The Home in Paradise

So long, 2011!

2012-01-15T10:06:00.003-05:00

What a crazy year this was.

Perched here at the top of 2012 sometimes I have the sensation that nothing happened during 2011. Am I ever wrong. It was only putting together some these pictures that I realize what a pivotal year that was for us.

First we finished all the repairs to our apartment. Finally! We are so relieved. Then a trip to Denmark. I came back to a family crisis when my mom was treated for Myelodysplasia, a disease that is usually fatal at her age. Rounds of chemo and lots of worrying later (compounded by the usual worries that only people who live in countries without universal health know) she recovered fairly well. We spent some days with my family, the first time we all get together in nearly 5 years. I found out I had a little niece arriving sometime within the next few weeks. There were road trips and school activities, some crafting (not as much as I would like, unfortunately) and a lot of work for me, some great professional milestones too.

And you know one of the craziest things that we did? If you follow our story of serial home-buying and moving you won't be surprised: we are putting our apartment on the market after we bought a lot a few weeks ago. Yeah, that is right. We decided that last year's repairs were not enough craziness for us and we intend to build a home within the next 2 years.

Maybe the reason my memory tricks me into thinking nothing happened last year is because sometimes it is best to forget the bad parts. But here at the beginning of a new year it all seems worthy. I came out stronger and in the end it all worked out.

Here's hoping for a very boring 2012. May you all have a boring, uneventful year.

Lazy Saturday

2011-09-25T18:06:00.000-04:00

I love Saturdays. They are my favorite day of the week.

So on Saturdays we almost always do the same thing, do some shopping, wonder around, eat where it pleases us and maybe have friends over for dinner. This is how our village looks on Saturday.

And yes, I almost always carry a camera with me. And sometimes I even remember to bring a memory card with it.

This hurt me more than it hurt you

2011-09-18T21:54:00.000-04:00

From this:

We went to this:

For months we had a serious leak in our living room. Unfortunately, we had it with the developer and his multiple attempts to fix the problems.

There is something to be said about having bought here: we received unconditional support until the problem was resolved in our best interest. Eventually everyone agreed that the best thing to do was to let us pick an engineering company that we trusted and the cost would be covered by the developer. And so our latest round of repairs began. And another stay at our neighboring hotel (perhaps we should make it our official address).

Now life here looks more like this:

No more leaks. For good. Our terrace and ceiling look like a million bucks. Peace returned to our home. Except that we now had a brilliant idea...

Oh boy! You know where this is going.

I am back!

2011-06-21T21:36:00.003-04:00

Ok, so not many people even noticed I left, but a few friends asked why I had stopped posting in this blog. It's not like I went off the grid entirely, after all this is my work (not this blog, but I am a pro-blogger).

Here's the thing, life has been extremely complicated for me these days. And here I am trying to look at it from the right perspective: for all the things that have been going on these days, at least my child is healthy, my husband is healthy and so is our marriage.

So, for the friends out there that get news of our family from this blog, sorry to have disappeared. This is what happened: We went on a trip to Europe, there have been some illness in my family, I have been having some health issues myself - and more relevant to this blog - our home is undergoing some serious renovation right now.

Yeah, you heard right. More reno and repairs. We have been here for less than two years and have so far had to leave and stay at hotels for weeks at a time three times already. At the moment our upstairs terrace is mostly done, but had to be gutted completely, our bathroom had to be repaired and a host of other issues that perhaps means that this will be the last time we have to do this.

The good news is that, after much fighting, we got the developer to let us hire our own people. The company we are using came highly recommended and so far we are happy with their work. So now I am crossing my fingers (and toes) that this is the end of that.

One less thing to worry about.

I made hundreds of pictures of our last trip, so I guess I will be posting some later, also some of what we have doing around here and the repair work as it develops. It's nice to be back, and it will be nice to have our home back.

Summer inspirations

2011-04-29T19:01:00.003-04:00

This post brought to you by Pier 1. All opinions are 100% mine.

Anyone who's been reading my blog for a while knows that life in our home revolves around our lower terrace. We play, eat, entertain, nap, craft and pretty much everything short of bathroom activities (for which my neighbors are eternally grateful).

