A Postcard A Day - Friday 28 Dec 2018 - Friday Smiles

Good morning lovely people! Have you had a good Christmas? was it fun or was it stressful? I hope not the latter. We have had a very quiet Christmas here in Rotterdam. 

My hubby (who is British) cooked a traditional dinner. 

 But mum doesn't like turkey , so we had a pork roast.

 I had made a     christmas cake at the beginning of November and had 'fed' it brandy on a regular basis. I brought it over in my suit case. (excuse the apron. I always wear an apron. Do people still wear aprons? Do you?)

So I made a lovely butter icing,

iced the cake and put some decorations on it:

 Here we are, mum and me. Belated happy Christmas everyone!

If you are still with me I will show you some postcards. This one very obviously comes from Russia with some  food on it.

It was drawn by an artist called Margarita Tkachenko and is entitled

 Russian Cuisine. And the stamps are beautiful.

The next card comes from Germany, from a guy called Michael who lives near Cologne. The postcard is a vintage image.

It depicts a mine in the Harz mountains. The stamp is the well known Peanuts stamp. I love it!

I will be joining Annie for  Friday Smiles at A Stitch In Time, if she is back that is, and Virginia at Rocking Your Week Friday. And of course I will post a few funnies at the end.

Have a great weekend and I hope I will see you all in the New Year!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 25 Dec 2018 - T for Christmas!

Happy Christmas! I don't know if anyone will be reading this blog as i assume you are all busy enjoying some quality time with family or friends. (At least I am hoping this).

So my cards today ofcourse will have  Christmas theme.

This is one of the few christmas cards I made:

And this is one I received through Postcrossing:

It came all the way from the USA and even had a Christmas themed stamp:

Here is a postcard from Turkey I received last week:

It features a view of the centre of Ankara, the capital. I have traveled extensicely through Turkey in my younger days but I have never been to Ankara. So it was interesting to see.

Today is also T for Tuesday and my beverage reference is this photo of my hubby:

 I was buying him his Christmas present, only a few days ago in a shop in Rotterdam. We bought an iPad. The lovely sales lady made us a cappuccino while she installed everything and got the thing ready for use.

 I won't bore you any longer. Me and my hubby wish you all peace and happiness this holiday.

Happy T-for-Christmas-Day,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 21 Dec 2018 - Friday smiles

Hello lovely people,

Didn't that week go quickly! 

Let me show you some cards that I sent this week. 

This is one that went out this week bcause the person had this card amongst his/her favorites. I recognised the card and thought: I have one like this. So there, another happy "customer".

Another person wanted a Christmas card with a cat on it. This is the only thing I could find with a cat. It is not the prettiest card, but I try.

And another Spanish stamp that I have used recently:

It celebrates 50 years of army aircraft (not air force, but army).

So, what is happening with me? We are now in

 Holland!
We will be celebrating Christmas with my mum in Rotterdam.
We had tken the bus to Alicante. A long journey, so we booked a hotel near the airport and the next morning got a taxi to the airport. 

 The check-in wasn't open yet and we had 40 minutes to kill, so we treated ourselves to a coffee. (The coffees were ,more expensive than the taxi!)

The flight was uneventful and I will share more phoos on Tuesday.
So far I haven't stopped smiling!
Have you got something to smile about? Please join us at Annie's A Stitch In Time.

I have got a few funnies as usual at the end.

I wish you all a very happy Christmas (or a very happy Holiday if you do not celebrate Chistmas.)

Hugs to everyone,
Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 18 Dec 2018 - T for teapot, cave house and Christmas decorations

Hello lovely people,
How are you all? 
Happy T-Day. Come and join us at Elisabeth and Bluebeard with a blogpost with a beverage in it. Here is (one of) mine.
The image above (not a postcard) translates: May all your plans come true.

I'm showing you some postcards I sent this week. The first one is on its way to Russia. This young lady said she likes Thomas Kinkade and this card is a bit in that style. It is obvious that she does not speak english and uses an online translator. This is what she wrote: ' I will be very pleased to receive your piece of heat in the form of postcards, bearing light, good and joy'.

And the card with the RealMadrid footbal stadium goes to Frank who works for a bank in Luxembourg. He is a huge soccer fan, and also a long distance runner.

This is one of the stamps I used. It reads 'Gender equality in the armed forces. 30th anniversary of the incorporation of women.'

