Pains, -something that rhymes with trains-, and Automobiles.

Yeah, I couldn't think of anything else in my post that rhymed with trains. But I thought it was a catchy title anyways. :)

I am so sick of cars. Seriously.

Hubby has finally decided that our piece of shit  Nissan has cost us way too much money to be spending any more on it and so we are going to sell it and get an older car. A Ford Cortina to be exact. The one we are driving out to see tomorrow is an ugly 1982 model. I actually want something OLDER like a ’72 that’s got a beautiful body. Like this one:

MMMM...SEXY.....

But no, he wants this ugly looking thing. (Not actually this one but you get the point). Sure it’s got a 2 litre engine and I’ll be able to hammer it, (once I learn how to drive manual) but it’s, well... Fugly! How embarrassing talking to my fellow Ford loving mates and telling them I have a CORTINA, getting them all excited, only to fess up its an 82. An 82! GAH!

BLEH!!!

For about a month now I’ve been getting heartburn that’s been really hard to get rid of. I’ve been getting it almost every day and it’s starting to do my head in! I Wikipedia’d it. Never Wikipedia medical conditions. NEVER. I’m calling the doctor on Monday.

I’m a real sook (sookie-la-la for Paul) when it comes to trying new food. For some reason when I was little I thought Veal was Deer, so I refused to eat it. Some time ago Hubby bought a piece of marinated veal and tonight he convinced me to try it. He cooked this SLAB of meat that looked like it was off a Dinosaur on the BBQ. I tried, I didn’t like. He can have his veal, I’ll have my pork thank you.

OH! I’d like to thank one of my newest followers VinnyC for giving me an award! Well three to be exact. I don’t want to appear greedy so I’ll post the “LOL” award and give him credit on the others on this page. Thanks so much Vinny! If you don’t know him go have a read of his stuff. It’s very good. I'm not going to follow the rules though, cause that's just the way I roll baby! (well, most times)

So that’s pretty much it for now, just a few random tidbits today. I’ve recently discovered a few more awesome blogs out there so I’m having a bit of a freak out that I’ll miss someone’s post, cause I can’t keep up or something. If I am neglecting you PLEASE let me know! I won’t be doing it on purpose!

Oh! One more thing. A couple of you asked what Meatball scissors were. This is them.

And yes, my husband ordered some. He now refuses to make me meatballs until they arrive. Big Meanie!

WANT.MEATBALLS!!!! NO MEATBALLS MAKE SPRITE ANGRY!! (watched Hulk the other night)

WORMS.

Being a self taught crocheter it can take me a while to 'get' a pattern. All the different abbreviations, and they are written like they think you know what they are on about, even the beginner patterns. So it took me a few goes to figure them out but I finally mastered BOOKWORMS! Don't laugh! I'm excited and have been making them since. My son and niece loved theirs and my little nephew thought his was great, even though he called it a snake. I made one for my Mum in a fatter yarn and will be sending it to her soon. I just love the way their little bodies spiral as you make each stitch. I enthusiastically showed them to Hubby who answered me by saying..
"They are great but what is the point of them?"
Pffft!
I could say the same thing about your stupid meatball scissors!
Men. They just don't get it.

WE HAVE A BLEEDER!!!

Firstly.. MY MY! I wake up and I have FIVE new followers! WELCOME! Thanks for joining me here :)

Well after a horrible nights unsleep  the alarm woke us up at 6am. My son was having a typical Aspergers morning and nothing was right in his eyes, even his weetbix was too soggy. Half asleep we all managed to feed, and clothe ourselves and then pile grumpily into the car. Then battled for an hour and a half through peek hour traffic. I arrived at the hospital with half an hour to spare. They know me pretty well now so Paul, the lovely nurse, takes me straight in to check my eyes and put the drops that make me look like ET in. I make sure I tell him what a traumatic experience I had last time, and he is very sympathetic.  Like I wasn’t fishing for sympathy or anything.... J

Anyway he tells me that the doctor putting in the cannula today is experienced. In walks this young thing that looks old enough to put over my knee and spank. (‘Twas tempting, he WAS a cutie). I shoot a worried look at Paul “Are you sure he’s not a trainee?”

