Chinese Parchment

 Hi,
These two cards I made on Sunday I just wanted something different and this is what my mojo ended up with.
I made these two cards  with parchment paper and peel off's ,
The top one is a gold peel off and embossed on the parchment with a parchment border,  matted onto gray miri board and then place onto rainbow card, finished off with a white bow.
This card is a gold dragon placed onto parchment paper and then matted onto gray miri board with a blue backing paper, which has come from a CD I think it might be a Joanna Sheens Cd but I cant remember,  finished off with white ribbon.
Hope you like them.
Until we meet again Take care
                 Hugs
             Margaret

CD Sunday Challenge - Silhouettes

Hi,
Another fine day but rain forecasted for tomorrow and hopefully fine on Thursday so we can take our grand daughter out for the day,  while she's off on half team.
This week its Silhouettes I did not find this challenge very easy,   I used up a small piece of backing paper from another card, it fitted the colour scheme perfectly  its from Klever Konstruction  on the shelf once in a lifetime volume one CD,  I used black peel off's for the silhouette, Placed on rainbow paper and matted onto gray miri card.  The leaves are peel off's trailing up the side of the card,  for the flowers again peel off's put onto the same backing paper and cut around,  with blue gems in the middles and on the butterfly wings.  finished off with a blue bow.
Hope you are having a good week
                 Hugs
              Margaret

Day Trip around Kos, Greece

Hi,

Today I am going to take around Kos, there are a lot of photos which I have only picked out the best, To start with the first picture above is the sun rise that day from our balcony,  I had so many comments about the view so here's another quick look again.

Among the Greek island which are in the Aegean Sea, Kos is part of the Dodecanese Islands,  Kos is the third largest after Rhodes and Karpathos.  and is 4 nautical miles off Asia (Turkey).  Kos is an oblong shape of 45 km with a coastline of 113 km.

I am not going into Greek morphology but I am going to tell you a little about Hippocrates.

1st level of the hospital

This is the site of the first ever hospital in the world, 26 centuries ago,   it was founded by Hippocrates,  who was a great physician and philosopher and founder of medical science.
Born on Kos in the year 460 BC and died at a very old age in either 375 or 377 BC.
He went around studying with various philosophers before travelling to Egypt and Asia to enhance his knowledge and practised medicine.
Hippocrates was the first who made the most important innovation about dispensing medicine from the oracles and sorcerers,  In other words he made the distinction between medicine and religion, and set the bases for scientific research.  He was the first who classified diseases, methods of diagnosis and treatment.   Despite all the sub-standard knowledge of the period of that time,  he made discoveries as to nature and treatment of diseases are concerned.  So accurate and applicable  are the basis of many drugs today.  His knowledge of how to avoid infections,  on haemostasis as well as surgery, especially in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology are even today considered unrivalled.  He worked how to care for the sick and built the first hospital in the world,

2nd level of the hospital

It was built on three levels,  the first level is for the really sick and then as they got better they went up a level to no 2 and when they were nearly ready to go home they went up to the third level which had a view of Kos and across the sea to Turkey.  Unfortunately my photo does not show Turkey very well,  I was just to far out of range.

View across to Turkey

Third level of the hospital

It was Hippocrates ethics that were so great that he established the ethic code for the medical profession which is still used today by doctors all over the world.  

This is a view overlooking Kos and the salt pan region,  they do have Flamingoes living on it.

And onto to Zia,  which is the highest village on Kos,   It is famous for the view of the sunset.  I took these pictures from the coach so they are not the best.

This is the last working windmill on the island







Paradise Beach,  where the air bubbles still come up from the volcanic activity from the nearby volcanic island of Nisyros,  Nisyros is not far away from Kos and there is a trip over to the island where you can right down into the volcano,  we went last time and did not do the trip again.





This is the headland of Kefalos bay,  can you see the man's head ?

Besides the islands immense archaeology sites full of classical Hellenistic, Roman,  Knight,  Turkish and Italian monuments where you can find every period of interest.  Plus the Aegean scenery and endless beaches, crystal clear water and marvellous climate. Kos is now placed among the cosmopolitan islands of the Mediterranean Sea area.   Well worth a visit.


This is the last part of Kos,  I hope you enjoyed this post.
                                     Hugs
                                Margaret

Matching Necklace set - Bridal Lace, 7/25 motif challange

Hi,

This is a tatted necklace, with matching bracelet and earrings,   I used the pattern called Bridal Lace by Elaine Gan of Tatting box on Facebook. link to her site 
Their was not an earring on the pattern but I did two repeats of the pattern which made an earring.  I am pleased with the pattern and plan to do another set when I get time.
I made this before I went on holiday but only finished it off a couple of weeks ago.
I used Lizbeth thread no 20 Vineyard Harvest.
Hope you are keeping well
                          Hugs
                       Margaret

Day Trip to Turkey

 Hi,
We took a day trip over to Bodrum in Turkey,   Although we have been to Turkey a couple of times we have not been to the Bodrum area,   Turkey is a very  large country and it may not look it on the map,  it takes four hours to fly from one end of Turkey to the other,  which is the same time it takes to fly from here in the UK to Turkey.
We went over by Catamaran which takes 40 mins from Kos,    Yes it really is that close,  and if you were not careful you could be put onto a Turkish mobile network which works out more expensive.  in fact the guide for the day before we left Kos said not to answer your mobile while over there as it would cost 5 euros just to say hello.
We were taken to the highest part over looking Bodrum and the picture above is overlooking Bodrum,  As you can see in the picture above,   the castle in the middle this was built by the Knights of St John,  Yes they did get around the Mediterranean and they built a lot of forts and castles in Greece and Malta.

