As a kid I grew up around flowers. My mother’s garden was bursting with all kinds of species. Together we would often go to flower nurseries during the spring and purchase plentiful amounts of blossoms. From daffodils, all the way to rose bushes and hydrangeas. Our balcony in Italy was covered in potted plants filled with geraniums. 

Then I was married and living in an apartment that meant the only access to flowers was through bouquets from the shop. But to me those flowers were the equivalent of rotten fruit.  Sure they smelled good, but after a while we had to throw the pungent bouquets away. Nah-uh. Not in my household. I felt like it was wasteful, both of flowers and money.  I loved nature, and I was not about to keep butchering beautiful lifeforms.

It took some years for my husband to understand how much I cared for flowers, but eventually he learned that flowers were not my love language at all. If anything, I ended up getting a bouquet for him only on very rare occasions. To me, flowers were still an expensive luxury and kind of a waste.

Yet I knew how much appreciation I had for nature. And so I decided to do something about my infatuation. I had longed to take a flower class. Counterproductive I’d say, considering I wasn’t even a flower consumer. It took me 13 years, but recently I went back to college and finally made the jump and took a Floral Design Course.

Floral Design Lab

Yes, it changed me. I’d learned more to add to my appreciation for flowers. And I am going to share what I learned from the class as well so that optimistically, if you’re someone like me, who feels the same about flowers you’ll be able to learn to love them and have them in your life as well.

Tulip Festival 2022

The biggest eye opener for me was learning that fresh cut flowers can actually last for a very long time. Even months. Flowers don’t jut die because they have been removed from the ground.  Proper care will ensure that. I can teach you proper flower care with 5 tips & tricks.

1. Always cut the stem.

Floral Design Lab

Right after you buy them, you cut the stems. You need to recut the stems at least once a week. When clipping them you must use actual flower clippers so they don’t break the stem. There is a tiny canal called, the xylem inside of every flower that works like a straw. If the xylem gets blocked, then the flower cannot breathe, and will eventually die. If the stems start to become mushy and have a slimy substance, rinse them under the sink as well and cut out the mushy part. They will cause mold and bacteria to grow inside the container otherwise which will be abosorbed through the xylem and will kill your flowers. 

2. Always use flower food.

Floral Vase

Flower food not only provides sugar and nutrients, but it’s also a PH balancer for the water and contains germicides to avoid bacteria growing in the water. As simple as that, always make sure your water is fresh, the colder the better, and filled with nutrients for your flowers to eat from. 

3. Change your water. 

Bridal Bouquet

As long as there is some water the flowers will be fine right? Well, the answer is no. If the water becomes turgid, bacteria will grow and kill the flowers. Turgid water can also contain crumbs that if absorbed by the stem, (compared to a lump of smoothie in a straw), will make it impossible for the flower to absorb and receive water and nutrients. So keep the water fresh and clean. And always remember to use cold water, especially ice cold water. The cooler the temperature the longer your flowers will last and survive.

4. Keep flowers away from fruits, veggies, and windows.

Keep flowers AWAY from windows, fruits, and vegetables. Keep flowers away from windows because the sun will heat up the flowers and they will wilt and die sooner. The buds will open sooner and the heat will kill the flowers. You still need sunlight, just not in hot areas. Flowers do better in fresh cooler environments. After all, they already have fully grown. 

Avoid keeping flowers in your kitchen close to vegetables and fruit, because of the existence of a plant hormone called ethylene. This hormone will make flowers wilt and die sooner. Flowers produce this hormone as well, but when next to produce, (which contain higher levels of it) they will definitely die sooner. 

Car rides with AC on

Lastly, don’t forget to not leave your flowers in a hot car. I know it sounds a little silly, but I have also become guilty of almost giving flowers heat stroke. Especially right after buying them on the ride back from the store to my house. If that is not fully avoidable, often times a great trick is to place them in the fridge for a minimum of 20 minutes, to a few hours once home. And keep up with trimming those end stems.

5. Strip away foliage.

Floral Bouquet

Leaves, believe it or not, make the flowers die sooner. Sure they look pretty and are a natural part of the flowers, but they absorb the majority of the nutrients and water making the flowers wilt and die sooner if left on the stem. So when buying a bouquet or making your own composition, strip them all away, right away. You can peel them off or use clippers specifically for thorns. Just make sure not to break the stem and the flowers will be alright. Most florists will just peel away foliage like a banana peel and strip them super fast. It’s not as delicate of a job to do as you might think. 

