Hola! My name is Marta Maria Darby, and I am passionate about telling stories. Designer, blogger, Cuban cook, scrapbooker, photographer and mother of four, I wear many hats which may or may not include seasonal fruit (but that’s not important right now). I have been blogging for almost seven years - sharing my life, my culture, my family, and my ...
Archives for March 2012
Home-Ec 101 (A Winner)
I'm kind of delighted to learn that so many of you have mad skills in one area and are deficient in others (says the woman who is Organizationally Challenged). I hope you'll all get yourselves a copy of Heather's book. She has so much wisdom to teach us all. My copy is already dog-eared and post-it-noted. *sigh* What? You put things ...
Home-Ec 101? She wrote the book. (A Giveaway)
When I was a very young child in Cuba, we had domestic "help" who cooked, cleaned and generally took care of the business of running the household. That "household" consisted of our two parents, five daughters and a son and various staff. We lived in a large (semi-mansion-size) home with eight bedrooms, two kitchens and a ...
Doorknobs and the Human Condition
We moved into this house in March of 2001. That was 11 years ago and let me tell you, our home has seen a lot of life since then. To put it in better perspective, in March of 2001, Amy was a senior in high school. Adam was a freshman. Lucy was 7 and in second grade. Jonathan was 5 and not yet in school. Amy and Adam have long since moved ...
#Hallmark “Tell Them” (A Winner)
My dear friend, Pam was having a really rough week. "Go look at my blog," I told her. Grateful and teary-eyed she told me I had made her week. Which made my week. Funny how that happens. Now I get to make someone else's week.... Congratulations to: Congratulations, Tiffany! You won the 10-pack of Hallmark Greeting Cards! ...
I have something to tell my BFF (A Giveaway)
When I was in college in the 70's, I also worked at a movie theater. I was the Day Cashier. Impressive, no? I would work my little day shift because my classes were at night. The Night Cashier did just the opposite. She came in as I was ready to leave for the day. We usually overlapped about half an hour. Each day, we would talk for that brief ...
Project Life (or How I Scrapbook My Real Life)
I have been an avid scrapbooker for years. In fact, I still have my original high school photo albums. You know which ones I mean. The magnetic kind with the fading 70's Kodak Instamatic photos with the captions typed out on a real typewriter. The ones we later found out are the very worst thing you can do to photographs because of the high ...
Writer’s Block
I guess it happens to the best and most seasoned writers. You wake up and sit staring at the blank page on your computer screen and.....nothing. I think it would be much more dramatic for this moment to happen in front of a typewriter with a blank piece of paper (maybe in sepia tones). But I know it happens either way. It's the equivalent of ...
International Women’s Day should be celebrated like this…
Today is International Women's Day. (Who knew?) In light of that, I think this video with the Spanish Novela Hunk, Rafael Amaya (La Reina del Sur) is apropo. It's in Spanish and he's "selling" a service called "Para Ella" (For Her). He's happy to pick up the house, fold laundry just the way "she" ...
I Fell in Love With Loveless Buttermilk Biscuits (a true story)
I spent a week in Nashville, Tennessee. An entire, glorious week of playing and relaxing and eating. And I kind of fell in love. With the town, with the people, with the music, and (mostly) with the food. My friend, Carrie of Tiki Tiki Blog fame was my lovely host and tour guide. Did you know there's a perfect replica of the Parthenon in ...
How I Choose My Giveaway Winners (and the IMUSA Mini Cookware Winner)
I have to tell you that your responses to the questions in the last post were awesomely hilarious! Plus, you all had some great suggestions for how to use this Mini Cookware. Seriously, thank you! And if you're curious, go check them out here. Here were the original questions: What can you see yourself making in any or all of these beautiful ...
It’s the Little Things (A Giveaway from IMUSA)
Growing up Cuban has always meant turning normal size things into the diminutive form. When there were Everest-sized mountains of sandwiches, they were called "bocaditos." Or "just a mouthful." Lies. It took more than "just a bite" to consume these particular delicacies. We don't just drink café, we have a ...
