Why I love Mexico, part 1

I've been back from vacation for a week now and I'm finally getting back in the swing of things, including blogging. This is the first in a series of posts about why I love Mexico, watch for parts 2 and 3 in the next few days. After this series I'll get back to posting about crafts!

I'm going to start with reason #3 and work my way up to #1.

Why I love Mexico - reason #3

The food! It's not only the food, it's the food experience. We always stay at all inclusive resorts, and they have many food options. You can eat at one of the buffets, at the snack bar by the pool, or at one of the many restaurants that are included in the package but require reservations.

The snack bar by the pool has awesome fries, burgers, nachos, pizza, etc. It's great because you can go right from the pool without the hassle of getting dressed, and as lasy as I tend to get on vacation that is a good thing.

We ate at three different restaurants at the resort this year - Italian, Mexican and Japanese. My favorite was the Japanese restaurant, which involves sitting at a table with a grill in the middle while the chef prepares your meal with lots of fanfare. The appetizer was sushi, and it was so good! That was followed by fried rice which included having the chef fry an egg and then launch a small piece from his spatula to your mouth, if you can catch it. My piece went right down my shirt. Ahem. After the rice we had a choice of shrimp, beef or chicken. I chose the shrimp and it was awesome! We were fortunate to get seated with a couple from Paris and their 4 year old daughter. Their english was limited but we managed to have a great time with them.

All of the food at the restaurants is very beautifully presented as shown here:

The resort also featured a great ice cream parlor, located on the roof of a building with wonderful view of the ocean. I'm not an ice cream fan in real life, but somehow it tastes great in Mexico! Here a picture of my banana split:

We ate dinner in Playa del Carmen one night and had the best enchiladas! The refried beans were also very good, and the whole dinner cost about $11 per person. That includes an ice cold Corona!

Check back for Why I love Mexico - reason #2.

Mexico here I come!

Today was my last day of work . . . packing is almost done (pesky ironing!) and by 5:45 a.m. Friday I will be on my way to Mexico. I can't wait to feel warm breezes and sun on my skin. I'm even looking forward to the humidity as my skin has turned quite scalley (is that a word?) over these cold, dry winter months in Minnesota.

When I return I hope to become a better blogger; posting more often and doing some inventive things. Heh. I have no idea what that might be, but I have a whole week to think about it, right?

In the meantime, enjoy reading past blog entries and feel free to check out my Etsy shop and my 1000Markets shop. Buy as much as you'd like and I'll ship everything when I return!

Adios!

Acrylic Album

I recently attended a fun workshop - it was a make and take of an acrylic album. I signed up for the workshop because it was the day that I was taking my SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) test and I figured if I didn't pass it would take my mind off things, and if I did pass it would be a fun way to celebrate!

The workshop was help at the home of a Close to my Heart demonstrator and there were about 8 other scrapbookers that attended. As usual in a small, rural community, by the end of the evening I had found some connection to each of them! Six Degrees of Separation was in full swing - who needs Kevin Bacon?

I have never worked on an acrylic album before, and this was a great way to start because when we arrived all of the paper was already cut to size and we had an example to follow. Pretty easy, huh? The hardest part was peeling the protective film off each piece of acrylic!

We had a fun night working on our albums and it was a great way to end a very stressful day. By the way, in case you are one of the few people in the world that didn't hear yet . . . I passed!

Here are a few more pictures of the album:

I think I will try my hand at a few more of these albums. If you haven't tried it yet I would encourage you to do so!

Springsteen update

No, he didn't call.