Dolly's Dreamings

Ouch!!!!!

I am sore - very very very sore.

I took a tumble good and proper today. I did one of those little runs where you know you are going and try to keep your balance and just can't. Then slap. Hard down on my knee and then my hands onto tarmac path. Covered in rain and mud and in absolute agony.

I think as we get older we are less resilient. I was fairly sure I had cracked my knee - it is doing a good impression of a balloon at the moment so I will watch and wait and if the pain doesn't lessen any I may take a little trip to A and E

I am also certain that my whole body is gonna be sore and jarred in the morning!

The page here was another made for Mel and Jill for their design team. It was a picture of a tiger, again from Colchecter zoo, and usingt he lovely scalloped paper. I seem to have been going through my arrow phase as both the page yesterday and the page here have arrows. I think I have worked through the phase now LOL.

The lettering was done with stamps - it is straight in real life, it is just an appalling scan and stitch.

Now - I am off to soak my poor old aching bones in a nice warm bath.

Kira Update at 6 weeks

Well, we finished week 6 of the food trial today and so went for a vet visit. We actually feel quite depressed about it all. 3 months of illness, 6 weeks of a food trial and she is still itchy, scabby and has a poor coat. After being quite well and looking good two weeks ago, she is back to a scabby little girl with a manky coat. The vert, however, was not too worried. He was pleased she has regained weight and clearly the food has helped the inflamatory bowel disease. He was a little disappointed she is still scabby, but not unduly surprised. It is why food trials can take 12 weeks. He has prescribed oral steroids this time - Prednisolone (Had that before for Simba) - and wants us to try that for 2 - 3 weeks. If she is still scabby then, we have to assume we need a different food trial. He is completely convinced it is food as it is unusual for a cat to score so highly on food allergy tests.

So we have bought more food (at the shockingly expensive price) have given the first pill and are back to watching, waiting and keeping them separate. The keeping them separate is the depressing bit.

I went to the dentist this morning and he fixed the broken tooth, but even he was shocked at how bad my jaw was. It was incredibly clicky and tender and Nij told him how much pain I am in a lot of the time. He has decided to make me a mouth guard and I go for the first appointment on Monday.  It's going to look so sexy, but if it solves the pain who cares. I have suffered with TMJ for the last 20 years, it has been getting worse, the nerves in my jaw are shot to pieces, I have had so much dental work on teeth that are actually OK it's not true. I am sick of it and hope this may help.

My little boy has been neglected a little so I thought it was the right day to share this page. It was made for A True Friend, for the most recent challenge - then and now.

When we first saw Fiki he was 4 weeks old and the runt of the litter. We saw him again at 6 weeks and he was tiny and poorly. When we picked him up at 12 week he was exactly half the weight of his sister. But we had fallen in love and runt or not we wanted him.

And what a decision that was. He turned into a truly spectacular Bengal, tall, long, a stunning colour, the most awesome eyes and a thoroughly handsome chap. The page shows how he has changed. The pictures were 3 years apart, the first one being when he was that tiny 4 week old little fluff ball.

I used  a Maya Road clock, inked and embossed, a hand drawn arrow, a stamped border, Daisy Bucket papers and, even though he is all boy, a few flowers.

I doodled the writing on the letters and was not very happy about it. plus one of the flowers is all turned over when it went on the scanner. Ah well!

FREE christmas wreath overlay

I have been tinkering with Christmas pages and made this overlay to use on things I was working on.

There are two versions - one with the inked border and one without the border.

If you would like to use them please feel free to snag them for yourself.

Christmas wreath overlay

Pretty Polly

A cat update

Kira has made a real real mess of her face today. She has obviously been scratichinga  lot and now has a massive wound over each eye where she has taken scabs off. When will it ever end! How can this still be an allergy when she has been on the food trial for almost 5 weeks. Her coat is shocking again and she looks poorly. It seems to be cyclical and we are at our wits end.

Off to the vets on Thursday and I think we are taking Fiki too, as he has a scab over his eye too. Coincidence? Or a worrying alert to a more serious problem! Not lookig forward to Thursday much as i also have the dentist to - hopefully - fix the tooth that broke last week.

As a dental phobic that is not something I am looking forward to.

The page here is one I made for Mel and Jill last month. I loved the papers and wanted something bright and tropical to go with them. The picture is of a parrot at Colchester zoo - especially appropriate as it is so close to Mel.

The idea of the circles came from wanting to frame him in something that looked like the round mirror my budgie used to have in his cage. Now I know the parrot is way bigger and way more colourful than poor old Jimmy, but it was what sparked the idea. Then it seemed a shame not to use the other circles LOL

I enjoyed doing the writing in the gaps as well - it was fun making it curve to the shape.

The flowers I used are actually banana frog stamps stamped onto thick water colour paper, coloured with water colour pencils and then pent into a 3D shape and fixed using foam squares.

The numbers up

The Collectively Yours challenge this week was to use a number or numbers as a focus for the page. You know me .... I couldn't use just one number now could I!

I went for 1 - 10 and thought of things that worked from our Canada trip and then stamped and hand wrote the information on 10 circles and placed them round the central picture, taken by Rob Lean at our favourite place from the trip.

I ended up by explaining the memories were just too many to count.

