One of my dearest friends, Natalia Provatas,  sent me a picture of a 2018 memory from before baby came into mine and Amos' life. We were at a house party celebrating episode 3 of VIDA on Starz, which has since been cancelled. I remember this was one of the nights we talked about queerness and got schooled on the word "joteria" by playwright and composer - Abel Alvarado. Since this eventful night, Natalia and I have embarked on our own personal journeys to enter  television writing rooms and dream to someday have our own show or sell a script.

I post this image and tell this story not only because our faces express ridiculous joy, but there is something about the color scheme of this photo strip and our brown/olive skin that gives me life. 

I recall Natalia's style, and her influence in my life. From her creative essays, to visiting her apartment a while back and sitting at her kitchen table made from a repurposed door. "Anything is possible!" She said. 

My personal style has shifted over the years and has declined since my twenties. I find myself choosing comfort over style. Yet, Natalia is always evolving and very subtly makes space for her style to stretch with bold choices that I often admire from a distance. Though I am a lazy dresser, I still stay abreast of fashion and trends.

Someday I'll jolt myself awake again, grab that bold leather jacket from my closet and match it with a red dress and boots. I'll wear it to a dance rehearsal and let myself be imperfectly bold and take risks again. 

As Amos and I embark on the future of our home, we are also seeing opportunities for growth and bold choices. It really does help to have creative and stylish friends though, they always get the juices flowing. And we writers and world makers, we're the best at making something out of thin air. Thanks for the flashback, amiga. 

Rosa here! So here's an update on our updates. We've settled in kind of nicely in our home. We went to IKEA, Dot&Bo, Urban Home, and even got furniture on loan from some family members to start filling in our place. Since our move last June (2015), we've kept the house pretty minimal. The fun furniture serving us for our gatherings like Halloween, New Year's, and most recently a screening of Queen B's "Lemonade" between two primas. Oh yes, the house is being lived in for sure. Yet, as y'alls know. Homes are pretty darn expensive. Gas, water, electricity, trash, gardeners, leaks, old pipes, etc  etc etc! The list goes on. This home is going to get some TLC from now until probably 2022. But that's my estimation. And although we have our jobs, Amos and I have been finding creative ways to get more income. Like lending our space to some artists! 

An artsy fartsy home-dream came to me when I was a film student, actually, a few years back. My friends and I were struggling to find a place to shoot, a place to crash for long nights of editing (as our mothers were getting sick of hosting 5-7 teens and early twenty somethings during film projects). I told my film buddies once, if I ever get a home I'll make it into a Production House - that way we won't annoy anyone and we could work all day and night. In my little house, I now have an office, and it's not huge and immense - BUT - it serves as my personal editing suite. I'm proud of that. I hope to make it into a production office one of these days, but meantime -- allowing artists of all mediums to come and use our home has been wonderful.

From webisode meetings, to readings, to a rehearsal space for an upcoming musical showcase -- I think my early-20 year-old dream is slowly becoming a reality y'alls! Maybe it's not strictly film -- but heck, it's still art!

In the video above you will see Jason Prefontaine, introduced to us by Henry Alexander Kelly; the producer for "Pieces of Me." I invite you to see the video as it highlights an amazing group of singers and talented folk practicing in our colorful living room. I love how this home is becoming a welcoming space for artists. 

I encourage folks reading this passage to have a creative group take over your living rooms once in a while. Start a living room concert series, a tiny dance space performance, anything! It will really fill your spirit. Artists paint a home with artistry, and provide and endless supply of positive energy. 

I look forward to spotlighting more artists on this blog soon. It's been an honor, Jason, Henry, truly an honor to have you in our home. 

Click here to buy tickets to "Pieces of Me" - June 4, 2016 
For more information visit the Pieces of Me Facebook Page

The person we've decided to help us with our home improvement is my dad. He has over 30 years of experience, and ... well he's my dad. So we get a pretty good deal. Amos had I written down notes, dreamed up knocking down walls, digging up holes, and making things happen! You know ... like on those home improvement shows we're obsessed with. 

But REALITY BITES hard in the a$$ y'alls...well more like the wallet. We took a step back and began to think about basics like...plumbing and the house's base.

This beautiful house had not received TLC in a long time. My father later confirmed this as he informed us that the base of the house was suffering from earthquake damage. Which had to be repaired as soon as possible. And that our kitchen pipes...they were, well...ancient and had to be replaced. 

How long will this project take? Amos thought we'd be done in a year. But being the daughter of a construction supervisor...I knew, this was going to be a long term project. Little by little, we'll get her done. 

​Ready, set, GO!

Well now, life has been throwing us curve balls y'all. Yet we will catch you up on some old news. Last Summer, Amos and I arrived from our road trip feeling like zombies. We entered our home and, well...there was a lot of work to be done.  The carpet was old, the home had collected webs with the absence of people. One thing was certain: we needed to clean.

After calling a few family members to help out, the house underwent a deep cleaning. This helped us make the transition into the house. Little by little, room to room -- we all pitched in. I realized in the process, that a lot of things have to be repaired - like our wooden floors, our old faucets, our mismatched lanterns that have old wiring, but 1970s lampshades. The past residents must have tried to modernize it in the early 80s, but now the house is confused and not from it's original era. 

Slowly, but surely, we'll get her back to her glory. For now, a good deep cleaning did the trick and some basic furniture pieces to help us feel at home.

I wanted to share my favorite cleaning tip, brought to you by none other than my mother. To clean walls - grab a small container, fill it with warm water, add a dash of bleach and clothes detergent to the water. Use a small hand towel to clean the wall, and another dry towel to wipe it down. We cleaned our hallways, bedrooms, dining room, and living room like this. Do it earlier in the day, so the walls can dry up by night time. 

Soon enough our house will start feeling like a home. 

I added a vintage ornamental mat from the 1920's to go with our 1920's home. Atop the mat some trinkets: a clear unused doorknob from our home, a lucky frog from Machu Picchu village, a music box from Paris, and a vintage necklace from Amos' mom. Topped it all with family picture frames. This was a fun project!

As you may have noticed by my last few posts -- I was all over the place during end of April and mid parts of May. I will sum up all the feelings like so: I was having the scary--scary--scary realization that Amos and I were going to be in charge of a home. What?!!! Don't get me wrong, both he and I were flipping out over the idea of living in a house together; moreover, we were pretty excited that we were going to be able to decorate our own place. A dream come true for two lost goofballs in this world.

I also knew that deep down that we'd both dive into the home projects, construction filled days, watch fixer upper television programs, and subscribe to Architecture magazines in order to make it all work out. This also meant we would have to put travel and creative work aside to focus on the house. So, being the Y-generation folks that we are, we decided to deal with this anxiety by traveling before pitching a tent in Los Angeles, so to speak. You've seen all the images from my trip, and it was wonderful. I got to see my cousin in Istanbul, visit my dance friends in Paris, and even skipped around Canterbury for a couple of days. As for Amos, he also did his own "alone trip" via the highway in the states. He began his adventure at a friend's wedding in Oakland, then went through Eureka to Portland, up to Seattle and Vancouver. He road tripped it all the way to Chicago to meet up with me. My man is pretty hard core.