Flat Susan visits a TV Studio

Flat Susan arrived by special mail, or should that be "female" to visit Rosie when Jenny dropped her off.

Then it was off to work with Rosie - at a TV Studio.

Flat Susan has not only been helping me prepare

for my shows on Create and Craft, she has also been to the Studios meeting the Crew.

Magic Hands - Matt, Georgina and Ben welcomed her. 

Sadly Flat Susan has to be on her way and I know she will enjoy her next port of call - Ali.

Pushing the Right Buttons with Jenny

Hi everyone and welcome. I've been hosting a well travelled little friend recently and it's my turn to share that time with you. For those of you who aren't familiar with Flat Susan she is the brainchild of the lovely Neet (Hickydorums) and has been travelling the World (in her very own suitcase!)

Living right next to the Trent and Mersey Canal it was essential that Susan got to see it's delights and as luck would have it there was a floating market taking place. I marvelled at the fact that so many clever people could live and work in such a small place but Susan reminded me that it was all a question of being organised when you're small. Funny, that would prove to be somewhat prophetic! 

And there was another fortuitous event for Susan to attend. I got the chance to meet up with fellow creatives Anne Redfern (Redanne) and Tracy Evans (Craft Addicts) for a wonderful pub lunch. Bless her, Susan found it almost impossible to get a word in sideways! It's so very rare I get the opportunity to leave the confines of the craft room and this was a real treat.

Talking of confines... I've been kinda chained to the laptop more recently (the necessities of setting up a new DT and managing another) so Susan became a rather constant companion in these endeavours. In fact she's really got the hang of touch typing, not bad for someone who's reach only extends to about four keys at a time! Remember what she said earlier about 'it all being a question of organisation'? I've discovered that Susan is very good at making lists and cracking the whip...

Something else, she's become a 'dab hand' at is using "FlitterGlu" 

So while I got to grips with the stamping side Susan worked that Scoochy like a pro.  I'm telling you that girl has an amazing eye for detail.

And so, with her CV nicely extended and a new tag in hand, it's time to head off to visit Rosie (Crafting at S G) down the road. It's been a joy to host this special little lady and I look forward to seeing where she travels over the coming weeks and months. Jenny

Something else she's become a 'dab hand' at is using FlitterGlu. So whilst I got to grips with the stamping side Susan worked that Scoochy like a pro. I'm telling you, that girl has an amazing eye for detail!Something else she's become a 'dab hand' at is using FlitterGlu. So whilst I got to grips with the stamping side Susan worked that Scoochy like a pro. I'm telling you, that girl has an amazing eye for detail!Something else she's become a 'dab hand' at is using FlitterGlu. So whilst I got to grips with the stamping side Susan worked that Scoochy like a pro. I'm telling you, that girl has an amazing eye for detail!

Sad News

It is with a heavy heart that I post today to tell you that I heard from a blogging friend in Australia that Eliza (Queenartoypia) passed on last Tuesday night.  Those of you who have followed Flat Susan's adventures will know that Eliza and her daughter Myrene (along with that adorable little fella, Yoda) played hostess to Flat Susan and did seven, yes, SEVEN, posts about her adventures with the family.  You can start reading about her time with the Harms family here.

Eliza was so fond of Flat Susan that she would talk of her as if she was a real person and she really did show concern for the 'little doll' if someone was late in posting about an adventure.  I know Myrene Eliza's daughter, loved having Flat Susan visit too.

So, Flat Susan and I would like to send our condolences to Eliza's family, to her children, Michael and Myrene and not forgetting Yoda and the other fur babies and not forgetting either her bessie, Di who must be devastated. She will be missed, not only by the huge number of friends and work colleagues, TV, sports people etc etc but also by lots of friends she had made in Blogland.

I would like to share a paragraph that I often used to read from one of Eliza's emails that shows just what a huge heart that woman had:

The first of December is a family tradition that I started and have threatened massive sissy fits and violence if people don't turn up.  My children's friends come and their partners, work employees etc. There is eggnog of the alcoholic type and plenty of food, fun and laughter.  As long as the tree gets put up and decorated before we eat then I am happy, we party for the rest of the night.  Some of the guys that work for me end up staying until the late hours (0430am) of the morning, but that is normal for us, everyone else carks it.   Everyone that is a family member has their own baubles or Christmas decorations that they must hang themselves.  I even have decorations that the children made at pre school.  My deceased mothers decorations also get put on the tree by me every year in her honour.

