Something for boys

At craft-alnica, it's time for a men's "something", and I decided to go for a card. Only I couldn't figure out what to do - a classic pick point, colouring, something sexy probably? You see, there are so many ideas when it comes to cards for a guy!
Firstly, I thought of stitching something, but as I'm more and more occupied with two major projects right now - one is my neurology exam and the other one my bathroom - it would probably take me too much time.
Making another bikini card was my next idea, but as I have no particular man in mind, I decided to make a "mad-card". Not that I'm particularly mad at someone, but well, you never know ;)
So, I used a motif I had coloured a while ago, only I never knew what to do with it after that - guess green is not exactly my kind of colour, and don't ask me why I've chosen it back then :). Now however, I remembered this funny green flower-power paper that I once bought and never knew what to do with it after that - guess green really isn't my colour :)
Anyway, the papers seemed to fit perfectly, but needed a little something to complete the card. I tried punched flowers, charms, buttons and ribbons, but discovered that roses would do best. A few blossoms in the upper and lower corner, a few pearls, and after all the card doesn't look that awkward - even though it's green :)
Plus, it doesn't look all too angry even if it is a "mad-card". Because you just can't be really mad at your man as long as you make cards for him ;)

As brownsugarchallenge is looking for boys' stuff, too, I'll enter that challenge as well. Off to bed now :)

Piran

Funny how one day I stitch a maritime card, and the other day I actually - after many years - put my feet into the salt water at the Slovene coast. Yay!
As my sister visited me, she expressed the wish to go swiming to the sea, so we decided to make a one-day trip to Piran by bus. We escaped the cold and fog of Ljubljana in the early morning, and arrived in the lovely seaside-town at about 9 am. Our guide and diver for the day was Uroš, sister's colleague from Izola, another lovely seaside-town.
After strolling around around the main square (one can't possible visit Piran without meeting it's famous violinist Guiseppe Tartini), we walked along the promenade, surrounded by restaurants on one side, and bathing people on the other.
Later we walked up to the cathedral of St. George atop the city, and even went to the remains of the city wall to catch this famous postcard-panorama of Piran's cape, only to discover that you now must pay for the entrance. Nah.
We found some other spots that would (almost) match the view and had a good time anyway. There are also a couple of museums to see, most of them related with sea or Guiseppe Tartini, even the renovated Aquarium, but we decided to have an outdoors-day. 
You just have to love Piran - narrow streets, coloured facades and the smell of salt... What more can one wish for? A good pizza of course! And as my sister knows the best pizzeria in town this wish was fulfilled, too. Not only they have really delicious food, but also very friendly staff and good prices. Very recomended :)
My sister eventually had a swim, while for a softie like me it was enough to put my feet in sea water in the early afternoon. Later in the day, it started to rain a little bit, but we seemed to be quite lucky with the weather.
Before we went back home, our chauffeur took us to Izola (nice) and Koper (port-city, not that nice) for another short walk and a wonderful smoothie in the Kapitanija. Yummi :)

Summary: even though you might think a one-day trip to the coast is a waste of time as you can't see much of it anyway, let me reassure you it's good enough to get a glimpse of a charming seaside, relax and have something good to eat.

Actually, we had plenty of time doing everything we wanted to do, and that's all that counts anyway. I found myself really tired by the time we took the bus back home, and slept most of the ride, waking up to a cold and rainy Ljubljana. What a lucky escape the day turned out to be! Add a late-evening dinner with sisters's friends at the CantinaMexicana, and the day probably can't get much better.

Now, you probably want to see some photos:
Morning sight of Piran with the church of Saint Clement on Cape Madona - Punta Piran

port of Piran

Mr. Tartini overlooking the main square

Piran's seaside promenade

Punta Piran

Cathedral of St. George

 Love Piran

Motif of St. George on one of the houses

Wonderful fig tree

More sights of the harbour

And the flowers of course :)

I never knew capers grow like this

Match the sketch

Does one participate in a challenge to get the prize or just because of the challenge itself? In my case, I'd say it's the latter.
When I saw the new fadengrafik-challenge says "Wedding", I already knew which heart-pattern I'd use. I haven't begun thinking about the shape of the card yet, when I by coincidence found the cheerfulsketcheschallenge, and it crossed my mind to cmbine the two challenges.
So, this was the task

And this is what I've done

I made the card in brown-cream-white colours and stitched two golden hearts. I tried to keep it simple, though I think I would have added even less decorations if it wasn't for the sketch-challenge.

