Is it 2004 yet?

Look!
It's snowing!
I love snow and it hardly ever snows here. Even when it does it rarely lasts for any length of time, so I'm savouring it by peeping out of the window at 5 minute intervals.

~Tis the season to be snotty~
~Fa la la la laaa la la la laa~
~Stay in bed and feel all grotty~
~Fa la la la laaa la la la laa~

Tonight I was supposed to be going to Manchester to see the New Year in with lots of friends over there.
But then I got ill, and so did Porl and Jimmy.
So the fire is lit, and I'll be laid on the settee reading.

Happy New Year and all the best to all!

Hello, hope you all had a Merry Christmas. Our was jam packed full of food and friends.

Christmas Eve was good, we went to the pub next door, met lots of people Porl knew from school, they all came back here, we drank lots of spirits, we had no mixers, we played guitars, Shirokuma did a mini set, most people left, we played more guitars, I played bass, did some Daymaker classics, at 3am I went to bed, set alarm for 10am, Porl went to Matts to carry on drinking and got back at 5am.

Christmas Day, woke up just before midday, I'd slept through the alarm, ran downstairs to phone work and check it was still okay to come in a bit late, woke Porl up, showered, dressed, coffee, opened presents, (lots of books, undies, t-towels which I'd bought for both me and Porl, chocolate orange) went to the pub next door, had a coke, got a free whisky, Porl skipped the whisky, he was a tad hungover, went home, had a cuddle on the settee, the cats came and joined us, they're lovely, went to work, Porl went to his parents, at work gave clients their Christmas Dinner, ate mine, washed up, tried not to watch Stuart Little, spoke to my Mum and Dad, did general work things, left work early, went to Porls parents, opened more presents, (cardie, craft things, handmade glass vase, smellies, DAB radio, Noughts and Crosses drinking game), ate 2nd much nicer Christmas Dinner, came home, phoned Matt, lit fire, Matt, Robin and Cat came round, we drank port, ate cheese and played triv, drank champagne, ate chocolate, they left, went to bed.

Boxing Day, got up, put turkey in the oven, made stuffing, made vege casserole, went to pub, met Roger who I've not seen for about 18 months, came home, ate casserole with warm bread rolls, stilton and stuffing, Porl had Turkey butties, Rog came back, played on computers, ate casserole, Mark and Robin came round, ate casserole, Jimmy appeared, ate casserole, played on computer, ate casserole, felt ill, stopped eating casserole. Went to bed very late.

Yesterday I got up, lit the fire then spent most of the rest of the day laid on the sofa reading the first Invisibles book drinking tea and eating very little. Today has been just as lazy, and hopfully tomorrow will be too.

All in all it's been a reasonable Christmas. I didn't get chance to go up to Sheffield, I was shattered and needed a break, not to have to struggle with public transport at this time of year. I've had a few low moments, I miss my family like mad, and this is the first year since my Nan-nan and Grandad died. Thankfully my Dad is making sure my Mum's social life is busier than it's ever been and I don't think she's had a day at home yet this Christmas. I'll make sure I get a good few days up there in the next few weeks.

So Christmas is over, now to figure out what to do for New Year.

Christmas is coming, and I can't be bothered.

Today we braved the supermarket, luckily we timed it right and missed the queues (which stretched half the length of the place apparently). Our cupboards are full of nice things, but it all seems a bit pointless. I'm working Christmas Day, Porl will spend the day with his parents. I'd give anything for the day off and a traditional day with my family and Porl, but I volunteered for the shift, so I shouldn't complain. It will be good fun, but I can think of other places I'd rather be.

Tomorrow I have a few more presents to buy, and hopefully I can have a lazy day. Boxing Day will be when my Christmas really starts, we'll light the fire, cook the turkey eat cheese and have lots of butties. Roll on Boxing Day.

As promised pictures of Amy.

We went out for a meal last night at Le Frog in Ormskirk. Just me and Porl which was nice for a change. The food as always was lovely, I had the goats cheese parcel for starters, then roasted Mediterranean vegetables and cous-cous in a filo basket, then chocolate cheesecake for dessert. Porl had blackpudding and lamb thing for starters, then a shoulder of lamb for the main. It was washed down with a fruity white wine as chosen by Matt (our friend who just so happens to be bar manager at Le Frog), and we left feeling full and I felt quite tipsy. This giving up booze lark has really knocked my tolerance down.

Afterwards we went around to see Robin and Jimmy. Jimmy has got the lurg, it's doing the rounds, so far we're okay, but as the night went on I was feeling more and more achey so I came home hoping for an early night. It didn't happen but I got a good nights sleep and today although I still ache I don't feel nearly as bad. I'm so pleased it's only 4 days until the shortest day I hate these dark winter nights.

It's 8 days till Christmas and I've not finished any of the presents I planned on making, the thing which is closest being finished is crocheted, but I've lost the crochet hook and it's one of the few sizes that I've not got a duplicate of. Luckily tomorrow is market day and there are 2 possible stalls which might sell them, so I've got to get up early and go to the market before work and hope for the best. Generally on the presents front though a rapid re-think is in order.
I think Amazon may be getting some business off me.

We had another great night out on Friday at Amy.
When I first went a few months ago it was a big night out in a club in a strange city where we saw some great bands and met a few people.
Every time we go back though it feels more and more like a great night out catching up with friends, and meeting new friends. It just happens to be in a club where we see some great bands too.
It's also handy too that as soon as the drink sets in, so does the misguided assumption that everyone else must know each other, so I start introducing myself to people.
If I went to a night like that in Ormskirk I'd know everyone, so surely the people who live in Manchester all know each other.
Don't they?
Anyway, it's fun, and I'm making lot of friends.
We stayed at Joeladyboy and Eskimo Girls place Friday night, and woke up on Saturday morning feeling like I'd had the best nights sleep in weeks. No hangover, then a brisk, cold walk to the supermarket got us some lovely butty food and I felt great.
I haven't had chance to even download the pictures off my camera get, but when I do I'll put them online, maybe I'll do the pictures from the last Amy I went to as well.

In other news I've been playing with stylesheets and things again. It's hardly noticable to anyone except me though.
I've also changed my comments over to Haloscan in the hope that they might actually work, unlike enetation which seems to have died a death.
So go on people, comment, try them out, prove to me that all hits I get every week are from people rather than bots, because I'm beginning to have my doubts.

Yay I found my new hobby.
Spiders.

Inspired by a post on Livejournal (which i've lost but will find later). And also by my spider in the bath.

The spider is supposed to be a Christmas tree decoration. There's some German tradition apparently about an old lady cleaning her house before christmas, all the spiders scurried into the roof whilst she cleaned and put her tree up. When the spiders came back they really liked the tree, so to thank the old lady they covered it in their webs. Father Christmas came along and thought the spiders had done a great job, and so made the webs sparkly, and now we decorate our trees with tinsel instead and all Christmas trees should have at least one spider on them.
I think that's right anyway.

Anyway, this spider in the bath. It's been there for ages. Since about June. It's about the same size as the one I made. He's got rid of a few moths for me, the cats have played with him, he's even had a few friends visit him over the months. They've stayed for a while, then he's eaten them.
His latest friend was a 7 legged spider which I found at the top of the stairs (I think he may have had a run in with a cat). I introduced them, and they seemed to get along well for a couple of weeks. Then one morning I noticed the 8 legged spider had found something to eat. It was one of the 7 legged spiders legs. The now 6 legged spider was alive, just slower. Handily (or leggily) it still had 3 legs on each side, which I though was very considerate of the 8 legged spider.
Anyway, things carried on as normal for a few more days. 6 stayed away from 8, everything seemed fine. Then 6 died. Possibly through natural causes, although I'm not sure if having 6 legs when you're meant to have 8 is very natural. Or Gonzo may have got a bit too playful, or there could have been another fight. Either way it died, 8 had another good meal so he's not going to starve for a while longer yet, but he's lonely again.
Poor spider.

