Reflections

Baby Its Cold Outside

2012-02-08T11:06:00.000+01:00

I haven't blogged in a while, quite a while actually. I guess I have no reason really other than there hasn't been too much going on around here for the past while. At least nothing too interesting to blog about in my opinion. Plus I've just been lazy. Its winter here in Malta and its been cold this season- really cold (for Malta). So I've been just bundled up at home most evenings and weekends, sitting on the sofa trying to stay warm while we watch our ever growing list of TV shows.

Its been rainy, cold and windy the past few weeks here. Weather like this makes me long for the hot summer months. Though I remember this past summer also longing for the cooler winter months- guess I got what I wished for ha! The thing about Malta and the winter season is that its just cold and damp. I can never truly feel warm (until I go to bed). My hands are generally always like icicles, my toes are usually cold. With no central heating here it makes it, well, just cold. We don't even have a bathtub at home that I could sit and relax in to warm up. Only showers and well that just doesn't cut it really. To give you an idea of how chilly it has been over here, the weather man was actually calling for possible snow in Malta the other day! Of course it never happened but for him to even suggest it, well it must be cold. We did however get the next closest thing- hail! (excuse the poor phone pic).

Many parts of Euorpe have been hit by cold weather and snow. Even Tripoli Libya had snow!!

Tripoli, Libya

Did you know that is has snowed in Malta before though?!The first recorded snowfall was February 1985, then in January 1905, March 1949 followed by January 1962. The coldest temperatures on record for Malta is -1.7 C. I can't even imagine how cold that must have felt. Actually I just checked the weather and its currently +7 C though they say it feels like zero! SoI guess after saying that, I do sort of know how they must have felt. COLD!

To stay warm, my winter staples have been:

Even our dog has been cashing in on the warmth of the heater!

Gas heater

Warm boots

Lots of hot tea

Warm scarf

Happy 2012!

2012-01-01T10:00:00.001+01:00

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a great evening bringing in the new year! We're still in Edinburgh and sadly will be heading back to Malta in a couple of days. Looking forward to seeing my pooch though- I've missed him.

Its now 2012 can you believe it ?! Its funny to think back to when I was a kid and to think of the year 20 anything- it was just so futuristic- so The Jetsons haha! I'm pretty sure that I'm also still walking around this earth in chilly Scotland at the moment, so safe to say the world did not end on any of the predicted dates lol!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T12:17:00.001+01:00

I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas! Eat too much food, have a few too many festive drinks and most of all relax, enjoy your time with friends & family.

I'll be leaving in a couple of days to spend a week in Edinburgh so I will return and catch up with you lovely bloggers in the new year!

Merry Christmas from Malta!

Angela

Malta Christmas in Pictures

2011-12-21T11:53:00.000+01:00

A Hippopotamus for Christmas

2011-12-19T11:30:00.001+01:00

Happy Holidays!

Pinterest Sundays...on a Monday...Again

2011-12-19T10:17:00.004+01:00

Well I've been lacking on my themed blog posts again lately. And this is where one might normally explain why the lack of posts- due to their hectic lives, work, Christmas season etc. But not me. I've just been lazy. There I said it :o)

Enjoy your last week of work before and running around before the holidays!

Etsy.com

A Who Cake!

Santa Hat Brownies

Festive Center pieces

Deck the halls!

Fun wrapping paper idea

Christmas Classics

2011-12-13T15:20:00.000+01:00

Here are some of my favorite Christmas movies that I grew up watching and still continue to watch EVERY year! And a few newer ones as well.

Ave Maria

2011-12-07T16:17:00.001+01:00

Well more house renovations happened this past week. We've had the tiles installed in the backyard and have successfully given the Ave Maria a make over. Here are a few pictures of the backyard before and after.

When we first moved in

After we got rid of all the junk

Plastering begins

Plastering done

Tiles being layed

Tiles done!

White coat done

Oiling the rock face

Finished!!

Make over complete

Hogmanay

2011-11-30T13:33:00.001+01:00

Created using MyMemories Scrapbook Suite

Look where we're going to be spending the last few days of 2011- Edinburgh! This will be our second trip to Edinburgh this year- out first trip happened in September which was for a wedding. Which I totally just realized I never blogged about! Oops! I'm so excited for this trip since I'll be able to see lots of lights, some snow ('some' hopefully not lots!) and experience a bit of proper cold weather. Its really hard for me to get into the holiday spirit over here with the lack of snow, falling leaves and proper cold winter weather. Even though Christmas will be over I'll still get a small dose of that holiday feeling. And since we will be spending New Years there I wanted to find out what kind of celebrations were happening. This is when I learnt about Hogmanay.

While New Year's Eve is celebrated around the world, the Scots have a long deep heritage associated with this event and they have their own name for it, Hogmanay. There are many theories about where this word came from. The Scandinavian word for the feast was "Hoggo-nott" while the Flemish words "hoog min dag". Hogmanay can also be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon, Haleg monath, Holy Month. But the most likely source seems to be the French, "Homme est ne" which means "Man is born". In France the last day of the year was when gifts were exchanged.

Maybe it's not widely known but Christmas wasn't celebrated as a festival and was virtually banned in Scotland for around 400 years! From the end of the 17th century to the 1950's. The reason for this was due to the Protestant Reformation when the Church of Scotland portrayed Christmas as a Popish or Catholic feast and therefore was banned. Can you imagine, no more Christmas! Since many Scots had to work during Christmas their winter solstice holiday was celebrated at New Years. Family and friends gathered for a parties, exchanged gifts, especially the children. There were certain traditions such as cleaning the house and the superstition of clearing your debts before "the bells" at midnight. This time became known as Hogmanay.

Edinburgh annually holds one of the world's biggest New Year celebrations. Thousands of people come down to the old streets of central Edinburgh for a massive party complete with music, fun and games and of course one of the world's greatest fireworks displays with Edinburgh castle as a backdrop. Now that would be amazing! The amount of people that head to Edinburgh each year has become so great that years back the local council had to make the huge street party a ticket only event. How do you control something like this?!

The local Scottish take New Years so seriously that not only is January 1st a public holiday but they also take off the 2nd! Probably to take some extra time to get over their new years "celebrations" haha!

Ta Da!

2011-11-27T18:25:00.001+01:00

LOOK WHAT WE GOT!

Okay, I know that some of you are probably raising your eyebrows right now and thinking that I'm crazy but let me just say that this is a BIG deal!

Although there are tumble dryers here in Malta, we're not a third world country- though it does feel that way at times ;o) most people here don't seem to have them in their homes. I'm not sure if that it is because they can be expensive? Or if people feel that the electricity bills could be sky high from using them or why change how they've been drying clothes for centuries? But most people line dry their clothes outside daily. Which I admit, during the summer months is usually fine. With the extreme heat and non stop sunny days in Malta things tend to dry quite quickly. One of the downsides however is having crunchy, rough towels, misshapen sweaters/ tops and unshrunk jeans. Yuck! But you learn to sort of deal with it.

Now that the winter months are basically here, that means that it can tend to take a couple days if not a little longer, for clothes to dry. Its not very nice. Especially when you have your clothes hanging outside to dry and then it starts raining while you are at work and can't obviously go home to bring them in. I have only one clothes horse and usually its not enough to try and squeeze a full load onto it. Nothing like waiting for clothes to dry then re dry once rained on! *sigh*

So this afternoon we got this beauty! As I sit here and write this post I can't help but laugh at myself a little bit. I don't think that I have been this excited in a while over something so... so every day, so boring, so cute? It is quite a bit smaller than I thought. Though I am used to North American sized- everything. But having this lovely new white addition to our kitchen now means that I will have soft towels, reshaped sweaters/ tops and fresh tight jeans. Most of all- within about 45 minutes! I can smell the sweet, sweet smell of the dryer right now. Yes we put a load in the second we plugged it in! I've forgotten how nice fresh, dry laundry can smell. Its been almost two years after all since we've used a dryer. Its like an early Christmas!

Right, now that I have officially tweeted about it, shared a photo on facebook and blogged about it LOL- I'm off to put in another load!

Pinterest Sundays

2011-11-27T10:00:00.000+01:00

Hope you're all having a good weekend. We had friends over for a BBQ last night. The hubby made his renowned ribs, had some wine and played a few games of bowling, darts and golf on the xbox Kinect. Fun times were had. So in the spirit of fun here are some great Pinterest finds.

Drunken Gummer Bears- Vodka Spiked!

View Master your own photos!

A gun hair dryer? What!?

A typewriter keyboard for your computer!

How cute is this! USB mini vacuum.

House Renovations Part 3

2011-11-26T16:58:00.001+01:00

Here are a few pictures of the finished product from our recent renovations in our kitchen area of the house. Excuse the poor quality photos.

My Memories Giveaway Winner- Robyn Roste!

2011-11-21T09:49:00.001+01:00

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to those that entered my giveaway for the My Memories digital scrapbooking software. Though I expected to have a bit more entires, I know its not everyone's cup of tea :) There are so many great uses though for this software so I hope that even though you may not have won the giveaway, that you head over to the My Memories website and check out their products. There is some really great stuff there- lots of fun and possibilites! Remember that you can also use my discount code to receive $10.00 off the purchase of the My Memories Suite (applicable for v2 only) if you like and also receive an additional $10.00 coupon for purchases from their online store! Just enter this code at check out: STMMMS11207

Now onto the lucky winner of the giveaway!

ROBYN ROSTE from Everyone Wants to be a Roste. Yay!

Congrats Robyn on winning the My Memories Suite digital scrapbooking software! I hope you have lots of fun with it! I'll be contacting you shortly with the details :o)

Pinterest Sundays

2011-11-20T22:59:00.001+01:00

A quick side note: Remember to enter my fantastic giveaway HERE for the My Memories Suite scrapbook software! All entries must be in by midnight CET! Also My Memories has also been gracious enough to give all of my wonderful readers a $10.00 USD discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10.00 USD coupon for the MyMemories.com store! Total this is a $20.00 USD value! Awesome right?! All you have to do is go to their website, and if you purchase their My Memories Suite v2 software, copy and paste this coupon/promo code at check out: STMMMS11207

Now back to Pinterest Sundays! Here's some of my recent finds.

"Tunnel of Love"- Kleven, Ukraine

Yves Saint Laurent Tribtoo stitch-detailed leather pumps

St. Louis City Museum's seven story slide

A Rainy Day

Leopard and Jewelry- love this look!

House Renovation Part 2

2011-11-17T21:09:00.001+01:00

Well the bathroom areas are now done. All that's left to do is put a door on the shower room and toilet room and we can check that off. As for the kitchen, the floors are finished too. Its amazing how tiling a floor can make a space look so much different and even more spacious! All that's left to do in the kitchen now is paint then hang a few pictures I've been meaning to hang for years since I bought them haha! Would you believe that the photos I want to hang I bought while on holiday here a few years ago before we actually moved to Malta! Now THAT'S procrastination!

And before you question it, yes the toilet/sink room is at the bottom of a very narrow spiral staircase that is hidden within the walls of the house. Its quirky- it leads from the kitchen, up to the second floor then continues up to the roof of the house. We still need to access it from the second floor (through our bathroom up there) in order to get on the roof so we haven't completely blocked it off. Its a secret staircase that we don't use since we have a large main spiral staircase to go upstairs too.

Here are some more photos of the recent reno's. More to come shortly.

***Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win the My Memories digital scrapbooking Suite! ***

My Memories Suite Tutorial and Giveaway

2011-11-15T09:00:00.001+01:00

Recently I postd about the giveaway I am hosting for My Memories Suite scrapbooking software. As many of you may not have heard of the company before or are unsure if this software is for you, I thought I would post a little tutorial to show you some of the awesome things that you can do with this software.

Make sure you stop by and enter my giveaway too which you can enter HERE. Contest is open until midnight (CET) November 20th.

My Memories has also been gracious enough to give all of my wonderful readers a $10 USD discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 USD coupon for the MyMemories.com store! Total this is a $20 USD value! Awesome right?! All you have to do is go to their website, and if you purchase their My Memories Suite v2 software, copy and paste this coupon/promo code at check out: STMMMS11207

from Lisa Jurrens on Vimeo.

My Memories Suite Scrapbook software

Pinterest Sundays

2011-11-13T10:00:00.000+01:00

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Also don't forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win the My Memories digital scrapbooking Suite!

House Renovations Part 1

2011-11-10T10:40:00.000+01:00

Since we moved into our house this past February we've been wanting to do a lot of renovations. Obvioulsy this equates to time and money. Neither of which we've really had. Thanks to my father-in-law though we've been able to start some renovations around the house finally! Only 8 months later but hey whose counting?!

This only thing that we have done up until this point was fix the roof. Upon moving in we knew that this was something that needed to be done but we had no idea how soon we'd have to do it. A week after we moved in, we had a lot of rain. Wouldn't you know it, the roof started to leak- BAD! There are two bedrooms upstairs in our old house and the one looked as though someone had turned on a faucet in the ceiling. Yes it was that bad. Our bedroom was leaking as well but thank god not to the extent of the other bedroom. We hired a guy and a week or two later it was all fixed. No more leaks! We've also now redone the stone walls in the backyard too. Everything is made of the same stone here. Everything.
A few before and after pics.

Backyard when we moved in, "The Jungle".

Backyard after clean up.

Backyard once stone walls have been plastered.

The next item on the list of "to do's" was our kitchen. The kitchen had an extension put on it clearly, though it wasn't exactly done up to code I'm sure. Walls are a bit uneven, there are damp marks on the walls in a couple spots (mould), the tile flooring was horendous! Absolute crap. They weren't layed very well and I"m 99% sure that whoever did it, used wall tiles- NOT floor tiles. Way to go. A Mickey Mouse job as we would say in Canada. Anyhow I could go on but I won't. The good news is that its all finally getting fixed and finished properly! Our kitchen has had rough cement floors for the past 8 months since we ripped up those horrible broken tiles as soon as we moved in. So today the renovations started. 7:30am the jack hammer started downstairs. Good thing I had to be up early for work! Though I'm sure our neighbors just 'love' us hehe. But I really don't care about the noise because the way I look at it, its pay back. On weekends one of our neighbors love to crank their techno music early in the morning. Seriously, many times its 8am and I'm still in bed and it starts. UGH! So jack hammers at 7:30 this morning was my way of saying 'thanks'. Hopfully by the end of the weekend, we'll have a new shower room and a toilet/sink room- yes they will be separate. Its an old house, no room for one proper bathroom on the main floor without going SUPER expensive etc so we're being creative haha. We're also retiling the kitchen floors and painting the walls. I"ll be sure to take a few pictures along the way so you can see the transformation properly.

Here's a picture of what the kitchen looked like when we first moved in. Nothing really has changed except for the awful tile floor you see in the picture that we ripped out. You can see that they didn't even tile right to the cupboards and their all chipped and broken! Its sort of a gally kitchen I guess you could say though it does also have a alcove area to the left of the doorway that you can't see in the photo. The kitchens not huge but it does the job. Eventually I also want to rip out the counter top and sink and redo that too. The counter is horrible and not much of it really. So would also like to figure out how to get some extra counter space somehow.

Kitchen as it was when we moved in.

Anyhow, stay tuned for more updates!

Also don't forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win the My Memories digital scrapbooking Suite!

My Memories Suite Giveaway!

