T is for Tuesday

Happy Tuesday, not sure where the last week went to, my Dad always told me time passes quickly as you get older!!

We’ve not been walking as much as normal as Steve has a bad back, we think he did it cleaning the grouting off the wall outside, he needs two new knees, eventually, so hasn’t been able to kneel for probably 25 years so anything low he either has to sit on a low stool or actually lay on the floor, so he sat on our old caravan step while he worked and obviously was bent over for too long, anyway because of this our usual Monday mornings walk along the seafront, coffee, a visit to the Lotteria to collect our winnings, usually Zilch and a walk back and breakfast was curtailed yesterday, we had to skip the walking and go straight to our coffee place for breakfast. the girl knows us and said the normal, “Dos cafe con leche?” Steve said yes but tomatoes on toast too, she said, really, are you feeling well and felt his forehead, LOL, good job we know her!

The photos are as they arrived at the table and then with tomatoes on the toast and a little pepper.
All for €5.70, our usual place is only four euros but the coffee is half the size! The bread is called Pan Vienna, a soft roll but slightly toasted. 

I should have taken a photo of last Fridays breakfast as our normal place was closed for some unknown reason so we went to the bakery next door, when the lady bought out the coffees she also gave us two handmade chocolates, I saved mine until I had eaten breakfast, unfortunately I had to eat both as Steve didn't want his, they were very rich but heavenly.


This week I’ve been joining in the scrap lift challenge on Splitcoaststampers, I’ve finished two pages, I’m using a photo album I bought years ago for joeys photos, he’s now ten so I’ve had it quite long enough, anyway I’m using that for our youngest GS.
I started trying to do one for every month from when he was born with the idea to finish it at his first birthday but we were away too much to keep it up and now he’s nearly three so now I’m just doing our holidays in England with him and his holidays over here, he is arriving a week on Friday so I will be taking plenty of new photos for a new page in the album I’m sure.

My using of stash is going well, I’ve used so many pieces of paper and card, I can’t believe it, not sure I will ever use it all in my lifetime but middle GS, 6,  is coming over in July and he’s informed us that’s he’s an extreme mixed media artist! LOL. He loves his craft lessons in after school classes so I’m sure we will make a dent in my supplies and he really loves to go up to my “secret room” to see what he needs! Watch this space!

This building is on our seafront, it's a bit of a wreck which is a shame as it  was once the holiday home of a rich family, the owner apparently built aerodromes in Spain and France.
The front as seen in the photo was used by the family and the back part was for the servants.
You can see a small portion of garden where the two buildings are separated in the photo below.

We heard that it had been sold but nothing has happened so we’re not sure it was true, in summer it seems people come to stay, not sure how as most of the windows are boarded up! It’s right on the seafront so it would make a lovely home for someone with bucket loads of cash! We call it the Casino but not sure why as it’s never been one! Funnily enough the seafront bends at that point and it’s usually quite cool at that point until you pass and then it’s warm again, sounds a bit spooky but it’s quite strange.

I'm sure many of you have more delightful food on show so until next week, take care.
Jan x

T is for Tuesday

I'm pretty late posting, I was busy chopping Grapefruit, Kumquats and Oranges to make Marmalade, the last of the citrus fruit, well apart from a whole tree full of lemons that is.

My photo was taken this morning, every morning we walk the length of the Paseo, have coffee and then walk back and have breakfast at our favorite cafe, a couple of miles altogether.

We sat inside this morning as it was cloudy and a cool breeze, we were looking out over the Marina.

A large coffee and a biscuit (cookie) costs $1.40 approximately, its a large cup too.

This is our front garden, just gravel to keep the weeds down, we have at the far end an Orange tree, next a Kumquat, Lime, Pink Grapefruit and nearest is the Lemon Tree, it always has so many lemons on it we try to give them away but everyone has one too. The lime tree this year has one solitary Lime, it´s a young tree, the grapefruits are so big they don´t fit on the juicer!

 This was our beach on Saturday when it was stormy, even the birds were having problems flying.

Thanks for popping by, have a great week

Jan x

WOYWW 505

Hello fellow Deskers,  WOYWW Wednesday yet again. I was MIA last week, woke up with a stinking headache and it just wouldn't go, even after a walk it was just niggling me so I had a day chilling.

