Mouse for Mouse Swap

OK, here he is!!!!
Can you think of a name?
I think he might be an Alfie or an Albert.
How about Monty?
What do you think? :)

I didn't follow a pattern or anything, I just made him up as I went along. Originally, I was going to do him with long dangly legs. But I got tired of the needle-felting so did stumps instead. LOL!

Here are some more views:

HAD to give him a belly button!!!-

Toes!!!!-

I'll send him on to my partner in the Swap on Monday, as Mum wants to see him first.

*** *** *** *** ***

I'm back to mum's tomorrow.
Luvbug is staying there for the weekend too, but then he has work next week so we'll be apart again :(
-it is hard to be torn between two loved ones like this.

This evening we went to have another look around the bungalow that mum's buying. She can't quite picture the layout or size, so I took some photo's and filmed a walk through the rooms. The Estate Agent seems confident that things are moving along OK.

I do worry how mum will settle, in a new home, in a new area, new town, with only us known to her. She does have a few friends where she is now. I'm worrying about the uprooting, whether it will be too much, make her go downhill. Then, at other times, I feel a flood of confidence about it all and see nothing but blue skies ahead.

I need to find a middle ground, I think. I think the middle ground just takes a lot more work, a lot more energy, perhaps, which is why we all seem to fall into one extreme or the other......

*** *** *** *** ***

ANYWAY.... I am pleased with my mousie, which turned out so much better than I'd hoped. This is only my second needle-felted creature, the first being a blue Bear I made for someone in August 2008. I don't even know if I'm doing it right! Maybe you're meant to needle it more, make it stiffer, eliminate the fluffy bits? No idea! LOL! If you're an expert, do let me know! Meanwhile, I quite like this result...

Sheepish Mice and Dead Hair.....

Well I've made the mouse's head so far.....

Looks like a sheep to me!

A few tweaks later: got rid of the fluffy haircut, added a nose and smile, threaded in some whiskers and raised the ears a wee bit....and.... mouse?Hmmm.... now for the body. I need to nip into town and get a new needle-felting needle. I could only find two. I snapped one (OUCHHH!) and the other is getting a wee bit blunt. If this mouse-head is going to get a body I shall need a new pokey poke poke tool.

This is for an online mouse-swap, by the way. There's a link in the left-hand column to the blog behind it, if you're curious!

*** *** *** *** ***

I've just got back from the hairdresser.
I told her that I needed a good trim because my dry, brittle ends are driving me crazy. I just can't stop fiddling with them, tying them up and even snapping them off.

The hairdresser looked through my hair, tweedling it with her fingers and making long-drawn-out, studious hmmmm noises.

"Well," she sighed, shaking her head, "the thing is, all this hair here is dead."
Before I could think, I blurted out, "Well I should damn well hope so, or it'll bloody hurt like Hell when you start cutting into it!"
Erm..... it was one of those "Did I really say that out loud?" moments.

Feeling guilty, (though God alone knows why, if they will insist on coming out with such silliness) I allowed myself to be talked into buying one of their special conditioners. You know, twice the price of your usual one from Boots, but in a more plasticky bottle and an odd "designer" name on it. [Sigh] Never mind. At least it smells good :)

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Couldn't get hold of mum on the phone for over an hour. PANIC! PANIC! PANIC!
Action stations!

• Bag packed -check!
• Crafty stuff packed- not leaving it behind this time! -check!
• Email to family written and ready to send -check!
• Text message to Luvbug at work -check!
• OK one more try to get hold of her...

brrring brring.... brring brring....
"Hello?"
"MUM?????" -relief so heavy I nearly fall over.

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!
Her hearing aid battery had fallen out!
She hadn't heard the phone!!

Oh! My nerves! My nerves!
Arrrghhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK off to start on a needle-felted mousie now.
My shaking will come in handy with the technique.

LOL!

Home and ok....touch wood!

Got home last night. Rang mum before she went to bed; ok.
Asked mum to ring me each morning once she's up; this morning, ok.
Rang her again lunchtime; ok, just going for a walk with a neighbour.

(Can you tell I'm not relaxing yet?)

Plan is to stay here these 5 days, then back to mum's for the weekend + week + following weekend, then back here... so 5 days here, 9 there, 5 here, 9 there, and so on.

If "anything happens" this time, we're going to take it as she can't be left on her own yet. What we do then, move her in or move me in there, well, we'll cross that bridge when and if we have to. Please keep things crossed for her. For us.

Now.... what was it I used to do around here??? :)

Another update, a snowy one!

Just a wee note as I've heard from people who are worried by my silence!
Fear not, as this has been caused by BT BEING A USELESS INTERNET PROVIDER....grrrrrrrr and not by any of us dropping off the planet or being snowed into it.

