Mom, Blue Bonnets, and Me

Hello everyone! How was your weekend? Mine was great! I saw Elton John in 

concert this past Saturday; it was awesome 

(if the pictures from my cell phone are clear enough,

I'll share some later)! On Sunday I spent the day with my mom and one of our activities

was to go photograph some Blue Bonnets. Blue Bonnets are Texas' official flowers. 

Once spring is here, Blue Bonnets bloom all over! It's wonderful to be driving

and seeing "blankets" of them next to highways and all over suburbia :P

I need to take seeds of this flower when I go to Peru (more about that soon). 

I'm going to miss them sooo much.

Of course, not near as much as this important person:

(My mom is not convinced about her hair in the pictures because her highlights 

are fading... but I think she looks beautiful <3)

here's one she took of me:

What a lovely day. Hope your week started beautifully!

PS: I lost one reader! I wonder who it was. I knew this would happen eventually, as my writing habits are a little bit affected by this year's activities. But the truth, everyone, is that it might continue being a little bit unbalanced; however, I won't stop writing. My blog style might even change later in the year with an upcoming trip... and I might even start a Spanish [separate] blog (?) Who knows... I'll notify you of all of this when the time comes. But whoever decides to continue reading, thanks a lot for your patience and support :-) 

A Night At The Carnival

Why is it taking me so long to write about my weekends lately?

To whoever reads my blog; I hope you know that I will always write, 

even if sometimes it takes me days...

if one day I decide I can't dedicate enough time to it at all, I would let you know. :)

This past weekend my friend and I wanted to go to Austin Rodeo... a festival they have every year. But after some of the people who were going to go with us informed us they wouldn't be joining anymore, we spent a few hours trying to decide if we still wanted to go... at the end we did. And I'm glad!

Today I just wanted to post some of the pictures I took that day. It's funny 
how excited I get sometimes with photos of ordinary things like...

balloons

silhouettes of people with lights in the background

someone's jeans

a token machine... etc

I am still editing some of my pictures, but let me share these with you:

I do wish I had gotten there earlier to see Whiplash the cowboy monkey!!

source

But at least I had fun riding the ferris wheel and taking pictures :)

That's it for now! I'll show you some more later :P

Remember most of these are for sale at my Etsy shop.

Hasta pronto my dears

Things I loved about my weekend

Hi all,

How are youuu? Hope your weekend and first days of the week have been fantastic!

This weekend was a happy one. Usually all weekends are, but this one had several highlights.

Let's begin with Thursday night...

I saw my friend Teri (she is currently in Houston so I don't get to see her that often) and we had dinner and gelato. We caught up with our lives and had a fun time :)

On Friday, as early birthday present, my other awesome friend Josh took me to see the Phantom of the Opera (this is my 3rd time watching it). I always love it. It's a fantastic play with an amazing soundtrack and a powerful love story that will undoubtedly captivate you! 

isn't Gerard Butler a great Phantom? *sigh*

Someone wrote this review and I couldn't have said it better: "...the phantom is arguably the most intriguing character ever written. Every song in the musical is powerful. The sound of the church organ infuses your blood with ten emotions at the same time. It energizes your brain and each muscle of your body. Absolute must see!"

On Saturday I stayed home for most of the day, but my friends came to my house at night and we made some Pisco Sour (a yummy Peruvian cocktail),  some egg sandwiches (lovely combination, huh?), and then we celebrated 12:00 o'clock (my birthday on the 21st). After that we watched "Princess & The Frog" It was a lovely story, I miss that type of Disney Movies.

And on Sunday:

Birthday! 24... wow,  that's it! now it's time for time to slow down... no more years flying by :(

Oh well, let's just enjoy them, right?

