2017–The Year in Review

Warning – Long post, photo rich

Another year has flown by, and my goodness, what a year it has been. Here is my annual review of what has happened in my life over the past twelve months.

Mum

The most significant event was the death of my mum on 9th December. She was 96 and was ready to go. Over the past few years her quality of life had deteriorated greatly and she spent the final couple of years in residential care, almost completely deaf and unable to do much. I often think that the progress of modern medicine may have succeeded in prolonging life, but if the quality of that life has deteriorated to the extent that it no longer holds any pleasure, what is the point? I am absolutely against euthanasia, but do not hold with “striving officiously to keep alive…”

Although during my adult life, my relationship with Mum was not what it might have been, I have many good memories, and am grateful for many things – during my childhood she was always there for us, with a hot meal on the table when we would arrive home hungry from school; she was always taking us out for walks, outings to the seaside with our little friends, and providing memorable birthday parties and so on. I learnt my home-making skills from her and am so grateful for the knowledge passed down through the generations from mother to daughter, so often lost these days when economic pressures make it necessary for mothers of small children to be so often out of the home in paid employment.

My hubby

All through this year my hubby has been far too busy, rushing around and hardly being at home. This has made him very tired when he has been home, dropping straight off to sleep in front of the TV etc.! I had been on at him for taking on too much, and the need to remember that he is no longer 30 years old! Then, at the end of November, he slipped and fell, and broke his leg, and he has been immobilised since then, walking with difficulty on crutches and not being allowed to put his foot on the ground. It has been touch and go whether he would need it pinned but they seem to think he’s doing OK for now, but he’s going back to the fracture clinic in four weeks’ time and they will make the final decision then. He is going to be in plaster for a long time, it seems. During this whole time he is unable to drive, and we have been very stuck, but our wonderful friends, neighbours, people from church and family have been very supportive and helpful, taking us out when necessary for hospital appointments and other engagements, doing odd bits of shopping and helping with things at home.

One friend said it was a good thing he was immobilised for a while because it would make him stop and rest a bit! Also, being unable to rush around all the time, he now has time to sort through all Mum’s papers and deal with things following her death.

I have found this whole period a great strain because I can deal with our normal life OK, managing what I have to do and factoring in the necessary rest times, but with my hubby so out of action, I have not only had him to look after, but have also had to do a lot of the things that he would normally be doing, and there have been times when having to keep constantly on the go, and simply having too much to do, it has all got too much for me and I’ve lost the plot and thrown a wobbly. I find that with my ME brainfog (and probably residual chemo brain – this has definitely affected my memory and concentration as well) that I tend to cave in under too much stress and don’t deal with it too well. I have also been carrying the anxiety about my present state of health, not to mention the stress associated with Mum’s death and all the extra things to do because of that, and then Christmas in the middle of it all.

I yearn for a period of peace and quiet and our lives returning to some sort of normality.

Health Issues

It has been another significant year for me, health-wise. In 2015 I was successfully treated for bowel cancer, and throughout 2016 I enjoyed better health than I had done for years, with the eradication of my ulcerative colitis after the removal of my entire colon. My ileostomy was very settled and easy to manage throughout the year, and I believed that this would be the story of the rest of my life, but in the autumn of that year I developed a parastomal hernia.

At the end of January this year, this caused an obstruction which necessitated emergency surgery and a two-and-a-half week stay in hospital, very poorly, and taking quite a long time to recover. A simple sutured repair of the hernia was performed by a general surgeon and as anticipated, this failed, and by the autumn the hernia had returned, and it is now in the same state that it was at the beginning of the year, causing me to be fearful of another blockage, and history repeating itself before my specialist colorectal surgeon can perform a proper repair and insert a reinforcing mesh.

I was due to see him before the year’s end, but this has not happened, and I now have to wait till mid-January to see him. I am hoping that now that the hernia has returned, and knowing my history, he will be prepared to have me in for elective surgery before it causes me another obstruction.

My system remains free of cancer, which is something on the plus side. I have seen the oncologist twice during the year and she is very pleased with me. I continue to suffer from peripheral neuropathy as an ongoing side effect of the six months of chemo I had in 2015, and this may or may not clear up; whatever happens, it is a small price to pay for survival!

Diet

I began the 5:2 diet in the summer of 2014. I had to take a break from the diet throughout 2015 while undergoing cancer treatment, but I resumed it in 2016, and this year I reached my target weight, having lost a total of 4 1/2 stone, and losing 10 inches around my waist! I have a tremendous sense of achievement over this as it proves that it can be done, and through diet alone as well, because with my ME I am unable to take sufficient exercise to make any difference to weight loss.

I am absolutely delighted to have been able to get rid of clothes that are now too big for me (trousers and leggings that wouldn’t stay up!) and to have an excuse to buy some new things, but above all, to be able to get into some old favourites again! For years my friends were telling me to get rid of these clothes because I should be realistic and accept that I’d never again be as thin as I once was, but I have proved them wrong. I had a lot of clothes that I really loved, and couldn’t bear to part with, and they are now wearable again. This makes me feel good, good, GOOD!!

Here’s me in my Afghan Nomad Dress (which I made years ago – definitely in the 1990s as this photo was taken when we lived in Plymouth:

And again, on Christmas day this year:

Here are my “before and after” pics – the first was taken in 2013 (the year before I started the diet) and the second was taken this May. I  can’t believe I looked like that…….

