Giulia would look fabulous lying on the hall table (top photo), just underneath the orange flower. Visit Martha Stewart for floral decorating ideas. MS recommends visiting muralsyourway for removable adhesive decals. Very cool. You can virtually decorate in a little program before ordering. Also, you can design a mural with one of your photographs. This is a definite do. 
This bag would be good to take to farmer's* markets this spring & summer, don't you think? (There's a terrific Feed Japan t-shirt, too.)
Happy Mother's Day to all our friends! 
Who knew? Doodling is good for you & your brain. We'll take any excuse we can get! Take a look at the tutorials on DrawingNow. We're off to make some Giuli-doodles. It's been a busy week but we'll be back over the weekend.
It's Audrey Hepburn's birthday - she would have been 82 years old today. There's a contest on Just Being Audrey's Facebook page. Upload a photo or video of you dressed like AH or doing something appropriately AH, & win a copy of Just Being Audrey & a print illustration. Post by May 11, winners announced the 12th. There will be 5 winners. 
Giulia naps while her ever-suffering editor tries to make deadlines among other duties. It's the blog's third anniversary not that a certain pink-nosed orange & white cat seems to notice. Consulting the National Geographic domestic cat page about mysteries of the feline. Anything to put off cleaning the apartment. We shall return!
This is fun - for any age. Plan a trip to the Eiffel Tower with children by visiting the children's page on the Tower's website. (What? No plans to go? Why ever not - start now!) There are puzzles, memory games, & you can work out an illumination plan. (See our handwork in the top image.) There are riddles & history lessons. There's also a teacher's guide & a free downloadable pamphlet. If you have photographs from a trip to the Tower, upload them on the site to share with everyone.
We hope that you will pass on the following information & also visit the Museum's website.
A little Sunday shopping. To the Japanese, the crane—or tsuru—is a symbol of good fortune and longevity because of its fabled life span of a thousand years. These 50 teeny, tiny paper cranes can be yours by visiting the littlesketchbook shop on Etsy. (Her pretty blog by the same name is here.) There is also a listing for 50 tiny white cranes. 100% of the profit goes to AmeriCares & the artist will email you the transaction. Now, that is a super idea.
AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions. (Here are other best of lists from AFI.) If you need more help than that for a romantic evening, don't look at us! See you over the weekend. (Roman Holiday still via Audrey1) 
We almost missed National Dance Week! If you're in the DC-metro area, visit Dance/MetroDC's Dance Is The Answer site & check out the large number of low-cost activities. If you do not live here, but live in the States, check out National Dance Week.
We're wildly busy but just noticed that today's Google Doodle is an homage to naturalist & painter John James Audubon on his 226th birthday.There's a lovely tribute to Audubon from the online Audubon magazine. Thank you also to National Geographic for an overview on JJ's contributions to the change in humans' appreciation of birds. Giulia is at this moment appreciating birds in the traditional feline manner. Don't worry. For the protection of all, the window screen is secured.
A little trip to France for some merry-go-round photographs. Also, two coloring pages of a carousel horse & a merry-go-round. In Italy, our friends are so lucky to celebrate Pasquetta. Picnics & pastiera rule. And with that, we're off!
GG & her editor wish a Happy Easter to all who celebrate. If you're reading this on Easter, go outside! Sorry. We'll lower our royal we voice. Go outside & play. Loll around in the sun. No sun? Devoted to the computer? OK, visit Peter Rabbit & help him find his lost Easter eggs. Beatrix Potter World is very sweet, is in a few other languages & has some resources for parents & teachers, too. More on this another time but thanks to Content in a Cottage for the head's up. 
GG's editor just read (on Facebook) & heard (on the phone) a bit of last-minute Easter egg panic from some family & friends. So here are a few easy links. Martha Stewart, of course, can help you out of a jam. Also some last-minute decorating ideas with things around the house. (Another tip: Don't buy that awful fake grass. Just shred some colored paper that you can recycle later.) For fool-proof hard-cooked eggs, immediately go to Egg Watchers. It works & it's very funny too.
Happy Earth Day! We're going to see Mia and the Migoo, are you? Consider going this weekend as proceeds from all ticket sales are being donated by the producers to The Canopy Project.Be the first to see the breathtaking new animated adventure about a girl trying to save the world from destruction, Mia and the Migoo, and help us plant trees! The English version (it is a French production by Jacques-Remy Girerd) features John Di Maggio, Whoopi Goldberg, Matthew Modine, Wallace Shawn, and James Woods.
The producers GKIDS are donating 100 percent of Earth Day weekend (April 22-24) ticket proceeds, including purchases of advance tickets for upcoming Mia and the Migoo shows, to Earth Day Network's The Canopy Project to plant trees in deforested areas around the globe.
ciao-green-meow/GG Green Central
(images via Médiathèsques de Mauguio Carnon)
Oh, how we wish we were in Rome today for the 2,764th birthday celebration. Tanti auguri, Roma. Read the mythological birth story here; the celebration schedule, here. If you have children, or are a teacher, visit BBC Primary History - Ancient Rome for Kids. It's a terrific & fun resource.
