Blind as a bat

I've had a wee reality check today so I'm nowhere near as grumpy as I have been.  Feeling like a bit of an idiot, but hey, when things get to you, you can't really stop them.

 

I'm a bit worried today (nothing to do with the above), but the bf has had to take the day off work sick because the new glasses he got last week have made him very very dizzy and sick feeling.  This is despite him telling the folk in the opticians that he couldn't see properly with them TWICE! (we left for an hour and had to go straight back when he found he was struggling to function with them on).  The first woman dismissed what he was saying straight away, didn't look at them, check them or make sure they were sitting ok and told him to go away for 3 days and try them.  The next woman (an hour later) fiddled around with them, did loads and loads of checks to make sure they were made properly and told him to wear them for 2 weeks before comming back.  He has lasted 3 days (Sat, Sun and a very sicky Mon at work).  Last night he came home and switched to his old glasses straight away.

Will now need to trot back to the opticians at some point to try and convince them he can't use them.  It's one thing to struggle to see, but it's quite another when you've paid £350 (he's one of these folk that need the big thick lenses thinned down) to struggle to see.  The irony is, he paid a little extra for the middle of the range lenses which were supposed to be better at focussing than the standards that he was already using, yet with them he can't focus on anything other than dead ahead.

 

What I'm worried about though is, since he is only temping in his job, he doesn't get sick pay so thats a days wage down the drain with nothing really to fall back on.  He was in his sick bed mumbling about doing overtime to make the 7 hours up, but thats not going to be a bundle of laughs.

 

Suppose he's getting his comeuppance after trying to poison me with his home made chilli last night.  I'll make it mild he says, oh you can hardly taste the spice he says.  AYE RIGHT!  I didn't even manage a whole forkfull in the one go.  Had to make do with just a pudding in the end (homemade strawberry tart, not very homemade as such, just home-put-together, but still very yummy) - poor me, huh :o)

 

Happy of the day - Mentos do grape flavour sweeties!!!  The UK shores are finally comming round to the American Dream - Grape flavour rules!  Although they have included the nasty watermelon flavour as well, bleugh!

Frustration Ahead!

There is so much stuff I'd like to warble on about, but have no idea where to begin or how polite to be!  There are a couple of people around me making most of my day almost unbearable with their constant whining and complaining and trying to make themselves look like the golden girls (no, not like the tv show) with their holier than thou attitude to making themselves look good.  How on earth do you tune out of it all when it's right there in your ear all day long!

 

Sometimes I just want to shout a. IT'S YOUR JOB, JUST GET ON WITH IT, or b. IT'S NOT YOUR JOB SO BUTT OUT OF IT!

 

In the spirit of being polite, I'm saying nowt, but am no doubt giving off plenty of 'vibes'

 

On a better note, I spent yesterday evening moving my blog from wordpress over to Blogroll and I'm so glad I did (for now anyway) since I can now edit the layout ( I just couldn't get my head round all the wordpress confusion) and finally got round to adding a header picture (like it?  I knocked it up in the space of a few minutes.  I just need to make a mental note to update the wee foxyman at some point as I'd assume that wee guy is protected by copyright.  Will need to try and draw my own).

 

I setup a Bloglist as well so I can keep an eye on all the interesting blogs I've been snooping at these past few months.  It amazes me how you all manage to fit everything in to your days with all that crafting and fun stuff along side jobs, housekeeping and families.  I just wish I could be that organised.  In my head I am, but I rarely put it into practise.

There is a creative bug in me trying to come out, but it's just not really happening.  I really want to try my hand at journalling but I just end up sitting staring at a blank page for an age rather than just getting on with it and jotting down whatever springs to mind.  I've got every excuse in the book at hand, but my biggest one is still 'I fear failure'.  I know some months back I declared I was throwing out this thought and embracing the failure, but it never did quite happen.  I have been wallpapering my living room for weeks and weeks and weeks now because 'I fear failure'.  The thought of messing up the next corner holds me back from just getting on with it.

 

I never used to be like this, but how to recapure that 'spirit'???

 

Rant of the day - Don't you just hate it when people listen into your conversations and even worse when they a. butt into them or b. answer for you when they hadn't even been spoken to.  It's just outright rude!

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21 April, 2010 15:44

Been very quiet on the crafty front of late. Two reasons for this really, one I have lacked motivation and two we blitzed the house the other night but all the junk has been dumped in the spare room (in an out of sight out of mind ploy - but in reality it's just out of sight until I need to wander into that room on a daily basis to trip over everything). We would put most of it up the loft, but at the moment we have resident starlings nesting up there and with the fear that they may have already 'done the business', we don't have the heart to evict them leaving their eggs to perish. I might watch them at some point and try to work out if they are still just building the nest in the hope that we can throw things up there.

On the plus side, the rest of the house is the most sparse it's been in near enough a year. The unecessaries laying around are all tools and stuff for the decorating plus the bikes as we currently don't have a hut.

