That cute blouse doesn't fit me

Whether is that you love the pattern or it reminds you of a special occasion, sometimes is hard to get rid of old clothes we love. Here is a dress Ella used to wear when she was smaller, then it turned into a blouse and now it doesn't fit her at all. This dress was really special for us so we still wanted it to hang around the house. 

My solution was to turn it into a bag closing the bottom and sewing the shoulder straps together to make only one strap. Now Ella can use it to transport her books from the library or whatever thingamajig it occurs to her to carry in her bag. 

Easter egg hunt at home

Yesterday Ella and I painted Easter eggs. Thanks to our great friend Silvia who encouraged me to paint eggs with Ella and even provided me with a whole carton of eggs, half of them were empty shells ready to be painted. 

We had never done this before so they didn't come out so great. I had a litttle trouble holding the eggs without putting my fingers on the areas that were already painted but overall we think they came out great!

Thank you Silvia!

A hat for the Diana Mini

With leftover string from Ramon's hat I made a mini hat for my Diana Mini. The thing is that the lens cover the camera came with kept falling off, so I made this kind of hat to cover the lens. Is very practical and at the same time it looks nice and personalized. 

Good thing that the leftover string was blue, so it matches the camera.

Welcome spring

A couple of days ago began spring. Finally the rain will return to water the grass and the trees. We wanted to make a picnic to give spring a welcome, and here are the pictures of this nice day! Oh! And Laura (my sister) was here so we all shared together.

By the way... did you guys notice my hairband? I made it!

A happy kid!

We are very glad to say that we have a happy daughter. Ella has been raised in an environment of love, a love which sometimes I think it has been a little too close to indulgence, but fortunately we still manage to keep that under control.  

I think you can tell a child is happy if she or he communicates with you, expresses herself/himself, laughs, doesn't need much to have fun, enjoys simple things and loves you back! Other signs could be singing, dancing, hugging and kissing. That's Ella.

Ella's own craft

Yesterday Ella saw someone making a craft on TV and she said right away -Mom, can we make this craft pleeease?- with a very funny voice. It was called "stained glass jar" but actually consisted in cutting tissue paper with different colors and sticking them on a jar. She was very proud of herself because she didn't need my help for this one. 

Way to go Ella, that came out great!

I love old glass jars, you can use them for so many things. Here's another old glass jar craft I made a time ago. Just put a nice looking piece of paper inside a transparent jar and that's it! 

The classic shake

We have been keeping a bunch of strawberries in the refrigerator for quite a while now. Ramon's mom gave them to us and I really didn't know what to do with them. Ramon doesn't eat them, Ella doesn't like them very much and I grabbed only one or two when I remembered they were in the fridge. They were -about to rot- ripe so I decided to make a classic: The Strawberry Milk Shake. 

I just mixed in the blender 1 cup of milk with 10-14 strawberries and added sugar. It was delicious!

NOTE: I also spent some minutes retouching the picture to get this retro look.

I don't have the green thumb

In contrast with my mom, who surrounds herself with a garden of beautiful plants everywhere she goes, I am not able to grow anything at all. I really take good care of plants, water them and expose them to sunlight when they need it, but for some reason they don't last long. If I try to grow anything the seeds I sow never become a plant so they disappear in the soil forever.

Fortunately I found this succulent and immediately put it on the piano in a little gray pot. Succulents are water retaining plants that adapt themselves to arid climates. I guess you can say they are similar to the Cacti but I think the look much better.

An origami afternoon

Today Ella and I had an origami afternoon. We made a boat, a crane, a puppy, some kind of butterfly, a car and a heart. Of course we had to follow instructions from a book. It was a lot of fun!

My favorite was the heart and Ella's favorite was the puppy, and the car and the butterfly... well, all of them.

Our public parks

We just love to visit the public parks of the County. There are so many things we can do there, not only celebrate birthdays or play sports but they are also great for spending family time. We like to go and take pictures too. Here are some pictures we took in the Edward Medard Park.

This is a very beautiful water view.

Of course, we always have to take pictures of Ella!

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For my friends who reside in the area, here is a link with the park information.

A card for Ella

Now that Ella knows how to read I thought it would be a good idea to make her a card. And what a better cover than a drawing of her favorite doll, who was a gift from her auntie Laura.

I wrote in a way that she could understand everything clearly and she was able to read it!

 We are so proud of her.

Project curtains... Done!

The curtains are done and already hanging from the rod. This is one of the projects I'm most proud of because is the first time I make curtains! Having succeeded in this project, I feel ready to learn how to sew other things.

This turned out to be a very easy and fast project and I think our bedroom looks better now with the curtains!

An emblem for this little family

I have been working in front of the computer for a long time today and while waiting for an email reply I started playing around with the design program (Illustrator). I ended up making this emblem for us three and I kind of like it. Is something that we could use later for a print, or cards or anything else that we want to put our stamp on. 

Reporting for duty

Today I just wanted to say hi to you my friends. It's been a tough week since we have been busy with some freelance work but is all good, soon we will be posting some new stuff! In the meantime, here is a teaser picture of what's coming up and what I did on Sunday with the help of my mother in law. Yep, I'm learning another new thing!

I'm machine sewing!!!!

Some kind of Caprese sandwich

You guys all must know by now that I'm a terrible cook. I always mention it to people so they are aware before they taste something I make. I'm trying to master the culinary arts by experimenting. Today I made some kind of Caprese Grilled Sandwich with a terrible technique but I think that it worked at the end. 



My "Caprese strange but tasted good" sandwich.



First I worked the tomatoes: Diced them and mixed them with olive oil, white vinegar, onions, salt, basil, oregano and a little bit of garlic. Then, (this is probably not the right way) I used a two slice toaster to give the bread a little bit of color and make it crunchy.  Next put in the sandwich the slices of mozzarella cheese (I only had Gouda this time), the tomatoes and a lot of basil. Put in the oven or in the microwave for a couple of seconds to melt the cheese. And enjoy... It actually tastes good, and I made it up!