A warm house in the winter

Even in Florida the approaching of winter is cooling enough to turn the heater on and use double blanket at night. Yesterday was pretty cold, at least for us who are not used to cold weather at all. In the afternoon the house was chilly so we didn't turn the heater on, nope, we decided to bake. Ella and I made chocolate chip cookies that not only warmed up the house but also made it smell very nice.

December is a great time to bake!

Quick art

We didn't want to leave our bathroom frames empty and since we are a little busy with some of our freelance work we decided to put in those frames something provisional. I made a quick abstract drawing for the one on the right. Then, for the second one I decided to frame postcards and remembered I had some in an old box, but then I found in there some pictures I took with the Diana mini a time ago, I combined two of them with blue skies and framed them together.

TIP: Almost anything can be art. Photos, postcards, drawings, sketches, doodles, an ad you liked, a broken piece of paper, spilled coffee, music sheets ...anything.

Plain bathroom needs life

In our house, one of the places that we haven't paid a lot of attention to is the bathroom, in fact, we have totally neglected it in terms of design. I noticed this and wanted to put some details in there to see if I could make it a little bit cozy. We particularly don't like having a very ornate bathroom, we like to keep it simple. Yesterday we bought two 5x7 picture frames for the bathroom but now we have to decide what kind of art we are going to put in them.

Pictures from www.gettyimages.com

I have been searching on the Internet for some ideas of pictures "bathroom appropriate" and found that people usually use nature illustrations mostly flower, illustrations of animals or landscapes most of them look nice but I really would like to have something different, I just have no idea. This is something new to think about or a new fun thing to make.

When do you start decorating for christmas?

Today Saturday 26, just two days after thanksgiving, we began decorating for Christmas. We just finished decorating our Christmas tree and a little detail for the entry door, we don't overdo it.

Our christmas tree. Decorated by Ella and rearranged a little by me.

I know probably for some people this is too early but I had my little one pushing for Christmas and all I could do was take the Christmas tree out of the garage and start decorating it. Plus, I always think that putting the decorations is too much work to display only for one day or two weeks. For me this is a good time to start decorating. When do you start decorating for Christmas?

Stop motion at home

We have been watching many of those Christmas movies for children with stop motion animation. While watching them I felt the need to explain Ella how stop motion works and how simple it is, so I decided to make a little movie for her using some of her toys.

Each photo must have a very slight change in order to complete the movement.

We used Ella's dollhouse and made52 frames (pictures) for this animation. She kind of understands now how it works.

And now, here is the video we made.

We were so excited with this one that we definitely want to make more.

Today's...branch

For these thanksgiving days we have been having good company on our morning walks. Ella has been joining us, since she has no class for the entire week. For her is a fun ride in her old stroller, for us is exercise, but still a nice thing to share together. Today I didn't pick many flowers but the 4 yellow wild ones on the picture. I also found this fallen little branch from a small type of tree that I have always noticed its beauty. It has bright  red tiny rounded fruits which look as beautifull as some flowers do.

Im not sure if these are "Rose hips" but they certainly look lovely.

Artichoke-Parmesan dip

Being such an amateur in the cooking area I will always prepare the easiest recipes. Yesterday I said that I'm turning into a better cook, and I am, in fact, I'll share this recipe I finally master.

I made this is one last night... Scrumptious!

THE ARTICHOKE-PARMESAN DIP

1 Can of artichoke hearts (drained and chopped).

1 Cup of grated Parmesan cheese.

3/4 Cup of mayonnaise. 

1 Garlic clove (minced).

Mix well all the ingredients in a 1quart casserole dish. Then bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Arrange pita bread wedges or garlic bread on a platter.

That's it, an easy and quick recipe perfect to share with friends.  

Thanks Katie for sharing this recipe with me.

Cooking with melodies

I love to listen to music while cooking. That's probably the best way I get good results from my food. Only a few months ago, before we moved to our new house, I was actually a terrible cook, but I feel that lately I have been improving.


I'm daring to prepare new things a little more, and the foods I cook more often are reaching a better taste. Not that I master cooking yet, but I'm getting there. Anyways, I owe this accomplishment mostly to practice and to my  "cooking playlist".

