Xmas would not be Xmas...

... without TONS of food, sweets, chocolates and more food (and champagne). (And wine). :)


Making traditional truffles!


This year's xmas dessert is the chestnut white log: Buche aux Marrons. Delicious and sweet :)


Cooks without wine (=outrage! :P)


To die for king prawn soup with homemade shrimp broth!

Wonderful pear/rutabaga/rosemary puree with cream spinach and a tenderloin in berry/champagne vinegar sauce. YUM-MY!

Holiday Season

We've spent a wonderful christmas this year (as every other year), but this year was more special as Gabe's face totally lit up on xmas morning when he discovered all his gifts "under" the tree. Or rather, all piled up in his brand new wagon! He was ecstatic! We spent a quiet but wonderful xmas eve, after a walk to the "crazy house" on W12th St, we had dinner just the 2 of us (Gabe was sleeping) and spent the whole xmas day with our friends Chris, Angele and Andrew, and ate, drank, ate, drank, ate some more. The boys had a great time, they both loooooved my king prawn soup, went for a ride in the wagon. We all had a great time!


Crazy lit house on W12St. We go every year now as part of our xmas eve routine :)


Gabe's brand new wagon full of gifts! Thank you Santa!


Xmas morning: busy morning :)


Wagon ride for Andrew and Gabe

With Chris, Angele and Andrew

Trail of Lights

What's the most awesome thing to do in Austin in December? The Trail of Lights at Zilker. Just the Best. Thing> Ever!

Weekend with Benoit

Benoit came to visit after the AGU in SF all last week. It was a short stay (too short) but a good one! Unfortunately Gabe was sick, but we still managed to get out of the house as it was nice and warm yesterday (unlike yucky today! bla). For the first time I actually walked on campus and took Benoit there, we shopped a little and saw the Trail of lights which was so awesome and worth the wait! Ended with a good round of 'ritas and a good home cooked dinner by Benoit :) Oh, and needless to say, Gabe found a new friend :)

Happy Holidays!!!

Gabe is sick, sick, sick

Our poor little guy's been sick for 5 days now, with a 3rd ear infection (in the left ear this time), a severe bronchiolitis, and the stupid crappy virus that's been going around that has made him vomit for the last 4 days. I am so sad, and tired, and feel bad for him. Sick of doing laundry, taking showers, cleaning up constantly.
At least, let's look at it the bright way, he'll probably be healthy by xmas! No more playdates for him before that!
And Benoit is coming for the weekend, I hope we'll manage to do some stuff as we can't really take Gabe outside right now. Boooooo.
So, that explains the lack of pictures lately, nothing to see here!

Weekend at Grandma's house

Gabe's checking Imari out :P
Originally uploaded by manueb

We spent the last weekend in Virginia at Grandma JeRena's house, where Gabe finally got to meet his 2 year old cousin Imari! They were both super cute all weekend, very cheerful and barely needed any supervision at all, real sweethearts.

My first jewelry showcase on Etsy!!!

My first jewelry showcase on Etsy!!!
Originally uploaded by manueb

Playdoh is so much fun!

DSC01406
Originally uploaded by manueb

I actually thought Gabe would have a blast cause I'm getting him used to play with it, but the teething got the most of him. He played for a very short while and then started throwing stuff around, and it was the end of it... You couldn't tell while looking at the pics.. We had a very short 5 minutes of fun :P

Cherry Blosson Geisha Bunnies

Cherry Blosson Geisha Bunnies
Originally uploaded by manueb

Welcome my new geisha Bunneez to my store! I just finished those a couple days ago. I so love everything Japanese and the cherry blossom patterns, I just hd to put them on a plush bunny. Finally here it is, I think the toys came out really well, hoping people will love them too :)
BTW, FREE shipping to the US and Canada from my store to you during the holiday season! Enjoy!!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving
Originally uploaded by manueb

We've spent a wonderful Thanksgiving at Ryan and Ame's, with Lisa and Ale and Massimo, and Clyde. And a TON of food. We all made way too much food, but hey, that's what this holiday is all about, isn't it? Or, it isn't?!?! :P The kiddos had tons of fun, and we did too. It was awesome.

Gabe had good fun with his buddies today

It was my birthday yesterday!!

And I got super cool stuff: a silk screen printing set, and Gabe got me an instruction book. Good thing cause it looks really complicated to me right now. But I see endless possibilities of CrazeeCrafteez hand screened tshirts, especially for our little ones!!! OMG that's going to be cute. And I also got a lovely pair of earrings I fell in love with at Whole Earth Provision, thank you my hubby!

A few of my items

I'm selling!

I've sold more than I thought for this first week of CrazeeCrafteez. The opening of the Etsy store was a success, it makes me happy and want to do so much more! I'm also going to work on postcards to broaden my advertising. This is where I am not good at - at ALL! Remember to spread the word!!!

Cecilia and Gabe

Cecilia and Gabe
Originally uploaded by manueb

Gabe got to spend some time with his aunt (and godmother) Cece! I honestly don't know who had more fun :) Cecilia and Allen brought tons of toys for Gabe, amongst them a very noisy one that he loves :P I hope they come to visit again soon, we had a great time all together.