Kitties

Another significant, and sad event during this year was the death, only three weeks apart, of our beloved old kitties Beatrice and Phoebe.

Phoebe, aged nearly 14, developed bowel cancer and had to be put down; she had also suffered from grand mal epilepsy for the last couple of years of her life, which was extremely distressing. After she died, Beatrice, nearly 17, seemed utterly lost without her, despite the fact that they were never that close. She lingered in all Phoebe’s favourite spots as if looking for her to return, and went completely off her food, until she became so weak and obviously heart-broken and grieving, and she was put down three weeks later. We knew that both of them, being in poor health, would die this year, but we never thought it would happen so close together.

Then followed six weeks with no kitties in the house. This is only the second time this has happened to us in over 30 years of marriage, and it was very hard!

We found our new babies online, and at the end of July we drove over to west Dorset to collect them. Amazingly, they were born on our wedding anniversary (24th May)! We won’t forget their birthday in a hurry.

Here they are at 5 weeks, when we were first introduced to them (we couldn’t have them till they were 9 weeks old).

This is what they look like now – I can’t believe how much they have grown!

Lily and Ruby are now (unbelievably!) seven months old, and so much part of the family that we cannot imagine life without them. They are an utter delight, full of personality, and so pretty too! I’ve done lots of blog posts about them – far too many to provide links for, and I have also made numerous videos of them which are on my Youtube channel.

House

Back in March we discovered dry rot under the kitchen floor, which was a worrying thing because we knew it would be very expensive to deal with.

It turned out to be only in one small isolated area and although costly, a lot less so than we’d been led to believe, which was a huge relief. Work began in April.

It meant that the old-fashioned cupboard in the kitchen had to come out (it was a pain to use anyway, so no great loss) and we then had to wait until July before the carpenter was free to come and make me a beautiful walk-in pantry.

During this time I used the kitchen in Mum’s flat (which occupies half the downstairs of the house) – very small and cramped, but perfectly adequate!

The new pantry completed:

The whole unpleasant matter of the dry rot turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the new pantry has made my life so much easier, and I continue to be thrilled to bits with it. I made some extra shelves to house all my supplies, and I made some decorative labels to go on my jars, and the whole thing looks fantastic!

Food

Considering what else has gone on, I’m happy to say I have been able to do some baking and cooking this year. I find this very therapeutic.

I went on a bread baking day too (my hubby won the ticket for that).

Finally, I cooked my first Christmas dinner for over ten years.

For our annual family get-together after Christmas, I made four puddings:

Cancer Group

Our monthly cancer Cakeathon continues but we are now meeting here at my home instead of at the cancer support centre. Numbers have dropped off somewhat over the last few months because people have been busy with other things. I bake regularly for these meetings. One of our members had a coffee morning in aid of Macmillan’s this year and several of us attended that, and we baked for it too. I am perpetually grateful for all the wonderful friends I have made through getting cancer.

Bible Study Group

This has been ongoing too – our numbers remain small but they are so faithful and I am grateful for that! We completed our course on the Tabernacle, and have done occasional sessions on the Feasts of the Lord to coincide with the calendar dates on which these fall, and we began a major course on Prophecy, interrupted by a short course on Salvation (since the subject was raised by one of our members – we are very flexible about what we do!) – to be completed in the New Year. There is a lot of work involved in preparing the sessions, including designing the PowerPoint slides (which are creative and fun to do) but I find it very fulfilling, and just lately it has been something which has encouraged and built me up in the middle of a lot of troubling events.

Art

As a result of everything that has gone on this year, I have found it very hard to find the time, energy and concentration to do much art at all, and my studio has lain neglected, a sad, dust-gathering dumping ground, for far too long. I have got new stash which has been sitting around for months not even opened. I hate the fact that it is always my creativity which suffers the most when the pressures of life encroach. When time has become available, I have found that I am too tired to do anything, which is an ongoing frustration.

However, I have managed to achieve something!

Mamhead Album completed:

This was a project I worked on for several months in 2016.

I made another little book as well, this year, called “Second Wind”:

which was my first attempt at a Coptic binding.

I had hoped to finish the other book I have been working on by the end of this year but with the pressures on me over the past few weeks, this hasn’t been possible. This is a book giving examples of all the different techniques you can use with Infusions.

I also made a selection of simple stamped cards to replenish my stash:

I made a couple of cards for my hubby, one for his birthday and one for our anniversary, both mixed media with Infusions.

I have done some Zentangle in the iPad Pro this year. This was my best piece.

I did some other digital art using the Procreate app as well, including this picture, following along with a Youtube tutorial, and adding the silhouettes of some trees to make it my own:

I also continued with some digital mandalas which I save as outlines, and can then colour  as I wish.

This year I acquired an excellent video editing app for the iPad Pro called Luma Fusion, and have been able to make a lot of videos (mostly of the kittens) to upload to Youtube. Very convenient, very user-friendly. One of the best things is being able to use the iPad as a video camera so no transfer of video from one device to another is necessary. All I have to do now is rig up the iPad over my work space instead of my normal video camera.

Continuing with my ongoing embroidery project to make drapes for the bed half-tester, I’ve done a few more pieces, including these:

I’ve also done a bit of knitting, getting involved with a project at church to provide socks for the homeless.

This was supposed to be completed by the end of November, but with everything else going on, I haven’t finished the rainbow pair yet. However, I have been reassured that the project is ongoing, and someone will make sure my socks, once completed, will find a recipient!

