February 28th 2015 - Painting the spell book

February 28th 2015 - Painting the spell book

Today I am going to give the spell book its 1st coat of paint.  As I don't have enough purple acrylic I am going to do the first coat in a pale pink (mixed with silver) to make sure I have enough, this paint also has a sparkle to it.

I found a pin on pinterest about using acrylic paint to paint book covers with.  I planned to use this paint anyway as its stronger than kids poster paints.  I am also thinking about varnish or pva glue to protect it.

Here is the book after its pink coat of paint:

I think its starting to come along quite nicely.

February 27th 2015 - Making a viking tunic

February 27th 2015 - Making a viking tunic

Following on from yesterdays post about making a viking shield (which is almost complete, just needs the front bit glueing onto it with hot glue).  I have set about making the viking tunic.  I got the idea from this pin which came from Where's my Glow blog.

As I said yesterday I bought a toilet and bath mat set for £3.99 to use as the base to make his tunic/ wasitcoat.  They are a great idea as they are brown and fluffy like fur.

I started by marking a line down the middle of the toilet mat on the back.  From the toilet mat I stitched the small top bit to one corner of the bath mat (I turned it the other way to the photo).  I then made my son hold it all whilst I worked out where the arm hole needed to be to, marked it on the inside with pen and took it off him.  I sewed up the side to where I had marked and tried it on him again.  It fitted ok.  I went to start the other side only to realise that the top is narrower than the bottom, so I had to cut on my line to make it into 2 pieces and then stitched the other small top piece to the bath mat - it was just over half way so I had to cut it.  I then stitched the side and left the arm hole.  This side was much harder to sew as it didnt have the nice bound edge, so I stitched it twice to make sure it holds.

This is what it looks like:

We are slowly getting there as a viking!

February 26th 2015 - Making a viking shield

Februatu 26th 2015 - making a viking shield

Next Thursday (5th march) is world book day.  Yesterday on our family learning at the school we were talking about books (its a literacy course after all) and world book day came up and how the school doesnt do dress up for it etc, the teacher who is sat in on the sessions said that as the school iss doing a big push on reading at the moment they ARE allowing the kids to dress up as a book character this year.

I spoke to my sons when we got home about it, neither had a letter (we were told they would be going out in day or so), and asked what they want to go as.  You name it and i'm pretty sure in 1 of the 3 boys cupboards, the box of dressing up "bits" (hats/masks/gloves and extras) or the halloween box in the loft we have most things or can at least make something from a combination of.  My youngest said he is going in his thomas the tank outfit (like a onesie but is a full thomas suit not just a picture of him)  and will take 1 of his thomas books.  Brilliant I don't have to do anything there.  Asked my middle son what he wants to go as hoping he says something we have etc and he goes upstairs to his books, comes back down and says "I want to go as a viking!"  ME -  "errrr it has to be a character from a book, you have no viking books", Son replies "I do, my how to train your dragon books have vikings in, can I go as Hiccup and take my toothless pillow?"  Well that shut me up didn't it, nothing like a smarta** kid and his comments. lol.

Well I started hunting the net for "proper" outfits and I am not paying the price that they are - £7.99 upwards, i'm not paying that much for one!  So I did my usual and hit pinterest in the hope of finding a "how to make a viking outfit".  I found a few including a really good tutorial on making a "furry" waistcoat" from a bath and toilet mat!  I went to town today and bought a bath and toilet mat set in brown for £3.99, but this will be tomorrows pin as I need to meansure son before I start cutting and sewing.

Todays pin is how to make a viking shield.  This picture is taken from google and is Hiccups orriginal shield from when he was younger (about the same age as my son is), in the later films he has a dragon it, this is the design I will be painting onto our shield.  There is also this pin that shows you how to make a shield in general.

I have cut out the curcle and have the duck tape to go round the edge, I have covered a small plastic pot in duck tape to make the silver bit in the middle of the shield - i'm going to hot glue gun this on once its painted, I also have a piece of cardboard that will be glued or duck taped to the back to  make the handle.

February 25th 2015 - Family learning at the school

February 25th 2015 - Family learning at the school

Today is another week of the family learning at the school.  We were talking about stories and making them up and how you can come up with a story just from looking at 1 picture or from 1 line that is already written down.

