My brother has been involved for the past 2 years with an organization called Children’s International Summer Village (CISV). They are a global group of volunteers who create cultural diversity experiences through educational programs. They operate on the belief that peace is possible through friendship and that the real difference can be made by starting with children. The organization was created after World War II by Dr. Doris Allen as an initiative to build and maintain peace. The first summer village took place in 1951 in Cincinnati, Ohio with delegates from 8 countries. Today they have chapters in over 60 countries around the world and host around 180 programs a year. Since its inception, more than 190,000 people have participated in over 5,000 international activities. The Summer Village program is the cornerstone of the organization’s education philosophy and is reserved for 11 year olds. It is a unique 4 week international camp where children (delegates) from 10 to 12 other countries participate in educational, cultural, and sporting activities with emphasis on “cooperative global and intercultural living.” Each delegation is made up of 2 boys and 2 girls with an adult leader and is coordinated by a staff of Junior Counselors ages 16-17 years. (cisv.org) The USA chapter's website is here: http://www.cisvusa.org/
Last year Eric took 4 kids to Prague. This year, he is in Denmark with 4 new kids. He absolutely loves it, maybe more so than the kids! The camp this year has a blog site where they are posting pictures and accounts of their daily activities, so I have added it to my blog roll and will post it here in case any of you are curious. It sounds like a really fun opportunity and I am considering applying for next year!
This is the camp’s blog: http://letshyggevillage.blogspot.com/
And in case you're wondering what the heck "hygge" means:
Hygge -
One of the fundamental aspects of Danish culture is "hygge", which, although translated as "coziness" is more akin to "tranquility". Hygge is a complete absence of anything annoying, irritating, or emotionally overwhelming, and the presence of and pleasure from comforting, gentle, and soothing things. Hygge is often associated with family and close friends. (taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Denmark )
So yes, let's hygge. :-)
July 23, 2010
July 14, 2010
Save Our Coast
This post was borrowed from my friend Danielle's blog, "Doggerel and Prose". Thanks Danielle for showing us an awesome way that we can help out the folks in the Gulf!
For years to come, the Gulf Coast will be feeling the effects of the BP Oil Spill. Giving to charities such as the Greater New Orleans Foundation can, in a small way, help speed up the Gulf Coast's recovery and, in the meanwhile, provide aide to victims of the oil spill.
For every "Save Our Coast" shirt sold, Storyville will make a donation to the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. One hundred percent of all donations to the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund will be granted to organizations working tirelessly in the effected areas. The Oil Spill Fund's focus is to help fishermen and their families in the following Louisiana parishes: Plaquemines, St. Bernard, lower Jefferson, Terrebonne and Lafourche.
Here in Austin, we truly have an amazing community that genuinely cares about others. There is a company here in Austin (also has stores in Baton Rouge and New Orleans) called Storyville; they sell unique locally designed T-shirts. They have started a new line and will give $5 of the profits for each T-shirt sold to the gulf coast fisherman and their families that have been affected by the BP oil spill. You can purchase these T-shirts at the store or order them online!
Product Description
For years to come, the Gulf Coast will be feeling the effects of the BP Oil Spill. Giving to charities such as the Greater New Orleans Foundation can, in a small way, help speed up the Gulf Coast's recovery and, in the meanwhile, provide aide to victims of the oil spill.
For every "Save Our Coast" shirt sold, Storyville will make a donation to the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund of the Greater New Orleans Foundation. One hundred percent of all donations to the Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund will be granted to organizations working tirelessly in the effected areas. The Oil Spill Fund's focus is to help fishermen and their families in the following Louisiana parishes: Plaquemines, St. Bernard, lower Jefferson, Terrebonne and Lafourche.
"Save Our Coast Burnout" is printed on a dirty water-colored, 50% polyester, 50% rayon Alternative Apparel Topango Heather Burnout Crew top with black ink. The top is made of a burnout material, which means that it is a super sheer fabric that has been put through an extensive process to reveal years of weathering. Therefore, no two tops are exactly the same. This top is only available in the unisex cut. If you'd like to see an Alternative Apparel sizing chart, click here and refer to the "women's size chart." This Storyville Original was created by Natalie Naquin Harvey and is modeled by Alicia Schulz and Fredy Garcia. To see more Storyville Originals, click here.
"Save Our Coast Tee" is printed on a 100% cotton, American Apparel blue tee shirt printed with white, navy and dark red ink. This Storyville Original was created by Sara Silvestri and is modeled by Alicia Schulz and Fredy Garcia. The t-shirt is available in both the unisex and female-specific cut (go here for sizing charts). To see more Storyville Originals, click here.
June 1, 2010
Recent Adventures in Sewing
Made these for my Goddaughter (Addisyn) and psuedo-niece (Riley).