I am still at my mum's: she still can't remember falling or hitting anything.
I may be going home for next week, then doing one week there, one week here, etc. We'll see how it goes....

Meanwhile we've had tons of snow!

Scooter and Fluffy are spending most of their time indoors by the fire or on my bed, and the "stray" from up the road hangs out in the shed: in a large box of old clothes with a Winnie-The-Pooh hot water bottle refilled periodically :) he also gets food and water, of course. What he really wants is to come indoors and be a lapcat, but Fluffy goes bonkers when she sees him, and Scooter "bravely" hides behind something bigger than himself and makes a high pitch wailing sound.

Fluffy is so reluctant to go out, we caught her peeing on the carpet upstairs. I just caught her after the event. "WHAT the????" was answered with a chirrup as she ran top speed back downstairs, flicking her tail up at me.

Well, I've tried soap, hot water, sodium bicarb (reputed to remove any pong) and now I'm on to lavender scented dettol. Hopefully I can get rid of the ambient evidence before mum's buyer [of her house] next wants to pop in.

Maybe Fluff caught wind of the move plans and wants to mark her territory....

I don't want to get them used to a litter tray indoors as, if I go back home, this leaves more work for mum. So, whenever Fluffy has seemed reluctant to go out since and do what cats do, I've picked her up and carried her out to her pee-patch, snow or no snow. You wouldn't think a 16 yr old cat with arthritis could run very fast, would you? But after leaving a little patch of rising steam in the snow, Fluffy runs so fast up the path, one time she slipped and fell over.

I shall miss them when I do get home. I'm becoming accustomed to Fluffy cuddles on the sofa in the evening and Scooter smooches on my bed at night. (Their version: warming cold paws and backs and getting something soft to sit on.) Mum tells me I spoil them, but I think in reality they are spoiling me.

Take care! Hope to be able to visit your blogs soon- no time here in the library!

ps.........
mum's birthday tomorrow-
oh goody, more cake!!!

A wee update

Thanks for the messages of support :)

Mum is doing ok but the bruise on her face has got worse- she now has a black eye and the other eye is black all round the nose. The lump on her forehead is shrinking though. She still can't remember how she did this, but whilst in the kitchen, I noticed that when she opened a cupboard door it lined up exactly with the marks and lumps- so maybe she opened it then tripped into it? Could be...

I fell asleep this afternoon till early evening and when I woke up I discovered that she had cooked herself an omelette and remembered to have her pills :) this is a good sign. She has been so down as to be almost inert.

Her neighbour slipped on the ice the other day and has broken her wrist. She had an operation on it today but is staying at her mum's in Rochester. This may mean I need to stay longer as she is one who was keeping half an eye on mum!

More snow today, but it didn't settle much. It looks like tiny white marbles on the grass verges.

We filmed some starlings, swooping in to roost, the other day. I hope I can get it online for you to see.

It seems ages since I did any crafting! I am taking part in a mouse swap this month so I am starting to think about how to make a wee mousie. Being restricted, away from my craft supplies, might actually be helpful as I have to be more inventive. I'll take photo's as I go along, of course!

Bye for now,

Splitting in two

After a quiet Christmas with mum, we headed back home on Monday evening.

On Tuesday morning, I couldn't get her on the phone. So I rang her neighbour, Karen.

Karen found her dazed, with an enormous, bruised lump on her forehead. She couldn't remember how she got it. Still can't. She had similar symptoms to the mini-strokes; couldn't name people she should know, couldn't speak properly.... Luvbug and I swapped a few clean things into our still unpacked bags and headed back down to Kent....

We had planned to be home for just 3 days, then head back down for New Year. We're starting to feel tired out.

I didn't call an ambulance this time. I'm not sure if that was right, but my thinking was simply that, last time, all the hospital did was keep her overnight and keep her rested- which didn't exactly work as their noise kept her awake all night. I thought that so long as we got her in to see her doctor that same day, she would be as well off at home, resting, and not worrying about being in hospital again.

We did manage to get her to the doctor, who said that we'd probably done OK by her, but that if it happened again overnight to call an ambulance.

Once at the doc's I just caught a glimpse of a bruise on her tongue.... so I got the doctor to examine this. Good job it was spotted; he thinks she has had a seizure of some kind, and that maybe this caused her to fall or bump into something, hence the bruising on her head. He has upped her anti-seizure meds but they will take a week to take effect.

Today she is back to normal- no wrong words, so slurring. VERY fed up with having to up her meds.

We went shopping and took her for a drive. She is catching my cold, which is unfortunate as it is a rotten throaty one.

