Over The Past Year...

I realised that I had written a post of "Hey, look, I'm back!" but didn't explain why I had been away...

Last year my father had been quite ill, and on September 11th, our family were told not to worry, he'd have a simple operation and then all would be well. On September the 16th, the surgeon and doctors changed their minds drastically, and my dad was told he had cancer. But... not to worry, as it was operable, and his outlook was good. 11 weeks to the day after this, my wonderful dad passed away. It was such a shock to us all, and it sent me into a spiral of grief and depression. I have been diagnosed with 'prolonged extreme grief' which is similar to PTSD in some ways.  I don't write this here for sympathy - only to let people know why I haven't been around and why I may seem to have changed a bit in the past year.

Things are sometimes a little better, and I take each day one at a time - never expecting to have a good or bad day, but just hoping to get through it and remember my dad with a smile and fewer tears than the day before.

This photograph was taken on my birthday - the last birthday I had with my dad.

I have a wonderful family - Mum, brother, husband and children - who have all helped me (are still helping me) every day... and great friends who understand.

So... there it is.

I'm not sure if I ever updated about my dog Lily, or my cat, Baby - well, Miss Violet... but I always called her 'Baby' :) Poor baby was run over and died in my arms on the way to the vets. I do have other pets now - but miss her terribly. My jack Russell Terrier, Lily, had mammarial cancer, and we had to have her put to sleep. I swore I would never have another dog... and that thought lasted about 5 days before I went out and got a little Yorkie who we named Barkley McScruffles. He'll be 2 years old on January 1st 2016.

When Miss Violet died, I eventually got another cat who we named Kitty Belle. She is a cross between a Persian and a Black Bengal - so she dribbles a lot and meows all the time :)

Kitty Belle had kittens, and I kept one because she was so very tiny, and her name is Coco (but we all call her Coco Bean)

This is Coco and Barkley.

Kitty Belle

Kitty with one of the kittens (not Coco)

 

 

 

New Blog Page

Just a quickie post to say that I may not be blogging here for a few days - I am adding a new blog page to PatchWork Apples to show the mni-albums I have made, page by page. This means that I have to take photographs (when the batteries on the camera have charged!), resize the photos and post them with some explanation about how the pages are constructed, etc. It's really for my benefit more than anything else, as I may be giving away some of the albums and want to keep a record of how I made the pages, what they looked like, and so-on. Oh... alright, I admit it... I'm also doing this partly to show off some of my albums in a bit more detail. So I'm selfish AND vain! *lol*

Right... I'd better go find the battery charger then. Why is it that the batteries always run out when you need them the most? Typical!

Well, maybe if I wasn't spending so much time taking photographs of my pets, the batteries would be fine.

Which reminds me... I was sorting out the craft room a little bit more, and left an empty drawer on the floor. It took less than a minute for this to happen:

Miss Violet all curled up comfy and sound asleep!

Awww :)

What A Day!

Today is a day that I don't think I could live again, even if I wanted to! Don't get me wrong... there's been a couple of good things that have happened today - but a lot of stress too.

It started out so very well, when a parcel arrived for me. Ooh... thought I.  I hadn't ordered anything, so I was really excited to recieve something that I knew hadn't cost me anything *lol*.

I'll reveal all in a later post - suffice to say that my gift is STUNNING!

It's not the only gift I've received lately... I've mentioned my friend LouLou a few times - she's the kind of friend who not only knows where the bodies are buried, but helped dig the hole to get them buried in the first place. This woman is my 'sister from another mother (and father)' *lol*  On our way to visit Argos, we discovered  a Dunelm Mill store! This place is highly recommended by Helen at It's All Fiddle Fart, so we had to go in and have a nosey around.  Lou sneakily bought me something as we were browsing... she knew I liked it, and popped it in her basket without me seeing. What an amazing friend she is:

She bought me this gorgeous wicker heart, and some border stickers that I thought looked very 'Art Nouveau'.

