Our Advent Calendar

I'm very happy because this year I did finish the Advent Calendar on time, I reuse the little paper rolls tree I did last year. But this time I manage to sew all the felt ornaments and I sealed on the back too,

I think it looks like a honeycomb.I also includede little notes for family activites such as ºWe will go  to any museum you chose today", and others that just say "I love you" or "I admire you".

 

I use the ornaments as milestones or reminders of family memories. So there is one from the year he started to play piano or take chess lessons, and from birthdays too, like the year we made one themed on fruits or cars.

I hope we will have time to be together.

And I made Chocolate...

For me the fine art of making chocolate from the beans was something selected only for the initiate, but I manage to do it ans I'm so happily surprised with myself. Everybody loved it.

I was almost sure in very step of the entire process that something will be wrong, I have never had so little faith on myself, and come with such a great result.

In the end I didn't even tasted, I just offer it, and then everybody start to said mmm and get happy, you know the magic endorphins of chocolate made the trick., but it tasted really good.
 
I found the beans in Heredia's market, they were a 6 dollars for 2 pounds,

I toasted one of them, this part is very important, if you over toasted the flavor will be bitter, but if you don't toast it enough to it will make you sick (just a little stomachache, but still not good)

Then you have to peel it, my hand got a little hurt on the process.

Then I ground it on a coffee grinder adding almost the same quantity of sugar and a little of cinnamon, it wasn't the best option but what I had on hand.

After that I warm it on a pan and add a little bit of water to make the bars.

Then, you put water in a pot (traditional Mexican cocoa is on water not in milk, and it tastes really good).


The bread was not soft, but they liked any way, here is my little one helping.

As I was making it, I imagined my beautiful Mexico City, the big lines out of the bakery shops on the cold afternoon, I wish I could see that. I always bought mine at Comercial Mexicana, not because it was the best one, but I love the little figures that they place on it, ceramic and not plastic, and I had the hope of one day complete the Nativity Scene.

Merry Christmas

I hope will be a nice one for you all.

 

I decided to stay at home for Christmas and not to assist to any of the big events on my mother's or father's side of the family.

We had fish and spaguetti for dinner, this was the special request from my son, when I gave him the opportunity to choose anything for dinner. 

It was some nice quiet day and dinner by the light of the candles.

We have been playing and resting, and I create new blog, for selling used books for our Continent. It's Libro Encuentro America.

 

Yesterday we had the last craft and organic produce market Feria Verde of the year (I work there every Saturday), I made lots of stuff to sell, aromatic bags, washable menstrual pads, home made granola...

Tomorrow my little one will have one present or maybe two, and this one was for myself on my unexperienced quilting try.

I hope you all have a nice day and thank you for reading me.

Lots of Christmas sewing

I have been working on Christmas presents, eco-friendly personalized gift wrap, birthday gifts and baby to come gifts, and we are so close to Christmas that I feel I wont make it. On top of that last night I made lots of bags to organize my merchandise. I have tried different ways to carry all to the craft-produce market on which I work every Saturday, and the best option is a big suitcase, but inside, but I needed to have a bag for everything so I can find and protect things.

So here are some of them, not pretty, maybe, but functional, and to make them for me give me the chance of experimenting with shapes.

These are some of the bag that can be personalized, that were meant to be eco-friendly gift wrap, but are good for anything.

I end up using the top part of my mother's Christmas tree because I didn't had time to make my own.

I'm also using some fabric scraps to make a rug, I had to admit I got inspired by  Sew Liberated, but I had this cord from slings, so I was just trying to figure out how to use them, love the colors, which incidentally, look like Christmas.

On Saturday we helped my mother to light the tree that she and my sister plant in front of the house many years ago, when it was just a tiny branch, look how big it grew.

At last I wanted to share my birth scene made on 2003, and my tree from 2007.

And here is the Baby Jesus.

Updates

So the biscotti came out just fine, I have been eating them a lot, officially starting the eating season, I guess.

I think they are a great gift, you can just place them in a fabric bag, such as this one I made for my son to take to art class for sharing.

They are esay enough, and the recipe is here.

My son made these Christmas decorations, I love them, he was very excited and told me were they had to be.

I havent finish the Advent Calendar, and tomorow is already December 1st, does this freaks anyone besides me?

Our Advent crown reinterpretation is going well, we are working in our virtues a reflex about our progress every night, and then we lit a candle and read a poem, the same every night for a week, this certanly changes our mood.

Spanish bloggers Christmas Exchange 2009

Hello to all Spanish speaking bloggers who want to get into the Christmas exchange.

The goal will be to send the package on December the 14th.

The package must include:
1 ornament (for the tree) handmade.
1 recipe we like Christmas.
1 card-message sharing what we prefer.

They may include any extras.

Remember that the ornament can be as simple as we wish and in any material, paper, fabric, yarn, etc.. Like that the one I put in the picture is only wrapping paper cut and pasted on cardboard.

Fill the data in the form below to have your email addresses and be able to do the drawing, in a couple of days I'll send your friend information so they can agree and confirm the address, your information is not shared with anyone more.

Click here to go to the form.

Courage, and hopefully something beautiful will come out of the exchange.

I am back

If you want to see the photo click on it, at your own risk, haha.
Foot injured after 14 days

At least we will have classes again, and that makes me happy to see what will come up today.

On the other hand I'm excited because I entered the Sew Liberated Christmas exchange, have you seen the box on the right side?, I've been thinking if we could make for Spanish bloggers.

The exchange is to do:
a Christmas ornament made by hand (any technique)
Christmas recipe
and the description of a Christmas tradition in our family.

Then you send the package to your friend that could be anywhere in the world.

I really like Christmas, I've seen different types of exchanges in other blogs, so we could make our version what do you think? What we put together? Do you suggest?

We can also modify it, proposals?

I will wait for your answers to see if we can pursue, we must move quickly to have ready the packages on time, is not my intention to copy Sew Liberated, I just thought that we have no space on blogs and in Spanish, and we can take advantage of cultural diversity we have among all the latino countries and Spain, and even more Spanish speakers who live in countries with a different language.

I leave the link of the Holiday Traditions Exchange pictures here, they are very pretty.