WOYWW 513 Share, Foot and Mouth

Edit:  I am afraid I am still having problems with photos. No need to comment if you can’t see them. I am working on the problem and hopefully you will be able to see at least some of them. I can get them to appear, but they disappear again…

Share

I think I may have sorted the problem of my non-appearing photos – I had tried viewing my blog after logging out of my Google account and lo and behold, the photos were no longer visible to me along with everyone else, and since they were visible when I was logged in, I thought long and hard about that and wondered if it was a “share” issue on Google Photos. After making them “shared,” I logged out again and yes, they were visible to me. So please let me know if they are visible this week, and if they are, please scroll back to last week’s posts and you should be able to see the photos there as well.

As for all my disappearing photos since the demise of Google+, I am trying to work on two posts per day on average, and so far, working backwards, I have got back to June of last year, so it’s not going too badly.

Foot

Well, at least, footwear.

When we went shopping in Totnes last week I bought some gorgeous new felt slippers with really fun tops with felt balls on them.

They are quirky and fun and everybody says they are very “me”! My first thought was what fun it would be to embellish them! Having done my striped scarf with embroidered felt balls and other embellishments:

I thought I could do something similar with the slippers.

I have started cutting out some simple flower and leaf shapes from my large stash of felt.

Unlike with the scarf, I want the flowers and leaves to be flush with the surface of the slippers, rather than being 3-D. I am planning to do some wool embroidery on them and then stitch them to the slippers, and maybe add some embroidered stems, depending on how they look. The felt balls dangling from the tops of the slippers will have embroidery added to them.

Next time we go to Totnes I shall have to take the slippers back to the shop where I got them and show them what I’ve done!!

Mouth

Not so pleasant. I’d had the permanent filling put in my cracked wisdom tooth last Thursday and all was well, although it was a bit painful on and off when I bit down on it. My hubby said this was normal and he often got this for a few days after having had a filling (he has far more than I do so his is the voice of experience). It was pretty bad on Sunday and I was worried about it. Then at tea time on Sunday I thought part of another filling had broken off so my hubby rang on Monday and made an appointment for me for yesterday lunch time.

When I got there the dentist agreed with my hubby about teeth often being a bit sore for a few days afterwards, and then he looked at the other tooth and said the whole filling had come out! He fixed it then and there but it was a lot worse than the wisdom tooth one and the whole thing was pretty stressful. I had loads of local anaesthetic and my mouth didn’t come back to normal until tea time, and it’s been hurting since then, even though it didn’t hurt after the old filling came out. Hopefully it will settle down in a few days. I do hate going to the dentist and consider I’ve had more than my “fill” (sorreee) of it recently!

Our dentist is so lovely – he’s really friendly and knows what a wimp I am and always tries to put me at my ease (impossible) but we usually manage to have quite a laugh once the horrid part is done! He was very amused once when I told him I’d rather have 6 months of chemo than come and see him! Today he said everybody hated him and he had no friends because he was a dentist (which I don’t believe as he’s really nice and friendly!) and he said it was on a par with traffic wardens and tax inspectors. He then asked me, “What do you call 80 lawyers at the bottom of the sea?” I hadn’t a clue. Answer: “A good start.” Lol!!! (I have to agree – they charged us an arm and a leg, and possibly a mouthful of teeth, to wind up Mum’s estate… and it took them over a year.)

Anyway, I hope I don’t have any more tooth problems from now on.

Hospital appointment next Wednesday

I am going to see Mr. Daniels, another colorectal surgeon, at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (RD&E) next week, having been referred by Mr. Pullan, my surgeon at Torbay. He wanted a second opinion on what he calls my “intractable” parastomal hernia, and depending on what Mr. Daniels has to say on the matter, I may need further surgery. I shall be very interested to hear his opinion about it.

Kitties

Lily and Ruby haven’t been doing anything spectacular recently apart from the usual sleeping, eating, the odd tiff, a fair bit of chasing each other around the house – thundering paws above our heads – whoever said cats were silent on their feet? We’ve always had elephants! They’ve been out most days and seem safe without constant supervision now my hubby has fixed the defences, but we don’t let them out unless he’s around, just in case. They have been moulting their winter coats and getting a few fur balls (fluffy Lily especially) and very, very demanding at feeding times!

No new photos recently so here’s one of their baby ones, just to remind you how dinky they were. 5 weeks old, the first time we saw them, the day we claimed them for our own. We got them at 9 weeks, and my goodness, it was hard having to wait those few weeks for them.

Ruby on the left of the picture, Lily on the right. (My hubby in the middle!) I can’t believe how tiny they were – they are really substantial now – great hulking girlies!

Finally, a cat funny for you.

Have a great week, everybody.

