family – Enchilada Sunrise

Welcome to the jungle family!

So, what with not having posted properly for ages again, I haven’t mentioned that there are two new additions to the family! One actual brand new person, and one fuzzy feline dictator.

First of all (not chronologically, but never mind that), my Favourite Niece, who is also my first and only niece or nephew, arrived in the big wide world last summer. Here she is aged 2 months:

photo of Ms RA and her Daddy — Favourite Niece aka Ms RA, with her Daddy

It's srs bznz, this growing up thing — It’s srs bznz, this growing up thing

And this is a more recent photo, aged nearly 6 months:

photo of Ms RA wth Mummy — Ms RA invites you to try some of her parsnips

Isn’t she adorable? *proud auntie face*

And secondly we have Mr Merlin McPurrlin, my new feline overlord. He is about 2 years old, loves his play tunnel and yellow-mouse, prefers to drink from the bath tap… and yeah, has me very well trained! He came to live with me back in the late spring, after having been left in a box outside the vet’s because he’d been spraying in his previous owner’s home. The vet gave him the snip, and surprise – no more spraying since then. He’s a lovely boy, and I’m very glad that I happened to pop into the vet at just the right time!

photo of Mr Merlin McPurrlin — Merlin McPurrlin, Lord of ~~The Remote Control~~ All The Things

Christmas Time, Mistletoe and Other-Things-of-Varying-Toxicity

That time of year (ie. the end of it) has crept upon me somewhat unawares yet again. Insert “where has the time gone?!” shock and confusion here. However, I am sort of, kind of, mostly ready for Christmas. I think. I do have some wrapping to do still, but I’m aiming to be all done by dinner time. If I am, I’ll be well ahead of myself based on the last few years¹. Hooray! Or in a shout out to Rebecca, yippee!

As for the Mistletoe etc part of the subject line… well, that was mainly me being unable to resist mangling a song lyric. No mistletoe or mistletoe-related-seasonal-activities for me, I’m afraid. How v disappointing ;-) And toxic things… well, many intoxicating things are still right out due to my meds. But happily some are fine, so I shall be having Crabbies’ with my Christmas dinner tomorrow. I think it’s going to go rather well.

Anyhow, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year [or insert seasonal festival of choice, etc] one and all! I might try some blogging new year’s resolutions (eg. blog more / at all), but I haven’t decided yet. I really would like to get back into the swing of writing again. But til then, TTFN!

¹Started this post earlier today, obviously, and am now pleased to report that I have finished the wrapping:

The Good, The Sad, and the Dusty

I know, I know. It’s been ages. Again. I won’t try to update on everything that I’ve been up to, so here are five things: three good, one sad, and one dusty.

The Good.

1. I have a new blog! What on earth for, when I hardly ever post in this one, you may ask? Well, this one has kind of got too unwieldy for me, so I’m taking out the ‘Review’ categories that I never use, and narrowing the focus of this blog to be… well, what I actually do post about, which is knitting and bipolar, for the most part. So no real changes, except to how I think about it. Never mind, it helps in my weird brain. So the new blog, Frozensoul.net, is my review blog. So far it’s all book reviews, but it’s for whatever I feel like reviewing. TV, movies, music, podcasts, gigs, events, stuuuuuff. I’ll probably go back to posting general life stuff and fandom rambling at Dreamwidth / Livejournal, as well. There may be some crossover there, though.

2. I’m going to be an auntie! My brother and sister-in-law are expecting a little girl this summer. Yes, I am knitting. Mwahahaha!

3. The doctor (psychiatrist) reckons I’m well enough to start back to work gradually! So I’m going to be looking into the Permitted Work scheme, and speaking to the Bridge-builders worker at Together, as she has info about all of that. So far, the vague plan is to get back to freelance web design part time, and see how that goes. Fingers crossed!

The Sad.

My lovely fuzzy Xandermog has moved on to hog the big sofa in the sky. He was really ill last year, and he never completely got back to full health, although he was happy and active and pesty up until he got ill again last month. It was all very quick, and he went peacefully – lovely Adam the Vet did the necessary while I was stroking Xander. It’s very strange and quiet to be mogless, even though he wasn’t a noisy cat most of the time. But I’d had him for over 11 years, so I spose I was used to his presence. I shall probably find a new furry dictator to arrange my life fairly soon.

