SOLD!

An interesting thing about changing ones life, at least for me, is not bringing my old life "stuff" with me. I am reading on various forums about how people MUST have their ALL things, they just can't depart without their whole house of furniture, pictures, knick-knacks (I call them crip-crap), and yes, I have a few of those crip-crap items too. I am NOT knocking their decisions. I am NOT thinking they are silly. But reading their posts and comments over the past year has got me thinking about what I am going to do with all my 'stuff.'

Last year we had researched getting a small container. Then maybe just a pallet or to share a truck or something with another couple. And now we are down to carrying a few footlockers along with our suitcases. Keep a few things in storage in Florida and we can (if we still want) pick up items on return trips to the US. Or make the kids bring them to us when they visit. It's interesting how perspectives change after making an exploratory trip, and then actually planning the move.

I do plan on bringing some items from my kitchen. I love to cook. Things many of you out there on the forums and who are already living in Ecuador have recommended to bring. Small appliances like my Vitamix, food processor, small food chopper, and some of my nicer cookware. I plan on selling pretty much my entire kitchen except for the small appliances. Hopefully they have plenty of wine glasses there in Ecaudor!

A select few photos are in the keep pile. Pictures of our travels to Costa Rica, my favorite is the collage of feet, yes our feet, that my husband gave to me a few years ago for my birthday. Pics of our feet all over Costa Rica, perched up overlooking the Pacific ocean sunset, buried in the black sand on the Caribbean, etc. Love that collage! Here are just a few:

Now, isn't that more interesting and memorable (at least for us, haha) than looking at a picture of a piece of furniture? Furniture can be replaced. Memories, priceless.

And of course a collage of our wedding in Barbados!

And pics of the kiddos, right now at 4 kids, 2 spouses and 3 grandchildren. 2 babies born last year alone. But I may sell the frames and buy those in Ecuador. I have seen some pretty frames there, and of course the prices are so much lower than in the US. Thank goodness for digital photos, my next big project is converting all our old prints to digital.

But what am I NOT keeping? My entire room filled with stamping supplies. Which brings me to the title of this post. SOLD! I sold ALL of my stamps. I had hundreds. Yes, every one of them! How freeing. Now I can post more items on Craigslist and my kitchen reno fund gets closer to the magic amount needed.

Christmas items. Sold a TON last year. Sold some more this year. I now have them all separated into what I am keeping (a small Rubbermaid box), versus what I am giving away to my kids or selling (several Rubbermaid containers!)

Not keeping: furniture. There's plenty in Ecuador. Closet filled with gorgeous designer (the good ones like Nicole Miller and Betsey Johnson) dresses. I'm going to take a few, just in case, but only a few. Taking over a dozen to the consignment shop next week! Crip-Crap. Many items are on Craigslist now. What the heck am I going to do with Swarovski crystal figurines. Really?

Just looking at the pictures above brings a smile to my face. I am so looking forward to the day I can not only snap a pic of us on the beach in Ecuador, but wake up to the sounds and sight of the beautiful ocean every single morning. Now, that's a memory I can't wait to make!

Tami

Here's to 2012

Had a great Christmas with my hubs and both boys, Alec (17) and...Christopher (23).  He lives in Richmond VA and flew down Thursday before Christmas and stayed until Monday late afternoon. I only get to see him a few times a year, so him coming 'home' for Christmas was a special treat. The fact he is in the hospitality industry (Chef) and he was able to get a few days off, wow. I know how hard it is being in the service/hospitality biz 'cause I rarely get a day off! And with Christmas falling on a Sunday, the next day it was back to work. Augh.

Usually on New Year's Eve I am helping out at one or two of my retailers, and helping out at night at one of my restaurants (I'm good at taking drink orders, haha). However, I decided that I needed some down time after busting butt for the last 5 weeks (I sell more wine and beer during December than in any other month). So NO deliveries until Friday this week...customers will just have to 'deal.' Wine Diva here needs FRIEND time!

For the first time in years, and I mean YEARS....I celebrated New Year's with friends. Normally I am so tired on New Year's Eve, I just crash. Not this year. We joined some close friends (we are known as the 'Blings') at a very nice country club (literally up the hill from where we live) and we rang in the New Year with fabulous food, great entertainment, and a classy environment to boot! No large crowds of drunks, just a few silly society women who had too many martinis, lol. I said there was good entertainment, right? :D My hubs was designated driver as always, and we all got home safe.

David (aka Zsa), me (aka Bella) and handsome hubs Ken (aka Armand)

Dave (professional Sinatra singer-very talented guy!), his wife Ginny, my best guy friend David and Fran (aka Kiddy)

Valerie (aka Coco), Ken, Becky (aka Bubbles), Joe (aka Dom) and Fran



Joe (aka Dom)

 Best Friend Wendy!

