A Postcard A Day - Friday 29 July 2016 - Friday Smiles (Photo heavy)

Good Morning! 

Another lovely day today! I got woken up (as usual) by the tinkling bells of the goats and sheep grazing somewhere near our house:

They graze in a different place every day but always within earshot. I love the sound of those bells.

It's been a good week for us. Not the least because the exchange rate has gone up again. We get our pensions from the UK and when the exchange rate is unfavorable (like last week when we got one fith less Euros) it really effects us.

The plastering in the stairway is coming on nicely and DH has started to lay the tiles. Here are some photos:

Looking up to the door, which is our back door, but because it is on street level, it is the door we use most.

Same view from a bit further down. The door on the right is the door to our living area.

Looking down. Again the door is the door to our living area.

The door on the right is the door to the adjacent cave house. And down the steps is (will be) a garden flat (downstairs/no stairs) for that time when we are older and can no longer manage all those stairs

I am super pleased about the progress. It is such a mega job and the end is in sight.

I had some happy mail this week. First of all this postcard arrived from Australia.

I love aboriginal art but it's not easy to come by, so I am really chuffed with this card. It is painted by Bolda Hunter and it depicts brolgas dancing. Brolgas are large grey crane birds that live in tropical Australia and New Guinea. They are known for their spectacular courtship 'dancing'. 
Bolda Hunter is as far as I know a man from the Jawoyn people of the Northern territory. 

The other bit of happy mail was a parcel from 'My Name is Erika' with ATCs and lots of goodies (I will show you a photo of that on Tuesday). One of the 'bits' in the envelope was this:

That made me smile.

That's it for today. I'm going to link up with Annie at Friday Smiles and with Virginia at Rocking your World Friday.

Blessings,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 26 July 2016 - T for tortoises and apricots

Good Morning Tuesday folk! How are you today? I am in fine form and feeling great. My ATCs have been posted. Elizabeth can I please have your address as I would like to send you one too, as you are our Tuesday host. (You can use the contact form on the right hand side).

I  have a few things to show you so without much further ado, here is my postcard:

This came from Poland last month and it features a turtle of course. In Polish (according to the card) zólw. I suppose you know by now that I love turtles and tortoises. I admire the fact that they can become so old. I also like trees for that same reason.

This is what someone sent me on Facebook the other day:

Amazing!

These are the stamps on the postcard. The three images (lighthouses) are one stamp! Very impressive.

We are having a glut of apricots at the moment in our region. I don't grow any but I get given a bagful every now and then. This is Friday's haul (the apricots, not the walnuts)

 I made an apricot tart with them and here is a photo of the tart before putting it in the oven. It came out beautiful and perfect, but I forgot to take a picture! I was worried as it is so difficult to make pastry in a hot kitchen (29 degrees C). The butter has to be very hard and cold. It sort of melts in my hands as soon as I get it out of the fridge. But I managed.

I had some apricots left and I made some muffins as an afterthought.

I still have the first silicon moulds that came out. I think it must be 15 yrs ago, maybe more, when I bought them. In those days it was cutting edge stuff to have these flexible floppy moulds. Nobody believed they could go in the oven let alone bake well. Plus they were very pricey. But I have used them hundreds of times and I love them. Note that they hadn't got round to making them brightly coloured like now. They are utilitarian grey.

I'm going to link up with Elizabeth at T for Tuesday where we share things and feature something drink-related too. Now I'm thinking what to share that has a drink in it....

We had friends over this past Sunday with their large family (5 kids in age 10-25). 

There is a drink in this photo. My drink in fact. I like to drink beer with cloudy lemon. Very refreshing. It's called Radler and I love it especially when the weather is hot. The meal was lovely btw. We had a great afternoon.

That's it from me today. 

Have a great week everyone,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 22 July 2016 - Friday Smiles

Good Morning peeps!

Sorry I am a bit late in posting this morning. I overslept. We have banned the cat from the bedroom because he wants to play (or eat) at 3 am and we have had many disturbed nights. It is not easy to sleep in this heat, so it was great to have a good night's sleep without kitty disturbance and we overslept! (The joys of being retired!)

So without further ado, here is my colourful postcard:

It is my first postcard from Greece. It was sent by Despoina (what a lyrical name). She also used special stamps which are always a joy to the eye:

She wrote that the bar code on the right hand stamp would bring up Greek Christmas carols if scanned with QR. Of course I'm not that phone savvy and have no idea how to do that, but it's a nice idea (Whatsapp is the only thing I can manage... I desperately need a 12 yr old to teach me how to use my phone!).

This week has not been very eventful. Graham continues to slog away on the stairway. He is cleaning the rafters after the plasterer has been, and has also painted the part that is plastered.

Our house is built on a steep incline so the door you see on the photo is the street entrance. The stairs go down four floors. At the bottom is another entrance where the fields start.

