A Postcard a Day - Friday 22 Jan 2016 - Friday Smiles

Hi everybody, Happy Friday!

We're back in Spain after having spent time in Holland and Denmark. It's great to travel, but also good to be back home and sleeping in my own bed.

So how has my week been...Well, the temperatures have gone down and it is quite cold even in Spain. 10 to 15 degrees C in the day and in single figures at night. The house needed warming up, so we have bought a dual fuel stove for the newbuild. 

(see Tuesdays's blog). My DH has been working very hard knocking holes in the wall and connecting chimney pipes. It is working. And the wood burner stove has been scrubbed and painted 

(see also Tuesday's blog) and today is also working. I have the kettle on the top boiling the water so I can have a cup of tea without having to go to the kitchen next door.  Now isn't that something to smile about! In the photo the stove is standing on two blocks. That's too high. It's now on only one block. 

My Christmas cards are still hanging up. (I like to keep them for a while) but really I needed to tidy up my desk area (behind the sofa).
When I was putting stuff away, I came across an envelope with scrapbook stuff in it. I must have started a lay-out, got all the bits together, but then never made the page. So I finished the lay-out. No, it's not finished-finished. It needs a bit more and I want to add quite a bit of journaling as it was 1953 or 54. But I'm pleased I am scrapping again as I haven't done a lay-out for many months.

Now for my postcards. I have been away so there were 11 postcards in my mailbox when we went to the other house (where my mail arrives). 

This one made me smile. It came from Germany.

The scene looks like it could be in Italy in the 50s or 60s, with youngsters dancing rock 'n roll.

The stamp is this one:

It celebrates 100 years of the dam in The Möhne Reservoir—or Moehne Reservoir—is an artificial lake in North Rhine-Westphalia, some 45 km east of Dortmund, Germany. Wikipedia

My funny for this week has to do with smiles. I'll be linking up with Annie at A stitch in time. Please join us and tell us what has made you smile today.

I'm also linking up with Virginia for Rocking your World Friday later on. 

Have a good week and keep smiling!

Blessings,

Lisca

WOYWW 328 - total mess, totally tangled and some observatories on a mountain.

Good morning! 

Do you really want to see the mess on my desk? Well, if you insist....

On the left are two postcards I am writing, and there is one I have received with lots of writing on it. On the right, on top of my colorful laptop, is a little book about Zentangling by Sandy Steen Bartholomew, which arrived in the post today. Shoshi is having some of her art published in one of Sandy's books (not this one). I'm looking forward to trying out several tangles, as we are going away this afternoon in our campervan for a few days. I will have plenty of time (I hope).

Panning to the right... there is a layout I am working on. Next to my coffee cup are some blackboard stickers I got yesterday. And in the bottom right corner is a box with postcards, as I was writing postcards when I took the photo. I have to finish writing them as they need to be posted this morning. The piece of paper next to the mouse is info about solar water heaters to put on the roof. We need to buy one next week.

Last night we went to the Calar Alta observatories not far from here. My daughter and grandson, who are coming over soon, want to watch the red moon (at the end of the month) through our little telescope from the top of the mountain. We thought we'd take the campervan up for that occasion, but we have now seen that it is much too steep and long for the 'old girl'. So it will be  a car and a tent I suppose. (Note to self: buy tent on the way to the airport...)

There are five observatories plus laboratories and residential buildings etc. Quite a complex!

There is a modern sundial outside one of them. As we have summer time it is one hour 'out'. It was 7pm when we were there.

And the view was stunning!

The altitude is 2100m or 7000ft. I thought it would be cold and had brought my cardigan, but i didn't really need it. The weather was glorious.

Hope you enjoyed another little glimpse of my particular corner of Spain. And if you were wondering what all this desk peeking is all about, go to Julia's Stamping Ground and all will be explained.

Have a fantastic week everyone,

Blessings,

Lisca

WOYWW 326 desk and building update

Good morning! 
This week has flown by! We always say that don't we. I think the older you get, the faster time flies!

I'm extra excited today as we are going away in our camper van later in the morning. We will have dinner (at about 2pm) in a nice restaurant on the way. So no cooking for me today.

This is my desk this morning before I prepare stuff to take with me to the camper.

