Bright and colourful for holidays! 'Nuff said!
30 May 2010
Menorca 2010
We've just returned from the *most* relaxing week in Menorca. It really is becoming our favourite place for the really chilled type of holiday where you manage to forget about work, life, and anything other than sunny weather, chilled wine and fabulous food!
We were there a couple of years ago (blogged here) and this year decided to go back with our friends Sue and Pete (who we went to the 1980's concert with at Tatton Park).
Now it's always interesting when you go on holiday with someone for the 1st time. I think people have widely differing 'holiday personalities' which may be very different from their normal selves at home, but I think I can unequivocally state - It was a match made in heaven!
Themes
Reading - Pete brought his book reader - the rest of us, just the paper things. By the end of the trip I had started my 6th book, Pete on his 5th, and Sue and Dan weren't all that far behind with 3 and 4 respectively. You KNOW you've had plenty of relaxation time if you can read 5 whole books in 7 days.
Eating - Well it wouldn't be a holiday without our obligatory schlepp around the local supermarket and delving into the world of "oooh what's this, lets try it" . Particular highlights were the braised calf's tongue ordered by Dan, a vegetable dish whose name I can't remember ordered by Sue @ the Tapas bar near the harbour and of course, the famous Camping Potatoes (seen here being cooked on our BBQ at home - yes that's correct, on the BBQ in a PAN, and also a pic of them being cooked whilst camping @ the delightful Barn Farm)
Drinking - well I know you mostly know us - and to think we'd be away on holiday without a mention of any wine would be wrong! So, yes, a small amount of alcohol was consumed!!!! The main tipple for the girls was PINK FIZZ and beer for the boys. An honorable mention goes to the Pomada and Special Sangria at the bar about 1/2 way down the main strip - it helped us, shall we say, "forget" our woes, work, lives, and by the end of the night, names, on our 1st evening in Menorca!
So, do you want to see what the place was like then?
We had a spectacular villa from the fabulous JamesVillas - Villa Tramontana and the location was here - in Cala Blanca (spot the triangular garden!)
I think it has to be said that the brochure people used a fish-eye lens whilst doing the promotional shots, but apart from thinking it was a bit smaller than it looks on the photos, the place very much lived up to our expectations.
All in all it was a superb holiday - I can barely remember work - so, as we said to Pete and Sue as we said goodbye at Manchester Airport - same time next year????
All the rest of the pictures should appear in the Picasa Web Album feed over to the right there - but if not here's the link > Menorca 2010
We were there a couple of years ago (blogged here) and this year decided to go back with our friends Sue and Pete (who we went to the 1980's concert with at Tatton Park).
Now it's always interesting when you go on holiday with someone for the 1st time. I think people have widely differing 'holiday personalities' which may be very different from their normal selves at home, but I think I can unequivocally state - It was a match made in heaven!
Themes
Eating - Well it wouldn't be a holiday without our obligatory schlepp around the local supermarket and delving into the world of "oooh what's this, lets try it" . Particular highlights were the braised calf's tongue ordered by Dan, a vegetable dish whose name I can't remember ordered by Sue @ the Tapas bar near the harbour and of course, the famous Camping Potatoes (seen here being cooked on our BBQ at home - yes that's correct, on the BBQ in a PAN, and also a pic of them being cooked whilst camping @ the delightful Barn Farm) 
So, do you want to see what the place was like then?
We had a spectacular villa from the fabulous JamesVillas - Villa Tramontana and the location was here - in Cala Blanca (spot the triangular garden!)
I think it has to be said that the brochure people used a fish-eye lens whilst doing the promotional shots, but apart from thinking it was a bit smaller than it looks on the photos, the place very much lived up to our expectations.All in all it was a superb holiday - I can barely remember work - so, as we said to Pete and Sue as we said goodbye at Manchester Airport - same time next year????
All the rest of the pictures should appear in the Picasa Web Album feed over to the right there - but if not here's the link > Menorca 2010
18 May 2010
Always a long silence....
...followed by a blast of info....or that's what I seem to have been doing lately!
The problem is, that while I'm 'cutting my teeth' on the various bag creation steps, I'm creating each one for a friend or family member. You lucky ladies!
This is, obviously, a lovely and generous gesture on my part, but not so fab for having things to blog about - as most of you/them read the blog and I don't want to spoil the surprise...!