Lily and Ruby Out in the Garden Again

This afternoon we let the kitties out into the garden again. It was nice and sunny and warm. Again, we did it late afternoon so that they would be hungry and more likely to come in, but they enjoyed it so much that we had a really hard time getting them to come in, especially Lily, who is dreadful – she will ever only do what she wants, and not what anyone else wants (unless what you want happens to be what she wants). Not even Dreamies were enough to bribe them to come in! We got Ruby in eventually, and shut her the other side of the kitchen door and eventually my hubby managed to grab Lily. I always knew we’d have trouble with that one…

Anyway, here’s the video I made from the footage I shot of them today. You can see that they are already a lot more confident than they were yesterday. Today they went on the grass for the first time, and explored the top part of the garden.

They really started to enjoy the experience of being outside today.

Lily and Ruby’s Coming Out Party

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILY AND RUBY!

24th May was Lily and Ruby’s first birthday, as well as our 32nd wedding anniversary. So much to celebrate! I can’t imagine where the past year has gone. We got our two silver tabby cross kittens last summer, aged 9 weeks, and have watched them grow up through their adorable kitten stage (soooo much fun, and why does it have to be over so quickly?) to become big healthy kitties. They are both quite heavy and Ruby in particular is now quite solid!

One year old makes them officially no longer kittens, but grown up cats. This means no more kitten food. And no more lunch. For the past couple of days, come lunch time, they have both looked very pointedly at their empty bowls and haven’t been too impressed with the absence of Kitty Din-Dins!! Over the past couple of weeks they haven’t actually been as interested in lunch as previously, and haven’t always eaten it all immediately, which proves they don’t really need it, as their rapid growth period has now come to an end. I told them today that if we went on giving them lunch, they’d get too fat!

For their birthday we gave them a packet of Dreamies. These little treats are crack cocaine for kitties. I kid you not. One taste, and they are addicted! We gave them one each and they went absolutely wild for them! The advert says “Cats will do anything for Dreamies” and they are right!

Today to celebrate their coming of age, we let them out for the first time. As expected, they were both very wary and timid, but in no time at all, we are sure they will be scampering in and out at will, and enjoying being in the sunshine. They needed a lot of encouragement from us as they tentatively put first one paw, and then the rest, over the threshold.

The next thing we will need to do is teach them how to use the cat flap, and now they have come of age, they will need the key to the door, in the form of a magnet around their necks to operate the lock on the cat flap. We haven’t got as far as putting collars on them yet, and I anticipate that that will be an adventure in itself!

Here is the video I made of their Coming Out.

WOYWW 468

Yaaayyy! I’m back!

Sorry to be absent for so long but those who follow my blog will know that I have recently been seriously ill. However, I am now well on the road to recovery, and celebrating lots of milestones along the way – finishing my antibiotics, getting my own breakfast, starting to prepare simple meals, and generally getting back into the swing of things again. Thank you to everyone who sent good wishes for my recovery.

A major milestone was yesterday – first session back in the studio! It was driven as much by necessity as desire, because tomorrow is our 32nd wedding anniversary, and having failed my hubby miserably by resorting to a bought birthday card for him recently (shock horror) and what’s more, one that was bought for me by a kind friend, I really felt I must make the effort to make him a decent card for this occasion.

Here is my desk today.

A little explanation is necessary. Last Friday (another milestone) I made it to the County Show, which you can read about here. This was something I’d really been aiming for and it helped my recovery to have a deadline to work towards – I was darned if I was going to miss the best day out of the year because I was poorly again. Anyway, amongst the exhibits was a stand with beautiful hardwood kitchen boards (I was sorely tempted to buy one but resisted because I didn’t really need one, and not at that price) and attached to the most expensive and beautiful one was a little die-cut wooden tag that really took my fancy.

I immediately thought that I could replicate something similar with card.

I cut the pieces with my Cougar electronic cutting machine and stuck a small square of gold card behind each initial. To make the thickness of the ornament, I cut about a dozen heart-shaped frame pieces and laminated them, and threaded a string through the top before sticking the front and back pieces on, completing the piece. I will be doing a blog post about this project once it’s complete.

On my main desk photo above, you can see various cut pieces of card, and the card base being made. To create the woodgrain effect, I painted the pieces with beige fluid acrylic, and once this was dry, painted the surface with Desert Sands Infusions, using a flat brush and broad vertical strokes.

The heart ornament will be suspended in the middle of the circular aperture, and will hang and turn freely when the card is standing up. I’ve got quite a bit more work to do today to complete it – it needs quite a bit of reinforcing, and I want to add a bit of gold embellishment to the front of the card as well. Watch this space.

I shall soon resume uploading the blog posts about the process of making the mini-album about my mum. Next projects in the pipeline are to make two identical boxes to keep the two copies of the album in – Mum’s friend eagerly awaits hers as her copy of the album currently resides in a biscuit tin! – and to complete the long-overdue Infusions Mini-Album which has had to take a back seat for far too long.