 I had printed out some photos of my grandson and I was experimentally laying them on the 12x12 paper. In the background you can see the provisional shelving. There is a thermos of ice cold drink and the yellow book on the left is my Spanish dictionary which I'm using less and less now that I am more fluent.

By my dictionarey are a few pieces of printed paper left over from the lay out that i finished this weekend:

The piece of Kraft paper sticking out from under the layout is my attempt to a zentangle that I saw on Shoshi's page recently.

The house build is coming on nicely. Here is a photo of our house from a distance. I've tried to annotate it, I hope it's not too small. 

The entrance to the cave house is by the vine. That is a small court yard and the main entrance is there. The cave house itself obviously is not visible as it is built inside the 'mountain'. Where it says 'roof terrace', is the roof of the cave, which has earth so I'm growing plants as you can see. The terrace is also the street level at the back. The apartment at the bottom is not finished. We park our car there at the moment. That apartment is all on one level so that is for when we are old and grey.... The apartment at the top will hopefully be ready at Christmas. That one has an upstairs bedroom. I don't mind at the moment as we are both fit and well, thank the Lord.

I'm linking up with Whats on your workdesk Wednesday, organised by Julia. Want to know more? Go to her blog:http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/

Have a good week everyone and I will try to visit as many of you as I can, but I usually take all week to get through the list as I love reading and looking and clicking on what you are all doing.

Blessings,

Lisca

PS... Look what I just found!

Those of you who read my WOYWW post last week will know that I had lost a little birdie. I've just this minute found it! (on my desk, which I have turned upside down... don't ask me...)

Friday smiles - 28 August 2015 Kraft doodles and naughty ladies

Hello Friday friends,

I hope you have had a good week. My week has been full of blessings although we have not done anything special. It's been a routine week. Yes, us retired people also have a routine....

Our campervan has passed its ITV or MOT or whatever your country calls its annual roadworthy test. Hurray!

My husband has had dental work done (very successfully) so he is happy. (And the price was less than what we anticipated. That can't be bad)

I have been busy doing scrapbooking. I'm making a book for my grandson's 10th birthday in October. I finished two pages today so I am well chuffed as they say. 

One scrapbook website Kraft Plus challenged us to use doodling or zentangling on our scrapbook page. This is what I made:

I love doodling! No drawing skills needed.

To finish today's blogpost (and hopefully make you smile) I will leave you with a postcard from Finland. It's by designer Inge Look and features two ladies (I call them the naughty ladies) enjoying life to the full. They always make me smile!

They look like they are singing at the top of their voices. I imagine something like: 

"Row, row, row your boat, 

gently down the stream... 

merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, 

life is but a dream!"

That's it for this week,

See you all next Friday! (Or tomorrow on 'A Postcard a Day'.)

Lisca

WOYWW 325 Envelopes, plasterer and a flown birdie

Hello fellow desk hoppers, 

Hope you are all in fine fettle and ready to do some snooping around each others desks. 
I'm linking in with 'Whats on your workdesk Wednesday'. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, visit our chief desker Julia at Stamping ground.

My desk is quite empty:

 I'm working on a lay out (seen on the right) and one of the embellishments was a little pink bird made of some foam type material. When I got to the point where I was going to glue it in place, I could not find it! I emptied my desk item by item carefully. Looked in the bin, lifted the carpet etc but the birdie has flown and I have not found it! So now I am left with a near empty and quite tidy desk.

This craft room is an improvised space in the new building, which is coming on nicely. Of course this craft room is nowhere near finished but as it is such a large and light space I am using it (even though it is not finished.)

The 'things' on the right are dining room chairs piled on top of each other as we had nowhere else to put them.

We hired a plasterer to do the ceilings as my hubby has a shoulder problem and can't do them.

He did a really good job. 

I've just remembered that i haven't shown you the other decorated envelopes of the July envelope exchange:

Two totally different envelopes, both pretty but both empty, the second one was anonymous so i couldn't even say thank you. Weird that. I'll stick to postcards... 

I think I'll go and have breakfast and later on I'll visit as many as i can, perhaps spread out over a few days like I did last week.