Just a few notes.

• I'm terrified of spiders. Anything bigger than a money spider and I get chills down my spine and I run like a girl. What with me being a girl and all.
  
• I can't kill spiders. Nothing to do with the vegetarianism thing, just the idea of the crushing body is ewww. I do however at times get the cats to "play" with spiders, then I clear up the mess before the cats can eat it, which is also ewww. The usual method of spider disposal is the glass and cardboard trick.
  
• I don't particularly like putting spiders outside, unless I can put them a long way outside, I'm too worried about them coming back in. So if I'm upstairs I will put them in the bath as I know they can't get out. Around August time the spiders had started spinning webs up the sides of the bath. I gave the bath a good clean and polish so they could no longer get a grip on the sides.
  
• We have a separate shower. We are not dirty people who haven't washed since June, we just don't use the bath, we rarely have done. It takes too long to fill and gets cold too quickly.
  
• I am not cruel and evil.
  
• I am not conducting some wierd "Island of Dr Moreau" style experiment with spiders in baths, no matter what Porl says.
  

I'm so unbelievably bored.
I need a new hobby. Yes I know I've got loads, but I'm fed up with them all.
I think I know why I'm fed up with them all though.
It's because I've set myself the task this Christmas of making loads of presents for people. But as the time is drawing nearer I'm beginning to realise that I might not actually manage to finish any of them.

Do you think there's any chance Christmas can be moved.... to about June.

I am making progress though on most of them, but too many people have net access so all I'll say is, the Indian cross-stitch I'm trying to finish for my dad is coming along well, and the *** for ****** is about a third done, it should be great becuase I'm going to make it look like a ******** ****. I've got some ideas about the *** for *****, and the same with the **** for ****, and I've nearly finished the ********* for ***, **, *****, and ******.

I'm ever so descriptive aren't I.

Oh I forgot to mention.

I went to the optitions.
I'm not going blind. Hurrah!
My eyesight is nearly 20/20. Hurrah!
I should never have been given glasses, my old optition was just after my money. Boo hiss!

However I do have wierd eyes. Possibly as a result of all the close work I do. The muscles on the inner part of eyes, nearest my nose, are stronger than the muscles on the outer part. So the reason I feel like I'm going cross-eyed all the time is because I am.
He held a stick infront of me and told me to follow it with my eyes, but I couldn't. I couldn't keep up with it.
So the solution. I've to try hold things further away from me when I work, I've to take breaks, look into the distance lots, and of course make sure where I'm working is well lit. Then hopefully the horrid pains I get in my eyes will go.

I'm really happy about the not needing glasses though, and he said it would pobably be years before I do need them.
Hurrah!

My brain is melting.

For the past 2 days I've been working almost constantly on the Shirokuma website. (An almost finished version of which is here)
For the past few months several of us have been virtually living and breathing Shirokuma.
I'm tired and my brain is melting.
But hopefully soon the pressure may be off, everything will be sorted, the single will be released, the album will be released, and we can talk about something else.

Tomorrow I'm doing a 12 hour shift. 8am-8pm.
Saturday night I'm doing a sleep-in.
Monday and Tuesday morning I'm working.
Then I have 4 lovely lovely lovely days off.

I need a holiday.
Is it too cold to go camping?

I made something.



Fingerless monster mittens.
Porl thinks I'm slowly turning into a muppet.

I did a post. I did. Really. But it seems to have disappeared into the ether.

It was about cold and gloves and scarves and cars.

• It is cold.
  
• I'm making some gloves (fingerless monster mittens).
  
• Scarves are great, especially when they are long enough to be wrapped around the head in a peculiar fashion to keep my forehead warm.
  
• Cars aren't so great when you work part time so they don't get used much which means it takes ages to scrape the ice off them in the mornings.
  
• I don't like cold.
  

That was about it really. How exciting.

Oh I've booked an eye test too.

A time I have been dreading has finally arrived.

It's something I was warned about when I was just 11 years old. Something that for the large part I chose to ignore, and I didn't follow the advice when it was given to me.

But the time has now arrived when I feel I can physically no longer ignore the problem. But it's going to take a change in lifestyle, and it will cost money.

And I'm dreading it.

What is this problem?

I need glasses.

I was first given glasses when I was 11. I wore them for a while, then the novelty wore off. I used to have regular eye tests, and the lenses were changed as my eyes got worse. But they've never got so bad that I can't actually see. I just get headaches if I do close work sometimes. Not all the time though.

I haven't had a test now for about 5 years. The glasses I do have are the same frames I got when I was 15ish, and they look absolutely terrible on me. I'm doing much more close work than I used to, but I'm realising that I can't really see it properly, and I'm getting headaches after about an hours work. Working on the computer is also incredibly hard. So I might need glasses for that distance.

Quote of the Day "Tell him I've turned into the Mad Hell Woman frm the planet Zarg.... and I want chocolate."

I know I should have gone to bed.

For your pleasure, some pretty necklaces.


On the left is the Hematite choker I finished last night. Mostly finished anyway, I still have to do the boring bit of sewing onto the ribbon fastening. On the right is a blue choker which I made a couple of weeks ago which I forgot to photograph. They're both made in the same way, on a bead loom, using seed beads. The heart on the blue choker is plastic, with a diamante on both sides.

Lastly, some Christmas card designs I've been playing with. I've been having great fun making these... hmmm cut and stick.....


Anyway. Now I really am going to bed.
Nini.

So so tired. So so bored.

Porl went to Manchester today for A&R type discussions about his own music. Yay happy happy, he's finally going to get something released. But the meeting is still going on so he's not coming home till tomorrow.
Boo hiss!
Then tomorow night I'm on a sleep-in.
Boo boo hiss hiss!
So what am I doing with this rare luxury(?) of a house to myself?
I'm cleaning. That's how bored I am. Still not bored enough to clean the kitchen floor yet though. Probably a bit late to hoover up now too. That can wait till tomorrow.

I finished another necklace last night, another choker made with Hematite and silver coloured beads. It's very "Grown-up Christmas Partyish". I'll put photos up later, it's very pretty, but I'll try selling it. I don't want to fit into the grown-up catagory yet.

I'm getting serious about selling jewellery now. I never wear the stuff, but I love making it. I've got to find a way to make these hobbies pay though. I'm seeing so many pretty beads and things that I want to buy, but I really can't afford them. If I can sell some though I can justify it all. I've been told about a shop which sells handcrafted items, so I might make a few enquiries and see what kind of things they like, and if they like my kind of things. Pity it's in Bristol, or I'd try to visit. Something is putting my off e-bay, and I'm not sure why.

In the long term there's probably going to be a website restructuring to make a sales site. I need to look into the terms and conditions on my ISP though among other things. It has to wait at least a week though, as I've been informed today that I've a week to do the Shirokuma site. Ahh!

Right back to the tidying. Or maybe bed.

Who on earth is Laura?
Why does my blogrolling list show hundreds of links for her blog?
Where are my normal links?
Please don't let them be gone for good, because I've deleted them all out of my bookmarks.

Phew! all done.

