If you haven’t heard of the Crafty Chica, you obviously aren’t a crafter (or Latina!). Kathy Cano-Murillo created the Crafty Chica site “to preach the gospel of cool crafts to the masses.” She now dedicates her life to crafting and all that the lifestyle entails; like writing books, talk radio interviews, TV appearances and of course enjoying it all. Did I mention her obsessive fascination with glitter? Kathy takes her pop art and spices it up with Latino inspired themes, splashes on some glitter and creates her own personal styled artwork! She is slowly building her empire, one craft project at a time! What I find extra interesting is that she was able to take a hobby and make it into a career. Crafty Chica now has it’s own product line and books!

The cool thing about Kathy, is that she writes in her own voice. She jokes and laughs in her posts which makes it so much more personal and interesting. I continue to read her blog because she seems like someone I’d love to have a chat with, probably about crafting, business, and well…maybe a story or two about accidentally inhaling too much glitter during a craft project.

I’m not sure how she finds time to do all this but Kathy has just created a new blog, Chica Writer! She was a writer long before she called herself a “crafter”, so her new blog should be pretty interesting! Currently, she is hosting a contest and celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a book giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment on her site of your favorite book and why you loved it. Go and do that now, and add her blogs to your feed!

While looking at the Austin American Statesmen I came across the article, “Oral History Project to Target Latinos“. This really peaked my interest. I have often thought about taping my grandmother talk about her past, to gather her very interesting (and sometimes juicy) stories.

Like did you know, my grandmother went on a “date” with a guy she just met, and ran off that night to a city hundreds of miles away (his home town) to marry him! See, juicy! Oh, by the way, that man was my grandpa! Or the crazy old wives tale about how someone put the devil in a jar and the glass would shatter if you said his name…so don’t say “devil”! Ack! I said it twice in one sentence! Or perhaps the story of my grandfather dying very young and my grandmother staying true and being a single mother all of her life. All of these are stories I would like to keep and listen to every once in a while. I mention my grandmother, but I would love to record my parents and other family members as well.

The newspaper article says this sis the “first initiative targeting Hispanic Americans. Historias, which means both “stories” and “histories” in Spanish, starts Sept. 24 — a tie-in with Hispanic Heritage Month”. This story gathering will be an ongoing program by a non-profit called StoryCorps. Have you heard about StoryCorps? It’s really interesting! Check out their goal for recording oral histories:

By recording the stories of our lives with the people we care about, we experience our history, hopes, and humanity. [...] Each conversation is recorded [...] and is archived for generations to come at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, creating a growing portrait of who we really are as Americans.

How cool is that?! You can even check out their website and listen to “historias”. Their goal is to collect the stories of about 700 Latinos all over the nation (including stories in Austin).

“By the close of its first year, StoryCorps Historias will likely stand as one of the largest collections of Latino voices ever gathered.”

Wow, talk about a big a deal! I really suggest checking out their site, but also, maybe spend some time with your parents or grand parents (heck even friends and spouses) and listen to their stories. There is so much to learn and so much interesting stuff to hear about!