My first EU trip - the Motherland

Andrew and I just spent the weekend in Mallorca, Spain. It was absolutely AMAZING!! I have never been to Spain and while most know I'm Cuban, they don't know that my mom and her sisters are only fourth generation Cuban - as Marta likes to put it "we hail from Spain!" The Catalan region to be exact and Mallorca is part of that region! And I will just say, my people are awesome!

I wanted to start with this picture because really, it just makes me laugh. Andrew is going to bring this look to the UK and possibly even the US of A so keep your eyes peeled for the up and coming fashion statement. On our trip to the town of Soller, this was the very first person I saw. Sahweeet! 

Andrew really did his homework and got us a fabulous deal at the brand new Hilton Sa Torre near Llucmajor. It just opened this month and I must say is FANTASTIC! The resort is a renovated castle! There is a windmill and chapel on premise. It's kind of off the beaten path so we really felt like we were in our own little world:

There was also two tennis courts and a full size football field (soccer) which Andrew and I thought was an interesting feature. I guess if you have a team that would like to train in an exotic place, definitely look up the Hilton Sa Torre! Also, Mallorca is apparently a big "bicycle tourism" place. There were LOADS of cyclists on every single road we drove on. Absolutely insane, they were, riding two wide on roads that were barely paved and hardly let two cars pass each other going in opposite ways! 

So our first day there we started with a lovely breakfast. This place has THE best breakfasts - tons of fresh fruit, bread, empanadas, serrano ham, cereal and skimmed milk (or Leche Desnatada), made to order omlettes and poached eggs. Since breakfast was included in our rate we ate like fatties! 

After breakfast, we went to explore Palma - the capital. We walked around a bit and I had my new coffee love drink - cafe con leche. Delish! But we didn't explore long because it was GORGEOUS out and I didn't want to waste the sunshine so I made andrew take me back to the pool. This trip I read Sophie Kinsella's "Twenties Girl" and absolutely adored it! She's the author of the Shopaholic series. I know it's fiction, but it inspired me to have a completely different outlook on life! I totally recommend this to anyone looking for a light hearted summer read with a good message and hunky male love interests!! I'm halfway through reading it again! I also bought Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal...or something like that. I am going to read the first Harry Potter in Spanish to help with my new mission to speaka the spanish by the end of summer! It's not going that great so far...

So anyways, we got all dolled up to go out that first night. On the way to the car we stumbled upon a little min-pin/long hair chihuahua mix looking pup. She was so skittish and wouldn't come near us. I finally coaxed her to come close to me and she let me pet her. My heart instantly melted and she looked so skinny and dirty that I made andrew go and get the left over serrano ham we had in our room. I fed her and then andrew said we had to leave as I think he could see me hatching a plan as to how i could get her into our room. I just wanted to give her a bath and feed her some more! I secretly named her Bella and decided that if I saw her when we got back, I was totally going to go through with my plan. We didn't see her the rest of the trip but it eased my conscience thinking she had an owner... instead of harboring a stray, we drove a bit and found this great scenic cliff overlooking the ocean - here are some pics from that exploration:

 Andrew told me to "go sit on the rock over there"

This seems like a car commercial. We were supposed to have a SmartCar - stupid Goldcar...seriously, worst car rental company ever. Trust me.

Turns out that there wasn't a whole lot of dining options in our general vicinity so we went back to the hotel for wine and a FANTASTIC dinner. We ate fantastically the entire time - fresh fish, tons of croquetas, carpaccio, and all kinds of delicious-ness!! Here are some restaurant highlights:

Drinks at Cuba before dinner reservations at Na

Restaurante Na - the view was incredible!

 This is right before Andrew dropped my camera - and broke it. She will never be the same :( 

Simply Fosh

Another memorable trip was to the town of Valldemossa. I made andrew stop there so i could have a breather from all the wind-y roads. I was about to lose it! But it was a super cute town and i got the cutest necklace as a souvenir! It's going to be my thing I wear when I'm ready for a good time!! I was dieing to dance the entire time we were there, but we never did...boo.

