.:about flowers and green stuff:.

I'm not that great when it comes down to growing stuff (apart from the little lady, but she does well on her own ;) )... usually flowers and plants will get by for a month or two, and then or they keep on living by their own resources or they give up and throw the towel, erm... better say the leaves...

if the plant blooms once a year it is almost certain that it will never bloom again... on the other hand, if it blooms every once in a while it can make its thing continuously for a long time (a mystery, I tell you) like five months in a row and then expire out of the blue from natural cause...

the thing is: I love flowers!!! who doesn't?!? (hey, there... I know you are allergic sis, but life isn't perfect, is it?) My husband knows of my love for colourful-sweet-smelling-living greenery, and he never fails to bring some into the house on special occasions...

V-day's flowers

This were the beauties he produced for valentines this year... Orchidea is a huge hit here... Those with a green thumb showcase a true tropical forest on their windowsills... They are beautiful, I guess they have the longest living blooms and aren't high-maintanace... Not necessary to tell you I was happy with the display of trust it represented... "Hub believes I can keep them alive!" 

But then he came with the reasoning that got me orchidee instead of cut blooms: "you know, every time you have to throw away the flowers I give you it seems you want to keep them longer... I thought I could as well give you a potted plant so that you would have the excuse to keep it... besides, this one will last at least two months in flower..."

Rough translation? - I know plants here are never in flower twice, so let me get them to display the colours for the longest time possible... - so much for trust, right?

dying cyclamini

When we were away my father-in-law took care of our plants... I remember the first present they've ever given me, it was a couple of white flowers, like the ones on the photo above... I arrived here in February and the two plants were always blossoming up to October... never a day without flowers... can you believe it? True, you have my word...

Then my i-laws presented me with those flowers from the pic when we came back... the sweetest mother-in-law ever remembered the flowers and the father my love for plants (he is the green thumb of the family, if my plants are standing on the edge I take them to his house and the go back to life - AMAZING!)... but willing as I am to keep them alive, as you can see,  I am not doing a great job...

Sweet little pea's V-day present

 No matter how hard I try to maintain all this wild life healthy, they insist on dying on me... the solution? keep buying them... they come beautifully arranged from the florist, get by for some time, them it is "bye-bye-birdie" and open doors for the next...

spring blooms

 To lessen my woes there is spring on the way... I love how you can see the bulbs preparing to take form and shooting out of their shells filling the place with wonderful aroma... plus, there is no way you can keep one of them from opening, they manage to be ready and oh so pretty even when it is me looking after them...

tulip

 I just can't wait for spring and fields full of flowers with perfume in the air... (who cares about hay fever when you've got flowers to compensate?) Hurry spring, I'm ready!

.:a cure for housework boredom:.

dressing up

Let's get this straight: I don't hate housework, but I'm far from loving it... I love smelling baked goods getting ready in my oven, or looking at a tidy cooktop and spotless windows... my point? I do it because I like the outcome, not so much the process...

Turns out we can kind of enjoy both (kind of, because you know, I wouldn't exchange a walk in the woods for a baking afternoon) all you need is a little organization and loads of imagination...

Spelling with dough

On weeks past we suffered heavily from cabin fever, don't let the sunlit room mislead you... loads of rain and wind kept us indoors... while sweet little pea craved for ways on how to use her energy I only hoped she would get tired enough so I could get her to watch a cartoon on the couch while I put together a decent meal... 

guess what? at the end all I needed to do was planning for her to help me... I decided to prepare cooking steps she would hinder the day before, when she was already tucked in bed... this included cutting and peeling when possible to anticipate... then all I had to do was get her involved... cooking peels in her pots, cleaning the kitchen with tissues, helping me assemble the layers in the lasagna...

all of this with dancing breaks and loads of make believe... just get your go-to disney playlist to brighten the mood and get going...

fine rug picnic

best part, besides getting things done, was seeing the young lady trying to mimic our antics with her faithful companions... my lovely chatterbox...