As well as it being our anniversary, tomorrow is also our kitties’ first birthday!

I cannot believe that they are now officially grown up, and I had a little pang when I bought their first pack of adult cat food this week, marking the end of their kittenhood. I feel like a mother sending her child off to school for the first time… A real sense of bereavement as they were such adorable babies and the kitten stage lasts for far too short a time. I am glad I’ve got all the videos of them, though. They are both so big now, and very heavy – I find it quite difficult to pick them up – that is, if naughty teenage Ruby will even let me near her which isn’t often these days – she’s turning into a real independent little Miss. We will soon be letting them outside for the first time, something which always makes me anxious with new kitties. Hopefully my hubby’s kitty defences around the garden will be 100% effective – 99% won’t do because kitties are designed to find that 1%, you can bet on that.

It is so good to be back, and just in time to celebrate WOYWW’s 9th anniversary. Sorry not to be taking part in the ATC swap, but I wish you all joy in your giving and receiving of each other’s miniature works of art.

Happy WOYWW!

WOYWW 456

Not a lot on my desk today because I cleared it last night. I can’t tell you why there’s a CD case on my desk today – it’s part of my mystery project, which, by the way, is coming on nicely.

I can show you a work in progress background for the mystery project.

The next picture is not part of the mystery project but a spin-off from it.

I’ve been experimenting a bit with my Distress Stains. I’ve got loads of them but rarely use them because I don’t like the delivery system – the dauber top gives a really streaky result. Some time ago I came across a tutorial on how to remove the dauber and transfer the contents into a spray bottle, and I’ve wanted to do this for ages. I think I will get more use out of them in this form. I put a couple of colours in spray bottles and eventually I think most of them will be transferred. The above samples were produced initially by cleaning off the stencil, and I added more ink pad and Distress Stains – not sure what I’m going to do with them yet. In real life they are quite shimmery, with the Delicata White Sparkle stamp (which is more silver than white) and the Antique Bronze Distress Stain.

A few days ago the new rack arrived for my craft boards. I wrote a post about it here. It’s lovely and substantial and works a treat.

Here it is in position. Already I am finding a huge difference, having the boards in the rack, and the partitioned box for all my bits and pieces.

It’s so cold again today! Whatever I do I can’t seem to get warm. We are getting most unusual snow in Torquay – we are more accustomed to mild weather which suits our palm trees! Here’s a view from the bedroom window earlier today.

Everyone goes on about the snow in such a negative way. I know all about falls and broken hips, and burst pipes, and traffic problems… but I can’t get over my childhood excitement at the sight of snow and how magical and beautiful it is.

The forecast says we’ll get most of the snow tomorrow, and then it should get warmer.

Kitties

On Sunday I was alone in the house and heard the most almighty bang, and thought a bomb had gone off in the street! Then I remembered the kittens were running around upstairs, so I went up to investigate. This is what I found in my hubby’s room.

It was a beautiful heavy glass bowl that had been given to him as a present by our old church in Plymouth when we left in 1999. I think it was Ruby. Lily was wandering around on the landing looking smug, as if to say, “It wasn’t me…” and then Ruby appeared, looking scared and guilty!! I told them both that I’d come closer than ever, today, to selling them on Ebay.

Here are a couple more videos.

On Sunday, the kittens were 9 months old! I can’t believe how fast the time has gone, and how big they now are.

A few days ago, we were a bit concerned about some new behaviour – they’ve had several spats, with growling and hissing, and Ruby arching her back and turning her tail into a bottle brush. My hubby thinks she’s trying to assert herself and become the boss cat. Up until now they’ve been nothing but loving with each other – two sweet little sisters who have always got on, so it’s a bit disturbing. Yesterday and today, however, they seem to be back to normal. I suppose it’s all part of growing up.

Health Update

I now have a date for my operation – Wednesday 28th March. I have to turn up at 7.30 a.m. – horrendously early! However, I’m not going to believe it’s actually happening until they pump the anaesthetic into my arm, going by their past record for postponements. I shan’t know until the day whether they will agree to give me a PICC line from the outset. If not, I shall insist on having one the moment the first cannula fails as I don’t want a repeat of what happened last year.

On the letter it tells me I will be in four nights. This is a standard letter for this sort of operation and doesn’t really mean much, as they will always judge each case individually, and given my previous experiences, it’s likely that I’ll take a bit longer to recover than the average, because of my ME. Also, like for the first operation in 2015, I shall be in over Easter, and this means that four nights on will take us to Sunday morning, which is Easter Sunday, followed by Easter Monday which is a bank holiday, and last time, the same thing applied, and there was nobody to discharge me until the Tuesday, when the pharmacy also re-opened, and they won’t send you home without your drugs. So I think I shall be in for a minimum of 6 nights.