The long weekend was lots of sun, food, and wine... so good! The island has windmills everywhere, which was really cool! I guess the region is known for citrus as well because there were orange and lemon trees everywhere!! And my favorite place is the town we saw today: Fornalutx. It was just so quaint and authentic and felt so so Spainish! 

On the way home, I made my first friend! Her name is Jenny and she's from Holland but is an au pair for an English family :) We chatted the whole way! Good things on the horizon... I'm ready for some friends! 


Here was my last bit of mischief :) 

Gorgeous Weather, Market Weekends & Volcanic Ash!

The weather this past week has been absolutely gorgeous. Sunny, warm-ish, light until after 8 pm, zero humidity. Just wonderful! So wonderful, in fact, Andrew and I have been trying out our garden square because it's HOPPING on the weekend when the weather is nice!! Yesterday, I tried to do some work in the garden, but that proved rather difficult as the warm sun made me want to just close my eyes and relax :) That, and everyone else spread out in the grass and wine and cheese and champagne and snacks... i wanted all those things. lol. 

BUT highlights from this past week:

1. Beautiful weather.

2. Girl Date with Alison.  Andrew and I attended also and Bernie's beautiful wedding last month and while Andrew was away, she was sweet enough to reach out to me! So Wednesday, we met at Waterloo station and she showed me a whole different area of the city that was right on the river. We had dinner at this restaurant with a piano player under the train tracks. I think it was called Arch Duke. The fish here has sketched me out a bit  (just because the smell of the fishmonger is ALWAYS overwhelming when i grocery shop) but I ordered sea bass and it was glorious! And then we went to this trendy/artsy bar on the ground floor of the film school in those parts and had a few more drinks. I REALLY enjoyed myself, Alison is the best!! It was so so so nice to have some girl time! 

Walking from the restaurant to the bar, there was also a really cool skate park with graffiti all over the walls and ramps and rails and such for the skateboarders to show off - which they did - but I'm telling you, the older I get, the more I see exactly what can go wrong in certain activities. I couldn't even watch the guys doing tricks because I didn't want to see anyone crack their head open or break an arm... my poor kids, I will conscious have to work not to be overprotective. And if they are anything like me, they will be incredibly accident prone. BUT I would really like to take my nice camera and go back some time because I bet I could get some REALLY cool pictures :) 

3. Lunch with Andrew. I met Andrew for lunch one day this past week. We went to Hummus brothers where I got chicken and feta in my bowl of hummus - i'm addicted! And then, since it was so nice, we walked over to St. Paul's Cathedral and sat down with the loads of other people there and had a coffee. I could've KICKED myself for not bringing my camera, it was seriously one of the most beautiful places i've seen in the city thus far. Everything was in bloom, the buildings were old and glorious, and the sun was shining!! We're going to try and do his once a week!

4. Jo's Birthday! Friday I met Andrew at work and we went to a local pub for drinks to celebrate Jo's birthday! She works and T. Rowe, but she and I have gotten along really well the last few times I've seen her so I wanted to celebrate too! It was a lot of fun! I haven't laughed that much in a long time :) 

After that, Andrew and I got ourselves Paul's for dinner - only my most favorite sandwich and pastry place in London - and then went to the "Cinema" for the first time. Since andrew has a more mature sense of humour than me (I'm trying to slowly adapt my writing to proper English spellings) instead of seeing Kick-Ass like I wanted, I suggested we see Ghost. It was a political thriller (is there such a genre??!?) and it was pretty entertaining! But the ending wasn't the best and it didn't really shed Americans in the greatest of light but what can you do. LOL. Tina Fey and Steve Carrell's movie Date Night comes out this week so hopefully we'll go see that soon :)

5.Shepherd's Bush Market. Not only is there a FANTASTIC mall by the Shepherd's Bush station, there is a huge street market! They had veggies and tons of fabric shops!! THis is why i wanted to go to this market in the first place. There were also a bunch of butchers that we visited because Andrew is dying to find some Ostrich meat. But back to the fabric - I made poor andrew walk every inch of that market for fabric, quilting wadding, and this ribbon/rope/string that I made up in my head and think will look great as the straps to this dress I made and want to use as a beach cover up in Majorca this weekend! 