New Year's Day was fun, had a few friends over for traditional foods - gotta have those black-eyed peas and collard greens! I decided to get creative and made a few fun sauces: used home-made pear preserves blended with crisped bacon, sautéed onion and garlic, added a bit of dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar and bended it all then heated it. Served that with the herb crusted pork tenderloin. Made a second chutney/sauce with some home-made cranberry strawberry preserves and added balsamic vinegar - lovely with the smoked ham. A sweet-potato 'hash' with diced apple, onion, garlic and bacon was delish. We all had too much to eat, and spent the rest of the day and evening sitting by the fire drinking plenty of good wine and chatting. Such a lovely day!!

Today - catching up on chores, putting away rest of Christmas decorations, hanging out with my handsome hubs, playing with my new iPad2, and gearing up for the work week that starts tomorrow. Back to the grind!

Booked for May but Ready Today!

Ken and I usually give each other gifts for Christmas that are useful - like our flat screen TV we've had for 3-4 years, our backyard 'wall' project, and our trips overseas. We are fairly practical people, and it just makes sense to spend our money on things that we both enjoy, instead of a bunch of knickknacks, just for the sake of 'giving gifts.'


One of the first things we decided upon our return from Ecuador...we wanted to return TO Ecuador. As soon as possible. So this year our Christmas present to each other is a trip to Ecuador! And.....drumroll..... our flights are booked for May 2012. This will be our 'let's look at the details' and also get a feel for areas of the coast we didn't get a  chance to check out so diligently as we did Salinas. Ya never know, we might decide the humidity and large bugs are to our liking (don't think so). 


Speaking of large bugs, last night my dear husband and 17 year old son Alec decided to have some fun with me and his 'friend-that-isn't-a-girlfriend' - yet. Ken brought out the big boys - these stupid large plastic roaches that look like the real deal. Complete with antennae and legs, and....they look real. Take my word for it. They are freaky looking, large things that, well, freak me out. Yes, I screamed like a little girl. Alec's 'friend' was more woman than me, she held her own, until they put one on her shoulder that is....


Anyhow, I really don't care for the gigantic cockroaches, the kind they have in Florida and most tropical places. I can deal with regular bugs, but those things give me the heebee-geebees. They jump at you, not away from you. Ugh.  So, for me, I think the Salinas area, with its dry desert-like dry (some say ugly/barren) terrain, fits me just fine. It has the ocean. It has sand and a few palm trees. I can live with that.

Another Project Completed

Wow, it's been quite a while since I have posted - in the wine/beer biz, these are the crazy months, and things should calm down in January. We have not changed our minds about Ecuador, and things are progressing....slowly, but surely.


The good news - after many months of planning, we finally have kitchen and master bedroom/bath plans completed. My architect is very creative and came up with some beautiful plans for the renovations.


Now that the drawing phase is completed, I need to come up with the $$$ to get the demolition and beautification process started! That's going to take some time, but at least things are moving in the right direction. 


My house was purchased when I was a single momma...needed a nice place to live yet didn't have a crazy high budget. So I searched and searched and found this house that needed a TON of cosmetic work. It was stuck in the 80's and my first project was to de-brass everything. Yep, shiny brass was everywhere along with horrendous wallpaper. 


For the past 7 years now, I have been renovating the house, room-by-room. Hubs has been putting in some serious elbow grease for sure!! 

Popcorn ceilings (all vaulted and 20something feet high) smoothed out in entry/living room and family room - what a nightmare!!

Before and after on the upstairs hall bath, work courtesy of the Tamster and hubs and kiddo:

After pics:

Downstairs hall bath, not yet completed, but pretty darned close:

 The guys had to take out all the drywall, and re-fit/level the walls...joy joy!

New everything - the tile looks AMAZING.... faucets are in now, just need a shower curtain (for looks only, no one uses the tub...)

 Above pic -Seriously UGLY sinks 'before'.....
And nice pretty sink (after pic) below

One step closer to EC!




Cheers,
Tami

Fun Place for Expats

Many hours of research, and I mean many, many hours, went into the planning of our scouting trip to Ecuador. After lurking on many forums, yes, lurking, I started posting, asking various questions, from car rental to a fun place to hang out, to...well, everything. As a result of those many hours of research, we decided to focus on Salinas up to Montanita. Okay, so if you have read other posts on my blog, you already know this. 


But what you don't know: on several expat forums, people were talking about a fun hangout called Will's Place (the local expats all know it by that name), or Hostal Aqui/Score Sports Bar. We were invited through several of the forums to come by on July 4th for Will's 2nd Annual 4th of July party complete with a pig roast and fireworks on the beach. We thought, why not? Sounds like a blast. Might be nice to meet other Norte Americanos that have made Salinas their home, we can see what our future neighbors are like, not to mention ordering food without embarrassing ourselves with our very childlike Spanish!

Since we were traveling with my 17 yr old son Alec, and he is a sports nut and of course loves a good hamburger, why not pay them a visit? 