We mad jigsaw pieces about ourselves to go on a display board on the wall, similar to this -

I forgot to take a picture of it but will do next week.  My puzzle piece I covered it in purple tissue paper, I added my name down the side in black letters, a big pink pig in the middle as I collect pigs and have liked them since I was a toddler, a gold ring with a silver glitter diamond, a rose and some stars.  I was going to put a green cross for first aid on it but you couldn't really tell what the cross was for.

When the children came to join us for their part they all headed for the biscuits staright away, I do wonder if this is why they are coming along to it! lol!  Once I had managed to collect my 2 boys from the snacks I explained to them what they were going to be doing.  There was 2 parts to their work - the first was to make a simple book from a piece of A4 paper by folding it and then cutting and re folding it (see the book link above to pinterest).  The second part was to colour or stick things onto a paper person that will be the character in their mini book.

Blake decided that his person was going to be a zoo keeper called  Blake and he gave him zebra print trousers, a giraffe print top and red hair (see below).  And Kenzie made a boy with silver spiley hair and named him spike (see below).  They were then laminated, had a hole put on the top and a piece of string threaded through and were selotaped to the middle of the book so that the character can visit every page in their mini books.  They have got to finish them next week.

 

The pics of the jigsaw shapes we made.

February 24th 2015 - Spell Book the next part

February 24th 2015 - Spell Book the next part

Back at the end of January (almost a month ago now) I posted about making a spell book.  Since posting that I have managed to glue all the pages together so that they are thicker and there's now only just over 100 instead of the original 200+.

Today I have started to make the fauz leather cover, the idea was combined from this thread on pinterest and an article I found on the Halloween Forum Thread about handmade spell books.

1 and 2





3 and 4

5 and 6

1. Kitchen towel which is 2ply was seperated and gave the bumpy effect.
2. I covered the inside of the cover with pva glue and then placed the kitchen towel on to it.
3. I then covered the outside cover the same way
4. was a plastic lid I placed inside so it didnt stick together when I turned it over to do the back.
5. The front and back covers of the book all covered.
6. A couple of hours after I did it, its starting to dry with lots of texture.

I now need to decide if I am going to add a 2nd layer of the kitchen towel to it, so that the red of the book is definately gone b4 painting, and possibly loose the texture or leave it with just one and the texture I have.  I'm leaning towards leaving it as I like the way it looks.

February 23rd 2015 - Hill Climb game

February 23rd 2015 - Hill Climb game

Back last August we got our youngest son a cheap tablet as his main present hadn't turned up, he loves it and plays on it most days and will tell anyone that asks (or listens) that he has an "i-pad".  He has a variety of games on it - some that he asked for and others that we thought he would like.  Hill Climb is one we thought he would like.

Upon reading the blurby bit on google play store it says QUOTE "Meet Newton Bill, the young aspiring uphill racer. He is about to embark on a journey that takes him to where no ride has ever been before. With little respect to the laws of physics, Newton Bill will not rest until he has conquered the highest hills up on the moon!  Face the challenges of unique hill climbing environments with many different cars. Gain bonuses from daring tricks and collect coins to upgrade your car and reach even higher distances. Watch out though - Bill's stout neck is not what it used to be when he was a kid!".  Sounds ok and the sort of thing a 5year old would enjoy playing.  And I was correct, he loves it.

It's a challenge for him to get to the next meter distance and collect as many coins as he can and he can upgrade the different vehicles and buy different scenes to try and complete.  A lovely game for him to play.  That was until the other day when he's sat by me playing it and declares "i've just broke his neck it went with a crack, did you hear it Mummy?"  ME - "errr no I didn't."  SON "i'll do it again listen!".  So he repeats the level and crashes the vehicle on purpose and yes there is a lovely crack as his head flops back and forth and the level ends.  NOTE HERE the line from above - "Bill's stout neck is not what it used to be when he was a kid!"   It doesn't say that you can hear it break, nice!!!

Well I downloaded the game to my laptop to see if it was every level or just a one off and it happens every time you crash the vehicle.  Plus if you have a bus full of people theirs all do the same!