2011-11-08T10:28:00.000+01:00

Recently I was contacted by Liz from a wonderful digital scrapbooking company called My Memories. I will be honest with you, at first I was a little hesitant to host this giveaway- not beacuse I didn't want to share this great opportunity with all of you but simply because I was worried that I wouldn't find the time. My Mac Powerbook that I have at home, is dying I think, *snif* *snif* so I was unsure that I'd even be able to even participate. But I've managed! I spent a couple hours playing around with the My Memories Suite software- learining how to use it, how to download scrapbooking kits, they even have free kits which available on their site which I think is great for those of us that are just starting out and getting the hang of it! So today I was just having a little bit of fun ~~at work~~ this afternoon. Don't read between the lines haha! You didn't just read that okay :o)

As some of you may already know, I am a bit of a crafter. Well at least I try. Its an activity that I find quite enjoyable but never seem to have the time. Plus Malta isn't exactly the best place to find craft supplies- or at least that's how it seems. Anyhow, when Liz contacted me, I thought to myself, perhaps this is the push that I needed to get back into the swing of things?! I've missed working on little projects and I've always wanted to scrapbook somewhat but never was very accomplished at it. With this digital scrapbooking software it is super easy! Seriously, once you get the hang of it you can create so many different projects with relative ease. This software not only allows you to create scrapbooking pages but you can also create cards, inviations anything you want really. And its all so easy! You can check out the My Memories website and blog to find lots of great ideas and products!

Now I created something this afternoon, however the gods must not be happy with me for taking a little bit of company time, as I cannot print it off since the printer is almost out of ink and all the colors are NOT turning out. Waaahh! SO, I promise that I will post my little creation soon but in the mean time here is a video and a few pictures of other peoples talented creations!

https://www.mymemories.com/gallery/show_album/1033

https://www.mymemories.com/gallery/show_album/539

https://www.mymemories.com/gallery/show_album/816

Apart from the actual main giveaway, My Memories has also been gracious enough to give all of my wonderful readers a $10 USD discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 USD coupon for the MyMemories.com store! Total this is a $20 USD value! Awesome right?! All you have to do is go to their website, and if you purchase their My Memories Suite v2 software, copy and paste this coupon/promo code at check out: STMMMS11207

The Giveaway

***Contest ends midnight (CET) November 20th***

One lucky reader, chosen by random selection, will win the My Memories Suite Scrapbook Software! Yep it will be all yours FOR FREE!

The Details-

1. Follow my blog

2. Go to My Memories website and choose your favorite digital paper pack or layout. Come back to my blog and post a comment which should include your name, email address and your fave pick from the My Memories site

For additional entries: Be sure to let me know you've done these too in your comment on my blog

-Follow me on Twitter here

-Retweet about my giveaway & be sure to provide a link back to the post

-Follow My Memories on Twitter here

-Like the My Memories Facebook page found here

Malta Media Mondays

2011-11-07T22:52:00.001+01:00

St. Paul's Catacombs

St. Paul's catacombs, located in the zone of Ħal Bajjada in Rabat date back from the fourth to the ninth centuries AD. It is part of a large cemetery which was once located outside the walls of the ancient Greek city of Melite, now Mdina. It also makes up the catacombs of St. Agatha, San Katald, St. Augustine and many others. The cemetery probably originated in the Phoenician-Punic period. Just as in Roman tradition, Phoenician and Punic burials were located outside of city walls since Romans law did not allow for the burial of bodies or ashes within their city walls.

The complex was probably abandoned and to some extent violently ransacked during the Saracenic period when burial customs completely changed to suit the practices of the new conquerors. Part of the catacomb were used again during the re-Christianisation of the island somewhere around the 13th century. During this time an open space was re-cut and used as a Christian shrine decorated with murals. Once again the site was abandoned, this time falling into quite a state of disrepair. The main entrance was blocked off but you could still access the catacombs through an independent hypogeum in Diar Ħanżira which is now Catacombs alley. This is probably how Giovanni Francesco Abela accessed the site.

Giovanni (1582-1655) was a Maltese of noble birth. His great grandfather, was Barone de Pietra Lunga. His ancestors ruled Malta on more than one occasion and were part of the royal family of Spain. He became the Auditor of the Grand Naster de Paula, Chaplain and finally Vice Chancellor of the Knights Hospitaller. He visited archeological sites on the island and made some very valuable observations. It seems that he was the first to make note of the ancient temple of Hercules. Once St. Paul's catacombs were found, the complex was however only cleared of debris in 1894 by A.A. Caruana, who cleared all the passages of rubble and surveyed the complex, including the areas appropriated by private landowners.

The site was first fully investigated in 1894. Other than the construction of the protective rooms, no further conservation has been taken in the 20th century. When first investigated, an extensive underground system of galleries and tombs were found for more than 1000 bodies, the main area covering 2000 square meters. Passages lead off from the main tomb in several directions which only lead to more series of tombs and galleries.This tomb is so far the largest to be found on the island. Today only two catacombs out of twenty four are open to the public. From experience the underground tunnels and tombs seem to go on forever. Many times I've shawn a flashlight inside cracks in the walls to discover more tombs and galleries lying beyond the dimly lit passage ways. There are two halls at the bottom of the entrance stairs which have two circular tables carved out of the rock. These were used as ceremonial meals which commemorated the dead. One of these halls was at one time transformed into an early church which followed the expulsion of the Arab conquerors in the second century AD.

The catacombs contain almost all of the burial types found in Maltese history though the best that are represented are the baldacchino tombs. These are free-standing and canopied burials that area found all within the main corridors of the structure. There are four arches and supporting pillars. Also found within the catacombs are illustrations and messages which were written in red paint. The second catacomb that is open to the public is much smaller than the previous one. It is believed that is was the burial place of a particular family or group of surgons suggested by the surgical tools which were found carved on the three blocking stones of the inner chamber.

I've been to the catacombs a few times now and I love the history and eeriness of it all. I'd definitely recommend visiting. For those of you that live in Malta or are thinking of visiting, here are their opening times and other details:

Opening Hours

Monday to Sunday: 9.00-17.00
Last admission: 16.30
Closed: 24, 25 & 31 December, 1 January, Good Friday

Tickets

Adults (18 - 59 years): €5.00
Youth (12 - 17 years), Senior Citizens (60 years and over), ISIC Card Holders, EURO<26 Card Holders, ISE Card Holders, ICOM Card Holders, University of Malta and MCAST Students: €3.50
Children (6 -11 years): €2.50
Infants (1 -5 years): Free

The catacombs are situated on St. Agatha Street which is a narrow street running through most of the town’s core. Follow the signs to St. Paul’s Catacombs and your there!

Pinterest Sundays

2011-11-06T22:24:00.000+01:00

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Malta Media Mondays

2011-11-01T20:25:00.001+01:00

San Anton Palace.

San Anton Palace, named after the patron saint, St Anthony of Padua, is the official residence of the President of Malta. The palace was built between 1623 and 1636. It was originally to serve as the summer residence for Grand Master Antoine de Paule, (Knight Fra Antoine de Paule), who was a Frenchman from Provence. He was elected as Grand Master of the Order of St. John in 1623. While still a Knight of the Order, he received a large plot of land near Attard which he built a country villa. The palace is surrounded by private and public gardens. Successive Grand Masters continued to use the palace as their country residence over the year. However, during the British rule, it was then used as the Governor and Governor General's official residence. In 1974 San Anton Palace then became the office residence of the President of Malta.

A large part of the original gardens were first opened to the public in 1882. They are quite formal really with beautiful walkways, sculptures and ponds. You will find a large variety of trees and flowers from all over the globe. Even exotic trees and plans some being over three centuries old! I'm not sure how they managed to survive over the years but so glad they have. For visiting heads of state, they usually plant a tree in memory of their stay in Malta which has been customary for many years. Within the gardens you will also find an orangery. Can you imagine the sweet smells! It was also common practice for the Governors to give our baskets of oranges, obviously grown in the palace, as gifts as Christmas time.

Over the years the Palace has gone through many structural changes. The most relevant changes have been those which were initiated by the Presidents who have upgraded the amenities and restored most of the buildings and gardens to their former glory. Most notably the furnishings and paintings have changed as well depending on the tastes of the dignitaries and their families who have lived there over the years. History has changed the country villa into an intriguing palace which many continue to admire today.

I have yet to visit and tour the grounds but very much look forward to it one day.

Pinterest Sundays

2011-10-30T21:43:00.000+01:00

Welcome once again to Pinterest Sundays. Hope you're all enjoying your Sunday!

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Malta Media Mondays

2011-10-24T16:32:00.000+02:00

Maltese Luzzu

The luzzu- a traditional fishing boat usually painted in very bright colors such as red, blue and yellow, have been used for a very long time as fishing boats. Each fisherman usually has his own color scheme, which previously belonged to his father and grandfather before him. These are very rarely changed, mostly out of superstition. At the front of the boat, the bow, you will find a pair of eyes- which to me- look like they have very bushy eyebrows hehe. These eyes are an ancient Phoenician custom and are sometimes referred to as the Eye of Horus or the Eye of Osiris. Which is fitting as this type of boat can be dated back to the Phoenician times. The eye of Osiris is believed to be protection from the evil eye, which many older generation Maltese (especially the fishermen) still believe in. Originally these boats used to have sails but now they all seem to be motorized or at least most of them are to be found this way. You can still find the odd one however that uses good old upper body strength by using oars to paddle around. The double ended hull makes the boat strong and sturdy to survive the turbulent weather conditions. Though I've come across many that seem to have been forgotten- tied up and left floating in the marina for the rest of their days. The bottom of the boat is flat with planks of wood placed from stern to stem. White deal (Norwegian Spruce) is used for the planking purpose while the rest of the boat, such as the sides and internal flooring is done by ash and Red deal (Scots Pine).

I took this photo while on holiday here a few years ago (one of our fav restaurants in the background, Paparazzi).

Primarily, the luzzu is used as a fishing boat but it also has other uses these days such as taking locals and tourists across the Grand Harbour. While back in the day instead they could be found ferrying sailors between land and their ships. Heading to the market on Sundays in the area of Marsaxlokk, the largest fishing village in Malta, you can see these beautiful bright works of art, scattered around the marina as well as many other areas around the island. So beautiful to sit on a bench in the afternoon (if its not too hot!), looking out at the marina and its clear waters dotted with these colorful old boats as if being transported into another time.

Photo by Mario Mizzi.

Pinterest Sundays- but on a Monday

2011-10-24T15:34:00.000+02:00

Oops! I'm not so sure I'm very good with this whole blog post theme idea. Its Monday afternoon and I've realized that yet again, I have forgotten to post Pinterest Sundays as well as my Malta Media Mondays. Though Monday is not over yet so I have time ;) I think I need to start writing a few at a time and scheduling them so that it seems like I never forget haha! I know its Monday but here are a few of my Pinterest finds from yesterday. Enjoy!

Cheese signs. http://pinterest.com/pin/375140466/

http://pinterest.com/pin/213119747/

Armani Love! http://pinterest.com/pin/345681022/

http://pinterest.com/pin/345904638/

Malta Media Mondays

2011-10-17T10:00:00.000+02:00

Hypogeum of Hal-Saflieni

The Hypogeum which can be found in the city of Paola in Malta, is an underground structure which can be dated to the Saflieni era (3000-2300 BC) of Maltese prehistory. It was a necropolis in prehistoric times though thought by many to be a sanctuary.It is actually the ONLY prehistoric underground temple in the world! It was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1980 and opened to the public in 1913.

It was actually discovered by accident in 1902 when cisterns were being cut for a new housing development and they broke through the roof. At first the workers tried to hide it but eventually it was found. Father Manuel Magri from the Society of Jesus was left in charge. He organized and directed the excavations on behalf of the museum committee until his death in 1907 in which the direction was then passed to Sir Temi Zammit.

The Hypogeum covers about 500 square meters underground and is grouped into three different levels. At least that is how many levels are recognized. The upper level (3600-3000 BC), the middle level (3300-3000 BC) and the lower level (3150-2500 BC). The first level of the Hypogeum is similar to tombs found in Xemxija in Malta. There are rooms with natural caves.

The second level, which is only 10 meters below street level, was opened only once the builders found that the first level was no longer enough. This level holds a 2 meter deep pit which is thought to have possibly held snakes or used to collect alms, which is a religious rite where one gives material things to another as an act of religious virtue. The main chamber is a rough circle which was carved out from the rock. There are a number of entrances, some hidden and others which lead to another chamber. This is where they found the statues of the sleeping lady which are now held in the Museum of Archeology in Valletta. The Oracle room is a rectangle shape and consists of an elaborately painted ceiling- spirals of red ochre and circular shapes. Once through the Oracle room, on the right there is a large hall, also in a circular design with walls that slant inward. These walls are also decorated with patterns. Found on the right hand side of the entrance is image of a human hand which is carved into the rock. The third level. As there were no bones or offerings found here, only water, it is thought to have been used as a storage area.

Though the actual complete purpose of the Hypogeum is still shrouded in mystery, it is said to have been used for two purposes-

1. Burial. There were thousands of people that have been found here along with personal ornaments- beads and amulets, as well as pottery. When it was first discovered in 1902 there were over 7000 skeletons found inside, near the inside chambers entrance. Today only 6 of the skulls survive. Mysteriously almost all of the skeletons have disappeared over the decades.

2. A place of worship.

There have been reports of humanoid creatures down there. A lady who claimed she had visited the site once before and shortly after the disappearance of the 30 students, convinced her tour guide to allow her to investigate the burial chambers found near the floor of the last chamber on the third floor. Which is supposed to be the end of the Hypogeum. Her guide finally agreed, gave her a candle and told her to enter at her own risk. She crawled through a small passage way and entered into a large cavern where she found herself to be on a ledge overlooking a seemingly bottomless chasm. It is said that when she looked below on the ledge of the other side of the chasm, there was a doorway of sorts. This lady claims that out of this doorway, came many large creatures who looked to be human- though covered from head to toe in hair. They noticed her looking at them, stopped, began pointing towards her when all of the sudden a violent wind began to blow through the area, putting out her candle. She then said that something wet and slippery brushed past her. Of course the lady panicked and ran back through the passage way all the way to the Hypogeum room. When the tour guide saw the panic on her face it is said that he then gave the woman a knowing look. Did he know about these mysterious creatures?

A week after this incident, the story emerged of 30 school children who went missing while on a school tour. On the woman's second visit to the site, it is said that she had a new guide in which she questioned about her previous tour guide. He denied the existence of this first tour guide ever working there in which she felt he was hiding something. She later learned from other sources that the tunnel in which she has entered herself previously, was the same tunnel in which the students and their teacher had entered. As the last child made it through the narrow passage way, the wall collapsed behind them. Search parties were never able to locate the students or their teacher. The rope in which they had used to secure themselves however to the lower chamber was found. Cut clean by something sharp, not by a falling rock. For weeks after the incident, there are said to have been reports of screaming and crying children underground in parts all over the island but no one could ever locate the source.

Creepy? I think so. But also very interesting. Though it is just possibly a story. Guess we'll never know.

[edit]

Pinterest Sundays

2011-10-16T18:17:00.003+02:00

Yet another blog post theme. Since most Sundays I find myself browsing through pin after pin after pin on pinterest.com, I thought why not share some of my many finds with you? If you haven't heard of Pinterest before you can read a previous post about the site here.

Here are some of Sunday finds.

http://pinterest.com/pin/333801005/

http://pinterest.com/pin/333849407/

http://pinterest.com/pin/333980131/

http://pinterest.com/pin/333865850/

http://pinterest.com/pin/333824363/

http://pinterest.com/pin/333833915/

http://pinterest.com/pin/333985585/

Malta Media Monday

2011-10-03T10:00:00.000+02:00

The Malta Railway.

