Guatemalan Independence Day Flag art and Papel Picado Cake Bunting

The fifteenth of September is always a busy time around our house!  Not only are we celebrating Guatemalan Independence Day, but also our youngest’s birthday.  I’m usually busy doing a bunch of party related stuff.  This year I only had time/energy for a few simple Independence Day crafts.

Last year we did fun paint chip wall art, and some printables, but this year I only did a super quick post-it note flag and a few desserts and just pulled out the banner from last year.  You do what you can, I guess!!  I found these really cute post-it sticky notes at the dollar store (or Walmart) and the package came with both blue and white….so….. That was easy!!!  Stick the notes onto a blackboard, and there you go.  I was going to somehow create the coat of arms for the middle of the flag….but minimalist modern is ok I suppose….

Another super easy but very cute idea was to make papel picado bunting for the cupcakes.  I so love papel picado art!!!  Here’s a little definition from wikipedia:

Papel picado (“perforated paper”) is a decorative craft made out of paper cut into elaborate designs. Although it is a Mexican folk art, papel picado is used as a holiday decoration in many countries. The designs are commonly cut from tissue paper using a guide and small chisels, creating as many as forty banners at a time. Papel picado can also be made by folding tissue paper and using small, sharp scissors. Common themes includes birds, floral designs, and skeletons. They are commonly displayed for both secular and religious occasions, such as Easter, Christmas, the Day of the Dead, as well as during weddings, quinceañeras, baptisms, and christenings.

I made myself a little banner for the 5 de Mayo and I confess that it’s still hanging in the kitchen because I like it so much!  Very cheerful.  Well, I’m also into stuff with paper doilies right now, too.  So I figured I’d use one to make the other….as a cake/cupcake decoration! Grab a small paper doily and punch out some scalloped circles, or even plain circles will do.  Easier yet, just cut out some circles or rectangles with scissors.  I used the scalloped punch because that’s what was in easy reach.  I punched out shapes from the edge of the doily, then folded over a little flap at the top.  Punching out shapes in slightly different areas of the doily gives a different look to the little pennants.  I trimmed some with the scissors so that I could fit more into the bunting.  Using 2 long bamboo skewers, I wrapped some baker’s twine around one end, tied it and hot-glued a button on to hold it.  Then I eye-balled how long the string needed to be and tied it to the other skewer.  I stuck the skewers with twine on into the cake/cupcakes and then added the doily pennants, already folded; arranged them a bit and glued the flaps down.  It took about 10 minutes from start to finish, and my daughter and I loved the look!!

Here’s another view, I love to see papel picado banners silhouetted against the light…

Here are some desserts we had to celebrate the 15 de Septiembre, Guatemalan Independence Day:

Mini cupcakes iced to look like ice cream cones, with a blue skittle on top for Guatemalan flag colors!  They turned out cute, but what a pain in the neck to ice crumbly from-a-cake-mix mini cupcakes!!  (only made 4).  The sandwiches were a lot easier….

I saw the idea on this German blog and it looked so fun and easy, too.  Cut out circles from 2 slices of white bread, spread one side with jam, add sprinkles if you want, then from the other side of the bread, cut out a little heart (with cookie cutter) and slap the two sides together!  I used a few fondant buttons for decoration, and the cut-out hearts…. After dessert we went on a bike ride to a little lake…. I know, it’s a very Canadian scene to celebrate a Guatemalan holiday, but since I can’t be down there, I have to enjoy what we have here!  Our weather has been unseasonably warm, so we have to make the most of it.  It was a fun afternoon, and our little princess enjoyed it!!

A glimpse of home…

These hibiscus type flowers grew like weeds in our hedge…

Yesterday we visited the Devonian Gardens for the first time.  I wasn’t expecting a glimpse of my past!  It was our first visit to the Gardens and I was surprised to see so many plants and flowers that reminded me of my childhood.  I grew up in Guatemala City and our yard was always full of flowers and green leafy things!  Here are some of the plants that I was happy to recognize (though I can’t name them all!)

I have always loved bougainvillea of any color and you can see it everywhere in Guate!

I was so surprised to see this flower as I have never seen it outside of Guatemala before…it was in the butterfly greenhouse. Just 2 small branches of flowers…a taste of the masses of lilac blooms I remember…and I remembered exactly how the leaves would feel…like stiff sandpaper….

We had a small coffee bush growing in our yard, and I remember popping the red berries into my mouth to see what they taste like, not like coffee that’s for sure!!

These papyrus plants used to grow in our back yard and we would use them for pretend umbrellas when we were little….

Papayas!!

My Mom always had cacti around and we were always picking up spines in our feet and knocking into the prickly things!! (Ok, and even licking them! That was me…)

What a beautiful day we had!  After a long long cold cold winter, seeing the flowers and greenness was a site for sore tired eyes, that’s certain.  And the gurgling of a little stream….nice!   Ahhh, my tropical memories!

Happy 19/19th Anniversary!

Yes, it’s a happy anniversary to us!  Nineteen years ago on December 19th, we were legally married!!  I know that that might sound a bit strange, especially those who remember that I’ve said that we were married on Christmas Day! 🙂  Well, we were legally married on the 19th!  In Guatemala City, nineteen years ago, it was the norm to have your legal “civil” wedding up to a week before your church wedding, it wasn’t done together as they do now and as is done in North America.  We first had to be married by a lawyer….then later at our church by our Pastor.  So I was legally married to Henry on the 19th, but we weren’t “man and wife” until married at church, before God and our family and friends! 😉  It was so weird to have the lawyers at work tease me about being Mrs. Henry when I felt like I wasn’t married yet!

Another interesting thing was that we had to “publish the banns” as they would say (in the olden olden days!).  Three weeks before the legal wedding, our engagement had to be published 3 times in the local newspaper…..just in case anyone wanted to officially object to our matrimonial intentions!

On the 19th, we were outside the City at a beautiful country estate surrounded by friends and family and balloons and flowers.  The bride wore black and white!  (a suit with a super cool blouse! 😉 )  We stood under an archway of balloons while the lawyer read through the laws that govern marriage in Guatemala.  He also read through a list of our families, to make sure that there were no relatives in common.  My English and German family names were quite the tongue twisters, not to mention my birthplace in Saskatchewan!  The signing of the documents came next and our friends and family signed as witnesses.  And then my mother-in-law made a lovely presentation of a basket with her housekeys in it to me, to signify that I was now a part of their family (it was so sweet!).  A delicious reception followed, al fresco, under the thatched “rancho” out by the swimming pool.

As we were driving home to the city (each to our respective house, I clarify) that evening, the “Luces Campero” were starting in the distance….the huge fireworks display set off for Christmas each year by Pollo Campero!

One week later we did the church wedding with veil and white gown and hundreds of red velvet cupcakes!  And more fireworks….then we drove off into the sunset…..to McDonalds!!!  and our honeymoon 🙂  and the rest of our lives (together).

Happy Anniversary to US!!

p.s. speaking of anniversaries….Wordpress kindly reminded me that it’s been a year since I signed up for my blog with them!  A whole year of my sporadic little posts!!  🙂

I’m off now, going to post this and then give my wonderful husband a kiss, right at 19 hours, 19 minutes on the 19th of December for our 19th!!!