Improving the longevity of flowers is definitely something that has made me love picking and purchasing my own flowers from the store and considering them as a valuable part of my in home decor. Taking care of them on a weekly basis is also something that gives me that indoor garden feel. It’s been the perfect way for me to stay in touch with nature lately. I love plants, but I don’t necessarily love being outside in the dirt and getting dirty. So flowers for me are a good alternative. They make me feel connected to earth and they are the most good smelling, clean, colorful, and mesmerizing of creations from nature to me. I find them extremely calming to look at and also a happy and inviting statement to our home. 

Flower Wrap

Good luck with your flower care,  and I hope these tricks will help you out a ton! And if you can’t quite afford flowers yet like me, it’s ok, there is a stage in life for everything. The day will come. Also, maybe consider going to a nearby Trader Joe’s and only purchasing 3-4 stems from the 1-2 $ dollar section. They will be lower maintenance as well and a good way to ease into this practice. 

Edited By: Davide Essuman

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Organizing! It looks simple, but it’s not as easy as one would think.

You know that feeling you get  when you are good at something, but when someone’s asks. you how you do it, you can  never think of the systems that you use ?

Some things can become second nature to some. But what about for those who don’t feel that way?

We see so many beautiful organizational  hacks like the ones used by the Neat Method. They make us drool over organization, but sometimes we buy those organizational items or two and we still can’t achieve what we see.

It helps when one’s got the room, closets, square footage, and light and airy home to do it, too.

But we owe it to any home in which we live to be as neat and organized as possible. I actually always appreciate smaller spaces that are beautifully organized. 

So here is my guide on how to keep the kitchen pantry organized. I wanted to share all my ideas for pantry organization.

1. Label your sections

When it comes to pantry organization you want to label the different shelves, sections, and areas.

Think breakfast, snacks, dessert, baking, dinner, condiments.

Create little areas for each of these food items. For example create a snack section. If  buy chips, nuts and granola bars, create a designated snack section. Put those items all in the same area.

Compartmentalize

If you bake and use flour, sugar, baking powder, chocolate chips, coconut, and raisins place those in the same area as well. Call that baking section.

If you like to buy drinks and juices keep those all together in there.

I have named my sections as follow:

• The pasta section
• The canned food section
• The snacking section
• The breakfast section
• The fruits and vegertable section
• The drinks section
• The baking section
• The jams and syrups section
• The supplements section.
• The milk section
• The spices and bagged powders section

2. Get rid of food packaging and containers

Unbox items the minute you come home. Because once you start eating granola bars and other boxed goods they will eventually be half empty which will result in wasted space and clutter.

Resort to using baskets for any of these items that come in boxes, but are individually wrapped inside.

Snack Baskets

Think pop corn, crackers, fruit snacks, granola, chips, nuts. All the items and goodies we often purchase from wholesale wearhouses that grab and go items. Make them even easier to grab by placing them directly in a basket. Could be large or small. Your choice. If you are concerned about crackers going stale, place them in an air tight container, pr keep them in their individual packaging by hide them inside of the basket for aesthetic purposes. 

I use 4 super deep large baskets and don’t mind intermixing snacks. I just know they are there and ready to grab since we often but the same ones over and over again and eat them all.  I’ll group  them in different corners throughout the basket to so they are together even after being poured inside the basket. 

3. Work flow

Organize based on your workflow.

You can start thinking about this one by asking yourself questions such as, when you come in the pantry what would you want to grab first thing? Which items are heavy or light? Which items I am ok to place up high because I rarely use them? Which items do I want to quickly grab when running out the door?

In one of our home we also had a hidden pantry, but sometimes kept that door open. So one of my tricks was to keep the most beautiful items near the door where you can peak inside from afar and make it appear super clean and beautiful.  Right in the entrance I kept my portable vacuum so I could easily grab it and plug it back in as needed.  I kept all of my spices and oils on the very first shelves as I entered and I still do that to this day, together with my most heavy kitchen appliances. That way I dont have to walk as far between my kitchen and pantry. They are also my prettiest items. I add a plug on the shelves where I keep my electrical appliances, that way I don’t have to always move them out to my kitchen countertop to use them. I then can use our  toaster oven and electrical oven and they are  conveniently placed at a comfortable height for both us adults and the kids. Now we don’t burn ourselves and we can easily take the food in and out.

