Being Green

If a pug can do it, surely we all can?

Check out the orginal Puglet from the Daily Puglet Blog being green...talk about super extra special and awesome tricks!

In the news!

Woot!  A few blog entries back I mentioned that I was visited by Flat Puglet and I took him around Sydney.  Well I just heard from the original Puglet today that for a promotional artical about Flat Puglet they used a photo I took from his visit here!  Talk about a jumping up and down moment.  Check out the article here.

Crick of the neck

Last weekend I cricked my neck on Sunday morning, I couldn't turn it to the left and I was in a lot of pain.  After taking a mountain of nurofen and keeping my heat pillow on it pretty much all day I managed to loosen it up enough to be able to get about.  Then on Tuesday I went to see my massage therapist and he worked out the muscles.  It hurt like I can't describe but I felt much better and two days later was though it was all over.

It's a week later (the following Sunday) and this morning I did something again.  I just stretched my neck and I felt everything going crack.  Next thing I knew I was whimpering in pain, barely able to move.  Strangely even though it seemed to happen in my neck it was my lower shoulder that was in pain.  In fact almost 12 hours later it still is.  I've been dosing up on nurofen and heat again, pretty much laying straight on my back all day, but still it hurts and I'm worried about how I'm going to sleep tomorrow.

So this time I've decided to go see a physio as I think the problem might be more than muscular.  The fact that I heard my neck crack and have repeatly since makes me think something skeletal may also be the difficulty.  So I'm calling early tomorrow in hopes of getting in.  I'm wondering if I'm going to be able to drive, if things don't improve it's going to be a taxi job.

It's the killer attack of MANFLU

I've been imprisoned all Easter Weekend, not by my own lack of interest in going outside, but by my boyfriends attack of flu...which will hence be referred to as Manflu, because he is pathetic about it. 

Interestingly he's managed to go to the movies with me (his choice of movie of course) and has cleaned up the music room so he can do some composition, but I can't really complain.  I wanted to go out, and it was his turn to pick the movie, plus I've been wanting that room cleaned out for months, haven't done it myself and am absolutely ecstatic that it's been done now!  I love looking at it, keep just walking in there to experience the unclutter.

Regardless he is a sook when sick, here he is lying in bed on Monday afternoon, playing on his iPhone and sounding very stuffy.  (he actually has a cold but manflu sounds much better than mancold  LOL)  So I'm sitting next to him in bed right now to write this and am stroking his head.  Seems to make him feel better. 

Tomorrow is back to work after the Easter weekend and I'm no doubt going to have to battle with him about returning if he's still feeling sick.  Although really I just wish he'd take the meds to keep the phlegm off his chest, or we'll have a week of coughing to live through before this is over. 

Oh well I'll make him a yummy stew with veggies for dinner and that should help too.

Opportunity presented

An opportunity has been presented to me work wise that really wasn't what I expected.  It could help me with building contacts and reputation for my company, but it pays a lot less than I would get as a teacher. 

I'm definitely going to take it, it's regular money no matter how much it is and means I'll be involved in a school community again.  I just hope it lives up to my expectations when it comes to the opportunity it presents.  It's not obvious opportunity.  There is no guarantee that anything will come from this, so it's up to me to prove myself and work it.  I need to make something out of this.

This means working on what is my major obstacle, my fear of social situations.  Specifically networking.  I can stand in front of a crowd of people and deliver a course of Professional Development now and not bat an eye.  I don't get daunted by that any longer, I've conquered that fear, and it was a major fear.  But the face to face, meeting and greeting, chatting without always having a specific topic or goal is hard for me.  Those who I've become friends with already are not a challenge for me, I can chat with them fine, but people I barely or only slightly know are a larger challenge.  I'm going to keep working at it though, I can't conquer this fear too.

Now I just need this opportunity to come through and help me to feel more secure financially.  I think it'll help me with my depression about being home alos, people to get ot know and socialise with!

Cowards and a pile of squares.

I found this horrid little message in my mail box this afternoon.  Not only did they not sign their name and say who they represent (cowards!), they've dropped this nasty little pieces of paper in a major immigrant area of Sydney.  Nasty pieces of work.