The plasterer Has not been this week as his dad was very seriously ill in hospital. He will come back on Monday to continue the neverending stairway, and then he has to do my craftroom. That is very urgent as far as I am concerned. I can't do a thing! All my stuff is once more packed away. I thought it was only for a couple of days.... Please hurry back plasterer!

I will leave you with something funny I say this week:

You can substitute it with craft supplies I'm sure. 
I used to do Lakeland orders in the days before they had so many shops (there was only one in Windemere in the early days). My colleagues at work all wanted something too and I ended up with orders over 300 pounds sterling. It would arrive in a box the size of a coffin! (For those who are not familiar with Lakeland, they are a firm that specialize in quality cook and bakeware and kitchen ware and nowadays a selection of speciality foods).

That's it for today. I'm going to link up with Annie at Friday Smiles and with Virginia at Rocking your World Friday.

Wishing you all lots of smiles this coming week,

Blessings,

Lisca

WOYWW 372 - Welcome back Julia!

Welcome back Julia! Great to hear you are feeling up to hosting WOYWW again. And thank you LLJ for taking over temporarily and doing  a really good job!

I've been absent as well for a short time. A lot of other things happening but not a hint of crafting, so I didn't see much point...

I've had some happy mail yesterday:

Shaz (Silverwolf) has sent me some decoupage sheets! A whole pile of them! They are lovely and I can't wait to get going on them. I haven't got a craft room or desk at the moment and fussy cutting is something I can do sitting on the terrace or even at the kitchen table. Brill! Thank you Shaz, you're a star!

I found these little pieces of fabric and decided I would use them to make some ATCs.

This is the above mentioned kitchen table with the pot of gesso on it and me making an attempt at being messy.
This was the result:

Some spacemen in tribal dress! (My hubby's interpretation, and I think I'll stick with that one). Anyway, I'm having fun creating something.

I'm going to link up with Julia (Hurray she's back!) at Stamping Ground for What's On Your Workdask Wednesday, and I will try to visit most if not all of you. (even if it is later in the week).

Happy WOYWW,

Have a great week,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 19 July 2016 - T for ....

Good Morning lovely T-gang!

It's Tuesday again and we share something with a drink in it, Coffee, tea, or something in a glass or even a bottle of something. (Mmmm this is making me thirsty).

I'll be linking up with Elisabeth and Bleubeard at T for Tuesday. I have just realized that I have always misspelt Bleubeard (I wrote BlUEbeard). Sorry Bleubeard.

If I am not mistaken there is an anniversary to celebrate today. The third! I have been busy making ATCs for this occasion. I have made eight. I hope that is enough. (I can always make some more). 

Yesterday I was brushing gesso on the back of the ATCs that I have made, so that I could write my name on the back.

Here think something along the line of: 'tada!' Of course I can't show you the right side. That would be spoiling it.

I'm sharing the photo of yesterday's breakfast:

Oh dear, I think this one is out of focus. Hopefully this is better:

You get the idea. There is our tea pot with tea cosy and the dried mint leaves in a glass dish. We have cereal with fruit and soya milk. The fruit you see in the picture is called Paraguayo. 

They are also called donut peaches or saturn peaches. They are a variety of peach with a different squashed shape, a much sweeter taste and a paler colour inside.

Now for my postcard. This one arrived yesterday from Russia. It is a painting by Konstantin Makovsky (1839-1915) called Boyarynya. 

Of course I had to google that and I discovered that a boyarynya is the female of 'boyar'. A boyar was a member of the highest rank of the feudal aristocracies in eastern Europe.

I love all that beadwork on her clothes. And the yellow bits are surely made with gold thread, don't you think? What opulence! 

That's it from me. I hope I remember to put an asterix by my name for the ATC exchange! And as I have 8 ATCs made I am happy to swap with whoever would like to too.

Have a fantastic Tuesday!

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 15 July 2016

Good Morning girls and boys, (Boys? Are there any boys out there?)

This is 'Happy Friday to you' in Spanish!

I hope you are all well and have plenty to smile about. I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time for Friday Smiles. Please join us with all things positive.

My mailbox was happy this week (and so was I) as many postcards were delivered. This one was rather special. It came from Serbia, the first card I have received from that country.

It used to be part of former Yugoslavia and the capital Belgrado (as I know it) is now Beograd. I traveled through that country  in 1971 when we did a road trip to the middle East. A long time ago.
This is the stamp:

These toys remind me of the Fisher-Price toys my son used to play with (He is 40). 

The weather here is very hot and we are sort of hibernating and not doing much. It's too hot to do anything. I have done some crafting for a change and have been making ATCs. I can't show you them yet as they are for the T For Tuesday Anniversary Exchange this coming Tuesday.

But i do have a couple of funnies:

Another teacher joke (and I'm not a teacher, but I thought it was funny). As is the next one:

This made me smile too. If I had small children I would keep them tethered for sure!

I hope you have all had loads to smile about. I am looking forward to reading all about it.

Have a good week,

Happy Friday,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 12 July 2016 - T for tea and tapas

Good Morning T-gang! I hope you are all well!