Despite this lovely breaking of peoples necks complete with sound, the game is actually very adictive and fun.  As I put above you can get different vehicles and levels to race.  You need to collect coins from the levels in order to upgrade the vehicles and buy new levels.  My personal favourite is the quad bike in the cave and I have got a long distance with this combination.  My son loves santa's sleigh on any level.  The graphics are pretty cool but basic and change as you move along.  Each level is the same thing to get as far as you can without dying or running out of fuel (you pick this up along the way).  You can quite easily waste a good few hours playing this game once you get over the shock of the broken necks.

As long as your not bothered about the gruesome cracking and breaking of necks its a great game and suitable for all ages.  Me and my son were "racing" each other to see who could get the furthest, he was on his tablet and me on my laptop.  We also had played to see who could get the most money and buy a new level.   I would reccommend this game to my friends with children.

February 22nd 2015 - Trilogy of books finished

February 22nd 2015 - Trilogy of books finished

Today I have finished reading Keri Arthur's Circle Trilogy of books, Circle of Fire, Circle of Death and Circle of Desire.  These are being classed towards the 2015 reading challenge I posted about back in January.

Although the books are classed as a trilogy they are not all part of the same story which is what I thought they would be and why I was eager to read them all one after the other.  They do have links to same magic circle but they do not have the same people in.

I enjoyed reading the three books as they are magic/paranormal based.  But they didn't seem very different to other books of this genre, and nothing that really stands out.  They are well written though and interesting.

February 21st 2015 - Bowling

February 21st 2015 - Bowling

Today is Blake's girlfriend Rosie's 6th birthday.  She wanted to go bowling, so her Mum agreed.  We had said about going bowling during half term and had invited her to come as well, so we all decided that we would go today for her birthday rather than twice.

The bowling alley is is the "big town" 13miles away, so we got go in the car to get there.  I'm sure the boys and Rosie will all have fun.  I will update with scores later after we have been.

OMG it went from bad to worse, to start with the car was dead, we got the neighbour to try and jump start it but it wasn't have any of it.  So hubby had to bring battery in to try and charge it and the neighbour ran me and the kids to the bowling alley.  We got there 2mins after our scheduled time, but the previous people were not quite finished anyway.  We payed for 1 game each.

The scores were really close between the kids and all around the 50mark.  They decided that they wanted a 2nd game, so we had to move to another lane.  And this lane was a heap of junk, after every 3rd or 4th throw of the ball the pins wouldn't re-set, or the machine dropped them and they stayed there in a heap.  So we had to keep getting the staff to re-set the lane, which they did by throwing another ball down it and then re-setting the computer to remove the score it had given that person.  Due to this the kids got very bored with waiting and started to mess about and fight, climb on things and over chairs etc.

The scores of the 2nd game were higher and lil man got 74 and 2spares he was so happy.  But the machine didn't record 1 of them as it was a time it re-set again.  The other 2 who are older got 57 and 58 but they didn't use the frame.  Rosie won the first game out of the children and Blake won the 2nd game out of the chilren.

February 20th 2015 - Growing potatoes

February 20th 2015 - Growing Potatoes

Last week my lil man (5) asked if we could grow our own potatoes.  He was only really little when I did this with the older 2.  I had planned to use an old dustbin that was in the garden, but sadly it got crushed when the temporary fence fell down on it.  So I ordered a potatoe grow bag off ebay for £2.99.

It arrived yesterday and me and lil man headed to town to get some compost so we could plant the potatoes today.  Well we were in £1 shop and there were loads of kids near the toys and it was like this "mum can I have this toy" and "mum I want this" etc.  As we walked past them all my lil man turned round and said to me "mummy I don't want any toys like those children, all I want is some compost to plant my potatoes in".  Bless him, so sweet.

We got the compost and a bit further on the shelf is the same potatoe grow bags as I had bought off ebay for £2.99.  GGggggggrrrrr!!!!  Oh well, never mind.  £1 shop didn't have anything like them last week.

Today we poured 1 bag of compost into the bottom of the bag, pushed the potatoes into it and then covered them with the other bag of compost.  The grow bag is only half full so we are going to get some more when we go to town at the weekend to top it up.  Lil man then proceeded to water them with rain water from his bucket.  I found this article on pinterest about growing potatoes in a bag.

He asked whilst we were doing the potatoes if we can plant some carrots and other things as well. Me and hubby agreed and have said we will make him a raised planter at the side of the garden over the next few weeks and get some seeds and stuff for him to plant.  We are also getting a blueberry plant and raspberry plant to go in pots on the decking (that isn'nt even built yet! lol).

