Vintage Cuba

My aunt and mother posted these pics of them and my dad and his family growing up and living in Cuba before coming to the States. I just love these photographs so I thought I'd share them here:







more pics here

Present for my cousin Jessica

My little 14 yer old cousin, Jessica, who lives in Cuba "land of the I have nothing" asked me this week for a bottle of nail protector because she has been taking care of her nails so she will have them long and pretty for her 15th birthday. For those not familiar with spanish cultures, your 15th birthday is a big deal it's like sweet sixteen here in the States. So yesterday I bought her a nail strengthener and protector plus I'm surprising her with other nail grooming supplies and a little tinted lip balm and blush. I wanted to give her something to keep her stuff in so last night I got out some of my cute Japanese fabric, pre-made piping, velcro, and 1/4" elastic and I made this little case for her stuff. I think she will be very happy to get it, it will be a sweet surprise.

Sending a Package to Cuba, Ay!

WTF! To send a a package to Cuba for the first time was so freakin' difficult. I have my aunt and cousins still living in Cuba and they are always in need of stuff, and I felt it's time to start helping my parents with the costs and I would like to know my relatives and help them of course. So first thing was finding the regulations on line on what and how to send a package to Cuba via the U.S. Postal Service, not an easy thing to do, but I found the info after many searches. The regulations are, a package cannot weigh more than 4lbs and not measure more than 36" in any direction. You also may only send one package to one resident a month. No one is keeping track over the one package a month bullshit, believe me, and the reason I know is, that the three phone calls I made to post offices and postal service information number, not a soul knew about shipping packages to Cuba, someone had no idea where Cuba was, yes, unbelievable (people it's the little island 90 miles south of Florida). So after painfully packing my tiny package with a few tees, toothpaste, bar a soap, few bags of tea, and a travel size shampoo and conditioner, I marched my butt over to the Old Chelsea Station Post Office today. Before getting on the long ass line I went to the Inquiry window, there was an old spanish dude working the window who didn't know that the U.S. was allowing packages to Cuba, so he tells me no I can't send anything to Cuba, and I tell him if you go online you can see the regulations I just want to make sure THIS post office takes packages to Cuba (according to my dad not all do). Then he tells me it must be for military packages, and I was like WHAT! no my parents send packages to Cuba all the time, dude! The manager finally comes, nice lady, turns to the computer next to the old guy looks up a 3lb package to Cuba and she says yeah you can send it it's going to be around $23 and fill out the customs form. I Got on line with my package and all went smoothly, $24 dollars later, the package is on route to my aunt's house in Cuba. Now let's see if the package actually gets there, since the Cuban post office is allowed to open packages and confiscate anything they want.
Cross your fingers.