Spring has stayed through June, and I’m feeling particularly thankful for that.  I love the cool spring weather and am not quite so fond of the hot summer, so an extra month or so of chilly evenings and rainy mornings has me ready to share a few of my favorite things this season.

1.  I love it when bearers of bad news are wrong.  We were warned by the nursery that wisteria would definitely grow in our climate, but it wouldn’t blossom.   I’m so glad that we decided to plant it anyway.  This year it was just dripping in gorgeous blossoms and I’m in love with it.

2.  I love happy accidents.  We purchased lilac bushes for the side yard and as they started growing they looked a bit, well, off.  We found out that they’re actually Japaneese lilacs.  They have the same gorgeous scent and color, but the leaves and blossoms are more feathery-looking than traditional lilacs.  Best of all, they blossom just as other lilacs quit (and after the wisteria loses it’s blossoms as well).  The timing is absolutely perfect to keep our side garden in color and heavenly scent.

3.  I love rain.  Not always, sometimes I’d like to make it stop for a bit and come back later when I’m not busy trying to do things.  But mostly I just love rain.  We didn’t have it much growing up so rainy days were precious treats to be thoroughly enjoyed.  I would sit on the porch and hear it patter upon the roof - or sit outside on the front steps and let it just soak me.  It was beautiful.  I loved the rain in Italy - so much more powerful than anything I’d experienced in Wyoming.  And I love the rain here.   It makes everything smell so fresh and clean.

4.  I love garden fresh produce.  My husband is fantastic with plants.  He claims it’s all in the watering of them, and that my weakness in this area explains my wilting and dying flowers so much more realistically than my own mystical brown-thumb theories.  Oh, and weeding.  He highly recommends removing the choking weeds from around my flowers.  Not at all romantic, I know, but there’s an upside to a practical husband.  It’s garden fresh produce.  We’ve been having salad from our lettuce plants in the garden for weeks now and it’s fantastic.  Soon we’ll have fresh garden tomatoes to add to it, and peas.  Delicious.

5.  I love Spring Clean.  Not cleaning.  I don’t love cleaning.  I’m about as good at it as I am at watering flowers.  But spring makes me want to see things put back in order and freshened up, and so I feel motivated to do it despite not loving the process.  It feels great to have the winter things put away and rooms decluttered.  I love to open the windows and air everything out.  I love seeing the deck cleared off and set up - those outdoor rooms are some of my very favorites in the house.

So if you’ve not seen many new things in my shop lately - perhaps these top five things will make that more understandable.  And for those who are disappointed by that and aching for something new, take heart.  Soon the summer sun will be driving me down into my cool basement studio to create once again.  I’ll counteract the heat with the Christmas art set that will be released at Bits of Ivory in July.  At Bramble & Vine there will be books and tags and cards of all sorts coming from my studio - and perhaps I’ll have a Top Five Tuesday celebrating my little oasis.

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Barbara Anne Williams
Bits of Ivory
Bramble & Vine @Etsy and @1000Markets

Welcome to Favorite Things Friday, where I share some of my very favorite tools and supplies.

Finding a perfect adhesive for projects can be a challenge.  I hate glues that promise not to wrinkle my papers, and then wrinkle and warp anyway.  It’s annoying.  It’s beyond annoying, and it happens quite a lot.

I was recently introduced to Coccoina paste and liquid adhesive.  I’ll admit that I didn’t get my hopes up.  After all, the glue is almond scented and the paste is reputed to taste like marzipan.  School children in Italy have been using it (and presumably tasting it) forever.  It doesn’t sound like the kind of tool that serious artists and artisans would use on their very serious, grown-up art projects.

Well, I’m not afraid to admit that I was mistaken.  These adhesives are one of my new very favorite things.  The liquid glue with it’s sponge applicator tip spreads the glue so evenly and gently on delicate papers - and I’m not kidding, no wrinkling and warping at all.  It’s non-toxic, and so far it’s proven to be a very strong and effective adhesive.  I love this stuff.  How heavenly to trade the chemical or pasty odor of other glues for that of sweet almonds!  And while I haven’t tried it myself, my boys assure me that the paste does actually taste quite nice.

Coccoina is imported from Italy, and if it’s not carried in your local stores you can find it online.  I purchased mine from Little Pink Studio at Etsy and it arrived beautifully packaged.  How nice to find a present to me in my mailbox (even if I did buy it for myself).