My hubby is going back to the fracture clinic tomorrow. Hopefully they will tell him he can drive again. Yesterday the car went in for servicing and MOT, which means it should also be in tip-top condition for its return to the road, just like my hubby haha!

So we’ll have a few weeks of normality before I go into hospital. We are going to enjoy it while we can, and if the snow permits it.

Meantime, I am cracking on with my mystery project in the hope that it will be finished before my operation.

WOYWW 455 Reorganising my Desk

Last Thursday I went to the craft show in Exeter and had a truly wonderful time – a real treat after a pretty horrendous couple of months recently. You can read about the craft show here, and see all the fabby new stash I got to play with.

Since then, I’ve decided to have a clear-out in my studio and to reorganise my desk a bit, partly to make room for new things, and also because certain aspects of it have been rather frustrating. There’s a long way to go but at least I’ve made a start.

For this WOYWW, I’ve done a couple of annotated photos. The first one shows the normal view of my main work area. You can see that I’ve put my ironing pad over the top of my mystery project which is still literally under wraps! I’m progressing slowly with it – not so many opportunities this week, what with the craft show, and needing to recover for a couple of days afterwards.

On the brown shelf unit above the desk you can see my various carousels for frequently-used things. I used to have a lot of odd things on there as well – small bottles of glue, the odd rubber stamp, etc., and every time I revolved the carousels these things would fall off. When we cleared my parents’ house I rescued various things from Dad’s workshop and among them was the partitioned wooden box now on the right of the desk. It was filthy, but after I’d scrubbed it with hot soapy water and left it to dry, it was quite respectable, and it now contains these bits and pieces, close at hand and more tidily stored.

I also screwed a cup hook onto the side of the eye-level shelf unit above this, and have hung my two heat guns on there. This frees up desk space and keeps the cables tidier, but they are still easy to reach. The wooden shelf right at the top (just visible in the photo) usually has the box of embossing folders on it – currently on the desk because I’ve been using the Cuttlebug plates that also live in there, and I’ve also got rid of the CD storage box that used to be up there, which held some very old clear stamps, which are now filed away with the rest of the stamps on the rail. At the craft show I got quite a few new dies and now have too many to go in the original box which used to be on the shelf unit top-left in the photo, so I’ve now got them in a similar box to the embossing folders, and they will live side by side on the top shelf above the desk.

On the far right of the desk you can see my new purple scoring board that I bought at the show, stacked up with my other boards (envelope punch board, paper trimmer etc.). These used to be lying around flat, taking up space, and always the one I wanted was at the bottom of the heap! I have ordered a nice rack from Ebay, designed for storing chopping boards in the kitchen, and this will be used for storing these, making them easier to use and keeping things tidier.

This photo shows the pull-out unit to the right of the main work area, and shows things better organised now. The RUBs (Really Useful Boxes) with card scraps are only being used temporarily for this, in an attempt to keep things tidier and free up the unit for its original purpose as a cutting station. The boxes of ribbons used to sit on top of a plastic unit with 2 drawers that used to be where the Cuttlebug and wooden box now are – this unit, and the ribbons, were not in constant use. The unit is now stored on the top shelf above the desk, and the ribbons need to find another home.

The far side of my studio (sewing area) has been an absolute tip for months. I got a whole lot of knitting yarns out when I started knitting the socks before Christmas. This project went into abeyance when everything went pear-shaped with my hubby breaking his leg and Mum dying etc., and I need to finish that second sock, so that I can tidy up again! The mess is driving me nuts.

Another thing I’ve been doing this week while resting on the recliner is to go back through a lot of old posts on my blog, and replace the photos. For some time they were all linked to my Photobucket album, but when I had too many photos on there I had to subscribe to the pro version, and after a while I let that lapse, so the photos disappeared. I’ve still got a huge number of posts to work through, but again, at least I’ve made a start.

Even this small change in my desk organisation has made a huge difference – freeing up space, things more easily accessible, tidier and calmer environment! Let’s hope it lasts because I’m not the tidiest of workers!!

Now that’s sorted, I am hoping to crack on with the mystery project this week.

Kittens

What is it about kitties and boxes?

They are still enjoying chewing this little cardboard box. However much I sweep up, there are always bits of cardboard all over the carpet.

Today I managed to make a start on editing some of the kitten videos that have been mounting up for a while. Here are a couple to keep you going. More next week hopefully.

Ruby really enjoys walking around the back of this wooden chair. This was filmed on 1st January.

The two of them wrestling on top of the cat tree! I was scared they’d fall off. The whole thing rocks about and one day I think they are going to have it over, but fortunately the base is very heavy and it’s withstood their attentions so far! They have pulled off quite a bit of the fur, though, and it now has some bald patches. This one was filmed on 14th January.