The first plans for the railway were brought before the Maltese Government in 1870. At this time the island was one of the last countries in Europe without a railway! After all of the usual mumbo jumbo that comes along with building something such as this, it wasn't until February 28th, 1883 that the railway finally opened in Malta for the first time. It ran from Valletta to Notabile station, which was on the outskirts of Rabat/Mdina area. The main headquarters and engineering workshops were set up in Harnrun which is only one mile from Valletta (this station was considered just as important as the terminal). Birkirkara, which is three miles from Valletta, marked the end of the profitable section of the line. From that point on the railway now crossed the open countryside. The line had a total of 12 stations and halts.

The original private company which ran the railway did not run it very well. They were met with many problems- both financial, legal and also technical When the locomotives woudl break down, this meant that the line then had to change to only a single train service. This was then shut down in the spring of 1889. At this point the government then sued (for a breach of contract) and then ended up closing the railway on April 1st, 1890. But the line reopened again on February 25th, 1892 after being taken over and run by the government (which they did so in order to stop it being sold off). The railway once again began was back in business. Improvements were made to the stations, new locomotives and rolling stocks were bought and a large amount of track maintenance which was needed was completed.

After World War 1, the railway began to decline because of the competition from the electric tramway which went around Valletta. This tramway had opened in 1905. Since the public could now also use new road motor busses this meant more competition. The Malta railway finally came to an end on March 31st, 1931. Which was longer than the electric tramway lasted (closed December 16th, 1929)

If you were to go looking for the railway now, you would certainly have a difficult time. Most locations where the terminals once stood were destroyed during the bombing in World War 2 or have disappeared under farmland. However that being said, there are still a few original feature that are still in use. The bridge that goes over the lower level of the main city ditch and the station tunnel are still in use by Yellow Garage. The stairway that leads down to rail platform is also still in use- this can be found between the tourist Information office and the main city gate. The tunnel entrance to Floriana is still there among a few other areas. You can find more information regarding the Malta Railway here http://maltarailway.com/

Edinburgh

2011-09-27T16:45:00.000+02:00

I just wanted to share a quick post as this will be my last until next week sometime. The hubby and I will be leaving for Edinburgh Thursday morning for a few days. Good friends of ours are getting married and so we're super excited to be able to attend. At first we didn't think it would be possible due to a major lack of finances but somehow we managed to pull it off with a little help from family and by selling a few things. Hey you have to do what you have to do- we weren't about to miss this wedding!

This will be my first trip off the island since moving to Malta a year and a half ago and I am very excited! This is a much needed mini vacation let me tell you. I love Malta but you do need to get away from time to time. This will also be my first time in the UK, other than an airport. So it will be nice to walk around and experience the culture and history of another old city. Also hopefully get a tiny bit of shopping in. Though there won't be much room in the suitcase so we'll have to restrain ourselves. We're hoping to go back after Christmas so that will be the time to shop ;)

The only down side of the trip is that this will be the first time that we will be leaving our dog with someone for a few days. *sniff*sniff* That's not sarcasim either by the way, its quite sad and worrisome. Though we will be leaving our beloved Shane with my hubby's dad and I know he will be okay I still worry. He's probably going to be confused and he'll whine a lot wondering where the heck we are. But it will be for 4 days and 5 nights- that's a long time for him. Poor little guy. Well not that little haha. He's going to be crazy excited to see us again when we arrive Tuesday morning but I'm expecting him to act out in retaliation for us leaving him too. Seriously, you know the damage he can do from previous posts! Maybe we'll find him some Scottish doggy treats?

Anyway, I hope that you all have a lovely remainder of your week and a relaxing weekend too! I will see you all again very soon and get caught up on all your blogs once I'm back in the Med! I'm sure I'll have lots of photos to share of our trip!

Malta Media Mondays

2011-09-26T09:48:00.001+02:00

The Valletta Royal Opera House

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a nice weekend. I'm sitting in the office at my computer not quite fully awake and I've decided to start off this Monday with a new Monday blog post theme. Welcome to Malta Media Mondays. With my previous idea for a new blog post theme still under the developmental stage haha, I've come up with an alternative for the time being. As there is so much history here in Malta I decided to run with the idea of sharing some of this history with my readers. Either through pictures or video.

The Valletta Royal Opera House was an opera house and performing arts venue in Valletta, Malta. It was designed by English architect Edward Middleton Barry and was erected in 1866. In 1873 its interior was extensively damaged by fire but was eventually restored by 1877. The theatre was bombed to the ground during World War 2 in 1942.

And now that you have seen some history on the original great opera house, you can now see what the current plans are to rebuild. by world renowned Italian architech Renzo Piano.

Though many Maltese as well as others are not completely happy about the new plans, you can read more about it from this news article found here.

Cheapsmells Haul/ Mini Review

2011-09-18T10:28:00.000+02:00

Recently a few purchases I had previously made decided to finally show up. I've forever been on a sort of hunt for a good face regime. I also turned 30 in July and unfortunately I've just thought of the idea of perhaps taking care of my skin. You know, to prevent wrinkles, lines etc for the future. I know, I wasn't born yesterday and I haven't been living under a rock either so I really have no excuses for not taking proper care of my face. Its pretty much beaten into our heads from all the media. I just seem to not follow through with it, I'm just lazy I guess. I'm horrible for washing my makeup off before bed. I'm horrible for sticking to washing and cleansing my face every night/day. I don't use facial moisturizer (I have oily skin so its hard for me to find something light enough that wont clog pours and make it worse!). And I don't like to spend a fortune on beauty products. I look for what is cheap but also for brands I've at least heard of that seem to get decent reviews.

Anyhow, so I decided to finally spend a little extra moola and get a few items that would be quick and easy to use every day. I normally love the idea of a 3 step system but the more I think about it, in reality I think- actually I know- the main reason for that might be because I like the look of matching beauty products on my shelf. That may sound crazy and retarded but its true. I like things to match. The look of the bottles or containers lined up in a neat row on my bathroom window shelf, I like it! Anyway back to my purchases. So here's what I decided to buy from cheapsmells.com :

1- Clinique facial wash for oily skin

2- Olay Total Effects Day moisturizer

3- Olay Total Effects Night moisturizer

4- Tigi Bead Head Superstar Blowdry Lotion

So here's the verdict so far on these products.

Tigi Bead Head Superstar Blowdry Lotion- The first day I used this, it didn't work. I was soooo utterly disappointed. Then I used it again the next day and it was great. Its been working every time now and I love it. Its a clear liquid that smells like grapefruit that you can apply to wet or dry hair. I apply it to my hair (squirt some into my hands then finger brush though my hair), then blow dry. My hair is a bit thicker and has volume. I have very fine hair so I need volume and product to make my short hair work. So I now think this will become a staple for my hair products. If you have fine hair or even already thick hair and just want some extra volume I'd recommend picking this product up.

Clinique Facial Wash- What's really to say about this product? I love it and plus I think its familiar to most women at some point in their lives. Its something that I have used on and off since I was a teenager and recently decided to give it a go again. For me its quick and easy to use and it comes with a nice hard plastic travel case too. I bought the bar soap for oily skin and so far so good! Definitely recommend.

Olay Total Effects Day Moisturizer (Fragrance Free)- Okay, so this product I would say is the only one out of everything that I bought that I'm impressed with. So far I've only used it a few times and it makes my skin more oily. I bought this after reading through some reviews that said it was light weight etc. Well even though it might be light weight it still doesn't work well with my oily skin. Maybe I'm using a little too much? Who knows. So for now I've stopped using the day moisturizer. I may continue to use it a bit when I sometimes get a few drier skin patches in the winter. I think its also made me start to break out a little bit since the increased production of oil on my face. Not impressed! Overall I'd say I'm not thrilled with this product- but maybe if I give it time my face will adjust? Not sure about that though.

Olay Total Effects Night Moisturizer- I am actually a bit surprised to say this, considering my previous review, but I love the night moisturizer. Here's what they say its supposed to do:

Total effects intensive overnight treatment is an enriched night-time moisturiser with a higher concentration of VitaNiacin. The formula is absorbed into your skin & continually works throughout the night.It helps reverse 7 signs of ageing for firmer & visibly younger looking skin.- Visibly reduces the appearance of lines & wrinkles.- Noticeably smoothes skin texture- Visibly evens skin tone- Transforms skin dullness to a radiant healthy looking glow- Diminishes the appearance of blotches & age spots- Intensively hydrates dry skin.

I've been using it every night now for almost a week and I can say that I think it has started to reduce the appearance of my pores even. Which is great! Its light weight, has a nice light fragrance to it. And a little does go a very long way (maybe that's my issue with the day time stuff?). I'd definitely recommend this product.

Oh and on a similar note, I also had to purchase a new hair dryer since the one I brought with me from Canada was dying and has absolutely FRIED my hair. After changing the setting to work in europe, the blow dryer only had one setting- high and hot! So now I'm on the hunt for a great product to repair my fried and heat damaged hair! Anyone have any suggestions? Here's a pic of the hairdryer I bought from feelunique.com BTW- I knew it was pink before I bought it, it doesn't show too well in the photo but it is SUPER PINK. Like a dark, hot pink and then has this faux snake skin pattern haha. But it works great and it wasn't very expensive either, 26 euros. Unfortunately they are now sold out or no longer carry this brand it seems as I've gone to the website and cannot find anywhere! So weird!!

2011-09-12T18:44:00.000+02:00

So I came across this website called Pinterest the other day. I cannot believe that I haven't heard of or found this site before! I absolutely love it. Its a "virtual pinboard" where you can keep and share anything you find on the internet. Do you know what that means? No more having to add websites to my bookmarks/favorites or saving pictures on my laptop. Yay! You can find anything from recipes to fashion to beauty products to house decorating ideas, funny signs...seriously anything your heart desires!

I only joined a couple of days ago and I've already 'pinned' 187 things and so far created 10 boards. Basically a board would be a category. So under one board that I titled, 'Yummy yummy in my tummy', I keep recipe related things. Under another titled, 'Style Me Pretty', fashion related things. And under, 'Ho Ho Ho', you probably guessed it, Christmas related. Those are just three of the ten boards that I have created so far.

You can also browse other people's boards and 'follow' all of their boards or only one or two if you don't necessarily like them all. People can also follow your boards. You can browse through the many different categories and 'pin' until your fingers are sore haha. Such a great idea and so I do hope you check it out. I think many people would be interested in something like this. Simple to use too. You can add "Pin It" to your bookmarks bar so when you are on any site, if you find something you like you can add it to one of your boards without even being on the Pinterest website. Love that!

Mad Men

2011-08-27T20:22:00.001+02:00

I have never watched a single episode of Mad Men. I can't even tell you what the show is about other than it seems to be pretty popular. Well this afternoon while hiding in my house from the extreme heat I've been dreaming of cooler temperatures and trying to find out what the clothing trends will be for this autumn. I was having a look on Banana Republic's website (bananarepublic.gap.eu) and they have a new collection called Mad Men (http://bananarepublic.gap.eu/browse/category.do?cid=71664) and I must say that I'm really liking it!! Though there are many items that I'm just not sure I would wear of have an excuse to wear them for but that doesn't matter. Here are a few of my favorite pieces from the Banana Republic Mad Men Collection.

Betty Dress

Cabled Dolman Cardigan

Leopard Print Trench

Animal Print Cardigan

Help Her Win!

2011-08-24T15:52:00.001+02:00

A fellow blogger, Maureen has posted about this amazing contest that her sister has entered for a chance to take a course with Italian cake decorator, Renato Ardovino of Le Torte de Renato. Isn't her sister talented! Such a cute and beautiful cake! Please take a moment to hop on over to her blog to check out the whole story here http://islandfairy.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/let-them-eat-cake/.

In order to vote, you simply have to 'like' the facebook page and then 'like' her sisters cake photo (which is the photo i've included on my post). http://www.facebook.com/pages/Le-Torte-di-Renato/189969311061714

New Topics? New Layout?

2011-08-23T16:40:00.001+02:00

Over the past few months I've noticed that there has been a widespread of changes in blog land. Many fellow bloggers seem to be either getting bored with their layouts and change them up to be bright, pretty, eye catching and perhaps more interesting. I've also noticed that many have been gravitating towards 'theme' blogging. Meaning a special post on Fridays or Tuesdays or any day of the week really. Things like 'Wordless Wednesdays', 'Ruby Tuesdays,' or 'Frackin Fridays'. (If you click on each of those titles you will hop over to a specific blog that I follow that does these theme posts).

All this has left me thinking. Well a little. Do I need to change my blog? Is it eye catching? Is it even interesting? Perhaps not. Perhaps most people skip through my posts and don't even read them. But though I may not have many followers, I love and appreciate the ones that I do have very much. I don't feel the need to have a million followers. Afterall, I didn't start this blog for others, I started it for myself. But eventually you do come to a point when you want others to enjoy your blog just as much as you enjoy sharing it. You want to perhaps see the number of followers increase a little from time to time. Or have interesting posts every week. Seriously, I just don't know how some people do it. How do they ALWAYS have something interesting to share?

I guess I am just in a rut again. I feel that I have nothing to talk about, nothing to share. Though I've taken this huge journey and moved from Canada to a tiny spec in the Mediterranean- my life seems boring. Nothing exciting to share. Nothing crazy is happening. Sooner or later the newness of it all begins to fade and you are once again stuck in everyday life no matter where on the globe you live. I guess its up to us though to make it interesting hey?! Its up to us to make our 'everyday lives' fun and an adventure.

I have a new post idea. One that I have been thinking about for some time- I'd say almost two months I've been sitting on this idea. I think it could be quite interesting. A fun change. It would be one that I would do on a weekly basis- yes a theme post haha. But I'm still unsure as to how I'd do it and if it would work out. Or if I would have enough spontaneity and guts to do what I need to in order to get the shot. I guess you'll have to stay tuned to see. Hopefully I'll have something new to share with you soon!

The Endless Summer

2011-08-19T10:37:00.000+02:00

Normally I love summer. Well no, let me rephrase that. I DO love summer. However I must admit, I am somewhat looking forward to autumn arriving. I realize that here in Malta, it will still be some time before that happens- especially since it is only August 19th haha. Another month at least I'm sure before things start to change, but I'm ready. Especially since we've had summer temperatures since about May. Last year I loved it. I think that was because it was our first summer here in Malta and it was nice to have an actual summer for once! Not like in Canada where it would only last maybe a month or so and you'd still get rain sometimes etc. Last summer you could leave the house and not feel as though you were going to die within minutes. I'm SO SO sick of carrying tissue to wipe my face and neck haha. And of course I always carry a nice hand fan around with me in my purse. Best 2 Euros I've every spent!

This summer has been quite hot. Much hotter than last. And even though I love the sun, warmth and everything else that comes with summer, I am ready for some cooler temperatures. I'm looking forward to the warm days and comfortable evening temperatures. Days where the sun still shines but I can wear jeans! Maybe its just me, but I'm running out of ideas and options when it comes to summer attire. I'm getting bored with my clothes. I have many nice tops, jeans, sweaters and jackets that I'm dying to wear- yet I'd literally die right now if I were to wear them due to heat exhaustion I think. A couple of days this summer I have been able to wear a pair of jeans in the evening. One night I even worse a jacket too! It was a little windy that night so even though the temperatures were still probably about +25 celcius, I felt cold! Weird I know.

I'm looking forward to thunder storms and the rain! We rarely see a drop of rain here in the summer months so I tend to look forward to it during out winter- which is the rainy reason. I'm looking forward to wearing my comfy slipper/boots and curling up on the sofa with a blanket and a cup of tea in the evenings. What about you? Are you still enjoying your summer? Or are you looking forward to autumn already?

