Puerto Vallarta Mexico

 

Back in November we took a 2 week trip to Puerto Vallarta. My husband had lost a tooth and we had planned on taking a medical vacation. We found out about 3 days before we left that he was not going to be able to get the tooth easily replaced. So facing 12 days in the sun we brought books to read, crafts to make and an appetite for good Mexican food. We like to stay in the older part of Puerto Vallarta called "Zona Romantica", it's easy to walk around the almost all the hotels have roof top pools. As always we brought our blender and bought some rum & juice at the corner market. Puerto Vallarta still had a lot of Day of the Dead sculptures and trinkets up around the city there were some really colorful displays. We would wake up late in the day, drink coffee, go up to the roof and swim till mid afternoon and have a blended drink. Dinner out and back to the pool. We did this for 4 days then we went to my favorite place Mismaloya about 12 miles south of Puerto Vallarta. We stay at a place called Casa Iguana. It's a really pretty hotel, about 50 rooms and a wonderful pool. The rooms have 2 bedrooms and a small kitchenette. There is a grocery store near the check in of the hotel. The breakfast in the morning is a wonderful buffet with fresh orange juice. The best part was the breakfast lasted till about 11am. So even waking up at 10am we were able to get some coffee and breakfast before it was closed. We also found a lovely place to eat called "My Tony", it was on the expensive side for Mexico but the food was fresh and the view was magnificent. We also met a cat that we had spent time with on our last visit about 6 years ago. She was a pretty calico cat that was very friendly. we we first met her she had a front tooth sticking out and drooled a lot. It looks like the tooth was pulled and she is being well cared for at the hotel. While were were in Mismaloya I painted some post cards to send back home to friends. But locating stamps turned into an epic adventure. I got on a bus to go to the only post office in Puerto Vallarta but ended up passing the place. I got off and asked several people how to get the to Post Office but was met with blank looks. I guess no one uses the mail in Mexico, we were told that it takes about 3 weeks to get across town. On our last day in town we finally saw a mail box, but we didn't have any stamps. This vacation we relaxed and read next to a pool..it was a great way spend a couple of weeks in November. 

Moving mother and a couple of thrift store finds

The last couple of weeks have been me helping to get my mother's things packed so she could move to town. It's a long story but we wanted her closer so we could respond to there strange and frantic calls. We found her a nice little 2 bedroom place in a retirement community close to everyone else but me. How did I get so lucky, I don't even get a spare key. Any way while cleaning out my dad's desk I came across 4 envelopes with the kids names and their birth year. My father was collecting the money from the year of each of our births. I was actually born in 1962. Oh well I have all the coins from 1963. 
After packing so much of my mothers stuff I decide to drop off some of the stuff at a thrift store. So of course I had to go in. I found this lovely aqua, green and grey quilt top. When I brought it home I thought my husband would be mad that I was bring home more crap from my mothers (I have 3 bags of paperwork from the early 80's). When he saw the quilt top he asked for it to be a curtain for the back room...Oh yea, why yes it can. I love all the bright colors and the fussy cuts for the mermaids, birds and butterflies. All I have to do it back it and I have a new curtain for the back room, if I line it like a quilt it will help keep the draft down. I think I win either way. 
The other thing I have been looking for at thrift stores are needle points. I want to make a small bag using a needle point like the one I saw here.  I use to see needle points all the time but now that I actually want to use one to make something they are difficult to locate. I need ones that has tight stitching so things will not snag the yarn and break it. I found the above needle points recently, the top one was in a free pile next door. It was framed, when I unframed it I found the original tag for, I believe, the piece before it was stitch, the pattern was made in Israel. The second one was found at the goodwill bins in a stack of frames. I took the needle point out of the frame and left the frame. It's a very Thomas Kincade type of illustration. Not my favorite but it's a good piece to use as practice and I think it cost me about $1.  
The place my mother moved into has west facing windows and gets a really nice amount of light. We hope it will also keep her warm. She is always cold, no matter how high the heat is in the house. We also provided her with several warm lap blankets.