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Barbara Anne Williams
Bits of Ivory
Bramble & Vine @Etsy and @1000Markets

Just a little sneak preview of my latest project for Scrapbook Dimensions Magazine.  I had planned on creating this handy-dandy little travel journal for my recent trip to Italy, but it’s better late than never.  It would have been so convenient to take notes and stash tickets, maps, postcards, etc. in the pockets as we went along.  Even so, it’s fun to fill up after the fact as well - I’m filling it up while the memories are still fresh!  From the extra-sturdy covers to the pocket pages, lined pages begging for notes and patterned papers for photo illustrations of those notes, and cute little tie-closure to keep everything together while the book bounces around in your backpack - you’ll find the details and techniques to make your own travel journal in the article in this month’s magazine.

If you’re not familiar with the online publication, it’s a fantastic resource for anyone interested in combining traditional scrapbooking methods with the new-fangled digital techniques.  It’s really the best of both worlds and there’s something for everyone - from creative inspiration to step-by-step how-to articles.  You’ll even find tips for better organization and improving your photographs.  Visit www.scrapbookdimensionsmagazine.com for more information.

And just for fun - leave a comment here about a favorite trip you’ve taken or dream of taking in the future and I’ll draw a name or two from among the comments to recieve a past issue in print!  The drawing will be May 15th and will be announced here (so don’t forget to come back and check).

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Surprise!  All who commented  will recieve a past issue of the magazine!  If you have not already contacted me with your snail-mail address please do so at your earliest convenience and then start watching your mailbox.

Look what’s new today at Bits of Ivory!

This Get Well Soon set has everything you need to wish quick healing and comfort to those who are feeling a bit under the weather.  You’ll find a friendly nurse and medicines as well as some favorite home remedies from my childhood like chicken soup and hot honey & lemon water.

This set is also great for projects that celebrate and thank your favorite health care professionals.

The images are high-quality 300 dpi png files for your print projects, and there’s a bonus background (300 dpi jpg, 8×8″) to coordinate.  You’ll find just what you need for paper crafting projects, card making, candy wrapping and even scrapbooking.

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Barbara Anne Williams
Bits of Ivory
Bramble & Vine @Etsy and @1000Markets

Welcome to our first official Tips and Techniques Tuesday!  These itty bitty rubber stamps are so much fun when you’re looking for a unique touch.  You’ve probably used a pencil eraser for rubber stamping dots before, but with just a few little passes of your craft knife you can have a little hand-carved stamp to add character and personality to your handcrafted projects.

Very simple shapes are obvously best, because you’re working with a tiny little space here.  For simple shapes like a square or prim heart, cut away at the shape free-hand, using the straight edge of the blade to carve the eraser material away until you’re left with the shape you want.  For other shapes you can use ink to draw the shape on the eraser and then cut carefully around it leaving only the inked areas.  With a little practice you’ll have a collection of favorite little one-of-a-kind shapes - and if something doesn’t work out, you can always start over with a new ”blank” and recycle the mistakes as . . . pencil erasers!

*Leave a comment and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a little box of stamping blanks!  Okay, it’s a box of pencils. . . but think of the amazing things you could make with them.

WINNER ANNOUNCED!  The winner of the drawing is Jennifer S. of Bugs’n'Bees!

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Barbara Anne Williams
Bits of Ivory
Bramble & Vine @Etsy and @1000Markets

Don’t miss our celebration of Spring this year at Bits of Ivory.  You’ll get 50% off many of our printables sets and 25% off of our clipart sets!  We’ve never had a sale this large, and we don’t have sales very often - so this is a great opportuinty to either try our digital artwork for the first time, or add to your collection. 

We have two new art sets that will be ready for release in May and June, and will be adding art sets about every month for the rest of the year!  Be sure to bookmark the blog and take a peek every now and again for announcements and sneak peeks.  Visit this blog this Tuesday for our Tuesday Tip - a quick and easy way to make your own tiny rubber stamp!

We recently returned from a trip to Italy.  It’s been 15 years since we’ve been there and it was so wonderful to return after all this time.  I don’t think we had realized just how much we’d missed the beautiful language, amazing food, gorgeous scenery, or the friendly Italian people.

For most of our trip we stayed at a sweet little guest villa near Bubbio.  Casa Pietra is so peaceful and charming.  We didn’t get to spend as much time there as I would have liked but it was so nice to have a comfortable, quiet place to come home to at the end of each day.  Surrounded by fields and vinyards, tucked into the hills, it’s only a 15 minute walk to the nearby village.  This is definitely not a touristy area, which we loved. 

