Monday, February 22, 2010

How quickly did the week go?

Heck, I haven't posted for a week. But I've been busy being out and about and having a great time!

I had a girls weekend in Melbourne, leaving Friday night on the train and coming back Sunday evening. Oh my! I have a lovely set of friends here in town and you may remember last year we went to Hobart for the weekend. Well this year it was a weekend in Melbourne staying at an absolutely gorgeous Hotel Charsfield.

We came, we saw, we shopped! And shopped! And shopped!!

Plus we saw Mama Mia at the Majestys. It was fabulous. We were the only ones that dressed up in the audience mind you. We all wore Abba t-shirts and had big fluffy feather boas around our necks. Absolutely loved the stage show.

creashens has a gorgeous new kit called Dainty in the shoppe and I have had a fine time creating this page of the menagerie.

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Off to bed, big week ahead considering I had an RDO today, I was calling it my recovery day after the weekend!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy V's Day

Okay, so it's claptrap, it's a way for the florists and card sellers to make a stack of money, you shouldn't need one day to tell those you love that you love them. But you know what? I don't care. I like Valentines Day. I like having a day to celebrate our love. I like that we make each other feel special today, and yes we do other days too, but we take extra special care of each other today. I like that. I'm even posting in red tonight because I love doing this whole posting thing.

We went out for dinner tonight, absolutely delicious, to our favourite pub restaurant in the next town. I have the meal I really enjoy, which is called, for want of a better name "The Golden Oldie". Crumbed chicken, stuffed with camembert, with a plum sauce and lots and lots of vegetables. Mike had veal medallions with tiger prawns and asparagus spears with hollandais sauce. All very very yummy. Now we're as full as a goog and can't possibly fit in the dessert I'd made here at home. Oh well, it will keep.

Mind you, Mike looks like a bear with a sore head here, he does have a bit of trouble smiling for the camera and when he tries, it just doesn't look natural. This however is natural (plus the best of a bunch of scowls!) Using the new Remember Kit by jot & scribble and stitches by Ana Reis.

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Oh dear, he really does look scowly doesn't he?

Minor emergency this afternoon, all has been going splendidly with Molly, two days to go and the bucket comes off. I decided to sit in the middle of the lawn this afternoon with the camera and try and get some good photos, Lucky was posing as only he does and Molly got a wee bit jealous and came bounding up to us and charged at Lucky to get out of the way. Her head must have caught with his body somehow and her eyelid started bleeding. I was at panic stations, but it looked worse than it was. I was more worried that she had tore open the stitches, but I don't think that's possible at the moment the eyelid looks quite solid, I think she just knocked the scab off. All is good and quiet now in the menagerie household. Whew!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Friday night

My favourite time of the week. Love love LOVE my Friday nights. Work week has finished and weekend still hasn't begun.

Bucket head, as she has affectionately become known, is laying here beside me, a sad and sorry sight. 4 more days. The mantra continues. I know she's hating the bucket as much as we are, but not much longer. Her eye looks so clear now, it's been worth it.

Does anyone know what happens with dissolving stitches though? Do they just one day disappear? Or do they drop off? Or what?

In my haste to the finish line with both my P365 album and my Christmas album, I have omitted a few lovely pages along the way to show you. This one is on my desktop of my work computer. It makes me happy, some of my favourite shots of the year, including one each of my menagerie, how can I not be happy when I see their lovely faces on my computer each day.

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Hmmm, the page kinda disappears into nowhere there, but it is square and looks fabulous on my black background computer desktop. I really like this template and can see it will be very versatile to show off photographs, it's Simple Sets #68 by [ksharonkdesigns] available at, you guessed it, twolittlepixels!

Off to make a cup of tea then bed for me, it's been a looooooong week!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

7 days to go

Just humming that like a mantra, 7 days to go, 7 days to go, till the blasted bucket head comes off. It's hot, she's crabby, she wants to scratch but she can't, poor darling. This is worse than counting down how many days left till I finished my upgrading to manager at work.

Did I mention prior to Christmas that step son number 1 had a motor bike accident? Not sure if I did or not. A lady did a U-turn in front of him coming out of a park, he saw her and slowed and tried to take evasive action and then she turned back again in front of him going into another park and he ran right into her. Broke his arm, quite badly so that the bones had to be stretched back out and a plate put in. It's not looking good at the moment, the plaster has now come off but they feel his arm isn't healing as it should, so they're considering over the next few weeks as to whether to re-break the arm to re-set it again. That sounds hideously painful whichever way you look at it.

So not one for photos at the best of times, Mike did manage to take a (very bad) shot from his mobile phone camera, which of course I had to scrapbook. Naturally. Using the fabulous Reasons kit by creashens.


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Credits here.

So it looks as if it's going to be another sleepless night, its way way too hot at the moment, not liking this weather one bit. Night.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Another weekend come and gone

They go fast don't they? Too fast. It's been warm, no painting being done, except for Mike on the scaffold finishing the posts under the verandah. Wish I took a before photo under the verandah, they were bright yellow chipped and flakey paint. Now they are sleek and cream. I also bought a new porch light so we're going from an overhead globe with no shade, yes, just the bare globe, to a lovely cream coach light. Photos will be forthcoming once we tee the electrician up!

Molly is coping ... just! Well, actually she's been really good, but she still has a little freak out when she's drinking her water or eating her food when the edge of the bucket scrapes against the ground. We've actually cleared a big path from furniture in the loungeroom now, because she spooks herself when she forgets to give her head a wide berth, and then does a runner.

