New Bedroom

A couple of weekends ago I laid on the bed and watched hubbiest dismantle the horrendous dated swinging (yes swinging) wardrobes and also the built-in boiler cupboard. All the contents of the wardrobes are now in cardboard boxes in the lounge. After this was done it became apparent that the ceiling would need re-doing and the wall in the corner would need re-plastering. We got Eric in to do it as he's done work for both me and Babs and he does a very good job. He matched up the existing Artex on the ceiling which is obviously hundreds of £'s cheaper than re-plastering. He's done a great job and I don't think it will notice once it's all been painted. He also re-plastered the whole wall when he only quoted for doing the corner. :0) So here's where we're at:



Notice the rubble in the corner which I have yet to clear up!

This afternoon we went and spent over £1000 on new bedroom furniture. Ooooh, what a treat! It's all on a loan though, so we'll be paying it for the next five years. Ho hum. It's jolly nice though. Because our antique headboard is walnut we chose a walnut bedroom suite. Not that it will match at all though! Still, we made the effort. :0) Here's what we've bought:

http://tinyurl.com/5hkbs7

It's being delivered on 20th June so I have a month to get the bedroom decorated. That's more than enough time. We nipped into B&Q for some wallpaper samples while we were out. Here's what we came home with. My fave is currently No.2. I think it goes best with the bedspread. I don't think No.3 goes at all as it is too orangey. This loud paper is only for the bed wall, all the other walls will be in a much calmer colour!

Nothing else to report. Ta ta!

Drugs, Regrowth and Creativeness

The bathroom is finished at last. The only things I need to do now are to varnish the boxing-in that hides all the pipes and to put my new towels in. I have bought the new towels but I am resisting using them until I get a second set. All the towels I have at the moment were ruined when we had the building work done. Everything was so filthy that they got stained with the constant hand washing. Anyway, here's a peek of the bath wall with a new art thing. It's a wall plaque that was plain black and I painted it to match everything:



Here's some more creativeness. We did this in craft class this week and I can't for the life of me figure out why?!!!



It's called napkin decor. You basically cut out a pretty picture from a paper napkin and then glue it on a candle or soap. Obviously there's more to it than that what with all the special stuff you have to paint on the candle first, but....well...I don't really get it. Once you've done it you're not supposed to burn the candles, they're for decoration only. Our teacher, bless her, loves it and has these things all over her house! Hmmmm. Still, I enjoyed doing it though and the companionship of the class is lovely. :0)

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Billy Bonsai is clawing his way back from the brink of death. Look at him now:



He has green shoots coming out from everywhere.

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Thought you might be interested to see how many tablets I take daily. At the moment I'm up to 40 a day! I used to be someone who didn't like to take paracetamol for a headache. Sigh.



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I'm going shopping with Emily this afternoon to try and get her some jewellery for her prom. Her red dress is in the shop getting taken up to a short length and she's now after white chunky plastic jewellery. Her shoes are white with red hearts and red bows at the back. She's hired a black Hummer limousine like this: http://tinyurl.com/6pr7at for her and all her friends. How cool is that?

MRI Results

Dr Manifold said that the report showed 'nothing significant' and that the tumour was not compressing my spine. Therefore we can assume that it is my medication that is causing the numbness and tingling. I now have to cut down my medication again. Today is my first day and already I'm feeling lousy. It is yet to be seen if the numbness will go away. Still, at least the tumour hasn't got any bigger. :0)

Red Buttons, Bathroom Tiles and MRI

Daddy has more or less finished decorating and tiling the bathroom. The thing is, he ran out of tile spacers. I had an idea and after shuffling around in the craft room for a few minutes managed to find enough matching red buttons to do the job! Doesn't it look nice? Far better than those nasty white plastic crosses that they use! :0) Also, look at my new tiles:




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Today I went for my monthly bone strengthening infusion at the hospital. While there I told Dr Manifold about my numb feet. He said it could be one of two things. Either my medication or the tumour on my spine is pressing on some nerves. To see one way or the other he sent me down for an MRI scan. I've never had one of those before. I laid down and was put into a big tube. I say big but it was only just big enough for my fat bum! Then I had to wear headphones as the machine is so noisy. The scan took about half an hour and I had a nice little snoozy-poozy as is was being done. There is one thing that I have been thinking of, up until now it has been assumed that the little shadow that was seen on my spine on the bone scan was a tumour. there has been no real proof. I suppose there is a slight chance that this scan would rule that out. Maybe I'm just dreaming, but by tonight I should get the phone-call to tell me one way or the other. I'll also get to know if there's anything else going on in there. Of course I shall let you know the results...

Bonsai, Chain Stitch and Decorative Art & Weight Loss

A few days ago I noticed that Billy Bonsai was looking a bit thirsty, the trouble was I didn't know just how thirsty he was! When I took him off the shelf and placed him on the table, every single leaf fell just like they would in a cartoon. PLOP! Here's what he looks like now:

Then after watering him for a few days I noticed a tiny green sprig. Can you see it?:

Hopefully he'll recover fully. I'm so ashamed. :0(

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Last week in craft class we did decorative painting. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. When the tutor showed us what we were going to do, everyone said they couldn't do it, but once you get the hang of the technique it's actually quite easy! Here's what I did:

And this is my favourite:

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My new project isn't really getting anywhere. I think it's the wrong sort of project for me, too grown-up if you like. I much prefer doing character portraits. I think I might leave this one and start another. Here's what I've done so far. This is fused applique ready to stitch:

And here's the tiny chain stitch I have done so far:

I think I'll do my own version of this, but with me and Gary as the main subject:

http://tinyurl.com/6ecpdq

I think this is much more my thing don't you? :0)

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Last week I lost 4lbs and this week I lost 4lbs too. I am so thrilled. I really hope that this diet continues to work. I'm finding it ok and don't feel deprived at all. The trouble is, my shopping bill has literally doubled! It's because of all the extra fruit and vegetables. I'm not we can continue this way, but we'll see how it works out.

