Paper Flowers

I've always been addicted to Mexican tissue paper flowers. When Jenny and I visited Mazatlan, we found a shop filled with them, the smaller kinds, in multiple colors and shades of blues, indigos, reds. They filled every nicho and vase and looked astonishing. We said to the saleslady, "We'll come back tomorrow."

When we came back, the shop was closed. It remained closed for the rest of our vacation. We'd stand at the plate glass windown, looking longingly inside at the garden of possibilities. The fates seemed against us because no one else in town was selling the flowers at that moment.

A few years later, we made the whole family return to Mazatlan, just to seek out the flowers. We stayed in a different part of town. One afternoon, from the bus, we saw that shop and leapt off the bus, telling Steve and Mom to watch Max and that we'd meet them back at the hotel.

The shop was still selling the beautiful flowers. We jammed as many as we could in our bags and spent the vacation arranging them and admiring them.

When Jenny died, I made sure to leave the flowers everywhere, especially when we returned to Mexico. We're almost out of flowers now, so I've begun searching Oaxaca for the best paper flower options.

And for fun, I wrote a tutorial on how to make the larger tissue paper flowers, on Pakt.com.