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Native Woman Sews, Crafts, Writes, and More

Year of Yes

March 29, 2016 by Tsoniki Leave a Comment

It’s easy to take books in the primary language you speak for granted when you live in a place where you can shop easily. While we lived in France, it was easy to order online and anticipate getting the mail. We only picked up our mail every six weeks to two months so patience was definitely a treasured thing. The mail comes to us in two or three weeks here, which is great because things get here faster, but also not great because since things get here faster it’s tempting to order. 🙂

I appreciate the Kindle for reading what I call chick lit (is it still called that?), beach reads, or stuff I just don’t want to own. For everything else, I’m a book buyer.

One of my recent purchases was the Year of Yes, by favorite character killer Shonda Rhimes. Of course, reports say she does not do actor drama so people leaving the shows she created is because they have some drama. I’m on board with that, even if McDreamy was killed and his funeral not attended by his family and Meredith turned off the machine after moments, also without his family there.

Anyway – 20 pages into the book and I love it. I’m easy to love books though, so let’s get into this.

Year Of Yes - Shonda Rhimes

My word of/for the year for 2016 is YES.

Yes, I will make a quilt on commission.

Yes, I can sew that seam for you fashion designer friend.

Yes, I will make another quilt on commission.

Another quilt? Yes.

Yes fashion designer friend, I will meet your fashion designer friend.

Make something for you friend of a friend? Yes.

It’s almost the end of March, I really want to recap January because that was my “finish projects or get rid of them” month, but overall my year is YES and wow – it’s kind of awesome.

I am saying yes even though I am freaking out on the inside. Even though I am going to meetings completely unprepared, I get through it. Because even though I really want to do all of this awesome stuff – it’s scary. There are a couple of things that I am working on for other people outside of sewing that are making me really freak out and be scared, but I am going through with it anyway.

It’s Shonda Rhimes playing in the pantry, enjoying creativity and imagination alone, and loving it. Because I love to sew. I do. I sew every day – well, let me rephrase that – I am creative every single day. I am designing or quilting or sewing a binding or beading or organizing beads for a project. I love being creative and I feel less energy when I don’t have a chance to be who I am when I can create. I love writing and why wouldn’t a magazine submission be on my list. I want to podcast again so why not get back to doing something I really enjoy.

And it really is a powerful feeling when you say yes to the scary stuff. I hope you have someone who can push you to say yes.

Filed Under: Inspiration, Italy

Amalfi Coast and Sorrento USO Tour

March 24, 2016 by Tsoniki Leave a Comment

In December we went on our first USO tour, to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. The drive – stunning, mildly scary, and super windy. Not wind like air blowing, but wind like wind a toy. Once we got across from Mt. Vesuvius the bus stopped so everyone could see the view.

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Our first stop was a factory that makes inlaid wood products. It was simply beautiful. We are always a little wary of a stop on a tour where you can buy stuff, it’s a set up, it’s just because of the tour, etc. But I don’t think about any of that stuff – we are in a new country and have the chance to visit some awesome places, just take advantage of that.

I wish we took pictures while we were inside! But all I got was a picture of the side of the mountain – white limestone.

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We were walked through their process from design to cutting, to how they dye the wood, how thin the wood is cut, everything. It sounds like a lot, but it was a quick explanation so we could get to the browsing and shopping. They even use some wood from Wisconsin, and the gentleman explained that he lived in San Francisco back in the 60s for less than a year, but he traveled the US for work so he knows the East and West Coasts well.

There was a beautiful desk that we all admired, but we couldn’t find a price that we could say, “yeah right” to. I did pick out a beautiful box – made of olive wood and the inlay on the top made up of a few different types of wood, cut very thinly into veneer. I’ll have to ask someone if they know how an olive tree ended up growing in my Grandma’s yard, but it was there for years and years, and now I have a box made of the wood. This area (and maybe Italy in general?) is known for olive wood products, I can’t wait to get a few more things!

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After that shop, we went into Sorrento. The city center is laid out in a grid so it’s easy to walk around and not get lost. We had about an hour and a half so we just explored. There were some great shops off the main street, but it was early and few were open. The area is known for limoncello, a liquor that is produced in this area of Southern Italy; and ceramics.

We stopped for chips (french fries) and a snack, and even though I read a little about the area I was still surprised that everyone spoke English. There is just so much tourism that it makes sense for them.

