What I Want Wednesday!

So I was perusing a few websites/blogs the other night and found this esty seller Englady who sells the most beautiful jewelry. She has vintage inspired pieces for the classic lady, and I love it!!! So if your interested take a peek at her site and see what she's got!!!

Englady

Here are just a few things that caught my eye...

Fly Away - Sterling Silver Birdcage with Gold Sparrow Necklace

Honeybee & Whiskey Quartz Necklace - Sterling Silver

Lodon Blue Topaz & Gold Lotus Blossom Necklace

I may just purchase them all!

Note: This esty seller is not paying me etc. to advertise this for her, I just liked what I saw and thought I should share. Happy Shopping!! =)

A Valentines Day Nostalgia!!!

As part of our Valentines Day Fernan decided to buy tickets to the symphony. I have never been to the symphony nor had he, so we were really looking forward to this. Last night we went to the symphony for the first time. Now I was not too sure what to expect, but I have a great deal of love for music and figured it would be something I would really enjoy. Can I just say that I... LOVE IT!! This is so different from listening to classical music, I love how you can feel the emotion in the music and how you can imagine what you want from it. How you can feel the sadness, the excitement, the love etc. in it. I loved watching the musician with there instruments, the conductor, and the mezzo soprano as she sang periodically. I have also wanted to watch an opera and after going to the symphony, it has only made me long to go to an opera even more. The great thing about last nights show was that all the proceeds will be donated to the Walenstein Musical Organization in an effort to rebuild the New Victorian School and music conservatory in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The school was destroyed when the earthquake shook Haiti. http://www.thenewvictorianschool.org/.

During Intermission

Photo taken by my Blackberry Smart Phone
Sun., February 21, 2010 at 8:00 pm at the Lincoln Theatre

Program

A Valentine's Day Nostalgia

Friday, February 21, 2010

Licoln Theatre, Miami Beach

I

SERGEI PROKOFIEV

ROMEO & JULIET (Selections from the Ballet)
Introduction / The Duke's Decree / The Young Girl Juliet

Masks / Dance of the Knights / Public Merrymaking

The Duel / Romeo resolves to avenge Mercutio's Death

Tybalt's Funeral Cortege / Juliet's Room

Juliet's Funeral / Juliets Death

II

MANUEL DE FALLA

EL AMOR BRUJO (Ballet 1925)

Introduction and Scene / In Cave -Night-time

Song of a Broken Heart/ The Apparition -Dance of Terror

The Magic Circle / The Spells / Ritual Fire Dance (to drive away the evil spirits)

Scene / Song og the Will-o-the-Wisp / Panto,ime

Dance of the Game of Love / Final: The Bells of Dawn

GEORGES BIZET

CARMEN (Selections from the Opera)

Prelude / Aragonaise / Habanera / Les Toreadors /Chanson Boheme

Mabel Ledo - Mezzo-Soprano

Eduardo Marturet - Conductor

My Valentines Day Cookies

For the past several holidays I have attempted to make/bake sugar cookies from scratch. I have attempted several recipe's and finally found one that I liked best, but I have never gone full circle with these cookies. They have been baked and eaten, but never decorated. My first attempt at baking cookies was for the Thanksgiving/Fall holiday. I decided to bake some fall leaf cookies, but had no idea where to begin when it came to decorating.

Fall/Thanksgiving Cookies

Then I baked some Christmas holiday cookies and attempted to decorate a Christmas tree cookie cutout. I made the royal icing from scratch and well it tasted good, but ended up being quite a big mess. Sorry I have no pictures of the disaster (lol).

My sister-in-law (Taty) suggested that I buy the easy, already made icing, from Wilton...so I did. Can I just say that my Valentines Day cookies were the first successful cookies I decorated, because I cheated!!! They weren't the most nicely decorated cookies, but nonetheless they were decorated!!! I definitely felt accomplished, but still couldn't help the feeling that I had cheated. Why did I feel this way? Well because I did not literally make the icing myself or from scratch. All I have to say is my battle with royal icing is not over yet, so stay tuned because this is a battle I plan to win. Happy Baking!!!

My Valentines Day Cookies

Happy Valentines Day!

Vintage Keys

A few days ago I ordered these vintage keys from Pottery Barn.

Have I mentioned how much I love love love vintage keys????

I think I am a little obsessed!

I love how they are nested amongst these frames! Beautiful, just beautiful!!

