CARTAGENA

I'm sorting, sorting, sorting. 

And sorting.

I've got about 2,000 pictures burned onto discs -

from my old-now-wiped-and-given-away desktop - 

and want to leave as many discs behind as possible...

so one of my projects has been to load them onto my laptop 

and then go through and delete all but my favorites. 

These pictures were taken the first time we visited Colombia...

before moving here a little over three years ago. 

They're of old town Cartagena...

which in it's own way...

is very beautiful.

Remember the movie, "Romancing the Stone"? 

It was filmed partially in Cartagena.

Michael Douglas dove off the wall surrounding the old city

to wrestle the crocodile that swallowed the huge emerald.

Of course...

if he dove off the real wall...

he would've hit concrete. 

Still.

It IS a beautiful city

and I would encourage you to visit.

Just don't wear any nice jewelry 

or carry much money 

or important documents

with you.

And the Hotel 3 Banderas,

where we stayed...

EXCELLENT.

BUT when you venture out...

DON'T look the street vendors in the eye 

unless you want them to follow you for the next hour

begging you to buy their wares.

Create Your Life,

annie!

IT'S GOING AWAY

Almost 59 years worth of belongings are headed...

or gone...

 out the door.

I can't even begin to tell you how good it feels to let it go.

I have a friend in FL who collects treasure like I do and continuously kicks to the curb anything that she isn't 'feeling' anymore.

I've always marveled at how she could throw those things away. 

But now I know. 

It's liberating! 

Totally.

I've had SO much fun this week giving away stuff and selling some other.

It was like Christmas excitement...and it was all in the giving.

I've begun sorting what I want to keep of my art supplies...

and even there, I'm thrilled to be getting rid of so many things that I've had for SO long.

I'm coming across items that I'd totally forgotten I own.

I'm a little ashamed to say that I spent a lot of money on some of it...

and have never even taken it out of it's packaging. 

I'm not saying it won't happen again...

but I really don't think it will.

I'll be extremely selective in what I bring into the house...

and I'll USE IT UP or move it out.

I've always had a bag or box of stuff near the door that I take to or give to the next person I see 

and look forward to putting some of the really good goodies in those bags in future. 

I'm going to select my FAVORITE items to make art with from now on.

No...wait...that's another post.

So, until then...

Create Your Life,

annie!

PS (Once again, I have pretty much forgotten I own a camera, ((CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!?)) 

so the pictures in this post are from about 3 years ago...when I first moved to Colombia...or just before).