Social media logos

I needed some, so I made them! :) 

Click on this sentence to read my post and see them

Montessori Nautilus post at my new blog

I finally got to write about what keeps me busy these days, click on the image to read my post about my daughter's school, it's the best school in the world!

Hello!

I've been posting tests at the blog on my website, 

Google friends connect is now enabled and I believe poat  comments are now working as well.

I need to tweak things around some more before I can actually start blogging there because things are still a little bit strange .

I've also been included in a collaboration project by my friend Roanne Bacchus from M's Veronica's

She wrote a post about it:

The Revolution is being Handmade

I've been meaning to bring the camera to school in the mornings to share some nice things that happen there, I hope I can get around to it this or next week!

Website

I have a very kind friend who owns a server and I feel very grateful to him because he's hosting my webpage.

I've been trying to make it for about a year now, I need to figure out so many things!

I'm using wordpress, and unfortunately don't understand why the google friends connect widget doesn't work and I'm also missing other fancy gadgets that this blog has as well as all the fantastic SEO plugins that typepad comes with.

However I'm a bit bothered by so many of my pictures, comments and posts gone missing on blogger, although there's no warranty that wouldn't happen there as well, at least until I learn how to back up data and prevent it from becoming corrupted.

So, I'm not 100% ready to move my blogging attempts there, but I did start setting it up.

I've been feeling overwhelmed this week and that's a big reason why there was no blogpost this past weekend.


If you would like to test the "new" website and let me know what you think I would really appreciate it:

Artisan Of Whimsy

Xícara and a paper cutting

Today I'm writing to share a paper cut I made last Thursday and
a Portuguese group I found (through a Facebook contact) called Xícara,

I am so thrilled about them, I love their music!
I feel so happy when I listen to it.

Plus I posted their video on my facebook wall and liked their fan page and they "liked" my post and commented back and forth with me,
 plus one sent me a friend request!
So I was pretty exhilarated about it!
^u^

                                Xícara - Se Me Deixares Eu Digo

I'm also very encouraged to see that they're making music using instruments that don't seem
"too hard to find"

It somehow brings a renewed value to them, in my eyes.

Imagine the treasures you can still find in them!

It feels like finding a long forgotten box of favourite colours that you once loved .

About the paper cutting, last Thursday I found out that on Friday my oldest daughter had the day off because it was teacher's day. I'm really bad at keeping track of dates,
(even my own birthday my kids make sure I remember to buy -them- cake :p )
However my youngest did have school and I wanted to make a gift for her teachers.
(She attends the most wonderful school ever and I hope to post about it soon)
Since I found out rather late about teacher's day I only had a few hours to make a gift
so I tried to be realistic and finally set out to make 3 paper cut outs:

These are 3 letters, a G (shown backside up?) an A and an L.
I thought I would be able to make at least these three.

 I started drawing a design on the back of the G

And forgot to leave the bottom part of the G empty! :o
But I liked the flower and leaves so I left them in to see how it worked out.

He he :D Can you tell it's a "G"?
OK, here you're still looking at it from the back.

Here it's a front view, all finished up at last!
But I didn't have time to make all three of them! o.O
I hope to make time for them sometime, soon-ish, the weekend is almost over and I still have lots of cleaning and washing to do!
Hopefully I'll become adjusted to our new schedule soon because I miss blogging (and crafting! :o )
a whole bunch! :)

 This song makes me yearn for a home for us.
Its lyrics are so sad. I woke up to the sound of it feeling such sadness, the exact same one I felt when my mother passed away 3 and a half years ago.

My mom and my oldest daughter several years ago.

My daughters and I lived with her when they were both very young,
they are a little over 10 years apart, which means we came back to live with her after many years had passed.



Now we need to build our own home.

Work in progress, India Ink drawing.

I can't build us a real house,

but I can dream of how I'd like it to be! :)

"Into white" by Cat Stevens

I miss having a space where I can feel free to create.

 I would definitely have my own room and a studio.

We have many dreams and yearnings,.

My oldest and I crave living near the woods. 

We both miss the crisp and clean air and the wind surrounding us!