Anyhow, my husband had brought home one of the PB catalogues in hopes that I would find something we could purchase using a gift card we had received as a wedding gift a year prior. I know what you are thinking...how could you have a gift card for so long and not use it? I apparently get that a lot, and I apparently do that a lot...you know hold on to gift cards for a year or so. I don't have an answer for you as to why I do this, but all I can say is I am sure glad my husband brought that catalogue home and that we were able to find something in it.

When they arrived...I was jumping for joy!

I couldn't just order 1 box of seven keys, no I had to order two of them.

So I know have 14 vintage keys!

Whoo-hoo!!!

I sure am glad I ordered these babies!!! As many of you know I live in an apartment in which I refuse to decorate to the potential that I would like to. Why you ask? Well because I refuse to spend any money on the apartment that I only plan on living in temporarily. I would much rather save the money, and spend it decorating our future home/house. I am now entering my second year living in my wonderful little apartment, and I am starting to get antsy in my decorating pants. Aside from that I just could not pass these beauties up!

My wonderful husband hanging up our new keys!

I did say I had 14 keys and I only hung up 8 keys. What am I going to do with the remaining 6? Well I had a thought... perhaps I will attempt at creating some type of wind chime like this picture below.

We will see how that goes...

The i-Pad is finally here!

Several months ago I wrote about Mac coming out with something new, something that looked like a giant i-phone. Well it's finally here!

Let me introduce to you ....The i-pad!!!!

You can pre-order one of these babies on March 12th, but they will be here April 13th for only $499.00. Now I promise you apple is not paying me to advertise this, I just love apple and think this gadget is pretty cool and thought I should share.

http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Chicago...Part 2

So Fernan and I decided to take a little getaway as an anniversary gift to ourselves. I love get-a-ways no matter how long or short they are. We had so many places to choose from and believe me it was hard to choose, especially after weighing the pros and cons as to where we should go. We finally decided and Chicago it was. I had never been to Chicago, but Fernan always rants and raves about what a great city Chicago is. I loved it, and would would like to visit again in the future when the temperature is a bit warmer to see what some of the attractions look like without all the snow. I know now why the call it the "Windy City" burrr!!! Anyhow we had a great time and we were reluctant enough to spend some time with my cousin (Jackie) who is living over there for the time being. She was kind enough to pick us up from the airport and save us some cab fare. Thanks Jackie!! My only disappointment was that we were not able to do the sky deck tour, due to lack of visibility all weekend long! Even if we did have visibility I am sure I would have been a little freaked out to step out on to the sky deck ledge, I guess I will never know until we visit again. Other than that small little weather snafu we had a great time and love our get-a-ways together!!! Happy Anniversary Honey I love ju!

Chicago's Sky Deck...the one thing we did not get to do, because of lack of visibility!

Perhaps now you can see why I would have been freaked out if we had actually gotten to do it.

Some Pictures from our Trip

Chicago's Famous Deep Dish Pizza!!!

brr...

The Adler Planetarium

Cloud Gate / The Bean

Ice Skating @ McCormick Tribune Plaza

View our entire album from our trip to Chicago:

Click here to view these pictures larger

Chicago...Part I

I remember sitting in my social psychology class in college and learning about how people always remember the negative events more than they do the positive ones. The reason being is that impressions are influenced more by negative traits than by positive traits. This is called negative effect and the best way to explain it; is that negative traits are more unusual and therefore are more distinctive, and because there distinctive we tend to remember them (Taylor et al.). With that said I will now begin to explain why I have even brought up this whole topic and what it has to do with Chicago. After spending four wonderful days in the Windy City, reality hit and all good things must come to an end. I really was not looking forward to our flight home, considering how turbulent and frightful our flight going there was. After 2 hours of being up in the air I thought to myself "thank God this is a good flight home", surely I thought/spoke to soon to say the least. I could swear I was in movie. I had never experienced anything like that on a plane! I remember a distinct silence, a peace you could say, one that was interrupted by a screaming woman. A woman shouting for her mother to wake up!!! "Mother wake up...wake up mother...wake up!!!!" She kept repeating and shaking the woman sitting beside her, finally one of the stewardess came to her side to see what was the matter. A few moments later the captain asked for any nurse or doctor on board to come forward and help out with the situation. The whole plane sat in silence as they watched a stewardess and a nurse try to resuscitate her in mid air. I began to pray for this woman that they referred to as Joan, and noticed once I was done that many other people were also praying for her as well. I began to cry because I could hear the pain, panic, and desperation in the daughters voice as she stood over her mother who was now laying on the aisle floor. I could not even begin to imagine what this woman was feeling as I sat and witnessed this entire ordeal. After about 30 minutes we finally landed and paramedics came on board and took the woman to the corridor exiting the plane where they continued to work on her. We were not allowed to leave the plane in order to not disrupt the work of the paramedics. An hour or so later we were allowed to exit the plane with no news as to the woman's condition. Prior to our exit we were constantly being updated on how Joan was doing, now I don't know for sure whether or not the elderly lady survived, but I did hear some airport employee talking amongst themselves about how they worked on her for over an hour and could do no more. I believe this woman passed away. My hope is that she knew the Lord and that her family may find peace in this difficult time. Emotions can have a powerful impact on memories and this is definitely something I will never forget. It is not the only thing I will remember about Chicago, but it is a story that I have told everyone since I have returned.


