PIF, Gift and Swap/Trade

It feels great to be able to find the time to post, YEAH!!! and since I do not want to jinx my lucky streak I will say no more about it and continue with this post – LOL!!!

Some months ago I was one of the lucky chosen for a PIF at http://thecontentedquilter.blogspot.com and this weekend I received a fantastic parcel all the way from the UK! Here is what I got from Caroline:

This is a beautiful quilted (with applique) table runner in beautiful fall colors, unfortunately my camera is acting up and this photo is not doing it any justice.

I also got this fat quarter of Christmas fabric  in lovely colors – Thank you Caroline, I love my goodies!

Some of you faithful readers are on my list of PIF recipients and I am trying very hard to have your parcels ready to mail in early January, once the holiday mad rush is over.

The following book was sent to me by Kim from http://thebodhichicklet.blogspot.com and I cannot stop reading it! Thank you very much Kim! It is a “Just Because” gift and I appreciate it very much – you are very generous Kim! This book is full of inspiration and I want MORE time to try my hand at some of the projects featured in the book, whenever I do I will make sure to blog about it and mention the source

Since I claim to be SO busy I’ve only had time to work on these ATCs and Inchies for swap-bot, but something is better than nothing so I am happy!

On the subject of Swaps, I am wondering if I could do a swap or trade with anyone out there… I need some of that silver material (fabric like) used on ironing board covers and such, that supposedly can withstand high temperatures. I read somewhere that it is a good idea to use it inside potholders, and I would like to make some as Christmas gifts, SOOOOO if anybody fancies anything from Mexico in exchange for a few yards of that material – we do not have it here in Mexico – which by the way you do not have to send all the way over here; my brother’s girlfriend lives in Columbus, Oh and she will be coming the first week of December, so the material can be mailed to her address and she can bring it and then I can give her whatever it is you fancy from here and she can mail it for me from the US – asuming someone from the US wants to swap, LOL! If I get a “volunteer” from another country then yes, we both will have to ship internationally…

Well, that’s all for now. Enjoy your week and I look forward to reading your comments! ~

Day of the Dead

Today is a special holiday here in Mexico, I did not go to work and there was no school. We went to the cementery this morning for Mass and to bring Coronas – paper flower wreaths – to those who have departed before us.

I have been kicking myself all day long because I forgot my camera! Arrgghhhhhhh! I wanted to share with you photos of the different stands outside the cementery. They were selling fresh flowers, coronas, candles, food, Pan de Muerto – a special bread made on this day – all the stands were very colorful.

Inside the cementery there were people for hire to clean/paint the tombstones, musicians who could be hired by the song to play at your family’s tombstone the favorite songs of the departed. Actually, while we were saying the Rosary at my grandparents grave, the family next to them had a quartet playing some old fashioned songs – no doubt favorite songs of the departed.

It is festive and sad at the same time. Other families where eating some of the favorite foods of their loved ones and others spent the whole day there visiting with family members. We are planning on bringing tamales next year to eat there  – my maternal grandparents loved eating them! My mom has been wanting to do this for many years and next year might be the one. My father and my paternal grandparents are also buried at that cementery so we brought them coronas as well and prayed at their graves. Next year there WILL be photos, I promise.

On Friday there was a Day of the Dead festival at the school were I work. Three years ago I was a full time teacher there and I took Renata to the festival, and this Friday we went again and it was a lot of fun. There were performances by the students and singing and food and games. Here are some photos:

This was taken three years ago, Renata was only 19 months old!

And here we are now! Wow, time is going by fast…

Have a fantastic week! I hope to be back soon with some creations ~

Unconscious Mutterings

Since my Different Randomness blog is not working – for some unknown reason I cannot post – and today I have the time to do a challenge, I will post it here.

I say … and you think … ?

1. Hairbrush ::  Ponytails
2. Sneak ::  Peak
3. Hole ::  in the wall
4. Horror ::  Story
5. Standard ::  procedure
6. Mailbox :: Letters
7. Attachment :: Photos
8. Type ::  Blood
9. Nails :: Manicure
10. Storage :: Moving

If you wish to participate please go to http://subliminal.lunanina.com/ Week 353

Enjoy!~

 

Happy Halloween!

I know it was yesterday but never mind My Princess really wanted to celebrate this American holiday; last year we went to the American School and she had a great time so this year she wanted to go again, however, we were asked to go to trick or treating to the boardwalk with some other people and my little one agreed to change plans so we went.

