My weekend: shopping, wine and friends

This was a much needed long weekend. And I had a great time doing some shopping, hanging out with some friends and I even got fancy in the kitchen.

Friday, after I got out a bit early from work, I met up with Meli and we hit Nordstrom's to try and find some shoes. I finally settled on a pair of Tom's, but the elusive search is not over yet. We went back to her house to chill and eat some yummy organic pizza from a new place she found. Before I left her Mom gave me this rose from their backyard. It was so pretty and opened up so big!

Saturday, I did some more shopping, I needed to get some new sneakers. So while I was at the mall with Mom, we hit up the Foot Locker. Now that I've used the shoes I'm so happy I got them, they make such a difference, and they're cute too. After my shopping, I went over to Jenni's to help her with a situation that came up out of nowhere.

There's nothing better than starting off a Sunday knowing you don't have to go to work the next day. I guess I got inspired, cause I made the Riesling Strawberry Slushies I posted in my Friday faves, and I also made some cupcakes. I filled the cupcakes with the delicious Strawberry Vanilla jam that Jenni gave us as favors for her birthday dinner.

I made slushies and cupcakes (and some turkey burgers too) cause my favorite people were coming over to hang out. My friends Kris & Eddie were down visiting and brought their little ones over to enjoy the pool. They had an awesome time and we were able to get in the pool before the thunderstorm came by. I love having them over! I can never get enough of that cute face!

Today, I've pretty much just chilled. I went to my workout class in the morning and have spent the rest of the day catching up on Mockingjay, which I finally finished and I also finally saw 50/50, which was really good.

I hope everyone had a great long weekend!

Friday faves 15

Finally the long weekend is almost here! After the crazy week I've had at work this long weekend can't come at a better time.

picture from Crafty Gemini

I love the look of these boxy pouches, but I've never made one. Check out Gemini's video tutorial on how to make one for yourself.

picture from With a Grateful Prayer and a Thoughtful Heart

These Jello parfaits remind me of being a kid. I totally remember making these as a little girl. I remember the recipe being from a cookbook that I checked out from the library.

picture from Sublime Stitching

I always love the stuff from Sublime Stitching. And this free pattern they sent out last weekend for an impromptu sew-along is so adorable. It would be perfect to hang up with a snarky saying stitched in the middle.

picture from See My Footprints

A bunch of my friends and I have been on a nutrition and fitness kick late and they've been asking what to do about the birthday cake that's coming up? This amazing fruit cake may have to make an appearance at one of the many birthday celebrations coming up in June.

via OpenSky

This record player is so cute. My brother and I had one similar to this when we were little, it blue and closed up to look like a suitcase. 


picture from Diamonds for Dessert

If you don't watch Parks & Recreation you don't know what you're missing. This show is hilarious and all of characters are so awesome. These Parks & Recreation cookies would have been perfect to watch the finale. But you can bake some up and hit up Hulu for a few episodes too.



picture from Top Shop

Since it's the unofficial start of the summer, I've been looking at some summery stuff this week. I want to get a new bikini and this one is just so cute. I'm hoping my workouts will let me get into one this one.

picture from With Style & Grace

I've gotta celebrate this weekend with these Riesling Strawberry Slushies. These will be great to sip by the pool, I'm planning to make some for this weekend.

Enjoy the holiday weekend everyone!

Currently...

wearing my new necklace today

Obsessing over:  Reading! I'm all about devouring books on my Kindle. I'm finishing up Mockingjay right now. I can't wait to get home and read more. Anyone have book recommendations? I need more books for my queue.
Working on:  A bunch of birthday celebrations. June  is full of birthdays for me and ends with the most important one of all, mine! I have at least one birthday every weekend in June (and most of the time two). I can't wait ti celebrate with all of my friends.

Thinking about: Cutting my hair. It's gotten just too long and unruly. I need to shorten it a bit and tame it down for the summer. I have a Couptessa coupon to use, so I might go next weekend.

Anticipating:  My Paris trip! It's been so hectic here at work lately that I just can't wait for it to be August and me to be on my way. I may go shopping for my Paris walking shoes this weekend. Any suggestions for cute but comfy shoes?
Listening to:  Jason Aldean on Pandora. I love his new song "Fly Over States."

Drinking:  Water.

Wishing: The weekend was here already! Besides being a long weekend on of my best friends, Kris is coming down to Miami with my niece and nephew and her hubby Eddie. I can't wait to have them come over and I know my nephew is ready to get in the pool!

