tamale filling

In my family we like to eat tamales year round, not only for Christmas. Usually we make corn tamales with chicken filling and we add olives, prunes and sometimes capers. It can take all day to make 3 dozen tamales but then we freeze some of them to eat later.

sunday bake

{sticky buns} It took me all day to make these sticky buns... the recipe is from the book Baking with Julia but I changed it a bit adding raisins and walnuts and using less unsalted butter for the glaze. We could not eat them for breakfast like I wanted. Instead we had them for dinner with a cup of rooibos tea.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I'm off to Miami tonight and then to London for the Bubble show. Not really looking forward to the freezing cold now that it is so warm and sunny down here, but hoping for a good show.

just a glimpse

{fall-winter 2010/11}

new crochet scarf

{new} This is a great style for a scarf. It takes long to finish but the result is wonderful. I combined materials and textures in this one to make it more interesting.

I have been asked about buying my accessories online... so I am working on opening an online shop but still not sure on how to go about it. Should it be Amazon, Etsy, 1000 Markets...? Will let you know once it is finalized.

in season {cherries}

There are more than 900 varieties of cherries out there. They all have their own characteristic flavor and color. These are from Saturday's farmer's market. Not a local produce but imported from Chile.

Cherries do not need a fancy treatment, they are delicious in any way and the perfect snack during these hot summer months. I just wash them and put them in a glass bowl with ice.

oatmeal raisin {cookies}

Baking is one of my passions but lately I can only do it on Sundays when I am home and trying to keep away from the computer.

Yesterday I baked classic oatmeal raisin cookies. These are the perfect snack for the kids and great for me to enjoy with a late afternoon cappuccino.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

lavender + wisteria + shades of...

Lavender is a great color to work with but sometimes difficult. I usually use it as a accent on my designs because it looks amazing on knitted flowers and ribbon.

I am trying to finish some necklaces and brooches for my next collection using lavender pima cotton and some shantung in a wisteria color. On some of the flowers I'm using an ecru center or petals for contrast. Let's see how it goes this weekend...

Happy weekend!

knitted flags

I'm working on these knitted flags for my booth display at Bubble London in two weeks. They are really easy to make and I will also add some tassels or pom-poms to them in colors that match the my Fall-Winter 2010/11 collection.

Step 2 is to wash and iron them so they are flat and I can pull a string through them.

back to work

During the holidays I had some time to work on a new accessories line that I will be posting here in the next few weeks. This is a baby alpaca scarf made in crochet. I used a combination of stitches to make the ruffles. It adjusts to the neck perfectly or it can be left loose if you're indoors.

caribbean color { 2 }

Nassau is an old English port speckled with pastel colored architecture. The stores on Bay Street are flanked by picturesque, pastel-colored Colonial-style Government, including the Houses of Parliament, the old Colonial Secretary's Office and the Supreme Court all surrounding a marble statue of Queen Victoria.

I was there for just a few hours and the weather was not great so I had to walk around in a rush. The rest of my family went to swim with the dolphins and the Atlantis water park.

caribbean color { 1 }

Pastels & brights at the Straw market in Nassau. A pleasure to see the local craft transformed into beautiful beach bags, dolls with embroidered skirts, fruit baskets, jewelry boxes, hats and a lot more.

I love these crochet bags!! They come fully lined in local cotton fabric. Inspiration for future projects.

our cruise holiday {part 2}

I have to admit that I was as excited as Daniela & Sebastian to see Mickey & Minnie. Here they are wearing their sailor suits, but during the cruise they wore caribbean, pirate, beach and party outfits.

In Nassau I found these cute Minnie and Cinderella handbags.

our cruise holiday {part 1}

Hope you all had a fantastic start to the New Year! We took the kids to the Disney Cruise and it was a great holiday! The kids had lots of fun with all the activities on board, the Disney characters, swimming with the dolphins at Atlantis in Nassau; but what really amazed them were the Broadway style musicals every night.

I also had a chance to rest, knit and eat {probably too much...}.