Three Kitchen Fairies

Communitarian table runner.

Another swap related quilty. This time at “My favorite quilters,”another one of quiltinkimmie flickr groups. The assignment was five 4-patch blocks delivered by the end of March to another five quilters (previously organized in groups) who signed up for this swap. So I got to send to five people, and five people sent me 5 blocks each. There were some people that sent me more than five, plus one that I made I ended up with 30 blocks. I made this table runner with them. First I thought I will have them all around a embroidery work I was planning, but when I spread them all out I realized I had enough to make my table runner. I love it, I love to think it was made by six different people. Amazing quilters all of them; all with different taste for fabric and different style too. We all fitting in this crafty world.

Isn’t this an amazing world??

Japanese Mini

Last month I was invited to a Flickr group called STUD. No ladies, it’s not an “X” rated group. STUD stands for Swap til you drop, creative isn’t it??

I signed up for this month swap and the theme was Japanese quilts. What do I know about Japanese quilts?? Pretty much nothing. What else, I started brainstorming…I got my books from the library on Japanese designs, Japanese food, Japanese culture…I went to the fabric store looking for inspiration. Browsing, browsing, browsing I finally found this and they became my inspiration.

This is my Japanese Mini Quilt for Vicki, the girl behind Accio fabric.

Every geta was appliqué by hand. As you can see I was very timid with regard to the quilting, I was afraid to mess up!! I enjoy this mini a lot, this challenge was really fun and educational. There were many ideas going on like bento boxes, and sushi, kimonos, and many more, which I think would be fun to make some day…

Sunday Stash...a bit early.

 

I got this lovely stash at Fabric Shoppe on Etsy. I just couldn't resist it. It's called Surprise In My Mailbox- Scrap pack of designer fabrics. This was my kind of deal; I work mostly with small pieces of fabric, and what I need in my stash is variety. The surprise factor was fun too. I did not know what exactly I was getting. Jody is the girl in this blog, and there you can find the link to her store. At the moment I'm having trouble adding the link to this post. Thanks Jody, I love the fabrics you picked for me.

So here is to you... and to my mom, and my friend Nika, who started to believe that if I don't post my Sunday Stash it means that I'm not ok. Funny girls...

Thoughtful Friday.

Mami, why is there blind people?

Hmmm, well some people get sick and loose their sight. Other just are born like that.

Why??? Was God out of power??

Five addictions...

Wow!! I finally made it here. It’s been quite busy around here, that without counting that the days are getting warmer and my girls and me have been spending a lot of time playing on the sidewalk…

What have I been up to?? I’ve been working on a Japanese mini-quilt for this flickr group STUD. I guess it won’t hurt if I show you just a bit of it. As soon as my partner receives it I’ll post about the whole adventure of making this my first mini.

Miss-Behave gave me this, and she tagged me with 5 Addictions, thank you girl!! It was fun reading about you !!

It took me a while to figure "my addictions" out, and I realized that I have more that five, but don’t worry I won’t bore you to tears. Here I go:

Books. Most of the people tagged in this game said books. That makes our bloggy world a well educated one, he he. I love books too, not only crafts books, and quilting books but most of all children’s books. I love them!! The illustrations, the stories, how each of them is a different world, and how they appeal to different ages and personalities. Every week I get at least 5 children’s books from our public library, and I read them with the fairies.

Sewing: sewing has come to be my emotional sustain. I sew everyday for at least an hour. Stitching helps relax, every stitch holds me together …

Colors: I’m absolutely addicted to happy colors. The colors you see in my crafts are the colors I need to be around to just feel in a good mood. Color comes to me in many different ways: through a book, a walk in a garden, farmers market, even a stroll through the mall, and of course through your craftblogs and flickr.

Kitchen gadgets : You name it, I have it. Bread maker, Kitchen Aid stuff, retro toaster for 4 slices, hand blender (it‘s not for blending you hands...), tortilla presser, etc. We can make anything in this kitchen: from cream-less ice cream to egg-less cakes. There you see my connection between my crafts and kitchen stuff in my pictures.

Movies: I love movies. Not [too] old movies, new movies, Oscar winning movies, love movies, chicks' flicks. The good thing is that Mr. Kitchen Fairies likes them too, so we watch a couple of movies every weekend at home.

So there is my confession. I hope you enjoy it!! Now I’m going to tag 5 more people and let's see if they dare.

Nathalie from Kennedy and Friends

Becca from Becca’s Baby blog

Michala from Kaylacoo

Sparrow from Host of Sparrows

Katy from I'm a Ginger Monkey

Have fun!!

