Kat Eye Studio

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Buon Natale

I don’t have a lot of requirements for Christmas. I don’t need a lot of presents, and I have no attachment to the food once I get past Thanksgiving. All I need is a tree, and ornaments that mean something to me.

You see, I didn’t grow up celebrating Christmas. I was 27 years old and 4 years married the first time I participated in this holiday; the first time I had a tree in my home. My husband and I made our sojourn to Hobby Lobby, buying a small tree and some coordinating ornaments. It was pretty, but it didn’t have any meaning to me, regardless of my beliefs about the holiday.

The next year my husband excitedly pulled out the Christmas decorations, and discovered I had no enthusiasm. He was a bit disappointed but didn’t let it phase him. He enjoyed setting everything up, adding lights as well. I helped, but only when prodded.

This went on for several years, until something magical happened. Patrick cajoled me into coming to help set up the tree one year. As we unwrapped the ornaments, I began to see the stories they held. One had been given to us by Patrick’s parents. Another had been purchased on a trip. They were no longer just pretty baubles, they began to have meaning to me. For the first time, I had an excitement about decorating for Christmas. I had an emotional connection, found in the history of the ornaments. I now had a tradition.

That tradition has continued, through the years. Our son was born and we added “Baby’s first year” ornaments. My husband completed a bicycle trip down the Oregon coast, and I made him an ornament to commemorate. We’ve picked up ornaments in places we’ve visited or they’ve been given to us as gifts from special people in our lives. Each one is a memory, something special to be revisited, as we set up the tree and admire them through the month of December. It is now a special family tradition the weekend after Thanksgiving, to turn on the Christmas music and set up the tree together. We carefully unwrap the ornaments, taking a walk down memory lane. My son loves it too.

So for me, all Christmas needs is a tree filled with ornaments that carry memories. The perfectly decorated and color coordinated trees can stay in the department stores, in my opinion. They are beautiful, I love to photograph them, but they hold no true meaning for me.

During our time in Italy, we’ve added quite a number of ornaments to our collection. In fact, we didn’t bring any Christmas decorations with us, having the goal of gathering new ornaments on our travels. We now have a tree full of memories to take home with us. Here we are, by our tree of European memories, wishing you a wonderful, happy Christmas. Or, in Italian…

Buon Natale!

Today’s 9 Muses Musing prompt is ORNAMENT. Today is my day to giveaway one of my favorite handmade glass ornaments from Murano. Please come by Mortal Muses and leave a comment or link in to enter the giveaway, I’d love to see it go to one of my faithful readers!

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Snowflake Math

Snowflake + snowflake + snowflake + …. + snowflake = SNOW.

Today’s 9 Muses Musing prompt is SNOWFLAKE, but I’ve been sick and in bed the last couple of days, and have not come up with a snowflake photo. So I’m trying to make one of my favorites from our little trip into Monza last weekend work for this prompt. What do you think? Are you buying it?

I loved this photo because it shows how bicycles are just a part of life here. A mode of transportation, regardless of the weather. I was a bike commuter back in Oregon, but I have to admit I would not ride in snow. I think many people have that opinion here too, but look – there were enough bikes to fill up a bike rack on a Saturday night in Monza. Only one of them had snow on the seat, and the tire tracks indicate most of these had been used recently.

Impressive. It should inspire me, but I still don’t think I want to ride in the snow.

Tomorrow’s 9 Muses Musing prompt is STOCKING. I’d better get creative…

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By Candlelight

One of the things that I love about Italy is how restaurants look. It’s completely normal to have tablecloths, wine glasses, cloth napkins and candles on the table. It’s just the way things are done. Any self-respecting sit down restaurant will have a nice table presentation, like this one on a back street in Venice, inviting customers to stay.

It makes meals here in Italy feel special for me, since growing up the only time I saw these things on the table were either going out to a really fancy restaurant (where we were dressed up and had to be on our BEST behavior) or a very special dinner at home. Mom’s china, my grandmother’s silver, cloth napkins and candlelight. Those are the things that dress up a table to me.

When is the last time you ate by candlelight? Just that one little thing, a candle burning on the table, can make a normal meal a little bit magical. Try it out and see.

Today’s prompt for 9 Muses Musing is CANDLE. Tomorrow’s is SNOWFLAKE. Have you been playing along?