The Dusty.

I’ve been spring-cleaning. Or really, I spose it’s getting on towards summer cleaning by now! It’s an ongoing project. My allergies aren’t impressed, but I’m sure they’ll be happier with the final result. I’ve sorted out a whole load of things that I was hanging on to for no good reason – hairbands and scrunchies when I’ve had my hair short for over a year with no intention of growing it again, and so on. Old make-up, random bits of paper and fabric… so much clutter! I seem to have all manner of things that I’ve stashed away “just in case” they might come in handy some mythical day. But no! I need to get rid so that I can do the re-organisation of my living room that I’ve been planning for months. I will get it done!

Marking a century

My granddad would’ve been 100 years old today. Happy Birthday Poppa!

That’s the two of us together when I was small. He died a few years ago now, and for another few years before that wasn’t really ‘himself’ due to Alzheimer’s, but other than that he was busy and active his whole life. He was a fireman in London during the Blitz.

Dagenham firemen - Poppa on the far right

He then stayed on in the fire service for the rest of his working life. He’s on the far right in the above cartoon – I think the date on it is 1949, but it could be ’48 or even ’40. I won’t go into some of the stories he had to tell now, but there were some dramatic ones! He travelled a lot, too, I think mostly after he’d retired.

So that’s it, really – happy birthday to you, Poppa, and Happy Centenary!

On Thankfulness

I don’t normally do this, since it isn’t Thanksgiving in the UK, but I think I will this year. So here goes: Reasons to be Cheerful, 1, 2, 3….

My family and friends. I’m lucky that I have people I’m close to, can have so much fun with, and can rely on.
The Xandermog. The biggest, daftest, and best moggy in the world.
Technology. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to keep in touch with many people so easily – wouldn’t have met many of them in the first place, in fact – and my world would be a very different place.

There are many more things I could list (music! yarn! spinning! knitting!), of course, but those are three just off the top of my head. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Pretties from NZ

My brother and sister-in-law brought pressies back from New Zealand! So I thought I’d show one of mine off:

Creative Fibres Hand Dyed Mohair in Pukeko — Creative Fibres Hand Dyed Mohair in "Pukeko"

The name of the colour comes from a New Zealand bird which has plumage in the colour of the yarn. Oh, and it’s a lovely 100g hank of bulky-weight mohair… I’ve been thinking about what to make with it, but I think I’ve settled on a shawl of some kind.

Family Reunion

My brother and sister-in-law got home from their honeymoon today, hooray! They’ve been in New Zealand for two months, so it’s lovely to have them back and be able to see them and chat to them in person, rather than just reading about their adventures on their blog!

This afternoon we’ve been over to their place to say hi and see some of the photos they took. They met up with some NZ cousins of ours while they were there, so it was lovely to see pics of them. I think we still have some photos to see, though – there are lots and lots! :-)

Things and Stuff

Today has been a day of variety, which has been nice! I started out by going up to the Christmas fair for Mum’s church – I got there quite late on, so I helped clear up and carry the remaining stuff back up to the church. I got a few nice cards and nick knacks for gifts, so that was a worthwhile trip. Then I walked with Mum back to her house for a drink and then a lift home.

On the way up to Mum’s place, I stopped off and did a geocache that was en route. It took me a bit longer than I’d planned due to me being disorganised with my stuff, but it was still a speedy one. Not a micro one this time, but a still small one. So not big enough to put the travelling monkey into, yet. Poor monkey! I’ll move him on soon, by hook or by crook!

After visiting at Mum’s for a while, we came back here and had dinner – stir fry followed by cupcakes! Then Mum went home and I’ve been knitting and watching Strictly Come Dancing. I’m still working on the Travelling Woman, but hopefully I’ll be done soon. Maybe tonight? Maybe tomorrow.