To have huge patches of blue sky gazing down at us from our garden.

My youngest asks me to please buy her a garden. 

I wish for the things that are found and seen in gardens,

I wish for old places that have years of history,

for spaces that appear to make no sense at first but that are beautiful and whimsical.

As a child I only wanted two things in my grown up dream house:

That it had warm yellowish-glowing windows at night, and to know that my family was behind those windows.

I feel like I'm making a home at this blog, 

recreating the sensations I had when coming to a safe creative space.

I hope I can spend more time here again.

 Since school started it's very hard for me to find time to blog or craft.

Flora

I've been drawing and colouring flowers!

They look like pretty happy flowers to me

However I somehow have managed to pair them up with a sad song, about a flower, in a way.

It's actually the lyrics that are a bit sad perhaps, but I love this song and this group and I hope you'll like them too :)

This is one of my favourite groups, their name is L'Ham De Foc and they are from Valencia, Spain.
They are unfortunately no longer together, but their records are available on line.


And here are my flowers:

They started out like little drawings. They're rather minute, like the one the song speaks about.

I painted them together because they are a set.

I tried to make them feel similar through colour.

It took me quite a while to finish them, I kept on asking them which colour they wanted certain petals to be and they kept asking for white.

And guess what? They were right about certain petals, they were white, I just had not noticed it at first :)

I've included a translation to the lyrics of this song in English and Spanish and the original lyrics in Valenciano.

The words made me sad when I first read it but I think this song is amazing.
I love the pipes and all the medieval folkloric spicy magical feeling there is to it.

A name
I had nothing to loose so I took the seed
Dry and black that he kept like gold inside a handkerchief
Still in the hope that I would find comforting


And in the soil of a planter I placed it at sundown
A crib in case it grew as the sorcerer had said
who with roots had promised me a child or two


And donkey's ear* you made me harvest, cat's claws I searched for, foxglove from the slope,  fern from an old lady (twice)


The next day came quickly and at the same time as the dew


It sprouted and bloomed with little luck
whom only came for a day, for a day or two


and in the soil of the planter I placed at sundown
a coffin in case the little flower died
I wont have time to give you
not even a name

And donkey's ear* you made me harvest, cat's claws I searched for, foxglove from the slope,  fern from an old lady (twice)

*Pear melon


For more insight about what this song speaks about I found this entry on a Spanish blog (it's in Spanish)


Un nombre
No tenía nada que perder así que cogí la semilla
Seca y negra que guardaba como oro en el pañuelo
Era todavía en la esperanza de que tendría consuelo


Y en la tierra de una maceta le puse al caer el sol
Cuna por si crecía como dijo el brujo
Que con raíces me prometía un hijo o dos


Y oreja de burro me hiciste cosechar, uña de gato busqué,
Dedalera de ladera, helecho de la vieja 


El día siguiente no se hizo esperar y al tiempo que el rocío


Brotó y floreció con poca suerte
Quien sólo venía por un día, por un día o dos


Y en la tierra de la maceta le puse al caer el sol
Un ataúd por si moría la pequeña flor
No tendré tiempo para ponerte
Ni siquiera un nombre.


Y oreja de burro me hiciste cosechar, uña de gato busqué,
Dedalera de ladera, helecho de la vieja

Encontré una entrada muy interesante en un blog español que explica ciertos aspectos de ésta canción


Original lyrics in valenciano:
Un nom

No tenia res a perdre així que agafí llavor
Seca i negra que guardava com l'or al mocador
Era encara en l'esperança de que tindria consol

I a la terra d'un cossiol li posí en caure el sol
Un bressol per si creixia com digué el bruixot
Que amb arrels em prometia un fill o dos

I orella d'ase em feres collir, ungla de gat vaig cercar,
Didalera d'aiguavessant, falaguera de la vella  

L'endemà no es feu tardar i al temps que el rou

Va brollar i va florir amb poca sort
Qui només venia per un dia, per un dia o dos

I a la terra del cossiol li posí en caure el sol
Un taüt per si moria la menuda flor
No tindré temps per posar-te
Ni tan sols un nom.