That’s pretty much the sum total of art done this year. Not a lot to show for a whole year, is it, but other things certainly have intruded in my life big time this year!

Looking back on last year’s annual review, it’s interesting, as always, to re-read my intentions for the coming year and see how well I’ve done. As usual, the answer is, not very well!! Perhaps I should cease from this unprofitable exercise because every year, I fail!

Here’s what I intended. And whether I succeeded.

• Not making so many cards. Yes, but I didn’t do much else either!
• Books. Yes, to a limited degree.
• Boxes and 3-D objects. No.
• Textiles in my mixed media work. No.
• Felt. No.
• Finish all those UFOs (UnFinished Objects). No, no, no. Hopeless! They remain UnFinished.

So as usual I didn’t do too well on the resolutions scale.

Oh, I can’t help myself – I’m going to list some of my intentions for the coming year, despite what I’ve just said!!

• Finish the Infusions Mini-Album.
• Start using my as yet unopened Distress Oxides.
• Make more books.
• Make more boxes.
• Do more mixed media stuff and incorporate different materials including textiles.
• Make some upcycled clothing from all the bits I bought in charity shops several years ago.
• Definitely finish some of those lingering UFOs.

We shall see how well I do in the coming months!

After such a rollercoaster of a year, I am hoping for a more peaceful year ahead so that I can draw breath a bit, and get back to normal, and have more opportunity to develop my creativity. Also, now that Mum is no longer with us, maybe my hubby and I can have a bit more time together and go on more outings as the weather improves.

Wishing all my loyal followers and friends in Blogland and beyond a very happy and fruitful year ahead.

WOYWW 427

As you will probably understand, there’s no change on my desk this week, so no photo to share. I have been spending all my spare time in with the kittens and making videos galore! They are 11 weeks old today and growing fast, very feisty and alternating between fits of extremely vigorous play and crashing out asleep for hours. I’m amazed at how much noise they make, thundering around on those little paws, with occasional yelps when the play fighting gets too rough, and lots of little chirrups from Lily.

Tomorrow, we will have had them for two weeks! How quickly the time passes. Their personalities and preferences and coming out now, and they have their favourite toys, and different food preferences. Ruby has decided she doesn’t like wet food and for a couple of days I was worried about her because she wouldn’t eat – she’d demand food extremely loudly (again, amazing what a huge sound this tiny creature can make!) and then when I put it down, she’d turn away, and go on asking. She loves the little kitten biscuits and wolfs them down. I am trying her on different brands of wet food because it’s important for her to have that as well, but at least they are both drinking plenty of water – something all our previous kitties have never done, at least, not from a bowl in a civilised manner, but out of the drains etc. outside!!

They are at this moment careering around my feet, ambushing each other and wrestling with each other. Half an hour ago this is how they looked.

Ruby playing in the basket suspended from the cat tree my hubby made for them.

Crashed out asleep. They often sleep on top of each other.

I tend to do more videos than photos because I can usually only photograph them when they are asleep because otherwise they are moving too fast! Here is my favourite video of them.

All the videos are on previous posts on this blog, and also on my Youtube channel (link in sidebar).

One non-kitten thing I did manage to do this week was to make a video slide show of the mixed media mini-album I made in memory of my dad for my niece. It’s a project I’ve been meaning to do for ages.

I recently acquired an app for the iPad called LumaFusion, which is a powerful video editor and I can do most things on that that I can do on Final Cut Pro on the Mac. Very convenient as the iPad is also used as the video camera and there’s no transferring of video files to be done. More slide shows will follow, of other albums I’ve made since. They take a long time to edit, but they are fun to do. I’m planning to rig up the iPad over my desk so I can start videoing myself at work again.

Health Update

I’ve got an appointment with my surgeon tomorrow morning. When I saw him last (about 3 months ago), he booked me in for a CT scan of my abdomen to check whether my parastomal hernia had returned because it was “inconclusive.” It turned out that some fat had come through. Nice thought, esp. as I’ve now lost so much weight!! Anyway, he wrote me a letter after that, saying he recommended leaving well alone – at our last meeting he’d said he’d be reluctant to open me up and perform major surgery again unless it was absolutely necessary. Sutured parastomal hernia repairs have a 100% failure rate, and it rather looks as if it’s on the way to failure already (I had the operation on 1st Feb.) so I’m hoping it won’t fail and cause another obstruction, requiring another major operation as an emergency. What I really want is elective surgery for the insertion of some mesh around the stoma to reinforce the area, so hopefully he will do this when the hernia finally returns and before I get into difficulties with it. I don’t suppose he will have anything new to tell me tomorrow.

When I saw the oncologist after the CT scan result came back, she said there was no sign of cancer, but they should have scanned my chest as well (metastases from bowel cancer often appear in the lungs) so I had another scan. A case of the right hand not knowing what the left was up to? No cancer evident, and they are happy to see me as arranged in November, which will be the 2 year anniversary of my all-clear.

I’ve been a bit rough with my ME just lately but that’s probably from overdoing things, getting the kitchen sorted again after the new pantry was completed, and all the rushing around getting the kittens and getting them settled in (nice, though!). I’m resting when I can, and spending most of the time with the kittens. They tend to sleep all afternoon, having worn themselves out with their morning play session, and we all cuddle up together!

Kittens, and More Video Editing

Here’s a short video of the two kittens playing in the TV cabinet.

