At the Mushpa y Mensa studio making more name cards!
We are still making them by hand and each one will be unique like the other. This time we are making the process much more efficient so we can spend less hours making them (at least five hours each set before) and spend more time, as Mushpa would say, crafting other amazing art!
With love,
Mensa
Recently I’ve been looking into insurance, and understanding this new health care reform. Not being insured by a workplace, being self-employed and having one more year to be covered under my parent’s insurance, it is time that we get this new “Obama Care” straight.
Positives? We actually might have some sort of resemblance to decent (or almost barely there) health coverage in the Untied States. We are not to Canada’s or European standards, but we have to admit that for the country where we live in, where $$$ is power, this is a breath of fresh air.
Here is a small video that shows in 4 minutes how this new Affordable Health Care Act, will function.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZkk6ueZt-U]
Negatives? YES! It is still not UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE, by the people for the people. We will still run insurance through these huge corporations, and they will still be making profits on human health, and lives. The basis for all this system is STILL profit. Insurance companies will be able to control the market place, “The Exchange”, just like all other market places, are operated by economic incentives, and insurance companies will raise premiums if they find that they are not making business. 31 million new covered?…by insurance companies.
I am still a little fuzzy about this reform, but why should it be clear? It does not seem to be straight forward, and it is only a bandage to the sickness that health coverage is in this country. It is like trying to fight cancer with cough medicine and aspirin. It might get rid of the pain for an hour or two, but the sickness still grows.
Let’s hope that 2014 brings on positive results, and more awareness on what actually needs to be done….FIND A REAL CURE!
Here’s another video that explains further this new law.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmdbllWOOzs&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLBfqBziFkXIfmUHxQ0teDRppDa-VctX7c]
Frustrated but always caring,
Mensa
“When you grow up as a girl, the world tells you the things that you are supposed to be: emotional, loving, beautiful, wanted. And then when you are those things, the world tells you they are inferior: illogical, weak, vain, empty. The world teaches you that the way you exist in it is disgusting — you watch boys cringe backward in your dorm room when you talk about your period, blue water pretending to be blood in a maxi pad commercial. It is little things, and it is constant. In a food court in a mall, after you go to the gynecologist for the first time, you and your friend talk about how much it hurts, and over her shoulder you watch two boys your age turn to look at you and wrinkle their noses: the reality of your life is impolite to talk about. The world says that you don’t have a right to the space you occupy, any place with men in it is not yours, you and your body exist only as far as what men want to do with it. At fifteen, you find fifteen-year-old boys you have never met somehow believe you should bend your body to their will. At almost thirty, you find fifteen-year-old boys you have never met still somehow believe you should bend your body to their will. They are children. They are children.“
A little Stevie knowledge never hurt anyone.
— Mushpa
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDiAD9ezW48&w=420&h=315]
Mensa getting ready for the Apocalypse with a bull’s eye, not bad. :]
Yes my friends we are kicking up our social media game lately. Here is Mushpa y Mensa’s new fun filled YouTube Video Channel where we showcase our how-to videos, La Mushpa y La Mensa having fun, going on amazing adventures, mini documentaries, hilarious hijinks, and whatever else we are moved by.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAlzEqUgYRI&w=420&h=315]
18 meters back I am the only woman to make the target and 1 out of 3 to hit it at all. :] I’m just sayin’ ;-] Apocalypse here I come!
For your entertainment there will also be a million playlists of sweet jams, serious segments, comedy, save-the-world videos among many others. Be ready for the Mushpa y Mensa visual art experience.
Much love,
Mushpa
EASY PEASY!!!
So a really easy and fast way to make a draft stopper for when you have the AC on and you don’t want it to leave the room in the summer, or you are stopping the chilli air from coming in into your warm home during the winter months.
Here’s whats up.
1. Find a long thin bag. Like a newspaper plastic bag. I got mine from staples where they stuff large prints in thin plastic bags. Fill it with rice and knot it/tape it on the ends.
2. Measure around and trace a handmade pattern on a sturdy fabric that will not rip easily. I re-purposed fabric that I am using in my backpack project. A rectangle is straight forward and easy, so you won’t mess up.
3. If you want, use a larger stitch (around 4) so you can flip it and see if it fits in your case. Once fitted, sew over the stitch with a smaller stitch and finish it off by sewing the ends and VOILA!