I photographed them on my desk this afternoon... and then went to check on my CallieCat who'se been a bit under the weather the last couple of days. What a shock I had when I found her! She was curled up on Bethany's bed - where she'd been for the past two days. Her eyes were sunken and cloudy, she couldn't move let alone stand up by herself, and just by picking her up I could feel that her temperature was much too high. My poor baby! Hubby had just come home from work, and Beth was due home soon.... so I phoned the vets and made an appointment straight away. I then had to phone Beth to arrange for her to go to a friends house straight from college as we wouldn't be at home.  Out came the cat travel box from storage (under the stairs), and in went Callie. We knew then it was serious, as she didn't miaow or struggle at all when we placed her in the cat carrier - and she hates that little plastic box! Hubby and I went to a new vetinary practice we'd heard about called Vets4Pets and they were wonderful! The staff really put us at ease, and the vet was so gentle with out precious cat. Callies temperature was 40.9 - which is very high apparently, but the vet gave her a couple of shots and some sound advice, a contact number just in case she got worse in the night, and a real peace of mind.  By the time we got home, Callie was trying to get up and walk... she ate some food and had a drink (she hadn't eaten anything for nearly three days!) and managed a disgusted look at me (she doesn't like that box at all! *lol*). She's curled up resting outside Beth's bedroom door now - looking much much better.

Her ears are pricked up listening to what's going on around her, and her eyes are bright and clear - and her breathing is no longer shallow and slow. I am so relieved to get my baby back home, getting well.

So... everyone finally gets home and settled... and the kittens now have to be fed and have a run around.

Bella decided she was going to act just like her cat-mummy, and found the space between the glass coffee-table top and the base...

... and then she and Rosie (Aurora Blaze) 'discovered' the Christmas tree.

Oh, dear.

At first it was a simple matter of hitting the baubles on the lower branches until they fell and rolled around on the floor, and then chasing them all over the front room. I thought I was being clever by putting the more expensive and breakable decorations further up the tree.... not so. All I have managed to do is entice a certain two little mischevious kitties to climb up the middle of my tree!

Shortly after this photograph was taken, both kittens were having a competition to see who could get the highest up the middle of my 6 foot-tall Christmas tree. Bella won by default, as I plucked Rosie off the tree first. They both managed a respectable 4 foot climb though... impressive really! *lol* I think our treetop angel had better watch out for little furry visitors!

Well, apart from a very poorly daughter with an ear infection, a hubby who's in shock with having to pay the vetinary care bill, a home that's had to be de-flea'd (again!), and a house that needs a good clean from top to bottom... this has been my day.

Please, please let tomorrow be more quiet.

Which I expect it wioll be after we've taken Callie back for her check-up at the vets... and the dog... and all the kittens too.

Okay... maybe a good rest on Sunday instead then :)



Callie Cat

Another non-crafting post... but had to share a photograph of my poor little CallieCat... who is a bit further on in her pregnancy than I first thought (Hey, the grey tabby wins the  "Who's Your Daddy?" contest this time *lol*). She's a tiny, very skinny cat (though she prefers to be described as 'lean' or 'slender'), and yet her kittens are born quite big... she's carrying around a right hefty bump this time, and I think it may be only about a week or so until I hear the patter of tiny paws again.

Callie is in a box on the tiny table in the kitchen. There is also a shallow box in the lounge... one in the bedroom... and one in the hallway. I am not taking any chances this time- nomatter where she decides to start having those kittens, there will be a box nearby, ready to put her into so she doesn't get kitten-birth-bits everywhere *yuk!*

The kitchen box is her favourite at the moment because firstly, it's up on the table away from LilyDog (who tries to basket-share)... and secondly because it has a bag in it.  She does love carrier bags, but I couldn't risk placing a plastic bag in the box... so we compromised with a cheap material bag that she hides in. Trouble is that, right now, she's just too big to crawl inside it! Still, I reckon it must be comfy to sleep on, because she spends a lot of time in that box.

I did explain to Hubby that we needed a lot of those boxes for all over the house for when Callie drops her sprogs (as my wonderful eldest daughter explains it *lol*)... and the only place I can get them freely - and also to ensure they're pretty clean - is to order a lot of crafting goodies so that they are delivered in the perfect-sized boxes. I'm not sure he's convinced by my explanation and assurances that this really is the best way to obtain the boxes... but it's a good tale and I'm sticking to it :)