6. Ash Cloud.  Due to the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland, over 30 European countries have closed their air space. According to the news, it was supposed to have been settling over London the last few days but the skies have been so clear and nice that it's hard to imagine that is the case! Flights are still canceled for today, I just hope that everything is up and running by Saturday when we are supposed to go to Spain!!! I've been really pumped about this trip!

7. Costa Coffee. I have decided that I prefer Costa to Starbucks! They have the best skinny lattes!  

8. Sunday Morning Run. So I decided that I need to get back in shape and have no motivation on my own. So andrew came up with this plan to run around Hyde park where we run five minutes and walk one and do this all the way around. Apparently a lot of 60+ year old marathon runners use this technique. Well, I was pissy and tired and mean before we even got to the park. Poor Andrew - I may have yelled at him a lot for taking me on such a strenuous mood and I thought he was making me run longer than 5 minute stints... let's just say that once I was home and showered and fed (i made us my mom's ham, egg, and cheese breakfast casserole), I felt much better.

9. Spitafields Market. Over by the Liverpool street station, there is a HUGE market where people sell items they've made like clothing and jewelry and there are some food places with outdoor dining. I had no idea how huge it was!! I didn't buy anything at this market, but I took a bunch of pictures and Andrew and I had a lot of fun goofing around...well, I was goofing around. One store was even generic about it merchandise, but pretty clear about who they wanted to shop there:

First Try

Now, because I've taken one 3-hour sewing class, I think I'm an expert.

Andrew and I went to Peter Jones this morning so i could get some sewing stuff. I got the patterns and some supplies and then all the fabric choices completely overwhelmed me! It wasn't as stocked as a jo-ann fabrics, but it certainly had a lot of choices! And I didn't know one from the other. Some of them were quite pricey, so with andrew's guidance, I selected one that was Jersey, but on the less expensive end. After having it home, I think it's what a lot of T-shirts are made out of... and not the really nice T's, just average. BUT I wanted to give one of the dress patterns a try!

As you can see, it went ok. I can use my machine (which i LOVE) and spent a lot of the day putting this dress together. It doesn't look like it, but it's actually looking pretty amazing! I did some darts, and the collar area is really detailed, but what you can't see is the one sleeve that I sewed on, I sewed on inside out. Smooth, Steph. AND there may be a piece that I cut out per the pattern that I have not used yet nor do i know where it should go... but overall not bad for my first time!! There was a lot of pressure to make this though. I skyped with my dad earlier and apparently he was quite the protege with the sewing machine back in his high school days :)

Andrew is in DC right now...I'm a little sad without him but i have wine and chocolate to ease my pain. And I've been reading the books that True Blood is based off of - let's just say that the author is no JK Rowling. My mom made crab dip for Andrew, and quite the meal so I'm a little jealous that he's getting the Steph Fam treatment and I'm here fending for myself.

Tomorrow I have a session with a personal trainer (per a promotion at the gym we joined) so that should be nice. And I would really like to bake something. I find my cooking habits have changed completely since I've been here. The availability of certain items makes cooking a very spontaneous procedure!

I continued looking at sewing patterns online today and I must say, maeby is going to be quite angry with me... I ordered dog clothes patterns in my browsing today :) With the rain and wind here, I think dogs should have proper accessories!

Can't wait til May 4th when it's my turn to go back home and visit!!