My weekend: nostalgia, cupcakes and hunger games

This weekend was so busy it seemed like it was over just as fast as it began.

Saturday morning Mom and I took grandma to the Cuba Nostalgia event at Tamiami Park.We had fun looking around at all the stuff and Mom and Abuela even took at picture in front of "el Malecón".

It was the 400th anniversary of La Virgen de la Caridad, so they had a special display on her. They also had old, old books, adorable dolls and the usual stuff. I loved the vintage fridge at the Sedano's booth, and Abuela enjoyed her free cafecito too.

That night I went over to Jenni's house to celebrate her birthday. We brought all the fixings to celebrate with blue margaritas. Jenni made a delicious dinner, chicken with prosciutto, mozarella, peppers and mushrooms, mushroom risotto and asparagus.

we forgot to take pics before we ate, so this is a leftover kids plate!

And it wouldn't be a birthday without cake! Jenni made red velvet cupcakes with tiffany blue cream cheese frosting and vanilla bean cupcakes with vanilla bean and cherry frosting. I loved the cherry vanilla frosting. It was too good.

the cupcakes were so good a gluten free

Then Sunday after a morning bike ride, I was off to finally see the Hunger Games movie. I was so excited to finally see Katniss up there on the big screen. I really loved all the casting for all of the characters and can't wait to see the next movies. I've just started reading Mockingjay, so don't give anything away.

I can't wait til this week is over and it's the long Memorial Day weekend. My niece and nephew will be down from Orlando visiting, so it's gonna be fun. Plus having Monday off, who doesn't love that?!

Friday faves 14

I hope all of the rain this week means the weekend will be rain free. I want to get into the pool this weekend (though it's probably freezing from all the rain water), but if not I at least need some sun on my legs--they are a bit ghostly.

picture from Dashing Dish

I can't wait to try this recipe for Strawberry Protein Pancakes. And the greek yogurt filling makes them look even yummier.

picture from Sew 4 Home

Pleats seriously scare me. But this post about pleats shows you how to really get them done. I love the look of the inverted box pleats, I may have to try those soon.

picture from Hostess with the Mostess

Happy Hunger Games! I know I'm a little late on the Hunger Games bandwagon, but now I'm totally all about Panem. It took me a while to warm up to the books, but now I'm reading Catching Fire and I can't get enough. This Hunger Games party is so awesome, it almost makes me wish there were Hunger Games (but not really).

picture from Mama Loves Food

I love French dips. It's all about the au jus. Being able to dip the sandwich in yummy beef juice is just so good. These little cresent roll French dips are so cute and perfect party food. Or you can just eat up a bunch yourself.

picture from Renee Pearson

I've always wanted to know how to make text wrap around objects. This post will show you how to make text paths and you'll be able to wrap your text exactly where you want it to go.

picture from Lovely Little Details

A s'mores cupcake is one of the yummiest things ever, but put it in a cute little mason jar and it's even better.

 

picture from I Am Momma--Hear Me Roar via Lemon Squeezy Home

This little purse is so adorable, and it's made from leather. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to try sewing leather, but maybe I'll make it out of pleather or faux suede.

via OpenSky

This Too Faced eyeshadow palette would be perfect to take on my Paris trip. It has all the neutrals I use pretty much everyday.

picture from cotton & curls

Would you ever guess that this is made from a man's button down shirt? I may have to find a shirt to transform into this cute blouse myself.

picture from badskirt

This article asks a simple question for those of us with huge fabric stashes, "Does this fabric make my stash look fat?"


I hope everyone has a great weekend without any rain!

New camera advice

I've been wanting to get a new camera in anticipation of my upcoming Paris trip (in 101 days!). I want to get this camera pretty soon, so I can figure out how to use it here calmly at home.

This is the camera I currently have, a Nikon Coolpix 12 megapixels (it's a few years old). It's a point and shoot and I think I know what I'm doing with it, but I feel like I get better pics with the 8 megapixel camera on my phone (the HTC Evo).

Does anyone have some good recommendations for cameras? I don't mind a good SLR, cause I know it'll last, but I need something I can feel comfortable using and carting around with me.

So let me have it! What do you use? What do you suggest? What camera can you not live without?

WIP Wednesday

I actually started and completed a project this week. This is something I've had on the back burner forever, so I'm glad I finally got around to it.

I bought some cherry grocery bag fabric at JoAnn's when they started carrying it (I wanna say it was a year ago). This fabric is the stuff they make the re-useable grocery bags out of and is some weird non-woven material. I wanted to make my own shopping bag, so I used the Charlie Reusable Grocery Bag pattern from Burda Style.

