The Hazel Wood a novel by Melissa Albert - Review
This weekend was a wonderful weekend full of reading! Lately, I've been chain-reading. The moment I close a book on the final page, I'm up and reading another. Which is not unusual for me, but it's my goal to keep it up throughout the year. Mainly because last year I didn't read a whole lot, and I want to read at least thirty books this year, which isn't a whole lot for me, but with how busy I am, it can become a hard goal to achieve. In January I read two books, and over the weekend I read another, which puts me at 3, and a good start to accomplishing this reading goal. Also my "to be read" list was growing much too fat for my liking... sigh.So many books.So little time.Are you wondering what I was reading that was so unputdownable? If you follow my Instagram feed you may have guessed. I totally paused Cassandra Clare's The Dark Artifices, series after finishing Lady Midnight to begin, The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert.This book called to me like a Siren from the shelves of Target. I left it in the store the first time I heard it sing, and went home and added it to my TBR list, totally promising myself I'd not buy any new books till I tackled the books on my shelves. This resolution like most didn't last long and on my next visit, it was in my red shopping cart and not coming out until I had to pay for it.I have to say, this book, probably isn't for everyone. I think it lends itself to a specific type of reader. That's not to say you won't enjoy it. I think if you have an open mind, and you enjoy things to be a little bit weird in a Twin Peaks sort of way, then perhaps this book is for you.If not, that's perfectly okay. Like I said, this book is for a specific type of reader.Me. (Maybe you?)I enjoyed the author's voice and her prose. I am now anxiously anticipating the sequel to this novel. Her voice reminds me a bit of Holly Black or Maggie Stiefvater, so if you've enjoyed their stories, I think you'll enjoy this one too.
WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD
There are Harry Potter and other modern-day references I found to be a bonus and was completely charmed by the author's witty use of them.The story is about a single mom Ella, and her daughter - who spend their life like gypsies moving from one place to the next, until the bad luck in their past catches up with them and the young protagonist Alice, finds herself search and rescue for her reclusive grandmother and kidnapped mother in a fairy tale land made up of dark forests and refugees. For a bit of help on her journey, she enlists the help of an unlikely classmate Ellery Finch. (Isn't that name great - it sounds like he should be in fairytales...)Characters from her grandmother's fairytale novel start showing up in Alice's life and as you can imagine, it's not a good sign.Alice isn't a nice protagonist - she's got pent of anger inside of her which sometimes comes out, but she tries and I like that about her.I enjoyed this book, and I think you could too!
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Easy Valentine's Day Fabric Rag Wreath
I LOVE to make wreaths. Since moving from Italy or... perhaps even before then I've not had a wreath for Valentine's Day.So I made one. It was so easy. I even had my toddler help me. She enjoyed playing with the rags while I tied them and constructed the wreath.That's a win-win if you ask me!
Supplies You'll Need
Wire wreath form - I used a 14-inch wreath.
Scissors
Fabric - I used "fat quarters"of fabric which are one-fourth yard cut that usually measures 18" x 22". Honestly, you could use any fabric you have laying around at home from old clothing to sheets. I think cotton works best.
I purchased my fabric at Wal-Mart because I was there and they had this super cute -pre-cut fabric quarters which meant I didn't have to hunt down a sales associate to help me, and they were only .97 cents each.
How to make your fabric rag wreath
Lay out your fabricCut one-inch cuts along the length of your fabric and then tear them into one-inch strips. If you want to be really technical and perfect you can measure, but I eyeballed them.Take those strips and cut them in half. You want about a two-three inch tail.Begin tying your rags onto the metal wire.Continue doing this until your wreath is full to your liking. What I like to do is space the fabric in each section on the wreath and mix up the fabric, filling in where I think a certain type of fabric is needed.Add a ribbon or leave plain. You can use multiple coordinating fabrics as I did here, or a single color. Your choice!
Authentic Tres Leche Cake
This weekend my husband celebrated his birthday and I baked him a tres leches (three milks) cake which is one of his all-time favorites. I've tried several recipes and I've found this recipe most closely resembles an authentic Tres Leche Cake you'd enjoy for dessert in many Cuban restaurants in Miami (our home town). Even though Tres Leche is traditionally a Nicaraguan desert, many Cubans and other Hispanic or Latin American cuisines have adopted this delicious dessert and you can too!
While I was preparing this cake, I wasn't thinking about sharing the recipe here on my blog, so I have no photos of the prepping stages to share with you, as it was only after I received a few requests via an Instagram post about the cake I decided to share this recipe. I think the recipe is pretty easy to follow, it just has lots of steps. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. This is a delicious cake, but it does require some patience to prepare.I rarely bake. I think the last time I baked anything besides chocolate chip cookies (using pre-made dough) was in June for Ellena's baptism. I do enjoy baking but really only bake when it's meant for someone I love. Since he's my absolute favorite person I was happy to make this for him.
