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Monday, June 29, 2009

grrr

I probably shouldn't blog when I'm mad. Plus, no one likes to read ranting angst-y blog posts. Except me. I'm sick of all the airy fairy goodness everywhere I look. I like reading a good rant here and there. Maybe I can turn it into a lesson at the end or something, you know, give a lame excuse as to why I needed to vent to begin with...we'll see...

Ok, so, today Hubby and I both had dentist appointments. Fun times. I had physically walked into the office about a month ago and made appointments. Receptionist wrote down our appointments on a card, which I put in my wallet. As soon as I got home, I then marked in my iCal (computer calendar application). I don't screw up times. I'm anal like that, and I hate being late. I also don't forget things, unless I have been taking drugs or something (no, not DRUGS-drugs, my nerve pain drugs - they make my brain not work). We're just about to head out the door, and the dental office calls, telling me I've missed my appointment. I am confused, and say, "no, it's in 15 minutes, we're leaving now". She says "no, it was 15 minutes ago, I have it right in front of me". So I though if we're going to play the right-in-front-of-me-rude-tone-of-voice-game, I'll jump on it. So I tell her that I have it written down on her little cards, right in front of me! I tell her we're leaving right now anyhow, so we'll be a few minutes "early".

When we get there, I ask if she wants to see the card, but of course she doesn't. But of course she also doesn't bother to pass on to the dentist that SHE screwed up, so when they call me in, I get a snarky comment about mixing up my times. By then my mouth is open, and I can't really get out that she wrote it down wrong for me, but I can see that neither of them believe me anyhow. No apologies.

When we go to pay, Receptionist then goes into this long winded thing about making sure this little mishap doesn't happen again. Oh boy. I did nothing wrong, I don't see how me doing anything differently would have avoided this mistake. In fact, I will do nothing differently next time. I have come home again, with the same kind of card, and entered the info into my iCal. End of my obligations, except showing up.

Don't you just HATE it when you did nothing wrong, but everyone else seems to think you did? I guess here is the lesson: grin and bear it. You look like a complete loser if you keep trying to defend your honour. I stood up for myself once, and then left it alone. Sometimes it's harder to shut up, but sometimes it's better. I suppose, as always, pick your battles. There are countless times I wish I would have said what I thought to some idiot I encountered, but it's never worth it. When it comes to defending yourself, don't let it become an argument, or you look like you're grasping at straws. Say your thing, and then let it go. The other person probably does realize they made the mistake, but they're too proud to admit it. That's what I tell myself anyhow. That's actually something I work hard on: Admitting, and then apologizing when I have been wrong. It's never fun, but it's worth it. No matter who it is.

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Friday, June 26, 2009

23 Weeks

Slowly but surely. I made it to 3cm on my knee-to-wall in physio this week. But I am shaking like a leaf from fatigue. I have no muscle strength. And my physio exercises cause me to wake up in painful cramps. I am so sore after physio, it pretty much takes my entire day away from me. My meds make me so sleepy, that when I finally force myself to rest, I fall asleep. I can't lay down without falling asleep, but I need to lay down to help with the pain and swelling. Nerve pain is lessening though, which is FANTASTIC! But I am still having nerve problems. I cut my toe nail too short on my bad foot, and it has been excruciating. If I knock it on something, or brush it against something, I sit down and wait for it to register. The pain, slow in coming, comes in 10-fold force. Can't wait to close this chapter. Who'd have thought....

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Cards

I have been making cards for quite a few years now, but have never really been into all the "card making" stuff, you know, like all the crafty scrap book stuff. It looks pretty, just not my style, though I am continually impressed when I look at Christmas cards my Mom gets from her friends and family who make these cards - they are impressive, but I just don't do them myself. This is the typical kind of card I have been making lately. Can't get enough of those eyelets. I love simplicity in this continually growing crafty handmade world.




I took these photos from our recent trip to Coolangatta for the car show. I love the phone one. 'Hello' is so cliche these days with every person on earth who does cards and stationary, but so perfect.