Craft Classes And Suzie's First Walk

Three weeks ago me and mum started some mixed art classes. Little did we know, until we arrived for our first class, that we would be working towards a qualification! There are two parts to the 20 week course. At the moment we are doing NCFE Paper Crafting level 1. We are now officially students of Rotherham College and are now entitled to Student Cards which gives us healthy discounts on all sorts of things. After doing this weeks subject 'Paper Quilling', Mum leaned in and asked me 'Do you think anyone ever fails this course?' That set me off giggling as I replied 'You'd have to be some kind of mega idiot to fail!' The course is...how can I put it.....easy on the old grey matter! We're enjoying it though and I guess that's the main thing. :0) Next week is 'Decorative Painting'. I expect that will impress us a bit more as the finished result looks quite good. I'll keep you informed of how we're doing.



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Although Suzie has been allowed to go out for a walk for a week or more, we haven't had much success so far. Livvie took her out a week ago and Suzie point blank refused to walk on the lead so Livvie ended up carrying her for over a mile! Since then however, due to my training schedule, she has been doing reasonable well on the lead so I took mum and dad up on their offer of a dog walk yesterday afternoon. Here's Suzie starting out. There are so many sniffs and smells on the ground, she loved it!:

She walked very well indeed and I was very proud of her. Here's a short video of her playing fetch with mum:

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Puppy Training - Day Four

Well......Suzie is managing to do most of her wee-wees and poops outside, but that's only because I take her out so often. The minute I let my guard down, she does it in the house! I reckon this is going to take far longer than one week. Oh well, I am dedicated to the cause and willing to do this routine for six months if I have to! At least summer is coming up. This morning I was standing in the garden at 6am with the dog on a lead and me in my dressing gown in the pouring rain. You'll also find me there at 11pm with dressing gown on and the addition of a torch. Other training is coming on well though. She's excellent at night, in the bath and when I groom her. She sits on the sink unit (I can't bend down) as good as gold while I tug all the knots out of her moustache and beard. Then she sits patiently while I brush her entire body and then comb her hair and put her top-knot in. She's also good at travelling and when I say 'in you go' she hops into her crate and sits like a good girl while I fasten the door shut.

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Diet -Day Four

I have been stunning, stupendous, incredible, wicked, wonderful and also jolly good so far. I am eating a tonne of fruit and veg and salad and only smattering of anything else. I have been going by the book. I must admit to being hungry most of the time, but that can't be a bad thing to feel after nearly four years of being stuffed! I have to stop feeling sorry for myself and making excuses. I need to lose weight for my own good. I can just imagine how much easier I would be able to get around if I dropped 3-4 stone.

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At the moment I am listening to Livvie and her band having band practice in her little bedroom. It sounds quite good actually. :0) It's very rocky, like every other teen band I've ever heard! :0)

Diet And Puppy Training Day Two

I decided my life was going far too well lately, so I have decided I needed to punish myself. Yesterday I started both a new diet and puppy training. The diet is well overdue. I have now reached 16 st and size 18/20. It's just not good enough. My face is now so fat I look like Squirrel Nutkins hiding nuts in my cheeks! So yesterday was Day One of the Rosemary Connolly GI Jeans Diet. It's alright so far and I'll keep you posted about my successes and failures.

Day One of puppy training was middling. I am beginning to lead train the poppy puppy dog. She hasn't been best pleased about me putting on a lead and dragging her around the garden at all hours of the day and night. I am out there at 7.30am in my dressing gown and throughout the day and again at 11pm. I am using a book called How To Housebreak You Dog In 7 Days.



The basic idea is that the dog is penned in for long stretches of time. Because they don't like to soil their small area they wait for the loo until you let them out. They of course are like humans and pee and poop at certain times of the day and it's up to me to recognise when that will be. So far Suzie has managed one pee and one poop outside. She's a little confused though as she thinks it's correct to do it indoors at the moment. I was wandering around the garden with her on the lead waiting for her to poop and nothing happened. I then let her off the lead to go back indoors for ten minutes and she immediately rushed in and pooped in Emily's bedroom in a panic! I suppose it must be weird pooping outside with the wind whistling round your bum? Anyway, I shall persevere. :0)

Here's Suzie looking very sad in her pen. She wants to come out to play and it's not time yet. 'Look mummy, I'm so sad I even shredded my paper!'



Another thing I am trying to take care of is her constant barking. I am actually getting somewhere with that. I bought these little brass disks. When she barks I throw them noisily near her and it distracts her immediately. If she barks again, I throw them again and so on. I was doing at 6.30am this morning! She is now realising that when she barks these disks come flying from nowhere (I try and hide when I throw them) and she doesn't like it! The barking is much better. I was using a metal tray with a metal cake cooling rack to make noise but that was frightening the hell out of her so I changed to the disks.

Totally changing the subject, here's some Peyote beading I did yesterday:

I put it on the fork for a size comparison. The thread was stretching and the beads are a slightly irregular size so I gave up after 2". However, I have ordered the correct thread stuff and will definitely try again as it is addictive! I want to make a bracelet next.

I Will keep you regularly updated wit the diet, puppy training and beading. :0