Bittersweet

“How very quietly you tiptoed into our world, silently, only a moment you stayed. But what an imprint your footprints have left upon our hearts.’” -Unknown

The elves have been busy

The CD player has some new material..
My Martha Stewart craft from last year is finally being used...



Our ornament from 2011...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..

Introducing Bob. T picked him out and he smells delicious.

A very Christmas filled weekend awaits!

Reflecting

We've been so busy that the holidays have completely snuck up on me. I can't believe that Thanksgiving is already next week! We have so much to be grateful for. For me, this year is not about decorations or turkeys, it's about love. About family. Friends.

This time of year always has me reflecting on the past year and this one has been a doozy. Around March, I didn't know how I would get by. I was lost and it was simply about putting one foot in front of the other. And I did that for a long time. But somewhere along that path, it became about living again, not simply surviving. T and I burned the candle at both ends this fall. We traveled, we ate, we spent time with friends. We split the Newburyport Half Marathon. Ate and drank our way through the NYC Food and Wine Festival Closing Party. Went back to Chicago. I spent a wonderfully healing weekend with a dear friend in NYC. Cuddled with my nephew and my new niece in CA. Spent a day at the Hall of Fame. In short, we lived.

When I look back at 2011, I'm not going to remember the bad times. They exist for me now only to remind me of how lucky I am. Our family and friends are the story of this year. I've always been aware of how wonderful my family is but it holds a whole different meaning to me now. I am completely overwhelmed with the love and support that we have received this year. I have never been more aware of how much love exists in our little world and how many amazing people we are blessed with. My heart is full this year and at Thanksgiving, I will be giving thanks for healthy parents, children who grow like weeds, friends who are always there to listen and tell you to buy those boots because you deserve them. :)

My heart is full.

Brooklyn Pour

Oh, did we have fun at The Brooklyn Pour yesterday. 55 breweries, 3 hours and over 100 types of beers. This is the official photobooth picture, taken on our way out the door. Photo by Victor Castro of It's Wet Paint. We mapped out our plan of attack...this included getting off at the wrong subway stop and not arriving until 3:45. This worked out great because we missed the mobscene at the entrance and were well behind the crowds. No lines at the tables for us!


The Pour took place a Skylight One Hanson, an amazingly beautiful event space.

T made some new friends at the Narragansett table. The guys grew up in the next town over from T and they had a great time chatting.

This was a great event and we have the hangovers today to show for it. We normally don't get out to Brooklyn so this was a great excuse to leave the island and sample a lot of fabulous beers on a lovely Saturday in October.

No news is good news.

Great news actually. T and I really threw ourselves into the plan of living our life and living it well. This has been my longest blog drought yet, but I have lots of stories and photos stored up of the last seven or so weeks. I was acutely dreading the month of September and the "shoulds and coulds" it would bring with it. My original due date was the 18th and I was hoping to pack our schedules so fully that it wouldn't hit me so hard. And it worked. My head is clear, my life is full of promise again and I have lots of fun experiences to share.

I'm back.

I had another miscarriage.

We didn't just deal with an earthquake and a hurricane last week. We got bad pregnancy news for the second time this year. I posted a few weeks ago about being so sure I was pregnant and devastated when my cycle carried on like normal. As it turns out, I was pregnant. And what I thought was my normal cycle, was my second miscarriage.

I found this out last week after the blood tests confirmed that my beta levels were falling. This was a tough pill to swallow. On one hand, this miscarriage was easier to deal with because I only knew about it for five days. And I found out midcycle, which meant that it was already over by the time I got my positive test. It just took my body some time to catch up. But the other side is that this is my second one. One could have been a fluke, but two? Two is hard. Two could signal that there is something wrong. Two could mean that we may not be able to have the family that we want.

T and I talked a lot in the last few days about our next step and what we want. What I want and what I need right now is to step back. I am exhausted from trying to have a baby. I'm tired of my emotions being haywire and I'm tired of living and dying by the calendar. I'm just exhausted.

We decided to take the rest of the year off and focus on living our life. I feel like I've lost my old self this year and I miss her. She was fun and happy. She loved to laugh and spend time with friends. I want her back. This somber imposter who has moved in has got to go. I can't live under this cloud of stress and garbage anymore. I feel overwhelmingly relieved right now and hopeful for the first real time in a long time.

