The two blueberry plants we planted last year have started to flower and produce blueberries. We are so excited(or at least I am). The weather has finally started to warm up. I can’t wait to use the blueberries on top of our homemade ice cream

2010 new designs are ready for sale on flowiestyle.com! The main inspiration for this collection came from the flowers in our backyard. You probably can already tell that I love taking pictures. I love to document the growth and changes in our garden with my camera. You can see some inspiration pictures in the slideshow on flowiestyle.com.

To celebrate the new collection, there is a free shipping promotion for orders over $25 (US domestic orders only) until March 31. Enjoy!

Luckily, last weekend was not raining, and we could continue on laying more sod in our backyard. We put a few pieces of stones in the lawn to lead a walk path to our vegetable garden area. Speaking of our vegetable garden, we started our spring/summer vegetables from seeds last weekend as well. We changed our strategy this time. Instead of a few of many different types of vegetables like we did last summer, we seeded a lot of tomatoes and summer squashes this run. Later, when the weather starts to warm up more, we will seed corns in the third vegetable bed, and mix salad greens in the fourth bed. Last summer, we didn’t have much success at growing different types of vegetables. So, this year we are going to grow the ones that actually did well last summer. The only challenge now is to keep the sneaky squirrels away!

We also added a few more fruit trees to our garden (whew–we’ve been working hard). We have a guava, an Asian pear, a lemon tree, an orange tree, a peach tree, a nectarine tree, a santa rosa plum tree and a cherry tree that came with the house. All the trees are still very small. I hope we can harvest some fruits this year! My husband always talks about how he could just go to his backyard to take fruits out of their trees (or their neighbor’s trees) when he was a child. I never had that type of experience growing up in the city without any garden in our home. So, I’m very excited to finally own my own fruit trees, and I’m going to be able to brag that the peaches are from our backyard and the pears are also from our backyard, aren’t they great! ha…ha…ha…lol.

We managed to put down some sods before the rain started. We’ve done a lot of research on whether to start the grass from seeds or sods. We finally decided to buy sods from our local Homedepot (we are basically there every weekend). I believe the sod we got is called Dwarf Fescue. It is recommended for the weather in our area (drought tolerant for dry summer). We still have to finish the rest of the grass area when the weather is allowed– another 10 days of rain.

I know we need rain. We had dry winters for the past few years, which caused the low water supply in California. BUT, BUT, BUT, if you can see me, you would know how miserable I look in the cold and wet winter, wrapped in layers of unmatched clothes. Growing up in the southern Taiwan, I’m not programmed for the cold weather. I thrive in sunshine and warm weather. O Spring, where art thou?

Finally, we finished the stone patio we started a few weeks ago. It has been raining quite a lot here for a while, so we couldn’t do any backyard projects for a several weekends. This has become another “sun tanning” area for our dog, gucci. Looks like he won’t be able to enjoy the sun for much longer. It will start raining again from tomorrow. I can’t wait for the sunny Spring to come!

Wish you lots of happiness, prosperity, and good fortune! “Gong Xi Fa Chai“

I received the delicious chocolate squares that I ordered from my friend, Claire. I opened the package and enjoyed a piece right away. I can’t tell you how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE her shortbread chocolate squares. We met at a local boutique event. We had our tables next to each other and traded our products at the end of the event. She told me that she had been wearing my garden love apron while doing demonstrations at events, which makes me very happy.

My personal favorite is her signature clairesquares in dark chocolate flavor. You can order on her website: www.clairesquares.com

A clairesquare with a cup of tea, I’m a happy girl!

This is a shot of a corner of my studio. It is in a completely not presentable condition right now. I’ve been busy finishing orders and getting new collection ready for sale. So, things are everywhere, literally. When I can’t my find measuring tapes (I have three and I can’t find any of them, so I bought one more yesterday), I know it is time for cleaning and sorting things out. New year resolution: return things back to where they belong! Remember, putting everything in one basket is not called organizing