Today

Today has been a housey sort of day.  I've been quite busy this last week and things are getting a little bit untidy around here.  Even for my poor standards!

There's been some washing of clothes and dishes, a little bit of gardening and lots and lots of putting things away.  There has even been some craft room sorting.  The craft room is permanently the biggest pigsty in the world.  Every time I try to tidy it, it just seems to revert straight back to chaos.  You may think I am exaggerating, but I am most definitely not.  So today I took in some plastic boxes and starting sorting the piles and piles of crap all over the floor.  A box for paper craft stuff, one for embroidery bits, another for rogue ribbons that have escaped from my last attempt at trying to organise the craft room. 

Actually, I'm quite proud of my ribbon organisation. I saw the idea on pinterest to wrap ribbons around a popstick but I had a bag of dolly pegs lying around and decided to have a go at doing that.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I need to go and get another jar for some more.  The back jar is all my grosgrain ribbons, just clipped together with a paper clip and I left all my stuff on spools, on spools and sorted them neatly into a storage box. 

If only I could snap my fingers and make the rest of the room look this organised.


Another box I sorted holds a bit of a mish mash of items.

Some knitting I started with a scarf in mind until I decided that the ribbing was too tight for how I wanted it to look, as well as some buttons and some material scraps from my drawers of such goodies.  What for?

Well, every year (apart from last year) since I started blogging I've thought about making a softie for the Softies for Mirabel drive run by Pip.  And every year I fail.

This year I'm determined.  In fact, I want to make more than one.  I feel like I have catching up to do.  So this box holds the ingredients for the first one.  Thursday's creative space perhaps?

Now however, it is time to wade back in return to the craft room and try and get a few more little spots of organisation happening.

Wish me luck!

Sweet moments

Like the surprise you get when  a gorgeous bulb flowers in your garden, that you didn't plant. This time last year I was still in hospital and the year before that we hasn't even started house hunting. Thank you garden for making me smile.  (Can anyone tell me what it is?  Some kind of lily or iris?)

And the moment when you realise you've picked a winner of a novel.  I randomly grabbed a book off the shelf at the library because I liked the name and it had pretty metallic green leaves on the spine. Usually I read the back but this time I barely glanced at it. It was like I just knew. And I'm loving it so far. This moment was sealed on page 21, where a minor character, Mrs Kranowski, was introduced as "a spindly old woman with a hairdo that looked like vanilla soft serve ice cream". How could you not love a book after reading that? Possibly the best image evoking character description ever I think!


What unexpected sweet moments have popped up in your life recently?

A Typical 1:10 - 1:57am in my life

Prologue
11:30pm - think about going to bed, decide to finish chapter of book first
12:30am - three chapters later, guiltily close book, flap around for twenty minutes brushing and flossing teeth, glaring at stupid pimples, counting current grey hairs, resisting urge to pull them out.
12:50am - procrastinate on phone, Instagram, words with friends, email etc.
1:10am - finally turn out light and try to sleep.



....



- settle on one side. Stretch
- take slow deep breaths, try to empty mind
- mind resists, find myself counting heartbeats. Heartbeats are way too fast for relaxation. Try to count slow breaths instead. Succeed for count of about 59 and then realise I've reverted to counting heartbeats.
- roll over to other side, stretch.
- wonder how long it will take me to cut out all the monkeys the kids drew at school
- think about what my first day of relief teaching will be like tomorrow (today)
- tell myself to stop thinking about school
- roll over
- think about what clothes I might like to buy with money from relief teaching.
- think about... where is Meow, why can I never sleep when I need too, if anyone else ever gets that weird feeling when they close their eyes to sleep of heaviness and mindless clutter and babble filling their head.
- decide that it's probably just me.
- roll over
- think about... school again, holidays and how I should put away some of my relief teaching money so I have some money, how annoying it is when you have the money to buy a desk you can't seem to find one you like on gumtree, school again, my friend's upcoming wedding down south, where else can I look to find a dress for said wedding, needing to book accommodation for down south, why the hell I am all of a sudden not tired, why am I surprised?
- roll over
- think about... what I need to do this weekend (make two aprons, buy prizes for hens party games, help sister pack and move house, go to Brown Owls), what WIP should I take to Brown Owls, how annoying it was that I never found that bag of craft stuff I misplaced somewhere in the house and had to go buy it again, whether I should apply for a job as a mystery shopper, Christmas present ideas for people, when I might have time to fit in a couple of days visit to MR's parents with him next time he's home, how my sore throat that appeared yesterday morning thankfully seems to have decided to disappear after two doses of panadol.
- feel immensely frustrated at my ridiculous sleeping efforts
- try to switch off brain again by counting breaths.
- instead end up thinking about how I tried the counting backwards theory last night of starting at 1000 and taking away 13 repetitively until you fall asleep. Apparently not many people get below 600. Last nights efforts went all the way to zero.
- ponder on how good I'm getting at mental maths of the -13 variety.
- grumble and sigh.
- realise I'm tapping my teeth together in a fast pattern, put my tongue in between my teeth to make myself stop.
- think about what to tell MR about on the phone tomorrow (first day of relief teaching, remind him to have his birthday card out ready for opening on Sunday morning)
- day dream about how awesome it would be to meet Maggie Alderson on her book tour if she can talk her publishers back into a Perth stop. Feel special because she replied to my comment on her blog about being devastated about lack of Perth visit.
- Think about what I would wear to meet her. Have no luck in coming up with outfit. Decide I need to donate three quarters of my wardrobe to the good sammys and go shopping to reinvent my boring old style.
- wish I had enough money to do so
- decide that even if I did have enough money I'd have no idea where to start. Firmly stuck in 90's fashion of hipster jeans and printed tight tshirts.
- wish I was more stylish
- think about how boring my blog has been lately.
- decide to write inane blog post on the scattered mess (just typed scatteredness and iPhone auto correct changed it to scattered mess, much better!) of my brain at sleep times in an attempt to empty it so I can finally sleep....