Anyway, the latest creations are now at their proper destinations - my Mum, and Dan's Mum. So, now I can blog away and show you the pics!
So, I wanted to create a big tote bag which would stand up on its own, and that Dan's mum could put her knitting in, and that my mum could use as a beach bag for going on holidays with.
First things first, I made a pattern...(took me back to my school days with the lined graph paper. Lovely!)
Then I started cutting....(using my new rolly cutter and mat, how cool!) Many random pieces everywhere.
It took one day to complete the 1st bag - Michelle's - which is in a rather fetching cream with birds and trees on, and has as its lining, the lime green (you can't see but there are yellow birds on it).
I am not so good at the arty farty side of choosing the fabrics which go together, so I rely on the experts and tend to choose fabrics which they have put together in a pack. Pretty aren't they?
What you can't see too clearly from the above pic, is that there's a nice big internal pocket (well 3 actually) big enough for keeping patterns & pins and things in, in a lovely matching fabric. Let me see if this is a better angle...
Buoyed by the success of the 1st one, I launched into then 2nd, and made my Mum her bag with a holiday theme...
Hers too has an inner pocket. The lining material is a wavy, sandy beach design and the pocket material is a fabulous underwater reflections fabric, (I was trying to go for the sea lapping up against the shore) all of these are from my fave fabric shop, TabbyCat Fabrics. Fab service, and, I think, I might be getting some of my recent creations featured on their customer gallery! More about that if/when it happens!!! Anyway sticking to the theory that the experts know best, I chose these materials from a collection called 'Seaside' which are by Makower and which I found on the TabbyCat website.
As I still had a few scraps of fabric left from each of the inner pocket fabrics, I decided to make a little drawstring pouch to go inside each one. I made a long thin one for Michelle, for her knitting needles to go in, and one lined with a bit of waterproof fabric, for mum, for wet swimming costumes or shampoo bottles and things to go in!
I'm really chuffed with them!!!!
(I think Mum and Michelle liked them too!)
The problem is, that while I'm 'cutting my teeth' on the various bag creation steps, I'm creating each one for a friend or family member. You lucky ladies!
This is, obviously, a lovely and generous gesture on my part, but not so fab for having things to blog about - as most of you/them read the blog and I don't want to spoil the surprise...!
Anyway, the latest creations are now at their proper destinations - my Mum, and Dan's Mum. So, now I can blog away and show you the pics!
So, I wanted to create a big tote bag which would stand up on its own, and that Dan's mum could put her knitting in, and that my mum could use as a beach bag for going on holidays with.
First things first, I made a pattern...(took me back to my school days with the lined graph paper. Lovely!)
Then I started cutting....(using my new rolly cutter and mat, how cool!) Many random pieces everywhere.
It took one day to complete the 1st bag - Michelle's - which is in a rather fetching cream with birds and trees on, and has as its lining, the lime green (you can't see but there are yellow birds on it).
I am not so good at the arty farty side of choosing the fabrics which go together, so I rely on the experts and tend to choose fabrics which they have put together in a pack. Pretty aren't they?
What you can't see too clearly from the above pic, is that there's a nice big internal pocket (well 3 actually) big enough for keeping patterns & pins and things in, in a lovely matching fabric. Let me see if this is a better angle...
Buoyed by the success of the 1st one, I launched into then 2nd, and made my Mum her bag with a holiday theme...
Hers too has an inner pocket. The lining material is a wavy, sandy beach design and the pocket material is a fabulous underwater reflections fabric, (I was trying to go for the sea lapping up against the shore) all of these are from my fave fabric shop, TabbyCat Fabrics. Fab service, and, I think, I might be getting some of my recent creations featured on their customer gallery! More about that if/when it happens!!! Anyway sticking to the theory that the experts know best, I chose these materials from a collection called 'Seaside' which are by Makower and which I found on the TabbyCat website.
As I still had a few scraps of fabric left from each of the inner pocket fabrics, I decided to make a little drawstring pouch to go inside each one. I made a long thin one for Michelle, for her knitting needles to go in, and one lined with a bit of waterproof fabric, for mum, for wet swimming costumes or shampoo bottles and things to go in!
I'm really chuffed with them!!!!
(I think Mum and Michelle liked them too!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)