Today is Tuesday and we share anything with a drink in it at Elizabeth's Altered Book Lover. I'm sorry to hear that you have had such a hard time, Elizabeth, what with the flooding (and all those precious books that got wet), and not having internet and phone because of the flooding. I hope it is all repaired and sorted now.

I don't have anything arty farty to show you because my craft space is still being tiled and painted. Next week the shelving will go up and I will be moving my stuff in. Hopefully in time for the ATC event!

My postcard for today is one that arrived yesterday actually (this morning the postman hasn't been yet):

It's all about tapas! The little snacks that we get free with our drinks. Guess from which country this was sent? No, not Spain. It came from Holland! And it was written in Dutch. Really special.

Talking about food.... I made another super cheese cake Saturday:

It has a pastry bottom and there is a layer of cherries (from a jar) in it as well. The top is crumble and almonds (and icing sugar). Very nice it was too.

By now you must be thirsty after tapas and cake. I will make some tea. This is my tea drawer. Nothing fancy like the lovely loose tea that Elizabeth got from the Tea Merchant, but just boxes that I buy in the supermarket:

My favorite at the moment is Liquorice tea (at the bottom), but in winter I love chai. The black box on the right has my favorite chai. As you can see it is out of date. Unfortunately we can only buy it in the UK, so until we go again, I'm not throwing it out.
I also make ice tea now it is so hot (and also ice coffee of course). 

I will leave you with this:

Have a great week,

Happy T-Day,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 8 July 2016 - Friday Smiles

Good Morning Friday gang!

Do you get days like that? I had one yesterday. But today I am going to amaze myself! Because we are having a plasterer working in the house (hurray! The huge stairwell is being plastered!) it is an early start for us too. I have already done my house work! I have a book called '30 Days to a clean and organized house' by Kate Berry. 

And today I cleaned the fridge inside and out and re-organised it. The other job for today was clean and sort beneath the kitchen sink. Also done! I'm feeling rather pleased with myself! It gets easier as the house gets cleaner I am told.

Because the plasterer has been in all week, we haven't done anything or been anywhere. (Hence the furious cleaning). 

We entertained on Saturday, a family we know from church, but they do not approve of social media and prefered not to be photographed.
So of course I will honor that. They brought me two huge bunches of mint from their garden. 

Needless to say we have been enjoying a pot of mint tea every morning. Very nice!

My postcard for today is one that made me smile:

It is the Dutch royal family. From left to right: HM king Willem-Alexander, HM queen Maxima, HRH princess Amalia, HRH princess Alexia, HRH princess Ariane. The photograph was taken at the Bosque de Los Arrayanes, in Villa La Angostura, Argentina, queen Maxima's home country.

This is the stamp. It has 'Postcrossing' written on it, as Postcrossing is very popular in the Netherlands.

The stamp shows an image of the cheese carriers of Alkmaar, a town in North Holland. The cheese carriers are seen at the traditional merchant cheese market, kaasmarkt in Dutch (as operated in the post-medieval period). It is all re-enaxted in the summer months for the tourists. 

The shows are surrounded by stalls that sell all sorts of things to do with Dutch culture including cheese of course. There are similar markets in Gouda, Edam and Hoorn. The real modern working commercial cheese market is in Woerden.

I will leave you with some school jokes:

I will be linking up with Annie at Friday Smiles  and with Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday.

Have a lovely week with lots of smiles.

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 5July 2016 - T for gym club breakfast

Good Morning!

It is now well and truly summer! Schools have broken up, legal summer schedules have come into force (like: not allowed to put rubbish/trash out between 8 and 20:00, and anyone in the building trade is not allowed to work after 3 pm) and clubs have all closed for the summer. 

I have said goodbye to my fellow embroiderers earlier and Friday was our last day at the gym. We finished a bit earlier that day and we all went for breakfast at a nearby bar.

There's yours truly sitting on the right. 
The Spanish breakfast is a toasted baguette with olive oil and crushed sieved tomatoes (and some salt).

This was my breakfast. I enjoyed it as at home I don't usually have this.

I'm joining Bluebeard and Elizabeth at T for Tuesday, where we can post anything that has a drink in it. Well, my drink is coffee this morning. I'm not a lover of milky coffee like the other ladies, so I'm having café cortado, which has a splash of milk in it.

The bar is decorated in a typical Andalucian way. Look at the beautiful tiles and the typical curtains:

I love the tradidional cut glass lamps. I have one in our stairway, but with normal glass (not colored).

Here is the postcard that I received today:

You are right if you guessed it came from Russia. The city is Kostroma, which lies about 350 km northeast of Moscow. The building on the picture is part of the Ipatievski monastery, the 17th century Trinity Cathedral. 
This is the tiny stamp (I'd never seen this one before):

Juliya writes:"Do you have good summer days? Hope you do, because in central part of Russia it's only +10 in the 11th of June!" I would happily send her some sunshine and warm weather if I could!

Have a fab Tuesday and a blessed week,
Lisca