Marbles in the Sunshine

Yesterday a friend came and spent the afternoon with me. She had just been to the House of Marbles and had treated herself to a small bag of marbles, really inexpensive, and so pretty! When I laid them out on the table, I was struck by how beautiful they were with the bright sunlight shining through them, and had to photograph them.

Here’s the full set.

Here are some of them, photographed individually. I was very intrigued by how the light is reflected on the opposite side of the marble from the light source, and how the colour and reflection shows in the shadow in each case.

A very pretty veined marble.

This one was clear blue glass, encrusted with glass fragments to create an interesting sparkly texture.

This one had been sand-blasted and had that gorgeous silky feel, like sea glass.

Laying the sand-blasted one in front of the clear red one, see how the colour is transferred from one to the other. An interesting shadow too, with an extra bright spot.

It would be interesting to try and draw these. I had a bit of practice drawing Zengems and this made me observe more closely how light behaves with transparent objects. Time to get the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil going again!

WOYWW 454

I am still working on my mystery project so I can’t show you my desk as it is at the moment, but on Monday I took a break from that and made a Valentine card for my hubby, and I can show you that.

I wrote in detail about it here. I followed a tutorial on Youtube for the pop-up which was very successful.

I am writing this in the small hours and my hubby has gone to bed, so he hasn’t received it yet and I can’t tell you how he likes it!

Just to keep your interest in my mystery project going, here is another sneak peak of some more background papers.

Kitties

I still haven’t had time to edit my recent videos, but here is another photo.

My hubby has been sorting through a lot of old photos and papers and sticking them into scrapbooks and this plastic box came down from his office, and as you can see, it is no longer available!

Health Update

Still no date for my operation. I am watching for a letter daily. I think the hernia is getting bigger and Kermit, my stoma, is definitely not a happy bunny. Yesterday I had to change his bag twice – I am now doing it every day, instead of twice a week which I was doing when everything was working properly. This is the only way I can keep on top of the skin irritation I’ve been getting because he keeps retracting. I am also getting some pain and discomfort from the hernia.

I’ve had a couple of bad days with my ME this week as well and have had to rest. It’s a pest because I’ve got a lot I want to do at the moment! At least things are a lot more back to normal than they were, with my hubby being much more mobile now, and using his boot less and less. He is doing his exercises and gradually building up his strength again after being inactive for so long.

Pancake Day

Yesterday was Pancake Day, Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent begins. Because my hubby isn’t allowed sugar, I couldn’t cook traditional sweet pancakes, so I cooked an old favourite recipe from my favourite recipe book which I had for my 21st birthday. Chicken and walnut pancakes – deeeelicious! There were a couple of spare pancakes left over so I had these for pudding, not with lemon and sugar, but drizzled with maple syrup. They went down a treat.

I made a double quantity and the rest has gone in the freezer for another day. I also cooked enough chicken to make a chicken, bacon and pasta bake which I shall make later today – this will be suitable for the low residue diet I shall be on for a while after my operation. I’ve now cooked up quite a few dishes in readiness and the freezer is getting very full!

Did anyone else make pancakes yesterday?

An Exciting Day Coming Up

Tomorrow, I am being taken to a craft show. It’s several years since I’ve been to one, and this year I really wanted to go, but couldn’t see how it would happen if my hubby wasn’t able to drive me. I asked a friend if she was going, and she said she was, and she is taking a couple of other people as well, so we’ll be a car-full. I am so thrilled to be going, and so looking forward to it.

It’s the Craft 4 Crafters show held at Westpoint, Exeter (where they hold the Devon County Show). It’s always brilliant. I’ve been through the online list of exhibitors and made a note of the ones I particularly want to visit, and I am also making a list of things I want to pick up if I can. You often get good prices at shows, and it’s always great to see things “in the flesh,” especially if you buy most things online. I shall stock up on the basics (cardstock, double-sided tape etc.) and I also hope to get some more Distress Oxides, and maybe a few more punches and dies.

It will be a long day so today I must make sure I don’t overdo things so I’m in a good state to enjoy it to the full!

WOYWW 453

Again, I can’t show you what’s on my desk, but I can tell you that my mystery project is coming along very nicely and I’m enjoying it very much, and I can’t wait to share it with you!!! It is soooo great to have my mojo back.

I can give you another sneak peek, though. This stuff was on my desk on Monday. Another background created by adding stuff to a sheet of boring paper in a different colour from last week.

I love combining materials. Here I mixed Distress Inks with Infusions. I’ve also been having a lot of fun combining Distress Inks with Distress Oxides and Infusions.

