New Fairy Door

I may have mentioned before that I make and sell fairies, fairy doors, cherubs and little mushroom houses. Well my latest mould arrived on Friday. I LOVE this mould and am keeping the first door I made from it LOL.

I made a promise to myself that I can't keep one of everything I make otherwise we'd be over-run with fairies and cherubs etc. But this one is sooo lovely, I'm going to have to keep one. It didn't help that Mark encouraged me LOL. He said he really likes it. It's not like him to pass comment really. He's more than happy for me to make and paint these things but he never really has an opinion, although he does quite like the cherubs and has said we should put some around the pond.

So, this fairy door that I love? Here is is.

I know it's a bit ornate, but it's a fairy palace door, so the king and queen of the fairies would have a door like this. (I haven't lost the plot really.. honest!) and I just love it. I made two but really should make a couple more and get them listed on ebay. But I have to decide how much to sell them at. The door is 8 & 1/4 inches tall by 6 & 1/4 inches wide, so it's quite big by fairy door standards (lol when did I become an expert in fairy door dimensions?) and does take quite a bit of plaster. It's heavy. Hmmm, need to run a few numbers through my head.

Did I mention that I love this little door? LOL

My poor baby

OK, well she's not actually a baby because she's 3, but she's still my baby. Even more so when she's poorly.

She has the full blown chicken pox, and out of all three of my kids, she has it the worst. She is absolutely covered in spots and blisters. She's not dealing with it very well. Anyone would think she's male LOL

How sad is this little face?

Her spots don't look too bad in this photograph, but she doesn't really have that many on her face. Behind her ears and over her neck is awful. So is her groin and 'bits'. She even has them inside bless her. Her back and belly are pretty much covered too. She keeps saying "I just want my spots to go away". She is not a happy camper at all.

We've dosed her up on Calpol and antihisthamine and the calamine lotion is at the ready. I don't know how I'm going to cope being cooped up with her for 5 days in the house! argh! We both had very little sleep last night. First she was hot, then cold, then thirsty, then itchy and it went on. Hopefully now we have the antihisthamine she might not be so itchy tonight. The woman at the chemist said it's going around like wildfire at the moment. Mark was the third person in the 5 minutes the shop had been open to buy antihisthamine for chicken pox.

Mark called and picked up the Tinkerbell DVD that we never actually got around to getting her for Christmas. She was over the moon. In fact, that was an understatement. So now she is parked up on the sofar surrounded by her favourite teddies, wrapped in a (lightweight) blanket watching Tinkerbell.

The Pox!

Oh dear! I think Isabelle has got Chicken Pox!

I noticed a rather large blistery type spot on her inner thigh when I was getting her ready for bed last night. On closer inspection, she had a couple of really red angry spots on her back, a blistery one on her shoulder and a couple more in her armpit. She also has a couple of small blistery ones on her forehead right in her hairline.

I checked her again this morning, expecting her to be covered in them. She does have a few more, but nowhere near as many as I thought she'd have. She's very pale this morning and a bit quiet (for Isabelle) so I'm keeping my eye on her. I think a trip to the chemist is in order for calpol and calamine lotion, just in case it really is chicken pox.

I'm not feeling brilliant myself today. My lower back is agony! It's just frozen up on me. It took me 10 minutes to get from sitting to standing up straigh. Grrrrr. It's so flippin' annoying when this happens. I'm not going to let it get to me though. Keep plodding on (literally).

Grrrrr, not the best start to the weekend!

We did go to the zoo

I decided that we would go to the zoo. Isabelle and I had a lovely day. Just me and her wandering around looking at all the animals. Isabelle wanted to see the flamingo's because they are pink. Pink is her absolute most favourite colour in the world. She would paint the world pink if she could.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but she was an absolute pleasure to spend the say with. She normally goes from one temper tantrum to another. But she didn't have one at all!

I am suffering today though, sadly. It's horrible to think that for a day of pleasure I have to spend a few days recovering. Good old Fibromyalgia!! I hurt from head to toe! Ankles, knees, hips, back and shoulders! I'm walking around like an 80 year old woman who's had a rough life , and every muscle is screaming in agony! :( I have to get some shopping today as the cupboards are almost empty and I really can't face it.

