Q is for Questions.....

Haven't been here in a while... I have so many thing in my head...
I've been making and selling jewelry, I'm enjoying the weather and our town... taking zumba classes, spending wonderful afternoons at the LYS...

And I have all this questions and uncertanties about what will happen with us next year. Next scholar year.
We heard this week that MG didn't got a job on the west coast that he had applied for. He was actually kind of happy because what he really wants (and I do too) is to stay here where we are now, for another year.
We are waiting to hear if he gets a renovation of the grant he's in and, therefore, of his contract. And we should know sometime in May.

I'm questioning and wondering what will it be... where we'll be, what we will do????

We are so so so much happy here... with the place, with the people, with our activities and our life... we are so happy that we are in our best moment with ourselfs... our relationship is absolutely amazing and great and fantastic and couldn't be better and somehow, everyday gets better and better. We have never (thank God) had a bad relationship... we have had some crisis moments, little things here and there, but never been bad, apart, away from each other or not liking each other...
And right now everything is so perfect!!!!!

He is SOOOO happy in his work... I'm so happy in this place, with my friends, with the people at the LYS and the store itself... it promises so many good and great things for me if we stay!!! and he's work also promise so much development for him!!!!

I know life will do it's thing and will take us wherever we need to be.... but please, send good thoughts toward us, so life chooses to leave us here for one more year!!!!

See you soon!
S.

Crocodile Stitch Bag ---- P is for Pattern!!!!!

I'm very happy to anounce and share with you that today I can finally release the pattern I wrote for the Crocodile Bag.

I had several lovely and enthusiastic ladies from We love Lucy group at Ravelry that helped me test the pattern and made some amazing versions of the bag...

Jody's version

 Dansnanna's version

Lia's version

Sorlanna's version

 Sarah's version

You can see all the details of this ladies versions at Ravelry.

And you can also check the pattern page there at Ravelry. Here's the link to it:: Crocodile Stitch Bag.
And there's a button there to download the pattern as a PDF. I did it this way because the pattern was too long to post it directly here on the blog.

I hope you like it! and if you decide to give it a go, I'd LOVE to see a picture of it!!!!

I checked and checked the pattern and I hope that it doesn't has mistakes, but if you find some or get stuck because it's not very clear and need help or anything... please don't hessitate and contact me e-mail here

All excited, that's all for today!!!!

See you soon!
S.

O is for Oh Sweet Heaven!!!

Hellooooo guys!!!!

How are you doing today????
I'm fine, I'm happy and I have a headache!

Today I baked... a sweet, rich, heavy, moist and heavenly Chocolate Buttermilk Cake (if you follow the link it'll take you to the recipe I used).

I started early, not really... I started righ after MG left for work, at 9:30. I mixed all my ingredients and it was a huge amount of batter so actually I got 2 cakes and 6 cupcakes!!

They were out of the oven just before I had to run to my Zumba class... so they stayed cooling.
I took a cupcake just like that for my Zumba instructor, we are very good friends.

When I came back I made the Chocolate Ganache to ice the cake.

I did the cupcakes first when it was still warm and runny!!!

I added some sprinkles to the edges, and they look really cute and I think, professional!!!

I don't know if it has been the deep and rich smell and flavour in the air... the chocolaty air... but my head is pounding, and I didn't even tried the chocolate!!! (chocolate can give awful migraines)...

The cake was iced at the end of the evening, when the ganache had cooled and thickened enough!

The cake is going to MG's lab group meeting tomorrow morning... I told one of his labmates to bring some milk and cups with her because they sure will need it!!!
The cupcakes are going with me to the Yarn Store for the ladies!

And I'm off now to watch a new (I hope) episode of Grey's Anatomy! Do you like that show?? I love it!
I'll leave you with a last pic of my headachy precious treats!!!

See you soon!
S.

N is for a I NEVER imagined...

I Never imagined that following the Alphabet for the name of my posts would be so challenging... maybe that is the reason to call it a challenge, I don't know, but it has been difficult and I thought in things with the letter that have no reason to be on my blog...

