Trip to UK

Well, I've just come back from a few days in Swanage. I got the flight from Seville to Gatwick and it was very good. The times have changed slightly, which meant that I got the train rather than the coach as otherwise there would have been quite a lot of waiting around. Comparing the two, I actually prefer the coach, but that is largely as there was nowhere to put my case on any part of the train journey and also this wasn't helped by the fact I created my own route by getting off at the wrong stop.

I took my laptop with me and this worked really well. I actually was surprisingly productive and feel that I have come back relatively on top of things. I wrote two articles at the airport, which has actually put me ahead this week. It also meant that Ian and I were conversing via webcam, we were planning to introduce Olly to the gang, but we'll save that for next time. The webcam was actually quite good and worked well. We all enjoyed watching Davy hitting Ian when we were talking to him.

I got home and found that Ian had put lights in the kitchen - up by the sink. This is great and makes the kitchen look really nice. These are just temporary lights, but as we didn't have any up there, it was a bit of a black hole.

The puppies seem reasonably pleased to see me - oh, and so was Ian!

The weather has been very wet today, which is good really for the water levels, but we had planned to go out asparagus picking - so we had to have pizza instead - heyho.

I've had an email from a company in the US who want some help with a hairpin lace loom. I've written about Hairpin lace - Click Here, and Click Here, and Click Here. They want me to help them with the launch of a hairpin loom (rather than using a bent coathanger). I don't think this will be too big a job, and I think I will be doing it in return for goods, however I don't think I can really turn anything down - even though I didn't want to take anything else on at the moment.

I've started promoting MakeForBaby.com - I've written a couple of pages you can see Click Here and Click Here, I'm hoping that these will point people back to our makeforbaby site.

I have bought some oil to make soap, so Ian is looking forward to the taste of soap infiltrating all our cookware. I have bought coconut and palm oils. These are solid oils, I can obviously buy olive oil relatively cheaply, however they need an oil like coconut or palm to make them creamy. The 2kgs of oil I had confiscated last time at the airport would have done, but delightfully now I have enough that when mixed with olive oil, it will keep us in soap for months.

Ring Road

I realize that I have forgotten to write about the village ring road. This is probably not as dramatic as it sounds, but one of the latest developments is that the dirt tracks immediately around the village are being tarmacked. This is particularly useful on the road towards the cement works as it will certainly keep the dust down (and save the daily road watering). Already we've found it dusty, as there has been so little rain, so hopefully the tarmac tracked will help.

A new road, well lane, has been made around the back of some houses on the other side of the village so every where now can get onto a part of this 'ring road' without going through the centre of the village, so we are wondering if the ultimate aim will be to pedestrianise the square. I'm not sure, though, how this would work as there would be a lot of dead ends.

We went asparagus picking yesterday - very disappointing. The rain had just made them all turn into the spikey ferny things. We did get enough for tea though...

Marketing

Well, I mentioned in yesterday's post that I am stepping up the marketing on MakeForBaby, looking at the advertising on FreeNeedle, and I've started work on MakeForWedding. As part of this I've been looking at different internet marketing things, and you may see some strange things come and go here on the blog while I try them out. For instance - I think to the right you ought to be able to see the most recent projects added to MakeForBaby. One of the great things about working at About is that they provide their trainees with loads of information that is relevant to your own website as well as theirs, so I am learning a lot outside of just rubber stamping.

Well the sun's out, so today's project includes photographing a rubber stamped doily cone. Ah, what fun.....

Wet Week

Well, we've just told Bob and Sam off for playing so noisily in the room. Didn't think we would find ourselves telling Bob off for running around and being so noisy - but Sam seems to have bought out his active side. We've noticed that all the dogs have been suffering with wet ears. The mystery was solved when we found Sam half chewing and half sucking their ears. The others don't seem to mind, but they do spend a lot of time with very wet ears.

The weather this week was completely different to last week. Cold and wet. To think that last week we had to move our plants into the shade, and this week it's been grey and wet.

This week I've been working on MakeForBaby (click makeforbaby.com). I had started it before the About work, and it has been neglected, so I have been working to get it ready to start promoting. Freeneedle (click freeneedle.com) is doing really well, with visitors, we're not making any money yet, so we need to look at this. The adverts are quite understated - I think we are going to have to be more blatant. We cover costs but it would be nice to earn a bit more.

If the weather is dry tomorrow we are going aspargus picking - the wet weather ought to be producing giant stalks!

Asparagus

We've been out asparagus picking a few times this week, and while admittedly we probably don't need to worry about getting a new freezer to store our surplus - we are definitely getting better. This is down to Ian's strategy. He's worked out that people walk or cycle from the village, so if we drive as far as they normally walk and then start walking from there, we'll find plenty of unpicked olive groves. He was right, we have been finding plenty of asparagus.

Mind you, it is taking its toll on us. Last Tuesday after a couple of hours in the fresh air walking up and down olive groves we were both so tired we spent the rest of the evening in a bit of a haze.

The weather has suddenly turned into summer. We recorded 40 on the patio on Friday. We've been working outside with our laptops, but its too hot in the afternoon. We've also had to put the shade back on our pagoda - mind you, rain is forecast for this coming week. Rain is very important at the moment, apparently the water levels are worryingly low. We're going to look into a pump for our well, so we know we'll have a water supply through the summer if levels get too low.

We've bought two kiwi trees (twigs), a male and a female. The man at the market seemed to take a lot of delight in explaining why we needed the two. We've also bought a climbing rose, it seems strange having roses in Spain when they seem such a traditional English plant - but of course, they originated from the middle east. I've also taken some cuttings of fig plants, I don't know if they will take but if so it will be nice to have some more greenery in the yard, and they should be pretty robust.

This Week's Projects

How to make a bubble background - click (mum, you will remember this!!)
Decorate pegs - click
Make a doily background - click

I've got another couple of backgrounds to write up and then I need to make some projects using the backgrounds to write about. The idea is to make your own backgrounds for stamping projects to create your own unique works of art and to save buying fancy papers.

Quasi2

Quasimodo

We went to Quasimodo on Sunday and found that we were probably the only people in the whole area without a boot full of plastic chairs, baskets of food and crates of drink. We saw every conceivable vehicle pass us, donkeys, horses, carriages, cars, buses, people with rucksacks - and this was at 10 in the morning AND the clocks had just changed AND they had been celebrating the day before too! Some cars were crawling along with boots open with chairs hanging out and people holding onto tables on the roof.

Jim and Viv will recognize this - the day started in Zafra with a parade of drums and trumpets at 8 in the morning- and yes, it is to wake people up and call them to the fiesta!

We sat on a wall and watched people pass and we were the only 'sight seers' - everyone else was joining in! We could have gone along, and I am certain we would have been welcome, however we had things to do (and asparagus to pick).