Italy, a cute baby and lots of snow!

Trip to Italy with nothing but snow!

We’ve just come back from an exciting week in Italy. We went to see our little grandson, who is now 4 months old. He was being baptised so we travelled there for the occasion.

It was a long journey: a long bus ride from Baza to Malaga (4 hours), then a two and a half hour flight to Rome. From Rome another 3 hour bus ride to Chieti, only it took us 5 hours because of the snow. It was snowing heavily and the bus almost didn’t make it, but they have special tires and with much delay we finally arrived at midnight. My son came to pick us up in a 4x4. That was another arduous journey and we made it to the outskirts of town from where we had to walk (with suitcases) through the snow to the house as the streets were not accessible.

 Here is a photo of me looking out of the window of the house we were staying in, and another snow photo. I know that my Canadian friends will laugh at this but we live in sunny Spain and are not used to this amount of snow.

Meeting my grandson was a delight! He is a cheeky chappie, all smiles.

I had bought a nice outfit for the baptism with high heeled shoes, but what I eventually wore were a jumper, trousers and boots (because of the snow).

The baptism was on the 8^th of March, which also is International Women’s Day. The restaurant where we went for dinner after church, had vases of mimosa on every table. Mimosa being (in Italy at least) the symbol of women’s day. I remember always buying a twig of mimosa for my girl friends on that day.

Thanks for visiting my page,

See you soon and God bless!

Lisca

PS You’ll make my day by commenting something or sending me some love

WOYWW 301 babies and snow in Italy

Here a quick post  from Italy. I've  come  to see my 4 month old grandson. Isn't  he gorgeous!

I dont know how to use my tablet. And this photo and one seentence has taken me more than an hour.

There is no desk to show, only mountains of snow.

M

See you all next week

Lisca

Ta-Da! WOYWW 300! and flying off to Italy tomorrow!

Tada! WOYWW 300!... And I’m flying off to Italy tomorrow!

Congratulations Julie on the 300^th WOYWW! This is quite an achievement! I’ve only been part of this for the last 25 weeks but let me tell you it’s addictive!

This is my desk this week:

I’ve finished making the cards for my D-I-L, which you can see on the left. She wanted 15 but I made a few more. I will take them with me to Italy tomorrow. They don’t ‘do’ cards in Italy so this is a novelty for them. Here is a close-up:

I’ve also done a background in my journal after seeing a video tutorial by Jennifer McGuire called Easy Distress Ink Watercolor Backgrounds (With Iron-Off Embossing)

 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3BiE8GyB1c) I was pleased with the result. I now wish I had more distress inks but I only have 4 colors. I didn’t iron off the embossing as I quite like the shiny effect. Again, here is a close-up:

My desk of WOYWW 298 had the beginnings of a scrapbook page with photos of my dad from 1955. For those who’d like to see the finished page... here it is:

See yesterday’s blogpost for more details and better photos.

Last but not least I want to show you the material I bought the other day for a table cloth for my mother. I chose a motif to embroider and I am in the process of copying/tracing the pattern onto the material. I am in a local ladies’ group where I can learn how to embroider as I have only ever done cross stitches. Watch-this-space as they say.

Tomorrow we are flying to Italy to see our new grandson (who is now 3 months old). So I won’t be able to comment much with a baby on my lap! (besides, I haven’t got a fancy phone that does internet). And next Wednesday there won’t be a photo of my desk of course as I won’t be back yet. But I just might be able to upload a photo of the above mentioned little chappie....

If you’ve been wondering what WOYWW (Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday) is all about have a look at Julie’s website http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/ .

Thank you all for visiting,

Have a great week,

Lisca

Maico Mobil - scrapbook page

Maico Mobil 

–

Here is a blog post about the latest scrapbook page I made.

I found these awesome pictures of my parents and our beloved motorbike, the Maico Mobil, taken in 1955. 

The German factories that had been making military motorbikes during WW2, were now producing motorbikes designed for comfort. This Maico Mobil was unique in that respect and my dad loved it. He rode it for many years and I, when I was a child, would ride with him. Happy days!

This is my dad on the (then) new enclosure dam of the Zuider Zee, called the Afsluitdijk. 

This is mum posing.

I made this layout for the CSI challenge (Colors, stories and inspiration http://csicolorstoriesinspiration.ning.com/  )

Their ‘Case File’ 155 had a certain color palette, a sketch and some other guidelines that I followed to make this page.

The journaling reads:

“My dad had an interesting scooter in the fifties. It was called Maico Mobil. I have happy memories as a child, sitting very comfortably on the shaft in front of my dad.  Here are some photos taken during a holiday in Germany in 1955. (Note the empty motorway!) Top right is my mum, just posing, as she was always the passenger.” 

Thank you for visiting my page,

Have a good week,

Lisca 

WOYWW 299.... a patch of patchwork

Hello lovely blogreaders! Today we desk hop again! I’m looking forward to seeing all your projects, new stash and reading about what you’ve been up to.

