My Big Fat Cuban Family is a Cuban-American lifestyle and food blog by Marta Verdes Darby.
You're all invited to my Online Blog Birthday Party. It's happening right here, right now. Well, technically it's not a party party.
As in, I won't be having you all come over to my house and I won't be cooking or decorating or any of that. Which is making you think this won't be much of a party after all. I know. I feel your pain, but bear with me.
Read MoreI first want to thank all of you who have supported my Cuban food poster.
I love every time one of you sends me a photo of your framed poster and when you tell me how much you're enjoying it.
It makes me feel like I'm right in your kitchen with you. (Not in a weird way, of course.)
I've been hearing from many of you that the 16 x 20 size is a little too big for your kitchen, so I'm excited today to announce that you can get this really fun poster for your Cuban kitchen in different sizes. (Yay!)
Here are the new sizes available today:
Here's the link: Cuban Food Poster on Etsy
Order now if you're thinking you may want to get one for Mami for Mother's Day. If you shop now, I can definitely guarantee delivery BEFORE Mother's Day on May 10th.
Or maybe Tia Cuca is still waiting for hers. What are you waiting for?
Gracias! Have fun shopping.
Seriously, people. I read every single one of your comments and I swear that your love for Cuban food shows right through. Thank you all for participating and sharing your favorite foods and your stories behind them.
I'm grateful that you are enjoying my poster. Thank you for that. I love mine. And I figured you'd love it, too.
I wish I could choose all of you, but that's why I can't be trusted with these kinds of decisions. Which is why I go over to random.org and plug the number of (legit) entries into the True Random Number Generator, which then gives me well, random numbers.
The winners of the Cuban Food Posters are (drum roll, please)...
Congratulations! Please send me an email with HEY, MARTA! I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG! in the subject line (so I don't accidentally delete it) and be sure to include your mailing address and I will ship out your posters ASAP.
For those of you who were so patiently waiting and did not win, you still have the option to head on over to my Etsy shop and buy the poster for yourself, or for your Mami, or for your Tia Cuca. She loves this kind of stuff.
Here's the link: Marta Darby Designs
I have two sizes of posters: 16" x 20" and 20" by 30". And also a 16" x 20" wrapped canvas.
Thank you again for participating in my giveaway. I'd so love to see this poster in every single Cuban kitchen.
I've got all this great Happy New Year energy going right now and I have so many stories to tell and I'm going to San Francisco next week to visit Pixar and Skywalker Ranch. I just feel like I want to share the love and happy vibes.
If you were in my town, I'd say, "Hey, come over for dinner. I'll cook you something Cuban." But since that's not likely to happen, how about I just do a Happy New Year Cuban Food (Poster) Giveaway?
Yes. I think it's a wonderful idea.
If you were coming to dinner, I would be torn. What to serve? Check out this poster and just try to make a decision.
Because I look at this one every day in my kitchen, I think I'm going to try to master the art of making Pan Cubano. (See? It's not just cool looking. It's motivational, too.)
So much Cuban food. So little time. *sigh*
I'm going to be giving away Three (3) Cuban Food Posters to 3 lucky winners.
Each 16"x20" poster is unmounted and printed on heavy duty premium luster paper with archival fade-resistant inks.
It looks just like the photo above. Black background with white lettering and some distressing for an aged texture.
To enter the drawing for a chance to win one of the 3 posters, please leave me a comment on this post and tell me...
Leave one comment only, please!
Remember that if you want to enter the drawing for the poster, you must leave a comment on this post and I'll choose THREE winners on Wednesday, January 14th at 11:00 am PST.
Gracias and Buen Provecho!
If you're the impatient type (and you know who you are), my posters are for sale over at my Etsy shop: Marta Maria Designs. the 16"x20" is only $21.00 plus shipping and handling.
I also have a larger size (20"x30") and one (16"x20") on canvas, but that's not important right now.
Buena Suerte and Happy New Year!
I'm super excited to share this with you today.