Wishing you all a good week,
blessings,
Lisca

WOYWW 322 a new craft room and meat

Hello fellow deskers, it's Wednesday again and that means we look over each other's shoulder and see what's on our desks. Julia is 'Head Desker' and all will be explained on her blog http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/ 

You're here to look at my desk. Come on in and have a look at this:

I have temporarily/provisionally moved into my new craft room! It's nowhere near finished! But DH put together some shelving with blocks, and it's usable.The boxes are really watermelon boxes that i got from the veggie man and DH has made the width of the shelves the same size as the boxes, so I can put all my supplies in different boxes and just get out what i need. Oh craft heaven! It will all have to come down again of course when we finish the room but I'm not going to worry about that yet... 

I'm over the moon! There isn't actually much on my desk as I've just finished two scrapbook pages for my grandson's album, see below. (for his 10th birthday, has to be ready by end September. Eeek!)I have tidied everything away again.

This is the last scrapbook page I did:

I purposely didn't write much journaling. I'm going to ask my grandson (who is nearly ten) to write the journaling.

This is the actual desk:

I've got my sewing kit out. The grey 'thing' is a pair of bermudas that needed some elastic in the belt.

What else is new... I live round the corner from the butcher so i have just popped out to get some meat before there is too much of a queue. 

I bought some pork belly slices that I'm going to slow cook in the oven with a home made sauce. My butcher makes his own sausages and these are going in the freezer as a stand-by. The mince is for meatballs on Friday and the chicken breast is for Saturday. I must be hungry that I am thinking about food.... I think coffee and a bun is in order!

That's it for this week. I'll be visiting as many as i can find the time for. Have a great week,

Lisca

WOYWW 321 beach, envelopes and creepy crawly

Hi deskers,

It's good to be back. We've been on holiday for a few days last week to the coast. (we must be mad! There's a heatwave here!) My hubby fancied a dip in the sea (turned out to be bath water temperature!)
We know a little beach where we can park right at the beach.

As you can see, it's not very busy.

But you're here to see my desk:

I've finally started scrapbooking again! I have a deadline to do a scrapbook for my grandson's 10th birthday in October.
I'm also participating in a envelope exchange so I've been decorating envelopes. In fact I made my own out of 12 x 12 paper and then doodled/zentangled the shapes.

Here is a close up of the envelopes ready to send:

Now to finish off another creepy crawly (look away if you're squeamish)

I found this dead chappie outside on the terrace lying on its back. What a beauty! Again, I have no idea what it is, but it's impressive.

That's it from me today. I'll try to visit as many people as I can. If you're reading this and don't know what I'm on about, go to Julia's blog where it is all explained: http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/

Have a great week everyone,

Lisca

WOYWW 307 a red lorry, paella and (not with) sheep poo

Warning: photo heavy! (sorry Mrs Dunnit)

Hi folks! It’s Wednesday yet again.That means WOYWW. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click on the WOYWW logo on the side bar and all will be explained.

Here is my desk as it looked last night. I’ve made little concertina booklets for the grandies and I’ve chosen the photos and the Bible verses. You can see the alphabet stamps ready to be used. Now all I have to do is put them together.

There is a little photo album of my mum’s with photos from 1932. (with my To-Do list on top of it) I’m in the process of scanning the photos into my computer.

The layout I was working on last week is now finished. This is the finished page. I've called it 'Cuel Valencia'. The journaling is on yesterday’s blog. (sorry, I don’t know how to do a link. Can anyone teach me?)

Now to our life in Spain: Last weekend was ‘Literary Weekend’ in our village. A stage was erected in the little park near our house and a lovely red classic lorry (1940) with a brass band on foot, paraded round the village advertising the theatre company from Granada who would be performing. 

I just love that lorry and followed the band all along the high street like a little kid!

A group of girls were preparing the bar and were very keen to be photographed for my blog. Here they are (I know most of them from the gym). 

At two o’clock the paella was ready.  And my hubby and I (and some friends) went for the food and the drink. 

I didn’t think our  Spanish language skills would be sufficient to appreciate the theatre production, so we didn't go. But my friends said it was very well attended and it was very good. (It was free apart from the food and drink which was subsidised by the council and very cheap indeed).

Finally the sheep poo. It’s a postcard. (sorry it's not straight)

It reads: In the magical, mystical mountains of Wales, sheep droppings are sterilised and washed.... then turned into card. No trees were harmed in the making of this postcard. A sheep only digests 50% of everything it eats. The rest is usable fibre. We made this special postcard for you from.... sheep poo!