I also have a very limited collection of vintage cards. It's quite easy to collect them in Canada, but I can never find them here in Australia. And if I do, I pay for it. I'll share some of them as I get around to scanning them (now that I am able to scan again. Yay old photoshop CS!)

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

TexMex

We're in love with Mexican food. I don't know how Mexican it even is, but if there is some Old El Paso involved, we're in. Here's another great meal, if you're lazy, and a great app dish to bring to parties.




Ingredients:
Refried Beans
Guacamole (or whatever lame excuse you can whip up)
Sour Cream
Mayo (optional)
Taco Seasoning
Cheese
Tomato
Green onions
Olives, etc (optional)

Method:
1. Spread a layer of refried beans in a large flat bowl or dish. 

2. Smash up an avocado, and make some guacamole. I don't know how to make it, so I just do whatever seems right. I add some lemon juice, a bit of sour cream, and some taco seasoning - pretty lame. I'm sure there are MUCH better recipes out there....anyhow....spread onto bean layer.

3. Mix up quantities of sour cream & mayo (half and half) & taco seasoning. I don't measure, I just dump stuff into a bowl until it looks ok. Make it to taste, you don't need mayo, but it does add some flavour.  Spread onto guacamole layer.

4. Sprinkle grated cheese on top. I used a pizza mix, but cheddar is probably best.

5. Chop up any veggies you like, and add on top. (Tomato, Green onion, Olives, etc...)

6. Spoon on to a plate and serve with nacho chips, and sometimes, when we eat this for dinner, we'll add some seasoned ground beef on the side.

Yummmmmm

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Traveling

A few hours ago, I said goodbye to a lovely sister-in-law.  She is leaving us to go have adventures in the UK, first stopping into Canada to say hi to some friends, and some of my family too.  Amy is such a thoughtful, sweet, pretty, funny, blonde in-the-joke-sense (she called herself blonde first, btw), dorky, fashionable, small, squealing, clapping girl who leaves more food on her plate at the end of the meal than what she started with - we don't know how she does it (though I think I have figured it out: she goes for seconds, then doesn't eat any of them).

Since trawling the internet and reading the fantastic mags from my family in by bed-ridden days, I have come across so many crafty & inspiring people, ideas, blogs, everything. I've been wanting to make something like this for myself for ages, and luckily, I am a bit of a hoarder, so I have lots of cool paper, materials, and ideas to last a lifetime. Anyhow, I thought this was a good idea:

I made a journal-type thing for Amy. But it doesn't have to even be that. It's like a spot to put a collection of moments, and a way to keep them organized, or a cute note paper holder, or whatever you want. It can be dismantled and used in pieces, or kept together and added to.
And, if you're crafty, it can be pretty cheap to make too.

I made up some title pages, which I formed into dividers with pockets in the back. Then I printed some free print designs from the internet, of which I have a folder of saved on my computer full of PDF's collected from over the months, like these:




Having some photoshop skills is an asset, but not needed. I scanned a lot of the art work myself from random objects and post cards I have saved over the years. Other designs I found from Flickr.com and added to them myself. Luckily, I have an illustrator for a husband, so I can use some art work of his royalty free :)

All in all, this was a really fun thing to work on. I have been learning Photoshop slowly over the years, and this was a great way to reinforce some of the things I have learned. I tend to enjoy the creating part the most. I'd much rather make something than buy it, and that is handy in these harder times.

Anyhow, here is a run down of what I made for Ambo:
These are all the divider pages I made for her, making a pocket in the back, and adding a stick-on divider tab on each page for her to label...(I erased a part where our address was written...still want to be as anonymous as possible for now)







...then I filled the gaps between dividers with paper. I had a collection of labels and interesting tags and cards...



...and a collection of free printable paper designs / printable wrapping paper designs (some of which I changed into colours that I wanted, using photoshop)...



...and a collection of interesting lined paper, from music sheets, to log books, to typical graph paper, and your plain old run of the mill paper...





...and the I made my own lined note paper with vintage label scans I found online...

