I'm a bad blogger

I think I must be the worst blogger ever. Is there an award for that? Anyway I'm still alive and my son is now six months old. I love him. Wow I can't believe how cool he is and now I understand completely all those mothers out there that write about their kids.

This may be a short post as he will more than likely wake at any moment, like now so cheerio folks.

It's been a long time baby

Well I'm still officially up the duff. The bun has risen indeed and is becoming as volatile as a bottle of home brewed ginger beer. T-minus six days and counting, of course there is a certain amount of give and take with these things. There is no definite when and where so a certain amount of thumb twiddling is done to pass the time, well one would presume naturally. But in the land of all things ness it is in the state of a proverbial downpour.

Let me paint a picture...

DTB-Dad-to-be has put off renovations until the last minute. Squandering a whole winters worth of weekends on kicking back and putting feet up. Now that it is evident baby will come soon he freaks out and starts ripping the house apart so that the babe will have a room of its own. Partly encouraged by myself of course as I have no intention of rooming with the bairn until it is 5. Amongst the frustrations of a mechanic doing renovation work is the constant reminder from said DTB that he could be fishing or water skiing. Yes well if this was done way back when we had time for such things, when the weather wasn't nice and warm then he would have all the time in the world to go fishing and water skiing, are you all with me on this one???

Classes are still progressing and all the time I have had the past five weeks off work have been spent relaxing. I should have been more diligent in completing unfinished class work in preparation for my portfolio but no, I've squandered my time...not entirely but quite considerably. I am now due to drop the calf, as someone so eloquently termed it the other day, and am freaking out that I don't have the work to make the portfolio something to be proud of. Going through all the briefs with the tutor last night I discovered that my work has improved markedly in the past few months but still I am in that comparison trench of "it's not as good as others" I'm sure I have some selling points to work with when it comes to being gainfully employed again.

Giving up work was a wonderful thing. The place was becoming a source of much frustration to myself with management changes and the testosterone in the air was too thick for my liking. Several "kicks in the teeth and stomach" sealed my glee at leaving and I'm not looking forward to returning. I was under some serious delusions that I was an important member of their team there after serving 7+ years and it felt to me like they were too happy to send me off with a bunch of flowers and a gift voucher. So generous, so thoughtful, can you feel the sarcasm?

My mother was arrested the other day for breaking into cars. The poor woman. Symptomatic of her disease, I'm sure. She had escaped out of the fortress that my dad has created of their home when my brother left the gate open. Dad went out on a recovery mission and discovered at the garage 1.5kms down the road that they had found this vagrant lady trying to break into their customers cars and called the police. So my dad dutifully went to the police station to collect her and they discovered that she had discharged herself. The cleaner had nothing to do with it! They found her down the road trying to get into cars again. This is a massive source of amusement for myself. Imagine, detained people waltzing out the back door of the police station!!! My real mother, the one I knew before Picks took over, would rather die than be hauled off to the cop shop let alone try to open a car door that didn't belong to her. Thankfully my sense of humour in such situations comes from my dad so we both have a good chuckle over this one.

Rosie is still our number one favourite source of love and affection. She is just the best dog in the world. The amount of love that comes to us from her is immeasurable. We are so blessed to have her in our lives, is this what it is like to have children of your own?

I find myself pretty disgruntled with myself at being a step-mum on the weekends. It may have something to do with trying to work with a child who has learnt a completely different way of living without the same morals and ethics and manners as myself. just basic stuff such as hygene and routines. I am in continual conflict with myself and her and as she gets older and hormones come into play it is really giving me a taste of what I was once like, well not quite but I'm sure there are similarities. I find it astounding how much of an attitude a 10 year old can have, complete with death stares and indifference. It is never too early to enforce ground rules peeps! Still she says she loves me at the end of the day so I guess I'm forgiven.