Anyway, not to cast doom and gloom over a great day yesterday, here are a few of my favourite shots from the day. Sadly, none of the shots of the Jaguar came out. All blurry.. grrrrrr. That's what you get for trying to use a long lens with no monopod! Stupid person that I am LOL.

I love the Chimp sleeping shot, I think that's my favourite from the day, and was technically the most difficult. The chimps are behind thick, very dirty glass with no natural daylight. The lighting in there is very orange and the chimps were very high up. I had to ramp the ISO up to 1600 to get a fast enough shutter speed, so the pic is a bit grainy, but I think it works ok with the Black and White.

My second favourite shots are of the baby elephants taking a bath. We were heading down to see the Zebra's before we went home and had to pass the elephants again. The timing couldn't have been better. Just as we got there, the Mummy elephant hearded the three baby elephants into the pond so they could have a bath. It was so sweet. They were all playing and pushing each other under water. They had a great time, and it's the first time I've seen elephants playing in water (apart from on TV).

Click the images to view them full size.

And a couple of flamingo shots for Isabelle... because they're PINK! lol

and of course, the obligatory Meerkat photograph.

To the zoo.... or not?

Hmmm, I can't decide whether to go to the zoo today or not. It's half term here and it's about time Isabelle and I got out of the house somewhere other than Asda!

It's 8am and looking out of the window it's a bit grey and a few rolling clouds, but it's really quite mild and calm. Hmmm, what to do? I've not taken any photographs for a while and I've never used my biiiiiig lens at the zoo yet, but can I lug this whacking great lens around the zoo when I have no buggy? Isabelle doesn't need the buggy to sit in, she's fine at walking, but I need the buggy to put my camera gear in LOL. Lame excuse for a buggy I know, but the gear gets very heavy on my weak shoulder after a while and pulls my back! grrrrrr. Hmmm, I wonder if the zoo hires buggy's out?

Off to their website to find out. Isabelle would love going to the zoo!

Awwwww, bless

Aren't 3 year olds cute sometimes?

My 3 year old demon child has been so sweet today, it's like I've had another kid draughted in for the day! But I'm not complaining.

This afternoon she's had me giggling to myself. She has a friend at school called Tommy, who she plays with quite often and she's always talking about him. Well, today Tommy pretended to come and play. This is the invisible Tommy. Isabelle has talked to him all day, chatted and played games. When she's had a drink, Tommy has had to have a pretend drink. When she's needed a wee, they've both needed a wee and have gone upstairs 'together' and she's been holding Tommy's hand. (remember he's the invisible Tommy).

When I cooked her dinner, Tommy wanted some too. Luckily, Tommy wanted the same as Isabelle was having. I told her he would have to share off her plate. She said ok. There was no way I was making a plate of dinner for her invisible friend LOL. But she sat and shared her dinner. every now and then, she'd hold a spoonful of dinner off to one side because that was Tommy's bit.

Then Tommy decided to stay the night and was going to sleep in Isabelle's bed with her so they could snuggle and be friends. He had to have his pyjamas on (Isabelle helped him) and then when I covered her up, she said.. "wait, Tommy isn't in bed yet". I had to hold the duvet back for him to climb in [rolling my eyes to myself at this point]. Tommy chose the bedtime story (apparently) and he had to have a bedtime kiss and love from me...oh good grief LOL. I humoured Isabelle and went along with it as it was obviously important to her, bless her.

I'm not sure what psychologists would make of it, but I have my theory. She's been wanting to use the toilet upstairs but won't go up alone. I've told her that if she's big enough to use the toilet, she's big enough to go by herself. She has a very strong 'mum attachment' and I'm trying to break it a bit, because it seems she can't do anything by herself but to be honest, she has got to start doing them. So, when she needed the toilet this afternoon, that's when Tommy arrived. She's gone upstairs by herself (with Tommy) all afternoon, no problems. Not once has she asked me to go with her. We've also had a few problems with her going to bed. She doesn't like to be alone in her bedroom, so I think if Tommy is there with her (in her mind obviously) she's quite happy to go to bed. There's been no shouting or anything tonight.

I told Mark, good grief, I can't cope with 2 kids, especially when I can't see one of them LOL. I just hope that Tommy doesn't start getting into mischief and getting the blame for 'mishaps'.

