What's Important Right Now - January

I have lately been so caught up in telling all about my latest travel experiences (Skywalker Ranch, anyone?) that I have not stopped to write about the things that are happening in my real life and taking up space in my heart and mind. 

And I know I always tell you that some things are "not important right now," so I decided to share things that are important to me right now. 

With that in mind, here's what's happening in The Present Participle World of Marta for January 2015. (I know you care.)

Loving our brand new mattress. Yes. It was time and we finally bit the bullet and now our bed is The Most Comfortable Bed Ever. We painted our bedroom yellow months ago and all of this is making me super happy. Mostly because I'm sleeping better, but that's not important right now.

Working on some custom orders and some new designs to add to my Etsy shop, Marta Darby Designs. You have one of my Cuban Food Posters already, right?

Delighting in the beauty and fun (and work!) that is our 5 month old grandson, Asher. Grateful to Adam and Alysha for so graciously sharing him with us.

Reading Yes Please by Amy Poehler. Getting inspired, laughing out loud and hating her potty-mouth all at once.

Trying lots of new Pinterest recipes which is making my family love me oh, so much. Lots of keepers. Follow my I *Heart* Food or Cuban Food boards if you're so inclined.

Watching the old Batman TV series with Eric and Jonathan and seriously loving the cheesiness of the acting and dialog. Also, yes, as a matter of fact, we do keep those lights in here all year round.

Supporting our son, Jonathan as he continues to pursue his acting career. 

photo credit: DanShalaby.com

Missing my daughter, Amy who is still doing life in Miami. She hilariously shares photos of the Cuban food that she's enjoying in order to entice me to visit soon. (It might just work.)

Celebrating a day off together with my husband and kids at Disneyland. Those days are few and far between lately which makes them that much more delicious.

 

Procrastinating on making dinner tonight because I may or may not be spending too much time on Pinterest pinning some Really Really Fabulous Dinner Ideas That I Must Try Immediately, but that's not important right now. 

What about you? What are you doing that's important right now?

A Red Letter Day

In looking to review the things I have not blogged about, particularly parties from this year, I came across the photos we took last year at Christmas. And in keeping with my theme of Oversharing About My Parties Week, and since it's December, I thought I'd actually share some holiday party stuff from last year. (Because I'm usually crazy-busy in December, I don't always take the time to write all the details of what I have done, and I know some of you may find it interesting.)

So, you know how I'm completely enamored of all kinds of banners and flags and hanging festive things?

Last year I had a brainstorm. Of course, I blame Pinterest. (Which, by the way, you can follow me there if my creative process interests you in any way.)

I found a banner. Made of words. Which brings together two of the things I love most in the world: banners and letters.

My Vision

I purposed to hang magical banners made of red letters spelling out the lyrics to Christmas carols, which would then hang magically overhead and so elevate the mood and make everyone happy.

But first, of course, I set about trying to uncover the mystery of how such a thing could be achieved. 

The Silhouette

Enter the Silhouette Portrait. It's a wonderful and beautiful personal die-cutting device. (Who knew there was such a thing?) 

Full disclosure:

No, Silhouette is not sponsoring this post in any way (oh, how I wish they were!)

1. I bought the aforementioned Silhouette Portrait 2 weeks before Christmas (much to my family's chagrin) specifically with this project in mind.
2. I knew nothing about how to make the miracle letters appear, but my research told me that this was the right tool for the job.
3. So I read the instructions, tentatively connected it to my computer and attempted my first letter. 

I felt like I had discovered fire.

Trotting excitedly over to Hobby Lobby, I grabbed every sheet of red cardstock I could find. I wasn't really sure how many Red Letter Christmas Carol Lyric Banner Things (what should I call these?) I was going to produce, but I also knew that I was going to "go big or go home."

I was all in.

Making the Banners

And so it began. I recruited my family to help tape the letters to fishing line to create the word banners. I know. Just tape. That sounds so anti-climatic doesn't it? I wouldn't have minded using twine, but the fishing line was nearly invisible, making the Red Hanging Letter Things (too wordy?) that much more magical. Of course, we listened to Christmas music as we worked. That goes without saying.