The Light at the end of the Tunnel

2011-08-18T16:44:00.002+02:00

Sorry I've been dormant again lately with blogging. I'm sure you understand. Life is different and even though each day is a little better its not the same. We still catch ourselves waiting. Waiting for our friend to come walking through our front door. Waitng for him to show up at the bar to make us one of his special drinks. Or waiting for him to pop into the shop and yell out "OY!" as he always would. Things just aren't the same now that our dear friend has left us but at least things are slowly getting easier and we can all rest peacefully each night and each day knowing that we now have another guardian angel who is watching over us. Daily all of his friends and family are still writing on his facebook wall to say hello, to say how much they miss him or to share funny stories, pictures. And many simple, "good night brother", "good night friend," "good morning chicken legs," haha. His memory will always be kept alive and he will never be forgotten.

Also an update, our other friend Ashton who has been in an enduced coma this whole time. He is starting to come around now! Though he has a long journey and road ahead of him the fever is starting to subside, the doctors and nurses are continually working on him and he is making progress. So this is great news! The doctors have begun working on skin graphs to close a very large gash that he has which had been infected for some time. So this must mean the antibiotics are now finally doing their job. Slowly but surely Ashton will be with us again. All this makes us smile and keep all of our hopes alive. The light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to shine, though it is a long way off still- but we all like to think its Jason- watching over Ashton to bring him through all this.

Thank you to all who have kept our friends and their families in your thoughts and prayers. All of you from around the globe!

Why Is It Always the Good Ones

2011-08-02T08:36:00.001+02:00

Two of the best friends a person could ever have! Jason Joseph(1974-2011) & Ashton Sammut

Why is it that God decides to take our loved ones from us? Why does it always end up being the ones that we love deeply and hold dear to our hearts, that get taken much too early in life. Why is it always the good ones that have to go?

I'm thinking that its probably too early to be posting something such as this, but right now, I'm still in such a state of shock that I don't really know what to do with myself. Perhaps this is the only way for me to 'deal' at the moment. Time has come to a halt. And at the same time it feels as though its all a dream and I'll wake up. Or someone will call and say it was all just a horrible joke that was played on all of us. We received a phone call this morning around 4am- I won't go into too much detail as its all just way too fresh. We received a phone call, from the police about a couple of really close friends of ours, Jason and Ashton were in a fatal motorcycle accident. Its all still a blur, but when we got the call, I remember instantly bursting into tears, not knowing if this was for real or not. We got dressed, another friend came to our house and we headed to the hospital and arrived in minutes. We arrived in a daze- already knowing the outcome but still hoping it was a bad dream. Unfortunately moments after arriving outside emergency, we woke up from this horrible dream and found that it was all real. It was very real. Too real. One of our best friends had died. The other best friend, in very very critical condition.

Please keep our friends and their families in your prayers. Jason leaves behind a loving family, a wife and their young daughter. Ashton is still fighting and we hope to hear further word on his condition soon. Please also keep him and his family in your prayers, he too has a young son- not quite a year old yet.

**Quick update** 10:30am. We've had friends of ours hanging out at Motozone Malta all morning. Standing around, sharing stories, looking at pictures etc. Not sure what to do with ourselves. If you know and knew either of these amazing guys feel free to stop by. Also the situation is not looking good for our dear friend Ashton. If you know Ashton msg me and i'll let you know what I can, but here is not the place to share about his current state perhaps.

Free Furniture Friday

2011-07-01T17:53:00.001+02:00

No this is not a new blog theme for Fridays- it just so happens that today we had some furniture delivered that we found for free. Yup- FREE. Found it on the local Maltapark website (similar to Kijij or Craigs List). Someone was remodeling their flat and was giving away a long list of furniture, so we went to look at it all last weekend, ended up taking it all haha. We have yet to purchase any nice new furniture for our house since we still have renovations to do and we have a dog that likes to destroy things. So for now we went with gently used furniture. We ended up getting a sofa bed, a three seater sofa, two arm chairs, a large desk & chair, as well as a small cupboard unit (more like a tv unit), a coffee table and then two huge units. I love the wooden units and the desk we got. Old, all in dark wood, come with the old skeleton keys. Now to figure out where to put it all and how to get rid of the stuff we currently have haha! Here are a few pics of out free finds.

Cockroach Adventures

2011-06-27T22:07:00.000+02:00

In my 29 years of existence I've never had to deal with cockroaches. I'm pretty sure I've never even seen any in person until moving to Malta. Now I've experienced them up close and personal- a little too up close for my liking. We live in an old house, 120 years +, so I knew that we'd experience some 'bugs' here and there but never did I think we'd have to deal with cockroaches.

Over the past couple months I've been sitting on the sofa in the living room, as I am right now, just chilling out when all of the sudden, out of the corner of my eye, I will see this quick dark movement on the floor. I instantly lift my feet off the floor for a second before reacting. O-M-G! Seriously I just get chills through my body thinking about it. I've managed to kill two or three myself (was home alone those times and had to get it before it disappeared into the house somewhere to find later). The last time my husband spotted one on the wall in the corner of our living room. Not a huge one but any size it too big for me. He grabbed a box, eventually got it and threw it outside. We think we know where they were coming in from so we got the contractors expanding foam and he sprayed it in the corner to seal up the cracks in the corner. Since then we haven't had any more encounters with these nasty things. Until tonight.

I was in the kitchen making myself a iced cappuccino when I heard my husband say, "OH GROSS!" First, can you believe that's all he said? No scream (or maybe 'yell' would sound more manly), no freak out at all. He was putting on his motorcycle jacket when a cockroach fell out of the jacket I guess! Um, I don't know about you? but I would not be able to wear that jacket again if that happened to me. I would have screamed, thrown the jacket and ran. But nope not my hubby. He was calm, put the jacket on, then sprayed the thing to death (well not death) with fly spray on the ground- that's all we had on hand- just enough to stun it a tiny bit I guess. Then he got it into a box and threw it outside. Where was I in all this you ask? I stayed my distance at the other end of the house watching from the kitchen. I ran over to give him the bug spray then moved back to the kitchen to watch from a safe distance.

It still gives me the creeps and chills thinking about it. My eyes keep on darting to the floor, scanning the room for any movement. I also keep checking my feet every time I feel something...or think I feel something. As you can see I couldn't even bring myself to put an actual photo of one of these things on my post, I had to find a cartoon cockroach! YUCK YUCK YUCK

Dear Blogger

2011-06-22T15:02:00.000+02:00

Dear Blogger,

I hate you today. You will not allow me to upload any photos, what the H-E- double hockey sticks??

Fix it!

Best Regards,
Angela

P.S- FIX ITTTTTT!!

Soap & Glory

2011-06-18T17:26:00.001+02:00

I recently (just today) heard about a product line called Soap & Glory while reading a wonderful new blog that I found and now follow called, Gawgus Things. After reading her mention about the line and the specific products that she has tried, I decided to find out more. As always, I asked my trusty friend Google because as some of you may have heard me mention before, I Google EVERYTHING. So I found Soap & Glory's website and had a look around and came to a few conclusions.

1) Their website is fun. I love the whole theme of it, its something a little different than the normal beauty products site and I like that

2) The packaging and names of each individual product is SUPER fun. I love it!

3) Prices- their prices are very reasonable so that means there is something for everyone and for every budget which is a big plus these days

4) I MUST BUY

So after flipping through the pages of all their products, I've decided that I really want to order somethings but now the tricky part- shipping. As you cannot order directly from their site, you can shop at the following locations in the UK- Boots, asos.com and Harvey Nichols. Now I live in Malta and as some of you already know, shipping to our little island country can be a big royal pain the butt and still are as Asos won't ship this product out of the UK. BOO ASOS! Guess I'll just have to live through others on this one until I find a place that carries and ships to Malta. Have any of you out there tried their products before? What did you buy and what were your thoughts on it?

The Lands of Twitter & Blogger

2011-06-07T18:29:00.000+02:00

I've noticed for a while now that many of the blogs that I follow have linked their posts through their Twitter accounts. Now I'm relatively new to twitter and have only recently started using it more regularly which is largely due to the fact that I now own a smartphone, so it makes the whole Twitter experience that much easier. I've been sitting here on my computer for the last few hours, updating my Twitter account, updating my blog and trying to figure out how to better link the two. I must admit, I've been spying on many of the blogs that I follow who also use Twitter to try and get some hints and pointers. Seeing what buttons they use on their blogs, seeing how the heck they get their blog posts to also post as a tweet. I feel as though I'm an old dog trying to learn new tricks on my own haha. But I think that I've managed to do it. I see that now two of my most recent blog posts have posted to Twitter and to be honest, this post is a bit of a "test" to see if it will post automatically to my Twitter account too. Let's see shall we?!

Anna's Bar

2011-06-05T12:02:00.000+02:00

Located in St. Julians on Saint Andrews Road, Malta's newest bar, Anna's Bar, opened for the first time last night. And what a great night it was! A friend of ours, (also my husbands business partner for his shop Motozone Malta), opened this bar with his wife, Anna. Its small, cozy, intimate space with great music and an overall great atmosphere. Tonny and Anna did a wonderful job in renovating the place. Its done with class and style. The artwork Anna chose is very stylish and you could say different from what you might normally find here in Malta but it fits perfectly with the space. It is all by an artist from Czechoslovakia named, Jan Saudeks. Anna's Bar is not full of young kids like most other bars that can be found in the area. They are aiming to reach more of the 30 somethings or older crowd. A nice place for those that still enjoying going out with friends but don't want to deal with the headaches and annoyances of having to go to Paceville where all the young kids go. Here you can enjoy your evening with friends and not have to yell to hold a conversation due to blaring dance music. They also serve free appetizers which is a nice touch too. So if you're looking for a place to go out with friends, enjoy the evening in class without having to deal with the craziness and kids of Paceville Anna's Bar is definitely a place to check out!

Unfortunately my camera battery died last night while we were there but I did manage to get a few photos of the evening.

Summer is here and so are the mosquitos!

2011-05-27T09:33:00.001+02:00

I think its fairly safe to say that summer is here, or at least right on our door step! The days are getting warmer, the sun is out and the mosquitos are in full force- not happy about that last bit! Lately we've had sleepless warm nights in our house. We definitely need to get around to getting a fan for the bedroom really soon. Also the mosquitos at night are driving us mad! Seriously mad. How many times have I gotten up in the middle of the night because I can hear that annoying buzzing around my ear? Too many lately. I shoot out of bed, grab my mobile and turn on the flashlight and go hunting. Shoe in one hand, mobile with flashlight in the other. Many times I have killed a handful of these little annoying things, their little bellies filled with our blood. It gives me great satisfaction to kill them. I hate them so much. What is the point of mosquitos anyhow? I'm sure that they are part of the food chain for other later insects but couldn't god just get rid of mosquitos and let the other insects feed on something else?? Something less annoying? I think I need to buy one of those electric swatters, you know the ones that look like small tennis rackets to kill flies? We already have a small bug zapper, but it doesn't really seem to do too much.

Last night I also had a death match with a couple of very large moths in our kitchen! I was trying to cook dinner and I could see two shadows racing around the kitchen lights. I looked up and saw two large moths zipping around back and forth. I instantly freaked out, pulled my sweater over my head so that if they were to fly towards me they wouldn't get stuck in my hair- and I also grabbed the broom to try and chase them outside. No luck. I got my husband involved and he had a go. He managed to get rid of one at least but the other just wouldn't die! I even had him grab the vacuum and try to suck it up while it was flying around. HAHA to think about this now and get the mental video playing back in my head makes me laugh. I wish that would have gotten a photo of me, running around the kitchen, swinging a broom all while trying to keep my head covered with my sweater and not let the moths near me. LOL

A Great New Giveaway

2011-04-26T11:01:00.003+02:00

One of the blogs that I follow, A Hot Chick Crossed with a Dirty Raver, is hosting a giveaway! Aren't giveaways always so much fun?! Well the lucky winner of this one, will be the recipient of the following goodies:

Dior Addict Lipstick in 353 Blush

Elf Lipstick 'Classy'

Chunky beaded necklace

Teardrop earrings

Body Shop Foundation Brush

Beaded bracelet

1. You must be a follower of her blog and leave a comment that you'd like to enter & your email address.

2. For an extra entry put a link in your sidebar.

3. For 3 extra entries include a link in a blog post.

Be sure to check out her blog which you can find here. Her blog is always a great read so not to be missed. Also FYI, the giveaway is open to international entries so get over there and try your luck haha.

http://iamharibo.blogspot.com/2011/04/giveaway-new-dior-addict-lipstick-loads.html

Robyn & Jered

2011-04-26T09:22:00.000+02:00

This past Easter weekend, one of my oldest and dearest friends from childhood got married. Then end of March when I heard the news from Robyn that she was getting married I was shocked for a minute, then those feelings immediately turned into joy and happiness. If I remember correctly, I think I even teared up as I read the first few words towards the end of the email that said, "This reminds me I haven't told you I'm getting married at Easter! Haha." I find this short statement funny, seems like a Robyn statement haha. As if to say oh yeah btw, i'm getting married- no biggie. IT IS A BIGGIE!

Anyhow, I'm super happy for her and only wish that I could have made it back to Canada for the wedding. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shinning, on the beach in Tofino surrounded by a few of their closest family. I think the picture above captures the day nicely- a perfect British Columbia wedding on the beach. Looks to me as though they couldn't have asked for a more perfect day!
I've seen some of the photos and they are amazing! The photographer that they chose captured the two of them perfectly I think. I've posted the link below to see some of their amazing wedding photos. Congratulations Robyn & Jered!!

http://marnierecker.com/blog/?p=2698

Motozone Malta

2011-04-14T12:33:00.001+02:00

Well the dream has finally come true. My husband will be opening his bike shop in Hamrun very soon! Its been a lot of work in a short amount of time but it is all coming together nicely. The past few weeks have been crazy busy- all the details involved in the of opening a new business, a gazillion phone calls, ordering product, finding a shop, getting it painted and ready! Lots has been done, still lots of work to go.

May 7th is the grand opening! For those of you who live in Malta, we'll be also hosting a fundraiser. Hotdogs and drinks will be available with all proceeds going to help support Noah's Ark Animal Shelter. Please tell your friends, drop by to see the new shop and of course do a little to help support the dogs at Noah's Ark! You can check out the details below for the fundraiser and grand opening:

Motozone Malta Grand Opening & Fundraiser

Festa Frawli 2011

2011-04-09T21:02:00.002+02:00

Tomorrow morning I will be heading to Imgarr to check out Festa Frawli- The strawberry festival. Ever since I first heard of this one day festival and saw photos from previous years I've wanted to go. I cannot wait! I love strawberries and to me this is just one step closer to summer! I'm planning on bringing my camera with me to hopefully capture the sights but here are a few from years past.

And here are some of the amazing things that one can find and taste while at the festival. I plan on trying many different things and bringing home some yummy treats as well. I must remember to bring my shopping bag!

Smoothies, milk shakes, desserts, gourmet dishes, snacks all prepared on the spot with fresh strawberries of course!
Home made strawberry jam, preserves, wine and other products for sale
Typical Maltese dishes and snacks like Timpana, Ftira, Bigilla, snails as well as pasta, salads all made fresh
Live folk entertainment, ethnic music, dances and local art
Hand made crafts, souvenirs, presentation and the sale of Malta's largest strawberry Gateau!
Guided tours of the nearby Ta'Hagrat Temples
Strawberry cupcake competition and much more!

Doesn't that all sound amazing?! I can't wait. Nothing like fresh strawberries, home made strawberry wine and other treats to make a happy Sunday afternoon!

