Dotee dolls

I have made three dotee dolls this week. These are tiny little material dolls with a hanger and tail and decorated anyway you like. I have done a button one for a swap - the dark green one. She is supposed to be a chinese one and has a chinese bun with a large red hair pin through (a button). The blue one is the first one I made. I started this at the ArtFest in June. I now have plenty of beads and a few interesting buttons so plan on making a few more. I might make some for stocking presents for Christmas! Here are my first three dotee dolls.

Below are pictures of a matchbox that I made for a swap on swap bot. It was a halloween theme. I had lots of leaves and autumn colours so that is what I used.

not quite as productive as I had hoped this week

Well at least my knees are getting much better. Mobilisation has improved tremendously and I can get about in the house without any need for support, although my left knee keeps clicking and wont work quite as well as the right. We went to Tesco's yesterday, I had hoped to walk round using the sticks but ended up opting for a motorised wheelchair. To be honest I was glad that I did cos I think it would have been a bit too much walking around. Although I ended up crashing into a display when I was trying to reverse park the thing.

But I haven't been as productive with my crafts as I had hoped. To be honest I spent the WHOLE of yesterday! (what a waste) looking at geocaching and working out all the caches I could nab along the route to Sheffield, along the M1. As it is such a main road, there are loads of caches at junctions and service stations. Not sure I will end up doing them all as there are nearly 20. It would take me all day to drive up there. That is of course if my knees are up to by that time.

Had some bad news last night. Paul's (my ex-husband) dad is dying, they say he doesnt have more than a day or so to live. He is such a character, he is in his 80s now, but that doesn't make it easier. I think it was quite hard on Paul because his girlfriend was away for the weekend and not available by phone so he had to deal with this sad news on his own. The trouble is I really would be okay to go to his dad's funeral as I really liked the guy but it is a good 5-6 hour trip there and another 5-6 hour trip back. So will have to think about that, not sure when the funeral will be. Brian (Paul's dad) split with Paul's mum when Paul was 14 and his sister, Pam, was 4. So he practically brought Pam up and she has lived in the same town as her dad her whole life. This will be particularly hard on her I feel. Brian has certainly had a full life, with two wives and several serious girlfriends. He has travelled a lot and has battled alcoholism for most of his life, like his father and his son. He was full of stories and a real ladies man. It is a great shame, I hope the end is not too difficult for him. Glod bless you Brian.

I've noticed how bereft of photos this blog is and when I get my camera back from Alice later today I will load some pictures up. I have made a few dotee dolls. There was a button dotee doll swap on swap bot that I have signed up for. That needs to be sent off before 7 Nov. But I am a bit wary about sending anything this week because of the postal strikes. Hopefully it will get there safe and sound when I post it in between the strikes. It has an oriental look to it as you will see when I load the photos up.

op

It is the morning after the day of my op on my both of my knees. I had arthroscopies of my knees to clean them up - it is called wash out and debridement. This means that they went in with the long rods through small holes in either side of my knees to take a look and rinse out any little bits of debris with water and to trim off any bits hanging off which might get caught in the knee bones and cause pain. The op went smoothly and I was in and out in one day. Andy managed to tear himself away from a 24 hour stint at work to drop me off and pick me up from the hospital. Alice thankfully helped me upstairs and was very gentle in helping me get comfortable in bed. Slept well as I was pretty tired. Woke up in pain though. After waiting for someone to get some tea and toast for me so I could take some painkillers, gave up waiting and struggled downstairs on my own. It took 45 minutes to get downstairs, make some tea and toast and take my tablets and hobble back up stairs again. Have brought some biscuits upstairs so I don't have to wait next time!

The left knee hurts me, the doctor said that it was the worst one. I had said that my right knee was more symptomatic and they have washed it out, but I dont think it needed anything more than that. They have trimmed the left knee, which is why it probably hurts more.

I was looking at youtube videos of knee arthroscopies and came across an American study which said that they did some fake and real arthroscopies (double blind to avoid skewing the results) and it turns out that those who had had the fake arthroscopies felt much better and no longer in pain. The mind is an amazing thing. I think if I remain positive about the outcome and work very hard to mobilise properly again I should have a very good result from this op. I hope to be able to walk further and even go cycling again. And maybe next summer walk up Mount Snowdon again. That is my ultimate aim; to walk up the mountain without half killing myself doing it!!!

At least being home for three weeks will give me plenty of time to do my hobbies such as swap bot and digital scrapbooking, as usually I don't get a great deal of time to do these. It does mean though that I can't go geocaching for a while, but hopefully when I do, I can walk around without too much discomfort.

Thank God that's over!!

Phew. Have just had Sev's 18th birthday party in the hall with his friends. The lad, who was only 16 and was the DJ, was very good. He used his apple laptop for the music and had all the gear - lights and speakers. The music was a little loud but he was a good DJ. Some of Sev's 'mates' were bloody annoying though, very loud and would not shut the outside hall door behind them when they constantly went in and out. Thankfully it was over at 10.30 and we turned the lights on and started clearing up. Ended up washing the whole floor afterwards as it was quite sticky. Hopefully he had a good time. He's gone off to another party right now and we are collapsed at home. Too tired to get upstairs to bed just yet! LOL

During the day I went geocaching and took Millie for a walk. I went round a memorial park. It was nice to read the large plaques aboout those that died in WWI and WWII. There was a river along the edge of the park and a geoache along the river side. So we had a little walk along there. The river was very nice and Millie thoroughly enjoyed going in and out. One of the caches I could not find, but luckily I cam across a fellow geocacher and we went to look together. He found it after a few minutes which was great. So we sat and had a little chat and then went our separate ways.

