Sleep Here I Come

This week has been rather up and down. I have been off work for the last day and a half due to a migraine which had been threatening since last Friday. My boss had to cancel a class this morning for me and I feel really bad about that. I feel equally as bad because I had to literally drive to work to get my CPAP machine fitted in the afternoon. My migraine had subsided to a bad headache but being out in the car threatened to bring it on again. I nearly cancelled but it would have been another 6 weeks before I could get in again. I just want my life back so I took the risk of driving. At least the fitting involved a 25 minute sleep test in the dark whcih was great because that helped me relax and not make the headache any worse. I still felt guilty though. The little devil on my shoulder kept telling me that if I could come in and be fitted for my CPAP then I could have gone to work.

When I arrived home D was here to massage my feet. She does pressure point therapy on your feet which was great because it has helped relax me even more and get rid of the worst of the headache.

As for the diet I am not doing great but I am doing better than what I was, whish is a bonus. In fact it is probably good because I don't want my body to go into too much shock. Obviously the headache has stopped me from exercising (devil likes to throw a spanner in the works every now and then). Coffee wise I had one glass yesterday and 3 today. Which is about a 3rd of what I usually have.

Well time to go and try this machine out and hope I get a good nights sleep and wake up headache free. I have to take two training sessions tomorrow! I am not cancelling them.

No more procrastination

Time to stop procrastinating and get on with losing weight. I need to lose 50kg. If anyone knows where I can get one of those weight bars that show your progress that would be great.

Thank you Simone for pointing me in the direction of the virtual me web site. As you will see I have put minnie me on my blog (not so mini really). I think the figure looks better than I do and that is coming from someone who thinks she is smaller than she really is. My bust for example is bigger than my backside and my my arms also come out so that they are slightly bigger than my hips. I am not however complaining about my dream image.

Sam and I had a circuit training session tonight (happens every Tuesday). I have enough exercise equipment to be able to do this. We have decided we will do it every Sunday as well considering her husband is home all day and she doesn't have to wait till he gets home to dash off.

So Tony Ferguson weight loss shakes here I come.

On another note I am getting fitted for my cpap machine on Thursday so I am hoping that I will be a lot more energised after getting a good nights sleep. It will be nice to know exactly what a good nights sleep feels like.

The last few days have been really hot. There is no point hopping in the pool until the sun starts to go down because I would get very sun burnt. What is even worse is that I can't get into the Studio to do some scrap booking. It is a tin shed with no insulation. When the temp reaches the mid 30's outside it is around 40 inside. So here I am having a long weekend - the ultimate time to spend on doing my crafts, and I can't get inside the studio for fear of dehydrating in seconds.

A year or so back a friend of mine who lived up the northern end of WA sent me this picture. It pretty much sums up how this summer is going. Oh to see snow again.
I want to thank all of you who have wished me a happy birthday. I am endeavoring to contact you all personally but thought I would also do it publicly in case I miss someone. On a sad note my dad seems to have forgotten and I had an Aunt who sent me an SMS on my birthday but I think it was supposed to go to someone else because all it said was laptop. Unless it is code for happy birthday then I have no idea what it was about.

My cousin is getting married next year in QLD and has asked me to do the photo's. I am looking forward to it.

I hope I can loose some weight before then. Ruth and I have become weight loss buddies. She has all my measurements and will tell me when I have done well. I don't like going by measurements and weight because I get depressed if nothing happens and then I go out and buy food I am not supposed to. I don't want Ruth to tell me anything until I ask. Other than that I have to be brutally honest about what I had for the day food wise. For the first time ever I told her the what I had the other day and I felt so ashamed. Putting it into words makes you realise how bad it is.

Birthdays

Yes that time of year has snuck up on me again and it is my birthday. My friend Ruth has put a message on her blog for all her readers to wish me a great day. She is so special. I have had more well wishes from strangers that I have my own friends and family.

It has been too hot to do anything today though a breeze has picked up now. My friend A is bringing her little one over for a swim and a catchup. I am looking forward to that. I have also managed to get a nice headache so I am hoping that goes away before she turns up.

IS IT FRIDAY YET?