I played around a little with the backs; my envelope technique needs work....
So cute!
This was last year at her 1 year birthday party.
Her 2nd birthday is in July; thinking of doing a matching baby quilt.....
Woohoo for sewing!
I played around a little with the backs; my envelope technique needs work....
So cute!
This was last year at her 1 year birthday party.
Her 2nd birthday is in July; thinking of doing a matching baby quilt.....
Woohoo for sewing!
May 9, 2010
Happy Mother's Day...
to all the special ladies in my life:
My beautiful momma
My Grandma Mary-Ellen
My Grandma Irma
My Cindy
My beautiful momma
My Grandma Mary-Ellen
My Grandma Irma
My Cindy
April 28, 2010
Making Progress
As far as my quilt goes, I'm liking it more and more. I decided on Kona white for the sashing and borders, but still haven't decided on the backing. I've been kinda busy so I haven't had a lot of time to spend on it. Hopefully this weekend will be calm and I can get alot done with it. I've already decided that my next project will be a baby quilt for my Goddaughter, Addisyn. She's precious :-)
got the sashing done
"Summer Splash"
My Goddaughter, Addisyn.
Also, I've finished another graduate class...thank God. This was the worst class I've ever taken and the professor was terrible. I could not wait for it to be over. The class was Human Resources Management, in which I know absolutely nothing about. The class met 3 days for 3 hours. Of those 9 hours, our professor "taught" for about 30 minutes. We spent 2.5 HOURS the first day on introductions. Seriously? Do I really need to know THAT much about these other people? I'm thinking no. And THEN, she had us post our resumes online and required that we review and comment on every single one. So I spent practically 4 days reviewing my classmates' resumes and making comments and suggestions on each one. "Won't it be nice to have 40 suggestions on how to improve your resume?" NO. Because my resume effing rocks. Thankyouverymuch. The bulk of the class work consisted of us reading the entire textbook and working online exercises to check our understanding. But she didn't grade the assignments; she didn't even give feedback. So I have no idea if I'm understanding the material correctly. To top it off, we had a group paper and presentation. We didn't get to pick our groups, so naturally I'm in a group with the one guy noone wants to be in a group with. You know that guy: MD, MBA, knows everything, owns his own business, talks over the professor, takes over the paper and presentation....OH, and English is his second language (if you can call what comes from his mouth "language").
So now I've read and commented on 40 resumes, read 600 pages of textbook gibberish, attempted 8 multiple-part fairly difficult analysis examples (with no feedback), used my "knowledge" of human resources to write a few paragraphs of a 10 page analysis paper over "that guy's" company, and spent 3 hours editing said paper for spelling and grammar. After all of that, I've gained about a 1% improvement in my understanding of HR management.
But at least I know the life and work history of all 40 of my classmates.
got the sashing done
"Summer Splash"
My Goddaughter, Addisyn.
Also, I've finished another graduate class...thank God. This was the worst class I've ever taken and the professor was terrible. I could not wait for it to be over. The class was Human Resources Management, in which I know absolutely nothing about. The class met 3 days for 3 hours. Of those 9 hours, our professor "taught" for about 30 minutes. We spent 2.5 HOURS the first day on introductions. Seriously? Do I really need to know THAT much about these other people? I'm thinking no. And THEN, she had us post our resumes online and required that we review and comment on every single one. So I spent practically 4 days reviewing my classmates' resumes and making comments and suggestions on each one. "Won't it be nice to have 40 suggestions on how to improve your resume?" NO. Because my resume effing rocks. Thankyouverymuch. The bulk of the class work consisted of us reading the entire textbook and working online exercises to check our understanding. But she didn't grade the assignments; she didn't even give feedback. So I have no idea if I'm understanding the material correctly. To top it off, we had a group paper and presentation. We didn't get to pick our groups, so naturally I'm in a group with the one guy noone wants to be in a group with. You know that guy: MD, MBA, knows everything, owns his own business, talks over the professor, takes over the paper and presentation....OH, and English is his second language (if you can call what comes from his mouth "language").
So now I've read and commented on 40 resumes, read 600 pages of textbook gibberish, attempted 8 multiple-part fairly difficult analysis examples (with no feedback), used my "knowledge" of human resources to write a few paragraphs of a 10 page analysis paper over "that guy's" company, and spent 3 hours editing said paper for spelling and grammar. After all of that, I've gained about a 1% improvement in my understanding of HR management.
But at least I know the life and work history of all 40 of my classmates.
April 8, 2010
It's a start....