We taped from the back of the letters to the front, over the fishing line.

If you looked really closely, you could see the tape, but it wasn't like anyone was likely to be scrutinizing the miracle we had just created.

Then we - and when I say, "we," I mean, Eric and the kids - started hanging Red Christmas Carol Lyric/Word Banners (too much?) all over the house, much to my everlasting delight.

We had strung white lights across our living room and hung the Red Letter Banner Things (too subtle?) from them. They were completely lightweight and so that worked well.

I kept trying to take a photo that would do justice to the seriously breathtakingness (is that a word?) of the Red Word/Lyric Thingies (I don't even know anymore). I couldn't ever quite capture it.

But I kept trying. Look how cool and inviting my home looked from outside.

And when I say all over the house, I mean all the way from the front room (as you enter) all throughout the dining room and all the way into the back of our faux room (canvas wrapped around our patio cover) in the back. 

I kept wandering back and forth from room to room, repeating out loud like a mental patient, "Isn't it magical?" 

(By the way, this process takes no more than one minute, because as you know, our home is freakishly small cottage-like.)

To which I answered myself, "Yes, it truly is magical."

I was completely in love with how everything looked and I decided that having Red Christmas Lyric Banners (?) hanging over our heads made our Noche Buena (Cuban Christmas Eve) that much more beautiful, magical, and oh, so special. 

That, and the intoxicating smell of roasted pork wafting through the house put everyone in a kind of Cuban "let's party like rockstars" haze, but that's not important right now.

Celebrating Gratitude

In my family of origin we have the custom of always sending out invitations to events that people already know about and are coming to anyway. Welcome to our own special brand of crazy.

Thanksgiving is always on the 4th Thursday of November. My sisters and I are pretty much in constant discussion for weeks ahead of the party. Who will bring what? Who is coming? How many? All those details that I'm pretty sure everyone's family discusses before major events.

Now, having all this information, we dial up the planning to include invitations to the people we already know are coming. Like I said, our own special brand of crazy. But it's our crazy and we like it.

I have also been one-upping myself every year when it comes to setting the tables and creating the atmosphere for the last few Thanksgiving celebrations. Here are the links: 

Styling a Quick and Easy DIY Thanksgiving and The Cuban Hipster Thanksgiving.

I went to Pinterest (where I spend way to much time collecting inspiration and if you don't already, you should totally be following me, but that's not important right now) and found an invitation design I liked well enough to copy in my own fashion.

Also, I've been throwing a lot of parties every month for the past few months that I haven't even written about. (Imagine!) I think I'll just have to write about all of that now that I have time to sit down before the Cuban Christmas Crazy begins around here.

I am now officially declaring that this first week of December will be:

Over-Sharing About My Parties Week. (It has to be done.)

Let the Over-sharing begin!

The Invitations

Here's my preliminary sketch:

Here's the finished invitation:

I was quite pleased with how they turned out. Also, if you care about these things, the fonts I used were Market Deco and Thirsty Script, thankyouverymuch.

So, I sent out the invitations the first week of November and everyone who was able to attend responded happily. We only had 20 this year because the people who usually travel, didn't this year and the ones who trade off holidays with other families went elsewhere. It felt more intimate than usual.

If you can technically call a sit down dinner for 20 intimate. Hello? It's a Cuban thing.

Paper Chain Garlands

I know. What??

Paper Chain Garlands. I became kind of enamored with paper chain garlands this year. You know, like the kind you used to make in school out of construction paper? Only in 2014, scrapbooking is a thing and there are a bizzillion choices for decorative papers.

For my color scheme, I chose oranges and purples, with touches of green and teal blue.

And in case you've forgotten, here's how to make paper chain garlands:

1. Cut strips of paper into 8" x 1 1/2" strips.
2. Create a loop and close it with tape, overlapping just the ends.
3. Link the next paper strip into the first loop, again closing with tape and overlapping just the ends. 
4. The finished chain is determined by how much paper and effort you want to put into it.

I recruited the fam and we created and hung yards of chains in less than an hour. As you can see, I hung the Give Thanks banner we made last year. Before we even got to decorating tables the place already had a really festive air. 

