Yard Sale! for a cause

Its a serious thing that just happened recently in my hometown. Of all places, I would never have expected something as big as this (711 dead and hundreds still missing). As shocked as I am, I'm glad my family is safe. However many have lost their homes and families. Real help is needed now. This online Yard Sale will hopefully help raise funds fast. I'm glad I have several handmade and vintage items I kept for my etsy (which I stopped because I wanted to focus more on my baby) available for this cause.

Also, for anyone needing design services - you can contact me and part of that fee will go to this cause as well. For more information and ways to help view this page: http://www.rmp-nmr.org/index.php/help-northern-mindanao.asp updates available for all relief work efforts HERE.

You can help also by passing on this information through facebook or tweeting this link: http://t.co/u9OA5ct #HelpNorthernMindanao

Thank you..

Chance Encounters: 7

Some time ago on a walk around Tolentino we saw this little shop with stacks of this really dense kind of giant donut/bagel. A woman behind the counter was talking to this old woman in a dialect that was incomprehensible (a sort of italian with a lot of djshhh shha shhe - can't really explain it throught text). But anyway, she had us try this thing called Pizze di Natale and true enough it was dense with lots of walnuts, figs, raisins and a thick dough mixed with some liqoure. A local treat, a very delectable one.

Black and White Truffles

Some weeks ago we went out looking for a Sagra dei Funghi (Mushroom Festival. ehem) and found a Sagra del Tartufo instead. Not bad considering that Truffles are such gems (worth gold especially the white ones), a flavor you cannot mistake and a taste so divine. Amandola is the right spot. Set high up beside the Sybilline Mountains, you can tell with its lush greenery that many treaures are bound to be discovered and not just in the shape of Tartufi but also of.... cheese. Mozarella Buffala. The creamiest white blob in the whole world.

In little tables, truffle hunters display their finds. Maybe a small basket of black ones and a handful of white ones and a weighing scale - perhaps the most high tech device they carry (gotta count all those teeny milligrams). Occasionally the dog sniffer meister sits under, the real hunter BTW. Of couse we could just watch and sniff.

Saw the first of the Presepe-s (nativity scene) which is originally a tradition from Naples. A nice preview of what is to come. weeehihi

Painted Portraits

I recently had the opportunity to photograph someone's collection of paintings. There were sooo many and mostly big (showing just a few here). I think the time and technique it takes to create just one of these is.. Mastery. But then I'm just not the kind of artist who does (or can do) this sort of thing. I find myself a bit of a raggedy pauper standing beside such work with my mouth open, awed. Anyone whos a bit contemporary or should I say "as of 2011 soon-to-be 2012" would have seen or cared very little about paintings like these or classic art in general. Its not just "dated", its also hidden away in someone else's collection, or covered behind the walls of a museum, rarely to be seen in public (because who goes to musuems anymore anyway), fading away in silence only to be remembered in books and forgettable pieces of paper. Where do they exist in realms such as the internet for example? I'm here (there) bearing witness to figures frozen in frames, a different time and space. Once they sat and looked and someone looked back and painted.

Da Maria Trattoria Ponterosso

I never imagined a fish restaurant to look like a witches' tea room. Everything from the wall hangings to the chandeliers was either symbolic mystic or frou frou, a combination realized completely here in Maria's Trattoria. Her food exists on a different plane entirely (NOT frou frou), simple yet divine rustic cooking. Fresh fish and some local fare like a polenta fritata with clam meat and salad greens with freshly made olive oil. How did her trattoria land in the lists of must-visit trattoria's in Italy (surely its not the interior design)? Its in the fine selection of the best and freshest ingredients. No need to embellish something when its already so good no?