I am dying for this long weekend. It was soooo hot today and I had a client who was going to drop in and see me after hours so I decided to not strip down to my bathers and hop in the pool when I got home. The client never showed and didn't call either. %#!@#$%

Wake UP

Quite a while ago now I received the below video in an email. Even though it is about a cat it is my dog Tess through and through (except for the last part of course). In order to wake me up she will jump onto and off of the bed. She will also nuzzle my hand and paw at my face, and whinge very loudly. Oh and her toys are scattered all over the place too. Enjoy the video.

This weekend is a long weekend in Australia. It is for Australia day (when the first fleet from England entered Sydney harbour). That means I have been writing this blog for a year. Somehow it feels longer than that. I suppose because so much has happened during the year.

One of my friends came over last night to do some circuit training with me (yes I have enough unused exercise equipment). It was good. First time I undertook any real exercise in ages. I am hoping it will enthuse me to watch my diet a bit better and get into the spirit of actually losing weight. I have to lose 50kg which is daunting but I have to remember there are people out there who have 100kg or more to lose and they are actually doing it. If they can do it then I can do it too. Any hints on how to make water taste nicer would be greatly appreciate (not the lemon either that is not a good taste).

Wedding Fire

Yesterday my friend "A's" Mum married her school sweetheart (yes after all these years). I was asked if I would do the photos and I jumped at the chance. It was a simple wedding which was really nice. One of the most fun I have been too. "A" and her sister "S" gave the bride away while "A's" son , "B" and her niece "K" were part of the Bridal party. B looked so cute. Below is a photo of the shoes and bow tie that he wore. He has only just turned 2. He also wore a cumber bun to match and had a white shirt and white pants with pin stripes. Unfortunately it was a relatively hot day and he did not want to co-operate for the photos while he was dressed up. I did manage to get one nice one of him though with the bride.

In this next shot one of the Matrons of Honour was on the ground holding the flowers. When I finished taking a couple of photos I looked down and she looked like she was doing the limbo in high heals. It was quite an awkward pose, and a funny one. I didn't take the time to get a photo though as I thought she had been in the position long enough.

Below is A and her niece K. They both looked gorgeous on the day.

Of course at every wedding there is always a little cutie to steal the show. This is G and she knew how to pose for the camera.

Well the day was certainly not without any drama. The wedding and reception was held in the back yard of the bride and groom. One of their neighbours so kindly provided some excitement by setting fire to his blackboys (a native plant to WA). Apparently they have to be burned from time to time however from what people were saying, you have to call in a pro to do it. The Neighbour decided to do it himself and armed with only a garden hose the fire got out of control very quickly. The wind blew the smoke into the backyard where everyone was trying to eat. Eventually a few of us went out to the front of the house to see what the commotion was all about. Below is the resulting picture. One of the Matron's of honour was furious at the idiot who started it. Even though he wasn't to know it was wedding next door there were enough cars and noise to know that something was going on.

Eventually the firemen came and saved the day. K and I stood back and argued over who got first dibs on the ones that weren't wearing a wedding ring.

Men in uniform, hard at work. Very Hot!!

On request, when they had finished they drove the truck around to where the wedding was and posed for some photos with the bride and groom. The Bride even ended up in the cabin.

Here we have G & B together playing in the ice tub for bottles of water. B is washing his face in this one. G kept trying to feed him the ice. He would put it in his mouth, suck on it for a couple of seconds while pulling a face, and then spit it out. This kept them both occupied for quite while. After that they started dancing, or should I say spinning around until they fell over only to stand and do it all over again.

It was a lovely wedding with great company and I am glad that I could have been part of it.

Monthly Challenge 1

I finally decided to participate in a monthly challenge. Normally most stores will have a pack made up and it is usually of the papers that don't sell. This store allows you to choose your own paper and colours provided that certain papers and embellishments are used. By the time I chose there really wasn't that much left to choose from so I got stuck with hot pink lace paper and patterned shimmer paper. Neither of which is something that I would normally purchase. This is good because it challenged me so I will continue to do the challenges when I can. As I said it was a real challenge to come up with something that would work. Last night I hadn't put the PRINCESS on yet and I really hated what I saw. When I finished it today I thought it's not that bad. Definitely not a winner and definitely not my style but at lease it matches Tessa's hat!

Video Fanatic

Okay so I am having fun with a small video camera. I'm a kid with a new toy!!! It was 41 degrees today (106F) and I jumped in the pool almost as soon as I got home. Tess decided to go for a float and then decided she wanted a cuddle from mum which meant getting in the water. She hates the water but doesn't seem to remember that until she is in it.