Eliza, heaven is a better place now you are there but we on earth miss you so much.  

A Very Unusual Race

Sue tells us she had a small visitor last week called Flat Susan.  She has been travelling around the world over the last few months experiencing different ways of life and now it’s my turn to show her my little corner of England.  She arrived just before I was going on my annual girly scrapbooking retreat to Olney (famous for its annual pancake race) so was thrown in at the deep ending meeting all my friends.

The pancake race has been going since the 1400s and is the oldest in the world - only ladies who live in Olney are allowed to take part.  There are some wicker ladies carrying pancakes in one of the gardens in the market place where the race starts and Susan wanted to have her photo taken here.

Here she is outside the house we stayed in.

 The house is quite quirky – two sets of stairs, a shower in the laundry room and two bathrooms half way up the stairs.  Half the time Flat Susan ended up going in to the crockery cupboard instead of going up the stairs as there are two doors next to each other and it was very easy to get confused.  She enjoyed the garden with all the lovely spring flowers and one day I found her hiding beneath some pretty primulas.

An enormous amount of chocolate is consumed on our retreat and Flat Susan certainly took a shine to some Cadbury Creme Eggs.

I had to keep my eye on her as she always seemed to be up to some mischief - I found her in one of my bags 

on the top of my water bottle

and playing on a tractor which was waiting to go on a scrapbook layout.

She enjoyed the company of Tuppenny Wee, my little dog who goes everywhere with me.

We don't tend to venture very far while we are away but we did take a trip to Milton Keynes and had a cup of coffee in Costas

before going in to Hobbycraft to replenish our supplies and here I handed Flat Susan over to my friend Sue, who was going to be her host for the next few days.

Waiting for a New Suitcase

Flat Susan is resting at home after her hectic trips back and forth across the world and she has never stopped talking about how much she has enjoyed meeting people, how kind they have been to take her here and there, and how much she has seen.

She needs a new suitcase now before she carries on with her journey through the UK but I have been admiring the lovely postcards she has collected along the way.  I thought I would take this opportunity to show you some so you could enjoy them too

The top one is from Sandy in Australia, bottom left from Kay in New Mexico and the one on the right is from Kimmie in North Carolina.

The top two are again from Kay in New Mexico, the next one down shows the San Francisco skyline and is from Darnell and the last one is Flinders Street Railway Station which was built in 1854 and is the oldest City station in Australia.

I also got some photographs and here is one of Susie but you will need to check back on her write up to see why she had Flat Susan meet these two handsome guys.

and here are two photos from Kimmie, I don't think you need any introduction to who the famous person on the left is or who the Star(r) on the right is.  If you do you had better check on Kimmie's write up.

I have some lovely tags to show you but they will have to wait for another post - and I need to sift through my stuff that did not travel with Flat Susan as I am sure there is a postcard or two there.

See you soon and hopefully will be sending Flat Susan off again.

Bread Festival?

Flat Susan´s Spanish Adventure: Part Two

As  promised, here I am again with the rest of Flat Susan´s activities while she was here with us.

Flat Susan has accompanied me to most places that I go, including church (she likes the singing best), and to my sewing group. She has watched us knitting, sewing, crocheting, and just chatting, but she was very interested to see my friend Sue making some bobbin lace.

In the afternoons she sat with me as I finished off the crochet blanket that I was making for my Africa project. When it was done I laid it out for her to see, and she chose to try out the red square.

I had to make sure I put it away after that so she couldn´t creep back on it when I wasn´t looking. I wouldn´t want to send her off to Africa by mistake!

She also came with us when we walked the dogs over on the campo. It was lovely to see them running around, but she was very impressed when they ran back to make sure we were still there. I told her that twice we have seen wild tortoise over there, and I think she was a bit disappointed that we couldn´t find one for her to see, but they are very protected and we would not have been allowed to take it away for her.

After our lovely sunny days, we all find the evenings very cold and we are so grateful to light our newly mended fire, which makes the sitting room so cosy. But Flat Susan knew instinctively that she mustn´t get too close to the flames, as she might go rather floppy! So she preferred to keep warm by snuggling into Tango´s lovely soft fur.