I know in the last post I said I was being sensible and had saved the the old blogger template somewhere safe, but I was wrong. I did save the template, but I wrote over the stylesheet. I could've tried to put it right, but it would've taken me a couple of hours, so instead I've spent a couple of days hurriedly changing all the other pages. There are still problems, and I've got loads more plans, but hopefully there shouldn't be any huge errors. If you spot any please, please, please let me know.

I've just spotted that the email address is wrong on all my pages. Sorry if anyone's tried contacting me in the past few months. I'll fix that in a second. So there are still huge errors. Constructive critcism is also greatly appreciated. (Jimmy, I'm not putting the menu on the left. Jon, the top pictures are staying fixed.)

One of my pet hates is people saying they've got flu, when it's really just a bad cold.
Cold and flu are 2 TOTALLY different things.
With a cold you tend to be bunged up, sneeze a lot and feel generally a bit grotty.
With flu your limbs feel like lead and any movement takes incredible amounts of effort. You do not sneeze lots, but do tend to get a bad hacking cough, and my asthma always kicks in.

In January 2002 me and Porl got flu.
I woke one morning feeling terrible. I hurt, I knew we'd no painkillers at home, but I had at work.
I drove to work.
I took painkillers.
I got worse.
By 10 o'clock people were suggestion I went home.
At dinner time I told my boss I was ill and I went home.
I don't remember driving home.
I do remember climbing back into bed and telling Porl I wasn't well.
Then the hallucinations started.

We both got ill. Porl ended up in the bed and I made a nest downstairs. I was off work for 3 weeks, our wonderful friends were coming round everyday to look after us and to feed the cats, and it probably took another 3 weeks for me to get my properly well.

Why am I rambling on about flu?
Because I've got it again.
Thankfully nothing like the Mass Flu Illness of 2002, it's only mild, but this ain't no cold. I've spent the last two days sat infront of the computer redesigning this site because typing involves little movement.
Moving hurts, not moving hurts less.
Walking upstairs makes me out of breath.
I hate being ill.

I'm doing a complete redesign of my site. At the moment the layout is looking pretty similar, but believe me it's very very different. And hopefully all written with css, and generally much more web friendly.

I need to figure out how to put the blogger code in though, so if the page appears to look a jumbled wierd nonsense for the next few hours please forgive me.

Normal service will resume shortly.... I hope....

I've been sensible and saved the original template somewhere safe where I can't write over it accidentally.

I learn from my mistakes.

Not that I'd completely delete a web site accidentally.

I'm more cleverer than that.

How does Google image search manage to make most people look like serial killers in their photos? Or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places.

It does turn up some fun things though. From now on I wish to be refered to by my full title of;

There's so many things I want to be doing. But my mult-tasking tendencies are causing me problem. I can't decide between making myself a new necklace, or doing websites. So I'm here instead.

Last night I decided that seeing as for several reasons I've come to a complete halt on the Shirokuma site that I'd give it a break and play at re-working my site. I failed to come up with anything for me, but ended up doing loads on the Shirokuma site instead. So it all worked out in the end. Today I looked into changing to Moveable Type again. I really want to change over to it, but it looks like the web space I use doesn't do server side scripting. I don't actually pay for this web space, so I'm going to have to ask the lovely lovely nice person who does pay for it to contact them and see if it's an option we can have.

Been doing lots of crafty things. Don't think I'm going to make the 10,000 inch target for ABTI, but I'm doing more drawing than normal which is good. I've made some Christmas cards. Only 8, but there's 4 designs, and they're all very cool.

Other news.
Porl's got the lurk, and I'm avoiding him. I don't want to be ill. We've got fun things to do on Friday.

Gonzo is still being wierd.
He jumped on top of the monitor earlier and knocked it over, thankfully no breakages.
Yesterday afternoon he strolled into the living room to give us a blackbird.
A very screechy, very flappy, very alive blackbird.
Porl and I didn't run out of the room like the big girls we are.
Oh no no no no no.
Cos we're braver than that.
Once we'd calmed down and stopped shaking made a cup of coffee and had a chat, I grabbed a towel, went into the room,managed to catch the bird and get it outside, where it safely few away. Hopefully a wiser bird.

I'm worried about what he could get up to while we're away this weekend.

I love my cats. I really do.
But they're wierd. Really really wierd.
Especially Gonzo.

The last few days he's been getting wierder.

There are probably reasons for his sudden weirderness. (yes I know that's not a word). Like the fact I've been cleaning up and re-arranging furniture. The place is no longer covered in cat hair, and the essence-de-cat is gone. So they're going around rubbing up against everything again making it their own.

Also there's all the fireworks. The first year we had them they seemed to spend of October/November/December hiding in the smallest cat sized corners of the house. Duke retreated to Adams underwear box, and Gonzo found a liking for either under the telly table, or behind the settee. But they aren't afraid of them anymore. They just dont understand them and they don't appreciate being woken by them at all hours of the day. To be honest, neither do I.

The clean house and Bang... banbanbang... bangs have left me feeling a little disorientated. But do I feel the urge to climb on top of my wardrobe at 3:15 in the morning?

No, no I don't. Because that would be wierd.

But Gonzo does.

God knows how he got there. I heard him scrambling around, but I chose to ignore him and pretend I was asleep. For as long as I could anyway.

This isn't a small wardrobe. It's nearly 7 foot tall. Then there are suitcases on top of it. I think he leaped fom the blanket box to the top of the wardrobe. The blanket box is about 2 foot tall, and about 2 feet away from the wardrobe. So that's a hell of a jump he managed. Obviously his oversized belly isn't hampering him as much as I thought. Anyway, he was quite happy up there, so there was no way we could get him down. So I tried to go back to sleep. I didn't quite succeed, for fear of being crushed in the night by a lage cat jumping on my head. Anyway an hour later there were growls downstairs, I think a ferral cat had got in. Porl and I got up, Duke saw him off, and Gonzo decided to brave the leap to the floor to investigate. We checked him for broken legs, hewas fine, and I managed to get some sleep.

Bloody Cats.

Oh as well as that wierdness, the other day Gonzo decided he wanted to learn to drive. I'd opened the boot of the car, I was hoping to fit this chair in and take it to the tip. When I went back, there's Gonzo sat in the driving seat.

Wierd cat.

Why do my camera batteries alays die at the wrong time?

Art by the Inch is going slowly for me. I think the 5,000 square inch target is more likely than the 10,000 target.

I went out and bought a sketch book the other day for the purpose of this challenge. I picked a nice sized spiral bound one which would fit in my handbag. I didn't do the maths before buying it though. It measures 8 1/4" x 5 7/8" (call it 6") and has 50 pages. So to get 10,000" I would need to fill 4 of these pads.

I'm re-knitting the red scarf I made a few weeks ago. It was 20 stitches wide, it's now only 12 wide and I'm much happier with it.

I've done 4 sketches = 198", and knitted 35" of the scarf, it's 3" wide, so the total for that = 305" So my grand total in 3 days is 503"/10,000". Eeek, I really best get some more stuff done.

Other people doing the challenge have been posting pictures in the Community Their stuff is far far better than mine.

Other news. Erm. Not much. Work, home, work, home, work, week off, Woo! We do have a spotlessly clean house though (except for the kitchen.) We've absolutely bottomed the house over the past few days. Walls have been washed down, furniture has been re-arranged, clutter has been chucked or tidied, and pictures that have spent months/years propped up against walls have finally been hung up. The cats are totally confused, the place no longer smells of them, and all their furry decorating effects have been hoovered up. It looks great. That was the easy bit though, the hard bit is keeping it like this.