The Tables

When I'm entertaining in my freakishly small cottage-like home, we usually have to move furniture to fit the tables into my front room. We're getting so pro at this, I swear. 

We remove two big armchairs, the coffee table, a side table and lamp to make room for the two 8 foot long tables we put together to seat 14. Our regular dinner table seats 6. If we have more guests we "create" a room in the back, but that's another story. Because we only had 20, we were able to host everyone in one room. (Yay!)

I was originally going to use burlap tablecloths that I found online from a place that will remain nameless because when we opened up the package it reeked of petrolium. I decided to address that problem at another time and just pulled out my classic white tablecloths (which I have in multiple sizes, but again, not important right now) and grabbed some beautiful runners from Pier One. 

I used gold chargers for the base, my most favorite white dishes from Pier 1. They're called Antique Scroll and I have been collecting a few every few weeks until I had at least 14 to set the big table with. These are everyone's favorites and because they're white I tend to get lots of great mileage from them.

Once the gold chargers and dishes were in place, it seemed purple cloth napkins were ideal to pull off the look. 

I designed menu cards to be used as napkin holders. Mostly because I did a version of them for an event last month for a completely different group. I'll blog about that one later this week. All that to say that the whole menu-cards-as-napkin-holder-thing made me really happy, so I decided to use it again.

I created them in Photoshop, using the Market Deco font from the invitation and the cute silverware graphic. 

I was not in charge of the menu at all this year so we went with a very traditional all-American menu with a few add ons. 

I printed the menus on cream cardstock and cut them in half horizontally. We folded, taped the back, and slid the napkins and silverware in each one. I liked how striking it all looked. 

The place cards were simple. Everyone's names in the Thirsty Script Font with the fork-knife-spoon graphic to the side. These were also printed on cream cardstock. (I do all the printing on my home color printer, an Epson Artisan.)

On the smaller table I used some beautiful square white plates (that totally match my other plates except for they are square!) that I found at Home Goods. (Win!)

For the centerpieces, I grabbed a few bouquets of fall flowers from Costco and hastily (read, "sloppily") trimmed and put them into gold and silver vases and threw some eucalyptus leaves down and called it good. (Don't look too closely at the centers. I have other skills, I swear.)

 The overall effect felt elegant and warm. The paper chain garlands added a whimsical touch. Very much the effect I wanted.

The Meal

We had two turkeys. One roasted, one barbecued. Both crazy-delicious.

The sides were the usual suspects. I love using the disposable chafing dishes to keep the food hot. Not as pretty as serving dishes, but when you're feeding a hungry crowd they seriously appreciate the meal served hot.

The Photo Booth

Our dear neighbor (and fabulous photographer), Rafael always generously lends us his photo-booth-making gear and we set that up in Jonathan's room with a white sheet for a background. 

Then we march each person, family, couple, kids, whoever, in front of the camera and let the magic happen. 

While informal candids will always have their place in our celebrations, I usually have a very low-light situation in the dining area, so the photo booth setup gives us the photos we are wanting with the people we care about. We have so much fun taking turns having our silliness documented forever.

Also, it's becoming more difficult for me to host and document. The photo booth takes care of that for me. Thanks to Lucy for making it happen every year.

Plus, my mom, Luza (yes, she's 100!) totally gets into this part of the evening because she gets to spend at least a few moments with each and every person present.

Yet another way to track the growth of the kids. All of them.

Me and my grandson, Asher. *sigh*

I'm extremely grateful that I have to get to do all of this work to celebrate the gratitude I feel for all the good things in my life. 

What a gift.

Making My Summer Bright with Pier 1

It's 90 degrees here in our little corner of Southern California and I know it's only May, but this weather is making me sooo ready for summer. 

As I mentioned before, we have been in serious remodel mode around here. Read about that here:

Where There Is Life, There Will Be a Mess

And now that the painting is complete, everything else that we had outside is looking a little old and shabby. Not in a cool, shabby-chic way, either. See what I mean?

I started with the question: What do we actually do on our front porch? 

Actually, we spend a lot of time there.