We posted last June on young artist Olivia Bouler's inspiring project to save birds on the Gulf Coast during & in the aftermath of the BP oil spill disaster. On the year anniversary, much remains to be done; frankly, things are just a mess. Read about Olivia's new book here. Starting today, read the Audubon Society's one-year update on conditions in the Gulf. You can sign a petition there to urge Congress to act on Gulf Restoration now.
To prove that we can make anything (anything!) about Italy, here's a GG Custom Peep in Venice via the Marshmallow Peeps website. Click here & make your own peep-avatar (& let the children have a go at it, will ya:). Giulia will have to count as a kid this a.m. The second photograph is the winner of the Washington Post Fifth Annual Peeps Show.
If you need materials for Earth Day blog posts or school projects, visit Vintage Holiday Crafts & Free Clip Art. Just remember to read the rules of the road & also link back. 
A joyous holiday to our Jewish friends around the world. We're going to make this Toffee-Chocolate Matzoh recipe today. Yum.(Here's an article about the origins of "sweet Passover.")
A little Sunday evening post to highlight a set of pretty postcards by Hsin Ping. The set is $4.00 & proceeds are donated to the American Red Cross fund for Japan. (via The Benevolent Postcard Society) See you next week! ciao-meow/GG
We had a lot of positive reactions to the Italian language lesson post earlier this week. As we're pressed for time today for a longer post, take a look at the BBC's French language page, too. It's very much worth checking out all the links. If you have slower internet, you can read transcripts rather than watch videos; you can also access these from outside the UK, so no excuses! If you can't be in Paris (or elsewhere in France) in April, you can at least refresh your French - or begin it for the first time.
...needs your help if you live in the Washington, DC area. There will be a donation day on Saturday, April 16th at area Whole Foods Markets. They will be accepting bicycle (& financial) donations but before that, they need you to spread the word via blogs, Facebook, Twitter, residential & company listservs.
It's been a busy day here but we had to share this photograph of a little girl & a wombat. It's by our favorite Sam Hood in the State Library of NSW Archives. We're not experts on marsupials so here's a National Geographic page on the little devils. Here's a link to a cute wombat coloring page.
I have a theory that there is something in the Italian landscape which inclines even the most stolid nature to romance. --Miss Lavish, A Room with a View
We mentioned Meatless Monday briefly in December & January. So we should declare ourselves: GG Central is officially meat-free on Mondays (& truthfully, most days). It's easier than ever to find terrific & easy recipes for veggie meals. Here's a link to the website's history lesson (Meatless Monday began during World War I & returned during World War II).
A new series with a familiar name begins tonight in the States: Upstairs Downstairs. In case you've been hiding under a rock (listen up, Mia aka Bronx Zoo Cobra), the series is related to the venerable old show in that 165 Eaton Place is the center of the action & co-creator Jean Marsh is involved. Unrelated to the original series: there's a monkey named Solomon. Giulia can hardly wait for this simian storyline. 
Can I share with you my worldview? All of humankind has one thing in common: the sandwich. I believe that all anyone really wants in this life is to sit in peace and eat a sandwich.--Liz Lemon 
It's cold & rainy in Washington, DC this morning. We're still sipping our tea & waiting on all sorts of news. We'll be back later today.
Between 1933 and 1945, millions of children were displaced as a result of Nazi persecution. Now, more than 65 years later, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is using postwar photos and the power of the online community to find out what happened to these children. 
Have you followed the adventures-by-tweet of the now-recaptured Bronx Zoo's Snake? She's a witty Egyptian gal. The zoo's naming contest Who's that Sssssnake is open through Thursday (EDT). We hope she continues to tweet as it has provided many laugh out loud moments since March 28th.
With the fate of Mad Men finalized, you might be thinking where oh where will I get my MM fix until March 2012? Where can I read features on the 1960s? Who are these "regular" people who get the interviews with creator Matt Weiner & MM actors? And perhaps most important - where can I read about ceramics of the 1960s? Basket of Kisses is the place for you.
Happy birthday year to Amnesty International. See The Guardian's slideshow of the best of the posters (the one by Picasso is a favorite & available as a notecard). If you would like to get involved, here's an activist toolkit that will get you started no matter where you live. 
For some fun, read Juliet Lapidos' article I've Seen Every Woody Allen Movie in Slate. Then skip over to rank your favorites, the merely good, & the ones you'd toss into the chipper. Voting ends April 5. 
Giulia is up to something...she's looking pretty sneaky. Here's an explanation of Poisson d'Avril. Watch out! Update already - Kristin at French-Word-A-Day has a list of expressions to write on the back of the paper fish.