Some Silhouettes in Black :)

Please come with me to see my Today's post!

Elsita :)

Original Mini Papercuts on Etsy:)

Yay!!!

Let's start this Monday with something cute. Here you can see some tiny paper creatures holding some tiny paper flowers :)

 

This is a series of one of a kind mini papercuts that I just listed on my Etsy store. They look sooo cute in person! And they are ready to frame in a little 6x4" frame. Right now there are only 5 of these tiny pieces on my store, but I hope that I can list a few more later this week. I am getting ready because my Mother in Law is arriving soon and we will be doing one million things when she is here. Natalie is absolutely crazy about her Grandma and she is extremely excited about her visit!

Now I am going to run to the Gym!!! Oh! Not the kind of gym where you go for a workout but the one where Diego has OT, one of his many therapies. He loves OT! It is basically one hour playing and having fun with her therapist who is very sweet, and then he goes to school :) We all need some kind of OT once in a while :)

Have a wonderful Monday my friend!

And see you tomorrow!!

Elsita :)

Last night was GREAT!

Dear friend,

The Los Angeles premiere of Milk was amazing. Wonderful people came to the event and the atmosphere was great. This is the second time that I watch the whole movie and went through the same emotions that I experienced the first time, what a powerful story and what a deep performance by Sean Penn. I can't wait for you see this movie, I know that you are going to appreciate it.

 

Among the celebrities that came to the event I saw Winona Ryder who was sitting a few seats in front of us. She was wearing a nice and simple dress that looked vintage to me. I once saw her in a vintage store on La Brea street, that's my favorite vintage store in LA and maybe the dress that she was wearing was from there :o

I also saw Hilary Swank. I heard someone behind us introduce herself to an old couple, she said: Hi, I am Hilary :) then I looked back and there she was with her beautiful smile. She is a very nice lady, her conversation was so natural, she didn't look like a celebrity at all.

There was also Jack Nicholson , he is one of my favorite actors. Nicholson is definitely getting old but his sense oh humor is still young :)

The were many other celebrities and they were all moved by the movie, everybody cried. After the projection there was a big party in the same building (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science). People in the party came to congratulate Bill for the film. I felt very proud of him for being part of this wonderful movie :)

I have no pictures of myself because we had no time at all for portraits, we had to run from our home!!! But I wore one of those black uniforms that are very useful in Hollywood, nothing special but very comfortable. I ate more than I should in the party :o (including different desserts) but today I will go back to normal :)

And tonight Bill and I are going back to the Academy building but in a different kind of business: Bill, as a member of the academy (you know, the people that vote for the Oscars) is going to be in the commission for foreign movies. MY FAVORITE ONE! I get to see all the foreign movies that are competing. There are many rules for these kinds of things. In order for Bill to vote he must see a number of movies from the beginning to the end and the voting process is top secret and for real, nobody knows the results in advance. As part of the rules, I am not allowed to talk about the movies that we are seeing every Friday. I wish I could!!! Because some of them are amazing!

Now I am leaving but first I want to wish you a wonderful Friday and a beautiful weekend.

I will see you on Monday!

Elsita :)

Tonight!

Yay!!! Tonight is the Los Angeles premiere of Milk!!! Bill and I will be there! I will do my best to take some pictures but in LA these premieres are always more strict and most of the times cameras are not allowed. I will tell you everything about the event tomorrow anyway!

Have a great day my friend!!

Elsita :)

Hurricane Paloma.

It breaks my heart to know that Cuba had just suffered another hurricane. It is not fair, these hurricanes are destroying the little island and it is so hard to recover from something like that when you don't have the basic resources. Here you can see a powerful short video with a report about the hurricane Paloma. I could have been one of the cubans in that video if I wasn't living where I live now. I remember being is situations like that when I was growing up in the island and it is terrifying,  specially for children. My heart is with them right now. Please, if you would like to help those who are suffering right now in Cuba, you can make a donation by clicking HERE. Your help will be extremely appreciated. You can write any amount in the little box that you will see over there, even a single dollar will be helpful.

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When I was a little girl living in Cuba I was always afraid of loosing our home to a hurricane. I remember that one of the first homes that we had was made out of very fragile materials and when it rained the water came inside through the roof. That's one of the most sad memories that I have from my childhood. I remember how I used to draw houses all the time, my ultimate dream was to live in a real house, strong and safe with all my family and I drew that dream over and over. But now that I live in a strong house I am afraid that one day an earthquake could hit us when we least expected, you know that Los Angeles suffers from earthquakes once in a while. What an irony, you can never be 100% safe in your home. That's why I have decided to create the perfect house to live in and you can see it in this link.

Thank you so much for reading this post my friend.

Elsita :)

The Tasty Language of Food :) (is always written by people like Chris)

Today I am so excited to let you know  that our friend Chris, who is a wonderful Chef living in Chicago, has just launched his own web-site! Yay!!! CONGRATULATIONS amigo!!! He runs a business called: My Private Chef. Chris is married to Lisa, who is a close friend of Bill's Mom. 

