Author: Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Gina Munsey is a Mexico-born, Eastern Europe-raised missionary kid who ended up being a Californian by way of Florida outside of Nashville, Tennessee. She lives her days full of coffee and adventures while her 12-year-old learns Mandarin Chinese and Greek, her 3-year-old uses all the markers, and her artist-husband creates worlds from pixels and light. A blogger since the turn of the century (ouch!) she's an editor, co-op teacher, and writer who has only completed four chapters of her languishing manuscript. You can find Gina right here at oaxacaborn.com, or in the middle of [home]school surrounded by stacks and stacks of books.
Guest Blog, Summer Vacation Tour, Travel/Moving

TRAVEL :: Hamburg, Germany with Sylvia of Artsy Ants: A Stop on the Summer Vacation Tour:

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

I’m delighted Sylvia from Artsy Ants is here with us today! She and her sister, Simona, who also blogs at Artsy Ants, have been an incredible encouragement to me since the start of my blog — they are always leaving the sweetest comments. And, Artsy Ants was the first blog ever to put up a Oaxacaborn button! I’m so thankful for their support, and really excited to share Sylvia’s city with you all. I must say, I didn’t know any of these things about Hamburg, and it was a real pleasure to read what Sylvia had to say and look at the beautiful pictures she shared. Take it away, Sylvia!

SYLVIA FROM HAMBURG, GERMANY

A little more about Sylvia
I am a wife, mama, writer, maker of stuff and lover of everyday beauty living in Hamburg, Germany with my husband, 2-year-old boy and soon to be born baby girl. I was born just outside Hamburg, but grew up in Hamburg and spent most of my life here. I stayed on different continents and in different countries for some months, but when I got married and started a family it was Hamburg, again! Right now we live in the heart of the city, trying our best as a family to stay connected to the natural world despite of our urban surroundings. Although Hamburg is the second-largest city in Germany, most people think of Berlin, Frankfurt or Munich first when planning a visit to Germany. But Hamburg is so diverse and has so much to offer, so I wanted to introduce my favourite city in the world to you with some photos and a few interesting facts!

Summer Vacation Tour hosted by Oaxacaborn - Hamburg Germany as told by Sylvia of Artsy Ants

Sylvia’s top five things to love about Hamburg

  1. Hamburg is a green city, 14% of the city area is made up of green spaces and recreational area. You can go to the beach, hike through forests, take walks in extensive city parks and spend your days on huge playgrounds, all in one city.
  2. There are so many streams, rivers and canals in Hamburg that it has 2302 bridges – more than Venice and Amsterdam combined.
  3. You do not need a car in Hamburg, the public transport system (consisting of busses, trains, subways and boats!) and a public bike system help you get around the city.
  4. Hamburg is a foreign trade center and has the second largest container harbour in Europe, one of the many reasons for it’s international flair!
  5. Hamburg is a city without skyscrapers. The typical skyline of Hamburg consists of the towers of churches and the TV tower.

2- Summer Vacation Tour hosted by Oaxacaborn - Hamburg Germany as told by Sylvia of Artsy Ants
3- Summer Vacation Tour hosted by Oaxacaborn - Hamburg Germany as told by Sylvia of Artsy Ants Summer Vacation Tour hosted by Oaxacaborn - Hamburg Germany as told by Sylvia of Artsy Ants Summer Vacation Tour hosted by Oaxacaborn - Hamburg Germany as told by Sylvia of Artsy Ants

Sylvia blogs with her sister Simona, who left Hamburg for love, at www.artsyants.blogspot.com. Sylvia is also on Twitter @artsyants.

This post is a part of the Summer Vacation Tour, a virtual travel series hosted here on Oaxacaborn.com. To ‘travel’ to other locations while I’m taking a brief break from blogging, click here. (Want to be featured in the future? Email me!)

Summer Vacation Tour, Travel/Moving

TRAVEL :: NorCal with Me: The Launch of the Summer Vacation Tour, a Virtual Travel Series

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

I am so excited to launch the Summer Vacation Tour, a brand-new virtual travel series! I have enlisted the help of some amazing friends and bloggers, and over next couple of weeks, they will take you to places like Costa Rica, London, Paris and more. This series wouldn’t be possible without their photos and perspective, so a huge thank you to each of you who contributed!

