Mexico Musings

This is what I asked my new friend Melanie when she and her husband Gunter seduced us into buying land near them, south of Todos Santos.

I say seduced…we were willing participants. But in the eight years I have known M &G; I have called them the shameless pushers of paradise. When we were still in the old country just dreaming of our land, Melanie told me how she had to wash dishes in her outdoor kitchen ( she lives right on the beach on the Pacific side of southern Baja.) because the granite counters had not yet arrived for the kitchen in the main house. You know, I tried hard to have sympathy, couldn’t work up an ounce.
So we finally pulled the plug on our Silicon Valley lives, bought a house 2 blocks from the beach and proceeded to rehab it.

After about a year of home remodeling, and adding a pool, and outfitting the house, we woke up one day and said; “Now what do we do?”

We live in a predominantly ex-pat community, although many Mexicans live here as well. The Mexicans have jobs and real world lives. The Ex-pats are playing in paradise. But for us, well, we are not fisher people, we don’t drink until we are stumbling, we don’t own a dune buggy or ATV, and sitting around gossiping or playing board games just isn’t enough stimulation.

We also came down here with our hair on fire, we were able to get out in 2000 five minutes before the dotcom crash, and 5 minutes after the real estate boom. Money was going to be a real issue for us. The house and its quality were grossly misrepresented to us. We spent our cash cushion on making repairs like a working septic system, re-wiring and replacing all of the used and old appliances. The house was only four years old when we bought it, but the sellers had furnished it with second hand everything, even the toilets! So we turned the house into an art piece. So the house is finished, we are looking at a dwindling nest egg, and we are bored out of our minds…

When I left California I told everyone I was going to make gorgeous quilts, write and do nothing. My daughter started a pool among my friends and clients to see who thought I would go crazy and when. Well I outlasted all of their guesses, but not by much!

We found jobs, and we have great jobs. We have an international set of friends that work and travel and like to cook gourmet meals and enjoy movies, and discuss politics. I work from home, my beloved walks to work along our beach. He walks home for lunch every day.

And I write, not as much as I expected, but I write. And I sew. Sewing for me is life. There are certain things I must have to consider life good: Living on the beach (and our new house that we built is on the beach), a well equipped studio, good coffee.

This is a long introduction to a series of posts I am planning to showcase the beautiful pillows I design and make for myself and friends.

Every year at Christmas I make themed gifts. Last year it was his and her aprons for those who cook, and travel pillows and eyes masks for those who travel.

This year it is going to be gorgeous tote bags, and some small surprises I’ll post closer to Christmas.
From the beach in La Paz in Southern Baja, my latest designs.
Here is a peek:

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 9:54 am and is filed under Sewing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.