The older 2 are not really interested in anything outdoors and moan if asked to help with the garden, but i'm sure they will be quite happy to eat the fruit and veg that we grow!

February 19th 2015 - Spong cakes

February 19th 2015 - Sponge cakes

My little man loves cooking and baking, to the extent for the past 2 and bit years he has said he wants to be a chef and has already made a business plan - he's the chef, hubby is serving drinks, his brothers are waiters and cleaners and I can sit around in apretty dress and drink wine. lol!

Anyway, he asked if we could make some cakes, which I agreed, he then said like J (his brother) made at school with no packet mix.  Errrrrrr I can't make cakes without a packet mix, they don't rise etc.  But I agreed.  Hubby bought the ingredients on tuesday when he did the shopping and today is the 1st day we have had a chance to make them.

The receipe my eldest used at school was 100g SR flour, 100g caster sugar, 100g margerine and 2 eggs, and it made 12, I also found teh same receipe on pinterest.   We doubled it all up so we could make 24 cakes and ended up with 30, however I forgot teh last 6 were in the oven and they are slightly burnt on top.

But i'm impressed they did work and they did rise (slightly).  (see pics below).  We still have to ice them, of which 12 are having thomas tank rice paper on (can't remember how we ended up with spare rice papers from a pack).

February 18th 2015 - Haig Pit

February 18th 2015 - Haig Pit

As it's a very dull and overcast day, complete with sea mist and rain showers I decided that we would take the kids out to an indoor place - Haig Pit mining museum that is only a few miles up the road from where we live.  The first time we went to it was the day after it closed down for renovation, so we could only see the outside.  It re-opened on Valentines day this year.

We went, we saw we, came home!  Although what was there was interesting, the website made it look as though there was alot more on display etc.  The kids enjoyed the fact that there was alot of hands on activities and buttons that they could push etc,  and enjoyed the coal blaster that made loads of noise and scared me to death the first time they set it off!

Parts of the pit still looked as though they were being worked on, so hopefully this is the case and there will be more to see and do if we go again.  Sadly you couldn't get down to any of the pit parts or tracks, you could only go round the old engine house building.  Maybe this is because of health & safety I don't know.

February 17th 2015 - PANCAKE DAY & family walk

February 17th 2015 - PANCAKE DAY & family walk

Today is pancake day or shrove tueday!!! (Today's pin is a link to the stack of pancakes I made in 2013 for the family).  I love this day as I love pancakes, I always have.  Golden syrup and sugar and lemon toppings are the best!  I tried Nutella last year after being reccommended it, it was nice but i'm not a great fan.  I have also had ice cream toffee and raspberry sauce on them - the raspberry is actually really nice, but I never remember to buy any.

So one question is how do you eat your pancakes - do you roll your pancakes into a coil,  fold them into triangles or have them as a stack one on top of the other with fillings inbetween???  I usually roll every one into a coil but saw on pinterest that people put them as a stack with fillings in between, i'm trying that for mine tonight!!!

Then there is also the big debate of tossing it in the air or flipping it with a fish slice - well me I flip mine as the one time I tried to toss it in the air I didn't catch it and it ended up on the floor and the dog licked it before running off!

Happy pancake day to everyone no matter how you make or decorate or eat them.

Hubby has been asked to get extra eggs, milk and flour so we can have pancakes and so the kids can make cakes like they have asked to do.


EDIT

After lunch today we decided as it was nice we weould go on a walk.  We all put on jumpers and coats and gloves and hats and set off.  We had been told about a lake and woodland walk about 8miles from where we live, according to the website its takes about 2hrs to walk around Longlands Lake.   So we thought may take longer with my knee.

We found it very easily as its signposted from the main road, when we got there, there was 1 car in the car park.  We crossed the bridge and then came back to get sticks as the kids wanted to play pooh sticks - where you all drop a stick at the same time from one side of the bridge and then go to the other side to see whose stick comes through the bridge first.  We ended up doing this 2 or 3 times!

Once we got across the bridge we tossed a coin as to which way we were going to go as had a fork in the path and according to the map would both take us round the lake.  We went with the heads route.  The older 2 ran of being very noisy, and lil man stayed with me.  Me and him saw mushrooms growing on a tree stump (see below) and 1/2 coconuts being used as bird feeders.

