Yup, recently I *spent* money. Well, I spent money on something other than accommodation, food, travel, entrance tickets and postcards. I managed to resist it for quite sometime, but I always knew Italy would be my weak spot.
Seriously, I was strong and didn't buy things until Venice, our last Italian stop. I bought:
- Glass. One of the small islands off Venice, Murano, is famed for the beautiful glass it produces. If you go to a bead shop anywhere in the world and they are selling expensive and beautiful "venetian glass" beads, they are or should be selling Murano glass. I coveted a lot of incredibly beautiful and incredibly expensive strings of beads, and ended up with a lovely and reasonably priced necklace.
- Lace. One of the other small islands of Venice, Burano, is famed for the handmade lace its residents make. It's expensive and it should be, it's painstakingly and slowly made by hand! I bought a fabric scone holdery thing. It's pretty and looks a bit like a flower and holds scones or rolls or what-have-you. I partly blame envy over Jenni's new cupcake holder for this. It isn't the same at all, but it is perfect for the display of scones at a morning tea ;)
- Mask. Venice is famous for its Carnivale. The whole week up to Ash Wednesday is apparently a time of masked revelry and they sell the masks all year round. They also hire and sell frilly, colourful, hooped outfits to go with. Gosh, I want a whole Carnivale outfit. I can think of at least 2 other people who might read this who feel the same way. The mad thing is that I didn't plan to buy one at all. They're not exactly practical and it'd be a hassle to get them back to NZ. The person who was the driving force behind the mask purchases was Beau. He *really* wanted one and then he wanted me to have one too! Funs!
- Boots. Italian leather ankle boots. They are something that I knew I wanted to get, before I even reached Italy. For one thing, I didn't bring any other waterproof footwear. I got some cute flats. Seriously adore them, not least because they are from the brand "Bata" as in "Bata Bullets"!!! The 7 year old in me delights (BTW, if you don't know what Bata Bullets are... I don't think I can explain).
- Puffy Coat - Today Beau and I arrived in Vienna, Austria and the temperature dropped a whole lot of degrees. We have a couple of warmer pieces of clothing, but most of our stuff was suited for warmer climes, eg Spain and Italy. We both needed coats and fast. So, we bought some. I surprised both Beau and myself for falling for a puffy pale beige number. I look a bit like a lightly toasted marshmallow in it, but it's so warm and good. Beau finds me very cute in it, probably cause my face looks so small peeping out over the top of the huge warm collar. My only concern is that it will stain, but currently I am just so pleased with how warm it keeps me.
Things to buy: Beau and I both really need a pair of warm trousers and probably another top each, but we've decided to try and wait until we reach eastern Europe. We're going to Budapest next and then Prague.
I shall hopefully get around to blogging about Italy (apart from shopping in Venice) over the next few days, but if I don't, it was *fab*.
Point of Fashion: Nothing new, that's all upstairs!
Current Obsession: Empress Sisi