a beautiful Italian villa

Two things I really love are gorgeous European farmhouses and a royal wedding, and today’s post has a little of both... 

This lovely Italian villa in Casatenovo belongs to the family of Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who's now the husband of Princess Beatrice.  

Princess Beatrice of York is Queen Elizabeth’s granddaughter and the wedding was set to take place on May 29th, but had to be postponed due to the pandemic. Beatrice and Eduardo quietly got married on July 17th, at Windsor, with fewer than 20 people attending.

They look so happy here, underneath this glorious floral archway. Her bouquet contained trailing jasmine, pink O’Hara garden roses, pale pink and cream sweet peas, royal porcelain ivory spray roses, pink wax flower, baby pink astilbe and sprigs of myrtle.

According to the Royal Central website, all the flowers in Beatrice's bouquet have special meaning to the couple.

"The sweet peas in this pretty posy have many meanings including “blissful love” while the traditional myrtle, taken from a plant traced back to Queen Victoria, denotes love and has long been a symbol of marriage."   

I just love seeing the details of Beatrice’s gorgeous vintage wedding dress and tiara up close. This is the same Queen Mary Diamond Fringe tiara that the queen herself wore on her own wedding day in 1947.  

The vintage Norman Hartnell dress was also on loan from her grandmother, Queen Elizabeth. I love the storybook style of this gown, don’t you?  

Princess Beatrice, sister Princess Eugenie, the Duchess of Cambridge & the Duchess of Sussex 

Along with Beatrice, here are the other recent royal brides whose weddings had much more pomp and circumstance than the Beatrice's ceremony.  

The lovely Villa Mapelli Mozzi also hosts lavish weddings, so today we’re going to take a little tour of this exquisite Italian villa...   

happy sunday!

ciao! fabiana 

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easy to make monogrammed napkins

While reorganizing my napkin drawers recently, I came across this set of stenciled monogrammed napkins I made for an article that appeared in Country Sampler Farmhouse Style last summer. 

I was working on creating a summery tablescape for them, and they requested that I include a DIY project to go along with this red, white and blue farmhouse table.  

I love a good little stenciling project, so I found a pretty monogram stencil kit from Martha Stewart that was perfect for what I had in mind. I also purchased blue and red fabric paint at the craft store. A set of pretty vintage white damask napkins from my collection were absolutely suitable for this paint project. 

  

Have you ever stenciled before? It’s really so easy.  

• The key is to tape down the stencil with masking tape or painter’s tape so it does not move.  
• Another import thing to keep in mind is not to have very much paint on your stencil brush.  
• Keep a paper towel on hand to dab away extra paint before you apply it to your fabric. 
• Use an up-and-down tapping movement to apply the paint. This was you get sort of an airbrushed look, and paint doesn’t get under the stencil to ruin your design. 

It may sound like you have woodpeckers in the house, but the result is worth it!  

  

The kit I bought came with every letter and a few different options for borders. I used our last name initial for each of these napkins, but it would also be fun to stencil each family member’s first name initial.  

A handmade project like this would also make a great gift! 

Info on monogrammed napkin supplies: Stencil, Brushes, and Paint

Overall, this is a fun project anyone could do over the weekend. What do you think? Not so hard, right? You'll get another peek at these napkins next week at a new table setting! 

ciao! fabiana 

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