 You can scroll through some of my favorite SPICE selections below: 

I keep my air fryer and pressure cooker right by the door for easy access. As you can see in the picture below my toaster is right there, too.

Next up I hide items I don’t need. I keep the temptations such as chocolates and goodies in a place that is hard to reach.  I place them as high as possible away from me Out of sigh out of mind as they say.

I like to keep heavy items like flour and rice jars at a shelve that is about my hip level so I don’t have to bend to measure my flour and I don’t have to reach up high when grabbing them either. I keep them off the ground to avoid bugs from getting into them. 

4. Measure shelves and inventory size

Think about all your staple items. That means the items  that you regularly buy. Make a list of them on a piece of paper or your phone.

Next up measure the depth of your pantry. Measure the width of each shelf. Measure the height of each shelf. Write its all down so when you are purchasing baskets and jars you don’t buy items that won’t fit on your selected cabinets or shelves at home. There is nothing more unpleasant than to come home and find out that you have to go back to the store because once you line up a few jars next to each other you don’t have enough width space, or the right height. 

Fruits and veggies basket

Plan a section for fruits and vegetables that don’t need to go in the refrigerator. For example we keep bananas, apples, tangerines, onions, potatoes, peaches and other fruits outside of the fridge depending on what is in season at different times f the year. Even if we don’t keep them all in one basket, but like to take them out of the refrigerator as needed, having a nice basket to grab food from is a lot more organized than a bowl on a random table at times especially if you have a larger family like mine. There is no bowl big enough that could fit in a pretty way the amount of peaches, bananas, apples, and oranges we consume in a week. 

5. Use storage solutions

There are often lots of odd bags and items in boxes that come from buying groceries. That’s when I resort to containers to organize the pantry. I like to use clear containers and boxes. Especially for things that go stale once opened if not properly stored. Items such as  raisins, beans, coconut, pop corn kernels. Since they often come in clear plastic wrap from the store, they look neater when placed in plastic containers.

When purchasing containers, I like to  buy them all in similar sizes and separate my pantry items based on how big of a bag they come in.  These items  will be easier to stack next to each other or on top of each other. To know how many containers to buy, is best to keep track of the average weight of all these products. For example a lot of boxes with dryed goods will hold about 16 to 24 oz. When I purchase my containers, I see how many items I buy consistently and  make sure I have enough capacity for that average size plus an extra 1 or 2 in case I add more items in similar size in the future and my containers happen to have gone out of stock. That way all my containers share the same esthetic.

Powders in the pantry look always great inside a clear container too. Things such as salt,  coca powder, baking soda and baking powder.

The next size up I get is for the larger powders such as  beans, pastas, semolina flour, cereal, and pancake mixes.

My largest jars are reserved for flour, sugar, and rice.I buy those from wholesale stores and they come in quantities anywhere from  10. to 25 pound bags. I like to keep them all jars as much as possible hence why I bought huge jars for them. Make sure to story any left over flour or rice  once the jars are filled, in a plastic container. I use a plastic bucket and I keep it tucked away in a corner in my party so it’s away from eye’s view, but won’t make bacteria or pests and possible larvae grow in my food and make it all spoil. 

Once you find the right brand containers you can literally fit anything into them. 

During the process of organizing. I have since moved the snacks up high so away from me and the kiddos ?, and the larger jars down a whole shelf.

This may seem like it will mess up your original sectioning method, but not everything will go in clear boxes, so for the items that won’t still keep them in boxes in your delineated sections like the breakfast area or the snacking section.

Baskets, bottles, and more baskets.

6. Act like it’s a store

Things in stores are kept together. So tomato sauces will be all in the same isle, stacked one in front of each other or one above the other. Most cans can be easily stacked together.

Keep all your canned goods in one area as well  and it will look a lot more neat.

If you have 2 bottles of oil place them one next to the other or one in front of the other.

Place items facing you if you can, that way you can easily recognize them.

Organize them based on expiration date. Place the items that will expire  first in the front  so you’ll grab them first.

7. Space things out for visual comfort

Baskets spaced out

Last but not least if you have the room leave a little bit of spacing between items to give it a more organized look. This cannot always be possible. But if you have the space for it, try and leave room between items.

Also place things off the floor. Try to avoid using your ground for storage. It’s also unsanitary because bugs can crawl in food, and it makes it easier to clean the floor if it’s cluttered.

