Mexico Calls

Once again, while I should be making lists, studying maps and cleaning house, I am instead here with you. Yay us! We've learned how to enjoy life. Maybe I'll just crib off of somebody else's guidebook and be surprised by all Xalapa and Veracruz Mexico have to offer on Day of the Dead. John is finally being good and resting his knee in anticipation of long rambles up and down the narrow streets and all the discoveries we will make in a brand new place (for us) in one of our favorite destination countries.

I read an article yesterday about the mental health that results from writing in a journal, especially after a traumatic life event. I've always believed this to be true, even without validation from the professionals. Write it down. It helps you find your own center again.

And the images you add resonate in another part of the brain that is closer to the heart than the left brain, I believe. Closer to the emotional center. Those images imprint themselves. Which is why my journals are full of quirky and upbeat things. Not always, but generally.

While I was in Cedarburg a group of us made rubbings as we sauntered down the streets of the town. I loved it. I'm planning on making some rubbings in Mexico too. Yum yum. It's a fun and free activity to do with kids and it will make you feel like a kid again too.

Ack! Look at my studio. Everything is upended, behind, neglected, in a heap. That's what winter's for. To find the order in my life again.

Harvest is all around us. Here are more beans that John grew. I'm not sure about the oddballs in there. Those must be the artist-beans.

Here are the peppers hanging in the garage to dry. Look closer and you'll laugh.

John found a use for the plastic coils I use to bind books. He pushed a bunch of the fat ones onto a long wooden rod and hung peppers from them. The man is a hoot.

Yellow Fin potatoes which I dug myself to help save John's knee. It was like digging for gold doubloons.

And here is a photograph I snaked off the Junebug Weddings site; it's from a write-up my wonderful friend Justine Nickle did about her wedding and that features my big Eiffel Tower backdrop painting among other things. If you love love love beautiful weddings you will want to go here and read all about it.

I'll post one more time before I leave and then there will be a lull. Wish me luck getting prepared in time! xo