a knack for eating

Day 9

What we noticed starting in Switzerland were enormous amounts of confetti leftovers in the little knooks in the ground. They were actually from Carnevale di Venezia, otherwise known as Carnival of Venice. I thought they were adorable. Little remnants of what seemed to be a wild party. Too bad we weren't there for it.

By this time, we were in Milan. We saw the famous La Scala Theatre and continued to the Duomo — the extravagant church you see above. I wish I had a better photo. It doesn't do the building justice at all. I'm sure if you Google it, there'll be a whole lot of pictures from all angles. Below is where we entered the La Scala galleria that was filled with stores like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and a very fancy McDonalds.

From here onwards we had free time to shop throughout the galleria, and of course the first stop is for food. We stopped for a bite at Caffe Martini for none other than pizza. For the second day in a row I was having pizza prosciutto, but I didn't mind at all.

We also had gelato on the way out! That's limone on the left and cappuccino on the right. Yum.

After eating, we went through the multitude of stores. Everything was so enticing, and before I arrived in Milan I was certain I was going to spend money on clothes here. It's sad to say that I did not. I didn't buy a single article of clothing here. I did buy two measly items though, both at H&M and under €10. I wasn't trying to be thrifty or anything. For some reason when I have money to spend I don't and when I don't have to spend I want to.

Towards the end of our free time I ended up at Gucci and strangely enough, not for clothes. Gucci has a cute little cafe right in front of the store for people like me who love clothes and food. It was a tad pricey but anything to eat at the Gucci cafe. Me and my pals ordered a round of cappucinos. If I had ordered the Gucci espresso I would have gotten the logo in the mug! Now that I think about it, why didn't I order that?

Just to show you how pricey it was, whipped cream in a glass is €2. But you know, I'm sure it's special Gucci whipped cream, right?

instructions

When asked to make a pair of pajama pants for a school project, I immediately sought out Google for help. To my surprise, I found a free printable pattern by Simplicity. At the time I thought this was utterly genius and that they should make all patterns available like this. Little did I know I would run into so many problems. I guess you could call this a tutorial but this really isn't the optimal way to go about it. I just found it hilarious and had to share it.

The first hurdle: printing the pattern. Now, patterns are quite large and to print these they were divided onto 25 seperate sheets of paper that needed to be assembled afterward. Each page didn't print right to the edge because they were made to overlap. I was then faced with the task of lining these buggers up.

What You Will Need:

• tape



• your pattern
  


• a large window
  

I laid out my pieces of tape and used the window as a light table to line up my pages accurately. You should know that while I was doing this my neighbours were holding their open house. I'm pretty sure I was causing my neighbours to lose offers by being the strange girl in the window pinning papers up. Cars kept slowing down in front of my house as if I was going to spell out a word or something. Anyhow, I continued to carefully tape together each page.

Like so! Then I would move on to the next column and continue to add pages.

By the end of it, you should have a huge obstruction in your window like this. I was pretty pleased with how the pajama pants turned out. If you'd like to have a go at this, visit here for full instructions and links to the print-outs. Good luck!

the show must go on

Day 7

It was a good day for macaron lovers in Lucerne, Switzerland. Still in the same town, we headed out for more shopping. I stopped at Bachmann's bakery for lunch and found a plethora of Luxemburgerli mini macarons! They were adorable as well as delicious. I had to bring these back for Hazel, I wasn't sure how but I had to.

For the next few days after this the little delicate box of macarons travelled from hotel to hotel, being carefully trasported and sat on many window sills outside my hotel rooms around Europe to keep at a cool temperature. These macarons have come a long way. For Hazel I chose lemon, praline, pistachio, and caramel brûlée. You can view her selection here on her blog. For myself I chose chocolate, praline, raspberry, and caramel brûlée. They were all so heavenly but I have to say caramel brûlée the best! I've been craving them so much since I've come back.

The next stop on my little parade around town was BUTLERS, a quaint little kitchen & home store. I absolutely adore this shop!

You can see by some of these photos that they have a huge selection of quirky knick knacks for the home. It was very bright and colourful inside and they played adorable French tunes throughout the store. It was such a warm, inviting atmosphere.

Cute plates!

It's about time I start showing you some of the things I bought. From BUTLERS I bought two hand painted knobs for €5.95 each. Now I don't have a particular use for them yet but I believe I will soon! I think I'm in the early stages of hoarding. One day I will become a hoarder but not one of those filthy ones, I'll be a tasteful hoarder— a collector, if you will. Whether it be within the next year or the next ten, I'll be renovating a room and these lovely knobs I've stored away will be perfect for perhaps a vintage dresser I might be renewing. That's the plan.

Next, also from BUTLERS, I bought this fully functional mini shopping cart for €13.90. I think it'll be perfect to set on my vanity and keep a few of my little perfumes and lotions in. Classy, huh?

Lastly, I bought this Hohner mini harmonica from a music shop called Musikhug for €9.90. I've been wanting to pick up the harmonica for a few years now and what better time to buy one than in Europe on a music tour?

Later that night we travelled to Zurich for an evening concert and had a lovely dinner at Strozzi's. The food was excellent and of course, I couldn't miss another cappucino!

On this night we were put into a kind of awkward situation; no one had shown up to our concert. The hall was completely empty except for eight audience members. I suppose something went wrong and the show wasn't advertised in the city. Now this sounds completely terrible and heartbreaking but it didn't phase us. "The show must go on!", and so it did. We collectively decided that we'd play our hearts out for the guests that did show up and it proved to be one of our best sounding concerts!

while I was out

More than a month ago, Nina and I placed yet another joint order to Urban Outfitters. We were certain that the package would arrive while I was in Europe and so knowingly set the shipping address to her home. She was kind enough hold onto my items until I came back, so just a public 'thank you' to her! Nina purchased this lovely, "one line a day" five year journal and a zip up cardigan, which by the way was $8! $8! Is that not amazing? I'm surprised it's still in stock too. Anywho, these are the few things that I bought:

I bought this lace catchall dish for only $2.99. It's great to have sitting in your room. I sure need something to dump all my trinkets and knick knacks in, might as well make it look nice. As you can see below I've put a handful of guitar picks in there, a couple nail polishes, rings, buttons, and a bracelet. But it's not just limited to that. You can put anything in it really, like your keys, spools of thread, jewellery, make-up, yogurt, a hamster, miniature gnomes, fountain pen refills, nachos, bus transfers, marbles. Anything really. It's quite handy.

I adore the limited edition domos. This darling is going right on my dresser top.

This book had to be the most anticipated item of the bunch. I'm so happy to finally receive my copy of My Milk Toof. Soon after writing this post I placed the order. The book is everything I expected and more! It broke my heart a little to open it up and hear the spine of the book crack. Without giving away too much, here are a few snapshots from the book. The book is an adorable collection of stories and adventures, some of which you can check out on the blog here! ickle and Lardee will definitely put a smile on your face.