To rest is not idle......

I would not usually write a whole post about a hotel but the hotel we stayed at in Seville was just so extraordinary that I really wanted to share it with you all. It was commissioned by King Alfonso X111 to be built for the 1929 Spanish/American exposition to house his visiting dignitaries. We realised when we were in the taxi from the airport that this is a rather special hotel when the taxi driver said that it is regarded locally as one of the best hotels in Spain. It is also on the tours guides' lists of buildings to visit. We were not disappointed when we arrived, it was like a palace.

We did not even have to open the door of the taxi as we arrived, everything was taken care of and our luggage whisked away from the boot.

 As we were shown to our room by the porters we looked around at all the stunning architecture and marvelled at the beautiful  ceramic tiles everywhere.

 Even Art Deco stained glass windows

The restaurant was in an open courtyard in the centre of the hotel and was set up for afternoon tea.

 Our room was on the 3rd floor. The bedrooms have all had a multi million pound makeover and are so tastefully decorated. Modern yet vintage.

 We had a bedroom area, a sitting area and a huge bathroom with his and hers sinks and our sitting area lead out onto a double length balcony over looking the pool.

We sipped many cups of afternoon tea sitting here.
The hotel is so centrally located that we were able to walk to all the historic sights in the morning and come back to swim in the pool in the afternoon, just bliss.

 This was the view from my sun lounger looking up to our room right on the corner above.

There were also beautifully tended gardens to sit in the shade. 

Every morning we ate breakfast under the sky in the restaurant 

 and 3 evenings we also ate our evening meal here...the service and food was perfect.

 We sipped cocktails, this one was a Bellini; the best I have tasted outside of Harry's bar in Venice.

and to round the evening off we sat and listened to the pianist...

I don't think I have ever had such a relaxing base for a holiday. I felt I had been transported back in time to the 1930s and I was treated like a royal princess. 

I decided to try to make a Moment for my journal which would take me back to this wonderful place.  I wanted to reflect the wonderful tiles on our balcony as well as around the hotel.

The colours I used were royal blue, yellow and gold. I used another of the lovely Art Deco postcards I bought as the focal. I made a background using Distress inks on top of some gold embossing using my LOTV music manuscript stamp from my Pretty Vintage set. The music score is to remind me of the pianist we heard each night. I also added some stencilling.

You can see the stencilling I added using Chipped Sapphire DI below.

To remind me of the warm sunshine I used a fun sun charm I was sent as a gift with a recent stamp order.I wanted to use something from the notepaper pad I used to jot things down on each day so I cut out a tiny circle containing the hotel logo and glued it inside.

Every night we were left chocolate coins when the housekeeper came for the turn down service. I wanted to use the lovely embossed hotel logo from these too.

I removed (or rather ate ;0) the contents and carefully cut around the outside of the foils. I had a play with all these elements and here is my final piece.

I found the very apt quote on the internet.

Here are a couple of close ups

The key charm represents the key to our room and the TH pen nib reminds me of sitting on the balcony writing my postcards home and also by the beautiful pool.

I distressed the edges of my moment to add to the vintage feel.

I really enjoyed creating my Moment. When I look at it in Jane's Journal it brings back special memories of our beautiful Seville hotel. We spent a whole week resting and thoroughly enjoyed taking some time out of the busy life we lead. As my quote states..." Rest is not idleness..."

I would like to enter my Moment into the following challenges;

All Crafts challenge anything but a card

Country View Stencil it

Loves rubber stamps anything goes

Papertake weekly anything goes

Dream Valley inspired by a movie song or book my inspiration is the song; Up where we belong by Joe Cocker, such an inspriring song which was on the radio just as I was putting my ideas together.

As you like it Do you prefer images of animals or people and why although I love both I have to chose people as people, especially my family are the most important thing to me in my life. Blogging is also all about people and there are some really great friends I have made out there.  Finally I chose to work with people with my job as a physiotherapist so I really am a people's person ;0) 

Creative Inspirations anything goes

Crafting musketeers summertime

Natalie and Amy summertime

On Tuesday I met up with my girlies and we spent the day at the seaside, what a wonderful time we had. I will share some photos soon. I am really enjoying using seaside themes with my crafting at the moment, it must be all this gorgeous sunshine. It's hot, hot, hot here today. I hope you are enjoying this lovely weather too and if not I will blow some  your way. Thanks as always for visiting my little corner of blogland.

Back soon,

Bye for now, 

Jane x