christmas

This year it was our turn to spend Christmas with Mike's family in Philly. With 40 degree weather outside, the fire place was my favorite spot to hangout. I really like the way my in-laws decorate their house and it truly feels the Christmas there. I also enjoy the feast that my mother-in- law prepares for all of us.

So far I like that we rotate holidays every other year with our families (Thanksgiving here and Christmas there this year, next year Thanksgiving there and Christmas here). I think it's the only way to keep it fair between our families. Besides, this way Mike and I get to see the family dynamics of each family and we have a deeper understanding of the different traditions we were raised with. In the future when we start our own family we can choose what traditions we'll implement based on these experiences. 

   

a merry indie craft

This is what my table looked like at my last fair of the year. Its been a great learning experience this year being new to the fair world. I've come a long way from my first fair back in October. I now know that I want to grow a business based on screen printed tea/kitchen towels. I started the fairs with 30 towels, three different designs and I sold out at the Indie Craft Bazaar. By far the "tools of the trade" towel is the best seller. I plan on reprinting those for sure and making a series of different ones. I've also been selling handmade and upcycled jewelry made of old mac keyboards and those did very well. I also plan on getting active an etsy shop, which up to now has taken a back seat because of the fairs. I feel the fairs have given me direct interaction with my customers and I now know my target audience. All in all, this fair was a great way to end the year. 

My local readers. Come shop handmade. I really hope to see you at my last fair of the year. I have a feeling this going to be a great event. Please mention jesslope at the door. Check back Monday for details. Have a great weekend!

my godson

Welcome to the world, Matias! He was born on Saturday morning. His mom is my lovely, lovable cousin who lives in Colombia. The best part is that I'm the godmother to this beautiful baby boy. I'm so honored to be a part of this life. Despite the great distance between here and Colombia, my love for him is already huge. I can't wait to meet him and hold him in January when Mike and I go to Colombia for his baptism. I have a feeling I'll be spoiling this baby as much as I can. Look at that cute smile-just adorable. 

vanilla cookies

I just realized this is only the second time I've baked cookies this year. The beginning of the year I made chocolate crinkles. I should make more time for baking. For the cookie swap party I made vanilla cookies. I wanted to use my cookie press for the first time. Thanks to my mother-in-laws advice, I used the recipe that came with the cookie press. My first batch went to waste as I learned the how to use the cookie press. Of course, I made a mess but once I got the hang of it, I was able to flow with it. The cookie press makes cookies look lovely and time consuming (which it isn't). I added frosting from a tube I got from the market and I also added red sparkles to the cookies.

random tuesday

I'm pleased with any excuse to use my mason jars that are leftover from our wedding.



I can't stop shopping on this site. Everything is so well designed. I needed this geeky font necklace.



Right now, these are the bags I'm using for the fairs. Hand stamped all of them on both sides.



Sometimes around here compromises come in the form of carnations.

cookie swap

Last year I hosted a craft night. This year was my first time hosting a cookie swap. This was also the first time all the ladies and myself had been to one. I really enjoyed having a them come over for the afternoon; we drank wine and ate cookies. It was nice to get together with them and catch-up before the holidays. We laughed and shared our cookie experiences, some of us had to make two batches in order to get it right. All the efforts were well worth it.

I added a little competition to this cookie swap. When I invited the ladies, I made sure to mention that there would be prizes for the most creative cookie, the most creative packaging of cookies and the best tasting cookies. After we passed around each cookie, we tasted them and explained our recipes a little bit. We then voted. While I tallied the votes,  the ladies wrote down their recipes on cute little note cards that I provided so that we all got each other's recipe. Then I gave the prizes to the winners.

Overall, my cookie swap party was a success. Is anyone else doing a cookie swap this year?

random tuesday

Wellington is no vegetarian. This was his Thanksgiving dinner. The heart of that poor turkey we had. Mike's parents suggested it and I thought, why not? He loved it. It was slow cooked to add flavor to the dressing.



My sticker on Vanessa Diaz's guitar case. She had some cute looking shoes.



This is the piece that will have a new home after the silent auction. I was flying high when I saw it framed. It really dressed her up.

charity event

I'm just thrilled to be a part of this Art Basel Week Charity Event Benefiting Paws 4 You. I'm donating one of my screen-print "monkies" to the Silent Auction on Saturday. Sadly, I won't be able to be there because of the Holiday Indie Craft & Gift Show event  (where I'll be a vendor). Either way, this is so exciting for me. Look, my name is on the flyer! It's looking like a pretty busy week around here.

what thanksgiving looked like around here

My boss is right, this is the best holiday. It's a time to step back and regroup. Continue or discontinue the good or the not so good. I feel blessed with bliss to just continue this journey with family and friends.

food and wine

Last Saturday we went to a local food and wine festival. Thank God it was close to home, so we could waddle back to the apartment. It took me all of Sunday to recover from the amount of food I ate.

We got a deal on the tickets from Groupon and had a great time. I'm not sure the festival was worth the full asking price though, as it was incredibly crowded. We witnessed a handful of near physical fights between obnoxious line-cutters and some hungry, uptight people that seemed to be afraid the festival would run out of food. 