Please come visit my Etsy shop!

Welcome dear friends and family to my new Etsy shop at http://www.crazeecrafteez.etsy.com

Come visit us frequently as I will be adding new stuff very often! I make mostly jewelry and baby items, so think about your loved ones with Xmas around the corner, and the multiple babies popping everywhere!!!
To all my blogging friends, there is no shamefull advertising! Would you mind putting a quick post in your blog with the link? That would be awesome!

You can check more of my stuff here: www.crazeecrafteez.blogspot.com

Thank you!!!!

This has been a loooong week

A week of sickness: Gabe's got an ear infection, and I also was sick, lack sleep, etc... It's been a long long long week and hopefully next week will be better. Pfff

This incredible man...

... totally gets how to communicate : http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/
and http://change.gov/
I think we can now look forward to something pretty incredible.

A new era of decency and respect of the people...

... Starts NOW!

Trick or Treat!!!

Gabe's happy!
Originally uploaded by manueb

We went trick-or-treating last night for the first time. Andrew, Chris and Angele were with us and we had a great time. Andrew was a Harley Davidson biker, and Gabe a ghost, obviously. I think they were the youngest trick-or-treaters of the street, and came home with a pretty big loot :)

Somebody got a new haircut!

Check out this face, I could just eat him alive!
Originally uploaded by manueb

I finally decided to do it yesterday, after waiting, and waiting and waiting. But he had hair in his eyes, so that did it! And, TA-DA! He looks even more beautiful, makes his pretty round cheeks and his perfect neck stand out even more. Can you tell I'm totally crazy about my baby?! At some point I'll have to stop calling him that, he's almost a little boy! Sure looks more like one now with this haircut!

Gabe's first painting

Gabe's first painting
Originally uploaded by manueb

TA-DA!!

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh I'm scared!

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh I'm scared!
Originally uploaded by manueb

hehehehe. There's this HUGE Hulk at the Austin's Comic Book store. So funny, Gabe wasn't scared at all, but I only had my phone with me and it wouldn't take a still picture of him - then again he wouldn't stop running :P
We got all the good stuff we promised ourselves (Shad and I) when we finally moved into our new bedroom: Angel, Buffy and the last Y man! (yes, we are kind of geeky...)

Azelea's (almost) 2 birthday party!

We celebrated Zalee's second birthday today. She clearly had her entire possee there!

The highlight of the party was when all the kiddoes (and parents) got to paint!!


Zalee looks like she's done that all her life!


Gabe was slower in discovering the paint, finally enjoying just putting his hands in it and rubbing it everywhere.


Pretty awesome! Special thanks to Sonia for making those lovely little aprons!!

On a lovely, warm, end of october day :) Hurray for Austin!

Elgin Pumpkin Patch

Elgin Pumpkin Patch
Originally uploaded by manueb

Angele and I took the boys to a pumpkin patch in Elgin this morning. Ok, well, there are more pumpkins at Central Market and Whole Foods, but it didn't matter. There are animals there and an big christmas tree farm. We got to go for a hay ride, and I enjoyed pulling Gabe and Andrew in a wagon. Pretty cute morning, something to do every year! Will get more fun as they grow up, maybe next time we can decorate pumpkins!

Gabe playing in the sandbox

Gabe playing in the sandbox
Originally uploaded by manueb

Oddly enough, he's not super attracted to sand. I'm not worried though, it will probably come later! At least he's not eating it right now, I guess that's good :) I burried his feet in the sand and he just sat there for a good 20 min, while Andrew was looking at him with suspicious eyes. (He never made it to the box :P)

OMG!

I just finished my curtains!!! Those 4 humongous curtains! Why the hell did I get myself into this in the first place?! Ah yes, I found beautiful fabric at 50% off, that helps. I just hadn't thought through how difficult it would be to sew these huge pieces of fabric with Gabe around! But now, they're done, we're going to be able to move in our new bedroom. Rocks! (pics soon)

First daycare for Gabe today!

I joined Angele at the Y today as a guest, to exercise a little. We wanted to try out their free daycare, and it turns out to be awesome, the women working there are great! Gabe broke down after 35min, probably suddenly realizing I was not there. Andrew was in the room with him though, but that didn't comfort him. Still, for a first time, he did really well. And I get to work out during the day, which is awesome!

YIPI for MAKER Faire

It's the second time we're attending, we went last year when Gabe was a month and a half, and we've really been looking forward to going again this year. It is the BEST event in Austin, ever! For the crafters that we are, it is heaven. So many Etsy artists were there, even more cool stuff then last year, Legoland, more robots, even R2D2!!! And of course we stayed to see Eepybird, the highlight of the day. These guys rock, their whole purpose in life is to make people happy, we need more of those!!! All the videos of Eepybird are on my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/manueb/sets/72157608185172644/


Life size Mouse Trap


Shad and Gabe with R2D2 and another robot I don't recognize (I suck?!)


Crazy long snake bike and butterfly bike.


Legoland!! Cant believe I lived so close to Danemark for 2 years and didn't go. What a waste!


The best part of the day!