 This is a picture of the centre of Bodrum,   its a busy town and harbour,  we did visit some archaeology sites but I have forgotten what they were so rather than get things wrong  I am not including those picture in this post.
We were taken to a gold shop,   it was an experience as the group walked in the door was shut behind us,   we had a look around,  if you stopped and looked they pounced,  there were several rooms including a silver room, a gold room,  precious stones room,  rugs and clothes,   all expensive,   even having a drink proved costly.  we were then taken when we had finished shopping to the centre of Bodrum to have free time shopping and lunch.

The harbour at Bodrum
Bodrum is five degrees hotter than Kos,   which we worked out at around 35c perhaps a little more,  on the day we went.
It was an interesting day
I hope you enjoyed this post and until we meet again Take care
           
   

                                      Hugs
                                  Margaret

Kos - Our Holiday at the Aegean Village

Sunrise from our balcony

Hi,

I know this is a late post but since we arrived back I have had the flu and the last couple of weeks its just laid me out.  Anyway better late than never and this was the most brilliant holiday so I just had to write about it.   We stayed at the Aegean Village near Kardamena,   lovely hotel, personally we would recommend this Hotel and will go back again in a few years time.  We like to leave a gap for a few years but will definitely go back,  we could not have wished for a better place.   The food was lovely the room was lovely with the biggest bed we have ever had, Vernon laid across it and he's 5ft 10ins and there was still several inches from the edge of the bed,  it must have been 6ft across. Certainly larger than a King size bed.

  They said there was a mini bus to take you up to and from the room which were in blocks going up the hill side 24/7  yes well we have all read things in the books and its not quite true,  well it was it did not matter what time you need the mini bus he was there,  you could arrived back on site after a night out or arrive at the hotel in the middle of the night and he was there.   

 The beach was directly opposite the hotel just a walk down the slope,  looks hot yes it was.  The gardens were immaculate watered every night.

The gardens surrounding the hotel

Hotel Entrance

Swimming Pool

 The pool was peaceful,   and they had a brilliant animation team that's the European word from Entertainment group,  they would come around starting at 10 o'clock with "We are going to do Yoga at 10 o'clock would you like to join us",  then it was mini golf, darts, etc etc all day,  and then at night more Bingo,  and the best Greek night I have ever been to,  with a group of dancers who did three sets, first was ancient dances of Greece, then traditional dances and then modern Greek dances with a Greek band.  We did take some video of the night.

View from our balcony

This is the view from out Balcony,  to wake up to that view every morning was a treat,  that's Turkey in the background,   we did do a trip to Turkey and I will do a separate post on that.

We needed a restful holiday and that's what we had a great holiday at a good hotel.  When we were about to land at Kos airport I saw a blue dome on top of a hillside with lights going down the hillside,   little did I know that's where we would be staying.

This is the view from the bus stop

I am going to finish with this picture,   my husband is not into computers at all,   now I wish I had brought him this tea-shirt.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend

           Hugs

        Margaret

Diane's Snowflake. 6/25 motif challenge

Hi,

I do love Diane's snowflake,  but I had a brain wave on holiday,  yes they do happen occasionally,  the snowflake at the bottom is her pattern,  but I thought it might be nice to add beads,  so I took away the Josephine knot in the middle of the chain and added four beads,   this is the result,
I think they are rather pretty.  the chains are slightly longer instead of 4 double stitches I have done 8 double stitches.
What do you think?
Here's a link to her blog
                 Hugs
             Margaret

Holiday Tatting. 5/25 motif challenge

 Hi,

Another beautiful day, pity yesterday was so horrible,  I suppose we did need the rain well the garden did.   Today I have the holiday tatting I did on Kos,   although their is a bit more than this but my hand has stropped me doing so much.
The above picture shows some snowflakes,  as you might have read in a previous post the Greek lady thought they should be bigger and done in thicker thread.  OK I have tatted these in No 20 Lizbeth thread.  They are Wheel of nine rings from Christmas Angels and other tatting patterns by Monica Hahn,  Snowflake Ornament from Easy tatting,  Diane s Snowflake (which you will see again in another post)  Anna magazine December 1991 no 32,  and Katie Johnson's 3 dimensional angel which I made slightly bigger by adding an extra double stitch on the chains and rings.  still not sure I like it a bit bigger.

This is the Flowering Quatrain Bookmark by www.leblogdefrivole.blogspot.com link to her blog
I used one of the balls of Lizbeth no 20 I won from Rachel last year called Carousel,  this is the first time I have used this thread.  I did a spiral chain and using the corner pattern made a square end.

Update here is how far I have got with Renuleks mat,  I did the last row in red by the pool and started the white just before we came home,   In 30 degrees heat plus it was a bit hot to tat too long.   I did talk about this in my last tatting post.

I hope you are having a nice weekend, until we meet again Take care

                                 Hugs
                             Margaret

Sport no balls / Male birthday

 Hi,,
Today's card is going into two challenges,   I made this card original or the CD Sunday Challenge and then could not make up my mind with the one I used last week,  so its going into the two challenges for this week.
CD Sunday Challenge was a male birthday card,   why are men's cards so hard to do?
Cardz4guyz challenge this week is sport no balls,   I think this card fits both.
I used the Klever Konstruction, once in a lifetime volume one CD again for this card,   I found this image on the toppers section,  one I have not really looked at before,
I matted the image on red metallic card,  added a red ribbon and gold peel off's motor bikes with gold peel off's to finish the card off.
The backing paper looks more pink but it is red,  the light is playing tricks with the camera.
Hope you are keeping well until we meet again take care
Hugs
                                 Margaret