What Did You Do Today??

So how was last night?? Did ya go out, stay in, make it till midnight? We stayed in and I did make it to midnight but LW did only in his dreams :) I do have to say some of our neighbors must have had some really good times last night and I bet they woke up about noon not feeling all that great. There were two competing street parties right across the street from each other, and darn if they both weren't determined to drown out the other's music :( It was nice of them to finally turn the decimals down a bit at 3am.

Today it was more then time for me to find the bottom of my desk :) SO us kids spent the afternoon cleaning up our play areas. LW is on one side of the sun room and I'm on the other Gee he is always so nice and tidy and I'mmmm shall we say... I really get into my work :)

Bet you can't guess who's side this is?? :)

I guess you can tell I'm not the electrical engineer (yes LW that's retired double E) in the family ;) I just can't help myself I really do need plenty of visual noise in order to focus and create. If it's to white and everything is hidden away I catch my mind wandering wanting to add some beautiful visual noise instead of focusing on the project at hand :)

Have an audacious day or evening my Bloglandian friends depending on what part of the world you are in ;)

I've Done Died and Gone to Heaven and a New Year is A Comin

We were in centro running a few errands, getting our hair cut and a bite of lunch. As we were walking down to the bank, what did we pass but a Bazaar and this one was the "mother load"!:) Remember a while back I told you that here thrift stores really don't exist. But oh my I'm sure I fell down the rabbit hole and died and gone to Junkin Heaven!! You know the kind where every available surface is packed with this and that and nothing goes together? I was like a kid in Willy Wonka's factory... Oh look, oh and look over there, and this is cool, but that's even cooler. Out of the corner of my eye I could see both LW and the owner rolling their eyes and shaking their heads :) You know LW is so patient and has earned his wings many times over!!He never complains and he never yells even when I do the "OH MY GOD STOP!! Stop right now" thing. ;)

I was feeling pretty proud of myself cuz I only had 2 funky spoons and an old ladle in my hands and tucked under my arn was this old text book with the most perfect yellowed pages.

Oh and look this little stamp says in Spanish the book belongs to Jaime. Then I reach the back of the store. You know were all the really coolish stuff is crammed? :) At first I thought it was an old "be still my heart" beat up crown. Cuz crowns are on my got to have list along with a dress maker dumm..er form :) But after I dug it out and pulled it up I discovered it was an old brass and glass out door lantern, that's about 2 ft in lenth Ohhhh soooo cool just the perfect amount of rust and green patina. And the good thing is there are only 3 little panes of glass missing :)yippee:) LW promised to take it to the glass store down the street and have the new panes cut!! Now the decision is do I ask LW to wire it for a light bulb or do I go with the awesome glow only a candle can give?? What do you guys think??

LW brought home a beautiful bouquet of red roses this afternoon to put an exclamation point on a lovely year :)

Please stay safe my fellow Bloglandians if you are out there in all the New Years Eve craziness. I hope all of you have the most audacious 2009 filled will all of the wonderful memories you can pack in. ;)

Orange a While Longer

One of the first questions we are asked by people that find out we moved to Mexico is how did you move your Things?? There are as many ways to move here as there is expats that move here. Because LW and I had only been roomies for a little more then a year we didn't have a whole house full of "we" stuff. The decision to start fresh was fairly easy for us. Hiring a moving company is very costly and we really had nothing that carried so many of our memories that we needed to have. When the time came for us to begin packing, we bought a 5ft by 8ft utility trailer. You know the same kind as your lawn guy hauls his mowers in. In the garage we marked out a 5/8 space and LW drew a line 5ft up on the wall {that way I wouldn't keep stacking to the garage ceiling;) } and then we started. By the time we shut the door and hit the road we where carrying all our worldly possessions :)

Our life in our new house in Mexico was a lot like your first home. After we got here we needed a bed and bed room furniture, living room, dining rm, sun rm. Except for a few keepsakes there wasn't much fluff either. This didn't really seem to bother LW but it made me feel awful undressed. So for the past 2 &1/2 years we have literally been feathering our nest ;) There are a couple of reasons why we have not progressed at lightening speed. 1) some how at birth both LW and I were separated from our inherited fortunes so priorities are necessary:( 2) Sometimes decisions have to be made; do we buy this piece or do we take this trip?? I don't know about you BUT unlike the popular saying that says "the guy with the most toys win" we know that it's "the guys with the most memories wins!!"