Anyway... I haven't been here for some days... I've kept up to the day with my readings in blogland, but couldn't bring myself to write.

During the weekend, I was a poor version of myself. I had an awful migraine... I've had migraines since first grade and, although of course I don't like them nor enjoy them, I've learned to live with them and eventually to get used to a soft to mild headache all day, every day... That's my life... I've seen all kind of doctors and followed all sort of treatments, some more successfull than others, but in the end, the headaches come back. At least until today.

I woke up in the middle of the Friday to Saturday night with a REALLY bad headache, turned my head in the pillow and went back to sleep. I got out of bed with a mild headache, so I took a tylenol, just to help it... and nothing happened... it just got stronger and stronger with the day... very strong, very localized in the left part of my head, with a stinging and burning pain... with a lot of dizzyness and drowsyness... I took my "powerful" pill that usually works, and nothing... and then suddenly it was gone!!! I went to the movies with MG at night, and in the last 5 minutes the pain of horror started again and by the time we got home I was crying... I put some ice in a towel and applied it to my head, somehow it worked and I felt asleep...
As you can imagine, awful night!
Sunday was no different... The pain came again and MG took me to a Pharmacy clinic... after hours of waiting (because we got there just in their lunch time), a Doctor saw me and told me that she couldn't do anything else than taking my temperature and my blod pressure, and suggested that I might have an ear infection.

Monday, mild headache... I spent 3 hours at the University clinic surrounded by college students full of colds and flu...
Finally I had a consult with the nices doctor that asked me the right questions and made me feel as her only patient, as if there was no one else waiting.

Conclusion::: nothing, I'm perfectly healthy!!!! I might have allergies for all the pollen and the enviroment change from Mex to here... a couple of allergies pills for a week and that's it...
And I don't have the headache any more...

I've been making jewelry this week... I'll show it to you soon! right now we are off to have dinner and in the middle of the laundry process...

See you soon!
S.

M is for MG!!!!!!

MG is my loved Husband... I call him MG when I'm writing blogs or emails because it's shorter than his whole name, as I like to used both his first and middle name to call him. I also call him Cielito, same as he calls me, that is a "cute name" in Spanish... it's like Honey or Sweety or something like that, but the literal translation means Little Sky.

MG is 5 years older than me, and I met him 4.5 years ago. We both did our college degree in the same school and when I was studying my degree he was already in his PhD. I studied Chemical Engenieering and he is a Chemist. But curiously, we didn't met at school.

My mom has a good friend since before I was born and she and her family had existed through my whole life. I remember parties of her kids and days where we went to play at her house. And this friend happens to be MG's Aunt... Aunt C.

So around 5 years ago, Aunt C started to tell me to go to MG's lab to meet him, and I thought it was crazy to knock on the door of a lab where you don't know anyone, and ask for a guy and say "hey, I'm Shanti and your Aunt C told me to come to meet you"... it was absolutley crazy!!!! and she didn't tell him anything about me, so it was crazier! and I never did it...
Finally, in November of 2006, the son of Aunt C (MG's cousin) was getting married so she called me to invite me to the wedding and so I went, with my parents and some other friends of them that had been invited by the cousin-groom.

MG didn't want to go to the wedding, he wasn't very in-to-the-family at the moment and prefered to stay working in the lab, but somehow someone convinced him to went to the wedding...

So in the middle of the dinner, Aunt C went to my table and took me to MG's table and introduced us.

Later, MG asked me to dance... and I'll never forget what he said while we were dancing:
MG-- How old are you?
S-- I'm 24
MG-- good, I'm 29... Do you have a boyfriend?
S-- Noup
MG-- Are you seeing someone?
S-- Noup
MG-- Do you want to go out with me??
S-- uuhm... yeah, I guess...

And that was it!!! he was quick and knew what he wanted... next Monday when he got to his work at the lab again and those who knew that he didn't wanted to go to the wedding asked him how it was, he answered: I met the woman whom I'm gonna marry with.
Just like that... we started dating, pretty much that day... Our relationship was half together and half apart... after 2 month of seeing each other, he went to England for a 6 months study, and I went to visit him in the middle with my parents and my brother!!!!!!!