I really can't understand the ignorant and prejudice attitude of some people.  They happily enjoy the benefits of having immigrants come to Australia, but then grumble about them stealing jobs and blame them for everything that's wrong with our wonderful country.  It just makes me so sad.

On a happier note...

I've been working hard on my crochet squares and am now 1/6 into my blanket.  It's great knowing what colours I'm going to use now.  I'm a little concerned that the brown is a bit too dark and that the honey colour doesn't match, but short of mixing wool types I didn't have a lot of choice.  Not to mention this wool was on special. 

Thing I can't understand is why people would do this for any reason outside of pleasure like I'm doing it for.  Even with the wool on special it's costing me over $100 to make!

Lonely Birthday

So I just wrote a long passive agreesive blog entry and deleted it.  I hate it when I do that.  My blog might be a place to express myself, but it is not a way to send messages to those I love.  If I have issues I need to raise them with them, not put it out there for the world to see and make them feel bad.

My birthday was a whole lot of spoilage.  Not only did my partner buy for me the wonderful boots I've been drooling over for weeks, I also got a 4 hour day spa package called "The Be All and End All" at Endota Spa.  It was actually for our anniversary, but I went the day for my birthday, so it felt like it was for that.  I got a foot bath, scrubed down, wrapped, soaked in a spa, massaged and a facial.  Totally wonderful, if you're interested in a good spa I'd highly recommend them and they're all over Australia apparently.  I got myself a couple of cupcakes afterward the continue the celebration at home.

So that was my birthday, it was kind of lonely not having the ones I love around me, but I suppose I need to get use to that.  I'm not a kid anymore and not every birthday is going to be a big celebration.

Teppanyaki and Karaoke

I went for a wonderful night out with friends last night.  My partner and I joined three friends for Teppanyaki.  It was a lot of fun watching all the action and tricks that you chef used.  For the second half he brought out the eggs, raw eggs mind you, and wanted us to catch them in bowls.  The first three went fine, so though I knew what I clutz I am at catching I didn't question myself too much.  Next thing I knew I had raw egg all over me.  And I do mean all over, the whole bottom half of my shirt and all down the legs of my pants. 

I think I'm still recovering, I'm not yet to the stage that I can laugh about it, but I know I'll get there.  I think what shocked me more than anything was the little reaction of those around me.  The staff really didn't do anything, just pointed me to the bathroom after I got myself up.  *sigh*  So when he started the next round of tossing food at us when I got back, I pretty much said outright "No", but still I got talked into it and ended up with cooked egg down my front.  I really am a clutz.  I think now that I was relying too much on his ability to aim!  It was good food and good fun though.

We headed to the pub around the corner then and had cocktails followed by karaoke and dancing.  It was a lot of fun just letting loose and being out.  I really miss going out like that.  It use to be such a regular thing for me, and now it's so rare.  Though considering the condition of my neck after some fairly enthusiastic dancing last night perhaps it for the best.  I wonder if that's my age or my fitness level...or both!  Well at least my fitness level I can keep working on. 

Granny squares

I've starting trying out crocheting again.  I haven't done any since I was about 7, so it was a sharp relearning curve to be able to do it.  Thankfully there are some seriously good tutorials on YouTube if you're interested.  Check out Teresa and Mikey.  I've been planning on doing this for a while and the deal was sealed when I found a really orignal but simple blanket design uning granny squares in a magazine.


Mum had given me some wool to use and practice on, it's really ugly colour, but it works for just getting better at sewing the squares.  I don't want to start on the real thing, so this will do.  What do you think of my first square?  Not too baby for a first try in over 20 years!  Now I only have to make 225 squares for the blanket, and that's after I've made enough practice ones to feel that I'm good enough to start.  I don't mind though, I started this as something I could do pretty mindlessly.  And if it works out I could be making blankets for all the family! 

Visiting family and self image

The past weekend we headed up to visit my parents in Tamworth.  We hadn't been up for a while so it was good to see them all, but the visit had more purpose than just this.  Firstly my partner needed a break away and he always feels better after having a break away from the city, secondly I needed to deliver Flat Puglet to my sister who had agreed to carry on his travels around Australia, she's also a big advocate for recycled pets and recently gave a cat a forever home herself.  That was another reason for our visit, we really wanted to meet the newest member to our family, my sister's new cat, Cindy.

