Yay, the first part of the relocation is done!

Unfortunately this week I didn't have time for scrapbooking, this means no layouts for the 2008 Scrap Challenge, but I'm here to tell you about the first part of the relocation which we did yesterday. Hooray, I can't believe it!

I prepared a detailed reportage of the day =) , because I want to share everything with you, my friends. So enjoy my mosaics and the story!!

On Saturday July 5th we woke up at 3:30 am to meet 1 hour later and leave with the delivery van (loaded on Friday afternoon) and the car.

Here I took some pics onto the car along the highway towards the flat in Novi Ligure (province of Alessandria, Italy): my mother driving, my boyfriend next to me, my uncle sleeping next to my mother and in front of us the delivery van with my foster father and his colleague (you can see it in small size in the 3rd pic).

After unloading our stuffs from the delivery van, men started to assemble the new kitchen, while my mother and I drove to the Ikea Store in Genoa (Italy) to ask for a replacement of 4 doors which arrived already damaged, they'll delivery them in a week at the new flat.
I love all this green everywhere onto the mountains between the 2 regions of Piedmont and Liguria.

Here you can see a piece of the new kitchen by Ikea and the part behind our block of flats.

We all worked at the assemblage of the kitchen at the new flat.
We had a quick lunch with pizza, salted croissants and croquettes of potatoes in the balcony onto some cardboards of the package because there're no chairs into the flat yet and we assembled the major part of the kitchen, not completely because they still need to deliver the kitchen sink and 4 doors which arrived damaged and will be replaced.

Yesterday my parents were happy of seeing my future city and flat for the very first time, they said that everything is nice and now they're more serene about my future life over there, they also met my future mother-in-law and my future brother-in-law (still 2 to go, future father-in-law and future sister-in-law, they weren't home at that moment).
I'm satisfied about their positive reactions, now I'm more serene too.

Now we only have to wait for the doors and the kitchen sink, we'll probably go again at the new flat in 2-3 weeks, just before leaving for Belgium.
About this last topic, you can imagine my excitement and sense of anticipation, I always love to plan my trips, in addition I've never visited that Country and I'll meet my friends there!!

I couldn't foresee a summer like this one, now I feel so blessed to live it in this way before the final relocation, it's so much true that everything comes at the right moment =)
Have a nice Sunday evening and a positive beginning of week, see you in the next days, ciao!

Party Pro for all your parties

photo by iusedtobeoriginal

Today I discovered a very nice website which helps you to organize your special events with fantastic Party Supplies at great discounts: I am talking about Party Pro.

The layout of the website is clear and pleasant at the eye, it surely promotes an enjoyable visit at the nine different warehouses which are defined by colours: green, red, platinum, gold, white, lavender, orange, blue and yellow.
Each warehouse supplies a wide choice of themes at very interesting discounts according to the kind of event that you want to plan, from birthday parties (see for example the nice section of the Birthday Party Supplies) to anniversary, from patriotic events to retirement celebrations, from Valentine Day to 70's parties and so on; in this way no one is left behind, everybody can be finally satisfied by the Party Pro's big variety of offers.

In the home page, the Party Pro's team presents a selection of the latest releases, of the new arrivals and of the biggest discount opportunities, for this latest great service you can simply reach the section called Discount Party Supplies; then in each section, it is possible to delve into the details of the offers.

I wanted to check the prices of several products in different sections and I must admit that they are always honest and very affordable, it is perfect for every kind of customers, from young ones to seniors who have different needs.

Another great news item is that the shipping is free for orders over $50 within 48 States (for the Green non-bulk Warehouse only) and delivered in the U.S. from 7 to 11 days with the chance to use UPS Next Day service if you need a quicker delivery.
For people like me, who live outside the U.S., the orders are available also from abroad with shipping charges based upon the weight and the size of the package and obviously the distance.

Something which I always look for in a nice website is the opportunity for retailers and resellers to cooperate and Party Pro offers all this and even more; in fact, it is possible to join their affiliate programs too with a great service of total customization of the offers which you want to add into your websites.

