A Teeny Tiny Souvenir from Mexico
🤏 a miniature report from San Miguel de Allende.
A mini1 souvenir report on this miniature from my trip to San Miguel de Allende.
Previous installments of the “Souvenirs from” series:
Souvenirs from Paris and Copenhagen
Souvenirs from London and Barcelona
+ A recent IG Reel of my Souvenir haul from Paris2
My cousin and his wife decided to get married in the fairytale-like town of San Miguel de Allende, in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico - 10 days before Christmas.
The crown jewel of the city is the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel — a church with spectacular turrets and a towering structure that can be seen from pretty much anywhere in town. At an elevation of over 6,000 feet, the dry climate of the high desert produces clear blue skies, which beautifully contrast the warm color palette of the city’s buildings.
There was an air of familiarity as I walked the charming streets of the city, as I had studied them very carefully earlier in the year. In February, bride and groom asked me to illustrate their save-the-dates for the wedding.
To capture the essence of a place I had never been was an interesting challenge, but luckily, my cousin and his wife chose a city with a salient color palette, and readily identifiable iconography. I walked the streets of San Miguel de Allende via Google Maps, and I latched onto the swirling designs of the city’s cast-iron street lamps. When I walked the streets in real life, I recognized my muses in the flesh. I know this lamp! I know this door! I looked up photos of the church from several different angles, and painted the castle-like church in varying hues of pink and orange more times than I can count. To see the church in person was like meeting a remote coworker in real life, you are taller than I imagined3.
My efforts were fruitful, as my illustration was also featured4 on the welcome bag for wedding guests, yay! Perhaps I will start offering my services for commission? Something to look into for 2025.
Since I had finally traveled to the destination I was now very familiar with drawing, it felt appropriate to add a depiction of the city in my travel journal. I recreated my design in my notebook from memory, and added key details about the wedding while on location in Mexico.
It’s not a JournalingDan trip without visiting some local shops! To fuel up for a day of exploration before the wedding, breakfast at Lavanda Café included: the signature lavender lattes and pan de elote5 served on the corn husk, and an omelette with salsa. The café, where everything is delicious, serves as the perfect jumping off point for the mercado de artesanías, which is just outside the café door. The market’s stands specialized largely in pewter objects, colorful textiles (tablecloths, napkins, placemats), ceramics, and given the season, Christmas decorations.
It was at an Artlalli outpost at 12, Calle Umarán6 that I saw a miniature dining set in the window, and went inside to find more treasures. I have long dreamed of displaying my rubber stamp collection in a large printer’s drawer (meant for storing letter and number blocks for a printing press), but I don’t think it will work in my current space. These small, hand painted shelves are perfect for displaying the miniatures sold from the shop’s counter. I decided this could be my gateway stamp shelf! Tiny sewing machines, tools, plants, traditional Mexican dishes, fruit, were impossible to resist. I purchased the tiny collection of art supplies in a canister, very similar to my colored pencil storage on my desk and a small shelf in a lively shade of pink.
A little desk redecoration took place at home in New York before traveling again for the holidays. I like to organize my collection in a way that I can see as much as possible, because it is true that what is out of sight is out of mind. I’m still playing with the arrangement of stamps, but so far the shelf fits the space perfectly, and keeps the stamps within reach, making it both a functional and aesthetic souvenir. My miniature sits proudly at the top of the shelf — a teeny reminder of my trip to San Miguel de Allende.
Currently feeling v behind and overwhelmed with writing for Substack due to an excess of travel during the holiday months of November and December. The idea of a bite-sized report seems more surmountable at the moment than finishing any of my 10+ drafts.
This Reel went viral this week, catapulting my IG following from 1500 to 4500. It took me almost five years of posting on this account to break 1000 followers…Instagram has long been my sworn enemy of progress. I stopped using any hashtags in September….what is social media strategy even? Be Ready When the Luck Happens I guess! (Idk I’m on page 10 of this book).
The church is also far more beautiful in person, but this would be a weird thing to say about a coworker, so I am leaving that thought out of this analogy.
I did not design the tote bag/choose the font. This was a surprise to me!
A light bread with corn. Cornbread! But not.
This location is not on Google maps for some reason, so I have provided the address instead of a link. Artlalli has a couple locations in SMA.
Beautiful colors in the photos!