WOYWW 270

How quickly Wednesdays roll around, I'm afraid there's not much happening on my desk due to the humidity up here so I thought I would show you our seafront.

 I took this photo last Thursday night, 7.45pm, it was still glorious and still people were arriving at the beach, being British we were already showered and having a cool drink while making our minds up where to eat, something we've never come to terms with since living here is eating so late!
Anyway this is where we have our daily walk,  it's 1km each way so our first stop is at La Gloria for a coffee, I'm not saying we're regulars but the waiter walks out with our coffee before we've sat down if he spots us passing the Marina,!! it gives Steve a chance to have a breather before heading back to the other end for breakfast, usually tomatoes on toasted granary stick and fresh orange juice, we don't even have to order there either, as we arrive Miriam asks, normal? we say Si, we aren't really are creatures of habit!!!!

 I briefly mentioned last week about our Yucca having to be chopped down, it was starting to push the tiles up in the garden, this is the root! and the happy chaps that managed to get it out, it took them a couple of hours of hacking at the roots with one of those tools they dig roads up with!  one stood on the trunk rocking it backwards and forwards while hanging on to the top of the wall, in all this heat too, 32c.
 After Steve had paid them he sent them on their way with a cold beer and a jar of home made Marmalade each.
I think it looks so bare now but we are still debating what to put in its place.

My stash arrived last week but I totally forgot to post the photo, it was mainly texture paste and paints, I bought the Mixed media book ages ago but wouldn't you know I didn't have half the stuff I needed to try the techniques, I have had a little dabble but maybe when the weather cools and I get stuck in I'll be able to show you some samples!

I think I've rambled on for long enough so I'll wish you all a happy WOYWW, have a great weekend and I look forward to having a peep at your desks.

Jan x

WOYWW 269

Hello fellow desk hoppers, I`m hoping I manage to Join in this week, I thought I had a problem with my blog but a kind person from SCS took a look, thanks so much Leeann, it seems I had put a digit too many in my URL causing the problem, a senior moment! so here goes, lets hope I can do it right this week.

Well here's my desk, not much activity with the heat but back left is another fireplace, this time a Christmas One, I'm trying to make it flat pack so it fits in my suitcase without getting damaged.
 I will glue it all together when I arrive, I'm still fiddling around with it, as you can just see I've made the tiles for the hearth, I had to buy myself a brick EF, I tried printing brick card but didn't really like how it looked, I think you can just see a piece, I ran my tea dye ink over the raised parts, I think its looking quite effective.
Other things are a couple of Christmas cards for the Splitcoast Stamper Challenge, still not finished, and the piece with the purple flowers is what I've been messing with, that is the right term too, I have always wanted some Gesso, everyone seems to use it so I finally bought some and then didn't know what on earth to do with it, I had a go with it yesterday, managed to get it everywhere but its what you would say is work in progress, no idea what its going to be used for but I really enjoyed myself!!! Oh and I found an out of date phone card to use as a spreader too, better than using my cricut spatular anyway.

Short and sweet this week as I have to go and supervise the chopping down of my prize Yucca, after 11 years it has to go as its pushing up the tiles in the garden, poor thing started life only a foot high, now its a whopping 9 foot high and about five foot wide.

Thanks for your visit and comments, they are much appreciated, hope you all have a good weekend

Jan x

WOYWW 268

Happy WOYWW, I won't bore you with my desk today, we only arrived back from our little trip to Salamanca and Portugal yesterday so nothing is happening on it at the moment.
 Our trip was so that Steve could watch his team, Nottingham Forest play a pre-season friendly against Braga in Portugal, unfortunately after we booked a hotel in Braga the game was moved, twice, in the end they played in a small seaside town just 40 mins drive away so not too bad. Not the most exciting place we've ever stayed but fine for a two night stay.
Unfortunately our team lost but Steve had his photo taken with his hero Stuart Pearce, the manager so that more than made up for the disappointment and of course he's been busy sending it to everyone.
We decided to have a two night break in Salamanca on the way to break up the journey to Portugal, after eight hours driving in temperatures of 38c  we were pretty pleased we did,  our hotel was right on the edge of this beautiful city.

Salamanca, the view from our room, amazing, and the room had the biggest bed we've seen outside of America and even had a telephone in the loo!
The parking was via a car lift, which took us down to level -2, pretty scary as I never willingly go into lifts and I was convinced it wasn't long enough for our car and would trap us in there.

Calle Major in the centre of Salamanca, this is only one side of the square with bars and restaurants on every side and other streets leading out of the archways, we passed a pleasant hour people watching before dinner, small groups running around with Brazilian flags capturing tourists to have their photos taken with them, another group performing  a kind of play, we could only guess what that was all about!

With Churches and beautiful buildings on every corner, we gave up taking photos of them after the first day as there's so many. We spent our first evening oooing and ahing at every corner we turned.

 We were intrigued as to why there were so many American students around, apparently they spend a month studying at the University, lucky people as its a really amazing building.

Anyone who has visited Spain will have seen the shops selling Jamon, the little cups underneath are to catch the drips from the ham. Loads of shops selling luscious cakes and pastries, and I must admit to trying a few along the way.

I hope this has been more interesting than my desk, I will be getting down to crafting tomorrow, that's if I can concentrate with the baking heat, 30c at 10.30am this morning so after having a nosy around some other desks I shall be off for a cooling swim, hope you all have a great week, thanks for popping over to visit. Jan x

WOYWW266

Good Afternoon fellow desk hoppers, I just realised the time,  I was so busy spending my craft money, how time flies when you are enjoying yourself. I only get to order every other month so I can spend enough for free postage, it takes me ages to decided what to buy,  as I've been enjoying trying some of the mixed media challenges over on SCS  I treated myself to a book, of course quite a few of the ideas use things I don't have so hopefully when my package arrives I will be able to try some of the techniques.