We have a thing when I've said goodnight and kissed and loved Isabelle, she likes me to blow kisses from the door on my way out. She always asks for a different number of kisses. Tonight she wanted thirty onety two. LOL. She can count easily to 70 or so before she's bored and stops, so where thirty onety two came from I have no idea LOL

Bless the little cherub.

Jeeeezus!

God god! I've half killed myself! Well, that might be a bit of an over-exaggeration, but bloody hell.. how unfit am I?

In my ultimate wisdom, I thought that along with my weight loss (46 pounds lost or 3 stone 3 & 1/2 lbs in case you've not read Annie Get's It Off, My slimming blog) that I really should start toning up the saggy bits underneath all the flab, so that when the rest of my weight comes off, I'll have a nice toned and firm body underneath (LMAO! forgive me while I choke!). Well the intention is there at least.

So off I toddled to Asda to view the latest fitness DVD's. I had heard that the Jayne Torville one is particularly good, and she looks fantastic to be honest, and of course, she is part of the wonderful weekly viewing that is Dancing on Ice (c'mon Ray!!!). Sadly, Asda didn't have her DVD. Bummer! So the choices are, Davina McCall... nope! pass! Colleen Nolan. Whilst I admire what she is putting herself through in DOI and she is only 5 years older than I am, her DVD is too 70's disco for my liking. Next, and last on the shelf if Claire from Steps. OMG no! Please save me from Steps. But I read the back of it and after she left Steps she gained 5 stone! My god! It just shows you how quick you can plonk the weight on. She was a superskinny. But she took stock, got the weight off and gave us the Fat Busting DVD. I thought, hmmm ok, the tunes are by steps but they're singalongable. (is that a word?) so I brought it home with apprehension.

First thoughts when I switched it on was.. thank god she's not a superskinny anymore. She is actually a 'normal sized person' whatever that is, so I didn't feel too bad throwing myself about in front of her LOL.She was surrounded by 5 guys in combat gear (is this supposed to help?) they start the warm up routine. Good grief. What happened to my co-ordination? I've always had pretty good co-ordination. Well you have to have when you're a dancer and gymnast. Ok that was a billion years ago, but woah!!! where did it go. I almost piddled myself laughing at trying to keep up with them on the side step and turn. LOL. Warm up finished.. I was knackered. And the lovely Claire says, well done, your warm up is complete, now choose which fat busting program you want to do next. Actually, I wanted to lay on the floor and die quietly, not choose another program to do. But ... I opted to do the toning exercises because that involved laying on the floor LOL. By the time I'm done, I will have the strongest pelvic floor muscles on earth! and the tightest bum cheeks!! Well you've gotta laugh don't you. It didn't make things any easier that Isabelle joined in, and every time I was doing a 'lunge' she crawled 'under the tunnel'. tut.. LOL. Then I did the warm down, drank a gallon (well maybe not that much) of water but, oddly felt quite good.

On the downside, I think I've irritated my long standing shoulder problem. It's been quite dormant for a long time now, with just the occasional period of aggrivation, but holy cow it's giving me some serious grief at moment! Pain killers, where are you? If it's going to flare up like this, I'm going to have to take it easy on the shoulder exercises that means bearing my weight on them. (floor exercises). It might be time to go and visit my lovely Dr again and get a steroid shot into it so that it doesn't get inflamed and freeze up again. Oh the joys!

I'm going to post this same blogpost on my slimming blog too, so don't get confused if you pop over there and read the same thing twice. You are not going bonkers.. it really is there too LOL

Flipped?

My blog posts have been so negative lately.. sorry. It's just the way I feel at the moment.

I didn't quite flip, but I was so close I had to walk out of the house and ended up wandering around the garden. Yesterday wasn't brilliant to be honest. I need to get a grip. The problem is, when I try to talk about things, no one listens. It all bottles up inside me and then explodes like a volcanic eruption. I'm then asked why did I bottle it all up and not say anything sooner? I tried.

I really wish I could stand up for myself properly. Kick and scream and shout until someone listens. But I don't. I allow myself to be walked all over, mainly because Mark is a very dominant person and will get what he wants when he wants it. At the moment, this is mainly parts for his 3 motorbikes that are all in various stages of repair. No matter how much I grumble or complain, the bits still arrive in the post.