The new Buffalo sauce

I crave condiments. I go on kicks where I become obsessed with a condiment and plan my meals based on what I can put that condiment on. For the last year or so, my main go-to has been buffalo sauce. I put it on EVERYTHING - pizza, chicken, pork, turkey burgers, shrimp, anything. I bought two gi-normous bottles of Frank's from Costco before the move, but while waiting for their arrival, I've discovered Nando's Peri-Peri sauce at it...is...glorious!

It comes in 3 levels of hotness. I started with the HOT, but as it made my mouth numb and me drool uncontrollably, I've switch to Medium. It has the same hotness, only I can taste the flavor a little more. So now, I put it on everything here - chicken, rice, beans, pizza, sandwiches. ANYTHING. I'm unashame-edly hooked. Hooked. Not sure if there is an equivalent in the States, but if so, I fully recommend it.

Today I had my first sewing class. I was the only person signed up so I had 3 hours of one-on-one attention. I loved it! I learned open and closed seams, how to sew corners, how to face, how to sew darts, different hemming options, button holes, and more. I have a list of a bunch of places to buy fabrics and supplies, so I think this weekend I will stock up and make my first project since my hubby gave me an early B-day present - a Janome machine! yay!

Other than that, nothing but work this week. I met the girl, Eliis, that i've been helping out today. We got to know each other over wine spritzers and sunshine as these last two days have been beyond gorgeous. I went for a run yesterday through Hyde park and there were so many people hanging out, laying out and just enjoying the weather. It couldn't have been more amazing. And this weekend is supposed to be the same... looking forward to it!

Easter and Sunshine and cooking lessons for Steph!

Dea and Hubert definitely brought the nice weather with them as far as London standards go! Saturday was beautiful, Sunday it only sprinkled on us a few times and there were lovely breaks of sun, and then today, the sun is out and shining and beautiful!

By law, Easter Sunday and Christmas Day retail stores larger than 3,000 sq feet (meters?) are not allowed to be open. Several smaller stores also followed suit so with everything closed, we had nothing to do but walk around the city!

We started with Kensington High Street which leads you right to Hyde park. Andrew and I had taken a short running tour on Friday through Hyde Park, but it's so so huge you have to give it some time to explore! The picture of Andrew is at the Kensington Palace at the West end of the Park where we entered. While I am jealous that I do not have my own castle, I think it's insane how huge they are! I mean, what could you possibly use ALL those rooms for? Crazy..

Right after the Palace was a beautiful little pond full of swans! I could be mistaken, but I don't think there are many swans in the US - at least not any I've ever seen. And those who know me and my belief that birds are the spawns of Satan would be impressed to know that I actually got pretty close to take some nice pics!

Then we walked through the heart of the park where there are tons of paths for walking/running/cycling and tons of well-behaved dogs off leash (maeby will not be one of those when she comes - wayyy too free spirited! It was at this time that I remembered there was an funky setting on my camera where it will pick up one color of your choosing and make everything else black and white. So I thought I'd try to get a little creative. I'll include some of my shots from when we found the Princess Diana memorial fountain and another big lake with boats and even a "beach" area where people can swim in the summer. I doubt that I will ever partake in such a swim, but it's nice to know there are lounge chairs if there's ever a hot sunny day!
They also have horseback riding lessons in the park which might be fun to check out one of these days...

After the park, we were at Buckingham Palace. They REALLY don't wany intruders visiting judging by the high walls with metal death spikes, then an electrical/barbed wire fence. It was really really intense.

From there we walked up to Westminster Abbey where I got some more great pics:



It was then that we realized we'd been walking for almost 3 hours and needed a seat and some nourishment. It took us 10 minutes to find a Paul's location (only THE best bakery in London - in my opinion). Again, I'd like to stress that I've lived off of bread, cheese, cream, chocolate, butter, and pasta since Friday. I really need to control myself!