We spent one day nearby in Aqui Terme, where we were able to view the remains of the aquaduct that used to feed the Roman city as well as the Cathedral (consecrated in the year 1067) and another far more ancient church (San Pietro) that was rebuilt in the 10th and 11th centuries to serve as a Benedictine abby.  We were told that it’s the oldest surviving church from the Roman era.  In the center of town is a fountain fed by the hot sulpher springs, built in the late 1800s.  People still stop by there to take a drink of the hot water.

We travelled by train to the little village of Durrenroth, Switzerland one day.  It was an awe inspiring experience to travel over, around and through the Alps in the late winter.  Towns and villages were tucked into gorgeous green valleys in the shadows of the snowcovered mountains.  Aosta, in the Italian Alps, was similarly gorgeous with the slate roofs and hilltop castles.  The remains of a first century theater there stand near a city gate built in the first century B.C.  Little boys played soccer in the adjacent parking lot until we caught their interest and target practice with pebbles sounded more fun.

In Como we stayed at Hotel Marco’s which has a lovely view of the lake and a very helpful and friendly staff.  I was impressed to hear the breakfast host speak to each group of guests in their own language.  The old town center of Como is beautiful, surrounded by the old city wall.  On our way from Como to our villa we stopped by Certosa di Pavia.  I had been there once before and was struck by it’s beauty then.  We were lucky enough this time to run into one of the caretakers who took us through one of the residences where the Certosan Monks would have lived out a life of solitude and study, isolated from the outside world.  The architecture, art and woodwork of the cloister and chapel are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.

We spent a Sunday in San Remo, on the Italian Riviera.  The walkway along the shore and the view of the ocean were a breath of fresh air, as were the gorgeous city gardens.  The best part of the day, though, was attending church there and then spending the afternoon with my husband’s friend and his family.  His wife is an amazing cook and then we were delighted that he played and sang a few of his songs for us after dinner. 

Later in our trip we returned to the Riviera in Cinque Terre where we walked along the Via Del’Amore and then visited the other cities by train.  The weather was beautiful and the views were amazing everywhere we went.  We took the challenge and climbed the steps up to Corneglia (all 382 of them).

The market at Torino (Turin) was just what we had remembered.  We walked through the mazes of fruits and vegetables impressed with the variety and quality of the produce (and the prices).  Along with the fresh bread from the Baker’s cart, it made for an amazing picnic in the park beside the ruins of the old Roman gate.  After lunch we took a trip to the top of the Mole Antonella for the city view, and then were lucky to hear about the chocolate festival being held there.  I found my favorite chocolate (gianduia) and the men of the group found their new favorite food - giant crepes filled with Nutella and bananas.  Did I mention the gianduia?  Heaven.

Venice was lovely.  It was my first time visiting the city and it has a flavor all its own.  I was surprised to see just how filled with tourists it was, even off-season.  Some of my favorite photos were taken while we were there, and we were able to find some of our favorite gifts for family and friends there.  The Murano glass was beautiful, and there were also so many paper, lace and other shops to catch our attention as we wandered through the streets (occasionally getting a bit turned-around).  The gondolas were elegant with Gondoliers still wearing the traditional striped shirts and hats with the less-traditional cell phones pressed to their ears.

We had only a few hours to spend in Bergamo’s Citta Alta (high city) and I was so happy that we didn’t have to miss it.  It’s one of the most beautiful places that I’ve seen in Italy.  We found ourselves there just at dinner time and after purchasing some sweets in the large piazza we found a little pizzeria/trattoria and settled in for a delicious meal. 

Nearby in Milano we visited the Duomo.  I’m awed by its size and beauty every time I visit it.  Of course, we took a little side-trip around the corner and down a little street to Luini’s for the famous panzerotti.  There’s always a line inside, and people standing around on the sidewalks outside munching on them, because they’re just that good.  Castello Sfortzesca was another of our stops there.  Its origins date back to the 14th century and it now houses several museums.  We stayed in a hotel downtown near the station and took the metro wherever we needed to go.  I do not miss the metro.

On our way to Rome we were able to spend a little time in Tuscany.  The square in Pisa where the famous leaning tower is found was almost completely filled with students who were preparing for upcoming exams by leaving their books at home and visiting a relic of wisdom followed by walking around the piazza the prescribed number of times. 