And then I’ve been playing with Blip.fm – I’ve put a widget linking to my account there in the sidebar, and I think it’s possible to play some tracks directly from here? I’m not sure, I’m still figuring it out. That’s not what I’m using it for, anyway. Mostly I’m listening to the songs my friends have playlisted. Is that even a word? Probably not, but I know what I mean, and I’m sure you do too. Anyway, I thought I’d put the widget up here because in the first place I can, and also because I’m trying to get all my web stuff better linked together. Integrate my web presence. Oh how pretentious. ;-)

WIP Blitz

The last, oh, while, I’ve been feeling quite determined to finish off all the knitting projects I have sitting around partly done. Which is good! Right? Right. It feels like I’ve done more knitting this year than I actually have in terms of finished projects (though the Knitting Meter in the side bar tells me that I’ve knit 2023 yards in the last year… and I’m only putting entries into that when I either finish a ball of yarn, or a project). But maybe that’s because I still have seven projects on the go.

I had planned not to start any new ones until I’d finished several of those I had lurking. But well, best laid plans and all that. Mum asked me to make a couple of things for her, and then I finished my basic “portable project” socks, so I just had to start another pair for that purpose, didn’t I? And now Christmas is fast approaching… eek! Still, I am feeling more organised and purposeful about the whole thing. My knitting, I mean, not just Christmas. And bizarrely, I think a lot of that is because I finally made the decision to (temporarily) frog my Ishbel and restart it – probably after Christmas – on larger needles. I checked my gauge again, and I had 23½ sts / 4″ where I should have had 20sts. No wonder it’d come up so small, and the knit fabric was probably a bit too dense. I shall swatch again with 4.5mm and 5mm needles and see how it goes. Whether I’ll end up running out of yarn again I don’t know, but I’ll give it a try, anyway. I’ve weighed the re-wound ball, and it’s as it should be, so I assume the yardage is correct too. But the best thing is, I feel much better – obviously that one had been hanging over me without me even realising it!

Now, I know I’ve said this a thousand times, but I’m going to knuckle down and sew up my two “UFOs” – the jumper and the cardigan. I’ve decided that the pieces of the mohair jumper really do need blocking before I sew them, since mohair is so floaty, but at least now I have the table sorted out and ready to sew on.

So my plan is to finish my Gap Year Travels shawlette / scarf (which frees up the needles for whichever cardigan I go for, I believe), and also my Menace jumper (block, sew, crochet, block again). Then to start my Christmas knitting and… just keep knitting until I have finished stuff! I reckon that’ll work.

Late night blogging

Whoops… I’m really tired today, and I nearly forgot to post. Wouldn’t that have been a good start to NaBloPoMo. As it is I have no time to think up anything clever or interesting (as if there’s ever anything along those lines here!), so instead I shall post a photo of one of my recently completed knitting projects:

A pair of “handsocks”, aka fingerless mitts, for Mum. Her hands don’t get as painful if she keeps them warm, so these are really useful for that. They’ve completely stashbusted some of my left over sock yarn, so that’s good too.

Fun things (Part 1?)

Alright, so I said I’d make sure I was doing at least one necessary thing and one thing for fun every day… how’ve I been doing so far?

Monday: Cleaned the bathroom and kitchen thoroughly; knitted and listened to podcasts.

Tuesday: Did my library volunteering (this doesn’t really count as a chore, but it’s a commitment, so I’ll count it!); went out to lunch and then round the Old Town with my Mum and visiting aunt and uncle.

Wednesday: Made a whole slew of necessary phone calls; went out for the day to Rye with Mum, aunt and uncle, and later to KnitJam.

Thursday: Waited in for a parcel and did housework; went to knit & natter at C House, took it easy in front of the telly (and caught up on Holby).

Friday: Did housework, sorted some paperwork; watched TV and knitted.

Saturday: Went to the vet, the chemist, the cash machine, the local shop and the post office (whew!); went geocaching along the seafront and found six caches, watched SCD then had a massively early night!

Sunday (today): Filled out a health cost help form (must remember to book my eye-test when/if that comes back), cleaned the kitchen; done a bit of knitting and listening to podcasts, and might pop out to do a geocache in a mo.

