Sunday Favorites - My Mothers Talented Hands

It's a new year, a new decade and there will be a whole bunch of new blogs and new blog posts in this next year. But it's always nice to look back. To reflect and savor a post written that's special to the writer. And that's why I love Sunday Favorites, hosted by Happy to Design.

This is a favorite post of mine from September 14, 2009. Another reason for posting this one today is that tomorrow I want to share another work of art done by my mother's hands.

FAVORITE POST FROM
September 14, 2009

If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands? ~Milton Berle

It's amazing that with only two hands mothers do as much as they do. My mom is a perfect example of that. Growing up I always remember my mom busy doing something, sewing, cleaning, cooking, painting, crocheting...and since we're at crocheting I'll stop because that's what I wanted to talk about today and share with you.

My mom has always been great at crocheting. She once did the whole Last Supper in crochet. And I'm not talking some little piece that goes in a little frame...this was a HUGE piece which was framed and hung in her kitchen for many years. It probably measures 6feet by 4 feet. It looks something like this one, only much more massive.

Unfortunately I couldn't photograph it because right now it's sitting in the frame on the floor behind her very heavy china hutch in her kitchen. But it's mine. She gave it to me many, many years ago. I have no idea where I will hang it because I really have no walls in my kitchen, but I will knock out a window and make a wall out of it if I have to!!!

But ok, before I start knocking out windows and building walls, let me just get back to the subject of my post today. My mom has started crocheting again and her first project was this little beauty for me :-)

A beautiful butterfly panel. It's pretty big as you can tell from the photo below. This isn't a love seat it's a chair and a half and this fits clear across it. I would love to display it differently but I haven't found quite the right place yet...but I will.

Mom is currently working on another project which I hope to post for you as soon as it's finished. I think it's going to be about as big as the one above, and she's only half done.

My mom taught my sister and I both to crochet, and I've made a doily here and there. I have posted one here. But I have no where near the talent or determination my mom does.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave a comment!

Be Well!

Tamale Tradition for Christmas

You start with this. Garlic, lots of Garlic!

Then you do this. A Garlic shake you ask? Well, sort of, but keep reading and you will see.


Something with a little more color gets blended in. What kind of shake is this?

Ok, so a huge rectangular pan with that red shake in it. Hmmmm, what could all this mean?



A random hand shredding meat? Looks like a little of beef and a little of pork.

Ohhhh, so that's what the red garlicky mixture is for. It's for the beef and pork to swim in and blend and gather the flavors of each other and the garlic. Great idea!

Another random hand with a spoon (my mother's beautiful hands). And another big bowl. This one looks like a big lump of some kind of dough (masa) and spoonfuls of some white, creamy stuff. Whipped cream? Nope...Manteca (Lard)

Ah Ha! Now the random hands have faces. My sister Lisa and my mom. Looks like we're adding salt to the mixture.

A pretty picture with my pretty Christmas Tree in the background and my pretty sister and mom in the foreground. Looks like Mom is adding some spiciness to the mixture, some red chili powder. Wonder where she's going with this mixture. Not brownies, that's for sure!

Ok, some more creamy white stuff. You don't see this cook using measuring cups and spoons. No sirree, this is all years and years of experience you see here.

Another pair of random hands mixing this all up. This seems to be a very hands on group of cooks!

So now we're taking the left over broth the meat was cooked in and adding it to the mix. Yikes!

And Lisa says, "I'm done". Mom holds up the arms of the champion helper.

But where am I? Well I was hoping being the official photographer would keep me from having to lend a hand, but alas...we all have to take our turn. Do I look happy to have my hands in this ooey, gooey mixture?

Back to the meat mixture on the stove. Mmmmm, ok, so now the flavors and the colors have blended. Could we be close to seeing what all this work is going to produce?

I tell you, I could just eat this whole thing with a spoon. Someone STOP ME!

Is this it? Is this the finished product? No...can't be. Why that's just a big bowl of dough (masa) and a bowl of black olives and some of the beef/pork red chili mixture. So what do we do with this now?

Little sister Lisa seems to be experienced in what to use these items for. Ok...so I see she has a corn husk in the left hand and she's smoothing some of the masa onto it with a spoon.

And Voila! The finished product. A red chili beef/pork/black olive T.A.M.A.L.E. That spells delicious Christmas food to me!

