One Big Treat

If you’re in the “Toot & Puddle” set, you’ll know that Hollie Hobbie’s adorable character claims, “Italy is one big treat”!
Her illustration to match shows an Italian bakery and sweet shop stuffed with cases of confections and stacks of treats tempting dear Toot on his travels.

When our friend Rosanna DeBellis arrived from Montova, Italy on the heels of the Silver Bella convention, the kids ran to get her the book. Having her visit was indeed one big treat, just like her homeland.

We crammed her visit full of gastronomic adventures – Magnolia Bakery the highlight (will post on this soon!). And lots of wonderful browsing on 5th Avenue. She adores Juicy Couture and she, like Nicole Bowen, is addicted to the charms – something I knew nothing about of course...

Here she was the night before she arrived at the Silver Bella convention…these gals at the festive paper arts convention dressed for the theme “Prom”….

...ahhh tea for all the sweets, this was a fab display at Juicy...

Here’s Rosanna with Joseph in Juicy –
...and us with her loot!

...the last day of Rosanna's adventure she was able to visit Jennifer Lanne at the Gallery for her show...
...and here we are with Nicky Bowen, the featured artist...

Here we are with Thea at the show at the Rothman Cneter...Rosanna caught a plane from Omaha, NE to Newark, NJ and then a cab - she was determined to pack her trip with as much fun as possible...

Rosanna, you indeed had to travel all the way from Italy to get me to play for a few days. A big thanks for this...it was a treat to have you here. Facing the temptations of butter and sugar was never finer. But, I’ll leave those Hostess “Snoballs" -- pretty as they are -- to you!

Thea, we need to visit Italy and have pastries for supper with not an ounce of regret. Rosanna will show us how!

xxoo Jen O’Connor

Earth Angels