Productive day

I did lots today, and even managed to get in a nap this afternoon. Well, I’d worn myself out! Of course, when I say “lots”, that’s “lots for me”, but still. I’ve been to see the Flower Festival at Mum’s church with her. Technically it’s over, but she has the church keys and all the displays are still there. Then I went to the dentist (everything fine; see you in 6 months), did tiny a bit of shopping, came home and cleaned up a storm. Whew! And since I’ve also got some spinning and knitting done, I’m feeling quite accomplished.

Tomorrow is another busy day, so I’m off to bed now. I’m expecting to sleep well!

And I’m Done

Woohoo, I’ve completed NaBloPoMo for June. I shall give myself a pat on the back… and maybe check if there’s a “winner” badge or something. No big deal if not.

I’ve also been seeing how I can do on the Monthly Scavenger Hunt on Flickr. This is my first month, and I didn’t get something for all twenty items, but I managed to do sixteen, so that’s not a bad start!

1. Abandon hope all ye who enter here, 2. Smile Though Your Heart is Breaking, 3. Call the fashion police!, 4. Veteran, 5. Bubbly, 6. Reflecting, 7. Mad, bad and dangerous to know, 8. Nightlights, 9. Prized Possession, 10. Belly up, 11. Desolate, 12. Walkabout, 13. The north wind doth blow, 14. Microcosm, 15. An elephant in the room, 16. Born to be wild?

So, what next on the blogging front? Now that I’ve managed to maintain blogging through June, I don’t want to just stop again. The Tour de Fleece is coming up, so I think I’ll plan to post an update on how I’m doing each day of that… which will mean it’ll be very spinning-centric around here for a couple of weeks. I dare say I’ll ramble about other things though. I can only say “today I span such and such a thing, here’s a photo” so many times!

I is for Identification

Not ID: that which establishes the identity of a person; but: to identify with. I finished the first book of Rachel Caine’s Outcast Season series yesterday and started the second one, and I find myself surprised to find that I am identifying more with the ex-Djinn (this is urban fantasy, roll with it) protagonist Cassiel than I do with Joanne, the human protagonist of the original Weather Warden series that Outcast Season has spun off from. Is that weird? I think that may be a little weird. But the thing is, while I like Joanne – and liked the glimpse of her we got in Undone (OS#1) through Cassiel’s eyes – she’s just too girly for me, I think. Joanne refers to shoe brands and car models that mean about as much to me as they probably would to Cassiel. Perhaps because more things have to be explained about Cassiel’s perspective on the world (whereas the reader is already assumed to have a common starting point with Jo?) as having been an “Old Djinn” who’d never even bothered before to take on a human shaped body, it’s easier to get inside her head. At any rate, I like her logic, and I like her developing relationships with the Rocha family. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of this series.

H (I knew I’d think of something later on) is also for HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!! My brother is celebrating his 30th today. Yaaaaay! That’s 30 whole years I’ve managed to go without “accidentally” shoving him off a cliff. Our parents raised us right. Seriously, I love my little bro and think he’s all kinds of awesome (it probably helps that we have more in common than apparently looking rather alike). We’ve celebrated once this evening, and are doing so again at the weekend. I hope the weather is going to comply, since it’s supposed to be a barbeque…

F is for Friends, Family, and Food

Which three things sum up my day fairly well, really. My whole weekend, in fact. Like I said, we went to see Ally and family yesterday and out into the park where I saw several people I’d been at school with and their kids. I think I must be the only one who has no offspring! It was a lovely sunny day for it, and today was lovely as well although there was lots of rain and thunder last night.

Charlotte has gone now, but we went over to my brother and sister-in-law’s place for Sunday dinner today. Mmm, Sunday roast! I’m feeling pretty wiped out (but full!) so I can’t think of much else to blog about, so I’ll go and check out the prompts for some inspiration:

What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you think of your father?

His smile; a feeling of safety; and woolly bobble hats! Dad liked to keep his head warm, and embarrassed me horribly (as parents will!) when I was in my mid-teens by taking my into town still wearing his slippers (moccasins, so I’m sure no-one knew but me) and a woolly hat. Later on, of course, it became a lovable eccentricity, and when I learned to knit, one of the very first things I made was a hat for Dad: