Week 2: Project 365, the 2016 Edition

Saturday, January 9

We got long overdue haircuts today and I tried taking a selfie with my phone.

Monday, January 11

Made some new pillowcases by repurposing cotton sheets, since it's hard to find 100% cotton in the stores here.

I made two king size with a blue sheet and one regular size with a white one. Not the most exciting sewing project, but a useful one.

Tuesday, January 12

There's a kiosko on the corner opposite our dentist's office. A kiosko is what we would have called a corner store back in the day. The kind of place your parents could pick up a gallon of milk rather than run all the way to a big grocery store, or where you could blow your entire allowance on candy and comic books. They went the way of 7-11s which went the way of... what, exactly? What's the new equivalent? We've been gone from the states too long. I know 7-11s died out, but what replaced them? Anyway, most kioskos here get paid to advertise some of the products they sell, so it's not unusual to see ginormous signs like these on buildings.

Wednesday, January 13

Told you I'd make more of those fun little box pouches. Also tried my hand at a cosmetic bag using the free pattern at Sew So Easy. She offers a ton of free patterns, so if you like to sew, you should check it out.

Thursday, January 14

Getting ready to have our trusted builder do some more work for us. He's going to extend the sidewalk to go in front of the cement pad Ivan poured last year right next to the casita. The idea is to turn that into a carport, and right now there's a big gap between the pad and the lawn. Extending the sidewalk will make the transition easier for a car to pull into the space when it is a carport. He'll also do a short cement ramp right in front of the garage, for the same reason. Finally we're going to have him tile along the lower exterior of the casita, about a half meter up from the bottom. When it rains, the water splashes up along with dirt, and tile is easier to keep clean than paint so we decided to go that route. Not a big fan of the look, in general, but we found some tile we think will look okay, and coordinate well with the light gray paint. It's the lighter sample in the middle.

Friday, January 15

Had a bunch of errands to run downtown so we had breakfast at Vitto's and then took care of our walking and the errands in one shot, and we were home by 10:30 before the crowds of tourists woke up and flooded the streets. Vitto's recently switched from table umbrellas to this more stream-lined shade (which can be rolled up to the center when it's hailing or extremely windy).

Can you see the big truck in the background? It's delivering beverages to several restaurants right in that area. We've always been amazed at how the crates of bottles stay in place, stacked like that, without any straps. But not too long ago when we were walking along the costanera we came across the carnage at a corner where one of those trucks must have taken the turn too fast or something -- broken bottles everywhere! It looked like they were empties, at least.