“Do I look that young do I?” asks Doogie Howser.

I am not convinced but let him at it anyway. He pokes and prods and slaps my arm to find the vein, and decides he is going for the “big one” inside my elbow. He pushes the needle in and so far it’s ok. Until he starts jiggling it round.

“Hmm” Doogie says.

Hmm..? Why Hmm..? that doesn’t sound promising.

Poke poke...

“Opps! These big veins bleed a bit”

OK. A bit. Not too bad then. I take a look (As I’ve had my eyes squeezed shut) A BIT?!?!

There is dark red blood all over the cannula, pooled in the bend of my arm, all over Doogies gloved hands, running down my arm and spreading outwards on the protective sheet , on the pillow I have my arm resting on and a spot on my grey slacks. WTF? Did I totally just squirt blood everywhere or what?

Poor Doogie is now trying to hold the line in my arm, while mopping up the blood, while trying to open one of those sticky plasters they use to hold the cannula down.

“Do you want me to hold something?” I ask, secretly amused at his floundering attempts to look professional.

“No it’s ok”

Dang, now he gets my blood all over the table, and he has to wipe that up as well. Hehee...

He wipes my arm with a wet cloth and the irony smell of blood hits my nostrils. BLECK!!! (No I didn’t vomit, that’s what I thought)

He then kind of just leaves me. With my arm still with dried blood on it. Ok.... I go out to the waiting room a bit frazzled. I don’t even have time to get my iPod out when lovely Paul is herding me into the photo room. Low and behold the insanely expensive camera is still working. They take a few shots and then inject in the dye. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and not in a good way. Also a little like I want to hurl, and hot. Like sweaty hot. The flashes from the camera don’t worry me at all in the left eye (Can’t see them) but they are painfully bright in the right eye.

All finished, we wait to see if I die instantly, which doesn’t happen, so Paul takes out the cannula, clicking his tongue at all the blood on me. He wipes it all off and sticks the cotton bud over the wound. I’m all done so I head off for the loo and do my INSANELY EXPENSIVE FLURO YELLOW PEE! Which, I may add takes a bit of flushing to get rid of. LOL!

8 hours later:

It’s STILL yellow!! J

I have an appointment soon to discuss the results. But the doctor who took the photo said that it looks like I have what they were suspecting I had at the very beginning of all this.

“which is?” I ask

“Blahdeblah Blahdittybla Blahbla.” He answers.

“Oh” I nod knowingly

Yeah. I have no idea. I will wait till the appointment and get them to write it down.

Oh and I still look like ET...

or the cat doing his cute look on Shrek...

Phoneee Hooomeee....

Sookie-lala and Doctor McStickems'.

Happy Australia Day!

Mine started out ok.  It was a typical sweltering Oz Day at 36 degrees (96.8 F).  We went and had lunch at our favourite all-you-can-eat place just around the corner from us. Stuffed ourselves silly at just $30 for the three of us!

Came home full and content until half hour later and BAM! It hit me. No not over-eaters remorse.

My. Damned. Period.

GGRRRR...

This is how I spent the next six hours. Curled up in the foetal position on the bed in agony.  I’m not going to rant on about this because this is never a good time for me, I’m still in quite a bit of pain, as the meds are wearing off and I don’t want to come off as a whiner.  And I have the extra joy of it happening every month, so what’s the point.

Tomorrow I go to hospital for another fluorescein angiogram. I’m not looking forward to it. For one thing I will make sure they don’t let a trainee doctor put the cannula in. Last time I had this young guy butcher my hand. Sticking the needle into my hand and pushing it back and forth trying to find the vein. I should have told him to stop, but I was afraid they would pull it out and try again and the thought of that I could not bear, so I sat there while this idiot poked and prodded into the flesh of my hand looking for this damn vein. Meanwhile there is blood streaming down my hand coating my rings and dripping all over the protective sheet they put down on my lap. Another trainee doc is standing next to him saying “you’ve got it” I am sweating, nearly screaming in agony, while fighting the urge to punch him, throw up, then faint. In that order.

