Blowing Stuff Up

Photos taken by my friend Marjorie

You know, I'm not a girly girl. HWMNBMOTI and I have happily swapped gender roles in several life domains. I've been the primary worker; he's been primary caretaker and cook. I make the bigger decisions (of COURSE he has input, but it is at my suggestion we've done things like moving across the country or buying houses) where he manages ALL the little stuff (heck, I'd forget we had children—I should NOT be trusted with DETAILS).



But there is nothing like the 4th of July to bring out the girl in me and the boy in him. I prefer to sit back with a frozen adult beverage and say 'ooooooh, pretty!' and he wants to blow stuff up.



My IDEAL of the 4th is to go someplace across a lake or bay from the big display, so it isn't as crowded, and WATCH. But he likes to participate. Sadly he likes to pick and choose WHAT and so it is costly (though not as costly as a vacation, so my option is out anyway). This year I put my foot down on finances. He argued that if you spent at least $200 then they start throwing in extras. I responded 'then go in together with the neighbors and pool your bargaining power'. (see what a problem solver I am) We can't afford $200. So he did—talked to the other neighbors who enjoy watching and several pitched in.

Another gorgeous Marjorie photo

It is actually a fun little party. Our FABULOUS neighbor has a pool. There are about 6 families involved, two with small kids--two with medium age (one is actually the son of a neighbor, but as they live in Canada, they always come HERE for the 4th--best way to maximize on holidays), one with in-laws visiting from China. My kids each have friends joining. We are a family with FAMILY across the country, so Thanksgiving and Christmas can be a little bittersweet. This holiday that is more a friends occasion—nice summer barbeque—has become one of our traditions.



But when I watch my son and his friend eager to light the fireworks, and my daughter hanging out watching with me, it is ever-so-clear.



Boys just like to blow stuff up.





I wish you all a truly fabulous Fourth if you are in the U.S. Be Safe!

A postcard from Egypt

In 1972, when I was aged 10, I was taken to see The Treasures of Tutankhamun tour and I remember the excitement and amazement I felt at seeing the artifacts from King Tutankhamun's tomb. My fascination with Egyptian things has never left me so I was very excited recently to make my first trip to Egypt

King Tutankhamun

For hubby, it was a chance to soak up some warm winter sunshine. For me, it was the chance to grab myself some souvenirs and I longed to visit the Valley of the Kings and the Museum in Cairo to see those artifacts once again






















heiroglyphics tell
the story of the young boy
king Tutankhamun

1. Statue at Deir el-Bahri 2. Hieroglyphics 3. Tutankhamun discovery 1922 4. Postage stamp - Egypt printed within 1898-1899 5. Tutankhamun Colosus 6. Temple offerings 1 7. Not available 8. Egypt - 0001 9. Nefertiti 1, 10. Eagle Statue 11. 1 Pound [First One] - date of issue: January 5, 1899 12. Not available 13. Colossal statue of Tutankhamun

Thanks to the wonderful and talented artists and photographers whose work is included here. Please click on the links to go to the artists' work






















I had a really lovely holiday in Egypt, unfortunately I wasn't well enough to travel very far so I didn't get to Cairo or Luxor this time. I was ill for several days and then I got several horrific insect bites above my right eye which really affected what I could do. I couldn't even go swimming/snorkelling which was a real shame as the fish and coral in the Red Sea were amazing

Anyway, I managed to pick up lots of bits and pieces to bring home for sketchbooks (for a future project) and, all being well, we are hoping to go again next year so all this has only whetted my appetite for more!

Statues at the Temple of Nefertari at Abu Simbel















I came back with a stash of Egyptian post cards, stamps, coins, bank notes, newspapers, fabrics, pressed flowers, small rocks and lots of photographs

A postcard I made into a postage stamp














Statues on the Egyptian One Pound Note

















Hieroglypics on a bank note

















Egyptian one pound coin with head of King Tut photographed on a book I have about alphabets, scripts and heiroglyphics

















Egyptian one pound coin with head of King Tut

















Interesting architecture on a beautiful Egyptian bank note





















Inspiring patterns in Egyptian textiles























A mosaic of inspiring Egyptian patterns in Textiles
and some fabrics I brought back with me

Click on the mosaic to see the fabrics larger






















Patterns on soft furnishings and lamps






















Beautiful features - a statue I really liked!






















I have lots more Egyptian bits to share. I haven't had a lot of time this week to sort it all out as I've been away with my family for my parents' Golden Wedding celebrations. I have lots to catch up with and I'm behind with blogging/commenting again, but things should settle down now, all being well!

Hope you had a good weekend!

Carolyn ♥

Twitter Twitter

Where to start? I recently went to Tenerife and had a lovely time and beautiful weather. It was very nice to have a rest and be able to sit outside in the sun stitching ...


