It was very wet and muddy under foot, so we probably should have all worn our wellies, never mind.  We continued on round the paths round the lake and saw daffodils, snow drops and croscus's.  Blossom was starting to form on some of the trees as well.  There were quite alot of birds at the lake including swans and ducks, but they didn't come to us, maybe we should have taken some bread for them.  There was a fissherman and lots of people with dogs who all spoke to us.

We headed back to the car park, which was now very packed.  It had taken us just over 45minutes to walk all the way round, so not quite sure where they say its 2hrs.  There are lots of benches to stop and rest at as well as picnic spots.  This was our first visit here but I certainly think we will visit again as its so close and not uphill or a long way which is good with my knee as it is.  I think it will look a very different place in the summer months when its dry and flowers are out etc.

Although I forgot to pick up the camera I did get some nice pics on my phone.

 

February 16th 2015 - Tree stump removal

February 16th 2015 - Tree stump removal

I am in the process of trying to sort out the last part of my garden where I want the decking to go.  But this is going to be a big task as I need to dig out soil.  And in part of where I want it there are some old pine tree stumps that need removing.

I found this artical on Pinterest about how to remove tree stumps with the use of Epsom Salts.  I'm not sure if it actually works or if its a hoax.  But we bought a bag of Epsom Salts last week to try it, if it doesn't work we have only wasted £2.99.

Hubby drilled holes in the tree stumps as deep as his drill bit would allow, I filled them with Epsom Salt and then a tiny bit of water and left them.  It says that you may need to re-apply salt after a few days and again each week as it can take upto 2months for the stumps to rot as the salt absorbs the water from the tree.

Fingers crossed it does work as I really need the stumps gone.  They were cut as low to ground as we could do without damaging the saw.

February 15th 2015 - Parton Rock pools

February 15th 2015 - Parton Rock pools

Today's pin is from the places I want to go to board, and was Parton.  This is a place that we visit regularly as its only a couple of miles up the road from where we live.  It is a sort of cove area on the coast and the beach is all rocks from tiny pebbles upto huge boulders.  Some of these huge boulders have been worn away by the sea and  therefore the sea gathers in them making rock pools.

My boys love going there to see if we can find anything in the rock pools, and usually 1 of them ends up wet for whatever reason - falling into a rock pool, walking in the sea, standing in a rock pool, being splashed by his brother etc.  Today we were lucky no-one got wet but we wern't there very long as my eldest decided to be stupid and climb the wall that has a train track above it!!!

We did collect some shells whilst we were there but I don't think there is enough for the lady at the community centre's summer craft session.  So will have to get some more on another visit.

Here are a few pics taken at parton last year:

February 14th 2015 - Valentines day

February 14th 2015 - Valentines day

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE I hope that you have had a good day and all got at least a card.

I have had to "make" a pin for today as I couldn't find anything suitable that I liked.  So here it is, my pin about Valentines Day.

Today has been a rather strange day, it started off with 2/3 children giving me cards they had made at school (see below) and a card from hubby.  Blake (5) also got his first valentines card from Rosie his girlfriend at school.  Hubby got me a mini sewing machine that I have winged about for ages so I can try and learn to sew with it.

Anyway after the nice cards had been given out etc I went and got dressed as I was being picked up at 10:30am to go on a course with St John Ambulance.  I got picked up, nipped to asda to get my luch on the way and off we went.  An hours car trip to get to the training venue to be told the course had been cancelled as "there was no-one booked on it".  Errrr we were booked on it and at a meeting thursday we were told there was 4 people on it.

So we had a wasted trip and i'd bought a pack up for no reason.  The lady who picked me up wasn't happy either.  As it happens I could have gone out for dinner with my family and the neighbours but had to alter it to next week because of this course today.  Never mind, I have sent an email to the person who organised it asking why we wern't notified it had been cancelled.

Well when I got back from the non-existant course the sun was shining and it looked really nice out, so I decided to go outside and pull up some weeds and cut back my hedge.  The boys decided to help by taking the cuttings to the bin for me.

February 13th 2015 - QUOTE

February13th 2015 - QUOTE

Todays pin is an inspirational quote that I found on pinterest.  I have added it to my board depression and moods.