Anyhow, enough babbling. I'm going to play with photoshop for a bit.

So November is looking like it's going to be fun.

This weekend joeladyboy and Eskimo Girl were supposed to becoming up, it looks like that's been postponed until another weekend, which is a shame, but these things happen, and we'll probably need a quiet weekend to deal with the rest of the month.

I've got next week off work, and on friday it's Amy, where much fun, frolics, fizzy drinks, and spice (sheffield for sweets) will be had. Prior to that I'm hoping to get up to Sheffield. It's my Dad's birthday, so some quality time with parents would be good. A bit of fresh air, and exploring countryside with porl would be great too. It doesn't sem to have happened much this year.

The following weekend DoubleJohnGrey are coming up to do some recording. Wooo we're getting new friends!

Whilst all this is happening I'm going to be taking part in arty things. I've signed up for Art by the Inch.So during November I've got to try to create 10,000 square inches of art. They say it doesn't have to be 10,000, you set your own targets, but I may as well give it a shot. I think this is going to be very odd and interesting for me because I'm going to have to forget my current arty trends for most of it. 10,000 square inches of cross-stitch or beading in a month just wouldn't happen. I'm not leaving them completely though, I've got too many Chistmas Presents to make to forget them altogether. Tomorrow I'm going to buy myself a lovely new sketch pad, and I'm going to start drawing again. I haven't done any pencil and paper type art for years, and recently I've been regretting letting my skills slip. I used to be very good at drawing, but I seem to have forgotten how to do it somewhere along the way. I'm going to do some collages too, because they're quick and I love doing them. I'll be including the Christmas Presents I want to make in the count, and hopefully I'll come up with this elusive Christmas Card design somewhere along the way. (I know I want to use lino prints, but I decide what type of image I'm after.) I'm also going to go for some digital art. In other words, the Shirokuma website is still causing me headaches and I need to get that done too.

So November is looking busy, but lots and lots of fun.

Oh Art by the Inch is inspired by NaNoWriMo. I haven't the ability to write a novel in a month. The peak of my writing abilities was Timmy the Talking Egg. It was silly, and it was at least half written by Porl. (It also appears to have disappeared offline. I'll have to fix that tomorrow.)

However I have a talented writer friend who is doing NaNoWriMo. So hopefully this month we will be egging each other on to success.

Sometimes the guys who edit clips for News and Sport programmes get the music just right. BBC Newsnight was great today. The Smiths accompanied todays news about Ian Duncan-Smith.

Some classic lines.

"I'm the sun and the air, I am human and I need to be loved."
"I was looking for a job and then I found a job, and heaven knows I'm miserable now."
"So please, please, please, let me, let me, let me, get what I want, this time."
"Haven't had a dream it's been a long time."
"So for once in my life let me get what I want."
"So shut your mouth, how can you say, you go about things the wrong way. I am human and I need to be loved, just like anybody else does."
"last night I dreamt somebody loved me."

Would it be totally silly of me to rip the red scarf I made and re-do it with 10, or 15 stitches instead of 20?
It's okay as it is, but it would be better a bit longer, and my coat is fluffy enough for a thinner scarf to be good. It only took me about 4 hours (still learning to knit remember,) and the practise would do me any harm.

Oh what should I do?

The weather has turned colder, the nights are drawing in. Tonight we will put the clocks back an hour and it will be dark by about 5:00. Which means it's time for me to start hibernating. As this room has no central heating I will be moving into the other living room which has the choice of either radiator, or coal fire.... decisions decisions.


*big pictures if clicked on

So this is where I've been for the past week, cross-legged on my lovely leather chesterfield settee (unbelievably generous donation for an ex-lodger.) The fire's lit, the cats are around me, and my bead box is at my side.
I've been content. I've been productive. (I've also been ill, but ignore that.)




I've made some beaded chokers using my bead loom, they fasten with ribbon, which they're securely, and painstakingly sewn onto. I'm really enjoying making them (except for the sewing onto ribbon bit, that's annoying.)
I'm selling these for £15. A bargain for a piece of hand-crafted unique jewellery. If the one you like is sold I can make you something similar, but I will never repeat a design.
E-mail me if you're interested. I have paypal, or cheques etc.'
Excuse the red thread in the lilac one, it's not totally finished yet. It is lilac, honest. Heart are lilac with diamantes in them, and the seed beads are mostly lilac, with the odd blue one thrown in for good measure.




Badges badges everywhere. All 1" badges thanks to my lovely machine (wish I could find a UK supplier of the parts for it though.) Christmas toy catalogues are great for badge making. The paw badges are Shirokuma ones. I see this image when I sleep at the moment thanks to all the time I've spent working on his website, and perfecting the badge design.
Badges are also up for sale 70p. The range is limited to the ones above at the moment. Or you can send me an image that you want, and I'll see what I can do.
Again, e-mail me.


Lastly, things that are certainly not for sale.
A crocheted snowflake. From these pages here It's about 4" across. I'm going to make loads, coat then in a watered down pva glue that has glitter in it, leave them to dry, and then either give a batch of them as Christmas Presents, they could make tree decorations, or be coasters. Alternatively I could put them on the front of the more special Christmas Cards, then they can keep the snowflake to decorate the tree the following year. (I've only just thought of that. See how the creative juices are flowing.)
Cross-stitch Indian. I've picked it up and set myself a mission to finish it by Christmas. I've done most of the top left this week.
The task may be acheivable.
Finally, the practise piece of lino block. I drew the image on the lino years ago, but never had the cutters to do it. Now I have, and I'm quite pleased with the result. Now to find some Christmas images.

Sorry the last two posts are pretty much duplicates, but my brain is tired and I repeat myself when I'm tired.

I've been such a busy girlie. Working hard, playing hard, and trying to avoid the computer. I've been ever so crafty in the past few days.

Craftyness #1
I've made 2 lovely beaded necklaces using the loom I got for my birthday from my brother and his wife (I still can't get used to the fact my brother has a wife!) They're thin choker type necklaces with dangley bits. I'll take pictures tomorrow when I've got good light. I might even try selling them, either to people at work, or on here. I'm definatly going to make some more, I'm really enjoying them.

Craftyness #2
I've crocheted a snowflake. A charity shop trawl yesterday turned up some crochets in white, cream and red. So I'm thinking crocheted snowflakes as Christmas Decorations/Presents. I picked up some wool for another Christmas Present I'm planning too, but you'll not hear anything about that until Christmas. (Little Jugs, Big Handles, etc).

Craftyness #3
I've picked up my cross-stitch Indian again. I'm on a mission to try to get it finished by Christmas for my Dad. I figure if I set myself a date I might actually finish it, and stop throwing it across the room in boredom.

Craftyness #4
I've been limo cutting in preperation and practise for printing Christmas Cards. I've not done any lino printing for years, so I'm trying to get to grips with it. I've made a nice flower stamp so far, still waiting for the Christmassy inspiration. Also browsing lots of magazines looking for Christmas Card ideas.

Craftyness #5
Made a candle. Consisted of chopping and grating old candles up. Sticking a wick in a glass jar. Alternately layer old candle scrapings and contrasting coloured candle sand in jar until happy.

Craftyness #6
Been making lots of badges with my lovely lovely machine. Toy catalogues make great source material. However, not having much luck finding a UK supplier of parts which fit in a DrDon's model 100, but I really don't want to pay £30 for shipping everytime I need new parts. I'm even thinking about buying a machine from a UK supplier and reselling this machine to someone in the US. the nly problem is, the UK machine are twice the price of what I paid for this, so I have to make the money first.