When he came back we were together for 7-8 months and I left to Spain for 3 months...
I came back, we were together for 3 months, got married by the Civil way (a judge), and he left!!! to the US for his first year and was there for 7 months before going back to Mexico for our Church wedding and after that I came to the US with him!!!

And here I am... 2 years ago we got married, we are in our 3rd house, in our 3rd city and have no idea of what will happen next (school) year...
But I love him, so, so, sooooo much!!!!! and I know and feel ALL the time how much he loves me...So I don't care where we end up... I hope it's Mexico though.

Now, when I was in Spain, one of Aunt's C sons, sent me this picture...

See that boy in the light blue sweater, in the front left corner....???
See that little girl in the front right corner???

Have you guessed already???

Yeap, those little kids are MG and myself!!!!! when we were 6 and 1 years old, in the Birthday party of one of Aunt's C sons.

Isn't it great???? I love that picture!!!
After that, we didn't had any contact with each other for 23 years...

See you soon!
S.

L is for.... LOTS of things...

I've reassured that I'm not very good at following a blog challenge... I've tried in the past without success and this time is the same... I'm still following the idea of a post with each alphabet letter, but I'm not good at the "everyday" part, and not because I don't have time, but so far it has become a little difficult for me to find the right word or subject to talk about with the designated letter...
I'm already behind and that just makes me feel pressure... and this is supossed to make me happy instead of suffer, so I'll continue with the letters but at my own peace...

L is for LOTS of things, because as I was thinking and thinking in a good word with L and couldn't find one that seemed right, I thought that:::

L is for Language... which is the first thing that had make difficult for me to think in the right word with a letter... I can talk and write in English, and I know it's not perfect, but I can manage to have a conversation and even to write a blog! but when I "have" to think in a word with a specific letter......... ¿¿¿¿¿?????? I get blocked and I just come up with words in Spanish!!!

L is for Lonely... as I just spent 3 wonderful weeks back home, surrounded by friends and family, doing all kinds of stuff; being back in our "little" town it's being just a bit difficult (Our town it's not a town, it's really a city, but after my big city everything looks small), I love being back with MG but he's at work all day so I need to get used again to be by myself and to not have people around all day. So yesterday I felt a bit lonely and went to the university campus to see people, and after a while I joined MG and went to his lab.

L is for Laboratory, MG's lab, where I spent the evening yesterday trying to catch up in blogland! and it was great to be there, just for being with him even when he was working and working... I sat there, crocheting on my new project and reading blogs... I could have had a hot drink to make it perfect!

L is for Love.... I love MG sooooo much!!!! it's really great to be back with him. I really missed him and it's good to notice that. And it's amazing to note and know that he missed me and that he is really really happy to have me back. All the time when we are together, he looks at me and smile, he kisses me and hugs me and I can see how happy he is for me to be here.
On Monday when I got here, he gave me a card where he wrote how much he missed me... and when we got home he had a pot of tulips and another card with a chocolate for our aniversary (that was just before I left).

It was so, so sweet!!! and extra special for me because it's the first time he has cards for me, and I've been wanting flowers for a long time...

and Last but not Least... L is for Love again... because I'm love, love, loving my new project!!!!
I'm still not sure that I love the yarn, talking about it's thickness and feeling... it is 100% cotton and it feels fresh like cotton, but it's not very soft and drapey... and I'm using a 4mm hook which it's a little small for my like... but I'm LOOOOOving the design (really simple), and I'm Totally and Completelly IN LOVE with the colors!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not very good at color combination, although I think it could be hard to have a bad combo with the colors I got because it appears like all of them work together... but anyway, I used the Stripe Generator to work the pattern... I'm in the 7th row and L O V I N G it!!!!