Yesterday I was up at 7am with Isabelle as per usual. I never get a lie in, it just doesn't happen :-( By 10am we were both washed and dressed, my hair washed and dried, both had breakfast, dishes washed (including left over dishes from Mark's late night snacking, why he has to use a clean cup and plate for ever time he eats or drinks, beats me!). Clothes out the dryer and folded, next load in to wash. Cat litter tray cleaned out (kitten still has somewhat of a runny bum!) litter tray washed and bleached, sink bleached, floor washed and bleached, litter tray re-filled, both cats fed. General tidy up. All I'd heard from Mark at this point was a fart as he rolled over in bed!

The rest of the day went pretty much the same way. He went to collect the latest selection of bike bits.

Isabelle sat and did some bead threading, which she loves. Then decided to empty the bead pot all over the living room floor while I was at the loo. She then emptied the dish of raisins she was eating into the middle of the bead covered floor. Mark came home with his box of bike bits and unwrapped those in the middle of the living room floor. They were packed in shredded paper, which joined the bead/raisin mix on the living room floor. I went to get the dusptan and brush and then just stood and looked at it all. I wanted to cry. I turned around and walked out the house into the garden. Mark came out and went to the garage and asked what was wrong. Me? I said ... nothing! I daren't say anything else because I would have set off into a huge rant, he would have shut his ears after the first sentence and I would have cried buckets. Nothing seemed to be the easiest answer. I came back in and Mark and Isabelle were actually picking the beads up. Mark looked up and said.. oh, what's for dinner, I'm faint with hunger. WHAT? You know where the %$£%& kitchen is!!! Why am I seen as a skivvy to wait on everyone at all times? I AM a PERSON! why can no one remember this? it's so frustrating, especially as soon as I start to say anything, it's all thrown back at me, and I'm told that I should try working full time and see how much of a life I've got then. I should try this that and the other, I should try being Mark and see how much I'd like that. A darned site more than I enjoy being me to be honest!!

OK, rant over. I will try and post something at least vaguely positive from now on.

Shock!

Well after my not expecting a Valentine Card, I was shocked to say the least, that Mark actually did get me a card, a very nice card too! What was even sweeter (god help me if he ever saw me saying he was sweet lol) is that he got our 3 year old, Isabelle, a card too. On the envelopes it said No 1 Girl and No 2 Girl.. and I got the No 1 Girl LOL. Sounds really silly, but as I've said before, he just isn't romantic, so this is quite a bigger deal than it might be for anyone else.

He did have a grumble about 10 minutes later about how commercialised it all is and how much the cards are and that if he protested about the price and decided not to get one, did it mean he didn't care.... grumble grumble... but after all the money he spends on his bikes, surely I'm worth a couple of quid? It seems I might just be.

Happy Valentines day to you all!!

Lifting

Well my doom and gloom seems to be lifting. I woke up in a much better mood this morning. I'd procrastinated long enough and managed to get a few things out of the way that had been loitering waiting to be done, I just really couldn't be bothered to face them and get them done. Stupid really because the more I ignored them, the more they shouted to be done! Anyway, they are now done so one less thing to think about.

I've also managed to get all birthday cards and thank you cards written and posted, Mark's valentines card written, despite me saying I was cancelling valentines day LOL. I'm not going to get my hopes up at receiving anything myself because he is the worlds most un-romantic bloke I've ever known. And I'm not going to sulk if he doesn't remember valentines day.. I'm used to it now LOL. His cries of it's over-rated and is a media hype to get people to spend money when it's not necessary can be heard for hours.

I did a full shop yesterday (£112!!!!!). I told everyone that if this food doesn't last a week at least, they will have to starve. It's amazing how much they eat when there's newly bought food in the house. I've also told them they have to ask before they dive into the fridge LOL. The thing is, I've planned the meals for the week and both Russ and Mark are terrible for helping themselves to something from the fridge only for me to go and cook dinner at a later date and find that it's already been eaten! Isabelle is on an eating spree at the moment too. She's always been a very picky eater and has always gone through phases of eating very very little, to eating non stop. She's actually beginning to try new things now instead of turning her nose up at the look of it. She announced last night that she wanted chicken (she's just decided to try it and likes it after months of me convincing her that it's nice and good for her), so chicken, sausages and pasta parcels (ravioli) all on the same plate. Oh and some ham thrown in for good measure followed by milky bar ice cream. Little piggy. Chances are today she'll eat nothing.

