feliz cinco de mayo!

i'm partial to mexico. here are some of my reasons (besides just being beautiful and thriving with culture) why i think it's awesome:

the food. have plans to eat mexican for lunch or dinner today? chances are, lots of you do :) my husband and i have a little, authentic hole-in-the-wall place that is our favorite of favorite mexican restaurants here in kc... we've taken friends there and we can see their hesitation... until they get their giant plate of mexican amazingness in front of them and dig in.

tonight, we'll take a little of these...

and some of their acapulco shrimp tacos.

it might be my favorite meal. like, if i only had one left to eat on this earth, it might be numero uno on the list.

{images via food network}

their textiles!! i have already proclaimed my love of the otomi fabric to you here... but there is more love there.... lots more.

{image via flickr}

this is a 1965 vintage mexican wedding dress. do you die? i die.

{the above clothing images can be found here}

another reason: mexico's all around festiveness. color abounds south of our border and i think that is what keeps calling me back.

mexican papel

{placemat found here.}

wedding papel picardo

their jewelry. my friends have called me an "expensive hippie" since college. i think part of that is due to the turquoise...

and last but not least:

vacations and sunshine and oceans and LOVE (met my husband there!! you can read that story here)

here are some photos of our vacations past, i didn't post too many... i know how it is looking at other people's vacay pics:

cabo

the place we met as 18 yr. olds... romantic, no??

playa del carmen... before the drug war, which has sadly kept us from going back. i hope that gets resolved soon, so sad.

this nice german man found a baby sea turtle on the sand... i didn't think he should be touching her but it didn't stop me from taking a picture or 9.

and snorkeling here. now, i have snorkeled a few times around this great globe of ours, but this place beats the others by leaps and bounds... it's the national coral reef between cancun and playa. go there, it's truly beautiful.

happy cinco de mayo, everyone.

hope you can fill your bellies with some cheesey mexican once or thrice today. i will be!

JILL