Tradition

I don't know about you, but I am slightly fearful of loosing some traditions. For instance, Spanish is the primary language of my family, but my generation and the generation after is lessening the amount Spanish spoken and also the amount learned. A really big tradition in my family is cooking. I have some of the best cooks in my family. Serious. And the funny thing is, all the things they cook are in their head. Once I asked my Abuelita to teach me to make homemade tortillas...the recipe went something like: 4 handfuls of flower. 1 handful of lard. 1 pinch of salt. a little bit of water. They just know how much of whatever, but there are no such things as "cookbooks" in my mom's family. I've been wanting to make some tamales for a while, so I talked to my aunt Abby, and we made it happen. I can't tell you the recipe, but here is the gist:
soak corn husks. Deseed and boil about a trillion dried red chili peppers. blend with oregano, onion and garlic. Sift through fine sifter to keep out seeds and skin. Buy the maza from a Mexican store. Mix with lard and oregano. Cook shoulder of pork, shred. mix pork with blended sauce. spread Maza mixture onto corn husks, spread a fair amount of pork and sauce onto maza. Fold, wrap in parchment paper for less mess. Layer it all into a big pot with water in the bottom (do not let tamales touch the water) steam for about an hour. Eat the most mind blowing tamales ever.
Sadly, pretty much no one in my generation cooks (I can't speak for the ones in Mexico, maybe they do) but us ladies here might be doomed. I am trying though. I made me first batch of Chile Verde the very next day...it was a success!


My aunt said "plan on about 4 or 5 hours." What she should have said..."plan on 8" It was a long day, but well worth it. I asked my aunt, did you just make these so often you remember by heart? She said whenever Abuelita Margarita (my great grandmother) would come into town she would make Rosita tamales. My question was what makes Rosita so special to get her own batch of tamales, she is my mom's cousin, and apparently she was the spoiled one. I hope Rosita doesn't read this or else I just started a family feud. Really. But ANYWAY every time she came into town she enlisted my aunts to help her make the tamales. Things don't quite happen like that anymore...being that everyone basically lives in the same town around here:)

Inspiration/Interpretation

People! I started a project and finished it! AMAZING. Steve went out of town a couple of weeks ago and for some reason I thought it would be a great idea to make a skirt. I had a pretty simple idea and thought I would whip it out in a couple hours. No Problem. WRONG! I worked on it for an entire day and hated it and decided to start over. I decided I didn't want a zipper, then decided I had to have a zipper, and well 2.5 weeks later I finally finished it. And wore it. And it has not yet frayed or come apart at the seems. I may never wash it. We will see.
I have been seeing lots of skirts like the ones pictured above from this lovely store, anthropologie. I love the high waist, the gathered at the waist, full skirt, and I love a big bow to top it off. I can't say this is the last skirt I will ever make, BUT if I ever have to sew a zipper onto an article of clothing I might rather die. This picture is actually not the greatest...looks like it could lay a little better and the bow is a little smashed, but Steve couldn't be bothered to take more than one picture on Master's Sunday. Ugh.

A little inspiration

Sometimes we need reminders to be happy and feel blessed. I have decided I would like to surround myself with more inspiring quotes, thoughts and words. I am no graphic designer, but I sure wish I was! Please feel free to save this and print it paste it whatever. Or if you think I need a degree in graphic design, fine.

My latest project

I am a strugglefest. I love a scrapbook. Have you seen the adorable trends now a days? There are some really awesome ideas out there. I have been wanting to do an ABC book for a really long time, ever since I saw this post. Then I saw it in person and I knew it had to be done. Here is my problem. In my heart I want to be a scrapper and do all the cute awesome things scrappers do, but I just don't work that way. I can't keep up with the changing trends and then my ocd doesn't love to look back and see some ugly page I made 2 years ago, so then I just want to change it. And then I don't take/have the time to do it. So I decided this is the year I will conquer this book for OWEN. You can imagine that kid has a shiz load of pictures from his first year...it is difficult to narrow it down to 26 letters x 2 page layouts. So I have debated on the digital scrapbooking vs. paper. Paper might always win, (ooh but then there is the outdated thing again) but there are a lot of things I don't love about digital. Here I am rambling and rambling and the whole point is I am amazed I finished 1 page. Thats right 1. 51 more to go...What are you digital scrapbookers going to for ideas? I've been to the shabby princess (pictured above is mostly from their "Happy Go Lucky" kit, which is a FREE download, thank you verry much) But I struggle for digital to not look cheesy trying to look like paper.

Did I make any sense at all? Check back and see how the rest of the alphabet turns out. Hey the best part about digital is once Miles is 1 I can simply swap out Owens pics and print again!


*oh and please note, I most likely will not come up with any adorable rhyme like Brooke. This is already far enough.

A Cutie and a Quilt

I have meaning to post this for quite some time. Having your second baby doesn't pose such the large task list of projects (although painting and getting a whole other room is a pretty big project). But since my second was a boy I had most everything I needed. 2010 became the year I really got into sewing (that being said, I am not a great sewer, but I LOVE it). So among a few sewing projects I came acrossed a couple of quilt tutorials that I thought I might tight to tackle. Only one actually got conquered, but I am happy about it. I found this tutorial and fell in love. I am not exactly one for quilts...they might make me think BLEH...and might give me a headache. But this one was modern, fun and best of all, looked pretty easy. I knew I wanted something for my boys to play on and make lots of memories together. So, ladies and gentleman, my first REAL quilt....
by no means am I a pro quilter, but I feel good having accomplished this. Next on my list a hand stitched quilt. Serious.