We were supposed to have made a lot of headway with decorating the living room at the weekend there, but it was M's birthday so I was at her wee party and then W's sister, brother in law and the kids came to visit so we headed off to the beach with M in tow (to give her parents the chance to tidy up the bombsite that 5 kids managed to leave behind) and had a blast. Pizza hut for dinner was a huge let down though, the service in the Kilmarnock branch was terrible. Very very very slow and the food wasn't that great when it did finally arrive. The kids were fed up waiting on their food. W being his usual self tipped, my tip was just for them to provide a better service. I won't be going back to that branch in a hurry.

30 March, 2010 14:39

This makes me smile

Broom Broom

I'm having a far too efficient day, somethings gotta give!

I'm feeling very very tired this week which I assume is an aftermath of the weekends migraine so nothing interesting is really happening.

Bit worried about my wee car. The poor thing coughs and splutters into life when I turn the key instead of firing up no probs. Another thing to add to my dad's to do list. We are down to 1 car at the moment since W's had to be scrapped so we can't afford to loose another car. I shudder at the thought. I finally got my license in April 2008 (so why do I still have P plates on my car I hear you ask - just out of lazyness and the fact that it annoys W) and since then have had the luxury of being a free agent when it comes to getting out and about. I don't want to have to go back to relying on public transport. Getting a train to work everyday is more than enough for me, I absolutly hate buses (more so the Glasgow ones which thankfully I have no need to venture onto these days since persuading W to move away from there). I'll be keeping everything crossed that it's alright. In all honesty it's probably getting fed up of being starved of petrol, but it's far too expensive these days. When W passed his test 3 years ago it was 70 odd pence per litre, now it's up at £1.17 per litre. Daylight robbery!!! Grrr!

Bleugh!

No pottering around with the resin this weekend. Went out for some housewarming drinkies on Friday evening and started to feel a bit yucky (not drink induced, I only managed 1 1/2 southern comforts) and by the end of the evening was pill popping the migraine smarties. I managed to keep going a bit though and got the living room ceiling all washed on Saturday afternoon, ready for painting, but by Sunday I was feeling really rotten and spent most of the day in bed watching Ed and Ouchos Excellent Inventions on the BBC iPlayer.

I'm obsessed with puppets/muppets. Immature? - nah!



Had no choice but to struggle on into work this morning as I'm on a warning for my attendence because of recurring migraines, and since lunchtime have been struggling a bit. I don't want to take more pills while in the office tho as I don't want to be all spaced out, but I do feel pretty sick! Looks like I'll be having an early night.

Still waiting on my vice arriving (it has been dispatched though, woohoo!), so I don't want to potter around with the demoulded pieces anyway until I get it. I have lots of ideas kicking around for more pieces, but I'm a. running out of resin, b. pretty skint, c. pretty skint even after payday comes as there are 3 birthdays in the next pay period, d. we're trying to get a move on decorating the living room so that should be my prioroty and e. I'm a bit lazy at times.

No notable antics from the kitties this weekend. Harry is enjoying his new found freedom now that the catflap is open from dawn to dusk and Oscar is being his usual grumbly self. Harry didn't appear home for a few hours on Saturday so W decided to wander round the square to look for him and found him lying in 'the enemie's' garden. We think Harry broke his hip fighting with Peter cat, but either they have called a truce and are happily co-existing in the same area or they are having a very long standoff with each other. Either way, within 10mins of being brought back to our garden, Harry trotted off, no doubt back in search of Peter cat.

Shiney Shiney

So after visiting my friends swanky new house (which really is lovely), I ran home to check how my top coat of resin looked and was pretty dissapointed. They have all went a little bit bumpy, and in a couple of cases it has messed up the overall look as the bumps cast awkward shadows into the pendants. Overall I don't think it's an 'epic fail' though, just a minor irritant. Next time I think I'll try the heat gun just after painting the layer to get rid of any pesky tiny bubbles that I don't see at the time, it certainly seems to work on the layers that I cast.

I have the decision now of leaving them as they are, or trying to sand them down and put another wee coat on them. The perfectionist in me wants them smooth and shiny but the realist in me says it's never gonna happen. I might try it on the worst one first and see how it goes.

Harry has his vet appointment today. I'm stuck in work so am waiting on a phonecall from W to see how it goes. I'm assuming they will be pretty happy with his progress but keep him on his pain killers for now. He jumped up on the kitchen worktop the other day and has scaled a tree in recent days, a sure fire sign that he's getting stronger. He had struggled to jump on anything higher than the couch ever since his op.

He never used to mind going to the vets, but he's not so keen anymore. I think he may have seen it on the calender as this morning he was not in either of his usual places when I woke up, instead he was chilled out in his bed on the couch, paws in the air, dreaming of his 'happy place'.

Oscar had a pretty low key evening. Must be regaining his strength for more hunting!

