Travel Project: Postcards

Hello guys,

As I mentioned here I went to Italy for a quick visit. I had a lot of fun, met many people, took sun and ate A LOT.

One of my favourite things I always do as soon as I land in the country (and the last one before I leave it) is to have a cappuccino and a cornetto. Never had cappuccino and cornetto? You should take the first plane to Italy and try. It's heaven!!

As a tribute to this nice habit I wanted a cappuccino on the postcard I sent home, so here it is.

Do you have any special tradition when you travel to some specific place?

Travel Project: Postcards

Today I want to share a little tradition we started years ago. The idea is really simple and involves one of my passions: postcards. (Actually I am in love not only with postcards, but handwritten letters as well, but that's an other story).

Since I remember I always loved to collect small things from different locations I visited, from magnets to state flags. When J. and I started dating it came almost authomatic to collect something that would take our memories back and remind what was special about each trip we took together, so we went for postcards. Beautiul, inexpensive and easy to store! Plus we could write our own notes and experiences.

We have been sending home many postcards already and actually the project was so fun that we would send one also when travelling alone. You know, share some of our adventures with each others.

But now it's time to take the Postcard Project to the next level. I'll share the postcards with you right here in the blog. Ready to take the journey with us?

[I will include only the postcards we sent after we got married, at least for now].

 

So far we visited only 2 places (but considering we have been married for less than a year it doesn't look that bad at all). We were both on business trip (you can read more about my trip here), but it was nice to see new places, even for a quick visit.

What about you? Anything special you like to collect?

Mini-Challenge: Acoomplished

Yes, I did it!

I did and I survived!! (Here I would need some music "hero-type" to enlight the success!).

In this post I shared with the world that I was starting to an intensive cleaning section:

I can confirm that it was REALLY intensive and at the moment I am so tired, but it was definitely worth it. In fact right now I am enjoying a lovely coconut tea at my desk, surronded by a fresh and clean smell. No dust, no chaotic cabinets, no dog hair where you would less expect (and when you have a sheeding husky it is a real luxury), but most of all no laundry to iron!!

I can sit and enjoy my house! How beautiful is that?

Looking back at the task list, I accomplished basically to everything. I even washed (and ironed) all the curtains of the house. The only things I felt aside for now is to organize my university and work files and material (plus my husband's tool cabinet, but that is something I would need to ask him) and the gardening. But I have time for that later also and right now I feel satisfied!

Mini-challenge: Accomplished!

What about you? Any crazy and intensive spring cleaning?

Mini-Challenge: Sparkling House in 5 Days

Here we are, starting a brand new little project that will help me stay focused and treat my house how it deserves. Let's start with...(drumps roll) mini-challanges!!

The idea is really simple: when I have time I will go for a specific challenge related to my house or domestic life in general and I will have few days to accomplish it. Ready for this first adventure?

As my first mini-challenge I decided to bring this house a big smile cleaning it from top to bottom in 5 days. First of all I divided the house in 5 parts and I will dedicate to each of these parts one full day. Here is the plan:

Sunday

Bedroom, Entryway and Livingroom

• Dust
• Wash the curtains
• Scrub all the surfaces (e.g. headboard, bedframe, windows, etc.)
• Organize scrub the cabinets (e.g. wardrobe, )
• Clean the windows
• Clean the chandelier light/fixtures
• Dust and scrub the door and trims
• Vacuum
• Wash the floor

Monday

Bathrooms

• Dust
• Scrub all the surfaces
• Organize and clean the cabinets
• Clean the windows and mirrors
• Clean the light fixtures
• Dust and scrub the doors and trims
• Vacumm
• Wash the floor
• Do and iron the laundry

Tuesday

Kitchen

• Dust
• Scrub all the surfaces (e.g. sink, dinner table, etc.)
• Organize and clean the cabinets
• Clean the glasses
• Clean the chandelier
• Dust and scrub the doors and trims
• Vacumm
• Wash the floor

Wendesday

Office

• Dust
• Scrub all the surfaces 
• Organize and clean the cabinets
• Clean the glasses
• Clean the light fixtures
• Dust and scrub the doors and trims
• Vacumm
• Wash the floor
• Beat the rugs

Thursday

Outside

• Clean the balcony
• Clean and scrub the porch
• Take care of the plants (Gardening)
• Clean the windows frames from the outside

Wow, it looks like an intense work is waiting! :) Ready to start?!

Little visitors

I am stopping by today to say "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY" to all the mothers that are reading my blog!
I hope you are having a really special day with your loved ones.

Today I also want to share with you  something singular that happened. In the past months we have had an amazing traffic of squirrels in our back yard. One day I counted 8  of them running like crazy back and forward and playing on the trees just in front of our livingroom. They are so cute and and always make us smile, but since it happens basically everyday it became like a regular thing for us and we don't always pay much attention to them.

But the past 2 days have been special! Why? Because we had little visitors in our back yard, other than the squirrols.

Can you spot it? Right there, in the center of the picture, between the trees. 

YES!! It's a hare! And here is also a shot from when it came closer. 

I wanted to get closer to take better picture, but I am sure it would have escaped if it would have heard me opening the door, so this is the best I could get. I am sure it went to look for food and after few minutes it disappeared in the forest.

