Happy New Year!

And thank you for your friendship, those who are near and those that are far.  Hope 2012 will hold lots of love and more of all that was good in the years leading up to it.  How did you celebrate?  I celebrated with family again.  Nothing too exciting, but I like being around my loved ones to hug and kiss right when the clock strikes midnight.  Also, there were a series of new year rituals to be kept... red underwear, toast with champagne and 12 grapes for luck!  New Year's are a lot of work for the superstitious obsessive types. *besos*

PS. This year I resolve to learn proper French! Wish me luck, oui.

- Photo by Irving Klaw -

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JingleAlltheWay

A few Holiday Pinterest's...

Little Tree by Inslee

Penrhos school girls skating on the frozen Canal Pond during their
occupation of Chatsworth House in the Second World War (via SomeHowl)

Bulb Wreath by Georgia Peachez

Vintage Christmas via Designsperation

Stained Glass Cookies by Dreemkäggs

Janine Niepce | The Little Skater, Paris, 1954

Blue Glitter & Suede Platform | UrbanOutfitters

Cookie Cutter Fudge by Betty Crocker

Ready for Snow via TampaxSuperstar



Lastly, a Lecube Christmas song for the Holiday's.
It's a great song. Has just the right amount of sweet melancholy
and there's even some jingle bells towards the end...
Hope you're having a nice Holiday season! ♥

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On the subject of Christmas Music

Had Halloween in mind and was set to scare and then She & Him announced the release and free download of The Christmas Waltz. The song is off their new scheduled to be released at the end of the month A Very She & Him Christmas and it's a lovely Christmas song... can't wait for the album. Did I mention it's a free download? Free is almost always good.

Thank you to Pitchfork.

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Christmas

George who decided to wrap himself up as a gift this year...





Rain that stopped just in time for the Holiday



The tamales we made for dinner




Tiny poinsettia that's grown out of gorgeous control



To little piano playing mouse ornaments...



♥♡♥ Wishing you and yours a very HAPPY one mis amores! ♥♡♥

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Love and Lust

Above, dtla street art and below a tiny heart sent to me by
my friend Anna of MuchLove... you're amazing Anna, Thank you! ♥



Celebrating my friend Scott's birthday with chocolate mousse, he's 32 now.



We went to buy our tree and it felt like Christmas.



Prosciutto panini from Portofino's.



Cupcake Love



Hasn't stopped raining since Friday and not complaining, but
it definitely doesn't feel natural here in Los Angeles...



Lastly, have you seen the trailer to the film Simon Werner a Disparu? Soundtrack is by Sonic Youth and sounds great from the bits heard on the trailers. Cd is set to be released on February 15th and the digital download is being released on January 25th through Midheaven.com. Can't wait to hear and see!



Hope you're having a good week... ♥

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Happy New Year!

Just wanted to send you a quick note of thank you for your friendship, some near and some far, and for the sweet and honest support that you give. I'm not going to bother listing my resolutions, since I'm probably going to end up breaking them. But I do want to tell you what I hope the New Year'll hold for us... lots of love (of course) and Blessings and definitely more of all that was good in 2009 and the years that led up to it. How did you celebrate? I'm celebrating with family, nothing very exciting but I like being around my loved ones (to hug and kiss) right at the start of the New Year... Also, there's a series of midnight rituals involved that I need to get ready for, one involves red underwear (must be wearing red undies at midnight for luck) that I still have to buy! New Years Eve is a lot of work for the slightly irrational and highly superstitious... *bises*

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A happy one...

(I ♥ miniatures)



Hope you've had a beautiful holiday and sending wishes for a wonderful last week of the year!

(Also a few favorites from home... ♥)



(Birds in tree)



From my dear and talented friend Diana♥ of our.city.lights. I adore the Day of the Dead theme and her gorgeous use of color:



Thank you so much again Diana♥! George loved his toys... he tired himself out after the extreme cardio of chasing them around the house.


♥♡♥♡♥♡♥

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Holiday Favorites, Apologies and Blizzards

Often, when I act badly my general tactic is to act like nothing's happened. It's so bad isn't it? Not to offend any of the guys out there, but that's sort of a guy thing isn't it? It sometimes works, but not always. If the degree of my badness is big enough for me to not be able to hide from it I'm forced (out of shame) to apologize. Which is what I'm doing here today. I'm sorry. I've been a HUGE flake. And though I can offer an array of excuses the truth boils down to me being bad at managing my time and unable to properly think when under stress. Stress isn't my friend. But things have gotten considerably better this week. I'm officially on vacation for the next two weeks and almost done with my Christmas shopping... just three things left on the list, very last minute but sadly this is good for me. Does anyone know of a patron saint for flakes? ♥



Also, this last week I had the extreme honor of guest posting for my dear friend Diana♥ of our.city.lights. The topic was one of my favorite films for the Holiday's... visit today!



Source of these Flickr favorites by order of appearance:
Baby It's Cold Outside by Boopsie Daisey, Pages ready for Christmas by Our.City.Lights, The Christmas Tree Book: Wrapping Presents by Wardomatic and Miniature Gingerbread House by Shay Aaron.



Hope you're having a lovely week!
Happy that Christmas is a coming...♥

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Kings Bread

Today we celebrated el dia de los Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day or the Feast of the Epiphany) with a Rosca de Reyes, a ring shaped bread with a small plastic doll baked inside which is supposed to represent the baby Jesus.