Finally he gets it and tapes it all down. THEN BEATS A HASTY RETREAT. The female trainee doc washes the blood off my hand, I think she felt bad for me. I am sitting there traumatized and hurting. Feeling so dizzy. The nurse comes back not knowing what went on, puts in the pupil dilating drops that make me look like ET, and takes me back out to the waiting room. There are a few people who are having the same procedure before me. They obviously didn’t get stuck by Doctor Mc Stickems’. So I have time to sit there and pull myself together. Then it’s my turn to go in.

A fluorescein angiogram involves you sitting there while they take a number of photos inside your eye.(with a camera that costs an insane amount of money, that keeps breaking) Then they inject the Fluorescein (Which apparently costs an insane amount of money) into the blood stream. They then have only a few short minutes to get some more photos before the Fluorescein runs through your system. It’s like a florescent dye that helps them see the blood vessels at the back of your eye.

Pretty much after that I have to go pee. FLORESCENT INSANELY EXPENSIVE YELLOW PEE!! It’s pretty funny.

Anyway, I had to wait after the procedure because there are a few side effects they have to watch for with the Fluorescein. Mainly instant DEATH. Which is comforting.  The nurse came in and she looked at my hand.

“What happened!”

Me “That trainee doctor butchered me” *sad face*

She slowly took out the cannula and it hurt so bad. She put a cold pack on my hand. It was purple and had a huge lump on it. Afterwards, I am sitting outside the hospital, waiting for hubby to pick me up, I’m hurting, blind from humongous pupils in sunlight, and then a man suddenly collapses on the ground and starts having a seizure or something. Medical people come from all directions to help. Hubby arrives and I jump in the car and burst into tears. I know, I’m a sookie-lala, but it was a horrid day.

So needless to say I’m not looking forward to tomorrow.

Moby's round the world trip.

I found these stuffed under Moby's bedding. I don't know how he did it or why every place he visited seemed to be in miniature but, well, here is the evidence.

Leaping over the Great Wall

Terrorising Italy

Fuzzy Sphynx. I hope he didn't use Giza as a giant litter box!

Not even New York was safe!

My bitch fight with sixteen year old me.

I’ve noticed a few people here in Blogosphere doing some posts about what they would say to their sixteen year old selves if they had the chance. I had a think about what I would say to myself, and I don’t think it would end all that well. Nope, no heartfelt hugging and teary goodbyes.

This is how it would go:

Scene:

16 year old me is sitting on the floor of bedroom, taping songs off RAGE. Suddenly there is a blinding light accompanied with blaring trumpets . Then ,

*POOF!* a puff of smoke clears revealing me standing in the middle.

16 year old me: “What the F**K!”

2011 me : grinning “TADAH!”

16 year old me: looking for something to defend herself with “Who the f**k are you?” (Apparently I had a potty mouth)

2011 me: “It’s me dumbass. Or rather It’s you. I’m you.”

16 yo me: “ME?”

2011 me: *rolls eyes* “Yes I am you in 30 years time. I’ve come to…”

16 yo me: interrupting “YOU? You’re me? Seriously?”

2011 me: “yes”

16 yo me: “Oh. My. God.”

2011 me: “I know, amazing isn’t it?”

16 yo me: “You mean that is what I’m going to look like when I’m 36?”

2011 me: “Err….”

16 yo me: “wow! I REALLY let myself go didn’t I?”

2011 me: “Now wait just a minute..”

16 yo me: “What the hell happened? What are you wearing?”

2011 me: looks down at outfit I chose especially “What’s wrong with this?”

16 yo me: “Well I don’t know when you decided THOSE types of jeans looked good on that fat as….”

2011 me:  “OK! We are getting off the subject now. I have appeared to you today to give you some much needed advice.”

16 yo me: “Why?”

2011 me: “Because it’s what you do when you are 30ish. You think about the things you want to say to your 16 year old self and if the opportunity arises you do it”

16 yo me: “oh”

2011 me: “what?”

16 yo me: “mmm.. nothing”

2011 me: “AH! Don’t say Nothing to me, I am you , you know, I know you don’t mean nothing when you say nothing”

16 yo me: “HUH?”