Luvbug returns to work next week and needs to do some preparation for the new job before he gets there. It seems then, that he'll be headed home by Saturday and I'm here for the long haul.

We are really worried that mum can't be left on her own now. She is getting upset too.

Mentally, it is starting to drain me. It's nearly two months now. I have renewed awe and respect and sympathy for full time, long term carers everywhere. How do they keep giving? My initial adrenaline-fuelled activity and brightness is being replaced by a strange inertia, a slowing down inside, a gasping for breath.

I was pleased yesterday when my elder brother actually came to visit. He has barely called to ask after her since the first attack- same can be said for my other two siblings. But whilst here I noticed he barely spoke to her really, talking across her instead.
When he did talk to her it was to talk about all his news, which she wasn't well enough to take on board, and not to ask about her, her worries, her plans, how was her Christmas, etc., or even just to sit quietly with her. I watched and felt, oh I don't know, annoyed? No, annoyed is too energetic. I was unsurprised and barely disappointed.

I want to be enthusiastic, happy, optimistic, able to love and help mum whilst not leaving Luvbug out. Instead I have been a wee bit snappy. The wrong time of the month arrived at the worst possible time, leaving me battling cold symptoms, stomach pain, sleep deprivation, impatience and worry all at the same time.

How do people do this? What if you have a child who's ill, a job to keep going to, your own stuff to worry about? How do you keep going without splitting yourself down the middle?

Made it!

We are back at mum's!

We put the journey off till yesterday because of road problems in Kent. We thought we wouldn't be able to get through. Then when we were ready to go, we found that the car battery was completely dead. D'oh!

Luvbug found a local guy online who came out within half an hour with a new one, installed it and got the car going- all for less money than a new battery from Halfords- and without us walking to Halfords in the snow and lugging it back. Brilliant!

We had a few hold-ups and diversions because of crashes on the road ahead of us. Good job we hadn't set out earlier after all or we may have been nearer the pile up!

Mum is sounding good.
We got the tree up and decorated it last night. Already there are lots of presents underneath (some from blogger friends- thank you so much!!)

We plan to do the food shopping late at night at the 24 hour supermarket. Hopefully not too many people will have the same idea and we will miss the crowds :)
Mum is all excited, bless her, as she has never been late night shopping before!

This mobile internet connection is really unreliable- sort of OK right now, impossible to connect last night- so I don't know if I'll be able to log on much. So I better say it here-

Hope you all have a lovely, peaceful Christmas, full of smiles and comfort. I hope you all make some good memories.
Love and hugs, tea and cake, everyone!!!!

Ice, snow and doves....

My back garden.......

Erm, do you think I should have put the clothes line away???? :)

Oops! :)

Poor cold birds....but the collared doves have never looked cuter....

Ice...ice...ice....Ahhh blue sky, sunshine... but not warm enough to melt it!It started snowing Thursday, then through the night, again yesterday....

We had some more snow overnight and a little more this afternoon. Not much. But what's there already doesn't seem to be melting away at all! It was sunny today, big blue skies- and freeeeeezing cold!

We don't know when we will be able to get back to mum's. We think we should pack for staying over Christmas and go whenever we can- and presume there's a big chance of getting stuck!!!
Blankets, munchies, spade and blanket in the back of the car, I think!

Things aren't too bad here, but it's been heavier in Kent. At one point the roads to the Isle of Sheppey were closed. Now the motorway from Medway to London -about 30 odd miles- is one-lane only each way, the other lanes being completely ice and snow-bound. Eek!

I finished my Xmas shopping on Thursday, amid the first flurries. Everything wrapped up and bagged now. Luvbug did some shopping yesterday. I've had a hunt around but can't find my pressie :) I know he hasn't wrapped anything yet though!

If only the snow had waited a week, eh?

Cards are winging their way... slowly!

Grumpy woman in the post office today, when I presented lots of cards and packages for abroad, said,

"You DO KNOW that you've MISSED all the last postage dates, I take it?"
-like some dreadful headmistress!!!!

Good grief! What was the point of telling me that? I felt like saying, "OK don't worry then, I'll go home and trash the lot instead." ????????????
SHEEESH!!!!! I know she must be tired, but still! I'd been in the queue for 15 minutes and my back was starting up, but I still managed a smile so why couldn't she? She was sitting down and had a cup of tea next to her! Grrrrrrr..........

Anyway- so my cards and pressies are in the post.
If I have your address you'll most probably be getting one- unless I've lost it since last year or you moved! But it seems that if you're outside the UK you might not get yours till the new year. Oh well! It'll be a wee post-Xmas extra for you! Hope you like them- eventually!