Update II

We finally went to The Mexican Shop in Evanston. I had seen ads for it and imagined it full of Mexican imports like the Mexican stores in Austin but it wasn’t like that at all. It mainly carries jewelry and clothing and doesn’t seem particularly Mexican. We did find this guy who seemed perfect for the hook above the hall gallery wall.

His price tag said vintage 1970’s and he’s marked “Made in Burma”. While he has a tendency to twist around on the hook, I think he was a great find.

I am disappointed though that the Mexican Shop was not a Mexican store since I was hoping to find Mexican tile like cabinet knobs that might work in the kitchen. Changing the knobs to make the kitchen look more like ours was one of my first thoughts when we moved here. I have found some online but we would have to buy a lot of knobs – 38! and I’d like to see them in person before spending so much. Luckily, we did find a way to bring some Mexican tiles into the kitchen. The space above the sink looked pretty empty with nothing but a discolored paper towel holder.

I had been trying to think of ways to fill it and had thought of hanging a dishtowel on either side. But that didn’t “spark joy” and one day I saw a picture of a kitchen with an old window hanging in a similar space. I looked at our things to see if anything would work for the space like the window in the picture and realized the tile tray that was sitting on the bottom shelf of the china cabinet would be perfect.

We’re going to replace the faucet and we’ll keep an eye out for knobs and other ways to make the kitchen look like ours.