Happy Birthday, Margret Atwood!

King Charles River, 1963

Happy Birthday to a favourite Author and fellow Lady Scorpio!!!!!

I just love Margret Atwood's writings. I get lost in her novels like no others, the more I read the more entranced I become by her words. I've never read more complex thoughtful insightful stories. She's a living legend and her body of work is beyond impressive; an inspiration of all time.

I've read these:

The Edible Woman*

Handmaiden's Tale

Oryx & Crake

Cat's Eye*

The Blind Assasin*

The Year of the Flood*

Robber's Bride*

Moral Disorder

*I have these books here with me on my bookshelf.

Happy All Saint's Day!

Greetings from Guatemala on All Saint's Day (Dia de Todosantos)!!! We'll be in the cemetary today for sure. This is a special day here. Families gather in cemetaries; they clean and decorate their family/loved ones graves and picnic there all day. The traditional dish of the day is a funky mix of up to 50 ingredients called, Fiambre. Flying kites is a popular past-time on this day; creating a link between life on earth and the lives of those that have passed to the other side. This will be our 2nd year participating in the tradition. =)


These giant handmade kites are just amazing.

Fiambre. Putting a 'blue flower' on top is super popular fancy!
We've yet to have the pleasure of sampling some local Fiambre.

(Already walking around today more cars than not that have gone by me have someone with a big ol' dish of 
 Fiambre in their lap! It's kind of awesome! )

mexican jumping beans!!

Those three cute little things that look like tiny mummified wooden owls are MEXICAN JUMPING BEANS!!! My boyfriend saw a gal with a box lid of them jumping all around for joy on the street in the market. He knew I would love them and thoughtfully got these for me (3 for Q7).

They do indeed jump all around! It's so much fun to watch the little squirrely things. They aren't beans at all, they are seed pods that have a larvae living in them, supposedly they 'jump'

because the lil larvae is rolling over looking for a cooler place. That's the only reason for them 'jumping' that I can find online as of yet. And I'm sorry but, I'm not buying it! It's cold where I am and those critters can't be hot!

Aren't they cute? (That little clay house is currently one of my favourite things.)

LOOK!! I caught one in action jumping !!

i love my dog skull!

Bird's eye view of Xela; the line is the road between Llanos del Pinal & Xela.

Two of my homies/lovies on top of Santa Maria!

Zach & Marcel

Santiaguito...erupts about every 20 minutes!

Zach and Marcel went on a dude hike up Volcan Santa Maria and they brought me a really super cool present. They found an old dog skull up on the side of the Volcan and carefully brought it to me!! It's a favourite prized possesion!!!

Going into the Basket Business!

After yet another hiatus, I am jumping back into blogging and etsying. My main motivation? Amazing Guatemalan baskets!! I have been thinking about doing this for well over a year and it's finally high time! Yesterday we traveled to a nearby town where they are made. We wanted to go straight to the source and we did. We found the main basket making family and they were thrilled we were buying a whole bunch of their baskets to sell online. They wished us much luck and hoped to see us back again really soon.

I have big plans for selling these baskets. I hope to get them in some shops around the States and sell them like hot cakes on etsy. Check out the store: http://www.etsy.tipico.com/

This is Basket Queen, Carmen Alicia (she loved that our names were similar). She made me promise to bring her a photograph and I will....I am going to give her one of just her and her baskets but, I am going to frame the one (below) of her and her husband for them!

These baskets are incredible. They have endless uses and are super sturdy! They can really take a lot of harsh use with no sign of wear! I've had some for over a year that I use for all of my heavy market shopping and they look as good as new!

***UPDATE***
We now work with and alongside several families making and selling baskets on etsy in the tipico store. This enables the basket makers (which are all indigenous Maya) to earn more than they are used to. Awesome!

Terrell, A Happy Fish.

This is my Siamese Fighting Fish, Terrell. I bought him for my desk at work and never took him there. I fell in love with him and come Monday there was no way I was going to take my lovey Terrell to that lame arsed office!!!

I named him after my Great Grandfather. I know he's just a fish but, I had to use that name sometime, it's just too great of a name not to!

Terrell has become quiet the social little fish. He does mad jumping flips when I feed him. Overall, he's a total delight!

mushrooms!!