The soundtrack for meat lasagna or garlic chicken breast definitively helps you cook better.
   

Soon I'll be posting some recipes, so keep visiting!

Another post about flowers

Wild flowers are underrated. Today, when Ramon and I went for a morning walk I picked some wild flowers on the road. Is incredible the variety of teeny tiny flowers you can find. I picked one of each I found and made a bouquet of wildflowers for Ella's small flower vase, perfect for these type of flowers. I will make her a bouquet everyday for her bedroom nightstand.

Ella will love these flowers when she returns from school.

Reading time

It seems that lately the closest I've got to reading is the children's books I read with Ella every night. But how about those books that I used to read before, those long novels or narratives with no pictures on. The books I have opted to buy recently are the ones with 80% images and 20% literature because it takes less time to read these fellas.

What's happening? I guess there is not much time to read lately. I remember I used to go through books quickly taking most of my night-times to read them so I could start the new one that mom had already introduced me showing me the cover and giving me a brief summary. 

Looks like there was more time to read while I was in college.

The power of flowers

This morning my lovely husband surprised me with flowers. Beautiful yellow mums, which I thought they were daisies, I really can't tell the difference. It was such an unexpected and lovely gesture, and the flowers were so beautiful that I couldn't stop taking pictures, so I made a video. I hope he'll check out today's post so he could see another thank you for him. 

These gorgeous yellow flowers brighten up the living room making it look sunny and shiny and happy. We love to have plants or flowers in the house, especially Ella and I. Is a little bit of nature inside our home. 

Our presentation card

How many times we find ourselves writing our phone number and address for a friend who is going to visit for the firs time. It happens very often, especially when you have moved recently. That's why I thought it was a good idea to create a personal version of the business card.
Everyone who owns a business needs a presentation card with the business address, fax and phone numbers. Why not have a family card with your phone numbers and address. So every time you make a new friend or need to give your information to somebody simply hand them out your family card. 

Add a photo of your family and have the information in the back of the card.

TIP: Besides address and phone numbers you can also add your personal or family blog and Facebook page too. You can create your card using your personal logo.
Create yours and hand them out to your neighbors or new friends. 

Show and tell

Today was another show and tell day at school for our daughter, Ella. Coming from the Dominican Republic I didn't know exactly what it was. Basically what she does is to bring an object from home to school and talk about it. 

The jack in the box sock monkey. Because is cool to be surprised.

One of her first show and tell items was her xylophone. She played Twinkle twinkle little star.

 We like to bring things that could be interesting and cool for the rest of the children. We need to keep the audience paying attention! We usually try to pick objects that appeal to the senses, allowing her to perform in front of her classmates, like for example, her small xylophone. When she played Twinkle, Twinkle little Star her teacher said that everybody was paying attention and applauded at the end. We felt so proud we had to share it!!!!

Goodbye branches

Today we are posting a little later than usual, but we couldn't wait till Friday to let you know that we finally trimmed the tree limbs that were over the house. Some of them were even a safety hazard like the ones of the tree leaning towards the house right over Ella's room. Now we feel safer, the house is much brighter since we are getting more sunlight and it looks nicer too.

There was a crew of about 6 to 7 people working on this. Some of them were trimming, loading a truck, others holding the branches with ropes and cleaning the leaves they left behind. It was a new experience for these new homeowners. Oh! Sorry for the rushed pictures friends. 

Now we can see the sky.

Routine login

The Internet, our XXI century slavery? Well I don't know if it enslaves us but between social networks, blogs, emails and many other sites we keep ourselves busy for many hours of the day and in front of our computers.  

We are actually a little old fashioned and we really don't use many technologies that are common nowadays, like texting or tweeting. Of course we do have our everyday login sites, mostly we use these tools to keep in contact with our loved ones that aren't close and for work. And of course, our blog to share our life experiences with others.

We all have heard about Internet addiction as a real health problem. I'm sure that most of us are not addicts but is really important to disconnect ourselves from our dear laptops for a while, go out and take a stroll through the park.