Here are some cool things from Sunday:

* my dad called me very early (he's in Peru) and it was a nice way to "wake up"

* I talked to my dad and grandma and cousin through skype videochat

* I had many friends write me online

* my parents and brothers gave me wonderful cards

* my mom gave me a jacket I had seen a few months ago and liked very much at Arttie's

* my mom gave me a lovely grey wallet, thank you mamita

* mom and brothers gave me giftcards to this store I hadn't visited yet, but I totally loved: Charming Charlie, an accesories store organized by color :)

I can get lost there for hours...

here is a small pic I found (purple area):

* we went to a few other stores including Goodwill, where we donated some items and Plato's Closet, where they gave us $8.50 dollars for two old purses. :P
* we ate yummy sushi. Restaurant was a little slow but it was worth the wait. 
* we bought a cake that had chocolate mousse and it's already gone (it was small!).
March is definiltey cake month for me... if all my family was here, it'd be worse. Grandpa's birthday, aunt-grandma's, uncle's, etc. 


Good excuses to indulge. See you later dears :)

sources:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Today

Today is (or was since it's almost over!) my mom's birthday. 

I wanted to dedicate this post to her and tell her she deserves to have an amazing day with all the people who love her. She deserves that every day, actually. But today in particular. Thanks mom for giving me incredible values and always supporting me unconditionally. <3 We may have our arguments sometimes, but you know I love you a lot lot LOT.

The other day I went with her to a Restaurant. As you can imagine, I took some pictures there! Many of them involve my mom, so I wanted to share some here.

My mom's hands reflected on the table:

Her sneakers in nice contrast with the carpet.

Mommy enjoying her meal

The funniest thing happened that day! While my mom was eating; 

her hands got a little messy!

At one point, when my mom moved her hand, I saw what it 

appeared to be a little face

on her thumb. She agreed that it looked like a little guy. It was cute!

seems like he's tasting what's on his face.

Happy Birthday, mami! 

I'm getting sleepy now, lame :(

A love note and goals for tomorrow

Hi everyone!

How was your weekend? Mine was great; I saw my cousin, saw my friends, cooked with my mom, watched the winter olympics, and relaxed. It was neat.  I  hope you all had a wonderful Valentines day in company of your sweeties and/or friends. 

I want to leave a message in here for my Valentine. His name is Mauricio. As some of you may know, he lives in Peru ( I don't put many pictures of him here because he's one of those personal-life-privacy fanatics. I try to be obedient :P). He does visit my blog often. Next time he reads it, he'll find a little love note... 

Have you heard the saying "Absence is to love as wind to flame, it extinguishes the weak and feeds the strong"?

I believe in it. Just wanted to tell him I love him and that the sacrifice we've made for nearly 6 years, I feel, is going to be worth it. :)  I'm so thankful for having him in my life <3 even with 5000 miles between us.

Ok, and now I need to write something and make myself do it! For example, I've been skipping the gym lately since before the holidays using excuse after excuse, one of them being the cold weather.  Go back to the gym Marcela! Image above depicts it all very well... sweets, coffee, daydreaming, all except exercise. I also need to be a better e-mail responder. Let's just see what my short-term goals, more specifically tomorrow ones, are:

- going to the gym

- writing back to at least two people whom I owe e-mails to

- not get back into bed with the alarm clock (my cell phone) in my hands

- read more pages from my current book

- ignore the guy that passes everyday with his extremely loud motorcycle in front of my office 

That's all for now. :) I'll let you do if I improve in anything else!

See you tomorrow loves...

images 1 and 2

Weekend & Snowflakes Cont.

Hellooooooo!! How are you dears?

source

My weekend went by so fast! I spent most of it

 painting the t.v room at home with my mom.

Instead of the boring white, two of the walls now have a

 very nice smoky-blue, as I like to call it. 

Later (Saturday) my friends and I went to a sushi restaurant called 'Piranha Killer Sushi' to try it out. It was amazing!!! The price wasn't bad at all; they had happy hour, and we certainly took advantage :) 

These are two pictures my friend took:

me with my mouth full making a face like saying "yuc" but actually I was kind of saying "yeah!?!!!"

... and look at my delicious dessert. A-ma-zing!!! I think I could declare it the best chocolate mousse in town.

Alrighty, enough indulgance. Let me show you the rice-paper 

snowflakes I made today! 

This time I scanned them because we are going to create 

an electronic greeting card. 