I don’t know if this sheep poo story is true or if it is just a joke, (The card doesn’t smell or anything) but I thought it was funny.

We’re off travelling again this Friday. We’re taking the campervan to England (via the Santander ferry) to visit children and grandies, then to Holland to visit my mum, and through Belgium and France back to Spain. 

We will be away for 6 weeks. I’m not very good at blogging from my (android) tablet but I’ll try, depending also on finding wifi.

Anyway, that’s it for this week,

I wish everyone a great week and hopefully we’ll ‘meet’ again next Wednesday.

Lisca 

'Cuel' Valencia scrapbook page

I've just finished a scrapbook page I did following the CSI (Color, Stories and Inspiration) http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/ 

Their palette and 'case file' was beautiful, as was their monthly sketch.

It was great to have a sketch as a guide and I have followed it more or less.

I loved the palette and the colours have all been used.

There is plenty of evidence in the form of a map print (our actual map of Valencia when we were there), flower and metal (metal flowers). There is a resin ‘button’ in the top corner of the photo. I’ve done chevrons with modelling paste.

The testimony is the journaling about our trip to Valencia. The journaling is hand written on a card and stuck behind the photo.

It reads: "Valencia: We are keen to visit places in our new homeland. In December 2014 we visited Valencia. We found a campervan park juts outside the city within walking distance of the Metro. Brill!

We met up with Maria Chiare, my D-I-L Marianna’s cousin, who is studying there at the university. She showed us around and we went for a paella meal (of course).

But the highlight of our visit was the modern Science Museum. Amazing architecture! We visited the L’Oceanografic, a large aquarium, which we both enjoyed very much. To express it in student terms: “CUEL”!"

Thanks for visiting,

I'll be doing a longer blog tomorrow for Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday. See you then!

Lisca

WOYWW 305, scrapbook workshop and herbal tea

Hello desk hoppers! 

I hope everyone has had a lovely Easter holiday. Here in Spain Easter Monday is a normal working day so everything has gone back to normal after a hectic Holy Week. I managed to make time to make ‘pasta mandorle’, a typical Easter treat from Abruzzo in Italy (where I used to live). It has almonds, eggs and bitter chocolate in it. Yumm!

It’s Wednesday again and today I’m showing you the desk (i.e. table) with all the action. This is at my friend Antonia’s house (the lady on the right). My friends wanted to start scrapbooking and I had promised to do a session with them. We did A4 format as that format is easiest to buy things for in the local shops. I took a crate full of stash over to Antonia’s and here we are having scrapping fun. On the left is Patricia from Mexico and in the middle is Patricia from Peru. Antonia is Spanish and I am Dutch. Quite the united nations!

While we waited for the other girls to arrive Antonia showed me her cheese making equipment as she had made a lovely goat’s cheese the week before. The freshly made cheese gets put in the baskety round thing that then gets tightened. A weight is put on top so that the liquid is being squeezed out and runs along the little ‘channels’ into a bucket. Clever he?

Where in England people drink tea and in US girls drink coffee when they get together, here in Andalucia we drink ‘infusion’ or herbal drinks. Sometimes we use ‘tea’ bags we buy in the shops but more often than not they are dried herbs that have been picked locally. Some herbs are quite bitter so I usually add a leaf of Stevia ( the dried leaves in the plastic bag). 

They are real sweet. I want to watch my weight but don’t like to take artificial sweeteners. This is a really good solution.  Many of my friends are from South America, and they are in the habit of drinking a caffeinated herbal drink called ‘mate’ (pronounced: ma-tay).

 It is drunk from a special beaker and a straw. Drinking through the straw prevents you getting ‘bits’ in your mouth. 

The beaker gets passed around and everyone gets a turn. The same beaker gets filled up with hot water after each person has had a drink. These photos I got from Wikipedia as I forgot to photograph my friends’ beaker (which is a shame because hers is much nicer).

I’m sorry if I haven’t visited so many desks last week. It has been a hectic week. Will try to do better this week.

And if you are wondering what this desk hopping is all about, visit Julia’s blog at http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/ where it all will become clear.

Have a good week everyone,

Greetings from sunny Spain,

Lisca