Allie in the South of Spain

I have mentioned it before but here in Spain Nativity scenes reign supreme. Since basically everyone is Catholic whether they are practicing or not they celebrate the coming of the 3 Kings/Wisemen rather than Santa. On January 6th when the Wisemen arrived to meet Jesus is when children get most of their gifts here in Spain. People put up their Nativity scenes at the beginning of December and Jose and I are no different (though we have a tree too, read about it here ). Right now we have what is called here the "misterio" or mystery which includes just Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus (which you put out on Christmas). Other people have huge (and expensive) collections of pieces. They add to them every year. There are all kinds of figures that you can get, a lot of which you know where NOT at the birth of Jesus but are fun all the same. It is a nice tradition to have. One friend told me that as a child her parents would move the Wisemen around the house, changing their position...

This week was kind of a big joke at work. The girls didn't have the interest and the teachers the energy to get a whole lot done. Add to that the fact that we had to move classrooms to another building and you have to get creative to pass the time. I decided to make angels with my first grade classes and they loved it. I then brought the same craft to my fourth grade and they liked it too. It was a nice activity to do on a relaxed day. Here are some examples of the angels my students ended up giving to me as gifts:     Cute, right? All you need is a paper doily, two circles (one larger than the other for the halo, the smaller one for the face), scissors and glue. Even little kids can follow the directions to make the angels since it is pretty basic.    These are the supplies that I gave my girls. They then folded the doily in half and cut it into 2 pieces. One half of the doily becomes the body. The other half is folded into the wings. To make the ...

I recently made this wreath to help decorate for Christmas. It is based on one that I made for my sister´s baby shower. I am not the craftiest person but both of these wreaths are super easy! All you need is: -A wreath form (mine came from Target´s dollar spot when it was half off) -A glue gun -Cupcake wrappers (or coffee filters, which is what I used to make the wreath for the shower) -Scrapbook paper to decorate according to your theme (mine was green, red and white) All you need to do is twist up the wrappers and glue them to the form. It takes a while since there is a lot of space to cover so you need to be patient. Make sure to pay attention to any open spaces or gaps in your wrappers as you glue them. My wreath form was red to begin with so I didn´t mind if there was some peaking through. After it is all covered you can add some decorations to spice it up. I added some pinwheel rosettes made from the scrapbook paper and a sign that says "feliz navidad...

While visiting the mountains last weekend, Jose and I collected some chestnuts during our hike. I had no idea how chestnuts came to us naturally and was in for an education. They are just like any other type of nuts I guess in that they grow on trees (see above). Chestnuts are collected here in Spain in the fall and early winter. Then they are often sold by streetside vendors who roast them as you wait. Yum! We decided to cut out the middle man since there were so many just laying around the trail as we hiked. Here is how chestnuts are protected in nature: This is a spiky, ouchy shell that surrounds and protects the nut itself. They fall to the ground and need to be cut or broken open to harvest the seed inside. Pretty ingenious chestnut tree, well played. As we walked we found quite a few that had already escaped their shells. There were a lot of empty hulls laying about. We picked out the biggest and best looking to take with us. At home we cleaned the...

There is a really cool store here in Seville where they re-sell old furniture. Since we are moving soon and need to furnish our new place, we go every once in a while to take a look around since you never know what you might find. By old furniture, I mean European old (a lot with prices to match), like hundreds of years old. Most of the pieces are huge, wood, imposing. A lot of them are real antiques. Those we usually overlook both for their style and what they cost but we have found some things worth taking home, like a cool wicker chair for our bathroom. Recently we found this piece: I think it used to be the upper part of a writing desk since there is a slat that slides out at the bottom when you have the doors open. I liked the style and plan to use it as a buffet in my dining area. It needs a little work, some sanding and probably some paint and feet to make it a bit taller. I look at this as a challenge. I think I will be able to do this project myself...

When I was growing up my mom was the queen of holiday decorations. Every time a new holiday rolled around, out came the themed cookie jar, cut-outs, window clings, figurines, trees, calendars etc. I was anti-decoration for a while but I must be getting to be more like her every day since I am starting to do the same, bit by bit. I am starting to accumulate my own collection of holiday decorations, some bought and others crafted thanks to the various blogs and websites I follow. Though here in Spain they don't celebrate Thanksgiving it happens to be my favorite holiday of all. I just had to have one little space to remind me of this day bt I didn't want to spend a lot of money. I decided to keep it simple. I chose our glass cabinet so that they doggie doesn't decide to chew on anything while we are at work. Here is a picture though it is a bit hard to see since we are still missing our camera cable and I had to use Jose's phone:     First I printed out the ...