The colors are rich and bright and they make me feel rested and happy... it will be some sort of blanket, I think a picnic blanket or a play blanket or something like that... I'll use all the colors I bought (here's a pic so you remember)

except the light pink, black and white and the turquoise blue...
The turquoise blue is the fourth from left to right in the blues row that is kind of hide under the others. I intend to use that ball for a nice border!
The stripes will be random in color and width. It'll have stripes of 1, 2 and 3 rows... but the random thing put the first 4 colors in 2 rows stripes...
I'll go to work on it some more infront of the TV!!!

See you soon!
S.

K is for Knitting...

That I should be doing... I should be working on my red sleeveless tunic... but I'm about to start playing with my new delicious yarn in a crochet vintage stripe blanket...

I have to run, but See you soon!
S.

***** I got an Award!!!!

Deidra, from A Storybook World has been so kind to give me and Wires and Yarns this lovely award!!!

Thank you so much Deidra!

S.

J is for JOY!!!!!

I'm back home, safe and happy... blessed and LOVED in MG's arms!

I'm back with him and it's great!

See you soon!
S.

H is for Happy!

I like to be happy, I like to enjoy things just because and feel filled up with all the little details... I like to not to put my happyness in someone else, I don't like my happy state depending on someone or something, even though it can be a factor sometimes!

Some things that make me happy are:::
Being with my lovely MG, hanging out with my Mom, laugh with Grandma and have nice afternoons with my Dad or my uncle A.
Playing with my friends...
Getting a present for someone...
Dance!!!
Read a good book!
Eat ice cream...

Crochet, movies, a knitting/crochet club.... friends in blogland...
Bright colors and nice weather to use a skirt!
And being able to take the bus or public transportation to get wherever I want to go without depending on someone else!

And as "The Sound of Music" says... these are a few of my favorite things!!!

See you soon!
S.

G is for Grandma and Girls...

Grandma is 90 years old... She has dementia so she doesn't remember anything (almost) so you can have the same conversation during the whole afternoon.
Sometimes she has bad days and she's not nice then, but when she's in a good day she's really nice, happy and you get to laugh a lot with her.
My brother says that she is great as a therapist, because the rational part works perfect and she can have a whole conversation and then won't remember so she won't tell.
Something that I love is that, although she doesn't remember most things, she knows exactly that I'm married, who I'm married with and that I'm living in the US. :o)
This is Grandma!

G is for Girls because I had a really good time with the girls the other day... We had such a great time that we met at 6pm and were together till 10pm! we talk a lot, about anything and everything... and it felt great to have girl friends around...

:o) :o)
:o) :o) :o)
:o) :o) :o) :o)

See you soon!
S.

G is for...... ?

I can't think of a right word with G for my today post.

I had a wonderful morning with Mom, some shopping and a movie... then lunch with her and Grandma...

Maybe Grandma could be the word!
But I'll leave you know and I'll post about her another time... I don't feel good, I eat something (and I think it was the popcorns at the movies) that made my stomach funky... I'll go to lay down for a while...

See you soon!
Enjoy your weekend!
S.

F is for Friends and Flowers...

All my tween and teen years I had a lot of boy friends, not romantically, I mean male friends... and usually I didn't had a lot of girl friends and it wasn't odd to see me with 10 boys around and no other girl.
I wasn't a tomb-boy but I enjoyed enormously "my boys" or "the boys" as I liked to called them.
I, of course, had a crush with one of them that never got to anything because he wasn't into it... but until today we are best friends and we've known each other for 25 years... all our life if you think we are 28!!
We had several trips, speciall days, traditions, adventures, camping, hicking and more... even back packing to Europe with some of us.

A few years ago, some of the boys started to have girl friends (romantically) and I had my "empty nest crisis" fearing that they would leave the group forever for them... then I got married and to my surprise, I was the one that left to live in the USA with MG (who wasn't part of the group since we were little).

All this time that I've been away, they have continue our special days and now it's a group of boys and girls.
While we were in high school we started to have "Tuesdays" among other days, and on Tuesday we used to go to one of us house, to had lunch and spent the afternoon playing and enjoying... something we continued through college.
This days, as most of "us" work until late, they meet at night, to have dinner together and play board games...

And you can remember that I went to this week Tuesday 2 days ago...