But Dea and Hubert left this morning. I always get a little down when our guests leave - partly because I don't want them to go and partly because they get to go home. While I do really love living in London, it's definitely not home. I don't know that it will ever feel like that, but one can hope right? In the mean time, I'll keep learning what I can and can't plug into a transformer (can't: blow dryer, magic bullet (RIP Magic bullets)) and how to measure things in centimeters and what the heck degrees in Celsius equate to in my realm of temperature.

I was introduced to Passion Fruit this weekend which looks absolutely disgusting, but tastes fantastic! Dea taught me how to make her special homemade pasta sauce and Hubert taught me how to make his special thai green curry! Not only was it fabulous to have family here this weekend, I am a better - slightly fatter - person because of it :)

Next guests schedule with us soon please!

Holy Amounts of Crap!

Andrew's parents, Hubert and Dea, came to stay with us for easter. After two days of scrambling we got the place looking presentable. Take a look at what the flat looked like on Thursday when our stuff arrived:


BUT we worked REALLY hard to get it to look like this:






We stayed up late Friday. They didn't get to our house until after 10 PM. The Eurostar goes all over Europe and apparently it's a great mode of transportation. After visiting Celine and fam in Houston the week before, their jet lag left them wide awake this late.

While waiting for their arrival, I used the opportunity to hook Andrew on True Blood... so far, my plan is working EXCELLENTLY! He keeps suggesting we watch more :) But because of all the True Blood last night, I woke up at 9:30 when I was supposed to be at my "Learn your sewing machine" class at 10 AM. I called the lady teaching the class and luckily she had been trying to get a hold of me to cancel for this weekend because she's sick. Hopefully I will get to make that up this Friday!

I woke to Andrew and his dad gardening. Our garden is right off of our guest room/office and Dea put them to work! After and hour of weeding and cutting back (I am far from having a green thumb) it looks like an entirely different space! They uncovered rosemary and thyme plants, a rose bush, and some other lovely little things! I feel like poor Hubert will not want to come back if we keep putting him to work! They filled 8 large trash bags! After, we had a lovely European breakfast - a loaf of crusty bread, 3 different cheeses, jams, yogurt, and some fruit. I stuffed my face as usual - thanks lack of self control!

And then we went off to the famous Portabello market (famous thanks to the movie Notting Hill with Hugh Grant and Julie Roberts). I think famous is an understatement, check it out:



I can't believe how crowded it was! You could barely see anything! We did find a fantastic little bakery to get bread for tomorrow and a little chocolate croissant snack for me....delish! There were so so many vendors! I'd like to go again, but A LOT earlier, and check them out. There was a neat little station where a guy was painting things freehand on old-looking Rugby balls. Very cool!

Andrew and I bought some artwork in the states before we came. We found Etsy and Ebay artists we really liked and purchased their paintings for above the couch and our bedroom. Well, these paintings came on rolled canvas instead of stretched and framed. SO it was Andrew's mission today to find stretcher bars so that we could mount the artwork. We seriously walked for over an hour looking for this place and it was thanks to my keen understanding of the British accent that we found it! And by "it" i mean the most fantastic place on earth! It was in this really artsy area of London near Liverpool station, on the second floor of the HUGE warehouse. It was the largest Art Supply store I've ever been in! I'll definitely be going back.

And then after a trip to Homebase, Tesco, and Westfield...we finally came home for the evening. Dea brought Rotello for dinner. I'm probably spelling that completely wrong but i've never had it before. She made her own large sheet of pasta that she laid flat, put a spinach/ricotta/olive oil mix on and then rolled it up so that when you cut it, it came out in little white and green spirals. She made tomato sauce to go with it and I must say, it was one of the best meals I've ever had. AND the JVMs also brought me this luxiously huge Luxembourg chocolate egg filled with more chocolates - not two chocolates being alike. It was honestly the best thing I've ever put in my mouth... so good!

In a brief recap, all I did today was eat bread, cheese, and chocolate in huge amounts. I can barely move. I may be twice my size by the time my European tour is over!

Tomorrow is Easter and I'm pretty sure the majority of places are closed, so it should be a very relaxing easter :)