I've been blogging since 2006. In that space of time and all across the internet, I've made some really wonderful friends. One of those is the lovely don't-hate-me-because-I'm-beautiful Ana Quincoces. Recently seen on Real Housewives of Miami - she was the smart and classy one - Ana is a talented chef and quite the delightful ...
blog friends
My 7 Favorite Blog Posts
Wrapping up my month-long Happy 7th Blogiversary Celebration and I thought it would be a good time to reflect on what I've managed to put up here for the past 7 years. It's funny. I sit down to a blank page (so to speak) and I have some idea of what I'd like to write about. Usually, because I tend to be very visual, I start with a ...
Habana Brand Clothing – A Winner
First of all, I'd like to thank Habana Brand Clothing for being so supportive of My Big, Fat, Cuban Family in everything I do here. Secondly, I'm so grateful to all of you who faithfully read, and follow along with my blogging adventures and enter my fun giveaways. I'm grateful that you're the ones who have made this little ...
Seven Years. (MBFCF Giveaway WEEK!)
You know that I'm all about celebrating. Big events. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Summer. Dinner. I believe in celebrating. Often. And well. Today marks my 7th anniversary here in this space. SEVEN. My big, fat, Cuban family is 7 years old today. And so I'm celebrating. *fires off the confetti canon* But first you have to sit ...
The Things I Say
My dear friend, Jana has embarked upon an ambitious project. She is quite the accomplished hand lettering artist. Each day she chooses a thought, or a recipe, or a quote and works it into a beautiful piece of art and she's determined to do this for 333 days. I love visiting her portfolio site, janaleemiller.com. It always makes me ...
Coffee and Therapy
When Lucy was a freshman in high school, her drama class did a showcase of Broadway tune vignettes. In one of them (maybe it was Grease?) she was paired up with one of the boys to do a dance together in the finale. The mother of the boy and I didn't know each other before then, but we sat together and pointed in a ...
Jesus and My Hair
I've been letting my hair go back to its natural curl. That sounds like a really simple thing, right? It's not. I've been going to a specialty hair salon in Laguna Beach. The hair gal, Vickie (who happens to be Puerto Rican, which makes us practically related) runs a cute little shop called Curls on Top. She specializes in curly ...
Goodbye, Google Reader. Hello, Bloglovin.
Those of you who subscribe to my blog feed and use Google Reader may have already heard that Google Reader is going away. The beauty of using a "reader" is that it delivers the content from your favorite blogs straight into one place where you can then read up on the comings and goings of your favorite blogger-people. I tend to use my ...
Where in the world is Marta today?
I realize I haven't been posting as often as I like and I apologize, but that doesn't mean I'm not around. In fact, I seem to be all over the web today. I'm guest posting in a couple of places: I have an essay about Mother's Day over at the Tiki Tiki. I tell you a lot about Luza. It's titled "My Mother. My ...
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 ...
Following my Bliss(dom)
I'm headed out to Nashville, Tennessee for the Blissdom Blogging Conference 2012. I'm so looking forward to my time there! I'll be staying with my good friend and partner in Tiki Tiki and Blog Crime, Carrie Ferguson Weir. I promise to share all the wonders of Nashville if I can figure out how to blog from my smart phone. (That would ...
The Circle of Life – Lion King 3D and Eternal Disney Uber-geeks
Back in 1994, I took Amy and Adam to the premiere of the Disney film, The Lion King at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. This was obviously before Lucy and Jonathan were born. We all loved the film so much that we couldn't wait to own it when it was released on VHS. (Yes, this is waaay back in the day.) A few years later, when we added ...
Cuando salí de Cuba – Christina’s story
Marta here: I'm celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month: Cuban-Style with a series of stories about Cuban American families: Cuando Sali de Cuba, stories of courage and hope. This one is from my friend and fellow blogger, Christina Gomez-Pina. Inspired by the book/film Julie & Julia, she has embarked on her own Project: to celebrate ...
La Mala Letra – my cousin, the dissident Cuban blogger
As many of you know, I still have family in Cuba. Aunts, uncles, cousins and their offspring. We used to be thick as thieves back in the day, but time and distance and a repressive dictatorship has managed to destroy what close relations we had. I have a cousin in Cuba, who is my age. (One of the few photos of us together from ...
The Summer House
My friend, Jana blogs over at The Summer House. It's called the Summer House because she loves the simplicity of living in a summer beach rental-type atmosphere where everything is clean, decluttered, and ready for fun. She lives out her philosophy of simple living beautifully. And I'm always impressed and inspired by ...