We had one more exciting day out for F.Susan that hadn´t been in our plans. My friend had intended to go to Lubrin bread festival, but her husband had to go to UK for family reasons, so we said we would take her. Lubrin is a little village in the mountains to the north of us, and it was high enough to be quite chilly there, so we all wrapped up well, and F.Susan stayed safely tucked into my pocket. She didn´t want to see out of the car window because it is a very narrow, winding road, and she thought it was a bit scary, but she did pop out in time to see the village as it came into view.

We settled at a café table by the plaza and watched the preparations. F.Susan liked the coloured flags on all the verandas, and I explained that the red and yellow ones are the Spanish flag, but the green and white ones are the flag of Andalucia. 

The bread festival marks San Sebastian day, so I took Susan down to the church to see his statue. She loved the red roses and the fresh bread all around the statue, so I let her creep up and sit among them for a while. She looks very tiny hiding in there.

Back at our table we joined with everyone else in buying a tiny bread circle to pin  to our coats, but Susan thought mine was just right for her to sit in. A friend who lives in Lubrin, told us that the children had made these in school during the previous week.

After a mass in the church, the fun began as larger bread rings were thrown from all the verandas and caught by the crowds below. 

The men carried ropes that they threaded their bread onto, and it was a real competition to see who could catch the most. Some caught so many that they needed help to carry them.

Because so many were needed, some of the bread had been cooked days in advance and was very hard, so we warned F.Susan to take cover, but she was so excited that she couldn´t stay hidden and she was even more happy when Chris caught our first ring.

She wanted to sit in that one too. Fortunately it was a nice fresh one, and quite soft, so we broke it and all had a little taste.

It was a very ´exuberant´celebration, and F. Susan wanted to record some of it to share with you, and give you a taste of the atmosphere there, so I took a little video as the procession passed our plaza. Here is a link to it. I hope it works for you. It looks a bit fierce but really it was a very good-natured event. Everyone is happy on Fiesta days.

On Friday I took F.Susan with me to Turre market. She loved all the colours and bustle, but it was a very windy day so I made sure she was pinned tightly to my jumper.

Then, as it was the last time I would be taking her out, we drove down to the beach at Mojacar Playa. The beach itself was almost deserted.

 

It can be a bit uncomfortable there on such a wild day, as the wind whips the sand up against your legs, but it was an off-shore wind so it wasn´t too bad, and we stood a while just enjoying the noise and sound of the waves breaking on the sand.

F.Susan was delighted to find some flowers growing out of the sand. She thought they were just the right size for her and insisted on sitting in them.

Then she spotted a patch of sea grasses with their furry seed heads, and quickly climbed on to one of these. It was so windy that I had to pick a grass stem to tie her on, to keep her safe, but she had a great ride, swaying in the wind.

Then we crossed the road at the big roundabout, and stopped to watch the fountain, and admire the red poinsettias still blooming around its base.

The white building behind the fountain is called Parque Comercial, and it is a complex of clothes shops, cafés, a supermarket and a collection of fancy goods and tourist shops. We went into one of these so that F.Susan could chose a tiny Indalo man to fix on the tag I am making for her to take back to Neet. Indalo man is a little stick man holding what appears to be a rainbow, and he was found in some cave drawings to the north of here. He has become the icon for Andalucia, and appears somewhere in just about every house, as well as on street furniture, and various small items such as jewelry and leather goods, that are a favourite buy for holidaymakers to take home as a souvenir. Here are the railings along the new path that runs all along the road leading up to Mojacar Pueblo, and you can see Indalo man on every second panel.

So now it is time for Flat Susan to pack her suitcase and head back to the UK. She has been travelling for nearly eighteen months, so I guess she will be quite happy to go home and rest, and share all her adventures with the folk there. We have loved having her here, and I think she also enjoyed her time with us. Safe journey Flat Susan. Thank you for visiting us.

Espana Por Favour

Flat Susan´s Spanish Adventure: Part 1

The idea was for Flat Susan to come to share Christmas with us in Spain, but unfortunately her flight from Australia was delayed, and she did not arrive until Boxing Day. That´s plain  old 26th December for us, as Boxing Day is not celebrated in Spain, so it is just a normal day, which why the mail man was working as usual. Poor Susan had done a lot of waiting around over the past few days so she was glad to meet her new hosts and just relax for a day. 

But she wan´t able to relax for long as the very next day we took her across the green zone at the back of our house, to watch a simulated traffic accident.  It was a training/information exercise, and we were impressed by the way all the local services worked together to sort out the traffic, give first aid, and get the patients (all volunteers from the village),  loaded into ambulances. 