So that's what I've been up to. (Plus 2 days of illness I had during which I slept constantly.)

I've done more crafts in the last couple of days than I have in months. The joys of avoiding the computer. Why am I avoiding the computer? I have very important work stuff to do at the moment, and it's not going too well, so I'm having a short break. Also, and probably more importantly it turned really cold here this past week. This room has no central heating, the crafty room has either central heating or a coal fire, whichever I prefer.

Now I'm off again, fingers itching for more crafting tomorrow, I'm hoping to have a Girlie Crafting day with a friend Cat where silliness, talking and yummy food may be involved.

I promise pictures tomorrow.

My brain is finally starting to get itself together. I'm feeling a little bit more with it than I have one for the past fortnight. Which is good because tonight it's party night. Wooo!

We're heading up to Manchester later on to go to to amy with love. So before then I need go to town to get something to wear, what I was going to wear seems to have ending up at Marky boys house after our little adventures in drag. I also need to sort my hair out. My mum cut it for me last week and since then I've been doing a great impression of the Wicked Witch of the West. Once the boys are back from work we got to eat, I've got to make a load of Shirokuma badges, then we can get going. Oh I've got to make a cake too. But that's a secret, so shhhhh!

Eeeee fun... Party night out.

I look really happy in yesterdays photos.

I really wish I felt that way.

I finished knitting my scarf! Most people may think "pah! it's only a scarf" But I knitted it! Me! I may be a dab hand at all the other crafts, I can still crochet when I'm too drunk to walk, but I've never been any good at knitting. I made a jumper when I was about 8, but I think my mum must have helped a lot. So this scarf is a huge acheivment. It's made with 1 strand of red double knit (found on a charity shop trawl) and 1 strand of red eyelash yarn (Stylecraft Eskimo Double Knit). It took about 75g of each yarn, and I used 6mm needles. It's so lovely and soft and fluffy. As I've got loads of the plain double knit left, and about 3/4 of a ball of the eyelash yarn I'm going to make a hat next, but I'll crochet it this time and just use the eyelash yarn as trimmings.

Whilst I had the camera out I took some pictures of the other things I've done. The pink bag is what I made for my brothers wedding. It's made with 1 stand of pink mohair and 1 strand of cream arran. Again both found in charity shops. It's just a plain rectangle folded in half. The edges were single crocheted together using the cream arran. For the strap I did a long chain and then went all along in single crochets for about 3 or 4 rows. The mohair makes the bag lovely and soft, but the arran makes it firm. I lined the bag with some cream cotton.

The orange bag is my "In the City" bag. I started it at rehearsals for Marks in the City performance, continued it during the day of the gig whilst I was sat around when everything was being set up, and I finished it the morning after when fighting off a hangover. It's just an easy string shopping bag made using some of the many many hanks of rug wool that I've got.

My Nan-nan died this morning at about 9 o'clock. I found out this evening. In the end it was quite quick. They gave her morphine for the first time yesterday morphine, up until then she'd only been letting them give her paracetemols, so she was pretty aware until 24 hours before she died. All her children were with towards the end, though my Mum left just before she died and sat in the corridor with my cousin. The funerals is on monday and I'm dreading it.

I tried to do lots of things today. I wanted to clean, and finish making my scrapbook. I thought about making the new blinds for the living room I even thought about finishing painting the bedroom (I painted 3 walls over a year ago, but never got around to painting the 4th).

I should have done some work on the Shirokuma website. I've done the basic layout, and redrawn the paw logo to make it the correct shape (this took hours). I know what pages I need, and I've started working on the images to make them tie in with the page. But everytime I start working on anything more I end up staring at the screen for a while, changing a few things, changing them back, staring a bit more, then shutting it down again.

I've been doing very well keeping away from biscuits. But today I've sat and eaten almost a whole packet of bourbons.

I feel like I could go to bed and cry and sleep for a week.

I've injured myself.

Wednesday afternoon I'd got a nagging pain in the lower left hand side of my belly. Uncomfortable but not too bad. By Thursday dinner time it was sore. By Thursday night it hurt... a lot. I was beginning to panic slightly, trying to figure out what is in that bit of my body, lower intestines, could be a hernia, ovaries, could be nasty.

So this morning I woke up early after a rotten, restless, painful sleep and phoned into work sick, then made an appointment for the doctors. Nice doctor lady examined me and told me she thinks it's probably groin strain, (no dodgy jokes) I must've done it at work somehow. So I've to rest for a few days and take pain killers, and hopefully it'll fix itself in a few days.

So my restful day has involved making myself a scrapbook. Last week I cleared a cupboard which was full of junk and games and papers and bills. The bills have all been neatly organised into a folder, lots of games and junk were thrown away and lots of memorable junk was put into a plastic bag until I today when I figured out a better way of keeping it all.

I've still not finished, but I've now got a very simple scrapbook with all the things I've accumulated over the years (cartoons, cards, tickets, exam results, certificates, loads) which has never had anywhere to live other than various plastic bags.

So I'm getting all the paper junk sorted... now just for the 3d junk. Maybe I'll take pictures of things, stick them in the scrap book, then I can bin/sell the actual objects. That wil be another day though.

Oh the badge machine is great by the way. I made some Shirokuma paw badges last night which everyone seemed to love. I've not got any left anyway. I wasn't happy with them though, I need to work out better how big the images can be so that they don't curl around the edges. It's all good fun though.

Busy busy busy. In no particular order:

Sunday I drove up to Manchester to pick up Porl, spent a lovely lazy day around at Sarah and Dave's house. We read the paper, wandered to the supermarket and cooked a lovely Sunday Roast. I think Dave was a bit disturbed by my gleeful washing of the chicken (dead baby) and then carving/pulling apart of it once it was cooked. I never have believed in being a stereotypical vegetarian.

Finally got my car through its MOT, took 3 visits to the garage, and too much money, but it's done and safe and will see me through the winter, after then it's being sold. It's a lovely little car, a Citroen AX GT, it's never given me any trouble (except for MOT time) but the GT bit means the insurance is too expensive for my little pockets. In fact, the MOT, insurance, and tax added together cost more than the value of the car. So after winter it's time for it to go, and I hope some boy-racer fool will buy it off me.

I've started knitting things. it's the first time I've tried knitting anything since I was 7 and had chicken pox, I made a jumper. (Truthfully I did an arm and some straight bits on a jumper and my mum did the rest.) I'm making myself a fuzzy red scarf with 1 strand of red double knit and 1 of red eyelash yarn, using some lovely chunky 7mm needles. They're yellow too which is a bonus. I've done about 2 foot so far and I've still got the same number of stitches that I started with. Hurrah! I also sent off for a sock knitting starter pack from Web of Wool you get 1 ball of opal yarn of your choice, 5 birch dpns, a sock pattern, a tapestry needle and some stitch markers. I also got some black and silver shoelaces for some reason, I'm not sure if that was an accident though. So I don't know how to knit in the round, and I'm a bit hazey on increasing and decreasing and even purling, so socks might be throwing myself in at the deep end, but I'm sure I'll cope.

We've also had a meeting with the Mortgage Adviser, gave her all the details of what we need. I'll not go into details, but it's not a simple one. So we've left it with her and she's going to get back to us when she's got her head around it all. But hopefully by the end of the week we should have a mortgage and life will be easier. More expensive, but easier. Then once this house is bought we can start thinking about getting it ship shape, selling it and moving to Manchester.