The bag was pretty easy to make and since I was using this fabric, I really didn't have to finish the edges, but you know how I am. So, I zig-zagged the edges in a contrasting color to give the bag some interest. I have to say that the trickiest part of making the bag was creating the folds on the bottom. But I adjusted them, to give it a gusseted feel.

The one thing about this bag though, is that it's HUGE. Like super duper big. It has a pouch sewn on the inside that you can stuff the bag into, so you can keep it in your purse, but I had to do some major origami to get it to fit.

But I'm loving my new shopping bag. And since it's in my purse already, I have no more excuses of leaving my shopping bags at home.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone is had a great Mother's Day weekend. Mine has been pretty jam packed.

On Saturday, we had our family Mother's Day lunch. We took the "old ladies" to Benny's Seafood Restaruant. It's a Puerto Rican restaurant that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

It was a HUGE group of us at the restaurant, and thankfully our waitress was patient in dealing with all these crazy ladies.

We all dug into the typical Puerto Rican dishes, like the alcapurrias and mofongo. It was so delicious. Nothing better than fried pork and plantains!

Then on Sunday, I made dinner for Mom and Abuela (and Pop and Rich and Ang too). I used a few of the printables from Amanda's Parties To Go at the table.

Here's Mom waiting to dig in!

I made salad, turkey meatloaf, roasted asparagus, baked smashed potatoes and bread. It was super yummy. Grandma and Mom loved it and Rich really loved the potatoes.

And Mom brought a flan for dessert. I'm not really a fan of flan, but grandma is and everyone else has a little piece too.

It was a great weekend with Mom and Grandma. I hope all of you had a great weekend with your moms and showed them all the love.

Friday faves 13

This week seems to have dragged on more than usual this time, but maybe that's just because I'm so looking forward to the weekend. I have a Mother's Day lunch with Mom, Grandma and all the aunts on Saturday, then on Sunday I'm making dinner for Mom and Grandma.

picture from Amanda's Parties To Go

This Mother's Day Brunch and downloadable printables is so fresh and pretty. It'd would be a great way to show Mom how awesome she is this weekend.

picture from Fit Foodie Finds

I love caprese anything and everything. This quinoa caprese salad looks so yummy. I'll have to make it one of these days.

picture from Everyday Celebrations

This yardage conversion chart is so handy! I'm gonna print one for my sewing room and one for my purse, so I have it handy when fabric shopping.

picture from Gertie's Blog for Better Sewing

Gertie's post about the ease in patterns is a total must read for anyone trying to make clothes from patterns. I even learned a few trick that will help me next time I make some clothes.

picture from moonthirty

How great is this idea to make your own serger thread spools? Now you don't have to buy 3 or 4 of the same color, you can just put some thread on your homemade spools.

picture from Hazel & Agnes

I love me some cat's eye glasses and these downloadable notecards show off the adorable frames. You can print them in any of these colors and it includes the envelopes too!

picture from Ella Gajewska Hats

How amazing is this peacock hat? I wish I had somewhere fabulous to go so I could wear this fantabulous creation!

And a shout out goes out to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She went makeup-less this week and everyone was in shock. Well guess what, sometimes she wants to put on her glasses and not wear makeup, and she, like the rest of us, has every right to. Check out this article discussing why this even became a topic in the news this week.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. And show your mommas some love!!

Happy Forking Birthday cake

I made a cake for a couple of my co-workers birthdays, which we are celebrating on Monday. One of our systems at work is called "Fork," so I decided to make them a Fork birthday cake (it's an inside joke).

I started out baking the cake. Just plain yellow cake, everyone likes that!

As the cake was baking, I whipped up a batch of frosting.

I dyed the frosting blue (since the cake is for guys, I thought pink or lilac would be too girly) and frosted the cake.

I drew out a fork and drew it on the cake with grey frosting. I didn't have black coloring to make the grey, so I mixed yellow, red and blue in equal parts to get the grey. I think it looks pretty good, considering I drew it myself.

Next came the nerve wracking part, the lettering. Considering this was my first time lettering on a cake, I think it came out ok. The letters are all different sizes, and don't exactly go in a straight line, but at least it's legible.

After the lettering, making the border was a piece of cake (no pun intended!).

My first not-in-class cake! I think it came out pretty good. I wonder whose birthday is next, so I can start the design ideas for that cake.

What do you think of my cake?