After three months of changes and frustrations I have completed my cousin-in-laws wedding invitations. I'm really happy with them and it has been one heck of a learning curve in some areas. Also learning to work with the constraints of others ideas and wishes is a good lesson to learn if I am ever to do this for a living. They weren't that straight forward to start with. The invitation itself is a wine label on a mini bottle of wine. They had the images from the venue to use in the background but both the images were of a different tonal value so when I converted them to look the same they both came out with very different looks. The groom was telling me it was all fine but I, the perfectionist concerned with consistency, sweated buckets over the images. I nailed it finally and it was well worth the agony. Nothing like a deadline flying past to get it right! The whole package is pretty neat, I created a wine bag to present it all in and which contains a RSVP post card, registry card and also a directory of accommodation suggestions and directions to the area. A really cool package to receive and since they were handing them out by hand they got to see first hand their guests reactions. Well worth the effort.

I also had fun designing baby shower invitations for the combined shower my SIL and I had at the beginnig of last month. This was a lot easier as I had the idea in my head already and didn't have to try and keep someone else happy. I also designed the thankyou cards at the same time so they were a nice package. The course has come in very handy.

Well amongst a myriad of other things going on I have managed to keep my head above water. I'm madly treading below the water line but still here!

Better go and stop this procrastinating. Great to catch up with you all and hope you're all well and thanks for dropping by.

dingbat

That is me, not sure why but that last post was sitting in editing for the whole month. I kept going to my blog and thinking I had written more since the Pasha Bulker but there was nothing showing. Oh well.

End of August. Time is flying, my belly is bigger than ever but everyone comments that I am totally not looking like 7 months, apparently and according to one father to three it is my youthful and unstretched stomach muscles. Will see how I go when I have babe #2!

Life is as hectic as ever, classes are still full on and fun. I have baby shower invites to create and send and also wedding invitations for D's cousin who is to wed in March '08. She has overseas guests coming and wants them out by October.

I'm finishing up work on the 1st of October and counting down the weeks/days. I have a feeling that all that I am putting off until that time will be put off until the baby arrives and then until the baby is less dependant and then probably until the baby goes to school. Such is my life.

The weather is finally heating up after a week of gloom. It just so coincided with my brothers visit so he was not impressed. He mentioned something about his staying in NZ instead of coming to OZ. I'm glad he is still here to witness the change.

Well better go, just had to check in for the month before it ends and prove to myself that I wasn't imagining things, yes I did actually write a post after #86!

Stay tuned...

Upheaval

Life has been hectic around here lately. There has been one upheaval after another. After the window was smashed in the ute and a spare set of house keys was taken things went into a down hill slide.
D has been bitten by the renovating bug, spurred on by the imminent arrival of our first child. At first it was pretty straight forward. Put a wall where there wasn't one to make another bedroom. He ripped up the carpet in the area and we discovered that where we were planning on putting the wall and door is exactly where once upon a time there used to be one. It seems that our house was modified by some space loving communal living hippies, no offence to any hippies, I like you but sometimes it is nice to have some privacy!
So he put the wall up and the door is hanging and there is now a room but in either corner of the room on the outer part of the wall where the window is there has been some water damage. What appeared to be just a bit of a crack in the plaster board revealed something much more sinister, the timber framework has partially rotted from the ground up. Then to compound this while D was in the roof lining up the holes for the light switch cable he slipped off one of the supporting beams and his knee cracked the ceiling. He could have gone right through so he was lucky but this certainly didn't help his outlook on the whole project. I think he is seriously dismayed about the whole thing and I am in danger of having my dream of a livable house dashed. Fingers crossed for us that the room is finished without any other nasty surprises and I am allowed to have a living room and new bedroom.
While all this was going on at the beginning of July we celebrated our 6th year anniversary, for the amount of time since we met. This is a joint celebration with his cousin who turned 30 so we went out on the town, I sober for once due to our imminent arrival and he having a ball with all his cousins and friends.
Monday after this night out I came down very suddenly with symptoms of a cold. Tuesday I had trouble getting out of bed and after getting ready to go and do three important things I realised that I definitely couldn't do them as I was so exhausted from the effort of getting ready. So I called in sick to work, cancelled the rescheduled midwives appointment and called in sick to my evening class. Called the doctor and went to bed while waiting for the appointment time. I was in a very bad state when I got to the doctor and was ordered to take the rest of the week off. It is three and a half weeks later and I am still with a residual cough that comes and goes. If anyone out there has had this flu I know exactly what you are going through. It is not nice at all. Not only did I have it but D got it too. The only problem was that he couldn't take time off work to recouperate so had to use the masking effects of cold and flu drugs available at the pharmacy.
While this was happening I was informed on returning to work two weeks ago that my boss was leaving. This was a shock to me and I'm completely missing her. Things are not the same. The new guy is trying too hard and not really what I would do if I were in his shoes in a new company, especially when dealing with someone who has worked in the department for over 7 years such as myself. I wasn't offered the position which I think is an oversight even if I am leaving in a few months on maternity leave. They still could have asked me if I wanted the position and if they had offered it to me I could have groomed the next person to be as good a facsimile of myself and my old boss. Maintaining the standards we have instigated and all the clients are accustomed to. I believe I have strong grounds for discrimination if I choose to pursue it.
Anway better stop now, this is enough for one night.
Here is another pic of Rosie, just because you've been wonderful listeners...

