Oh Hai

I'm posting again for the first time in four months, and you know what?  I'm not even going to apologize.  Because life happens and it's not even a glamorous life in which so many amazing, exciting opportunities and adventures are going on, that there is simply no time to blog.  It's because work gets busy, or relationships rise and fall, or your inspiration falls flat, because let's face it, I don't live a life worth blogging consistently about on a regular basis.  No one truly does.  Why are there five Kardashian sisters on one show?  Why doesn't Kim or Kendall have their own show?  Because even their lives can't sustain enough footage for a on-going series.

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Weekend Wrap-Up - New Christmas Trends and Thanksgiving at Home

Hello there my lovelies, and any male-folk that happen to stumble onto to my blog.  Last weekend was great.  Amiright?  Four days off and plentiful good food.  Much to be thankful for.

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Head West! Trip to El Paso

Whew!  Last week was a blur.  I spent Labor Day weekend going to El Paso, TX with my parents and sister to attend my grandfather's 80 birthday party.  I stayed a few more days while my family returned to work on Tuesday.  I finally got the chance to see more about my birthplace than in all of my visits before.  I know I look white as a lily, but I'm actually half Mexican through my mother's side.  My Hispanic heritage has taught me a few things; an extremely strong work ethic, the impulse to dance and an innate sense of rhythm, and the importance of family.  We can't always get what we want and we all must suffer from time to time, but family, whether actually related or chosen, makes life worth it. 

Enjoy!

My grandparents, dancing tenderly to the mariachi music.

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Love Letter to My Mom

Once upon a time there was a little girl, brimming with energy and a healthy dose of mischief.  She lived, loved, struggled, and fought.  Eventually she grew to become a beautiful goddess, cleverly disguised as full time computer engineer and mother of three.

Dear Mom,

I have probably never told you this, but there is nothing quiet or subtle in the way that you have always loved me.  Even into my 30s, we still hold hands in public and you continue to kiss me on the lips.

I get teary eyed, sometimes, when I realize the effects on your love because I can see the evidence in newer generations.  In the way that the first grandbaby, my younger sister’s son, hasn't forgotten the little games you play with him.  Even though you both live several states apart.  Picking right up where you last left off.  Your love an indelible mark he will know for the rest of his life, as your own children do.

I marvel that my dog, an adopted blue heeler named appropriately “Lil Mama”, remembers the training you spent hours teaching her, even though we live in separate houses.  Learning to sit and shake, despite not having been a puppy for some time.  Still haunted by the abuse of her former owner, she was initially a little wary of me but you loved her from first sight.  And instinctively she somehow knew you could be trusted.  Yours is a love that conquers all.

You continue to be so smart, so shrewd, and so intelligent.  You double checked and edited all my school papers, corrected my spelling before spell-check was even a thing.  You helped with my math homework showing equal aptitude for numbers as well as grammar.  Being bilingual, you also double checked my Spanish homework.  You urged us into becoming engineers like yourself, but also continue to support our artistic endeavors.

I love you Mom.  Every day.  Nonstop.  

Love,

Marg

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Decor Ideas for Hosting an Easter Lunch

Easter never gets all the hype the Christmas does, but it should.  I mean not just for religious reasons but because Easter coincides with a beautiful season, Spring.  I remember hunting for Easter Eggs as a child with my two younger sisters.  My mom would hide them around the house.  My younger sister S would tear around the house, showing no mercy, grabbing every egg in sight.  My mom still hides one egg in my sister’s home in Indianapolis.  Picks the hardest place she can find, just so my sister can still experience the thrill of the hunt.  

My mom still hides eggs around the house for me and my youngest sister T, now both grown adults.  She hides them inside of light fixtures, underneath furniture, buried under a bowl of fruit.  She’s pretty crafty, my mom.

Pretty much my mom and step dad the night before....."hahaha, they'll never find the egg in here".  Source

When my dad remarried, we used to spend Easters with him and my stepmothers' family, gathering for a huge outdoor picnic.  Both my parents were cradle Catholics, and raised me and my sisters the same way.  We never got out of going to church, it was the one thread that held both sides of my mom’s family and dad’s family together, but at the picnics we were too old to hunt Easter Eggs.  Instead we took turns donning an Easter Bunny suit for the younger kids. 

Similar to a sports mascot, the suit zipped up the back, covering you in a coat of synthetic fur, and the mask was an over sized bunny head, with two tiny holes for the eyes.  The nose of the bunny was so over sized, you couldn't look down to see where you were going.  I quickly realized why Mickey and Minnie at Disneyland always did that creepy, head patting motion at Disneyland. 

