A Postcard a Day - Friday 29 Jan 2016 Peace doves, olive pips and Friday Smiles

Good morning! Happy Friday!
I'm sitting by the woodburner, enjoying the view, and thinking what sort of week we have had....
But first my postcard for today:

It was sent to me from Brazil, Sao Paolo. It's a black and white photo by the famous Soviet photographer Vladimir Lagrange (1939). The photo is entitled:'Peace Doves, 1962'. There had been an exhibition in Brazil by this photographer. See more of his work here.

At Virginia's blog Rocking your world Friday I usually tell about all the positive things that have happened in the week. What did I do this week? Lots of nice things....Saturday I spent mainly baking. I did orange muffins, double choc muffins and a coconut cake. (Sorry, forgot to take pictures)
There is an international group of evangelists/missionaries visiting our church. Eleven, mostly young people. On Sunday morning we went to see their performance (they did dance, mime, sketches, songs and gave testimonies) in the local cinema. Then they all had lunch at my friends' house here in the village. We arrived after lunch and brought the above mentioned cake and muffins, which went down well.

On Monday we went to buy olive pips. They are what is left over after the olives are pressed to get olive oil.

 We use it for fuel. It gets mixed with the almond shells and burnt in the stove.

It's not expensive (about 10 eurocents a kilo) so we buy it by the trailer load. More pictures this coming Tuesday.

On Wednesday my Flow magazine arrived in the post. It is my favorite magazine, wit lots of art, articles and photos as well as things to cut out or draw. 

I managed to get a telephone number for someone to teach me lacemaking. I do lacemaking but it's difficult to learn from a book. I definitely need a teacher. Watch this space.

I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch in Time for Friday Smiles. So here is my smiley:

I do feel sorry for the folks in parts of the world where it has been snowing heavily, but this car did make me smile.

That's it from me today.
Have a good week and a fun weekend if you can,
Blessings,
Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Friday 4 Dec 2015 Friday Smiles

Good Morning! Are you having a good day? Are you smiling today?

I'm linking up with Annie for Friday Smiles, so think of all the positiveness in your life and count your blessings and share them here with us.

I've had a good week. The weather here is still sunny every day although the temperatures are down at night, I can still sit outside in the sun and that makes me happy.

The highlight for me this week was yesterday when I joined a friend from church to make bread. Most people here have land although they live in the town or village. The land usually has a house on it that people use to relax or for holidays and of course when they work the land. My friend's name is Juanita, and in her place in the country she has an old fashioned oven (which is on my wishlist of things I would like) and with two more girls we made 20 loaves of bread.

Here she is building up a fire in the oven to heat it up for the next batch.

And here below she has just made some almond meringue type cup cakes. Very clever as the oven must not be too hot. They turned out perfect. I like a meringue with a bit of chewyness in the middle.

Our new bedroom is nearing completion and we hope to be able to sleep in there on Saturday. The electrician hasn't quite finished and my husband  needs to grout the tiles, and place the toilet.

Also this week my Tangle it! Journal has arrived! (I already wrote this on my Tuesday blog), but here it is:

Then on Wednesday morning my copy of the Flow Book for Paperlovers arrived too! I'm in seventh (paper) heaven!

 Can you read what it says? "More than 300 pages of paper goodies. *mini cards *postman paper doll * pop-up house * glitter postcards *wrapping paper *folding houses *coloring pages *craft paper *posters *stickers *and so much more!"

Here is their website and here is the link for the Youtube flipthrough. Do have a look.

Now for my postcard:

It's from my collection of WW2 motivational posters. During the Second World War people were encouraged in the US as well as in Britain, to make do and mend. There was no manufacturing, so new clothes were not available. 

When Kansas Wheat realized that women were sewing children's clothes out of their old sacks, they started to use sacks with pretty patterns.

Isn't that great! This is a photo from 1939. I found it on the internet. 

That's enough for today. I hope I have made you smile today. 

I'm also linking in with Virginia at Rocking your world Friday.

Have a good positive week,

Blessings,

Lisca

A Postcard a Day - Wednesday 2 Dec 2015 - WOYWW 339

Good Morning! 

I'm back again. Two weeks on the trot we have been travelling down to the coast on Wednesday to visit a vet (with a cat). Our little cat is now neutered (and also two ally cats. We don't want another 'cat colony'.)

But you have come to have a peep on my desk. This was my desk last night:

I'm having a go at art journaling and I'm making some back grounds with Carolyn Dube's Permission to Play tutorial.

The other thing I have been doing is stamping on tea bags. Our tea bags and coffee pads are round. I have a bag full of small stamps that Krisha kindly sent me a while ago (Thank you Krisha) and I am using a white ink pad and stamping away, with the idea of making them into ATCs.

Of course I am also doing Christmas things. I made these 'stars':

It doesn't show up on the photo but the paper is quite shimmery. Then I added even more glitter. But when I stuck them together I forgot to stick a ribbon or twine in between! Now I have no way of hanging it up! How dozy is that!

You remember Flow Magazine that I showed some time ago? Well, once a year they do a book for paper lovers: (and my copy arrived last week!)

It has Cut-out flags, pop-up house, decorative stickers, folding houses, create-your-own-Parisian square sticker picture and coloring pages.

There are prints and patterns, wrapping paper, quote posters, labels, a large poster, colored paper, a garland, craft paper and a "How is your Day?" poster.

There is writing paper, mini cards, a postman paper doll, glitter postcards, folding envelopes, stamps, labels and stickers:

It has hardly any text and it's hefty. I would say: it's FAT!

I am like a kid in a sweet shop! So pleased with this book! It's too nice to use really.
Here is the link for a YouTube flipthrough.

Sorry if I went on a bit about my Book for Paperlovers, I'll stop right here.

I'm linking up with Julia for Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday, where we all show (the mess on) our desks and what we are busy doing at the moment.

Have a good week,

Lisca

WOYWW 335 - about Flow, kittens and computers

Hi Folks, 

It's Wednesday again! Peekaboo! We're going to have a peep at other people's desks to see what they're up to. If you have never done this before, visit Julia to know how this works. It's great fun.

But if you have come to see my desk, you will be disappointed. I'm not at home, but at our weekend home. This is what the desk there looks like:

On the left you see my diary (the large A4 thing) with some postcards that arrived today on top. Then in the middle is the latest FLOW magazine. It is the international version which I subscribe to. Have you heard of Flow? 

It's a Dutch magazine for paper lovers. They also do a  a once-a-year paper crafting issue with lots of stuff like mini-envelopes, posters, a letter garland, stationery, craft paper, coloring pages, gift wrapping, labels, a flip-up house, stickers, paper dolls, gift bags and more. A real treasure trove! The yearly issue comes out this month and I have mine on order.

The kitten we rescued is doing well. He (yes, she turned out to be a 'he') is getting used to us and is letting us touch him. Since a few days he has even sat on DH's lap:

 I'm still trying to sort out my computer. It's old (Windows Vista) and software or accessories that I buy, are no longer compatible. There is nothing wrong with it but I'd like to buy a newer version of PSE, but none of the newer ones work on Vista. So I'm reluctantly looking for a new desk top computer. I'm looking online as there are no stores that sell computers in this backwater. Watch this space....

That's it from me. I'm staying in all day today so I will visit as many as I can. Hopefully all of you. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you are all up to.

Have a good week,

Lisca