Pasta con le vongole - pasta with clams recipe

Today after many time I sharing with you a new recipe. It's spaghetti with clams - in italian spaghetti con le vongole. It's very simple and easy recipe. It need only about 15 minutes!

You will need 300 gram of fresh clams (vongole) per person, not cleaned or frozen! You can make clams spaghetti with frozen clams but the taste will be pretty much different.
Couple cloves of garlic.
Spaghetti pasta 100 gram per person.
Olive oil.
Couple tablespoons of white wine.
Salt.

Pasta and the rest will be cooked separately and combined in the end, so let's start with putting water on to boil for the spaghetti.

Peel garlic and roast it till golden in olive oil. It's better to remove the garlic cloves in the end of roasting. Add clams.

Saute, add couple tablespoons of white wine and saute a few more minutes.
You may want to take out the clams to a separate bowl at this time.
When water comes to boil, cook the spaghetti. Cook until almost ready (one minute shorter than cooking time on the package and drain them well!)

Add spaghetti to the sauce and simmer a couple more minutes.
And that's it! Clams spaghetti is ready. Serve clams over spaghetti on every plate or the clams may be served in separate bowl where everyone can take as much as they want.

Giveaway - olive green leather key fob

You can win this practical and pretty olive green leather key fob! 
The olive green color is stunning and matches almost every outfit.
This giveaway is open to eveyone no matter where you may live
and this giveaway will end on April 17th, 2012!
The rules you can read here:
http://friedasophie.blogspot.it

Mint for spring

The big color trend for 2012 spring/summer is mint green. It's a fresh pastel color that livens up any ensemble.

I so like it, that after check some mint pintrest boards I created this wonderful pair: Mint fabric necklace and Mint fabric earrings earrigns from fabric beads:

Tutorial for necklace from fabric beads

After make a tutorial of fabric beads I decided to make two new tutorial for necklaces: necklace from fabric beads and necklace from fabric and crochet beads.
The first one is ready and you can buy it in my Etsy shop:

They are wonderful, every necklace will be unique! You can also decorate every bead with seed beads.This necklace will not let anyone pass you, it immediately attract attention. 
Don't limit your imagination, combine colors and fabrics!

Easter traditions in Italy

Like all holidays in Italy, Easter, Pasqua in Italian, has its share of rituals and traditions. 
Two years ago we had a trip in Sicily for 3 days around Easter. So today post will be illustrated with photos from this trip.

In sud Italy olive branches are often used instead of or along with palm fronds so Sunday one week before Easter you can buy olive branches on the street. This Sunday is called Palme Sunday.
Then go Thursday of the Easter week called Giovedi santo. In sud Italy we have tradition to visit this evening or morning of Friday uneven quantity of churches. It called Sepolcri. In the evening this day Brindisi is full of people visiting churches. Thursday the women and children bring in the Church so-called wheat of Christ. The wheat is made grow in a pot or tray of clay, and it kept in the dark  to grow it thinner and clear. In Sicily traditions are still strong and you can see on the photo many pots with wheat of Christ:

wheat of Christ in Taormina

Solemn religious processions are held in many towns on the Friday or Saturday before Easter and sometimes on Easter Sunday. Many churches have special statues of the Virgin and Jesus that play a big part in the processions. 
When we was in Sicily Easter Sunday we visited small and beautiful town Noto. 

Cathedral of Noto

But we found center of the city full of people and we asked about it. 

One men explained that at midday will be meeting of Virgin and Jesus. We was intrigued by this and found some place with good view we waited midday. 

It was not long to wait. And what we see was surpassed all our expectations. From both sides of the square with the free passage of people  the statue of Virgin and Jesus run towards each other. Of course, they did not run, but the people who carried them (I can say they are very heavy), but the feeling was just so, because the statue dominate over the human mass. When the statue met - fireworks, firecrackers, incredible sound exploded around on the square. In the air flying crackers and it was impossible to understand what is happening. 

On the photo are the papers of crackers - "Happy Easter" is written in different languages. It's so cute)

Only after returning we read on the internet that this procession in Noto is very famous.


There is a saying in Italian that says, “Natale con i suoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi” – which means you’re supposed to spend Christmas with your immediate family and Easter is for you to spend with whoever you like. Practically speaking, however, Easter Sunday is still a time when people often get together with family and you know, families in Italy are very big) I don’t know how many persons will be this Sunday, maybe 25.


The Monday following Easter, la Pasquetta (a diminutive of "Pasqua") is also a holiday throughout Italy.  Some cities hold dances, free concerts, or unusual games often involving eggs. It’s time to spending with friends. A very popular Easter Monday tradition is to pack a big picnic and drive out into the countryside.

Beach crochet mini skirt

You know about my passion for crochet last year. But I did only small creations - flowers and beads. Bigger thing I made was scarf. But this spring I pluck courage and made some big creations. 
One of these is this wonderful lace crochet mini skirt:

  

I will wear it as a beach skirt in the summer, but now I wear this skirt with leggins.  It's a really cute skirt! You can order it in my Etsy shop.

The pattern to make it is very simple and if you are still not professional with crochet, you will be able to make it. I found this pattern in Internet here: http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/3671849/post123690069/.
Tie around your hips + 1-2 cm/0.4-0.8" - this will be the width of the skirt. Then steer the scheme:

The length can be different - very short like mine or a little longer. So, If I was able to make - be sure that you is able too!
You can make also a linning and wear this crochet skirt as a normal skirt.

Fabric and crochet necklaces

Gone those days when fashion was dictated by some strict rules, obedience to which meant a good taste. Today absolutely everything is fashionable!  But no more restrictions, all the periods of the history of fashion are mixed now. You can wear an elegant dress with romantic Victorian elements of the late XIX century, or the futuristic suit, pants from the '70s or the feminine floral dress of 50th or mix all this together...

The same goes for accessories and jewelry. Any material, size, style – you can find here glass and wood, precious stones and various metals,  textiles and leather, knitting and beadwork. The combination of different materials and techniques in jewelry makes them unique, for example these necklaces made from  crochet and fabric beads:

The combination of these different textures and matherials makes these necklaces unique and special. Everyone who will see them, always want to touch them. And it is not surprising, because they look so original!

Tutorial for these wonderful necklaces is here.