Maybe my next post will actually be about Chicago, but until then I use this post as a way to pay respect to Joan and my way offering condolences to her family.

Coral Castle

Yesterday was President's Day, and Fernando and I had a much needed day off. Things have been so busy lately, that it is nice to just have a day off where neither one of us has anything to do. So my honey being the great guy that he is, made plans for us to visit the Coral Castle in Homestead. We love museums, art festivals, anything cultural or anything that deals with learning. I guess we are just nerds at heart. This historic place was created by a man named Edward Leedskalnin he created this monument in honor of his lost love Agnes Scuffs. Ms. Scuffs was ten years younger than Mr. Leedsklnin and they were engaged to be married, but Ms. Scuffs broke off the engagement the day before the actual wedding. He built the castle by himself without outside help or machines. He carved and sculpted 1,100 tons of coral rock alone and it took him about 28 year to complete.

I feel bad for Mr. Leedskalnin, because it seems as though he never moved on with his life after Ms. Scuffs. I mean the man dedicated his entire life to create a monument for her and it makes me wonder if he any had hopes that she would return to him after seeing what he had accomplished.

The Entire Castle

The Reading Area

The Florida Table

http://coralcastle.com/

Touchdown Tuesday - Week 19 - Divisional

This is a post I have been dreading to write since football season began back in September. I guess I am just going to come out with it....The Boy's are Out!!! They had a good run while it lasted, but the Dallas Cowboys now know how the Eagles felt when they whooped on them. I say this because the Vikings just did it to them! The Minnesota Vikings whooped the boys 34 -3 in Sunday's game!!! I guess good luck to Farve next week as he plays against the Saints!!! As much as I like Farve, I think I am cheering for the Saints!!!! I have said it from the beginning they are Superbowl worthy and I guess we will just have to wait and see how true that is.

One sad Dallas Fan!

I wonder what Farve is telling him?

Study those plays...

Down for the count...

I always like to think that the guys who point to the sky are giving God the glory!

Yikes!!!

This is one sad picture! Sorry Romo!

The Vikings vs. The Boy's

01/17/10

12-6

Note: Photo Credit to Yahoo Sports / Elsa

Our First Anniversary!!!

I can't believe a year has quickly come and gone. Today a year ago I was walking down an aisle, exchanging vows, and partying my socks off. I wonder does this now mean that just because I am a year in, I am no longer a newlywed? Some may say yes and others may so no, but I say you are a newlywed as long as you like, I guess it really just depends on your attitude and the way you look at it. I am thankful for a wonderful year of marriage and for the all positive and not so positive things that my husband and I may have encountered. I am thankful for him, for who he is, and for all he does. So what do you do on a first year anniversary? Well I like to consider myself a traditional girl, and being so we participated in the tradition of celebrating the first year of marriage by eating our top layer of our year old wedding cake. Now this may sound gross, but quite the contrary its all about how you wrap and store it. My wonderful sister-in-law Taty did a great job with this little project, she must of wrapped in saran wrap 100 times followed by aluminum foil and another 100 layers of saran wrap. Whoever said year old cake is horrible obviously did not store it right. Why so many layers of wrappings you may ask, well the reason is to prevent freezer burn and lock in the freshness. Anyhow the cake tasted great to me and everyone else who had it! I am just glad there was enough for everyone!! We chose to celebrate our actual anniversary date with our family and next week we will celebrate by going on a little trip to Chicago.

Our Year Old Wrapped Up Wedding Cake!

Let the Unwrapping Begin

Not only year old cake, but champagne as well. My Tia Flor saved us a bottle from our actually wedding! Thank You!!!

Cheers to a Great Year & Many Many More!!!

Lets Eat Cake!

Our Family

Non-Pro Pic