To kick off the series today, I want to share NorCal with you. It was really hard to narrow down what I wanted to say, since my love for this place is a whole lot bigger than I can convey in just a handful of photos. But, I’ll try… :)

THE SACRAMENTO VALLEY of NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

My top five things to love about the Sacramento Valley

  1. The people, of course! This goes without saying, since California holds a huge treasure trove of my dear friends and my husband’s family, whom I love like my own.
  2. The food! It’s less expensive, fresher, and there’s more variety than anywhere else I’ve lived. California produces more than half of the United States’ fruit, vegetables, and nuts. When you break it down to specific foods, the percentages are even higher — nearly 100% of the nation’s pomegranates, kiwis, olives, figs and artichokes come from California. The state also provides 90% of the nations’s avocados, 85% of the nation’s garlic, 75% of the nation’s lettuce…and the list goes on. This is all available to locals at farmers’ markets, and is reflected in the state’s restaurants, too, which are widely diverse in terms of different cuisines and different countries represented. (No, actually, not everyone is a vegetarian. Californians cook up a mean tri-tip steak, a cut of beef the rest of the US has rarely even heard of. My mouth is watering just thinking about it, and I don’t even eat beef!) Oh, and did I mention food is much less expensive there?
  3. I love Californian style. I love that Californians, by and large, are a stylish lot. Clothing and looks pop up in California long before they appear in the rest of the United States. In fact, our family jokes* that if one moves away from California to another state, one doesn’t have to buy any clothes for five years! (*very much based in fact)
  4. The weather in the area surrounding the Sacramento Valley is perfect. Spring is a gorgeous display of every kind of bloom imaginable, and definitely the greenest time of the year. The hot dry days of summer are countered by the refreshing Delta Breeze which blows in each evening and creates as much as a fifty degree difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures. Autumn’s crisp days and crunchy leaves swallow up the summer haze little by little, until it’s suddenly winter. Winters in the Sacramento Valley are cool, wet, and deliciously windy (although the strong winds which blow everyone’s fences down in December and January always seem to take people by surprise!) It regularly freezes in the Valley, and just 30-45 minutes away, into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and beyond, winter is white. An hour outside of Sacramento, snow is measured in feet, not inches.
  5. Is it cheating to say that a favorite thing about this location is…the location? The Sacramento Valley is right in the middle between the Golden Gate Bridge and Lake Tahoe. Enough said, right?

Favorite Places in Northern California - Rural Towns Rural landscapes — Yes, California is FULL of the most gorgeous rural areas you’ll ever see. This photo was taken on the street we lived on before we came to Florida. Looks are deceiving, because this view is only a mile from city life. I LOVE that California is full of contrasts like that.

Favorite Places in Northern California - Lake TahoeLake Tahoe area in the Sierra Nevada mountains — From where we lived in NorCal, one could go the ocean and the snow in the same day — there’s that profoundly wonderful California contrast for you again.

Favorite Places in Northern California - Point Reyes Point Reyes — If we’re Facebook friends, you likely recognize this as it’s my cover photo. I took this picture on our second anniversary, right before we hiked up 2,948,795,843,987 stairs to the Point Reyes light house. I was pregnant. It was a loooooong climb. But the view is one of my favorite in the world!

Favorite Places in Northern California - Bodega BayBodega Bay — I could write for days about Bodega Bay, and I’m still not sure words could do it justice (and that’s saying a lot, because I am a lover of words).

Favorite Places in Northern California - Oak Trees and Foggy Sunrise Foggy sunrise shining through the oak trees — another photo from our old home in NorCal. I miss those trees, and the cool morning air that we definitely don’t get here in Florida.

So there you have it! NorCal, my favorite place. I can’t wait to introduce you to the other locations in this series!

This post is a part of the Summer Vacation Tour, a virtual travel series hosted here on Oaxacaborn.com. To ‘travel’ to other locations while I’m taking a brief break from blogging, click here. (Want to be featured in the future? Email me!)

Life in Photos, Poetry & Words

WRITING & WORDS :: I’d like to rest my heavy head tonight / On a bed of California stars

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Having a snack at sea world in May 2012

I’m tired. I’d like to rest my heavy head tonight on a bed of California stars. But around here, lately, when we’re awake and not falling asleep standing up, we’ve been…

…taking advantage of our Sea World passes.

Aveline and Josiah at Sea World

Aveline reading the Sea World map upsidedown

I’ve also been…

…blogging for Babiekins.
—Summer Style: 6 Must-Have Items for Boys
—Get the Look: When I was Young in the Mountains
—Get the Look: Inspired by ‘Waiting for Mama’
—Spring and High Summer: Noa Noa
—Get the Look: When Stella was Very Very Small

…fetching food from grocery stores, getting said food home amidst the rainy season downpours whilst attempting to maintain the toddler’s sanity as well as my own.

…somehow managing to cook food into edible, if not somewhat burnt, things. (Rinse and repeat.)

Aveline eating burnt toast

…running around in the sweltering humidity to take photos of Aveline (think of it as hot yoga + aerobics). She is a Mini Socialite at Mudpies & Fairytales this week!

…celebrating the launch of Missile Monkey, an iOS game/app designed and produced by Josiah and his dad (the excitement around here has been crazy! This is the culmination of more than a year and half’s worth of work! If you’ve already downloaded it, we’d love it if you’d rate it as well.)

Banner to celebrate the release of Missile MOnkey iOS indie game

…scheduling posts for Summer Vacation Tour, the virtual travel series which will launch here later this month. Paris, London & more!

…fixing a bridesmaid dress fiasco, in which a dress ordered months upon months ago never arrived.