I orella d'ase em feres collir, ungla de gat vaig cercar,
Didalera d'aiguavessant, falaguera de la vella

Available in my etsy shop

Lenten Season

Last Sunday we went to "Jardin Borda" (Borda Garden)

I was looking for a friend that I needed to see and there was a lot going on.
Lots of people and celebrating.
I took pictures for those of you that like México :)

This is a view from the garden to the entrance, there's a cloister with a fountain and there were papel picado banners everywhere! This little one is a zoom into the cloister.

There was an offering at the entrance of the garden and I loved this fruit stand with handles shaped like snakes.

The offering also had candles that are decorated with flowers and leaves made with wax, I love those candles, there are some very pretty ones and I want to show you what this one looked like.

Papel picado banners over the offering

Cuexcomate

This is typical from the state of Morelos, where I live, and it's used to store grains inside it. They pour them in from the top, and the little hole at the bottom is where the grains come back out later on as needed, they close it with a corn cob, or several cobs tied together. This is a miniature, the real life size ones are much larger.

More papel picado banners over the cuexcomate

The entrance to the actual garden, 

there are several fountains everywhere and an artificial lake where you can go rowing on rented boats. 

Once I saw a wild heron standing right next to the lake, it actually stood to my right, just a couple meters away from me, it was fishing..

I'll never forget it! The heron was so tall and slender! And extremely intelligent, not afraid of us at all. 

He took some food that was floating on the water that the fish were eating and flew with it a few feet away to where the boats are kept under a roof. 

Then I understood that the fish wouldn't come out because they could see his shadow on the water!

There was no sun by the boats so he simply threw the food back into the water and out came  the fish, 

he ate a huge one! :o

These stands were around the first fountain, traditional Mexican handmade huipiles, hand embroidered.

Have you heard the song "La llorona"? This is what she wore :) 

"Hermoso huipil llevabas, llorona, que la virgen te creí"

This lady was making necklaces with seed beads

And this little girl was wearing one of them :)

This is her stand, she set it up on the fountain's border, and there's one necklace like the one the little girl is wearing!

At the last and biggest fountain they had set up a stage and there were concheros dancing, the smoke is from an incense called copal, frankincense in English.. I really like what it smells like.

The girl was speaking in Náhuatl and I wondered if she was aware that we, all, modern Mexicans have a Spanish accent when speaking Náhuatl. 

I also wondered of other native Náhuatl speakers could make out what she was saying.

When my oldest daughter was two years old she had a nanny that was a native Náhuatl speaker, her pronunciation was incredibly soft!  I hired her hoping she would teach her to speak it,

she could say "Atl" (water), and she had perfect pronunciation according to her nanny :)

My parents had some friends when I was about 13 years of age that used to be "concheros", 

I very much wanted to be one back then because I loved and admired my friends very much.

At jardin Borda there were also Chinelos which are my personal favorite, I couldn't manage to take a good picture of them

But I found a video on youtube so you could watch them:

And I also wanted to be a chinelo when I was little! :D

The band walks right behind them, as they dance down the streets. 

This is another tradition from Morelos State, although it has extended to the State of México it originated in Tlayacapan. which is famous for its ceramic pottery and its chinelo band of course!, and also because there's a chapel almost on every block. The chinelos originated there on the 19th century. 

On the days before "Cuaresma" (Lentent season) the rich hacienda owners would party away and their workers were not invited to party with them, so they would party on their own in disguise, but always got caught and punished, until they came up with this outfit to mock both the hacendados and the church.

There was a "castillo" (castle) 

which is what this wooden structure covered in fireworks is called

"Vivan los jóvenes caidos, viva la paz"

Long live the fallen youths, long live peace.
Or should it say: "may peace be long lived"?

There has been a drug war going on on this state and the son of a remarkable poet and writer got caught in the middle of this along with 3 of his friends and 3 other people;

This poet is the headman at the place where I attend choir practice.

His name is Javier Sicilia.

you may read the letter he wrote to our government and criminals by clicking on this sentence

And a dove at the very top.

