Donde esta Panchita? Hint…Somewhere Warm

It’s already month two of the Happy Homemaker Tag Along Swap hosted by the multi-talented Elizabeth…last month I introduced you to my year-long theme, “In the Kitchen with Panchita”.  I’m using a book filled with images of vintage Mexican beauties to find pictures of Panchita…This month finds Panchita in Veracruz, Mexico enjoying a well deserved vacation. You see, she spent the entire Super Bowl Sunday in her cocina making guacamole and nachos for Pancho and his football buddies. For Valentine week, he wisely decided to treat Panchita to a second honeymoon in someplace warm and sunny…this has been a bitter winter for us all and don’t we envy them in beautiful Veracruz?

This is the front of my February tag…

It incorporates an old Spanish book, my chosen scrapbook papers, a crepe paper dress, a floral embellishment, and a picture of the happy couple. Since I popped her up on the January card, I did the same with this one. Besides, it makes the skirt show better. I’ll probably trim the hem with a little glitter and I may add a crepe paper petticoat for extra dimension.  The backside uses the same paper and ephemera along with Mexican Loteria images…

La Palma, El Sol, and La Sirena seemed like a good group for a couple on La Playa. (Unfortunately, the mermaid is anatomically correct and so she needed coverage.) Of course, I’ll be playing with additional embellishment techniques all year long. The crepe paper is not in my usual bag of tricks, but I’ve taken a class with Ann-Denise Anderson, a Texas Paper Cowgirl crepe paper queen and I’m willing to play with it. Panchita’s dress is better looking “in person” than in these shots. So, there you have it…

The January tags had rounded corners, so these might have to be trimmed to match, but I sort’a like the pair mostly because I was playing with pictures of warm places!  So this month’s “outside the comfort zone was the crepe paper skirt…who knows what next month will bring?

Birds of a Feather Flock together

Last week we had a dusting of snow and I took a couple of pictures of the little bird prints in the snow along the walk.

Aren’t those just the sweetest little prints?

It looks as if they were huddled together keeping warm. The birdbaths out in the lawn were frozen solid.

So I was adding hot water to a birdbath on the patio…I had dozens and dozens of birds all morning long…guess the word was out among the flocks that food and warm water was available in our back yard.  We doubled up on our suet blocks and made sure the feeders were always full so that at least their little bird bellies were full and warm. This has been such a hard winter that we are trying to help them as much as we can…while I was out in the yard, I snapped this picture of a reclining woman statue…

I had bought her in a local artists market in Haiti…being from the warm Caribbean, she is certainly not accustomed to the cold! I’m surprised she did not crack and break during the night. Several of our stepping stones have stress  cracks and one is even broken in half! Is it any wonder that the birds gather together for warmth? Makes me cold just looking at the pictures. And today is freezing again, so while Mike is carrying sheep pellets and extra corn down into the meadow for the deer, I’ll take a kettle of hot water out to the patio birdbaths…

I love winter clothes…it’s the winter weather I hate. Happy Groundhog Day!

I love cozy winter pajamas and fleecy robes…I love wearing wooly scarves and leather gloves. I have a couple of coats that are so dang cute. And after our hot Central Texas summers, we all look forward to cooler weather. Until it actually gets here!!! Just let the temperature drop below 60 degrees, or let the weatherman start talking about wind chill numbers and the romance of winter disappears…immediately…Hubby and I just returned from the grocery store, and I’ll swear half of New Braunfels, Texas, was there stocking up for the next predicted cold front. It reminded us of the shopping frenzy that precedes the coming of a hurricane along the Gulf coast. Our version of extreme cold is the low 20’s…sure, some of our more northerly friends scoff and talk about single digits, but when the wind blows, my nose runs and my eyes tear up, and I’m ready for spring. So we long for comfort foods like mac and cheese, and soup, and chili, and stew…well, that must be a universal reaction to winter. Half the hot chocolate inventory was gone and there wasn’t a single Marie Calendar Chicken Pot Pie to be had. We were able to get the makings for stew and taco soup. But we really wanted a pot pie bubbling in the oven…don’t offer me your favorite recipe if it means another trip to the store. I’m gonna hunker down with my new super soft throw and a couple of books and wait for the spring thaw. Tomorrow is Groundhog Day and if that little critter knows what’s good for him, he better not see his shadow!

