Post Christmas

We've had a relaxing time and are enjoying time at home. The furry creatures are chilling as well.....

Looking handsome

Frankie pretending to be black & white

Stop Press

There is a knitted Finished Object in the blueadt house!

Washing and blocking needs to be carried out before photographic evidence can be provided but the rumour has been confirmed by a reputable source.

So in the meantime


Frankie says Relax.....

Out of my comfort zone

I've been playing with my new sewing machine recently and made this for one of my friends as she's returning to the US after living here for the past 4 years. She'll be missed



Cat Tote

Pattern: Simplicity 2575 Cat Tote

The actual sewing didn't take long but the preparation took far longer than I'd anticipated. I was lucky that another friend came round and talked me through the pattern step by step and also encouraged me to trace the pattern pieces which I'm glad I did as they are so flimsy.


close up

DH thinks that the cat looks Mexican because of his whiskers.

Frankie says, meh!:


Frankie

12 weeks plus

I'm finally starting to get better. The horrendous pain has eased and now instead I've just got pain and discomfort. I am 'walking' wearing the leg brace and using crutches and am actually bearing weight on my right leg!

Now my problem relates to the range of movement, or lack of, in my knee. The hamstring had shortened after such a long time of not being used and my knee being propped up on pillows. This is nearly resolved and now I've got to work on the knee. It's stiffened up & I need to be able to free up in order to walk normally again. I need 90 degree of movement in order to ever be able to walk and I have 45 at the moment.

So lots of very uncomfortable exercises to come and ice packs are my reward to numb the resulting pain. My muscles have gone & my leg has wasted away a bit so lots of work to do once I've got the knee working again. I aiming to be running again by the end of the year.

Btw: above is now my morning activity instead of walking with my 'dales, Frankie has the most amazing tummy........

10 weeks

after my accident and I'm still here:

Sat in exactly the same chair

wearing the same brace

with the red cushion under my knee.

The only improvement in this time has been the pain relief that I rely on.

Any early morning visitors will hear my alarm clock as it goes off at 4 a.m. so that I can take tablet

before the next one at 8 a.m.

Then 12 noon,

4 p.m,

8 p.m.

12 midnight, I think you get the drift.....

I have an appointment tomorrow morning with a consultant who should hopefully have the results of my MRI scan and will be able to sort out a plan to fix the damage.

I have also been seeing a physiotherapist who, working without the benefit of the scan, thinks that I need an operation and then lots of work to get walking again after that.

Hopefully I'll know more after tomorrow. I have a fear that I'll be put on a long waiting list but who knows.

Meanwhile life goes on:


Frankie

These were taken just over a month ago but I haven't felt up to posting anything. Frankie is now 7 1/2 months old and is a grown up kitty when he wants to be. He learnt to go out of the cat flap very quickly but it took him a bit longer to learn how to get into the house again.


Frankie

Now that he can burn up all his kitten energy he's often be found snoozing on the back of the sofa, snoring lightly as only a kitten can.....

A month later

and I'm still here sat on my butt in same the chair. The brace is still on and I really hate it. The crutches/brace give me blisters and I'm hobbling around.

Being in constant pain definitely gives life a different edge and my priorities have changed. It's now an ordeal to do anything and I REALLY miss walking the dogs in the morning. I've been told it'll be 3 months before I'm walking but one month on and I've had no progress to speak of so I'm not holding my breath.

But life goes on: Frankie kitten is now 6 months old & was neutered this week. He went out for the first time this afternoon & the woodshed was VERY interesting. He's developed a love of dog food so we're trying to persuade Oscar to eat his food so that Frankie doesn't steal it.


Frankie aged 4 months as we haven't taken any photos recently

I started a new job a week before the accident but luckily I'm based at home so haven't had to take time off sick. It's been interesting trying to arrange an invalid working area as I can't sit at my desk but it's doable, the work is interesting and I'm enjoying it.

Crazy Color Fingerless Gloves

Crazy Color Fingerless Gloves

Pattern: Basic Fingerless Gloves.
Yarn: 29g of Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Crazy Color in Passion
Needles: 2x 40 cm 4mm circulars
Time taken to knit: January 20th 2009 - October 17th 2009



This was another project that got forgotten about but it shouldn't have taken more than a few days.



Now that the weather has turned colder I've taken to wearing them in the house before the fire is lit & often work in them.


Lyra helps with the photoshoot!


The excitement was too much!

Cat-astrophe......

