NO IDLE THREATS

No idle threats are made in this house - for example many moons ago when Middle Son was in his Terrible Teens he told me was going to buy a T shirt with a particular very rude four letter word on it.   I told him that if he did I would put it out with the garbage.
He bought it,  I put it out, and it took him 4 weeks to realise that it was missing.   And that is only one of the threats I made, and carried out.

But now I have a very sick and somewhat naughty spouse ..... who must drink a certain amount of water and wont, or I should say wouldn't.
Now he has also been told that yogurt is very good for him ..... now he hates this and will not eat it.     But I have managed to get him to take a little with some jelly.

But back to the threat .... it is now.....    if he doesn't drink the water he gets yogurt to eat, and if he doesn't eat the yogurt for that meal, it is served again next time.

Guess what, today he drank every last drop of the water allocated for him.    Nice work Nurse.

This is the patient who when woken in the morning, gets to sit with a cup of tea until he gets going.

There are quite a few tales I could tell about my life at present but you would find them boring and I am just being kept very busy as a full time Nurse

Sewing and reading are non existent, I just take half an hour to check emails and write the occasional blog post.   But things are settling down so this will improve quickly.

Its very difficult for a man who has been the provider and is a Control Freak who thinks only he can do a job correctly, to let me take over.   But I think he is realising that it will be a few weeks to get his strength back.   But maybe then I wont want to relinquish control     roflo.

SCATTERDAYS

again.... my how the time flies when one is having fun!!!!!

I am sure you will all forgive me this week.   I enlisted the help of my dearest cister in England.   No photos from Jules, but some great suggestions.

Now brought to you by the letter

not nearly as difficult as the previous ones

Categories:

HIDDEN

FAMOUS

ALIVE

and CROSSES IN QUILTS


As you well know I am married to a guy born in that northern part of England called SCOTLAND.   He hates that I say that.  You know   The Scots and The Sassenachs  and never the twain shall meet.

Being born in the Northern Part of that land in a small town called Montrose he is not one to show or express great affections openly.    So I show you a photo of our Wedding Day and there are zillions of x x x x x x x x x x x x (kisses) in it, although Hidden.

FAMOUS

Now this was easy.   Born a Pom but now a legal Aussie for quite a number of years.  What sport do I watch CRICKET of course.    Especially when its playing for The Ashes.  Although I always follow The Australian Cricket Team.   and who do we have but one of my favourites


Xavier John Doherty

an Australian cricketer who plays Australian domestic cricket with the Tasmanian Tigers and for Australia. He is a left-handed batsman and a slow left arm orthodox bowler Born: November 22, 1982 (age 30), Scottsdale.



ALIVE   ah ah   I do love frogs so here we have The South African clawed frog Xenopus laevis which can regenerate the lens of its eye, a process that could one day be replicated in humans. Credit: Barbara Harmon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok  I am not that clever.   I did have to use Google for this one.


CROSSES IN QUILTS
This one was difficult ....I don't exactly do crosses in quilts as I don't like straight lines.
But I think this could be counted as one.

This is on The Christmas Quilt, one I made as a sample to be put in Anjiis Angles Book ~

To get it photographed for the book I needed to get it valued.   I was pleased to say it was valued at $400.
I really quilt for pleasure and giving, not for any monetary value.

With thanks to my cister and Google I have managed to get the post completed whilst The Scot is sleeping.  A little bit of me time.

Now off to put the washing out, and get the tea prepared.   Goodness me I have never been so organised in all of my life.

NOT A GOOD PATIENT

In one word actually IMPOSSIBLE.   Thats The Scot.      But I have managed with lots of wangles and telling every medical person we visit that he won't drink enough .... to get him to consume almost enough liquids.

Yesterday was a morning from Hell ..... in the end I just told him off using some quite bad words which I don't usually use and walking out of the room.      Well he ate his lunch, through which I was silent then I packed him off to bed and he actually had a good 2.1/2 hours sleep. 

Today he has been almost a different person, maybe, just maybe I have instilled in him the need to drink and take it easy.   But we did have a really good day.   Visit to the local Doc.  with good reports.    Then The Scot's Princess travelled all the way from Warracknabeal to see him.    At the moment she is asleep on the sofa under my favourite quilt as she wants to make an early start in the morning.

Middle Son arrived just after lunch and stayed for a short while.   He travelled all the way from Briagalong Vic. on his motor bike. 

photos of course

  The Princess is quite tiny with a beautiful smile but middle son is over 6ft and I told him he looks quite sexy and distinguished now that he is going grey.    Gosh how the years have flown.
Of course The Scot is very skinny but looks 100% better than two days ago.   And is eating and drinking more water.

Blood Test tomorrow .... so lets hope I have been feeding him the right foods.

Off to bed now.   Quite early for me.