2011 me: “I need to sit down…..”

16 yo me: “ Are you going to pass out or something, cause if you are then you better just lie down on the floor. Don’t want you falling on something and crushing it.”

2011 me: “HEY! I am not that fat!, and besides I go to the gym almost every time I remember”

16yo me: sarcastically “I can tell it’s doing wonders for you..”

2011 me: “Ok. That’s it beetch! It’s ON!”

2011 me lurches for 16 yo me.

16 yo me: “MUUUM!”

2011 me: “ SHIT! You won this time but I’ll be back, just you wait”

16 yo me: “look forward to it!” and turns back to the radio, turning it up louder.

2011 me: stands there for a bit, then “whatever!” and is gone in small indignant *poof*

If only - A poem

Time for another poem. I know, it's been a while. This one was written a few years ago. Enjoy.

If only

Sometimes we say if only

Like we really want to know

If life would be so changed

If done different years ago

If only I’d studied harder

I would have passed that test

If only I’d ran faster

And beaten all the rest

If only I had taken time

To get to know you better

If only I had called you

Or written you a letter

If only we had talked

A little more each day

I would not have felt so empty

When you suddenly went away

If only we were not

In such a hurry to live

If only we opened our hearts

We’d have more love to give

4/7/07

THANKYOU!

I have to hang my head in shame for not acknowledging two people who recently gave me blog awards.
In my defence my home was under threat of becoming a swimming pool, and we didn't have power for DAYS! (Is that a good enough excuse?)

Firstly this one from jdracecar, a lovely lady who writes the funniest pieces about her daily life and mishaps. Go and have a read of her page. I know you'll love it.

Second was this one from one of the most wonderful person I have had the honour to know. Caren at Caren and Cody's Cat Chat Is amazing. Her dedicated followers are testament to how lovely and kind she is. Her blog is a lovely surprise every time I visit. If you are a pet lover I recommend it.

So thank you Caren and JD for giving me these nice awards. I know there are rules to these things but I'm not going to do the award 15 people thingy. I love all of the blogs I follow and I think its close to 15 anyway. If you want to take these awards and run with it then hey by all means, I think you all rock.
I will give a special mention to a few though, as well as Caren and JD here are a couple you will love, if you don't know them already.
dbs (My favourite Canadian)
Paul (always a pleasure reading your page, and you reply to everything!)
poetesswug (so very lovely and a fellow crochet nut!)

 I will tell you seven things about myself.

1. My son has Aspergers, Hubby is dying of heart disease and I am going blind in my left eye, and we are also going through IVF. PHEW! Now that that's over with I can say something a bit more not so depressing.

2. I haven't EVER broken any bones in my body. Officially indestructible!

3. once when I was little I picked up a lizard egg and it hatched in my hand. A bit gross but pretty cool anyway.

4. I really, really do NOT like ...feathers. Laugh if you want, but try having a fear of feathers and being stuck behind a chicken truck on the highway! I was traumatised dammit!

5. My eyesight my be crap but I have the BEST hearing in the world. My hubby can't mumble anything and not have me hear it.

6. I know the lyrics to a lot of songs. I mean A LOT. I can tell what a song is just in the first two seconds. My husband says if I could scoop out all the useless crap out of my head and fill it with good stuff, I'd be a genius.

7. When driving and I see random ducks I point and yell "DUUUUCKS!" except for when Hubby is in the car cause it scares the crap out of him. Then I whisper it.

So that's it. Thanks to everyone who visit my page.

New year, new look

So while my PC was having down time, when we had to replace the powerboards that got wet, and when hubby decided he wanted to rearrange the entire downstairs, I was using my laptop. Which is just a eeepc netbook with an adorable 7" wide screen. I was looking at my page thinking it didn't look very exciting on the smaller screen. To be honest it looked downright drab and depressing. (It looks totally fab on my 21" widescreen LCD monitor). I decided that I needed to re-decorate. So I spent last night redoing the page header, using a different program than the one I used to create the black header. This new one is great and I can do everything on it without having to save different bits and opening it up in a new program. It's called PhotoImpact, and I like it. It's very similar to ImageBlender for those familiar with it. So I thought that I needed to be a bit more colourful. I made the header in blue and also did a cute little cloudy sky for the background page. I hope you like it. If there is anything on here you think I need to change, like the colour of the font then please let me know!
While all this rain and flooding was happening I wasn't able to tell you that we have picked our first pumpkin!  It's quite a big one to. We haven't tried it yet, so I have no idea what it will taste like. And some more exciting news is that our six corn plants are now growing corn stalks on them. A total of nine to be exact. They seemed to have thrived on all this wet weather.