'The day (January 6th) commemorates the Three Wise Men who followed the star to Bethlehem, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. They travel to Bethlehem, and along the way encounter King Herod, whom they tell of the birth of the new King. Herod orders them to find the baby and return to tell him where the Messiah can be found so that he may pay homage. But after being warned by God in a dream that they shouldn’t return to Herod because he plans to kill the baby, the Three Kings instead return to their own countries another way. The doll in the bread symbolizes the hiding of the infant from King Herod and according to tradition whoever finds the doll in their slice of bread must give a party on February 2nd, el Dia de la Candelaria.'

Sadly we didn’t find one in ours! There was one slice left that we saved for an uncle who wasn’t able to attend because he was working. We’re hoping it’s in his slice, but we have to wait now till tomorrow to find out...



Sexy George on the couch wasn’t into the Rosca



The downtown skyline when I left work



Last holiday post till December... promise! :)

Kings Bread Update:

Sad to report that we never found the baby doll. We're hoping it just didn't get put in there by the baker and that it wasn't accidently eaten by one of us. :) Also found some more information on the Kings Bread/Cake custom for all my blogger friends who have similar traditions:

'The King Cake tradition is believed to have begun with French settlers around 1870, who were themselves continuing a custom which dated back to Twelfth Century France, when a similar cake was used to celebrate the coming of the Magi twelve days after Christmas bearing gifts for the Christ Child. This celebration was also once known as King's Day. As a symbol of this Holy Day, a tiny plastic baby (symbolic of the baby Jesus) is placed inside each King Cake but in times gone past, the hidden items were usually coins, beans, pecans or peas. Today, the cakes are baked in many shapes but originally, they were round to portray the circular route take by the Magi in order to confuse King Herod, whose army was attempting to follow the Wise Men so that the Christ Child could be killed. The origin of the modern King Cake can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when popular devotion during Christmas turned to the Three Wise Men.'

(More information can be found *Here*)

Isn't it great that it's travelled so far and so long? 'It gives one a feeling of solidarity, almost of continuity with the past…'

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Feliz Año Nuevo

Isn’t the countdown to midnight great? I always forget how much I enjoy the symbolic end to the old year and the beginning of the new until it arrives. I have to confess though that my New Year celebration isn’t really the most glamorous thing to write about. Every year (since the late 90’s) I happily spend it with family and the celebration usually entails eating, drinking (mostly tequila shots with lime throughout the evening and champagne at midnight), listening to music (with sporadic bouts of dancing and singing), sometimes playing games and generally just enjoying each others company. The majority of us are Mexican-American so the evening becomes a mixture of traditions. For instance, the game of choice is usually ‘La Lotería’, it’s a bit like bingo but instead of numbers and letters it’s played by matching people and objects. Things like ‘El Gorrito’ (the bonnet), ‘La Bota’ (the boot), ‘El Melón’ (the melon) and ‘La Sirena’ (the mermaid)…



But the food isn’t always very Mexican…



These two pretty dishes were made for the party by my culinary artist of a sister, Anna. The top are mushrooms stuffed with clams, panko bread crumbs, yellow and green bell peppers, chopped mushroom stems, red pepper flakes, olive oil and parmesan reggiano. The bottom are profiteroles with ricotta mascarpone, the recipe she used can be found *here* (so yummy).



Also, these are the earrings I made myself for the big day (red is my favorite color), it was my first attempt at oxidizing my silver and making my own hoops. I was really happy with the way they turned out!



And lastly, to celebrate the beginning of the New Year with music, I’d like to share the new video for the song ‘Ausencia de Cocina’ by Enjambre, the founding members (and the tremendously talented and handsome lead singer) are cousins of mine:



Hope your New Year is filled with many beautiful things and thank you to all the wonderful blog friends I’ve made this last year… especially the incredible Francesca (of CertainCreatures) whose fantastic giveaway started off my New Year with a lovely surprise! Thank you again Francesca, really can’t wait!

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Merry and Bright

Christmas is now just two days away and I’m feeling very much in the holiday spirit. I think a large part of that is due to all these Holiday posts I keep seeing on my favorite blogs…between Michiko’s Things of Beauty Happy Christmas post, The Asherette and her snowy puppies, Certain Creatures and her incredible Holiday Light displays, Mothersvea and her yummy cookies, My Castle in Spain and her unique olive branch chandelier, Spoonful of Mint with her dollhouse all decked out for the holidays and Celebrating my Home with her tasteful decorating ideas… I couldn’t help but get swept up this year.



So before I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years I thought I’d share some of my week in photos, beginning with the cookies my sister Anna and I made over the weekend (Well, actually more Anna than me. I sort of just assist, try to learn and do a lot of the taste testing). This was our first year making sugar cookies and we had quite a time trying to decorate them. It always looks so easy when Martha Stewart does it?







I love Peruvian Nativity Art, I bought this one at a local Church gift shop last year but you can probably buy them online from TenThousandVillages.com. They work with over 130 artisan groups in more than 38 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to bring fair trade jewelry, home décor and gifts. It’s possible that they’re out of stock now, but I’ve seen them there in the past.





While out shopping for the perfect gifts I found these adorable Japanese Beckoning Cats (‘Maneki Neko’). I’ve wanted one for some time now but when I saw all of these I couldn’t decide on which one to get, so I ended up not buying any, I had to think it over. Maybe you can help me decide by telling me which one you like the most?





Accordig to Wikipedia, these little cats are supposed to bring luck and are traditionally kept near the entrances of shops, the raised right paw is to attract money and the raised left paw is to attract customers. George raises them only when he wants to see what I’m eating and when I’m not being quick enough with his fancy feast.



…not sure what this one signifies, but George does this on the couch a lot.







So now I’m off to help in the making of the Tamales (it’s what we traditionally eat on Christmas eve).

Hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!xxoo



...what’s Christmas without the Chipmunks? :)

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