Siamo tornate!

What a lovely lovely holiday we had.

What a great Grandpa...

I literally cannot put it any more squarely than that.

Every time I make my way back home, and especially now that I have baby girl along with me, I get so emotional thinking about my family in the US.  I think about the way that I grew up - about 20 plus cousins within 10 minutes drive of us, and both sets of grandparents able to spoil us weekly - and think that it is just not something that Olivia will have the pleasure of knowing.  

Instead, we are a 10 hour journey from cousins, 10 hours from one set of Grandparents, 2 hours from Granny and auntie, and 24 hours from Grandad.  It makes me tear up every time.  

The things that she will not get to experience throughout the year - Trick or Treating at every house of ANY distant relative (so as to gather more candy of course!), her cousins' football, soccer, and basketball games, nights spent at Granny and Grandpa's house just because she CAN, Christmas holidays where we can see ALL of the relatives in a span of two or three days....

Those most likely won't happen for her.  And although this is the kind of thing that one must be well aware of when building a life with someone from another country (and I wouldn't change a thing...let me just throw that in there!!), there is all of a sudden that certain "Mom" gene which has lately triggered an overactive tearing-up response. 

Maybe it is because I lost a dear dear friend of mine recently.  One with whom I shared most of those precious memories.  It all of a sudden has made me reminisce about the football games on Friday nights, the pep sessions in the high school gym (which is gone too...), the class trips, the weekends spent swimming, hanging out in my parents' basement, at band competitions, or anything else for that matter.  Suddenly it feels like while I am busy living my life here, life is slowly being lived and lost there.  All a bit serious I know...

But this is why I cherish these trips home.  There is something magical about staying in the same bedroom you once occupied, and then occupying said bedroom with your two-year-old daughter.  She drinks from the same Koolaid cups that I picked out with my big sister a million years ago.  She plays with our old Mr Potato Heads.  And even though these are happy moments, seeing her grow up - albeit for a short moment - in the place I absolutely adored growing up in, I still manage to cry.  

Damn you Mom gene.

And damn you Mom - I know I inherited it from you ; )

But in all seriousness, it was lovely.  Too short, but I think that there could never be enough time when I am there to truly satisfy me.  Olivia loved every moment spent with her American family, as did I of course.

So I will therefore bore you with lots of shots of our time at home...

Taking orders from the "Drive Thru" playhouse...

Teaching cousin Kasen how to use an Ipad...

Playing in the new fountain in Jasper with cousin Branton...

Probably pointing and cursing at mamma for making her stand near the junk in 40 degree heat...

With Auntie Jenna at the tractor demo derby...yeah I just said that.  It blows my mind...

What kid growing up in our area doesn't have a hundred of these pics with Santa!?

Milkshake with cousin Pierce...

Ducks at the 4-H fair...

"No one naps while I'm around..."

Multitasking...

Nothing stops Liv from playing the Elmo game...not even her babysitter taking a nap...

On a lighter note...my veggie garden welcomed me home with abundance!  She was a bit untidy and needed a touch of love, but this is just the first of our summer toms and beans...Yay!

Now we just need more sun to ripen those tomatoes...after two weeks of oven-like temps in Indiana I came home to a cool 65 degrees Italy...WHAT?! 

It is pretty much the awesomest summer EVER.

Except all the Italians are wearing scarves...

xoxo sjkh

La Vacanza...

Just an update on the American Hols...

I am loving spending time with the fam.  

Liv is loving spending time with her cousins.

(And is learning new words every 1/2 second...)

And I got my elephant ear...ok, two...

And in case you couldn't tell, I am sweltering...it is about 650 degrees here with 98% humidity. 

Makes for attractive bangs...

xoxo sjkh

Prima e dopo...

So now that school has ended, and it seems as though I would have all the time in the world, how is it that I have so much LESS time to do things??  To explain my absence from this blog, raccontarvi la storia breve di mia vita...

A couple weeks ago I had this brilliant idea to do a blog post of  "Befores and Afters" of our house project...

If you don't already know the story, here is the short version.  

In 2008 we "bought" a house in the hills about 2 kilometers from the place where we got married.  A nice view. A big garden, we were in LOVE.  A perfect place to start our little family.  Then that all started crumbling apart when we discovered through the rumour mill in the area (remember that our town is 4,000 people...everyone knows everyone else's business) that there was more to the house than they were telling us.  Lawsuits pending, illegal constructions, issues with insulation, etc etc.  We confronted the owners about it, and thus began a 21 month standoff.  Technicians, lawyers, and a whole lot of balls-ache.  We had a lot of help from friends and acquaintances on the matter, but every day was up and down.  We never actually knew if we would EVER get this house, if we would lose the deposit, or if we would go crazy during this whole process.  I got pregnant and managed to even gestate an entire human being during it all...that is how slow and painful it was in getting to where we are today.  One day it all clicked into place and we fixed the appointment to sign the papers and get into the house.  I packed up my 2 month old child and pushed the heir to the throne over to the office where we met my husband (feeling slightly under the weather after a 7 day work trip round the Middle East) to finally close this thing up...2 years earlier we sat as a newly married couple in a realtor's office, Henry with a broken wrist and in a cast up to his armpit, me clutching my little chihuahua.  And here we finally were, new baby in tow and a few more wrinkles and gray hairs.