Pincushions galore.

  

Pincushions have come to be a relaxing craft exercise in my life, and since I included them in my pictures I have received so many compliments about them *blushing*, thank you!! I have also been asked if I sell them. So, why not…

Each of them is one of a kind. I enjoyed every piece of fabric I put into these creations, as well as trying out buttons and felt flower on them. That without counting that they were in part stuffed by the fairies, while having great afternoon conversations at my crafting table. They felt so helpful…

So here they are. If you are interested click her to see them on my etsy.

Fairies in the kitchen...

Today my girls had no school. I love these kind of days because they're a total break from the routine, without counting that I have to be "creative" about what to do. First I took them to the library to get their week loaded with stories and beautiful picture books... and they were happy. Then we headed for the grocery store to get ingredients for this delish

 

Chocolate Dominoes is what they are called. This is a recipe we have been planning to bake for some time. It's from this book we got around Christmas. But because I'm so happy with the result I want to share it with you.

Ingredients

1/4 cup of soft margarine (here we substitute for soy butter because of our cow protein intolerance)

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 1/4 cup of self-raising flour

1/4 cup of cocoa sifted

3 eggs (here you can substitute for 1 cup of apple sauce in case you're allergic to eggs like some people around here)

Preheat the oven to 350 F (or 180C.) Lightly brush a 7x11 inch baking tin with oil and line the base of the tin with a greaseproof paper. Put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat until smooth. Spoon into the prepared tin and level the surface with a palette knife. Bake for 30 min. Cool the tin for 5 min. Then loosen the edges and transfer to a wire rack. [mine came thin enough to break apart so I transfered it to a chopping board.]

From here I made it my way which was spreading chocolate frosting on half of the cake, and because my cake came thin I cut it in half and put one half on top of the other. After the dangerous maneuver ( it could have been a catastrophe if I broke the Fairies' work of art...) I put more frosting on top and then cut it into the individual pieces. Little hands added the pieces of twizlers and the M&M to make the dominoes.

The girls did most of the work. Fairy #2 remarked that baking is a craft, clever...The three of them took turns with the electric mixer, very adventurous for a four year old. We ate them for dessert, and ended our day with a great feeling of accomplishment.

I suggest you try them, you may end up with the same feeling.

Sunday Stash

Wow! It’s been a long time since my last Sunday Stash post. I’m kind of out of fabric to show; so many  scraps, and no time to go looking for fabric. Last week I went to Joann’s looking for inspirations for a Japanese mini quilt swap I have to start working on, and I found this.

I’m not sure if I would use it for the mini quilt project since it's such an obviously "Japanese" print. But it's still cute to have in my stash. Don’t you think?

For more fabric stash click here.

We are back!!

For the last two years I’ve been proposing, hinting, and asking for a vacation in Puerto Rico. It must have been that I’m a good behaving girl lately that I got my wish granted; or that I became a pain with my “proposing, hinting and asking”, hehe.

So, last week we spent 5 days in paradise!! Going from the beach to the pool, and from the pool to the beach, watching beautiful sunsets, and enjoying long walks through “El Viejo San Juan” (the old San Juan.) It was so good that we had a hard time coming back.

I always accounted all Latin-Americans as warm-hearted and welcoming. Well, these Boricuas are such calid souls…they make you feel at home right away.

The touristic part of the island is very well taken care of, and beautiful. Puerto Rico also has well preserved rain forest parks that are so remote that not even our GPS (recently named Annita Fandaway) could not find our location. The views were amazing, and also the learning experience for us and the girls about the care and love we should have for the environment and the planet.  No more paper waste in this house, for example.

 

The food was incredible too. I personally chose to have seafood every night, of course accompanied by mojitos: a delicious drink made with mint leaves, rum and a splash of soda. The girls enjoyed their food too which usually was rice and beans with a side of shrimp. The seafood and fish were so fresh that none of us got sick, a total plus.

The bathing suit situation: Oh my!! I’m not a cutie anymore. I’m just a mom. Although I look way better fully dressed. Still, I did not let my “not so cool beach look” get in the way of my enjoyment. I just embraced who I am and forgot about looks. Hard but I overcame my unconformity.

Our vacation was really pleasant, a good time to re-group and realize how blessed we are by having each other. We now dream of the day we can go back again. In the meantime, I feel refreshed, and full of energy to face the everyday challenges. I’m also ready to start sewing and creating again.

P.