A Postcard A Day - Friday 8 March 2019 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely peeps,

How are you all? It's Friday again, when we share a few smiles from this week. 

One of the good things this week is that it has finally rained! We live in a very dry area. It only rains a few times a year. And it did so on Wednesday, it also was blowing a gale and it was not nice I can tell ya. But we need the rain, so I say: Praise the Lord!

Here are a couple of postcards I received recently. The first, very colourful one is from The Netherlands. It comes from Mariella and she sends me some yummy fruit tartlets/cakes. Very pretty . Some have mauve flowers on them. I wonder if those are edible...

The second card is from Germany. It shows a map of the north west of Germany called Ost Friesland. It looks like a cartoon and has some really funny features when you start looking. Friesian cows who play ping pong amidst the cow pats. Hilarious! It was sent to me by Melanie who has decorated the back of the card with stickers and washi tape.

What have I been doing this week?  Thursday is usually the day I spend in my craft room. Last Thursday I spent time doing pocket letters. I finished a rainbow pocket letter. Every pocket had a different colour. I can 't show you yet until the recipient has received it. The other pocket letters that i have sent last week have not arrived yet either, (any day now, I'm sure) so that will be for another time. 

I did make another scrapbook lay-out:

This is me and Carmelina, my bestie in Italy. We have been best friends since 1979, when I met her on the maternity ward where we both worked. The photo is from 2016. The journaling is under the top left corner.

Thursday (28th of Feb) was also Andalucia Day, a public holiday here. Kate has already shared some of the activities in her village. Our village had more modest things lined up (no tourists). There was of course flamenco music. This little quartet was playing in the park and the neighbourhood came out in force to watch and listen. 

Then the past weekend there were lots of Carnaval's activities and parades and competitions. There was a fancy dress competition for children and for adults. I can't show you any of the children but the adults were quite fun too. I didn't stay long enough to see who won...

What do you think of Ken and Barbie?

These guys look like they are cassette tapes, although I don't 'get' the head dress and the Bic pens...

I don't know what these ladies are meant to represent. As I have no TV and don't go to the cinema, I have no idea.

But chocolate I do understand! Everyone does! Don't they look yummy!

This child I can show you. It is none other than my grandson Luciano in Italy. His mum kindly sent me this photo of him dressed up as a knight in shining armour. When I saw him I cried out: Ivanhoe!
This is giving away my age I suppose...

That's all from me this week. I'm going over and link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time and also to Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday. 

And of course I have some funnies lined up at the end.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 5 March 2019 - T for pizza, an interesting American and a Sumatran bride.

Hello lovely T-gang! How are you all? Ready to start the day? Let's all join the T-party at Elizabeth and Bleubeard's. But bring your own beverage. Mine is a steaming cup of coffee. Buenos días (= Good morning. After midday people use 'buenas tardes')

First off is a postcard I received from the US. I didn't think much of it to start with. It is black and white and I like that.  Then I noticed the guns and rifles. Then I realised it was the front page of a book by someone I had not heard of. 

 Me being me, I looked him up:

W.E.B. Dubois. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar. He was born and raised in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

I started reading about him and couldn't stop. Why haven't we heard of this man? 

He wrote one of the first scientific treatises in the field of American sociology, and he published three autobiographies, each of which contains essays on sociology, politics and history. In his role as editor of the NAACP's journal The Crisis, he published many influential pieces. Du Bois believed that capitalism was a primary cause of racism, and he was generally sympathetic to socialist causes throughout his life. He was an ardent peace activist and advocated nuclear disarmament. The United States' Civil Rights Act, embodying many of the reforms for which Du Bois had campaigned his entire life, was enacted a year after his death.

Here are some of his quotes:

The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.

The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line.

Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men.

And herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor – all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked – who is good? Not that men are ignorant – what is Truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.

—Du Bois, "Of Alexander Crummell", in The Souls of Black Folk, 1903
When I went to school, we never learnt anything about racial tensions/apartheid or human rights etc. I had to find out as an adult by reading. And of course as a university student one goes through a idealist/socialist phase. (At least most European students do/did). But I never came across this guy. Have a look on wikipedia, it makes for interesting reading. Even if you don't agree with his  opinions, he led an interesting life.
I've put some more quotes at the end of this blog.