The most important reason for our visit however was my dog Richie.  Richie was a gift from my parents when I got into university, however after I finished uni I went to live in Japan for 3 years and couldn't take him, so he stayed with my parents and got to like farm life, so I could never take him away from that when I returned to Australia.  Richie is getting old now, he's 13 years old, has arthritis, is deaf and almost blind with cateracts. 

A few weeks ago was a wake up call that he might not be with us for much longer as he was really struggling.  Mum was taking him to the vet to see if there was anything to be done.  Purely by accident in the process of this she took him off some eye drops he'd been given by the vet and made remarkable improvement.  So the ideas being tossed around that he might need to be put down were given up, but the dread I felt about it remained.  So I really wanted to go up and spend some time with him. 

It was good to see that while Richie is not doing as well as he once was, he is okay.  The other dogs there take care of him, which is a little ironic since before all this he wouldn't have anything to do with those young, energetic girls.  The important this is that he's okay for now and I got to see him again and so if he must go I will feel more at peace about it.  I certainly don't like the idea of him suffering.

Monday was a hard day for me.  I've been dieting and exercising a lot lately, but it's hard to constantly deny yourself.  Well not that I do really, I still have little treats, but when your partner is eating chocolate everyday it feels like denial.  I ended up balling my eyes out on Monday after I couldn't resist some chocolate, the dogs new instantly that something was wrong and started barking and trying to get through the windows to me.  That alerted my partner after a bit that something was wrong.  So we ended up having a long talk about not making it so hard for me to succeed at these challenges for me.

I think what was really important about it was the negative way I viewed myself and how I need to keep working on improving that.  And I really am working on it.

Work, Flat Puglet and no ATCs

I haven't blogged at all this week because I've been doing so much!  I had a few meetings for work, gotta keep building those relationships.  I even though I might have had a day booked, which got me really excited, but it fell through.  Still they said they'd like to book me at some later point.  So I'll just have to keep that door open.

Flat Puglet also arrived this week.  Flat Puglet is traveling around the world to spread the message about rescue pets, that they're just as good as kittens or puppies, if not better.  So Flat Puglet and I checked out Sydney.  We even went on a Sydney Ferry which I hadn't done in years.  Anyway, my entry will be up on the site in a few days.  In the meant time, here's a sneak peek with a picture that isn't going to be there because it didn't turn out as well as I hoped.

I'm a little disappointed in myself for how little art I've been doing of late.  I really have been neglecting it, and it's the ATCs especially that are making me feel bad.  I'm feeling pressure to do them and it's only making the inability to do them worse!  I'm thinking about taking a break from them and cancelling myself as a moderator.  It might help me get my grove back.

Oh BTW, check out this great list of 101 Things I love about Dogs.

How do you measure up?

What a lovely day.  So cold and drizzly all day, I've loved being snuggled under my blanket and breaking out the colder weather clothes.  Nothing like long sleeves hanging over your hands to make you feel good.  Don't know why, but it always works for me.

For the last year we've been told by the media that Australia is currently the most obese country in the world, which is seriously concerning to me and was one of my motivators for my current weight loss regime.  The Australian government is even running a campaign to encourage everyone to get active, it's called "How do you measure up?"  I think it's great no matter where we are on the world scale, what surprised me when I started researching for this entry was that I can't find any statistics to back this up.  We're certainly high on the list at no. 6 in the world, but we're certainly not on top of the list.  Wonder which list was being quoted when they mentioned it in the media. Maybe I made a mistake and it was childhood obesity?

Regardless, along with following the weight watchers plan to monitor what I'm eating, I'm also taking the "How do you measure up?" programs suggestion to exercise at least 30 minutes a day.  So I'm walking every morning.  Today I saw these cockatoo in the park, and they barely moved when I got close!  Just goes to show that good things can come from exercise.  ;-)

Cleaning and creativity

There is something lovely about the feeling of a clean house.  New sheets on the bed and fresh towels in the bathroom.  Everything just seems nicer.  If only I actually enjoyed the cleaning part, but it's done now and I got the enjoy all the good parts. 

