i blame it on the cheese or weird dream #2

had the weirdest of dreams last night, first of all i dreamt that val came to stay to get away from everyone, then i was supposed to be going on holiday to paris with elizabeth but i wasn't sure if it was a real holiday or something i had dreamed, i was sitting on the top of the stairs trying to figure it while waiting for the taxi to arrive when i suddenly remembered it had to be a dream as i don't have a passport anymore and it was actually val and louise who were going to paris, then the action switched to the slip road at the top of the street where the nhs had set up a breakfast bar for all the people in the street, edith was there, dad found an interesting and rude shaped plant and i forgot to order leeks in cheese sauce for val!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm up early as i'm waiting for an email from sarahs cards so i can get a few bits and bobs as add ons for my january kit, and usually by the time i remember to look all the good stuff is gone, come on email, i've been up an hour already LOL

taking the tree down today too, it's time to get the house back to normal

it's still up

the tree that is though i did spend a couple of hours yesterday putting away all the ornaments, candles, xmas village etc and putting all the other stuff back out, it actually doesn't look too bad like this, with just the tree up and the lights at the window, maybe next year LOL.

dad tells me he is feeling better then could hardly breathe this afternoon, i thought it was another cough asphyxia coming on but he managed to get up whatever phlegm was stuck and was okay, i wish he would let me hire him a wheelchair for when we are in edinburgh, he is so not going to be able to manage the hills and the walking, anyway he reckons he is well enough to go out for a drink tonight, he says he'll only be a couple of hours.

chrissie from the rik rak ravers had her baby last night, a little boy named drake, she has posted some photo's and he is gorgeous, will have to make a card and send a gift

got my new cj done today, it doesn't need to be posted until the 30th january but with me going back to work after my holidays i thought i would do it while i had the time as time for scrapping will probably be replaced by sleeping and catching up on uks when i'm back

can i take the tree down yet?

well that's it all over for another year, xmas day was lovley, dad was a weeny bit better but hardly ate anything so i did all the lunch and all the dishes while he slept all day, suppose it's the best thing for him, just wish he could keep the snoring down to a dull roar LOL, i spent most of the day engrossed in my ds games, then started on the books on boxing day, we did really well, dad liked all of his presents especially his coin sorter and has had a few plays with it already, i have managed to complete my 7 wonders of the world game which must be a first as i have never managed to finish a game before, o thought i was doing well with the rome game to as i am building the parthenon but turns out i'm only on level 42 of 100 LOL

decided i'm going to take most of the xmas decorations down on monday and just leave the tree up until new year, then it won't be such of a mad rush, aslo wondering how to broach the subject with dad of maybe hiring a wheelchair for him while we are in edinburgh, don't think he'll go for the idea somehow

got lots of lovely stash to play with, including lovely stuff off jane who was my secret santa especially love the stamps and the inkpads, also got a lovely scarf off beatrice and a really pretty bracelet off val and some lovely stash off heather,

it's the seaton sluice crop today but not going, too much to do LOL

christmas eve

had a bad night last night, dad coughed all night and i lay awake listening out for him, he's still pretty bad today, his chest is rattling and he's coughing and sneezing something dreadful and he is obviously coughing stuff up as sometimes it gets stuck and then he can't breathe properly, am really worried after he had that cough asphyxia a couple of years ago, he's been dozing on and off on the sofa and i've just left him to it,

cooked the turkey today so it makes cooking xmas lunch a doddle tomorrow, i did it all by myself this year, and it looks lovely, didn't stuff it so it cooked really quickly and did all the checks to make sure it was cooked and i'm pretty sure it is, have started the stuffing and when that has cooled i'll put the sausage meat then i'm going to shape it into loaves LOL

must remember to stick a bottle of wine and a bottle of cava in the fridge for tonight and tomorrow

also did a bit of online shopping, sizzix were having a 75% off sale so i got 1 full alpha, 2x 9 die alpha's, a swirl and a label all for £39 WOW!!!

men!!!!!!