Social media logos

I needed some, so I made them! :) 

Click on this sentence to read my post and see them

Montessori Nautilus post at my new blog

I finally got to write about what keeps me busy these days, click on the image to read my post about my daughter's school, it's the best school in the world!

Hello!

I've been posting tests at the blog on my website, 

Google friends connect is now enabled and I believe poat  comments are now working as well.

I need to tweak things around some more before I can actually start blogging there because things are still a little bit strange .

I've also been included in a collaboration project by my friend Roanne Bacchus from M's Veronica's

She wrote a post about it:

The Revolution is being Handmade

I've been meaning to bring the camera to school in the mornings to share some nice things that happen there, I hope I can get around to it this or next week!

Website

I have a very kind friend who owns a server and I feel very grateful to him because he's hosting my webpage.

I've been trying to make it for about a year now, I need to figure out so many things!

I'm using wordpress, and unfortunately don't understand why the google friends connect widget doesn't work and I'm also missing other fancy gadgets that this blog has as well as all the fantastic SEO plugins that typepad comes with.

However I'm a bit bothered by so many of my pictures, comments and posts gone missing on blogger, although there's no warranty that wouldn't happen there as well, at least until I learn how to back up data and prevent it from becoming corrupted.

So, I'm not 100% ready to move my blogging attempts there, but I did start setting it up.

I've been feeling overwhelmed this week and that's a big reason why there was no blogpost this past weekend.


If you would like to test the "new" website and let me know what you think I would really appreciate it:

Artisan Of Whimsy

Xícara and a paper cutting

Today I'm writing to share a paper cut I made last Thursday and
a Portuguese group I found (through a Facebook contact) called Xícara,

I am so thrilled about them, I love their music!
I feel so happy when I listen to it.

Plus I posted their video on my facebook wall and liked their fan page and they "liked" my post and commented back and forth with me,
 plus one sent me a friend request!
So I was pretty exhilarated about it!
^u^

                                Xícara - Se Me Deixares Eu Digo

I'm also very encouraged to see that they're making music using instruments that don't seem
"too hard to find"

It somehow brings a renewed value to them, in my eyes.

Imagine the treasures you can still find in them!

It feels like finding a long forgotten box of favourite colours that you once loved .

About the paper cutting, last Thursday I found out that on Friday my oldest daughter had the day off because it was teacher's day. I'm really bad at keeping track of dates,
(even my own birthday my kids make sure I remember to buy -them- cake :p )
However my youngest did have school and I wanted to make a gift for her teachers.
(She attends the most wonderful school ever and I hope to post about it soon)
Since I found out rather late about teacher's day I only had a few hours to make a gift
so I tried to be realistic and finally set out to make 3 paper cut outs:

These are 3 letters, a G (shown backside up?) an A and an L.
I thought I would be able to make at least these three.

 I started drawing a design on the back of the G

And forgot to leave the bottom part of the G empty! :o
But I liked the flower and leaves so I left them in to see how it worked out.

He he :D Can you tell it's a "G"?
OK, here you're still looking at it from the back.

Here it's a front view, all finished up at last!
But I didn't have time to make all three of them! o.O
I hope to make time for them sometime, soon-ish, the weekend is almost over and I still have lots of cleaning and washing to do!
Hopefully I'll become adjusted to our new schedule soon because I miss blogging (and crafting! :o )
a whole bunch! :)

 This song makes me yearn for a home for us.
Its lyrics are so sad. I woke up to the sound of it feeling such sadness, the exact same one I felt when my mother passed away 3 and a half years ago.

My mom and my oldest daughter several years ago.

My daughters and I lived with her when they were both very young,
they are a little over 10 years apart, which means we came back to live with her after many years had passed.



Now we need to build our own home.

Work in progress, India Ink drawing.

I can't build us a real house,

but I can dream of how I'd like it to be! :)

"Into white" by Cat Stevens

I miss having a space where I can feel free to create.

 I would definitely have my own room and a studio.

We have many dreams and yearnings,.

My oldest and I crave living near the woods. 

We both miss the crisp and clean air and the wind surrounding us!

