Rocking my World 2014; Week 12

Here we are again, with another week of positive things in our lives. My Friday smile this week is this:

You are probably saying, O.K. it's a few ladies and a pile wool, what's so special about that? But it is making me smile because this week, the Lions club in Vera, gave me another donation of 200€ to buy wool for my Knit for Africa Project. Pam, the lady who organised the donation, and I, went up to our 'wool shop' on Monday, and we had such fun choosing the colours, and how much to buy of each one. At our Wednesday craft group, we tipped it all onto the table and let the ladies help themselves. I took in a few simple patterns to share, so in another week or two, there will be some little garments, and more blanket squares to sew together, ready for the next consignment to UK. So yes, it makes me smile.

On Tuesday I made a quick visit to our market. I usually give it a miss these days, because Tuesday is choir practice in the morning so there is not enough time for shopping as well, but I wanted to check on the price of the strawberries. They have gone up again slightly so I thought it must have been a short season this year, and maybe I should get one more lot for jam before they disappear. I asked at several stalls and they all seemed to be around 5€ a box (2kg), which is a euro more than I expect to pay for jam. 

Then I found one stall where the fruit was not quite so good but he only wanted 2.50€ a box. I figured they were some he had left over after a market else-where the previous day, but even if I had to discard a few, it would still work out as quite a saving. So I said I would have three boxes and told him I was making jam. He then made me an offer I couldn't really refuse - five boxes for 10€. I staggered home loaded up with these, very glad that it was only a couple of streets away! I got a few funny looks from the people I passed.

After choir practice I sorted through them all, and was pleased to find that they were actually very good. Yes, there were a few that were bruised, and they were a touch smaller than usual, but I often thinks the smaller ones have a better flavour, but over all there was very little wastage. I picked out some of the very best for us to eat, and froze a bag of them to add to my blended drinks. (We have had pink drinks this week. They look more appetizing than green ones, but they all taste good). And then, over the next couple of days I turned the rest into jam. I now have no jars left at all, and my jam cupboard is bursting at the seams.

It has been a relatively quiet week, so in between the jam making sessions, I have managed to play in my craft-room. I did a fun project that has been on my 'To try' list for a while. Now I know that my silhouette cameo machine will cut my vinyl really well, I wanted to try a larger, more intricate design like some I have seen on the internet. So I downloaded a design used for henna tattoos, and cut it out to decorate a large mirror in our sitting room. It took a long time to cut, and even longer to weed out the unwanted areas, but for a first attempt, I am very pleased with the result.

This was my first design, though in the end it is not the one I used. The lines were dark and it wasn't quite what I wanted. So I then cut a more open design, in fact I cut it twice, and I transferred it to opposite corners of my mirror. Here it is, but it was impossible to actually take a very good photo of it.

if you would like to find out more about how this was made, all the details are on my craft blog which you can find by clicking HERE.

This morning the Vera Lions Club had their spring fair at the campsite on the edge of the village, so we went along for a quick look. I bought a few useful bits and pieces, and some not so useful coffee cake slices which are delicious! Then on the way home, we stopped at a bar for drinks and tapas. It was warm and sunny, and we were happy to sit outside and enjoy it. You can see the mimosa trees, dripping with yellow, fluffy balls, behind Chris.

This afternoon I was watering the garden and I thought how lovely the flowers are now. Some are quite insignificant until you look more closely and see the veins and patterns on them. So I took close-up photos of them and played around in photo-shop. With each photo, I changed the background to black and white, so the coloured flowers really pop out at you. Then I cut them down randomly and made a collage of them. You probably won't see it very well on here, but you can click on the photo to get a larger view.

As I anticipated last week, we have not had many nice sunsets this week, but I did catch this one today, just before it got dark, while there was still some blue in the sky. It looks pretty windy up there, but down here it wasn't at all.

Well that's just about it for the plus-side of my week. I will link up with Annie's Friday Smiles, and Celtic House, and hopefully I'll see you all again next week.