up early this morning, it was about five to eight when i got up so i'll be exhausted all day, went over for the turkey at 8:30 and we were home for 10 to 9!!!! dad's cough and breathing were dreadful so i mentioned about getting a doctors appointment, no he's okay it's just a tickly cough, tickly cough my arse, he was gasping for breath while he was tidying up after i'd cut his hair, anyway i managed to persuade him to go to the doctors and he got some antibiotics and has to take his inhaler through the spacer attachment, which he didn't have so i had to go to the chemist and get him one, he's asleep on the sofa at the mo but he can't settle because of his cough, fingers x'd we can get through xmas without me having to take him to hospital

i thought we had reached an agreement where he would tell me if he wasn't well after the time last summer when he ended up in hospital, but obviously not, men!!! grrrrr!!!

had a rather formal letter off chrissie today inviting me to a meeting with her and hr on the 12th january at 10:30 to discuss my phased return, she had written on the bottom that she hadn't meant it to sound so formal, i'll have to see if i can get the occ health advisor to come along to it too

craft day

it's craft day on qvc today and so far i haven't bought a thing (not counting the 2 we r memory keepers kits i bought yesterday) there hasn't been a lot of stuff on i like and some of the stuff is more expensive then what it was when i ordered it 3 weeks ago, also it hasn't helped that dad has either snored through it or muttered away the whole bloody time.

rang chrissie this morning and confirmed i will be back at work on the 12th january, she will get in touch with hr and occ health for me to arrange a phased return, so i've said i'll get a signing off note off the doctor for the 29th of december then take those four days as holiday then it only leaves me with 14 days holiday to take between mid january and march

my secret santa parcel arrived off rikrakravers today, i was naughty and looked the postcode up online so i know who it's off. i've put all the parcels into my stocking for xmas day and chrissie (uks) posted that she loved all of her pressies too

chuffed beyond words

was very very chuffed this afternoon when i turned on uk scrappers to find my sprouts lo had been chosen to go onto the homepage. i hadn't even seen it as i tend not to long at that page but one of the girls on the sarah's card thread mentioned it so i went to have a look. so i then went and told as many people as i could think of, it really made my day, though no dount i'll be getting smacked when the smack blog find out

two weeks and counting

just relaxing today thinking, all is done for xmas so i can just chill, then i realised oh my god, we go to edinburgh in two weeks time and i have nothing sorted apart from we're going to see keith and nicola on the sunday we get there. so this afternoon thanks to google maps, my road atlas and lothian buses website, i have all the day trips planned!!!! planning on spending most of the time in edinburgh with a day out along the coast to tantallon and north berwick and tha morning at linlithgow palace before we go to keith and nicola's for lunch, if i get all i want done in edinburgh in 3 days just might have to have a trip up to striling to go to the castle and of course the craft shop LOL

so think i'll have to get the suitcases out quite soon and also get the toiletires sorted though hopefully we should have stuff left from tyndrum in november.

thought i'd show off my sprouts lo too, did it using the sarah's cards december kit which has some gorgeous luxe design papers in, love my sarah's cards kit

chinese and a chat

had a really lovely night at beatrice's last night, i'm sure she said be there at 7:30 but i got a text at 6:30 saying are you on your way, so just rang a taxi and off i went, had a really nice chatting taxi driver too which always makes the journey more pleasent, her house looked lovely with all it's decorations up, val arrived shortly after me, and we ordered a chinese straight away and had a really good chat, val seems to be enjoying her new job and she gets christmas off which will be nice for her, it was really lovely catching up and we will have to continue doing it when i get back to work too,

warned beatrice that i will be back after my birthday so she better get the cupboards tidy LOL

left about 10:45 and had the same chatty taxi driver back, i had a really lovely night with two really lovely ladies, mind you they were naughty and had xmas presents and i hadn't bought anything for them so will make sure i get them a little something when i'm in edinburgh

computer panic again!!!!

doing the usual play about with the computer yesterday and using avg to scan it, avg flagged up a rootkit, which it then couldn't remove! so panic starts to creep in so i reran avg,spybot and windoes defender and they all come back fine, no rootkit to be seen, so i tries the avg history and try to remove said rootkit again, no such luck, so takes it over to ernie to fix, so no computer last night, i had to play with my ds or talk to dad LOL!!!!!!