And hey, remember I wanted to make the Seahorse one? Well... Ta-daaa

Good! but remember how the original from the tutorial had a fish? 

well, I accidentally killed it with my scissors :(

HOWEVEEEER!!!! I'm not done yet. I may not have a fish... but my design ended up with a little crab instead (purely accidental too):

So yaaaay, no need to make another one. [Yep I did the eyes
with Photoshop since I forgot to cut them! 
That's why you don't see them here] 

Have a lovely start of the week!

I'm Back!

I didn't go anywhere, but I haven't blogged these past few days because I've been doing one thing after another. How was your thanksgiving? I hope you all had lovely times with your families and lots of yummy food! Today I'm just going to make a list of the highlights of these days. There are plenty of little reasons to smile and also plenty of ones to be thankful for! (I'm not trying to write a late-Thanksgiving post; one can should be thankful all year round!

• On Wednesday night, a friend and I went to Ihop and had fun conversations. It was a nice way to start the long weekend. 
• On Thursday, my family and I went to lunch at this restaurant we like downtown called Carmelo's. They had a Thanksgiving special, and almost all of us ordered it. Then me and my brother shared a Creme Brulee.  Yummy!
• That same night, I ate some more turkey, rice, potato salad, and dessert at a friend's house. 
• On Friday, I finished the wood project I mentioned last week! (see below).

• On Friday, my mom and I checked out some stores for sales. I just bought a shirt and a hat, and my mom bought me a cute yellow coat at Arttie's (a store I love)!

• We also had a nice sushi dinner and rented My Sister's Keeper. My mom fell asleep :s but she woke up on time to see the ending!
• On Saturday, I had my first Etsy sale! I was really really really really excited! The first buyer at my shop was going to have a free print; but I was so happy that I sent her two sizes of the extra picture she wanted.
• On Saturday, I saw my cousins after several months; one of them lives in Minnesotta so it was nice to see her. All of us played Charades and Apples to Apples. Fun!
• On Sunday, my mom and I decorated the house with Christmas stuff! We still need to do the outside. 
• Today I listened to radio and was happy to hear one of my favorite Christmas songs 'Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.' Radio this time a year makes me smile all the time...

• Today some dummy in front of me backed up and hit my bumper at a stop light; nothing happened to my car :)
• Tomorrow an awesome month begins. 

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Kentucky Fried Cockatiel and Randomness

Hello everyone!

Wow this weeks is going to go by so fast... 

How was your weekend? Mine was sort of uneventful but relaxing.

- I slept late (my mom will look at this and frown)

- I organized my room a bit

- I went to Hobby Lobby to buy some things for a mounted picture

 project I want to make. I spent quite some time there looking

 at things and imagining all the projects I could come up with if I had those materials at home. I also spent time looking at other things I don't work 

with (like candles, fabrics, etc) and wondering if I'll 

ever become skilled in those areas [is that how you say it?].

- I went to Petco to buy bird seeds and saw some cute doggies, 

but not as many as I would have liked.

- Time went by so fast... living in the suburbs is not too exciting sometimes :P

- I took some more pictures, which I will post tomorrow,

 but  you can see some at my Etsy shop. 

- I realized a few more people marked me as 'favorite' on Etsy; 

I smile every time I see that.

- I laughed at Paulie going inside a Kentucky Fried Chicken bag and having so much fun inside. Too bad I only had my phone camera at that moment: 

And not much to add... I have to go meet a friend now, but let me leave you with a picture to show you how ready and excited I am for Christmas!

Theater!

Today I want to write a short post about one of my favorite arts. Guys, if you haven't been to a Broadway play, you have to!! They are indescribable experiences; I can't use enough words to describe  all the magical feelings that theater awakens in me. 

I used to perform when I was in high school in Peru. I actually miss it a lot; I've always thought that those who perform (in theater) for a living have one of the most amazing occupations. Every time I get out of a play-- and this always happens-- I feel 99% joyful, 1% melancholic. My mind spaces out for a few minutes and tries to imagine what being an actress would have been like.

