T is for Tuesday

Thank you so much for all who came for a visit and lovely comments.

This last week we haven’t been doing so much work around the villa, neither of us felt like doing much although this morning, after our walk, I've been doing a little grouting in the shower room, I've nipped up here while it's drying before going back to clean it up.

Friday and Saturday last week we decided to give the seafront a miss as the car parks were closed due to a Triathlon, hard to have a walk with all that going on so we went to one of the other beaches just down the coast. It’s a quiet little place and we usually go there in the summer months for our walk as it doesn’t get so manic when the holidaymakers arrive.

We went to a favourite restaurant of ours called Las Redes, it’s right on the beach so it has lovely views, as you can see.

We started with a mixed salad, that's always part of a Menu Del Dia, obviously we had started before I remembered to take the photo, also the drink for this week is Cerveza Sin Alcohol, for the first course I had a cold Tomatoe soup, apparently it was a garlic version, very nice, Steve had chicken wings, forgot to take a photo!!

 The second course I had chicken in bread crumbs and Steve had Anchovies, too picky for me, especially with the heads still on but he said they were delicious.
My Postre was flan, Steve had rice pudding but the Spanish serve it cold, he asked the waiter if he could warm it up which he did, he said it was nice but very sweet with a lot of cinnamon in it.

 We had our coffee at this restaurant at the other end of the beach, La Oasis, we sometimes have Tapas here in summer if we don't fancy a large meal in the heat.

They have lovely outside spaces behind the white wall and a massive outdoor dining area too.





I still have my scrapbook pages open to do Halloween from last year and it's also my Birthday so I'm hoping to do a double page, I haven't been in the mood yet so it's still sat there on my desk.

I've also made a card for a challenge to double emboss, first with a embossing folder and then to wipe embossing ink over the raised area and use embossing powder, I decided to use enamel ink instead which didn't work as well so after adding gilding wax to make up for the lack of embossing ink sticking, I went over it with a wet wipe to get some off as I over did it, I ended up with this piece, I'm quite pleased with it in the end!!



Well I'd better end there and go back to finish cleaning the shower room, hope you all have a great week.

Jan x

T is for Tuesday

Good Morning, afternoon or evening depending where you are in the world.

I’ve had a very busy few days since the last T day, we decided after having problems with our car that we would look for another one as we drive usually twice a year from Spain to England so need reliability, we saw a car we liked and was told two weeks, that was a shock, we were expecting six weeks, anyway to cut a LONG story short, from ordering it on Monday morning by 7pm Wednesday we were driving home in our new car! Talk about frantic, organising new insurance documents, money transfers, then an hours instruction on how to use all the gadgets, our old car being twenty years old only had a cassette player and no mod cons, now our iPhone rings on screen, etc,etc, our brains were frazzled by the time we arrived home, we are quite computer savvy but having it all in a car is quite another thing,  also having no key,!! 
Thank goodness for YouTube and the manual, I had my first drive yesterday, today I drove to the beach for our walk, it's lovely to drive but having six gears was a challenge!
Of course within ten minutes of getting home a photo had been sent out to our family showing their Dad with his new toy, he told them he wasn't worried about spending the money as it was only their inheritance, DIL thought that was very amusing.

We had lunch our with our friends last week, same restaurant and no photos, too busy chatting!! In the course of the conversation our friends were saying they had new neighbours and whilst chatting to them started to tell them about a mosaic they were doing, their neighbour said he knew someone who had made a massive mosaic years ago,  they then realised that they were both talking about the same Jan, me ! 

This is my mosaic, just over six feet high and about 30 feet long, it took  ten months to complete.
  Before we moved to Spain on TV a gardener made a small one as a focal point, when we moved in I decided to have a go! Ten months later! Yes it took that long, Steve smashed the tiles, I roughly drew the palm trees and mountains and then painstakingly stuck the tiny pieces on, we used to go around at night into gardens of unoccupied villas, the workers would just throw the spare tiles away so we collected them for the sky and the dark ones for the sea.

My drink this week was going to be a drink in the outer part of the pineapple with juice and fizzy water mixed together, our son gave us this gadget that cuts pineapples up, it’s amazing how easy it is, we had fresh pineapple and Greek yoghurt and honey for afters, unfortunately we cut too deep and made a hole in the bottom, lesson learnt for next time.