The evening started with a dog parade by the beach, as you can see in the photos below some dog owners got their pets into the spirit!

And you would think this was our pet but no,  just coincidence! LOL!

My Baby last year as a witch…

And this year as herself! LOL!

I hope you had a funtastic halloween! Enjoy the rest of your weekend ~

I want…

… to walk without sweating…

… to bask on sunrays rather than shield myself from them…

… to dig out clothes/linens from the bottom of the drawer and KNOW they will NOT smell (heavily) of humidity…

… to walk past the bookcase and NOT smell mildew from my treasured books…

… to rest assured that if I don’t do laundry within a week’s time the clothes in the hampler WONT start growing “hair”…

… to be able to leave bread/tortillas out of the fridge without fear of them growing mold…

… to wear my hair down without feeling overwhelmed by the lack of air around my neck…

… summer to last less than six months…

… my daughter to walk on fallen leaves, to see trees turning, to enjoy a fire in a fireplace, to catch snowflakes with her tongue, to make snow angels, to have a white Christmas…

One of these days??? I hope that day gets here soon! – LOL!!!

TGIF ~

Coincidence or destiny?…

I cannot believe how long I’ve been away… it feels like ages! I have missed posting, it is a great outlet for me and hope I find the time to do at least one post during the week and another on the weekends.

Teaching ESL is very rewarding, especially because of the love I get from the little ones, however is A LOT of work! The school I am working at is a family run private school. They put a lot of emphasis on being eco friendly/educated so I guess it is a GREEN school. They have a small farm, recycling is standard, there is a compost going at all times and once a week students bring stuff for it from home. Art is also a big priorityas well as celebrating all Mexican holidays and traditions. It is a bilingual school so most US holidays are also noted.

The thing here is that the owner/principal is EXTREMELLY strict with the teachers and very demanding – in all aspects. I learned a lot during the two school years I taught there – a few years back – and now one Saturday a month the faculty gets together from 8-11am to discuss all sorts of things and I am sure there is also training involved.

There is an English coordinator, however, the principal checks everybody’s class plans every week! We have to turn it in on a Thursday for the following week and I get it the next Monday morning. It IS a detailed plan for every single activity, every single day. Listing competencies, materials to be used, book pages, song lyrics, etc.

Even though I only work there two hours a day I spend a lot of time planning my classes and when I finish at 10:15am I rush to my other job (the part time one at the Condominium) and finish at 4pm. By the time I get Renata we get home around 4:30pm. I get up everyday between 5:30-5:45am to prepare our lunches, get ready, fix and eat breakfast, etc.

Before this teaching job came about, I had signed up for a sewing class and prepaid it to force myself to carve a little ME time… the lady organizing it kept on postponing the starting date and wouldn’t you know? The week I started teaching the course started as well!!!

Soooo I have been getting home around 4:30pm and sewing class is from 5-7pm Mon, Wed and Fri!!! Can you say exhausted!!! That is the reason of this post’s title, for ages I’ve been wanting to take a sewing class and I finally sign up for one and I end up working all day, everyday and by the time I get to class I am ready for bed! Is it coincidence that all things come at the same time? Or destiny?

Last week we learned basic hand stitches and now we are practicing basic pattern making: blouse, skirt, necklines and sleeves… it is all very exciting, I can’t wait to start making clothes! I just have a question: Why does everything happen at once???? LOL!!!

Now you know why I don’t seem to find the time to blog, let alone blog hop! The holidays are coming and I WANT to craft and make cute things to give, keep and decorate with… the question is when?! On the weekends I try to catch up on housework, grocery shopping and school work but I do want to make time for creating some goodies which I hope to share here with you.

I will do my very best to post more frequently – it does my soul lots of good!!! I hope I can also manage to visit your blogs soon and see what you’ve been up to. Please leave me a comment if you stop by so I know you came to visit!

Hugs,

Big Difference

Helloooo!!! How are you doing? What have you been up to? I have been working and melting… yes, it is still unbearably hot… But on to other things:

I took the part time teaching job at a private school so I now teach kinder II – children the same age as Renata – for two hours from Monday to Friday and I start at my other job two hours later. Renata is still in the process of getting used to the change in schedule and so am I!!! LOL!!!