I have to say I am loving the Canada album so far as it is just so coordinated. It was mever intended to be, but I have used the same sort of tones for most of the pages as they just worked so well for the pictures. The trouble is that I now want to go back and re-do my Wild West album. Gosh will this scrapping never end.

I was busy scrapping class pages and magazine assignments at the weekend. It was nice to be busy and have a focus for some work. I don't do regular magazine work like I used to when I was on the design teams of several magazines and so it is really nice to be asked to do something special once in a  while. And no - of course I can't show you what I made LOL!

FREE Christmas overlay

I needed a Christmas overlay for something I was making and so came up with this one this morning.

I have uploaded it to 4 shared so please feel free to snag it if you like it.

There are two versions - one with the inked border and one without the border.

You can tell I am starting to feel Christmassy.

Christmas Overlay download

Christmas shopping and an idea

I was out and at the shops by 9 am this morning and had a very productive trip. I managed to buy a lot of gifts I was looking for for people and lots of things I needed to get as well. I also managed to find some new clothes for me tee hee.

I know I was told quite firmly that I was only allowed to buy Emily one present (everyone has been told one present only) but I may have slipped up - just a few times. She may .... just may .... have more than one. She may have quite a few LOL

Now some of you may be looking for that perfect Christmas gift - and I have a suggestion to make. I am so proud of my brother-in-law Jim. He has written and published a book and it is for sale on Amazon.

Link is here

He is a terrific author and his book is a collection of thoughts and observations and is both amusing, moving and such a wonderful read. I asked him to send me a copy of my favourite extract and you can see the file here.

sample chapter Download the_gap.doc

It is just one of the many short stories and is here for you to read in a  word document. Please, do have a read. It is one of my favourites and, if you like it, or know someone who might, it would make a great Christmas gift. And no, I am not on commission.

Nij and I are having our thanksgiving meal tonight - it is a lovely special occassion for us. Sadly no Turkey for Kira. She has continued to develop more new scabs over the past few days and it looks like we are back to square one again. It is all getting very depressing!

Ooops

It's obviously been a worse day than I thought. After 10 and I am still up and haven't blogged.

In my defence I have had a mad few days.

I broke a tooth yesterday and have half of it missing and can't get an appointment till Thursday (by which point I think it may well have disintegrated completely and be very painful|)

I have been on the phone to an old school friend for hours.

I have a mass of commitments to fulfill this weekend

I have an itchy scabby cat to deal with

And it is Friday so I have been allowed wine LOL

I promise I will be better tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. 

We have lots of family in America and so today is special for us too and we think of Nigel's brother, Jim and his wife in New England, my family in Georgia and Nigel's cousins in California and Oregon. We have so much to be thankful for this year and it does us good to reflect on that. Sometimes life gets in the way of thanksgiving and that is NEVER a good thing. It is easy to get bogged down in the mundane and the ordinary and to let little irritations build up in to more major issues.

Today is a good day to reflect on all we are thankful for.

I am thankful that Nigel and I have each other, have good health and a happy home. 

I am thankful for our three wonderful cats and that Kira's problems, whilst worrying and depressing are not life threatening.

I am thankful we don't go short of life's basics.

I am thankful for my many friends, both real and cyber, and especially for my best friend Jakki.   

I am thankful for a wonderful hobby which inspires me and enriches my life.

I am thankful for my wonderful god-children and especially thankful that Samantha is happy and healthy and pregnant.

I am thankful that, even though I no longer have them, I had the most wonderful parents in the world.

I am thankful for the wonderful travels we have been priviledged to enjoy and the fact that we have returned home safely.

Have a wonderful thanksgiving weekend everyone.

xx

Bonus dinner

Had a lovely surprise this evening - hence why I am late with my blog. Nij phoned to say he was coming home early as he had a delivery to make and I was not to bother cooking cos we were going out.

Fabby - my kind of evening.  We only went to Pizza Hut but it was loevly not to have to cook. Plus - I was flush with extra money. We bought a load of Felix cat food when Tesco had it on offer 2 for £5 a few weeks ago. I can't use it and will never be able to use it so I have sold it all to colleagues and have loads of dosh and it is like a real bonus. We did have 50 boxes of it! I used to get through more than 2 boxes a week so when it was on offer we bought loads. Mind you - it doesn't seem so much of a bonus when feeding them Felix and Hills for a week used to cost me about £7 and now it costs me £21 a week on the prescription diet.

We are now into our 5th week ont he food trial and she has quite a few new scabs and her fur has gone shocking again. The vert said this might happen. I find it so hard to believe that even having had no allergy food for almost 5 weeks it is still in her system and she is still itching and scabbing. It is bizarre. She only ever gets the scabs on her forehead and ears. They start like blisters, crust and then scab (then she picks them of course) . It is amazing there are enough of these toxins to still be affecting her. Poor little thing.

We can take her back to the vets after 6 weeks and see where we go from there. Hopefully to finding and more reasonably priced food she can tollerate.

The page here is one that I made this month for Mel and Jill at A Trip Down Memory Lane.  I am still scrapping Canada pictures like crazy and I had done a digital page of this picture but wanted a proper paper one to put in my album.

I took the picture at Maligne Lake and I just love the fact the butterfly and the bee were so close. Close enough to both be in almost sharp focus witht he macro lens.

I used a huge Fancy Pants chipboard shape, inked and embossed, and very little else.