My desk is in card making mode. I have promised to make 15 cards for my DIL which need to be ready next week. So you can see I am in full flow, as they say.

The scrapbook page of my dad’s photos (Last week) hasn’t seen much progress as my priorities have been elsewhere.

The printed paper just by the ‘Travel Lite’ lamp is a list of keyboard shortcuts for PSE 6&7 (!). I’m itching to learn to digiscrap but I only have an older version of PSE that I bought years ago and use (a bit) for photos. I’m not going to buy an updated version until I can manage this one reasonably.

Then on the left you see a piece of patchwork which I’m finishing.  Last Saturday I went on a day long workshop to learn to do patchwork. (see previous blog) 

I really enjoyed it. Here is a photo with the first thing we learnt to do. (A cushion cover) and in the afternoon we started to do the hexagons but I haven’t quite finished those.

Monday is the day we always go home for a day and a night (we are still ‘camping’ on the building site), so that not only means I can use my lovely bathroom (in stead of a utility shower) but we collect the mail of course. This time there were 7 postcards! Oh joy! Here is one of them from Germany. 

The writing reads: “ An eine altbekannte Tur klopfen,

Erinnerungen vom Staub befreien, Den Garten neu bepflanzen."

Translated that would be: To knock on a familiar door, to dust off memories and to re-plant the garden. (I’m doing this off the top of my head but Gabriele will correct me I’m sure, if it’s not right.)

That’s it for this week. If you have been wondering what all this desk hopping business is all about... have a look at Julia’s blog at http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/

Have a great week y’all,

Lisca

Anyone for Patchwork?

Hello lovely blog readers,

Saturday I went to our nearby town to do a beginner’s course in Patchwork. I’ve always wanted to do this.

In the morning we made a cushion cover with strips of material. (Log Cabin I think she called it) We sewed (by hand) onto a backing that had a pattern on it. Every piece on the backing was numbered to make it easy, and it felt a bit like ‘painting by numbers’. It really was easy.

This little chicken sat on the work table. 

We were given the pattern so we can have a go at home with whatever scraps we have. She looks cute doesn’t she?

Here are a few action shots.

This is a shot of the shop. I was like a kid in a sweet shop! All those gorgeous fabrics! Lovely! 

In the afternoon we started on the hexagons. That's very pretty but very labour intensive. In fact I haven't finished this project yet. It will be a cushion cover matching the one we made in the morning.

I shall definitely come back to this shop to buy more of these gorgeous fabrics and perhaps make a tote or a zipper bag. There are so many tutorials on the internet. I'm going to have some fun!

Thanks for visiting my blog,

See you soon!

Lisca

WOYWW 298 New layout, new stash and new bedsocks!

Hello deskhoppers, it's wednesday again and time for our 'snoop fest' where we look at other people's desks to see what they are up to. (If you have no idea what I am talking about, go visit Julia's blog where it is all explained: http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com.es/ )

Thank you all of you who have visited me last week. If you want to see the final result of the scrapbook page I was doing, I've posted it on the previous blog page.

So here's my desk. 

I've started to do a new layout. It's got 4 photos of my dad from 1955 that I scanned. My mum gave me a whole pack of stuff of my dad's from WW2. He was picked up and taken to Germany to do forced labour. He wrote a note to my mum to say he was OK when he was transported in the cattle train. It was smuggled out and now I have it! There are pictures of the lager he was in and German ration cards. Also registration cards from the Allied Forces when he was liberated eventually. Very interesting stuff. I will write a separate blog about that soon.

You can see my red tin with 'distress stuff'. I only have a few ink pads but I've recently bought a mini set (see further down). The thing that says: Travel-lite is a day light lamp. I suffer from SAD syndrome which means I get depressed if I don't get enough sun or even day light, so on days that I don't go out I sit in front of this lamp (only in the morning as it sets one's body clock. If I used it in the evening I would have difficulty sleeping).

I mentioned new stash, well, here it is:

A bottle of crackle paint, a spray can of fixative, a pipette, chalkboard paint and the above mentioned mini-set of distress ink. This came from a Spanish website 'Mi Tienda De Arte'. They deliver the next day. Great.

Now for the bed socks:

A friend's mother in Holland made these. I love them! I never thought I'd ever use bed socks but.... it's bliss. (and my hubby doesn't mind). We have continental duck down duvets. They are gorgeously warm and they mold themselves around your body but of course they are not tucked in at the bottom and somehow during the night I get cold feet. Not anymore!

Finally: You might have noticed a different badge on the side column. I have started a new virtual walk. (Walking4fun.com) I've finished the Wonderland trail and now I'm doing the Florida Keys trail which goes from Key West to Key Largo and a bit into Florida too. 

Well, thanks for visiting and I'll try and 'do the rounds' in the course of the week and visit as many as I have time for.

Have a good week

Lisca