Her eyelid looks a bit scabby but I think that's normal. I hope so anyway. And Lucky has still been absolutely brilliant with her. He's laying by my feet right now looking up at me. What a face.

So you figured I would have to scrap a photo of poor ol' bucket head didn't you. That sad sad face, I couldn't help it, had to be scrapped.


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Credits here.

Friday, February 5, 2010

And lastly

The last lot of my P365 pages which finish the book. Funny that Lynne mentioned about what an interesting life I had last year. Strange, but I got to the end of the year and though, gosh I've done stuff all this year, but when you look through the pages, you do realise you've had a great year. You might not think but everyone does have a good year, it's when you break it down like I have to every day you realise.

Molly had a check up today to make sure her eye area was healing well. Poor darling, she shook like there was a thunderstorm coming when I met Mike at the vets, he brought her in. She was shaking so much her legs nearly buckled at one stage. Oh don't get me wrong, she's walking fine now, still bumping into the occasional thing, not giving herself wide enough birth, but it's the vet smell, the familiar place where they put horrid things up her butt (okay so that would leave me quaking in my boots too) and where she last left feeling not very good at all. I think it all came rushing back at her and she snapped at the vet. Gosh he was good, he spoke to her in a stern voice and then she was fine. I have the utmost admiration for vets.

So back to the book, to finish off for your viewing pleasure, my favourite is the last page! hahahahahaha.



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There you go Lynne, a bit of knitting for you ;-)

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Even the menagerie get their own special bowl of Christmas tucker too!

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And my favourite page of all! So fitting for the last page, and I promise I wasn't following him around to get this shot, it was a complete chance accident.


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Thursday, February 4, 2010

Another day better

Cutting the collar thing to a bit shorter has made a big difference, Molly is walking with her head up now and not bumping into so many things, but she still freaks herself out when she has a slurp of water when she feels the collar drag on the ground. I mentioned before, Lucky has been a champion. He usually licks her a lot, grooming her I guess, but not once has he tried to lick her face which was our big concern. He's had a sniff of her, a sniff of the collar, but I think he senses it's a no go zone.

This morning when I let them out as although it had been raining and it was wet out, they disappeared. I went back to getting myself ready for work and getting their breakfast ready. I looked out the front window and they were side by side on the porch, just laying there surveying the street from their vantage point. It made me smile.

I did mention I was going to catch up these pages to show you, so here's yet another instalment. Have you ever seen a cuter transformer?!? My young American nephew. I know I always refer to them as my "American" nephews, but that's probably to differentiate from Mike's sister's son, and besides their accent is so darn cute.

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Just about there! ;-)

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

P365 catch up

First off, Molly is feeling a lot better tonight. She even barked when I pulled up the driveway which was like music to my ears. Still struggling with the helmet head thing though. So much so that we cut 2 inches off it tonight to make it a bit shorter. It is still big enough to protect her face, and big enough to stop her from scratching her eye, but not so big that she can't walk properly any more. Honestly she couldn't raise her head up properly as she walked because it was darn awkward and heavy and the bottom was catching on things so she couldn't move forward. Now she's walking properly with her head up. I do think the one they put on her was way too big, okay round the neck because she has a fat neck but way too long. We'll probably get told off at the vets on Friday when she gets checked up, but you know what - we don't care as long as she's happy.

Anyway, her eye isn't so gunky tonight and it's not so puffy. All good. And she looks so much more comfortable. 13 days to go (that's until she's a helmet head no more).

Right, I did catch up with my Christmas pages and displaying them. And now I will do a massive catch up for the rest of the week with my P365 pages. I have looked at the book oh so many times since yesterday's arrival, I absolutely love it. I took it to work today and there was so many ah ha moments of how great it was to have this record of our year. I think so too.

So I went back on the blog to where I left off and here's a catch up. Please tell me other men put tissues up their nose like this when it's running? So NOT attractive!

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Oh my goodness, who can ever forget the grand final. I don't think I'd survive another one like it, I was having heart palpitations. I didn't take this photo, I got it from the Australia Post stamp kit ;-)

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Back to your scheduled reading! LOL

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Update

It's a bit hard to post these photos, particularly after yesterday's happy photo of my girl. The operation went well, the lump was removed and her eyelid stitched back up. She's now very punch drunk, walking into furniture, walking like she has Herman Munster big feet. She's slept a lot of the time since getting home late this afternoon.

I did a lot of reiki on her before. Poo pooh it if you like, but even if she just feels the closeness of me sitting right alongside her on the floor with my hands on her, and that helps her, then it's done its job.

Here's a photo from last night, warts and all, the lump in all it's glory. You can see it had to come off, it was starting to interfere with her actual eye, rubbing on it.


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And here she is from when she got home, my poor girl, a bit weepy and puffy, but I can already see the whole lump is gone.


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Oh and just how big this collar is, and she has to wear it for two whole weeks!


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Interesting how the animal world is. Usually if Molly is lying on the ground, Lucky will more often than not jump on her to get her to play, or start to groom her, which is one of our worries as he licks her face a lot. But he hasn't tonight. He's just laid there or had a sniff of her, then gives her a bit of a nudge on her side to let her know he's around and then heads off to do perimeter duty around the yard, then comes back in for a sit down. Almost like there's been a hand over, a changing of the guard, Lucky is now looking after Molly's role in the house, even if for this time of her convalescing.

But strangely enough, with all my anxiety today, a silver lining, two actually. My Project 365 book came from Shutterfly. I love it to pieces. And my new lens for my camera arrived, a Sony 50mm f1.4. Now I want time to play!