After months of procrastination and indecision, I have FINALLY begun my first quilt!!!! I am really excited about it! There is so much inspiration out there for modern quilting and I become obsessed with these fabulous quilts that are being made. I really really want to make some fabulous quilts of my own, but I'm so scared of messing up or not having it turn out perfect, that I've had "stage fright" for a while now. But I came to the conclusion that A quilt (perfect or not) is better than NO quilt! Right?!?! So I've decided to keep this first one very simple. It's going to be a "stacked coin" baby (or lap) quilt and instead of using my best fabric, I'm using fabric from a charm pack I bought a long time ago at a quilting store with my mom. I'm not familiar with the designer, but the fabric is decent enough and is in bright, summery colors. (Califon by Mark Lipinski). My main concern is to not completely destroy it. So far, so good. I've cut the square charms into rectangles and sewed 4 rows of 15 blocks so far. Now all thats left is the (really) hard part of figuring what sashing and borders and (God help me) binding to use, and then sewing all that together. The binding is what scares me the most....I've read books and tutoriasl about it, and had my mom explain it to me over the phone, but when I actually tried to do it on a pillow, it was a disaster and I ended up not using binding at all. So. I'm really just trying to focus on getting through the process of it all and not worrying about how good everything turns out; I just need the learning experience. It is SO HARD for me though! I've never considered myself a perfectionist.........okay well maybe I have. It's just so frustrating when you're learning a craft like this and you KNOW perfection is not expected the first few go 'rounds........ohhhh but I want it so bad!!!! Patience is NOT one of my virtues. :-( But anywho, without further adeu, here is the beginning of my first quilt!!! I plan to call it "summer splash". I think its fitting enough. Any ideas or thoughts about colors for sashing, border, etc are appreciated!!
These are the fabrics I'm using. They were 5'' squares that I just cut in half. I wanted to do a rainbow sort of thing with having all the same coordinating colors grouped together, but the fabric didn't allow for that, so I ended up decided to have one strip be a rainbow progression and the rest of the strips be random, sort of like creating order from chaos.....so philiosphical, I know :-p
Here's my calming, rainbow strip.
And now here's all the stips sewed together. I decided for the sake of randomness and moderness to put the rainbow strip in the middle....but I dont know if it would look better on one of the ends.....still trying to decide. Miss indecsion here. Anyone have an opinion? :-p
Can't wait to see how it turns out!!
These are the fabrics I'm using. They were 5'' squares that I just cut in half. I wanted to do a rainbow sort of thing with having all the same coordinating colors grouped together, but the fabric didn't allow for that, so I ended up decided to have one strip be a rainbow progression and the rest of the strips be random, sort of like creating order from chaos.....so philiosphical, I know :-p
Here's my calming, rainbow strip.
And now here's all the stips sewed together. I decided for the sake of randomness and moderness to put the rainbow strip in the middle....but I dont know if it would look better on one of the ends.....still trying to decide. Miss indecsion here. Anyone have an opinion? :-p
Can't wait to see how it turns out!!
March 31, 2010
What's For Dinner?
A miracle happened in my kitchen yesterday. I followed a recipe I found in a magazine...it wasn't even the magazine's recipe, it was an advertisement for tomato sauce. Well anyways, I decided to make it, even though I was skeptical, because it seemed strange to me. But I thought, "what the hell, I'll give it a try." And I am so glad I did because it was so good, and relatively simple to make. Luis loved it and dubbed it my "best ever". And that's saying something. Now I have a decent thing to make the next time (first time) we invite someone over for dinner!
Chicken Rollatini
3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I used the thinly-sliced breasts)
1 pkg Genoa salami slices
1 pkg provolone cheese slices
18 asparagus spears, trimmed
1 jar tomato sauce (I used Classico Spicy Tomato and Basil)
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1. Preheat oven to 350. Halve each chicken breast and pound to 1/4 inch thick. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Place 1 salami slice, 1 cheese slice and 3 asparagus spears in the center of each chicken breast. Roll up and secure with a wooden toothpick.
3. Spread some tomato sauce in a baking dish (11x7 or so). Place chicken rolls in the dish, and cover with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with shredded cheese.
4. Bake, uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes or until cooked through.
5. Enjoy! It looks so pretty when you cut into it! And tastes great!
Chicken Rollatini
3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I used the thinly-sliced breasts)
1 pkg Genoa salami slices
1 pkg provolone cheese slices
18 asparagus spears, trimmed
1 jar tomato sauce (I used Classico Spicy Tomato and Basil)
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1. Preheat oven to 350. Halve each chicken breast and pound to 1/4 inch thick. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Place 1 salami slice, 1 cheese slice and 3 asparagus spears in the center of each chicken breast. Roll up and secure with a wooden toothpick.
3. Spread some tomato sauce in a baking dish (11x7 or so). Place chicken rolls in the dish, and cover with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with shredded cheese.
4. Bake, uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes or until cooked through.
5. Enjoy! It looks so pretty when you cut into it! And tastes great!
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