I have always loved mushrooms! They are tasty little morsels! I think they are better than any meat in the world....they are so wonderfully fleshy!

While shopping at my new nearby Asian Grocery I found these 'King Oyster' mushrooms. They are amazingly large!!!!!!

I sliced them up and sauted them with baby green bok choy, fresh garlic and sesame oil. Yum!

Industrial Living Part 3-The Kitchen

I call it a kitchen.

It's not home until the Fiestaware

is out and ready for use. I've

cooked a few meals in my

new kitchenso far. Each meal

helps me fine tune the setup.

So far so good! Each meal

has been fun and delicious!

Today for lunch I cooked organic spinach in the wok with little baby tomatoes along with: fresh garlic, onions and sesame oil. It was delicious served over Basmati rice.

I got to wash the spinach outside in the sunshine!

I truly love having a partial outdoor kitchen!

Super happy to have time to juice as often as I like!! Today we had carrot and beet juice.

After we drank our juice I filled our glasses up with water to make use of every last drop of juice. As a result our water had the most beautiful colour to it. This picture shows how nicely the daylight is diffused in our warehouse home.

i love you. i love you too.

I am the first one out of the house in the mornings and I get a big kick out of leaving little notes and stuff for my Boo. Last week I was in a hurry & jotted those 3 little famous words on the papertowels...

......and this is what I came home to! So cute and we used the papertowel so, really, it was a very eco friendly notepad after all.

my very own little pila from guate.

I just plain fell head over heels in love with the pilas in Guatemala! We found this little clay pila in Santiago on Lake Atilian and it's the only time we saw them at all. I am so happy I acquired it! I use it by my kitchen sink to hold my rings while washing dishes. Super cute!!!

Meg of Nest's Nest.

Just a super quick peak at one wall in Meg's more than delightful home!

I had the pleasure of visiting with the Coles the beginning of Dec. It's always fun to see what Meg has done with their Nest, I don't think things stay the same very much in that household (as far as decor goes...it's eye candy galoure!) This wall was above their dining room table. It is simple as can be but, freaking great!!! Just love it!

Sunny Park Day in Seattle

If you look very closely, across the pond to the right up near the tree line you can see a wooden sign thingy. Well, we had the bright idea to take a 'timer' photo of us. Todd was put on duty!

Below is our first attempt and the 2nd photo is our successful one! (Erin and I counted down the 10 seconds out loud! I love how chill hanging out we look!!!)

What a perfect park day!! 

And they say it's always crappy & overcast in Seattle. Pssshaw!

John is loved...even at the corner bodega!

John, is in another food groove! He'll pick one thing and eat the mess out of it for a long time until he moves onto his next food trend!

As of late, his favourite food of choice is biscuits & gravy from the corner store here in our neighborhood, (I'm stuck on calling it a bodega! Their speciality is Cuban sandwiches.) Forest Hills. The crew working there says, 'I know which one you are', most days when he calls in his order. Funny! Look what they wrote on his breakfast container today!!! He's loved!

tokens of your love

I don't know if you celebrate Valentine's Day. If you do and have a lovey (or loveys!!) in your life that you want to give a 'token of your love' to here are a few gift ideas from etsy. ... .that are all super sweet and just perf!

LOVE this wall decal from: tasty suite!!

poodlebreath

I can't express enough how much I LOVE the stuffs in this store!

(if any one so feels compelled to send me a gift, please let it be this!)

This delicious apple stationary set and lovey bear pin are both from Scatter Box Originals.

Who wouldn't love to get this polar bear with a balloon??

He can be found at Pearson Maron's etsy shop.

Who ever gets this would think of you every time the coze up in this scarflette!

It's in the super cute etsy shop: knitXcorE!!!

This print is so sweet, it will make anyone feel super loved!!!!

I wish they made it in a huge poster size, wouldn't that be the most?

Find this print and a whole bunch of other rad ones at:

ara133photography.

Ciao, I hope you have a lovely day no matter where you are, who you are with or what you do!

always in love

driving home today through st. petersburg i spotted this building. looks like it used to be a gas station?

well, i am plain in love with it. 

and would LOVE LOVE LOVE to make it a home.

honestly

i think this frequently:

i love you, awesome.

i really love this gal's blog: ELINKAN

i love you, awesome.