The outcome from the visit to the "V"

Still not saying that word out loud, because we have to go back on Tuesday. The growth on Molly's eyelid needs to come off, she could see that the root of it was growing down inside her eyelid and of course it was irritating her eye when it rubbed.

So think good thoughts will you all, she has to have anaesthetic and have a V shaped incision in her lower eyelid, cut the lump thingy out, and then her eyelid stitched up again. Plus wear a bucket collar thing on her neck for the next two weeks. I'm worried, I won't lie. Our old girl is probably about 10 now, we really don't know, probably nudging 11, we're not sure. But it has to be done.

One of my dear friends mentioned that "Molly will be fine and that her biggest worry is the embarrassing collar she'll be wearing afterwards and the shameful photos her Mum will take and scrap of her". That put a smile on my face.

So no scrap pages tonight. Just one of my most favourite photographs I've taken of my girl last year. I was wondering where the lump was when I just looked at this photo. Actually thinking back, I think when I processed this photo I photoshopped it out, so she looked her pretty self.

End of the week

Well the working week anyway, then the real work starts on the weekend with the house painting. Hope for okay painting weather this weekend.

I think I've gone out in sympathy with Molly. She is going to the "V" word tomorrow, we don't like to say or type it out loud. She's had a pimply thing on her eyelid for quite a while now, but it will drop off and then grow and then drop off. The vet said it was something or other and if it's not worrying her, don't worry about it. But this time it's growing and not dropping off. It doesn't seem to worry her, but can you even imagine having something on your lower eyelid, always at the corner of your vision. So she's going in tomorrow to have it looked at and I'm thinking because of the position if they take it off or whatever, it will mean another appointment for anaesthetic.

So back to me, I've gone out in sympathy with her I think. Because I've got what I think is a sty forming on my lower eyelid. I can just see the start of it, and boy can I feel it. I must google it to see if that's what it possibly is.

Great news, I've sent my Christmas book away this morning to be printed. So now I'm waiting for two books to come back. My P365 and now this one.

So another big catch up for you. More things that makes our christmas "ours". I love playing Christmas music and absolutely adore Christmas books - anything about Christmas, whether it be a Christmas story, gift giving ideas, decoration making, cooking, if it's Christmas I want it! ha. And let's face it, who can go past James Morrison's Christmas CD, I have just about worn it out.

A small sample of some of the stockings I've made over the years, I absolutely love making them.

And well I thought being that this was a Christmas past present and FUTURE book, I better put something in about the future.

And is there more of a fitting last page?

Okay, cup of tea and then bed me thinks.

In a race to the finish line...

It almost feels like that. I can't keep going with Christmas pages all year, I want to get this album done and dusted so I can move on to my next project. Which actually I've started ~~sheepishly looking away as I say that~~ so I need to get this wrapped up. So I'll catch you up on the pages to date. I promise, no more Christmas pages after January ends, you have my word on it!

We have been painting up a storm since I last blogged, the front of the house is about 3/4 done now. I'm about to go shopping for a new front door, what fun! We're also going to give our house a name, which I'll be looking into a name plate for it. Then there's the front porch to contend with. What do you do with a concrete front porch? Ideas gratefully received.

And might I say, I've not been slacking off, I've had paintbrush in hand too, although I don't like being up on the ladder too much. I'm accident prone at the best of times, so lets not tempt fate shall we.

I will also add how satisfying it feels to stand back and see the front slowly coming to life. I've lived here now nearly 6 years and Mike a few years before that prior to buying the house. But now that we're putting our own stamp on it, I truly feel like it's "ours" now. Not just the house that we are living in that sure, we bought, but I never felt truly like it was ours until now. Silly stuff, probably the paint fumes doing my head in!

Okay a catch up. The first page was a story that needed to be told in this Christmas book, ha! Poor Mike, he'll never live it down.

Not sure if you can read the journalling on the tag here, but yes, I did one year wrap up a bag of dried fish bit treats for Bo and put them under the tree, and yes she did find them before Christmas day, plus breaking into a few other presents on the way to the prize!

