Week 28, Project 365

It's taken the better part of the day to get photos and videos uploaded (downloaded?) to the blog for Project 365. Whew! I had three videos, but after it took HOURS to just get the two shorter ones posted, I'm throwing in the towel.

Anyway, lots of photos to share so let's not waste any more time...

When we arrived at the house in Sta. Rosa on Monday, our friends had prepared a wonderful lunch. I had a fun week sewing. First up: piecing the top of another baby quilt. The envelopes were pretty "busy" with all the bright colors and patterns so I used tone-on-tone fabrics in the sashing and borders. Here's a close-up so you can see the fabric envelopes. As the baby becomes a toddler, they can use the pockets to play games like Memory by tucking cards into each envelope. Possibilities are endless! Sink and vanity installed, baseboard too. Lookin' good! A trip to the saw mill netted a nice load of free fire wood. Kept Ivan busy chopping and... ...stacking. Should last a while! Thursday we went to Tio Rico's with friends. The food is sold by the kilo and they keep a running tab at the desk. Ivan kept forgetting to get his plate weighed and then getting called back up for that. I guess he was having too much fun visiting with our friends :-) This tree must have been struck by lightening. I can imagine kids using this as a club house although it looks like it could fall over any time so I don't think it would be a very safe place to play. Yesterday I told the story of how we used a fallen parrot's nest... ...made with lots of thorny branches and twigs... ... to block an area along the back fence where the neighbor's sheep were getting in and munching on our baby citrus trees. Like most little towns, Belgrano has its share of cheese and salami shops. It would be easy to drop some serious money in a store like this one, with all the leather and silver goods. With the Chocolate Festival this last weekend, Belgrano was a happening place! The weather was perfect. Sunny and warm enough for folks to sit at outside cafes and sip coffee and eat chocolate tortas or pastries. So they'd have the energy to go spend their money on goodies to take home with them :-) I was sewing right up until it was time to clean and pack to come home. I finished the chair cushion covers just after lunch on Sunday. Impossible to tell but the fabric is a tiny green and cream checked print. I think it looks nice against the yellow walls and am happy with the results.
And I'll close with a couple videos for your viewing enjoyment. First up the Tyrolean dancers (Belgrano was founded by German immigrants and it's still predominantly German).

And here's some footage of the young Argentine folk dancers. Loved 'em! (Pay attention to the little guy -- he's SO serious! LOL)

Next to last day in Sta. Rosa

I know, my titles are so creative.

So yesterday on our walk we decided to make use of a parrot's nest we'd come across earlier in the week. Several large limbs from a tree had come down during the last storm, bringing along this nest. "Just the thing," my husband declared, "to put along the lower fence where the neighbor's sheep are getting in."

Getting into the yard and dining on the tiny citrus trees we planted last spring.

We don't have time this trip to properly repair the fence and had been debating all week what to do... String some barbed wire along that spot? Not worry about it until next time?

You're probably wondering, what good is a nest going to do?

Ah, but you've never seen a wild parrot's nest, have you? These things are HUGE, a couple feet around. But more importantly, parrots build their nests with branches and twigs from THORNY trees and bushes. No kidding, some of the thorns in this nest are more than an inch long. Ouch! I want to know, how do the parrots keep from impaling themselves?

Anyway, we're pretty sure the mass of thorns will deter the sheep and other would-be-citrus-tree-eating-animals. We took the wheelbarrow and a shovel (no way were we getting near those thorns ourselves) and gently carted the nest home. Ivan used the shovel to spread the thorny nest around the back fence where it's obvious the sheep are coming in (tufts of wool cling to the wire that is there).

Just call us the Clampetts of home maintenance and repair.

[For those of you too young to recognize the reference, go google Beverly Hillbillies.]

Photos to follow tomorrow on Project 365 IF (and it's a big if) I can get the photos to upload from here. I may end up doing Project 365 on Monday.