This was me....."oh where are you, screaming child?  For I cannot SEE!" Source  

It’s because you literally cannot see small children in that suit.  You have to pet their heads to find out where they are.  You’ll just feel something hug you suddenly at like knee level but you cannot see where the child is.

Aside from Easter Egg Hunts or Easter Bunny suits this year I want to celebrate by hosting an Easter lunch at my house.

As always I turn to Pinterest for some fresh inspiration, whenever I get too discouraged by all the cookie cutter holiday decor out there.

Here are my picks for the table setting.

Table Runner

I was looking for some type of alternative to the traditional pastel colored table runner and thought this cute version made from burlap would be really simple to do.  You can make the little bunny tails with white pom poms and I like how it doesn’t absolutely scream EASTER.

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Place Card Settings

You do a two in one, using little planted succulents as a place card setting and take home gift favor. Yes, succulents are everywhere, I know, so why not add them to Easter?  I love the inclusion of the pink aquarium gravel you can get at any pet store to make it more seasonal looking.  I know the succulents and mini terracotta pots are some of the cheapest things to buy at a hardware store.  How cute with this be, with a little name card propped up against it?

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Centerpiece

For centerpieces, I usually see the standard pastel colored eggs in a plastic or wood basket.  It’s not too bad but I was looking for something unusual and cheap.  Always what’s cheapest.  I love this combination of glittery eggs and simple carnations thrown together in a white bowl.  I really like how the colors pop against the white and how the glitter adds an extra layer of texture.  Low cost, inventive and easy to make, what’s not to love?

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Party Favors for the Kids

This year I want to invite my two twin kid sisters as well.  They will almost be 11 this year, but hopefully that’s not too old to be into these adorable DIY Bunny Ears.  You can make several pairs with colored construction paper and colored tissue paper, just glue to a cheap headband and voila!  I will totally make some for the adults as well.  Instagram will be all like blowing up with the photo ops these bunny ears will provide.

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Household Décor

I do usually sprinkle my seasonal décor throughout my living room and dining room to set the tone.  While I’m not all that crazy about a ton of pastel colors, I think I can live with a little pastel, especially when juxtaposed with neon colors.

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Source - A Pretty Life In The Suburbs

How cute are those neon branches?  These would be super easy to scatter artfully along my bookshelf or in a glass vase on my coffee table.  The garland, while pastel, seems doable to me, especially if you keep around a lot of yarn, like I do.  I like the pastel colored yarn balls, giant pom-poms, and the tiny birdhouses you can find at most craft stores for a dollar a pop.  While I don’t have a fireplace or even a mantel I can picture a garland like this adorning my side table, or *ahem* even my bar cart.  

So what you are guys looking forward to for the Easter holidays?  I personally gave up pizza for Lent and have been daydreaming about the greasiest slice for almost six weeks now.  What traditions does your family have?

Drop me a line in the comments!  I want to know!

Marg

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Thank goodness for Thanksgiving!

The essentials.

Thanksgiving is not as flashy as Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Valentine’s Day or Fourth of July.   It stands alone as the least commercialized holiday in the United States.  There is no specific ceremony or opportunity to give gifts.  Of course it is still leaden with tradition, heavy with the expectation to gather with family.

Some hate Thanksgiving.  Hate the traveling woes or straight up hate their family.  We all have dysfunctional families.  We all have that one cousin or uncle that prefer to use the opportunity to air out grievances or use as a battlefield to incite new blood feuds.  Making the turkey course a little precarious right up through the dessert course, consuming pumpkin pie absolutely mortified.  This is the real reason there is a Kid’s Table.  Too much wine and too much turkey lead to the reveal of the family’s most salacious secrets.  That stuff is NOT for kids.

I used to dread what my family would say about my eventual weight gain, as it was customary for me to put on a few pounds after October.  I would hate having to squeeze into my nicest work clothes, as Thanksgiving was not special enough to merit a new outfit, unlike Christmas or New Year’s Eve.

I would hate the traffic to and from Austin to Dallas-Fort Worth for the Thanksgiving weekend.  Traffic once piled up so bad it took me 8 hours to complete a 3.5 hour drive.  We hate other people rushing around, with little regard to anyone else’s safety, to be with their own families.  Of whom we could care less.

But one Thanksgiving was different for me.  My father passed away days before.

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