So, looking for some inspiration to add some color to our terrace I turned to an old favorite of mine: Pier 1.

And what do you know, they had the exact same set I coveted, but ended up getting in black because I couldn't find in brown. The brown synthetic wicker set below is exactly what I would have bought if I had found it when we moved in. You can buy as many pieces as you want (or can fit into the space or your budget). I would add an ottoman to an end piece to make it into a chaise, perfect spot to chillax.

Pieces for these set start at $129, I am sure this will fit into your budget.

That small dining set with an umbrella looks so colorful and tropical, perfect for a small outdoor area. I am torn between the apple green above or the brick red in the second set.

On the inexpensive side these papasan chairs are perfect for a small place indoor our outdoor spot with a tropical inspiration. I had almost the exact same pieces at the poor, fresh-out-university time in my life. Those things are very comfortable. Pier1 has so many colorful pillows, accessories and rugs that it almost makes me nostalgic for the tiny apartment I lived in.

I am loving all the colors in this season, I feel like a rush of color is coming my way. I am furiously coveting those pillow.

And here's the pillow again, perfect to tone down a too-serious piece of furniture. Isn't that chair the perfect finishing touch for a tropical-inspired room?

Outdoor entertaining can be so much fun, and all these colorful touches sure gets one into the spirit of outdoor living. While I am daydreaming about getting my hands on some of this, if you live close to a Pier1 just don't daydream, you can go all out and change your outdoor furniture, or just refresh what you have with some of these lovely accessories.

Lack of choice won't be a problem.

How about you learn what the folks at Pier have for you: Pier 1 Tweetups?

Little baker's hat and apron

2011-04-15T08:46:00.006-04:00

Last month Nadia got an assignment from school: make a collage telling what you want to be when you grow up. Surprisingly that week she revealed she wanted to be a veterinarian. Before that it was, in no particular order, ballerina, doctor, pediatrician, astronaut, teacher, sailor, "cleaning lady", etc.

Two weeks after the assignment they were told to attend school dressed as their chosen profession. By then Nadia had decided that she didn't want to be a vet after all. Now she wanted to be a baker.

I love the note the teacher sent us, it started with "Nadia has informed us that she no longer wants to be a vet, she now wants to be a baker". The teacher seemed somewhat surprised that a 5 year old changes her mind about what she wants to be when she grows up every week. I thought it was funny.

So, what made my sweet spawn change her mind, yet again? We had been baking cupcakes a couple of days before for a friend of ours.

The cupcakes were her idea, and they were for her friend Laura's mom. It went like this:

- "Mommy, it's Laura's mom's birthday tomorrow. You have to bake her a cake"

- Nadia, she didn't ask me to bake her a cake, I don't know what plans she has.'

- "It doesn't matter, when it is somebody's birthday you have to bake them a cake."

- Really, who made me PuntaCana's official baker?

There's no arguing with a 5 year old. We settled for cupcakes.

So, now that she has decided that everybody deserves a cake for their birthday she will make this her life mission.

By the way, the trick to make the toque stiff? The lower part has a thick interfacing. The top part I sprayed with starch and used a blow drier to dry it, blowing air inside like a balloon. I did this several times until it was stiff enough to stay "inflated".

I was too lazy to get the serger set up, so I made the apron reversible, the inside and the band around her waist are made from the same blue fabric as her toque. She has one of those Ikea baking sets that look real (courtesy of our friend Ilana), and she brought that to her class too.

I had fun making this and the cupcakes, so it was OK in the end.

Monsters and princesses

2011-04-04T22:29:00.002-04:00

Like every year since I live here I grab my camera and go nuts at the carnival. It is an awesomely-fun event to photograph. Every year it gets better, and this year it was no exception. These are some of my favorite pictures.

I am not sure what the theme was this year, but it must have been about feathers, there were feathers everywhere.

A giant Spring greeting card

2011-03-23T13:27:00.004-04:00

I've mentioned it before: it's always summer here. That doesn't matter, in paper, at least, it's spring already.