So that brings me to the "Orange" in the title. We inherited an orange bedroom. Not screaming orange it was a more mellow orange with a bit of umber. And I must say after the 3+ years it has been up it has mellowed even more. The only thing is I'm not so thrilled about an orange bedroom. One with only one window with an overhanging roof. The room is small and tucked in a corner so bright and light are not two describing words for the room :( I would dearly love to get my brushes into some paint on that wall, but alas there have been other walls to paint and light fixtures and... Well you know the story. Since it is very evident that painting our room did not make it to the top of the "Day after New Years project" list this year, I will wake up to orange walls for awhile.

Since Dulce is on vacation it was my turn to clean our room. While I was pulling the bed away from the wall in order to better seek out and destroy the enemy mutant dust bunnies I decided if I couldn't change it I mine as well join it. I gathered up some of the "Mona Lisas" we have collected, some french ribbon, candles and dried roses and went to work on the wall above our bed. Canopy is out because of the huge ceiling fan. Elaborate fabric wall treatments are way not practical. We live in dust central and that dust is black and slicky. Looks just like coal dust, could that be because we have some of the dirtiest power plants? So that puts me back to an easily cleaned decor. I'm pretty tickled with the way it came out & LW is liking it :) Now I think a couple of decoupaged lamp shades and I can wake up to orange walls a while longer :)

How about you all, anyone with any "day after News Years projects"?? Come on share a bit. Leave me a comment, let me know you are out there!! Well my Bloglandian pals I'm off the do a bit of reading in our oh so chic (orange) bedroom :) You be sure to have a most audacious day or evening depending on where in the world you are ;)

PS How many of you noticed that LW's bedside table in reality is Nena's crate?? Well one must get creative when 5 dogs and two humans all sleep in one little room :) Besides it has a nice jacard and tassel throw on it!

Happy April Fools Day?????

Well okay it's a few-maybe 4 months until April but I'm telling you today in many Latin American counties is "April Fools Day". December 28th in the Catholic Church calender is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. The day commemorates the deaths of all the baby boys King Herod ordered killed in his search for the Christ Child.

Here our resident research historian LW put together a little piece on the tradition:

December 28th is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It is the day that commemorates the death of the little boys who were slain by King Herod in an attempt to assassinate the Christ Child. This event is described in the Gospel of Matthew in Mathew 2:13-16. It talks about King Herod ordering the execution of all young male children under the age of two in the village of Bethlehem, after the Magi or “Three Kings” announced to him the impending birth of the "King of the Jews." The Magi were supposed to return to Herod and tell him where they found this newborn king so that supposedly he could go and worship Him also. However , God warned the Magi in a dream and they tricked Herod and did not return home through Jerusalem. That is when an Angel also warned Joseph and he took Mary and the little baby an fled to Egypt to avoid Herod's clutches.On this day in Mexico and many other Spanish speaking countries people pull practical jokes on each other. It is equivalent to the U.S. version of April Fools Day. You must not believe anything that other people say, nor let them borrow any amount of money. The tradition is that money borrowed on this day doesn't have to be repaid. If you fall victim of the joke, the person pulling the joke will say, “Inocente palomita que te dejaste engañar” or “Innocent little dove how you've let yourself be fooled”. This is the short version of a little verse that goes:“Inocente PalomitaQue te dejaste engañarSabiendo que en este díaNada se debe prestar.”Innocent little dove How you've let yourself be fooled Knowing that on this day You should lend nothing.

Here's another little bit of trivia. The countries that celebrate Christmas in a more western European tradition-Germany, UK, Scandinavia, France and the like. These countries' traditions grew from the "Protestant" denominations. Many of the traditions celebrate advent and the birth of the Christ child. After Christmas day the celebrations tend to settle down and return to normal. But in many counties' that the roman Catholic church remained as the main influence, the days after Christmas are as important as Christmas day. In fact on the 6th of January "The Epiphany" gifts are exchanged and a special pastry is made. Loosely translated in my made up language it's "Baby Jesus" cake. But you will have to wait until then to find out why ;) And my last little piece of trivia tonight is that in Latin American Catholicism EVERY day of the year is dedicated to a saint or religious figure.