Lisa is GOOD! She's got quite the assembly line going. Good thing they have an official photographer :-)

All lined up and ready for a steamy bath.


There's an art to packing Tamales in the Tamale Pot. The Tamales don't get boiled or baked...they get steamed. I get steamed sometimes too, but that's a whole different story!

See that thing with the holes in it? That sits up on a little ledge formed into the pot which lets the tamales sit about 2 or 3 inches above the boiling water that gently steams them until they're cooked. Ingenious!

And this...this lovely, delicious, perfect item is what comes of all this work. The perfect Tamale.
The Christmas Tamale. Oh yes, other's may have their perfect Christmas Ham/Duck/Turkey/Pot Roast/Tuna Sandwich...whatever. But to our family there is nothing like the Christmas Tamale.

Was it worth it ladies? Ladies? LADIES!!! Ok, see...they aren't listening. They are way too busy just enjoying their tamales.

And the brains behind this operation? Yep, mom. She's been making tamales for Christmas as long as I can remember. And every year she says, "Next year we aren't making Tamales, it's too much work". And every year right after Thanksgiving Dinner she's asking, "So when are we getting together to make Tamales?"

Thank you mom. Long after Lisa has gone home and the official photographer has drifted off to go blog, you continue on. Packing the next batch of Tamales and the next and the next. Enough so that each of your kids and grand-kids has enough to eat at Christmas and enough to take home to enjoy throughout the rest of the holiday. We love you mom. Thank you for always having the strength and the love to make our Christmas Tamale dreams come true.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I know it was long, with lots of pictures but Tamale making is not for the feint of heart. It's a longgggggggg drawn out process. I'm linking up to Designs by Gollum for Foodie Friday.

Iwanna Wednesday - It's Blowing in the Wind

Wow, the first Iwanna Wednesday of 2010. The first Iwanna Wednesday of a whole new decade!

Iwanna Wednesday has become one of my favorite posts to write, but I have to admit that after getting so many great gifts for Christmas and after eating so much wonderful food during the holiday's and after spending time with all my loved ones...well I must say, it's tough to Iwanna anything when I've been given so much.

But yet...Iwanna must Iwanna! That's simply the nature of the game. For anyone new that is wondering what I'm rambling about, let me first give you a brief history of what an Iwanna is and where this all came from.

I love shopping! Whether it's window shopping, online shopping, actually plopping down some cash shopping...I LOVE SHOPPING. Shopping comes easy to me cause I find joy in almost anything. I can go into any store or restaurant or even someone's home and say, "Oh, I want one of those!" I do that so often that my sister started calling me "Iwanna", cause Iwanna everything.

That's where blogging really helps, because I can Iwanna random objects and blog about them and show you pictures and usually you all respond back with Iwanna items and ideas of your own...which makes it even more fun.

So without further ado...lets see what Iwanna this Wednesday.

I was glancing out my window on Sunday as I watched a Marathon of the TV show House; and I noticed that my Santa Claus Christmas windsock was still hanging on my front porch and I thought to myself..."Self, you need to get Jim (my son) to take that down for you".

Then I remembered that I have nothing to take it's place. What kind of windsock would you put up for the New Year? I have the Christmas one, I have one with leaves for Fall, I have one with a scary pumpkin for Halloween, I have one Red, White & Blue for 4Th of July and I have an Easter Bunny one for Easter. I even have a Turkey one for Thanksgiving. So what would I do for January, the New Year?

Well I figured I would let my fingers do the shopping and go online and see what I could find. Unfortunately...I didn't find anything. Why? Because I didn't even get to windsocks. I got all caught up on this one website that has WIND CHIMES! It's such a cool website that it's even enabled so you can listen to each wind chime! You simply must go visit this website dah'ling! (My, my...I sound so Upper Crust don't I?)

So the name of the website is Unique Wind Chimes. Here's another link:
Unique Wind Chime Store - We offer over 400 unique wind chimes. Grace Note, Goose Rock, This & That, Spoonman & Tim Kline wind chimes are some of the wind chime brands you will find on our site.

Who doesn't love a wind chime? Ok, I know that there have been a few apartments I've lived at where a neighbor or two had like six hundred wind chimes and they can be pretty darned irritating when there are that many. But one, or two...maybe even three, thoughtfully and carefully place wind chimes can be very soothing, relaxing and inspiring.