The photo is of her kissing mum. She likes to lick so look out if you get your face too close.

This is a shy side on glance that says: "did you like that? Do you want another one?"

INSTALLING A HUSBAND (got this in an email)

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance -- particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as AFL 5.0, The Ashes 3.0, and Golf Clubs 4.1.Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no! avail. What can I do?Signed, Desperate.....................................................................


Dear Desperate,

First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System.Please enter the command: "http: I Thought You Loved Me.html" and try to download Tears 6.2 and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5,Happy Hour 7.0 or Beer 6.1.Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources).

Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Food 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.

Good Luck, Tech Support

I am not sure if I mentioned that I bought my mum a small digital camera for christmas. Actually it is a joint presant but she gets priority over it. Anyway it has a reasonably good video on it. I tried it out this afternoon. It was stinking hot and we decided to hop in the pool, dog and all (not the chihuahua 'cause he loses too much fur and would hate it). Tess hates the water but she just loves floating around.

The video may take a little bit to load. Oh and yes the sound is very good so for those of you who have never heard me speak before ... well you get to hear it. May I suggest that you turn the sound down ... please. I sound like an absolute doofus.

Small things Part 2

Well I am a little concerned. On the way to work today (yep you guessed it, same place as the hubcap escape) I happened to notice a fluffy bright blue covering the helmet of a gentleman biker. It appeared to have two sections raised up on top. With luck he was turning a different way to me so I managed to come up beside him rather than stay behind. You would not believe what I saw ... The blue fluffy thing was a special cover that covered the whole helmet other than the visor. I managed to find a photo on ebay (where else would you find this sort of thing)because I know you will not believe it if I told you. The link if anyone is interested in buying it is http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Removable-Helmet-Cover-Dark-Blue_W0QQitemZ180205253932QQihZ008QQcategoryZ32628QQtcZphotoQQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Suffice to say he was not on a Harley Davidson!

Small Things

On my way to work yesterday I saw a car go round a corner that goes up a relatively steep hill (yes even in flat Perth). I had to laugh because a hubcap fell off and litter ally followed the car around the corner and up the hill. It didn't seem to slow down but rather gain momentum. It was like a child running to catch up to a parent shouting wait for me, wait for me!

I can say I am not the only one who was amused by this small thing because there were at least 20 pedestrians more interested in watching the hubcap than crossing the road. Which, when you think about the old saying "small things amuse small minds," makes you wonder about the intelligence level of the office workers in Perth, myself included! :)

Self Bound Album

I promised and here are the photos of the album I have made for my dad. He had better like it.

I made the cover of the album using cardboard that was around 1.5mm thick. It is actually made up of 5 different pieces to allow for movement.

The spine is fake leather. I have a lot lying around the house from the 80's when I used to make string puppet emu's out of sheep skin cut offs and leather. I used a wide ribbon to cover the edges and it has really added to the character of the album. Unfortunately it is difficult to find book binding metal corners. I used a thin pliable sticky metal (normally used in sealing glass slides) on the edges. Not quite the look I wanted but it helps protect the edges. Next time I have a better idea for finishing off the ribbon so I won't need the metal strips to prevent fraying.

The centrepiece on the front is a stamp that I embossed in copper and hand coloured with water colour crayons (they are soooooo good). On the back I have used rub on letters for my name and embossed an old camera in clear.

I am only going to show a couple of the pages that are in the album as there are too many to photograph. Below is the afternoon we went to the Royal Flying Doctor Service for a tour. On these pages I have chalked the outside of the page to highlight them. I have also used brads and embossing.

These next two pages are the superpit at Kalgoorlie. You stand there looking at the pit and see this miniature trucks and loaders going about their work. That is when you turn around and see the wheels behind you and half a scoop from a loader and you realise they aren't that small at all.

Once at a craft fair I saw a lady extending the scene of a photograph using hand drawn skills. She had two children in the photograph sitting on a river bank. She extended the landscape of the photograph. It was very effective but obviously requires skill in drawing. I managed to do a tire at least.

I hunted everywhere for fly stickers and finally found them. The flies were always bugging dad so I put a few of them here and there in the Album. On the page below and the one above I made the photographs age by rubbing sandpaper over them. It is quite effective on the right photograph. I don't know if you can see it in the photo though.

The Gold Pour is always interesting to watch. I have used eyelets, brads, ribbon, a spiral embellishment, and I cut out the lettering on a cricket machine.