My craft room is a mess, I’ve been on a bit of a roll card making wise, over the weekend, trying to get ahead with Birthday cards. Two cards on my cutter half finished, cant quite work out how to finish either of them, it very often happens to me, I start of with a great idea that fizzles out towards the end. Scissors that need cleaning after cutting glue and sticky bits and my Zyron machine that I keep forgetting I have!

 I only have my glass mat free of mess, I’ve also been busy making a card for a challenge over on Splitcoaststampers, it was to use green and gold for Australia Day! Taxed my brain but I eventually made this card.


My original idea for an apron with a BBQ utensils ended when I realised I couldn’t cut them small enough besides the fact that they looked awful so that all went into the bin,

Apart from all that mayhem we’ve finished grouting the roof, regrouted all down the outside stairs of course then while cleaning up I spotted some tiles that needed doing, so that meant painting the wall where the grout went over the white wall, it’s like painting the Forth Bridge, never ending!

These pictures show out beach last Saturday morning, it was blowing a gale as you can see from the palm trees, we had quite big waves, nothing compared to Cornwall, CA or other surfing places but for here, well people were actually stopping to look as the water came right up to the Paseo wall further down the beach.

I might be slow visiting as the internet seems very slow today, would you believe our Post Office had no internet for four days from Friday last week so they couldn't weigh my packet to SF,     

Have a great crafty week

Jan x

                                                       

 

WOYWW 503

Firstly I would like to apologise, I’m not sure why but some of the desks I made a visit to wouldn’t let me in to post a comment ! Not sure if it was because I was on my iPad but it happened at least six times, very frustrating.
A big Thank you to everyone who came over to my place and left a comment, I’ve really enjoyed  joining you all over at Julia’s place, zipping across the world checking out what everyone else has on their desk, it´s amazing the amount of different crafts we all enjoy.

This is my desk on the other side of the room,  it’s messy as I had a problem matching the papers for the cards I’m working on,  I also had some grouting to do inside my craft room around the patio door so I had the blinds laid across my desk with tools on the floor, paint tins, brushes, it was like an obstacle course,

Sharon, (Foxy stamping) made a lovely W fold card so I was fascinated and had to make one, as usual if I find a card I like I get carried away have to make more than one!  You might be about to see them on top of the clutter, So now I have two on the go, I thought I would use the car paper again so now the other one will be for our eldest son, I’m getting a bit in front of myself seeing as it isn’t his birthday until July, LOL. The other one will be for DIL, in March,

This was our beach and Paseo on Tuesday morning, not many people around, mostly seagulls, we usually see then following the fishing boats back into the harbour, I’m guessing they get the spoils that the fisherman throw away, the weather is cool first thing but then it’s warm enough for just a tee shirt but as soon as the sun goes in it gets pretty cool, not I’m sure as cold as the UK,  saw all the snow last night so I hope you all got home safe.

The bar to the right of the photo with the palm trees juts out over the sea, it´s a lovely place in summer to chill out with a glass of wine.

A few years ago we were sat chatting with our friends who were over from the UK and suddenly a head popped up out of the water right beside us, we nearly jumped out of our skins until we realised it was the local diving school with the beginners, the water is literally thigh deep at that point but has shoals of fish swimming around.





Hope everyone stays dry, warm and safe, have a great WOYWW

Jan x

WOYWW 502

Well here we are again, another Wednesday with a visit to other deskers around the world, the sun is still shining here and I'm still grouting although we have actually finished the roof this morning, huge sigh of relief!!!! Next step is to start down the outside stairs to the roof and my craft room.

I have been having some time in my craft room but haven't really felt like crafting so I decided to have a tidy up.

I had some magnets left over so decided to put them up the shelf struts that are metal so I could hang my metal tins on them, when they are stacked on the shelf I tend to forget what's in them.







I spent a couple of hours changing bits and pieces that I thought I might use more into the tins and generally tidying, I must admit I'm quite happy with how it looks, you can see that I collect tins, boxes, well most things really, can't ever seem to throw them away! 
Well I was so pleased with myself I went downstairs to make our afternoon cuppa and thought I would tell DH all about it, I should have realised when his eyes glazed over that I should stop but at the end of my tale he just looked at me and said, well Jan, now let me tell you all about how I've organised my new plastic boxes in my tool shed!!! so I had to sit while he told me how he put screws in one, bolts in another and oh what a debate he had deciding where to put the cable ties, sarcastic or what! LOL, 

This is the card I made using my brushos and stamps I haven't used for years, I was going for Less is More.
 I find it hard but I'm quite pleased with the finished card.
It looks quite dull but the brusho I used was blackcurrant but looks lilac, I did dab quite a lot of colour off so maybe that's why, the BG card is a pale Lilac/blue.