Meanwhile we are thoroughly enjoying our week in the country. Yesterday we picked up smoked pork chops at one little shop, saurkraut in another (this is a hard-to-find item except in German communities like Belgrano), and fresh apple strudel in another. Had a fabulous supper last night with all of that plus some mashed potatoes. Found out from a young friend in Germany we should have heated the strudel (next time!) and served it with fresh vanilla sauce (may or may not; kinda hate to cover up any of that apple delicousness).

Today while Ivan cleans and organizes the garage, I'm working on chair cushion covers, and later today we'll head into Belgrano to catch a few of the Chocolate Festival activities (fondue, anyone?).

Since I've been telling you our menu all week, here's what we're having today: lunch will be homemade pizza using some Italian sausage I made and froze a while back, plus lots of fresh vegetables. Supper will likely be hamburgers and oven fries because we'll want something quick and easy when we get back from Belgrano. If we even want supper after indulging in all that chocolate goodness :-)

Day 4 in Sta Rosa

Brrrrrr!!!! It's VERY cold this morning. Frost last night and a crisp, clear sky today. Ivan's out chopping and stacking wood. He's my hero! I just took another hot bubble bath. They're addictive you know.

I'm thinking meatloaf and mashed potatoes for lunch. Comfort food...cold weather food.

The second baby quilt top is pieced and next week I'll layer it with batting and a fleece backing and THIS one I'm going to machine quilt. Also playing around with an idea for a small wall quilt featuring one of the four food groups: coffee. Don't have all the fabrics I need with me, but can at least get started.

No, I haven't done anything on the new cushion covers yet. There's still time though. We're staying through Saturday since the missionary mini conference was canceled and there's no need to rush home, catch up on laundry and start driving across the country. This is our winter break and we're going to enjoy the week.

Tonight we'll be hanging out with old friends, probably going to our favorite restaurant in Belgrano. (Tio Rico's for those new to the blog; it's a pay-by-the-kilo buffet with really good, fresh food.) Since today is a national holiday...

(Independence Day, but not like our 4th of July -- they celebrate their equivalent to the 4th on May 25th, the day they declared independence; today is the day they won their independence -- clear?)

...I'm hoping there won't be hordes wanting to eat there also. Definitely too cold to eat at one of their outdoor tables, and there's only 8 tables/booths inside.

During winter holidays Belgrano is home to the Chocolate Festival which starts this weekend. Another good excellent reason for staying through Saturday :-) Music, chocolate, children's theatre, chocolate, folk music, chocolate fondue, dancing, chocolate. You gotta love a town that celebrates chocolate.

Actually Belgrano is good at celebrating anything that will bring the tourists to town. Beer in October, chocolate in July, cake in April, children's folklore in September, and Christmas in December. Oh, and let's not forget they celebrate the tourists too. That would be the third Sunday in August. So I guess all the tourists come out and celebrate themselves?

Belgrano really is a quaint little pueblo and the town leaders have done a great job keeping the junkier kind of businesses out. You'll see the typical postcard and cheap souvenir shops but they're tastefully appointed and not terribly tacky. But more than that you'll find true artisan shops selling everything from food (cheese, salami, condiments) to furniture to woolen items to leather goods. Sidewalks are kept clean, business signs are not overly large or outlandish, and people who work in the stores seem to have a better grasp of the concept of customer service than you typically find here.

And of course there's Tio Rico's. 'Nuf said.

I'm wondering if the cold front that moved in is here to stay. It IS winter after all although to someone who spent the last 20 years in Michigan, so far this has felt more like a mild spring or fall than anything approximating winter.

When he picked up free wood at the saw mill yesterday, Ivan grabbed some eucalyptus to see how that burned. So far we think it's a cleaner, better burning wood than pine. I was hoping it would smell nice, but there's no discernable difference that I can tell. Burning wood smells like burning wood...hot with a smokey essence.

I've been hopping up and down to work on lunch, getting the meatloaf in the oven and the potatoes on to boil, and now it's time to make a salad so let's see if the internet is working and I can actually get this posted.