We hired a car so managed to get around to a few different places and my favourite day was when we went to Adeje, a really old Spanish town with very old architecture, buildings with character, street cafes, beautiful mountain backdrops and pretty flowers

We sat in a street cafe and had tapas, Spanish omelette, fried cheese with homemade bilberry jam and tuna & tomato salad and it was lovely eating al fresco


















From a postcard







White hibiscus













I didn't take loads of photos this time, but got a few nice flower shots

Now I'm back and gradually catching up! I still need to visit all my favourite blogs but I did manage to visit the photostreams of every single one of my flickr contacts, phew! What a lot of talented artists and photographers there are on flickr! I love flickr!!!

Driving back from the airport I was listening to Steve Wright on the radio twittering on about twitter and it sounded fun so I joined up!! So now I twitter, occasionally, I think, as it will just be another distraction that takes me away from creating. If you are on twitter look me up but be warned there are bound to be periods of twitter inactivity followed by enthusiastic bursts of "stuff" now and again!













I joined up on Saturday and by the evening I had been contacted by Felting Craft Gossip. Linda Lanese featured some pages from my sketchbook (the work you see at the side of my blog). By Sunday, the feature had been copied on two other web sites so far (that I know of!). It was all a little too fast for me, I'm still thinking whoa!! Stop, I want to get off!!















Lots of other things to catch up on too!! I'm a bit behind with "A Year of Colour". The challenge for March was "monochrome" and, although I made a monochrome collage, I never properly got round to the task last month. So before I move on to April "polka dots" I am posting a few monochrome pictures

"monochrome" means using one colour or tones of only one colour. So "on my desk" I have gathered some lovely fabrics, threads, lace and buttons in shades of "natural" that I'm going to use in my next couple of stitched collages for my Calico Journal














Gathering vintage lace, threads, buttons and old photographs














Some of this lace is special as I used it on a wedding ring pillow I made when I got married





























I have some Victorian buttons in here somewhere ...














Lots of photographs borrowed from my Mum to scan and work with - this will keep me busy all year ...


















I pulled out a couple of photos that I want to use and I've made a start ... will show you them at the weekend

No mosaic for Mosaic Monday this week I'm afraid. I made one, posted it to flickr, then decided I hated it so I deleted it!!!

Today I had a spring cleaning urge so "Gardening Monday" happened today. The last two days we've had rain on and off but today has been fab so the garden was weeded and swept, the gutters cleaned out and washed, and I washed all the windows and front door too. Arn't I good? Now for some more stitching and blog visiting ... bye for now

Catching up!!

Hi, just to say I'm back from another lovely visit to Tenerife (the last one for this year!) and also spending time with friends and family

I'm slowly catching up with everything that I've missed the last two weeks, including all your lovely blogs, pictures on flickr, emails and post etc. I also need to catch up with my own blogs as I have lots to show you so please come back again soon

Enjoy the spring sunshine and have a great weekend!!

A postcard from Tenerife ...

A virtual postcard for you from Tenerife ...


















Last week we had a treacherous drive from St. Ives to Stanstead through ice, sleet and snow along the way but after only an hour's delay, while they de-iced all planes, we were on our way to Tenerife

But once there, we had a very relaxing time. The weather was gorgeous - blue skies and lots of sunshine. There were beautiful flowers everywhere, poinsettias, geraniums, hibiscus and bougainvillea in every shade of purple, pink, red orange and yellow and these rather interesting plants with yellow and orange berries that look just like beads ...






















































































Isn't nature amazing!

































We stayed at an apartment just outside Puerto de Santiago and it had this beauiful view over the giant rocks of "Los Gigantes"











and we had our own little garden


















There were some very interesting trees, I don't know what they were called but they had really amazing seed pods. I managed to get one to bring home with me for my Embroiderers Guild sketchbook project





























Sitting in the sun, I finished off some cuff bracelets I'd made for The Printmakers Gallery in St. Ives. I make them by knitting wire and beads. I used to sell a lot of these, but I made so many a couple of years ago that I needed a break from them! So, I recently got round to making another fifteen of them, all different colours, and they just needed the little catches sewing on, so I was very good and got them finished. They will go in the gallery this week ...














... and I worked on my blue piece adding lots of french knots. I stitched them in one ply cotton so they were very tiny little knots - but now I can say that's finished too!

Magical Christmas

On 2nd December I travelled to Fuerteventura with hubby for 11 days of sunshine and rest - well that was the idea anyway! I got plenty of rest, but the weather was quite disappointing being cloudy most days with very chilly winds

In the evenings I liked looking in the shop windowas at the Christmas displays - many of them going for lots of twinkle lights and wintry snow themes - although I'm quite sure they don't get any snow there in Fuerteventura! Maybe, it's wishful thinking as we all like the magic of snow at Christmas

Click on the photo to see the crystal bigger















I took this photo of a shop called "Mango". This lovely "White Christmas" themed window display features an enormous stunning crystal in the centre. It caught my eye every time I passed it

Navidades Magicas - Christmas magic!