What I Buy Wednesday

I'm going to start with my purchases from our trip. Then I'm going to share a few things that the rest of the gang bought.

I've already shared this picture, but I wanted to include it along with the rest of my purchases.

The last time we were in Italy, there were no Starbucks. So, I was really excited to get my mug. Butch washed it and served my tea in it--in bed on Tuesday morning. Those cute little pinnochio's are from our tour director. She surprised us with them one day. A close-up of my Venetian mask/Christmas ornament. I marked it: "Family trip to Italy 2023" on the backside of the porcelain (it's probably bisque). And then, I added two more champagne flutes to my collection. I had planned to only buy one, but couldn't pick between these two. Plus, the green one is Murano/Venetian while the red one is Florentine from Florence.

Next up:

Mindy found the cutest little bags of pasta--real pasta--magnets.

Sharon made quite a haul!

I wish I'd seen some of her things in person. A couple of these are gifts. The scarf is so pretty. There's olive oil and other foods--not sure what. I knew she was looking for a new pashmina, but had't seen it. 

Turns out that Matt wore it first!! I can relate. The airports were so cold! I ended up buying a sweatshirt at JFK. In all fairness, Matt and Sharon's flight was delayed until 12:20. They didn't get home until 3:30 a.m.!

Sharon and I both bought the same style of purse. Hers is a beautiful teal. She couldn't resist the floral one--it's so cute!

Stephanie's buys are next:

She loves shoes--don't we all? These are so cute. I love sparkly things and so does she!

Looks like she and Nicky both bought leather wallets. 

This colorful print from Venice.

And then her Murano/Venetian glass. There were so many beautiful things--it was really hard to pick.

Sandy and her girls found all kinds of goodies:

They bought matching bracelets with Murano glass beads.

They managed to find a nice assortment of things. I didn't see these either. That little shoe is so cute. I don't know what it is, but it sure is cute! 

The little Murano glass Christmas tree is adorable!

And then there are the purses. She got this one at the leather market. It's reversible in that she can choose to have it either mostly white or brown. The other side can be the same or each can be different. I love it. It looks like high fashion, doesn't it?

This is another from a store that she discovered in Barcelona. When she saw one in Florence, we had to go in. This purse is really nice too.

These are the Murano wine glasses that they purchased. 

I love how the colors blend into each other. So pretty. I'm sure she'll serve me a drink in them when we visit.

Finally, there's this:

Olly and Morgan got tattoos!!!

I told Morgan that I was so happy that she was carrying on my tradition of scrapbooking! She just happens to be doing it on her body!! She got a kick out of that and so did I!

It's always fun shopping for souvenirs and we all got some good ones. I'm just sorry that we weren't able to work "show and tell" into the schedule! But, we did manage to have our book discussion on the last night. Sandy, Stephanie, Sharon, and I went down to our favorite little cafe to end our evening with a cocktail:

We've had several of these over the last few days. Gordons pink gin with Prosecco and strawberries. The guys came along but vowed to stay out of our discussion. We always read a book for our family vacation. Jordan and Morgan were also reading it, but didn't finish. They opted to go out instead of joining us. The book was The Night Portrait. It was about Leonardo DaVinci's picture "The Girl with Ermine." We learned quite a bit. Ermine is a rodent--sort of like a ferret--kind of ugly. The book went back and forth in time from Leonardo to the Monument Men during WWII who worked at recovering the art that the Nazi's hid away. We enjoyed it and learned a few things. It wasn't fabulous, but good enough. We all pretty much rated it a 7. 

Okay, that's enough about our trip! On to other things...