I am exhausted everyday, starving by the time I get home and since I never thought I would teach again I got rid of all my books, files with activity ideas, decorations for the classroom, etc. So everyday when I get home I get to work on some of the many pendings I have for school and posting here gets neglected but I do think of you!

Needless to say my crafting/creating is also not happening and the online challenges I so much enjoy cannot be done as I am still unable to post in blogger - Kim I have to email you my pastword so you get in to take a look , please!

I am very thankful for the two part time jobs; yes, it is exhausting because I have to rely on public transportation as I don’t have a car. However, just knowing I should be able to pay off some outstanding bills and being able to buy for Renata’s allergy medication – among other things – gives me the strength I need to get up every morning and keep going all  day.

May things go the way you want and need them to go, thank you for taking the time to stop by and check on us, I really appreciate it! I will be back as soon as I can and maybe one of these days I will have photos of my classroom

Abrazos ~

Help!!!

I hope you are having a good week. I have been terribly busy, however, tomorrow is FRIDAY! YEAH! Now, onto my plea for help: I do not know what to do about my blog with blogspot, I have not been able to post anything! The other day I edited my last post and since then I keep on getting that page when I hit NEW POST! It does not have the option to upload photos or anything of that sort and I have tried resetting everything and I still get that page.

It bothers me even more because I was on a roll! I started to create little pieces of art again and there I was trying to participate with a I made and couldn’t! Very frustrating! If any of you have any idea of what might be happening there please help me! Thank you in advance

Last week I was offered a part time teaching position (2 hrs. everyday) at a private school I used to work for a few years ago. It is very tempting as money has been very tight for several months now and it would really help me, however, since I do not have a car it might be a bit tricky. I spoke to my boss and she agreed to move my schedule two hours later, so instead of me starting work at 9am I will start at 11am and that means I will be working until 4pm instead of 2pm… two hours don’t seem like much except the school is at the opposite end of my current job… I hope it works out even if it is from now until the end of the year. Tomorrow will be practice day for the logistics of it and Monday I will start.

Renata is NOT happy about having to stay at day care but I explained to her that I really need to do this and it won’t be for long – she hugged me and told me she loved me and started to cry… I guess she feels bad about giving me a hard time as she is starting to realize I work hard – most of the time, LOL!

If I am not too tired tomorrow when I finally get home I will post and let you know how it went, otherwise I will do it during the weekend. Thank you for stopping by!

Hugs ~

Slowly but surely

I hope you had a great weekend! Ours was nice. Relaxing on Saturday – in spite of the cleaning I had to do – and lots of fun yesterday as we attended a family brunch. The only thing is that for the second Sunday in a row I forgot to take my my camera with me and this will be another photoless post – BORING!

The title for this post has to do with my creativity, it seems to be coming back! Yesss! I spent the whole afternoon creating and time flew! I participated in some challenges and posted my bits of art in my other blog http://www.differentrandomness.blogspot.com

I do not know if my taste is changing or if I was overly careful with my choices but all three pieces are a bit on the simple/plain side… I like them but they are kind of unlike me… whatever that means! LOL!!!

Sorry this is so short but Renata wants me to take her upstairs to see my Mom so I gotta run! Have a fantastic week and I hope to be back soon with a post that includes some photos

Besos ~

Grown-up Conversations ~

R: Mami, do you get married first and then have babies?

S: Well… yes, however, it does not always happen that way!

R: Did you marry Papi?

S: No… but we lived together for a bit before and after you were born! (Put on a happy face but tears start tickling my eyes)

R: Hmmm (Thinking really hard…)

S: But maybe one of these days I WILL get married… (Tears start pooling in eyes)

R: No, now you will not be able to get married! (Sad faced)

S: Why not?

R: Because now you have me… (Very sad face)

S: Oh, but there are some good men out there who marry women who have children (Had to turn as tears are now running down my face)

R: Really! And will I have two Papis then? (Excited/hopeful looking face)

S: Yes Rennie, you will (Could hardly talk, had to hug her to hide teary face)

I do not know why this came up, maybe she overheard someone having a conversation along this lines somewhere – I just cannot imagine where – maybe she misses her father so bad and is tired of asking when he will come and see her, maybe she just wants someone else to love her like a father, I don’t know… What SHE does not know is that I pray for God to send us a good man who really loves us both, however, if nobody wants me because of her, then I shall remain single/alone for the rest of my life!

Te amo Princesa ~