Last week we bought a new tea pot.  It works a bit like a French coffee pot. It takes loose leaf tea and when the desired colour/strength has been achieved, you push down the plunger and the tea will be kept at the bottom and won't continue to steep. Clever idea. We haven't used it with tea yet as we don't drink real black tea, but we have a lot of loose rooibos mixes. We're finding that the rooibos is finer than tea and some 'bits' escape from the mesh. The holes are relatively big I think. Has anyone else have this problem?

This is what our dining table looked like for most of last week. Wrapped presents, a few Christmas cards in the making and Shaz & Doug's card standing upright agains the presents. Isn't it beautiful. I have since hung it up. It is a work of art. Thanks Shaz!

We visited a friend the other day who had moved to another cave house. She had work done on this house and it looks lovely. This was the dining room, ready for the meal. There were 7 of us eating. 

Here are our best friends on the left and on the right is  a pastor and his wife from a neighbouring church.

And there is my hubby in the red Ikea chair. Note the lights behind the roof tiles in the corner. I always get ideas for our cave when i see others'.

We saw some new (to me) the illuminations outside the town hall late at night. (nobody is about, it gets quite cold at night as we have very few clouds)

There were a few members of the brass band that had been playing that evening. We missed that unfortunately.

Winter has set in and one can tell by the leaves on the trees, which will soon disappear all together. This is the Paseo, the little park close by our house.

I am very excited as today we are traveling by bus to Alicante, where we have booked a hotel. Tonight (depending on the hotel wifi) I might be able to do some comments, but most of the evening will be taken up by hubby wining and dining me. 
Tomorrow we'll catch a flight to Rotterdam. woohee!

Wishing you all a happy T-Day,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 14 Dec 2018 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely people!

Another week has gone by and we are a little closer to our trip to Holland. I have now got to the empty-suitcase-on-top-of-the-bed stage and have started a 'don't-forget' list. 

I have not received any mail this week. (Is the postman on holiday?) That is strange as it is my hubby's birthday today and we were expecting at least a few birthday cards. So the cards I am showing you today are cards that i have sent through Postcrossing.
The first one is for a girl in Germany who likes (and collects) images of flying pigs. Well, I have no cards of flying pigs but this Piglet looks like he is flying so that will have to do. And it's a bit chrismassy too.

This card is going to France to a Postcrossing member who asked for Christmas cards. He mentioned that he was a Christian believer so I felt I could send him a card with a Christian message. My friend Rhona Marshall MBE is involved in an orfanage in Kamuli, Uganda called Maria's Care. I bought some cards off her a few years ago and I had one left. The children on the card are children from the orphanage. 

Our post mistress now has new stamps in regularly and this is one of the new ones I got. It features a bridge in Cantabria (in the north of Spain) called Puente de la Maza. The white bit where the bridge should be is cut out so I had to be extra careful not to rip the stamp as it was only held together by the flimsy side strips.

So, what have I been doing this week that made me smile?  As I am in the process of packing my case and sorting out clothes so that everything can get washed, I found these booties with a fur rim. I hardly wore them as I have to wear my trousers inside the boot because of the fur. And somehow they made me look even shorter than I already am! I was just about to throw them out (Sorry, Elisabeth will have a fit when she reads this) when I had an idea to recycle them (OK Elisabeth, you can breathe again). With a stitch cutter I carefully removed the fur, and the result is an almost new pair of boots! Big smile!

The other day, when my hubby and I were walking home through the village, we walked past the 'traiteur'. I don't know the English word. It is a shop that sells meals. If you don't want to cook, you get a meal there. (In this part of Spain, you can't buy ready-meals in the supermarket). Our traiteur is called Inma. She does catering but also has this shop. The meals are different every day. 

 We walked past her window and saw all the yummy things on display. So we went in and bought something we would not normally cook at home.

Yes, caracoles! Snails! These are little ones cooked in a spicy sauce.

They are not like the French escargots, but much smaller. I love them. You often get them as tapas, but most English don't like them. 

On the walk home we also came past the municipal Christmas tree. I don't know if the gate around it is to prevent dogs peeing on the lights or what...

We've had some really lovely weather until today (today is raining), so we have had our meals on the terrace. This is the little table we use and we sit in the sun and enjoy the meal, the view and the sun. Life is good.

And of course, we have had some spectacular sunsets. (No Valerie, I don't do sun rises)

That was my week. I'm going to link up with Virginia at Rocking Your Week Friday. And of course, as per usual, I am sharing some funnies at the end.

Have a lovely weekend, and a very good week ahead. 
And don't get too stressed with your Christmas preparations.

Hugs,
Lisca