Hot Chocolate Cuppa Swap - Part 1

Happy Halloween everybody :o)

OK this tin has nothing to do with the swap, but this is an heirloom - I know that it is 50+ years old and I persuaded my mom to let me have it when I moved away from home. Well was the only one drinking hot chocolate anyway.. and it is stil used for it's designed purpose :o) One of my favourite things.

This post is about a hot chocolate swap, organised by Josie over at PaperCraftPlanet, where I was to send hot chocolate enough for ..... tada.... two cups to Niamh. Just had to open my cupboard and pick my two favourites VanHouten Choco Drink (Fairtrade) and Nestlé Choco Hot Creamy.

That was the easy part, then on to create a homemade card, to send with the hot chocolate samples. Oh that caused a minor headache, as I discarded two ideas in the process and finally came up with this. 

Leafy background is a digi freebie from Spyder's Corner and the cuppa stamp is from Bugaboo Digi Stamps.

As I had already discarded an idea of creating a double card, I needed some kind of pouch for the samples. Had some handmade paper at hand with "scratched" edges, so decided that it was to be the main "ingredient" of the pouch decorated a bit with a scrap of the leafy paper and the cups again - merely downsized. That would create a rustic look.

Here is the pouch when opened.

The "ribbon" or the "string" used is actually made of paper, to the right is how it looked when I purchased it, at the left it is smoothed out.

By the way: added a chocolate bonus - not an eatable one but also a drinkable one without being hot chocolate: a bag of Choco tea from YogiTea.

Sunflowers

To brighten up my appartment, I occationally buy a bouquet of flowers. Only flower bouquets I receive from others go into one vase only - those I buy I divide into several bottles and mini-vases to spread the joy and colours a little more.

This time of season calls for sunflowers - I love them! They goes into bottles, that I find colourful and nice - the milk bottle is an heirloom that is 60+ years old.

One of the two shelves in my appartment that is not cramped with books.

The other shelf right above my computer corner.

When it is off season for sunflowers, I sometimes walk to a museum, where I can admire the Danish painter Michael Ancher's painting "Girl with Sunflowers"

Treasure Chest

I have a treasure chest - well it is in my eyes, as it is both useful but also with some treasured memories.

It is a sewing box from the 1930s and it used to belong to my mother. My mother had not used it since she moved away from home, so when my grandmother passed away I inherited it.

It is being used to what it was originally intended for

It also contains items no longer used - this embroidery I made in school at the time I had horses on my brain. It hung on the door to my room.

I also inherited my grandmothers sewing box, but unfortunately it was in such a bad state, that it could not be rescued. Inside that box was this little box which is more than 50 years old - and my grandmother used it for needles and so do I.

Chocolate

Now some of you might say "What the....??!! She doesn't eat chocolate!" - and you are right, my favourite kind of chocolate is hot chocolate, never been to fond of the kind you eat.

The same someones may remember, that I am very fond of liquirice, so you might know why this chocolate bar was too tempting for me to resist: milk chocolate with salmiac filling.This is ok - but can not eat the whole chocolate bar at once - only a few pieces at the time making the chocolate bare last for several days :o)

The View

Just spotting this balcony and the thoughts rushed to warmer places: one of the countries along the Mediterranean or perhaps somewhere South America, the Caribbean… And then not because if you look closer, the characteristic shudders for those places are missing around this balcony door…

But one is allowed to dream or? :o) Or was is really my fascination of the color blue, that made my eye catch this photo opportunity?

One of My Favourite Things

We all have those favourite things, that we like to have at any occation.....sometimes we use any occation to have it.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough icecream from Ben&Jerrys - yummi :o) Just realised that it is the 20th aniversary for that icecream this year.

First time I tasted this icecream was during a vacation in Florida, where the hot weather just called for something cold.... when my aunt and uncle discovered how much I enjoyed this icecream, they bought the biggest one, that they could find in the local supermarket, so it was handy in the freezer (we had rented an appartment for the vacation) - they always have a piece of key lime pie as dessert on holidays, which I don't like so they were happy to find something for me to eat as dessert.. Well icecream in the freezer and CocaCola + GingerAle in the refrigerator - who could ask for more? :o) Well it was a combination of those 3 things + nice weather, long walks on the nearby beach, relaxing, reading good books on the porch and.....ahh those memories.

They do have the icecream locally, and I have just discovered the 150ml portions in the nearby supermarket :o) Have a couple of them in my freezer and everytime I get my MS treatment at the hospital (every 4-6 weeks) I spoil myself with one of those in the evening - well I did have the treatment and then going to work afterwards.....and that's about the only time when I spoil myself with this icecream - besides when on vacation in Florida.