Buzzing? What Buzzing..?

So along with the many pills my Husband has to take every day, He also has to get a shot every three months. The shot is full of testosterone to replace any lost by my husband’s previous childhood leukemia treatments (which in turn gave him the heart disease). It’s a bit of a pain. In the fact that it hurts him, and also we have to travel quite a way to his doctor.

But the next day….

Hubby is CHOCK FULL of manly testosterone, and has only ONE thing on his mind…

Happy times for me!! ;)

Unless of course it’s MY time of the month and then it’s NOT happy time for either of us.

Funny story:

The other day when we thought our 10 year old was occupied with his new ipod we decided to get frisky. Suddenly we heard from the other side of the door..

“Whats that buzzing?”  We froze…..

Hubby, “Um… it’s the shaver…”

“Really?”

“YES! Now go away!”

Nearly ruined the mood. I said nearly…

The shaver excuse was later re-inforced when son walked into our room to see THIS lying on the bed. Its my personal lady shaver. Not that he knows WHAT bits it actually shaves. Dodged a bullet there!

It's Quackers!

I got the funniest txt from my Mum yesterday. For those of you who don't know, my parents, in their late 60's, have retired and are traveling around Australia in their car and tent. So far they have been having the time of their lives. At the moment they are staying at a camp site next to the Murray River. They have been there for a couple of months and have become quite friendly with the local wildlife. Bunnies, ducks, birds etc.. Well yesterday Mum stepped out of their tent and got mobbed by a group of little wood ducks. These ducks are small and brown and very cute. They were expecting some food, and got quite excited. One little female got so excited she flew up and landed on Mums shoulder! For real! My Mother had a DUCK sitting on her! She called out to my Dad to come look. I can just imagine the look on my Dads face, and he would have laughed so much. My Dad loves humorous animal situations. So the duck sat there on Mums shoulder for a couple of minutes. Unfortunatly they did not get a photo. Boy I would have loved to have seen it.


It's so hot today that we are running the airconditioner, not caring how much it will cost us. We had so much planned today but nothing is going to get done until later on in the evening. After the minor flooding we got under our house, we had to buy all new power cords and big plastic roller boxes to put things we have packed away into, to replace the cardboard boxes that got wet. So hubby decided he wanted to re-arrange the entire down stairs area. Which is hard work in this heat. One good thing to come out of it is that I've scored my husbands big L shaped desk. Which is going to be my computer desk and craft desk as well. So excited. I cant wait to set it up and get back to doing my crafty things. Maybe even set up my easel and do some painting.


One other random thing. My son has discovered MacGyver. He is hooked.*rolls eyes*

It's "Open up a Can of Whoop-ass" time!

Once again my Husbands little sister is pissing me off. She is such a self-centered brat! The other day she totally went off her nut at my husband over the phone because she thought we should have not gotten the government grant they offered everyone who were affected by the floods. I don't know how she can be so heartless. For one thing we are so desperate for money she should have seen this as a much needed welcome relief for us. But no she goes on about us not deserving it and we should of had insurance. Well hello we would have it if we could afford it. She dosen't seem to understand that just because they have loads of money and blow it on heaps of shit that we are able to do the same. We are two people on a pension and they both have full time, well paying jobs. My husband has a terminal heart disease for fricken sake! They are in a rental at the moment and are now whinging because they need to sell their house or they will be in trouble. These are the same people who bought the kids a ridiculous amount of christmas presents, along with xbox's and stuff. We don't understand where they get all this money from, and then whinge that they are broke. GGRR!

