Juggling life through a bi-polar lens. Sometimes up, sometimes down. Mostly trying to tread water in the middle. Creating a likeness to a normal life. Whatever "normal" is...

Monday 12 January 2009

A few cards, and lots of heating problems!

One rotten side effect of having a bug at the start of the year is that all the good intentions you had stored up for "new Year" get sidelined. It's hard to stay psyched up for them.

Hence, my intention to lose weight was put off with "not while I have a cold, I'm going to treat myself!" The one about tidying up and re-organising much of the house had to be dropped and the one about crafting and writing seems a long time ago now!

But the calendar keeps pushing forward and new, important dates come around... 4 birthdays this week! Here are two cards I managed to make last night, one for my mum, the other for a friend I made in an online depression support group 9 years ago (good grief! NINE years???? It can't be!)

I used the last of the papers Julie sent me in the one for my mum (above). I like the ribbon- I'd seen something similar in craft shops but it was very expensive. This one was 90p a metre (about $1.75 for 40 inches) at a traditional haberdasher's shop in Colchester.
I decorated the envelopes and the insides this time, too...
-I haven't met Donna (yet?) but she has been a great friend over the years. She has MS and has ups and downs with that. At the moment she isn't too well. Her husband, John, is a vet and they have adopted lots of animals- 11 dogs at the last count, lots of semi-feral cats out in a barn, plus a family of gliders (google them, they're really cute!).

Luvbug bought me these metallic watercolours for Christmas:-he let me have them early so that I could do these cards, one for his mum, one for mine :)
I only started making cards last August, so I've done mainly Christmas cards. I'm feeling a bit lost now I'm to make 'normal' ones. I suppose there is Valentine's and Easter coming up though.... I have been visiting a few crafty sites (see list, left) for inspiration and to get back into the mood. Seeing what others are doing, I feel more left behind than ever!

The study/craft room, where I organised all my arty stuff, is as cold as the garage. I made these sprawled across the living-room floor, in front of the fire! Remember the heating engineer that came and went? He left us with one working radiator, out of nine. Unfortunately it wasn't one of the downstairs ones.

As an experiment, I left a plug-in radiator switched on in the study last night. I went in there today around noon. The heater had been on its highest setting for about eleven hours, and had barely made any impression at all; still too cold to work in there, even with fingerless gloves. OK, I can put on extra layers, but I would still be breathing in cold air. With asthma, that isn't a good idea!

It's really frustrating to have parts of the house you can't use. It starts to affect how tidy the rest of the place is- you know where things need to go, but put off taking them there because it means opening doors to draughts and freezing cold rooms.

We've put our heating problems on the 'rated people' site, hoping for a few quotes from engineers. Hope we can get it sorted soon.

I want to get stuck into things before long, as I am starting to feel the year slipping away from me. I want to shout, "Wait for me! Come back!" but I need some damn heating, and to shift this cold/bug once and for all, first. I'm wary of getting bored, as boredom really does lead to depression.

Soooo frustrating....

8 comments:

Ewonne said...

Your cards are lovely ♥♥♥

Julie said...

Working on the floor in front of the fire is the best place to be - if you can get up again! lol You don't have to worry about your card making. You have a very good eye for design and I think your cards are far superior to other card makers. Follow your instincts and make cards of things that you love as well as for occasions and I don't think you will go far wrong.

I hope you feel better soon. How are you today?

ChrisJ said...

Pearlescent water colors! Now that sounds interesting. I always love colors. I think it is the first thing I notice about anything. Especially the colors of people's eyes.

I know what you mean about boredom and depression. I have to plan each week ahead with something concrete (pleasant, not chores) to do each day when my husband is away.

Feel better soon. You and a thousand others have this bug. I talked to my sister a day or so ago and she sounded terrible.

Dragonstar said...

You must be SO cold all the time! We did without oil while it was so dear, and used the plug-in variety. Ours worked really well - but they used so much electricity!
It must have been hell being ill in a freezing house.

i beati said...

adorable design - yours???hedgies and rose

Lynda (Granny K) said...

Hope you are feeling better.
Hugs from Lynda and the bears

Mrs Mac said...

Ewonne, Thank you very much! I love the stuf on your blog and it means a lot to see you here!

:)

Julie,
Thanks for your email, too, by the way. I really must try to get on top of things and write back to people. Sorry!
As for working on the floor in front of the fire- you know, right up to a couple of years ago I could sprawl over the floor for as long as I liked. Now it makes my bones hurt! Especially the elbows! So it isn't suitable long term, unfortunately!

:)

ChrisJ,
Have you heard of Twinkling H2Os? They are like that, but a cheaper option- I like them because you get a huge choice of colours- a smaller cake of each one, but I'm sure they'll last me a while.

This does seem to be a widespread bug, doesn't it? Hope your sister gets better.

And yep, boredom definitely affects depression! I am glad I'm not the only one who thinks so!

:)

Dragonstar,

I have a big soft fleecy blanket that someone gave us for Xmas a few years ago. It's lovely and soft and velvety, so I curl up under it on cold evenings sometimes. I have an eNORmous cardigan from the Tesco sale, too, which I throw on if I'm walking around the house!

:)

I Beati,

Erm, no. The mousie + rose is a stamp. I don't have the stamp itself, I bought 6 stamped images from a seller on ebay for about £1, then coloured them, etc. It's a good way of getting lots of stamped images without paying lots for the actual stamp.

:)

Lynda,
Thanks for the hugs! Thanks to the bears, too! LOL!

:)

Shirley said...

YOur cards are beutiful! I love the roses too!