These are the plays that I've seen so far:

- Phantom of the Opera (absolutely amazing)I knew I had to see this play after I heard the main song for the first time. 

- Jesus Christ Super Star

- Monty Python's Spamalot (very funny!)

- Mamma Mia

- Wicked (incredible!)

And these are the plays I cannot wait to see (my priorities)

- Beauty & the Beast

- Bye Bye Birdie

- Grease

- Miss Saigon

- Le Misérables

Do you have any favorites? Any that you would recommend? Out of the ones I've seen, I recommend that you watch Phantom of the Opera & Wicked first. The stories are amazing... and the stage effects? out of this world. 

Before I finish, I want to tell you about  my mom and I's last Saturday adventure. We went to see Lea Salonga. Do you know who she is? Well, she is known for her outstanding musical role of Kim in Miss Saigon, for having received numerous awards, and for being the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in Aladdin. Her voice is truly amazing... I've never been to a concert of that type before, but I really enjoyed it; and when she sang "A Whole New World," she asked any guy from the audience to join her (for the Aladdin part), and it was just like listening to princess Jasmine. I know... duh, it's her voice, but hearing it live was incredible. Tell me about any favorite theatrical experiences you've had... I'd love to hear some. 

images 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Sometimes Brave, Sometimes Not

I really like scary/suspense films, but not the ones that have blood all over, pure gore, or a silly plot. It has to be a good story! My last favorite suspense movie was The Orphanage; I thought it was great in many ways! My last scary one was... I am not sure! Many somewhat-interesting movies have come out but not one that I remember being exceptionally good. This weekend I went to see a film, about which many have been talking about: Paranormal Activity

It was good!! It worked, it made me be scared to the point that I had to cover part of the screen with my fingers sometimes <-- yet again I am like that in many movies. But! this film really had something! Unlike Hollywood latest movies, this one doesn't try extremely hard to make you jump with common things like a sudden image in the mirror along with a loud sound, or someone closing a door and something appearing behind it. On the contrary, it is a very simple movie-- with little sound effects. And it is precisely that that makes you connect with the characters more, since it feels like any other home video. If/when it plays in your town, you should go see it, sometimes it's fun to get a little scared. And it's fun to scream and watch people scream... and then laugh out loud.

On a side note, I may be brave for movies [most], but not to go to a Haunted House--one of those they open for Halloween month. Every year I wonder how scary they must be... but that's all, I just wonder. I'm a chicken when it comes to actually going to one. I am very vulnerable to people saying "BOO!" while jumping out of a dark area. [I base this on how I react with my brother... can you imagine someone in a costume?]

Have you been to one? How was it? If you tell me it's not that bad then I might try it out... who knows. But for now, I'd rather stick with movies. :)

Weekend & Haircuts

Hello there :)

The weekend is finally here! By the way, how was your week? I hope it was great, and if it wasn't, use some time for yourself this weekend and relax, go have fun, sit outdoors, spend time with your pet, visit your parents/grandparents, make a cake... something nice. I challenge you to make the most out of your free time this weekend!

Or... go get a haircut! Let's see... haircuts can be more than just sitting in front of the mirror staring at the person who is giving you the new look. First of all, it's relaxing, especially when you have a hairstylist that massages your head when she/he washes your hair. Secondly, if you had a stressful week, it can make you feel renewed and ready for a better one- fresh new start!... at least that's how it made me feel one time when I had a hectic week at school. It can also make you feel prettier :)... all those split ends gone, maybe some nice bangs, charming layers, etc. There is a website I found that lets you create different makeovers. If you don't want to get a haircut yet, but are thinking about it, play with it some. You just have to sign up, but it's free, unlike other ones on the web. (note: guys, no men hairstyles on it :(, if I find one I will let you know!) Here is a makeover I did with one of my pictures... even if the images don't look perfect, they give you a good idea.

TAAZ.com : Virtual Makeover.
http://www.taaz.com/makeover/.../67032882.html

Before

After

Whatever you decide to do this weekend, have fun doing it! Don't forget to take a moment to pamper yourself. Talk to you all soon and thanks for visiting :)