Social Responsibility

Reflecting on Social Responsibility, I must say, is an American concept. Give me a minute and I will explain..

These are some usual reactions we get when Cristian and I talk about being socially responsible.

1. have never heard the concept other than from American corporations

2. Community service.. what?? community what?

3. I cannot fix anything.. only Bill Gates is able to fix things because he has money

4. you think you can make a difference?

I keep thinking that being green and being socially responsible are new terms for capitalism. Probably the terms were branded by fortune 500 companies that wanted to strengthen their business and look more attractive to stakeholders and reach a goal: profit.

I joined a sewing club, where we make pillow cases, quilts and pijamas for less fortunate kids. We are a group of 4 woman; all have names that start with a K. and Eric, that is the group organizer. We meet on Saturdays and sew for two hours and eat cookies. I joined this group because I had free time and I can sew.. so I am giving back to people.. you would think.

After the meeting today I feel selfish because I took more that what I gave

1. I learned how to make pillow cases.. I will not never, ever, ever buy pillow cases again...they are soo easy to make

2. Started a quilt
3. Gave little kids super cute pillow cases that they loved

At the end it was a very productive and fun day

Update on paintings

Just an update on how the paintings are coming along- The weather in AZ is perfect to be painting. Good weather and good music puts you in the perfect mood to paint.

Pizza!

When cooking with dough Lina always says is super easy, and for her truly it is. She is able to handle the pastry, pizza and pasta dough and finish withing minutes. For my dad and I is the opposite. Everytime I mean everytime we are trying to use dough to cook we finished with a ball of dough that is impossible to handle. No difference last night with the pizza dough. On the menu:

Pizza with peperoni, mozzarella, asiago, fontina cheese, sparkle chicken basil sausage (taken out of the case and grilled) and basil.




cheers, nazdarovia and prost at the end with Passito, wine from Italy!

Back in America!

I am super happy to be home. The weather is absolutely beautiful and I love being with my family.

Plans for the upcoming weeks: Paint, Sew and cook. Last night we did some amazing empanadas.. yummy.



I am working on a dress that I am going to wear for an upcoming wedding. My mom wore this dress when she was 16- Mom's picture
The dress is in pretty good shape but the zipper is broken and it is tight so I am replacing the zipper and loosening the back.

I am also painting again. I want to make a painting for the new nursery we have for Daniel. This is the crib

I have never painted with pastels so I am having a hard translating my inspiration into the canvas. I started fixing an old painting that I left behind a couple of years ago to get familiar again with techniques and oil treatment.

My work station is in the garden
Last project a Christmas stocking.
This is how the end product will look

I also joined a volunteering group that sews for needy children. We are in early stages but we sew pillows, fabric bags and make quilts.

As I am writing in the blog we are cooking Pot roast- The same recipe that I tried to cook Christmas day but failed.. so we are trying again..I will post pictures.

Back in Amsterdam

We are back from our trip I will post some pictures later this week. Thank you to all the ones that have sent us Christmas cards.. It makes our room look so cute!
My favorite things when returning home
1. Sleeping in my bed
2. Tasty Food

3. being potato couches
We were brave enough to leave the house and discovered frozen canals


with all our love Happy New Year hope to see you all soon

Fully satisfied

One of the things that I miss the most about San Francisco is Thai food. I have tried to cook Thai food before but have not been fully satisfied until TODAY! Yes, ladies and gentleman let me introduce you to my favorite dish Lemongrass coconut curry chicken with jasmine rice. I used 3 teaspoons of green curry paste that gave the dish a good kick, also I added a whole tablespoon of ginger, which honestly I was afraid that it would ended up very strong but it was perfect.




Look at that delicious yellow sauce that made the rice so moist. Yummy!




To finish up my lunch I started looking at other recipes and I came across the ultimate peanut butter sandwich. I saw the video to surprise Cristian with a nice peanut butter and jelly. The sandwich looked so good I had to tried it. So I did.. and as a foreign I have to say yummy again..doesn't it look good?

Lunch was pretty good today!

My first job in Amsterdam

I had the idea of doing community service once a week. In the community service office, I was offered this opportunity to help with kids and the environment. Today I had my first visit, I arrived to a farm in the middle of the city. The farm is a petting zoo where they have guinea pigs, roosters, chickens, turkeys, pigs, bunnies, goats and ponies. My job is to help kids get on top of the pony and lead the pony around the circle of mud. Because kids don't ride ponies in the snow I will start my community service in January.. Here are some pictures of the petting zoo..

One of the ponies
This is a huge pig...


and a big rooster.. look at his claws