A Postcard A Day - 26 Feb 2016 - ice skating, battle of Waterloo, a crew cut and some funnies

Good Morning!

How has your week been? Lots of smiles? My week has been lovely. I'll tell you all about it. First off the postcard:

An ice skating scene from 1925! What fun! It comes to me from Belgium from someone called Filip. He uses a nice stamp too:

2015 was the 200 year anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. (Waterloo being in Belgium). The image is of the Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley.
Here is some info (from Wikipedia) on that if you are interested. If not please fast-forward to the next paragraph.

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. A French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition: an Anglo-allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prince of Wahlstatt .

Upon Napoleon's return to power in March 1815, many states that had opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition and began to mobilize armies. Wellington and Blücher's armies were cantoned close to the north-eastern border of France. Napoleon chose to attack them in the hope of destroying them before they could join in a coordinated invasion of France with other members of the coalition. Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo Campaign and Napoleon's last. According to Wellington, the battle was "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life". The defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French, and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile. Napoleon abdicated 4 days later, and on the 7 July coalition forces entered Paris.

 Our building work is progressing. The carpenter let me know that he will bring us the kitchen units on Monday or Tuesday. And the solar panel that my DH has erected is now working. Hurray! We have hot water in the bedroom toilet. The bathroom is not ready yet but will soon.

I have had my hair cut super short! 

I was fed up with having to blow dry my hair every time in a cold bathroom. 

The weather here is still very mild and sunny. (They say we are going to have snow this weekend... seeing is believing). But I spotted a few freesias that are flowering on my patio.

There are three: two red and a purple. Very nice surprise.

As usual I have collected a few funnies. I did quite like this one:

I am linking up with Annie at Friday Smiles and with Virginia at Rocking your World Friday. Please join us for the fun.

...One last one...

Have a great week, and keep smiling!

Blessings,

Lisca

WOYWW 327 - a moan, two kitties and a decorated postcard.

Good morning desk hoppers,

It's Wednesday again and you are here to see everybody's desk. Here is mine:

 It's a bit of a disaster area. I'm participating in the CSI scrapbooking challenge (CSI color, stories, and inspiration)and the color palette was just perfect for my packet of Gelatos Tropical that I had lurking in a drawer and had never used. I watched a tutorial about a resist technique: stamp and emboss (colorless) and then rub some Gelato over the embossing, and rub with a baby wipe. Well, it was an unholy mess! I was not a happy bunny.

This summer while I was in the UK I bought an embossing pad but when I unwrapped it yesterday, it was completely dry. So I had to emboss with colored ink. Then I found a white inkpad and tried that. But I'm not happy. I gave up in the end.... Chucked it all in the bin. (Not the Gelatos, I'll have another go with those). I'm annoyed because I can order another embossing pad online. They cost only a few £s, but then I have to pay £6 postage and packing! Argh!

OK, moan over. Have I got something nice to show you? Oh yes, here are the kitties that live on our top terrace. They are very shy. We feed them and they play on the furniture. We use the terrace for building materials at the moment. There are plenty of places to have shade and to hide and play.

 Most of you know that my other hobby is Postcrossing. I received a lovely postcard from Belgium (with a photo of their royal family). The sender had decorated the address side of the card, which I found more interesting really. It's beautifully done:

 Great isn't it!

That's it from me today. Sorry for the moan...

Have a good week all of you,

Many blessings,
Lisca

I'll add a few photos of the building project for those who are interested:

DH is laying the tiles on the bedroom roof. This is where the (compulsary) solar panels will go.

This is our living area. The electrician is doing the cabling (the black line on the wall). The wood is the ceiling, and on the right is the stairs to the bedroom. The arched windows and patio doors open out to a large terrace. The walls will be rendered and will be white, but the wood will stay as it is, and the stairs will get another coat of black paint when everything is finished.

A Postcard a Day 31 August 2015 Belgium map and harvesting almonds

Good morning! Good Monday! 

It's Map Monday and I am showing you a postcard with a map. (I collect them).

Today I have a map of Belgium.

I grew up in Holland and as Belgium has a border with the Netherlands I have been to Belgium often. An hour on the train could see us shopping in Antwerp or eating waffles in Brussels. Belgium has beautiful cities all over and lovely hills and valleys in the east. I don't know why Belgium isn't better known than it is.

The card was sent to me by Lut quite some time ago now. She tells me she is a crafter like me and makes 3D cards. She put a special stamp on the card for me too.  

The stamp celebrates the Belgian presidency of the European Union.

Meanwhile here in Spain.... the almond harvest is in full swing. This weekend my neighbours were shelling sack load after sack load in their garage (which is next to ours)

The sacks of almonds get emptied in this (very noisy) machine. 

The machine spews out the shells on one side and the almonds on the other. The shells are used to fuel the stove (it does get very cold here in winter) and the almonds of course get eaten or sold on. I've been told the harvest is not so good this year because of the draught.

That's it for today folks. See you tomorrow when i will link in with T for Tuesday.

Blessings,

Lisca