebrate being at the top before we moved on. The sky was blue, Brandon’s smile is so natural, just caught a happy photo. But when I change it to black and white, it becomes more powerful. It becomes a breathtaking moment to me, a photo essay on the joy of being 8 years old, in an amazing place and feeling free to just be and experience something new.

For Brandon, I wish a lifetime full of breathtaking moments, and the wisdom to see them and truly enjoy them when they happen. We are living a lot of them right now!

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Majestic Mountains

This is the view from the top of the Puflatsch/Bullaccia mountain in the Seiser Alm/Alpe di Siusi of the Dolomites. We went up the ski lift/gondola to this point so that Patrick and Brandon could ride down on sled run (check out a video of them here). Yes, a 2km sled run! It was so crazy fun, they did it twice while I stayed at the top and took some pictures of the gorgeous mountains and valley.

The Dolomites are the Austrian alps region of Italy… The primary language is German, the food is more German, and all of the signs are in both German and Italian. It’s a measure of how far my Italian has come that I preferred speaking Italian over German. We enjoyed these amazing peaks and want to go back for more!

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What’s This?

Take a moment to guess what this is before I tell you…

We saw this in Genova, in an art exhibit called “Dumping Art” at the Palazzo Ducale. This exhibit was cool for a couple of reasons:
1. The art was all made of things that people had scavenged from the trash or recycling, and it was all amazing.
2. Brandon’s “Unit of Inquiry” at school right now is all about Recycling, Reducing, Reusing – so this fit in perfectly. He actually created a presentation with my pictures in Powerpoint and emailed it to his teacher to present in class. 21st century grade school!

So, what is it? It is old computer printed circuit boards, like CPU boards. They are painted black with the different components and connectors painted in day-glo colors that show up in black light. They are then arranged to form a column, with mirrors on the top and bottom which made it look like it extended forever when shown in the dark with only black light on it. It was super creative and fun.

That’s what I love about Italy, when you explore, you just never know what you are going to run across!

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It’s World NUTELLA Day!

Yum! Today is the day to celebrate some chocolate-y, hazelnut-y (or Filbert-y, if you’re from Oregon) goodness from the great country of Italy. It’s World Nutella Day!

I would like to share both a recipe or a story or something to help celebrate the wonders of Nutella on this most special day.

Here is my favorite recipe. You will need:
1 jar of Nutella (any size)
1 spoon (any size)

Instructions: Open jar. Dip in spoon, swirl around a bit. Remove Nutella with spoon. Eat and enjoy!

If you don’t know what Nutella is, you are missing out. I first discovered Nutella in November 2008 on a business trip to Italy. I had noticed it at the breakfast bar in the hotel, in little jam-type packages. So I asked my Italian colleagues, Gianluigi and Paola, at lunch one day, “What’s Nutella?” Jaws dropped, conversation stopped, horror spread across their faces. “You mean, you don’t know what Nutella is?” Gianluigi gasped. Gianluigi and Paola went on to describe how delicious Nutella is, the story of the great Nutella shortage, the best ways to eat it (Paola swears by it on a saltine cracker), and the fact that they don’t buy it. “I can’t,” confessed Paola, “because I would eat the whole jar by myself it’s so good!”

So I had to get some of this Nutella for myself. I went to the grocery store and in my almost non-existent Italian asked, “Dov’e’ Nutella?” I must have a terrible accent because the guy told me in English where it was and I must have looked pathetic and helpless, because he led me to the end cap dedicated to Nutella. I brought it home to Corvallis, and then Patrick and Brandon and I cracked it open…
and…
proceeded to eat it all with our spoons. Yum.

Now that we’re living here in Italy we see it everywhere. You can have it on waffles by the Duomo (photo below), crepes in Paris and all manner of pastries are filled with Nutella. It’s really used as much, if not more, than peanut butter in the US. So, today, on World Nutella Day – please go out and buy yourself a jar of Nutella (yes, it’s available in US supermarkets) and try it for yourself. I want a report!!


World Nutella Day is brought to you by Ms Adventures in Italy, Bleeding Espresso, and World Nutella Day.

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Let there be light

Love windows. Love windows with light coming through. Love windows with light coming through on a wood floor. Doesn’t this look peaceful? Doesn’t this look like what you want a living room to look like? I do. I want a comfy chair and a book and a blanket in that light. A cat on my lap. A pot of tea by my side. I can’t help it, when I see something like this, I just have to capture it. My own personal light when it’s dark outside.

What a crazy week this has been. It’s not work, that’s been reasonable, it’s this darn Italian driver’s license test! I’ve studied probably 15 hours or more in the last 7 days. Taken probably 50 or more practice tests. My passing rate is maybe 70-80% on average. The wonderful thing is that we can take the test in English. The horrible thing is that the English book has about half of the info that you can be tested on. So, I’m literally taking the tests to learn what I don’t know! If I’m lucky, I’ll get a test that has answers I know. If I’m not… well… I’ll be studying a lot more.

The test is tomorrow at 10am. Wish me luck!

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And once you’ve tried the wine…

You have to try the Grappa! You don’t have to like it though. Grappa is a strong, grape-based liquor that is special to Italy. There are as many grappas as there are wines, with quite a range of flavors and strengths. I, personally, don’t really like it. I would prefer a nice after dinner sip of Limoncello! But you have to appreciate the dedication to it here. Just look at that beautiful bottle, all sealed with wax and a special cork! Nicely presented of course, you can’t just drink your drinks, you have to appreciate how they look first.

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