.:: Earthships ::.

Why everyone should live in an earthship..

1) The architecture is beautiful 

2) They're 50% made out of recycled materials 

3) They're auto-sustainable, which means.. no utility bills.. EVER! 

When I first entered the place I felt I was stepping into another dimension. The smell, the architecture, the surroundings, the peace. I loved that you could see the sun rising and the moon disappear while the sky orchestrated its majestic color symphony. I received my 30's there. We stayed 2 whole days inside this place.. I loved being naked feeling the sun's heat, then opening a door to feel the cold breeze.

As I mentioned before.. the earthships are built with 50% recycled materials. For this, they use old vehicle tires as insulators and glass bottles to let the sun come through. Water is gathered from rain & melted snow and it's used four times. 

I guess this kind of architecture is unlikely to catch on considering the type of society we live in. 

Human Nature

These are the desert plants from Adam Frezza & Terri Chiao. Terri is trained in architecture , and Adam in fine arts. Together, CHIAOZZA is a common ground for design experimentation bringing these disciplines together. 

" Each piece is made from recycled paper pulp. Junk mail, old bank statements, scrap paper, and newspaper are torn apart and stewed together for several days to create a pulp. The pulp is pressed in our hands or through a screen, forming lumps that are then carefully transformed into Lump Nubbins with paint and painted paper, and set on a plaster or concrete base. Each is unique and has a name, which is written on the bottom of the sculpture base."

Besides these little beauties, they have a bunch of other projects.. check out their work on Eternity Stew

Christmas Tree DIY

Every year on the 26th of December my heart breaks when I see all the thrown out Christmas trees on the street. Good, super green and healthy trees turned into trash. Which means wasted money as well. It happened to me last year. We spent $45 on a small tree we had to throw away because it was almost February and there's no such thing as a Valentine's Tree. Even in the good shape it was in, it's culturally pointless. Puerto Rican Christmas lasts forever. We celebrate till January 14th, we call it "Las Octavitas" (eight days after Three Kings Day). I decided I didn't want to spend more money on a tree I will eventually trash. So I improvised.

This is our Christmas tree for this year. I went crazy looking for a Charlie Brown Christmas look-a-like tree; sad, lonely...the one no one buys because it's "ugly". Like we say in my country... "un arbolito defalcao". I saw a reference two years ago via Design Sponge of that perfect not-so-perfect tree, but since I couldn't find it, I made it.


1) I took those branches they throw away at the tree shops, tied them all together and voila! If you notice on the second picture, I took a bamboo stick (or any long stick you can find) and you start putting all the branches together.. as if you where mounting a fake tree but with real branches.

Stick the tree in a pot with soil or sand or anything with enough weight to hold it. I had painted some rocks white for a project I never did, so I used them to cover the soil. For extra support I tied it to the bucket handle with the same twine I used to tie the branches.

2) For the tassels, Grace (from Design Sponge) shared a great tutorial you can find here.

3) The stars are from a 99 cent store.  They cost 50 cents (not even 99!)

This is a great alternative to spending $45 on a tree since it wont dry up and doesn't need any maintenance.

It's a real fake tree made with real Christmas magic!

*note: your fingers will be sticky after this.

<< Wanderlust: New Mexico >>

El Triangulo Pinky Ring - V-Ring & El Reflejo 

El Abuelo Signet Ring + Vintage finds

I went to New Mexico for my 30th birthday.. yes 30.. I've reached that line! I've always thought about it like being such a big deal. Like I would already have my life figured out and I'd be working a 9 to 5 job, getting ready to get married and thinking about names for babies. But let me tell you that this is the most imprecise and unstable time of my life and I'm enjoying the hell out of it (except for the moments I say "what's my next move?" "Where is my money going to come from?")

So, I wanted to receive this new phase in a quiet and beautiful environment. A place where I could get high on nature and landscapes, eat guacamole for breakfast and escape from the clusterfuck that is this city we live in. New Mexico (Taos, mainly) was the perfect match. We took many many pictures so I decided to segment the posts. We stayed at an old train boxcar we found via Airbnb with the most sweetest hosts we could ever get. After a few nights there, we moved to an Earthship House (I'll share more about that sometime next week) and it was one of the sickest experiences ever! We traveled around and spent most of our time on the road, looking for hot springs and vintage jewelry. Something I noticed about Taos is that there wasn't that many young people as we're used to seeing in NY. A lot of retired people. But it doesn’t feel old. Everyone has a young spirit and that was lovely to encounter. We didn't experience the nightlife, though. I guess we weren't in the mood for that since it's what we do in Brooklyn. Maybe that’s where they gather…who knows?

If you like all things western and the Navajo vibe.. this is the mothership of Westerness. So much amazing Navajo jewelry, textiles, baskets, leather, ceramics. One thing we missed was the White Sands Desert… Lately I've seen it popping up a lot on social media… don't know why. Maybe I’ll make over there on my next trip.

New Mexico is a great place to be with yourself. To connect again with nature. We live so segregated in our cement boxes (or rather dry-wall) that we forget where we come from. What's our purpose in life? We met a girl at a hot spring, and she asked us: What's the most powerful experience you've ever lived? I kept thinking about it for days and it's something I prefer to keep to myself. But you should think about it and be thankful for what you have, what you've achieved, your health, your family, your surroundings. Don't live to work but rather, work to live. 

Actually, forget about work and just live.