I had some papers on the shelf with notes on them about how to connect up a VCR/DVD recorder, and my hubby’s list of all the TV channels for Mum, and Lily has become obsessed with these and has pulled them all off and rushed through them and chewed the edges – she likes the sound it makes! I’m not worried and just letting her get on with it!

The Kitty Fun box.

I’ve been getting some practice in with my new video editing app, LumaFusion on the iPad and it’s so easy to use, so I’ve decided to start dealing with the backlog of videos I want to produce of some of my art work. Back in 2014 I made a mini-album from recycled materials (see “Recycled Mini-Album” posts for 2014 in my blog archive in the LH sidebar) and at the time, I took a lot of photos of the finished pages in readiness for making a video slideshow, and over the past couple of days I’ve at last compiled this into a finished video.

The next one I shall do is of the Mamhead album I made last year, about our walk in the woods.

This app is amazing – I am able to do pretty much everything I’ve been doing with Final Cut Pro on the Mac. The iPad is so responsive and there’s no delay at all. The only slight drawback is that with the 9.5 in. iPad, the screen is a bit small and my fingertips feel a bit clumsy at times, particularly when editing text for the headings, but I think if I used the Apple Pencil this would be easier. I need to charge it up…

It’s a doddle to upload videos to Youtube from within the app, and there are lots of different parameters you can set.

Another Busy Day for the New Kittens, and Video Editing

Lily and Ruby are getting much bolder and more adventurous with each passing day. They play so vigorously and then quite suddenly get overcome by tiredness and their little heads and eyelids droop, and they drop off into a deep sleep, usually one draped across the top of the other.

Lily seems better today and we think she is managing to pee OK. The vet said to minimise stress and she should settle down quickly and get over her initial mild cystitis. It certainly hasn’t stopped her from being extremely busy and active today with her sister! I did add to her stress briefly though, at lunch time when I was preparing their food, and stepped back onto her tiny paw – what a yell she gave out, and how terribly guilty I felt!! Kitties are so good though, and don’t bear a grudge, and it was soon forgotten (by her, at least!).

They are both eating very well, and drinking plenty of water, too – this is something we’ve never managed to persuade our previous kitties to do. They would all turn their noses up at a dish of water, preferring to drink rainwater and from other sources outside, whose cleanliness could not be guaranteed!

Lily has purred today. They are both sweet little purrers and the sound is quite delicious! Today we have also noticed the emergence of the most attractive little chirrups and squeaks they make when they are excited by their play. They have the sweetest little voices!

Fortunately they seem to be very much together as far as active and sleepy phases go, as they both enjoy playing together, and then sleeping together – they seem to tire at about the same rate. So we aren’t having one clamouring to play, while the other says “Leave me alone! I want to go to sleep!”

After their first night in the TV cabinet, last night they slept in the chair, and have had their daytime sleeps there, too. We bought them a snug little kitten bed with a cowl roof but they haven’t slept in there yet – my hubby suggested putting one of the incontinence pads in there, that we’d put in the cat carrier for their long drive from their previous home, which would have a recognisable smell, but so far all that has achieved is to give them something else to tug at and play with! I think it will end up in shreds all over the floor eventually!

Here’s a video from today, called “Wrestling Match.” Self-explanatory!

Video Editing

I have just acquired a truly brilliant app for the iPad – LumaFusion. As apps go, this was pretty expensive at £19.99 but a comparable video editor for the computer would cost considerably more. I already have Final Cut Pro X on the iMac and the MacBook (doesn’t run on Windows unfortunately) but for some reason this runs very slowly on the MacBook and I don’t want to spend hours sitting at the iMac in the studio as it’s very tiring. Discovering a video editing app for the iPad was great. It doesn’t have all the features of FCP by any means, but it’s pretty impressive.

I also discovered an excellent tutorial course called “The Epic Guide to LumaFusion” in the form of an e-book with video clips, by Eliot Fitzroy. This was a free download and I can’t imagine why because it’s chock full of useful information and a pretty comprehensive guide to the software.

I am gradually familiarising myself with it and producing some reasonable videos now. What’s so brilliant is that the iPad is both video camera and video editor all in one. My normal dedicated video camera will not transfer footage direct to the Mac and I have to download it to the Windows computer via a cable, and then convert the footage to a format FCP will recognise, which adds considerably to the work and the time involved, but with the iPad the footage is already on the device, and anything I want to add in the form of still photos or additional music/sound effects etc., can be acquired wirelessly. The iPad is so portable and easy, and I can work on it anywhere.

LumaFusion is still quite new, and additional features will be added a time goes on. I can’t find a way yet of capturing still images from the video footage or creating rolling titles, but these features could be in the pipeline. The choice of transitions is very limited but since I normally use simple cross-fades and dips (more fancy transitions can easily distract one from the footage itself) this isn’t a problem. Many of the features normally found on high-end video editors are present, such as key-framing, Ken Burns effect, colour correction, multiple video and audio tracks, picture-in-picture, titles, J&L cuts, etc. etc. There is a choice of destinations for sharing completed videos including Youtube, cloud storage and social media.

I am very happy to have discovered all this just in time for capturing the all-too short period of our kittens’ development. They are so much fun, and so desperately cute and adorable that I want to be filming every single moment of the day!!

