2018–A Review of the Year

A year of distinct ups and downs, mostly dominated by health problems and not a lot of creative output this year, apart from one major project.

It is now just over a year since my mum died, and it has taken all this time for the solicitors to wind up the estate. Yes, there were some complications because the law had changed between the deaths of my respective parents but we as a family think they could have got their skates on a bit more than they did! My hubby worked wonders with all the paperwork at the beginning of the year, while he was still laid up with his broken leg, which eventually healed, but it took a long time.

At the beginning of the year, we had a memorial service for Mum which was very well attended, and which was a good celebration of her long life of 96 years. We planned this together and I designed the service booklets as I had done for Dad. We played a selection of her favourite music and I sang “I know that my Redeemer liveth” from Handel’s Messiah, accompanied by the organist from our church. I was able to speak about Mum as well.

Art Projects

I decided to make two copies of a mini-album about Mum, one for her best friend and one for us to keep, and I was not able to blog about this while I was making it in case our friend saw it, and things have rather taken over and prevented me from completing the uploading of the almost daily posts I did and saved as drafts at the time. Something to remedy in the New Year, perhaps?

Anyway, I did blog about the finished project, and made a video flip-through of it.

Later in the year, I made boxes to keep the two albums in.

The other main project I made this year was three small heart-shaped frames that I altered, as gifts for friends.

To accompany the purple one, I also made a birthday card.

Other cards 

These included a birthday card for a beekeeping friend.

For our wedding anniversary, I made this card for my hubby, with a swinging heart with our initials on either side, with a faux woodgrain effect.

For Valentine’s Day I made him this one:

with a pop-up inside.

For a friend’s 100th birthday I made this card, using some dies I got at a craft show early in the year.

Embroidery

Also for this friend’s birthday, I made this small cross-stitch plaque from a chart I designed many years ago.

I made no further headway on my other embroidery projects, I’m afraid!

Knitting and Crochet

I’ve really got back into this again this year. This year was supposed to be the Year of the UFOs, when I was determined to tackle my huge stash of UnFinished Objects but as usual this rather bit the dust! I did manage to unravel a tunic top I’d made many years ago, and started to knit this up again to a new design which will hopefully fit me a lot better than its previous incarnation!

I have now completed the back and begun on the front, but haven’t photographed it recently.

I also finished knitting a striped scarf I began while I was having my chemo in 2015.

For this, I made a lot of felt and crochet embellishments, which I have yet to attach to the scarf. (Another UFO…)

I knitted another scarf from a single ball of gorgeous yarn I bought in a charity shop.

Again, I haven’t managed to complete this – I am still making the peacock feather embellishments for this.

I shall need to buy some more yarn to complete these.

Not a terribly productive year art and craft-wise. Hope to do better next year!

Health Problems

One of the reasons for my lack of productivity was a major health crisis at the beginning of the year.

I saw my surgeon at the end of last year when he agreed that my recurrent parastomal hernia really did need repairing as it was causing me major problems. I went into hospital to have this done in March, and within a fortnight I was back in again with sepsis. I had two large infected haematomas in my abdomen and had to have two drains to deal with these, and I also had intravenous fluids, two units of blood, and three different cocktails of powerful IV antibiotics before they finally found the right combination to deal with the infection. I was in for nearly three weeks, in quite severe pain for most of the time, and feeling dreadful. It took them over 24 hours to get my temperature down to a safe level, and the whole experience was not something I ever want to repeat.

I saw my surgeon again in August and told him I was sure the hernia had returned, which was confirmed by a CT scan in the autumn. I saw him again recently and we discussed options. He is consulting a colleague in Exeter in order to come to the right decision for me. I blogged in detail about this here.

Hopefully another appointment will be forthcoming in the New Year, and I will know the way forward. Having discussed everything at some length with him, I feel a lot easier in my mind now about the possibility of further surgery if they deem it necessary.

