Random Photos

Here are a couple random photos uploaded with my phone, you can tell because the quality totally blows.

Cuddles with my best friend. Apparently her best friend is her stuffed flea.

Pissed.

This is the most AMAZING jewelry holder thing I've ever found. It was at ROSS for $14!

It's about 3ft tall and can hold a butt-load of earrings. Most that you see are earrings that I've made myself. I hung the figure right above my dresser so now its a functional piece of art!

A close up. I dressed her up with a belt, and fringe on her dress with my earrings. Oh and my hair clip flower for her broach, she's so hot.

And no more shall we part.

I had the best New Years' party that I could imagine with my friends... if only Rose and Jairo had been here...

(My New Year's Eve here)

We started at my home. Esther, Kim and I. And then, we took the tube, trying to get into the Agbar tower. but the train stopped near Plaza Catalunya, so we received the New Year there.

 

 

 

And after that... dance, dance, dance... during all night, with the best people from Barcelona I've ever met...

 

 

 

And sunrise came, and we all were angels with dirty faces in the morning...

I've been working so hard since that day, that's why I didn't updated with this before... but you know, sales are coming... and as I work in a shop, we had to prepared them!! Now, everything's ready, and I hope I could post as always... thanks for being there and be so patient!

Oh, I almost forgot... I was a fairy...

Happy New Year for everyone around here!! 2010 has been a wonderful year, but I'm sure that 2011 would be better... I wish you the best to all of you!!

Last night I started the year with Esther, Kim, Laia, Dani, Debora and Anaïs, my BCN's team... the best one I could ever have... I'm so so lucky for having friends like these, and I'm really happy and grateful about it.

Today's a short post, only for showing you how I was dressed last night. Yes... I was some kind of a fairy...  very inspired by Florence and Karen Elson!

Did you had a great night? I really really hope so!!

A birthday after Christmas!

Last 25th of December was Vic's birthday. Vic os one of the cutest boys I've ever met. We've been friends for about two years now, as we met in a forum about the tv show Skins. And yesterday, a bunch of people from the forum decided to give him a surprise!

So he came home for having lunch with me, and after lunch we met the rest of the people... and we gave him his cake!

 

 

 

 

We had a lovely time yesterday. Finally, I met some girls, like Julia or Alicia, that I wanted to meet so much. I could see again this lovely group, they're so great... all of them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ari took a couple of pictures in wich you can see the Christmas' lights on the street... and my outfit!

 

 

 Dress - Vintage

Scarf (used as belt) - Offbrand

Boots - Aces of London

Headband with butterfly - Handmade by me!

So, how was your Christmas' day? Did you had lots of presents? I had a lovely t-shirt by Junko Mizuno, one of my favourite drawers!

God Jul!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

GOD JUL!

This year I'm spending my Christmas far away from my family, but I don't feel sad at all about it. Of course I miss them, but I feel lucky too because here in Barcelona I've got lots of great people around me, and I know they would never let me down.

So tonight, I would spend the night with Cristina, who would come home after having dinner with her family. We're gonna se silly teen films and drink some cava...

I really really wish you a lovely night, with your beloved ones and those who make you smile. Enjoy yourselves!!

 As I'm alone at home, I didnt wanted to put lots of Christmas' stuff around here... so I made this oranges and apples (it's a tradition from the North of Europe)... now the house smells so great!

My Inspiring Christmas

Hi everyone, Thank you everyone who commented to my last post or have sent your prayers, they are all appreciated. Let's do Christmas everyone. I put Christmas up early this year, because Mr. Swedish Room wanted to have the office Christmas party at our house. Might I say parties are nice when they are not at your house. So instead of being the evil Christmas witch this year, I decided to give in and start the party. Did I say Christmas witch, I meant SUPER CHRISTMAS WITCH. Lets say my Martha Stewart gene was going into overdrive. Everything had to be perfect and unique, everything had to be cleaned and recleaned. The house had to be redone, and redone again. Might I say I yelled so much, I couldn't stand myself. Somehow by the grace of God we made it. It was a nice party and I will show you some of the redoes, but not today. Instead let me show you some Christmas at The Room.