Frankie: snoozing oblivious to the threat that is Ginny



Ginny: Let me at 'im!



Lyra:If I close my eyes he'll disappear.......

It is possible......

Please bear witness I am knitting with an 8 week old kitten on my knee albeit asleep as he has crashed due a day full of fun and frolics. Yarny evidence can be spotted in the top left hand corner and I'm casting off a pair of socks.......

Play Time!

He's known as Frankie aka Thunder Paws and both dogs LOVE him.....

New recruit!

For what seems like ages I've wanted to get another cat, a boy cat to be precise and if possible a blue boy. Years ago when DH and I first got together he had a gorgeous long haired female called Furry Cat who was sadly killed on the road, I vowed then that one day we'd get another fur ball and this little scrap meets all of those requirements.
He is 7 weeks old and as yet un-named but suggestions are welcome :)

ETA:

DD would like me to point out that she took this photo! :DDD

Sunday Afternoon

I did some gardening....


and had help!

Happy Mothers Day!

I hope every Mum has had a lovely relaxing day today. Normally I don't but DD hadn't been too bad until half an hour ago. I think the hassle of trying to be good and helping someone else is just too much effort for her! To get myself into the mood I'm wearing my Mother's Day Socks

I really enjoyed the anticipation of having a lie in this morning. DH took the dogs out for their romp and I thoroughly enjoyed snuggling back down under the duvet and leaving him to the early morning walk

DD made me a lovely card and gave me two huge bars of chocolate. This made me giggle as this is what she gives her friends at school as birthday presents


red flowers

Spring is finally here after what seemed a very long and cold winter. The cats are enjoying the sun and flowers are popping up all over the garden:


Daffodil

I need to find time to get out there and do some gardening but working 5 days a week doesn't leave me much time at the moment.


Lyra enjoying the spring sunshine

Good Bye & Good Riddance

I for one am happy to see the back of 2008. It has been a difficult year in this household & I've had enough.

In January I had an appraisal at work. I had exceeded my sales target by 214% so expected a pat on the back but instead got a total b*llocking for something very minor indeed. I nearly walked out there and then. I started looking for another job.

In February DD went skiing in Austria with her school & hurt her knee. She couldn't play football or swim for ages but went back to swimming. She's only just recovered from her injury nearly a year later. She has stopped the football.

At the same time as this Blue was in & out of the vets. I waited for DD to get home before we had her put to sleep She was 7 years old.

Not long after that we got Oscar & things started to get back to normal, albeit with a puppy.

In May I got really sick. So sick that I had to put both dogs into kennels for 10 days.

Fast forward to July. I handed my notice in after enduring bullying for over 4 years & had found a job locally. I took two weeks unpaid holiday in between jobs to cover part of DD's summer holiday. At the beginning of this time I had a nasty experience. I didn't mention it here as the police were involved. A police caution was issued and that's that.

Then 10 days later I got ill again

So I was in between jobs with a 2 week sick note due to the stomach surgery. I couldn't afford to be off work for 4 weeks (2 already taken as holiday) so started my new job a week later than originally planned and one week after surgery. I was in pain but didn't need to walk far or lift so managed with lots of pain killers.

6 weeks into my new job and it was announced that the company was to be sold. I was furious as I had left a job where I had been for over 4 years and now had no security so I started looking for another job. It went down hill from there.

Once the sale went through we had a 'pure survival meeting' and were basically told that if sales didn't pick up we'd all be out. Plus I was in an 'internal room' without any daylight and found that very hard. My line manager was now the site manager and turned into a little Hitler shouting at everyone including me.

The new company name was p8rnographic and I had a problem with it. I was finding the whole situation VERY stressful and with DH's support resigned at the beginning of December.

Then DH got sick and a few days after he came home from hospital we had to say Good Bye to Pam.

Yesterday just two days left of 2008 I had to take Annie to the vets as she was passing blood. She is still there as she has severe von Willebrands Disease. Today the news was better & hopefully she'll be home soon.

The good news is that apart from everything that happened above we're all ok. My weight loss has reached over 4 stone and I want to reach my target weight in 2009. I feel like a new woman and am running regularly with Oscar.

So in 2009 I'm hoping that we won't lose any pets. That none of us will get seriously ill & that I get sorted with a job soon. I have an exciting opportunity that will hopefully mean that the latter is sorted but I won't know for a few months.

I also intend to lots of knitting mainly for me

Merry Christmas

or should it be 'Merry Catmas'?