Yo soy el hombre de la selva,
perfume, cántico y amor,
pero encendido de relámpagos,
pero rugiendo de huracanes.
Yo soy un río de pie.
-Raúl Otero Reiche

There aren’t a huge number of tourists in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in the eastern part of Bolivia. The foreigners that do turn up don’t tend to arrive solo. So when I showed up alone and with my big dorky camera, I looked pretty conspicuous. It’s a little unnerving to unapologetically take photos of a big and busy city. I think when it comes to travel, we only see what we want to see. So I don’t know if these photos are reflective of anything. It’s entirely possible that I’ve captured the skin of the city and failed to reveal the heart.

This trip was a real comedy of errors. I lost my luggage! I got lost in the middle of the night! I got locked out! I got locked in (the door had to be broken with a kitchen knife)! I got called a heathen! I got computer viruses on my new camera! I almost got robbed by gypsies! And it was AWKWARD sometimes. But I lived, damn it. And I met some fantastic people along the way, people who were so kind that I could never possibly thank them properly.

A few more photos of Santa Cruz here.

Cioa,
Sarah

Hola.

There´s been a serious lack of updates around here lately, I know. But I really do have an excuse: I´ve (temporarily) run away to Bolivia.

I wrote that like it was a sane thing to do.

It seems in vogue now for single women to run off to exotic countries, and while I´d love for this to turn out like some Eat Pray Love fantasy trip of a lifetime, I´ve been hampered by a streak of bad luck. This trip does not make me want to take up yoga. It makes me want to take up smoking. I´ll be hanging out in Santa Cruz de la Sierra for one more week, then it´s back to the regularly scheduled programming of fabric designs and wacky embroideries. Please, wish me luck.

Ciao,
Sarita

Howdy.

Finally I have gotten around to getting some updates on this silly website.

I’ve got four new background patterns for you:

I’ve made a new wallpaper, seen below. This wallpaper is available in six sizes, and also as a tiled background.

For my birthday I got a larger computer monitor. It is awesome on so very many levels, and I’ve learned that Dreamweaver is really a million times easier to use when you can actually see what you’re doing. But sadly there is a down side to all this awesomeness: Not a single one of the nearly 80 wallpapers I’ve created over the years actually fits my screen. So in an effort to get with the times, I’ve updated many of the old papers so that they are available in a variety of wide screen sizes. I’ve uploaded over 60 new images today and dealt with quite a lot of code, so if you find any errors on the wallpaper page please let me know.

I’ve also updated the travel section with some new photos of Los Angeles. I was there for three days in June, which finally gave me some time to see some of the touristy stuff that all Californians are required to know about. I feel like such a bad Californian sometimes; I’ve lived here my whole life but I’ve never been to Disneyland, Alcatraz, or Yosemite.

Remember that if you want to enter to win some bowls from All Modern, this is your last chance! Really, RIGHT NOW. A winner will be chosen on the the 13th.

That’s it for today.

-Sarah

I’ve updated the stationery section so that all the files are in PDF format, meaning higher quality! They’re also all exactly 8.5 x 11 inches, and there’s even two new designs up. They’re perfect for Christmas because they’re much higher quality than a lot of the other stuff you’ll find on the web, and I think they’re pretty classy looking.

There are eight new tiled backgrounds up, so check those out. I’m using some of them to make fabric at Spoonflower.

I add six new images to the Northern California travel gallery, and six to the Bay Area gallery as well.

On a totally unrelated note, I’ve put together this image of a dream I had a while ago. Most people are never really interested in hearing about other people’s dreams in detail, so I’ll just leave you with this image to ponder:

With Love,
Sarah