anyway, ceri and joy popped in for a cuppa and a chat today which was nice to see them, after they left i rang ernie and my computer was ready, they have ran many scans and i have again and ther's no sign of the thing, hopefully that means i'll be ok, then heard that there is a problem with internet explorer so after advice from some of the girls on uks i have changed over to mozilla firefox, not sure about it yet but at least i have managed to get my google tool bar back so it looks a bit more familias now

at last some scrapping

it was the morpeth crop yesterday and i eventually got some scrapping done, the daisy bucket papers in the kit were lovely and i went with the stag photo i took up in glen coe, everyone else was doing xmas photo's so thought i'd be a bit different, bought some lovely little sets of stamps off maria too, xmas ones but they are tiny and worked out great for his antler baubles and also for little bits and pieces in my xmas mini book i had planned to make. of course all i got done was the class lo cos i spent most of my time chatting to heather, fi, beverly, cat and shirley !!! we had a secret santa and i got a lovely penguin yankee candle tart burner, it's lovely.

so today i got down to some serious scrapping, i finished my mini book which has turned out lovely and i also used my sarah's kits december kit to do a sprouts lo to put up on the any animal, veg or mineral social group on uks, that turned out great but i couldn't take a photo cos my craft light broke, the holder is broken so i can't get a bulb to stay in it, so tomorrows job is to go to b&q and see if i can get a new one, also thinking about calling into work so i don't have to ring, need petrol too so that'll me be busy for most of the day

sparkly decorations

was taking some photo's of the christmas decorations yesterday to go in the little mini book i'm making, the photo's came out really lovely so i thought i would share a few of them on here, i printed most of them out in balck and white but kept a few in full colour as they were so nice, think the book is going to turn out nice, mind you the cosmo cricket be good set i got for subscribing to the scrapbook magazine arrived today and is rather gorgeous, so may have to make another book using that.

snotty nose

well my sore throat is starting to go away but is being followed by lots of sneezing and a very snotty nose, hope i feel better for the morpeth crop on saturday, intend to do a mini book as well as the crop class, just need to take the photographs and print them out, they'll have to be black and white as i'm running out of colour ink and i can't afford to get another one, although i have just ordered some page protecters and an american crafts album from the scrapbook shop in durham (don't you just love that shop :))

have been using the free papers i got out of the scrapbook magazine to make my book but i'm grunging it up with lots of ink etc. think it'll look good full of xmas 08 black and white photo's

ooh how gorgeous are these>

went along to blyth yesterday to try and get a top for christmas, first thing i saw though was these gorgeous shoes, they are very high and i know i won't be able to walk in them but look at them, they're shiny, they're mary janes, they're copper and brown, i just had to have them, so i picked them up, and wandered round the shop looking for something to match with them. i know most peeps match their shoes to the outfit but not me, so anyway my luck was in, they had a coppery orange satin blouse in my size, it had a tiny click on the front and they didn't have anymore in so the shop lady took 10% off for me.

so that's christmas day sorted, i'll wear them with some jeans and might wear them for my 40th in edinburgh, keep putting them on and just looking at them as they are so pretty

on a more serious note, i had my assessment appointment with the clinical psychologist today, he was really nice, it was filling in forms and taking a bit of history and my next appointment is 15th january, which was a bit of a shock, i was hoping i would have had a couple of sessions under my belt by then.

had tons of snow today and i lost control of the car a couple of times, beginning to learn what to do in a skid now, hope it's all gone by tomorrow

it's the start of christmas

decided this morning to put the christmas tree up, it's a new one this year, black and only 6ft instead of the usual 8ft, also decided that i wanted some blue led lights on it so i went along to b&q and got some new lights and some new silver decorations, when i got the tree out of the box, i was a bit worried as it doesn't look as bushy as the old one but once i got it up it looks lovely, i'm really pleased with the lights too. also got the village put up and a few other things and will get the rest of the stuff out tomorrow, the tree looks lovely in the corner and i love the new decorations.

rang work today and obviously chrissie had just received my report from oc health and was reading bits of it to me from it, he expects me back at work by late january but chrissie kept adding no pressure, i think if all goes well at the cbt appointment on thursday i'll be ready to go back after my birthday holidays, i hope

seaton sluice crop day

it's that time of the month again, time for a trip to seaton sluice for the crop, as it was the last one before xmas we had food and a secret santa too, had a lovely time as usual, mind you i was just about to leave home to pick up heather when the phone rang, it was maria, her car wouldn't start so would i get the keys and open up, didn't mind at all, then when i'd got along to heathers i though i could probably pop in for the kits while we passed so we did that

by the time we got to seaton sluice everyone was waiting so we all just piled in got the kits sorted and started, poor maria turned up about an hour late but at least she made it, got the kits from the all day crop last week too as they were lovely. we had a lovely spread of food and the most delicous cake courtesy of emma! we then did the secret santa i got a lovely mug full with chocolate, and a whisk to mix it with, hazels little friend gemma got the present i brought and she seemed to like it

need to buy one more xmas present as by the sounds of things heather may have got me a present so was trying to buy something tonight online but my credit card runs out tomorrow so i'll have to wait until monday to do the shop.