So my Bloglandian buddies just remember not to lend anyone money until after midnight and to have an Audacious day or evening depending on what part of bloglandia you are in :)

A Feel Good Memory

Don't ya just feel great when a simple act of kindness can create some of the most beautiful memories??

Our next door neighbor Nari, as I have said before takes care of both her grand kids. Everyday, no matter what she has to do or how she feels she has her two- 2&1/2 year old grand kids. One girl one boy, who are cousins. These two cutie patooties are the loves of her life :c) Here in Mexico that really is the normal way of things. The grandmothers raise the babies. Very often all 3 or 4 generations live in the same house. This is a tradition that is many hundreds of years old. And for the most part a very successful one. Course it kinda limits your "alone time" and can really put a crimp on having your own personal space. But the trade off is that no generation is left in isolation. It really cuts down on the depression rates and it fosters creativity in finding ways to carve out a bite of my space.

OOPS I sorta wondered off. For at least a year I have been trying to get a couple of pictures of Nari's grand kids. I have been itching to make a collage of the kids to give her for Christmas. Nari's husband has always been able to support his family partly because she is extremely frugal. There really are not many pictures on the walls nor anywhere else, except the front of the "frig" I was really beginning to lose hope that I would be able to do the picture for her this year. But thanks to the patron saint of grandparent brag pictures LW was able to get pictures of both kids the nights of the two Posadas. :c)

I decided I wasn't going to frame my collage, for a couple of reasons. One is we have tile floors and glass and picture frames are deadly afraid of falling off the walls. Two the house is small and kids being kids throw things, and three We all know how 2-3 year olds LOVE to hold, and look at pictures of themselves. So with all these factors I decided the best plan of action was to decoupage the pictures onto a framed canvas.

So that's exactly what I did. I think it looks mighty fine. But more importantly so does Nari. I can't begin to explain how her eyes lit up and she had the most beautiful smile when she unwrapped the collage and realized that it was pictures of here Nijos!! And in that little nano-moment the most wonderful and precious memory was created for me. :c)

So what do you guys have planned for the next couple of days?? I'm thinking that I need to find the true surfaces of my little corner cuz yikes Feb 14th is only....

Take care dear bloglandian friends and have a most Audacious day or evening depending on where in the world you are :c)

Christmas Day Exploration

How did you all spend your Christmas Day?? LW and I had a most wonderful day :c) Remember back a few post when I was having a bit of trouble wrapping my head around the fact that there would be NO kids home for the Holidays this year?? Well LW and I decided that the best thing for us was not to drag ourselves through the old traditions as if the kids were here. We decided it was time to create a few new traditions of our own. Soooo on Christmas Eve we went 'a calling" We stopped by a couple of friends homes dropped of a bottle of wine had a little visit a glass of ... (coke for us, it sad but true we have reached the stage that as long as it's bubbles in our glass we are plenty happy) ;c). We headed home plenty early so the pups were not at home alone when the fire works started. Yup anything and everything is a reason for a few fire works here!!

Our new Christmas Day tradition we decided was to be a day to explore the examples of the boundless imagination and creativity of our fellow humans. Since Jackie and Eliot were also kid-less the four of us threw a picnic lunch together and headed north. About 45 minutes north of Mazatlan along the beach is an amazing cove

It's full of large black boulders, and when the tide is high all except the closes and largest ones are covered by the incoming tide. But the amazing thing about these black boulders is they are covered in an ancient petrogliffs. Actually there are quite a few locations of petrogliffs in the state of Sinaloa. Until just recently there has been very little interest, studying or research done on them. The current uneducated speculations are that they were done by a group of people more the 1500 years ago. They have no connection to the native people of the central plateau or mountains of the country.( Insert Aztecs) Because of this they have been completely ignored by academia. You see there just isn't to awful much that is exciting about this group of people. They were more then likely nomadic, peaceful, and poor. And as we all know that is not the image of the native people of Mexico Right?? No huge pyramids, human sacrifices, Aztec calenders. Just kinda a boring, hoo hum, group of humans living, learning and creating.