My badge machine will be arriving tomorrow, at last! It actually arrived today but porl didn't have any money to pay the £34 import duty. But I can't play with it too much because I have to get some work done on Mark/Shirokuma's website. I should really be doing it tonight, but my mind isn't on the task at all.

My Nan-nan has gone into hospital for 2-3 weeks. She keeps saying it's respite, we keep saying it's respite, but we all know she's gone in there to die really. She's probably in a lot of pain, but she won't admit it. She has admitted she's feeling nauseous, so they're now treating that. The doctors gave her 4 months to live, that was nearly 2 years ago. A doctor friend of ours said if it was anyone else they'd give her 2 weeks to live, that was 3 weeks ago. She's getting grouchier, but she's still got her sense of humour. She keeps referring to her hugely swollen liver as her twins, and explaining that she can't be a Girl Guide anymore because when they operated 2 years ago she lost her belly button (nowhere to put the flags when she's walking in parade now). Whenever anyone mentions death she tells them she's going to live to be 100, but she knows really. She's a strong lady who I love to bits, and I don't want her to give up, but I wish she could swallow her pride a bit.

It's taken me about an hour to write that last paragraph. These entries although always infrequent are getting harder to write. Don't be surprised if I'm not around much over the next few weeks

Been a busy girl, back at work, doing courses, I know all basic Food Hygiene now, so I can work in kitchens if I wish. I did thinking about failing on purpose in the hope I wouldn't have to cook at work, but I doubt it'd work and I'd have to do the course again.

Anyhow, got back from work and started cleaning the house (kitchen especially). I'm on my own this weekend, Porl's gone up to Manchester to meet Marky Boy, and also Dave from Valentine Records. Something strange is in the offing and I'm all curious, we've been guessing wildly but I expect we're miles off the mark. I'm sure I'll find out soon.

Today autumn has arrived, it's chucked it down all day. Luckily I bought myself a winter coat yesterday, maybe that brought on winter though. It's lovely though. Raspberry coloured corderoy-ish material, with a lovely silky soft cream fur lining. Not everyone was as prepared for winter as me though. I felt very strange walking down the street all snuggly warm in my new coat and my wooly hat, when other people were still walking around in shorts and t-shirts.

I've been browsing estate agents online looking at houses in Manchester and Stockport. We've got to buy this house before we can think about moving there, but at least I'm getting ideas. I did see a great house with 4 bedrooms, 2 reception rooms and a study which would be great. Crafty room for me, studio for Porl, and plenty of spare bedrooms for friends. It's in Gatley, which is on the main trainline between Sheffield and Manchester and it was affordable. Which all added together makes me think that maybe Gatley isn't such a great area to live. Wherever we end up though I think what we get for this house will set us up with something pretty nice in a different part of the country.

I should've posted this days ago, but Sarah has a great write up and pictures from last weekend. Dave has given the night the one, two, three, write-ups that it deserves.

I'm a silly girl. I did do all the photos when I got back from the pub last night. I was up until 2:30 doing all the photos. But I forgot to do a link on here for them. Daft girl!


more photos

Friday night was great. All the bands were great, Porl seemed to end up doing the sound upstairs, which kept him very busy and very happy. I wandered around taking lots of pictures, chatting to random people, drinking beer and sucking limes (literally... they were in the beer and they're nice.) Met lots of lovely people, instantly forgot their names, but I never expected anything else.

Highlights of the night; seeing lots of townie girls dancing to "Moonlight in the Afternoon" when Dave played the single upstairs, Purple Jennie appearing as if by magic from London, although I was a little tipsy by then so didn't talk to her much, seeing the queues of people waiting to get into the place, It Was Packed! the joy on people's faces when I was giving out the bowls of sweeties, and last but certainly not least Marks set, it went down very well, although probably not what people were expecting, great fun though. Oh and lastly going for a lovely curry and more beer at 4 in the morning.

Saturday involved lugging lots of things around to different places, Porl, Robin and Dave had to carry huge bass bins and a PA around, so Porl really hurts today. I was just carrying lights and boxes but I'm still sore. After the lugging around we went to a party at someone elses house. I think they were all Kiwi's but to be honest I was that tired by then I could have been hallucinating. They had lovely dip though.

We got back here at about 10, had bacon butties and went to bed. I've been sleeping on an off all day today and I'm still knackered. I'll post the piccies when I get back, got to nip to the pub and say bye bye to a mate who's heading back to Poland tomorrow.

I think I'm getting a cold. This is not good. I always seem to get ill just before big nights out. Please please please let me not be ill.

Just finished re-arranging the living room again. I don't think I'll ever be happy with the layout, we just need a bigger house.

Lemsip and bed is in order now.

Why does my weather pixie never resemble what's actually going on outside?
Apparently it should be raining. It was this morning, but it looks perfectly fine outside now.

Speaking of weather, much as I love summer I'm glad the nights are drawing in again. I like it when it goes dark at about 8 or 9 o' clock. We've got the heating back on, and I'm trying to get the living room cosy and organised for when we can have the coal fire going. Oh how I love my real fire!

I'm actually getting round to putting things in boxes to clear away, although I think I've missed the car boot sales for this year. Oh well, I'll get everything sorted for next year. I need to sort the spare room out too, I think we might end up with a lodger again, so it can no longer be a storage room.

Right back to the tidying, Porl needs my PC for burning CD's for his DJ set tomorrow night, we might even figure out how to print CD covers with the playlists on! Woohoo aren't we clever!

I nearly forgot the important bit.

So who's up for a great night out on Friday then?

It's in Manchester and it's FREE!
There's 7 bands, 4 dj's and loads of fun.
Get to the Font bar on Friday 9pm.

Again, it's FREE! it'll be ace! (especially Shirokuma).
More details here.

Get there early cos there's a strong chance it'll be full.

Another week off work for holidays. Last time I had holidays I wrote a list on here, I successfully accomplished 4 of the 7 tasks ( I did loads of other things instead though, like buy paint, and a tumble dryer, and clean the house loads and make roman blinds, and 2 crochets bags, and a lovely necklace).
Lets see if I can do any better this time.

1. arrange a mortgage (carried over from last time)
   
2. re-organise the front room (which includes sorting all my crafty stash, and chucking loads of junk away)
   
3. get porl a passport
   
4. sort out all my bills/paperwork etc
   
5. claim back my tax
   
6. get the car MOT'd and insured
   
7. possibly finish making the roman blinds, and make some cushion covers
   
8. design a website for Shirokuma ( I really want to do my own though!)
   

If I can accomplish all that I'll be so happy, and I'll have done things I've been putting off for ages.

As well as this on Friday we'll be in Manchester for Marky Boy's gig. Porl and I went up to Manchester yesterday as F&H had got Mark some rehearsal space. So they were running through what they were going to do, Porl is accompanying Mark in the silliness by playing bass. It's all looking good. I went for a bit of a wander around Manchester because we seemed to be in "the material quarter". I found a couple of great material shops, one of which sold oddments by weight, so I picked up some Powerpuff girls printed material. I think it was oddments of bedding. Porl wants me to make some cushions for in here with it. The material shop had a craft shop attatched to it, so I got a bead board, and some more beading thread, some silicon glue (I will make marble magnets one day) and a HUGE (well, 10mm) crochet hook. Just one street in Manchester made me so happy, I know there's a bead shop at Afflecks Palace too which I've still got to visit. I want to live in Manchester now.

The car wasn't a happy bunny on it's way to Manchester and back though, so it's been booked into the garage for Friday. The MOT is due and I think either a wheel is out of shape or needs realigning, either way I get a horrid juddering once I get to 50mph making it impossible to drive past that speed. Not good on the motorway. So we left all the kit at Marks and we're getting the train up on Friday. I'll have to make a trip to Marks in the car another time to pick the stuff up. *sigh* Might have to look around more material shops then.