Well, I would have never thought about it... but that day I spent a whole more time hunging out with the girls than with the boys!! and, as the boys wanted to leave because it was late and they were tired, we got our conversation interrupted, so we are having coffee together today in a little while to enjoy a girls afternoon...

I have new Friends... and I'm excited!!

See you soon!
S.

Oh! the flowers are still blooming... they don't smell but are pretty gorgeous!!!
and we counted the steams and they are only 10!!!!!!!!!!!

E is for Exquisite Excitement!!!

Do I need to say more?????????????

Yesterday I went downtown to some yarn stores I discovered in my last trip to Mexico, last October. That time, was Saturday and all the stores where packed with people, so crowded that you could barely see the yarns...
The big disadvantage of those stores is that you can't touch and feel the yarns. They are all behind a counter and there are several people there to help you, so if you don't know what you want is a bit difficult. But yesterday, there was no crowd so I could get easily to the counter and ask the vendors for yarns to touch and so.
I was immedialty attracted to this yarn with a lot of lovely and bright colors, so I asked a for skein...
It is 100% mercerized cotton, in a 100g ball. Made in Mexico. The brand is called Sinfonía.
I didn't love that it is sport weight, not even DK... and I've been using worsted for the past 2 years (at least) because of my hands pain... but this colors where so rich and vibrant and they were so many that I have to give in.

I counted 60 colors, and I asked several combinations until I was happy with this one... and I got 18 balls, all in different colors!!! and I paid $2.50 usd per ball!

I'll write the colors in Spanish and I'll try to translate to English... from left to right, and top to bottom:
First row:::
Granate / Maroon
Rosa Mexicano / Hot Pink
Coral / Coral
Mandarina / Tangerine

Second Row:::
Mango/ Mango
Verde Cítrico / Citrus Green
Olivo Intenso / Deep Olive
Verde Hoja /  Leaf Green
Amarillo intenso / Deep Yellow
Third Row:::
Agua Fuerte /Aqua
Azul Nórdico / Nordic Blue
Azul Cienzo / Cienzo Blue
Turquesa / Turquoise
Azul Rey / Royal Blue
Fourth Row:::
Morado Intenso / Deep Purple
Rosa / Pink
Negro / Black
Hueso / Bone

And I also got a set of Rainbow Crochet Hooks!

My mom asked for a set of 6 coasters in different colors, I've made one...

I still don't know what I'll make with them... so many posibilities!!!

Yaaayyyy!!!!!
See you soon!
S.

D is for Doctors...

I was out yesterday all day and it was late by the time I got home so I didn't want to post then.

D is for Doctors because yesterday I went with my mom to her doctor appointment. She is practically discharged (¿? is that the word?)... I mean she's oficially out of rest... she can walk, drive, and go out and do her life. I'm so happy and relieved.
She was 60 days out of the world. Her foot was REALLY swollen and a bit blue-green-yellow... big and red, and for that the doctor prescribed a pair of elastic socks, so we went to this fantastic store full of therapeutic and orthopedic things... but there was a cat there and mom gone crazy on fear, paralized...
Do you remember she has a cat fobia??? well, she get's really scared, scared to death, she gets in shock and it paralizes her, it's something she can't control at all... so I got a bit worried because I was afraid that if the cat came she would jump or try to run or something and hurt her ankle again!!!!!!!!!

Luckily, none of that happened...

Then I have a doctor appointment in the evening just for a check up and everything is ok.... :o)
To close the day I had a wonderful night with my friends...

By the time Mom went to bed, her foot had reduced the swolleness to half of it... the elastic sock is fantastic!!! her foot looked almost "normal" this morning...

And now I'm off to bed, so tomorrow will come the E and hopefully the F.

Good night world!!!!!!

See you soon,
S.

C is for Birthday!!!

Well... C is for Cumpleaños, that is the Spanish word for Birthday...

Today is my Mom's Birthday... she's 56 today.
The double of my age!! 28!

I'm really happy that I get to be with her... We'll have lunch at one of her friends house, whom is an aunt of MG's and she's the one who introduced us 4.5 years ago!!!

