Since I live in a small, but bustling little town, sometimes it’s easy to forget that I actually live in the country.  Just a short drive way there are farms, roaming cows and people riding their horses down the road along side cars.

About 2 hours outside of town, there’s a farming community where the primary crops are watermelon and yellow melons (which are a lot like a honey dew).  It’s a beautiful area to drive through, especially if the rain has started and revived all the vegetation after many long, dry months.  There is about 3 miles of road, lined with farm after farm, surrounded by crops of bright yellow and green melons beneath deep foliage.  Tucked away from the road there are cute, little country farm houses with laundry fluttering on the line and old farmers sitting on the porch in a rocking chair.

Being the melon lover that I am (well, really I don’t discriminate when it comes to fresh fruits or veggies!), we stopped at one of the roadside stands to buy a few melons ripe off the vine.  Can you believe that 5 melons cost only $2.  Yes please!!!

We pulled to the side of the road and began chatting with a vendor, and out of no where, this small pink piggy snuck up behind the heap of melons, started grunting and hungrily gobbling the melons.

The guy turned around, flailed his arms and yelled at the pig, shushing the squealing fuzzy pest away. He turned back around towards us, resumed his chatting and before you knew it, the piggy had circled around and launched an attack on another pile of melons.

The man repeated his defense tactics and charged the piggy, who once again ran off squealing, lickety split!!  The man rolled his eyes, let out a long, slow tired sigh and told us that every day, all day, that’s what he does. Keeps the pigs away.  Poor guy.

As we drove away, I saw the piggy making his next round through the melons. What a way to spend the day.

As you may know from my previous post, I’m obsessed with leather.  I still buy most of my supply on-line, but in a dream world, I’d find local suppliers so that I could touch, see (and smell!) the leather before purchasing it.  Considering I live in the middle of the country where it’s difficult to find many of the basics required for everyday life, you can imagine what a treasure hunt finding leather shops is.

My super duper talented friend Lydia (who also has a shop in town) makes the cutest leather feather earrings so I asked her where she gets her leather.  Come to find out – she stumbled across a little shop in Liberia (about 45 minutes from me) where they repair shoes, belts and saddles.  So the hubby and I set off to try to find the place to see if they might have something I can use.

After a few left and right turns, and then a U-turn or two, we located the little workshop tucked away on the backside of town.  As we stepped through the doorway into the dark, cluttered space – it was clear that time had stood still there for many, many years (especially in the organization department!).

Inside were three men in their late 50’s to mid 60’s hustling around mounds and mounds of leather, misplaced shoes, belts with missing buckles, tools and God only knows what else!

I inquired if they had scrap leather for sale.  One of the men came over, looking a little confused so I clarified that I make jewelry and was looking for thin leather.  The man said he thought he had some and proceeded to dig.  He dug a little here and a little there and slowly came up with bits and pieces of amazing brown, navy blue and black leather.  Jackpot!!!  The price was fantastic, the quality couldn’t be better and only 45 minutes from home!

He said he gets different leathers from time to time and could probably find me some of the brighter colors I’m interested in, so I asked for a business card.  This was it…..

I absolutely love making leather bracelets!!  I don’t know what it is about it, but something about combining metal and leather really gets my creative juices flowing.  In fact, I could fill my shop and sell nothing but leather bracelets and be completely happy.  But, people do fancy things other than leather bracelets, so I do branch out from my “playtime” to create other lil’ tidbits too:.)

I buy most of my leather as “scrap leather” from vendors who make leather coats, shoes and handbags.  For my uses, I only need small pieces so their scraps work out perfectly for me.  Currently, I have 5 shoe box size plastic tubs of leather pieces and scraps, but I’m always on Etsy looking at new colors and patterns (with my mouth watering).

A few weeks ago, my hubby and I took a little overnight trip to Nicaragua and on the way back decided to go through a little town named Rivas — the next “city” across the border from Costa Rica.  It’s a very small town consisting of a typical Central American outdoor market selling everything from fruits and vegetables to women’s underthings.  Lots of pedestrians, taxis, pick-up trucks and bike taxis.

Nicaragua is much less expensive than Costa Rica so we hopped on a bike taxi to take a lil’ tour of the town to see what we might be able to pick up before heading back.  Noticing that there were lots of handmade leather sandals and bags being sold at the stands, I asked our taxi “pedaler” if there was someplace in Rivas to buy leather.  And what luck!  He pedaled up and around a dirt and stone road to the back side of town, dodging chickens and oxes crossing the road, and stopped in front of a little hole in the wall vendor stall.  (I wanted to take a photo, but the place looked like it might be a bit dodgy to break out my expensive “looking” inexpensive camera.)

It was a supply place that sold shoelaces, metal grommets, shoe soles and belt buckles.  Also, they had stacks and stacks of leather pieces.  YIPPEE!!  As with all things in Nicaragua, the price couldn’t be beat.  Unfortunately I didn’t have a ton of cash on me and they definitely didn’t accept plastic, so I wasn’t able to get everything that caught my eye, but I did get some large pieces of lush leather.