I'm just sat here, feeling very contentetededed (never sure when to end that word). Outside the clouds are gorgeous salmon pink mares tails, with vivid blue sky behind them. I'm watching the cricket highlights of the final test between England and South Africa we won the test today between England and South Africa, which means we've drawn the series. It's been a good summer, I thought I'd done very little, but we've had a lot of fun events happen. I've had a lot of fun relaxing days in beer gardens with friends, a good camping trip, a trip to spain, fun weekends in, and good nights out. I've had silliness, music, sunshine, and sunburn. I've seen my brother get married, which was one of the happiest days of my life. I've also been to my Grandad's funeral after months of hearing about him slowly deteriorate, my Nan-nan is still hanging on, but I doubt she'll be here much longer. I've still not really come to terms with my Grandad's death, my Nan-nan's will be even harder to deal with. I wish I lived nearer my family, the distance does make me value them all the more though.

So it's been a summer of mostly highs, with the occasional low point. It's one I'd like to remember as a whole though.

I've been off work for a fortnight, on holiday, loads has happened (wedding, cleaning, getting extra work, buying domestic items, made tons off stuff, still not got the badge machine though.) Pictures for all of these should appear soon, however this is what I'm up to right now.
Ormskirk Nights

Oh we're recording music too.

Well yesterday was brilliantly productive, today, not so good, but it's still early for me. Yesterday we got up at about midday (early for us) and after a couple of hours of coming round we headed off to Southport. Parked the car up for an hour and did some speed suit shopping. Managed to get Porl a suit in less than half and hour. Still got shoes and a T-shirt to get him, but the T-shirt can wait until I've chosen an outfit, then we can be all colour co-ordinated (or at least not clashing).

We then went the the retail park and bought a tumble dryer, this wonderful piece of domestic machinery has put me in domestic heaven. The salesman in the shop was so nice, he just wanted to go home, so no hard sell. When I asked him what the difference was between the "pro-line" on and the "hoover" one, other than £40, he said "nothing, they're made in the same factory, get the cheap one". Oh if only all sales people could be more like him. He didn't try to sell us the extended warrenty, and he pointed out it would easily fit in the car so we'd save £15 in delivery too.

We then went to Homebase and bought paint for the front room. We actually made decisions! Pale blue walls, white ceiling, and slatey blue trimmings (fire surround, picture rail, skirting boards etc). The current plan is to paint on Sunday and Monday, this might not happen, but at least we're halfway there in buying the paint.

When we got home I finished cleaning the kitchen, I'd started it the night before, cleaning behind the fridge and freezer, washing all the walls and cupboards down, bleaching the floor. We then stacked the fridge on top of the freezer and plumbed in the tumbler. I've done 5 loads of washing since tea time last night.

Today I hurt. But as our lodger has just moved out I'll go and give his room a clean in a bit, hoover upstairs, and then move the stuff he's left in the front room into the bedroom. He's coming back next weekend to get the rest of his gear. Then we can start looking for another for another lodger.

Tomorrow I think I'll go an buy some material and make some roman blinds for in here, because when I've painted I really don't want to have to put these tatty curtains back up.

Right best get on with putting the house back together.

I'm ill. I've got a "summer cold". Everyone sounds so knowing when I say I've got cold. "oh yes, summer cold, it's doing the rounds." Don't they understand I'm dying here. I've not got time to have a "summer cold". I've got 2 weeks off work and I've got things to do! I'm supposed to be going on holiday on Wednesday and before then I've got to:

• buy myself a fantastically fetching outfit to wear for my brothers wedding
  
• buy Porl a suit for the wedding
  
• get a present for the wedding (eeep only just remembered that one)
  
• do about 12 million loads of washing (why do I always leave it until we've run out of clothes)
  
• arrange a mortgage
  
• make some decision about where we're actually going on holiday
  
• get all the tents and stuff together and pack
  

And they're just the things I have to do, I'm leaving out the things I wanted to do, like decorate the living room, blitz the house and meet up with a few old friends.

Why is there never enough time in the day? I'm currently tempted to tell all my mates to go on holiday on their own, I've got too much to do, and not enough enthusiam for camping right now.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I'm a little bit happy!

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

*does a little dance*

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I've bought a badge machine. Porl's birthday present to me was permission to get one, but they're over £300, so I've not done anything about it, and probably wouldn't have done, but then I was reading Craftgrrl today and someone was selling exactly what I wanted for $200. I got in touch with the girl selling it, she's worked out postage and for a little over $200 I'm getting a badge machine in a few days, half the price of what I would have paid over here.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

So who wants badges? Oh I need a printer first though.... hmmm. Dabs here I come.

I am still here, and I've been doing very many things, I've just not been writing about them. But in brief, I've almost finished the Bishnabag, had the Bishnabob visiting, cleaned my car (2nd time in 3 years), turned a year older, made and bought lots of beady things, and lost a much loved Grandad.

The night before my birthday was a great night, loads of people were round. Half of us spent the night playing with beads, which the other half were making music and having freestyle rap competitions. It made me realise that my life is far from normal, maybe I should have warned Bishnabob about this before inviting him up for the weekend. Oh well!

The beady things and the Bishnabag I will post pictures of as soon as I have a day off for photo taking.

I wish I could tell you all about my Grandad, but it's still a bit raw to think about it, and I don't like posting too much personal stuff on here. He was great though, a very quiet, loving man, who has left a mark on all his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

It's really hot today. I managed to burn my feet stepping out onto the patio. I'm staying in cos the pollen count is high, and sunburn along with a bad back would make me even grumpier.
My mates went to the beach though, they had strict instructions, which I'm happy to say that they carried out.

We're getting a new sofa, it's a second hand one really, but will be new to us. Our old sofa we've donated to our friends who've been looking at getting an extra one for a while. So yesterday they unexpectedly turned up to take it away. After I'd taken the bottom off it to retreive the money, crochet hooks, quick-up-picks and plectrums from inside it, they carried it across town and made the most of the photo opportunity.

 

Tonight Porl is doing a DJ set at the Retro Bar in Manchester. It's all thanks to Valentine Records (the company Mark/Shirokuma didn't sign to but loves anyway). Capital K are playing, Mark is doing a DJ set, and the night should be ace. Door open at 9, entry is £4. More info here

So if the doors for this great night open at 9, why is it that I'm sat here at 9:30 posting entries?

Well that would be because some how, at some point, in the last couple of days I've managed to do something to my back which means I can only just walk. So while all my mates are having fun smoozing it up at record company do's I'm sat at home (on a chair, not the floor) watching rubbish telly.

Everyone is having a fun day out in Manchester tomorrow too, so I'll be alone until late tomorrow, (can you sense the self-pity here?)

On the upside, Porl is under strict instructions to go and spend money at the bead shop in Afflecks (sp?) Palace. I was going to go there myself tomorrow, but now I'll have the fun of surprise beads. I'm looking for any silver linings here.

I forgot to say, I've been adding stuff again.

The photo gallery page has an addition, spods go camping, full of lovely pictures of our weekend away in Bakewell. Now I just need some alt text for them, suggestions greatly appreciated, my brain isn't working on this one.

I've also got a new friend (with a website) bishnabob.