I found this idea at Pottery Barn. I said to myself, I have a Christmas tree and I have a birdcage. Why not? Only thing I bought at Pottery Barn that day were the birds at $5.00 each. I thought they gave me the idea, so I could spend a little money with them.
This is a vintage ornament I've had for years. She get the royal treatment when she gets packed away.

A couple of years ago I painted some dollhouse furniture white and just stuck them in the tree. Everyone thinks what a fun idea. The little silver chair is actually a place card holder. I put a hook on it instant ornament.

A sort of full view of the tree. All white and silver, my two favorite colors.

Take away gifts for the party guest and on hand for visitors who stop by.
For more great Christmas ideas go visit Debra at http://commonground-debrasvintagedesigns.blogspot.com/
for Vintage Inspiration Friday.

Go hugs someone today.

See everyone later....

Christmas Cards

These are my attempt to make my own Christmas Cards this year. I can't take too much credit, considering they came as a pack, however I did come up with the compositions. Scrapbooking and paper crafts really are such a fun thing to dabble in. The creative juices are endless, and I find that the more I dabble, the better I get. Anyhoo...this was a fun project, I just hope the receivers enjoy them as much

as I did in making them.

Gettin' Into The Spirit

We had a very relaxing holiday week(end). Nathan had W-Sun off that lucky bastard.

Well I guess I did too, except for a little work here and there. After Thanksgiving was

over my neighbors immediately started putting Christmas lights up on their house, and it

pretty much inspired me to get going on it too. 

We aren't putting a Christmas tree up this year, or lights on the house because we won't be here for

the majority of December, so why bother. I did put up the wreath inside, and decorated a bit. I didn't have a fireplace growing up so this is especially my favorite part to decorate. Here's some photos...note that our Christmas tree this year is 1ft. compared to last years 12ft. haha. Sad I know.

Christmas greeting cards

Christmas greeting cards, a photo by good mood factory on Flickr.

Friday with an illustration.


A ilustração da semana.

A Labor for my Love...

Beef Tenderloin with sauteed mushrooms wrapped in pastry

Monday was Labor Day in the U.S.  We had a wonderful relaxing weekend.  Patrick's birthday is today but we decided to spend Labor Day festooning him with birthday treats.  

I asked him what kind of birthday cake he wanted this year for his birthday.  

This took much deliberation and it was days later that I got an answer.  

A Buche de Noel cake.  

This is the yearly french Christmas cake that I make, ahem...at Christmas time.  Its pretty labor intensive so I slightly winced but was amused at his selection nonetheless.  Patrick LOVES homemade goodies.  Nothing storebought will suit his palate when it comes to desserts.  He makes wonderful pies, cookies and other yummy sweet delectibles...All from scratch, so he knows when one has cheated.  

We are a week away now from going to France so I pulled out the french cookbook that our french family gave us as a gift for hosting their daughter a few years back.  The recipes all look delicious (and highly caloric) 

but 

they are all in french.  

I speak a fair amount of french but all of the french units are different so figuring out quantities and measurements seem daunting.  

I decided to try out a beef tenderloin wrapped in pastry dough filled with julienned vegetables.  It looked so yummy in the cookbook, sort of like Beef Wellington, and that is one of Patrick's favorites.  I was at Sam's meat section and saw all of the meat was cut into steaks instead of one long cut so I went ahead and bought that.  

We decided instead of braising them on the stove top to do it on the grill with this rub that Patrick found this summer.  

Its called 

RubGrub 

and it is 

YUMMY.  

I know, the name is really tacky but it has made all of our barbeques this summer delicious.  

I julienned the shallots and carrots and sauteed them in butter and put them aside.  When the steaks were done, I rolled out the filo dough, separated it into 4 sections, spread the vege mixture on each one, placed a steak on top and then rolled them up into cute packages.  The recipe said to brush each with egg yolks all over so I did that and put them into the oven.  

20 minutes later, 

they were golden, crisp packages and the aroma filled the entire house.  

Chester and the cats were dancing around and the kids were wandering in and out sniffing with anticipation.

Next up for Patrick's birthday dinner was Potatoes Au Gratin with thyme and carmelized onions.  

