T is for Treat

The weather has been exceptionally hot here in San Francisco, it starts off foggy and but by 10am the fog has lifted and it baking, I’m not complaining as we had quite a few days of rain while we were in the UK.

At least we’ve been able to enjoy getting out and about. Last Friday was our eldest GSs birthday, 11 years, he’s nearly as tall as I am although our sons say that’s not hard as I’m only 5ft 4, ha,ha he takes much bigger size shoes too!

When our son was a teenager he wore size 11UK, very large, he would buy flashy designer trainers, (sneakers )when he got tired of them would pass them on to my dad who also took the same size, we had the only senior walking around with flashing lights in his heels, looked very funny but Dad loved them!

Last Thursday we went on the Muni to San Francisco, we love it, for $1.50 each it’s good value, we love people watching, we leave the car at SF zoo and go into Market & Powell, we were going to Macy’s sale to buy our eldest son some Levi jeans, on the way we nipped into to Ross, found three pairs for $75 instead of paying $59 each! A bargain, managed to buy pumpkin bread mix from Traders Joes as eldest GS loves it..

After our shopping trip We drove down the coast to Half Moon bay intending to go for fish and chips at Barbara’s fish trap but when we saw the queues we turned back at ended up at Nicks at Rockaway Beach

The food was delicious and I had a glass of wine from Napa, Steve had sin alcohol beer, you can see they have amazing views, lots of artwork, Steve says some people on the pictures from the 50’s were probably still sat eating in the restaurant , I must admit it is a big favourite with Seniors LOL

Finally the latest photo from “Buck House” from my son, you can just see one guardsman on the bottom left on the second photo, in red, they were changing the guards at the time but unfortunately due to the barriers he couldn’t get close enough

Sadly for many people in CA they have once again lost their homes in the awful fires again, we’ve had no power since Saturday night,no school so we went to the cinema, it only came on at 4pm today, the GSs ran out of iPad juice so we had glow sticks and played statues, Jedi knights and then we played hide and seek, youngest had a flash light on a head band so we could see him moving about upstairs, quite funny that he hid under the duvet and I could see the light! Have a happy T Day, I’m happy my Joanns order arrived today Jan x

T is for Jetlagged

Firstly I’d like to thank you all for the lovely welcome back, it was lovely to join in again and read all the goings on around the world, thanks for your visits and kind comments, I think I managed to visit everyone but if I didn’t comment on your blog I apologise as there were a few that wouldn’t let me post my comment.

we have arrived in San Francisco, a long journey but so lovely to see the DGSs again, they did spend a month with us in Spain in July which was a really special time as we had all three DGSs altogether.

My son who works in London sent this photo, on his way to work he watched the Queen go past on her way to the State opening of Parliament, I must admit I’ve never seen this, a very splendid display of the royal carriage.

We had a ride over to our favourite breakfast place, The Copenhagen Cafe in Burlingame, we love it, usually we just have coffee and a Danish Pastry and watch the world go by but last week we treated ourselves to my favourite BLT, we only have one between us but you also get fresh fruit, we also had a coffee too, We were extra naughty and had a lemon curd Danish pastry, Between us, our favourite.

I must admit I haven’t tried anything else on the menu as we usually only have breakfast but it’s very popular and the food looks delicious, they also have a bakery next door, I can vouch for the Pastries!!

The view from outside isn’t very good, too many parked cars but they have seating outside.

The waitress actually took the photo for me of the Halloween decorations,

It’s taken me a week to get back into my blog, google blocked me out as I am signing in from a different location, good for security but frustrating when you can’t sign in! Well have a good week and T day Jan x

T is for Travel

It’s been a while since I was able to join in T for Tuesday, at the moment we are looking after our youngest GS while his Mum is completing a course at the Uni to become a teacher but we are babysitting tonight so I thought I would get a post ready for Tuesday. On our travels over here to the UK we stayed in the north of Spain Overnight before catching the ferry, we saw this beautiful double rainbow, actually it’s the first I’ve ever seen.

while we were watching from our balcony I spotted a man on the seafront also looking, he was dressed in a long black raincoat and black umbrella, I know this sounds totally mad but he looked the double of the Tim Holtz stamp, if you know the one I mean, it was quite spooky, unfortunately he didn’t show up in the photo, I was quite disappointed as I would love to have shown it to you all.