My mission for the rest of this year is to find my mojo. We are planning trips and home improvement projects and are looking forward to them. I am signing up for a photography class. I'm going to run that 10k in October. I will find my passion again and be the wife and partner that T deserves.

And we'll see what life brings us.

Our very small aftermath

We flooded. T came home from work on Sunday to our own not so little lake. He called from the other side, trapped by a body of water that flooded two basements and caused the neighbors to gather. Soon a folding table appeared and was covered with booze. More neighbors ventured out of their houses to see this craziness. And when someone ran out of beer, three people hopped into an inflatable boat and paddled for the store. T waited with some other stranded folks for someone with a boat so he could cross the divide. He finally got tired of waiting and drove two streets away, parked the car and set off on foot. He walked through the woods, hopped a fence and cut through backyards of people we don't know to get to the top of the hill where our house is.
We were very lucky in this storm. Other local counties are still without power. We only lost power for an hour or so on Sunday and the only lasting effect by Monday were the hangovers we all had.
I am feeling very lucky today. Last week was a bad one and I was looking forward to wallowing in my own self pity. Thankfully, S came to stay with us and she is an amazing friend. She rescued me from all of that ickiness and I put her on the train last night, feeling more like my old self that I have in months. Thank you S for spending the hurricane with us and saving me from myself.
XOXO

Irene

Complete with our favorite NJ storm refugee, we are preparing for oodles of rain and wind. It's my first hurricane. S and I headed out to Target for some last minute supplies. We're prepared with wine, beer, and our favorite cupcakes.

Hard days

It was a great weekend with my two BFF's. We were together back in NYC for the first time in over two years and I had been having really good feelings about our chances of getting the positive pregnancy test we've been waiting for. Until I woke up Sunday morning with the sinking realization that it wasn't happening this month. I threw up my hands, told myself "next month" and went out with the girls to visit a friend. A friend who told us she was six weeks pregnant. I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. I actually had a moment where I couldn't breathe and tried desperately not to let the tears fall while everyone congratulated and hugged her. I managed to do the same but I was suddenly exhausted.

We tried for five months before I got pregnant. It's now been five months since we lost the bean and I'm approaching my original due date. I didn't think that would affect me so much, but it suddenly hit me that I should be getting close to going out on maternity leave. We should have had a shower and decided on a name and had the nursery ready. I should be getting ready to meet our little one and instead I'm sitting on my couch alone trying to figure out how I'm going to get through the month of September. I was so sure that I'd be pregnant again as soon as we were ready and I consoled myself that I would definitely would be pregnant by the time September 18th rolled around. I'm mad that I'm letting myself sink back down into the muck but I'm having a really hard time trying to pull myself back up. I've been treading water these last few months but my legs are tired and I'm tired. Tired of being sad, tired of the tears, tired of the what if's and the should haves. I'm tired of being angry and tired of wondering what the hell the plan is for me.

Why is this so hard?

To Be Happy

I bought this book at O'Hare while waiting for our flight home. I liked it's happy blue cover and the fact that the author lives in New York City. And I liked her questions. How can we be happier? Excellent question. I'm always trying to improve my outlook while remembering to appreciate everything I have. I try and live life fully, but does it make me happier?

As I read about her experiment, I found myself earmaking pages that I wanted to come back to and memorizing phrases that rang true with me.

The author wanted to see if she could truly make herself happier. In the beginning she states that she wasn't unhappy, she just wasn't sure that she was getting the most out of life and enjoying things as much as she could. She chose a theme for each month of a one year period and made 4-5 resolutions for each that would help her achieve the goal of each theme. For example, the goal for the month of January was "Boost energy." To do this, she resolved to go to bed earlier, exercise better, toss, restore, and organize, tackle a nagging task, and act more energetic.

She learned that she could affect her happiness level in a positive way and at the same time, become the person that she wanted to be.

I was fascinated by her story and how it made my own wheels turn. What could I do to become happier? What can I do to ensure that I don't just float through my life, that I'm present and grateful, and motivated? She wondered if making herself happier now when things are good would help her survive when things were dark. I think it does. I was in a great place when I had the miscarriage and that knocked me down to the darkest point in my life. But on some level, I knew that it would pass someday and I would survive. I wasn't sure who I would be on the other end, but I knew that the storm would eventually clear.