So my Husband actually defended us, and I could hear her high pitched screaming through the phone. And get this, instead of admitting she is wrong she says "You are always being so mean to me!" and hangs up on him! My poor husband then had chest pains again from the stress as he sat there and worried about it.

God I hate drama Queens! I hate people who think they are always right and wont even say they are sorry when they are wrong.

Today we went to their house for their 8 year olds birthday. Her hubby was a little short with my hubby. Meaning she had a good whinge to him about how horrible my hubby was being to her. Man I want to slap her.

Thing is, is that she NEVER does this in front of me. It's always when I'm not around or when they are on the phone. I bet she knows that if she DID it in front of me then it would be ON like Donkey Kong!

I can see clearly now......

The fuz has gone..
I can see all obstacles in my way...
>BUMP<  "OW!"
So I have my new glasses. And while they are so CLEAR with no fuzzy bits right in the middle, they are a different prescription and are taking a bit of getting used to. Things look a little wacky.
To get to the shopping center where my glasses were, we had to drive through some areas that were badly affected by the floods. It is so heartbreaking seeing peoples whole lives in a brown muddy pile on the sidewalk. Everything is covered in brown. Everything is brown, the grass, the trees, the houses, all the contents of the houses. And the smell! Its just aweful! I was completely blown away at just how much water some of these areas had. I mean I saw trees that were 20 meters high that were covered in this muddy slush. To drive past someones house, and you can see the water was way over your car, way over the roofs of these houses, is just eerie, and frightening.
I cant get one story out of my head. One man who lived in a small town below Toowoomba (the town who suffered that horrible flash inland tsunami wave) has lost his wife and two of his children. They were caught in the freak wave. They all jumped into the cab of his rual fire brigade truck but the wave was too big and flipped the truck over. The man managed to throw one boy up into a tree and before he could get the others out he was swept away. Sadly the wife and the other two children were trapped in the truck and drowned. The man was able to climb up into a tree a few yards away. So with his one remaining son in one tree and him in the other, they had to sit there for 8 hours before they were rescued. They kept each other going by calling out to each other, the man urging his boy to "just hold on". The boy could see into the windscreen of the truck and kept asking his dad where his mum was. The man prayed for it to get dark so that the boy could not see the truck any more.
How do you come back from something like that?
These people were an ordinary family. But they were much more than that. Just the night before the wife had helped rescue a lady who had stupidly disobeyed signs and drove into the flood water. And the husband had just spent hours rescuing more people from the floods.
It's just not fair.
I feel so lucky and blessed.

I'm BACK!

Well we went ok through the river peek. It turned out to be not as bad as the 1974 floods, but still people around the corner from us lost everything. I feel so bad for everyone who lost houses, and stuff. But I feel worse for people who have lost loved ones, and for the people who still have loved ones missing. Its devistating.
Our town was cut in two by the river flooding over the bridges. The central business district went under water. The big shopping centre underground car park is still under water. House are lost, under water, washed away. We lost our power for nearly three days. We managed to save most of our frozen food, but anything in our fridge we had to throw away. Two days ago we drove around looking for ice. We went to one fuel station and they were out. The next fuel station was closed but someone had opened the ice freezers. (probably broke the locks) and people had taken the ice. Some honest people had put the money under the door. We managed to get the last two bags and left a note and our phone number. Hubby felt really bad taking the ice without paying for it. I though it was kind of funny. But we WILL pay for it. As soon as a staff member gets back to the station.
So because we were without power for so long, we were able to get a government grant to replace food and other items we lost. The government is giving grants to anyone who needs it.
But you know, there are so many people who are so worse off than us. We felt so blessed to get off as easily as we did. We decided to invite all of our neighbours over for a bbq tonight. It was really nice. We sat around and had a hot meal, and some good conversations.
So the worst is over so to speak. The clean-up begins. And the heartbreaking task of find the bodies of those who are missing. I cant even imagine what that would be like.

There is a bridge way down there somewhere



This house went completely under at the peek.



Moby moves to higher ground.