…serving as a loungy-type piece of furniture for a certain small person. (You can find the sewing tutorial for her toddler harem shorts here.)

Aveline lounging on me

…not sleeping, courtesy of the same certain small person.

…rewashing clean laundry, again due to the same small person.

…supervising the multiple baths needed per day to keep small person acceptably tidy.

Now, if you’ll pardon me as I fall asleep to this beautiful song (a Wilco cover of a Willie Nelson number).

Inspiration

My husband’s ‘Missile Monkey’ Indie iPhone Game will be Available May 17 2012! Watch the Official Gameplay Trailer Now.

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Today’s kind of a big deal.

For the past year and a half, Josiah and his dad have been working before work, after work, and weekends on a very special project — an indie game called Missile Monkey.

Josiah Munsey working on the Missile Monkey game trailer

And today, they announced the launch date! Missile Monkey will be availableon 17 May 2012.

UPDATE: Missile Monkey is now available for download in the App Store!

Here’s the official gameplay trailer (which Josiah finished this morning while he and Aveline ate breakfast, thus the above picture).

Oooh, I’m just so excited and proud. :-D

I’ll post the link to the website and the App Store once the release date hits,but until then…

UPDATE: It’s here! Download Missile Monkey in the App Store, or visit the Missile Monkey website! You can also like Missile Monkey on Facebook.

Poetry & Words

WRITING & WORDS :: Do not put that potato chip in the outlet, and other toddler tales.

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

Aveline pokes the imperfections in the sidewalk as she walks. Every.single.one.

Well, walks are really more like runs. Runs-and-pokes. So, the more accurate way to say it is that she sprints, screeches to halt, and spins around at lightning speed to inspect the little pokable hole.

All this happens with a lot of squealing, and a steady stream of Aveline-words, many of which start with “z” and sound very French.

Aveline poking at a hole in the sidewalk - Toddler wearing handmade feather headdress with brown feathers and triangles

After a rain, it’s even more exciting. There are dozens of dime-sized (and smaller!) dimples in the sidewalk, each filled with warm rainwater, each just the right size for a one-year-old index finger.

Walks take a long, long time.

Aveline pointing to a crack in the sidewalk

I like this growing-up thing that she’s doing. I like it a lot. I can make her a sunbutter and jelly sandwich, cut it in half, and hand it to her. She can eat goldfish–well, goldsharks–while we run errands. And when I change her clothes, she stands up and holds on to my arms, points her tiny toes, and tries to stick her feet into the leg of her pants. They usually end up in the wrong leg, but still. She tries.

These are good, growing-up changes.

Even when she tries to put a potato chip in the outlet.

Even when she suspects we are about to leave the house, and frantically empties two whole dresser drawers in search of her shoes.

Even when she licks the sidewalk.

Even when she, concerned about the state of her diaper, yells “dirty, dirty, dirty” loudly in the grocery store.

(The other words in) her little vocabulary delight me. Dance. Songs! Socks. Seeee?? Puppy. Seeeeeee? Poppity. See?

And every time she says “seeee?” in her girlish voice, I get a little peek of what the the world looks like through her eyes.

She’s helping me experience childhood again. She’s helping me see that there is something to squeal about in ant-sized puddles, in the extra jelly on the side of her sandwich, in the way the wind lifts up and tosses back her hair.

Thank you Lord, for helping me to see your beautiful world like a child again.

Guest Blog, Summer Vacation Tour, Travel/Moving

TRAVEL :: Summer Vacation Tour Blog Series :: Guest Q&A Submissions Now Being Accepted!

Gina @ Oaxacaborn

I’m putting together a guest blogging series called Summer Vacation Tour, which will showcase various places around the world. (Well, that’s the idea, any way. In order for it to happen, I need YOUR help!)

Summer Vacation Tour Hosted by Oaxacaborn dot Com

Here’s how it will work. If you wish to participate, email me (oaxacaborn at gmail) with the following information:

  1. Your NAME and the LOCATION you wish to showcase
  2. A brief BIO of yourself which includes how you are CONNECTED or RELATED to this location (i.e., currently live there, hometown, favorite vacation, etc). Please also expound upon WHY you chose this location to this feature.
  3. Your favorite PHOTO or three or five of the location (Photos must be at least 530px wide. You must own the rights to the photos; i.e., can’t have copied them off someone else’s blog.)
  4. A list of the TOP FIVE REASONS you love this location, or the TOP FIVE THINGS this location is known for.
  5. [Optional] LINKS to your blog, Facebook, and/or Twitter accounts (If applicable; not at all required in order to participate.)

Please feel free to share this post with your friends and family — let’s see how much of the world we can cover! Have fun — I can’t wait to read your entries. :)

The fine print: Submitting content does not constitute a guarantee the entry will be published. All submissions are subjected to editing for content and clarity. If multiple submissions for the same location are received, one or two will be selected for publishing. Submissions which are missing major sections of the Q and A may not be used.