(Henry lays sole claim to those gray hairs - just a clarification...)  

But life was not done with us there, after this whole long process, she had just one more surprise for us.  Henry had waited all this time and had worked and worked so diligently to get this thing done, but as things would have it, he was unable to even step foot into his new house for another WEEK.  Thanks Salmonella.  Husband in hospital. 2 month old baby. Wife in new house trying to clean 5 years of settled dust.  It was not exactly the hurrah I had expected upon entering the house for the first time...but hey.  We had made it.  Now begins the work...

So we arrive to this point.  Befores and Afters.  

As I said I wanted to do this post for a while, and started to think about the pictures I could put on here.  But then I realised that around here there are a LOAD of befores and not so many afters...so I have been spending the last couple of weeks remedying that.  So here goes...

The Befores of Casa Hart...

Kitchen before...Mountainy.

The beast of a fireplace and the randomly placed safe...

No, not the Rain Forest...but rather the bottom part of our yard.

Front yard/forest. 

Laundry room and front patio...

And the Afters!

I tidied up especially for you all...

No more gaudy marble...and it is functional too! Bonus!

New flower beds...

More grass.  Less jungle.

You can actually see the entire yard!!

Terrace + sleeping chihuahua...

Much much tidier...

 So, as you can see, a year and a half later we have not done too badly.  Still so much to do and pretty much all the afters are "in progress" and will have an "after the after" photo as well, it is a great place and we have loved the project...no matter how stressful it can be sometimes!!!!

So, sorry it has been so long, but it was definitely well worth the wait...all of it.

xoxo sjkh

Voila! Viola!

If you don't know me well, then there are two important things that you should know...

I absolutely love flowers...

um...and wearing pretty dresses...

As I have recently become a homeowner, and - more importantly - garden-owner, I have been taking great pride in the careful curating of my beds and borders.  

I rarely will tell anyone that they should buy a piece of jewellery, a dress or a handbag, but when it comes to flowers you all had better listen up because I'm going to share with you probably the most fool-proof flowering (perennial!!) plant that I have come across. 

Three words babies...Chinese Balloon Flower.

 Guaranteed to survive even the blackest of black thumbs...(as I discovered shortly after I totally freaked and pretty much cried when I didn't see them coming back up this spring...they started popping up about a week later...)

Aside from the lovely deep purple colour, they put on quite the display.

Going from cute little buds...

Then purple "balloons"...

Before popping open!!

A triumph in botany!!!!

I absolutely love these guys...the only maintenance you need is to pinch off the old flowers when they start to brown and they will continue putting on their show until late summer...

Now, not only do I love the little pop of violet from my lovely flowers, but I also adore it on a good piece of clothing...

Lanvin

So if you have learned anything today, I hope you take these two valuable lessons and put them in your little back pocket...

1) Go out right NOW and buy Chinese Balloon Flowers.  Now.

2) Very expensive purple dresses are lovely.

xoxo sjkh

Il buono, il brutto e il BRUTTISSIMO

Come on now, did you really expect a has-been-beauty-queen to stay mum when Miss USA time rolls around?

While my time to shine was a lifetime ago, I tend to think that style - regardless the changes in trends - is a difficult thing for every girl to find.  The trick to participating in a national pageant is to be "Hey! Look at me!" without being "Hey! What the F**K am I wearing...isn't it WILD!?"  I can honesty say that I was very proud of my styling at Miss USA - major props to my sister Keena and my Mom...they kept me tailored and stylish.  No fashion disasters!  

The dress was perfect...maybe I should have worn my hair down, but it was definitely a competitive year, so who knows...I doubt that a change to my mane would have been able to compete with Shandi's magic boobies or Amanda's Polar Bear (I LOVE you Amanda...and you rocked that bear, dammit!)

Wizard tatas

Grrrr.....

But as true as time itself, every year there is a new boobies queen and another endangered animal sacrificed in the name of patties round the world which grace the Miss USA stage...so, here we are.  

The Miss USA 2011 Buona, Brutta e Bruttissima...

Buona!

AZ - Wow! Colour is perfect and the length is super dramatic!!

SC - Makes me (sorta) want to be a blonde!

CO - I don't usually like sleeves but the entire look is right (maybe less shoe though...)

BRUTTA!

AK - One saggy boob and Elvira hair?

MN - Do you like my crocheted vest? Thanks Gran!

TN - This is a national pageant. Get your shit tailored ladies. Sloppy.

BRUTTISSIMA!

CT - Gives whole new meaning to "Oops, I did it again..."

MI - Sod tailoring. Just cut a pelt into pieces and scotch tape them together...

NJ - This must be the NJ state costume? No...It isn't? Oh.

OH - OH no. Just...No.

And "Pennekamp Endangered Animal" award goes to...

NV - I don't know what kind of animal this was, but it certainly makes me want to kill something...

There it is folks...as for the ladies I did not mention (Ahem, Miss Indiana...) you all need a bit of work. 

As far as my predictions, I see a sea of white and tan dresses this year...the final girl standing will have taken a stylish chance with colour...

Now go forth and strut your shit...and don't let Billy Bush grab your ass. 

xoxo sjkh