Check out the website here for more info and photos from past festivals!

The Itch

2011-04-07T09:35:00.000+02:00

Now before you go thinking that title is about something bad- not to worry- its a good itch :o)

Summer is on the way. And with the beginnings of change in the weather, it has lead to a somewhat restless feeling a home. With the longer and warmer days comes thoughts of the previous summer. Days spent at the beach, sandals, shirts and tank tops, nights spent on the patio drinking wine, evenings at Numero Uno with friends, summer salads, bbq's WATERMELON haha. So many memories. I simply love summer. Though here the summers are long and hot and with that comes restless, sleepless nights, many cold showers to escape the heat, mosquitos!- I still welcome the change with open arms. There's just something about summer, its as if everyone has a change in their moods, everyone becomes more relaxed. Though now I've realized I have to start shopping for a new wardrobe! Summer office wear seems to be a bit hard to shop for for some reason, at least I think. And the fact that I walk to work everyday also proves more difficult as I need sweat friendly clothing haha! You'd be surprised (those that don't live in Malta) how hot it can be at 8am!

How Exciting

2011-03-21T12:42:00.000+01:00

This is just a quick post as I am at work right now- but maybe this will jump start myself back into the blogging world again since I've been silent for a while.

I have some exciting news, well exciting to me-perhaps not to you :)
This morning while checking my emails, I saw an email that I had received that I didn't recognize who the sender was. I was leary to open it as I'm always worried about spam and opening emails from people or companies I do not know. I decided to open this one. And its a good thing I did and not just delete it as I usually would! My mom sent me a Groupon for Photobook Canada! Now don't worry, I didn't know what the heck a Groupon was either at first. Basically its a gift card in a way to put it plainly. For those of you living in North America, you can check out the website here.

Every day, Groupon features deals on things to buy, places to eat, things to see and do that are found right in your city. Here's how it works:

Groupon will promise businesses a minimum number of customers. If the minimum amount of people sign up for a specific offer, then the site will charge your card and send you a link which you can then follow, print the offer and use. However, if not enough people join, then no one will get that deal and it is cancelled. Not to worry though, your card will not be charged. So if you find an offer you like, just click on 'buy' before that specific offer ends. Go here to read their entire FAQ's.

Anyhow, so I am a proud recipient of one of these groupon's for a company called Photobook Canada. Its one of those sites where you can upload your own photos to make a hard or soft cover book. I always said that once we received our wedding photos that I wanted to create of one these types of "coffee table books"- and now I can thanks to my wonderful Mom. Yay!

Blah Blah Blah

2011-03-19T18:26:00.000+01:00

Well its obvious that I haven't posted in a while. A long while it seems. Its not that I haven't want to and its not that I don't have a lot of stories (and pictures) to share about the past month or so because I do! its just that I haven't been able to get motivated. I've been keeping up to date on all the blogs that I follow, checking updates every day actually. I just can't seem to be bothered to post myself lately. I do apologize. Hopefully I'll get back in the mindset soon and start posting again. I've enjoyed keeping up to date on everyone elses blogs in the meantime though. So stay tunned, hopefully I'll be back real soon.

210 Miles

2011-02-22T13:15:00.001+01:00

210 miles south of Malta lies a country that is currently in crisis. That would be putting it lightly. To say that the country of Libya seems to be going in a massive downward, out of control spiral, leading to the possibility of a civil war would be much more along the lines of how it really is at the moment. Living in Malta, my eyes have been somewhat opened to the chaos and turmoil that goes on within these countries that surround our little Mediterranean island. Tunisia lies to the south west (40 min flight), Libya to the south (1 hr 30 min flight) and Egypt to the south east ( 2 hr 30 min flight). All just outside our doorstep it feels. Many in which have been in the news over the past couple of months due to similar situations. Many EU countries seem to be bracing themselves at the moment for the possibility of a mass exodus of asylum seekers, some "750,000 Libyan citizens and sub-Saharan Africans from the country towards Europe". At the moment, Frontex- which is the EU's border agency, is working on a plan to involve all 27 member states in case this very thing happens. Many countries have been flying their citizens out of Libya to safety, many flights landing in Malta.

Yesterday two Libyan fighter pilots landed their jet in Malta, requesting political asylum. They claimed that they had been ordered to bomb civilian protestors in Benghazi which only supports previous claims that military planes are being used to attack protestors that are threatening Col Muammar Gaddafi's regime. From a article I read this morning, Gaddafi had ordered his air force to bomb unarmed civilians with war planes and gunships. And after he lost control of large areas of the country, he also has hired an army of foreign mercenaries, which supposedly are being paid up to £20,000 a head, to gun down protesters from 4x4 vehicles.

I find this simply INSANE and hard to grasp! Unfortunately it is reality. Will anyone step in to help? At the moment they all seem most comfortable speaking from the offices from their own countries that they 'condemn' the violence that is happening in Libya but have not made much more of an effort towards the situation. Right now internet it being restricted in Libya but I was able to find this quote from the BBC that was sent out from a resident in Tripoli Libya, named Mohamed (also quoted in a post from Capers & Olive's blog):

"President Clinton said that the one thing he regretted during his presidency was that he didn't intervene in Rwanda. Will President Obama regret not intervening in Libya...You can stop this so please don't stand and watch us fade away."

These are very saddening and powerful words. Mohamed is right though, this can be stopped. So what is everyone waiting for? For once I find myself saying, where are the Americans (among other forces)?

The Time Has Come

2011-02-16T14:58:00.000+01:00

Well the time has come. We are going to be moving to our new place this weekend- even though the house is not ready. That's just the way it goes though. Weather-permitting, the roof will be done in the next two days then we can focus on the inside. Painting, ripping up tile, laying down tile. You know- regular renovation stuff. We will be living in a little bit of a renovation/demolition site for a while but hopefully not too long and really it will only be a couple of rooms that will be in this transition state so it won't be horrible... I hope. Unfortunately the kitchen will be one of these rooms as we are going to be ripping up the tiles and laying down new flooring.

The plan is to get everything moved over to the new place on Saturday, so this means that we have A LOT of packing to do within the next three days. With both of us working full time today and tomorrow (we are taking Friday off from work) that only leaves the evenings to pack. Then Melita is coming to the house to set up the internet, so that writes off part of Friday as well. I normally like to have everything organized, packed into labeled boxes but at this point I might just start to throw things into boxes together and deal with it. As a friend said, I can always take the time to unpack and go through everything once at the new place. She's right. Once all this is done, I'll have time to go through everything and unpack little by little. So hopefully by Saturday morning, everything will be ready to go. Then of course we have to clean the old place too. Ugh. I'll be doing some of it but we're having a cleaning lady (same one that came to the new place last weekend) come and do the floors and windows once our dog is not there. It will be so nice to not have to go back and forth between places. St.Paul's Bay to Hamrun- though not a very long drive, does get annoying when we've been doing it so often and many of those times in the evenings after we've finished working a full day.Very tiring. its all for the greater good though :o)

I will be taking some time away from the blog for a while but I will be back soon to update you all on how everything went. See you soon!

A Work in Progress

2011-02-12T21:36:00.003+01:00

We officially got the keys to our new place last week. After taking another walk through that night my head was spinning, for a few reasons. One, I couldn't wrap my head around how a house could be left in this condition, two, did people really live here like this? and three, we have A LOT of work to do and where do we even start?! Honestly I went home that night disheartened, a little upset and stressed out. Its an old Maltese townhouse, that even though a lot of work had been done previously, there is still a lot more work to be done. The main thing is that it needs a major deep clean. Its filthy. Then there are also a few other things that need to be fixed like some of the ceilings- the paint is peeling off big time. So that means that we have to reseal the roof, scrape the ceilings and repaint and seal those. The kitchen floor tiles are all broken- I don't think they were done properly in the first place. So we will also be ripping up those and refinishing the floor. Those are the main two things that need to be done. Everything else is simply cosmetic really that we can do over time.

This past Thursday was a public holiday here in Malta and I got the day off of work (yay), only to work my butt off all day at the new place. Thanks to my father-in-law, we got the backyard mostly cleaned up and the entire kitchen cleaned. That night when my husband came to pick me up after he was off work, we went around the house and cleared all the garbage and put everything to be thrown out in the front room. Ready to go for Saturday (today). One of our new friendly neighbors told us of a guy he knew that had a removal truck so we called and he came by the house today and loaded up everything and took it all away in one trip. I cannot believe how much better the place looks already now that all the junk is gone! We had a cleaning lady come in and she worked her butt off and cleaned the entire bathroom upstairs to the point where now it can actually be used. She scrubbed the bedroom and balcony as well. She is amazing! Superwoman I called her today haha. We'll have her back again sometime soon to maybe do the floors once we're done the dirty part of fixing things.

After spending two full days working non stop at the house over the past three days, I'm feeling exhausted. We're going back again tomorrow to do some more work. We have a guy coming this week to fix the roof (reseal it) and the ceilings inside upstairs. So my husband and father-in-law will have to prepare all that for him while I will continue with the cleaning downstairs. I'm amazed at how much we have achieved over the past few days. It has definitely lifted my spirits and I can definitely say that I'm not stressed about it now. Now I can go back to being excited. Oh and of course now I also have to get back to packing up our current place to actually move in a couple of weeks. A lot is going on right now around here but its all going to be worth it. Come summer we should have everything done- at least everything that is in need of fixing right away plus a few others. So maybe I should say by Christmas it will be complete!

Here are a few pictures of the new place. A few before and after shots so far. Well at least after some cleaning has been done.

The backyard, before, during and after clean up.

The living room full of junk to be thrown out!

Canning Help

2011-02-06T13:38:00.001+01:00

So recently I've decided that I would like to try my hand at canning. Growing up, every year my mom and grandmother would can during the summer. Everything from jams and jellies, to peaches, pears, green beans, pickles. I'd like to try canning some fruit this summer I think; make jam and perhaps even try my hand at making some garlic dill pickles since I have not been able to find any here in Malta that I think are very good or are the type that I am used to and have grown to dearly miss. I have my grandmothers recipe that I LOVE so perhaps that will be my first task. Dill pickles. Mmmm.

Anyhow, so where do I even begin to find supplies? Anyone living in Malta do any canning? Could you offer suggestions as to where to find the supplies that I would need? I think a pressure cooker would be the best and safest method compared to water boiling. That is what I have read at least- also the pressure cooker allows you to use it as a water boiler too so really its like having 2-in-1. Then I could do both jams, fruits and vegetables and not be limited as with using the water boiling method. And exactly what all do I need to even begin to tackle this haha?

Let the Packing Commence

2011-01-28T19:58:00.000+01:00

Well tonight we officially signed the papers for the house. It wasn't too painful of a process; very meticulously and by the book everything was read over-aloud- and signed for. A few laughs were shared, some money exchanged and hands were shaken. Its now a done deal! Now to start packing. Although I wouldn't go so far as to say that packing is fun, I do enjoy throwing stuff out! I tend to go through things that I've accumulated every so often and do a little clear out of junk, things I no longer use, clothing I no longer wear etc. So over the next little while I'll be doing this again. I've already started a little bit a week or so ago. I have a handful of boxes already packed and ready to go, a few garbage bags of junk to get rid of and a huge bag of clothes to donate-if I can find somewhere to take them. Now that the end is in clear sight it means that we can really get to it. Anything we're not using on a regular basis, kitchen items, clothing we're not wearing will get packed and sealed. I wouldn't go so far as to say we'll be living out of a suitcase of course but I'm going to keep out only the minimal stuff to be used as I hate throwing things into boxes and containers at the last second. I much rather have everything tucked neatly into boxes with labels on the outside referring to what is inside.

Next week some time we should get the keys so then we can go over to the new place, do a proper valuation of what needs to be done and do some cleaning. Once that's complete we'll take our time moving our things over a bit at a time until the end of the month comes and we'll finally be free of our current flat and moved into our new HOME.

Blog2Print

2011-01-26T16:27:00.001+01:00

I came across this website this afternoon and I HAD to share it with you. The website is called Blog2Print. Basically you input all the required details of your blog and then it creates a soft or hard cover book. An entire book of your blog posts! How cool is that?! You can choose from many different colors and designs for the outside of the book as well as how the layout works. So if you only want from a certain date range to be published, or every single post. You can also choose to have your readers comments printed as well. Even your pictures that you posted will be included.

I think this is such a great, fun idea- a great gift idea actually! The price is quite affordable too starting from $14.95 for a soft cover, 20-page book. If you have more pages or depending on the options you choose the price then goes up from there. I think I'm going to definitely think about doing this one day. Would be a great keepsake I think. Specifically say if you had a blog based upon a certain time in your life, like your pregnancy to birth- or you relationship from dating to marriage, etc. Obviously anything goes I'm just spouting off a few ideas here. How neat would it be to look back some day when your old and grey at your life stories and experiences that you once wrote about on a silly little thing called the internet and share it with family and friends etc. I'm sold. One day, I will definitely do this and create it just how I want.

For those of you on Facebook, they also have a page which can be found here.

Expat-blog.com Blog of the Month!

2011-01-21T15:52:00.001+01:00

Look what honor I received the other day...expat-blog.com's Blog of the month for January 2011!

Believe me I was quite surprised when I saw the email in my inbox and to be honest I'm still a little bit shocked. Its a great award and a great compliment by other fellow expats so I'll take it! They gave me a fancy "blog of the month" logo for my blog *see over to the top right side of my blog column* and also published an interview with me on their website. I'm not usually one to toot my own horn (at least not very much) but this was very unexpected and a nice surprise so I'll toot it just this once ;o)

If you care to check out the interview or even their website go here for a quick read.

First Milestones of 2011

2011-01-20T22:25:00.000+01:00

We're almost through the first month of 2011. I swear, the older I get the faster time flies by! The days are starting to get longer, spring will soon be here! In one months time we will have been living in Malta for one full year. I can't believe it has almost been a year already- where has the time gone?! This past year has been a new experience for us. Though one that I can honestly say has been a good experience, no regrets what so ever. I can't wait to see what 2011 will bring.

That being said, we are about to begin a new adventure. In one months time, March first, we will be leaving our flat in St.Paul's Bay (yay! though we have yet to break the news to our current landlords- yikes!) and moving into a townhouse in Hamrun. We will have an entire house, no more flat living for us and we couldn't be more excited. This townhouse will bring us much joy, though possibly a few headaches as well due to the age of the home. This townhouse is at least 100 years old. At least. I suppose you could classify it as a "character home". Old stone walls, spiral staircase, old tile floors. There is even a weird hidden staircase that spirals up the through the house from the kitchen all the way up to the roof. And guess what, when you hit the second floor, you'll find a toilet there before carrying on up to the roof. Weird hey! The bathroom on the second floor only has a shower and a sink but there is a door in this bathroom that opens up onto the hidden staircase. So I suppose the toilet that you find off to the side in the staircase is part of the bathroom? Within the next few weeks we'll be able to get into the house, start doing a mass cleaning of the place and fix a few things before we move in. Redoing the bathroom on the second floor will be one of the main things that we want to do in the house first. Ideally we'd like to get a tub in there instead of the shower but at the same time I would much prefer to have a toilet in the bathroom than in a secret staircase! So we'll see what we decide in the end.

Hopefully in a few weeks time we'll be able to get in there, have a good look around, take it all in. I'll also be sure to take a lot of photos and I'll share them with you. Eventually do a before and after post on what we end up doing in the house. Because it is a very old home and I love the look of the stone and original features, we won't do too much to take away from all that. Of course there will be things that need to be fixed and updated a little bit but we hope to do it in a way that will not take away from the over all feel and look of the place. I can't wait to move and start this new chapter in our life in Malta!