Nadia's classroom door gets different decorations depending on the season or holiday of the moment. A child-parent team gets to pick their favorite time of the year and decorate the classroom door with that motif. Nadia and I picked spring, it seemed the easiest.

Some of the door decorations in the past have been simply astounding, the last one being the carnival. I don't know who did it, but it had a large traditional carnival mask decorated with flowers that I liked very much.

Nadia and I, on the other hand, chose the typical flowers, butterflies and birds for our door.

We worked with scrapbooking paper to make the grass, flowers, butterflies and bird, as well as the tree branch. The flower stems are pieces of green raffia. For the blue sky the door was covered with a piece of blue plastic, that way we get the right color and don't damage the door.

Most of the parts are made of two or more papers and stuck with thick doublesided tape to give it a bit of volume. I hand-drew all the parts on the reverse of the paper and cut with scissors, except for the flowers, for which I used a cookie cutter as pattern.

Even if our door might not be the coolest one so far, it doesn't matter, I am sure the kids will remember it best because...

We made lots of spring-themed cookies for everyone. They loved it! These are almond cookies with royal icing decoration. This was Nadia's favorite part of the whole project.

I enjoyed it, however exhausting it was to fit this in my already-limited free time, but I am also glad is over. This is Nadia's last year in pre-school, so I doubt we'll be decorating any doors in the future. Where has the time gone?

Life gets better here

2011-03-09T09:46:00.005-05:00

Life is never easy, it doesn't matter what you have, or lack. We drag along our existence with varying degrees of happiness. Despite some problems, our life here has gotten a lot easier: we have a florist.

"Say what?! It's that what it takes to make your life easier?"

Not really, the florist was the last of many things that are new in our village, but if you have been reading for a while you've read my complains about the lack of a florist. Before I get there let's see all the good things that have been added to our lives lately.

We got a new gas station. That's right.

It's not like we didn't have one before, it was just far and inconveniently-located. It was on top of our wish list since we moved here. So now that's taken care of.

The newest awesome thing we got is a supermarket. Something that was on top of everybody's wish list.

Up until the end of last year we all had to go around a series of small shops to get our groceries, and we never found all that we wanted. We were still glad to live here, despite the lack of this modern convenience.

I am happy to report that we have an awesome supermarket, Nacional - part of a local chain of supermarkets - located in the middle of our village now. Even better, it's the company we were wishing for. I got all verklempt the first day I went shopping there. Now my job just got a whole lot easier.

And on Saturday I stumbled across a new flower market/florist shop in town. I almost gave the two gentlemen that own it a hug, but I didn't want to scare them so soon. Of course I bought flowers (rather inexpensive as luck may have it) and wished them all the good luck I can send their way.

So yeah, part of my plaster celling might be falling down (yeah, never-ending ceiling nightmares), but I am a happy gal.

Life is good in paradise.

Cute lamps made from marmalade jars (how to)

2011-02-21T16:22:00.005-05:00

Just as I mentioned in a previous post, I made some more lanterns from marmalade jars to show you the process. You can see the detailed step-by-step in this post. There are just a couple of differences between this and the previous ones. I originally made this with the intention of giving them to somebody, I am afraid that may not happen. I just like them too much.

The difference is that I attached the handles with wire, making them safe to hang. This ones are covered in some rough rope, it makes a nice contrast with the softness of the acid-etched glass.

Not only are the jars reused, the handles are too. These were wire hangers that I got from the dry cleaners (and that I wouldn't use otherwise).

Besides stickers, wire and rope I also use golden jewelry wire to attach the handles, it blends better with the rope. I used the jar rim as a template for the handles. Remember to check this post to see how I etched the glass.

I used glue to join each layer of rope to the next, the edges are glued and tucked under the layers of rope.

I have to say that these came out much better than the previous ones. Or perhaps I like them better because of the funky shape. I can't find this brand of marmalade at my local supermarket, but I am on a hunt for some, maybe I can stock enough marmalade for a year. Lucky me this brand also tastes nice.

There they are, at their new home. I am using fake tealights because of safety and because the wind would not let me use real ones.

So, are you guys going to start saving your jars and wire hangers yet?

