Gandalf costume

MiniMojcek Nr. 1 decided he wanted to be Gandalf for the carnival.

So I made a Gandalf costume: the robe, the hat, the beard, the hair, the bag, the gloves, the pipe and the wooden staff.

I'm especially proud of the pipe. Made of Fimo polymer clay, it was quite tricky to make.

That time of the year

It's that time of the year again.

It's sewing time:

It's crafting time:

It's woodworking time:

 

 

And it was totally worth it :-)

Frustrating waves

I've always been a fan of tiny puzzles. The cuteness of the pieces gets me every time.

However, a tiny puzzle needs to be of super high quality. And this one unfortunately isn't. The shapes are repetitive, sloppily designed and probably even badly cut. The contrast on the colours is poor. There are so many false ways these pieces 'fit' together that it's becoming frustrating. I will of course solve it but it is not the fun I was hoping it to be.

Oh well.

A lovely autumn

 We've been away. Not very far, but it was wonderfully relaxing.

 

Of course we were very active: kayaking, climbing, exploring the caves, even mini golf :-)

 

 

Pretty packages

Sometimes we are asked to give money as present and .. well .. you can't give just a few notes in an envelope, right?

So for someone saving money for a camera, what could be more appropriate than a camera shutter card with money placed inside?

And yes, the shutter opens and closes :-)

For someone who was celebrating a diamond occasion, I hid the banknotes into an origami diamond. I even found some iridescent paper (transparent isn't quite the way to go)!

!!!

 Oh, I'll see your gray and stormy skies and raise you this beauty.

Yes, we were wet. 

No, I didn't care.

!

There are blue skies, which I like.

And then there's this:

Which I love :-)

Seaside

At 5:15 pm we just stopped paddling and swimming in a totally calm sea. The wind just about started to blow...

At 5:30 the sea turned into this:

At 5:40 it looked like this:

God, I love insane weather!

 

 

The next day was calm again. So we did an 18 km tour along the coast, while the kids were competing in sprint.

A lovely detail from a lovely beach.

I've been away

See if you can guess where we've been.

Clue Nr. 1: These Royal Gardens were planned by Napoleon.

Clue Nr. 2: These buildings on the main square are from the XVI century.

Clue Nr. 3: The main street in the city is not even a street.

Venice, of course!

A bit of hiking. And history.

Since my hand is still recovering from the injury, I cannot do much - but I can walk. So I did.

There were wonderful examples of Martagon Lilies (Turška lilija).

On the way back, we stopped in an old iron-smelting town.

They are organising an Escape-town, so we will definitely be back and try to Escape from there :-)

More renovation works

I'm sure there must be a Confucius/Buddha/ancient Roman proverb along the lines that if you want something new and pretty, you have to get rid of the old first...

So this is what we've been doing the last week or two. Started the renovations of our top floor by removing the old floor/tiles.

There is still a lot - A LOT - of work to do but I am already so tired of all the dust and constant cleaning. Oh well...

PS. I just learned that mansard roof is named after a French architect, François Mansart... So cool.

Seriously?!? Part 2

I thoughts numbers could be trusted.

Well, not when it comes to sock sizes.

43-46...

... that is about 10 cm shorter than my feet!

I've written about the insanity before, but now I've reached a new low. What's next?

A lovely afternoon

One afternoon: a castle, a cave and a lake.

Reading

On my way to recovery - still pretty much unable to do anything - but I can read. So I've read.

- Joel Dicker: The Baltimore Boys.
A very enjoyable story about life. I felt the vibe, I understood his way of thinking, I can relate to his cluelessness and I would want to hang out with them. They must have been a cool gang... Even the random time-jumping is forgiven.

- Tadej Golob: Jezero.
A Slovenian "Scandinavian" crime novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. Highly realistic characters, realistic dialogues, interesting story. However! The writer should stick to the rule "if you're writing fiction, keep it fictional". There are way to many things from real life, which are completely unnecessary and irrelevant for the story. The author included them because... I don't know why. To show off? That's the only thing I find (highly) disturbing in the otherwise very enjoyable book.

- The Golden Treasures of Troy. About the life of Heinrich Schliemann. A truly fascinating life he had and this is just a short summary of the important events in his life - and yet so captivating.

- Le Petit Prince. I've read the book in Slovenian before but this is the first time I've read it in French. There were some words I had to look up but all in all I'm pleasantly surprised of how much I remembered!

Oh, and, of course, what can be better than being on sick leave during Le Tour.

It just makes me want to go back to Vosges, Massiv Central, Alps, Pyrenees ... One day.

A lovely day ...

A lovely day for a family gathering and a stroll along the river.

And although I've driven through Ad Pirum Roman gate a zillion times (well, a couple of hundred times to be more precise), I never stopped.

Today we did and observed the massive walls and gates of what was once one of the most important defence posts on the route from Emona to Aquileia.

A lovely day indeed.

Two sides

Apparently there are two sides to every story.

There are also two sides of one's house.

This is on one side - my garden.

And this is on the other side - neighbours demolishing the old house.

It was such a lovely wooden house, now they will be building something ... well ... different.