when your camera breaks...just go with it :)

I am headed home today from three weeks away and although my heart is hurting to leave - I am excited to get back to see my puppy, catch up with friends, celebrate my dad’s birthday with my family and give my mama a hug! 

When I arrived here I realized that the lens on my travel camera was broken. It isn’t an overly expensive lens so while yes, annoying, it wasn’t the end of the world. My friend took me to a camera shop where they confirmed it wasn’t worth fixing. After an attempt at Italian Amazon, I decided that life was maybe trying to tell me something….

Put the camera down! So I did. I haven’t touched a camera in 3 weeks. 
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Instead, I finished my print shop, which is now available online. I finished a course in licensing, I organized myself in sooo many ways,  I spent hours thinking about Luved and how I need to approach this upcoming year in an attempt to not end up burnt out by the end of it. I took walks, I saw friends, got to know a group of the cutest southern women traveling through, almost fell off a scooter, my little adopted Nonna taught me some things about cooking, I had many apertivos in the small little market with the locals, I journaled a lot, I finally gained a love for espresso, I worked on my Italian and I started two new personal projects that I’m really excited about. Some days have been busy, others have been quite quiet, and every day has felt full.

Had my camera not been broken, none of this would have happened. I had much different plans to go see and photograph some new places, but life told me no, stay put, and I’m so glad I listened. 

​I posted a reel and some photos on Instagram of my last Sunday morning here - and sooo many people are wondering why I keep coming here to Italy, and many have asked if I'm leaving Chicago. So to make sure everyone knows, no, I am not moving to Italy! 

If circumstances were different, then maybe it would be a different story, but there are things in Chicago I would never permanently move away from. BUT what I have found here in Italy is something I also cannot leave behind. There is a story for me here unfolding and while I keep feeling drawn to that I will keep coming. My plan for now is every two - three months if I can sustain it and make it work with my schedule at home I will be here. In winter I come for longer, and I’m hoping that this year in late summer/early fall I can do one more longer trip. Am I looking for a place here to call home every time I come? Absolutely. I have been looking at places to buy, fix up, adorn with my art from the area and maybe airbnb. That isn’t something that just happens over night, especially when I am not here very long when I come. For now, I found the town where I want to do it and that’s a huge success in my book. I have met enough locals and people who have extended so much love and support that I now have a usual place in “my” little town when I come until I find somewhere of my own. 

So for the foreseeable future, you will just see me here often. I’m not going to post “I’m in Italy!!” every single time. This is now a part of me and my life. And I’m really happy with it.  If two years ago you would have asked me if this was in the life plan… absolutely not! When I first came here in 2010 I felt like there was something here for me more than any other place I was traveling to or had lived in. But I ignored that and saw it as impossible. Now that I have some life behind me I know that nothing’s impossible, it just takes some time to figure out, and if looks a little different, that's ok . I am hopefully back home this evening and back to photo shoots Friday!