I've been playing with mandala zentangles, they're relaxing to draw and be free form about.  Here's one that I drew last night.  If you'd like to see more samples then check them out here, it's where I got inspired.

I also did some bamboo cards today, it was fun to play with inks and watercolours to get a simple effect.  I learnt how to do this from Yanghaiying's YouTube channel and you can see the tutorial here. 

I made a few of these cards so if you're interested in trading for one of these ATCs leave a comment and let me know.

Listing my little things.

Today I was a bit late getting up to take my morning walk, the garbage truck woke me at 5am and that always spoils my sleep, so it was hard to get up.  I did however and I'm glad that I did.  Today a few good things happened.  I'd just like to specify first though that generally I tend to try to appreciate the little things in life.

So first off I was happy because I completed my walk in record time.  In fact I've run out of excuses and must tomorrow extend my walk.  Hopefully this means I'll have a good week on the scales this Saturday.

Then walking home I checked the mail and there was a letter for me!  I've recently wanted to start writing letters again, not emails, but lovely hand written, sent through the mail letters.  So I went to a website (a bit of irony there) and found a few people that sounded right to me and asked them to exchange letters.  It's been a long wait, but today one arrived.  In fact she was the lady that was kind enough to start our letters to each other, all the others asked me to.  So I had a lovely time reading her letter, get to know you sheet and looking at the ATC she sent me.  Her handwriting is so pretty I'm a little intimidated as mine really isn't after years of mostly typing, but I'm not going to let that stop me.  I'm going to start my letter back to her after this.

Today is cloudy and gloomy, my favourite kind of day, so I got to wear my ballet slippers and cardigan and feel all snuggly. (note: it's summer here right now) It was a lovely feeling, something so comforting about wearing such comfy and warm clothing.

The last of the good things that happened today is that I've put a submission in for suggested classes at two of my local community colleges.  Hopefully this will lead to more work for me down the track, but in the meantime I feel good and hopeful that I've put the submissions in.

Oh today I've been remember all those childhood rhymes.  You know:

All Right Vegemite
Far Out Brussel Sprout
Roll Over Pavlova.

They were a series of Children's poetry books here in Australia.  Do you know any more?

A companion

So being at home so much has been getting to me.  I get very lonely and really would like a dog or a cat to keep me company.  I spend far too much time reading animal blogs and watching YouTube.  If only if only if only I lived somewhere I could have a pet.  I'm never going to make that mistake again.  And I can't wait til we have enough money to move!

I thought I'd share this little video though.  I never knew pugs could come in white...he's so adorable.



BTW if you're in Australia and are thinking about getting a pet, check out these sites that have dogs and cats up for rescue and mature adoption. 

Pet Rescue
Dogz Online

Okay just one more...so cute...and yes there is a slight pug obsession going on today.

Dinner Date

Yay!  I got taken out to dinner tonight.  Unfortunately I decided to get myself a glass of wine before the food arrived and got a little tipsy, or as my boyfriend called me, drunk.  So feeling very giddy I found it kind of hard to participate in a serious conversation about my situation at the moment.  I feel terrible about that.  I really should have realised that I had an empty stomache and that with my weak resistance to alcohol it was going to go bad. Luckily my boyfriend didn't seem upset, and given that it's Sunday night I don't feel too bad.  It wasn't even a whole glass!  It is at times like this though that I lament that I'm such a feather weight with alcohol.

I've had an idea for making friends in the area though.  I love making ATCs and wish that there were more in my area who were interested or even that I had some sort of social art group.  Since I can't seem to find one I though that I should try starting one.  I'm doing my research first, to check that there are none about that I can simply join.  Otherwise I'm going to try and make use of community boards, the local library and perhaps the local scrapbooking store to get people together. 

Where I lived before I went to an art class for 4 years every Tuesday evening.  Even though we paid to go, after the first could of terms it was more about being social and having time for art than about the class.  I really miss that and hope I can find a way to get it back.

And make friends!!

Plodding on

It was a loss at Weight Watchers, which I'm very happy about.  However as always there's a but.  It wasn't as big a loss as I would have liked, in fact it was small, only 0.3kg.  I'll take it though, and this week I'll do better.  I'll walk all five days like I'm suppose to and I'll stick to my points more closely.  I'm also going to lower the points I have per day.  I think that perhaps I was right and the computer was wrong with those calculations.  Hey, at least I can cheer about that!