There were what seemed to be at least a few hundred local restaurants and caterers offering samples. Some of the restaurants we've been to; a few we had no idea about. Now we have a list of some places that we'll be making a point to visit. We also have a new list, a "No-Go" list. Unfortunately for some of the participants, their first impression was not a good one. And one new Italian restaurant in particular will forever be referred to in our house as the "nasty, cold, burnt ziti place". How could you set up next to some of the premier local Italian restaurants and serve something that wouldn't pass muster in a grade school cafeteria? The food from this place was so awful that we made sure to take a card from the restaurant so that we won't forget the name and accidentally stop into the place one night.

On the good side of the list, there were many candidates for our entirely subject, "best-in-show" award. I think the unanimous choice was probably the wild mushroom ceviche from the caterer, Drunken Doughnuts. Absolutely delicious! 

(wish i had taken more pictures)

doodling

This is my doodle from doodle.ly. "A social sketchpad for self-expression."  You're able to share on facebook or twitter. Brings back kindergarten memories back. Enjoy! Happy hump day.

square up

Now I'm really in business. I can except visa, mastercard, amex and discover, with square up. It's perfect for the upcoming fairs. I can slide the credit card, the customers sign on the screen and that's all folks. Square up does take a small fee but it works better than not selling because I don't take credit cards and it's cuter than paypal. Besides now I feel like a little business lady.

As seen from the picture, we are getting ready for Thanksgiving around here.

time to say goodbye

First off, I wasn't sure if I should blog about this. Then I thought, this is part of my life in progress. 

This was my aunt's Pilar funeral on 11.11.11. Even though her body was in Australia her family members in New York, Florida, and Colombia were able to view her catholic funeral mass online, as she had requested. 

I realize that death is part of life. In moments like this I can't help but feel hopeless. This is so out of anyone's control. I can't stand to see the pain that takes over to the people that are still living. In this case my mother in particular. 

There is never enough words to fill someone's empty heart as times like this. However, I did found these words and shared them with my four cousins who just lost their mother (they are so brave): Love is stronger than death even though it can't stop death from happening, but no matter how hard death tries it can't separate people from love. It can't take away our memories either. In the end, Life is stronger than death.

In a way I think my aunt Pilar may have saved my mother's life. Her death (from skin cancer) caused my mother to visit her dermatologist to remove cancerous birthmarks.

/ aida's corn tomato & avocado salad

 I'll be making this one again for sure. It's more of a a summer salad for people who live up north. I didn't use the blender for the dressing, like the recipe calls for- I chopped everything by hand. I also added garlic power, which gave it a great taste. (we are garlic lovers). This is one of those recipe you can added or subtract from and there will be no mistakes. Makes for a great leftover lunch.

books on my mind

Craft Inc.: This book has been out for a while. (now there is even a revised copy) Either way it was insightful and money well spent considering I am new to this craft/business world. I do think it's more for beginners. I may be referencing it time to time. As far as the revised copy I may pick it up at the library at some point. I wish there were more books like this. I haven't find anything yet. Any suggestions?

The Great Christmas Cookie Swap: I've had this book in my bookshelf for a while, I've made chocolate crinkles and other yummy cookies.  What I've really been wanting to do is to host a cookie swap. So this year I'm doing it. This is the book that gave me that extra push I needed. I already sent out the emails inviting about 11 ladies to join the fun. I'm excited to see how everyone will package their cookies. I'll also be giving out prizes for the most creative cookie, most creative packaging and best liked tasting cookie. Great way to start the holidays.

random tuesday

I decided I'm getting into tea again. I stumbled upon a cute little shop. I bought some white rose tea and mango green tea. How cute is this tea infuser?



This was Friday night dinner. Just kidding, however, this was taken where I had dinner. Just cheese and wine. A feast in my mouth.

Just to show you that I mean business. I made room for the tea in my life. I'm still finding ways to use all the mason jars from my wedding. 2 down and many, many more to go.

My table at the last local artist craft fair. I'm getting pretty good at setting it up.

my aunt

My aunt passed away Sunday morning after a long battle of melanoma. She lived in Australia with her husband and four children. Because of the distance, we never got to spend enough time together. However, she always found a way to reach out to everyone else in our family. Something I admire. Right now I'm holding on to faith.

dada bazaar

Looking forward to tomorrow and being part of this local artist craft fair. Maybe I'll see you there?

random tuesday

I finished the design of a coupon email, I'll be sending people who sign up to my mailing list. The next step adding it to mailchip for a mass email. This is my first time using something like this.

Sunday morning started with a french bakery stop near our apartment. Yummy and relaxing.

I'm all done with production for the year. This was the last of it. Posters of the same design as one on the towel series. I even have next year's designs in mind. I'm in motion to do two more fairs by the end of this year (dada bazaar and sunny side up). These will give me an idea of what kind of people my stuff attracts. What products I will continue with and which ones I'll drop. My goal is to have everything up on my etsy shop before Thanksgiving. 

Si. Mike also gets pedicures along with me. Something we picked up from our sisters, their husbands go along with them. :)