A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 31 December 2024 - T for Happy New Year

 Hello lovely peeps,

It's the last day of the year 2024. Amazing how quick that has gone! I hope you have all had a very good Christmas. I have. (See last Friday's blog).

Let's show you my postcard:

The card that arrived  on Friday is this one:

It was sent to me by Darya in Belarus. She also added this little 'affirmation' (That is what she calls it):

Translated this reads: Conquer new heights.

The stamp is very lovely:

The words at the bottom say: Fabric Dolls. The word top left means 'one-handed' and the word vertially on the right means 'beggar'.

It features the traditional folk art of straw dolls. Here is a photo from the Internet :

There was also a sticker on the back of the card to do with public transport in Belarus:

Together with this card I received a nice Christmas card from Kathy (in Ozark) with a short letter about how she and Larry are doing. 

She has sealed the envelope with one of her lovely seals:

There was also a card from CJ and family:

Thank you both very much.

Yesterday (Monday) I went to Gor, 40 odd km away, to my other cave house to check on the mice. I apologise to all animal lovers out there but I do put poison down as they pee and poop in my bed, eat my duck down duvet, gnaw into cables and manage to get into the best sealed kitchen cabinets. My friend Antionia and I went together. She took a picture of me as I came out of the door (of that cave house):

As today is Elizabeth and Bluebeard's T-Party, I need a drink:

It is again tea. I tend to drink tea in the winter. It is sitting in front of me on the table (with Christmas table cloth). The wooden thing the glass is standing on is not a coaster but something to slot my iPad in.

My cat Roneo (AKA Ronnie) says hello. He is doing fine.

And to finish I have a few funnies lying about. One Christmas and some drink related:

That's it from me today.

Wishing you all very happy and above all healthy 2025!!

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 27 December 2024 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely peeps,

Have you had a lovely Christmas? I have had a great time. 

Let me show you my card before I tell you about my Christmas.

It was sent by Betty from Germany. She writes that the weather is cold and foggy and that she was planning on doing Christmas shopping and after that perhaps a movie.

The  stamps were fun and she had added an extra sticker :

So I was a little busy before Christmas as most of my presents were home made, baked or cooked so had to be done as close to Christmas as possible. But even that was fun as I like baking. For Christmas Eve I made a Tarta a Tres Chocolates:

Which is made of dark, milk and white chocolate, with heavy cream, sugar and 'cuajada' (curd). We can buy curd in sachets and using curd means one layer will 'set' in the fridge while I prepare the next. This makes it an easy dessert to make. It cuts easily into wedges. It's delicious and everyone likes it.

I spent Christmas Eve with my friends David and Patricia and their family:

Here they are with their three sons. The one on the left lives in my house (as a lodger in the upstairs flat), the two on the right live in Barcelona and Madrid respectively.

Here I am with Patricia and her (possible) sister-in-law. I'm wearing the Christmas jumper that was too long and I spent a good amount of time shortening it by hand.

David and his wife are originally from Mexico. They emigrated to Seattle when they were younger and the three boys were born in the US and they all speak English fluently. Her brother was over from Seattle and together they made 'Tamales':

They were wrapped in banana leaves and inside was this:

It had a sort of pulled pork inside a dough made of corn. It was served after the meal which consisted of salmon with a pasta salad, then rolled pork with a salad. Really special. 

I'll leave it at this, as there won't be much going on blogwise this week. But of course I'll add some funnies at the end.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 24 December 2024 - T for Christmas!

 Hello lovely girls,

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Ready or not, tonight is Christmas Eve. I have everything ready, and I'm excited. Presents and sweet things nicely wrapped, plus a bottle of wine and a card with a Christmas wish. Those friends I'm not expecting to see, I'll go round their house to deliver the goodies. It's such fun to give.

My card for today is the Christmas card from my friend Janet:

She lives in Lucar, about 40 km away from here. It's on small roads so quite a trek. But we meet most Sundays after church (She goes to a different church than I do) and we have a meal together. We take turns in cooking. Janet lost her husband a few months before I lost mine, so we are both widows. I (try to) help her with her Spanish, but really we just have a lovely time together.

Janet had a number of these cards made with the view from her village

A she hand-delivered this card, there is no stamp.

The weather in the day-time is really lovely. I love it when I can sit outside in the sun (in summer it is too hot). So I have been sitting outside doing craft things:

I'm making these little hats:

Then I stuff a chocolate ball (wrapped of course, you know the Lindt type) inside and they make cute little extras to give.

I have also been doing some altering. I bought a Christmas jumper at Lidl, not really paying attention. And it turned out to be a mini dress. Well, that doesn't suit me at all, so I shortened it by hand while sitting on the terrace in the sun:

Now it's just a jumper.

I've had my nails done in a Christmas colour:

It's called Cat's Eye Red

And my Christmas wreath is also in place:

My cat Roneo (AKA Ronnie) is doing fine, but is constantly hungry. He probably needs worming as he has been outside before he came to me.

Today we are also having the T-Party, hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard. So my drink reference is this one:

The cup of tea I'm drinking at the moment.

The advent jigsaw puzzle is nowhere near finished:

I'd say it's three quarters done. 

That's all from me today.

Wishing every one a very lovely Christmas.

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday Smiles - Friday 20 December 2024 - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

 Hello lovey peeps,

Are you ready for Christmas? No, of course not. I'm never ready. Christmas creeps up on me and all of a sudden it's here! Only four days left! Yikes. So much to do.

But the past week has been good, if not busy. On of my smiles this week was this card which I received only a few days ago:

It was sent to me by Anneli from Finland. The artist is Tiina Forstadius.

As far as I can tell (No Wikipedia info) she is Danish and was born in 1949. Some of her artwork is this:

Or this:

The stamp is interesting:

If you look closely you'll see that the stamp is still in its 'surround'. 

It was issued in 2012, so quite a while ago.

What have I been smiling about this week? Last Saturday Dian and I went to Albox, a town about 40 miles away from where we live. She had ordered some meat which we were going to pick up.

There are some big shops and supermarkets that we don't have around where we live. I discovered a Dutch store:

We went inside Action and it was the same as in the Netherlands, same lay-out, same products. I enjoyed that.

Then we were going to have lunch at a particular stall that served Nassi and bami goreng. But we couldn't find it and it was getting late. so we ended up in a German stall. We had currywurst and chips:

I did think of Iris, I must admit. The chips were hand made and fried to order. So now I know what a Currywurst tastes like.

Tuesday I asked one of my neighbours if Im could photograph him for a photo club assignment. He weaves baskets and I had asked him to bring his weaving stuff.

His name is Serafin, seen here with Roneo (AKA Ronnie) the cat.

Ronnie sniffing at the baskets.

Serafin waiting for me to get my gear ready (He did come half an hour earlier than arranged so I wasn't ready).

I think he's doing the strap of the basket. 

Some close-ups:

That's all from me today. Of course I will get you some funnies at the end to giggle over, but for now I will wish you all a very happy Christmas.

Hugs,

Lisca