My boyfriend made me get out my cross stitch today which was very good of him for two reasons.  First of all I was complaining of being bored.  What I really meant was that I wanted to go out and do something, I've been feeling a bit confined at home, but he didn't sleep well and only got home last night.  So naturally enough he didn't want to go out.  *sigh*  I could of course have gone out myself and did consider it, but then he suggested that I get out the cross stitch and I'm glad I did.

The cross stitch I'm working on is the partner for one I finished while I was at uni, I can't believe it but that was 10 years ago!  That means I've periodically been working on this cross stitch for 10 years.  That doesn't make me feel good and makes me worry about my inability to finish projects.  If I couldn't look around the room and see other projects I'd worked on over that period of time I'd be seriously worried.  So I'm going to focus on working on getting this cross stitch finished and up on my wall.  Good news is I won't have to worry about money too much for the framing because I already have it, will just have to pay for the labour to have it done.  I can't wait to see them both up on the wall together, but for now I thought I'd show you what the first one looks like. 

Windchimes

I've kept working today on staying active.  I got up for my walk this morning and then cleaned the apartment when I got home.  I then spoilt myself with a trip the art store and bought myself a small set of watercolours so I can start playing with them.  Then I did the grocery shopping.  All by lunch.  I was pretty happy with that. 

But now I'm doing a little art, playing with my watercolours and remembering how bad I am at them. *grin*  The best bit is the fresh wind and the windchimes.  I love the feel of the air flowing around me to the tune of the dancing windchimes.  My boyfriend gave me a glass windchime from Japan, it's called a furin and really makes the most lovely sound.  After living in Japan for 3 years to me it really is the sound of summer and is so relaxing.

Tomorrow I weigh in and see how much I've lost this week.  I hope it goes well!

Art over the last few months

I haven't been doing as much art as I could have been over the last few months. But here is a selection I've done during that time.

This little Faerie was done for an Advent swap. 24 of us made 24 for of the same card and sent them to each other to open over Advent. It was a wonderful swap and such fun to open them over an entire month. I must say that hand drawing her 24 times though was pretty hard work!

These cats were drawn for a person on request. They are actually her cats from three different photos that I combined into one. The littest at the front was the hardest as the angle of the shot was so different from the other two! It's actually much bigger than it looks here. I didn't stick to the usual ATC size for it, couldn't with all the detail needed.

The painting is of Angel falls, it was inspired by the movie "Up" which I really enjoyed. The copic horse was drawn for a friend to trade with for one of her lovely flower paintings. The aged card was done as part of a 5 card series that told the story of a some mysterious documents which told of some impossible animals, plants and a mysterious location.

Moving on

It's been a while since I've blogged and a lot has changed since then. So I've decided to make this blog more of a personal blog rather than purely for my art. I need a place for self expression to help me deal with what I'm going through at the moment.

So where am I? Well I was made redundant from my job last year and now I'm starting up my own business in an attempt to continue my work with teachers to help them with technology in the classroom. This is very slow going, almost a crawl, and is quite disheartening at times. I've never worked for myself like this before and I feel very insecure. My partner is very supportive, but it doesn't change my feelings of self worth when not bringing in any money.

I think one of the other reasons I've been feeling down also is I feel very isolated here. I haven't made a lot of friends since I moved here and I really need to put more effort into that. I know from pervious experiences that it does take effort, so I need to find groups to join and meet people. By the way, gyms are not good places to meet people. I've been trying that for the last year and no one there wants to chat.

The other major difficulty I've been battling with is my weight. I'm the heaviest I've ever been right now and it's time to do something about it. I've rejoined Weight Watchers and have already lost over a kilo, just got to keep that momentum up. I'm walking most mornings (and let's just say that's really astonishing) and keeping to my points. It's going to take time but I will get myself down this year.

So those are my gripes. I know this wasn't a particularly positive entry, but I needed to get that all out so now I can focus on what I'm doing to make a change. I need to get up every morning and put effort into my life to keep it going.

Oh for a blog that I've been enjoying and keeping me smiling, check out the Daily Puglet, it's a great read.