St. Tropez & Kobe

I spent the whole day cooking. The menu for dinner tonight is feta cheese & tomato canapes to start with. Then we are having two kinds of homemade ravioli. The meat filled ravioli with simple tomato sauce and the ricotta & spinach filled ravioli with butter and sage sauce. For the main course I have couscous stuffed quail on a bed of baked potatoes - both regular and sweet potatoes. A side salad of red cabbage, beans & pears. Dessert is a sampler trio of chocolate sabayon tart, raspberry & cheese tart and mini dark chocolate souffle. So .. who's coming to dinner? :-)

A couple of cards that I did today and a few that I made earlier. All to be mailed out on Monday. The last card is for my mother.

I did not do any layouts today so I thought I'd share a couple I did some time back. Both use Club Scrap papers, the first one is the Nautical kit, which I have used up almost totally. The anchor & sailboat stamps rock! Not sure which kit the second layout paper is from, but then it is just one piece of cardstock. It is okay not to remember, right? :-)

Summer 2003: Usually we spend all summer in Italy. This year we drove to St. Tropez in France to stay with some friends. The town is beautiful, with narrow winding roads, beaches with top*less old women and many large expensive boats. We loved walking around, eating the crepes and there is one ice cream shop on the quay that has to have the best ice cream in all of France. Nothing compares to the Italian gelato! Anyway, we had to have a few tubs of ice cream in different flavours, with lots of mini cones that you use like scoops. With each scoop you pop the ice cream & the cone into your mouth. Scrumptious!!

Usually I do not bother taking photographs from my hotel windows. But this time, in Kobe, I was on a high floor, in the tallest building, halfway up a hill. I had arrived into Kobe very late the previous night so I did not get a chance to take in the lay of the land. I awoke at 5 am and pulled back the curtains to a beautiful sight. The whole city lay before me, stretching from the base of the hills to the sea. The sun was just creeping up in the sky, the light was still soft and I could literally feel the city awakening from slumber. It was an amazing feeling, looking down at this vista! Truly the land of the rising sun. Wish I was better with the camera ...

Now for a video ~ which could be a hoax because it is actually an advertisement ~ but because I believe in the genius of mankind I like to think that this kid can really paint. You decide.