Day 3 in Sta Rosa

The sun's streaming in the windows, there's a nice fire crackling in the wood heater and a load of work clothes and towels agitates away in the used washer. My first load in it! We did a trial run of shop rags before we bought it, just to make sure it ran. Now we'll see how well it works.

AND THE INTERNET IS WORKING! At least for a few minutes. All I managed to do yesterday was respond to one.single.e-mail. I might be going through internet withdrawal. My symptoms include severe twitching whenever I approach the computer, frequent trips outside to look into the sky as if a change in atmospheric conditions might magically make it work again, and deep depression when the download speed consistently shows ZERO.

On the other hand, no internet meant I did other things. Like take a hot bubble bath (oh the bliss that is a hot bubble bath, with my bath pillow and a good book), worked on a baby quilt, cleaned and cooked... Nothing fancy. For lunch I heated up the leftover sauce our friends made the other day, which paired nicely with some bowtie pasta, and I made a salad by throwing together all the bits of raw vegetables on hand (carrots, red pepper, onion, cucumber) with fresh chunks of mozzarella doused with liberal amounts of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Supper was a simple meal of hobo dinners (hamburger patties, carrots, potatoes and onions baked together in foil packets). By supper time I was on a roll with the baby quilt and did not want to be bothered with spending any more time than necessary in the kitchen.

Mealwhile the hubby (aka Ivan -- I've decided to just call him by his proper name on the blog) was busy on the bathroom. He installed the tile baseboard and the sink. Ran into a snag last night when one piece of the pipe (needed for hooking it all back up) got messed up in the process so this morning he's off to buy a replacement for that. Once that's done, though, we'll have a functioning -- and beautiful -- sink. He did such a great job cleaning up the old faucet, it looks practically brand new. That makes us very happy since new faucets cost as much or more than the sink!

Today he'll be going after more free fire wood and cutting that up. Looks like our neighbors have been staying warm by using a good portion of the wood he cut up last time. *sigh* If it's not nailed down, they'll take it. Even it it's nailed down, they'll come over with a crow bar and pry it up and then take it. And the nails too. Anyone else have neighbors like that? So we're going to try and make room in the garage for the fire wood he gets today.

I know I should be working on the new cushion covers but I'm having so much fun with the baby quilt... I think I can finish piecing the top today. THEN I'll get busy on the cushion covers.

Another hot bubble bath is definitely on the agenda. After all, it's absolutely essential that I take advantage of having a bathtub here :-)

I won't be commenting anywhere this week. If I actually manage to even read any blogs. Which is highly doubtful at the rate this internet is NOT working. When it does work, it is SOOOOOOO SLOOOOOOW. I'm just hoping I actually manage to post this. Let's see if it works...

Great beginning to our time in Sta. Rosa

We arrived in Sta. Rosa in time for lunch with friends who stayed at the house over the weekend. Their oldest son is training to become a chef and he made a fabulous sauce for the fresh ravioli. So good! I hadn't met our friends' children before (the daughter is a lawyer). Anyway, while it was wonderful to see Juan & Mirta again, it was hard to see how crippled Juan's hands have become. He has developed a disorder that causes his hands to curl shut to the point that he has to use one hand to pry open the other. There is no treatment for it. Very sad when you consider he's an artist who can no longer draw or paint. But his attitude is to simply be grateful for what he can do, and to do it for the glory of God.

They not only served lunch but had also swept and straightened up the whole house -- the first time we've ever come out that I haven't had to start cleaning as soon as we arrived. That was very, Very nice!

We really enjoyed our time with them and, for me, the chance to meet and get to know two of their adult children.

They left after lunch and we quickly unloaded the car and trailer, put food away and made up the bed. Then I sat down to check e-mail and see if I could post. Two hours later... My hopes that we'd have better internet service during the week have been dashed. While the 3G thingy is showing two (out of five) bars of service, the actual download speed (or whatever it is called) has been zero until now.