School trip (or Kids vs Sharks)

2011-02-10T09:05:00.004-05:00

A couple of weeks back I volunteered as chaperone for one of Nadia's school trips (I know, I know. What was I thinking?). After spending half a day with a bussload of kindergarteners (two classes) I am not entirely sure which were supposed to be the dangerous creatures.

In the end I was exhausted, I wanted to hug the teachers, and I found out I actually had fun. The kids had a blast.

Cute lamps made from marmalade jars

2011-01-28T10:00:00.004-05:00

Lest you think I have been led completely astray from the crafty path, I'll let you know that I have been able to cram some crafting amidst several full houses (lots of visitors this month), more ceiling disasters (I'd share but things might escalate and I'd better keep my mouth shut), and lots of work.

But enough about my woes.

These pretties were originally marmalade jars that I had been saving. One of my visitors last week is another craft enthusiast and she loved my old lanterns made with salsa jars. She wanted me to teach her how to make them, so we made four of these and they took them as gifts, but most importantly, she is now collecting jars of her own (hurrah for reusing!).

This picture was taken in a hurry as they were packing and I almost forgot to take a picture of them. I found two more jars I didn't know I had, so I will make two more of this and make some proper pictures.

Aren't these lovely?

Ballerina tote

2011-01-14T14:31:00.001-05:00

What do you give the little ballerina who has it all? How about an overdose of girlie and cute in the form of a tote to carry her ballet slippers and other ballet accoutrement?

I got some panels for quilts a couple of years back, along with some fabric with glittery slippers that wen't perfectly with it, One ended as this tote, a gift to Nadia's friend.

I used the panel for the front, the ballet slippers fabric for the back and straps, and fusible fleece,as interfacing.

The gift was a complete success, as you can imagine; it screams little girl, doesn't it?

There are a lot of panel designs for quilts, from robots to cows, so see if you can find one that you know your giftee will love, of if you have unused panels, now you know something else you can do with it.

What I've been up to...

2011-01-12T17:28:00.000-05:00

I have been a bad, bad little blogger!

Actually, I am right now drowning in stuff, short people like me drown easily, even when standing up. [Rimshot]. But seriously, between visitors (many), holidays (three), more ceiling problems (nevermind!), I took it upon myself to finally stop procrastinating and upgrade our cooking sites.

We are switching platforms, and servers, moving almost 10 years worth of content (one by one!), revising it, changing all the pictures (which I had to dug up from among thousands of pictures). Trust me, I wish we could afford paying a small army of geeks to do it, but I am cheaper.

There's lot of work ahead on that front, but I promise you to post something crafty very soon.

If you want to see what I've been up to stop by my cooking site, it's less crafty, but more delicious.

We're back!

2011-01-05T09:54:00.000-05:00

Phew! I feel like Rip Van Winkle. Anyway...

Happy New Year friends! I hope you had a wonderful holidays. Ours was a mixed bag of family, friends, good food, long road trips and more ceiling disasters.

And now for a short announcement: I have decided that for the time being, and while I drown in work (going to bed at 3:00 AM every day is not as fun as it sounds), it's not feasible for me to update my blog every day. As of today I am aiming for 3 posts a week, hopefully I will make up in quality what I will be lacking in quantity. I am enjoying this too much not to do it.

See you around soon.

Be right back...

2010-12-23T12:20:00.000-05:00

We have guests, we have trips ahead, we have food to cook, memories to make, so I am taking a break.

Have a great time, and I'll come back after the new year.

Santa here travels by camel

2010-12-22T11:35:00.000-05:00

Gifts and cards mailed (hello Mariana). But, if anyone one in my (admittedly very short) list of gift-recipients think things will get there by Christmas, I have some bad news for you: they won't. I have a long list of ~~excuses~~ explanations.

First: Things take a while just to get out of here, after all I live in the ~~boonies~~ paradise. The fast mail is stupidly expensive (we're talking $50 for a letter). And the less outregeously expensive is slow, to put it generously.

But "Ah!", you say, "why the heck don't you mail things like a month in advance?".

Are you kidding me?!

That goes against the principles of the society I belong to. It's not for nothing that I am the Queen of Procrastinators.