It took me quite a while to get over all this, but I am convinced my recovery was helped no end by a friend introducing me to fermented foods.

Some good news, though – at my regular oncology appointment in November I was told I am still cancer free.

Fermented Foods

I got very interested in fermented foods in the summer, and started drinking kefir and kombucha, to try and counteract the ill-effects of so many powerful antibiotics on my system. A friend who had had many gut problems over several years had benefited greatly from this, and she kindly got me started on this route, and I’ve become a complete convert! My hubby and I are both consuming kefir and kombucha on a daily basis and we believe this is also having a beneficial effect on his diverticular disease. Everyone is telling me how well I look these days!

I have become very interested in the whole new area of research into the gut microbiome, and have been reading a lot about it.

Making kefir.

Making kombucha.

During this time I also invested in a kefir cheese maker which is a lot easier to use and more efficient than using muslin in a sieve. I am getting very good results with the kefir cheese which is delicious, and the resulting whey is extremely beneficial too.

Sourdough

In the summer, I also started making sourdough bread which is extremely nutritious and good for general health.

I made my own starter, called Esmeralda.

After many months on a pretty steep learning curve, I think I’ve finally cracked sourdough making and am getting consistently good results now. I have blogged about my efforts and photographed the loaves I make most weeks, so that I can see how I have improved with practice.

We both enjoy eating this on a regular basis.

Other bread

I am also continuing to make my regular seedy bread in the bread maker.

Another sort of bread I make every now and then is challah. Delicious! Really sweet and rich. When we can, we attend a regular Shabbat meal held locally by a friend, and I always like to supply the challah if we are going.

This year, I have also started making brown seedy baps which are much nicer than the shop ones!

 Other cooking

With excess sourdough starter, I have been making crackers and pancakes, from recipes I found online.

I have also been experimenting with Middle Eastern cooking, having been given a brilliant recipe book. We both very much enjoy this delicious, delicately spiced and nutritious food, and it’s so easy these days to get the more exotic ingredients online. My hubby has been enjoying the results of my efforts in this new area!

With the apples from our wonderful tree in the garden, I made chutney for the first time this year, and it was a huge success. Here is the jar I made for a friend, complete with the label I designed for it.

I also made some sourdough crackers for the same friend on another occasion.

Since being ill, I have gradually worked through our supplies of refined carbohydrates and we have been eating more whole grain foods and plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.

I seem to have spent more time baking and cooking this year than making art!

Diet

My 5:2 diet has been ongoing throughout the year but this year I haven’t really lost any more weight. I have put on a few pounds since reaching my original target weight, and have found it very hard to maintain at that level, so I think realistically my current weight is probably my ideal weight. I have still lost around 4 stone since I started and I am well satisfied with that. My hubby has now agreed to join me on this two days a week fast, and doing it together I can support him in his aim to lose some weight.

Bible Study

Our little group went into abeyance for a few months because I was so ill, and it took me quite a while to pick up the pieces of my life again and catch up with everything that had got neglected during that time. When we resumed in the autumn, we gained two new members which has been a great joy – both contribute a lot and we have some interesting and lively discussions during and after the teaching. I continue to design plenty of visual aids on my desktop publisher, photo editor, and Inkscape (vector images) to produce on PowerPoint which we show on the TV screen. This year we have embarked on a major course on prophecy, and during the coming year, interspersed between these sessions, we will again be covering the Feasts of the Lord at the relevant times throughout the year. I have been studying the Bible in depth for over 30 years and it is always such a privilege to be able to share the fruits of my studies with others, particularly when they are as hungry for it as the lovely people in our small group. It would be lovely to see our numbers grow, but there is a great deal of apathy in the church today and most people are not prepared for the commitment, or to put in the time and effort required for study – such a shame, as it has proved to be the most exciting adventure of my life.

Kitties

Our two new kitties celebrated their first birthday in May, and with the nice summer weather we let them out in the garden for the first time, and they were soon enjoying it to the full, spending all day out there, chasing butterflies and relaxing in the sun, and keeping us company when we were sitting out under the apple tree having our meals. It was such a lovely summer in which to let them out.