A Z-fold card I made for our son, he's a car fanatic so this paper that I've had for a long time is ideal. The BG card I've had in the drawer for years but could never find papers to match! A failing of mine that I see card I like the colour of but then can't find anything to go with it.




Well that's my desk for another week, not much going on until we finish our jobs around the place, many thanks to everyone who took the time to visit and leave a lovely comment, it's much appreciated. Have a great week

Jan x

WOYWW501

Can you believe another week has passed?  Since we stopped working very often we don’t actually know what day of the week it is, we go to watch our local football team play on Sundays so that usually starts the week off but with Christmas, New Year and The Three Kings we have had our weeks turned upside down so we’ve been thinking Tuesdays are Saturdays etc, thank goodness this week we are back to normal, well almost as the Spanish locals had Monday off too!

My desk this week is, well a mess, I take part in a Christmas card challenge all year round with the ladies over on Splitcoast Stampers so after our walk along the seafront, breakfast and our two hours of re grouting the roof tiles, yes we are still on that job, I have been sorting out my “Christmas drawer”

Anyway I’m still in the middle of sorting through it ready for the first challenge, I’m also trying to find the best place for my cutter, stamp platform and other gadgets, I seem to run out of worktops so keep having to move them around as I use them, the photo only shows one and part of a drawer unit, there is three altogether!  better not let a certain someone hear me say that seeing as he’s still going on about buying a “piece of glass” , LOL.

In between doing that I decided to do some stenciling!! It came over me after seeing a challenge that I wanted to have a play, firstly my glitter paste was too dry so I added some grunge paste but then realised that it was beige, then noticed there wasn’t much glitter left so I mixed some glitter in,  it was still too thick and my Gesso hasn't been opened for so long the top wouldn't budge, so I gave up and spread it on, I left it drying, it’s not looking too good and it was an absolute nightmare getting it off the stencil,


Hopefully everyone has had a productive week, crafting  that is so I will say bye for now and pop over to Julia's place for a peek at what you've all been creating.

Jan x

WOYWW 500

Happy New Year,  I’m back after spending almost eight months travelling back and forth between Spain, England and San Francisco helping with Grandsons, one DIL travelling with work and the other taking exams.

We did spend Christmas here in Spain which was lovely, and warm, we decided to have a walk on Christmas Day to see what was going on down at the paseo, we actually had our meal down there, it was such a lovely atmosphere with all the Spanish families, we had our Christmas Lunch on Boxing day instead, Roast Beef as we have turkey for thanksgiving with the family, We even ate down there yesterday and it was so busy, I remember a few years ago you couldn't even get a coffee on Christmas Day or New Years Day.

The view from the Restaurant overlooking the Marina

Our Marina, this is looking from the outer part looking towards the restaurants on the Marina




I  didn’t actually spend much, on craft that is, in the last year as I haven’t had time to use any of the new things I bought last year but I did treat myself to the TH glass mat, I actually managed to get a bargain from Joanns but the down side was I had to get it back in my suitcase! Someone, not mentioning any names thought I was totally mad and spent the whole visit making comments about broken glass in suitcases, it arrived in a massive box, too big to fit in my case so I had to take it out, luckily they had packed it in cardboard and bubble wrap, It did arrive in one piece thankfully and seeing as we drove back to Spain it was quite safe in the car, I must admit  I was quite relieved when I unpacked it and it was actually in one piece!

I’ve had a change round in my craft room so now I have a stamping corner and all my inks, paints etc are all in the drawers below, problem is now I can’t remember where I’ve moved everything to so I’m forever opening drawers looking for things that I’ve moved across the room.

Its great to finally join you all and have a peek at what you're all doing, I have been having a look while I've been away when we haven't been swimming, school trips etc.
 I´m a little late today as we are re grouting the roof, before you all imagine me clinging on from a great height like Santa´s little helper I should tell you we have a flat roof on our villa and it’s been quite a few years since it was done so while it’s cool enough to work up there we decided to make a start.

Off to have a well earned cuppa and check out a few desks. Happy 500th WOYWW

Jan x