I felt a bit bad last night when Mark got in from work. We did the usual 'coming home from work' catch up chatter and then he asked me if I was alright. (shock!!) I must have looked a right state for him to notice LOL. I told him I was down in the dumps so he asked why. Uh oh! mistake there Mark if you didn't really want to know LOL I told him life was getting me down.. or the lack of life that I have. Slave to the house etc etc. He said.... try going to work full time, then you'll know what not having a life is! I must admit, the thought of picking up the wok I was cooking stir fry in and whacking him over the head repeatedly did cross my mind, but I restrained myself. He forgets that I was working full time before Isabelle was born. I said, but if I was working full time, I'd still have to do all the crap in the house ASWELL as working full time. He said "fair point". (more shock!)

So CG, yes you are very right. The fact that I don't go out of the house to a place of work and get paid for it means that I don't actually work. The fact that I am on call 24/7 for 365 days a year, and have to jump at a second's notice, all for free.. doesn't count for anything. I'd love to put an advert in the newpaper to ask someone to apply for a job that consists of: cleaner, financial manager (magician also comes under the category of financial manager), nurse, teacher, head chef, laundry assistant, child minder, chauffeur and general dogsbody to cover anything else that crops up. Hours: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Holiday per annum: nil. Hourly rate: £0. I wonder how many people would apply? LOL

Tough time

So I'm having a bit of a tough time with myself at the moment and I just can't shake it off. Down in the dumps?

So I'm going to get it off my chest here. Please feel free to ignore me, I'll be fine again soon.

Firstly, the fibromyalgia is giving me a bit of a hard time at the moment and that always makes me feel like crap. Add to that the constant tired and wanting to go to sleep, and it gets a bit much.

I don't feel like I'm a person at the moment. I seem to have forgotten who I am. I feel like my purpose in life is to be someone's mother or wife. I am here to make everyone else's life easier, and in doing this, it's making my life a bit miserable to be honest. Where is ME the person? I may be amplifying things so that they seem worse than they are, but I just seem to be expected to 'do' everything and get on with it. I do all the housework and I mean ALL of it. Mark can be very chauvenistic when it comes to things like that. He says he goes to work and I do the house. I don't want to do the house! If I don't do a task, it doesn't get done. I seem to spend my life running around 'doing things' in the house. I do all the shopping, finances, deal with Isabelle, cleaning, cooking... etc etc. You get the idea. The worst of it for me, is clearing up after mark. He runs around doing his thing, and then leaves whatever it was he was doing, lying around. If I complain about it, he says if it's bothering me then I should clear it up!! We have had so many arguments about this. His answer is always, I don't have time because I'm either at work, going to bed, or going to work. That's BULL. It's common courtesy to clear up after yourself, and I'm talking about paint and bike bits and tools in the house!

No one else EVER does the dishes or clears the table. They eat and leave their dishes where they are, or dump them in the kitchen, food still on the plate. Towels are always on the floor in the bathroom and dirty clothes are on top of the towels. There's a laundry basket in my tiny 6ft by 6ft bathroom but no one ever uses it. It might sound stupid and petty, but it's these constant little things that I spend my entire day tidying up that really annoy me. How come I seem to get to shop, cook dinner, then clean the kitchen, wash the dishes, put them away, then take Isabelle to bed, then come down and clear the living room up while Mark lays on the sofa watching TV and Russ is in his room? If I ask for some help, I get told, I'm tired, I've been to work all day! Oh right, so I've been sat on my arse all day doing nothing?

It just doesn't help talking to Mark about it. He has an answer for everything and then I feel belittled and small for asking for some help. I can't keep doing it all by myself, it's draining me :(

Ease my guilty conscience!

Why does my conscience keep annoying me? Grrrrr.

This morning I bought myself a little Canon Powershot camera that will fit in my handbag and be there when and if I need it. It's also to use for taking photographs of my cherubs, fairies, mushroom houses and fairy doors, so it's not just being lavish. It's a pain in the bum sometimes to get the DSLR kit out and faff about so much just to take a quick snap of an ornament to put on ebay or Little Garden Friends, my online store. And so often I see a shot while I'm out and I haven't got my DSLR kit with me. So.. it is a necessity.. well that's how I justified it to myself. It was on offer at half it's normal price so I got it for £49.48 .... bargain!