Hello and welcome back, post 86 has been a long time in the making hasn't it!

I've been somewhat busy these past weeks but nothing really of interest to report to the wonderful wide world. I'm going to post some pics here now to keep you all happy and as a sort of pictorial review of my absentness...

The Pasha Bulker grounded on Nobby's Beach in Newcastle during a storm at the beginning of last month
The seat covers I made when the drivers window was smashed in a parking lot one evening. They stole a spare set of house keys, very unnerving, and left the car stereo

The fungus I found in D's grandmothers back yard, no colour enhancement has been used in the picture, it truly is this bright orange!
My delightful Rosie playing swingball, what a character huh! Oh, mind the junk in the laundry behind her. I really shouldn't bring attention to it but I can't help myself!

Better get going, so I can post another one another day!

post 85

and counting, only just.


Another month gone and no regular posts. I wonder what it is with me and this new trend. I guess either I am too busy reading everyone else's posts or too tired to think of something interesting for you folk to read. Sorry about this another boring me post coming up.


I went to a baby expo here in Sydney last Friday with my MIL. It was really good to see how many products there are on the market and I thought it was interesting for a newly pregnant person. I'm not sure if around the world it is the same but there tends to be a trend to use cloth nappies again. But the major difference this time is that they are fitted already. They look like a disposable nappy with press studs or velcro for closures. None of that fiddly folding and pinning. If anyone has a comment about this please let me know I'm very interested. The nappies I saw were made from either hemp, bamboo or soy fibre. Proclaiming to be organic and environmentally friendly which of course is a big selling point. I'm wondering how many of these you would need to get through a couple of days including allowing for washing and drying on the line. Would 40 be a too generous number?


The other thing I was really keen on was the pop up travel cots for when you go camping or travelling. I think these look excellent with their built in mozzie nets and compactness. Handy for a night at the grandparents or out camping.


My mother is roughly still the same although dad did mention that she has lost a bit of weight due to her restrictive diet of chicken sandwiches. I said to dad that she may get scurvy if she isn't getting any veg or fruit but he reckons she is fairly healthy. A major breakthrough for dad is that mum is finally cutting back on the alcohol but dad suspects that she isn't getting a kick out of it as much as she used to as he has been watering it down quite a bit. However she has taken a liking to the cough medicine but as I said to dad he'll just have to get the alcohol free kind.

They are trying to get her into a high security home in the city they are near but the folk whom they had sent the application to for assistance had conveniently missplaced it until dad called enquiring about it. They found it on a desk in a corner. forgotten. I can't believe this still happens. I guess it is more of a common occurance these days with less staff and more things to do but it is inexcusable that until someone enquires it is dismissed. The thing that irks me is that no one gets reprimanded for this. What has happened to customer service and management??