INGREDIENTS:
Cake Batter:
2 cups cake flour2 teaspoons baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt6 large eggs, separated2 cups sugar2 teaspoons vanilla extract1/2 cup whole milk
Milk Syrup:
1 can sweetened condensed milk1 and 1/4 cups whole milk1 can evaporated milk3 tablespoons light rum
Frosting:
4 egg whites1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar1/2 cup water1 cup light corn syrup1 and 1/2 cups sugar
For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and lightly flour a 9 x 13 baking dish and set aside. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Separate the egg yolks from the whites into a medium-sized bowl. Then beat the whites until very foamy and frothy and aside. In a large mixing bowl, cream the sugar, egg yolks, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer. Continue mixing and slowly add the milk to the egg yolk mixture. Next add the flour mixture to the egg yolk mixture a little bit at a time, until the flour is incorporated and the batter is smooth. Finally, use a spatula to fold in the beaten egg whites until they are mixed.Pour batter into your baking dish. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow cake to cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes.
For the milk syrup:
Frosting
Bluebird Gap Farm and Park, Hampton Virginia #travelvirginia
This weekend we took our kids to one of the most fun parks in the Hampton Roads area, Bluebird Gap Farm located in Hampton, Virginia. If you're visiting or new to Hampton Roads, and you have kids, this is a great way to spend a few hours. Bring a picnic and make a day of it. There is no fee to enjoy this park which makes it even better. Be sure to add this to your free things to do with kids in Hampton, Roads list when planning your visit.When at this park you can enjoy a family adventure while having an opportunity to educate your kids about farm animals which is cool because you don't need to travel to the countryside to enjoy this. It's nestled within an urban environment and has a bunch of cool animals from your typical farm animals like pigs and goats, horses and cows, but you also can see alpacas and llamas and peacocks! You can also buy snacks to feed the farm animals too. How much fun is that? Apart from the farm animals, they have a garden, and great playgrounds as well as covered pavilions and stuff to hold a nice little gathering. Picnic tables are plentiful and the ambiance is great.
Ellena's favorite thing to do at the park (or any park) are the swings. She loves them. 
They're my favorite too!
We made a little video of some highlights from our afternoon at Bluebird Gap Farm.
How to Take Your Own Family Portraits
If you're like us, you love a good family photo. Sure, your iPhone (or smartphone) can capture an outstanding photo, but sometimes, you want to use your actual camera. Over the years we've gotten taking our own family photographs down to a science, and in this post, I'll share with you how to take your own family portraits.
Before you have your camera in hand...
Figure out where you want to shoot. It can be as simple as your living room, or in a more scenic area. If you're going for an outdoor shot, remember to consider light. The best light isn't going to be at Noon, you'll want to shoot in the morning or late in the afternoon when the sun isn't super high in the sky. This is referred to as the "golden hour", it doesn't last an hour it can be a lot longer, but it's basically the first few hours after sunrise and before sunset. If you have to take photos when the sun is super high in the sky, try to position yourselves in such a way so as to lessen potential squinting. You can also take your family outside on overcast days but the light will be much more muted. You'll have to check your settings to ensure enough light is coming through. On the plus side, squinting will be a non-issue, as will sunlight creating weird shadows on your subjects. You also won't have to worry about changes in light through clouds or trees. You may find this post helpful when photographing on overcast days.If you've got children, don't expect them to stand perfectly still, to smile all the time or to even look at the camera. Instead, plan to take a ton of photos. Factoring in breaks and some fun treats to entice your kids is super helpful, because this is probably going to take a lot longer than you anticipated.
Relax. If you're relaxed, your kids are going to be too. TRUST ME. There have been instances where I or my husband would get super annoyed and stressed because our boys just wouldn't stand still. This never really resulted in great photos, so over the years we learned to just "go with it". That's not to say we never get annoyed when we're trying to get a good shot, but we've learned to anticipate this and work around it. My boys are 14 and ten, and they still have a hard time standing in place and not fooling around. In the next shot, they were all wiggly and my younger son Evan, was "joke kicking" as he said, his older brother. As the camera started to shoot I began to play along, I swung the baby in their direction and said 'Here comes photobomb Ellena!" The boys knew I was joking, but they got the idea and quickly stood still for the shot. The result was this fun photo of Ellena pretending to be a cannonball.
A few handy tools really help you take great family photos:
A tripod. My husband loves these things and owns several. His all-time favorite is a Manfrotto. Your tripod should hold your camera securely and be sturdy enough that a strong wind won't knock it over. I also require them to not weigh a ton, especially when we're traveling.A remote control. This isn't absolutely necessary, on this day we set the timer on our camera and had it set to take as many subsequent photos as it could and we hit the red button and ran. This works, but I much prefer to use a remote control. If your camera has wifi you can probably find an app to connect your smartphone too. I don't like these. I find them to be too slow. The remote controls we use are by Nikon and a generic brand for Nikon. They both work exactly the same in my opinion.An extra battery to three. Taking family photos can take much longer than you anticipate and I recommend taking a ton of pictures. No one is going to be behind the camera to see when the perfect time to push the shutter button is, so taking a lot of pictures is the best way to guarantee you'll have some good shots mixed in with a bunch of crappy ones.An extra memory card. Unless you're using a big memory card, have an extra one on hand... Just in case.