Flat Susan was quite upset by it all at first, but once she realised it was only ´pretend´she began to enjoy it, but she stayed tucked inside my jacket for most of the time, all the same.

Her first real celebration was New Year´s Eve. By then she was getting used to having the dogs around and they no longer felt the need to sniff her to decide whether she was friend or foe. Foxy was more interested in pinching her snacks than in eating her!

Although they are yard dogs really, we usually invite them in to see the New Year in with us, so we all settled down to watch Big Ben strike midnight and enjoy the fireworks. I think F.Susan was a bit confused because we had already celebrated an hour earlier when the Spanish clocks all rang in the New Year. But she was happy to have a sip or two of wine from the tiny `glass´ I had made just for her.

With just a couple of days to catch up on some sleep, we then took her out to lunch with a group of friends from our village art club. They all wanted an introduction and she got on well with everyone.

My Spanish friend Cati was most interested. She thought I had made her, and asked whether I could make one for her, so I tried to explain that Flat Susan is quite unique, and soon she would be travelling back to her home in UK. Cati was very disappointed!

The meal started with entremeses, a plate of meat and cheese. Flat Susan nibbled at the cheese, but found the meat a bit too chewy. She decided to just watch while we ate the main course, but she got quite excited when the rice pudding came along!

After the meal we sat around chatting so I made her a raised seat from the wine corks so she could see better what was going on.

On January 5th, the night when the Three Kings arrive for Epiphany, we drove over to Almeria city, to meet up with some friends. We had never been to the procession there so it was new to us as well as to F.Susan, and we all enjoyed it immensely. Flat Susan couldn´t believe her eyes when the procession started with two real elephants walking down the street.   There was a huge crowd of people, and it was very noisy, so she was a bit afraid of getting separated from us, and decided to stay very close, but I pinned her to my coat so she could see everything. The Kings arrived on very ornate floats and she loved all their bright lights and music.

But we all loved the last bit when the big, inflated caterpillars (?) floated along with ever changing coloured lights inside them. It was the perfect end to an exciting evening. Then we had to drive home to get some rest before the Three Kings Fiesta in the village the next day.

So January 7th dawned clear and sunny. Once again we were blessed with a beautiful day for our fiesta. We went across to the plaza in time to watch the pageant. First the soldiers arrived at King Herod´s Palace, and it is fun to see our friends dressed up and obviously enjoying the parts they played.

Then it was time for the Kings to arrive, and F.Susan thought they looked very fine!

When the play had been acted out, we took Susan around the stalls, stopping to chat to friends as we went. 

I asked Flat Susan if she was feeling brave, and when she nodded I took her over to the tent where there were several birds of prey and some reptiles. i warned her to sit still while I held a very big, and heavy long-eared owl. He was very beautiful, and she stayed so still, I don´t think he even noticed her.

She behaved so well that I took a bit more of a risk and asked to hold the boa constrictor. They said he was too strong for me which was a shame, but they did let me hold this one, which is also a type of boa. Susan was a bit more wary of this, but she stayed very still, and afterwards, when she how close he was to her in the photo, she felt quite proud of what she had done!

Food plays an important role in  all our fiestas, but particularly this one, and she was amazed at the variety available. I always think this barbecue looks amazing, with its racks of ribs, slices of lomo, choritzo, black pudding, sausages and chicken. And it smells amazing too.

Other people prefer the big pan of paella, but I am not so keen on it if it has lots of shell fish or snails in it! Here the rice has just been added, so it will be a little while before it is ready to eat.

Then there is the meal provided by the Town Hall for anyone who wants it, and this year it was a giant tortilla - layers of potato and onion with beaten eggs, and cooked over a log fire. It is hard enough to cook evenly in a little pan made for the purpose, so I am filled with admiration for these men who use a pan the size of my dining table!

When it is ready they serve up big slabs of it in huge bread rolls so we all shared one.

After lunch we took Flat Susan home for a rest, but then, as it was twelfth night, it was the traditional time to take down the Christmas decorations and pack them all away. F.Susan asked if she could have one more cuddle with my little angel bear before I put him away, and she also had a last chat with Santa.

Well that is the end of Susan´s Christmas Adventure. Tomorrow I will write part 2, and you can see what else she has done during her stay with us.