This is where I demonstrate my ability to truly procrastinate...


I had four weeks to do an assignment. It was a really fun one to do. We had to create a book cover design and type package without using the computer. All done by hand. I used to love hand lettering all of my school work and once I started this project I enjoyed it. The trouble is that I left it until the morning of the day they assignment was due. I managed to spend five hours figuring out what to do and doing it. I'd tried to start it a couple of days before but found that working at night wasn't good as I couldn't experiment with some of the ideas I had. So there I was on Monday, choosing the simplest of the three ideas. The other simple idea turned out to be a bit more difficult and also I was going down the wrong track with it. It was becoming more literal and not what the book was about,

this is the concept that I worked on for Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. I was really happy with the idea but it isn't really portraying what the book is about. The fish is a 2 with a 2 mouth and I ended up working more along the lines of a saying than a book cover so I had to rethink...

And this is what I came up with on Monday...

I was really happy with the overall end result in the amount of time I had. I did make a mock up with lots of various full colour eyes behind the cut out parts of the numbers but this simple b&w look was I thought more effective. When in doubt simplify! I sketched the numbers and then cut them out with a craft knife, pasted the eyes onto a new page and then glued the white numbers over the top. Then I cut all that out and pasted onto the black card. I traced the authors name onto white paper and inked it in with a black fine tip pen. It is very very shaky and sketchy and I'm not very happy with the imperfections of the name but it was pretty good for a half hour tracing. The teacher asked why I chose that book and I told her the truth, because it was one of the shortest titles I knew.

Skip a month here, miss a mother there

Happy early southern hemisphere mothers' day to all mums and mums to be out there. You are all wonderful and deserve that extra tim tam or serve of whipped cream.

Missing a whole month of blogging, now that is a bit tragic. But things keep on evolving in my world.
I'm due for my first scan on Friday which is very exciting.
My mother has been rediagnosed with Pick's disease which is similar to Alzheimers but affects the frontotemporal lobes of the brain, either resulting in speech difficulties or severe personality changes. Mum has the latter and it is not nice. She has lost most of her rationality and initiative. Her most recent foray in the public arena involved her trying to find money in cars belonging to other people. If only she knew what she were doing. There was a meeting of sorts in the community and people are more aware of her condition and there is talk of a secure facility for her to stay at.
I'll be trying out a new pinata constructing method tomorrow which should cut down the time spent constructing the main foundation and paper mache-ing, hopefully. It is due Sunday and is supposed to be a seahorse. I was hoping it was due next weekend. Never mind.
My father is contending with debt collectors that mum had inadvertently riled when she joined six mail order bookclubs with contracts for a year to purchase a minimum amount of books. They are very pushy and not sympathetic even when dad has explained mum's impaired judgement and mental capacity. All they want is the money. Typical.
D starts his new job on Monday although he needs another week to tie up loose ends with the business and home, our backyard resembles a scrap yard and is littered with assorted trailers and boats.
Rosie is a darling. I have taught her several new tricks. My pride of these is "Bang, you're dead" where upon shooting her with a banana gun or my two fingered model she lays down and rolls over laying very still for a period of time until I give her the "GOOD GIRL!" and much applause. I also taught her a sitting high five, standing high ten and to drink from the tap/faucet. She also drops the ball/stick/toy when asked so I can throw it for her again. I'm going to be working on crawling and standing upright on her hind legs next.
My course is going well. I got 85% on a test recently which I think is pretty good but I kick myself for wording the incorrect answers the way I did or I would have had a higher mark.
Sewing has been non existent.
Clearing the house of junk has been more prevalent and makes me so happy to have some space to reclutter.
I've been slack on the photo front and many other areas and find myself to be waiting for something.
I think it is waiting to find out if its to be a pink or blue baby.
The weather is beautiful. Raining mostly last week and nice temperate days this past week. It is deteriorating though for the weekend and mothers day. Typical.

Better go, will write soon...I hope