And oh how I love my dated decorations, I don't like the silly Star Wars or Barbie ones that Hallmark put out for Christmas too, they have to be actual Christmassy ones. Funny how cats and dogs feature quite prominently in the decos I've bought over the years.

Oh and only in Australia right? That's where you'd see giant sized blow up kangaroos pulling a sleigh!

Back to Christmas pages

In a sprint to the finish, I'm just about there with the Christmas book. I just keep thinking of other facets of our Christmas to scrap. Then I'm wrapping it up, sending it off to print. Once January is finished, that's it. Onto my next project which will be a fun one. Can't be telling what it is yet!

By the way, this shortbread recipe is really yummy, try it !

Credits here.

Don't you just love my Christmas mugs? Every year all the "every day" dishes get put away and I get out the pretty plates, the santa placemats, the bright red mugs and we use these throughout December. It just makes December that much more of a fun month I think. Besides, it's nice to use these pretties.

Well we've had a few okay days to paint and at 4.30 Mike has been calling it stumps for work and getting the paintbrush out. Half of the front has now had one coat. Just seeing the house starting to go from green to cream is wonderful, it looks so clean looking. And now that the afternoons lately have been overcast the cream and plum look completely different. I think we picked well. Photos will be forthcoming.

Off to bed, nighty night.

Lazy Sunday

Well it is a lazy Sunday after the day we had yesterday. Lazy today because it's windy with showers on and off all day, so no painting to be had. But there was both painting (me doing the verandah) and chimney knocking down yesterday. Yes, you read right. Mike knocked our chimney down, brick by brick. Well we have half a chimney at the moment and it's meant to be a feature. I think right now it just looks like half a chimney. I hope paint and some garden wall art will make a difference.

So back to why today is a lazy Sunday. We were sooooooo tired after yesterday's work, we ended up in bed at 10pm, yes on a Saturday night, woooo hoooo, we are live wires here. Fast asleep by 10.05pm I can tell you. But this morning Mike couldn't walk straight, I think all that time up on the ladder, kind of twisting around to the chimney, he's pulled a muscle in his thigh. Either that or he's been doing aerobics in his sleep and pulled a foofer valve in his dreams. But poor thing is walking very sadly at the moment and the aroma of deep heat is everywhere.

I'm still working on my Christmas pages to finish my book, but I want to delve back into my archives and post this page which shows my dad how I will always remember him, cuddling up to mum. We finally laid his ashes to rest on Friday, it was a very emotional day. Up until now he's been sitting in the wardrobe because we couldn't decide what to do with them and he'd never made any firm plans either way prior. But it was time. We love you dad and miss you more than you could ever know.

Credits here.

Relief

Oh my goodness, relief was at hand today when the cool change came through and it rained. Oh it was heaven on earth! Honestly I don't think I've slept through a hotter night. Sleep was not an operative word though, I got up this morning feeling like a wrung out dish towel. I was wrecked.

I got up in the early hours just to stand outside for a bit, but it was hotter outside than in. Crazy stuff.

But the world is against this house being painted. Finally it's cool enough to paint and Mike went to do some of the trim today and then it rained. We can't win.

Continuing on with my Christmas pages, here are just some of the my collection of santas. I do love everything Christmas, but Santas make me happy. I have such an eclectic collection in all shapes and sizes and every year when they come out and I sit them all round the house it just gives me the best feeling.

Credits here.

By the way, that first page above, the middle picture in the top, the little round santa, I actually painted him. I had a fabulous resin figurine that I got from a supplier and I painted and varnished him. So satisfying.

I'm all over the place

I'm all over the place at the moment, just finished revisiting the 365 book to complete it, it's away doing its important printing work at the moment, now the days will tick by until that familiar package from Shutterfly arrives! Now I'm back to my Christmas book, which will end up taking probably just about all of the month. Hopefully no one tires of Christmas ha!