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Star Light, Star Bright

On Saturday night, after a wonderful, cozy day in the house, we got ourselves out to go into Monza – I wanted to capture the lights. I must be honest, I wasn’t feeling too inspired by them. I know, shocking, but even with me sometimes that happens. So I played around with creating some intentional bokeh by shooting out of focus. It wasn’t until I got home and saw the two images  side-by-side in the computer, out of focus and in focus, that I really got excited. Sometimes something new just hits you out of the blue – I wondered if I could combine them for an interesting effect. What you see above is the result, and I love it.

Here’s how I did it…I started with the “out of focus” bokeh photo in Photoshop Elements, this one:

Then I pulled the “in focus” one in, this one, as a layer above the “out of focus” photo:
I combined them by using a blending mode of soft light, at 75%. Finally, I stretched and tilted and adjusted the “in focus” photo until the stars closely overlayed the “out of focus” ones. These were taken handheld, so while they were taken from the same location and angle with the same zoom, they are slightly different compositions and needed to be matched up. If I had used a tripod (heaven forbid!), I would not have needed this last step.
I tried lots of different blending modes and opacities, they all came out slightly different – the one I’m sharing today is the one I liked best. Let me know what you think!

I interrupt my regularly scheduled participation in 9 Muses Musing because I wanted to share this photo for Sweet Shot Tuesday and Touch Up Tuesday. And, to be honest, I also didn’t have anything specific in mind for today’s prompt of FAMILY. 🙂 Be sure to stop by and see all the other shared stories on FAMILY  at Mortal Muses though! Tomorrow’s prompt is CANDLE.

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Sweet and Tangy, with a Kick

Ah, Limoncello. The wonderfully sweet and tangy after dinner drink found in Italy originated around Sorrento, where we stayed on our recent trip. All along the Amalfi Coast you find shops boasting their own Limoncello production, offering you a taste. Mmmmm… Be warned though, this drink is strong, 30 to 40% alcohol. You only need a tiny bit! I discovered this liqueur on my very first business trip to Italy in 2008, and fell in love with it.

Lemons and other citrus are grown in this region, and have two crops a year – around May-June and November-December. It was very neat to see the groves of trees with the fruit on them, even the trees along the streets in the towns are citrus. The lemon is the symbol of the region – everything had lemons on it! We enjoyed walking along, popping into the different stores for a sample. We also discovered Limoncello Crema – the white-ish Limoncello made with milk instead of water – and love that even more.

Limoncello is easy to make, you just need lemon peel, 100-190 proof alcohol, water, sugar, and time. I found a good, detailed description of the process here. I’ve never made it, but I want to try someday. It will be a sweet taste of Italy I can make wherevery I live.

Today’s 9 Muses Musing prompt is SWEETS. Tomorrow’s is FAMILY. Come on over and see what sweet treats are shared today!

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It Takes a Village

Welcome to Legano. Located in the north of Italy, in my son’s bedroom. Legano is a Lego town, the name inspired by our visit to the town of Lugano, Switzerland, right after Christmas last year. Brandon came home from that day trip and started building this village with his Christmas Legos.

He hasn’t stopped since. A year later, the town is thriving, if different. It changes every day. Some days, it’s only a small detail added. Other days, it’s a complete overhaul. Every day, it is part of him processing our adventure here in Italy, dealing with it from the perspective of a 9 year old.

It started early in the year as we built the different buildings that every town needs. A commune (town hall), gelateria, pizzeria, school, hospital, police station, fire station. Sometimes I would help him build the buildings (I like building the buildings – the police station is my proudest accomplishment), and sometimes he would work on his own. The town changes and grows as he does.

After we visited Rome in the spring, an entire section of Roman ruins cropped up. (Good thing for those Indiana Jones sets!)
As I was studying for my Italian driver’s license, street signs and signals began to appear all over town, in abundance.
Friends houses have appeared and disappeared, as his friendships grew and changed – old friends moving away and new friends moving in.
There have been piazzas with umbrella covered tables in the summer. Airports with security and international destinations. Trains and trams and funiculars and buses.
There’s even me, with a camera in my hand.

If I ever wondered about the value of play time for children, that wondering for me, is over. When I see piles of trash heaped up in the streets (a la Naples, our latest trip) or have my son explain that the little Lego statue he’s showing me is The Discus Thrower, I know that this play is not just childhood fancy. This is where he processes and integrates all of these new things he sees all of the time, things that used to be outside of his experience. Legano provides, for him, what my photography and my blog provide for me.

Have you heard the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child?” I think, for the child, it is the a village of their own creation, where they raise themself and grow up whole.

The prompt for 9 Muses Musing today is VILLAGE. Tomorrow is SWEETS. I hope you’ll come join us!