The reason I feel guilty about buying it because I don't want to tell Mark I've bought it. Is that wrong? There are reasons for me not telling him. In the past 4 years I have had two point and shoot camera's and he's broken them both. Not intentionally, he just breaks gadgets! After he broke both my P&S camera's I bought him one for himself. A pretty decent camera to be honest, and it also played MP3's. (He's broken 7 MP3 players in 3 years! That's how bad he is). But he broke this camera I bought him. He even managed to break a little point and shoot camera that i bought for Isabelle so she could 'take foterdrafs' as she said.. she was pretty good too for a 3 year old. But alas, that camera is broken too. I just don't know what he does to them. They just stop working, he says.

He often needs to use a camera to take photographs of his motorbike that he's restoring, just so he knows where the bits need to go when he puts them back on, but he's been using my DSLR to take photographs!! arghhhh!! I stand over him while he uses it. I'm so very reluctant to tell him about this new little canon powershot, because I REALLY don't want it breaking, BUT.. I am not a deceptive person by nature and it's going to be hard to keep it quiet. I think I'm going to take a look on ebay and see if I can get him a cheap (less than £20) camera and just keep quiet about mine. The problem is, I know he's going to see it one day because I'm bound to leave it lying around LOL. But if he has his own little P&S from ebay, I can bluff my way around me having one too.

I just wish my conscience would stop eating at me! Grrrrrrr.

Overwhemling

You know, I knew this was on it's way. The week has been a mass of one episode after another. Isabelle has not slept properly for the past two weeks. I've been up and down to see to her like an idiot, 6 or even 7 times a night. She has had a bad cough and cold and just hasn't slept very well. I was almost at the point of making her a bed up in our room just so I could get some sleep. But I knew that if I did that, she'd never move out again.

It does make me wonder why the Western society insists on nighttime separation between kids and parents. I know we value our own space to sleep in, but take a look at the elsewhere in the world and they wouldn't dream of forcing their kids to sleep alone.

Isabelle brought this home to me one night. She was crying during the night (again) and kept saying, but I'm all alone and I don't like it. Now our house isn't big by any means and I am probably only about 10 or 12 footsteps away from our bedroom to hers and can hear her at all times, so it's not like she's alone and a million miles away from anyone. But she just kept telling me she was all alone and didn't like it. It isn't fair, she said. You can sleep with my daddy so you're not on your own, but I have to sleep on my own. (wise words for a 3 year old) but she was so right. How could I justify her sleeping alone when I sleep next to Mark? She has a point. Needless to say, she tugged a heart string that night and ended up in bed with us. And how come a little three year old can take up so much bedspace???? But the following night, I put her in her own bed, all by herself as usual. I told Mark what she'd said about being alone and he thought about it and said that really it wouldn't hurt to put her bed in our room, but we're not going to. I played devil's advocate and asked him to justify why she couldn't sleep in our room, and he told me to shut up and go to sleep LOL. I wasn't going to push the issue and insist that she should sleep in our room, but it does make me wonder that if she's close by in the night, would she sleep better? Ultimately resulting in me actually getting some sleep! She's my third child and she is the worst sleeper of the lot. I haven't had one full nights sleep since she was born. She'll be 4 in July!!

So of course, this has made me tired. Add this to the Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and it pulls me right down to quite a low and emotional level. Things aggrivate me and winde me up to a point I don't like being at. I'm not an angry person by nature, I get emotional and then feel so overwhelmed I don't know which way to turn or where to start to put things and myself right.

The balance tipped this morning to finalise the emotional spiral I've been on this week. I walked into the living room and there was stuff everywhere! Isabelle's toys and dressing up clothes seem to have crept out and stayed out, despite me tidying them away. She is such an untidy kid, but she's 3 so I deal with it. Mark on the other hand is 39 and he is sooooo untidy, he leaves his things everywhere. It doesn't help that we live in an open plan house and he just puts things down where they land, on the promise that he'll clear them away later. He never does. I counted up and there are two motorbike jackets, two thick fleece over shirt/jacket type things, bike boots, two pairs of trainers and his slippers all lying around in the living room. Bits of bike that he has been sanding down and painting are all over the place 'hanging' to dry. Oh the list is endless! Then I walked into the kitchen and the kitten must have eaten something that didn't agree with him and he missed the litter tray. Now the bits that missed weren't pickup-able! Gross! So me in my emotional state, didn't know where to start this morning.

