busy hands

i am crochet obsessed lately!!

i find i can no longer sit idly in front of the tv so i have been keeping my hands busy with a crochet hook and some wool.

i currently have not one but two throw blankets on the go

although the granny stripe is pretty and eye-catching,
i love the ripple pattern best of all.
do you have a preference?

now don't be shocked but...

i actually opened my sketchbook the other day and played with some watercolours on a background so there's hope for me yet.

here i am at my art desk feeling quite happy and smug about it

i chose this pic for week 29 in the 52 weeks of me project

brad, aaron and i went to see the last harry potter movie yesterday.
i LOVED it and it has made me want to finally get around to reading the books. i've seen the last three harry potter movies in full but have only ever caught glimpses of the earlier ones when the kids watched them. i'm now looking forward to the complete harry potter experience.

i've been a bit under the weather this past week but seem to be on top of it now.
just in time for my rheumatologist appointment tomorrow.
wish me luck.

i hope you are all having a wonderful week.

~ love, light and peace ~

pyjama day, inspiration and mikayla

it's been a nice, relaxing weekend so far and, today, i declared it a pyjama day

so grabbed the opportunity to take this week's self portrait.

week 28 in the 52 weeks of me project

brad is joining me
i think he would stay in his pyjamas all day every day if he could...lol

i'm not normally a pyjamas all day person.
actually, this would be only the third time i've worn pyjamas ALL day long.

i'm wearing the bed socks i just finished knitting recently

with the medical issues, knitting, crochet and decorating projects over the past couple of months, i've barely touched the sketchbooks although i am beginning to feel the urge again.

especially after buying these two books for my collection recently
cathy johnson is truly an inspiration and a very giving and helpful artist!
her flickr albums are here
her art journal workshop blog is here

i've also been taking an AWESOME watercolour class here with another of my favourite artists, alisa burke. i've downloaded all the videos, just need to find time to watch them and put what i learn into practice. i am blown away by the inspiration out there on the net, particularly in blogland, so i guess there's really no excuses for me NOT to create.

hey, check out my gorgeous granddaughter!

michelle took this pic of mikayla last month.
can you believe she's 7 months old now?!!
it was a cold, windy morning so michelle rugged her up nice and warm.

~ our own little eskimo ~

have a blissful weekend, dear friends!!

~ love, light and peace ~

Triptych finished!

i was on a deadline because michelle wanted mikayla's room all pretty for her house inspection yesterday so, this meant, late nights (after midnight) and early morning starts....5am to be precise! i've been getting up at 4am anyways because reece heads off early and i drop him down at the bus-stop for 4:45am.

here is the finished triptych!

michelle's design which i painted

here it is in place on the wall in mikayla's room

michelle made the large tissue paper pom-poms

aren't they great?!!!

with michelle's creative flair and my painting skills,

i think we make a pretty good team

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i got a new mobile phone!!

a HTC Wildfire touch screen!

i LOVE it!!!

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just look at these two...curled up, sleeping peacefully

well, don't let this peaceful scene fool you for a minute because, if someone knocked at the door, they would instantly come to life and act like ferocious guard dogs....OR....if someone were to go into the kitchen, they would instantly come to life, race into the kitchen and watch that person's every move with beseeching eyes, hoping they'd be pitied and given a morsel of food. seriously, you'd think they were never fed! LOL

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aaron was home sick yesterday and will probably be home again today, poor kid. if he doesn't pick up today, i think it will be a trip to the doctor for him.

today, i plan to rest up a bit after the crazy, busy start to the week.

how has your week been???

~ love, light and peace ~

self-portrait, triptych and more

another busy week has passed and, unfortunately, i spent two days of it in absolute agony every time i moved my right arm.  i suspect the damage may have happened when i helped michelle move a chest of drawers out of mikayla's room as we had to lift from the top and carry it, holding our elbows out to the side like wings.  the next evening i started getting severe pain in my right shoulder.  i think i may have pulled a muscle but it completely debilitated me to the point where i had to get a lot of help from aaron and bradley to do basic chores.  it got so bad, i ended up taking some strong anti-inflammatory medication and thankfully, by the following morning, the severe pain had eased by half and has now ceased altogether. YAY!

i'd arrranged a doctor's appointment for saturday and, as my car is a little risky to drive right now, aaron and i walked up to the clinic which isn't too far from home.  the pic below was a section of the route we took.  it was nice to be walking through the nature strips again...it's been awhile.