The very first time that I had the privilege to taste one of Chris' masterpieces was in an great event that Marguerite (Bill's sister) organized for her Dad Jay, who is of course my father in Law :) It was a very down to earth event, all the family gathered at Marguerite's apartment and then it was dinner time!!!!! That's when I tasted Chris' masterpiece and I just couldn't believe it! Chris is a very modest person, very quiet and very tall but he doesn't need to say a lot of words because when you eat his creations you hear all kinds of beautiful melodies. You know how good food can talk to you in that amazing mysterious language that we all understand (did you see Ratatouille?). Chris is the real deal and if you ever have an gathering in Chicago where you need a Chef to take care of the tasty part of the event then all you need is to call him :) You won't be disappointed.

I think that cooking is like creating art but in a different media and it is wonderful when you get to know a real food artist like Chris. With this post I officially want to tell him what a wonderful Chef he is. All my best for you Chris!!! And also lots of love to Lisa and my Mother in law Joan!

And let's try to do some creating cooking tonight!

See you tomorrow!

Elsita :)

Latest Papercut - Paper sculpture :)

Yay!!

Today we are going to travel to my paper planet again!!! Please buckle your seat belt and then click HERE . And the most important thing: DON'T BE AFRAID OF NEW ADVENTURES!!!! 

Have a wonderful Friday!!!

And a great weekend!!!

Elsita :)

Little Birdies :)

And today there are three little birds that want to say hi to you!! :)

They didn't eat their little friends! They are just carrying them around in their tummies :)

The little birds change colors! From pink to black and from black to pink :)

This Roberto in Pink :)

And this is Roberto in black :)

This is Antonio in pink :)

This is Antonio in black :)

This one is Maria Luisa in pink :)

And this one is Maria Luisa in black :)

I had the best time creating these new characters. And if you want to see the original papercuts just click RIGHT HERE :) and you will be transported to my papercut planet where they happily live now :) I hope that they bring a little smile to your face :)

Have a wonderful day my friend!

And I will see you tomorrow!

Elsita :)

(I will be listing these little birdies on my Etsy store soon, in both colors. And tomorrow I want to show you my latest papercut-paper sculpture, it will be something a little different, Yay!!! :)

AND ALSO DON'T MISS THIS GIVEAWAY BY KIRSTEN!!!!

Yaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!! Victory!!!!!!!!!!

Dear friend,

What a wonderful thing had just happened to the United States of America and to the world. What a wonderful historical time this is with the election of Barack Obama as the President of the USA. How much hope this victory brings to us!! My heart is filled with joy.

Bill and I had the amazing privilege to meet Barrack Obama in 2005. He came to Hollywood for a fundraising organized at the home of Will Smith's agent and the words that he said that night made such a great impact in everyone. He wasn't famous yet but we immediately realized that as a politician he was someone quiet different; a smart, inspiring man, a natural leader plus he had such a great sense of humor. The fact that he has become the President of the USA is something bigger than we are able to understand right now. This is almost amazing.

We also had the rare opportunity to meet John McCain in 2002. In Romania!! While Bill was producing Cold Mountain. He and his wife plus a couple of other politicians came over to some dinner with the people from the movie. It was just a coincidence that they were in Romania by the time the movie was getting made. It was pretty surreal, he was outside waiting for the dinner to start so I iniciated a conversation with him (with my then very basic and terrible English) Somehow we ended up talking about Cuba as you can imagine. Bill joined the conversation later and soon we had to finish because McCain said, OK, we better stop talking because we're never going to agree on this matter, the end! But I have to say that his speech last night was a good one and thank him very much for that. 

Today I want to celebrate Obama,s victory with this cute drawing that Natalie made last night while we were jumping and screaming and laughing loud and running all over our house. This country is going through a hard time right now but knowing that Obama will be the man in charge makes me feel very positive. I am sure that he will do his best because he is a good man and a good politician.

I hope that you have a great day today!!!!

And I will be back tomorrow!

Elsita :)

Diego's First Official Portrait!

Today I am a super proud Mom sharing this wonderful portrait of Diego with you!

This is the first photo ever where Diego is sitting, smiling and looking at the camera, all at the same time. This portrait was taken at school by a professional photographer. When the teacher gave the photo to me I just couldn't believe it, I wanted to cry. One of the hardest things about children with Autism is to sit still, to look directly at your eye (or at the camera lens) and to smile just for a photo. This portrait says sooo much about Diego's progress!. "A picture is worth a thousand words" and this picture captures Diego's personality so well! He is a funny, extremely curious and sweet as candy :)

I adore this little man sooo much!!!!!!! His smile is a gift to each member of our family and I wanted to share that gift with you today :)

Have a wonderful day my friend! And tonight we are joining our neighbors in what it could be a great celebration, let's see what happens!!!!

Elsita :)