She writes that The days are long but the years are short. This one hit me like a ton of bricks.
There are so many things that I deal with and get through, but don't pay attention at the time. Last week was a tough one at work. I couldn't wait for the weekend and when it finally came, I was thrilled. But in hoping for the week to be over, I didn't do anything to make the days better. I didn't go to yoga, didn't work in the yard. I have nothing to show for those 5 days. If I keep doing that, there's a big chunk of time that I have lost. This will be one of my ongoing resolutions, to enjoy the days even if they're stressful. I will try to counteract the ickiness with positivity. To do this, I will smile even though I may not feel like it. I will laugh out loud. I will sing at the top of my lungs (as long as I''m alone!) I will focus on other people, asking them how they're doing and trying to make them happier.

It is easy to be heavy, but hard to be light. It is so easy to be bogged down and hard for me to let things go. I have gotten much better in the last year about this, but I have a ways to go.

I love my To Do list because it keeps me motivated to do physical things and to get out of my comfort zone. But there are other things that I want to work on that are not goals, but resolutions.

To be a better friend: I need to keep up and in touch. I'm guilty of letting weeks go by without reaching out to my friends. I depend too much on email and facebook to stay in touch. To accomplish this goal, I will call more and send cards in the mail. I have oodles of notecards laying around and I will start sending them to my loved ones.

Keeping Memories: I do a pretty good job of this but I want to work harder. I will start our yearly digital photobooks. Right now I'm only 2 years behind, so I can get caught up quickly. I want to write the story of T and I using our courtship emails. I want to make albums for my nephew and niece.

To start your own happiness project, she recommends thinking about the following questions:

What makes you feel good? What activities do you find fun, satisfying or energizing?

What makes you feel bad? What are sources of anger, anxiety, boredom, frustrations or irritation?

Is there any way you don't feel right about your life? What would you change about your life? are you living up to your expectations for your life?

Do you have sources of an atmosphere of growth? In what elements of your life do you find progress, learning, challenge, or improvement?

I've been thinking a lot about these questions and will blog more about this topic as the answers become more clear to me. I loved this book and I know that I was in the right place and time to appreciate it. It has made me feel more clearheaded and is helping me to put my thoughts in order and figure out how to make my life as full as it can be.

Contemplating

It's been a strange few weeks of complete inspiration in my life and complete un-inspiration in my blog. I have a lot of things I want to write about here and I will, but lately, the words aren't flowing.

For now, I'm downloading my brain.

I finished a book last week that really has gotten my juices flowing. Thanks to the book, I have a few additions to my To Do List. I had a woman read my aura in a bookstore. I'm running again and feeling good about it. I signed up for three races. We had a great visit with my mother in law. The three of us discovered a fabulous local winery five minutes from where I work. I started eating meat again after a lot of reading, thinking, and soul searching. I'm dreaming over Syrian Meatballs. My garden is looking healthy. My best friend is coming to visit in four days and I am over the moon about seeing her. Life is full.

Chicago part 2!

When we checked into our room at The Amalfi Hotel, this is what was waiting four us! My parents spoil us. The note said" Happy 3rd Anniversary! Only 40 years to go to catch up to Mom and Dad." The strawberries were a perfect snack before running out to start exploring the city.

Another snack. The Chicago Mix is cheddar and caramel popcorn. Mixed together! Ingenious and delicious.

The nerd in me pushed to go to the Museum of Science and Industry. T and I learned about weather phenonema, saw an exhibit about transportation, and learned about the only German U Boat captured during the war. Then we saw the boat. She is enormous.




Back in the sunshine!

The Bean!

Bonus points if you can find T and I in the reflection. :)

We woke up early on Saturday, shook off our food hangover and hoofed it over to the launch of the Architecture Boat Tour. I couldn't wait to float on the river for 90 minutes, but I had no idea how fascinating the tour would be and how much we would learn about Chicago and the buildings that come together to form the stunning skyline. I have more pictures of buildings than anything from the weekend. I'm only showing (boring you)with a few.

T was very excited to eat a hamburger at The Billy Goat Tavern, made famous in a SNL skit starring John Belushi and Bill Murray. The walls are papered in memoribilia and I had plenty of time to peruse since we had just come from Lou Malnatis and I was beyond full. T, a diehard Boston fan, doesn't believe in curses on sports but even he got a kick out of the story of the billy goat. Click here for the full story on the goat!