It only gets a tiny bit of setting sunlight because of it's north facing position, so we can sit out there comfortably pretty much any time of the day. Eric sits out there when he's working from home and catching up on phone calls.

We love to sit out there together in the late afternoon and do the recap of our day together with some iced tea. (Or maybe some Cuban Materva or a cafecito, but that's not important right now.)

Also, my next door neighbor and dear friend, Debbie comes over just to chat and catch up on the events of the week. This usually happens on a Saturday morning, with a cup of coffee. We call it our "Porch Time." It feels very comfortably Cuban in an old-school "portál" way.

So, now that the old wooden beams are torn down and the house is painted a sunny yellow, I felt like we needed to give some love to our Front Porch/Patio area.

Enter Pier 1 Imports. I had already been thinking and looking for inspiration for how to make our paito more colorful, which in 2014 means pinning ideas to Pinterest, of course.

I know. I know. Pinterest World has a wonderful element of perfection to it, which is both overwhelming and wonderful. I've always been the tear-stuff-I-like-out-of-magazines-for-inspiration type, so I like to spend time really thinking about what it is I want to do and what feeling I'm trying to evoke and then I start pinning away. 

(Also, if you don't already follow me, please consider this your official invitation to follow me on Pinterest. Thank you.)

I knew I wanted lots of color. Bright, happy, vivid, summer colors. Like there's always a party going on out on my porch. You're already catching my vision, aren't you?

I've been pinning my bright, happy, vivid, summer color on the following Pinterest board: Pier 1 Outdoor Oasis. 

Allow me to share a bit of that inspiration:

I fell in love with this beautiful wicker collection called Coco Cove. I like that it's a dark, chocolate brown, which will make the super bright pillows and cushions I plan to add pop just that much more. 

I loved that little ceramic end table thing. I found this one at Pier 1 in red and also in green. Once I decide on the cushions for the furniture, I can make a better decision about the color, I think. Although...hello...RED!

I'm shopping online for this one and having it delivered because, well, can you picture me wrapping my chubby little arms around this beauty? I thought not. Yay for online shopping. Thanks, Pier 1!

So I pinned photos of outdoor spaces and found they all had tons of color in them. "Hmm..." I said to myself. (because I often speak to myself in thoughtful tones, but that's not important right now) "I'm obviously on to something here."

I probably should have just said, "You're sooo predictable." (Of course, I'm attracted to color. Hello! Cuban!)

Pier 1 Imports is totally speaking my language. They have tons of bright and colorful made-for-Marta items.

Not really sure where or how I'd hang these lanterns, but aren't they fabulous? I took a vow I'd find a way to work at least one into my decor.

Also, I'm thinking I need a table of some sort for our coffee cups or iced tea (or Materva). We don't really eat out there, but a table is a necessary thing for Porch Time, don't you agree? 

I found that in the original Coco Cove Collection that I was first drawn to there was a small ottoman that could double as a table if I added a tray to the top. Win! (Can you just feel my creative wheels turning?)

I'm going with Bright (!), but there's something for every taste in the stores. 

So, I'm pinning, and visiting my local Pier 1, and shopping online to create a beautfully bright summer place. I promise I'll share The Big Reveal next week. 

Hurry, Summer! 

Disclosure: This is a compensated campaign campaign in collaboration with Pier 1 Imports and Latina Bloggers Connect. The opinions are all my own.

Where There is Life, There Will Be a Mess

My preference, when I'm blogging or sharing anything online is to show you the fun aspects of my life. (Thankfully, there are many.) But, of course, my life is not clean and shiny and perfect all the time.

Especially right now.

We are in the throes of fixing up our sweet little home. We've torn down the rotting wooden beams from the front of our built-in-the-1970s freakishly small cottage-like house. The you're-taking-your-life-in-your-hands-if-you-step-out-there crumbling balcony is completely gone. It has been replaced by a beautiful (and safe!) paned window.

Our construction crew, led by our good friend, Cuco is hard at work doing the re-stuccoing on the back of the house, while a couple of the other guys are bricking the front pillars. Also, wouldn't 'Cuco and the Guys' make a great hipsters band name? (Welcome to my crazy.)

