Things to do this time of the year: Planting bulbs.

There is one flower that even the scrawniest,  mad hungry, crazy deers won't eat:
The daffodils.
I have always dreamt about having a yard and now I am the proud owner of a big lot surrounded by woods.

Americans won't understand this, but in Italy, spotting an animal in an urban area, (aside from those winged rats we call pigeons) it's truly incredible.   

When my Italian friends come to visit my backyard they can't believe their eyes: there are squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, bunnies and even deers. These critters can eat up a garden, BUT they won't touch the daffodils.

I've decided to plant some because this is what I want this spring:

Don't pick my flowers this spring or I'll eat you up!

 I want to live in this Richard Scarry's Illustration from the book: "I am a bunny", wouldn't you?
I, of course, didn't plant 200 bulbs like my overachiever neighbor, which WILL live in an illustration,  I tried to make it work with just 45.

Our very first bulbs!

We decided to plant clusters of 15 bulbs near our biggest trees and around the mail post.

You'll need three tools and a pair of gloves.

We used a shovel for digging the soil, a small gardening one and a bulb planter, borrowed from our very nice overachiever neighbor.

And a 5 year old, who will work willingly for 15 minutes.

The soil on our property hasn't seen much gardening for over 20 years. We had to start from scratch loosening the dirt and getting rid of the stones and that was hard, but satisfying. Also, by digging near the trees we had to deal with the roots, so we tried to go around them. 

Work it!

After prepping the soil we positioned the bulbs in a pattern placing them 4 fingers apart.

Happy bulbs in a pattern.

Then we proceeded to make a hole in the place we wanted the bulb to be, removed the dirt with the bulb planter and with the help of a small gardening shovel placed the bulb root side down deep inside the hole.

The bulb planter.

The happy bulb in his new home.

We covered the bulb with the soil and Ecco Fatto, now all we have to do is wait. They should come up by the beginning of spring.

The bulbs should produce flowers for a couple of seasons, but everyone's suggestion is to replant them every November.

Happy planting, this was a first for me!

Vote for me on Spoonflower!

Hello friends,
please take time to vote for my design on this week's fabric contest on Spoonflower!
Click on the link to the page then go on:
VOTE IN THIS WEEK'S CONTEST:
Fall Leaves

Scroll down until you'll find this design:

If you don't find it at first you can refresh the page, it should come up.
You can vote for more then one design, some are really fantastic!

Today they are featuring one of my fabrics on the 
RECENT TRENDS page, how exciting!

Have fun browsing.

Grazie e ciao!!

Hiking

We live very close to a wonderful state park along the Potomac river. 
We try to go there as much as we can.
L is such a good climber, but he waits patiently for his mamma which is freakishly trying to keep up with him, while taking pictures without breaking an ankle. 
I do love to hike though. 
And this place reminds me of old western movies, the kind I used to watch in Italy with my father and that would usually put me to sleep. 
He would scream: "Bello! Guarda!" and I would startle and curse John Wayne's name on my way to bed.

Come to think of it, I had many books on dinosaurs and the illustrations were inspired by a place like this. 
The only element missing is a volcano.
  

The mighty falls.

The secret beach: cowboys and dinosaurs in their natural setting.

Way to exercise and get inspired! Now back to work.
Ciao. 

Fabric contest on Spoonflower: FALL LEAVES

I love fall.
Did I already mention it?
This is my entry for the Spoonflower's fabric contest, the title is Fall leaves.

Mushrooms and puddles, leaves and rain clouds.

This is the link to my fabric's page on Spoonflower. Next week you'll be able to vote in the contest.

I had fun with this one, hope you like it too.

Ciao!

Viva la fall!

It has been lovely so far!
This year the colors are vibrant thanks to a couple of frosty mornings this past month.
Autumn is my favorite season, and this year it's  fabulous.

Pictures of our yard.

From our balcony

Strolling around the neighborhood

Halloween was a blast, this year, like any other, we started by picking up pumpkins in a nearby farm.

Ready to play

Our pick

The one on the left is "mine", the other is L's.

We  played around with cardboard A LOT and made this spooky castle:

Assembling the castle and taping it with masking tape.

"Paint it black"

The castle is ready!

We then made L's Halloween costume. He requested a School bus, so we made it out of cardboard, covered it with masking tape, paint it a bright "spooky"orange and glued two led lights on the front, and two red ones in the back to make it even cooler.

Proud trick or treater!

It has a working steering wheel inside, and stitched black elastic bends,
for a hand free carrying experience.

it was a fun night downtown.

It's getting chilly out here, I'm going to buy some chestnuts.

I love November too.

A presto,

Francesca