I'm going to meet Minnie Mouse!!! Weeeee! Excited!!!!
Going with work, client holiday, client will benefit loads, very hard work for me, 4 days on permanent duty, very tiring etc etc.
But still... I'm going to meet Minnie Mouse!!!
I was never bothered about Mickey Mouse as a child, but someone brought me back a Minnie Mouse toy from Disneyland and I loved her, from her red polka dot bow to her yellow plastic shoes.
Hopefully I'll see Dopey too, but I think all my other favourite cartoon characters are Warner Brothers. Where's EuroWarner?
Tuesday 21 March 2006
This migraine is give me a few bizarre side effects to accompany the more normal memory loss, confusion and lack of balance.
First I have a weird taste in my mouth, the only thing I can describe it as is similar to the taste you get after you lick the end of a battery. (Don't try that at home kids.) But it's at the back of my mouth instead of on the tip of my tongue. This could be related to the non-drowsy decongestants I'm taking which are pumped so full of caffeine that they recommend not taking them after 6pm.
The other side effect is the ridiculously irritating earworm I've been suffering from all day. My brain is inflicting me with "Greatest ever Sing-a-longs for Kids" This morning it was "Ernie the Fastest Milkman in the West", at the Craft Club I was inflicting myself with "There Once was an Ugly Duckling", and now I'm being irritated by "Gobollino the Witch's Cat", which is actually less irritating than the first two.
I'd consider going to sleep to rid myself of this torture, but I forgot to take the decongestant until 9:30 so sleep isn't likely to be happening anytime soon.
First I have a weird taste in my mouth, the only thing I can describe it as is similar to the taste you get after you lick the end of a battery. (Don't try that at home kids.) But it's at the back of my mouth instead of on the tip of my tongue. This could be related to the non-drowsy decongestants I'm taking which are pumped so full of caffeine that they recommend not taking them after 6pm.
The other side effect is the ridiculously irritating earworm I've been suffering from all day. My brain is inflicting me with "Greatest ever Sing-a-longs for Kids" This morning it was "Ernie the Fastest Milkman in the West", at the Craft Club I was inflicting myself with "There Once was an Ugly Duckling", and now I'm being irritated by "Gobollino the Witch's Cat", which is actually less irritating than the first two.
I'd consider going to sleep to rid myself of this torture, but I forgot to take the decongestant until 9:30 so sleep isn't likely to be happening anytime soon.
The last few days have been odd, I feel like I've been walking around in a daze, doubting things that I've done, dropping things and at work on Sunday I did the bare minimum of housework and just spent the day watching TV and keeping the clients happy. That isn't like me when I'm in the house alone at work I don't usually stop, I tend to go berserk cleaning everywhere... unlike here.
Yesterday when I got home I went back to bed then woke up with the most horrendous migraine, so spent the day laid on the sofa telly on, volume low, lights off trying to make my sore head stop and the sick feeling go away.
Thankfully today the pain is gone and I've eaten, but I still feel like I'm in a bubble, at least I can account for my behaviour and I know I'm not cracking up.
Tonight I'm off to Craft Club for the first time in months, I'm a bit nervous, I hate going back to things when I've missed a while. I've got to go tonight because I'm teaching there again next week so I need to find out about supplies and quiz people on what they want to do. Should I let them get on with what they want to do and just wander around helping them? Or should I try to teach them something new? Last time I tried to teach them something new I ended up with 2 people doing that task and everyone else doing there own thing but calling me over for help. Meaning the poor people who were trying to do the new thing kept getting abandoned. I always print out instructions for the tasks, but there aren't many who are able to read them.
Hmmm to much thinking for my achey brain.
I remembered to brave the cold today (it's trying to snow again) and take some better pictures of the Parrot (who I keep refering to as either a Crow or Frog! obviously he's neither). Big Piccies so you can see his eye which I'm very proud of :)
I'm quite surprised at all the piratey type props I keep finding around the house, although this particularly item is used as an unusual garden ornament. We did consider burying it in the garden of the old house before we left, but I'm quite pleased we packed it instead.
Also a quick piccie of my latest Freecycling. 3 boxes of Prima, Burda, and a few other craft magazines which I picked up the other day. They're all from the early-80's to mid-90's so a lot of the clothes are only suitable for fancydress, but there are some great basics clothes as well as all the ideas for around the house. So far all the ones I've looked through are complete with pattern templates and guidelines, and I've been sticking post-it notes on all the things which I like. The magazines all belonged to the late wife of the man on Freecycle. I wrote to thank him and told him about all my crafty friends, Mum, and the Craft Club who would get to use them too. He wrote back to tell me he's glad they've gone to a good home and he's got quite a bit of fabric around too so when he starts sorting that out he'll let me know!