In conclusion, the website of Party Pro offers the widest choice of supplies of the web with great discounts, I heartily suggest you to rely on that wonderful team for every sort of your parties because their company is really honest and trusty and always meets your needs to offer you memorable events in your life.

Enjoying life and exciting news for August

I'm living very stressful days because of the upcoming first part of the relocation, because the new Ikea kitchen arrived ahead of its time at the new flat and part of the furniture had manufacturing faults so that, during the day of the first part of the relocation, my mother and I will go to the Ikea Store in Genoa to substituted the damaged pieces.
In addition, the old tubes of our bathroom here are causing again problems, in fact they provoked another leak at the neighbours' ceiling beneath and now the water is completely closed into the bathroom to understand where's the problem (I hope it isn't into the kitchen here) and I can't use it, plus my boyfriend will come tomorrow for a week; fortunately, my parents live two block of flats ahead us, every time we need it we'll have to use their bathroom...unbelievable!
In all this bad situation, these infernal hot temperatures evidently weren't enough!

Anyway, I decided to take it easy, because life is good and I'm young, don't you think? I guess this is the right mood to face my days, otherwise I'd really crack!!
Today, after a moment of confusion and a few little tears, I put on my new big pair of sunglasses and smiled at me into the mirror =) Hahaha, am I a trendy girl?

I also have another wonderful news item to tell you, which made me feel so much excited and I really hope it'll become true.
My mother and foster father will be on holiday from July 30th to August 17th and in the first 10 days of their vacation will travel to Northern France and Belgium. If the works at the new flat won't be finished yet, which I guess so because the kitchen is almost ready but not the other rooms yet, I'll......go with them!!!!!!!
I've never been to Belgium and for me it'll be a great opportunity to visit that Country, but especially to meet my friends =) how exciting!!
I think immediately about my dear Isolde, but also about Nessa and all the other scrappers who I met thanks to this blog, I'd be happy to know you in person and to chat/laugh/walk/scrap a lot, so please let me know if you'll be available for a meeting at the beginning of August.

Now I really have to go, I want to pack something else into the boxes for the upcoming relocation and it's almost time for dinner. Have a nice beginning of week and see you soon, ciao my friends!

26th week of the 2008 Scrap Challenge

Wow, this time I'm super fast with my creation for the 26th week of the 2008 Scrap Challenge, but I must admit that in the past days I prepared a layout which suited perfectly with this week's theme, so why not?

In this weekly challenge, scrappers have to prepare a page about someone who lately brought them happiness.

I chosed to use a print which I received (twice in error) via mail some months ago from a religious association, it's a photographic reproduction of the pilgrim statue of the Madonna of Fatima which cried miraculously in New Orleans in 1972 (oh my, was it a prediction of the cataclism due to the Katrina hurricane?).
I also added the pic which I uploaded some days ago on Flickr to report an exceptional fact which occured at our new flat (see here for the whole story).

The title shows all my gratitude to Mary, telling in Italian "Thanks M", I created it with the white rounded letters by Stamperia and Her handwritten initial.

In the journaling, I wrote: "June 2008 - Thanks Mother, you presented us a wonderful gift, leaving a Rosary in our future flat, it's surely a signal of Your love and Your protection!".

I used several little pink flowers by Stamperia to surround the journaling, plus a wonderful flower of fabric and a nice heart-shaped gumshape which were part of the swap of June 2008 which I received from chiaweb (organized by "la bottega delle artigiane", an Italian Flickr group), together with a sort of white vellum paper for the bottom part of the page and a rose doodling.

Now the usual couple of details of my layout.

I hope you enjoyed my submission.
See you later and have a nice beginning of week, ciao my friends!!

Shopping mood for scrapbooking and flat

On Friday morning I had my car's revision and fortunately all was ok, I didn't want to pay again a lot of money like two years ago.