My drink today was Elderflower Cordial with fizzy water, too warm for tea, very refreshing, I buy ice now as they last much longer in Summer, the ones you made yourself are too small and sometimes have melted away before you get outside!



Thanks to all my visitors last week and kind comments, I hope you all have a great week and are enjoying some good weather.
Jan x

T is For Tuesday

Thank you to everyone of you who came over for a visit last week and left comments, they were very much appreciated, I did try to visit everyone but a couple wouldn't let me comment!

Another photo this week from our sons visit, the last night of any family visit always has to be Paella, cooked by Steve, he is a brilliant chef and his paella’s are amazing. Our Grandson even had some this time.

Giant Prawns, Mussels, Clams and Lemons picked straight from our Garden

As you can see our family really love Dad's Paella!!

I even managed to get the drink into the picture this week. I think they say you should drink White wine with fish but they only drink Rioja, at 3.65 Euros a bottle who could resist!!




I've been busy with a couple of challenges on SCS this last week and got carried away with using my Treasure Gold gilding Wax, I ended up making three cards in the end, this is one for a friends Birthday next month, funnily I've had this embossing folder more or less since I started crafting but have used it more recently than I've done in all those years, the same goes for the gilding Wax.

I'm still re grouting! Now outside in the BBQ area, the brick effect tiles needed doing so that was my job today and yesterday. no wonder my nails have shot it, a visit to the nail bar I think when I've finished.

The weather here has been mixed, warm and sunny and then the odd shower, last evening the sun was still out and we had a quick downpour, strange weather for April around here but it's 20c already so I won't complain too much.

Have a great week and Happy T Day

Jan x

T is for Tuesday

Happy T Day everyone, I've been missing the last couple of weeks, our son and family came over so I was busy getting everything ready for their visit, now they have left we are almost back to normal life, we had a lovely time with them and managed some beach time and eating out so a few photos to share.

Last Sunday was Mother's Day in the UK so our son took me out whilst he was over for an early meal to celebrate seeing as they would be leaving before the actual day.
We went to one of our favourite restaurants on the Marina, Viggios, unfortunately it was really windy and so we had to eat inside, a shame but food gets cold quickly in the breeze.

Our son chose the fried fish plate, his face was a picture when it arrived at the table, he thought they had made a mistake and he'd been given the sharing meal.

Calamari, Chapitos,(small baby Squid) Sardines, and pieces of other fish. Surprisingly he managed to finish it all but chapitos is his favourite for breakfast when he is over so he was very pleased. All for 13 Euros!!
Our Grandson had Calamari and fries although he could have shared with his Dad I think.

I had Hake and Steve had BBQ ribs but forgot to take photos!

We bought this jar of onions for our son, we'll be taking them to the UK when we visit later in the year, not sure what makes the red vinegar but they are lovely, we saw this giant jar in a supermarket In Cartagena and thought he would love it, it's about 12 inches high!

We had to hide them before our GS spotted them as he loves them and Gherkins, Chorizo, you name it and he will eat it, for a three year old I think that is pretty good.




I spent the end of last week washing and cleaning after they left, they decided to leave some clothes behind as they are planning on coming over in July, so guess who ended up with a mountain of washing and ironing!

Yesterday we started work on our bedroom and ensuite bathroom, some of the wall and floor tiles needed re grouting so Steve fetched the old stuff out and then I spent two hours filling them in again, this morning we've painted the bedroom, not a big job but not being able to take the bed out meant keep moving it around the room! not ideal but it looks so much better, I've just escaped for an hour while it's drying then a clean up and put the curtains back up when they are dry and we are all finished, well should I say that's another job ticked off the list! We've been none stop since December, we've had too many months away from home so the jobs have piled up but we are getting there, slowly.

Today we are celebrating two Anniversaries, today is the day we moved in the villa, 16 years ago and also the day 49 years ago we got engaged, where on earth did all those years go!! 

Well I must go back downstairs and start cleaning up so we can put everything back in the bedroom, have a great week one and all, I hope you are doing something that's more fun than I am!!!

Jan x

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