This has to be my favourite photo of dad. He is standing in the Garden of Remembrance at the Mining Hall of Fame in Kalgoorlie. It is a Chinese garden out in the desert. Works well, like a little oasis. The paper I used is left over from Novi's engagement party album. The fish is actually imprinted on one of the pages so I cut it out. The one on this page was actually stamped through the cut out that I did and then I put clear embossing powder on it. I put the fish there because there were quite a few in the water.

On the way back from Kalgoorlie is the Ettamogah Pub. For those non Australians who read this, the Ettamogah Pub was originally a cartoon strip in the newspaper. It was so popular that there is now a pub in almost every state. It features the slanty walls and the truck on the roof just like in the cartoon. Not that you can see but I used the cuttlebug to emboss the red frame around the writing.

The main reason dad came for a visit was to see the Red Bull Air Race. The final is held here in Perth.

I took so many photographs of planes in the air and then dad said, "only send the photographs where there is something in the background." So I had to do something with all the photos of planes just in the air. I bought myself a chipboard set that is a frame in which you can push out 12 small squares. Some of the photos are flush to the page while others I have glued to the chipboard square so that they were raised up. Those one still sat flush with the frame itself and there really wasn't any clarity in the dimension so I used magic mount to make the photo's on the board itself stand higher than the frame.

It is actually very affective when you look at it. I tried to take different photographs that would show the layering. The frame itself took a while to emboss. I used a thick black powder and did about three layers.

This is one of my favourite photographs. It took patience but eventually a plane went near the moon. The plane that is traveling across the page with the jet stream, is one of the photos that had no background. In fact it is a Japanese fighter plane (not sure which war). You can't see it but I have raised it up using the magic mount. I have done this with many of the pages that have layered photos

Dad loved my car so much that I thought I should give him a photograph of it. These last two pages are more the girly type of scrap booking (somehow flowers and heavy machinery just don't mix, unless said machinery is rusting in a field full of wildflowers). I also put a photo of myself with Tessa. It is the nicest photo I have of myself but it is a couple of years old.

Well that is my album. Mandy saw me making the cover and now would like me to teach her and some others how to do it. Those of you who are near me who want to learn, please let me know. I will work out the cost of a pack and then a time we can all get together.

New Skill

Well if the multiude of techniques for scrapbooking weren't enough for me to play with I have now tried my hand at making and binding an album cover. I am rather impressed with my first try, even though it is a very tight fit. I will be taking photos tomorrow to post on here.

You may have noticed that I have tried to put a photograph slide show from Flikr on to my blog. For some reason it is only showing four photographs. I know why it is doing this but it will take forever for me to correct it as I have to change a setting on each individual photograph. Oh the joys.

I had a lovely day today. I spent most of it with my friend Mandy whom I have not seen since she got married last year. We went hunting for some new scrapbook stores and found a nice one close by. Each store seems to have something in abundance that the other stores don't have. This means if I want something in particular I may find myself traveling across the suburbs to get it.

My friend had a little boy on Friday. This is her second boy. She just started scrapping last year so I have bought her a few things to go with baby photos. I am hoping to go see her tomorrow though I do have work and other stuff to get done (like tidy up the craft studio because it is in such a mess after this album).

Anyway will put photos on tomorrow if I have the time.

Site Counter

I finally managed to get a site counter onto here. Thank you to Ruth for assisting me. Now you all have to read my blog to make me at least look popular!!!! :)

Well the weekend is here and after only two days back at work I am looking forward to it. I have my glasses and have been trying to get used to them. Sometimes they drive me nutty but I am really noticing the difference when I look at a computer now.

Well I must love and leave. Nothing much to say today. I should have another scrapbook item finished soon so I will photograph it and post it on here.

A Dogs life

I recently purchased a desk calendar full of dogs photo's and little quotes. The quote for today is as follows:

Dog. A kind of additional Deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world's worship.

At least this is what my dog thinks I am sure of it.

Rambo

I finally managed to get some nice photo's of Rambo not looking guilty!!

Now I lay me down to sleep ...

Zen Rambo - stretching is good for the soul !
Blaaaahhhhh

I see a bright light ... am I dead?

No, no, it's just Kerin taking yet another photograph!

Guard Dog

Middle Aged!!!

Only a few of you may be aware that for the last 8 months I have been hiding out at home because I have been very tired. On Saturdays I would be back in bed asleep only hour after I got up and then again in the afternoon.