FLOODS

So now I'm starting to worry. The flood waters are heading our way. And while I think we will be ok up here on our hill, it's going to be pretty darn close. Just two days ago a freak tsunami like inland wall of water hit a town up the range from us. 8 people died and 72 are missing. It demolished everything in its path. Our river is expected to peek over 16 meters (over 52 feet) This is getting out of hand, almost the whole of Queensland is now under water. People have died, people are missing, entire towns are under water, and thousands are homeless! When will this rain end?

Teddy Bears

A couple of years ago I joined this community craft group that met every Tuesday, to do various crafty stuff. I started out doing folk art, which I'd never tried before. I eventually got asked to teach that class. Which I did for a couple of semesters. Then the folk art finished and I joined the teddy bear group. So these are some of my creations. It's quite a process making bears. After you pick the pattern and the right material. You have to make sure all the pattern pieces are placed facing the right way so your teddy doesn't look like he went through a wind tunnel with fur sticking out in all directions. While cutting out the pieces you have to make sure you don't cut the fur but the material below the fur, so that your teddy doesn't look like he has seems when finished (or that he has a really bad hairdresser). next you need to paint on some glue to the wrong side of the fabric along the edges so they don't fray. Then you have to hand sew the pieces together along the edges (tucking in the fur as you go), so its easier to machine sew them (leaving a small opening for attatching the joints and later for stuffing). The feet are tricky because you have to sew in the soles last. After doing a triple machine stitch around all the pieces (You don't want ted busting at the seems) you are then ready to assemble the bear. Starting with attaching the arms and legs first. My bears all have proper movable disk joints. Which are fastened with lock nuts so the limbs don't come off later on. It's a bit tricky getting your two ring spanners in through the small openings of the two different body bits to tighten up the nuts. Once you do that you then stuff the limbs with real cotton, using a special wooden tool, making sure it is tight and not lumpy. Then do a blind stitch to close up the small gap you left for stuffing.
The head is stuffed separately with Synthetic fill (I'll explain why). When its full you hand sew a running stitch around the neck.  After you have sewn the ears and turned them the right way out you position them on the head and sew them on with a very curved needle. The head is stuffed with the synthetic fill because it's impossible to sew through the cotton. You pick out the eyes (my bears have glass eyes) and using an extremely long needle, sew them onto the head coming out through the neck opening and pulling very tightly so that you give the head a nice indentation where the eyes are. Tie off threads from both eyes and leave excess thread in head. Place a joint disk inside the neck with the screw facing out, then tighten the thread, closing up the neck, and enclosing the joint disk into the head cavity.Joining the head onto the bear involves holding the neck joint disk with a shifter and screwing the lock nut onto the screw from inside the body cavity. The head is now joined to the body. Now you stuff the body with the cotton fill, and blind sew the opening. Next you pick out your nose. Some people use a plastic nose but I like to do the traditional sewn nose. Which is usually made with a nice black, or brown embroidery cotton. The nose is a very individual thing for a bear. As long as its sewn neatly and straight. Then you make three stitches for the mouth, pulling in slightly to give it a nice shape. To finish some people stitch the paws and feet  to give them more detail.
The three big bears were machine sewn. The little fluffy white bear and the miniature bear where completely hand sewn. And yes the miniature was a PAIN to make and he DOES have movable joints, and sewn feet. I have made a few more over the years that I gave away, and I still have a few more, waiting to be brought to life.
One day I will get around to it..lol.

My favourite is the gorgeous blue and brown fella in the back.

In the ZONE...

Do you know that feeling you get when you are exercising and your legs are burning, your heart is pounding so hard it’s threatening to jump out of your chest and you can feel the blood throbbing through your brain. It’s painful to draw in breath. You are so exhausted you don’t think you can do any more, but you push yourself a little further. Then a little further more. You feel like you are about to cark it and then, suddenly, you no longer feel any pain, your breathing slows, you go a little faster, your legs seem lighter, your vision clearer.  You are focused. Nothing can distract you. You’ve broken THROUGH the pain Barrier. You could go for miles… You’re in the ZONE….

Man I LOVE that feeling.