On a side note, the photo above is of a stone mile marker found here. Malta was besieged during WWII. More bombs were dropped by the Germans and Italians on this tiny island in the middle of the Mediterranean than on London during the blitz!. When Malta was awarded the George Cross for bravery in April 1942, invasion by the Nazis seemed imminent. So one of the precautions taken to prepare for the invasion of the Germans, was to obliterate any information on the milestones.You can see that the distance and destinations have been chipped out of the rock. All the remaining historical milestonse are defaced in the same way.

Simmering Scents

2011-01-13T13:58:00.001+01:00

While going through and catching up on some of the blogs that I follow this afternoon (not exactly a busy day in the office hehe) I came across this one post about simmering potpourri's by Amanda Biringer over at Spatula's and Spoons. http://adventuresofspoonsandspatulas.blogspot.com/2011/01/homemade-simmering-potpourri.html

I thought this was such a great and easy way to scent your home that I couldn't believe that I hadn't thought of this before, or at least I don't remember ever coming across an idea like this as its not exactly a new idea most likely. Anyhow, so I got to Googling as I always do with EVERYTHING, and came across a few great recipes to try out. Although many would be best for a holiday-type potpourri, I'm going to continue to search for others as well that could be used all year round. If I find anything I'll let you know. In the meantime here are a few that came across today, and if any of you have done this before and also have a great recipe for homemade potpourri, then please feel free to share them with me.

Apple Cider - this one is also edible!

*apple cider, enough to fill a large soup pot
*one apple, cut horizontally to make circular round slices, 1/2 inch thick
*one orange, cut into round slices, 1/2 inch thick
*3 whole cinnamon sticks
*6 whole cloves
*6 whole allspice berries
*one 2 inch piece of ginger root, cut into small rounds

*place all ingredients into a large soup pot and bring to a simmer, then reduce and allow to simmer uncovered, adding apple cider as the liquid evaporates.

Citrus Simmering Potpourri

*1 cup cinnamon sticks, whole
*1 cup orange petals, whole
*1/4 cup lemon or grapefruit peels
*1/8 cup allspice, whole
*3 cups lemon verbena leaves, whole
*1 cup chrysanthemum flowers, whole
*1 3/4 cups orange peels, cut and sifted, about 1/2-3/4 inch
*1/8 cup cloves, whole
*2 cups lemongrass, cut to about 1/2 inch

*for oil, use 1/8 ounce lemon essential oil, 1/2 ounce sweet orange essential oil, 1/8 ounce tangerine essential oil and 1/8 ounce cinnamon bark essential oil.

Fruity Simmering Potpourri

*1 /12 cups orange peels, cut and sifted, about 1/2-3/4 inch
*1 cup anise star, whole
*1/4 cup cardamom pods
*2 cups cinnamon chips
*1 cup apple pieces
*1/2 cup mace, whole
*1/4 cup allspice, whole
*1/4 cup cloves, whole

*for oil, use 1/2 ounce apple fragrance, 1/8 ounce cinnamon bark essential oil OR use 3/4 ounce spicy apple fragrance.

New Year Goals! Not Resolutions

2011-01-10T14:23:00.001+01:00

Normally I never make new years resolutions and I wasn't even going to post about the subject but I guess you could say that I have somewhat succumbed to it this year. I'm sure that many have made the "typical" resolutions to eat better, exercise more and to begin to save money and I suppose you could say that in a sense I have also made those very same ~~resolutions~~ goals. But more so, those are things that I attempt to do non stop year round. I don't need the start of a new year to tell me to get my act together. Although coming from a person that in the past, when it comes to dieting and exercising, likes to start things at the beginning of a new week and never mid week, perhaps starting at the beginning of a new year makes sense.

I'm not making a resolution to diet. I'm setting a goal to just eat better and to try and be more conscious of what I eat, how late at night I eat and also what we buy at the grocery store. I'm definitely not going to make a resolution to exercise because, well, I know how that will turn out. A few days into it and something will come up and I'll miss a day. Then it turns into two days, then a week, next thing you know its been months! So I will set a goal to simply get out of the house more, take my dog for more walks. Walking is good. And as for saving money, well I feel sorry for my kids one day (I don't have any yet) when I die. I'm sure there won't be much haha! You can't take it with you so why not enjoy life? I'm not saying to spend money like water or go completely nuts! But if you want that shirt you've been eyeing in the shop- get it. If you want to go out for dinner more often- then go for it. Of course, be conscious of your spending, you don't want to get out of control and run into debt but if you have it, or have a little extra I should say, enjoy it a little. Though a bit of savings IS a good idea :o)

I guess my goals this year (I'm not a fan of the word 'resolution') would be the above mentioned plus add some much needed travel into the mix. Which we will be doing this year! Scotland/Ireland for two weeks this coming September. Perhaps a shorter quick trip somewhere during the year too-destination undetermined. Overall I look forward to this year though. Last year was a big year for me as you know so I'm interested to see what this year brings to follow it up.

No Words

2011-01-06T10:52:00.000+01:00

I've been sitting here for the past 15 minutes, not knowing how to communicate how I feel about something. I can't find the words and can honestly say that I am a bit of a mess at the moment. Its a good thing that no one is in the office right now! Please have a look at the links below, read the articles. See the photos.

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101228/bc_fatal_crash_101228/20101228?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

http://www.vancouverite.com/2010/12/29/mission-dad-killed-in-crash-wife-and-four-children-taken-to-hospital/

Growing up we went to church every Sunday. The family in the article was part of our church. I was young but I remember when they got married and started having kids. I remember their first two children being born (I think). Then I got older, moved away, no longer attended that church. But even though I may have been somewhere else in my life and in the world, it seems that I always tended to hear things about the people I once knew that also went to that church. Updates on who got married, who had children, who is living where, who has fallen sick and of course, who has passed away.

The day after this tragic accident happened I heard about it and I was in shock. I was never close to this family, never even spoke to them that much really but knew them for years because they were apart of the same church that I grew up in. For lack of a better word, its funny how hearing the news from so far away about a family that you hardly truly knew, can make you so emotional. Of course its a tragic thing that happened and anyone would be affected my hearing this news. Though when you once knew those involved, it somehow changes everything. Reading the few news articles on the accident tears were shed. I couldn't believe this happened and of course around Christmas. My father died when I was 12 years old a few days before Christmas and his father (my grandfather) only a few short months before that. I know other people also that have experienced similar tragedies around the holiday season. Regardless of when things happen like this its horrible, though when its during the holidays, to me at least, its just that much worse.

Please pray for this family. The wife and mother of these four children, I can't even imagine what she is going through and how she is able to go on right now. Until now I didn't feel that it was right or my place to post about this on my blog. To a degree I still feel that way, not all things are meant to be shared in such a public place and perhaps with people from around the world. Before I started writing this post however, I had just finished reading two blog posts that were written by the wife of the man that died in the crash. She has started a blog in order to keep the many people who knew them, love them and continue to be there for the family, informed. I started with the first post, the one titled "Update on my children" which is her very first one. I didn't make it very far before I started to cry while reading of all the horrible injuries her four children have suffered. She gives an update on each child as well as herself. And lastly, she writes of her husband. Here is her post:

http://gillianb-journeying.blogspot.com/2011/01/update-on-my-children.html

At this point I lost it. As I sit here writing, trying to see the screen of my computer through the tears as I was when I was reading her post, all I can say is to please keep them in your prayers and in your thoughts and of course full recoveries for everyone!

2010-12-30T18:58:00.001+01:00

Well another year is coming to a close. Out with 2010and in with 2011. I still find it funny at times to think that we are soon to be in the year 2011. When I was younger any year past 2000 seemed so futuristic and so far away. But yet here we are and we're not all living in space. Well I suppose technically you could say we are, we live on a giant planet floating in space...but I won't get into all that.

This year has passed by in a blink of an eye it seems. Where the heck did it go? 2010 has brought many changes though for me. I left everything I knew, sold everything I owned and moved to a new country- a small island country at that! I've also gotten married, adopted a dog from a shelter, lost 30 pounds, started working full time again, got into a motorcycle accident and made it through my first Christmas in Malta. Now 2011 is knocking on my door and I have no clue what the coming year will bring. Hopefully good things and nothing that I can't handle. The only thing I know for sure is that we'll be taking two weeks and traveling to Scotland in September for the wedding of some very good friends of ours and then also to Ireland (post-dated honeymoon). This trip has been planned basically since we found out our friends were getting married in Edinburgh! Can't wait! Other than that, celebrating our first wedding anniversary, oh and perhaps maybe I'll be turning 30 this year :o( who knows what the year will bring?!

Just in case I do not post tomorrow though, I want to wish everyone a very happy new year and hope that you enjoy the celebrations tomorrow night- whether you will be enjoying a quiet night in or going out and really celebrating until the wee hours! Have a very happy and prosperous new year!

Until Next Year

2010-12-28T20:14:00.001+01:00

Well Christmas has come and gone in a blink of an eye. This is the first year that I have felt that all the craziness, mass preparations and stress of it all seemed a little pointless. To be honest, this Christmas didn't seem like Christmas at all to me. Yes I put up some decorations at home, changed my blog layout to fit the season, did some baking and made a big turkey dinner but now that it is all over for another year, I catch myself wondering for the first time, why all the fuss? Normally I love this time of year. I love to decorate the house, do a little baking, watch Christmas shows, even cooking a huge feast that lasts all of 20 minutes after spending multiple days preparing. I thought that I had found my Christmas spirit this year but now looking back I don't believe that I did. I found a hint of it but that was it. I'm sorry if you find this post to be a bit of a downer on the holiday season but I'm just sharing with you the truth- I'm not looking for sympathy or anything haha just telling it like it was for me this year is all. So all I can hope is that next year will be much better and feel more like Christmas. I think it might. This was our first Christmas here in Malta and though it might not have been all I had hoped it hasn't deterred me in any way. As always I'll look forward to next years holiday season and prepare all over again for ONE day. I will after all have a full year to get my act together and feel more prepared than this year. And I am definitely going to get a tree next year too! I don't care that I have a dog that gets into everything and the fact that he'll probably somehow wreck the tree. it just means I have to put a bit more thought into it is all and make sure its somehow a bit doggy proof- if that can even exist. I'll figure something out because I am definitely getting a tree!

As most other bloggers, I've taken a few days away from blogging myself. During this time I've managed to create a nice permanent indent on the sofa! I've really done nothing this past week. I did a bit of clothes shopping one afternoon (this shop is literally 1 1/2 blocks away- maybe- from our flat) and bought myself a bunch of nice tops as well as an outfit for new years. At least I think I'll be wearing the outfit for new years, we'll see if I change my mind by then! I've been playing my addictive Facebook games, Frontier Ville and City Ville A LOT, taken my dog for walks. And of course the inevitable and never ending, cleaning and laundry. I've also been keeping tabs and reading all of the blogs that I follow and it has been nice to see that everyone has had a wonderful Christmas season, spent with family and friends and also see that Santa was good to many of you too!

Now the new year approaches us, cannot believe it will soon be 2011! This will be a big year I think. 2011 for me will bring a few milestones. I will have been living in Malta for 1 year (end of February); I will be turning 30 years old! (July 24th-omg); My first wedding anniversary (July 31st). Those are ones that I know of. Lets see what else 2011 will bring!

2010-12-21T21:43:00.001+01:00

Today was my last day in the office. I am now officially on Christmas break and I don't go back until January 3rd! We're not going anywhere or really even doing anything during this time (my husband is still working) but it will still be really nice to just relax, catch up on some sleep and anything else I want to do really. I might do a little bit of shopping, or sit at home and just relax, read a good book, take the dog for walks, get my hair cut. Oh and look for an outfit for New Years Eve. Ugh. I like shopping most of the time, except for when I'm looking for something specific or for a certain occasion. Then it gets frustrating. But all that seems to pretty much sums up my Christmas break I think. Over the next few days I'll be preparing for Christmas dinner which will be here at our place. A little bit of baking is in order I think. I made a few things a couple of weeks ago but it seems to have all disappeared now haha. The turkey is ordered (we pick it up on the 24th-hopefully its not frozen!), all the little things like the tablecloth, centerpiece, extra dishes are purchased. Now all that's left to do is to buy the remainder of the food that we need for our Christmas feast. I'm not doing anything crazy this year, just the basics really, so hopefully it won't be too stressful. I think everything should go smoothly with a little planning. It should be interesting since we have a smaller fridge and tiny freezer! I'm used to having a huge fridge and freezer to store everything.

What are you doing over Christmas break...if you are lucky enough to have some time off?

Its Cold!

2010-12-16T14:58:00.001+01:00

I would LOVE to have one of these foot soaks right now. Just keep it under my desk at work, nice and warm! Its quite cold here in Malta at the moment. The temperature today is only +10 (but feels like +5 according to the weather info). To most of you that might not be cold at all and you may even be laughing at me this very moment. Believe me I understand and I won't blame you. It seems that I have become somewhat of a wuss with the cold weather since moving to Malta. This morning I even wore my mittens to work. I never thought that I would need them here and I'm not even sure why I brought them in the first place but I am sure glad that I did. With the high percentage of humidity here it makes the cold creep right into your bones and it doesn't leave. With our poorly insulated homes and a lack of central heating it makes for some very chilly nights. I am currently going to bed with socks, pyjama pants, a tank top and a light weight hoodie! Mind you some of those layers do come off in the middle of the night. Well, only the socks actually. This morning I just could not warm up once I got to work. Our office is warm compared to the rest of the building and outside but when you are trying to shake the chills its just not warm enough. Its currently 2:30 in the afternoon and I'm still feeling like I have ice blocks for feet and hands. Even after three cups of tea! Now I happen to be in the office alone today and that being said, I had to do something to warm up. We have a bathtub in our office bathroom. I'm not sure why. I'm thinking this building used to be flats and the owner converted it into individual offices for different companies. For some reason we also don't seem to have any running hot water. So what's a girl to do when she's freezing cold, alone in the office and can't seem to warm up? I've boiled a few kettles of water and poured it into the bathtub. I rolled up my pants, took my thin cold socks off and stuck my feet right in! Instantly I felt so much better and I can now say that I am beginning to thaw and the coldness is slowly leaving. YAY!

***Quick Update***

I'm still freezing! I need a hot bath when I get home I think tonight.

Christmas Dinner

2010-12-12T13:30:00.000+01:00

So I found out last night that we will be hosting Christmas dinner at our place this year. !!!!!
I'm okay with this but I must be a little honest in that I had a little freak out. At least I have just under 2 weeks to get everything ready but with working during the week it doesn't really leave much time to prepare. I had told my boss that I'd work up until the 22nd but now I think I'm going to change that to the 17th instead so that I have enough time to prepare.

This morning I sat down and planned out the Christmas meal. I wrote down everything I want to make from pre dinnner appetizers to the main meal, dessert and drinks. At least that part isn't too hard because everyone usually has their Christmas dinner staples that they make. That's the easy part. The stressful part is getting everything and figuring out where to put it all! Our fridge is not that big and our freezer is tiny with no room already. This is when it would be nice to be somewhere a little colder so I can just stick the food outside haha. Not only do we need to buy all the food and ingredients to make everything, I also need to get out and buy items like serving ware, dishes to put the food in etc. We don't really have any of that so I'll definitely be making another trip to theTal Lira shop very very soon. I have tomorrow off due to another public holiday but I'm unsure that the shop would be open on a holiday!? Maybe I'll be heading there today then. Let the insane festivities begin!

What a day!