I have recently bought a bracket to hold the iPad, with a standard tripod screw on it, and I am hoping to be able to rig this up in my studio over my main work area, but I am not sure yet if this will be feasible and how well it would work. If I want to edit the footage in Final Cut Pro, it will be a simple matter to transfer it wirelessly to the iMac.

Technology is definitely moving on!

WOYWW 360–Technology and Narrow Boat Painting

Better late than never – it’s now Wednesday evening and I have yet to show the world my desk! I couldn’t seem to get myself going this morning and all I managed to do was some singing practice, and then this afternoon I was busy producing something to show you!

Here is the corner of my studio to the right of the window, with my main work area on the right, taken from across the room. I took this photo this morning.

Yesterday I rolled up my sleeves and decided it was high time I got my cutting machine going again. She is called Sheba and is a Black Cat Cougar from Thyme Graphics, and I haven’t used her for several years, what with everything that’s been going on in my life over the past few years – problems with elderly parents, moving house, illness. During the past year I haven’t used my iMac much and like Sheba, it was in the corner of the room gathering dust. When I got it, I had the cutting software licence transferred fro the PC to Mac but never got round to setting it up, so I had to start doing that yesterday. Open on the screen you can see Final Cut Pro X, the Rolls-Royce of video editing software (available only on the Mac, unfortunately) – this is something else that I haven’t looked at for ages and wanted to revise my knowledge! On the right is my old laptop which works OK for some things but was replaced a few months ago with the one I am using to type this.

Hopefully if I can get Sheba up and running soon, I should be able to start producing more flowers and butterflies, and make some stencils etc. for my art. Watch this space.

Last week I began practising my narrow boat painting skills and soon realised that I didn’t have the right brushes so I ordered some on Ebay:

They came a couple of days ago, so this afternoon I did a bit more practising.

I am very grateful to Diana Taylor for her hint about translucent acrylics – she suggested mixing a bit of titanium white with the yellow and this certainly worked. The square of yellow roses bottom right was done this way, and the randomly-spaced ones have another coat of paler yellow on top which I quite like. I thought the spontaneity of the single brush stroke for each petal might be lost if I added more, but it seems to be OK. I can always add more yellow if I want. The new brushes are much better, but I had to experiment to get the right size, and also the right flow of paint – too thick and you can’t tail off the small petals to a nice fine line – too thin and the paint becomes translucent and too watery. Anyway I think I’m getting the hang of it now. In some ways it’s a shame that the boxes are painted red because it’s not an ideal background colour for this technique – a dark green or blue is better. Anyway I think I shall proceed with the acrylics and not bother to get any Humbrol enamels which I might not use again.

Happy WOYWW everyone, and a good productive week ahead on the creative front!

2014–What a Year

WOYWW visitors – please scroll down to the first post for today.

The second of three posts for today, and the first of two “update” posts – I realised there was going to be too much for a single post, because such a lot has gone on this year. I have therefore decided to devote this first one to personal and health issues and other miscellaneous things, and to make a new post about my creative endeavours during the year, of which there have been many!

I can’t believe it’s that time of year yet again when I look back on the months that have passed and take stock, and look forward, hopefully always with optimism, to the year ahead. This is the fifth annual review post I have made – have I really been blogging this long???

We have celebrated our first year living in our new house, and reaped the benefit of so many months of upheaval, anxiety, stress, joy and fun that took place during the previous year, during the renovations, and this year we have been able to enjoy to the full all the carefully planned alterations which have made life easier for everybody.

One of the things which has been the most fun was finally to be able to move into my beautiful new ARTHaven and get it up and running and planned exactly how I wanted, so that it at last became my favourite room in the house, where I can immerse myself in art and creativity and shed the stresses of the day, in an environment carefully designed and planned by me, and brought to fruition by our wonderful builders, to enable the creative process to take place with the minimum of difficulty.

Heath Issues

The year 2014 has been characterised by a series of health crises for us all – myself, my hubby and my mum, who lives in a flat occupying half the downstairs of the house. Just when we seemed to be entering a more stable period, something else happened, until I got to the stage when I wondered, “What next?” I know that compared with some people, our trials have been light, but nevertheless sometimes they have seemed hard to bear.

At the beginning of the year, now that we were really settled in, my hubby went up country to pick up my buggy (mobility scooter) which had belonged to my uncle, and this was installed in the garage with its own power supply, and enables me to trundle forth at the magnificent heartstopping rate of 4 mph to do my local errands – church, shopping, visiting etc. This is liberating!

In February I caught a nasty throat infection which left me coughing for months, and eventually in the summer I saw the doctor about it, and it became clear that the cough was a result of GORD (Gastro-oesophageal reflux disorder) and I was put on medication for this (Omeprazole) and referred to an ENT surgeon at the hospital for a proper examination, which revealed that there was still evidence of inflammation so I was put on revolting Gaviscon which is a sore trial to take!!

In the summer I also had problems with an extremely dry mouth, but after seeing another hospital consultant, a disease cause was ruled out, and we came to the conclusion that it was just another recurring M.E. symptom raising its ugly head again. I was given some good advice, though, about nasal decongestion which has helped a lot.

I suffered very badly this summer with swollen ankles and again sought medical advice. Several pieces of advice bore good fruit, and I also invested in a Circulation Booster which helped a lot. The cooler weather helped considerably, later on.

