Blanca Raquel Caceres Di Stefano

Here's Abuelita at her knitting machine. Her fingers worked miracles as a concert pianist (a professor at age 14!), sewing, knitting, cooking, and scratching our backs!

If you met her you were soon adopted and may have ended up in her lap! She was full of hilarious jokes (some way more racy than Mamma Mia could stand!!) and good fun. She was always falling down and then laughing too hard to get back up. Once we were holding hands in Tierra Del Fuego and Abuelita fell in a penguin hole causing quite a ruckus while trying to get back out.Growing up Mamma Mia wouldn't let us eat sweets so Abuelita mischieviously hid treats all over the house and left us little notes on how to find them.

We loved playing a Spanish card game named !jodete! (which i just looked up and is a way worse swear word than i thought, no wonder she laughed so hard every time i said it!). More than anything we LOVED sharing a yerba mate. She adored Oliver and they would spend hours and hours discussing old fashioned Argentine recipes and Tango. Abuelita passed away last night. Her beautiful soul will be enormously missed.

!!!Te amo hasta el cielo Abuelita!!!

!!!Muchisimos Besos!!!

Tu nietita

Buying Virtue, Getting "Sexy" Back, and Cottage Industry

We went to the nursery and bought santolina. Santolina signifies virtue and we need lots of that along our path to the front door. We also planted more lavender for good luck.
Yoga for Energy is my early morning best friend. One second you're going from on-top-of-the-world exalted warrior to humble and submissive child's pose (and back again) which makes you feel like everything is going to be okay. And rolling with the highs and lows of life... that's super sexy, eso es el plano.
The result of a two day sew-a-thon: seven baby dresses for TamTam's soon-to-be-born baby girl! The dresses look much cuter in real life than in these pics and will look WAAAAY more adorable with the baby wearing them. Can't wait!
besos!

Shout, let it all out.

Dear Reader,

Two things!

Firstly,
last week I resigned from managing Provo's Farmers Market.
I am sad about it but it's been a very long time coming. The good thing is that quitting gives me more time to focus on shopping there!

I am a bit of a waffler about decisions (just ask Susan KB). (HA! "Waffle"r. That's an inside joke about the market. hint.) But I am not going to second guess this decision! I am/will be working on other projects with inspirational people that I dig! More about that later.

Meanwhile until further notice please direct all market inquiries to Tom Parker at provofarmersmarket@gmail.com or call Sharlene Wilde- at 801-375-5820.

See you at the market!

Secondly,
O'lover just informed me that the green architectural firm he works for is ranked as the top most profitable architecture firm in Utah. That means green building is on the rise! Also, the Wetland Education Center they designed was just certified as the second LEED platinum building (the highest ranking for sustainable building) in Utah! Go Utah!

Cheers,
Quel

Blocking it out

Yesterday Oliver took the day off from work and we:
cleaned up after Sunday night's wonderful dinner party,
constructed and hung two lovely gates,
weeded much of the garden,
carefully watered new plants,
ate strawberries for every meal (straight from the back patch),
harvested our first raspberries,
visited with friends,
brought in our summer clothes from storage,
and bricked up a hole in the side of the house where a broken air conditioning unit used to be.

And every chore was interlaced with conversations about a new vision of our family's future. What do we want?
What do we not want?
Where do we need to build walls and where do we knock them down?
Today we continue in "vision mode". I'm not sure what the future will bring, we are usually too busy to give it much thought. But right now the future seems like a clean slate ready for drafting new plans and reshaping old dreams.

signed,
in love with the colors of the bricks but yes, we will paint over them...

P.S. I'm so proud and inspired by Susan Krueger Barber for having a painting acquired by a very important art collector!! (Ask her about it when you see her!)

Garden Q & A

Dear Reader,

Got any gardening expertise you can lend? (i can't wait til I'm a wizened old farmer!! with ALL the answers!)

***

Question from Rachel of Los Angeles:

Help! My tomato plant! Doesn't look so good! It has all these yellow leaves (see pic). What do I need to do? Water it more or less? yikes
Gritty Pretty's from-the-hip answer*:

Container tomato plants have unique problems. They don't do well in a window or covered balconey, they like the hot sun overhead. Is the tomato inside? They need insects to help fertilize the flowers (or you'll need to hand pollinate with a paint brush). Is there anyway to move the plant somewhere with direct sunlight? Also, watering might be washing the iron and other mineral contents out of the soil. Do you have access to rusty old nails? You can spike the soil with ungalvanized nails (careful not to hurt the roots). And my favorite remedy for general health of the soil...You can pee in a cup and then add water 1 part pee to ten parts water. =) Also, after you water the plant do not touch it. it only likes being handled when the soil and leaves are dry.

Reader, do you have ANY ADVICE FOR RACHEL?

Comments are on.

The garden is in full bloom

So we deliver home grown flowers to the sick and the weary (i'm talking 'bout you Sophie and Hobo, get better soon!!)Lately we've been running skating our flower deliveries and other sundry errands as a family.

signed,
thank goodness we both ride goofy.

Case Solved

Everyone who meets her, gushes over how Mamma Mia is soooo "cute".

It makes her boiling mad (which is very cute) and she often wonders aloud "Why can't people call me elegant?!" (cute pout!)

Well Mamma Mia it's because you're always doing things like wearing a tree identification tag around your neck to remind you that you need to order another winter hardy kiwi from the plant catalogue! Cute!

And because we can hardly take a picture of you without you doing this cute face:
More about Mamma Mia...

Once, when we lived in Chicagoland, Mamma Mia saw a street fight. Mamma Mia stopped the car (with us kids in it); got out; ran over to the huge group, and started screaming that if they didn't break up the fight that second she was going to honk her car horn until the police came.

They didn't believe my super cute petite Mamma Mia.

So she got back in the car and laid on the horn. And the crowd took off in all directions.

Mamma Mia, you may not have the elegant french manicure but instead frequently have dirt under your short nails 'cause your always gardening (and can't stand to wear gloves) and you can't sit still elegantly (for long) 'cause of your non-stop high energy...

but no one

no one

can take cute

and turn it into fiercely cute like you.

Besos!