Posted on by wherethejourneytakesme

dear diary :: a positive day, if not a little chilly

Some days can just start off more positive than others – I am not sure what makes the difference but today just happened to be a very positive one. Outside on the step and covering a few plants I could see the remains of the slushy snow; the only evidence that we had had a fall of snow overnight. It soon disappeared as the sun came out……..for all of an hour, but it did mean I could get the washing on the line, fill the bird feeders and take out the recycling. I didn’t hang around as is was bitterly cold.

I had breakfast alone as DH had a hair appointment booked this morning, so he was up, showered and off. He had a dental appointment this afternoon and we thought it was to take his tooth out but the dentist felt there was still some infection so it has been rearranged for two weeks time. DH much prefers the dentist to the hairdressers and always jokes that the hairdresser cuts his hair without even giving him an anaesthetic.

I had a leisurely breakfast watching the birds outside, mainly magpies, doing some rather daring manoeuvres to try and get the peanuts out of the little pottery acorns. DH had peeled and chopped the oranges, a job he is good at and I am not, and I combined these with a few blueberries and yoghurt followed by toast generously spread with the lemon curd I made a couple of weeks ago. I don’t usually have toast so it was a nice change from muesli and always goes well with a cup of tea. I am hoping that somewhere in this breakfast I will have satisfied a little of my vitamin C quota for the day.

Whilst DH was out I rushed upstairs to make him a Valentine card. I had no ideas in mind other than something with a heart and something pink would be appropriate. So after a rummage around in the craft drawers I came up with a few different sized heart stamps, some ink pads and a bit of glitter.

I played around a bit and came up with a prototype….well what can you expect in 15 minutes…. the first one didn’t go too well so I had another go and decided this is as good as it is going to get as I know I won’t have time to make another one…..anyway it is the thought that counts. I might even surprise him and bake a cake.

Being in craft mode I went on to make a birthday card for a colleague where I used to work. Her birthday is on Valentine’s day and I know she loves homemade cards as she makes her own too.

I have had these little daisy flowers for ages and had not really had any ideas for using them. After playing around a bit I decided to attached each fower to a wire stem using the trusty mini glue gun and then mount them onto a triangular base.

I made some butterfly cards in a similar way a few years ago by recycling the insides of envelopes – those official looking envelopes that you get with the interesting little patterns on the inside. Everyone thought they were quite cute. This is not a good picture but you get the gist.

I decided on a natural brown craft card to contrast with the white daisy flowers that have a little wooden bead in the centre and then added one of the pre-printed labels I had left over from a previous project. The card is quite tiny but will stand up easily on a mantel piece or table.

Scoring the bottom part of the triangle means that you can fold it flat to put it into the envelope.

After lunch we went to the dentist and then I dropped the card for my friend in at reception before going round to the library. I found an interesting little book called Make, Mend, Bake, Save & Shine written by Jo Godfrey Wood – full of handy tips to save money and make things last as long as they can and avoid throwing things out. I am all for not throwing away things that can be reused or repurposed. It should be an interesting read.

Now I have the pantry up and running I intend to make a list of meals that I can make to use up a lot of the food in there. Seeing it all displayed on shelves rather than stacked together in the old kitchen cupboards is so much better and reminds me just what we have in stock so hopefully food will not get wasted quite as much.

I am back to bedtime now once again – don’t the days whizz round quickly – in fact I should be in bed now so I am rushing to finish this. It will be another cleaning day tomorrow and a catch up with the ironing…oh and I seem to remember I said I might bake a cake.

creating health and wellbeing

Nothing much to report on this today I feel bad as I only did two of the exercises for my knees. Must do better tomorrow and schedule in some time to do them all. My knees do benefit from the exercises when I manage to do them for more than two or three days together so I would imagine if I could just stick at it for a week I would see a good result.

On my consultants advice I take vitamin D3 – it is the best thing ever in my mind and recently I have been taking vitamin B12 which I do occasionally as I am vegetarian and this can be something we don’t get a lot of from our diet and in myself a lack of it can make me feel dizzy.