We were always greeted in a very friendly manner -

Our first night, after a really long day traveling from Guayaquil, we stopped by Will's Place and enjoyed a great meal, and I had a few margaritas :)

Kid's happy, everyone is happy...

It was full when I got it. Yes, it had jalapenos in it!

Wendy makes these awesome toasted ravioli - It was very filling and I will have this dish again on our return visit:

A few pics from their 4th of July party - 

chatting with Kimberly and Hector

They had a nice crowd, everyone brought a dish to share, and the roasted pig, mercy it was yummy!

Alec posting on Facebook how he is a party animal in Ecuador

Showing his Patriotism 

HUGE fireworks display on the beach. What a blast!

Bi-lingual staff, great food, cold drinks and furry friends to put a smile on your face - 
















Cheers,
Tami

Guayaquil -Coming and Going

We didn't spend much time in Guayaquil. Not that we wanted to avoid the city, it just happened that we got a tad 'lost' on our way back from Salinas. Never knew there were so many Juan Carlos (insert name here) roads in that city!

So we ended up somewhere that didn't look so great, we backtracked and pulled into the Kia dealership in the hopes that someone would know how to get to the airport. Interesting how the guard had a weapon, at the ready. Alrightly then....even my teenage son made a comment about the 'readiness' of this guard. Hmmm, shall we open our windows, as it is close to 100 degrees (or so it seemed)...while we patiently waited for my husband to come back holding perfect directions to the airport? Where we had hoped to turn in our rental vehicle, and hop into a taxi that would take us to this nice Malecon 2000 we kept hearing about?

Fast forward one hour. Hubs, all happy, albeit a tad 'worn' emerged from the dealership, with a google-map to the airport. Because the people there didn't know how to get to the airport. Funny thing is, we are used to the 'directions' thing here, and our "we are in Latin America instinct" kicks in. What does THAT mean? Hehehehe.....

We follow the directions the lovely gentleman gave us (that really was so sweet of him to give us directions, not scribbled, but printed out!) - however, we knew that we might need to make some last minute, um, er, adjustments. Whatever do you mean Tami? Hehehehe.  Sure enough, in the middle of downtown, traffic snarled everywhere, where we were supposed to turn left, it was a one way street. Right only. Ha! I thought ahead and we plowed on through a few streets ahead, left turn allowed....but then....omg, how do we get over to where we were SUPPOSED to be, when there is an overpass, and, and...AUGH! Good news however. We kept on driving while I studied that map (really hard), and we MADE IT TO THE AIRPORT. In one piece. Car still intact. We deserve a medal.

Unfortunately, by the time we checked in the car, stored our bags in several lockers, and visited the, um, facilties, we didn't have much time to check out the Malecon. BUT I WILL NOT BE DETERRED!

We hop into a taxi (approved of course by the airport??) and head straight to the Malecon.

The few pics we got - first, rugrats are having a blast on this track - giggles galore:

Check out the haircut scene, on stage in front of everyone - yikes, that takes some balls!

Pics of the Malecon:

So we hang a left and head several blocks up to the indigenous market that Will told us about. We have to hurry but being in a 'punchy' mood, we take silly pics:

Do you know what this dog is doing? Thought the kid was going to have a laugh attack, me, um, I looked away (hubs took this pic, ewwww):

Um, maybe my kid wants that car?

We crossed this street. And even if there was a traffic light, do you think anyone paid attention?
The correct answer is NO:

We emerge from the indigenous market to see that it is somewhat, um, DARK. Not totally dark, but definitely in the dusk....

So we walk a bit fast, to get to the Malecon. All the warnings about taxis in Guayaquil have me a bit tense, so we look for a restaurant or even a hotel to call us a taxi. No such luck, but then again we are just trying to stay out of the way of the gazillion cars and taxis and lord mercy those damn buses!

We find someone who ends up talking to a transit police guy - and after about 5 minutes of various taxis passing by, the transit guy pulls over a taxi (his ID # matched on windshield, side and even rear window, whoo hoo!) and we get in. Me in the middle.

Now, I am not this fearful jittery kind of gal, but my kid is with me, and momma instinct is in full force. We are a tad quiet in the back seat, the taxi driver isn't speaking, but he has this cool music, and we start bee-bopping, loving the rhythm, the sound gets a bit louder, and....we are moving to the groove all the way back to the airport....watching where we are of course....and all 3 of us are smiling from ear to ear when we pull in to the airport.

Did you know you can drink in the airport terminal? You don't have to hide in a restaurant or bar? I took FULL ADVANTAGE. What a day!

Cheers,
Tami

Liquidating

I have been putting items on craigslist, things I do not need nor want. It is a pain. It is time consuming to create a listing. Good news is I sold my antique buffet last weekend, yay! Another $550 bucks to put towards my kitchen renovation fund.


So today will be spent listing other items on Craigslist - baseball cards, collectibles, home decor, etc etc blah blah. 


Each item sold is one step closer....each item sold is one step closer....(keep repeating)


Cheers,
Tami