Even though I think I have slept solidly through the night I have on many occasions nearly fallen asleep at the wheel of my car while on the way to work. It seemed to be coming from my eyes which would refuse to stay open. You get that sensation of going cross eyed and then you realise that you have had your eyes closed for quite some time. The afternoons are bad if all I am doing is working on the computer. Days when I have training sessions are fine because I am kept busy.

My boss is aware of the situation and he is great about it. I tell you, God could not have given me a better boss (mind you he has his moments).

Anyway to get to the point I had a stay at the sleep clinic in November last year and I went to get the results today. (Mum had to drive me in because I was afraid I would fall asleep). Apparently I wake up on average 11 times an hour. No wonder I feel tired.

So this means in the last 3 months I have managed to fork out way too much money on:

• a mouth guard to stop me clenching my jaw at night and hopefully prevent my jaw from locking in the day
• glasses
• and finally I have to organise a CPAP machine to assist my breathing at night

On top of all that I have had a nasty little rash on my torso for the last 4 months that looks like it could be an allergic reaction to something and therefore have to book a visit with a dermatologist.

I suppose the cherry on the top is what my mother said today: "You are middle aged. You have to expect these things now."

Someone correct me if I am wrong but doesn't middle age start at 40!!!! I still have 5 years to go.

Glasses and finding my way

Well it is official, I have joined the ranks of the many who wear glasses. Apparently the shape of my eye is more like a football than a soccer ball and therefore my eyes have to work harder to put things into focus. Hopefully I will see a decrease in the amount of headaches I get.

On another note I bought myself a Navman. Due to the amount of driving around that I have to do I figured that it is very beneficial (and tax deductible). I could have used it the other day when I went to Booragoon for a movie. I haven't been there for years and ended up on the wrong road and had to double back. When I got on the right road I turned the wrong way and again had to double back. My friend finally phoned me and gave me directions. I finally found the shopping centre but the directions she gave me to the cinemas didn't seem to work. I was close though but luckily a security guard drove by and I was able to ask. She was headed that way already so I followed her. My friend saw me as I came through the carpark with a security car flashing it's lights in front of me and the guard sticking her arm out the window pointing to the cinema underground car park. I actually still managed to drive passed the turn off as I didn't see it and I was also waving at my friend who was laughing at me from the bridge. Luckily no-one was behind me so I could put the car in reverse. Oh the embarrassment.

Anyway the navman will be interesting. I am not sure what maps it uses but I know that some use the whereis.com maps and I do know for a fact that roads in the city have wrong information. A couple of times I have punched in the address for a business and followed the map only to find that the numbering is two blocks out, and no it is not because I am a woman because even my boss has noticed it.

I do believe that the universe needed to pick someone to bring inconsistencies to light and it chose me. Even with computers I am always the first one to get a problem. In fact people at work actually listen to me when there is an issue with my computer because guaranteed others will soon have the same issue. My boss didn't believe this until he was recently proved wrong. He thought I had accidentally done something and then someone in IT looked into it and went back to him telling him that all the State Trainers will eventually have the same problem as they had been set up incorrectly. See - it's not the user it's the idiot that sets it up in the first place.

Christmas

Another year has come and gone. I can't believe I started this blog a year ago. So much has happened: got my dream job, mum retired, dad came for a visit, went to Adelaide for a conference, and so on and so on.

Christmas was here this year. It is normally at my Aunt and Uncles but they have moved out to the country and the rest of us told them they had to come to us this year. We had Christmas on Boxing day because my cousin and his family were doing the inlaw thing on Christmas day.

Both days were stinking hot. On Christmas it was around 40 C and on boxing day it was 44.7 (112F). Oh yes you guessed it, we hat cooked turkey and vegetables. Thank God we made a salad. Dessert was a choice between hot christmas pudding, icecream and pavlova. The pudding stayed in the fridge and never made it to the oven.

I normally make up the centre pieces for the table. Previously I have put christmas balls in a bowl or made a balloon topiary. This year I decorated some chipboard christmas trees. They look simple but it took me forever. In fact that part that looks like it took forever was actually the quickest part (the string with the punched out decorations).

Just before Christmas I walked into a pet store to buy the dogs their christmas treat. I couldn't resist the following. It really suits her personality ... spoilt brat, princess, tomboy!