T and I had our first "date" in Chicago in 2001 and we hadn't been back since. I love this city. It's full of delicious architecture, beautiful food and it was a perfect choice to celebrate our third anniversary. We were able to cut loose, have plenty of adult beverages, lots of laughs and just enjoy being together. I just read a quote the other day that I loved, " The days are long but the time is short." In the last year, I've tried consciously to pay attention to my life and to enjoy the moments that make it up. T and I had a wonderful anniversary weekend together and are looking forward to what the next year may bring us. But in looking toward the horizon, we will make sure not to miss the little things and moments that make up each day.

Anniversary trip to Chicago...Part 1!

We celebrated our first and second anniversaries in NYC and decided to spice things up this year. My beloved and I planned this trip back in March around a dinner reservation we made for The Girl and The Goat in Chicago. Tables book three months out so we went for it. And waited anxiously to try out this hot, much talked about restaurant. Both the food and the city itself were better than expected! I'm going to break this into two separate posts, and we're starting with the good stuff. Hope you're hungry!

We checked into the hotel at 10:30 on Friday morning after the short flight from NYC. Our first meal stop was at Xoco, a Rick Bayless restaurant. His other two sit down restaurants around the corner already had long lines, so we were happy to wait at Xoco, and take our food to go. We both ordered Tortas, T went with the Chicken Tinga and I opted for the Choriqueso, chorizo with roasted poblanos and jack cheese. I'm not sure what they did to the roll, but the bread was delicious and hot out of the wood fired grill. We found a bench and went to town. We were off to a great food start!

After doing some sightseeing around Chicago, we headed back to the hotel for the complimentary happy hour. Relaxed after a few cocktails, we headed back out for our much anticipated dinner at The Girl and The Goat. The service was top notch from the moment we walked through the door. Our waitress was friendly and welcoming and explained the menu to us. It's a tapas style place and after some guidance from our waitress, we decided on 5 plates to share.

First up, Wood fired, tomahawk oysters with horseradish, bacon, and lemon. Yummy.

Just as we slurped down our last oyster, the Seared Scallops arrived. They were tender and resting in a brown butter sauce with bok choy, shittakes, and white asparagus. Our third plate was sauteed green beans. It sounds simple, but the sauce was out of this world. We're not sure what was in it, but I could have eaten it with a spoon. :)

We moved onto the goat courses. We couldn't have gone to a restaurant specializing in goat without sampling it. And wow, was it amazing.

Scallops

Goat plate #1: Goat ribs.
Our waitress told us that they were slow roasted for 12 hours and we could tell. The meat fell right off the bone and was so tender that it melted in our mouths.

Goat plate #2 was way too delicious to even snap a quick photo. It was Goat Sugo over fresh egg noodles. I wish I had enough words to explain how mind blowingly incredible this dish was. The noodles were so fresh and the sauce..OMG the sauce. Sugo is a meat sauce and this one used beef, pork, lamb, and goat. Slow cooked and strained, what is left is the pasta and the most flavorful sauce I've ever eaten. I wanted to dive into this bowl and never get out.

Goat ribs
The dessert menu was very impressive also. We decided on the Goat cheese bavarois over brown sugar cake with citrus blueberries and marcona caramel. They even put a candle in it in honor of our anniversary!




We had looked forward to this meal for such a long time and I was worried that it wouldn't live up to what I had built it up to be. But it far surpassed all of my expectations. The atmosphere was fun and loud with diners sharing plates and sharing laughs. T and I split a bottle of wine and left the restaurant happily content, full but not stuffed, and ready to make another reservation.

Major thumbs up for The Girl and The Goat and chef Stephanie Izzard! http://www.thegirlandthegoat.com/



We woke up Saturday raring to go. We hung out on the river and learned about Chicago on the Architecture Boat Tour. After the 90 minute tour, our stomachs were ready for some other Chicago specialties. So we headed off to Lou Malnatis for deep dish pizza. We had polled our friends from Chicago about where to get the best and most authentic Chicago style deep dish and got the same answer from everyone. Lou Malnatis it was. We arrived at 11:30 and were worried about being too early for lunch, but 10 minutes after we were seated, people began pouring in. Soon the wait was 40 minutes. We were halfway through our deep dish by then. This pizza is a hot, gooey, delicious mess. T and I were very impresed. We couldn't help but have seconds even though we were completely stuffed by that point. It was just too good!