By rule they have to do it in food establishments so why wouldn’t we do it in our own homes if we can.

I sure hope all these tips will help you. Last but not least, don’t over buy. It’s important to have food storage, but it’s also ok not to hoard unwanted items. And yes do have long lasting food storage items, those are the ones that can go way up high since hopefully you won’t be using them any time soon. Let’s hope for never or just the year they are about to expire.

To shop all the Items mentioned in this post: 

Ciao!

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My son was asking me the other day what are we going to do since the world seems to be set out to cancel the holidays.

I couldn’t imagine not being able to celebrate the holidays with a special family member.

It’s interesting how I am always better at giving my kids advice that I am at giving it to myself. I learn from teaching them. They teach me often more than I teach them.

The words that came to my mind when he asked me that question, where that we should not let any of these things interfere between us going after the things we want in life.

I do understand that for some of us Christmas may look more slim this year. Or perhaps we may be facing extreme fears about what is about to come.

I have learned that when we sit and dwell on fears they distract us from doing the things that matter most. They don’t make us productive. 

So as we get ready to kick start Thanksgiving and Christmas my hope is that we’ll try and have the Holiday spirit with us no matter what our Holidays will look like this year.

Which brings me to talk a little about Holiday traditions. I grew up in Italy and many of the things I did in my childhood are still fond memories that I try to keep alive in our home now that I have a family of my own. So what were our  italian christmas traditions?

 Many times I get asked what was it  like to have a traditional italian christmas. 

Christmas 87

As a kid our decor consisted of one cute Christmas tree that we had owned for years. At least as long as I can remember. Before that we only had one tiny chrIt came with one particular set of lights that resembled Japanese lanterns. They were colorful and flickered. Our tree had also  many decorations made by us over the years with green, silver, and red balls.

My mom and dad would also hang one set of lights on our giant pine trees in the entrance of our home and on our balcony which we would only turn on at night time to save electricity and not pollute. Italians really care about the Planet and about conserving energy. 

My parents would hide our presents until Christmas morning so that we would believe that Santa was the one who would bring them the night before.

Cri Cri (cree, cree) Italian Holiday Chocolates

But some things I loved was that my mom would wrap these hazelnut chocolates all around our Christmas tree. We were allowed once a day to snatch one up and eat it. We would eat them until they were all gone.

Because we were in Italy, food was a major part of our holidays. One particular bread that we loved was panettone. It was a super tall sweet bread with flavors such as chocolate, vanilla, almond glazed, and with candied nuts. We loved eating it around the holidays.We also would eat pandoro (golden bread)  which is a similar version of this sweet bread but taller.

Panettone Bread

And then there came more chocolates. Ferrero Rocher was one of my favorite types of chocolates. And I am glad that Costco does sell them always around this time of the year.

   Ferrerro Rocher Box

Last but not least for us were family board games. Especially during the holidays. I loved to play games with my siblings.This is something we still like to do. Here is our latest most favorite game. 

On December 26th we celebrated Saint Stefano as a major holiday which we enjoyed by having another family dinner and by staying at home. Most stores and business do close in Italy during this Holiday.

Our last italian tradition happened after Christmas and the New Years instead. On January 6th. Italians celebrate what is Christmas all over again for kids. During the night before January 6th the tradition says that a good ol’ witch who is kind, flies on her broom, crawls down every chimney and delivers candy and goods inside every kids’ stocking. It is during the morning of the 6th  that children all over Italy wake up and open their stockings.

Befana (baeh-fa-na)

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School has started. We decided to homeschool one more year. Our two oldest kids are the only ones doing it  for right now so we took two extra weeks before starting our school year. Even then we couldn’t dodge for long all the activities and responsibilities that had all started back up again.

We got soccer, gymnastics, and dance going on.

Zara has officially started sports as well, and I will give her the cutest little toddler award for that.

She is doing a dance class and gymnastics.

I knew she wanted to do sports when I dropped off Dorian, Siena, and Davide for a try out at gymnastics and she kept asking to go because she had to do her gymnastics, too.

On the day of her first class she woke up requesting her leotard and she has asked for it every day ever since.

It takes a lot of effort to juggle everything. I find myself on my toes making sure I am efficient with my time and I stay on task so we have dinner at the right time, the house clean, kids well educated, time for prayers, and all the daily things that are important to live a well balanced life.

