Our One Day Camping Experience..

Well, here I am!! This is my first summer post from the beautiful Colorado! Yes.... I made it... I didn't get lost in the forest... :)  I say this because for the first time, me and my husband decided to break our 18 hours usual road-trip {from Cali to Colo}spending one night in tent!!! I think it was a great idea because we all had a blast!

We are not campers, we have 0 experience. The only two times we went camping in the past we were with friends who put up the tent for us, cooked for us, brought all the tools and food... basically everything. This time it was just us. It was our adventure.

We found a camping ground on Lake Tahoe {huuuge lake!! so gorgeous!}, we built our tent and made the fire. I cooked sausages, fresh corn, melted fresh mozzarella and in the morning I even made espresso!! Everything on our camp-fire... so much fun!

We will definitely do it again... it's also much cheaper than to spend a night in a hotel, as we usually do.

Here's some of the pictures I took:

 

 

Hope you're having a great week-end!!

 

xoxo,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ready for the Super Bowl??

Happy Sunday to all of you!!!

Today is probably going to be a special day for many of you.. especially for the fans of the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers... Yessss, I'm talking about the Super Bowl!

Do you have anything fun prepared for the occasion? I will spend the afternoon with my little family and some friends. I have to say that I'm not a great fan of football. I grew up in Italy and the main sport there is soccer {you would see my face painted with the Italian flag colors during the Soccer World Cup}, but my husband is from Colorado and a Broncos fan, that's why I support it and try to understand all the games rules. ;)
I would have loved to see the Broncos playing today.. but if I had to pick a team I would pick San Francisco! Just because I live very close and I know many people there. But in the end.. may the best one win!!!! And have fun!!!

Big hugs,

this past week-end...

Hello Everyone!!!! 

I've disappeared for a couple of days..but I'm still here!! I've just been So BuSY! 

I want to share with you a few pictures of these past days.

First of all... my Thanksgiving TURKEY!!! It came out so delicious!!..well, actually DELISH, as Rachael Ray would say, 'cause I followed her fantastic recipe:

  KISS-OF-LEMON ROAST TURKEY 

♥I love Rachael, I'm her big fan ♥

One of the things I love about my celebration of Thanksgiving is the games we play together after dinner. We forget about the messy table and play fun games! This year we played cards.. {innocent Italian games of course!} and Cranium!! Me and my husband were in the same team and we won big time!!! ;)

The next two pictures were taken last Saturday during a lovely road-trip to La Honda, CA. We went to visit my cousin and aunt.. more family time!! and beautiful landscapes....

I'm ready to go to bed now... but not before showing you the awesome pumpkin-pancakes I made for dinner! Husband and kids loved them!! I have to say, they are pretty great.. ;)

I wish you all Sweet Pumpkin Dreams...

Good Night!

xoxo,

At the Pumpkin Patch.

Happy Sunday everyone!!!

My day is starting calm and peaceful.. the children {kinda} let me sleep-in a little bit and they are now watching a "Lion movie" on Netflix with Daddy. So I'm here typing and editing ALL the pictures we took yesterday at the Pumpkin Patch! Yes!! I finally got to visit one! All these years in the US and I had never visited one. I had a blast!... also the children.. running through the hay-maze and getting lost {litterally lost!} in the corn maze that was HUGE! It was so nice to see how these farmers organize such cute activities for families.. and for free! 

We could see the big varieties of pumpkins.. so many different kinds.. so beautiful! Fall is really a nice season. Today it really feels like Fall, even in the hot California, it's actually cold outside.

I have more pictures to show you... here they come....

Lovely Pumpkins....

the tractor is coming!! :)

the corn-maze is like a Jungle!!

Pumpkin Hugs ♥

and just to finish, speaking about pumpkins... my Pumpkin Spice Coffe COZY

I hope you are all having a great day!! 

Many blessings,

COZY GIVEAWAY!!!

Hello!! Hello!!

I just want to let you ALL know that I’m giving away one of my Cozies:

The Ladybug in the Clouds!