2010-12-11T16:40:00.001+01:00

Well today has been a busy day. Its Saturday, a day off, a day of rest and yet I was up at 7am! Don't worry if I didn't need to be up I would have simply rolled over and gone back to sleep. This morning we had some running around to do though so up and at em' early. First off, I got my Maltese ID card! Woohoo! I'm slowly on the road to being a permanent fixture in Malta haha. Now I just have to apply for a new Canadian passport, then I will go get my residency permit sticker put in the passport. Normally they don't do it this way but since my passport is damaged and we raised a bit of a fuss etc... they let me get my ID card here BEFORE having a residency permit hehe. When I eventually get my new passport I'll just bring it to Castille, show it to them and then i'll get the all important sticker. Can't wait for it all to be done! Hopefully not much longer though.

After that we continued driving all around running errands, seeing people, a stop in at JB's in Iklin. You know, I have never been into that store before and its great! I knew what it was and have heard lots about it, I've just never taken the time to stop in. There are some really great finds there. They even have clothing-some of which is pretty nice though a little over priced I think for some items! Anyhow, we picked up a couple of pyrex baking dishes, a knife set and a fleece jacket for the Mr. He asks me, "is there anything else we need?" Silly question I replied, in a store like this there is ALWAYS things that I would like and could buy. But I was good. I came out with only two things for myself, a new scarf- sort of to replace the one that I burnt the other night while cooking and a black clutch wallet. Most importantly today, I FINALLY got EVERYTHING that I have been needing to mail so desperately mailed! So for those that have been waiting for a very long time for your blog giveaway gifts, they are on the way :o) I also got most of our wedding thank you cards sent and a few Christmas cards.

And of course what would be a busy Saturday without an incident from Shane at home. While we were out and about, Shane decided to clean out my shoes for me. We came in the door, my husband looked around, looked into our bedroom and just the way that he stopped and said, "ahhh hun?" I knew something had been damaged...again. I guess in the morning rush, I inadvertently had left my closet door open. Almost ALL of my shoes were out on the floor, in a mess. Debris everywhere. After a quick freak out at the sight of my shoe collection scattered all over the bedroom floor and doing a quick match up, in the end Shane ended up destroying three pairs of shoes completely. Another pair he ruined the laces but the shoes are fine thank god and then a pair of leather boots. The heels are chewed up a bit, and the bottom was popped off. The boots can be salvaged since their really not bad, just scuffed up a bit on the heal. But the leather boot part is actually fine and in tact! Now I also need to go shoe shopping at some point.

Ugh, what a day. What a day! After all that I cleaned up the house, swept and washed the floors and made apple crisp, which I'm enjoying now with a cup of tea before we head out again for a Christmas party.

Holiday Baking

2010-12-08T21:12:00.001+01:00

Well I spent today's Maltese holiday, the feast of the immaculate conception, doing some Christmas baking. Holiday baking on a holiday. I didn't really know what I wanted to bake when I woke up but then as I sat and enjoyed my morning cup of coffee (from my new coffee maker!) I started to think about all the baking that I would typically find around the house this time of the year when I was growing up. Nanaimo bars and sugar cookies were the main two. So today I decided to make Nanaimo bars and then see what happens from there. I went out and got all the ingredients that I didn't have already and came home to remember that I didn't have any kind of 9x9 dish. Crap! So I just went with it and made three smaller pans in the small foil bread pans you can buy that are disposable. Seems to have turned out just fine, though I have yet to cut them into squares so it could easily turn out bad. We'll see. I also then decided to make these other cookies called Jeweled Thumbprints that I have never made before. I found the recipe in my Taste of Home Baking cookbook. I only had to make one substitution, I changed almond extract to vanilla extract (only because I didn't have any almond in the house) and they turned out pretty good! Next time I would try it with the almond extract though, just to see the difference. I think they would be a bit sweeter perhaps. Anyhow they are just a simple, white cookie with jam in the middle. Super easy to make! I used strawberry jam in some and apricot in the others. Pretty tasty. Here are a picture of the jeweled thumbprints. I'll take some of the other squares once they have set properly. I just checked one of them and I'm thinking that either 1) they aren't set since the middle layer is pretty runny or 2) I somehow screwed them up. It middle doesn't look quite right. Oh well. Here's a link on cookie storage as well that I came across.

An Amazing Dinner..... for One

2010-12-06T21:13:00.001+01:00

Tonight I decided to use all my fabulous ingredients that I received in my Christmas hamper that I posted about the other day to make a wonderful meal for my husband and I. After starting to prepare I found out that he's actually working a late shift tonight. Ugh. So a nice dinner for two quickly turned into a nice dinner for one. Disappointing but my mistake in thinking he was working until a decent hour today. Oh well.

Anyhow, after a small fiasco while cooking... a quick word of advice, don't lean over a lit gas stove to stir a pot on the back burner while wearing a scarf. It will probably catch on fire!! Not to worry, it wasn't a blazing fire. Though it did burn off a couple of tassels on my favorite scarf . Which only means that I get to go scarf shopping sometime soon! But back to my dinner for one. I cooked a bit of Maltese sausage and mixed the red pesto sauce in with the cooked fettuccine. Sooooo good. To top it all off, a nice glass of the Pinot Noir while watching Brothers and Sisters.

That fettuccine is THE BEST fettuccine that I have every had! It was so light...just perfect! I will definitely be making a trip to The White Sheep to buy more as well as the red pesto. I definitely recommend picking these items up if you happen to take a trip to this shop one day...if you live in Malta :o)

Possibly the best Christmas hamper I've recieved!

2010-12-05T15:14:00.001+01:00

Look what my boss gave me for Christmas on Friday before I left the office! Its a Christmas hamper from a shop in Gzira called The White Sheep. So far their website isn't quite up and running at full capacity but have a look anyhow if you wish. Also check them out on twitter.

It looks like a very interesting shop! All sorts of specialty items. This is a picture of the contents of my hamper, I couldn't wait to share this, I love it. I hope to make a trip over to the shop soon to see all the other fine items they have. Have any of my followers in Malta been to this shop before?

Inside the plain brown box with simple cream colored ribbon I found all sorts of treasures from Tuscany. A bottle of Pinot Noir and extra virgin olive oil; jars of Seggiano red pesto pasta sauce, raw artichoke and fig & grape chutney. A box of Bonci il Panpepato, La Campofilone fettuccine and salt & pepper brigantini. Doesn't all of this sound amazing?!

I'm not a fan of the raw artichoke, so I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet, I opened it it try it...yeah not a fan at all. Oh well. The salt & pepper brigantini is also different but not bad. I can't wait to make dinner one night using every thing else though. Mmmmm, red pesto pasta and a bottle of Pinot Noit. Sounds good to me! And last night while watching tv, sipping tea with a craving for something sweet- I opened up the il Panpepato. YUM! It definitely has an interesting taste but very good! For those that might not know what it is, its hard to describe. Its an Italian desert consisting of candied melon, orange peel, dried figs, sweet almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, honey, spices and dark chocolate. It has a dense chewy consistency. Very tasty though. At first I wasn't sure about it but now I'm quite enjoying it. I may have to have a look for more of this when I eventually go to The White Sheep.

A Touch of Christmas

2010-12-04T18:11:00.000+01:00

I'm so annoyed! I just finished making some changes to this post that I added earlier today and I accidently deleted it!!! ARGH! So here's a very short, pictorial version of my previous post :o)

So here are some pictures of the great finds that I ended up finding this morning while on my Christmas decoration shopping trip! Overall even though its not a huge transformation and a lot of decorations, I'm happy with it and I think it adds a nice Christmas/winter feel to the living/kitchen area of our flat. Who knows, I might even go out again sometime this week to find a few more items. I really wanted white Christmas lights but I couldn't find them this morning, only colored ones. Which I ended up buying but when I got them home I realized that they are short strands and you cannot plug them into one another to make longer strands! A little annoying and disappointing but oh well.

The Christmas Spirit

2010-12-04T00:02:00.000+01:00

This evening, while its cold and windy outside, I've spent my time sitting on our sofa, bundled up in warm clothes, the gas heater on, drinking Second Cup's vanilla bean hot chocolate. I really should have brought more than one can of this from Canada! As you know I'm finding it hard to get into Christmas this year. With a lack of snow and in its place relatively warm weather its been quite weird. This evening though I think I've started to head in the right direction even though it may be a small step.

I've spent the evening updating my blog. As you've noticed there's now a nice warm Christmas feel to it as well as music, a count down Christmas tree and even snow falling! For the past hour I've been searching for music to add to my play list. Its been nice sitting here listening to Christmas music while relaxing and working away at the same time. Its definitely lifted my spirits somewhat at least. Tomorrow I plan on heading to Mosta to go to a few shops for decorations. I can't wait actually, I'm really looking forward to it! I would love to find a small tree (and I mean small-something I can put on top of our tv entertainment unit away from the dog!), garland and white lights. Those things are on the top of my shopping list. Hopefully the shopping trip will be a success and I can jump on here to share my finds and how I decorated the flat! Other things I'm looking forward to doing is sitting down and watching all the classic Christmas programs that I grew up watching as a child. I haven't looked yet but I'm pretty sure I brought them with me! What's Christmas without watching Charlie Brown's Christmas, Garfield's Christmas and the 1964 classic, Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer! I'm also going to try and do some baking too. Nothing crazy but just a few staples in our household. Nanimo bars, mmmmm and sugar cookies.
I hope you all have a great weekend and are preparing and adjusting for the busy Christmas season as well!

Updates on TM Bomb

2010-12-03T12:02:00.000+01:00

Scanning the papers today I came across a few more updated articles about the bombing at the Malta Transport office that happened yesterday morning. My thoughts and prayers are with 74 year old Major Peter Ripard, a traffic consultant that was in the middle of a meeting in his office at the time of the blast, as I learned he has lost his left leg in the blast! And of course thoughts are also with his family at this time.

Please see the links below to read up on more detailed information as to what happened here yesterday.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101203/local/blast-maims-traffic-expert

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101203/local/terror-at-transport-malta-offices

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101202/local/explosion-in-transport-malta-offices-two-injured

Bombs in Malta

2010-12-02T17:11:00.002+01:00

Well this morning started off for me with a bang- literally! I was at work, sitting at my desk then all of the sudden I heard (and felt) this loud explosion. I went to the window and looked out across the way and I could see a cloud of white smoke above a building. As it turns out, a bomb went off at the Transport Malta offices. I can see the building from my office which is just across the water. So I'm fairly close. Don't ask me why because I don't know but we have a telescope in our office. So I turned to face it towards the building and I couldn't see much. But as time went by and the police, bomb squad, military and fire brigade all turned up at the location... I started to see some activity. Through the telescope I could all said authorities, searching the area behind the building. It was quite interesting to watch. I could see them scanning the area for clues and evidence. Men dressed in their white plastic suits and blue shoe covers. Military in full uniform, even a search dog with one of the police officers. Supposedly the blast was heard from quite a distance.

To read more on what happened today check out the articles online from The Times of Malta: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101202/local/explosion-in-transport-malta-offices-two-injured

A Dull Christmas?

2010-12-01T23:16:00.001+01:00

I'll admit it, I miss the snow...but only for this month. This will be my first green Christmas in a VERY long time and its weird. I'm finding it hard to get into the Christmas spirit. I haven't really decorated at all besides a few small candles and a paper lantern. Its a little depressing and dull. Usually there would be tons of snow, it would be cold (in Canada). You would find me on a weekend in my cozy warm house, watching Christmas shows, scented candles lit, baking and decorating. *sigh* This is the first time that I have felt that I truly miss something since moving here. Its hard to explain the feeling but if any of you have experienced Christmas somewhere else then maybe you understand.

I just want to get out to the shops and go crazy on decorations and a tree but I'm holding myself back. A follower of my blog, Doreen, pointed out that I shouldn't go too crazy now but instead wait until we have our own place one day. She has a point I think. We're renting right now, the flat we're in, though nice and very spacious, has lost its appeal to me. It just doesn't have that "home" feel and I want to move out eventually. That being said, it doesn't mean that I can't make what we have "work" though right? I want it to feel like Christmas at least a little bit. So this weekend my plan is to get out to the shops and see what I can find. My bus passes a few of the tal lira shops everyday and I always look to see what they have as we pass by. So I think I'll start there. Plus it will save me a bit of money too maybe. I just want a touch of winter and Christmas in our flat. I see that many homes and shop windows have lights up now as well as Christmas trees and other decorations and to see them brings a bit of cheer.If I end up getting anything this weekend I'll be sure to post and share my finds! What , if anything, are you doing to decorate for Christmas?

If Ever!

2010-11-30T19:13:00.000+01:00

If ever there was a day that I needed to drink a glass of wine or two after work, today would be that day. It was an expensive day for me. I managed to knock over my cup of coffee right on to my Mac wireless keyboard AND get it onto my Microsoft Zune at the same time. Are you kidding me?! Its a piss off enough that it so far has seemingly ruined my 8GB Zune that I recently started to use again every day to and from work on the bus. But to mainly dump coffee right on to the keyboard??!! Yeah, that's just PERFECT. And of course because it is a Mac and its one of the new small pretty wireless keyboard that means that they are pricier than the average keyboard. The few places that do sell Apple computers, parts and accessories in Malta, sell them for about €80! But if I could get one out of the UK they would possibly be around €20-30 cheaper it looks like. Of course I had to call and tell my boss. THAT was fun and nerve wracking. I put it off for a few hours, tried to clean and dry out the keyboard...see if anything changed etc. But no. It's completely screwed. Almost every single key types something different than it should. It is impossible to get even a couple of words correct let alone a full sentence! My boss actually responded pretty well though (he's a really nice and laid back guy), he said not to worry about it; its just the keyboard not the actual mini Mac.When I told him though, a couple small choice words snuck out of his mouth haha (*crap!*) but not horrible and they weren't being aimed at me. I still feel horrible though and offered to buy a new one which of course my boss refused. But I may see what I can find regardless. I think I might also be purchasing one of those rubber keyboard covers just in case. Ugh, what a day!

Quest for the Perfect Brownie

2010-11-28T15:34:00.004+01:00

Yesterday I was on a quest to find a really good brownie recipe. In Canada you can buy these two bite brownies that come in a brown paper looking bag.

They have a gooey dense consistency that makes them super yummy and addictive! Well they don't sell them here obviously so I was on a quest. I put it out there, on facebook, and a few people responded back with a couple of recipes to try out.

This is the first recipe I decided to try literally about 30 minutes ago. They turned out really well. Not exactly the consistency I was looking for but I think that it could possibly be reached if I simply adjusted the baking time from 12-15 minutes as recommended to maybe 10-12 instead. Next time around I'll try that and see how they turn out. But if you are looking for a very simple and quick recipe for brownies this is a good one I'd say to try. It can be found on this blog called The Hungry Teacher. I've never heard of this blog before but I was looking through all the posts and all the recipes on there seem VERY yummy. A great find thanks to my friend that passed it onto me :o)

Presents from the UK!

2010-11-25T21:39:00.006+01:00

Last week my husband hopped on a plane and flew to the England with the purpose of buying us a new car. Well he did and he drove it all the way back to Malta and made amazing time! He brought a friend of his with him so at least the two guys could share the driving all the way back otherwise of course it would have taken much longer to get back to Malta and it would have really done a toll on my husband even more so! They left Malta Thursday night and were back in Malta again with the new car Sunday night. That is one crazy and fast road trip. They would have been back Saturday night but they got stuck in a parking lot- aka- London traffic- for three hours! Which I've heard is quite normal depending on the time of day you are trying to get out of the city. They drove from England, through France (rude arrogant French people), onto Switzerland (beautiful, crazy long tunnels through mountains, loved it minus the 40 Swiss francs they had to pay in order to drive on their roads paid to some boarder patrol guy with a machine gun dressed in all black!), Italy (dirty, looked like a dump in most areas according to my husband though I'd like to reserve the right to decide that for myself one day) and then finally onto Sicily (nicer than Italy) before getting onto the ferry to head back to Malta. So in a nutshell that was his journey from England to Malta with the new car (which I'll post a couple pictures of soon).

