Spotlight on (and discount for) Three Little Cats Shop

Today I am featuring an Etsy shop from one of my favorite countries, Italia! Francesca's shop is called Three Little Cats Shop and she has lovely hand-painted trinket boxes as well as brooches, cross-stitch patterns, and necklaces. I fell in love with the owls and cats, so Francesca let me feature her! She is offering my readers 10% off with the coupon code LLORYS10, so take advantage of that! Below are a couple of my favorite items from her shop and a little about Francesca!

"My name's Francesca; I'm 21 years old, and I live in Tuscany, Italy. I love art and the handmade world. I enjoy a lot doing handmade stuff that I create in my free time. I have always had a passion for crafts since I was a child. Creativity is a big and magic world to me, making me feel nice. I like to always try something new, new techniques, new things... I love to learn and experiment, creating unique ooak (one of a kind) stuff. My biggest inspirations are animals; I also always try to have an artistic vision of everything that happens in my life. I can't live without my imagination, it makes all things better!

I currently work as a graphic designer. My love is not limited just to traditional handmade stuff; I'm also a digital art lover! In fact, I create custom graphic designs and digital cross stitch patterns. I also have a passion for photomanipulations. I'm known as "DeadLulu" on Deviantart. I have an independent short movie productions company with my boyfriend, the Frozen Lake Movie Productions. My boyfriend is my life. We are two loving birds. : )

What I love: art, crafts, cinema, music, cooking... And I LOOOOOVE cats! =3"

Aw, two loving birds. I like that. Thanks, Francesca! Keep up the adorable arts and crafts!

Postcards From Italy

i am finally home from my fifteen day vacation to croatia. we were there a majority of the trip, but also saw a little of montenegro, slovenia, and venice, italy! maybe scheduling the venice days at the end of the trip wasn't the greatest idea (emotions were high, people were tired, etc.) but it was a pleasure to visit, especially if it does in fact sink one day. i didn't think venice smelled too bad, but dang, was it super expensive, especially compared to croatia! restaurants and bars charge like three euro a person just to sit down, even if you buy a whole meal, so that added on about $20 a sitting for our group. i don't think it was my favorite place in italy, and i'm not even sure i'd go back, but i'm glad i went! here are a few shots: ) 

Not to Brag or Anything, But...

so this is it, andrew and i will be headed to europe on friday! It's scary how fast time flies sometimes. i think we have gathered most of the supplies we'll need (dual voltage flat iron, really nice headphones, travel journals, new swimsuits!), and we have the itinerary mainly set. we are trying to learn some important phrases (kave, mollim = coffee, please). we even practiced going over the canadian border memorial day weekend because we fly out of toronto (eh, no issues!). since croatia is a fairly less-traveled destination, i'm not sure how much preparing we can really do, but we are super excited! here are a few of the places we'll be visiting!

trogir, croatia: we are spending a couple of nights here before taking off on the boat. can't wait to explore it!

split, croatia: we're taking off on our rented sailboat from here. yes, we're sailing. i'm hoping not to be the (wo)man overboard.

isle of hvar, croatia: one of our stops as we sail! eric clapton was just there, I hear!

isle of brac: another island on our tour of dalmatia.

dubrovnik, croatia: we are renting a villa here for about a week (I'd be staying in hostels if I wasn't going with andrew's family, so this is beyond belief). they are filming "game of thrones" here, which I've said before,

but we love that show! i hope we get to have a beer with peter dinklage!

budva, montenegro: hopefully one of our excursions from dubrovnik. it's supposed to be really beautiful here.

mostar, bosnia and herzegovina: we are really hoping to go on this excursion as well. i think the bridge is the most iconic part, but i'd love to see bosnia!

venice, italia: the members of our group have all been to italy, but not to venice! i'm really excited for this part. gelato, bellinis, gondolas, cappucinos, and tiramisu!

and that's our trip! i'm hoping to have internet access so i can update you all. have you ever been to any of these places? what's the best vacation you've been on?