Okay, hands up who in the southern hemisphere, namely Victoria, is sick of the weather? Me! It was painfully hot all weekend, so hot that you just couldn't do anything. Not the kind of enjoying being out and about weather, we bunkered down inside with the air con all day. It was like an oven outside. We were able to do some prep work on the house front while the sun was in the back in the morning, but then nothing after that. Same today, 43 degrees! (Thats 109F for my American friends).

The weather was oppressive and of course our air con at work stopped working, along with our elevator. Is that murphy's law or what? There's meant to be a bit of a cool change tomorrow, I do hope so, because we got a notice here at home that the power would be off all day as they are doing power line works near our house, so Mike will be stuck here with no fan or air conditioner. If it's cooler there might be painting done, so there could be an up side to all this.

Okay back to Christmas, my family this time, my two adorable nephews and my brother's family. Had to put the gum leaves in it for their celebration of an Aussie Christmas!

Credits here.

Not letting the grass grow

No siree. No grass growing under Mike for sure. He's been painting each evening as I've gotten home from work. Along the guttering. I'm absolutely loving the plum colour, it looks different at different times of the day. We were planning to paint all weekend, but it's going to be a stinker, so I think that's off the agenda. All in good time right?

I took some photos yesterday when I got home, but now I must muse, do I do a scrapbook page of my husband's butt sitting up on the bull nose verandah, cause that's all I could see! ha.

I've been flat chat busy at work and have been exhausted each night as I've been coming home quite late. Hopefully it will ease off middle of next week. I don't like being a Manager, even in an acting role.

Now I will get back to the Christmas pages, because I do believe I'll be still making them all the way through January, I don't want to get that book printed before I know I've absolutely finished every facet of Christmas that I want to include.

However ... I am pleased to say I have finished my Project 365 book for 2009. Every page scrapped. Just waiting for a Shutterfly sale to get it printed. I'm so proud of myself, a photo every day for a year. Okay so there were a few days I may have missed, but a whole book on 2009 and our happenings throughout the year, all done. It was a huge undertaking, I honestly didn't think I'd finish, particularly as about half way through I fell behind, but I did a massive catch up and here I am on the other side.

I will go back to show you the pages you have missed seeing, but until then, the last page I scrapped was my introduction page, so here tis, with a rather hurried photograph I took in the bathroom mirror the other day while I was on my way to work! ha.

Credits here.

And with that, I'm off to dreamland! Thank heavens it's Friday tomorrow. That's all I can say.

Happy New Year

Well already into the second day of twenty-ten. I'm trying to get into the habit of saying twenty-ten as opposed to two thousand and ten. What is everyone else saying?

A quiet entry into the new year for us. Gosh, you know you're getting old when you decide to watch the Glenn Miller Story on telly on New Years Eve! Of course the bagpipes came out at midnight and Mike did a scoot down the driveway with them playing Auld Lang Syne, but there was nothing much going on in town, everything was very quiet. Then, dare I say we stayed up and watched another movie. Do I even say out loud that the first movie we watched of 2010 was The Village People! hahaha Mike cringes as I mention that.

Christmas tree came down today, and as Murphy's Law would have it, the minute I'd packed the last thing away, I found one more santa still up. He'll just have to get shoved in I think somewhere. I have a huge square chest in the loungeroom as a coffee table and one side of it is where all the decorations go, so no biggie.

So our biggest news I guess for this year is that we've decided to paint the house. It's been green probably since forever, and we're ready for a change. And not one to let grass grow under our feet, we've already picked colours.

Nice huh? The Sago is main colour, the Plum the trim and the Sago quarter is for the chimney and around the windows, just to lift it slightly. I'm so looking forward to starting. Remind me of that when I blog about how tired I am and how sick of painting we are! ha

I'll still be doing Christmas pages throughout January I think, so bear with me. I want to know I've covered all aspects of our Christmasses before sending the book to print. This was a special page for me to put together and most important to be included in my Christmas book.

Credits here.