One of the shops we went into was huge and packed with inlaid wood products. Everything from small tiles on up to furniture. They offered a discount because of the tour (we basically wouldn’t have to pay the Italian tax – it’s called ITA here, in France it is the VAT), but everything was expensive. The same box I got at the factory was about 1/3 more at the store.

They did have a wider variety of products – including this crazy chess set.

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The board was wood but the pieces were porcelain. The set cost around 200 euros. The shop had quite a few sets – sailors, British military, animals, etc. We almost bought a small travel game set, but decided it was too expensive so we’ll just remember it and buy it in the future.

After Sorrento, we started the crazy drive to Amalfi. So there’s a funny thing – there is the Amalfi Coast and there is a town on the coast named Amalfi. Driving is simply out of the question. It is just a series of really sharp turns. The bus drivers are so talented, we decided early on that we were not coming back on our own. We stopped a couple of times for photos – the first stop we just pulled over on the side of the road and we weren’t allowed to get off the bus for safety reasons. The second stop was sort of a tourist stop – just a place to take a photo and a couple of small road side shops. JW was feeling sick so we were happy for a stop at that moment.

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We made another stop at a ceramics shop – both to shop and use the restroom. Oh that’s a bonus with the shops the tour stops at, they all have free restrooms. There are generally not free to use restrooms, there might be one public facility at the end of the street or near a beach, but otherwise that’s not the case, and they charge per person. What everyone does is buy a coffee or two at a shop and use the restroom there.

We made it to Amalfi around 1PM, in time to find something for lunch and shop. We walked up to the end of the shopping area and just happened to find a sandwich shop that Kevin Costner visited.

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Seriously delicious sandwiches. Another thing I should have taken a photo of! I got a simple tomato and mozzarella – they poured olive oil on the bread, added arugula, and the last piece of ham from making the other sandwiches we bought and it was so good.

At the end of the street we searched a ceramic shop for an olive dish. I saw one particular one that at the shop outside of Amalfi, but for some reason didn’t buy it. There are some beautiful ceramics available, but we didn’t buy anything. We have some time here, so no need to rush and make a lot of purchases.

We did find olive oil in tins! That is something we have been looking for (okay, we looked at two stores locally, so we haven’t been looking that hard) so we could ship it home easier. The store we were had had lemon everything – lemon candies, lemon salt, lemon sugar, limoncello, lemon soap, lemon candles, lemon everything.

The Amalfi Cathedral is in the Piazza del Duomo we were in and JW wanted to see it, but only to make it look like he was lifting it up. He was wearing Jake’s sweatshirt so he looks funny, and his hands are pointing upward, but he’s crazy happy.

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After our time in Amalfi, we got back on the bus to make our way home. Our tour guide said it was a one way trip, in the sense of the roads we were taking so the return home was over the mountain versus along the coast. It was still a twisty road, not as bad, but still there.

Once we got out of the mountains, it was a quick trip back. It was really a great experience. And we needed to do something fun. This trip was after a hectic few weeks of apartment hunting, living  in a hotel, and cooking with only what the hotel provided for us. A break was definitely in the cards, and it was a nice way to celebrate that we were moving out of the hotel very soon. We’ve been in our apartment for a few months now and are enjoying finally having internet service!

Filed Under: Italy

Creative Live’s Surface Pattern Class

December 17, 2015 by Tsoniki Leave a Comment

Creative Live is running several of their most popular classes for free right now so I took the chance to check out Bonnie Christine’s Surface Pattern class. Our internet connection at the hotel is so bad! The class kept pausing to reload, or it would just shut down all together.

I watched just enough to make me realize that I would love the class.

During the class she shares a timeline that shows her progress in the career she’s in now. She said one thing that made her shift her focus was that she needed to “Do one thing every single day towards reaching the goal of your dreams.” That’s simple right? Well, simple to say, maybe a little harder to do the follow through.

Creative Live Surface Pattern Class

I haven’t published a podcast since this summer. I didn’t mean to take a break. I figured I would while we were moving, but it happened before that move. And of course we get here and we discover really bad internet. We are moving into our place soon, we don’t have a date yet so it’s just soon, and we’ll get ADSL.

DSL. Over the phone line. What? I know! But hey, I’m just glad we’ll get service. We had to sign a paper acknowledging that we understand there is a possibility of not being able to have service at our house as the growth of the city hasn’t caught up with the demand. It’s mildly understandable – rural parts of the US don’t have great internet service. But it’s certainly not what we thought we would run into here.