Today is incredibly beautiful. I think the temperature rose into the 70s! We opened all the windows to let some of that wonderful warm air inside since it was probably 10-15 degrees warmer outside than in. I think we actually had nicer weather here over the weekend (and today) than some of y'all did.

I am totally excited to start sewing tomorrow! I brought three projects along, including one for here. Hopefully I can manage to make decent new cushion covers for the living room chairs. Not being the most competent seamstress, my goals are low. LOL If I can manage to make them so their wonkiness isn't too obvious, I'll be happy. The thing I love about quilting is that precision isn't absolutely critical (with my kind of quilting, anyway). Unfortunately with clothing and most home decor projects, accuracy is more important. So we will see. If they turn out I'll take photos; if not, I won't.

I also brought along a new book received in the mail this week. It's the newest Jane Whitefield book by Thomas Perry. It was in the third package our daughter sent. We have received packages #1 and #3 but #2 is still MIA. We're afraid we'll never see it. It had a book or two also. Oh well. Such is life. I was afraid package #2 included a book I won in a giveaway on Sue's blog a while back but was relieved to learn the daughter is reading it so she hasn't sent it yet.

The daughter doesn't remember what exactly was in package #2. We know of two things and while I am sad that I may never see them, I can deal with it. I would be much sadder if it had contained any of the cute fabric I have bought of late on ebay. But it didn't so I am not as sad. Package #3 was the first package to contain bits of the fabric and I am quite happy with it. A pack of 40-4" squares in bright primary colors and cute tractor and car prints will make an adorable baby quilt if ever a friend has a baby boy. I won that ebay auction for 99 cents. I love me a bargain! Also appropriate for a boy's quilt is the way-too-cute-for-words fabric of little boys playing soccer. Soccer (or futbol) is THE national sport in Argentina so what could be more perfect?!

In looking through my fabric stash this week I came across fabric envelopes I created several years ago while making another baby quilt. Got a wee bit carried away in the making of those fabric envelopes -- which is to my benefit now. The extras will make a very nice quilt for the little girl born last month. One of my goals for this week is to sew the top together. With the envelopes ready to use, that simply means sewing them together with sashing (also already cut to size) and then adding borders.

I think Project 365 might have a preponderance of sewing photos this week.

And country shots. If the weather holds, we'll be taking lots of walks. I hear it is supposed to get colder but as long as it doesn't rain, we will be out and about. Looking forward to a wonderful -- and productive -- week!

Week 27, Project 365

I have a lot of photos for Project 365 this week so I'll keep my commentary to a minimum.

I've already written about our adventure last weekend and included some photos with that post, but here are a few more from our trip to Villa de Las Rosas. Upon arrival at the B&B we were impressed with the spacious casas, not small cabañas that we had expected. Seriously, this place was almost as big as our house here in Carlos Paz. This is taken from just inside the front door and doesn't really show it all, just the dining area and kitchen. It's a HUGE room. Each house also has two large bedrooms and a really big bath. They did not skimp on space! Our bedroom had a king size bed although a double bed would have sufficed. We were so cold even with every.single.blanket we could find that we huddled as close as possible all night! Y'all know I'm a fan of the dessert and who could resist?! I didn't see this table until we'd finished breakfast the next morning so I was already full but I indulged in one bite of my hubby's piece of chocolate cake. Absolutely decadent! Before heading home we drove around a few of the little towns in the area. San Javier had the cutest little shopping plaza. It was a really old sprawling house they'd converted into tiny shops. Get a look at that old roof. And behind the plaza was this view. Breathtaking! Since we had to wait for the pass over the mountain to re-open after an accident, we went into the town of Mina Clavero. Last Sunday was the mid-term elections here and just about every store in town was closed. We're guessing it's usually a pretty busy place on weekends, but it was like a ghost town that day. Here are a couple of photos as we traveled back over the mountain. It was VERY windy and pretty barren on top.
My fondness for home improvement stores is no secret. Thought y'all might like to see the Argentine equivalent to Lowe's or Home Depot. Just like them, Easy has a garden center too. In my quest for Most Elaborate Fence Ever, I'm always on the lookout for beauties like this one. Love those curves! Our seasons are opposite. It is the dead of winter here. Somebody maybe should tell the flowers that. I thought the porch looked mighty inviting, too :-)

This coming week we'll be in Sta. Rosa to finish the bathroom. I'll have limited internet access as always. But we'll be home by next Sunday so I'll see you here then, if not sooner.