So I'm sitting here, patiently (and impotently) "Pinning" house painting and window trim ideas on Pinterest, (Where you're welcome to follow me, of course) all the while fighting a losing battle against clouds of dust that are quickly settling on every surface. My bedroom has fresh new drywall and everything but our bed is covered with plastic. What a mess!

As all this crazy messiness is swirling around me, I'm reminded of something I often say to my family:

"Where there is life, there will be a mess."

I say this to my kids all the time. Usually in an effort to dissuade them (and myself) from perfectionism. Believe me, with all the stuff I do, there's always the temptation to channel my Inner Perfectionist. She likes everythihg in its place and clean. In fact, she would prefer it if the people who live here would not actually, you know...live. (I promise you, she's not very pleasant to be around.)

But here's the truth - As long as there are people living here, there will always be piles of dirty dishes and laundry. There will always be unmade beds and things left out of place. There will be kicked off shoes in the living room and towels hung on doorknobs.

I have learned to embrace those things because the messes we live with declare loudly: THERE IS LIFE HERE!

When my home is pretty and painted I'll post some fun look-at-my-pretty-house pictures. But until then I am embracing the messy and the crazy that is my life today and living my sweet, messy, charmed life without pretending.

And I'm thanking God for every messy-crazy-awesome minute of life.

"To LIFE!" ~Tevye. Fiddler on the Roof

The Cuban Hipster Thanksgiving

When I host family or friends for a big, elaborate dinner, my delight is in designing the tablescapes.

My job, as I see it, is to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere, but not get too hung up on making things so department-store-perfect that it feels too cold and impersonal. It's fun for me to set a pretty table. It's much more fun to make the people who come into my home feel that they are truly welcome.

Originally, I wanted real chalkboard tablecloths so that we could write on them or play tic-tac-toe or whatever. My daughter, Amy Kikita and I spent a good long time on Pinterest, getting ideas and pinning inspiration. (If you're on Pinterest and you're not already following me, you totally should! Here's my link.)

We found that a roll of chalkboard cloth was a bit too pricey, so we attempted to paint sections of kraft paper with chalkboard paint. The result was not at all satisfying.

I ended up going with a 50 foot roll of black, glossy paper that I found at Hobby Lobby that we then cut and pieced together to cover the tables. We used Simply Tacky to hold them in place.

(Note: They just opened a Hobby Lobby in our area code recently and I am super inspired every time I go in there. They have everything! Who knew?)

I was originally going to tag the glasses with each person's name because it's super important to me that everyone has their place at the table, so place cards are always at the top of my list. Amy suggested we just paint "plate circles" and write their names right on the chalkboard tablecloth paper. Genius.

I used one of my plates as a guide and just drew a circle at each place, then wrote in the person's name in the center. I used White Chalk Markers which dried quickly and looked really fun and friendly. So here we were on our way to the most Hipstery Thanksgiving ever.

I didn't worry too much about making the circles perfect, as you can see.

On each table for the centerpieces, I put the silverware and napkins in caddies and dropped the forks, knives, and spoons in mason jars with tags to finish off the cool look.

I had 32 people here. THIRTY-TWO. Of course, we had to move furniture to fit them all into our freakishly small cottage-sized home.

I had three tables set. One was our regular dining table which seats six. The second was actually created by putting two eight foot long tables together which seated fourteen. (We had to move furniture out of our living room to do this, but that's not important right now. Did I mention my house was freakishly small?) And my beautiful farm table, which lives outside on the patio, seated twelve. The kids were seated alongside the adults. No kids table for them this time.

I added some succulents in baskets next to the caddies. And added a gratitude quote in a decorative mini picture frame. We cut some branches from the green belt across the street and added those for color and texture. So hipster, no?

We set out the tall altar candles (I picked them up at our local Target store). We put the napkins in tin buckets and tea lights in mini mason jars and tin cans. Tin cans, people! I actually washed out tin cans to use on my table!

I was worried my mother was going to have a stroke when she saw this whole set up, but she was delighted and amazed at how elegant the whole thing looked in spite of the simple (read "barbarian") touches. (Win!)