As I was in perfect crafting mood, I stitched two more cards in the same style: one with a strawberry that will probably be the birthday card for my mom, and a maritime-card. In each of them, I used colours and decorations that would fit the main motif. As stitching only didn't present the motifs in a way I imagined it should (especially not the sailboat), I decided to help out with my coloured pencils.



Unfortunately, the embossed background is not visible in the latter photo

Apart from the arrangement and the stitching, the three cards have one more thing in common: all supplies that I used were those I had home already - and they seem to fit as if they waited all this time for these cards to be made. That would be the using-up challenge, I guess :)

Roses are red, violets are blue

It's neither roses nor violets this time, just another lovely had-to-try pickpoint pattern.
First I stitched it with red flowers, later I tried the same pattern in blue shades only, which makes it look like frost flowers. Somehow, I like the latter card even more than the red one.

Tour of Austria 2014, final stage (Vienna, July 13) ~ Singing in the rain

As the Tour of Austria traditionally ended in Vienna, I had an early morning wake up on Sunday. I caught some sleep on the train and arrived in time at the finish area in front of the townhall/Burgtheater.
Due to the warm weather many people came to the city center to watch the final laps of the race. But it didn't stay that warm for too long. As the race had 2-3 laps to go, rain set in and led to the most un-wanted combination one can imagine on the roads of Vienna. As the stage ends with a sprint, there's fighting for positions every time the riders pass by. Add tram tracks and slippery wet roads, and you pretty much have the best recipy for desaster.
Only this time it didn't include ordinary rain. At some point, the clouds broke and rain literally flooded the streets. Within moments, I was soaked through, and so were all my things. There was no use of running away or using an umbrella (even though I had one), and it took a lot of skills for the cyclists to stay on their bikes in such conditions.
Probably, that was the reason why many of them didn't return to their buses through the finish line, but took a shortcut behind the barriers or through the park. In this mess, I somehow lost sight of Jani and could only catch up with him after rushing to the team-bus. We exchanged a few words, I got his water bottle and a hug, and off we went in different directions.
Wet as I was, I considered catching the earliest possible train home, but as there would be flowers at the podium ceremony, I thought I might try to get some. I thought wrong.
As the sound didn't work due to the rain (or was it the important people not wanting to get wet?) the podium ceremony was improvised in the small tent that is normally used for the post-stage interviews. Of course, the very few fans that remained at the barriers, withstanding the rain, didn't get to see a thing. No flowers were given away to the riders as the podium girls were hiding under their umbrellas. In the end, Tour director Mrs. Riha and the girls gave them away to the fans, only it was mostly ladies who came along with umbrellas long after the heaviest rain was gone - complaining about how they were caught in the storm!
Hm... Well... What shall I say, looking like a wet puppy? Even when Mrs. Riha reached the flowers to me, some other chick got in between. Arrrgh. And the gladioluses would be such a lovely compensation for almost freezing while staying till the very end.
It wasn't the very end though. Best young cyclist Patrick Konrad was still there talking with some guys, and as he was about to leave, I thought this would be my last chance to get a souvenir. When I asked him if I could have the flowers, he replied "Of course" and handed them to me. Yay! Then, I decided this should not be the only souvenir of the day. I waited til they started to remove the barriers, sneaked behind the podium and got myself a bottle of champagne, which was not given to the riders either.
Packed with goods, I made my way to the train station. My clothes were still soaked and my shoes felt like sponges, which splashed at my every step. On the train, I could finally get rid of my shoes and socks, and asked mom to bring me clothes/shoes to change. So, after all the best thing I got that day were my sisters' sneakers.

Some photos of the final stage... Til the moment my camera decided to stop working properly due to the rain.

Team parking

Jure Golčer

Jan Tratnik in the breakaway

Jani

Team Sky - once dry, once wet

Rain is one thing, flood is another

Stage winner Marco Haller was too fast for me, but it looks like I caught Jani crossing the line

Overall winner Peter Kennaugh finished safely, too

Others were not that lucky

Improvised podium ceremony

Goodies :)