You may or may not know about our excruciatingly embarrassing situation with the mural installation in Mexico. In a nutshell: it fell off the wall.

Other than that, we had a great time.

Seriously, though, it was mortifying and since we were actually staying in a casita/apartment attached to the home/villa of the collector/buyer, we couldn't even hole up in retreat. Which is fine, really. The mural wasn't damaged, we weren't thrown out, were graciously given the opportunity to rework the plan... and that is where we are.

The painting is rolled up and stored in a closet, we each left a drawer filled with a few summery things in the bedroom, along with some toiletries in the bathroom... and I booked our return flight/car yesterday. In the meantime, the design for the new stretcher frame/hanging structure is done, Rusty has purchased the needed lumber, and construction will begin this weekend. He'll build & assemble it in sections, number all the pieces, disassemble & ship it to Mexico, and we'll put it back together, stretch the painting, and hang it on the wall (instead of gluing). In the end, given the situation, it's for the best, and I am incredibly grateful that it happened right away instead of a week or month or six months down the road.

I'd rather not be returning to Mexico so soon, but thankfully it'll be a shorter visit and I'll only burn two vacation days!

Meanwhile, I started a new knitting project a few days before we left and even though it's a project involving a lot of mini-skeins, I deemed it travel worthy.

It sort of slid into the queue unannounced -- a perfect storm of wanting/needing to make a special gift, the recipient's favorite color matching up with a collection of mini-skeins I purchased on a whim a few years ago, and the perfect pattern. Even better, it's started to remind me of tie-dyeing with indigo, which is just another bull's-eye. I'm having a ton of fun with it and think I'll probably cruise on it until it's finished!

In other family news:

• Ali's kids are still passing germs around like there's no tomorrow, but I'm hoping they're well enough for a weekend visit.
• Maddy dropped a knife on her foot and ended up having surgery to repair a nicked tendon. She's in a cast for a few weeks and then will wear a boot for a while... is hoping that she can return to work in some capacity at that point.
• Kate published an article about Bisa Butler in Colossal the other day...

...which Bisa Butler herself shared in her IG stories. You may recall that it was a Bisa Butler exhibit at the Chicago Art Institute that was our first real outing after lockdown and it was extraordinary. Kate said that she was amazed at how generous, thoughtful, and thorough Ms Butler was with the interview questions (she is a former teacher, so I'm not surprised!).

Anyway, I hope that all your artwork is staying on the wall, that your knitting is making you happy, and that you've got some good news sprinkled in with the not-devastating-but-not-terrific news.

Happy Weekend!