Yesterday we celebrated her at my aunt house.
I'll try to post pics later!

See you soon!
S.

Award...

I'm really excited an honored that Nicole, at Must Be Destiny has awarded we with an Stylish Blogger Award!!!

It's a really great feeling that there's people reading what I have to say, and that they like it!!!
And it amaze me that someone thinks that what I say worths an award.

I know there's TONS of fabulous blogs out there, that deserve an award... but I will direct you to a previous of my posts where I got this award and passed it to other bloggers... here!

Should I pass it again?

Here are other 7 things...

1. I am amazed of how MG is totally perfect for me in so many ways...
2. I am more neat and organized when I'm with MG because he's REALLY organized!!!
3. I love, love, LOVE being with family... I love our meals together, and how we can talk all at the same time and follow each conversation.
4. I'm really happy living in the US, but I dream about the day when we can come back to Mexico to grow our family surrounded by familly.
5. I have suffered from migraines since I was 6.
6. I prefer a warm weather than a cold one... and I LOVE to use skirts and dresses.
7. I love, love being with my mom... we are really close and really good friends!

See you soon!
S.

B is for Book!!! a new book!

I like to read... I always have, I have several books that I like so much that I've read hundreds of times and I could keep reading and reading... a lot of them are children books, that I used to read when I was little and still today I take them out of the shelf sometimes to enjoy the stories again...

When I was in Junior High, High School and even on the University and some years later, each year during the "Semana Santa" Vacation (Holly week and Easter week) I used to go with my friends in a 2 week road trip, usually to Merida, Yucatán, in the south east part of Mexico.
They were great trips with friends of all ages, in a van full of happiness and adventures.

In one of those trips, several year ago, like 13 or 14, I've finished the book I took that time with me for the road... and one of my friends handed me a book that he had to read as "homework" for the Boy Scouts.

The book was called "The Clan of the Cave Bear", by J. M. Auel, and since I started it in that trip I couldn't let it go... I read the whole book during our trip, and I was totally hooked in the story, with the characters and the writing style of the author.
Later, I learned that the book as the first of a serie called Earth's Children and therefore, I looked for the following books, 4 by that time.

The serie is a pre-historical novel that has a girl as center character. It tells her story in Europe, in the period of co-existence between Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals.

I simply LOVE the story, the books, all of them...
I read the first 4 and waited for the 5th that came out on 2003...

And finally, last Thursday I got the final book of the saga (sadly because it's the las one) that just came out... I knew it would come out in the US and Spain, and I was hoping, praying for it to come out in Mexico too, and it did!!!! so now I have my new favorite, last book!!!

During the writing of the books, the author has made a lot of research and it's an expert in all those aspects... I love her writing style, and it took her 34 years to complet the saga!!!!!

I'm already in chapter 4 and loving it!

See you soon!
S.

A is for Amarillo!!!!

I'm sure you'll forgive me for using a word in spanish... Amarillo means Yellow... but it's the perfect name for what I want to share with you...

Two days ago, my mom had a friend came over to visit her and he brougth her flowers, I'm not sure if I can call it a bouquet, because as I understand it, a bouquet is smaller, like a wedding bouquet, but this flowers are huge, and their steams are long!!!

The flowers were all closed buttons, and within a day they all open in the most wonderful yellow shade.

This pictures are from yesterday... I think today the yellow on them is more rich, more orange-y and lovely...
They are making us really happy!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A is also for Artisans... I went to an arts and crafts show, full of nice artisan works...

 I just took 2 pictures, of a couple of stands... but it was really nice... I think I'll go again with my parents and I'll try to take more pictures...

See you soon!
S.

Blogging from A to Z...

This month I'll try to follow the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, hosted by Tossing it out blog.

I read about this at Sarah's blog, and I liked the idea... The challenge is to write a post each day with the exception of Sundays during April and these posts have to start with the correspondent letter of the Alphabet.

As I found out about it a little late, I'm posting today, Sunday, my posts for the 1st and 2nd, that is A and B...

S.