After that, I went to visit a hobby store near Bologna which sells also furniture for the house. Yep, we're still looking for the right kitchen sink!
Tommaso says that the one in ceramic is too fragil, he'd like to buy a sink in granitek, but we need to look for the best price because we obviously don't want to spend money without reasons.
Anyway, I found something at the Hobby&Legno store, the seller said that it'll take at least 3 weeks to get it because they have to order it so, when my boyfriend comes home during the first week of July, we'll have to decide what to do.

When I was into the store, I discovered something wonderful: a special area dedicated to scrapbooking!!! Can you imagine my joy?
You know, I used to visit two shops which sold scrapbooking products, one near me and one in Bologna, but both of them closed lately and I was just wondering where I'll make my purchases; yes, I can always order them online, but I guess it'd be better to look at them directly and to choose them personally.
So I didn't have to buy nothing on Friday morning, but I couldn't resist and spent €34 in scrapbooking products, hihihih =)
These ones are my purchases:

The following papers have the peculiarity to be double-face, they're very beautiful, but until today I wondered how could I use all them without losing something...well, today I realized that, if I put all the layouts into the page protectors as usually, I can simply use both of their faces to scrap, so that I'll have immediately 2 layouts to put into a page protector every time...smart idea!
Here it comes first one face and then the other one of the same papers:

Now I'm thinking that I'll absolutely have to buy at least a box where to store all my ready-to-use layouts; I don't need anything else, because I already have a roller cab and two boxes for the other products, but they're not enough large to store the 30x30 layouts.
The basic idea is to buy something at the Ikea store obviously, this morning I looked up the website and I found different solutions, but I'm not sure about the best one.
What would you choose for yourself? Maybe the last one which is open and can store every size of paper....

Kassett (it'd be a clothes box)


Lingo (it'd be a box for the office)


Spontan (it'd be a magazine rack)

I'll think about it, but I'd really appreciate your opinion, I'm so much indecisive =P

I really have to go now, have a nice end of weekend and see you soon, ciao!!

25th week of the 2008 Scrap Challenge

I can't believe that I've been able to scrap a couple of days ago, I've missed it so badly!!

So here I am with my new layout for the 25th week of the 2008 Scrap Challenge.
Scrappers had to prepare an A4 page including also flowers.

I chosed to print a photo which I took some weeks ago in my future city, Novi Ligure (province of Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy).

The title is obviously dedicated to its name.

In the journaling, I wrote: "June 2008 - Soon the much waited future will become reality, I wait for knowing my new city =)".
The photo shows the Church of the Collegiata of Santa Maria Maggiore downtown (shown better here).

I used several little printed flowers, plus a printed button, a printed butterfly, a printed curly bracket, a printed little star, a printed sun, two printed corners with buttons. I also used two heart-shaped brads by Artoz, a pink wavy ribbon by Madéko, seven metallic stars, a scrap of a letter, I cut a cloud-shaped scrap where to glue the two handwritten words of "future" and "life".

In the pic, the pink ribbon seems oblique, but it isn't in reality, it only appears in that way because I didn't take the photo properly =P

Now just a couple of details about my layout and see you later for other updates...yes, today I really want to be productive ;)

Our kitchen is finally ordered!

Hi friends,

today I have a big news item to report and to share with you, I'm so much excited: our kitchen is finally ordered!!

On Friday and Saturday, my boyfriend and I prepared the kitchen plan with the Ikea Planner which we found on their website, we defined all the details and I wrote all the notes to ask to the operator.
Yesterday morning, as my boyfriend was in Novi Ligure, I went to order the kitchen with my parents at the Ikea Store near Bologna because they wanted to help us buying something as a present for our new life.
The woman who helped me with the order was very kind and quick, I really appreciated her.
She told me that they'll deliver the order to the Ikea Store in Genoa and they'll send it directly to our new flat, so that we won't have problems for the transport from here to there.
And you know when will it be ready? On June 30th or so!!
I guessed to see it delivered later, as the operator who talked to us some weeks ago told that the kitchens are usually prepared in one month and not before that moment.
Anyway, they'll call us to decide the exact day of the delivery and luckily it'd be the same one of the first part of the relocation (with the non-basic objects, as I'll be here in my flat again for a few weeks).

