An idea of the house in its current state. Somehow we're going to try to make this into our dream home. Below is a render of my plan from roughly the same angle.

Questo immagine vi fa capire il stato della casa oggi. In qualche modo vogliamo farlo diventare la casa dei nostri sogni. Sotto ho messo un rendering della mia idea.

♥ Jess

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Dream Home: Imagination

Although there's no deposit down yet and I'm probably getting ahead of myself or setting myself up for diappointment if the deal falls through, I've been thinking about our next home a lot this week. I even knocked out a version in 3D to start playing with colours and materials as well as wall placements.

I've been collecting ideas for my dream home for some time now on Pinterest. Everything from the laundry room to kitchen ranges and Sera's hidden playspace. It's loads of fun to let the imagination run wild and see what other people have done in their homes.

Here are a few of my current favorites which I'd like to incorporate into the new house:

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Anche se è probabile che la mia mente va troppo avanti ed è possibile ancora che non riusciamo di comprare la casa nuova, la sto pensando un sacco questa settimana. Ho anche buttato giù una versione in 3D per iniziare a giocare con i colori ei materiali e dove mettere o togliere delle parete. 

Sto raccogliendo le idee per la mia casa dei sogni da tanto tempo su Pinterest. Tutto, dalla lavanderia alle cucine e spazi nascosti per Sera e le sue amiche. E molto divertente lasciare che la fantasia mi porta in giro e vedere quello che gli altri hanno fatto nelle loro case. 

Qui ci sono alcuni dei miei preferiti in corso che mi piacerebbe integrare nella nuova casa:

interior glass walls, the floor's pretty awsome too!

Wow... can I have this in a bathtub version?

would this floor work? It's amazing!

And here's a peek of the 3D project in progress.... stay tuned!

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Ed ecco una sbirciatina del progetto 3D...

looks liek I remember how to build things in 3D afterall ;-)

♥ Jess

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Halloween

Halloween isn't really a big deal here in Italy, though it is starting to catch on. Pretty much every year since I've been here I've been dressing up and hosting parties for the occasion just to be disappointed with the turnout and the costumes (or lack thereof).  The excuse I hear over and over is that Halloween isn't an Italian holiday.  Of course I know that, but doesn't having fun cross over borders?

This year I'm happy to say we had a fabulous Halloween. I was dressed as a movie star in (faux) furs, a slinky black dress and a glamorous turban.  It's so much fun to get really dressed up once in a while. I got a lot of criticism because my costume wasn't scary enough, but I honestly think that real people are much scarier than gouls and goblins could ever be!

Sera was the tooth fairy.  Well, she was actually just a normal fairy but she kept telling everyone she was the tooth fairy and giving a huge smile.  Since her Grandpa was a dentist I see that as a good sign.  Her costume was store bought as I was busy with other things this year and didn't have a chance to be super-creative and mine was put together from things I already had in the house.

We started the 'evening' at 4pm with a kiddie Halloween-birthday party where Sera filled her tummy with cheese puffs and danced and screamed along with the other kids.  Then there was a modified and rushed trick-or-treating in the cortile of our neighbourhood followed by a Halloween dinner with her aunts and uncles.  After that we head over to the Halloween Party hosted by THEWONDERFUL architect and artist Duilio Forte at his home/atelier/workshop where he was hosting several theatre/musical performances for the night. After some exploring, a lot of dancing, socialising and running around at around 11pm the toothfairy went off to the land of nod.

Doll's House

I wouldn't mind being the doll that lives here!

I don't live with many regrets. In fact I'd say that I probably have only one thing that I would have done differently in my 34 years.  It's not a significant or life changing regret in any way, but it is heart-wrenching when I think about it... So I try not to think about it.

When I was a little girl my father built me a dollhouse in our unfinished basement workshop with his very own hands. He got the plan from a book in the library. He sawed and measured and glued each piece together and even put shingles on the roof and working electrical lamps in each room. It must have taken hours upon hours and was surely an act of great love.

similar to the one my dad made me

In my mid-teens, during a time when I was very disconnected from my past or my future I agreed to l the dollhouse in a garage sale.  At the time it felt like a liberation of a large object of clutter that I didn't use anymore. I didn't have any foresight.

