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Holga!

This is too cute! I want one!! If anyone wants to buy me a gift... (Vid from abeautifulmess.typepad.com)

I've been messing around with my sisters' diana mini, and although only 4 pictures from my roll came out, I WON'T GIVE UP! No no.. It's such a spontaneous fun toy camera, and I always feel so hipster using it. Turns out I may have messed some settings up.. But the ones that did come out are gorgeous. It's just so much fun using film. The suspense, the excitement, the pure joy of opening up the folder with your photos. My sisters and I want to buy some equipment to develop our own negatives. That would be FUN!

Another day another dollar

Today was really getting me down... I was tired and bored and annoyed with life.. So when my mom asked me to pop off to the shop to buy some lavazza coffee and pasta for tomorrow's lunch, I was really happy for an opportunity to get out of the house and get some fresh air... Not to mention drop off my Diana mini roll at the lab (yay! ! ! )

So mil tags along, and notices, as only a keen eyed photographer does, that the sky is just amazing! So we run inside, grab all the cameras we can find, and run out to get some pics... (Some convincing was necessary on Mil's part, because I have to admit, I initially wasn't loving the idea.) But in the end, we had loads of fun, got some rad pics, and ended up going out a second time, because dim was feeling left out since she was catching up on latin homework when we went the first time...

Anyways, in the end, I think the photos are cool and we had loads of fun!
I hope you like them too!
xx

Our blog needs a makeover!

I really think it's time we changed things up around here. I'd like our site to return to it's original web site-ness and away from blog-ness... I know that it's main function is a blog, and we obviously have to be realistic about that, but I think some changes would be fun!

We also apologize for the lack of posting, and how boring we've become, but life has been really very normal of late, and I, especially, find splashing mundane every day life all over the web a waste of time, quite frankly!

Today, right now actually, I'm going to sew/moleskine/tidy up/ paint my nails, so later on there should be something happening around these parts! Keep your eyes peeled!
x

happy birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIANLUCA!
Today our oldest brother Gianluca turns 23 today. Hope you had a really nice day and that this year ahead is really special for you!

we made him lemon sponge cupcakes with lemon curd and miringue but unfortunately the curd failed.

and these were just vanilla cupcakes with sprinkles.

Happy easter!

Happy easter everyone! I hope your day was filled with lots of chocolate but if you don't do that then I just hope your day was great.
Our holiday ends in 2 days and those will be filled with last minute school work cramming. It makes me feel a bit sick knowing that Ale is staying in a beatiful Holiday Inn right on top of the sea in Naples having a great time and snapping pictures, (although she's there for a conference, and those are never really fun.)
Anyway that's all I really had to say. To brighten up this dull post here are some nice, colourful photos!

 

Roadtrip and Diana mini

So Ale has just left to Naples for the weekend, packed with our Diana mini! We're really excited to see her results when she gets back, but for now we thought we'd share a few photos from our first and only diana mini roll. Our brother borrowed it a year ago and only finished the roll yesterday... At the time we were disappointed with the results. But everyone has a bad first roll right?

some inspiration

a few photos/gifs. Have a great easter!

roadtrip.

Ale's on another of those road trips so it's up to us to keep the blog up and running. Last time she was gone we made the layout and redid her corkboard! 

Anyway, yesterday we made a mini stop motion and set up a "studio" in our room with lamps we found around the house, and got a few shots of our brothers to test -

Happiness Economics

I've always considered happiness to be something elusive, a desire deep down in the heart of every man, even if they aren't willing to admit to themselves that it's there. I've listened to people over the years saying that happiness is found within, it's about the journey, not the destination, and 'if you have to move 10 inches from where you are now to be happy, you'll never truly be happy.'

Even though I agree wholeheartedly with these statements, theories, if you will, but I always wondered if maybe there was more to it than that.

I've recently started studying microeconomics as one of my first year subjects, and our professor just so happens to be a high-profile economist. One of the topics he has widely covered over the years is just this, 'Happiness Economics'. While it may seem really strange, once he started to speak, this curiosity and desire to understand this concept was growing inside of me!

I find it so fascinating, and so true, that our happiness, according to research, is not very often linked to our average income, and that it's not always possible to transform income into happiness and goods into wellbeing, to loosely translate from the Italian.  He also sustains that we are the main actors, the stars in our own happiness. And each one of us has the ability to bring out the capacity to become excellent, to do extraordinary things. Could it be that the economic world, the least likely forum imaginable, will be the one to point out to the world that everyone is searching for something deeper? Could it be that economists will reveal the flaws in our western belief systems? Could it be people will start to really consider the true source of happiness, all by seeing the beauty of 'relational goods' and the emptiness in material possessions?

I'm inspired.