Health Update

I’ve been doing a bit of cooking in readiness for going on the low residue diet. I made salmon and broccoli bake, and I’ve got chicken pieces defrosting, ready to cook some chicken pies – I’m boiling the chicken with carrots, onions and herbs to make delicious clear chicken soup, and cooked this way, the meat is extremely tender and absolutely delicious. I won’t be able to eat the onions but at least their flavour will be there. They will be frozen, ready to make soup later on. I am planning on adding the chicken to a white sauce cooked with some of the chicken stock, and add some broccoli florets and carrots, and top it off with mashed potato and cheese. I’m also planning on making up lots of cauliflower cheese. Both these dishes can be pepped up a bit with the addition of bacon lardons. Freezing them separately in foil containers, it will be easy for my hubby to zap them in the oven. I’m hoping it won’t be too long before I’m able to do that myself, and if I’ve done all this in advance, we’ll have a good supply of home-cooked ready meals with suitable veges all in.

I still haven’t got an admission date for my operation, but last Friday I had my second pre-assessment appointment, this time with the anaesthetist, and everything seemed to go OK – I wrote about it at length here, but the main thing I came away with was that he was reluctant to agree to a PICC line from the outset, but that’s not to say it definitely won’t happen. It will be up to my surgeon and the anaesthetist on the day. At least they have my request on record, and the reason for it. I also re-emphasised the need for the ward staff to be patient with me and make extra allowances for my ME which makes it hard for me to sit out of bed post-op for as long as most people.

I am just wanting them to say “Let battle commence” now, and to get on with it.

My hubby has gone and got himself a cold so I’m giving him a wide berth. The last thing I want is to get a date and have to cry off because I’ve got a cold!

He is taking the boot off on Thursday, and going back to the fracture clinic at the beginning of March. It rather looks as if he won’t be allowed to drive before then, but at least he’ll be fully mobile on his feet. He’s already doing lots more.

I am really enjoying having things much more back to normal, and I feel as if my life is back under control again. December and January were horrendous and I never want to go through a period like that again!

Kitties

I’ve been so busy with my mystery project that I haven’t had time to edit the kitty videos I’ve taken recently, but I’ve got some nice photos of our girlies for you.

The box they did their deconstructive art on is now even more reduced, but that didn’t stop Lily settling down in it yesterday. Ruby looking on.

Ruby washing her sister.

I’ve got some sweet video footage of this. She holds her down with one paw.

Lily dropping off to sleep, with Ruby keeping a close eye on her.

My hubby gave them an empty paper bag yesterday and they are making short work of it. They’ve already destroyed one. And what is that mat doing there? It belongs by the door into the patio!

There are constantly bits of cardboard and paper all over the floor and I’m forever sweeping up. Not to mention to cascades of cat litter in the kitchen – when my hubby is driving again we are going to B&Q and getting some deeper boxes! Lily is the worst for this and sometimes I think her vigorous digging is going to take her to Australia.

Ruby has gone off cuddles with Mummy. She used to come running, and as soon as I picked her up, would go off into paroxysms of purring, but all she does now is squeak at me in protest, and wriggle. They have both turned from adorable little babies into adolescent thugs who would definitely play their music too loud and not do their homework, and they certainly don’t keep their room tidy. My hubby says when they grow up a bit more, they will be more loving again. When they are relaxed after eating, they are cuddling up with him as he sits with his leg up, but at the moment Mummy is NOT flavour of the month I’m afraid.

As for the clicker training, I have had to abandon it for now, because after about 2 seconds they are bored and go off. None of the websites mention this – they all say it works, and the videos show great success, but they are obviously not dealing with rebellious teenagers who just want to do their own thing! I am not giving up entirely, though, and plan on going back to it when they’ve settled down a bit.

WOYWW 452

What’s On My Workdesk this Wednesday? A Crop-a-Dile!

Magnificent beast, isn’t he. He arrived yesterday morning. I wrote a blog post about him here. Any suggestions for a suitable name for him? He’s no wee timorous beastie, that’s for sure.

This was a staged photo taken just after I’d opened him. I’m afraid I can’t show you my desk proper this week because it is covered by my Mystery Project which has to remain Under Wraps till it’s completed. Sorry about that.

I can give you a sneak-peek of one bit, though, without giving anything away.

This was some additions I made to some pieces of green patterned card in my stash which I didn’t much like (the piece underneath). I added some Forest Moss Distress Ink by smooshing the card through it on my craft mat, and then added some Broken China Distress Oxide, and finally distressed the edges with more Forest Moss, and a little Black Soot Distress Inks. I think this is an improvement. It was very wrinkly by the time I’d finished it, but I flattened it nicely with my craft iron, which I suddenly thought would do the job a lot more quickly than the heavy-books-overnight treatment.

My blog editing app seems to be working OK again! I didn’t do anything, so I’m not sure what’s been going on. I just hope it lasts.

Kittens

I’ve been so busy this week that I haven’t had time to edit my recent videos of Lily and Ruby, but I’ve got some photos.