My second postcard comes from Indonesia. It was sent by Juned who lives in Bogor (south of Jakarta). He is an architect and saw in my profile that we live in a cave house. He was very interested in the construction. I am now communicating with him privately about this subject.

The stamps are beautiful. About flowers and philately.

This stamp was stuck lower across the address so I had to crop it separately. 

Friday night we went out for pizza with our friends. We do this regularly, about once a month.  I see more beverages on the table. I had a Radler (beer with lemon juice) and all the others ordinary pils.

We had a really good time catching up and as you can see had a mighty giggle taking the selfie. We are not youngsters and taking a selfie is not an everyday occurance. It took six 'takes' to get everyone in!

This is the first pizza, a very un-italian pizza hawaii. (the Italians are appalled by such sacrilege)

And the second one is 'a la pizzaiola' (in the way of the pizza baker, or at the discretion of the chef). That is just a surprise what you get, but it's always good.

The bottle you can see next to the beer glass is a bottlle of chilli infused oil. It is mighty strong. We always ask for chilli oil (our friends are Mexican).

I'm going to do a plug now. It's for the Gecko Galz. They sell all sorts of images for collages and journaling. I'm like Elizabeth, when I can get something for free, I'm there! Every month they give away a free collage sheet to those who ask for one. This is the March sheet. 

That is it from me today. I wish everyone a very wonderful T-Day,Big hug,Lisca

Second on the 2nd - Saturday 2 March 2019 - An old blogpost from a few years back

Just in time did I remember Second on the 2nd! Please join us on Elisabeth's blog and share an old blogpost.

Here is an inteesting blogpost from the beginning of March 2015. It features some old photos of my parents that I made into a scrapbook page. I have since done a bit of research (and asked my mum) and the photos are probably a few years older than 1955. (Dad bought the bike in 1951)

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 inspirationhttp://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 

A Postcard A Day - Friday 1 March 2018 - Friday Smiles

Hello lovely peeps,

How are you all? Have you had a lot to smile about? I have, even if it is just the weather. It is warm and sunny and it has only just turned March.  We have our meals outside every day and it is lovely.

First off are a lot of smiles as I have been receiving something in the mail every day. Here is a lovely black and white postcard of Audrey Hepburn. It comes to me from Germany, from the federal state of Saarland, which is next to Luxumbourg. 

The stamp is also very nice. It commemorates 1000 years Worms cathedral which was consecrated in the year 1018. It is built in the Romanesque style.

Here is a photo (from Wikipedia) of the cathedral as it is today:

The second card comes from Florida, from a Disney Park. It was sent by Clint, who is a pastry chef in one of the park's restaurants. 

My week has been about receiving things in the post so it seems. This is one of the things I received. A pancake mould. It was a promotion and I got it practically for nothing. 

We don't normally make American pancakes so I had a go and they turned out well 

 and very delicious with the Maple Syrup we managed to get at Lidl.

 Something else I ordered online are my Senseo coffee pads. I like the Cappuccino Choco, but they are not available outside the Netherlands as far as I know. So I went online and I could only buy them in a box of ten. So ten it was!

 I have also been doing some crafting. I have discovered Pocket Letters. I have made three now but I can't show you until the recipients have received theirs (I posted them yesterday). It is a swap and I am swapping with someone in Hungary and someone in the UK. 
They are little ATC size cards in a folder. Behind each card you put a letter, a teabag, a bit of ribbon, some embellishments etc. All nine cards are swapped and sent.
This is what they look like from the internet (not mine, it is made by someone called Sue Harris)

I also did some scrapbooking. Here is hubby on the beach. I have been playing with my gesso and the templates I had lying about. The film strip is a die cut i have (very old it is too).

This is it from me this week. I'm going to link up with Annie at A Stitch In Time and with Virginia at Rocking Your World Friday. As always I will post some funnies at the end.

Have a great weekend and keep smiling!

Hugs,

Lisca