There were two (!) turkeys and lots of delicious sides and plenty of desserts. I opted for just a plain white cloth for the food table and made the chalkboard menu board the focal point to keep with my chalkboard theme.

My family came early and stayed late. And there was sooo much food left over, as there always is. We Cubans are "exajerados" when it comes to food, am I right? (I'm right.)

So, I had made sure everyone was able to take home some leftovers. I ordered the take out boxes from an online supply place and added chalk tags.

 The consensus was that a good time was had by all. Even the not-so-hipsters.

Everyone Should Have a Giant Chalkboard

Back at the beginning of the summer I had the opportunity to host a big birthday bash. It was a joint birthday party for my sister, Helen who would be turning 70 and my daughter, Amy Kikita who was going to be 29.

Because we entertain so often, we have tons of dishes and silverware and vases and cups and tablecloths and all the sorts of things to be found when entertaining is a high priority. When we decide to host a party, I assess my inventory, pull out my sketchbook and let the ideas flow.

I start by making the folowing lists:

• Guests
• Colors
• Menu
• Invitations
• Decorations

And then I start gathering ideas. By the way, this is why God invented Pinterest. I'm on there and you are welcome to follow me, but that's not important right now.

So there I was scouring Pinterest and getting inspiration and I noticed certain things that happen to be trending right now: 1) flags and 2) chalkboards. I got to the point where pretty much all I could think of was how I might incorporate flags and a chalkboard into the decorating. (You're mocking me, aren't you?) My daughter, Amy Kikita suggested that she might like black and white for a color scheme. I deferred to her because, well, it was her party, after all. Plus she suggested black. And you know what's black?

I made the decision not to sew. Mostly from a lazy standpoint because I didn't feel like hauling out my sewing machine (don't judge me). So I designed some patterned flags in Photoshop and printed them out on a color printer and attached them to twine and when I say "I," I mean Eric.

My husband is a pretty smart guy and he did the math and figured out how many flags we would need to cover all the surfaces I pointed out. He did the tedious work of measuring and attaching hundreds of flags to the twine and also hung them all through the house. And because my home is pretty colorful, I decided to use red as the accent color.

Which then gave me the theme: Black and White and Red All Over. (I thought it was kind of genius, but that's not important right now, either.)

Now that I had a theme to work with, the decorating was pretty simple. Black and white tablecloths, flags hung everywhere, and red roses on the tables. Simple, fun, and a little elegant, too. Win!

What's also black, you may ask? A Giant Chalkboard, that's what.

Lucy is taking theater production classes in college and knows how to build stuff.

Me: "Can you create a giant chalkboard?"

Lucy: "Yes, ma'am."  *Mom does happy dance*

(No, I was not exploiting her. I just figured she could use the practice. Shut up.)

Here's Lucy building walls with her power tools and giving Jon commands while my mom presides over the entire business.

So Lucy (with Jonathan's help) built a giant wall which she then primed and painted with chalkboard paint.

Ta-da! GIANT CHALKBOARD!

It was a pretty impressive set up, if I do say so myself. And now we had a GIANT CHALKBOARD! It made me crazy-happy.

When the guests arrived we had them go out to the GIANT CHALKBOARD for photos, which looked something like this...

And this...

And this...

How much fun is this, people??

We were sad that Adam couldn't be here because he lives so far away, but we included him anyway. ;-)

We fed our guests Cuban style Fricasé de Pollo. You can find that recipe here. And yes, that's a giant tray of maduros. (For the win.)

There was a ton of food, festive decorations, everyone was happy, and a good time was had by all.

Did I mention that we now owned a GIANT CHALKBOARD? 8 feet by 8 feet of Awesome.

What else could we possibly use it for? For me, the question was really, "What can't we use it for?"

*the mind reels*

Yay! Improv night!

I am seriously in love with my GIANT CHALKBOARD.

And the flags? The beautiful black-and-white-and-red-all-over flags? Well, I left them up, too, for a few weeks because, well, I could. And they just made our everyday life pretty festive.

I love that my husband has just learned to roll with it. After 20 years he knows better than to argue about these things.

Because GIANT CHALKBOARD + decorative flags = a happy wife. Happy wife = Happy life.

I told you he was smart.