So, you know that I have that fabulous Cuban Food Poster that I designed last year. I've had such a great response from you that I decided to go ahead and create an Etsy shop (I know. Who am I?) to make it easier for you to buy as many as you want.
For those of you who don't know, Etsy is THE place to shop online for some of the coolest handmade, homegrown, fabulously designed stuff on the web.
And look! Here I am!
And because of this auspicious occasion, I've listed my 16 x 20 Cuban Food Poster (which, I know you've totally been wanting) at a discounted price just in time for Christmas.
It's only $21.00 this week. Just in time for you to get one for every single person in your big, fat, Cuban family to open on NocheBuena.
Here's the link: marta darby designs
I've got lots of other fun things in the works, but right now I'm really excited to get this party started with this fun poster.
"Cuban Food is its own reward." ~Marta Darby
Thank you all for your support. Buen Provecho and Happy Shopping!
Reading through all of your responses to my last post and Cuban poster giveaway, I was blown away by your tender and loving descriptions of the Cuban food we've all been raised on.
This is the language that we speak, isn't it? The language of sofrito and abuelas and cumin and salsa. That was my inspiration when I created my very own Cuban poster - the Comida Cubana Subway Art Poster. I'm so delighted by your overwhelming response to this project.
You are all such an inspiration to me. Also, as we say in "good Cuban," "Me dejaron con la boca cuadrada." (Loosely translated,"You made me so hungry!")
Thank you all for entering my giveaway and congratulations to the 3 winners of the 16" x 20" posters.
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Please send me an email with the subject line: HEY, MARTA! I WON STUFF ON YOUR BLOG! Send me your mailing address so that I can get these cool Cuban posters to you.
I'm sad that all of you couldn't win, however, if you're still intrested in acquiring the poster, here's the info.
The 16" x 20" Comida Cubana Subway Art Cuban Poster is only $24.00 (USD) plus $7.00 shipping and handling. Just click on the BUY NOW button below. Gracias!
My kitchen is, along with the rest of my house, freakishly small cozy and cottage-like. There's barely enough room for one person to turn around in. Having two people in there trying to get a hot meal on the table necessitates some intricate choreography.
I'm truly not complaining. I am glad it's not very big. If it were, I know the messes I make while cooking would be proportional to the space I have, so I'm grateful I have my little kitchen.
I haven't quite yet mastered the art of 'cleaning up as you go.' I must have skipped that particular life skill class, but that's not important right now.
I (boldly) chose to paint my freakishly small cozy and cottage-like kitchen a Tiffany blue, which has a lovely Caribbean feel to it and my accents are black, red, and white. And I had the cabinet doors removed because being easily distracted I like to see what is where at all times.
Anyway, I wanted to put up my own Comida Cubana Cuban Poster in subway art style in the kitchen, but lack of wall space made it quite impossible. What to do?
I came to the realization, kind of in a slow-motion-hey-wait-a-minute moment, that I could just have the same Cuban poster printed a little smaller. In fact, a 16 x 20 size would be ideal for that one corner. (By the way, mine is not framed, although it is very suitable for framing. It is "plaqued." A process that mounts it flush to a stiff wooden backing and covers it with a UV coating, hence the use of the name "plaque." Ask your local frame shop if they offer this.)
Then I thought that maybe those of you who would want to display this type of Cuban poster in your kitchens may have the same that-20x30-size-is-too-big-for-my-kitchen problem. I apologize that it took me so long to realize this.
As my mom would say, "Las cosas del palacio van despacio." (Loosely translated, "you sure took a long time to figure this out for yourself.")
Feeling contrite and generous all at once, I've decided to host my own giveaway today.
If you've been putting off buying this Cuban poster because the 20 x 30 size is a little too big for your kitchen, today's your lucky day. (Well, it's someone's lucky day...)
I'll be giving away three of these 16 x 20 Comida Cubana Subway Art Cuban posters this weekend.
