Three Kitchen Fairies

Dia de Muertos.

As I said a couple of days ago, I've been preparing for the "Day of the Dead", or "Dia de Muertos". It is also known as "All Saints Day," and it is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd. I found the sugar skulls in San Diego, CA., the rest is pretty much an improvisation of the real elements that came out pretty good. The girls were so curious about the whole meaning of the altar, which is to remember the beloved ones that already departed from this world. My altar is quite heterogeneous since all our dead ones are from different parts of the world. We managed to add pictures from the early nineteen hundreds. They are the great-great-grandparents of my daughters. We have Spaniard, Syrian, Cantonese, Mexican, Peruvian, and Argentine ascendancy. The Frida and Diego's pictures are just an extra-special element that represents the liaison between Mexican art and the embrace of this Mexican tradition. OK enough talking.

 

 

 

At night we lit the candels. The altar looked so mystical...

 

The sugar skulls, the talks about our ancestors, the idea of life after death, gave my girls a new sense of tradition and trascendace. Ofelia was very pleased thinking that someday her children and the children of her children (as she said it) will set an altar for us, quite amazing how she grasped the concept.

Enjoy your weekend.

P.

Little hands at work.

 

The last few days have been totally crazy around here. Full of projects and fall activities without counting other stuff like the change of seasonal clothing in the girls' closets. The good thing is that I still managed to have some time for the girls. Last week we came up with these Halloween cards. I loved the process: I cut the cards and they painted them orange. Then the girls designed each pumpkin with a different face.

 

We used letter stamps to write on them. This made the trick, the stamps were so entertaining and educational, that my youngest one learned new letters and their sounds.

 

I can't tell you how much I love their little hands...I love how they find their way around things, how they look, how soft and warm they are to the touch. I kiss them a lot.

 

The outcome.

I'm so proud of them. Almost two hours of attention span!! new record for them.

I'll be back later this week. I'm in the process of installing a "Day of the Death" altar that I want to share with everybody.

I'll see you soon.

P.

Oh so many questions...

Ever since I started reading blogs I always wondered how it was done. I read blogs more or less for eighteen months before I ( or we) started my own blog. It has been almost four months, and twenty six posts. Ten comments total, and still loving it.

When I started my blog I felt compelled to ask questions to the bloggers I knew, and to the bloggers I read. I wanted to know simple things such “the proper protocol” among bloggers, or how to get the flickr batch. Some of them where nice enough to drop me a line, there was one lady who was way too snob to give me a nice enough answer …I just could not believe…

A couple of days ago I was not feeling positive about posting and waiting for comments, after all that’s what we all want: to make contact with amazing, creative people. We want to exchange ideas, partners for our creative journey, friendships…

Still afraid from my last experience, I found the courage to ask a lady blogger “how is it done.” This lady (a well established blogger) is a great writer, fantastic artist and crafter, and also a sweet mom. She has one of those blogs that most of us link as one of our favorites. She answered me, but not only that. She actually took a good look at my blog and gave me tons of advice about “how it is done.” I just want to publicly thank this person for being so generous with her time and her knowledge. Thank you so very much “lady blogger”!!! Your are so generous and awesome. I would like to send this little print your way as a token of my appreciation,

with humble gratitude

P.

Done !!

 

I remember that when my girls were babies, I always carried a blanket to laid them down at friend's, grandma's house or at play group. Even at home, while they weren't able to crawl I laid them or seated them on a blanket. Well, this is my version of the "Pack-able baby quilt" by me.

 

...the front,

 

the back,

 

the  strap to keep it rolled up and tidy in your diaper bag, and last but not least: the label. Although this quilt is not at all complicated, it took me a long time to finish. I was doing it during my "free" time LOL. I like the finished product. What do you think?

P.

Autumn goodness II

 

I can not tell you how much I love fall. What I love the most is the short period of time during which the leaves change color and cover the ground like a brand new carpet of a funky warm color. The apples and the cider, and Halloween, I love that too. Cuddling with the girls on the sofa while it rains outside. Raking the leaves?? Hmm...

Here are some pictures I took during the past couple of days.

 

 

Our backyard is covered with "crunchy" leaves. I still wonder who is going to clean the mess. Jose is wishing for a wind strong enough to blow them away from here.

P.

PS: I finished my new quilt tonight, I'm planing on showing it to you tomorrow.

Autumn goodness.

 

Apple cake made with the apples we picked last weekend at the apple orchard.

The dialogue went like this:

Paloma: What do you think of the apple cake? Is it good? It is like the one your mother makes...

Jose: It is even better.

Paloma: You are blaspheming !!!

Jose: It is better because the five of us can eat it.

The wonderful thing about this cake is that it was made without milk, butter, or eggs: the banned ingredients of our family diet.

Do you want some?

P.

It's been a long time...

I don’t know where to start because it’s been a long time since my last post. The last two week have been totally crazy in terms of the amount of work here around the house. The mornings were for cleaning and preparing for our garage sale, and in afternoons when the girls got home I spent my time playing, talking about school, reading, or cooking with them. Last weekend after all the cleaning, arrangements, pricing, etc. we finally had our garage sale, and of course the kitchen fairies worked with me. and Jose did too. We got rid of all our “baby stuff”, made great bucks out of them. We also took advantage of this activity to talk to our girls about earning money and spending money. We came up with the “saving jars.”

The plan is to have a $ goal $ , to save enough money, and to spend it in that special something that we wish for. Even Jose and I have “saving jars.” And although money is not the most important thing to teach our daughters, we thought that it is never too early to learn about it. Learn to earn it, to save it, and eventually to spend it.

My crafts… that is a different story. I had to put my sewing machine away to concentrate in all the other stuff. Besides the garage sale we also had a field trip to the apple orchard, violin lessons, and parent-teacher conference.

 

 

I've been taking pictures, at least somethings are done my way, right?

This morning I re-took where I left, and I’m almost done with a baby quilt for my little store. I also have to come up with two ideas for baby boy presents. A friend-couple has to give two presents to two different families and they asked me to make something for them…I feel honored to be asked, so I really want to do a good job. I also want to renovate my blog. Maybe a different banner and more space in the middle for posting. I thinking about adding some links to other blogs I’m loving and maybe, somehow, I will have someone drop a line for me. Good or bad I’ll take it…In the meantime I’ll think of my blog as a diary and a way to look back at what I’m doing.

See you soon.

P.