I haven' t been doing much really as its so hot now but as you can see I've made a start my next fireplace project but a Christmas one this time, notice it is still flat pack, its a bit hard to measure things without putting it together but I have a few parts made.
The box at the back was a gift box with body lotions in, I covered the top with the embossing folder with gears on, its for Joey and Charlie to put the bits and pieces they find on the beach or on our trips out, I thought we could then start a scrapbook/memory box together when I go over, it will be a first for me, I did try but found I wanted to squeeze too many photos on one page, probably as I have so many to choose from.

The other bits are two Halloween cards I cut out on my cricut, they are bats with googly eyes.

I hope you are all having a sunny Wednesday, hopefully not as hot as here in Spain, unless you enjoy being baked, it had reached 31c at just gone 11am but we were already heading home after our daily walk along the paseo and breakfast, nothing beats sitting outside, on the sea front eating toasted bread  with fresh tomatoes with a sprinkling of pepper, freshly squeezed orange juice, AND only 4 Euros! Maybe next week I should take a photo as it would be more interesting than my desk. 

Off for a nose round all the other desks, thanks for visiting mine, take care

Jan x

COME FLY WITH ME

I had just made this card for our Son`s birthday when I spotted the challenge over on the Tando Creative Challenge Blog, COME FLY WITH ME.
 I`ve tried to give the illusion of the plane flying over islands and fields by stencilling with embossing paste, something that is new to me but I love using, I coloured over the paste with distress inks. I die cut the plane out of Co-ordinations Vintage Collection paper and sanded it down a little on the edges.

WOYWW265

Morning everyone,  another Wednesday rolls around and for once I`ve managed to join in WOYWW.

I think I can safely say that summer has arrived in Spain, someone has turned  the thermometer to hot and humid, not our favourite time of year but after our trip to Hastings with the hit and miss weather and  cold winds we were mighty pleased to board the ferry for home although sad to say Adios to our family if only for a few months.

This is my attempt at a pop up card featuring Elmo, he will be sitting on the steps with Big Bird, hopefully, after our ten day holiday in England with our Grandsons and seeing that Charlie (18 mths) was obsessed with anything Elmo I thought  maybe for his 2nd birthday his card should have Elmo on it.
 Unfortunately while we were looking after them the only episode downloaded on their Ipad with Elmo was the one where he is being toilet trained, after two days we took to hiding the ipad,  out of sight out of mind if you know what I mean. only to be found at certain times,  there`s only so many times you can watch the same one I can assure you,  Charlie might only be 18 months but he knows how to switch it off and swish his little finger over the page to change it, then looking up with a cute little smile and saying ELMO, I certainly didn`t envy our DIL having a 11 hour flight back to San Francisco in the company of Charlie and Elmo!

I haven`t spent any money on craft since our trip but I did buy this stool last week, not that I actually sit down much when I`m  messing up here but I saw it and liked it and would you believe it was on sale, discontinued apparently and to Steve`s amazement the cheapest one there and  it spins around so easy to dismount, what more could a girl as for? Well more money to spend on craft but that would be just plain greedy.

I`ve spent the last two weeks working on this for Joey and Charlie for Halloween, I can`t take the credit for the idea as I saw it on the Tando Crafts site, their samples are brilliant  but I could`t find enough items to get free postage, to Spain that is, well I could but I`m trying to save my money for a big splurge for my trip, its not often I get the chance to actually visit a craft store and I do love pushing those titchy little carts around Michaels.
 Anyway I decided I could do this, after quite a few attempts I managed to make the fireplace, made the little tiles and the fire guard, I`m quite pleased with it but its a good job its travelling in my suitcase and not by post,  I`ve decided to make a Christmas version but I will try to keep it flat packed and assemble it over there, well that`s the general idea!
Well that`s all in my crafty space this week, just trying to keep cool so off for a dip in the pool, see you over at your desks to see what you`ve all been up to.
Thanks for popping over. Have a great day
Jan

WOYWW 261

Happy Wednesday I´m so pleased to finally get the chance to join in the fun, after a three week trip to the UK I was all ready to join in the Birthday celebrations, I spent two hours trying to upload my photo, so annoying as for once I had it all ready on Tuesday night, all sorted now apparently when we decided to stop using Google Chrome it stopped me uploading.

Yippee its worked!, back on chrome,  this week I`ve been trying to complete a few challenges across on SCS, never one to do one project at a time you can see four pieces, the Pop up box card is to use stash, cupcakes in my case,
My DIL bought them for me a few years ago and I never found a use for them until now, the card is for our Grandsons friend who will be four next month.

The blue pieces in the background on my desk are the first two attempts to use glue on a card, I saw a beautiful card in my craft Mag and thought, I could do that! but sadly I couldn`t although the pieces may be used for the cover in the next episode of Joey and Charlie´s adventures, Grandad is still writing short stories for them both, the next one apparently has to feature a Dragon!

I finally finished the card although I see I completely cut off the glue bit in the picture so I will post it below.

 I used my glue gun, for only the second time since I so desperately thought I needed one, the stems on the flowers are glue and a few buds!! The background is my mixed media attempt as I`m quite hooked at the moment with Gesso, stencils and embossing paste.

I`ll be off now to Julia`s Stamping Ground take a look at a few desks, , thanks so much for stopping by, have a great week everyone.

Jan