....



Epilogue
2.47am - wish me luck!

Christmas Ornament Swap

As you probably already know, I particularly love Christmas crafting. 

So of course, when I saw Gladys in the Garden advertising this swap over at Christina Lowry Designs I headed straight over to sign up!

You can to, you've got until the 21st October to join in the fun.

One Year

I came across this yesterday and it made me smile

Today marks one year since my transplant.

According to the statistics, once you reach one year your survival rate goes up to 88%.  I can't find the percentage for less than a year but from memory I think it is around the high 70's.  I try not to look at statistics too much, they freak me out somewhat beyond that first year hike up.  After 5 years it drops to 83% and then by 10 years its 76% and it continues down from there.  There aren't any statistics past 20 years.  Maybe they are too depressing to list?  That's a bit scary so we won't think of that!  I'd like to think that that is taking into account everyone of all ages but unfortunately those percentages above are for 16-39yo patients at transplant. 

On a positive side however, I've had one more year now than I would have had if I hadn't have had the transplant. Every year from now is a bonus for me. 

My emotions have been a little bit all over the shop over the last month as I've been looking back at this time last year.  There was the anniversary of they day I went into hospital, absolutely exhausted, looking forward to a few days off my leukaemia meds and not having to do anything apart from rest as my liver recovered from its prescribed medication overdose.  No one had mentioned liver failure.  No one had mentioned liver transplants.  Sure, I had leukaemia but apart from this little hiccup things were going fine. 


hah.


There was the anniversary of the day they told me that I might need a transplant.  That one would be mindblowing if I hadn't already partially lost my mind to the hepatic encephalopathy (toxins secreting into the brain because my liver was too damaged to process them).  And the anniversary of the day I was put onto the transplant waiting list.  Although, I have no idea what day either of these two days actually was.  Encephalopathy became my friend here.  Being scared and worried was somewhat minimised by the fog my brain was in. 


There has been lots of remembering about how little I actually remember.  This was a hard thing to overcome as I recovered.  Little dribs and drabs of memory.  Not knowing when they happened.  Not knowing what else happened.  I don't like not knowing. 


And then, there have been the thoughts about what would have happened if I hadn't been lucky enough to receive a donor liver.  Well, we know what would have happened to me - according to the doctors I only had a couple of days left and they were ready to transfer me to ICU when the call came in.  All the things I would have missed out on, what my family and my man would have had to go through.  Unpleasant thoughts best not thought of but still they crept in.


I'm feeling much better now.  The day is finally here and I can move forward again.  I am having a bit of a party today to celebrate it.  There will be birthday cake.  And pretty dresses.  I considered a game of Pin the Bile Duct on the Liver, but we are going to be at a restaurant so it is perhaps not the best place for such a thing. 


Happy birthday liver

and more importantly, thank you to the amazing young man who chose to donate life and to his family who respected his wishes.
 

If shiny was a taste

Because we all eat raw egg and sugar mixes right? Right!?

...it would be raw meringue batter.  Don't you think?  It is just so slippery and smooth and shiny in your mouth.

I am all about adding to a word's sensory descriptability.  And all about creating entire new words altogether apparently.  Descriptiveness?  Oh look, no red squiggles.  I still think descriptability sounds better.  And it follows the rules of suffix addition and it makes sense to everyone - unless that's just me - so it should already be a word, right?

But back to the initial lingual argument.

I don't often use the word 'scent', I'm more inclined to say 'flavour'.  As in, 'What flavour is that candle?'  Taste still gets to use flavour too though.  Scent is just somewhat defunct in my vocabulary.