Recently, though, we have been having terrible trouble with Ruby escaping through my hubby’s kitty defences and he has been working on improving them. Until we are sure they are safe, both kitties are grounded for now, and have reverted to being indoor kitties. They don’t seem to mind too much, and it’s probably a good thing the weather has been so wet lately!

Not only has Ruby developed into a regular Houdini, but she has also developed into the more naughty of the two in other ways too – she is a terrible food thief and will pinch stuff off your plate if you just look away for a few seconds! She can smell butter at 500 paces and absolutely nothing is safe from the little monkey. Lily, on the other hand, doesn’t seem bothered about our food at all and is generally very well behaved! There’s always one, isn’t there…

They continue to be an absolute delight. They are now fully grown and adult but they will always be our babies! They are very close and get on so well with each other, with only the occasional spat, usually at meal times. They are affectionate and love to be with us, and communicate with us all the time. Their little personalities are so different from each other and they seem to have settled down with Lily being the senior of the two. We are absolutely delighted with them both.

Outings

We have had some lovely outings this year. In May we attended the Devon County Show, a fixture I should hate to miss! I wasn’t long out of hospital and was determined to be well enough to go.

Teignmouth.

Hope Cove.

Tyntesfield, near Bristol.

Knightshayes Court.

Meals Out

We also had some fabulous meals out, including a really posh nosh evening at a Michelin starred restaurant for which we were given tickets.

A meal out with a friend. Very chefy food at a pub near us.

For various reasons it is difficult for us to get away on holiday, but living where we do, there are so many lovely places to visit, and friends to eat out with, and so on, that we hardly miss it. I love being at home anyway, with our lovely surroundings and beautiful little garden, our kitties, my studio and all the things I enjoy doing.

Computers

At the end of the year I had a bit of a crisis with my remaining laptop which involved having to format the hard drive and reinstall everything. My hubby’s laptop completely died around this time too, and with Mum’s money about to make an appearance, I decided to buy us both a new laptop and we went off one evening after doing some online research, and got a couple of Acers. I’ve always had HPs in the past but my last one really wasn’t as good as previous HPs so I decided not to get another. That laptop will now go up in the office as a replacement for my previous HP which died (I have been struggling up and down the stairs with it and really need one permanently up there for the accounts etc.) and the new Acer will now become my main computer. I still haven’t got everything back on and working as I would like it but I’ve got the essentials, and the rest will happen in due course.

Summary

Looking back over that little lot, despite my various difficulties this year, I’ve actually done quite a bit! The year has generally been a very good one and we have a lot to be thankful for. I hope to achieve a bit more on the creative front in the coming year, and for once I’m not going to list all the things I intend doing because I always fail to do them!! I shall do what I shall do, and hopefully I shall enjoy the process!

Wishing all my followers and visitors a very Happy New Year.

WOYWW 488–Two Completed Boxes

My desk today.

All tidy again! And a finished project!

I finished the two boxes on Monday evening, so in plenty of time for Thursday! We are seeing our friend tomorrow and I am giving her one of the boxes so that she can transfer her copy of the Floral Mini-Album from the biscuit tin it has been living in since February!

I had a lot of trouble with sticking on the metal embellishments. The hot glue didn’t seem to stick onto the metal properly and the embellishments started falling off. I had to scrape off as much of the glue as I could from the boxes, and then I tried again with Pinflair gel glue and this seemed to do the trick, but I hope they don’t start falling off again or our friend’s box will have to come back for running repairs.

You can scroll down for previous posts about the boxes to see how I made them.

Crochet

I think I’ve made enough embellishments for the striped scarf now. I made a few more of the larger crochet leaves this week, and on Sunday I steam pressed all the crochet leaves and flowers.