Since our return from holiday when I was shocked at how much weight I’d gained, I decided to embark on the famous 5:2 diet, and am happy to report that having hit another plateau recently, with my weight remaining constant for several weeks, I have lost a total of 2 stone 3 lb (31 lb) in six months. I have another 2 stone to lose until I am at the optimum weight for my height, but it is great knowing that I am now officially “overweight” and no longer “obese”!

In the summer also, I was diagnosed with mild anaemia, probably as a result of my ongoing ulcerative colitis, and have been on ferrous sulphate ever since, although now on a reduced dose, with my Hg levels being checked monthly.

In August I had my regular gastro-enterology appointment at the hospital to check on the state of my ulcerative colitis, and I have a colonoscopy coming up in January 2015 (something that has to happen every 2 years). He is pleased with my progress and how I am responding to the medication (Pentasa (mesazaline)).

However, my main health event of the year was a coronary artery spasm causing severe chest pain at the end of July, landing me in hospital for a couple of days. I’ve had no recurrence since, apart from a few periods of much less severe chest pain, all of which have been brought on by stress. I have a nitro-glycerine spray for such events. Coming out of hospital I became a soggy emotional heap, and when that passed, I moved into a period of several months’ mild depression, feeling generally “out of sorts” with myself, which is apparently a very common reaction to any cardiac event.

My M.E. continues much the same. The condition appears to have “bottomed out” and while I am not improving, neither am I continuing to go downhill as I did at the beginning. I have many days when I am pretty well unable to function and need to rest, which can be frustrating at times, but there’s nothing to be done about it and one just has to go with the flow and try and be as sensible as possible. Having a new adjustable bed is giving me more comfort and better nights and I no longer hanker after my wonderful hospital bed that I wanted to take home with me! This is also helping a lot with the reflux. Life is certainly easier with the renovations we had done in the house to suit my needs and also that my hubby isn’t having to run around after me quite so much as in the past.

A few weeks ago my hubby had an accident on his motorcycle and broke his wrist. He was in plaster for several weeks, and is now wearing a wrist splint after the latest X-ray revealed that the bone had knit. He will have another X-ray in a couple of weeks’ time and hopefully then will be back to normal. It feels painful now the rigid support of the cast is gone, and it will take time for it to regain its full strength. The worst part of it from our point of view was that he was not allowed to drive with a cast, and with all the running around he has to do on our behalf, this added to the already considerable inconvenience for him.

Mum’s health has presented us with several crises this year – firstly the common occurrence of minor injuries to her paper-thin skin necessitating hospital visits and the regular and frequent re-application of dressings. She is now very deaf and also needs her ears syringing regularly. She has also started suffering a series of TIAs (mini-strokes) and has been diagnosed with AF (atrial fibrillation) and is now on warfarin, which necessitates weekly visits to the surgery for her blood to be tested to determine the dose. Her short term memory is poor, and since her most recent bout of TIAs she has become more difficult, which is stressful for me, and my dear hubby is trying to shield me as much as possible, by taking on most of the contacts with her. We both experience ongoing low-level stress, interspersed by the high-octane version brought on by frequent confrontations with Mum on various issues. How true it is that whatever one’s personality, this tends to be exaggerated in old age.

It wasn’t just us humans in the family who had health issues this year. Our senior kitty, Beatrice (aged 14), after being registered with our new vet, had four teeth extracted, and was discovered to have a growth in the back of her neck that had to be removed, which proved to be quite major surgery, but was fortunately proved to be non-malignant. In order to protect the wound, she wore a premature babygro!

Then followed a series of urinary tract infections which have become ever more frequent so that she is more or less constantly on antibiotics now, but keeping pretty well, and with a good appetite. She is too thin, and with her delicate stomach has to be on a prescription diet, and requires frequent small meals in order to prevent vomiting. She continues to be a great character and much loved by us all, and she and “Granny” have developed a strong mutual affection and she enjoys spending time with Mum in her flat. The vet, “Uncle Luke,” is extremely fond of her, and everyone down at the vets’ has a huge soft spot for this very unusual kitty who is bursting with character and a bit too intelligent for her own good sometimes!!

All these health pressures have definitely been helped by having my hair permed again in the summer! Luuurve the curls. Thank goodness for good hair days, fragrant baths, kitties, art, and my wonderful hubby.

Technology

I was devastated this year that my faithful old sewing machine (21st birthday present) bit the dust, but delighted to get a new Brother machine, which, as things have turned out, I haven’t had a lot of time to get up and running – just a few boring household jobs to be done, and I still have to look up in the book how to thread it!!

At the beginning of the year I invested in an iMac and after an initial trial period trying to run both the Mac OS and Windows on it via a system called Parallels, eventually came to the conclusion that Windows didn’t work well enough on this for me, and I would continue with my two (now fairly elderly but excellent) laptops for Windows, and use the Mac pretty well exclusively for video. I had a brief experience with an upgrade to the latest version of Pinnacle video editing software on Windows but as with earlier versions, was frustrated by its instability, and decided to bite the bullet and move to Final Cut Pro for Mac which has proved to be a very successful move indeed. With my new video camera setup I can now produce good quality HD videos and the program is a total dream to operate – makes me wonder why I didn’t stop messing about years ago and spend the money and get serious – I’d have saved a great deal in the long run! I have not had as much time to create videos this year as I would have liked – it is a highly time-consuming process but also very creative and enjoyable.