My food for this week, as you know from previous posts we are lovers of Tostado con Tomate, tomatoes on toast, so before catching the ferry we drove to the local supermarket to buy food for the journey, wine, Beer, Chorizo and olive oil to take for our son and DIL, oh and gherkins for our GS, he loves them! Inside the Mall they had various cafes so we decided to have breakfast , steve ordered it and we had a shock when it arrived as we had six pieces of the toast and three bowls of tomatoes, all for €4, you see the Spanish very often serve coffee in glasses! They do burn your fingers so I prefer a cup.

I’m actually posting this from my iPad and it seems to have a mind of its own and won’t put spaces where I want them so excuse the odd layout of everything, it’s the first time I’ve done it this way! Seems hard work trying to figure it out but until I go home it’s the only way I can join you all, hopefully I will get better, LOL

I look forward to visiting you all, hopefully I will get some free time to comment, it’s quite hectic with a 3 year old around, it takes me half an hour to recover after the walk to daycare, he goes on his scooter and going to daycare it’s downhill so he goes quite fast with me running behind, then I have to walk back carrying the scooter, coming home I have to pull him up the hill as he always says he too tired! He’s learning fast! Have a great week Jan x

T is for Tasty

Happy T Day!

 Thanks for the info on the teapot and cup I posted a photo of last week, I had totally forgotten it was from a film, I'm sure I saw the film with our GSs, Ha,ha, so as we passed it the other day I told Steve and he said that the shop only sells miniature figures from films,! Shame he didn't mention that before!
Many thanks for all your kind comments and good wishes for Steve, pleased to say his scars are healing nicely, while he was having his blood levels checked this morning his nurse came over to have a quick look, she gave him the thumbs up!

We had a busy day last Wednesday but at least we had the windscreen fixed, managed to buy a small tent for Grandsons to make a den in when they are over, saves them taking every chair cushion, towels and anything else they can find, we also bought a camping bed for our youngest GS to sleep on, with only two bedrooms they have to make do when they are all here!

My drink related post for this week.

We had time between appointments for a quick coffee and we decided to be naughty and share a muffin, very rich but very nice.

To complete our day of rushing around we decided that it was too hot to cook as by 5.30pm when we were driving home in was showing 35c in the car so we called at the local chippy, as they are fondly called,  they cook the fish and chips fresh for each customer so it takes fifteen minutes but they were delicious, it’s a treat for us as we only usually indulge ourselves when we are over in England although when our youngest comes over from San Francisco he likes to have a take away, not fish and chips though, would you believe puka pies, his choice usually steak and kidney! He loves pies so I have to make some to freeze when I go over on a visit.





Between all the rushing around I have managed a little crafting although with the high temperatures last weekend it was hard going.

I made this card for two challenges, one to use Alcohol inks and the other a sketch challenge.

After using the inks I embossed the piece, it really changed the look of the colours, I used some of the bling I have had for ages, also some ribbon, not much but I always feel pleased if I manage to use any!

This one I spotted on Pinterest and thought it looked a little different.
Made all from my stash, card, papers, foil card and I die cut the flowers that are actually buttons!

You may have noticed a theme, I love purples, lilacs etc, even our GSs know its my favourite.



Tonight we are off to watch a football match, Nottingham Forest are over here for a couple of friendly games before the season starts, Steve has always followed them as they are his home team, luckily they are playing just an hour away so we are going out for a meal with our neighbours who are also from Nottingham. We have been to Portugal two years running to watch them, it’s a ten hour drive from here but it makes for a nice holiday and we usually go for a week! Unfortunately they have just sacked the Manager so the boys are a little disappointed they won't get to meet Martin O'Neil!

Hope you all have a good week with some good weather but not too hot!!

Jan x

T is for Teapot

Another week gone by and time to join Elizabeth and Bleubeard once again.

Thank you for all your kind comments last week, I’m pleased to say that Steve’s scars are healing really well, I think due to the fact they are only slowly increasing his blood thinning meds, he had to stop taking them for three days before his op so his levels dropped quite a lot. He is still waiting for his follow up appointment with the surgeon, hopefully it will before the boys come over seeing as last time we were there over three hours even though he had an appointment time.

My drink related post for this week, this cute teapot and cup.



We were just passing a shop down a back street when I spotted them so I had to run back to take a photo!

I'm assuming it's a children’s teapot as it was in a toy shop but it's so cute.









