Well I had a very happy time despite missing all your blogs last week !
We had a wonderfully "chilling by the pool "week in Portugal.
Actually at times it was more chilling IN the pool as although it looked tropical & lovely lined with palm trees, the water wasn't heated & the cold took your breath away !!
By the end of my 30 laps a day every extremity was numb with cold !!
But I felt at least I was burning off some of the calories from the delicious food at the restaurant - oh and the cocktails, sangria & Portuguese wine that it would have been positively rude not to sample !
We did bestir ourselves from the charms of the pool enough to venture down to the local harbour as I was on a mission to buy a cataplana dish so I can cook this at home.
Cataplana is a Portuguese Fish Stew named after the dish it is prepared in - you cook it in a special domed metal dish that has a clip down lid to seal the steam in ...you can see me outside the kitchen ware shop happily clutching my new purchase !
And I do love fresh grilled sardines - but always think you end up with more on the plate when you finish than when you start !!
The palm tree photo is one I will look at over the winter to remind me of sunny days lounging in our sunbed hut reading the day away !
I didn't just hit the books & my Kindle - I did a bit of botanical watercolour practice - hmm certainly need loads of practice !!
And as you can see I finished appliquéing the basis of the beach huts blocks for my quilt.
Have to add doors & roof pieces now ... mind you the weather so far this week is SO far removed from beach huts - gales & driving rain that it has been back to reality with a bump.
Not sure the beach hut quilt project won't be put back in the quilt cupboard until it feels a bit more seasonal next spring !
So with the winter gales shattering the summer idyll of last week, I will finally give in & start thinking about Christmas - we have Christmas stamping at Craft Club tomorrow night !
Having arrived back at 10pm on Saturday night I was up at half 6 on Sunday with the first of 5 loads of washing on - so that plus 3 hours gardening, 2 hours ironing, a trip to Carmarthen shopping, making this card for my Aunt's birthday and cooking jambalaya for supper soon left the holiday as a distant memory !!
On my desk tonight I have Christmas stamps & embossing powders, vellum and so on being packed to take to Club, the card ready to post and some Artist's tiles that I wondered might form the basis for the 2016 challenge that Lynda & I might like to embark on !
Looking forward to seeing what you have been up to this week - enjoy your crafty week ! Ali xx
Well with the Equinox passed yesterday - in my view always a tipping point of the year - I have admitted defeat in clinging onto Summer and am embracing Winter !