WEEK 27 in th 52 weeks of ME project

i had nerve studies done on my hands last thursday as, you may remember, i've been dealing with painful hands and feet for over a year now.  the results showed that i do have mild to moderate carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands but the pain is worse in my right hand due to whatever arthritic condition i have.  so, this will mean wearing splints at night which should hopefully stop the carpel tunnel syndrome from getting worse thereby avoiding surgery down the track.  my doctor also wants me to see a rheumatologist so, hopefully, we'll get to the bottom of my ache and pains once and for all.

as promised, here is a pic of the new quilt cover set i bought on sale last week.  the blues and greens are still there but there is now some pink/magenta thrown into the mix.  i'm still changing things about but here it is so far.  i plan to do a different painting for the wall behind my bed.  it will include all the room colours or maybe i'll re-paint the rose painting i did years ago so it leans more to magenta pink.

an evening shot

i got my weeks mixed up so you get an extra self-portrait this week....lucky you! lol

michelle recruited me to paint a simple design on a triptych for mikayla's room.
michelle is very much involved in the designing process and here is the middle canvas so far.

school holidays are over so aaron started back today.
i miss him already.

i'm off to get ready to head over to michelle's place where we will be doing more work on mikayla's room.  it's looking beautiful so far.....pics coming soon!

~ love, light and peace ~

keeping busy

i managed to escape the nasty gastric bug aaron had last week but the decorating bug still has a firm grip on me. i bought a new quilt cover set the other day when pillowtalk were having their sales and i've been changing a few things around in my bedroom. pics to follow in a later post.

michelle must have caught the same decorating bug because she has been busy with mikayla's room. i have been given the task of re-painting this little, shelf-sitter fairy who has been in the wars over the years with a few breaks and glue back togethers. i helped michelle paint this ceramic fairy back when she was a young girl so it has a lot of sentimental value for her.  now, michelle wants the fairy to have a fresh, new look so she matches in better with mikayla's room colours which will be mostly lime green and fuchsia/magenta pink.

here she is with the first layer coat of colours
lots more to do yet

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have you ever made paper flowers?

i was taught to make them from normal-sized tissues by a friend of the family way back when i was a young child and now they have made a giant-sized comeback using florist tissue paper....particularly for wedding decorations.

recently, michelle found a 'how-to make paper flowers/pom-poms' on martha stewart's site and wanted to make some for mikayla's room. we used gift wrap tissue paper which worked well but you need to be very gentle when pulling the papers apart for the petals.  the more layers of paper, the fuller the flower will be.

they look quite effective, don't you think?

and we had quite a bit of fun making them

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we are in for quite a cold snap over the next few days so i've been busying myself with the sticks again. the knitted slippers i made have been keeping my feet toasty warm at night so, this time, i'm knitting myself a pair of pink bed-socks.

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btw, i was asked why it will take so long (october 7th) to get the results from the biopsies taken during my surgery. you see, i'm going through the public hospital system which means i won't have to pay for anything. the down-side is that there is a longer waiting time. however, IF my results showed something needing urgent attention, i would be notified and called in sooner to get the news....hence, the reason i'll be happy to wait until october as this will mean there were no issues for concern.

for those who celebrated, i hope you all had a wonderful fourth of july and canada day weekend!

~ love, light and peace ~

a makeover

i'm feeling better each day as far as the surgery side of things goes, however, aaron has been sick with a gastric bug (my poor baby) for days and he has graciously passed it on to me now.  i've only just started coming down with symptoms so, with a bit of luck, it won't get too good a grip on me.

anywhoo, over the past week, i've been playing about with the colour scheme in my lounge room.

a room which has been at odds with me for quite a while because it's been a hotch-potch of everything. nothing matched and i decided it was high time it did, so i started with this stand and mirror set.

and here they are now

i chose purple, blue and yellow green as my colours for the lounge room

even the metal fish got a makeover too
their purple parts used to be orange

there's more to do in the lounge room but things are meshing so much better now which is making me VERY happy!

have you noticed that i seem to be craving a lot of purple lately?

what's your colour of the moment?

~ love, light and peace ~