It's a.......

Saddle pad for my sidesaddle! I looked online for one and thought to myself "I bet I could make one of those easy enough". So I thought I'd give it a go. I really needed something for under my saddle to keep the linen cleaner. It's just a bit too long for a regular square pad so the very back of the panels were getting really dirty.
Started off with a bit of a template...


Doubled checked to make sure it would cover where it needed to.


Cut out the quilted fabric.


Then came the sewing and Ta da! The finished product.


Now to try it under the saddle. It fits really well! Yay!


I'm pretty pleased with how well that turned out.

Working on something.....

Hopefully I'll have it done tonight so I can upload some photos of it! I decided since I couldn't find one to buy, I'd put what skills I've got to work and try to make one!

Can you guess what I'm making?

Our last day in Mexico

We spent the day on another gorgeous beach that again, we had almost all to ourselves.



This beach was by far the best for finding seashells. We found some bigger ones while we were snorkiling. And we also discovered that you have to be really careful where you step while you're in the water as there are small sting-rays. Rule of thumb: shuffle your feet as you walk and it scares anything away.


Now let me tell you about the FANTASTIC lunch we had at the beach. On our way to the beach, you walk past a small cantina and order your lunch. When I say you order your lunch, I mean you go into the shack and they open a cooler which is full of fish and you pick out which one you would like to eat. Then you tell them what time you'll be back to eat.
This is the restaurant & kitchen.


Our lunch consisted of a fresh coconut to drink, a fish called "Sierra" which was very tasty, butterflied & breaded shrimp, shrimp cerviche, seafood salad and tostadas. Everything was so fresh. We were absolutely stuffed afterwards.


Back on the beach, proof that I'm a true Canadian. Look at that glow! (I swear I tanned a little bit while we were there!)


We did a bunch of snorkling over in this area. There was so many brightly colored fish, seashells and bright blue coral. At one point a bunch of sardines swam around us and some of the pelicans that had been sitting on the rocks were diving in after them right next to us!


We stopped for a Pina Colada on the way home here...



And just when we thought we hadn't already eaten enough, we went out to a fancy french/mexican restaurant for our last dinner there.
Mmmmm coconut prawns & mango chutney!


They brought a big tray of meat out to show us what we could choose for dinner. All kinds of meat; chateau briand, salmon, steaks of various cuts, kabobs, seafood etc.

And for dessert, flaming orange crepes!


And that was our trip! We flew home the next day, back to the cold, white north!

Mexico Part 5 Time for some REAL Mexican food

We decided to spend the day puttering around town after the the full day on the beach the day before. We went down to another nearby town and snuck into one of the all inclusive resorts to take a peek. Gorgeous resorts were everywhere but compared to the beaches we had been on, it was SO busy!




As we wandered around town we noticed that there was a "Tuk-Tuk" for rent. It looks like a 3 wheeled mini van.


We walked back to our town from the local grocery store "Super Che" (maybe it stands for "Super cheap"? lol) Thank goodness for the shaded path because it was HOT HOT HOT.


One of the locals and his Canadian girlfriend took us out for lunch for some REAL Mexican food and on our way to the restaurant we passed a tortilla factory.

Another view of the streets in town.


Here we are at the restaurant, all decorated for Christmas.


The ladies were making fresh tortillas in the small side alley. YUM.


Since we spoke very little Spanish and the ladies running the restaurant spoke very little English, our local friend Gabriel ordered for us. We had no idea what was coming but we trusted him!

We ended up having fresh corn tortillas, beef in salsa verde, fresh caught pan friend red snapper, a spicy cactus salad/salsa, REAL re-fried beans and this delicious crumbly, creamy cheese. So delicious!! (And mucho picante!!) Our lunch, including a Corona for four of us came to 200 pesos, or about $20 Canadian. Not bad eh?

After lunch we took a walk around town and visited a store selling Mezcal (kind of like tequila but faaaar worse! lol) They serve the Mezcal with "worm salt", which is literally dried mealy worms, ground up and mixed with salt and some kind of spice.
Also, did you know that you can find as many limes as you're heart desires but there's not a lemon to be found. I thought it was interesting.
Coconut tubes Oaxaca cheese & chocolate were a few other things we sampled on our way back. Apparently the area is famous for it's chocolate & coffee. The Oaxaca cheese is really odd, but yummy. It's served warm and is really soft & stretchy. Kind of like the "string cheese" they sell for kids.

You can see the main square was decorated for Christmas.

Fascinating website!

If you like antiques and are always wondering "What IS that?" then I think you'll like this website. It has all kinds of things that people have found in fields, ditches, beaches, canals etc. Very neat!

http://www.tomstreasures.com/find.html

If you've got something and you don't know what it is, it might not hurt to send in a photo!

Christmas Day in Mexico

I've never spent Christmas in a warm place and I've heard that a lot of people don't particularly like it because they need cold & snow for it to *really* feel like Christmas.

White snow or white sand beach?




I was perfectly ok with the hot weather and nice beach! We had an absolutely amazing day.

We had a nice tent to sit under for shade, lots to eat and plenty of cervesas.


But then the Mexican police came along.... Uh oh...


Just kidding! Cervesa pour favor?


They were very fun, even though they didn't speak a word of english!

Oh yes, we had the reindeer antlers and all!

Remember how I said that turkey isn't very common in Mexico? Some of the locals that came with us, thought it was the best thing they'd ever eaten.

I think he's enjoying it, don't you?

What a fun day. We played some games on the beach (one of the girls and I won the three legged race!), boogie boarded in the waves and thoroughly enjoyed the sun!

Mexico day 3 - Christmas Eve!

Christmas eve we spent touring through town and looking for some Christmas presents. It's such a neat little town, a lot of people don't speak any English, so it was a bit daunting for us, who spoke very very little Spanish! There was ladies on the street corners selling baskets of crickets to snack on (eww), fresh fish, LOTS of fresh fruit & vegetables, especially limes.

We went by the town's church which was all decorated for Christmas.


And we went to a store that made woven material for clothes, table cloths, napkins, curtains etc etc. We bought a nice light cotten shirt and a dress from there. The material is almost like linen, nice and cool in the hot climate!


And then we went to the beach! Our taxi dropped us off on the side of the road and we walked for a little way until we found a path (aka goat trail) going down to the beach. We had the beach all to ourselves except for a Mexican family on the other side. It was really nice, although the waves were a bit too big for us to feel comfortable swimming.


We brought a tiny charcoal barbecue down with us (and a cooler full of drinks) so we could cook up lunch on the beach. This is what's called "Aracherra", it's a marinated flank steak and it is soooooo delicious! YUM!


Cactus seem to be able to grow ANYWHERE!


And here we are, back for our Christmas Eve dinner. Don't you just love the blue?


And yes, we even had turkey for dinner in Mexico! I don't know where they found it because it's not very common in Mexico but it had to be some of the best turkey I've ever eaten. It practically fell off the bone when we were trying to get it out of the pan to carve. YUM!