We wound our way on the Tuscan roads through valleys and fields that were gorgeous and green even this early in the spring.  High upon a hill we found Volterra.  The views from the city are breathtaking.  Those who visit the city in search of vampires will no doubt be disappointed as the ancient city is charming and cheerful, and not creepy in the least.  Those who visit for the famous hand-carved alabaster, or the Etruscan ruins will not be disappointed in the least.  And most importantly, down a little side street from Piazza Dei Priori is a delightful little gelato shop called Chic e Shock ( in Via Delle Prigioni) where a master gelato maker works his magic.  We ate quite a lot of gelato while we were in Italy, and I ate far more when I lived there years ago.  But that was easily the best gelato I’ve ever eaten, and the presentation was a work of edible art.  The man is a gelato genius.

We had little time to visit Rome, but managed to see the things that we most wanted to.  We were glad to be rid of our car there because driving is crazy.  We rarely saw a car that didn’t bear traffic battle scars of some sort or another.  We stayed at a charming little hotel called Hotel Best Roma that was near the train station, and had really fantastic customer service.  Once again we were able to get around easily using the Metro.  The Colosseum was so interesting, imagining the centuries of history that it had witnessed.  I couldn’t help thinking that the engineers in my family would have been able to appreciate it so much more intelligently that I could.  We also saw the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain, both covered in people despite it being midday on a weekday in the off season.  I can’t even imagine what it must be like in June! 

In the Vatican we toured Saint Peter’s.  It’s filled with such beautiful artwork, and is so historically fascinating!  The Sistine Chapel was next on our list and we were excited to see it.  We followed all of the signs and expected to go right to it but it’s been cleverly designed to lead you through hallways, up and down stairs, through galleries and back up and around to more hallways and galleries sometimes filled from floor to ceiling with works of art ancient and modern.  We kept expecting the chapel around each corner and were exhausted and overwhelmed by the time we actually arrived there.  It’s absolutely worth the effort to see it.  It’s stunning. 

One of the highlights of our time in Rome was the gentleman from Blu Car Autonoleggio who drove us to the airport.  He pointed out the sites as we passed them, and when there was nothing interesting to see entertained us by whistling famous Italian songs.  He is an amazingly talented whistler, it was a fantastic way to end our trip.

One of the best things I was able to bring home (besides the gianduia chocolate) were some beautiful photos of the places we visited.  I’ve been working in my studio to put together some cards and books featuring the best of those photos.  My first set of gift cards are available at our Bramble & Vine Etsy store and also 1000 Markets.  Another set will be available very soon.

Happy Valentine’s day to you all!  This is about the time of year when I’m thouroughly weary of winter and long for the Spring.  I start dreaming of my flower gardens and vegetable garden (even though I’m not really that great at either of them).  I think about the birds that will be coming soon and add birdseed to my shopping list.  I start thinking of the fun Spring holidays, like St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, May Day and Mother’s Day - and planning little crafts and projects around them.  I love Valentine’s Day for itslef, but also because it marks the beginning of the end of the wet and freezing cold.  The anticipation for what is to come is so much of the fun, isn’t it?

This might just be the most productive time of the year as well!  In a few short weeks it’s going to feel like torture to be in the house working at the computer or in the studio.  This is a great time to get ahead on projects in the house and the craft room.  It’s the perfect time to get a head start on Christmas projects - especially if you participate in the autumn craft fairs.  Whatever it is you’re doing to pass the last few weeks of winter - I wish you days filled with creative ideas and energy to accomplish them!

Someone asked me again this week if I’m ready for Christmas.  I’ve decided that I’m never really ready for Christmas until it’s here and there’s nothing more I could do to prepare even if I wanted to.  On the other hand, I’m enjoying every single moment of the season and Mother Nature has provided a very white Christmas, which really does make it feel more cozy and homey and perfect.  I’m looking forward to snuggling in next to the warm fire and watching favorite Christmas movies together with my family.

Speaking of perfect, aren’t these Christmas stockings beautiful?  It’s not my home - and they’re not my stockings, but were knit by my sister Chris and are so beautiful and perfect I just had to share them.  The photo is courtesy of Blazing Needles of Salt Lake City.  If you’re a fiber artist, or just admire those who are, it’s definitely worth looking around their website.  My sister adores this shop, and she’s a picky knitter (um, I mean discerning) so that really means something coming from her.

I wish you all the happiness of the season!

Sorry that I’m a bit late with this, but better late than never!  Our final Blog Giveaway in celebration of our anniversary is this printable set:

You can read more about the set HERE.  Please note that this is a digital file download, and the photos above are just a “serving suggestion”.  You can print the set and assemble your own soup kits!

TO ENTER:  Simply leave a comment here on your favorite way to spend a cold and stormy day.  Mine is snuggled up to a fire with a bit of hot cocoa and a really good book.

                                                                                      *All Commenters by Dec 11th won the download!