Yesterday when I got home I went back to bed then woke up with the most horrendous migraine, so spent the day laid on the sofa telly on, volume low, lights off trying to make my sore head stop and the sick feeling go away.
Thankfully today the pain is gone and I've eaten, but I still feel like I'm in a bubble, at least I can account for my behaviour and I know I'm not cracking up.
Tonight I'm off to Craft Club for the first time in months, I'm a bit nervous, I hate going back to things when I've missed a while. I've got to go tonight because I'm teaching there again next week so I need to find out about supplies and quiz people on what they want to do. Should I let them get on with what they want to do and just wander around helping them? Or should I try to teach them something new? Last time I tried to teach them something new I ended up with 2 people doing that task and everyone else doing there own thing but calling me over for help. Meaning the poor people who were trying to do the new thing kept getting abandoned. I always print out instructions for the tasks, but there aren't many who are able to read them.
Hmmm to much thinking for my achey brain.
I remembered to brave the cold today (it's trying to snow again) and take some better pictures of the Parrot (who I keep refering to as either a Crow or Frog! obviously he's neither). Big Piccies so you can see his eye which I'm very proud of :)
I'm quite surprised at all the piratey type props I keep finding around the house, although this particularly item is used as an unusual garden ornament. We did consider burying it in the garden of the old house before we left, but I'm quite pleased we packed it instead.
Also a quick piccie of my latest Freecycling. 3 boxes of Prima, Burda, and a few other craft magazines which I picked up the other day. They're all from the early-80's to mid-90's so a lot of the clothes are only suitable for fancydress, but there are some great basics clothes as well as all the ideas for around the house. So far all the ones I've looked through are complete with pattern templates and guidelines, and I've been sticking post-it notes on all the things which I like. The magazines all belonged to the late wife of the man on Freecycle. I wrote to thank him and told him about all my crafty friends, Mum, and the Craft Club who would get to use them too. He wrote back to tell me he's glad they've gone to a good home and he's got quite a bit of fabric around too so when he starts sorting that out he'll let me know!
Saturday 18 March 2006
I've spent today pretending The Lurg isn't returning, and making my entry for the CrAftermath Craft Idol competition. This weeks theme is Pirates.
What's under the patch?
"So that's why they call you One-Eyed Willie"
Actually he doesn't have a name yet, suggestions welcome.
The embroidered eye was Porl's idea. He also suggested I cut out a Skull & Cross-Bones to put on his hat. I told him if he could cut one out that small then I'd sew it on. I think I might try embroidering one onto the hat later.
Now though I'm off to bed. I'm due in work in 8 1/2 hours for a wonderful 24 hour shift. I don't mind the sleep-in shifts, except on days like tomorrow when I've got to spend 13 hours on duty with the one member of staff I don't really like. I can think of better ways to spend Sundays.
What's under the patch?
"So that's why they call you One-Eyed Willie"
Actually he doesn't have a name yet, suggestions welcome.
The embroidered eye was Porl's idea. He also suggested I cut out a Skull & Cross-Bones to put on his hat. I told him if he could cut one out that small then I'd sew it on. I think I might try embroidering one onto the hat later.
Now though I'm off to bed. I'm due in work in 8 1/2 hours for a wonderful 24 hour shift. I don't mind the sleep-in shifts, except on days like tomorrow when I've got to spend 13 hours on duty with the one member of staff I don't really like. I can think of better ways to spend Sundays.
Monday 13 March 2006
I know I've spoken about my family history research a little on here, but I try not to talk about it too much. The main reason is that I have a very unusual name, and I'm scared of internet stalkers. I also don't want random friends and colleagues finding my blog by googling my name, so I don't think I've ever mentioned my surname on here, and I avoid my first name too. If people want to find me for family research purposes then they can search the relevant websites, but they shouldn't stumble upon this place instead.
This week has been eventful on the research front though, the skeletons have come tumbling out of the closet and I need to get it out of my system. They aren't my skeletons either, so I can't reveal all. You'll just have to excuse the lack of names and specifics. I hope you can keep track.
My Grandad always had a fascination with our surname, and where we were from, when I was little I used to quiz him on the family, and he'd tell me the odd story. I remember whenever we went on holiday in the UK he would always remind us to look in the phone books to see if there were people with our surname living in the area. I don't think we ever found any. He always encouraged me to research the name, but he always stressed, "look up the name, but don't try to contact people". He never said why, and I never really thought to question it. Genealogy at the time meant trawling through archives at Family History Centres, and I was only a child, so this wasn't going to happen.