got a letter from the psychiatrist today so i have an assessment appointment next thursday at 10:30, looks like i'll be back at work after christmas as planned

occ health and a funeral

not a great day today, firstly i had my second appointment with occupational health, it was ok though, the health advisor says they will be able to access cognitive behaviour therapy through the council so he is going to refer me and i should have heard about it within a couple of weeks rather than having to wait for months through the psychiatry department, so that's a good thing, he wants to see me again in six weeks time and also wants me to try to go in to work for a visit. don't know about that but i might give it a go

had a funeral to go to as well, we found out last night that auntie margaret had died while we were away and her funeral was today, wasn't sure if we could make it but the people at occ health saw me a bit earlier so we were able to get there, ceri and ian were there too and she took my number, hope she doesn't ring though it's always hard to make conversation and she's too needy, and that is something i really don't need at the minute,

dad's gone off to the bowling club and i said i'd pick him up so as soon as we get back in i intend in having a play with my new bia

done a hard thing

did two hard things for me over the passed couple of days, firstly i made myself go to cathy's glad to be alive party, was really worried about it but bit the bullet and went, even got the bus up lol, got there quite early so it was quiet. she was really delighted i had come and loved the bob dylan card i made for her, it got quite tough as everyone came in and come over to see me, rosemary but her finger right on it when she said i was sitting looking like i had my eyes on all the exits! had a few tears but i am glad i went as it's another step to being back to normal, also had a good chat with clare and it turns out she is starting cbt too, so at least i'll have someone to talk too about it.

the other hard thing i've done is to end my friendship with elizabeth, sent her an email saying i don't want to be friends anymore, tbh i've not wanted to be friends for ages i just haven't had the courage to tell her, i hate it when she calls over or phones, i try to think of any excuse not to see her or speak to her so i've been courageous, and though i know i have hurt her all i feel is a sense of relief that at last the friendship is over

a fab time was had by most LOL

back from our holidays and we had a lovely time, everything was great from the coach and the couriers, to the rooms and the food, even had two nice people to share a table in the dining room, the only complaint i have is the people who go on holiday and do absolutely nothing but moan, the heating wasn't on all night, the seat rotation was ridiculous etc etc etc, there was one woman in particular who i really had to bite my tongue whenever i was around as she was such a pain in the bottom.

spent an absolute fortune though, i bought tons of jewellrey and the cutest little teddy bear, he could end up to be the start of a new obsession though,

will probably be having a very early night in bed as we were up at 5:30 this morning to get our cases onto the coach

to tidy or not to tidy that is the question!

been having a lazy morning, reading the papers, catching up on uks, eating greggs scicillian lemon muffins :) then after that though i'd better make a start on the holiday packing, dad's suitcase took 10 mins, i took a bit longer deciding just exactly what i would take with me, i've made my mind uo but i won't pack it all until later on to save the creases,

so i sat in the craft room and looked around, the place looks like a bomb has been dropped LOL so do i tidy it up, do i leave it until we get back from scotland bearing in mind i'll have to pack my crop bag for the sunderland crop when we get back or do i just leave it until i get back from the sunderland crop

desicions desicions !!!!!!

more sewing

been playing around with more bits of fabric this afternoon, i'd seen these fabric flowers in a kit on uks and thought i can do that, so one circle of fabric, a button and a bit of thread later and they are done, though i might make a few more to go on the patchwork quilt think i'm making.

also had a bit play with my alcohol inks on some acetate, dried it with a heat gun then punched out some flowers shapes. my little book of autumn looks great too and i've done lots of stamping, distressing and inking on each page, just need to take and add the photo's now

went to get the holiday spendies today so i have cash for next week. treat myself to a new woolly hat to keep my ears warm and some new gloves too

i have been creative :)

decided i wasn't going to sit around doing nothing all day so went into my craft room and did a cj entry, then i got the shimelle autumn pizza box of love kit a couple of months ago and decided to make a little book of autumn with it so i can take lots of my usual strange photo's when we're in scotland next week and put them in there.