To enter this giveaway, please leave a comment on this post and answer this question:
How easy is that? I'll pick all 3 winners on Monday, July 21st, 2014 at 8pm PST.
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However, if you're impatient (like me) and just want to order your own or send some out as gifts, here's a link for you to do just that. Gracias!
It's been so exciting and busy around here! I've been creating custom subway posters for some really fun people and today I've asked one of them to share their experience and how the poster was received.
First, this is the poster I created for her husband's 50th birthday. Very cool, no?
I'll let Liliana Romero describe the process and the poster in her own words:
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Since the day you posted the Subway Art Posters with the Cuban food names I printed the info and placed it in my “Mami’s Wish List” Folder (I also have your Cookbook there.)
Don’t laugh! I started that folders many years ago and add clippings, torn magazine pages, etc. in it of things I absolutely love (and would love to have for myself one day) although most of the time I end up getting them for someone else, as was the case this time.
This folder also helps my boys (MDE and my two boys) with what they can get Mami. Then the idea came to me that MDE was celebrating his 50th (aka The Big One) in a few weeks and that a personal Subway Art Poster would be a great gift for his office.
I called our boys (one in Atlanta and one in Tallahassee) and together we started working on what would go on his poster. They had to be things that represented MDE and his life. Then the fun part began.
The boys and I went back and forth with ideas on the many words and things we wanted to add to the poster. It was truly inspiring to see all the words the boys would come up to describe their father. I always knew they felt that way, but to actually hear them say it and see it on paper, was very emotional (reaching 50 will do this to you.)
When we finalized the list I placed the order for the poster through your site My Big Fat Cuban Family (painless and effortless). When it came to the space you gave me to fill in what we wanted on the poster, we hit a roadblock. There wasn’t enough space in the section to write everything. Fingers crossed I wrote you a message and hoped you contact me by e-mail so that I can provide you with my full list -and boy was it a list!
You immediately e-mailed me and started working on it.
From the moment I received your e-mail you confirmed what I had felt the first time I found your site My Big Fat Cuban Family and you - I felt I had known you forever. You took a personal interest (somehow I feel this is second nature to you) in making this poster the best gift we could have created for the Birthday Boy, from the content to the symbols to making sure it all worked out on the poster, there was no detail too small for you.
I was also very grateful that you listened to our input when we requested small changes or tweaks. We were really doing this together and that made it even more special. The finished product was perfect and all it needed was a frame, some gift wrapping and a bow, and we were ready!
The night of the surprise both of our boys flew into town and they, along with our family and a few of his closest friends were waiting for us at his favorite restaurant. It was truly a huge surprise for MDE and an unforgettable night for all there.
The highlight of the night was when he tore through the wrapping and saw the poster, and then the boys and I proceeded to tell him why we had chosen those things and what they meant to us. Yes, there were some tears, but all worth it.
Among our top favorites on the poster (too many to name them all) were:
In one word: Espectacular. MDE said he couldn’t have asked for anything more on this special memorable night.
Un millon de gracias Marta.
Sincerely,
Liliana, your Cuban Sister from another Cuban Mister and #1 Fan from South Florida
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I feel so privileged to have been a part of her MDE's big day. Thank you, Liliana for trusting me with creating your special gift! (Also, now I've got the song, "Night and Day" playing in a loop in my head, but that's not important right now.)
If you're looking for a unique one-of-a-kind gift, I'd love to create a Subway Poster for you! I think it would be a very cool Father's Day gift, too.
Here's the link:
Marta Darby Designs - Word Art To Make You Happy
Or if you're not feeling particularly creative, I also have the "Comida Cubana" Cuban Poster.
Because who knows more about WORDS and Cuban Food than us Cubans? I know. We can't help it. It's in our DNA.
My Big Fat Cuban Family is all about my Cuban American life. Enjoy my ramblings on my blog about my Cuban family, Cuban heritage, Cuban culture, Cuban life. And some decent Cuban recipes with pictures, too.
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