Just about the first part of the relocation, my foster father hired some of his friends and colleagues on it, they'll offer us a delivery van for free and a help with the assembling of the furniture.
My boyfriend will be on holiday here during the first week of the next month, during which we'll prepare the non-basic objects into boxes and part of the furniture which we already have, then this moment of the first part of the relocation will occur on July 5th when my parents will have their days off and will help us to carry everything to Novi Ligure.

This will be a very very busy period for me too, as in the next couple of weeks I'll have to decide what it's fundamental to have here and what's not anymore, but I can do it for sure =)

Now about the kitchen. Are you curious??

I don't know if I already told you, but we changed the style of the kitchen. We wanted to buy (and sorry if I don't write it properly, but I don't have the Swedish keyboard) the Solar one, which was more linear and easy to wash, but we ended up choosing the Lidingo one, which is more classical....oh well, but absolutely in white!! All the other furniture can be very coloured, but I don't compromise about the kitchen, as I'll be almost the unique user. I love it in white, it enlightens a lot the room and that's what we need =D !!

These are some of the items which we ordered yesterday for our kitchen:

Doors of the furniture: Lidingo


Working plan: Numerar Oak


Cooktop: Lagan GH 130 W (white)


Oven: Nutid Ovn 900 W by Whirlpool


Extractor fan: Lufting H00 B00 W


Tap: Bagvik

You obviosly noticed that our kitchen is in lack of an important piece, which is the kitchen sink. Well, we still have to decide what to buy. The problem was that..yes, I liked the ones which I saw at the Ikea Store, but the ones in white don't have the surface where to put the dishes on to drip (I don't know the exact name). So in the next days I'll go to see something into other furniture stores around here, maybe looking for one in ceramic or in granitek.

About the fridge, you know that we already have it in blue and used it less than one year when we lived in Imola, so we'll employ it again as it's still very new, maybe I'll take a photo about it in the next days.

Yesterday we also found a nice middle-size bed for the guests room (without the mattress) and the best part is that we spent less than € 50 because it was a special offer as clearance item.

I'm so much excited that I'd like to create soon a new layout about this great moment or at least a digital one to report our joy and feeling of anticipation to see our flat ameliorating and our new life finally approaching!!

Now I really have to go, but stay tuned for more news. Have a nice beginning of week and talk to you later, ciao!!!

Discovering MommyBa's Journey

I recently joined a new opportunity offered by Smorty and I wanted to start immediately: it's the Post Exchange. People write review about others' posts and someone does the same with your blog. I think this is a fantastic opportunity to find great blog and to know friends all around the world!

Today I just discovered MommyBa's Journey.

MommyBa is a stay-at-home mom from Manila (Philippines), writing her daily tasks, dealing with daily problems as a mom, of a woman and of a wife, trying to look at the positive side of every single fact of her life, learning new perspectives about life, looking for nice opportunities to tell her opinions and to succeed in online earnings, enjoying tests and useful website reviews.

The first effect which I had opening the window with her blog was the one of visiting a very neat place, I'm sure it also reflects her way of thinking and living.
Reading her posts, I found a mild pleasant way of writing, with really effective titles for entries.
I love her digital signature at the end of every entry, it's made with a familiar font.
The appearence of this blog gives the idea that the owner is surely someone who gives room to communication, also thanks to a Twitter widget where to follow her every day and a Cbox tagboard where to read and leave comments in freedom.
For me the best comes with the entry written on April 9th, 2008: MommyBa wrote about her scrapbooking creations! I just found another woman with my same passion, it's incredible.
In fact, in the left upper part of her blog, she added the link to her digiscraps, that's how I discovered a fantastic digiscrapper who create wonderful digital layouts in a very girlish style!

I'm very happy about this "pay dirt", I absolutely have to contact MommyBa to share life experiences and scrapbooking ideas, I found her blog very familiar and friendly.