And afterall, other words get to be multisensory.  The kitten can look and feel soft and the cake can smell and taste sweet.  Why can't meringue batter look and taste shiny?



What word would you like to imbue with an extra sensory meaning?  And for extra points, what would you use it to describe?

Last night's dessert

Reasons why not to craft in poor light

Bad for your eyesight, right? Nooo, nothing so unimportant as eyesight.  More like wrong thread colour usage going undetected, right up to the point of taking a photo to show you my progress.

Yes, I took Mr Squirrel into the bathroom (best light in the house) for a photo only to realise he was a two toned squirrel.  Colour blocking in ombre shades.  Fabulous.

He is supposed to be the colour of his head and the red-brown of his tail.  Not the orange-brown of his bottom half.  Looks like tonight's crafting is going to involve a fair bit of unpicking!

Luckily, Christmas Bambi managed to dress himself in the right shades, hues and tones required.  But I have to say, metallic DMC is a bitch to work with!!  I reckon it almost took me longer to do the gold ribbon on the present than the rest of the present.  Anyone got a good metallic floss brand suggestion for me?


joining in


 

Bananas and roses

Apparently, according to my recent garden researching, banana peel is good for roses and tomatoes and citrus.  And apparently, overripe bananas that I was just going to put in the freezer to make banana bread or smoothies are even better.  All that potassium-y goodness.

So today, I planted four overripe bananas next to four of my rose bushes.  I'm sure it's not going to hurt them so if it works and my roses thrive, well that's just a bonus!  I'll plant some next to my passion fruit and orange tree when I next have some old ones lying around.

I also learnt that coffee grounds are an excellent fertiliser and can just be dug through the top soil of your garden.  They can also be used to sprinkle in a thick layer around plants to deter slugs.  There are slug issues in my garden at the moment.  They keep eating my passion fruit vine and my gooseberry bush.  I don't like to squash them though.  Meow tries to help out by lying on them and them bringing them inside all stuck and mooshed into her fur.  Thanks Meow...

I don't drink coffee but I was thinking I could go to a local cafe and ask them to save me a garbage bag of coffee grounds.

I have also accidentally found out that slugs, snails and earthworms really like pasta.  I fed next door's cat some left over chicken pasta one evening and I tipped the leftover pasta she didn't eat into the garden.  A couple of hours later I was outside and noticed there were four slugs, two snails and an earthworm eating the pasta.  It was all gone in the morning!  I should have taken a photo, it was quite fascinating to watch.

The first of my roses beginning to bloom

Do you have any strange garden tricks that work for you?  I'm all ears!

WTF???

There is a lot of WTFs going on in my house at the moment.  But they all centre around WhereTF rather than WhatTF.  WTF did I put that (insert random object here)??!?!?!?


Currently on the list of WTF did I put that are a small bag of embroidery floss, lacy trims and size 6 crochet hook I bought at spotlight last week and my first finished cross stitch piece (which I saw only yesterday mind you!) that I wanted to photograph to show you today.

Grumble.

Clearly a sign that I need to do a bit of a tidy up.

So here's the second cross stitch I finished, goodness knows WTF I've put the first one. 

one finished Christmas owl

I've been playing around with making my own patterns, plus the book with the owl pattern in it

the next two Christmas animals planned

I'll have four animals all up and I'm planning on putting them in a square frame together to put on the wall.  I do love Christmas craft!




Have you got anything Christmassy planned or in the works at the moment or is it still too early for you?

Flit and dabble

I've been off on a crafty tangent lately, trying out new (or newish) things for me.  There hasn't been much action with the yarn and instead there has been some cross stitching, some cross stitch pattern making and some mosaic doing.  The word 'mosaicing' just looks wrong doesn't it? 

I started this mosiac at Brown Owls last month and grouted it at home.  It still needs to be sealed but I don't have anything and haven't been to the shops looking yet.  Possibly should get onto that so it can be all finished.  I'm quite happy with the look of it.  But I do wonder, if I get into mosaics more, will I look back and think it is a bit amatuerish?  More than likely, but at the moment I don't really care and plus, I can't spot the amatuerish bits because I don't know enough.  Sometimes I think it is better to not know and therefore not be all perfectionisty and sometimes I think I want to know more so it can be perfect.  Right now I'm happy feeling the former.  This is the size of an average floor tile and I think it is going to go in the middle of the outdoor table.  A trivet of sorts. 

As to the cross stitching? Well, you'll just have to wait a bit for that because I realised I only have partially finished photos of the two I've done.  A task for tomorrow if it's not too overcast.

Have you been trying any new crafty stuff lately?  I wish I could stick to one thing but instead I just want to try everything!  Not to worry!