Sewing ..... whats that.    :)

LIFE

I am so far from being a pessimist...on the contrary, in spite of my scars, I am tickled to death at life.
Eugene O'Neill    


Sometimes Life is strawberries and cream and sometimes Life is Just a Plain Bitch. But then things always get better
At least my Scot is home

no current photo allowed by request of The Scot (he is very thin and has lost a lot of weight)

  and we had no blood tests for 5 whole days.  And wow you should see my organisational skills plus menu planning skills.   But things are falling into place and maybe I won't be falling asleep in front of the TV in the evening.    

SCATTERDAYS

Whilst my mind is not entirely on anything and my nerves are ragged.    I thought that whilst I have my breakfast coffee I could put my mind to something ....

This week brought to you by the letter       M
SPORT
FOREIGN
ANIMAL
MODERN QUILT


SPORT
For this I have to thank my dear cister(the c is for chosen) Jules in England.
Jules Paternal grandmother and my Father were siblings and my Father being the youngest of about 13, Ethel and Albert were very close.   Hence Jules Father and I were first cousins but due to the large number of siblings there was a huge age difference.  My 3 children and Jules are on the same generation level although Jules is a tad older than I.

Confused .....  good ..... because now you won't notice any spelling or such mistakes I make.

But I digress .......
Jules grandson (please don't ask me what relation to me) Matt is apprenticed in Formula MOTORSPORT Not only that but he is part of a team which includes the grandson, Sam Brabham who is third generation of drivers, starting with Australian, World class Driver, Sir Jack Branham and his son David Brabham.

This 6 degrees of separation seems to get smaller all the time.

FOREIGN

on my one and only visit back to the land of my birth in 1993.   I am now a proud Aussie.  We made the visits to the rellies.   Guess where the Scot's lived.   
This is the MONUMENT placed on the border of our birth countries.

England was one side and Scotland the other.  (and never the twain shall meet.   Yes there is a lot of sassenach scot ribbing in our household.

ANIMAL

This has to be MOGGIES of course.    I have adopted 3 during the years.    They were all left to me by my dear children lol.  At first The Scot said he hated cats but by the time we had to have the youngest put to sleep he really loved them. that is moggies put to sleep not children.

TIGER   the first one.  My daughter was at that difficult stage.   I either want a cat or NOTHING for my birthday.   Being just like her father she went with a friend of mine and adopted one, bringing it home, and Tiger stayes for 19 years.

LOUIE (the moggie on the right)  was left by Middle Son, much water under the bridge there.

and Twinsey the moggie on the left was the son of Louie.

They both lived for 20 years.  Twinsey being the devil of all three.   But I did love them.

MODERN QUILT   I don't exactly do modern but I have recently started Artist Trading Cards.

whoops its time for me to shower and go atttack the dreaded Lifts.

THANK GOODNESS FOR HEXIES

I think hexies have saved my nerves this week.

I have cut and stitched many petals ready to be made into flowers.

The reason being The Scot, my dh of 44 years, and even tho he has made me mad quite a few times, has been in hospital.  And cutting and stitching hexies seems to calmed my nerves.

I had to ring the ambulance last Tuesday, and I have to say that I have been overwhelmed with the kindness extended to me.   The Ambulance guys were more than terrific, even tho The Scot didn't think he needed to go to hospital.   The Nurses and Doctors at the Monash Medical Centre are outstanding.

But can someone please explain to me why all the car parks have to have LIFTS   and all the wards need a LIFT to get there.   Yes you have guessed it I am claustrophobic.     Life's worst nightmare when visiting hospitals.     But I am amazed at the kindness of everyone when I hang around the lifts waiting for someone and then ask if they could take me to the floor I need, they go out of there way to help me, young and old.  There is great hope for the World yet with such kindness all around.

Fortunate for me The Scot is a Man of Little Words,   and all he has wanted to do is  sleep so my visits have been mainly to take him much needed things. 

So we have the arrangement .... I ring him at 10.am   and he rings me at 5.00pm    Did you know you can now use mobile phones and he can even recharge it plus the ipod should the battery run down.

This has been most helpful as it means I need to only attack the dreaded LIFTS every other day.

and what do you send a male loved one in hospital, I knew he would dread it if I sent flowers and I think he must watch his diet so I thought a GET WELL Balloon.     Have you tried to send a Balloon without flowers or chocolates or a gift at the bottom.     Well I did manage, and I thought he would be terribly embarrassed.  But he rang me a short while ago and I think my dour Scot sounded rather pleased that he had this Get Well Balloon floating above his bed.    Hurry home Scot a house is not a Home without you.

SCATTERDAYS

SCATTERDAYS is brought to you by the Letter

with
COLOUR
POINTY
WEATHER
and a VIBRANT QUILT




This week I am early but must admit to a little cheating.    Thank you Google and old photographs.

