Garden Fix: Sources of inspiration found (Isola Bella on Lago Maggiore in Italy)

Once upon a time there was a girl that traveled to to lake that divided Italy from Switzerland.

On that lake was an island that was once ruled by a noble family for many years.

On that island was a house (hmph) that the noble family lived in for many centuries.

Surrounding that house were extensive beautiful gardens.

Beautiful gardens that housed such exotic creatures as albino peacocks...

and enchanting statues...

and don't forget captivating views.

And then that girl came back home & used everything that she saw to use as inspiration in her art and jewelry.

So my gradmother's garden & greenhouse were nowhere near this grand, but all that time I spent with her either working on her flowers or crafts definately rubbed off on me. Oh, and if you're wondering where the pictures were taken - here you go: Isola Bella (fitting, "Beautiful Island") on Lago Maggiore in northern Italy bordering Switzerland. Links to more history & travel specific info here.

Hope you're inspired!

♥ -Kat.

Widgets......très cool or waste of time? Side order of Russian Speak.

So I am new to the world of blog. I only follow a handful & that 's only from the past 6ish months. I've not had much time for playing around with the various features; tonight I have a worse case of insomnia than normal, so play around I must. There are widgets for just about anything you can think of, but it serves me right that I find the ones that don't work!

Pardon me, I'm an absolute geek. I had a mother that praised everything Italian (we lived there until I was about school age) & shipped me off there for a summer when I was old enough. Architecture, languages, history, art, culture, oh my........yes I love it all. So, I think that all of these widgets showcasing these things are NIFTO & serves me right that some of them don't seem to work.

Please, if anybody reads this: Personal Service Announcement for Kat Request:
let me know if the damn "listen" buttons on these word of the day widgets work.

I think that they would be très cool if they did because I am horrible about breaking out the tapes & discs with the language books.




FYI: the two kiddie language CD's in picture are from a Chick-Fil-A kid's meal. Okay, I was excited. RUSSIAN. I think it is safe to say that for an average English speaking adult, Russian is a difficult study.....this CD was geared towards kids still young enough to be satisfied by 4 chicken nuggets & 5 waffle fries. We played both of these in the car after pulling them out of the kids meal. Spanish was cool; I was full of what I call "mommy magic" that day. Mom knew the Spanish equivalent before they spoke. Then the Russians came....& mommy was a jerk. "Uh....I'm not sure what they said". Repeat & spit out something that restores Alex's confidence in his mom.

Kat/ Cardinal House
http://www.cardinalhouse.etsy.com/

PS- For any of you clueless "frenglish" speakers (err..typers..bloggers), check out this site for the keystrokes to make all of the accents:
http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au/la/lote/french/materials/accents.htm