To have huge patches of blue sky gazing down at us from our garden.

My youngest asks me to please buy her a garden. 

I wish for the things that are found and seen in gardens,

I wish for old places that have years of history,

for spaces that appear to make no sense at first but that are beautiful and whimsical.

As a child I only wanted two things in my grown up dream house:

That it had warm yellowish-glowing windows at night, and to know that my family was behind those windows.

I feel like I'm making a home at this blog, 

recreating the sensations I had when coming to a safe creative space.

I hope I can spend more time here again.

 Since school started it's very hard for me to find time to blog or craft.

Flora

I've been drawing and colouring flowers!

They look like pretty happy flowers to me

However I somehow have managed to pair them up with a sad song, about a flower, in a way.

It's actually the lyrics that are a bit sad perhaps, but I love this song and this group and I hope you'll like them too :)

This is one of my favourite groups, their name is L'Ham De Foc and they are from Valencia, Spain.
They are unfortunately no longer together, but their records are available on line.


And here are my flowers:

They started out like little drawings. They're rather minute, like the one the song speaks about.

I painted them together because they are a set.

I tried to make them feel similar through colour.

It took me quite a while to finish them, I kept on asking them which colour they wanted certain petals to be and they kept asking for white.

And guess what? They were right about certain petals, they were white, I just had not noticed it at first :)

I've included a translation to the lyrics of this song in English and Spanish and the original lyrics in Valenciano.

The words made me sad when I first read it but I think this song is amazing.
I love the pipes and all the medieval folkloric spicy magical feeling there is to it.

A name
I had nothing to loose so I took the seed
Dry and black that he kept like gold inside a handkerchief
Still in the hope that I would find comforting


And in the soil of a planter I placed it at sundown
A crib in case it grew as the sorcerer had said
who with roots had promised me a child or two


And donkey's ear* you made me harvest, cat's claws I searched for, foxglove from the slope,  fern from an old lady (twice)


The next day came quickly and at the same time as the dew


It sprouted and bloomed with little luck
whom only came for a day, for a day or two


and in the soil of the planter I placed at sundown
a coffin in case the little flower died
I wont have time to give you
not even a name

And donkey's ear* you made me harvest, cat's claws I searched for, foxglove from the slope,  fern from an old lady (twice)

*Pear melon


For more insight about what this song speaks about I found this entry on a Spanish blog (it's in Spanish)


Un nombre
No tenía nada que perder así que cogí la semilla
Seca y negra que guardaba como oro en el pañuelo
Era todavía en la esperanza de que tendría consuelo


Y en la tierra de una maceta le puse al caer el sol
Cuna por si crecía como dijo el brujo
Que con raíces me prometía un hijo o dos


Y oreja de burro me hiciste cosechar, uña de gato busqué,
Dedalera de ladera, helecho de la vieja 


El día siguiente no se hizo esperar y al tiempo que el rocío


Brotó y floreció con poca suerte
Quien sólo venía por un día, por un día o dos


Y en la tierra de la maceta le puse al caer el sol
Un ataúd por si moría la pequeña flor
No tendré tiempo para ponerte
Ni siquiera un nombre.


Y oreja de burro me hiciste cosechar, uña de gato busqué,
Dedalera de ladera, helecho de la vieja

Encontré una entrada muy interesante en un blog español que explica ciertos aspectos de ésta canción


Original lyrics in valenciano:
Un nom

No tenia res a perdre així que agafí llavor
Seca i negra que guardava com l'or al mocador
Era encara en l'esperança de que tindria consol

I a la terra d'un cossiol li posí en caure el sol
Un bressol per si creixia com digué el bruixot
Que amb arrels em prometia un fill o dos

I orella d'ase em feres collir, ungla de gat vaig cercar,
Didalera d'aiguavessant, falaguera de la vella  

L'endemà no es feu tardar i al temps que el rou

Va brollar i va florir amb poca sort
Qui només venia per un dia, per un dia o dos

I a la terra del cossiol li posí en caure el sol
Un taüt per si moria la menuda flor
No tindré temps per posar-te
Ni tan sols un nom.