COLOUR
how is your colourVISION.  This is very interesting, especially for quilters.   Go to    http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77  and take the test.

POINTY WEATHER VANE

I have always loved these.  Unfortunately I thought the package said a Cockerel, which I think looks the best, but it turned out to be a pig.   But then in our house Pigs do Fly.


WEATHER  in VICTORIA  can consisted of all the following in the one day.

Its fleecy jumpers in the morning, tshirts in the afternoon and by evening the heater gets switched on.   This time of year is especially known for colds.

VIBRANT QUILT

The photograph I used last time could have been classed as my VIBRANT quilt.   But that would be cheating, and I have done enough of that this time.   So I searched the little grey cells and the quilt chests but this one was sitting on The Scot's chair as it is already in use this Winter.

Approx 5 years ago The Scot had a year of chemo and radiation and many blogging and quilting friends sent a block for me to make a cuddle quilt for him.    Blocks are from New Zealand, Australia and as far away as the USA.  This turned out to be very warm and VIBRANT quilt.  It is much loved and very well used having been washed quite a number of times.

Next Scatterdays, kindly (?) thought up by Cinzia is

the letter M

with catergories of

sport

foreign animal

and a modern quilt.  

You can read what gems she has to tell and also see the links to other Scatterdayers.

FLOWERS AND RAIN

I have been rather spasmodic with my 'hexie flower' postings. 

But I now have 5 more to show.

But this past week has been ideal for hexie flowers.  I find them very relaxing and of course I have been listening to my books.   I have nearly finished The Beekeeper's Apprentice, a very different take on Sherlock Holmes, and I am really enjoying it.

Now I have just written an Epistle, but decided it was too much information lol.   So to cut the story short.    

Yesterday morning the phone was dead (and I needed it).  Managed to use my cell phone, which I hate and only use for emergencies.
The phone was still dead at 4 pm.   So I found my account on the Internet, it was all paid up and I could find nothing wrong .......   but I did find  Live Chat ..... so decided to give it a go.     Well the girl was most helpful and we tried a few things, then she said she had to put me through to the Engineer Technician.   But before she let me go she would ring me.... durrrr phone dead???       But only a minor lapse we decided she could ring me on my cell phone.     What a headache.      She tried 5 times and my phone just wouldn't accept calls ..... light globe moment ..... with the Sim card I have I have to have Call Diverts (tho goodness knows what that is)  but I told her and we then manage to speak.
Now the Technician was a lovely most helpful girl but she had an accent and unfortunately I had to get her to repeat things.
If you have a Technician make a house call for a fault they charge you.     But if it is on the line outside they do not.      So she had me do various tests and then she tried to ring the land line.    

Result ......    it is a fault on the outside line (so no cost) and they will direct any calls made to my cell phone, free of charge, until the fault is fixed.  Does that mean I may learn to use the cell phone at last?

Now apart from the language accent, which can't be helped I call that excellent service.   Well done Telstra.com

Which now brings me to the rain.       Now no-one will believe me, but whenever we have a lot of rain the land line plays up.   When we were on dial up Internet I lost the Internet.
They still don't believe me
but we had a severe rain storm the night before last.  
Go figure that out.

FABRICAHOLIC ???

I think a couple of year ago I made the resolution.... No More New Projects.  But The Scot says I am not a woman of my word hahahah,      I think I have started at least half a dozen projects in the last year or so.

I must tidy and sort and I WILL NOT START ANOTHER PROJECT unless I just simply can't help myself.

The Raconteur BOM has at last sorted itself out in my brain,  and I have scaled the size up a tad, well a bit more than a tad, to accommodate my fat stiff ole fingers.   But ..... I have decided to make it in different fabrics ....as it is Mother's Day downunder, tomorrow, the kids all live too far away for a visit, but they do phone, and I don't usually receive presents, I conned The Scot into giving me some money.    This I have put toward fabric.  ok ok ok  I know I don't really need any more.   But did I have the right colours?   So going to my favourite online store equilter    I have ordered these

 now I anxiously waylay Postie every day to see whether he has a parcel for me.

Another Senior Moment ..... as   Vireya  wrote to me and said MD is not until next week.   ah well the package might arrive in time.

I DUN IT I DUN IT

yes I am excited as I have actually finished the first block of the new BOM.   The one with all the evidence in the corner of the room.  I was disappointed as I didn't finish it by the last day of the month tho.

I am very pleased with it, I increased the size and READ THE INSTRUCTIONS.

Pink is not a favourite colour of mine but I am doing it in 1930's fabrics as they have some tiny prints and the pink will meld well.

I have named it Perseverance (see previous post) but it is aka The Rice Pickers.

Now onto the 2nd block and I do hope it will get sewn faster but I bet it is not easier.  Thanks Cinzia for this beautiful sewing experience.