Like I said…Easy peasy!
-Mensa
When I see advertisements like these, a couple of things happen…
1. I laugh-cringe which is not giving me any joy particularly, but rather has the same effect as when you see someone hurt themselves really bad in those funny home video shows….it sucks and it’s not funny, but the human being sometimes handles it with laughter.
2. I get angry, because this is not a joke. Holy shit, this is real.
3. And finally I get scared…because the “activists and revolutionaries” are getting 15% off the entire store, and they are buying it…….
Let’s keep fighting against this surreal funny home video until the end.
Hasta la victoria siempre…
Mensa
We bought a jar of coconut oil at the super-market the other day.
It was a bit hard to find a good use for it because even after trying some recipes, it of course didn’t behave like the olive oil which we use regularly.
I did use it as a hair mask, which was nice, but there was still a lot left on the jar….
So out came the idea to make Mayo with coconut oil. I looked up some recipes and it is totally possible and doable.
We used…..
Disclaimer.… if this is your first time making mayo (like it was mine), be careful and do it EXACTLY as the instructions tell you… After you learn, then you can experiment. I should have done so…
Do the following:
*** IF YOU MESS UP***
I saw many posts and recipes say how you could not save your mixture if it curdled….NOT TRUE! You can mess up and still have delicious mayo!
Since I had done it the first time in the blender and messed up, I decided to hand-whip it.
I added another egg yolk in a bowl and whipped it….and to that base I started to add the droplets of the curdled mix slowly, whipping it by hand. I followed the instructions clearly this time, and poured the messed up mixture in without having to throw it away! And it worked!
FANTABULOUS Home-made, coconut oil mayonnaise.
Since it’s home-made, with NO preservatives and whack ingredients, it only keeps in the fridge for about two weeks or less….but its worth it!
YUMMMM……
-Mensa
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0]
I can’t change, nor do I want to. Love is love, strangers may judge, but family should stand by each other in times of struggle and change, not just for the times when life seems easy, but for those times when we need them most.
Label me as I do and as you label others. Just as we have pride in being a Latina, Black, Brown, Greek, Jew, left-handed can we not have pride in who we love. I am truly blessed to love who I love and trust me I am loved by the universe as well. I see it everyday.
My love keeps me warm.
I am free.
-Mushpa
So my backpack was on its last strides… I have had it for seven years and it has served me well. It had been to many places around the world, including little towns in Italy, many Christmases in Ecuador, and it carried everything from heavy college books, community organizing flyers and papers as well as our regular weekly groceries. She was definitely a trooper.
So now I need a new backpack…. And what better way to keep it real than to bust one out yourself! So instead of buying a bag, I’ve decided that I will make it! Not from scratch, BUT I will re-vamp a small bag I had,. I’ll add a couple of pockets, new heavy duty straps, a new flap with velcro….all done with my little hands!
So far it’s been a challenge. I didn’t think it would take so long….but it is not as complicated as it seems.
I had the foundation….
It’s a backpack with “ugly grandma fabric” but I think it is still very cute. I exchanged it with my sister in a clothes swap. It had a funny zipper an the straps were broken down from so much use.
I measured everything and sketched out a drawing of what it would look like with approximate measures.
The seam-ripper was my best friend for a couple of hours….while I un-did the previous straps, the zippers and the lining in order to have full access and revamp all the necessary details.
Since I had the foundation, I cut out patterns for the POCKETS, the FLAP, and the STRAPS. I didn’t use an offical pattern for the pocket or flaps, and I instead free handed the drawing making little updates as I moved along! I did use a pattern online for the straps through, and drew with the measurements given the two straps using newspaper.
I cut out all the main pieces and placed them with pins to see what it would look like…. it’s resembling something fancy now!
Using some bias tape, and an old pillow case for the lining, I finished the main flap, and the small pockets…. and so far its looking good.
This is the first update, but I will post the finished product once I am done this week.
Mushpa and myself have been having conversations about a bigger and better project in relation to this backpack. We have been asking ourselves…. Why not make it?
If I need a backpack….and we have the capable hands and tools to make it ourselves, then why not make it!?
It makes sense, right?
Now on to the finishing this beauty….
Until next time!
-Mensa
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LhCd1W2V0Q&w=420&h=315]
Happy Sunday!!!
We’ve gotta dance and be in love…
– Mushpa