Spain 2017

Well that's us home from a lovely relaxing week in Spain, unfortunately I took my cough/cold virus with me and bought it home again but I did my best not to let it spoil the trip. We stayed on the Costa del Sol on an urbanization called Las Gardenias which is located between San Pedro and Estepona. We have been holidaying in this part of Spain for 16 years now, in fact we have been here so many times that I no longer have any idea on just how many visits we have made, its the place we like to call our home from home. We stayed in a lovely apartment that belongs to a friend of ours, below is a couple of pictures of the view from our terrace and the apartment from the pool. It was the perfect place to sit back and relax as its a really quiet place. The area is a mix of locals, ex pats and holiday makers and everyone is so welcoming and friendly. Its such a nice place to go for a relaxing break and there are plenty of places to eat, drink and shop all within walking distance.

The weather was fabulous for the most part was beautiful, warm enough for shorts and t-shirts and to sunbath and swim but not so hot it was unbearable. Even the evenings were warm enough not to need

any kind of cardigan or jacket.

As I wasn't feeling the best we didn't do too much, however that was always the plan anyway. We paid a visit to the Saturday market in Puerto Banus which is the biggest and by far the best on the coast in my opinion. I got a couple of tops, a linen dress and a lovely woollen wrap for the Winter and Tom got a couple of belts. After the shopping we went for lunch in our fave restaurant in Banus which is called Picasso, if you are ever there just look for the queue and you will know you have found it! Its the best pizza ever and its a place that we always make a point of going to when we are out there. We followed that with a wander around the port to look at all the amazing super yachts. Oh how I would love to go aboard one of these to see if the inside is just as fabulous as the outside.

We also paid a visit to Marbella where we had a walk along the seafront and around the beautiful Orange Square. We always spend at least one morning or afternoon just wandering about the narrow flower laden streets, the Old Town is so pretty and is full of all sorts of quaint shops and boutiques. There are also plenty of cafes, bars and restaurants to tempt your taste buds. The stretch of pedestrianised seafront which is also known as the Paseo Maritimo covers about 6kms and you can walk all the way from Marbella into Banus, you can also get a boat if you don't fancy the walk. There are loads of bars and restaurants along the way and if your lucky you will get to see the amazing creations from the sandman who has been there on pretty much every visit we have made.

For the most part of the week we just relaxed, sat in the sun and generally chilled out. This is the kind of lifestyle that we love. Lots of lovely lunches on the terrace followed by a siesta and then dinner and drinks in a nearby restaurant/bar. One day when the big lottery win comes in we will buy a place here and spend as much time out here as we possibly can, it really is our happy place.

So that's all our holidays for 2017 now over, we are now on the countdown for the big one in Nov 2018!!

Thanks for stopping by, love and hugs as always....

Jane xx

July Weeks 1 & 2

Hello again, hope you have all had a lovely weekend and are enjoying this glorious weather we are having. Hasn't this been the best Summer we have had in a long time? So far July has been relatively quiet and laid back month for us which is nice as its meant we have been able to sit back and relax a little.

The weekend before last we had no plans at all and as Tom had no overtime we made the most of quality time together and the good weather by spending a lot of the weekend outside. After a bit of food shopping on the Saturday we headed outside to do a little bit of gardening, although mostly it was just getting rid of the weeds and generally tidying up our bit of outside space. To be honest I have no idea what I am doing where the plants are concerned but they seem to be thriving and are all in bloom so I must be doing something right. Saturday evening was also spent outside as a couple of our neighbors came to join us for a cheeky G&T or three - I do love it when the weather is good, there is nothing quite like sitting outside on a warm Summers eve!! On Sunday morning I woke early so I got up and left Tom sleeping and headed to my craft room where I had planned to scrap. As it was the room was a bit of a mess so I decided to have a little tidy up before I started - four hours and several bags of rubbish later and I finally emerged from my room without having done one single bit of crafting lol. I did have a very clean and organized craft room though. The rest of the day was spent outside in the sunshine, as much as I wanted to scrap I also wanted to make the most of the weather so there was no way I was sitting inside.

On Wednesday of last week I went out for dinner after work with my friends Christine and Theresa. We went to Browns up at Butlers Wharf and it was ok but it was nothing special and to be honest I actually thought it was a tad expensive for what we had. The riverside location of the restaurant is fabulous but that's about it really - not somewhere I would recommend or rush back to. Luckily the company was much better and us ladies spent a good couple of hours just chatting and catching up. I also had my very first Aperol Spritz which I rather enjoyed - I think I may just be partaking of a few more of those in the coming weeks.

Friday evening saw me do my first Scentsy party for a while. It was in my local tenants hall and I didn't actually have very high hopes for the sales on the night to be that good but in the end it was my best order to date. This is great news as it means I am again active for at least the next three months, plus hopefully my new customers will start to place regular orders which means I wont have to worry too much about my targets. As I was the 'hostess' I got to claim the commission and benefits - cue new a warmer and lots of waxes coming my way.

I didn't sleep well at all on Friday night, in fact I was wide away and up at 4am on Saturday. I tried to snooze on the sofa but I couldn't get nod off so I just (quietly) pottered about and did a few bits and bobs around the flat. Once Tom was up we took a drive down to Crafts U Love as I was desperate for some card stock to use for the holiday scrapbook I am making. I enjoyed wandering around the shop and as planned I got a nice stash of bazzil as well as some lovely new papers. Tom bought me a Project Life kit but that is going away for my birthday (only a couple of weeks to wait to get my hands on it). After shopping we went over to my Mums to celebrate her birthday - cue lots of family fun and plenty of cake!

Yesterday I was home alone as Tom went into work on overtime. I managed a far better nights sleep on Saturday and woke at a decent hour which meant I felt nice and refreshed. After doing a few household chores I headed to my craft room where I managed plenty of pages for my LA, Disney and Vegas album. I am so pleased that I have finally started it, my mojo has returned along with the enthusiasm to actually do some scrapping.

I have made a bit of a major purchase this month in the way of a new compact camera. I have sort of had my eye on the Canon G7x MkII for a while now but couldn't really justify buying it yet as I only bought a larger bridge camera about a year ago. I took the larger camera on holiday with us and while I used it daily I did find that it was quite cumbersome at times and a bit of a pain to use and keep lugging about. After doing some more research and a lot of debating I took the plunge and bought the smaller camera. Its picture quality is up there with the other one and having had a little play with it over the weekend I am so far very pleased. On the plus side it also takes fab video footage which will come in very useful on next years holiday (separate post to follow on that snippet of info). I think I will get far more use out of the compact camera as it fits neatly into my handbag and is therefore a whole lot more user friendly. Sorry Canon Powershot SX camera but you are now up for sale!

Thanks for stopping by, please feel free to leave me a comment and a link back to your blog if you have one.

Love and hugs, Jane xx