Even though the link to economics may seem unclear, (I'm no economist... Not yet anyway!) I finally, for the first time, realised that, yes, the economic world IS searching deeper. It's no longer considered acceptable to assume that money means everything. But over and above this, I realised that this is something I'm passionate about!

I think I've found my place in the world.
Everyone should have a place. I hope that whoever you are and whatever you do, you're inspired, firstly, and you're passionate, secondly! Inspired, passionate people make a difference.
Ale
xx

I find this picture the twins took of a bud very appropriate!! (and cool) 

And this picture of me looking like a hobo, unrelated, but a nice pic.

A very special Tuesday..

So today is our dad's birthday, and in his honour I decided to take a short trip down memory lane. Seeing as he's not a big birthday person, and might actually be offended by my posting of this, I'm going to keep it short, to the point, and not too sentimental!

I was looking through some old photographs and I thought maybe I'd share a few here..

We've had some really hard times in the past few years, but we've had some really great ones too! And I absolutely know that we would never be where we are today without his ability to make us smile, his wonderful coffee and his love for God! (To name a few!)

This is from my dad's birthday a few years ago

During one of our beach holidays..

I absolutely love this photo..

After his performance as a matador!

A traumatic memory, this one..

Dad, I don't believe there's anyone on this planet who has an ability to make people smile like you do! I really feel so blessed to have a father like you. So many girls would die to have what I have, a father who loves God, loves his wife, and also his very rowdy and somewhat annoying kids (obviously, I, Ale, would not fall into the annoying category.. Can't say the same for the others :D ) Jokes aside, so many of my happiest memories have you in them, and I am so unbelievably grateful for everything you and mom sacrificed for us, and how you have both demonstrated to us everyday what it means to obey God.

Thank you so much for everything. I hope that today is really a wonderful day, even though you hate birthdays!!!
Looking forward to a salad and a glass of water with you tonight. (With fillet and some cake on the side.. obviously!)
Lots of love
Ale.

THE ADVERT!!!

We have completed our very first advert. We were given the theme 'Beautiful' and this song by Francesca Battistelli.. This is what we came up with:



A very special thanks to all the girls who helped us make this! We really appreciate it.
Feel free to repost, comment etc!
Ale, Dim and Mil
xxxx

So you may have noticed...

Our website has gone under a small 'face lift' of sorts. The twins and I had a super busy, super productive weekend making our most exciting stop motion to date, but perfection is hard work, let me tell you!!!

So when we got back from a wonderful day on location, (lake Como if you don't mind) we figured the blog could use a little work too.

WOW!

This funny old guy was chit-chatting with us on his way past!!!

Talking about the video, here are a few of our behind the scene shots from our eventful day by the lakeside!!! Keep your eyes peeled for more lovely still shots and THE ACTUAL STOP MOTION!!!!!! Excitement?? I thought so...

Soaking up a little bit of the delightful Spring sunshine

Como is the most beautiful place EVER!

A nice coffee break by the lake!

This beautiful girl let us take her picture!

The best is yet to come, let us promise you!!! We're really excited about this video! Can't wait to post it. Hopefully really soon!

Another bit of exciting news is that we're going to start working on a bilingual site. In a while you'll see our content packed pages translated or written in Italian.. Can't wait :)

Keep classy San Diego, as our beloved Ron would say!
Ale and the cobblers
(NO.. I'm not the thief!!!!)
xxx

Keeping things fresh..

It's been a while, and I apologise for the ridiculous lack of posting happening around these parts. Dim, Mil and I have been working on a really BIG EXCITING project, which we're really excited to share here! As you possibly may have read, we got asked to make a stop motion for some friends in England, it's going to be used as a sort of advert for a conference they're planning and they asked US to do it! So we've been brainstorming like CRAZY and on Friday I eventually had the breakthrough we've all been waiting for!!! We should have photos by this Saturday to share with you, and hopefully a finished video shortly!!

Here's a photo I took on Friday, yep I was HERE!!!!

In other news, one of my moleskine pages got reblogged over SEVEN THOUSAND times! woohoo!!! As a result we've launched
www.moleskinepages.tumblr.com where you can see our own original work, as well as loads of awesome reblogged stuff! Be sure to come and have a little look see.

And then a friend of ours sent me a link to her absolutely gorgeous art and illustration blog, china doll illustrations, which is also absolutely fab, a MUST SEE! Go have a look here

Another friend has a South African blog happening, really cool, be sure to check it out! Elephants and Easter..

Keep it classy san diego :)
More soon!

a video like this...

Acoustic tunes..

Atlantic tides.. I really like this cover!

Christmas time and grain

Lots of grain.
These were from christmas that we never really got around to posting because we had to wait for ale to open her gift first.. (Ale would like to add it was the best gift ever, a homemade coffee table style book made by Dim and Mil!! Awesome!)