If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that I just came back from a blissfully stress-free week on the Mayan Riviera in Mexico (on the Yucatan peninsula) … well, as stress-free as even the best family vacations can be. This was our second stay at the Paradisus La Esmeralda resort in Playa del Carmen, and we enjoyed it as much (or more) than our previous trip.

All inclusive resort vacations are not everyone’s cup of tea; while I love “adventure” travel, sometimes I crave the soothing monotony of a beach resort where my most pressing decision is what time to hit up the buffet. When traveling with kids, in particular, it helps to eliminate a great deal of stress. I don’t have to worry about driving, cooking, tidying up, or even (on occasion) the kids themselves – holla, kids’ club! There is sun, sand, ocean, unlimited drinks and did I mention the buffet? For a person whose native state most closely resembles a sloth’s, this is heaven.

By now, you will have figured out that this post is nothing but an excuse to bombard you with my attempts at artistic travel photography. Sorry. The rest of the week, I promise to talk about slightly more interesting topics, like what I wore and what I read on my vacation. For now, this:

There are many things I like about the Paradisus resort, not least of all the Family Concierge package option. You get your own personal butler! Ours was named Alberto, and he was a sweetheart to the kids; he made sure our snack fridge was always restocked with our favourites, left balloon animals and stories for the kids every day, and generally made sure that our stay went smoothly. All of the staff that we met, in fact, were very lovely and helpful. We did run into a timeshare sales guy who was pretty persistent, but he was polite and eventually gave up trying to talk us into attending a presentation after we made it clear that we were not interested.

[This is not a sponsored post, by the way. I’ve been to a number of resorts in the Cancun/Riviera area, and I always like to read other first-hand experiences before choosing where to stay. If anyone is interested in more info about this resort, message me and I will be happy to answer any questions.]

The resort complex itself is beautiful; it’s set in the middle of mangroves and has gorgeous landscaping. It is on the smaller side compared to other resort complexes in the area, but this was a plus in my books because it creates a more intimate atmosphere … and cuts down on walking. There is still plenty of that – Riviera resorts are usually set up like campuses rather than traditional hotels, so your rooms are likely to be some distance from the pool, the restaurants, the beach, etc.

The pools at the Paradisus (family side) are smallish, but there is a new kids waterpark that is fantastic. When I’m not running around after the kids, I prefer to spend time at the beach anyway. That part is probably my biggest disappointment with the resort; the beach itself is nice enough (bordered on both ends by public beaches that can get quite busy, so keep that in mind) but there was a lot of seaweed in the water during our stay. We ended up having only about 3 days of clear water out of 7. From speaking with the staff, it sounds like this past year was a particularly bad one for seaweed in the area. I’m not sure if the same is true for Cancun, but I’ve heard from others that most of the Riviera is similarly affected. I expect it may be a symptom of climate change.

Also, no seashells. One of my favourite things to do is walk along the shore and try to find washed-up “treasures”, and I came up mostly empty-handed this time.

Even so, there was plenty of fun to be had in the sun.

This was one of our best overseas family trips, and the kids are already asking about next year. I have a feeling that they won’t have to twist my arm too much. My daughter in particular is an avowed Paradisus fan, but I am tempted to look at other options, although I may simply be too greedy. Can “paradise” be improved upon? If you have other favourite spots along the Riviera, leave me your suggestions in the comments.

Today’s post features a special collaboration with a very talented co-worker – you can see her work on IG under the handle “lianneangeles”. We are both huge fans of Game of Thrones, and one day she made me a tempting proposal: she would draw a GoT character cartoon for me to embroider. If you’ve been reading these posts, you will know why this was so tempting; preparing the line drawing/template is my least favourite part of any embroidery project. Having someone else do the job, especially someone as talented as my friend, would be perfect. Almost immediately, we settled on Daenerys as our first pick. Dany and her dragon – what could be more GoT than that?

Here is the drawing I got a few days later:

First of all, it’s amazing. In fact, maybe too amazing for my actual embroidery skills. That was literally my second thought. My friend was very encouraging, but I was daunted, nonetheless. But hey, I am not a quitter! Well, not without giving it a shot anyway. As it happened, I felt ready to quit this project several times in the course of it, but managed to pull myself together long enough to finish it. To say that it was my most challenging project to date would not be an understatement.

My friend and I talked briefly about the materials I would be using, though she left most of the decision-making to me. We did agree that a dark background would be better than white; based on my limited available options, we decided that the dark blue I had used for my Iris portrait would be fine. That’s what I started with.

I knew that transfer of such an intricate line drawing – on several types of materials, no less – would be a challenge, even with my new light-box. I actually did okay copying the lines onto my muslin canvass, and the part that initially worried me the most – the face – turned out quite well.

The hair and dress bodice turned out to be much bigger hassles (I had to do a bunch of extra work to “fix” them up), but they were mostly fine as well. The cape was fun; I ended up thrifting a 90s relic of a blouse – made in Italy, brand name “Gigli” (not sure if that was a diffusion line for Romeo Gigli or not), so you know it was fancy AF – which provided the perfect fabric. I added a piece of an old brooch for the shoulder bling, and Dany was all set.