In a way I haven’t minded having places to be. Yes, it’s stressful to get ready to be places.

I’d have to say the hardest part is to make sure we don’t live the stove on while on our way out, put all the kids in the car and make sure everyone is fed prior, dressed properly, little ones  s get their naps and are all ready to go.

Once we are out and about doing sports and in the midst of all the action, life feels good. I feel alive and our kids grow and learn.

We have had so many opportunities to confront ourselves with moments of triumph and defeat while doing sports, and so many teaching moments have come out from these opportunities.

I like that our kids get to also see themselves grow at what right now may seem a very slow pace, but over the years, one class after the other, I know that they can start to look back and see their progress. They are learning how by not quitting, they are improving their skills. They can start seeing the rewards of their hard work.

Slowly they are growing in their confidence that they do have talents, and they can bring joy to others with what they do.

I am really glad they also have chosen sports we naturally enjoy to watch.

I know that not all talents come from sports, but it’s one aspect that helps our bodies stay fit, healthy and there is lots of joy in movement.

As humans beings we were made to constantly be moving. We are people of action and weren’t born to just sit and be still. At least not all the time.

Because I don’t like juggling and packing the car all the time, we always prep our bags in advance.

I tell my kids all the time they need to have their sports bag stocked with water, snacks, essentials, a brush, pins, and sports and dance gear.

I also always keep my car ready with our essentials for when we watch outdoor games or competitions. Because I don’t like to have a full trunk I was so happy when we found some bottle sized small portable chairs and a super light portable blanket for both the park and the beach. I can hide them in the hidden compartment of my trunk or easily tuck them away on the sides. They are also light enough that I can walk and carry kids all in one trip especially if we need to walk across giant fields.

I enjoy storing them in our trunk as well because that way they are also ready for when we want to have an impromptu picnic. Sometimes we like to even order a quick take out meal and take it to the park where we can stretch out our blanket and lay on the grass.

My favorite part about our beach blanket sandproof, is that it’s so small we can even take it on our suitcases when we fly or drive to the beach. If we don’t happen to have all of our big towels at least we can have a large cover to lay at the beach. It’s so thin it allows the sand to easily seep through and it dries instantly so it doesn’t become stinky once it’s put away. 

We have brought them with us on vacation. Both the blankets and these rocking portable chairs can easily be taken as a free personal item. 

I have linked them below the photo. You can easily find them by clicking on the products and it will redirect you to the product page. 

We have used the blanket and these campaign portable chairs when we went to Yellowstone this summer, on day trips to Park City, or even when going on impromptu hikes in nature by a lake.

Happy days and I hope you will enjoy these as much as we have. 

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We love Utah County. We have lived there for the past 14 years. Close to the same amount of time I have lived in my native land, ITALY. So I can officially say it’s my home now.

We have been traveling a lot this past year and while we got a place in St. George as well, we come up all the time for David’s work, to visit friends, activities, etc.

I love this particular unit that we got because it’s right on the lake and now when we are up there we feel as if we were on vacation on a long distant oasis. Sometimes I feel like I am in Michigan or the Hamptons. Ok, maybe not quite that fancy, but it feels like a super happy place.

Getting this place ready, was a lot less stressful than decorating our own home. I realized through the process that when we don’t have huge expectations we actually end up more satisfied.

I was asked to share all of my condo decor ideas. When it comes to my personal home, I always think of what style I am going for, and I want to buy pieces that will outlast the years and trends.

I want something luxurious and timeless. That makes every decision so stressful. My overall theme is always a classical modern look and minimalistic.

With our condo instead, I told ourselves we wanted to just have fun and get cute prices. So we did.

Turns out I was way happier with our purchases.

I also ended up linking a few cute pieces for my brother and his awesome wife that are newly weds.

So I thought I’d share it in here as well.

Here is the board I put together for them.

Their living room has a black leather couch. The walls are white and floors are a nice cheery honey wood color so I tried to choose pieces that were very neautral and that would complement the space and kind of keep the flow throughout the room.

They have a few cute planes throughout their current living room so I didn’t choose a ton of greenery except for the fog trees.

I added a few gold accents as well.

So here it goes. Have a happy Memorial Day weekend.

And here is our condo living room. I will post the kids room, master, and dining room a bit later. I did link our living room table already here in the mean time since I know it’s on major sale and won’t be coming back in stock this time.

You can also find our couches here.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend Everyone.

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