I determined the size of the journal by cutting a plastic document protector in half to use as a clear cover and backing. Then I secured everything with hinged rings, and wrapped it all up in the cliche (but lovely) brown paper, and string, with a fabric flower I made. I love the office-y industrial look of simple wrapping, using brown paper, string, or masking tape, staples and tags, etc (the list is endless). It can look so cool. 


Here are the basic supplies I normally use when doing cards, or anything paper related
-exacto knife, tape, scissors, glue, hole punch, metal ruler, cutting mat, black sharpies & embellishments of the office-y kind...

These are the places I remember grabbing paper patterns from, but if you look around at all the lovely crafty blogs, and their links, you are bound to find some great free downloads...

and for inspiration, I really like her work: enJOY it

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Thursday, June 18, 2009

22 Weeks

Another rough day at physio. And I was early...and was late in getting out. It was a long session. And painful too. I can't believe how long this plateau is becoming. I'm so swollen. See? Yuk. No progress. In fact, I regressed. I was very stiff and sore this morning before physio, and now it's 10 times worse. Rough day, all around...

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Saturday, June 13, 2009

21 Weeks

Phew, physio was tough this week. And I did not make much progress. I'm about 2.5 cm (1") from the wall now, if even that. No point in a photo, as it doesn't look much different. I tried some more strength exercises to see if my muscle has built up at all. I cannot, for the life of me, lift myself up on my tippy-toes with my bad leg. My good leg is no problem. I can even balance on my tippy-toed good leg. I also took my measurements again, and I am now 1.5" smaller than my good leg (not 2", as I was right after surgery) around my calf & quad. Not sure if that has to do with muscle gain or loss, since I didn't write down the measurements, just took note of the differences. I do feel a little better, like it's getting easier to walk downstairs. For the first time yesterday, I didn't use the handrail as I walked downstairs. Anyhow, not much to take note of this week.

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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Wintersun 2009

This past weekend, we attended, for the second year, the annual vintage car show in Coolangatta called Wintersun. It's becoming something we now look forward to every year. It was kind of my goal, once I learned how bad I had really broken my ankle, to be better by Wintersun. Though it was kind of out of my control anyhow. And I also had a goal to be better by the time we were supposed to go on vacation to Thailand, at the beginning of May, with my sister and brother-in-law, and his sister. We'd been planning it for a long while. It was a huge disappointment to me, to realize I would not be better for that, and even if I had, I had missed so much work that we could no longer afford to go anyhow. But I at least had a tiny consolation prize of looking forward to a car show (yeah right). It's just good to have things, anything, to look forward to.

It was a long day, but I managed to stay on my feet for most of it, and it wasn't too awful. I did have to spend the next entire day in bed though. I was very sore, and very sore for a few days after. (But I have managed to hold onto my 2cm away from the wall knee bend).

We drove down for the day and spent a good hour or two in our favorite antique store. I bought a very cute cardigan, and a purse, which I don't think is vintage, but it looks it. I took some photos of the shop:


















Then we went around to all the vendors with stalls, and I FINALLY bought my shoes I have been drooling over for an entire year. I've ordered them before, and for some reason they never showed up, even after phone calls and emails to the company, but these shoes are to die for, and I decided to try to get them again this year. I got a good deal too! For once something was cheaper in Australia. Normally we order shoes & clothes online from the US. But alas, my shoes were not in in my size and colour, so they are on order again. I hope this time it works.
I'll be getting them in dark brown, I'm so excited! (They look better in person)

And then to the cars. I was kind of disappointed as much of them were the same as last year, and we only found out later that there was another whole section we missed. Oh well, something to look forward to for next year. Since the cars were all the same, this year I tried to have some more fun with my camera, rather than the focus being only the cars. And I am remembering why I love photography. It's such a challenge! I love it. Oh, how I have missed it. I wasn't up to my usual lay-on-the-ground-for-the-best-shot mood, but I still had some fun despite my ski-boot leg not letting me bend down, and my cheap crap fish eye converter. But here are my favs:












































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