The House

Finishing touches to the renovations included the installation of solar panels in the summer. We had been at a bit of a loss to know which company to approach, but our visit to the County Show was very fruitful, as we were able to speak one-to-one with several companies and come home armed with fliers. It was not hard to make our final choice, and the work went ahead very smoothly.

Personal

The major event of this year was my hubby’s retirement in the summer. He continues to be quite overwhelmed by the tremendous send-off he received, and all the gifts, cards, letters, emails etc. etc. I was a bit worried that he might feel the loss of role quite badly but he has had an incredibly busy time since, being carer for both Mum and myself, and various other commitments, but I am glad that he has been able to fit in quite a few days out doing the things he enjoys the most, and spending time with his friends. In the summer, for the first time he was able to volunteer on the local annual archaeological dig on a full-time basis. Knowing how precious these times are for him, I guard them jealously and try not to add to his commitments by asking that he drive me to things that aren’t strictly necessary, but we have had some nice outings together, and had a wonderful holiday (our first for 4 years) in the summer, coinciding with my school reunion, and the opportunity to immerse myself in some fabulous art. Our major and best day outing was to Bristol to view the Kaffe Fassett exhibition (click on the link at the top of my sidebar for pictures).

Since moving here, I have found an excellent church to join, and was admitted to full membership in the summer. I am thrilled that is is right on the doorstep and takes only a few minutes on the buggy to get there. I have made new friends there and the quality of worship and teaching is excellent.

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Well, here we are again, back to another Wednesday where we all share what we’ve got on our desks! To join in the fun, please click on the WOYWW logo in my sidebar, which will take you to our hostess Julia’s blog, where all will be explained.

A week alternating between being busy and being too tired to do anything but lie on the recliner… Such is life for a foggy-brained M.E.-er.

At least I’ve managed to be a bit productive in a creative sense – I’ve finished my first masterboard. You can see it on top of the pile on my desk.

You can read all about it here (rather a long post, I’m afraid – it was quite a marathon to end up with the effect I wanted).

Underneath the completed masterboard are a couple more that I’m working on. I used the same sized paper to iron off the clear embossing resist, and decided to use these sheets to create further masterboards, one in green and the other in yellow. Underneath those is another sheet that I used to blot off the heat embossing on the green one – this embossing has now been on three pieces of paper! How’s that for recycling?

Last Wednesday evening I went to my first felt class, and the second is tonight. As for the piece I made last week, I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do with it but I will probably add some embroidery and turn it into a little picture of a poppy field.

Meanwhile, it has been sitting on the hall table until my hubby announced that the kitties like lying on it!! I have put it in my ARTHaven out of harm’s way, but it got me thinking that once my felt-making skills are up to it, I must make them each a cat cave.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and most of Sunday after church, were spent crashed out on the recliner feeling total c**p, apart from a brief burst of creativity when I made a house-moving card for my aunt who has just moved into a residential home.

For those who expressed an interest last week, I made a matching envelope for this, using my new WR Memory Keepers Envelope Punch Board, and you can read about it here, which is also the blog post about the above card. I was really pleased with how the card turned out, and more than delighted with the envelope board which really does do what it says on the tin – the first envelope board I’ve actually managed to get to grips with!

Yesterday I managed to complete my latest Youtube video, which is about a tiny Zentangle drawing on a teabag stain, made into a thank you card. I always seem to have a backlog of videos because they take such a long time to edit.

Also yesterday, my hubby, Mum and I all went to the doctor’s surgery to have blood tests! Mum’s is her weekly one to get her warfarin dose stabilised, and they also looked at the latest wound on her leg where she bashed it yet again just before she went to my sister’s. It’s not looking too good and they took a swab. My hubby’s was for his sugar levels to see if he’s managing to stave off diabetes, and mine was to check my haemoglobin to see if I need another course of iron. Results should be in by Friday. I’m also hoping they’ll change the Gaviscon I’ve been prescribed because it is so disgusting!!

This coming week, if I get time in between doing the accounts (boring) I hope to make further progress on the two masterboards, and get back to my recycled mini-album which has been neglected of late as my mojo in that department seems to have forsaken me somewhat. I have now set myself a deadline to complete it by Christmas so I’d better get a move on.

Have a great creative week, everyone, and happy WOYWW.

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For info on how to join in the world’s most famous (or infamous?) nosey fest, please click on the icon in the right-hand side bar, which will take you to our hostess Julia’s blog, where all will be revealed.

Here is my desk as at late on Tuesday evening.

As you can see, I am continuing to work on my Recycled Mini-Album. Today I completed another page with an emphasis on circles in the design. The page includes printing with bubble wrap, and creating circles using a pen lid dipped in paint. The background is made from the piece of kitchen paper I’d used for mopping up, which featured in last week’s WOYWW post.

For further details of this project, please scroll down to the previous post.

The book is sitting on top of one of my scratch papers – you can see more of this on the previous post, too. To the left is my blue desk-tidy which contains my foam applicators and stencil brushes amongst other things. I used these to create the circles in the border.

Working around clockwise behind the book, you can see the purple pencil box I use to keep my drawing pens in. Behind that, in the mini-bath, are some pieces of kitchen roll in the early stages of their creative journey before too much ink and paint have built up on them!

Further on again, and my gel mediums and acrylic paints seem to be taking up permanent residence on my work surface rather than being put away on the shelf that is their real home! Drawing pens in front, in black and white.

You can see the two bubble wrap printing blocks I made this afternoon. More details on my previous post.

