The Little Hobo trip to source amazing items for the Happy Hammock range and ultimately your delight … begins in Mexico City. The biggest city in the world no less. I arrived here in mid Jan, a little over a week ago and proceeded directly to a couple of the main craft markets to get a sense of the types of things that might be of interest to y`all in Mexico. I`ve been very lucky to be staying here at the lovely home of Dave and Sue who work for the Bristh Council. Sue will be joining me on a couple of the sourcing trips as her Spanish is very good and mine … isn`t.

Inital thoughts from the maket are silver (amazing quality), hand painted laquer boxes (beautiful), some lovely cotton embroidered childrens clothes and of course traditional vibrant wool textiles. Here are some pictures that i took in the market that first day …

Trying to plan this trip to get to the right regions for certain products has been a little tricky as time is tight and Mexico is ENORMOUS. I have a rough plan and direction with key places to hit … so we`ll see how it goes.

As in all good trips … this one must start with a few days on the beach to unwind and plan PLAN PLAN … purely selfish but I´m feeling a little bit white and pale right now and I`m sure I will feel a whole lot better when I have the startings of a tan and I can contemplate not wearing make-up in the day. Also … I need to get rid of those dark circles under the eyes that the English winter and office life seems to so readily bestow on me.

Soooo … firstly I`m off for a few days rest to catch some rays and start to morph in to the hippy happy sourcing hobo that I love to be.

Initial impressions from Mexico City …. VW Beetles EVERYWHERE .. I never expected that. There are big Beetle factories in Mexico so most people are driving them .. most of the taxi´s are green and white Beetles, so easy to spot although I´ve heard that they`re not that safe. Also, for all those clothes horse girls out there … ZARA is here (and currently has a sale on!) and about 1/3rd of the price of the UK .. I may have to stock up on some fabulous items when I come back to the city and post back to the UK.