This morning I finally finished reading Harry Potter and The Order of the Pheonix. Don't worry, no spoilers. I read the first half in a couple of days as a PDF, I then bought the book, and it's taken me a week to finish it. It didn't seem as exciting as the others, probably because nothing really seems to happen until the end. I think it was all a bit too long and drawn out, but if it gets kids reading a book they would normally consider too long then I'm all in favour. I'm all in favour of encouraging children to read. I can honestly say though, my favourite is still The Prisoner of Azkaban.

I got bored. I was using PhotoShop at the time.

Tomorrow I'm going to Emmerdale Farm with all the staff from work.
I'm taking a bottle of vodka.

I took a client shopping Saturday, and bought many goodies. She's such a great shopping companion:

Me: Shall I buy the new Harry Potter book?
S: Yesh.
Me: Should I buy some wool?
S: Yesh.
Me: Do you like these colours?
S: Yesh.
Me: Shall we fly to the moon next?
S: Yesh.

She does say other things, lots and lots and lots of them, but Saturday she was on a "yesh" day. She has "no" days too which aren't quite as much fun.



The yellow and purple wool, (yes it is purple, I'm just not too good at fixing colours in photoshop) were bought for a specific purpose, not just my usual "that's nice I'll buy it". I'm making a Bishnabag (a bag for someone whose nickname is Bishnabob). The red fuzzyness is eyelash yarn. I fell in love with it and bought 2 balls, and I think most bags I make for a while will have a little red fluffiness on them. It cost £1.99 for 50g, but I'm figuring that as most of my wool is bought at charity shops I can afford to go wild every so often.

I've already started on the Bishnabag, and undone it and restarted and undone and restarted, I've managed to do about 10cm. I should try drawing designs sometimes, it would be so much quicker than undoing everything all the time. No in progress pictures though, he picked the colours, but the rest is a surprise.

Now would fuzzy red yarn make this just a little too camp or not?.... Not decided yet.

Okay, hands up who noticed....
No-one? What a surprise!

Yep there's a new bit at the side, photo gallery

So far I've put the new pictures from Spain in there, others (many from this week) will follow eventually.

I am still here. Honest. I could spend hours writing about everything I've been up to, but I can't be bothered, so bear with me and I'll show the photos instead.

Oh I finally bought the film, Benny & Joon. I'm re-remembering how much I love it.

I got back from Spain on monday night. I was tanned, refreshed and I had a bag full of goodies. Five days later and my tan is peeling, I'm shattered from doing a night shift last night, and most of the bag of goodies has been eaten, drank, or given away.

The holiday was great, I slept, sunbathed, and generally relaxed. I explored a lot, shopped a little, read a little, swam a little and crafted a lot. Large sections of cross stitch were done (I'm working on a Collecting Shells) And several pieces of crochet were done, then undone, then done, then undone, etc. I bought a crochet kit with the most bizarre instructions I've ever read, it looks like a geometry lesson, there are a few written instructions (in Spanish), but the pattern is made up of lots of different symbols, and each symbol represents a different stitch (crochets, double crochets, trebles etc). It's wierd! I'll have to take a little photo to show you what I mean, putting a little bit of a pattern up won't breach copyright will it? The kit includes 200g of size 5 crocheting cotton, and a pattern to make either a top, or a hat and bag. It cost €10.19, which is about £7.50.

Okay, 3 things.

1. I'd never be able to get that much wool at that price here.... never mind a kit with 3 patterns and a hook in there too!
   
2. It was being sold in a Supermarket! How come I can't find a decent craft shop, yet in Spain you can get your craft supplies in your local supermarket!
   
3. The world is an unfair place.
   

Unsurprisingly I went a little snap happy, so expect a bunch of photos to be posted somewhere soon.

I'm going on holiday in 4 days time, so I thought I'd best get some things done today, you know, the kind of things most people would have got sorted weeks ago.

Well I couldn't find any clothes, and I forgot to get the Travel Insurance, but I got the most important thing sorted, I bought some books. The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir, Wideacre, by Philippa Gregory, and a little Collins Gem book on Kings & Queens. I've just finished reading The Other Boleyn Girl for the second time in as many months, it's also by Philippa Gregory, and it's brilliant. I never seemed to study Kings and Queens at school, so I'm studying now. I like the Tudor period best I think, the whole courtly kingdom. It's not a life I would have enjoyed, but it's good to learn about.

Maybe on Friday I'll get the holiday things sorted out. Hopefully I won't leave it as late as Saturday.

Tomorrow I will be doing housework. Especially washing.

A while ago I started making a blanket. It's going wierd though, and it's no longer a square. So today I learnt how to make Granny Squares, (yes I know that's how most people start learning to crochet, but I like to be different). I'm going to undo this big blanket, shich is a couple of feet across and start again making lots of little squares of about 10cm. They're far more easier to transport whilst making them too.

I do like websites with a sense of humour. I learnt how to swim at this place I'd have problems swimming there now though because it's a pub called The Deep End. Remember kids, drinking and swimming don't mix.
It's actually owned by an old mate of mine. If you happen to be in the Sheffield area I recommend going.
Even if you aren't in the Sheffield area read the find us section anyway. Instructions for travel by Tram and Air are extremely helpful.

I hate this page not having pictures, it looks far too boring, so here are a few which I took of the garden yesterday. I love flowers and colour, however I hate cutting the grass. I'm hoping that seeing these pictures online might shame me into doing the garden. Probably not though. I'll always find an excuse. The current excuse is that I can't get to the strimmer or lawn mower because the garage is full of things which need to be taken for recycling. When/If I get around to that my hayfever will probably be bad. I'm so good at putting things off. At least the cats gain a fun place to place through my ineptitude.



the bottom pictures are of the mint in my garden going rampant, but looking lovely growing inbetween all the flowers, it smells great too, though I'll probably curse myself for letting it get so wild. Lastly as I want to try out glass painting I thought I'd buy some cheap kids plastic ones to have a go at first. Okay so they aren't proper glass paints, and they're very very opaque, but what can you expect from Poundland. This little chappy currently lives in my kitchen.

Anyway, time for work now.

I've been a busy webgirly. I wrote a big long post about just how busy, but then pressed something and it all disappeared... again! Guess I've still got to figure Blogger out.

Anyway the regular (hahaha!) readers will notice that you can now comment on any posts. This is thanks to Enetation. I've spent most of tonight brushing up my CSS skills getting the comments box to match the rest of my page. I'm glad to say that even though I'm using Dreamweaver nowadays, I can still remember HTML and CSS.

Slightly less obvious will be the fact that I'm now posting via Blogger instead of doing it all manually. Unfortunalty Blogger doesn't let you back date posts, unless you pay for it, and cheap as it may be, I can't afford it. So at the moment there aren't any of the older posts, I'll put them up somewhere in the next couple of days. Right now though it's bed time.

Night Night

Well yesterdays productiveness failed, but today, hopefully there should be comments on here now. Fingers crossed anyway.

Ahhh thought I'd got this sussed, but just pressed a button and all the stuff I had typed had disappeared.

Hopefully it'll work this time.

All I was trying to say was... I've spent all night working on this, and I seem to have now got blogger to post stuff via my FTP to my site, using my template, not bloggers... Hurrah!

Tomorrows job will be to figure out how to put old archives up, change the journal bit to the first page instead of this hopefully hidden page, and lastly try to get a comment facility to work within the posts.. I'm not sure that will work though.

I certainly can't do it now though, I need sleep. Feeling ill anyway, and I hit my head on a cupboard door in the kitchen earlier, I've got a great lump now.

Oooh best check that the time appears properly too.

okay, night night.

Yay... I got blogger posting via my FTP. Right , now to suss out changing the look of it.