Grandad died when I was 14, long before I had any real chance of finding anything out. All I really knew was that Grandad had 2 brothers, both had died before I was born, we had contact with the family of one of his brothers, however the youngest brother had spent time in jail, and then had been in an institution because he was epileptic. He had been married, and had 3 children, but we had lost touch with them.
A few years after Grandad died Grandma let slip a few details about the youngest brother and why he had been in jail, but it was a slip of the tongue and she wouldn't tell us anymore, we didn't even know if it was true. (I suspect she'd had a couple of sherries at the time.)
In 2002 my Grandma died. When Mum and Dad were emptying their house they found a lot of old papers which Grandad had saved. I had a brief look through them, but it wasn't until the 2003 after both my Grandparents from my Mums side died within 10 weeks of each other that I really started wanting to know more about my family. I discovered GenesConnected, and within a few months had traced my surname back to 1600. Having an unusual surname makes life lots easier.
I couldn't keep my promise to Grandad not to contact people though. It's hard to research your family tree without making some contacts, and I'd still be struggling to get past the 1800's if it wasn't for finding distant relatives who'd done all the work before me. Mostly though my new found relations have been 7th cousins twice removed, or something similar.
That is until this past week.
The papers we found at Grandads had made it very clear that the 3 children of my Grandads youngest brother wanted nothing to do with us, but they still gave us no idea why. What they didn't tell us though was that there was a 4th child who had been adopted when she was a baby.
This child had known from a young age that she was adopted, when she was old enough she had found out details of her adoption, her parents names, and that she had siblings, but then lack of funds meant she couldn't continue. She found my details last week and emailed me. Since then she's been able to confirm what Grandma let slip, as well as tell me a whole lot more. In return I've been able to provide her with documents which may help her find her siblings, and show her for the first time photos of her father and 2 of her siblings.
I'm finding it hard to get my head around the fact my Dad has a cousin who no-one knew existed, never mind getting to grips with the information she has revealed about the family. I can't even begin to understand how she is feeling.
This week has been eventful on the research front though, the skeletons have come tumbling out of the closet and I need to get it out of my system. They aren't my skeletons either, so I can't reveal all. You'll just have to excuse the lack of names and specifics. I hope you can keep track.
My Grandad always had a fascination with our surname, and where we were from, when I was little I used to quiz him on the family, and he'd tell me the odd story. I remember whenever we went on holiday in the UK he would always remind us to look in the phone books to see if there were people with our surname living in the area. I don't think we ever found any. He always encouraged me to research the name, but he always stressed, "look up the name, but don't try to contact people". He never said why, and I never really thought to question it. Genealogy at the time meant trawling through archives at Family History Centres, and I was only a child, so this wasn't going to happen.
Grandad died when I was 14, long before I had any real chance of finding anything out. All I really knew was that Grandad had 2 brothers, both had died before I was born, we had contact with the family of one of his brothers, however the youngest brother had spent time in jail, and then had been in an institution because he was epileptic. He had been married, and had 3 children, but we had lost touch with them.
A few years after Grandad died Grandma let slip a few details about the youngest brother and why he had been in jail, but it was a slip of the tongue and she wouldn't tell us anymore, we didn't even know if it was true. (I suspect she'd had a couple of sherries at the time.)
In 2002 my Grandma died. When Mum and Dad were emptying their house they found a lot of old papers which Grandad had saved. I had a brief look through them, but it wasn't until the 2003 after both my Grandparents from my Mums side died within 10 weeks of each other that I really started wanting to know more about my family. I discovered GenesConnected, and within a few months had traced my surname back to 1600. Having an unusual surname makes life lots easier.
I couldn't keep my promise to Grandad not to contact people though. It's hard to research your family tree without making some contacts, and I'd still be struggling to get past the 1800's if it wasn't for finding distant relatives who'd done all the work before me. Mostly though my new found relations have been 7th cousins twice removed, or something similar.
That is until this past week.
The papers we found at Grandads had made it very clear that the 3 children of my Grandads youngest brother wanted nothing to do with us, but they still gave us no idea why. What they didn't tell us though was that there was a 4th child who had been adopted when she was a baby.
This child had known from a young age that she was adopted, when she was old enough she had found out details of her adoption, her parents names, and that she had siblings, but then lack of funds meant she couldn't continue. She found my details last week and emailed me. Since then she's been able to confirm what Grandma let slip, as well as tell me a whole lot more. In return I've been able to provide her with documents which may help her find her siblings, and show her for the first time photos of her father and 2 of her siblings.