Now I've seen it all. Andy is flicking through the TV channels as usual when he came across a programme called Celebrity Poker Challenge. Watching celebrities playing poker. My God. We will soon porgrammes about watching paint dry!!!! I don't believe it (in a Victor Meldrew voice) hee hee

WTJ - Day 2

Wreck this journal - day two
Made great progress on the journal today. Went outside with Deb and Jill when they went out for their fag break and took the journal with me. I couldn't find the burn page so found one where it says I could throw it to the ground and stomp all over it, which I did on the wet grass. Then I gave Jill the book to wreck it however she wished without me looking. It was really hard not to watch what she was doing. I heard a ripping of a page and gasped with horror! Then she gave it back to me. I was relieved and pleased to see that she had threaded a dead leaf through the page. It was lovely. Then later I did some writings and screwed a page up. ONe page I have torn off and put in my trouser pocket to go through the wash. I hope I don't get paper lint all over it! I have taken some photos and will upload them later.

Here is the journal in the midst of being wrecked. Jill put a leaf through one page and one page I have stuck white things all over. The last one, on its side, is a page that I tore out and washed and taped back in.

CACHE
I laid a cache in some nearby woods on Sunday and last night it went live on the website. Already three people have found it today!! YAY. It is quite exciting. I might go and do some geocaching on Sunday as this is my last day for a few weeks. I have about 13 to do to reach my first 100.

wreck this journal

I bought a journal from amazon called "wreck this journal" It is pretty cool cos you get to do all sorts of things to it like throw it off a bridge, take a shower with it, and burn one of the pages, colour, glue and all sorts. Sounds like fun. I will keep the blog updated with how we progress.

Sev is 18 tomorrow. He is off to a gig with his mates in London so I probably wont see him at all. I am sure he will have a good time. He has booked his first proper driving lesson for Monday and seems quite excited about it. Andy has taught him to drive off road, but this will be his first proper go "on" the road. Glad he is finally doing something productive even if it meant taking away the xbox controllers!!

I took Millie for a walk after work today in some woods that we dont usually go to. It was nice to have a change of scene. She loved it as always. take my camera with meI must remember to I went off to find two geocaches that I was not aware of before I became a member. I have found about 85 caches so far, I had hoped to get to 100 before my op on Monday.

I am pretty nervous about the op. Will probably get a cold and have it delayed!!! I have a sore throat so need to nip that in the bud. Everyone around me seems to be sneezing or coughing. Am trying to make sure I have lots of things to do when I am housebound next week. Not looking forward to not being able to get for a walk every day but hopefully the op will mean that can walk further and without pain later on.

Off to Scotland next year

WOOOOHOOOO We are off to Scotland next year. And not just once. We are going to a family friend's wedding in Doune on 14 August. Andy and I are going to hire a Mercedes and drive up, a life long dream of Andy's. We have booked thehotel for Thursday 12th to Sunday 15th. It is in Callendar and is just 6 miles from Doune Castle, where the wedding is going to be held. I love castles and the idea of going to a wedding in one is really exciting. Not only is it a castle but it is the same castle where Monty Python team made the Holy Grail film. I really am excited about going. Also...... I get to do some geocaching up there as well. hee hee. Andy and Si have always wanted to drive up to Scotland in a nice car and play a round of golf. So if we get up there Thursday night then they have the Friday to go and play golf, whilst I go geocaching, and then we have the wedding on the Saturday. Scotland is just so beautiful, it is going to be a great weekend.

ALSO I am going to Perth, Scotland for week for the Mega Geocaching Event which culminates on 31 July. There are going to be various 'satellite' events throughout the week before, and I think afterwards but at the weekend everyone will meet up and there will be lots going on.
Check the site out for more information. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=0609bb26-13a2-42ae-8dfd-30d4259e34fe
They do say that you can take dogs and it would be brilliant to take Millie with me as I know she will love walking around Scotland. We can't take her to the wedding in August, so it would be good to take her on this trip. However she can't go into the main building on the weekend. They do say that you can keep dogs in the car underground so she wont overheat, but I really don't like that idea. I wonder if they can arrange dog sitters! I wont be able to relax and enjoy the event if I was worrying about her. I also asked Sarah if she would be interested in coming with me to the mega event. She is the only in the family who likes the idea of geocaching. It would be great if the two of us could spend some time going round Scotland. And if Ash wants to come to that would be great cos I could watch them climbing. I wont be doing anything quite so physical!!:S
So we'll see what happens. But YAY I am going to Scotland next year, not once but twice. :D
Oh yes this is one of my 101 things to do in 1001 days. Another one to tick off the list. It gets better!