A few more helpful tips...
Don't be afraid, to "just be" while the camera is clicking. Be yourselves. Talk, joke, tickle each other, throw a ball into the air, whatever.We use a DSLR camera, but you can take great photos with a regular point and shoot. Either way, be sure to take some practice shots ahead of time to figure out what the focus will look like and to get the best possible framing of your picture.
Once you feel like you've gotten enough shots with the camera on your tripod. Take it off. Don't be afraid to hand the camera off to another family member. My kids have taken some really great shots. Set it up, teach them how to look in the viewfinder and frame the photo and let them get creative. You will be amazed at the wonderful magic that can happen. Like these great shots of my husband Dennis and me.
We thought my son had finished taking pictures so we gave ourselves a congratulatory kiss because this episode of family portraits was a success and we could then go get some ice cream! My son caught it on camera, how fun!I hope this helps you take some great family photos on your own. Also, if you've got some other tips to share, please share them in the comments.
Epiphany - Chalk House Blessing
Happy Epiphany! One of my goals for the new year was to grow spiritually. The other was to share more of how my family celbrates the liturgical calendar and how my husband and I help teach our children about our faith. If you don't know we're a Catholic family and today marks the twelveth day of Christmas and the arrival of the Maggi to the smallest and frailest of kings, Jesus. To mark this day, my kids received a few small gifts, to celebrate the arrival of Three Kings. We also blessed our home, which traditionally Catholics call an Epiphany - Chalk House Blessing.Yesterday we attended the vigil mass after a fun visit to a local park to spend some time with farm animals. I was hoping it would give my kids a sense of what it may have been like in the manger with a newborn and... cows. Not sure I succeeded, in that regard... I'll share pictures from our fun afternoon later in the week.We also blessed our home for the year with the following on the lintel of our front door 20 + C + M + B + 19This isn't algebra, it's a centuries-old Catholic tradition of blessing one's home. You don't see it too often here in the States, but in Europe, we saw it a lot. If you're a Catholic (heck even if you're not) I invite you to bless your home. It's a beautiful and simple way to invite Jesus into your home and ask him to bless your family and all who enter into it for the year.The numbers represent the year we're in 2019. The plus signs represent the Cross, and the letters: C, M, B, are to represent the traditional names of the Three Wise Men or Three Kings, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. They also abbreviate the Latin words Christus mansionem benedicat, “May Christ bless the house.”Catholic's traditionally use chalk blessed at the vigil Mass, but if you don't have it, you can say a simple prayer over it. It need not be overly complicated, simplicity is probably best. This chalk blessing and prayer are what we used.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank you for visiitng my home on the Internet. I pray you will be blessed with an abundance of love and joy, this year and always.xo
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! I appreciate the new year because it's always a time when I reflect on the past. The last year, previous years and the future yet to come. I can't get over how big the boys are, or how much Ellena is growing. I swear that girl says a new word or phrase daily. Today I was looking for the remote control and had her look underneath the sofa with me; we both spied it at the same time and when I pulled it out from it's hiding place, she exclaimed, "Got it!". It stopped me dead in my tracks. All I could do was sit there on my knees in awe at the wonder of her. Her other favorite phrase right now is, "I don't know." Where she'll shrug her shoulders and put her arms up in a questioning manner. I can't get over how cute she is.Michael began high school last year; although my husband Denniss and I have enjoyed watching him grow into this new season of his life we're also totally freaked out. I've always loved and embraced each new stage in my children's development, but honestly, these teen years are sort of freaking me out. I have never questioned whether I'm doing things right so much before. Meanwhile, Evan is in the last year of elementary school. This Fall he'll start middle school and just like that he'll be in a new stage of his childhood. Sometimes I feel as though my head is spinning because I constantly have to switch up my parenting method with each child, and sometimes, the switch doesn't happen as smoothly as I'd like. We'll get there and I'm sure once I feel like I have a handle on this parenting gig, something will change and I'll find myself right back to here. It isn't so much that I doubt my ability to effectively parent, or that I'm somehow totally screwing up my kids, it's more about making sure each child is getting what they need to thrive. Sometimes I feel like, I'm missing that mark; which is something I definitely want to work on this year.Most of all, I want my family to do more together. We fell out of the habit of having "family game nights" and the activities the boys used to love to do, they no longer have the same enthusiasm for. My goal this year is to tap into what they're growing personalities and interests enjoy and get involved. Find things they're interested in and turn them into family adventures. It's important we take full advantage of the time we've got with all five us here under one roof, because my husband could deploy at any moment really and I don't want to feel like we've wasted our time with the boys and Ellena.