We did some wandering after pizza in an attempt to digest! I picked up some popcorn from Garretts, a Chicago institution. I was way too full to even think about eating popcorn at that point but I was happy to have it for later. I bought the Chicago mix, a bag that is half cheddar and half caramel corn. Yummo. It was a perfect lunch during our flight home on Sunday. :)

We grabbed a last minute reservation for Saturday night at Pelago. http://www.pelagorestaurant.com/.

T loved his roasted filet of stiped bass with potatoes, leeks and plum tomatoes. I went with pasta, a cappalletti with riccotta and spinach. The restaurant was very chic, decorated in almost all white. We struck up a conversation with our table neighbors, a couple visiting from Oslo, Norway. They were in the second leg of their three week US tour, scheduled to fly out the following day to Phoenix and explore the West Coast. I gave them all of my best travel tips for San Francisco and the wine country.


T and I finished off our Saturday night with a trip to the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock Building. http://www.signatureroom.com/. With drinks fancy enough for our surroundings, we checked out the view and enjoyed the atmosphere. And the dizzying heights. The views were incredible, but I was ready to go back to ground level after our first round.



Our favorite trips include lots of local food favorites and regional specialties. This trip was full of both. T and I had a great time exploring the city and can't wait to go back!



Sightseeing pictures to come soon!

3 years ago today...

I married my best friend. I'm convinced that our meeting was scripted. T was always the one that was supposed to be by my side, the one I would build a beautiful life with. We've hit some bumps along the way and we have only grown closer. I know that with him next to me, I will be safe and loved. Always.

We met as kids in Las Vegas. I had just turned 24 and had just started to experience life.

On a gorgeous San Francisco day in July 2008, we exchanged vows in front of 70 of our family and friends. It marked the first and only time that our families and friends had the chance to be in the same place. It was amazing to me to look out and see every person that I loved and every person that loved us. I cherish that day and the overwhelming love that I felt.




This has been the most challenging year that I've had to face and I have made it through, thanks to my husband who is an absolute rock and my very best friend. I have learned that with him by my side, I can get through anything. He will always be there to prop me up, as I will for him. We are partners. He is my strength when I am faltering. He is the person that I want to see when I am the most happy and the person I want to hug when I'm feeling down. He always has the right words.

On this day, three years ago, he made me my happiest self.

And today when I came home and gave him the hug I can't wait to give him every day, he said, "Thank you for marrying me." And I said, "thank you for asking. "

Happy Anniversary sweetheart. I cherish every day with you and I hope we have a million more.

PM Status

T and I trade emails during the day titled incredibly nerdy things. AM Status. PM Status. This is code for "How is your day?"

So, my PM Status tonight is great. I've been feeling really good. Light. Happy even. I feel content and at peace, which are feelings I wasn't sure that I would feel again.

In my corner of the world, it's been sunny and hot but not too humid. I am the proud owner of my first iphone and I am already obsessed with it. That is when I can pry it out of T's hands .

We are packing up for a weekend-o-fun, which includes a 35th birthday party, a Red Sox game (for T) and a girls night out (me.) We'll get to spend some time with T's family and I'll get to get to spend some time in Boston with some great girlfriends.

I tried a new recipe tonight and am taking a break from tasting (trying not to devour) my homemade caramel sauce to write this post. Seriously, I had no idea that caramel sauce was so easy and could be so delicious. It's part of a fun new recipe that I'll finish up and share with you.

I'm having a blast watching the lightning bugs flit around our lawn.

Did I mention that the kitchen is done?!

Status is great.

Dear Friends,

Guess what?

This is the last handle on the last cabinet door. They're painted, planed, sanded, hung, and handled. Done done done done done! I freakin love them. I love this entire kitchen. And I can't believe it's ours.

Since we crossed this giant project off the list, I'm not sure what to do next! We took ourselves out to lunch to celebrate, 4th of July style. This local diner was featured on one of our favorite shows, Diners Drive ins, and Dives. We drool over the places that host Guy Fieri takes us and this one is in our own backyard. It did not disappoint.




Happy 4th of July everyone!

Saturday

It's hard to tell from the photo exactly how bad our deck looks. The green...by the way, who paints their deck? And who paints their deck to match their house? Puke...Anyway, The green paint on our deck is worn away in spots and flaking off in others. We would love to spend time out there without coming in with a shoe full of green splinters so we decided it was time to switch to a more normal looking deck. I rented the nifty drum sander for the weekend, hoping that the already flaking paint would come off really easily. That didn't turn out to be the case.