Me and my vices

I spent last night sanding any successful castings, but can't quite get the near perfect edges I would like - especially on the round pieces. Maybe I'm hoping for the impossible, maybe the rotary tool is too powerful for such a delicate job or maybe I just don't have the patience for it. Anyhoo, I sanded them all to a tolerable finish (only messing up 1 by hacking a chunk out of it) and painted on a nice glossing coat of resin to make them all shiny. So far so good, but who wants to take bets on how many I mess up when I drill holes in them!

K now knows I have made one specially for her, but I have made sure it has not been in any of the pics she has seen of them and she is definetly intruiged.

I ordered a Dremel multi vice yesterday in the hope that it will make sanding and drilling easier, but it could take up to 10 days to arrive. I want it today, Grrr! I was going to buy a £10 hobby vice from Homebase, but while browsing around to make sure it was what I wanted, I chanced across the Dremel. It's £30, but I was sold on it's tilt abilities and rubber grips (I found it for £27 pluc £4.99 postage and packing).



Oscar is back on the hunt again after a months break. A wee vole met it's maker yesterday afternoon, the poor wee soul.

Harry has his vet checkup tomorrow. He's still limping too much for our liking, but I figure it's still normal at this stage. He's still on his daily painkillers, but is getting out for a run around for about an hour or two in the morning and another hour in the late afternoon. He had got used to being stuck indoors in the months after having his hip removed, but now when I get up each morning I find him keeping vigil by the catflap waiting on his morning jaunt.

My friend is moving house today, my other half has been roped into helping with the flit. I can't wait to see it, this has been over a year in the planning. It's a new build 3 storey, 4 bedroom house, and from what I have seen so far, looks lovely. I'm jealous and excited for them. Will be great to see how excited and proud M is at having her very own bedroom and a secure garden to run riot in. I'll be going for a tour after dinner <note to self - get a card!>.

Testing Testing 1, 2, 3

I'm just testing out blogging through email, aka - the lazy way to update my blog. Maybe this will help me post more often as I can get a tad lazy at logging in ;)

Fear, what fear!

I don't know if I should be celebrating just yet, but my new outlook on crafting appears to be paying off. With a bit of luck, I just need to successfully drill a hold for my findings and I will have my first proper pendant. I want this one to work out more than most as I have been planning it as a wee surprise for my sister.

I have been trying out all different things to embed and so far it looks as though material is going to work the best. I purchased some fat quarters at a recent hobbycraft event to try out and although not demoulded yet, I think they look pretty swanky! I just wish I had more funds to buy in lots of glitter and the like as I'm limited as to what I put in my rear layers.



Not so good news, Oscar the cat is back on 'the hunt'. For months now I have enjoyed seeing our resident robin milling around the garden, but no more! Oscar decided the robin would make a good 'gift' and yesterday afternoon 'purchased' his gift, decided gift wrap was an unnecesary inconvenience and proudly placed it in our hall!

He was in an extra weird mood all day so I suppose I should have expected something, but he has never brought anything of the winged variety home. It's usually just voles, which we have to either dispose of or catch, check over for wounds and decide if the SSPCA is required or a short stint in a dark quiet box to calm down before being placed back in the field is required.

I wish he would go back to basics and collect leaves again! Leaves I can handle. You don't have the horrible pangs of guilt with a leaf, but when a little life is snuffed out all because your wee furry man wanted to play, it's absolutly breaks your heart.

Don't Fear Failure

My new crafting mantra - don't fear to fail!  After being disheartened by the mess I made of casting a whole load of resin in the middle of February, I have been putting off trying again.

This week I have given myself a kick in the rear and bit the bullet.  I have cast the first and second layers of what I hope will be my first wearable pendants.  So far so good, however I know at least 4 of them will not turn out ok. 

I tried covering my cutouts in PVA glue to stop the resin seeping into the paper, but must have missed some bits as there are wee splodges through some of them that completely ruins the appearance.  Oh well, live and learn.

On the plus side, I'm so far really happy with the way the round pendants are turning out.  Just need to decide how to finish them off - Glitter, clear, pigmented - and then it's onto the dreaded sanding!  With my shaky hands I'm reluctant to touch them with a rotary tool but will just have to keep chanting - 'DON'T FEAR TO FAIL'!

Lesson Learned!

I spent an evening casting my first layer of some planned pendants. I made way too much resin for what I had planned so ended up running around gathering up all the moulds I could find to use up what was left over (waste not want not n all that), however I was a bit silly and used too much mould release on all my moulds and consequentially, none of the resin had hardened after 24 hours and they were all full of bubbles and imperfections so all had to go straight in the bin.

I haven't had the heart or the time to go for round 2, but will hopefully find the time towards the end of the week.

The joys of learning a craft, eh!

And so it begins...

I finally managed to cast some resin pendants which I think are pretty decent. They are by no means perfect, but it's a pretty good start if I do say so myself.



I have spent this evening casting the first layer for a whole bunch of pendants, keyrings, magnets or whatevers. Probably over ambitious, but I made far too much resin for what I had planned so I just carried on until all the moulds I could lay my hands on were done. No idea how I'm going to adorn each one yet, but fingers crossed.