Several cups of coffee and a few tears later, I tackled the kitchen.. bleugh! And now the living room is in a reasonable state and I feel a little bit better... but, (pessamist that I am) it's almost the weekend and Mark will be home doing what he does and not putting things away again. I need to get a grip today ready to deal with it or I'm just going to end up an emotional nagging wreck all weekend.

Calvin and Hobbes!

It seems that not many people have heard of Calvin and Hobbes. They have been in my life for quite some time, have cheered me up when I've felt down and generally have given me a good laugh. We named the kitten I found, Hobbes because we couldn't have a cat called anything else really. What are Calvin and Hobbes you ask?

Calvin is a 6 year old boy and Hobbes is his best friend. His stuffed tiger. Well, I say stuffed tiger. Hobbes is a stuffed tiger to everyone else in the world, but to Calvin, Hobbes is real. They get into all kinds of mischief and Hobbes is generally blamed for encouraging Calvin to try new ideas, play games and generally have fun. Calvin's unfortunate mum and dad don't seem to understand that Hobbes made Calvin do it.

Calvin and Hobbes is a comic strip by Bill Watterson and appeared in the newspaper on a daily basis from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. At its height, Calvin and Hobbes was featured in over 2,400 newspapers worldwide. To date, more than 30 million copies of the 18 Calvin and Hobbes books have been printed. I have several of the books and can re-read them time and time again.

Bill Watterson didn't want to be thrown into a huge limelight and was very anti-merchandising, and so there is verylittle legitimate Calvin and Hobbes merchandise, other than the books. Calvin and Hobbes have become icons for a cult following!

Why am I writing about Calvin and Hobbes? I mentioned them to a friend of mine and gave her one of the books to read. She handed me the book back this morning and said it wasn't her 'kind of thing'. I was horrified! How could she not get Calvin and Hobbes? I think it must take a certain kind of person to enjoy them. Strange really as I have enlisted my entire family, including my mum, into the ranks of Calvin and Hobbes fans.

Anyway, enough rambling. I thought I'd share a few C&H comic strips, and aptly, due to the snow, one of my favourites in the series, Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons (the book is hilarious!)

I hope you enjoy them. If not, why not? hmmm? LOL

This one is lovely, it makes you want to melt.

Calvin on girls

Boys will be boys!!

The ritual 'I'm home' Greeting

Calvin's Snow Art

Snow Art upsets Calvin's Dad

Hmmm, I think I got a bit carried away there. It's so hard to choose a couple, particularly with the very imaginiative snow goons!

Dave Gorman

Whilst on my internet rambles, I ended up on Flickr, as I often to, and found out that the writer and comedian Dave Gorman has a gallery there. Turns out, he's an hobbyist photographer. Wooooo, same as me :-D LOL I ended up trawling through his gallery and was pleased to see that a lot of his photography was as abstract as his writing and performing. He spots and photographs things that are around us all the time, but very often don't see.

Take a look at Dave's Flickr Gallery.

I first found out about Dave Gorman when his stage show and then TV show was on called Are You Dave Gorman? He and his flat mate had a discussion one day and found out that the Assistant Manager of East Fife Football Club was also called Dave Gorman. According to Dave, Tequila was involved, but he and his flat mate set off to meet his namesake. He then decided that there must be loads of other Dave Gorman's in the world, and his adventure was born. He travelled all over the world to meet the 'other Dave Gorman's' and it ended up being an hysterical TV show. The highlight of the show each was was the Graph showing the amount per square mile of Dave Gormans in the world and how far he'd travelled to meet them.

When his next stage show was on at Manchester called 'A Better World', we went to see him. We laughed until we cried! His basis for this show was that (taken from Dave Gorman's website) "He wrote anonymous letters to over 2,000 local newspapers asking the public to suggest ways in which one man can make the world a better place. Then he's tried to carry out their suggestions. Now he wants to tell you about it.

If you like surrealism and a very clever but abstract mind, check out Dave Gorman on his website, or his blog, he's a very funny guy!

About time!

Well, it's about time i picked my camera up in earnest!