I had a good day yesterday for the most part, I was at a meeting in the  evening which went on longer than I thought so I was hungry but never mind.  By the time I got home I had quite a few messages about something that I didn't know was happening and this turned my mood very quickly, however I wasn't feeling down about but very angry!

This event of yesterday that I knew nothing about made me realise that I need to get a grip of my moods and move upwards.  There is no point in moping about things that have happened or that I can't deal with, I need to sort out what I can deal with.  So I have spent today making phonecalls to try and sort yesterdays problem, although I don't have  answers yet and may not for a very long time I have started things in the right direction.

February 12th 2015 - HP Printer

February 12th 2015 - HP Printer

I swear to god I am going to throw something or hit the stupid thing!!!

All I want it to do is scan about 7 pages so that I can send them as an email so that they arrive quicker than via snail mail.  But no my HP 4500 Printer has other ideas.  It keeps telling me that 1. there are no computers detected and 2. scan to computer is not enabled.  So I follow the instructions, turn printer off and on again still nothing.  I click the disable scan to printer button and then click enable and still nothing.

I have no idea why it is doing this as it was working fine the other day.  My next port of call is to re-download the drivers incase they have somehow got corrupted or removed from laptop, not sure how they would have though.  I have unistalled and re-installed the drivers and still nothing.  So My final option was to completely uninstall and re-install the printer, turn laptop off and on again, turn printer off and on again and finally they are speaking to each other and have scanned the documents.  Only problem is I placed them upside down on printer and my laptop wont let me turn them round.  Oh well they will be emailed upside down!!!

Despite the printer being a pain today it is usually a good printer.  Although it wasn't that expensive when we bought it and the ink is very cheap to  replace (£17 total for both black and colour).  It has a scanner (when it works) a copy mechanism and is a good quality printer.  It also has the benefit of being wifi and you can connect to it via phone as well as laptop.  Most of the time I would definately reccommend it to people.  However today my answer would be NO!

February 11th 2015 - Story Mountains at Family learning

February 11th 2015 - Story Mountains at family learning

Today is wednesday, that means that its the day I go to school again.  I wasn't able to attend last wednesday as I had a meeting with St John Ambulance and hubby couldn't go in my place as we had a child off school ill with chest infection and asthma.

During today's session we were talking about story's, not just those read from books but those that you make up as you go along, those that have been told to  you by family members, stories that have happened to family members etc.  And after we had been told the story of the monkey that lived in a Jarmun (jaaa-moon) tree that tricked a crocdile we were asked to fill out story mountain sheets. 

A few of the younger mums had heard of them and even remembered doing them at school, whillst myself and the rest of the older parents (some are older than me) had not seen them before, so it was a whole new ball game for us. We all got the idea and filled them out.

We also did a "if you hold the toy you can talk" thing, but with this we had to each re-tell part of the story we had been told (again about the monkey and the crocodile).  It didn't matter if we altered it slightly or got bits in the wrong order.  I volunteered to go first - Once upon a time a little brown monkey lived high up in a Jarmun tree..... (I got the easy part!)

Again was a good day and the kids came in and joined us and again a story was read to them, this story was a true story about a boy and his green trousers and how he made a friend for life when they became to small for him, and they have a piece of homework to do linked to it - drawing the pictures about the story.

February 10th 2015 - Shortening curtains

February 10th 2015 - Shortening curtains

Today's pin inspiration comes from here.  A pin on how to shorten curtains, most of the pin is about cutting and stitching, but it does say at the end about just folding and stitching the hem.

The nice dyed curtains of a few days ago are starting their transformation - well one is.  One of them is going as a door curtain (when I get as far as adding the old curtain to it - was going to use a towel but already have the door curtain just wrong colour.) and the other one is going on the landing window, but obviously being a door curtain it needs shortening.

But instead of cutting and re-heming and then adding a lining to it I decided to simply fold it in half (still abit long for window but not much) and stitch the sides and the top together.  This is easier said than done!  The material is very thick cotton and I have bent 1 needle and a handful of pins already, so I am now using a leather needle and still strugling.  My thumb is very red from pushing the needle through and I don't have a thimble.

I will get them done and hung up, but I need to go and buy anotehr curtain pole as only got 1 and have 2 curtains to hang. lol.  I cant even use the existing one that is up as that is for the curtains with the little hooks on the back, and it will need to be fitted in the toilet with the existing curtain.