Completely boring post about nothing really (for want of a better name)

OOOK.. so I didn't go back to the gym yesterday. My muscles were so distraught about having to actually work that they protested and I couldn't have lifted a Chihuahua let alone weights. So I gave it a rest for a day and dutifully went today instead. I was there a whole hour this time. Actually doing stuff to.
I'm still not game enough to run on the treadmill. I have discovered that I can actually run, well more like a rambling plod. But that is on nice solid ground. Ground that doesn't keep moving even though you stop. Which is why I am hesitant to dial the speed up to a plodding run on the Treadmill. I'm scared I'll fall off it or something. Trip over my own feet and go flying off the end of the thing, to end up on the floor in a moaning heap in front of all the other gym people. No. If I am going to make an ass of myself I'd rather it be in better company. MY OWN.
MY arms aren't so sore tonight. It's now my legs that hate me. After I did the "Push the car up a hill with your butt" machine.

Bill Bass Sunnies

So I finally have new glasses and sunglasses coming to me soon. I tell you, shopping for anything expensive with my hubby is so frustrating. I know he means well, and is trying to get the best price while still getting the best brand, but sometimes I want to throttle him. In the end we ended up paying more than he wanted, because he insisted I get Ralph Lauren Glasses! (BTW they are really nice. They have kind of clear arms with little "Ralph Lauren"s written on them everywhere. I admit the style and shape is nothing like I would have picked for myself(hubby picked them) but they actually look gorgeous!). I also got myself a pair of nice Bill Bass Prescription Sunglasses to. They will both be ready to pick up in about ten days. I cant wait!
Not looking forward to my fluorescein angiogram next week. They have gone and rescheduled it to. To 8:30am! Which means we have to get up at some horrid hour in the morning, to drive in there so we make it through peak hour. I was going to catch the train in but Hubby doesn't want me at the station at that hour in the morning. I'm sick of them rescheduling on me to. Last time I got all the way in there, sat in the waiting room for a half hour before they eventually came and told me that the damn camera had broken that morning. And they don't have a backup one because they are stupid. Well thanks for letting me know!! (Ok so they didn't actually say they were stupid. I put that in.)
Anyway. That was my day. How was yours? :)

WHAT THE...? Great BALLS!!!

Know what these are? Hubby just saw this on ebay and got very excited. So excited in fact he bought one. He's promised me I'll get MORE after he gets it. hehee..

Its a MEATBALL SHAPER!!

FEEL THE BURN!

So after two months of time away from the gym, I decided that today was the day I would make my return. And I actually did. Even I was surprised! Not that I was there for long. OK, so I have not done anything remotely energetic for two months, not to mention that part of that included Christmas and who-ever heard of a diet at Christmas? So today, after lunch had settled (home made pea and ham soup) I threw on my gym clothes, strapped on my iPod and energetically jumped in my car to drive myself to the gym that is actually only two minutes walk down the road.

Upon arrival I do all my stretchy warm-up thingies and then hit the treadmill. For five minutes. Holy Crap I am out of shape! Before, I could easily pound away for half an hour on that thing. But not today. Two minutes in and I was red as an overcooked lobster and about as sweaty as an aerobics instructors buttock cleavage. I then decided cardio was not for me that day, so I hit the weights. I did the “pulling down thank God I shaved my armpits” machine, and the “flap my arms and squeeze my boobs in” machine. Those complete I decided to use my favourite machine of all. The Rowing machine.  I did 1000 meters on it. Which is 3 280.839 895 feet. Also 1 093.613 298 3 yards, or 0.621 371 192 24 of a mile.

I’m gonna go with feet. J

I then decided to warm down with five minutes on the bike. A sit down like an armchair bike. By the end of all this I was so buggered I barely acknowledged the perky young girl behind the desk as she handed me my car keys. Mumbled a confused “hello” at the way too cheerful lady I didn't know sitting on the couch near the front door, slid exhaustedly into my car to drive that hellish 30 seconds back to my house. I’m walking to my front door and hubby yells out the window.

“WOW! You weren’t gone very long!” He opens the door and says “How come you were only half an h………” he see’s my beetroot red face and knows I’m not to be messed with right now. He steps aside and lets me in.

“Please don’t stab me” he says.

I’m going BACK tomorrow!