After reading several fun, retro blogs, I was inspired to write one of my own. I have so many varied interests that it is hard to put me in a category of exactly one type of thing I love. My tastes are rather eclectic and I am proud of that fact and feel I am a well-rounded individual because of it.
Growing up, I had a father who listened to country music and a mother who loved big bands and Frank Sinatra. Quite a mix. I also had a cousin who loved operas and classical music and a Grandmother who taught me Italian songs, so I was exposed to a lot at a young age. I am grateful for music appreciation and art appreciation, for a feel it makes me who I am today, a very diverse ,open-minded individual.
I had so many good influences growing up that I think I can honestly say that I was influenced by a lot of people in my family.
My love of the arts comes from my cultured cousins who played classical music and opera in their car on my many road trips with them when I was a child. At the time, I wasn't very pleased with it as I was a child of rock and roll, but in my late teens and adult hood I realized the cultural seed had been planted.I have always enjoyed live concerts and plays and continue to love them and try to catch one as often as I can.
I can attribute my love of cooking to several people, my parents, my Uncle Nick and my Grandmother. My mom preferred baking to cooking which I really use to like to do. I have to be in the mood for it nowadays. My dad loved to cook and would even make me special dishes that no one could make like him, like his French Onion and Split Pea soap. I miss his soup so badly when the weather turns chilly. But most of all, I feel my Grandma's joyful Italian spirit lives on in me and my appreciation for good home-cooked food that I got from her..I can never make half the things she made, half as good as her, but that's okay with me. She passed on her love of food and cooking and the joy she got from feeding people and watching their reactions when they take the first bite. Since my Mom's side of the family is Italian, I grew up with a sense of pride in my heritage and to this day I am fascinated by all things Italian.
As for my Mom, well I credit her with so much. She has rubbed off on me in more ways than I care to mention. She liked shopping and going out to lunch and a lot of the other things I like to do. She was the original "girly girl" and her sense of style was compared to Audrey Hepburn's. I am proud to say I take after her. I don't know if the Audrey Hepburn comment rings true for me but I think I have an interesting style of my own. I adore being a "girly-girl" like my mother was. The only real difference was my mom didn't wear a lot of make-up, where in my younger days I would never leave the house without make-up on. My mom's routine even for just running to the grocery store, was to put on her lipstick, comb her hair and then a spritz of perfume. My dad ,frustrated for having to wait on her to get ready, would always tease, "You are not going to a fashion show." Especially if my mom happened to change her clothes before leaving. My mom had nice taste in clothing,. We shared a similar taste but where her tastes were more classic and conservative, mine were more modern and sexy. She loved shoes and jewelry and like me was easily distracted by anything shiny. My mom was also a collector as well and we even shared some of the same collections, like china and dolls. Both her and my Grandma were very talented in crafts and sewing, so I have them to thank for that love I have for crafting.
Without these people, I don't know what my life would have been like or how I would have turned out. but I am glad that I don't have to find out.
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