There is a lovely little church in a village not far from where I live. This church always looks lovely whatever the weather, but i thought.. hmmm snow would look great on this church. I went to slimming this morning, picked Isabelle up from Nursery and bribed her with the promise of a McDonalds for lunch. I don't take her very often at all, so the promise of it went down well on the condition that she was good for me while I took a couple of photographs.

The biggest problem was that I couldn't park anywhere near where I had my mind's eye shot. Grrrr. So I ended up parking around the back of the church, on a hill that was slick with ice! I dreaded coming back down in the car and sliding to the bottom!

Isabelle ran around in the snow like a looney so I managed to get a couple of shots. I really wanted to walk around to the front of the church but she was nearly crying with the cold, so unfortunately, being the doting and attentive mother that I am [LOL] said we'd leave. I didn't get the shot I wanted. That said, I am happy with the shot I got.

(click the image to view full size)

So on we went to McDonalds. As I parked the car, Isabelle spotted a robin sat on the fence right in front of us. Typically, I only had my 28-70mm lens on (short lens) so I moved in stealth mode so I didn't scare the robin off. I've only ever got one half decent shot of a robin, and have never got a shot of a robin in the snow. Well this little chap must have been hungry and thought we were going to feed him. Isabelle sat quietly in the car which is amazing in itself, but the little robin sat there and let me get really close up to him for some photographs. I now have my robin in the snow shot. Bless his little red tummy.

(click the image to view full size)

And here is the little madam playing in the snow.

Excited 3 year old and Grumpy hubby

Monday is great for me beacuse Isabelle goes to Nursery school in the morning, Russ has gone to work and Mark has also gone to work. I get a morning of peace and quiet. Ok, so it's only until 11.30, but I enjoy my Monday mornings!

Mark is in a foul mood this morning and I'm glad he's not home! It snowed a tiny bit overnight so of course he can't take the motorbike. He automatically assumes that the days when he can't take his bike, he can have the car! erm... NO!! I suggested he take the bus. Talk about if looks could kill. I said I have to get Isabelle to school still. He told me to take the bus to get her to school. rofl.. in your dreams!! So he stomped off in a mood. But that's ok because his mood has gone with him to work LOL.

Isabelle is so excited about the snow, but it's only a little bit. There's nowhere near enough to make even the tiniest snowman, although it has just started to drop a few flakes again, so we might get to make one later. She didn't see snow last year and she can't remember it from the one day we had of it the year before. She has parked bum on the windowsill of the front window and keeps saying, oh look mummy, it snowed! Bless her. She can be so cute.

She also had a cute moment when we first got up at 6.45am this morning. We were coming down the stairs and we could hear the kitten meowing from the kitchen. Oh, she said. I wondered what that music was. I told her it was the kitten meowing. She said she could hear it in the night and thought it was the fairies having a party and singing. It was beautiful music she said. awwwwww, talk about making your heart melt.

Snow?

Well no snow yet, but it's forecast for later today, definately tomorrow and possibly up until Wednesday. We don't very often get snow where I live. It seems to bypass us for some reason. It's been really grey this morning but as I sit typing, the sun just came out. It's deceptive though, it's absolutely freezing out there again. The problem with snow, is that I want to go and photograph it, but it's so built up around where I live that there's nothing worth photographing. It's not far out into Wales and Snowdonia and glorious scenery, but of course, when it snows, you can't drive to it. [sigh] The roads are just too dangerous.

I really do need to spend some time updating my photography site and my little garden friends site (the one I'm going to be selling my cherubs, mushroom houses and fairy doors on). I just don't know where the time goes!

Maybe if we get snowed in over the next couple of days, I might find time to do them. LOL

Poor Isabelle has the snotty nose from hell!! She's not too poorly with this cold, but has been restless at night for the last three nights. I haven't had a decent night's sleep in ages! I've been up and down all night like a loony. It's not her fault bless her, she's either coughing her lungs up or is complaining of a sore throat. Thank god for Calpol. Unfortunately she won't have medised.. the one that makes her sleep. It's like I'm trying to feed her poison.

I had a bit of a giggle to myself yesterday. We went to B&Q to get some cement mix for making my larger garden ornaments, as I've only ever used plaster so far. I picked up a 98p bucket for mixing in, and Mark suffered from accute bucket envy. Plonker! LOL. He had to have a bucket too. He didn't know why, he just wanted one because I was getting one. He makes me laugh sometimes. Bucket envy indeed!