sushi night

When we want to eat sushi down here, we have to prepare it at home. Unfortunately, there isn't a good Japanese restaurant to go have a nice dinner, so last week we got a large supply of ingredients to make our own sushi rolls.
Fresh tuna and salmon are also not available, so I used crab sticks, cucumber, avocado, cream cheese, sun dried tomatoes, canned salmon and trout to fill the rolls.

monday bake

Yesterday I baked "alfajores" for a friend's birthday party. My recipe for cookies is very light and they melt in your mouth. I've been making these cookies for more than 12 years and thy're always a great success everywhere I take them.

friday

This week was definitely shorter than usual. It is Friday already and I am thrilled that after all I managed to finish one bag with print and embroidery. Hopefully next Monday I will finish another screen and design to make more printed fabric and then cut some more bags.
I'm off to bake "alfajores" for a birthday party tomorrow.

Until Monday!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

The bag is lined with ivory linen and has three pockets.

embroidered

Last night I spent some time playing with my printed fabric. Blue has been dominating my inspiration lately, so I used two shades of blue on this tile printed on white linen.

give it a try

I decided to give my screen a try this morning and just mixed some paint and tried it on a piece of natural linen.
This afternoon when it's dry I will embroider some of the edges and see how it looks. So far it is not as bad as I thought it would be by just looking at the screen last night.

chaos

Well this was a tough day... I spent ALL day trying to make a screen for printing. Design, make the screen, add emulsion to screen, expose it to light and then the hard part, to get the negative part of the design out from the screen with water. Nothing worked! and I spent all afternoon with a spray bottle in my hand hoping that in the end it would. It didn't... I will try again tomorrow with another screen - same design.

Hope I can show some photos tomorrow of the good or the bad.

By the way the new design is called Alhambra Tiles.

bits of weekend

hi friends! how was your weekend? Mine was very relaxing.

First, I've been baking some yummy bars {chocolate streusel with nuts & chocolate chips} & {caramel nut bars}, and enjoyed them with a large cup of cappuccino.
Second, I finished two crochet scarfs in a raspberry color I really like for this spring-summer.
Third, it was beautiful down here! which means there was lots playing outside with the kids and just enjoying the last days of summer.

ruffles

I love how the reflection of light changes the pink a bit on this cotton scarf. I am trying to organize myself and finally open my Etsy shop. I should start taking all the photos I need and focus on it. Sometimes it is just plain hard to find time to do everything on the "to do" list...

crochet belts

For Spring-Summer 2010 I made granny squares crochet belts to match the girls outfits. I originally crocheted them in navy / ecru, and pink / ecru, but some customers ordered them in other combinations like light blue / white.

They are a great accessory and can be worn in the winter and as a headband.

st. patrick's

shades of blue

These khangas are from Zanzibar. I bought them at a shop in Stone Town a few months ago. On Friday they will be tops and dresses...

blueberries

Blueberries were introduced into Bolivia less than six years ago by the project my husband directs. It is a true luxury to be able to eat this yummy berries down here. It is the end of the summer, so we are trying to get as many blueberries as possible to freeze them for the upcoming months when they are not in season.

Yesterday I made blueberry pound cake. A delicious recipe that calls for sour cream and no baking powder... a relief here in the altitude.

homemade marshmallows

These are my chewy and sticky vanilla homemade marshmallows...

some color

After four months of knitting pastels for spring, it is nice to work with some bright colors. Happy Thursday!

meringue {+ dulce de leche}

One of Sebastian's favorite sweets are meringues. Easy and fast to make with ingredients that are always on hand. I remember when I was a child that we used to go to a pastry shop near my grandmother's house to buy "suspiros con cajeta" {meringues filled with "dulce de leche"}.

I had not particular filling in mind when I started making these meringues yesterday afternoon, but we all love "dulce de leche" and I keep a good stock of it in our pantry. The kids also like to eat it with their waffles and pancakes.

I bake the meringues a little longer so they get dryer, with a bit of a golden color but still shiny. When done, I sandwich these airy cookies with the creamy "dulce de leche" so that they collapse into the center where it gets a little sticky.

Once the cookies are assembled, they must be eaten right away because the meringue starts to melt with the moisture of the filling.

They melt in your mouth and it is hard to eat just one. Very sweet meringue kisses!

new stitches

These are scenes from work yesterday, as we tried new stitches for the spring-summer 2011 collection. We are now working on the samples for the first show in Paris next July.

knitters learning a new stitch

a new stitch on the edge of a blanket for baby

bits of weekend

Happy Monday to you... we're into the second week of March already, can you believe it? It has been almost a year since I started writing this blog - time flies!

How did you spend your weekend? I am really happy with what I did. I feel accomplished since I finished some work and also spent time with my family baking and playing games.

dulce de leche brownies

I also finished a book I started over a month ago -Invictus- (I saw the movie after I got the book so I left it for a while...), and started another one -"Degree Mills: the billion dollar industry"- This read was spurred on by a recent experience. The book is about how thousands of people manage to obtain certificates, MBA's and PhD's without ever attending a class, sitting an exam or opening a text book, and how they face embarrassment when hired and then not being able to perform simple tasks like using an spreadsheet. Read more here or here.

On Sunday afternoon I finished this baby alpaca scarf and then we went to see Alice in Wonderland that just started playing in theaters this weekend. If you have not seen it yet, watch the trailer here. We loved it!

Heather mustard & ivory scarf. Baby alpaca & silk blend.

the Mad Hatter via Disney