Actually, I was supposed to be the queen only for a short time, while we had elections, but for some reason we keep postponing it.

But if this ~~lame excuses~~ perfectly reasonable explanations don't satisfy you, I have a real good one: traditionally kids here get their gifts Jan 6 (Three King's Day).

So there, I don't want to hear about this again.

Re-covered hairband

2010-12-21T11:15:00.002-05:00

Nadia found an old hair band in her toy trunk. It had seen better days, it was really dirty and beat up. Instead of putting it in the garbage, where it belonged, we decided to re-use the plastic part and re-cover it. My hair band-loving kid approves of the result.

This is what we did:

I striped the plastic insert. It was in a bad shape, so I decided to give it some padding to cover the glue residue on top. I first covered the top with some organic padding for quilts. Then covered the padding with a piece of fabric, I glued it on the inside.

To cover the unfinished fabric edge I used some hem tape ironed on the inside. That way there is no glue residue showing, and the hem tape gives it a flawless finish.

The flowers were12 triangles of fabric, I sewed each pair, turned and ironed, then I joined them with some hand-stitching.

I searched for a button I liked for the center, in the end I decided to cover one with he same fabric as the band.

And that's it, yet another hairband comes to help us control the mop on top of Nadia's head. Very cute, if I may say so myself. The hair band is nice too. :)

Overdose of girly

2010-12-20T12:48:00.002-05:00

If you lived in a country where this was a tradition, were you ever in a Christmas school play? Here they are a big production every year, specially in private schools. I remember playing Mary once, and I may or may not have played a cow once too. I may not remember and I don't really want to.

Once a year we parents pretend that our kids are the most talented kids on earth, and our hearts melt when we see our sprouts dressed in fancy (or not) costumes. One of the perks of parenthood.

This last weekend was Nadia's school play, some sort of musical put together by teachers and students. Nadia and her ballet class had the opening act, and her class was third dressed as roses and dancing a pop song. While the rose costume was a cheap store-bought one, and started coming apart before Nadia wore it (emphasis on cheap), I guess it didn't matter, it's not something to wear twice. The ballet costume was, on the other hand, handmade by a costume-maker that does work for a circus! I am so stealing that idea for a new leotard for Nadia.

I took dozens of pretty decent pictures, considering the awful light for photography. I am loving my new camera more every minute.

Excuse the late post. I am still tangled up in work, but I have some cute stuff I managed to sew for this week.

Charming

2010-12-17T11:13:00.001-05:00

I have a very busy weekend ahead of me. Our cooking sites are being re-done practically from the ground up, and while I am excited about the new changes, it's just a daunting task, specially coordinating the various freelancers working from several parts of the world and several time zones.

I also have to get some gifts ready this week, and some new patterns I'll share with you. Wish me luck. I'll need it.

Go ahed, have a great weekend on my behalf.

A cup of woe

2010-12-16T10:20:00.006-05:00

Do you ever find yourself in a tight corner that you've pretty much painted yourself into, because you sometimes forget that you are not Wonder Woman? Well, I am there.

I am dealing with software that is 5 years ahead of my knowledge, deadlines, negotiating with, and trying to make myself understood to developers and designers, and frankly throwing the towel because at some point no amount of willpower and lack of sleep is going to turn me into a genius. I am not me six years ago. Not anywhere nearly.

Today I gave up and got more help. It was money I didn't want to spend, but it is still cheaper than future medical bills.

So, I got my collection of fancy teacups that I've never used but for food photography and gave myself a dose of Cute. I feel better now.

And kids, remember, sometimes we ought to take it easy now.

Knitting for little feet

2010-12-15T09:32:00.002-05:00

I've always liked knitting and crocheting, which is amazing for someone with the patience of a two year old. The problem is that knitting is not exactly a Tropical-friendly craft, so I have moved on to other crafty things, even if once-in-a-while I dig up my needles and yarn.

These slippers were made a couple of years ago from a modified version of these ballet slippers I found on Knitty. They are pretty simple, and make a great gift for the little princesses. It takes little time to knit them and use very little yarn.