And that is when the not-fun really began. That dragon … o-m-f-g. Based on the colour, I think it’s Viseryon. The choice was, again, mostly dictated by my available materials; I thought the dark green felt would look nicer than yellow (for Rhaegal), and stand out a bit better than black (for Drogon). I knew that cutting the shape out of felt would be difficult … so I enlisted my husband to help. That might seem like a weird thing to do, but he used to make architectural models in grad school, and has way more dexterity than I do. He did a great job!

The next tricky thing was figuring out a way to make the dragon stand out; the dark green wasn’t as much of a contrast with the blue background as I had hope. I used some darker green thread to stitch on some texture to the dragon body, then used metallic thread to add relief. That gave the thing a bit of dimension.

But the worst part, by far, were the wings. I knew I wanted to use this metallic fabric from an old Madewell top I decided to sacrifice to my craft hobbies; it’s really cool-looking, and also seemed very dragon-appropriate. But, friends, it was a PAIN to cut into the right shape and then embroider. The metallic threads almost shredded the yarn I used for embroidering the wing veins. This is the part where my final design differed the most from the template drawing, because there was no way I could trace the lines onto the metallic fabric; I had to free-hand cut everything … and did a so-so job.

When Dany and dragon were complete, I finally breathed a sigh of relief; but my job wasn’t done yet. I felt like something was still missing. My husband, who enjoys being an impromptu critic, told me that the blue background was to blame, and reminded me that he’d warned me against using it in the first place. I refrained from giving him a piece of my mind – I had spend close to 20 hours on this project by this time – given how nice he’d been about the dragon thing, and starting thinking. I had to jazz up the background somehow … but how?

FLAMES!!

A few more free-hand cuts of felt, and some beading later, and there she was:

After all that work and stress, I decided to take a little break from embroidery … but not for long. Stay tuned for my next adventure!

I organized my first clothing swap back in 2007, when such things were a very new trend. I am generally not an early adopter, but the idea appealed to me right away. I love knowing that my clothes can get a new lease on life, and I love getting clothes for free – it’s a win/win. A lot has changed in my life over the last decade, but my annual clothing swap tradition is going strong.

Well, one thing that has changed is the amount of effort I put into the planning. I used to spend a fair bit of time each year devising a theme for my party, choosing appropriate decorations, planning the food & drinks menu. Alas, my life is now too hectic to allow for all of that … or I’ve gotten lazier with the years (entirely plausible). This year’s party was pulled together in one morning, most of which was devoted to cleaning the downstairs of my house. For the decorations, I decided to put my Anthro flower vase collection to use; the bright and cheerful carnations I chose complemented my colourful living room decor nicely. If I can call the resulting “vibe” anything, it would probably be Longing For Spring. Sigh.

With years of practice I’ve also learned to simplify my approach to the menu. Gone are the days of making delicate little cucumber sandwiches by hand (a surprisingly labour-intensive option, by the way); now catering is courtesy of Costco. A cheese plate, a meat plate, chips and dips, veggie tray, fresh fruit, squares and macarons (also from Costco, and a huge hit) were the snacks choices this time around, and they were a hit. I find that finger foods work best for a mid-afternoon party like this; easy to set up, easy to eat without requiring utensils or making a mess, and easy to clean up afterwards. And you can never go wrong with cheese, in my experience. For beverages, we had virgin sangria (sparkling non-alcoholic wine, Sprite, and orange juice, mixed with fresh blood oranges and raspberries) and virgin mimosas.

But you guys want to hear about the clothes. Every year, I say that I won’t have anything for the next swap, and every year I am proven wrong. This year, my contribution consisted of 2 huge bags and a half dozen pairs of shoes. A few friends who couldn’t make it to the party dropped off their “swap pile” ahead of time, which meant that I had a little mountain going before the guests even arrived. There were 8 of us in total this year, which is a smaller than usual gathering, but everyone found plenty of stuff to love and there were lots of leftovers for donation as well. I got so swept up in the fun that I didn’t even take proper photos to document the party. Bad blogger!

But here’s what I ended up keeping for myself: two bags (Linea Pelle and Anthropologie), a pair of cat-print leggings (amazing), a Theory top, a Gap light wash denim jacket (not 100% sure of it, but I am going to experiment with it), a F21 striped bodysuit (ditto), and the most amazing marble-print patent Dr. Martens boots.

I want to talk a little bit about my approach to clothing swaps, because this year my guests included a couple of “newbies” and I found their perspective on it an interesting contrast to mine. Keep in mind that I don’t think there is a right way or a wrong way to approach a clothing swap; you gotta do whatever works for you. While I try to be selective about the items I pick from the swap, I see it also as an opportunity to take some calculated risks. That Gap jacket and the bodysuit? They might not work out. They’re not similar to pieces that I currently own or have owned before, and I’m not 100% sure if they will seamlessly integrate into my existing wardrobe. But I saw some potential there, and decided to give it a try because … well, it’s all free. To a lesser extent, the Docs were a risk too – I’m not sure if I’m cool enough to wear them, but I want to give it a good try because, well, I would like to be.

If you’ve attended a clothing swap before, what is your typical approach? And if you haven’t, what things would you like to know about them?