19/54*

No knitting, baking, or otherwise crafty content for today. Instead, please indulge me in this post about my personal life.

In 19 days, my sweetheart will be visiting me for a whole week! I've been counting down the days for a couple of weeks now. I still have quite a lot of things to do before he gets here...mostly cleaning, but also organizing/finalizing our plans during his stay. When he was here six months ago (ugh, yes, it's been that long since I've seen him...I'm going crazy!), he met my parents and my younger brother. This time he'll be meeting my older siblings, my nieces & nephews, and my grandparents. We'll also be celebrating my birthday together, which will be magical for me. I have a longstanding history of disappointing birthdays, but nothing can ruin this one. Even if it rains and we're stuck at home all day, just spending my birthday together will make it perfect.

In 54* days, I'll be traveling to Italy to meet his family and friends for the first time. I'm so nervous! None of his family speaks any English, and my Italian is extremely limited, at best. I'm working on it, but it's not coming to me as easily as Spanish or even French (and I really struggled with French). I know a few words and phrases, but I can't form sentences, and spoken Italian just sounds like gobbledygook to me. Anyway, I'm trying not to focus on that part of my trip. Rather, I'm spending all of my time daydreaming about the little trip we'll be making to Venice! My piccolo has booked a room for us at 3749 Ponte Chiodo, a bed & breakfast in historic Venice. We'll also be making a little excursion to three of the islands in the lagoon: Murano, Burano, and Torcello.

Needless to say, I'm quite excited about my upcoming adventures, and I can't wait to share pictures with y'all. And there will be some crafty content tossed in along the way. My sweetheart has asked for a pair of socks, which I'll be knitting between his visit and mine, we're planning a trip to the local farmer's market while he's here (for operation: homemade applesauce), and we'll be baking some coconut cupcakes for my mother's birthday. Also, we may be visiting some yarn shops in Milan, and I'm hoping to knit a pair of socks for myself during my flights.

* = Although I'm leaving for Italy in 54 days (Oct. 28th), due to the length of my flight and the 7-hour time difference, I won't actually arrive in Italy until the 29th (55 days from now).