If you want to win one just participate in this awesome giveaway in Megan’s BLOG: “Here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson”.

And with my Cozy there’s other beautiful prizes you could win!

Go check them out HERE!!

xoxo,

編みぐるみ or.. Amigurumi :)

I've always liked the cuteness of the so-called "amigurumi" and I've always wondered: What does it mean? Maybe you already know, but I had to go check on Wikipedia and the explanation is this:

Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. The word is derived from a combination of the Japanese words ami, meaning crocheted or knitted, andnuigurumi, meaning stuffed doll. Amigurumi are typically animals, but can include artistic renderings or inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features,as is typical in Japanese culture.

Now it makes sense!! :) 

I recently bought a pattern on Etsy. The owner and designer happens to be Italian! Her name is Ilaria, she's incredibly good! Her SHOP is beautiful! I also explored her BLOG.. she has some free patterns (I just started to create a little Matryoska doll.. too cute!) and she shows many of her creations. Everything is so adorable that makes me want to crochet all day! and it's exactly what I did today, forgetting a little bit about my messy house...

The pattern I bought from her was very well explained, step by step, with a lot of pictures. I have to confess that the initial request to look for Amigurumi patterns came from my husband {I taught him how to crochet one day, when he was really bored.. and now he became better than me!!}.. he's the one who made Ilaria's Teddy Bear, I just gave it the final touch. 

And these are a few of Ilaria's works of art!!

kokeshi

yummi donuts

cute lemur

It's all for now....until next time!!

xoxo,

Visiting a good Friend and her lovely Shop♥

Just So You Know... I made it back to California!! It took us 2 days {tot. 18 hours drive}, we stopped in a Hotel in Salt Lake City to rest one night.. we couldn't stand to sit in the car any longer!

I had a great vacation and now we are getting ready for school.. before I blog about that, I want to share with you about a fun day I spent at my great friend Lisa's house. She's also known as Beadsoul. She has an incredible shop on Etsy and I took a few pictures of her brand new studio!! 

Check them out!!

This is Lisa working at her amazing desk!

 This is the new desk...custom-made by my super crafty husband!! isn't it gorgeous???♥

Here's a little cutie, her most faithful friend always keeping her company..

Lisa's organized tools..

..bothering her while working on an earring... :)

Lisa is very popular on Etsy, she's a great jeweler and she also loves to buy from other Etsy shops. If you look close in the pictures you can see in her studio a few of the items she bought:

an Alphabet-letter Block from RainyRootsStudio

a cute Mini Plush Owl from MsBittyKnacks

cute little birdies decals {not in this pic} from SissyLittle

I hope you'll go check all of these gorgeous shops too!! 

Happy Crafting to ALL!!!

..and thank you to Lisa for letting me enter and share about her world...

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~ Gardening GIVEAWAY!! ~

Do you have a garden? if not, I'm sure you know somebody who loves gardening.. that's why I want to invite everyone to participate in this great GIVEAWAY!! My friend Lisa, from Beadsoul, is giving away 2 hand-stamped spoons Garden Markers.. they could be for you or you could give them as a special present!!
Just leave a message HERE and let her know what phrase or words you would stamp on the two spoons.. it's easy! For extra entries you can also share the link on your FB page and Tweet it!
Look how cool they are! They give give an original touch to your garden...




I'm participating..'cause I have planted 3 types of tomatoes! I also have basil, rosemary and Italian parsley!! Love them!!! There's nothing better than fresh herbs and yummi tomatoes straight from the vine. :)

The Crochet Family

These past few weeks me and my husband have been working a lot for our shop. We made some new purses..which I like a lot! I've also had fun posing and taking pictures!! We enjoy working together, it's so much fun. Now even the kids want to learn how to crochet... we will probably become a crochet factory!!! =)

Here's the pictures of our last creations:

Crochet Messenger Bag

Crochet Granny Squares Blue & Tan Purse

Ruffle Tote Bag