while i was busy my anna griffin fabric squares came from qvc, they are really lovely and i had already thought i fancied making a wall hanging or the craft room so i dug my sewing machine out of the back of the cupboard and made a start. i was really surprised when the machine started up first time as it must be at least 3 or 4 years since i used it, i've just picked squares at random and sewn them together in strips of 7, have 4 rows sewn together so far and it looks really good, so good that it might go in my bedroom instead.

bloody paypal

i am so fed up with this paypal fiasco, had to get onto the phone to them again last night and got passed through to the resolution centre this time, and i'm still no further forward, so i'm just going to keep trying every day to close the account and send cheques off the the people i bought off, which probably means i'm going to end up paying twice for everything which i can't afford but if it get's paypal off my back it'll be woth it.

so i had a bad nights sleep worrying about it again then when i switched my mobile on there was a message off val asking if he could come and see me, so of course that set me into panic mode on case there's a problem, the sooner i get my cbt started the better i think

finally !!!!!

finally managed to get some scrapping done today after being a chauffeur for dad again most of the morning and then when he rang to be picked up again this afternoon he never even said thankyou. managed to get a couple done, here's one of them

still no joy with the paypal fiasco though, i've tried about three times this afternoon to close the bloody account and no luck so i've just sent them another snotty email

chat night for the rikrakravers on uks tonight so i'll have to stay up a bit for that and anyway it's heroes night so i'll watch next weeks episde on bbc 3 later on

weird dream watch #1

had an early night in bed last night due to being so stressed out by this paypal fiasco, took ages to drop off to sleep as usual but wheni did i had another of my trademark weird dreams

i dreamt i was 18 and on a school trip to stockport, we were on a coach and playing games and selling raffle tickets and playing the lottery, as we got close we could see blackpool tower and as we drove along the coast there was a burnt out jumbo jet in the sea, when we stopped for fish and chips i went to the toilet and had a haemorrage (sp?) and was lying on the toilet floor in pools of blood, other people kept coming into the toilet and stepping over me and just leaving me there, so i managed to drag myself out of the toilet and started throwing tins of beans that were lying on the floor at people to get their attention.

any ideas anyone or am i in need of urgent psychiatric treatment :lol:

why can't i smile?

i was going to do some scrapping today but never got round to it what with spending most of the afternoon screaming down the phone to the imbecile's at paypal, and being a chauffeur for dad, but i aslo had to go and get some passport photo's taken.

the boss at work had reaslised that all of our crb shecks were out of date so we need knew ones and i set about filling in my form. it requests proof of identity one form being a valid passport, whoops i don't have one and i'll be damned if i'm paying 70 quid plus for one so decidedto go the cheaper route of a photo driving liscense (still £17.50)

so off i goes to wallsend while dad was in the chiropodist and got my photo's taken, 4 qiud!!!! for 4 photo's!!!!! they're only 5p a print in asda!!!! and why the hell can't you smile on them, i mean i'm not saying a big cheesy grin but just a litle smile, i look such a miserable cow in them!!!!! so on the subject of cows (we may not have been but we are now) thought i'd show you one of my many cow lo's, i have a bit of an obsession with them you see :)

why a weird mind?

well i think i'm quite weird, i have a weird taste in clothes, music and the way i wear my hair, i certainly don't fit in with the stereotypical image of a woman my age, no hubbie no kids, i also love taking weird photo's that maybe other people don't and certainly my best scrapbooking lo's are of weird things :lol:

i'm sure even my friends think i'm a bit strange but i like being different :lol: i'm going on holiday soon and will be taking lots of photo's of strange weird and wonderful things, lets hope the weather stays nice

and the weird mind bit, well i think it is, it's like there is a few people in there and my mind never shuts uo, it's constantly on the go with random thoughts , weird dreams and very confusing conversations!!!! you may not thin that's weird but i do

my very first post

thought i would join the blogging world, don't know why, just fancied it. i don't even know what i'll use it for, my scrapping stuff, my hopes ,my fears frustrations and follies, or maybe just someone to off load to when i'm feeling down!

god knows what it will turn out like as i am so hopeless at anything remotely techie :) but i'm prepared to give it a go