I orella d'ase em feres collir, ungla de gat vaig cercar,
Didalera d'aiguavessant, falaguera de la vella

Available in my etsy shop

Lenten Season

Last Sunday we went to "Jardin Borda" (Borda Garden)

I was looking for a friend that I needed to see and there was a lot going on.
Lots of people and celebrating.
I took pictures for those of you that like México :)

This is a view from the garden to the entrance, there's a cloister with a fountain and there were papel picado banners everywhere! This little one is a zoom into the cloister.

There was an offering at the entrance of the garden and I loved this fruit stand with handles shaped like snakes.

The offering also had candles that are decorated with flowers and leaves made with wax, I love those candles, there are some very pretty ones and I want to show you what this one looked like.

Papel picado banners over the offering

Cuexcomate

This is typical from the state of Morelos, where I live, and it's used to store grains inside it. They pour them in from the top, and the little hole at the bottom is where the grains come back out later on as needed, they close it with a corn cob, or several cobs tied together. This is a miniature, the real life size ones are much larger.

More papel picado banners over the cuexcomate

The entrance to the actual garden, 

there are several fountains everywhere and an artificial lake where you can go rowing on rented boats. 

Once I saw a wild heron standing right next to the lake, it actually stood to my right, just a couple meters away from me, it was fishing..

I'll never forget it! The heron was so tall and slender! And extremely intelligent, not afraid of us at all. 

He took some food that was floating on the water that the fish were eating and flew with it a few feet away to where the boats are kept under a roof. 

Then I understood that the fish wouldn't come out because they could see his shadow on the water!

There was no sun by the boats so he simply threw the food back into the water and out came  the fish, 

he ate a huge one! :o

These stands were around the first fountain, traditional Mexican handmade huipiles, hand embroidered.

Have you heard the song "La llorona"? This is what she wore :) 

"Hermoso huipil llevabas, llorona, que la virgen te creí"

This lady was making necklaces with seed beads

And this little girl was wearing one of them :)

This is her stand, she set it up on the fountain's border, and there's one necklace like the one the little girl is wearing!

At the last and biggest fountain they had set up a stage and there were concheros dancing, the smoke is from an incense called copal, frankincense in English.. I really like what it smells like.

The girl was speaking in Náhuatl and I wondered if she was aware that we, all, modern Mexicans have a Spanish accent when speaking Náhuatl. 

I also wondered of other native Náhuatl speakers could make out what she was saying.

When my oldest daughter was two years old she had a nanny that was a native Náhuatl speaker, her pronunciation was incredibly soft!  I hired her hoping she would teach her to speak it,

she could say "Atl" (water), and she had perfect pronunciation according to her nanny :)

My parents had some friends when I was about 13 years of age that used to be "concheros", 

I very much wanted to be one back then because I loved and admired my friends very much.

At jardin Borda there were also Chinelos which are my personal favorite, I couldn't manage to take a good picture of them

But I found a video on youtube so you could watch them:

And I also wanted to be a chinelo when I was little! :D

The band walks right behind them, as they dance down the streets. 

This is another tradition from Morelos State, although it has extended to the State of México it originated in Tlayacapan. which is famous for its ceramic pottery and its chinelo band of course!, and also because there's a chapel almost on every block. The chinelos originated there on the 19th century. 

On the days before "Cuaresma" (Lentent season) the rich hacienda owners would party away and their workers were not invited to party with them, so they would party on their own in disguise, but always got caught and punished, until they came up with this outfit to mock both the hacendados and the church.

There was a "castillo" (castle) 

which is what this wooden structure covered in fireworks is called

"Vivan los jóvenes caidos, viva la paz"

Long live the fallen youths, long live peace.
Or should it say: "may peace be long lived"?

There has been a drug war going on on this state and the son of a remarkable poet and writer got caught in the middle of this along with 3 of his friends and 3 other people;

This poet is the headman at the place where I attend choir practice.

His name is Javier Sicilia.

you may read the letter he wrote to our government and criminals by clicking on this sentence

And a dove at the very top.