I'm finding it hard to get my head around the fact my Dad has a cousin who no-one knew existed, never mind getting to grips with the information she has revealed about the family. I can't even begin to understand how she is feeling.
Thursday 9 March 2006
I had a play at dyeing this evening. The lovely Tangerine over at Craftermath sent me some Kool-Aid to play with, so play I did.
I didn't want to risk felting all my rovings, so I started out with something safer. A cream bag which I love, but never use because pale things and me don't mix.
I just used 2 packets of cherry first, but it was very pink, and I'm not really a pink fan, so a Grape one went in too.
20 minutes later, I decided the bag was as dark as it was going to get, so took the pot off the heat and rinsed the bag under cold water. While I was doing that I very gently placed some of my cream roving into the pot. I didn't stir it at all, I just left it soaking for 10 minutes, then careful took it out which trying to keep it nicely spread out. I rinsed this under luke warm water, then cold water, and left it to drip dry.
It seems to have worked. I love how the bag is so many different colours, but it's pink. I hoped cherry would be red, not pink. I think I should have gone with blue berry instead... maybe it'll go back in the pot another day. The roving has dyed brilliantly, and doesn't seem to have felted at all, but we'll see what it's like when I try to spin with it.
Then I got silly. The water in the pot was still very dark, so much potential, so I went hunting for things to dye. Normally it would be off colour undies, but I've just had a clear out, so a silk vest which I never wear got put in the pot.
I went and ate my tea at this point, so the vest ended up slightly tie-dyed. Or as Porl pointed out "like a Global Hyper-Colour t-shirt that's lost it power"
Porl saw the gleam in my eye at this point and ran for fear I'd put him in the pot. He was lucky... this time. The stained tea towels got dyed instead.
So that was my fun evening. Now I've got the confidence to dye rovings without ruining them I'm going to do some more, I've still got, berry blue, strawberry, orange and 1 grape left to play with... maybe I'll turn Porl a nice shade of blue in the process... he'll co-ordinate nicely with my slightly pink fingers.
I didn't want to risk felting all my rovings, so I started out with something safer. A cream bag which I love, but never use because pale things and me don't mix.
I just used 2 packets of cherry first, but it was very pink, and I'm not really a pink fan, so a Grape one went in too.
20 minutes later, I decided the bag was as dark as it was going to get, so took the pot off the heat and rinsed the bag under cold water. While I was doing that I very gently placed some of my cream roving into the pot. I didn't stir it at all, I just left it soaking for 10 minutes, then careful took it out which trying to keep it nicely spread out. I rinsed this under luke warm water, then cold water, and left it to drip dry.
It seems to have worked. I love how the bag is so many different colours, but it's pink. I hoped cherry would be red, not pink. I think I should have gone with blue berry instead... maybe it'll go back in the pot another day. The roving has dyed brilliantly, and doesn't seem to have felted at all, but we'll see what it's like when I try to spin with it.
Then I got silly. The water in the pot was still very dark, so much potential, so I went hunting for things to dye. Normally it would be off colour undies, but I've just had a clear out, so a silk vest which I never wear got put in the pot.
I went and ate my tea at this point, so the vest ended up slightly tie-dyed. Or as Porl pointed out "like a Global Hyper-Colour t-shirt that's lost it power"
Porl saw the gleam in my eye at this point and ran for fear I'd put him in the pot. He was lucky... this time. The stained tea towels got dyed instead.
So that was my fun evening. Now I've got the confidence to dye rovings without ruining them I'm going to do some more, I've still got, berry blue, strawberry, orange and 1 grape left to play with... maybe I'll turn Porl a nice shade of blue in the process... he'll co-ordinate nicely with my slightly pink fingers.
The lurg didn't go away.
I made it into work on Sunday and as my shift went on I got gradually worse. I couldn't go home early as the lurg had hit the house, meaning the girl I was meant to be working with had called in sick and I was on with Bank Staff.
6 o'clock was hometime, my temperature had gone through the roof so I phoned on call to let them know I wouldn't be fit for my Sleep-in the next day.
I've been off all week but I've said I'll be back for my Sleep-In on Saturday when the new client is staying over.
I know I'm properly ill because I've been watching daytime TV, going to bed at reasonable hours, getting up early, and worst of all I've been able to sit watching TV without having the need to do something with my hands. I knew I was over the worst on Tuesday night when I started doing some colouring-in.
I'm trying to decide whether to bid on a spinning wheel. I've been persevering with mine, but it's definitly an ornament. I managed to get a little done, not wonderfully successfully, it kept snapping as the bobbin wasn't slipping the way it's supposed to, and the fibre was being wound onto the bobbin without any twist being added.