I came home from a blissful yoga session to find T and the drum sander working hard. I finished my iced coffee and jumped into the fray. We had been at it for an hour or so and realized that we weren't making a lot of progress. Since the deck boards aren't completely flat, the paint was wedged in the crevices. Our neighbor came over with a solution.

He lent us his power washer. The washer was more effective and much faster. It didn't take everything off but it came close. We may still have to do some spot sanding to get it all off. For being so flaky, that stuff was a bear to get off.

After we were sufficiently tired and covered with water and paint chips, we headed inside. I put a coat of paint on the top of our kitchen hutch and T put our guest bedframe together. T's mom gave it to us and it's been in our basement, patiently awaiting the day it would graduate to the second floor. This is our Blue Room, the one room upstairs that has not been painted.


A frosty end to a very busy Saturday.


We're taking a break from home stuff tomorrow with a trip to NYC. Happy weekend!

A New Beginning

My running goals have gone into the crapper so far this year. My body has become such a foreign place to me and I have completely lost my motivation to run. I've forgotten that freeing feeling that comes as my feet hit the pavement and the endorphin rush that washes over me as I push past my limits and keep going. We ran a 5 miler in Boston on Memorial Day and I hated every second of it. I gave up running after 2 miles and alternated walking the rest of the way and then I was disappointed in myself. But I hadn't trained at all so I really was out of line to expect any better result.

Fast forward to two weeks ago when T and I ran a 5k in our town. I had signed up for it after I miserably decided that I couldn't let one bad race get me down. But I didn't train for this either. and it showed on race day. I went into it with the goal of enjoying myself and the sun no matter how fast or how long I ran. But after walking a good half of the 3 mile course, and crossing the finish line with a time of 37 long minutes, I was beside myself. I was angry at myself for walking and upset that I wasn't mentally strong enough to keep myself from walking, and sad at how far I'd fallen. But I finally realized something.

I've been setting myself up for failure.

I signed up for races that I wasn't prepared for. I struggled because I wasn't prepared. I felt like garbage because I failed my expectations. And then I beat myself up some more. I used to be so confident and so prepared. In running and in life. Until March that is, when I suddenly felt unmoored and helpless and pathetic.

The upside of this is that I'm done. I can't go on beating myself up for what's happened. I need to get my self together and be patient as I rebuild my confidence. I know it won't happen overnight but I know it's already happening. My lightbulb moment two weeks ago was the beginning of a new attitude and calm for me and I'm looking forward to getting my life back, one day at a time.

New Friends

One of T's oldest friends and his wonderful girlfriend came to visit us last weekend and they came bearing gifts! (I will fully admit that this photo is staged. I had already unpacked it when realized that I hadn't snapped a photo of it, so I pulled the strawberries and cheese back out of the fridge. Ta da!) I was so touched that they thought to do this and T and I can't wait to take our picnic basket to Central Park. I'll have to add that to the to do list. :)The only time we ventured out of the house was to visit the Walkway over the Hudson. It was a gorgeous day for a stroll. And a pretend ride on the old train!

It was a really nice day and we managed to make it back to the car just before the summer rains came.






I will cop to the fact that I'm a giant cheeseball. A sappy pile of mush. But those of you who have been reading this blog know that I have been thinking a lot this year about my village and all of the fantastic people that make up our circle of support and love. I'm so happy to add one more person to that group. Thank you Bobbie Jean for the beautiful picnic basket, for coming to spend the weekend with us and for being my new friend!

Travel Memories

In September of 2009, T and I took our biggest adventure yet: Our dream trip to Italy. My favorite place in Tuscany was a tiny hill town called San Gimignano. We rode in the top of a double decker bus out of Florence to get here, around sharp curves with loose gravel and steep drops on one side. It was not a ride for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. But the town was definitely worth it.
We ate lunch (the best sandwich I've ever had!) over looking this.

T and I are not souvenir people, but I found something in this tiny shop that I knew we would keep forever.

We hung it up yesterday.

It deserved such a special place in our house that it took us forever to decide where to hang it. It had to be a spot that we would see often.

When I look at our Italy tile, the memories of the tiny hill town, the little shops, and the most amazing sandwich I've ever eaten come flooding back. I love having our travel mementos out where we can see them. Welcome out of the basement my beautiful tiled friend. :)