I didn't know my father would die and that that material proof of his love for me would become such a symbol of loss for me.... As if had I not given up the dollhouse I wouldn't miss him as much.  I also worry that he was saddened by my letting it go so easily. I hope that he had never read anything into me having sold it and I hope the child that subsequently got to play with it has fond memories of it as well. In a way having something my father created out there in the world somewhere is a comfort as well.

Unless the family broke it down for firewood... Which is possible too. I hope the glue fumes didn't asphyxiate them.

Since Sera will never play with my own childhood dollhouse a substitute must be found!  Ideally my hubby will become a carpenter when the time is right and built his own version of a dollhouse for his little girl and when she turns 16 I will stop her and remind her that she too will have children one day and that hand-made items are by default family heirlooms.  But he's not all that crafty or carpenterish. But I guess anyone can learn!

There are also loads of gorgeous dollhouse kits on the market and I suppose that could be an alternative with just gluing things together in the right order. We could work on it all together.  Or there are the classic store-bought versions. They come in all shapes and sizes but lack that personal touch that having a parent built it adds in. 

GLENN HOWELLS design for A Doll's House Auction

If you would prefer a dolls house that you can leave out in your lounge and that doubles as a work of very exclusive art you nab one this November at the A doll's house auction You'll also be helping a great cause as all the proceeds go to a children's charity called KIDS. The 20 houses up for auction are designed and built by some of the best current architects in the world, but be prepared to pay upwards of £1000,00 for any of them, and the bidding has just started.  

The Tallest Building In Italy - Torre Unicredit

We were lucky enough to have a guided tour of the tallest skyscraper in Italy this past weekend, the Unicredit tower.

The construction of the tower, designed by César Pelli was completed in 2011 and has only recently opened its doors to the 4000 Unicredit employees who will be working there. The whole work is actually 3 towers in a circle with a gorgeous fountain and completely pedestrian piazza below measuring 100 meters in diameter.  The piazza currently houses a bookshop, cafè, some shops and a Gelateria (find out the difference between Ice Cream and Gelato here). There are thousands of tiny solar panels in the piazza helping to power the buildings. The complex has won global sustainability awards and can boast a reduction in energy consumption of 37%.

The tower we went up in was tower A (The Unicredit tower) and is the tallest in Italy, clocking in at 231meters or 758 feet. We were allowed to visit the rest area on the 25th floor just before the spire begins (the entire tower is 32 floors high).  As soon as the elevator opened I felt nostalgic for my days working in a cooperation as a graphic designer in London....Of course it differed from my days at Blackfriars in considerable ways due to the newness of everything and the spectacular 360° views of Milan and in the distance the majestic alps.  I jokingly said to hubby that I almost wanted to work there he replied that he's look into it (... I really was just joking... I didn't really mean for him to start scouring the wanted boards for Graphic Design jobs, but oh well, the view is nice).

Sera had a great time pressing her face up against the glass and leaving the cleaners with tones of sticky fingerprints to clean up. On the way in she was gifted a giant lollipop which she proceeded to crumble and stick all over the new carpeting and on the way out they gave her a pink balloon. She thought she was in heaven.

Even if you don't have the opportunity to get to the top (or near top in my case) of the Unicredit tower you should definately visit the Piazza Beneath it and the whole renovated Porta-Nuova, Garibaldi, Corso Como area if you haven't already.  I'm glad to see that Milan is doing its best to try to up its international presence in a lead-up to EXPO 2015 and that they have had such a success with this beautiful project. I was sceptical and wrongly so before I went to see it for myself but am glad to have been pursuaded otherwise.

Rendering of the entire PortaNuova plan with
the Unicredit towers in the middle

 **All photos in this post except for the rendering copyright Fabrizio Lingesso 2013**