A little jaunt

The 'costume department' finally got her act together, DH had made 'Henry' and he was sitting in his car getting rather chilly, waiting for his clothes, so I made waistcoat, trousers and a shirt and he felt much more comfortable and warmer ready to go on his travels.

Rose had been waiting patiently for her blouse to be finished, she was quite pleased with her new outfit and thought she might get Henry to take her shopping.

We decided to go exploring and headed off south to Anderlusia region. It only took 3 1/4 hours, mostly along deserted motorways, through different mountain ranges, flat expanses which was mainly agriculture, fruit and veg until we reached Mojacar. The main town was on the mountain side but the hotels were by the sea, we decided upon this one, a 4* and were offered a very reasonable price for half board.

The view from our room


Mojacar is nestling in the hills

We headed inland to Mojacar, the town was established in the Bronze age and has a population of 6000+. The streets are very narrow but with vehicle access to the lower part only, we followed a bus through who inched its way round the one way system, narrowly missing the buildings.

We meandered along the tiny streets which twisted and turned revealing more tiny shops, cafes, pretty flower decked houses until we reached the top then we wandered down another way. We spotted a sack barrow, obviously the only way to move items around the upper part of the town. The town was also spotless with preparations for the new season underway. We passed a little bodega and looking in the window I mentioned that they had Licor de Tomillo and Licor de Romero (thyme and rosemary) upon which we were invited inside to sample. I use alot of these herbs in cooking, drinks for sore throats so was interested to try, suffice to say we came away with a bottle of each (yummy) we also tried one made from the fruits of the prickly pear cactus, always wondered if they made anything from these, not to our taste though.



We enjoyed our little break and being away from our everyday environment we were able to put some recent events into perspective and return with renewed vigor.

Pretties and a finish

The last of the almond blossom has come out, giving a pink hue wherever you look, very pretty and very noisy with the bees enjoying themselves. The sound was likened to the noise of the world cup with those trumpet things being blown, but hey think of the honey! This is the pretty bit, next week DH will be moaning about how much blossom he is fishing out of the pond......the picture is taken of the Naya, where we spend most of our days, weather permitting, as it is a sun trap and the light is brilliant for crafts, but you can see why the blossom blows into the pool in front.




Its official................after many months (DH calculates 18) but only in sessions with big breaks cos of ???? its Finished!!!!!!! roll of drums, fan fares and anything else you can think of, but the miniature garden is done, (ok, as it is to be in front of the miniature house, it still needs taking off the frame and presenting, but hey, thats the easy bit right??!!)


The garden has its own fence, which will be stained, and the cutouts are where the front step of the house will go



All the stone paths and rockery stones were made from material, either stretched over card or made into little puffs for stones. I also found some semi precious tumbled stones to add to the rockery. French knots came into their own, a wonderful stitch to build upon, I also learnt tufting, which I'm sure could also be classed as turkey stitch. Needle weaving played quite a part too, producing tufts of plants like ferns.

I even had the chance to play with my embelisher, where I used muslin as the base and added merino wool tops to create the 'lawn'

I can't lay claim to the little bird house as DH made that, along with the fence, but this project evolved, I had no clear plan, started in the middle and worked out, but it was great fun, quite challenging and I'm pleased it is now finished. Our next problem is trying to stop our furry friends from investigating and plucking things out to spirit away. Also DH has reminded me that this is only one side of the house, there is the other side to do as well........................

Lovely morning

We had a very enjoyable morning yesterday as Sheila, who we met through the blog, came up the mountain to visit us. We sat in the sun with a coffee and cakes that Sheila had kindly brought, chatting. Sheila brought some of her lovely work to show, including some gorgous cross stitch items using 40 hpi, then we showed Sheila round the miniatures and bits and pieces. It was so nice to chat about the crafts with a like minded, enthusiastic person, probably the kick I need to get going again. Thanks Sheila, look forward to our next meeting.

The almond blossom is appearing daily and this year is quite pink, very pretty.

I was showing Sheila these little bags and realised I had mentioned them on here before but never did follow it up. These are actually made from newspaper pictures taken from a travel supplement, just normal paper not glossy, a backing is applied then everything is machine stitched to please. After stitching the piece is dampened and pieces of the paper removed to reveal the backing, after drying a wax solution is applied and buffed and hey ho you have a piece of newspaper that feels like leatherette ready to make up. This one started life as a sunset scene,

and this one was a picture of 3 lion cubs in natural habitat. Here I added seed beads for interest. Amazingly if they started to dry a little, by adding another coat of wax they return to being flexible again and quite usable.

DH has been making these blacksmiths tools ready to go into the victorian box scene, I think it might be bricks and the furness next.