Because of that bad service, who knows what will happen to my podcast. But it is definitely time to do something every day to reach the goal of my dreams. In between unpacking boxes and getting out there driving these crazy streets.

Filed Under: Inspiration

Weekend Adventures

December 14, 2015 by Tsoniki 2 Comments

We’ve been trying to get out and do something every day, it’s really no fun living in a hotel. This time we went to a mall that is near the base and then to IKEA.

The whole point of going to the mall was to get a cell phone. There are services on base, but we had such great service in France that I just knew we could get something just as good. A couple of locals told me about cell phone providers and I took a chance with one.

And I was right! I got a 10euro a month plan that includes 4gb of data a month. Yay! We use a map application on our phones to get us to anywhere, so we do use a lot of data. I turned off the cellular service for the majority of the apps on my phone until I figure out how much I end up using. The kids both need phone plans still, but it was a heck of a time to just get mine set up so we are waiting on them. Maybe this upcoming weekend.

Next up was IKEA! It’s the same everywhere right? Well, mostly the same. JW (and the rest of the family) loved the hot dogs at IKEA in France, but really who doesn’t like a grilled hot dog? So that was high on his list to eat for lunch. But the hot dogs, not the same. They were more like sausages, and they were boiled. They were edible, but we probably won’t do that again. We ended up buying just a few things and looking at beds for the kids. All the moving we’ve done and the taking apart/putting together has caused the beds to need to be replaced. Plus we had to have an ice cream.


I didn’t really believe Chris when he arrived before the kids and I did and he said there’s trash everywhere. I mean, really? I just couldn’t see it. But unfortunately, it’s true. Here’s a better picture of Mount Vesuvius, taken when the map took us on a wild way out of IKEA’s parking lot.

Filed Under: Italy

From the US to Europe

December 10, 2015 by Tsoniki Leave a Comment

We managed to stay in the US for about two and a half months. Toward the end of two months I realized I just wasn’t ready to leave yet. I was not looking forward to living in a hotel for who knows how long, not looking forward to flying with a little person who gets airsick, not looking forward to trying to adjust to the time difference.

Leaving France was hard – for a lot of reasons including and not limited to plane tickets only arriving two days before we were scheduled to leave, and they were the wrong dates but I got them fixed – and so we did managed to attend my brother’s wedding in South Dakota, arriving the evening before. Nevermind that we arrived to a city about six hours away, so we had a very early morning getting up and driving. My husband performed the ceremony, which was short and sweet, and quickly two families were joined. My brother looks crazy happy in the photos, as does his new bride. She’s great, his new kids are good, and they’ve recently moved for their jobs. They were getting settled in as we were leaving to move back to Europe.

We did get to celebrate Halloween! Two years in France not dressing up and you end up with kids that were so happy to get to participate.

Thor wore his costume for days, it’s with us now but surprisingly he has not worn it. There’s a chance he forgot since we are in a hotel room and the suitcases are all stacked in a closet.

It’s hard getting settled in. Sure there are facebook groups and random people that I “know” who live here, but it’s tough. We are hotel living, and crossing all of our fingers that we’ll be in our own place by Christmas. That’s so close!

Some highlights – we will have a pool! And a great view. Plus an alarm system and locks everywhere. We will hopefully have decent internet service – in the hotel on base the internet *sucks* – it is seriously so terrible. A few days after our first arrival the service went out for probably a day and a half, and ever since we reset the router multiple times a day. We are not within walking distance of anything like a grocery store or market, but we’ve already bought one vehicle and we will more than likely have to buy another. It’s just so completely different than life in France. I’m working hard to remind myself that every place is different, nothing will be the same, and probably very little will be similar.

The sunsets are beautiful, and base reminds me of San Diego.

We are still on base so no great pictures, any errands we run are on base. We did go to a cool mall last weekend – it’s modeled after a volcano with parking around the outside, the stores in a circle, and the interior of that circle is a space that is used for things like concerts or mini carnival rides. It was kind of surprising to see a lot of mining on our way to the mall, but it’s the same kind of surprise you feel when you realize people are homeless in your town, or there are kids who only eat at school. It’s not really surprising – it’s actually happening every day.

Here’s to a new adventure. Oh and here’s a bad picture of Mt. Vesuvius. It’s right there!

Filed Under: Italy

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