I was just looking at my Day of the Dead post from last year, when I went to Olvera St. with Jessica and Cat (all my photos from our adventure are in a flickr set here).

That was such a fun day! I built my favorite altar ever last year, too.

This year, I’m sorry to say that all my Day of the Dead decorations are at our storage space (which I didn’t realize until last night, of course) and I have a full workload and a long doctor’s appointment taking up far too much of my day today. So I created a little streamlined version this afternoon, which honors my dad and both my grandmothers.

The paper marigolds are from San Francisco, the papier-mache bird on the right was a gift from Cathy (who also made the hot-pink flowered napkin rings all around the front), and the center shrine is one I made to my grandmother three years ago. The wooden box is a project that my dad made in design school and one of my favorite things. I added a little cup of milk and a few chocolates for everyone right after I snapped the picture, too.

Last weekend, Jo and I visited the Day of the Dead festival in Oakland and got to see Deborah and Roxanne at Deb’s Chic Cosas booth, which was lovely! I took just a few photos but these two are my favorites:

Tonight I’m planning to visit Crafty Wonderland at the Museum of Contemporary Craft to make and decorate my clay skeleton, hooray!