Blog - PaolaPrints

Mother Nature: Litchfield Summer 2023

July 27, 2023

Mother Nature: Litchfield Summer 2023 Mother Nature has always been the inspiration for my creative work. It makes sense that summertime is incredibly labor-intensive- caring for all those growing things that inspire creativity. Since flowers are the high point of plant life in my garden, one puts lots of time in to get the flowers. Of course, as we learned especially well this year, Mother Nature may have entirely different plans- regardless of what you do or don’t do. An early frost here in Connecticut killed the entire hill of azalea flowers, save one bush, a Maine native that blooms late.
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Spring Into Summer

May 19, 2023

Spring Into Summer …ouch, I’m pretty sure that’s been said before. Spring is motoring ahead into summer- which officially starts June 21. Featured today is a new scarf I call Savannah-homage to a recent visit to that beautiful Georgian city. I was inspired by the city sidewalk grates. Beautiful and functional too. Beauty is something that’s too often lacking in our everyday lives. Mulch is in. Three yards of mulch arrived this week. These last many days I’ve been doing azalea bloom prep work like pruning and checking for winter damage. That includes placing Hollytone, cultivating winter-hardened soil and watering
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Let The Show Begin!

March 14, 2023

Let the Show Begin! Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Did you know the shamrock was considered a sacred plant in ancient Ireland? It symbolized the rebirth of spring. This week was my first sales event for 2023. It was a single person trunk show at a very well appointed life care facility in Bloomfield, Connecticut- Duncaster. Lovely people, enjoyable time. I enjoyed sitting with my friend Janet, a recurring partner, who makes for a very pleasant few hours. Equally pleasant, sales were hotter than my Christmas event. We shall do it again! The Guardians of Early Spring- Skunk Cabbage Call it a
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Happy Valentine’s Day

February 12, 2023

Happy Valentine’s Day! This is your first look at my new scarf, Star Sapphire, which features red parrot tulips. Even though I faithfully photograph tulips each Spring, I’ve struggled with a lack of interest in using them in scarf designs. Parrot tulips, however, are my #1 favorite for their wild and wooly ways. Thanks to Pantone’s announcement of Viva Magenta as its color of the year, I’ve taken the plunge. Red tulips en masse. In this design, I’ve also incorporated some of the work I’ve been doing this winter-creating repeating designs I can marry to oversized florals. Honestly,creating repeating designs somewhat offends
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Let it Snow

December 16, 2022

Let it Snow. Bring on hibernation then- even though Fall was waaay too short. Let’s slow time down, just a bit please. Toward the end of September, Larry snagged an opportunity to switch houses for a month in Seattle, Washington, starting just before Halloween. Happily, we changed houses with my brother and sister-in-law, so not so scary, just labor-intensive. Fortunately, we didn’t realize that prepping the house for such a gambit, in addition to fall garden and lawn processing was INSANE. Did I mention I was also committed to labeling and packaging scarf and pillow products for a fair, happening just
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The Circle Game

October 7, 2022

The Circle Game. We all know it. You can feel it. Fall. The circle of seasons continues. But doesn’t it feel like it got cool all of a sudden??? A few days ago I brought in some plants that I’d put out for the summer-just to be safe. I left one out because it hasn’t been doing well and I was secretly planning to let it go to compost. This morning it was mildly blackened from a light frost. On October 6! I just read that in Connecticut the risk of frost is from October 5 through May 10. By
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Holding Onto Green

August 24, 2022

Impossibly, today is a little cooler following a long dry summer here in Connecticut. It’s nice to not be constantly worrying about the last time I watered my garden residents. And it’s wonderful to look out and see the dark soil, nicely saturated. Mother Nature does such a better job than I. This is the first year that almost all the hostas, day lilies and phlox were chewed away pre -bloom. Mysterious nocturnal marauders assaulted my little garden. I started spraying a Bonide product called “Repels All,” after the fact. It holds some hope for next year and I’ll begin spraying
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Soil Amendments For the Garden

June 6, 2022

Yikes. Once again I’ve waited too long to write a blog post. So much going on. Let’s jump right in!. Some of you may know that I’ve been making scarves for a few years. I’m designing with images I’ve taken in my gardens for almost five years. Aside from adoring gardening, the beds provide me with ongoing photographic material. This year has been incredibly busy so I finally dove into necessary soil amendments to the flowerbeds. Hmm. Happily, I also had the opportunity to create and produce a quantity of beautiful chiffon scarves for my high school classmates. Featuring the Morning
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Complementary Colors

March 2, 2022

It was quite by coincidence that I found myself looking at two new scarves that just came back from printing and discovered that together, they resemble colors of the Ukrainian flag. Go Ukraine! Variants of blue and orange are complementary colors, that is, colors opposite one another on the color wheel. Did you know that the national flower of Ukraine is the sunflower? Coincidence! It’s easy to look out at the world during this time of war and feel alternately confused and angry. I think it’s best never to look at anything important, complacently. I urge you to do the same.
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Color, Color, Color!

February 1, 2022

I really can’t get enough. Especially in winter. It’s white everywhere! Color rich experiences have been an integral part of my life from, well, forever. As children, before we bought bags of Valentine cards at the drug store, we were charged with creating mad quantities of pink, red and lace cards for classmates on the kitchen table. For Christmas, we hand cut linoleum block prints that we printed and made into holiday cards that we’d then trot out to neighbors to sell. Colored paper, colored inks, textures and glue. Craft heaven! I’m waiting on the return of a test print
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