Rocking your world 2014; Week 34

There's a little verse my mum used to say to us, that goes like this:   "You Smile, and others Smile, And soon there's miles and miles of Smiles, and life's worthwhile because you Smile!" And we would automatically smile back at her as she gave us her lovely gentle smile. And it still works. So here is my son, smiling when he saw me creeping up on him with camera in hand, and a big smile on my face!

Tom flew out from his new home in Denmark, arriving in the early hours of this morning. So today he had a well earned lie-in, and has then been in and out of the pool, and sitting in the sun enjoying the warmth. We have ten days to catch up on chat. Dad is happy as Tom can talk technical with him, in a what might as well be a foreign language to me, and I enjoy hearing about his new life which seems to be suiting him very well.

We have had a fairly quiet week again. August is the main month for Spanish holidays, and for just a few weeks there is actually some traffic on our roads, so we only go out when we need to.

However, it was not so quiet last Saturday when we could hear music nearby, all through the afternoon. Later it got rather louder and it sounded like a live band which is unusual in the village. When the bars have 'live music' it is normally one or two singers with taped music to sing to. In the end curiosity got the better of me and I wandered out to investigate. I met Chris, who had been down at the bar watching football, also following the sound, and just in the street behind ours, we came to a new house. It has been built a little at a time over the five years we have been here, and apparently it is now almost complete, so the owners were holding a party in the porch for friends and family. This included the usual abundance of food and drink, and a quartet of muscians playing guitars, saxaphone and drums, and boy was it loud up close! We were welcomed and could have stayed, but we are not really into gatecrashing other folks celebrations so after a little while, we wandered on up the road to a Spanish bar that has karaoke on Saturday nights. Some of our friends were there and we spent a couple of hours in good company with them.

For the rest of the week I have been continuing to sort out my room, ready for the big rearranging of it. Last week I showed you my collection of beads; well here is my collection of pens! And these are just the water based brush pens. The wooden box at the right, back, contains permanent markers in every colour, and the clear plastic box is gell pens. Just out of the photo, are my metallic markers, and of course, my beloved alcohol ink pens - mostly copic markers.

I have always loved colouring, though I am no artist. I was an academic student, and would happily spend hours wrestling with a mathematical problem, or writing an essay. I eventually went on to train as a secondary school teacher of mathematics before changing direction to run a nursery school, which may be why I like balance, order and regular patterns. But as I attended a girls' grammar school where the emphasis was on the academic subjects, and I was given high praise for my acheivements, I became unable to enjoy anything that I was not fairly good at, and that included art. My art teacher made it clear I was not worth wasting her time on, and for years I would not attempt anything 'artistic'. Fortunately, many years on I discovered that I may not be an artist but I could do craft, and so my current hobby was begun. But even in my non-art days I still loved a new set of pens.

One of the Christmas presents that delighted me as a child was a new pencil case. I can still see it now. It was bright blue with a metallic shine, and when I unzipped it, I found a whole set of coloured pens. It left a lasting impression on me far greater than that of many more extravagant gifts I received. And I still get the same thrill when faced  with a new set of pens, paints etc. The first thing I do is make a small mark with each one so I can see the colours properly. The pens I have now are old. Many are Marvy Le Plume water markers that I  bought maybe fifteen years ago, so I thought that they would probably be a bit dried up by now. So in the photo I am testing them, and I was surprised to find I only had to throw about four away. They don't get used as much now I have discovered copics, but I do still get them out now and again. The only pens that have not survived the test of time, are in fact some of the newer ones, and they are the Sakura starburst pens. Only about four of that set still write. But I have other glitter pens, bought out here from Lidls I think.

My room will take a long time to sort out if I am so easily distracted, won't it? But it is good to look through old stash, and find things that haven't had an airing for a while. It is like a fresh lot of inspiration, making me want to use everything again.

What else has made me smile this week:

A donation of wool for my knit for Africa project.

The reading on my bathroom scales in the morning that show I have now lost around ten pounds, and am slowly approaching my first target.

Discovering how to make a really tasty vegetable soup in my blender, that used up a lot of things I might otherwise have thrown away - e.g. the stem of the broccoli and the outer leaves of a cauliflower!

Spending relaxing afternoons out on the porch, with the dogs for company, and getting on with my cross stitch picture.

Being invited to join in the Creative Blog Hop. More about that next week.

A relatively short post for me this time, and I will probably be busy catching up with Tom this week, but I will try to get back next Friday. But first I will link up with Virginia at Celtic House. There is no Annie's Smiles this week, as I guess she is busy settling into her new home, and probably does not have internet connected yet.