I knit these with a fresh cotton yarn to keep them from becoming too hot, after all, it's always summer here. They'll also make great room shoes to keep the wee feet warm in colder winters.

The cute pink socks were also made from another Knitty pattern. The white ones were simple toe-up socks in two different colors. Knit in thin cotton yarn (I made a top, hair pins and a brooch with the same variegated pink) they were cool enough for the heat here.

Socks also make great gifts for the kids ones, and for those who live in colder climates, a thicker wool yarn will make some cozy, warm socks that little feet will love.

Fabric love

2010-12-14T09:28:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I make things that I mean to share with you and then I just forget. Sometimes I even make pictures of them and one day I come across them and think, "hmm, did I write a post about this?".

This was not the case with these cushions. The project further below, however, is pretty old.

I found the blue fabric buried in my stash, and as soon as I found it I decided it would be perfect with the shells cushion I had previously made. The color and motif are just perfect in this combination. The good thing is that an envelop cushion takes about ten minutes to make.

With the severe lack of time I am suffering from nowadays, quick projects is all I can tackle. Am I the only one that feels like buried in stuff these days? Anyone?

Notice the drum lamp in this picture? I did that.

This bare bulb has been waiting for some compassion for almost one year we had been living here, but more urgent needs took over, and I hadn't found a lamp I liked. I decided to at least cover that bulb, it looked horrible and it's the one closest to the front door.

This is what I drew on the lamp. You can click on it to download a printable size. It would look pretty nice on a cushion, perhaps I will do that next.

I used fabric markers to do this, first testing it on a scrap of fabric, then I drew the motif on the fabric itself. I used large embroidery hoops to give the lamp its shape.

You would have to stand right under the lamp to see the bulb, so it's pretty hidden now. I am using a low-consumption bulb, heat and fabric do not go well, however well-ventilated this lamp is.

This was another simple, quick project, and pretty rewarding at that. It looks a million times better than a naked light bulb, and requires zero meddling with electricity. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll post a few more details on how I made it, in case you would like to try it too.

Busy, busy weekend

2010-12-13T09:09:00.003-05:00

Is there anything more fun for kids than playing cook, getting dirty and then eating lots of cookies? I thought so too.

On Saturday a friend had organized a cookie-baking class for kids, who, or course, had to bring their moms as assistants. Nadia had a blast, got herself covered in flour from her hair to her crocs, and came home stuffed to the gills with cookies.

That same night the local daycare had organized a concert with a youth orchestra. The songs played were appropriate for the holidays and for the mostly-young audience.

The conductor introduced each instrument playing a short cartoon or TV tune for the children to see how each sounded, then some kids were invited onstage to conduct the orchestra (understandably, it sounded pretty chaotic at times), a practical demonstration of the role and importance of the conductor. The fledging Maestros beamed with pride.

It's the second year they play, and I am looking forward to next year already.

And I finally started the gift for the giveaway winner (of whom I heard from just this weekend). I'll try and have a pattern and instructions if anyone else wants to try.

So, how was your weekend? Hopefully as fun as mine.

Color me colorful

2010-12-10T09:57:00.003-05:00

Kids have no patience.

The Adventures of Clara Jones and the Search for the Perfect Twigs have been postponed due to all the rain that has fallen here as of lately, so Nadia has been bugging me about the ornaments we made last week. In lieu of a tree, and wile I get something I like, I just made a banner. I wish I had a video of her when she exclaimed "this looks so 'christmasy'!" with a huge smile on her face. Yeah, we all need a dose of color this time of the year.

I simply stitched each ornament onto a piece of red ribbon. Easy peasy.

And now our banner welcomes us every time we open the front door. It looks pretty cool, if I may say so myself. So what are we going to hang on the tree/twigs/whatever when we get it?

This is what I just got on the mail. I finally decided I needed some color, days are shorter and darker this time of the year. Heather Bailey's fabric are the perfect therapy for the winter blues. I got these from Fabric.com (yay for free shipping!).

Heather Bailey's is one of my favorite fabric designers. I usually go for more subdued colors, but her line of modern vintage fabric is really calling to me these days. Yummy. And that's what I'll use for my ornaments, when I get around to that.

They are pretty, aren't they?