And now onto the next great part of his trip- gifts from Asda! I finally now feel as though I'm starting to have an equipped kitchen again. It was a little depressing leaving/selling/donating EVERYTHING that I/we, had worked so hard at to accumulate over the years when we moved. My kitchen was completely set, I had everything. And of course a lot of it was matchy-matchy( in stainless steel or black) which I'm sure you know by now (or maybe not) that I like stuff to match. Everything from beauty products to kitchen appliances haha! So my husband brought back some great things from Asda for us: coffee machine, microwave, vacuum cleaner, electric kettle, a pot set, a food processor, the new xbox Kinect (so weird and futuristic but awesome!) and then a few other things like an great new long black jacket for me and a pair of Ugg-style boots (perfect slippers for here the winter months in the freezing cold flat!). I must tell the truth and say that I may have emailed my husband a couple of links (for the jacket and boots) while he was there to pick them up for me with color and size options hehe. With most guys its all about the visual shopping list- there's no way I could just say "oh get this and that in these sizes please" without some sort of visual reference :o) Here's the jacket, I love it!

Yay for early Christmas in Malta! Who knew that one could get so excited over kitchen appliances haha! Here's a few pictures of some of the stuff we got.

Denim Solutions

2010-11-17T09:28:00.002+01:00

Here are a few great ideas that I came across this morning that are focused around jeans.

A European denim label called, Salsa Fits My Life, that just came out with a pair of reversible jeans. Dark wash denim on one side and if you flip it inside out, a lighter wash denim. Two pairs of jeans in one! For now they are only being sold in some high-end boutiques for €179. Ouch! This line is called, "The Two".

You know when you have just finished eating too much or perhaps its that time of the month and you are feeling a little bit bloated. Your jeans can become uncomfortable and tight in the waist. At times you may have even gone as far as to undo the button on your jeans just to try and find a bit of comfort. Well now you can get "Adjust-A-Button". You can fasten the button to any layer of denim to either loosen or if needed, tighten up those jeans. Supposedly it offers an inch and a half of room. Great idea I think!

I know that this last one is not to do with jeans but I had to mention it. Convertible heels! Which worn either way, this pair could look great with a pair of jeans. These stiletto's were made for a company called Sheila's Wheels. Which is a sect of insurance company called Esure, made to target women drivers. Side note, I'm not sure that these fab heels are actually in production or for sale. Boo! But I wanted to mention them regardless. So these heels can turn into flats in a flash. There are so many people that these babies can benefit! If you have to walk to work like I do, well I take the bus then have to walk a few blocks to get to my office from the bus stop. I could simply wear the flats to work then once I get into the office, slap on those stiletto's! Or if you want to wear flats during the day and don't have time to go home to change before heading out for the night- bring your heels in your purse! If you are wearing the heels and happened to get mugged- take them off and run after your mugger in your flats! haha okay so maybe that last one is a bit of a stretch but you never know!

Well It's Official

2010-11-16T19:28:00.001+01:00

I'm usually not one to take to much note of the British Royal Family but finally today, a month after the fact, they officially announced the engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton. According to resources, they actually became engaged a month ago while on holiday in Kenya where Prince William presented her with his late mother, Princess Diana's diamond and sapphire engagement ring. I thought that this was very sweet. I do feel for her though. There is so much pressure on her, being from a "middle-class" family (though her parents are self-made multi-millionaires) and known as being a "commoner" rather than an aristocrat. To marry into the royal family would be very daunting, especially with Queen Elizabeth as your future grandmother! I'm not sure that I would wish that on anyone.

Though I don't follow the daily lives of the Royal family, they do intrigue me a bit. Partly because they are royalty and stuff like that always catches the curiosity of the rest of us. Also being from Canada, they are our royal family as well. The Queen is on all of our money they make a visit once in a while but that's about it. I think that it's about time that these two were married though. After all, it has been almost 10 years since they started dating. So I wish them well and I admit, I will probably be watching the Royal wedding on TV when it happens. Let's just hope Prince William doesn't loose too much more of his hair before the wedding- its starting to look pretty thin these days! haha

The Coming Weekend Festivities

2010-11-16T11:51:00.000+01:00

Well as of thus coming Thursday I will be home alone for 4-5 days. My husband is heading to England to buy a car for us. Whoohoo! Its exciting in a way really. Can't wait because this means we can finally go shopping properly and do all the other things we couldn't do because of the inconvenience of no vehicle. Although I won't be driving for some time. One: I've never driven on the opposite side of the road let alone on the opposite side of the car! So this will take some getting used to. Two: I think the car might be manual, so even though I do know how to drive a manual car- its been a long time, plus again, its on the opposite side for me. Ugh. And three: the drivers here are nuts. For the most part it will be okay but what scares me are the traffic circles/ roundabouts. Its basically a free for all most of the time for drivers, I never know what the hell is going when we come to some. Okaaayyyy and GO. Seriously to close your eyes and just go seems to be the norm here a lot of the time haha. My husband says that he's thinking of paying for a few driving lessons for me just to get used to it so that would help I'm sure. It could and up being detrimental to our marriage if he is the sole person who tries to teach me haha. The plus side is I already know how to drive so I"m hoping it won't be too bad.

So my husband leaves Thursday evening on a flight from here to the UK. A friend of his is going with him, so at least the two guys can share the driving when coming all the way back to Malta. Their hoping to be back for either Monday or Tuesday sometime. So it will be just me and Shane this weekend. Oh and another great part of this whole little trip... my husband is going to make a stop at Asda! Whoohoo new kitchen stuff for me! I mean us :o) I find that small kitchen appliances can be quite expensive here so he's going to hopefully pick up a few things I'm wanting while there. Coffee maker- so I can make REAL coffee and not just instant! A microwave, maybe a crockpot (slow cooker) among a few other things. Yay! It will be like an early Christmas of sorts.

We Have Heat!

2010-11-14T12:41:00.000+01:00

In addition to trying to create some Christmas crafts this weekend, we also took a trip to Pavi. We were there last weekend doing some grocery shopping and noticed that they had small gas heaters for sale for only 49 euros! In case you are interested and in need of one, they have tons available! The sale price is good until the end of November while supplies lasts.

So we went by yesterday real quick to pick one up. Its starting to get quite chilly and needed something to warm it up a bit inside our flat, just to take the edge off. We only bought one because while being in the living/kitchen area it can feel quite cold. I'm usually sitting here with warm socks, a sweater and sometimes even a scarf! We like it cooler when we sleep anyhow so no need for one in the bedroom. But now to find a small gas canister and we'll be up and running! We work during the week so we can never get gas from the truck that comes by our area which is annoying and inconvenient. So we're on the hunt. There is a corner shop down the street from us that sells gas, but only the larger canisters. Ugh. Anyone have any suggestions?

Handmade Christmas

2010-11-14T12:31:00.000+01:00

This is the first attempt at making something handmade in the way of Christmas decorations. TOTAL FAIL. I'm not sure what I was shooting for, some sort of paper wreathe I guess. As soon as I wrote "Merry Christmas", in the middle I ruined it in my opinion.Onto something else.

This is the shelves above our tv's entertainment unit. I have two large red
glass vases (from our wedding this past summer) as well as the basic red plastic candles you can find in almost every small shop here in Malta (also from the wedding) and then five smaller glass votive candle holders with red candles inside (wedding again). The two red vases and the 5 votive holders all have damask decorative tape on the fronts which was already in place from the wedding. I just placed handmade snowflakes onto some of them to add a little winter cheer.

And the last of my handmade Christmas decorations (for now) is this fun lantern. I had one plain white Chinese paper lantern left over from...yup you guessed it, the wedding, so I decided to do something in the way of a "chandelier" or at least something like that. I simply attached snowflakes in white and in blue that I had in my craft supplies, then I tied a few of the white snowflakes using white sewing thread to hang below. I think it turned out pretty nice. I'm happy with this. I hung it in the entry way of our flat from the existing light fixture. If I had more lanterns and more light fixtures in the flat (we seem to have lonely bare bulbs through out otherwise), I'd make a few more.

So that is what I have come up with so far for handmade Christmas decorations. Its not exactly what I want but at least the dog can't get at any of it! Also we stopped into the Piscopo Garden Center yesterday which is 5 minutes from our place and I saw that they had a bunch of Christmas decorations, garland etc... so I'll be making a trip back there I think for sure!

Update On the Little One

2010-11-14T11:53:00.000+01:00

A quick update on our friends and their baby that was in the hospital.

After spending a couple of days in the hospital where they ran some tests, our friends and their baby boy are now home. Unfortunately nothing was solved though. They don't know what happened or what caused the little guy to stop breathing. They were told that there is some sort of virus going around that they just became aware of but to me this sounds like crap. They don't know what is wrong. They are gave our friends a date to go back to the hospital for a CT scan so perhaps that will shed some light on what's going on inside that little body.

For now everyone is back home again andeverything seems to be fine which is wonderful. Unfortunately for now it seems to be somewhat of a riddle though as to what exactly happened and what caused it. Thank you to everyone for their thoughts, prayers and well wishes for the family!

Please Say a Little Prayer

2010-11-12T10:19:00.001+01:00

I know that this isn't the place to be posting such a personal request...so I won't go into much detail.

I just received a phone call from my husband that good friends of ours are at the hospital. Their new baby- only a month and a half old- stopped breathing last night and our friend had to perform CPR on his own little son. My eyes are completely filled with tears at the moment as I write this, it is so heart breaking. I don't know any details and this isn't the place to share them even if I did. All I know is that it doesn't look very good from what I heard.

He is only a month and a half old, please keep this new little family in your thoughts and prayers.

Did You Know?

2010-11-10T11:41:00.001+01:00

Did you know that Christmas is only 44 days away? I must admit that with no snow, warm weather and sun it has completely thrown me for a loop. This time of year I'm used to cold weather and snow which leaves a constant reminder that Christmas is on its way and that there is lots to be done. Well not this year.

Typically by the end of November or first week of December I would be decorating the house. Putting up lights, decorating the tree, setting up candles, hanging garland, stockings and a few other festive decorations. Oh and buying the apple and cinnamon glade plug-ins so that a nice warm and inviting wintery scent wafts through the house. Well I have a feeling that this Christmas will be pretty dull. No decorations, no glade plug-ins, no garland etc. I got rid of all that stuff when we moved here. We only had a small container and of course the christmas decorations and tree did not make the cut. I'm regretting it now of course.

I have seen pictures of towns and villages all lit up for Christmas here in the past and I can't wait to walk the streets of Valletta to see the sights. It will be a very different Christmas this year being in a different part of the world. Although many traditions may be the same, its not the same. It will be a new experience, "winter" in Malta. The only time I will admittedly miss the snow will be Christmas Eve and Christmas day. One day I will become used to it I know but not this year. It will be weird. At least we will still have Christmas dinner on the 25th so that is something to look forward to. Though in a way I hope it will not be at our house because then I will definitely feel the need to decorate our flat big time! I wonder how the dog would do with it though? Hmmm, maybe not the best idea or else I will soon enough be posting on our ruined Christmas tree and decorations! haha

In Search of a New Home...Eventually

2010-11-04T12:58:00.000+01:00

Our lease on the flat that we are currently renting will be up in may of 2011. I know we have some time still before that day comes but to be honest, I can't wait! When we first moved in, it was a brand new flat that had never been lived in previously. It was all shiny and new, very very spacious, nicely furnished etc. We were more than happy when we came across this place and snatched it up in a heart beat. For €350 a month we thought this was an amazing deal. And it still is really when you think about it. There is a "but" coming here however.

With moving into such a place, the fact that no previous person had lived in it before sounded appealing. It would still be in perfect condition etc. the down side of this however is that when being a new flat, never lived in, you don't know of the problems up front. We have lived in this flat now since the end of May (2010). I would say it took about 3 1/2 -4 months for the signs to start showing themselves that something could be wrong. It started off small but quickly grew and spread. I first noticed that there seemed to be water marks on the wall- about one foot up from the floor- in the entry way of our flat. It was only in one small area at the time. It looked like a yellow water stain. Then it started to grow and spread all along that entire wall (staying at about the same height of one foot from the floor). I then noticed that the paint was peeling off and falling to the floor. It continued to spread into the hallway and into the second bedroom as well. In the second bedroom, where there are these water marks- there is also now mould. The latest I have noticed, at the completely opposite end of the flat, the same problem has started in the kitchen too.

I have told this to our landlord, he has seen the marks and the damage. I have told him about the mould too, which can become quite a serious health problem! It seems that there is a water leak within the walls for the building. Our landlord came a couple of months ago to "fix" the problem by tearing up the floor outside our front door where the pipe is laid. He said that they fixed the problem and now it is just a matter of waiting for everything to dry out before they could fix the walls in our flat. I would like to say this: BULLSHIT. Yes you cannot fix the walls if they are still damp to the touch and there is still a problem (which I think there is obviously) with a water leak somewhere. I know this. But the fact that there is mould growing all over the wall in the one bedroom now and it has spread to the kitchen area...this is not acceptable to me.

Another issue we have is that whenever it rains really hard, water from outside floods our bathroom floor and laundry room floor. I have also told our landlords about this but nothing more has been said about the matter. For being a "new"place, there are sure a lot of problems it seems. Don't forget the issue of the drainage pipe leaking on our one balcony that was "fixed" back in July as well.

I'm sick of being in this flat, I'm sick of more problems popping up all the time. Because no one had ever lived in it previous to us, there is no way I realize for these issues to have been known. I understand that. But now that they are known, I want out. So once our lease is up in May we're going to be looking for a new place to live. Not sure where yet but my husband's dad and nanna just moved into a ground floor maisonette (rental) in Marsaskala. Its a very nice place, great size and most of all they have a back yard which would be perfect for us since we have Shane. Ideally we'd love to have a ground floor maisonette somewhere. The location is yet to be determined. Though Marsaskala seems to be a nice area, it also seems to be quite far from everything. We live in St Paul's Bay now, which is far North. M'Skala is far south. Any advice on some areas that are nice to live? Anyone in M'Skala now? My only concern about being far south is that I work in Pieta/Msida so taking the bus every day to and from work would mean catching 2 buses. If its an easy transfer then I guess I could be okay with it, but I'm still a little unsure.

I'll post some pics later of the water damage in our flat.

International Gift Exchange

2010-11-03T16:06:00.000+01:00

While getting caught up on all of the blogs that I follow, today I came across a new post from Craftaholics Annonymous. Its such a great idea that I had to share it with all of you too! Craftaholics Annonymous, is hosting an international Christmas gift exchange! Read all about it by clicking on her blog name or the post title that I just mentioned. I thought it was a wonderful idea, a chance to make something special for someone else, handmade of course, then in return you also receive a specially handmade gift in the mail from someone else!

For those of you living within the United States, she also has a gift exchange for US residents. If you are interested, be sure to check out the link(s) below right away. I signed up for it today but you have to hurry, she is closing the sign up list November 10th!

For Internationals:

http://diaryofacraftaholic.blogspot.com/2010/11/international-handmade-gift-exchange.html

For US residents:

http://diaryofacraftaholic.blogspot.com/2010/11/united-states-handmade-gift-exchange.html