1er Domingo de Adviento

First Sunday of Advent

Have a great beginning of Christmas Season!

Tianguis de Chácharas.

Tianguis means something like an open market or flea market. There are thousands if not millions of these markets all over Mexico, being Mexico City the one with the most amount of Tianguis. Even though Wikipedia proclaims another Tianguis as the biggest, the really biggest one is the San Felipe de Jesús Tianguis. It is more than a kilometer long. There are eight rows the whole kilometer long. This Tianguis is put up and taken down every Sunday. That day the two way avenue is closed.

What is sold in a Tianguis? Well it depends. There are fresh fuit and vegetables Tianguis, electronics, used clothes, new clothes, toys, and "chácharas" Tianguis which just about sells anything used.

In my town we have a few Tianguis (none as big as those in Mexico City), and we have a Sunday "chacháras tianguis". Last Sunday I went there to look for a sewing machine technician to fix my machine (all went well, three days later I had a great sewing machine).

Anyway, I took photos of some of the stuff sold there.

The guy who fixed sewing machines had a lot of
old fashioned machine's spare parts.
Like this engraved cover.

Here is another one. People still have lots of very
old sewing machines that still work
and are used.

Check out this old, hand cranked machine.
I don't know if this one could be fixed.

But this one is in perfect working condition,
The price? $1,500 pesos.
Something like $120. dollars.
Nice....

We saw this live snake being sold.

Lots of tools...

A chinese parasol, motorbike helmets, coffee maker,
tennis rackets, heater, you name it!!

Books, encyclopedias....

Need a spare stroller tire??




Bright crocs, old rusted chains.......

Honey....

Small cheesecakes.....

And cold tepache.
It is a slightly fermented drink made from the
pineapple rind. It is very refreshing.

For the kids, a bubbles vendor.

As we were leaving, I saw this birdcage. I thought
about my mother-in-law who has birds.
And the cassette player, pretty old!

Then I saw this record player.
We had one very much like this when we were kids.
Older still!!

Hope you enjoy your weekend!

Dar Gracias.

To be thankful.....no Thanksgiving Day here, but every day I thank God for:

-My husband
-My sons
-My Mom
-All of my family
-My husband's family
-So many friends in so many places!
-Good health
-A roof over my head
-A job
-The freedom to be who I am

Hope you enjoyed this special holiday.
Angie

Agarradera.

Spanish word for potholder. Literally it means "grabber". It took me so long to make these. You see my machine was not working so I had it fixed. But for some reason, it still doesn't work well. I decided to use it anyway, and made these strip potholder from a tutorial I found over at Char's incredible blog (at last, Char!!).
Mine aren't as pretty as Char's, but I realloy enjoyed making them. The tutorial calls for an appliqué, but I like the way they look just like this.I think they would make nice gifts. Thanks for the tutorial, Char. I'll probably be making more as soon as scraps pile up!!






One of these will probably end up in Hungary. Which do you like, Sofi?
Have a great week!

San Judas 2009

A few weeks ago we went to the state of Michoacán to celebrate the day of San Judas Tadeo (St. Jude). My friend Adriana and her family are devoted to this saint, and have a big celebration every year. She invites a lot of friends to celebrate and stay over.Not everybody stays, but we always do. I love going there. They have an authentic adobe house which is really incredible. At night, there are fireworks, and of course, lots of food. In the afternoon of the first day, a rosary is prayed, and there is lots of singing.
So prepare yourself for lots of photos. Hope you like them.....

This is the adobe house with lots of plants in terracotta pots.

As we arrived to the house, the bread seller
arrived in his pick-up selling freshly baked sweet bread.
Those small chocolate doughnut were incredible.

Just in time... we arrived when food was being
served. These are some friends who had arrived earlier.

Rossana (Adriana's sister), Doña Leonor (her Mom)
were some of the women in charge of this great celebration.
With them my friend Lolis, her daughter Andrea,
and Loli's sister, Marcela who came from Colima to visit.

The pots full of mole at the indoor cooking place.
They have a gas stove, but this type of fod tastes better
cooked over firewood.

Part of the kitchen wall. You can see some gourds
hanging there, and a blackened part where
the food is cooked over firewood.

Stringed chiles.

I love this wall.

Adriana was singing in the rain.
Love ya, Adri!

Around the house there are lots of plants, rocks,
trees, etc. I love these moss covered stones.

Time to pray and sing.
Here they are singing "Las Mañanitas".

As soon as it was dark, fireworks!

After the fireworks, we played Loteria.
By then the temperature had dropped, and we had to
put on our jackets and scarves.

This small fruit is called níspero.
It's sweet, and gets a bit tart towards the seed.

This is the normal size.

The inside.

The seed.

The trees were heavy with the fruit.

Some guavas from the trees. There are also
orange and tangerine trees on the grounds.

I guess these are some type of suculents growing from
volccanic rocks.

I don't know what is this. I think it is some
kind of fungi. I like the way it looks.

Strange but nice.

Now, check out this tree.
I really don't know what kind of tree this is.
It has some kind of bumps on the trunk.

People in this town say that a tea made
of these bumps cures diabetes.

I love these plants.

And here is the small chapel
dedicated to San Judas.

Votives dedicated to the saint.

On our way back home we stopped at a fish
nursery (is this correctily written?),
and bought 4 kgs. (about 8 pounds)
of fish.



Fresh fish...

On our way home... passing confields, pumpkin patches,
and some beautiful mountains.

Mmmm... I love Autumn!