The Simple Woman's Day Book

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For Today...

Outside my window... a roadside full of daffodills

I am thinking... about my DH's cousins who are in ill health

I am thankful for... my friends and family

From the kitchen... Mexican Chicken with avodaco, sour cream and coriander

I am wearing... cords and a wooly jumper - it's still quite chilly here

I am reading... The Red Leather Diary by Lily Koppel

I am hoping... my DS2 can find something he really wants to do

I am creating... I am creating a birthday book for my DS1 as he can't remember any of them!

I am hearing...the hum of the computers and the television

Around the house... some spring cleaning required, but it will have to wait.

One of my favorite things... hugs

A few plans for the rest of the week... work, work, work

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...We have daffodils planted up both sides of our farm road, it has been very windy so a lot of them have been blown over, they are the ones I pick to bring into the house.

Altered Tin

On Bubbly Funk Forum, Karen challenged us to alter a tin. I hadn't got round to doing anything about it because I was working on the 50 Treats book. But I had some of the Hippie Chick paper still lying around my craft desk (yes, lying around the guillotine, the floor, as well as the desk, ha ha) so I thought I'd use that to alter my tin. The tin itself originally held three little bottles of malt whisky and was a Christmas gift that my DH received, I rescued it from the bin as I thought it would be good to alter 'one day'. Not quite sure what I'm going to put in it, as it needs to be something pretty as you can see the contents through the acetate window. I was thinking perhaps some notelets and then it would be a nice gift for someone.

Fiskarettes - Vintage Challenge

Over on the Fiskarettes website, there is a 'Vintage' challenge and this is my entry for the challenge. I got this image from Izabella who has some lovely free vintage images. The paper is DCWV Gold Floral Luxury Print, rub on swirly thing is K&Co Wild Saffron, Beauty rub on is from Fancy Pants Designs. Flowers from stash.

Artarazzi Challenge 16

Here is the image that was given for the Artarazzi Challenge this week. When I looked at the rather spooky interpretation given by Indybev, I realised that the dancers reminded me of the ghosties and 'Cutty Sark' from the Poem Tam O'Shanter by Robert Burns. So here they are dancing with the 'deil' before Cutty Sark chases Tam on his mare, Meg pulling off her tail as they escape across a bridge - did you know that ghosts can't cross water? Robert Burns lived much of his adult life and died close to where I live. His poetry is incredible in it's observation of people and their very human failings. You can read more HERE

DCM - Bunnies & Chicks

Here is my DCM for this week. It is a bit of a digi-hybrid using papers and elements from the Sunshine Sweets collaboration kit that I gathered up last Easter! I also used Kathy Black's Sketch No. 5 from Kathy's Waffle Sketch File

Here is my Show and Tell for Friday 27th March. I can remember this chest from when I was a little girl. It belonged to my Grandpa and he kept his collection of silver spoons in it. I used to love taking them out and looking at them. I remember one of them had a handle in the shape of a rifle.
When my Gran died I asked to have this chest and I keep my jewellry in it. My dad inherited the spoons and many of them are solid silver and now they are kept in a safe not to be played with by anyone, seems a shame really. I'm sure this chest is not worth very much but it means a lot to me.

50 Treats

It's my friend's 50th Birthday and rather than one big present she liked the idea of having 50 treats, although I don't think she really expected me to provide them all! This did prove rather more difficult to achieve than I thought it would be and I sought some help from my friends on the Bubbly Funk Forum - thanks girls! (Spot the grungy flower DiO!)
In the end I chose some different categories. In the Food section are promises to make muffins and cookies and also to cook a dinner for her to keep in the freezer for unexpected guests.
mmmm chocolate - we both love very dark chocolate and these little bars of Green and Blacks were perfect.
My friend is a librarian and also a real film buff, behind the vellum is a bookmark and the little card promises a visit to the cinema.
In the Card section there are promises to make Christmas cards and other cards of her choice.
I blagged some samples from various places for this little package of goodies.
Ah Fun Stuff, that is days out, cocktails at Harvey Nics, the one with the pawprint ribbon is my promise to dog sit at her home for a long weekend as she is planning to go and visit a friend in Switzerland sometime in May.
Yes, more chocolate - lets face it a girl can never have too much.
A few little garden treats including lunch at the garden centre and a plant of her choice, a promise to cut her lawn while I am dog sitting and a packet of salad leaves seeds.
A nice cup of tea, the white tea with pomegranate is fab, it was my last one too!
The fruit portion is a bit of a joke between us, as anything even vaguely fruity like a blueberry muffin is deemed to be our 'fruit portion'. These 'All Natural' fruit strings are pretty yummy.
I made her a glittery badge to wear.
and provided some Cath Kidson notepaper and envelopes for those thank you letters.
In the little pouch are a couple of photos, the Audrey Hepburn one and another one morphed into Alexandra Bastedo of 'Champions' fame.

Most of the papers are Hippie Chick but there are a few others in there too. I was going to use my bind-it-all but the whole thing is so thick that it would never have bound, so I ended up with book rings.

Although I took ages thinking about how I was going to make this project, I did most of it over a weekend and really enjoyed bringing it together.