The Optima Activjuice is a food supplement to help joints and was a very reasonable £3 something from Boyes in Northallerton so I thought I would give it a go. Hypothyroidism often produces long term joint and muscle problems so I am looking to see what might improve this – I obviously cannot do anything to improve my thyroid gland as I don’t have one so I am hoping something I try might just help to alleviate the joint and muscle problems I have.

25 Replies to “dear diary :: a positive day, if not a little chilly”

  1. I like your acorn bird feeder and can imagine a cheeky magpie trying to get to the nuts out! We have cheeky magpies here too and they are always up to mischief in the garden. I think your cards turned out well too. A handmade cards always lovely to receive. Meg:)

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  2. I love your photos. Close-ups of details that just make me feel good. They’re like images from a quality magazine. I may have asked before but do you use a camera or smart phone?

    Gee, I wish I could think of something like the daisy card!!!

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    1. I use a Sony DSC compact camera which has a great zoom in lens for close ups nearby (but not a high zoom lens to bring distance very close – which can be a draw back when you want to capture the seagulls bobbing about on the sea!). Lighting is a very personal thing I find – when I used to go on the fashion shoots for work the big name photographers we used in London each had their own ideas about lighting in their studios and that is often what makes their photos stand out from each other.
      I am on a mission to use up some of the odds and ends of craft stuff I have accumulated over the years. I bought the daisies way back and never used them. the idea just came to me when I was having a bit of a play around.

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      1. I think I have accept that it doesn’t matter what camera I use, the fault is with me, and I’ll end up with the same product. But easier for a bad tradesman to blame his tools.

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  3. I second Lucinda comment as you always have beautiful images. I have never got used to using my SLR and rely on my iPhone. Do you use lighting for your photos?
    I have just upgraded to an iPhone 11 so maybe my photos will mysteriously improve, lol.

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    1. I don’t use any lighting other than get as close to a window as possible in winter. My living room is always a struggle to take pictures as it is either in full sun and produces glare or when that passes over it is quite gloomy. I actually turn the lights off in a room in winter and don’t use flash when I can to avoid that yellowy look – not always possible when taking a picture of our evening meals. I have a Sony DSC compact camera it takes close ups and focuses down really well but doesn’t take close ups of distance pictures so I couldn’t capture birds feeding for instance, that would be a different camera with a really high zoom lens which is a shame but to have both in a camera I suspect you would be talking thousands for a good quality or one where you can add those extra lenses – only use my phone to take the odd snap out shopping if I want to capture some information. I do use the Aperture Priority setting on my camera though rather than automatic point and shoot so I adjust the lens and aperture for each picture and then have the camera set on a fast shoot so I can take one picture after another quite quickly (like a wedding or fashion photographer would do to capture many photos quickly) Then I choose the one I want and delete the rest. I think phones can take great picture these days – mine is an old model so have never invested time using it.

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  4. Lovely cards,so creative. I have heard from several people that turmeric is good for knees,so I might look into it. Another storm is heading our way Saturday, is your cottage ok? Take care,margaret

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    1. Cottage still standing as far as we know! The ‘car wash’coast road is closed again – people are still chancing it going through though! I have turmeric on the list to look at – I have so many things I am trying them one at once to see if they make any difference. Let me know what your research throws up.x

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  7. Such lovely cards you have made. I have made a long list of all cards we need to make for the coming months. We usually have a session at this time of year for all the birthdays in Spring as there are about 20!

    Sorry to hear that you have not quite worked out how to fit your exercise in your day, hopefully it will slot into place.

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    1. I should make a list ideally – later in the year I have 3 major birthdays close together in October, a 60, 70 and 80 so I wanted to do something special for them. I should start soon rather than leave it to the last minute. I managed exercises today!

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  8. Hello, I am new to your lovely blog. I enjoyed the photos, I like the cute acorn bird feeder. The lemon curd looks delicious. I love your butterfly birthday cards, they are so cute. Wishing you a happy day!

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  10. Your acorn nut holder is wonderful! The hand made birthday card is an inspiration – I may have to ‘borrow’ the idea myself! I bet your friend was delighted. Hope your weekend isn’t too stormy Vivien. x

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