Especially the ones at Unique Wind Chimes! Let me show you a few of my favorites from the bazillion they have! (In the interest of Fair Advertising Practices and since it's in their link above; it's more like 400, but it seems like a bazillion!)

This first one Iwanna, I call the Planets Wind Chime, they call it the Celestial Small Art Glass Pewter Wind Chime. I really love it in the green as it's my favorite color, but the Milky Way one that's pictured in the actual wind chime is really unique!


Here we have the next one Iwanna, the RED DIAMOND wind chime! How dramatic huh? They actually gave it a much more dramatic name than I did. They call it the Madawaska! WASKA! Say that out loud and kind of like Groucho Marx! WASKA! My mom would love this one, Red being her favorite color.

Now this one I call the Palm Tree/Palm Springs Wind Chime. I guess it could also be called a Tulip Wind Chime don't you think? The true and actual name given to this beauty is Vinalhaven. They seem to be quite a bit more creative with names than I do. I love the pretty pastel colors and then that bright green at the bottom! Iwanna this one!



I call this one the little fishies wind chime. They call it the "Baxter". I think it looks like little fishies. Kind of like when you were a kid and you went to those Halloween Carnivals at school and they had that fishing booth and they had little fishes they would hook to your line with a prize written on the fish...remember that? Iwanna be little again and go to carnivals *sigh*, but for now Iwanna show you another one!


I don't know if ya'll know this about me, but aside from green being my favorite color, butterfly's are my favorite fly's made from butter :-)

That's why Iwanna this next one so much. I call it..what else? The Butterfly Wind Chime. They call it the Red and Blue Butterfly Wind Chime...they're so much more descriptive than I!

And finally, the Pièce de résistance, this gorgeously unique wind chime that features everything Iwanna best. Butterfly's! Cats! and a little hint of Green! You gotta love the face on Mr. Kitty Cat. I call this one the Mr. Kitty Cat Wind Chime. They call it the Butterfly Cat Wind Chime. I think my name is catchier :-)



They have so many others that I could sit here for hours showing them to you. But why don't you pop over there yourself and check them out. They have dolphins, lady bugs, golf balls, hummingbirds, lighthouses, cats, dogs......LIONS, TIGERS, AND BEARS! Oh My!

And what else do you need when you have a great wind chime like one of the above? Why wind of course. Blowin Wind.

So I end with one of my favorite songs sung by one of my favorite artists, Bob Dylan. Enjoy the video and feel free to sing along, I very thoughtfully placed the lyrics below for you :-)

Happy Iwanna Wednesday and Happy New Year!




Blowin' In The Wind

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
How many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
How many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
How many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
How many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
How many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
How many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

Books Read in 2009

Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book. ~Author Unknown

1. Faith of My Fathers ~ John McCain
2. Bitter Grounds ~ Sandra Benitez

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. ~Groucho Marx

3. Twilight ~ Stephanie Meyer
4. New Moon ~ Stephanie Meyer
5. Eclipse ~ Stepanie Meyer
6. Breaking Dawn ~ Stephanie Meyer

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," New York Times, 7 August 1991

7. Odd Thomas ~ Dean Koontz
8. The Disappearance of Lyndsey Barratt ~ John Wilson
9. The Wedding ~ Nicholas Sparks

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. ~P.J. O'Rourke

10. A Day To Pick Your Own Cotton ~ Michael Phillips
11. The Color of Your Skin Ain't the Color of Your Heart ~ Michael Phillips

A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it. ~William Styron, interview, Writers at Work, 1958

12. Mrs. Kimble ~ Jennifer Haigh
13. A Million Little Pieces ~ James Frey

My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter. ~Thomas Helm

14. Good in Bed ~ Jennifer Weiner
15. At First Sight ~ Nicholas Sparks
16. rising ~ Darnella Ford

You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. ~Paul Sweeney

17. Duplicate Keys ~ Jane Smiley
18. Icy Sparks ~ Gwyn Hyman Rubio

Lord! when you sell a man a book you don't sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book. ~Christopher Morley

19. The Nanny Diaries ~ Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus
20. Promise Not To Tell ~ Jennifer McMahon
21. Lovely Bones ~ Alice Sebold

The smallest bookstore still contains more ideas of worth than have been presented in the entire history of television. ~Andrew Ross

22. Lost and Found ~ Carolyn Parkhurst
23. Losing It ~ Valerie Bertinelli
24. I know this much is true ~ Wally Lamb

A house without books is like a room without windows. ~Heinrich Mann

I'm starting 2010 by reading a book my sweet daughter April gave me for Christmas.
It's Julie & Julia by Julie Powell.