Pink Saturday Spring Cleaning “Start Slow and Taper Off”

Pink Saturday and sunshine in Central Texas!!! Yea! It’s been such a cold winter with lots of time for staying indoors drinking hot tea and working on crafts projects. One evening I needed a sewing needle so I pulled out my vintage Pink sewing basket.

Isn’t it cute? look at the detail on the top.

But not so cute inside…I had dropped it one day and it had turned over spilling everything.

What a mess! Trying to find a needle was like looking in the proverbial haystack.  So I set about restoring order. It may be only a token attempt to start Spring Cleaning, but it’s not exactly spring yet. So I decided to take Susan Branch’s advice about housework, you know, “Start slow and taper off.”    First I had to wade through dozens of spare buttons. You know the ones that are attached to new clothes when you cut the tags off.

All those buttons are now organized in the spare button box.

Look underneath that pile of buttons.  Do you see the cross stitched tablecloth ? Hubby’s grandmother made it…I have a similar version in shades of blue made by my own grandmother. I’ll bet those ladies kept their sewing boxes in better order.

Then I found a couple of little mesh bags to hold all those odds and ends. And all those loose pins and needles are safely resting in the pincushion. No more searching the haystack.

Since I have officially started Spring cleaning, I think the weatherman should join the effort be sending some spring days. I love my little Pink Sewing basket, excuse me, my tidy little pink sewing basket.

My resolution for 2011 is to live a more purposeful life. I have been doing pretty well…not 100% on every front, but so far, I have met my goal of a weekly trip to leave items in the Hospice Thrift Store (without going inside to browse). My closets are starting to look more organized and less crowded already. The bookcases will be next. And the attic. And the garage…

I have written in my new journal every night and I am enjoying the day’s reflections…nothing profound to be sure, but affirming never the less.

The walking goals are on hold because of the cold,  but as I said, start slow… Enjoy your Pink Saturday and stop in to say “Hi” to our hostess Beverly who has organized a lovely way to spend a Saturday  http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/ 

Beverly’s Featured Blogger this week is my very good friend Nancy http://www.mycraftylittlepage.blogspot.com/

She is the one who got me started with Etsy and it was she who introduced me to the world of blogging. Nancy is amazingly creative and her blog is always just what the doctor ordered. If you don’t already know her, drop in and enjoy. Every post is a treat.

Have a Pink Week.

Happy Homemaker Tag Along…

Happy New Year and Happy New Swap! I was able to slip in after the closing and join Elizabeth’s year-long tag swap! So this month’s tag had to be done in a Texas-Two Step Hurry Up! But theme has been picked and the year long plan is in place…So here goes…First, we were challenged to buy supplies only once and then use things we had on hand…I decided not to purchase new, but to use what was already in the paper drawer…it’s part of new year’s resolutions.(Yeah, for the last three or four New Years!)But this time I mean it!

Since I’ve chosen a Mexican Kitchen and “Panchita” as my Happy Homemaker, the papers are reds and greens for the Mexican flag…I’ll also be pulling from a pack of mulberry papers and a pad of card stock from Flavia in case I need some brights and some tiny tags…

“Back in the day “… late 60’s…there was a little booklet called In The Kitchen With Panchita. Panchita taught us everyday household Spanish. I thought of her immediately when I found out about the Happy Homemaker theme. I decided to do Spanish 101 with a year’s worth of possibilities to explore…the first tag features a vintage Mexican tiled kitchen with a Happy Homemaker fanning the fire in the stove.

I made an enlarged copy, cut her out, and popped her into the kitchen so she has a 3-D look.

A copy of the little booklet is popped alongside and the inside sub-title, “A Handbook For Housewives” finishes the front. Some bright Fiesta silk braid gives the tag a happy look. When you turn it over, you find this month’s Spanish lesson…

the Months Of The Year. Isn’t that a perfect lesson for Enero (January). There’s a little song to teach the months and, of course, the translation is just below.

The tags are lacking tassels and embellishments, but I need time to consider the entire year’s worth to see what I want to add. Living and shopping on the Texas-Mexican border for all my life has provided me with loads of bits and pieces that will come in handy and still keep me in Elizabeth’s plan to use what we have on hand. My tag is certainly not “over the top”,but since I came so late to the party, I’m not unhappy with it…until I start visiting everyone else’s January Happy Homemaker tags. Bet they are Amazing…I took a peek at Nancy’s last night… Yup, Amazing. One of the reasons I set this challenge for myself was to “Grow”…So let the challenge begin! I hope my December tag shows that I have done just that.