Anywas, the night before we had an other little visitor: an hedgehog. Once I spotted it, it was going from ouw yard towards the forest, but it seemed really relaxed and not afraid, so I tried to get closer.And I could actually get so close to get such a picture!

Isn't it adorable? He was totally ok having me around, but after few minutes he also walked in the forest and disappeared.

Of course I could notice of our little visitors only thanks to the Miss, which is always at the window to check what happens in the yard and totally got crazy when she saw the hedgehog and the hare. 

What about you? Have you had any strange visitor from the forest lately?

Protect those shoes!

Yestersay I went shoes shopping and I found these walking shoes that I absolute adore. The brand is Swedish (Icebug) and it uses recycled material (the box is 100% recycled, while the shoes are 50% made from old ones). The prize tag was not crazy expensive, but you really can see the high quality of the shoes and I really enjoyed small details. For example there is an handle attacched  directly to the box (you can see it from the second picture), so it is not necessary to buy a plastic bag to take them home, and there were included an extra pair of shoelaces and soles (picture 3). And let's not mention that they are super confortable!

I wanted to wear them right away, but these days it is raining like crazy and I was afraid of ruining them already. So I did a small research to see how I am supposed to take care of them. I know, I know... it's insane I never did it before. Well, each kind of material has its own specific care methods, but I went for a generic protective spray that is suitable for different kinds of materials, so I can treat other shoes as well. Don't worry, it is totally transparent and it doesn'r show or change the color of the shoes. After two even coats of the protective agent, the shoes are totally water resistent and I will not be afraid of wearing them today! Yeah. 

Of course the protection goes away with the use, so you should respray the shoes regularly.

Who went shopping lately? What did you buy? Nice new shoes anyone?

Planning a trip. Step 1: Decide a destination

We thought it would be fun of sharing few steps about how we usually plan and organize trips.

The really first step in planning a trip is to decide your destination, obviously.

Here are listed few things we always take in consideration when we want to travel somewhere.

1. Budget. Before you start dreaming about breathtaking beaches and exotic landscapes you should consider realistically what is your budget for the trip. It is not fun to dream yourself already with a cold cocktail in your hand under a palm tree somewhere warm and sunny to realize only later that it cannot really happen. What we usually do is alternate very far away and a bit more "expensive" vacation with closer and "cheaper" locations. This way we have time to save some money.

Lungotevere, Rome, Italy. 2007

2. Time of vacation. We usually like to plan things well ahead, gain a relatively long holiday period from work and spend few weeks in a foreign country. Of course this is not always possible, so in between we have very short holidays so to be able to save something for longer and farer trips.

3.  What to do. This may sound pretty obvious, but when you are planning a trip you should consider what you really would want to do during your vacation. It wouldn't make much sense to spend a week in Milan if you hate big cities and shopping. We are lucky, because the thing that we like the most when we travel is to walk, explore and get lost in new places and it can be done basically everywhere. Anyway, since we live in such a cold country, lately we enjoy more and more warm places and relax on some sunny beach. Once again, for us really work to alternate different kind of trips (for example, city holiday with relaxing holiday), this way we never get bored!

Rocca al mare, Tallin, Estonia, 2011

4. Get informed. Get as much information as you can when you are planning to visit a new place. Especially if you have some health condition, allergies or intolerances and if you travel with kids or pets. Unexpected surprises can spoil an entire trip, this is why we prefer to know as much as possible before we book anything. It is our way to predict if the place is really for us or not.

So, here you have them. The really first things we keep in mind when we start to plan our next destination. 

What about you? Have you already planned everything for your next trip?

Free Printables: Cleaning Schedule

With the warmer and lighter days finally here I really feel active and in the mood to organize, organize, organize.

So, after being so busy with school and work I decided to dedicate some attention to my lovely house. I created this printable to keep track of my cleaning schedule, so to know what to do and when. It really helps me to not get overwhelmed and get things done.

I have divided the "monthly" section in 4 parts. Each of them corresponds to a different area of the house, so that I would clean each of them in deep once a month. 

1. week of the month: Kitchen and livingroom

2. week of the month: bathrooms and sauna

3. week of the month: bedroom and entryway

4. week of the month: studyroom

You can find the free printable here.

An idea would be of printing the schedule out, frame it and put it on the laundry room counter, so to keep track of the things done as you go.

Hope this was helpful somehow!

Hello Door Seven Life

Hello everyone!
I am sure someone of you already  noticed the update I made few days ago. I added a new section to our blog, Hello Door Seven Life and you can access to it through the link in the top bar.

I already mentioned here that sometimes I feel hesitant to post more personal things and I thought of setting Hello Door Seven as a private, but I just would miss the interaction I can have with all the readers and there are still things I would like to share with you all. 

So I found this nice compromise, a private section where we will tell more about us and our daily life, it will contain more pictures and will be in a way more personal, but accessible only to other bloggers.

I could not really test myself, but if you own a blog then you should be able to access to it. If you have problems, please don't hesitate to contact me. 

Tulips? Yes, please!

I always say that the biggest joys come unexepted and this is what happened yesterday.

I got flowers from someone unexpected. And not any kind of flowers, but tulips. My absolute favourite! And the colors also are so lovely! 

These pictures absolutely don't give these babies justice. Believe me, in person they are much nicer, the pink is baby pink and it gives a pop of life to the entire room. What can I say? I am in love with them.