Tuesday Tutorials: Make it your own!

I can't believe it is already June! Yikes! Where has time gone? For me it has been a whirlwind ride of teaching and going to cultural events lately! I've been so busy that when I get home I am too tired or too spent to even think about writing a post but here I am back again from the woodwork!
I've been working on making this room here my own (not an easy task since there are so many useless things lying around here that I am trying to figure out what to do with) and have commenced by decorating one side of the shelf for me to enjoy and look at!

If you read my post in April about collage making, then you will recognize the first piece on my shelf-side collage. I used that collage as a starting point for this particular decoration piece:

What else did I use, you ask? Well, I have an ever growing collection of postcards and trinkets people send me so I started to use them as the basis for my collage. Among the ones pictured are a postcard from Socks for Happy People, a postcard my parents brought me from Lima, Peru, and a few little cards from Paris my friend Martina sent me! I am a very visual person and having a bland room is not my idea of fun!

In order to not harm the shelf nor harm the pieces I am using I decided to use mounting tape to get them up there. It peels off fairly easily when I want to change something around and is less annoying than regular scotch tape.

Thank God for creativity and ingenuity! It's the little things in life that inspire me most! Have a bright and cheerful day! What decorating plans do you have for this summer? I'd love to know!

Cheers!

Life... ♥

Hello friends! It's been a while since I last wrote! Life has been whizzing by and somehow I got caught up in the moments. Today I just want to share a little bit of what I am enjoying these days....

Catching up with old friends on Monday...

Received a letter from a friend in Germany on Wednesday...

Aren't the German postage stamps lovely?

The postcard my friend sent me....

and the little tour/travel cards from Paris she included as a token...

Today I played around with the cam and different shelf shots...

my tea/candy jar...brought this from the US with me...

...and of course, CHOCOLATE! I bought these two today.

I've also been updating some photography on my Perez Liscano Photography facebook page. I added an album called {a rose is a rose} and it has some beautiful shots! Check it out and if you're on facebook and like what you see become a fan as well! I've also added a few things to the Mes Petites Creations facebook fan page as well! Other than all that I've been teaching my little students English and hanging out with my Grandma.

Cheers!

♥Vintage Inspiration♥: {Paris 1960}

I am inspired of late mostly by Parisian-themed images and photos. Here is a collage I created using images from around the web:

Photo Credits: 1. Fashion Photo-Paris 1960 by Mark Shaw, 2. Helmut Newton photo via the Paris End: Photography, Fashion and Glamour from the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, 3. unknown, photo via The French Mouse blog, 4. Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin in the courtyard of the French National College of Fine Arts, Paris 1969 via The Perfect Pucker Smokeye.

Fantastic Friday: Dreaming of France, Peanut Butter Bread and Free Music

A finer Friday I could not have asked for! I love having exceptionally good days because when you're having a not-so-great day they are the days you can draw inspiration from and remind yourself that there's always a rainbow after the biggest of storms. So, I've had all things French on my mind, so much so that I actually did a little bit of my French lessons on Livemocha.com. I was watching Julie & Julia last night and although I wasn't able to finish (the DVD was not working very well) I was already loving it and think I may just have to purchase it! I think I may also purchase that cookbook of Julia's and tackle those recipes myself (Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a cookbook that has always intimidated me but now that I am older I think I might be able to handle it).

I woke up from a brilliant dream about being in France and was happy to find the sun shining through my window and was even happier to come downstairs and drink a cup of coffee accompanying it with some toast with Nutella spread. After feeding Gianna and making sure Alyssa had some food, I sat down to watch the Gilmore Girls and then caught Paula Deen on the Food Network. Her recipes today were delicious as she had decided to "Go nutz!" The episode, Goin' Nutz! was full of great food and a nice little "tip" at the end. She made this very good looking Peanut Butter bread which I of course had to try! So I made it, although the reviews were not so great, but mine turned out wonderfully! Here it is:

Peanut Butter Bread using Paula Deen's recipe

I think the trick to the bread was baking it for about 30-35 minutes instead of the 50 minutes suggested by the recipe (I inserted a toothpick and when it came out clean took the bread out which was well before the 50 minutes). Also, adding more like 1/2 a cup to 3/4 cups of sugar instead of 1/3 cup will make it a bit better although adding honey to it when it is still warm makes it taste pretty good too! Here is the recipe. Just click on the boldfaced word to access the link!

I listened to the House of Soul sampler I got from iTunes as I was cooking and while waiting for the bread to cool some, I got on facebook to see that there was an NPR sampler available for download so I got that. Looking for more music I found samplers for free on Amazon and I want to share that link with you: Amazon Samplers. I love to listen to music as I cook or craft and even more when it is an ecclectic mixture of good tunes! So, I leave you now with some gorgeous photos of Paris, La Ville-Lumière, the City of Light since that's what I've been dreaming of lately:

{Tour Eiffel, Paris France by Philip Rood Photography}

{Collage by ..Agnes.. on polyvore.com}

{Photo from Paris Perfect}

{Mini Eiffel Tower Grater from wishingfish.com}

Ok, so that last one isn't exactly a photo of Paris but I thought it was cute and really want one! Hope you've enjoyed today's post!

Cheers!