Off to Oostende

I guess it's about time to explore more of Belgium. To be precise - off to Oostende!
After a week of lectures, rain and wind, the weekend promised to bring some leisure time and sunshine. Spending time at the Belgian coast seemed to be a good idea however, it seemed like half of Belgium had the same plan. As I left the train, an endless queque of people rolled towards the sea, greeted by the shrieks of seagulls.

Seagulls are also one of the first things you get to see in Oostende, next to the harbour and the church of St. Peter and St. Paul.

On the promenade, you can find lots of opportunities for quick snacks, as well as lots of feathered stalkers begging for goodies.

The seaside town offers a nice little Aquarium that introduces you to the underwater-life of the North Sea

Finally, time to take off the shoes and put the feet in the warm sand :) And in the not-so-warm North Sea.

 Angry birds :)

The natives didn't seem to bother, swimming in front of the Miami-like hotels brrrrr

Part of the promenade leads way into the harbour entrance with the futuristic lighthouse. And although the wind that comes from the open sea is pretty cold, you don't feel it at all when you sit down on one of the benches behind the rocks. A great opportunity to listen to the waves, smell the sea, enjoy the sun... and get a nasty sunburn.
Note to self: a sunscreen in your handbag won't do, you need to actually apply it on your skin.

Lucky at the end of the world ;)

Blue skies, blue sea and seagulls... life is good :)

Sandcastle exhibition

Castle for sale

By far the most prominent vehicles at the seaside

 

~ to be continued ~

Christmas in July #2

There is something awkward in thinking about Christmas when it's 34°C outside and I can't get my apartment to cool down under 28° no matter what.
No wonder I'm totally not thinking about Christmas yet. I'll just show a card I prepared for the Fadengrafik Challenge where we want to see your Christmas projects with some stitching. There's still plenty of time toplay along and we can't wait to see what you've been up to.

The card is basically very simple, it consists of corners I stitched with shimmering yarn and a 3D sticker in the middle. For the embellishments I used a couple of pearls, transparent paper with snowflakes and a golden sticker for the border.

The sticker serves both as decoration and fixation of the starry paper as I didn't feel confident using other forms of glue for it. Last time I tried, the sticky stripes were shining through the transparent layer, giving a pretty bad result. This time, I only used the stripes in places that are covered by the white cardboard, meaning the golden sticker had to go a bit off the edge to have an adhesive effect.

I'm not sure whether I like it, I'd preferr to have more of the red order side, but that was the only way for me to use the transparent stars.

I didn't really need a background paper though, as the red paper of the card shines through the transparent layer, which gives an interesting result.

 

challenges:

- PINspirational challenges: Christmas
- inspiration destination: ATG
- ABC Christmas: O for Off the edge
- Pennys challenges: Christmas in July
- scrapping4fun: summer or winter (winter)
- deep ocean: Christmas in July
- crafty calendar: Christmas in July
- cardz4guyz: Christmas in July 
- tuesday throwdown: Christmas in July 
- ooh la la challengeblog: Christmas in July 
- craft-alnica: glitter
- fairytale challengeblog: bling bling
- my time to craft: Christmas in July
- pile it on: Christmas/winter in July
- Morgan's art world: Christmas in July

One for mom

When there are questions all over and nothing makes sense... All you can do is just be there... And bring a card that lies somewhere between "sympathy" and "I love you".
For the main motif I used a red cross-stitch rose that I made quite a while ago. As it doesn't need much addings alltogether, I only used two kinds of silver stickers and a couple of rhinestones.

challenges:

- 613 avenue create: ATG

- alphabet challengeblog: K for kind words

- as you like it: favourite colour (red) and why (it's the colour of love and passion, the colour of life (blood), and obviously the colour of red roses ;))

- inspiration destination: ATG

- sister act: ATG
- wordartwednesday: ATG
- crafting from the heart: ATG