They’ve both been incredibly wild and playful and now they are so big, they are careering about the place and nothing in their path is safe! When they wrestle they don’t seem to know their own strength and often make each other cry if they bite too hard! They are turning into two little adolescent hooligans. Lots of naughtiness which isn’t as sweet as it was when they were tiny (oooh how I miss that!) and my threats to sell them on Ebay if they don’t behave, fall on deaf ears. Ruby is far too busy and fidgety to enjoy a cuddle with Mummy at the moment, although they are both still cuddling up with my hubby while he’s still only semi-mobile.

They still suckle on the little black fluffy thing though, and like the babies they were when they first started doing that, they crash out, totally exhausted, after a heavy bout of play. I don’t think they realise how big they’ve got, because they still squash in together in the top section of the cat tree, but now, bits hang over the edge!

When a tail hangs down like this, you can lift it up and drop it, and it’s completely floppy and lifeless. We’ve never had such laid-back and relaxed kitties.

Lily got all wild up there yesterday evening and started rolling around, much to my alarm – it’s a long way to fall!

I know that all of us arty and crafty folk like to distress things. Years ago I bought a Tim Holtz distressing tool which roughens up the edges of card really nicely. I could have saved myself the money. Lily and Ruby do a far better job.

This is about two days’ work. Feline deconstructive art. Note the bits of cardboard all over the floor, too. I’m always sweeping up.

Health Update

I’ve got my second pre-assessment appointment on Friday, this time with the anaesthetist, when I am going to discuss with him my request for a PICC line to be inserted from the outset – I hope he will agree to this, so that I don’t have to go through that whole awful performance of every cannula failing, and my arms blowing up, and me not getting sufficient pain relief etc. etc. I ended up like a complete pincushion by the end of it, but got instant relief with the installation of the PICC. Here’s hoping.

I will probably get an operation date soon. It can’t come soon enough now. However, after my past experience with postponements, I shan’t believe it’s actually happening until the anaesthetic enters my system.

“Normal life” again – at least for a while

A small oasis of near normality till I have to go into hospital. Now that my hubby is so much more mobile, I’m getting my life back at last! We are back in a routine where he gets his own breakfast so I haven’t got to get up so early, and can have a more leisurely and restful early part of the day which suits me better – my internal clock is all haywire with the ME and I tend to stay up well into the small hours feeling wide awake and wired, and need time to get going in the mornings. He is also doing all the kitty feeding, just for now, and I will take back the lunch and supper feeding eventually.

I have started doing some cooking in readiness for when I go into hospital and for afterwards – I am making up some low residue dishes and over the next week I shall try and organise the freezer so that things are easy for my hubby to find. I am hoping not to be too long out of action this time, and hope to be doing the meals before too long, even if he has to carry and fetch for me for a while! I’ve also started putting things like shredless marmalade and white bread on the shopping list – I shall really miss my home-made brown bread and chunky marmalade, not to mention the huge quantities of fruit and veg I eat (mostly far too fibrous for Kermit to deal with after he’s been remade).

The greatest result of thing getting back to normal is that my creative mojo has returned big time, and I’m spending as much time as possible (never enough) in my studio. I just wish I could share with you what I’m up to…

WOYWW 449

Yet again, yet again… Still no change on Shoshi’s desk! Still, we have been up to our eyes in other stuff to do, and art has to take a back seat for now.

We are making progress with arrangements following Mum’s death. We are having the memorial service for her on 18th Jan. and I have now completed designing the order of service booklet, which is now with the printers. I am very pleased with how it turned out – not only have a added lots of lovely photos, but I have put in little pictures in the various bits of white space, of things that Mum loved – birds, spring lambs, cherry blossom. It looks really pretty!

My hubby and I have worked out approximately how many people will attend, and he’s booked the caterers for afterwards. As we did with Dad, we will have a cream tea at the back of the church after the service.

I am in the process of compiling a CD of her favourite pieces of music, some of which will be played during the service, and some before, and others afterwards while we are having the refreshments. I have also been practising my singing. I managed to source a transposed version of “I know that my Redeemer liveth” in D major rather than E major, because I find those top G-sharps a pretty tall order these days! I have had a practice session with the organist and it went well.

My hubby has made use of his enforced immobility and has been making good progress by phone and email, dealing with the solicitor and sorting paperwork to do with Mum’s affairs, while I have been cooking and looking after him and trying to keep on top of everything I’ve got to do!

I am starting to get replies to all the letters I sent out as I worked my way through Mum’s address book, and I have had such lovely letters! Everyone has such nice things to say, and each one has different reminiscences about Mum, and about Dad too, some of which I knew nothing about, and others have revived happy memories. I shall treasure all the letters for ever.

Kitties

The kittens are so enjoying having my hubby in there with them all the time in the flat, and while the weather has been so cold, they have loved cuddling up with him.

An armful of kitties!

