venice, italy

So, I'm a little behind on posting my photos from Europe. I am currently going through my favorites from Venice so I figured what better time than now to dedicate an entire blog to it. :)

Venice was by far my favorite spot we visited. It was so much better than I imagined. Even with seeing hundreds of photographs of the city, it's hard to put into words what an amazing place it is when you are standing right there in the middle of everything.

Luckily, my mom's cousin, Frank and his wife Elke, had worked in Venice before and they took us away from all the tourists. I couldn't have been more grateful. If there's one thing I absolutely hate, it's crowds of people and Venice definitely had it's fair share. If Frank weren't there showing us around, I don't think I would have liked it half as much as I did!

I could blab on more about how unbelievable it was but I know you are all here to see the photos. :) Plus, I think I'm quite possibly the worst writer in history so .. on with the pictures! :)

HA! As we were walking, I see this guy hanging out (he's not posing!). He was literally just standing there .. looking at me like he knew I needed this picture to complete my Venice collection. :) It was too funny .. and perfect timing!

uncle silvano

So, my (Great) Uncle Silvano is pretty much famous in the art world. :) Since I was little I've always known of him and the work he did and I've always wanted to meet him. I finally got the chance when we were in Europe. He does restoration work on statues that are thousands of years old. Thousands and thousands of years .. seriously, it's crazy to wrap your mind around! People from all over the world call him for help in restoring artwork they find. He was even named the best in the world for the work he does .. innnnsane right!?! :)

I was soo excited when he invited us to his workshop in Italy (he also has a 2nd shop in Germany). That was definitely one of the highlights of my trip and we there maybe a total of 10 minutes. :) I was looking forward to it the moment we found out we were going to Europe.

It was strange walking into the workshop and being surrounded by these life size statues .. especially some I had learned about in my art history class a few years ago in photography school! :) Seeing a photograph in a textbook doesn't even do the statue justice when you have the chance to stand right in front of it and take it all in.

The sizes of some of them were unbelievable. One of the pieces he had been working on was hanging from a beam on the ceiling. I stood next to it and came up to it's hips .. & I'm not a short person! I took a picture standing next to it but quite frankly I don't feel the need to share how crappy I looked that day. My hair wasn't done and no make-up had been applied. No one needs to see that. :)

It's pretty crazy to think my uncle does such amazing work! He's full of so much knowledge and history from doing the work he does. I am SO glad I finally got the chance to meet him.

Here are a few shots I took at the workshop. I could have spent the entire day there photographing. :)

a few faves - germany

I have had basically zero time to work on any of my photos from Germany & Italy but I made myself sit down and find a few to post before I leave for a shoot I have this afternoon. :) These are just a few of my favorite random pictures from Germany but I have a ton more .. just no time to work on them! There will be more of these posts in the future, I promise. :) Enjoy these for now!

i'm baaaa-ack!

I'm back and rested up from my trip to Europe .. and finally blogging about it. :) It was a great trip but my mom and I both came home sick. She had the flu the entire flight home and I wasn't feeling so great myself. I haven't been feeling up to doing much of anything the past few days. Now that I'm finally feeling better, I figured I better update the blog before people start wondering what happened to me. :)

I can't even begin to tell you how great my trip was. Getting the chance to meet all of my family over there was so great! My Grandma was born in Germany as well as her three sisters who all still live there. It was so great visiting with them, learning German & Italian and eating tons of weird food. :)

There wasn't one day where we just sat around. In Germany we went to 3 castles, shopped downtown Munich, went to a huuuge farmer's market downtown, spent a day at the Octoberfest, lunch at a beer garden with family, lunch at the Hofbraeuhaus downtown, spent the day at Lake Starnberg, attended the baptisim of baby Elisa (my mom's cousin, Frank's, daughter), shopping again :)

In Italy we went shopping on Pordenone, spent a day in Venice (which was my favorite day of the entire trip!), went to the beach & walked along the Mediterranean Sea, photos and shopping at a little fisherman's village, ate TONS of gelato, finally got to see my uncle's workshop (he restores and finds statues from thousands of years ago).

We did so much more but I can't think of everything! I'm sure once I finally go through all of my photos, I'll remember more. :) Hopefully sometime later this week I'll put up a bunch of my favorites so you guys can see! I can't wait to show them off. :) It was such an amazing trip! Check back soon. :)

off to europe!!

I'm happy to say that my trip to Germany & Italy has finally arrived. :) :) I've been sort of a roller coaster of emotions about it. I don't know why but the older I get, the worse my fear of flying gets. Once I step foot on a plane I'm in full on panic attack mode. I can't breath, I'm sobbing, freaking out .. you get the point. :) It's definitely not pretty. So, worrying about having an attack come on has been so frustrating this past week .. when all I should be thinking about how much fun it's going to be when we get there!!

I got some anxiety/panic attack pills for the trip and I decided to test one out yesterday (just to see if there were any side effects). Now let me just preface this part .. I've never been drunk .. but I apparently was acting like I was. :) But the great news was that the anxiety I had about flying went away! The only downside was it wore off in about 4 hours (that and it made me so dizzy I almost fell over .. a few times ha!). The entire trip from Chicago to Germany is around 9 hours, give or take 15 minutes. Not cool. I'll be pill popping the entire time if I can't calm myself down! haha!

But anyway .. I am so so so so psyched about this trip. I can't believe I actually get the chance to go experience everything there for three entire weeks! And the fact that I get to see my family (some who I've never met and some who I haven't seen in years) and spend the entire time with my mom, grandma and Aunt Sandy makes it 100 time's better! Two weeks are being spent in Germany (& of course we're hitting up the Oktoberfest!!) and 1 week we'll be in Italy. We're going to hang out in Venice! Exciting right!? I can't wait! :)

Of course I couldn't blog it up without a picture or two so here you go .. two shots of my new toy (that you can't really see very well) and it's cover that I treated myself to this week. The new ipod classic and my fancy Paul Frank cover. I am absolutely obsessed with Paul Frank so I had to have this! :)

FYI .. I'm not quite sure about internet access over there but if at all possible, I'll try and blog some photos and catch up on emails. If not, be prepared for a slew of photos when I return on October 9th! :) Until then, I'll miss stalking everyone's blogs. :)

1 road trip & 110.00 later..

Dan and I have no self control. Check out what we bought yesterday. I have a tiny obsession with old cameras so we spent our entire Sunday afternoon on a hunt. I couldn't believe how many we found. We even had to make ourselfs put cameras back. We are definitely nuts! :) It was so much fun searching though. We are already planning our next trip. :D I can't wait!

germany!

I better start brushing up on my foreign language skills! I'm headed to Germany for 3 weeks in September with my Grandma and my mom! :D My Grandma was born there and we have family in both Germany and Italy who we're going to stay with. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am! I'm sure it's going to be an amaaazing time! We also just got the news that my mom's cousin and his wife just had a baby girl so I'll have plenty of photos to take of her! :D

All the pictures I'm posting are my mom's. She took them when her and my Grandma went back in 2002. She's got an artistic eye .. must be where I get my photo skills from! ;) She took almost 400 so it was hard to pick what ones to post. :) I don't even want to think about how many I'm going to take when I'm there. :)

My Grandma (back) & her sister, my Great Aunt Mickey





Venice, Italy .. where we'll hopefully be for a week or so!


My Great Uncle Erich & Great Aunt Gerte .. who we'll be staying with. :)