What are you reading in the New Year?

I have HOPE in 2010!!

I had a visitor come to live with me in the New Year. She actually arrived on New Years Eve and she's found a home for now on my Wall of Random Beauty in my bedroom.

Early in December, I was visiting one of my favorite bloggers, Jeanette of Sweet Jeanette fame.

Jeanette is a very talented blogger, writer, cook and seamstress. Jeanette is pretty much good at anything she puts her mind to and I love to visit her blog.

On this particular day in December she was hosting a giveaway of a beautiful Angel that she had made and named Hope. I of course entered the giveaway cause who doesn't love a giveaway? And amazingly enough...I won!

Hope arrived in my home on New Years Eve. She's beautiful and much larger than I thought she would be although Jeanette said she was larger than she looked online!

Hope immediately found a spot to rest after her long trip from Florida. She noticed that there was an empty spot my Wall of Random Beauty.

I call this My Wall of Random beauty as I want to use this wall to feature items that I find beautiful.

I hope to use the items on the wall for a while and change the items out regularly with other beautiful items. That way my Wall of Random Beauty will always have beautiful things on it that inspire me and make me smile. This wall is at the foot of my bed so it is the first thing I see when I wake in the morning. My sister-in-law Connie gave me the framed "It's a Wonderful Life" picture and it's a great reminder on those days when I don't feel like getting up that it is after all a wonderful life...so it's best to just get up and get at it! Life I mean :-)

Here's a close-up of Hope. Can you believe Jeanette hand-made this Angel? I am so impressed and so in love with this lovely Angel and I'm sure during the year she will find other spots in my home to give HOPE to!

Thank you Jeannette for giving me Hope in the New Year!

Iwanna Wednesday - What Iwanna in 2010

Well Christmas is over...although I'm still picking up pieces of tape from my carpet from the gift wrapping :-) Soon...we will be in the year 2010. Wow, can you believe that? 2010!

But it's been a good year for this Iwanna. I had a lot of fun posting about all the things that Iwanna see, own, eat, buy, visit and more. That brings me to wondering what Iwanna in 2010.

Rather than make a list of New Year's Resolutions I'm going to Iwanna instead (less obligation and stress to Iwanna than to make resolutions).

#1 - Iwanna in 2010
Iwanna what we all wanna...to lose some weight.


Duh...you knew that one was going to be on the Iwanna list right?

#2 - Iwanna in 2010
Vegas BABY! I'd really like to visit Vegas in 2010. I have a niece that recently moved there and I would love to go visit her...Hi Alicia (she's named after me).



#3 - Iwanna in 2010
Jodi Picoult Books! I own a few of them, but I would love to collect all the books written by Jodi Picoult. So far every one I've read I've loved! (I threw this Iwanna wish in here because this one is probably the most likely to actually come true.)





#4 - Iwanna in 2010
Iwanna appear on the show "What Not to Wear"! I know, you have to be a really lousy or weird dresser and c'mon...I'm a darn good dresser. But still...it's an Iwanna wish so it doesn't really have to be a reasonable or realistic wish, it can be anything Iwanna and Iwanna go to New York and spend $5,000 on myself and hang out with Stacy and Clinton.



#5 - Iwanna in 2010
Iwanna take a cooking class. Doable, don't you think? But here's what makes it Iwanna crazy. Iwanna cooking class with my own personal, professional chef teacher. Who you ask? None other than the IRON CHEF himself....Bobby Flay!!!



*sigh* Isn't he dreamy? Ok...I know, he's married, that's why I only want to cook with him. And I totally mean in the kitchen! C'mon...get your minds out of the gutter!

And my final Iwanna wish for 2010 is for everyone who reads my blog, or at least glances at the pictures. (See, Iwanna isn't selfish, she can Iwanna on behalf of others!)

#6 - Iwanna in 2010
What Iwanna is to wish everyone the following. . .


From Iwanna,