We’ve had a lovely warm week, today we left home at 8am, had our walk, breakfast, did the shopping before stopping at the garage to fill up with diesel and check the pressure of the tyres as we suddenly had a light on the dashboard come on!!
It looked as if the back tyre was nearly flat by this time so we turned around to go back into town, had a coffee while it was fixed, it had a nail in it, honestly this last week has been very trying, Saturday Steve was cleaning the pool and two tiles were sucked off the bottom, on the way home that morning a car swerved when overtaking us and flicked a stone up, cracked the windscreen, yesterday my printer stopped working,
Good old google, Steve cleaned the printer head and hey presto he's got it working again! so now we are waiting for the pool man to come around with his diving gear to fix the pool, saves draining it as it takes two days to empty and almost as long to fill it up again.  After the doctors tomorrow morning we have an hours drive to Cartagena to have the windscreen fixed. Who said retirement was boring, LOL

The school kids have been spending time on the beach body boarding, canoeing etc, the waves here on the med are only about two inches high so no surfing. Three coaches arrived as we were having breakfast, so about 150 of them all singing, clapping and cheering their way along the Paseo, it’s been going on every day and it’s so lovely to see them.
They are supervised by all young people, I guess it’s a company that does it as they all wear bright tea shirts, it looks like they have so much fun.

I just wish I could have taken a photo of all of them, it was a joyful sight seeing so many marching along with their backpacks.

Our traffic islands, something I'm not sure you have in the USA, around here have some kind of theme, well the one going in the Puerto has this Phoenician Boat on it, it is a replica of the one they found in the bay, quite impressive I think.

I will try to take photos of the others as they all represent something from this area!

Thanks for stopping by, Happy T Day!

Jan x

T is forTuesday

Happy T Day,

Hola, I'm back to join the T Party over at Elizabeth and Bluebeard's,

I’ve been MIA the last few weeks,  I was busy waving my worry stick around as Steve would say, he had an opp May 31st, with taking blood thinners he had to have blood tests etc to check the levels, it was under local anesthetic but he was actually in there for an hour and a half, they did more surgery than expected, I was pretty worried sitting waiting, trying to read my book, it’s been pretty hectic going to have his dressing changed and then in the middle of all that we had a letter to have our colon tests, such fun, LOL

On a happier note, we celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary, May 29th, we went out for a meal in the evening at our local Indian restaurant, I actually remembered to take photos, well I should say that when each course arrived Steve kept reminding to take a photo!
It’s only a ten minute walk from our villa so we had a lovely walk in the evening sunshine

The Dining Room is very nice


The early Bird Menu, between 6 pm and 8pm
As you can see from the menu they offer a large choice.









Pickles and Poppadoms while you peruse the menu.



Prawn Salad for 1st Course

Main course, Lamb Rogan Josh and Chicken Tikka Masala with Garlic Nan and Pilau Rice

The drink of choice for Steve was Sin Alcohol Beer,
 (Non Alcoholic beer), I had a glass of white wine but taken from where I sat it looked ginormous.





In my efforts not to worry I've been surprisingly crafty and have made about fifteen cards, Birthday and Christmas ones. I pulled out all my Christmas papers, I have so many that I decided to use some of the smaller pieces before the full sheets, most are freebies from craft Mags.

 I also bought a box of multi coloured card about seven years ago and some of the cream was quite a dark colour and I've found it hard to match it with patterned papers so I first picked papers that did match the cream, I got quite carried away with the Z folds, I made one for a challenge and that was it, I couldn't stop until yesterday when I ran out of steam so I put everything Christmassy away and cleaned up, it was quite a shock when I came up here this morning!

The weather has warmed up but it’s still quite windy, it's 22c when we leave home at 9am so by the time we are walking back along the Paseo it's getting very warm, we’ve started swimming but the pool isn’t  what I call warm, it’s fine once you’re in and swimming but with the wind you have to get out and dry pretty quickly, it needs to warm up in the next month before the three Grandsons arrive.

Hope everyone has a lovely crafty week and some good weather too

Jan x

Santa Baby Challenge

I am trying to use my stash so the papers used to make this card came free from a Making Cards Magazine.

I started with red base card, added a white layer with the red and green paper on the top.  The topper was also free with the mag so I attached it to some red foil card and added glitter.

The shaped Die cut is from this Sissix collection.