Large rectangular tub of gesso almost out of shot, and some Distress Inks and my usual tin of paint brushes. Essential baby wipes on the drawers beyond!

Much of this week has been spent trying to catch up on my video editing. I have now uploaded a couple of videos about the Recycled Mini-Album, and also the Altered Pizza Box I made recently. All relevant blog posts will eventually be upgraded with these videos, but they are on Youtube already. Still got quite a few to go! I hate it that it takes longer to edit and upload a video than it does to do the actual project one was filming!

Other news – great excitement – our solar panels are being fitted this week! There’s a post about that below the one about my latest mini-album page.

Also, great news on the 5:2 diet front. Last week, you may remember, was my first week on this revolutonary new diet, and I was amazed to have lost 5 lb. I have now been doing it for 2 weeks, and at the end of the second week, I have lost a further 7 lb, making a total of 12 lb in two weeks!! I expect in time it will plateau out – I do not expect to continue to lose weight at this rate, but I am feeling extremely chuffed about it. Trouble is, nothing actually shows yet! Also, when I’ve lost weight in the past, I’ve tended to lose it from places I’m not really bothered about – like my face, and my wrists (watch strap gets loose!) – I am convinced that I could get really, really skinny except for my awful stomach which refuses to budge! Ah well, we can’t have it all our own way, I suppose.

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Wow! It’s the WOYWW-ing day again! In case you don’t know what I’m on about, click on the WOYWW logo in my sidebar which will take you to our hostess Julia’s blog, where all will be explained.

Another week has gone by and I haven’t yet plugged in my new sewing machine! I did manage to do a few more rows on my knitting, though, but not enough to make an interesting photo.

Most of my time has been taken up working on my recycled mini-album which you can read about here and here, as I have now updated my blog with a couple of posts about it, slotted in in date order. I have also been working hard at the videos, and there are now 5 instalments of this project on my Youtube channel. I will be adding them to my blog when the work on the album is finished. I am now using Final Cut Pro X on my iMac, having got totally fed up with Pinnacle which kept crashing and not playing ball, and various other video editing programs I’ve tried over the years. FCP is a total dream in comparison – it just does what I want, when I want, and it is so powerful. There is loads of fabulous help online and I am now feeling very at home with it, and wished I’d made this investment years ago. It is all such fun, as well as producing outstanding results for me.

My desk isn’t looking that interesting now, but here goes anyway:

On the left you can see my iMac with FCP running. Moving to the right, the pile of white paper is copious notes and instructions gleaned from the Internet to help me achieve what I want in FCP. To the right of that is the mini-album, now with its pages painted black and the binding more or less complete. Behind it is some talc and a small bowl – I have been lightly dusting the pages with talc in an attempt to prevent them sticking together. Further right, black gesso and black acrylic paint. Just in front of these you can just see the end papers I’ve made for the album. Further right is my palette, followed by more piles of scrap paper with notes on them. These notes relate to the planning of the album and what photos I will need, etc.

Hopefully soon you will see something from my new sewing machine. In the meantime, the rest of my ARTHaven is cluttered up as usual with drying teabags! Nothing new there, I hear you say.

Have a happy and productive week, everybody, and a very happy WOYWW.

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To find out how to join in the world’s biggest and most fun nosey-fest, click on the WOYWW link in my sidebar.

Not a great deal of change since last week, but some progress has been made on my teabag art:

On the left you can see the corner of the acrylic film I made with the used tea, now fully dried and ready for use. The large sheet of watercolour paper is a second piece for drying teabags, this time in a regular chequer-board pattern. To the right is my small leather art journal with pages painted with acrylics in preparation for teabag art. For further details of these, please see previous posts.

Here is a detail of the chequerboard design created by drying the teabags.

These are the art journal pages.

This is some fabric I’ve dyed with tea, ready for stitching some teabags. It has yet to be pressed.

Finally, here is the other piece of teabag-drying paper, with a few more marks added. Once I am satisfied that there are enough, I shall use it for an art project.

Other activities this week include a bit more progress of my knitting – remember my unravelled dress that I am re-knitting as a jumper? It’s been in abeyance for a while but good to take it up again.

I have also been working hard on learning my new video editing software – Pinnacle Studio 17 – the user manual is pathetic, and it’s not exactly intuitive, and very different from my old version (12). I have found some superb video tutorials on Youtube and also joined the Pinnacle forum, where there is excellent help and advice from people experienced in the use of the software. So even if I haven’t been in my ARTHaven that much, I have not been idle!

Beatrice is doing quite well – she’s still wearing her little dress, but the wound is knitting nicely at last, although more slowly than the vet had hoped, but she put that down to her age. However, a urine test result shows that she has a slight infection, so she is now on antibiotics. There is also some protein in her urine which indicates a slight problem with her kidneys, but the vet won’t address that until the infection has been dealt with. She is a lot more lively now, and getting up to naughty tricks – the other day she climbed the apple tree and got on the roof of the summerhouse and we were worried that she might jump down into the road, but my hubby has “kitty-proofed” the tree trunk with plastic anti-climb spikes to stop her climbing again. She is still pretty clingy and likes nothing better than to climb under the duvet and tuck herself under my arm – making sleep somewhat difficult for me!!

As for me, I have developed a throat infection and a dry cough which hurts my throat… Mum is treating me like a leper and won’t let me in the annexe in case she catches it!

Have a great week, everybody – full of inspiration and creativity.