Because there is no real WOW factor with these petrogliffs they are not being protected in any way. Not here not any where. Twice a day the tide rushes in and covers them. We all know what water is capable of doing, not today or tomorrow but there will be a time when these creations will disappear, lost, to future human curiosity of who we are. When the rocks are exposed there is absolutely no protection. Look at my pictures I'm actually standing over them or sitting in front of them. They are walked on sat on and defaced. No one really cares, see there again it doesn't have that excitement and WOW factor that brings in the tourist and with them their money. I realize that it's the same the world over the "movie stars" of the culture are researched until we know every little detail, before anyone says hey what about the guy that cleaned the toilets, how did he live? I sure hope Mexico wakes up and starts to collect the knowledge of their domestic engineers before that part of our history is lost forever.

I had better apologize for my photgraphic or lack of abilities. It's very evident that National Geographic is going to be banging on my door any time soon begging me to photograph for them!! :c) We all have our own talents and gifts I'm a big enough person to accept that mine do not lie within the scope of a camera lens:c)

Have a wonderful day or evening Bloglandians depending on what part of the world you are in :c)

Noche Buena Christmas Eve

Here in our little part of the world Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve. All the businesses close early and everyone heads home to prepare for the evening. The "Christmas Meal" is started in the morning and the women have been in their kitchens ALL day. When evening arrives in some of the smaller or more rural neighborhoods the last procession of the posada takes place. Around 9pmish the families start to gather at the home of the family head. Mother/Father, Grandparents. There is visiting, drinking eating and the "women" are all putting the finishing touches on dinner. And I'm telling you if you have never seen a kitchen full of Mexican women cooking you have really been deprived. :c) I grew up with an Italian father and have many memories of the aunts, grandmothers, cousins all in the kitchen sure that theirs is the only way to do it properly!! But I'm telling you they don't come close to a Mexican kitchen on Christmas Eve :c) But some how about 10-11 pmish it all comes together and suddenly the tables are groaning with the most delicious food. Just before midnight the family will walk over to the neighborhood church for the Christmas pageant and Midnight mass. Once the Christ child has been born then and only then are the gifts opened. Many families "have their Tree" after mass and others with very small kids or ailing parents will wait until morning to open gifts. There are also many who wait to have their Christmas Supper until after mass. But no matter how they celebrate the focus is always on the family being together not the material things found under the "tree"

Christmas day is a day to relax, eat left overs, and catch up on visiting.

LW put together for you a bit of information on the tradition of The Posada. And we would like to suggest that you add visiting Mexico during Christmas to experience their beautiful traditions to your list of "1000 things to do before I die" :c)

I wish all my friends here in this wonderful little place called Bloglandia a joyous time celebrating your individual beliefs and traditions while creating beautiful memories depending on were in the world you are :c)

The Christmas Posada

In Mexico, Christmas is an important holiday season with strong traditions. One of the most colorful traditions is the posada party, celebrated every evening from December 16 to 24. These celebrations commemorate Mary and Joseph's journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in search of shelter. "Posada" in Spanish simply means lodging or shelter. These are celebrated differently in the various parts of Mexico, but they all borrow on the following scheme.
Each evening during the nine consecutive days, the holy family's quest for lodging in Bethlehem is reenacted by the local parish. A procession from the local parish is headed by a young Virgen María, sometimes perched on a live burro, led by an equally small San José. They are followed by adults and children of the parish portraying angels, the Santos Reyes (Three Kings), and a host of pastores y pastoras (shepherds and shepherdesses). Depending on the parish, they may be decked out in colorful handmade costumes and carrying brightly decorated báculos (walking staffs) or faroles (paper lanterns).
The parade of Santos Peregrinos (Holy Pilgrims) stops at a designated house to sing a traditional song by which the Holy Family requests shelter for the night. Those waiting behind the closed door turn them away with a few verses of their own. They proceed to a second home where the scene is repeated and they are again refused shelter. At the third stop the pilgrims are told that while there is no room in the posada (inn), but they are welcome to take refuge in the stable. The doors are flung open and all are then invited to enter.
What follows is a party with food and drink for everybody. The high point is the piñata. A piñata is a fragile earthenware jar covered with paper mache, or sometimes only paper mache. It is traditionally made in the shape of a star, to recall the one that guided the Three Kings. Now piñatas come in all shapes and sizes and are filled with candy, toys, and sometimes money. There is always a mad scramble for the shower of fruits, sugar cane, peanuts and candies that are released when the piñata is smashed.
The final posada culminates on Noche Buena (Christmas Eve) with the celebration of a late-night Misa de Gallo (Rooster's Mass).