Lily squashing her tail. She gets so relaxed that you can lift her tail up and drop it, and it hangs completely limp.

Somehow she managed to worm her way inside my hubby’s bag when it was fastened closed.

He wasn’t best pleased to find that she had chewed the papers that were inside! I told him anything was fair game, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether you try and protect stuff or not – if they want it, they will get it! The stuff we find on the floor in the mornings… We’ve learnt to take a lot of stuff out each night when we go to bed.

Ruby’s favourite position is sleeping on top of her sister. Lily is so laid back that she doesn’t seem to notice.

Health Update

I have got my appointment at the hospital tomorrow, and it can’t come soon enough now. I am sure the surgeon will agree to go ahead and do the operation now. I have been getting more and more problems, and recently Kermit, my stoma, has started retracting periodically, and causing major problems, and it seems that everything in that area is unstable and in a state of flux.

A couple of days ago the stoma nurse phoned me and asked me to come in and see them, because they are now doing an annual review of all their patients to check on the products they use. Apparently if you change what you are using, maybe to another brand, or you stop using a particular product, the GPs aren’t always very good at keeping their records up to date, and the nurse said that mine had a list as long as your arm, most of which I haven’t used for ages! The idea of the annual review is to prevent over-ordering and wastage, which sounds sensible. I just hope they aren’t going to tell me I don’t need this or that, because I do know what I need! Anyway, I told her about our current situation with my hubby being unable to drive me etc., and told her I was due to come in on Thurs. anyway to see the surgeon (it’s in the same department, colorectal outpatients) and she said she’d fit me in before I see him, which saves another trip.

I should know more after Thursday. Hopefully it won’t be too long before my hernia gets fixed. Once we’ve got the memorial service out of the way, there won’t be so much for me to do, and when my hubby has had his next appointment at the fracture clinic towards the end of the month we should know more, and how much longer he’s likely to be in plaster, and then once I’ve had my operation things should at last start to settle down again. I just hope they don’t keep me waiting too long.

WOYWW 448

The start of another year! Where on earth did the last one go… Anyway, to see what Shoshi did, see my previous (very long!) post reviewing the past year. What a rollercoaster it was.

Anyway, what’s on my desk?

 

My Christmas present from my hubby! A complete set of Derwent Graphik Line Painter pens. Now I’ve just got to find the time and energy to use them.

It really is my ambition this year to get stuck back into art again. I’ve got so many ideas and things I want to play with. However, it will have to wait until after Mum’s memorial service because I’ve got a lot of work to do for that, finalising the details with my hubby and then designing and printing the service booklets. I’ve already made a start but there’s quite a bit to do still. Also, I need to knuckle down and practise my singing so that I am ready to sing “I know that my Redeemer liveth” at the service. I found a wonderful website where I could purchase it as digital sheet music, transposed down a tone so that I don’t have to struggle with top G-sharps! I have also downloaded their app which enables me to listen to it as well as read it, so I’ve now got the accompaniment in D-major to practise with. Then I’ve got to get together with the organist to practise for real.

My poor studio is a dust-gathering dumping ground. I need to do some major tidying before I can work in there.

I also need to finish my socks for the homeless.

I still have a load of letters to write about Mum, and post-Christmas, and I’m still looking after my hubby with his broken leg.

He went to the fracture clinic on Friday and they are happy with him. They will see him again in a month, when they will decide if it needs pinning after all, but it will probably heal OK on its own. So we’ve got at least another month of this, and after that, all being well, they will put some sort of walking plaster on it which will make him a bit more mobile, but it’s going to be ages before he’s driving again.

At last I have an appointment to see the surgeon about my parastomal hernia – I am seeing him on 11th Jan. I’ve been having a lot of trouble with it and can’t wait for a decision to get it fixed once and for all. This has been going on for far too long.

The kittens, now 7 months old, are getting so big, and they are very lively and naughty! It’s a nuisance not being able to let them have the run of the house because of all the visitors dropping in at all hours and we can’t risk the kittens escaping outside.

 

I love how they have their favourite little things to do. Ruby is much more of a baby than Lily and is more mischievous and playful, and she’s always rushing under the plastic sheet that the litter tray stands on – I think she likes the sound it makes! Lily never does this. Also, over the past couple of weeks, Ruby has discovered that it’s really fun to walk around the back of the wooden armchair – the difficult way!

She falls off sometimes but it doesn’t deter her. On this photo, you can see what I call her “dirty sock” – that little grey spot on her right sock! She’s such a funny little thing.

It appears that Lily has taken over Beatrice’s role as our resident Computer Queen. She’s always messing about on my hubby’s laptop, and the other day he found her watching a Youtube video she’d selected, entitled “Snipers Firefight with the Taliban.” Not exactly my personal viewing choice, but each to their own!!

Happy New Year, everyone! Let’s hope it’s a good one.