The wheel I've seen is on ebay. It's an Ashford traditional, it has a lazy Kate, 4 bobbins and some carders. At the moment it's still only £60 + £20 shipping with 30 minutes to go. It is a bargain.
This is about the 3rd wheel I've bid on, I keep missing out due to being at work when the auctions end. There was another I saw last night which I had a part missing, but parts can be bought. I changed my mind on that one at the last minute.
However, Mum has put me in a conundrum. She phoned this morning asking if I'd won the bid, I told her I'd changed my mind and was going for a different one instead. Her and Dad have been talking. If I wait till my birthday in August, they will buy me a brand new wheel. They're concerned something off ebay might not work.
So do I wait till August and get a brand new wheel which will cost my parents about £200?
Or do I bid on this wheel which has lots of extras, but costs me money instead? (I could only afford about £120).
Answers on a postcard, to me, to arrive in the next 24 minutes please.
*edited to add* I missed out. By 10 seconds! grrrrr really really annoyed now.
I made it into work on Sunday and as my shift went on I got gradually worse. I couldn't go home early as the lurg had hit the house, meaning the girl I was meant to be working with had called in sick and I was on with Bank Staff.
6 o'clock was hometime, my temperature had gone through the roof so I phoned on call to let them know I wouldn't be fit for my Sleep-in the next day.
I've been off all week but I've said I'll be back for my Sleep-In on Saturday when the new client is staying over.
I know I'm properly ill because I've been watching daytime TV, going to bed at reasonable hours, getting up early, and worst of all I've been able to sit watching TV without having the need to do something with my hands. I knew I was over the worst on Tuesday night when I started doing some colouring-in.
I'm trying to decide whether to bid on a spinning wheel. I've been persevering with mine, but it's definitly an ornament. I managed to get a little done, not wonderfully successfully, it kept snapping as the bobbin wasn't slipping the way it's supposed to, and the fibre was being wound onto the bobbin without any twist being added.
The wheel I've seen is on ebay. It's an Ashford traditional, it has a lazy Kate, 4 bobbins and some carders. At the moment it's still only £60 + £20 shipping with 30 minutes to go. It is a bargain.
This is about the 3rd wheel I've bid on, I keep missing out due to being at work when the auctions end. There was another I saw last night which I had a part missing, but parts can be bought. I changed my mind on that one at the last minute.
However, Mum has put me in a conundrum. She phoned this morning asking if I'd won the bid, I told her I'd changed my mind and was going for a different one instead. Her and Dad have been talking. If I wait till my birthday in August, they will buy me a brand new wheel. They're concerned something off ebay might not work.
So do I wait till August and get a brand new wheel which will cost my parents about £200?
Or do I bid on this wheel which has lots of extras, but costs me money instead? (I could only afford about £120).
Answers on a postcard, to me, to arrive in the next 24 minutes please.
*edited to add* I missed out. By 10 seconds! grrrrr really really annoyed now.
Friday 3 March 2006
Tomorrow is my one day off this week (so much for only working 3 days a week... it all goes wrong when people take annual leave.)
So one day off, and what do I plan on doing... well probably lying in bed sniffling and feeling rotten. I've got the lurg.
I was going to post something interesting, but I seem to have sneezed it out of my brain and the thought is lost.
So anyway, some random words... like snow, great, except when driving home in it... spinning fun, but making ankles hurt... overtwist issues will be resolved... going to have fun with dyeing (pretty colours, not from cold).. nice person sent me lots of Koolaid for free.. like nice person... daring Porl to drink Koolaid... would rather eat whole lemons... have lots of lemons from pancake day... might eat them all to cure cold... been at work too much, causes all conversations to be cyclicle... is that a word? is it spelt like that? if I've made it up, then I mean to go round in a circle...
Think I'd best go to bed now.
Ni-night
So one day off, and what do I plan on doing... well probably lying in bed sniffling and feeling rotten. I've got the lurg.
I was going to post something interesting, but I seem to have sneezed it out of my brain and the thought is lost.
So anyway, some random words... like snow, great, except when driving home in it... spinning fun, but making ankles hurt... overtwist issues will be resolved... going to have fun with dyeing (pretty colours, not from cold).. nice person sent me lots of Koolaid for free.. like nice person... daring Porl to drink Koolaid... would rather eat whole lemons... have lots of lemons from pancake day... might eat them all to cure cold... been at work too much, causes all conversations to be cyclicle... is that a word? is it spelt like that? if I've made it up, then I mean to go round in a circle...
Think I'd best go to bed now.
Ni-night
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