Espero que tengas una buena semana! (I hope that you have a great week!)

Happy 4th of July!

Y’all are probably firing up the grill, slathering on the sunscreen and preparing to enjoy fireworks this 4th of July. We’re going to grill too and weather-wise it won’t be too shabby with temperatures in the high 60s. But no fireworks. It’s just another day everywhere else in the world.

My favorite thing the last few years was watching the pops concert in Washington D.C. on PBS while munching on picnic food. I’m kind of sad I’ll miss that this year as well as the fireworks. But then, we did get to enjoy quite the pyrotechnic display on Christmas and New Years here.

As for our own private 4th of July party I think we’re going to have ribs and cole slaw. I hope I can chew them. When I went to bed last night, my jaw was still numb and my smile decidedly lopsided. I was in the dentist’s chair until after 8 p.m. Looooong two hour session as she scraped my roots clean. But honestly, I didn’t feel a thing and the worst part of the root canal was the x-rays which always makes my gag reflex go into overdrive. I didn’t feel a thing because the numbness extended into my forehead. I’m not even kidding. But hey, it meant NO PAIN.

Anywhere on the left side of my face.

I’m seriously glad my dentist is super careful about making sure I have NO PAIN.

I go back Monday July 13 to be fitted for the crown.

We were going to be in Uruguay then for the mini-conference with the other missionaries but that’s been canceled due to the flu epidemic.

Quite a few things are being closed and canceled because of that. I hear Santa Fe (Argentina, not New Mexico) has not only closed schools, but also theatres and other public places in an effort to stop the spread. Buenos Aires is the hardest hit so far although they haven’t taken such extreme measures as Santa Fe. I'm not sure if the 44 dead so far have all been from the capital but that's what I think the news said (I still miss a lot).

Yesterday a group from Word of Life was supposed to be with us but with 200 of the 600 students at the school down with the flu, I believe all groups scheduled to go on tour are instead recuperating on campus.

July is the winter holiday (equivalent to our Christmas break) and normally people are traveling during this time. Instead they seem to be hunkering down and waiting out the flu. I also heard that pharmacies nationwide are sold out of face masks. I haven't seen anyone but my dentist wearing one (which I think is standard operating procedure and nothing to do with the flu) but Ivan says the people working in grocery stores and other businesses are wearing them. That's a change from just two days ago.

There is a special section in the online newspaper La Voz today with fifteen separate articles about la gripe. One of them says that while the minister of health in our province would like to expedite the process of test analysis, he is not declaring a health emergency here as in other provinces.

This area depends on tourism and after a poor showing this summer with a HUGE drop in the number of visitors, I’m sure area businesses are hoping to attract those who ARE willing to venture forth over the winter holidays.

We, on the other hand, are heading to Sta. Rosa on Monday to finish that bathroom. Any money we spend won’t be on touristy kinds of things, but what we might forget of a home improvement nature -- like tile glue or wall anchors.

Anyway...back to the 4th of July. Pretty exciting to read that the Statue of Liberty is being re-opened today. Woot! Not sure climbing to the crown is something I'd want to do, it being more than 3 feet off the ground and all, but I'm happy that other people can.

Thinking about our troops today, too. Especially those in the big offensive in Afghanistan. Being able to celebrate the 4th of July comes with a price. A big one. I'm confident we won't forget that in the midst of the grilling and sunscreen and fireworks.