February 9th 2015 - Depression

February 9th 2015 - Depression

Today I had a telephone conversation with a counsellor I was referred to by my GP for Depression.  After going through the answers to the questionaire I was sent and answering her questions she conifrmed I am suffering from depression - well yes luv thats why I was referred to you!!!  Tell me something I don't know!

So this hasn't helped my mood much.  So for todays pin I don't have 1 pin but a whole new board linked to depression. 

There are many factors linked to my depression and low mood, and they stem back over 10years to when my Mum died, add to that 2 years later my Dad dying, move forward a few more years and my Hubby has a serious road accident of which had he been in a car wouldn't be alive today, filter into this lack of money, moving away from my friends and family (don't get me wrong I love where I live now, but I do miss my close friends), then there is the chronic knee pain resulting from twising it 2years ago and surgery almost 1 year ago, plus probably loads of other little things that on their own would be fine but altogether are a big problem.  I have tried to be strong and hide it for too long and it has just got to the point I can't do it any more.  I have spent the past 10years on and off anti-depressants.

I am fed up of not sleeping but being tired all the time, being hungry but not wanting to eat, being in constant pain, having no energy all the time.  The list goes on.

Anyway, hopefully the counsellor I see in person will be more use and come up with ideas to sort me out.

My Gp said I was a negative person as I came up with a reason why I couldn't do what he suggested - errrr no its genuine reasons.  He said "wrap up warm and go for a long walk" - I can't as recovering from knee surgery - some days just walking around the house hurts.  He said "go to the pub for dinner with your Hubby" - I can't as we can't afford to as on benefits.  He said "go to the pub for drinks" - just told you we can't afford to.  He said "go shopping with your lady friends during the day" - errr that involves money that I don't have and most are at work during the day.  He said "visit family" - I can't they are 5hrs down south in a car and I don't drive and can't do it in time for school, so he said "do it at a weekend" - can't afford to as nearly £100 return in fuel.  So yes they maybe negative answers but they are genuine ones and not made up excuses.

Onwards and upwards is the only way.

February 8th 2015 - Word Art

February 8th 2015 - Word Art

Today is a very dull and gloomy day outside, its really foggy and I can't even see the houses across the road!  This doesn't help me with feeling low and depressed.

So I decided to find some word art to colour in via the paint programme on my laptop.  I chose this image on pinterest for todays pin.  It says:

"some days you have to find your own sunshine"

Which I thought was great for the weather and my mood.  I will add a pic once it's coloured in.

Here it is:

 

February 7th 2015 - Halloween apothecary labels

February 7th 2015 - Halloween apothecary labels

Today my new ink arrived for the printer so I can now get on and print the apothecary labels similar to these (and various others I have on pinterest).

These are going on the bottles and jars that I have been saving to make halloween bottles/jars for a witches shelf for one of my best friends as she fell in love with mine last year at halloween and asked me to make her some.

Here's some of my bottles from last year, I can't find the picture of them on the shelf:

 

 

They have all been handmade by myself, most are from old food jars and medicine bottles.  The contents vary from things I have had in the craft box (feather shaped sequins) to shop bought items (the grow your own brain).  The labels were all found on the internet and edited to how I wanted them.  In total I have about 30 different jars/bottles on my shelf and where I am making a set for my friend and have had new ideas I will be adding to mine as well.  Once the contents are in the jar either dry or with coloured water/hair gel/hand gel/baby oil etc they are sealed with a hot glue gun to avoid them being opened by "little people".

Some of the new jars I am making include leprechauns gold (gold cake decorating icing balls) and ground unicorn horn (silver sparkly cake icing dust) and I have white glittery clay to make an actual unicorns horn.

There are many ideas on the internt for making apothecary jars, some are very simple others not so.  But the only limits are your imigination and purse.  I've had great fun in making those that I already have and i'm I sure I will enjoy making more. 

I plan to actually make a "life-size" witch to be sat with her potions over a couldron, she will be made from a £1 shop painters suit (stuffed) and then dressed in a witches outfit (including tights and hopefully shoes) and a witches mask.  This will be a depending on time make but as i'm not at home this year for halloween its not urgent.

A few of my new labels to go on bottles.  Please feel free to copy them.