This is a recipe that I found in 

Bon Appetit 

and added to my collection of favorites in my binder.  Its a pretty dish, tastes divinely rich and smells so armomatic while cooking in the oven.  It requires many onion slices all cooked for 40 minutes on the stovetop in order to carmelize and create a yummy sticky texture and flavor.  The potatoes, cooked bacon, thyme, and cream are all layered until all of the ingredients are used up.  After about 40 minutes in the oven, I stick the dish under the broiler at the end to make the top all golden and crispy before bringing it to the table.  

One of my family's favorite dishes and wonderful for holiday gatherings.

I'll get to the big highlight of his birthday - 

The Buche de Noel.  

I tried to make it more fall-like instead of Christmas-y.  Anne-Gaelle, our french girl who lived with us said the cake is served in France year round, not only at Christmas but we tend to only make it during the holidays.  Its a tough cake to make.  

The cake part has to cook just long enough to be soft and malleable but not dry so that it can be rolled.  The butter cream frosting takes a while to get the sugar water combo to "hard ball" stage.  

Oh la, la.

  

I never know if its going to come out well!  All was good, 

and everyone declared it edible.  Instead of a coffee frosting, Patrick decided on vanilla, which was yummy. Riley helped me make the cake and the frosting which was cute and sweet of him.  

He really likes to be in the kitchen and definitely wants to learn how to cook.  I have him making omelets now and he does a really good job.  

We spread strawberry jam on the inside of the buche.  

I think next time, 

I would like to try something like nutella on the inside with raspberry jam.  I think that would be tasty.  

The kids set the table so pretty, we lit candles on the table and had the most wonderful family time.  Patrick opened his gifts (clothing for the trip and new steak knives) and savored the delicious food.  It was a ton of work but I was so glad to do it and create this wonderful family memory.

Patrick 

is 

the most wonderful husband 

and I really wanted to do many special things for him to show him how much we appreciate him.  Riley was adorable and declared my meal to be the best 

"at home meal" 

ever!  

When we thought we were stuffed, we somehow managed to each have a second helping of 

La Buche!  

Happy Labor Day and to my very sweet husband, Happy Birthday.

I love you.

A part of the weekend that never dies...

Hello everybody and thanks for your lovely comments on my last post! How many wonderful words, yaw! I'm glad that your NYE were lovely too!

Tomorrow here in Spain it's the night of the Magi. Here in Spain we don't share our Christmas' presents until the 6 of January, because it is suposse that on the night between the 5th and the 6th of January, three Magi from the East came into Belen, just for sharing their love and present with Jesus... so traditional here! The pity is that in almost all Spain is raining, so maybe the party for tomorrow would be a little bit wet!

Anyway, did you had fun last weekend? Mine was quite good; on saturday I had dinner with my cousin Rocio, who is at Berlin this year (and who I'll be visiting in a few days there!!); Rose, Jose, Godino, Alfonso, Paula, Manolo and Angie... we went to a italian restaurant just in front of my home, called "La Tentazione"... so delicious!!

 

Rose and Jose

Angie and Manolo

Godino and Rocío

 

Alfonso and Paula

We're a happy family!

Godino eating his saldad with bread sticks..

My pasta!Stuffed with pear and goat sheese sauce!

After dinner we went to E Trocadero, a very nice pub where we always drin Paulaner, our favourite beer!

And at 3:00 am we decided to go into La Vaguada, the rock pub from Algeciras, where we met Miguel Luis... he was at Berlin for NYE but now he's back, cool!

 

Rose with her Blanco's dress

Me with Rose's Stradivarius dress... I love it!!

Dress - Stradivarius

Tights - Calzedonia

Shoes - Offbrand

Totebag - Blanco (old)

It was quite funny because Jairo was all night saying that Rose and I looked as Velma and Daphne from the Scooby Doo series! I love this kind of dresses, I don't mind looking retro!! That's why today I bought a retro fabric for making a dress like the blue one!

And on Sunday I went to the mall just for buying my last Christmas' presents: a fragance for my grandma! I saw a very nice dress on a shop, but I think it was quite expensive for the kind of piece it was, so I didn't buy it...

And you? Are you buying a lot on sales? Here, sales will start the 7th of January!

By the way, I saw the Soulwax's documental Part of the weekend never dies, and now I want to party a lot! And on March, my beloved Florence and the Machine is coming to Barcelona... I can't wait for her!!

Are you going or have you been on a concert recently?