.:how does she do that:.

warning: this post is all girly ( fashion and not-fitting-the-role-model-complex outburst ) so be prepared...

sometimes I wonder how people (and by people I really mean women) make it through winter days fashionwise... ok, if you’ve known me long enough you know how I’ve always been a sucker for comfort... 











point is, comfort in Rio is a cute dress and flats, or a nice skirt and a pretty plain top, 

or, if the weather doesn’t feel like cooperating jeans, a t-shirt, cardigan and your faithful converse will do the job... when you go about Italy (not the sun-filled islands in the south, I’m talking about near-the-alpes-freezing Italy) it is not quite the same...

first thing I’ve learned is that your good old converse is not worth the same here, unless eventually you won’t need all of your toes... my best friends became boots, high, low, flat, with heels, but always with some bulky socks under... are you thinking ballet flats? think again... for me they won’t work unless it is summer (the one month of summer according to my parameters)... 

how I wish I could understand how the average fashion blogger post about getting ready for work wearing a summer dress over tights matched with a fancy cardi and brag about it being perfect for winter because you are “layering”... I can do layering too, but usually it consists of a felted cotton long sleeved top under a nice knit covered up with a too big winter coat to keep hands and neck out of the wind... don't believe it? just take a look: that is me... can you see me?  

and that, my friends, is what I call layering... it is the best "onionnish" fashion... and if you ask me about special occasions like valentines day I will tell you: certainly not tights, but a nice warm pair of trousers... no flimsy top, I will do a blouse, a cardigan and a sweater... besides, fancy wool coats are enough for spring, but in winter a comforter style coat will suffice... maybe in a year I will update the issue telling you I'm ready to sport some lighter clothes in winter, but until then snowmen style rocks for me...

.:V- day:.

Ok, so back in Brazil is not even close to Valentines and all people can think about is carnival...
But here things roll a little differently, overall there is no huge excitement about celebrations and V-day is no exception...

all the same we managed to scape and have a nice dinner together with some alone time to talk and date while the in-laws had fun with the little girl at our home... a win-win situation I\d say...

Besides, the little one has already started on the difficult world of maleXfemale relationship...
She spent most of the time hunting down her valentine... and most certainly he tried to escape as fast as humanly possible for a toddler...

oh, the sweetness of first attachments... hihihi...

.:home (cold)sweet home:.

We're back in Italy and Internet has just arrived (hooray!!!)
It's been a month here and total of 5 days with no rain or fog (sorry stephanie meyers' haters but it is impossible not to mention), I feel like I'm in Forks...  Right now as I look out of the window the sky is grey and small drops start to fall... Cons? There's been no snow in the plain yet, even though it is now three meters high up in the mountains.... Get your skis on... ;)

Let's put on hold the weather report and go about the settling in and sweet little pea's adjusting to her old new house... The first two days we stayed with my in-laws because though our apartment was ready (aka furnished) we had no water... Now one may wonder, wtf, with 5ºC you could skip showering for two days... Right you are, but no water means no heating, which means uh-oh...

At least we managed the cleaning on this two days, and on new year's eve we slept our first night at our old house... The little one has been a pro, only regret is that here she sleeps much later than she used to... While in Rio by 7 pm at the most she would march her way to her bedroom and lay in bed all by herself, in Vicenza she is armwrestled (am pretty sure this is a verb) into bed by 10 pm... Oh, well, you can't have it all... Our first month was all about distributing CVs, meeting friends and moving boxes into the house...

Our little one has turned into a chatter box, guess I will have to carry a pad to jot down her funny sentences... Her favourite one as of late? "È una bella giornata, andiamo fuori." Meaning: It's a beautiful day, let's go outside. The point is, we haven't had that much sun to justify her claim... Again, she is pig-headed and confident, but always funny...

Moving on to working report, after some searching my dear husband has found a position as a freela... Which may involve some travelling... Now I would have one or two things to teach Alanis, not even two months of our return guess where hubs may be sent to work? If you said Brazil you got it right, how is that for irony? Anyway, this is all to be seen, but chances are it should go this way...

I'll try to come back with more asap....

Love,
Van

PS.: photos feature her b-day... big 2 years old bash

.:standing tall:.

Ok guys, so no recent updates because our life is a whirlwind...
Too much to tell, too little time available...

Having this in mind I've dropped by to share some mushiness...
Little pea is growing by the second, such a sweet little lady (when she is not being insufferably stubborn... But hey, with parents like us she didn't really have a choice now, did she?