I have a little more work to do on the felt balls that I made, as they aren’t quite felted enough. They are needle-felted, but need a bit of wet felting technique applied to them to firm them up a bit. Once that is done, I can think about sewing all the embellishments onto the scarf.

I have started making the peacock feathers for the next scarf I’m going to knit.

I bought the cotton yarn for the peacock feathers from an online site – 25g balls in five lovely colours, and they came in this sweet little bag. For this pattern, you need to use cotton in order t0 comb it out to make realistic-looking feather barbs. I haven’t got to that stage yet. More photos will follow in due course. I’ve decided to do some feathers with shafts and some not. The peacock feathers will be on the ends of the scarf.

I’ve left tails on all these crochet pieces so I can sew them on.

I bought the yarn for the scarf for £1 in a charity shop, and had to re-wind it straight away as the skein was collapsing a bit and getting tangled. I am not sure what it is made of because it came without a yarn band, but it is some sort of acrylic, I think, and it is lovely and soft, and the colours are fabulous!

Unlike the striped scarf which is knitted from 4-ply pure wool, stocking stitch on a circular needle, this scarf will be done in moss stitch, and single thickness, rather than in the round. It will also not be as wide or as long as the striped one. I made an experimental start last night but unravelled it after a couple of rows because it was too wide. I’ve got a friend coming tomorrow to watch a DVD with me and I shall begin it again then.

I shall enjoy doing some more knitting, and getting the second scarf done, which shouldn’t take me so long. I have also got any number of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) to get on with, including an unravelling and reknitting job that’s been hanging around since last winter. It’s high time I made inroads into these UFOs because that was supposed to be the main emphasis for this year!

Kitties

A couple of sweet pictures of them sleeping together, taken on Sunday evening.

I came down a bit later to find them like this:

Lily seems to have got Ruby in a face lock – you can see her other paw underneath – not sure how Ruby’s managing to breathe!!

Another fun position, this time on Monday evening:

Ruby has always liked sleeping on top of her lovely warm and soft sister. Now the weather’s got so cold, they are happy to stay in more. When I’m sitting with my feet up I nearly always have Ruby and quite often Lily as well.

Sourdough

My sourdough last weekend wasn’t a huge success. When I tipped it out of the bowl into the Dutch oven I didn’t aim very straight and it ended up half up the side of the casserole where of course it stuck because only the bottom was floured. I got it out OK when it was baked, but it came out looking more like a pasty than a loaf of bread!

Cutting into it, it looked OK, and it tasted fine. Several slices laid out look rather artistic, with that Paisley-like shape!

Again, it’s not rising as much as it should. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong.

This week I also made a normal loaf in the bread maker, half-and-half wholemeal and white, with added sunflower and pumpkin seeds – my normal basic bread. The sourdough loaf isn’t big enough to last the week. It keeps ages, and would keep a week easily, if we didn’t keep eating it all!

Health Update

I had my eyes tested on Monday. My eyesight hasn’t changed that much since two years ago so I don’t need new glasses which is a relief – even keeping my existing frames (which I have now had since about the year 2000!!) they are fiendishly expensive. They told me I have developed slight cataracts in both eyes but nothing to worry about yet. I can’t say I’ve noticed any difference in my vision except when I’m tired, and I feel as if I need to rub my eyes because they seem a bit blurred. It’s a bit depressing to be told that, though, because cataracts are what old people suffer from lol!!

Also on Monday I had bloods taken at the GP’s surgery – when I went back on the rivaroxaban (anticoagulant) the GP told me she wanted to check my kidney function after a fortnight. It took another fortnight to get an appointment with the nurse! Waiting times seem to be increasing across the board these days, at the surgery and at the hospital. She told me I was due for a general GP checkup and I can arrange this when I go in for the next lot of bloods in November before my oncology appointment.

My CT scan is a week tomorrow, and I have absolutely no doubt that this will confirm that my hernia has returned. It’s taken me two months to get this appointment.

Have a happy WOYWW everyone and a nice creative week ahead!