I have done my cover for LSNED. It has taken five goes to get it onto this stupid blog, probably because I am having a bimbo day today and everything seems to be written in scribble - and I am only reading in capital letters

I am determined to use only stuff I already have, no sneaking onto the intarwebby and ordering stuff. I want to get some space so I can ask for gift vouchers for all my favourite shops and get loads of goodies for Christmas. Mercenary? moi? you betcha!

Learn something New Every Day 2009

I have been haunting the forum trying to decide not to do the class again this year but knowing that secretly I really, really want to do it.
I have just decided not 20 minutes ago, that I will do the class and this time I will try to take pictures of my covers and pages and then post them on here. This is, afterall, what I set up this blog to do.
Now I have stopped kidding myself about not doing the class I feel much happier - Shimelle's classes always do this.

I won a prize! I am not sure what happened really but I have managed to win membership of Seasons Holidays - it said on the letter that it was worth £3750 and of course that cynical little voice in my head said "yeh, right". Well one of the things we were invited to do was attend an 'induction' at one of their resorts (We Chose Laugharne) and then the maintenance fee for 2010 would be waived. It seems that we can choose one week per year and our level allows us to choose from weeks in November or February.
Now this might just seem like a waste to some people BUT, we have a week every year in February because that is Mr Ms birthday. Now we can go away for a week to any of six resorts in the UK and Ireland and all it will cost is the travelling and the maintenance, which is about the cost of a week's holiday anywhere.
We have booked our 2009 week for February 2010 (the year starts March) and I am really looking forward to it. We are going to Clowance in Cornwall so we can go and see Pam and Frank and do as little as we like for a week.
In other news, Mr M has an infection in the skin of his leg. This is red and sore and painful and he actually went to the Dr about it. He has antibiotics (penicillin so no kissing for a while) and orders to keep his leg elevated. Good grief! medical advice to lie on the settee and watch TV with his leg propped up on a pile of cushions. It does mean he isn't sitting in the kitchen eating all the time so that's good. It also means that I could be driving our tank for a while.
Struggling to get the washing dry so everyone is running our of underwear. The tumble dryer keeps tripping the fuse box so we can't use that and there is no way I will allow either of the men in this house to go near it with a screw driver.
Next thing for me to do is to get the latest edition of the Gibbon Gazette out to the family. ... Better get started then

Month of colour

I try so hard not to get sucked in to Shimelle's latest class but I always have to take a peek and the moment I do my brain fires up and I can see pages forming before my eyes! I am not sure how I will complete even one page because the eczema is still on my fingers and still cracking and bleeding. I daren't do cross-stitch because I don't want blood on the fabric, I can't feel things with my fingertips so daren't use my sewing machine (the beast is an ancient industrial machine that gives no favours and will happily sew through finger bones as easily as through organza - more easily in fact.)
pressing on a craft knife is so painful it is impossible and trying to write anything just makes me sob. Good grief I sound miserable! so I can pick up a book and read - this means sitting with my feet up which brings relief from the pain of the eczema on my feet. But reading sends me to sleep and at my age I do not want to be sleeping all day like a little old lady even if I am.

Oh one good thing is that I have purchased a pair of Crocs. I know they are very... chav but because I have to cover my feet with the cream 6 to 8 times a day and then put socks on to keep the cream on there a littile longer, I have ruined two pairs of slippers and a pair of shoes. Crocs are silicone so they wash they are flexible and they seem somehow to stop my feet itching - I have to wear the socks but that is irrelevant. I was able to walk a little yesterday instead of just sitting in the car and sulking.
This is soooo depressing and yet most of the time I don't feel depressed just frustrated. Ah well, these things are sent to try us I suppose

eczema AArrrggghhh

Well nearly six weeks since my last post and the b****y eczema is getting worse. I am being so good about the cream and keep slapping it onto my hands and feet all the time but it just spreads further and further down my fingers like some sort of canker and I am FED UP!!!

The constant itching makes life such a misery but because it is not life threatening I am supposed to put up with it because it is incurable - genetic see, so can't be cured so has to be endured. What utter tripe! It is simply not a high profile thing to have is it. Now if there was a celebrity that suddenly was stricken with an outbreak of itchyness because of eczema I can see that charities would be formed to assist in the research to find something other than steroids to make it go away.
The thing is that I don't want anyone else to have it because it is horrible and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy - well, I might if it wasn't forever - It would be good to give people a week or two though, just to see what it is like to wake up at 2am itching so much that you want to rip your skin off and throw it away. The thought of open wounds is preferable to the itching.
~sigh~

Birthday pages and other news

I was taken away from the last entry before I had finished and not being used to the technicalities of this blog I didn't even think about saving the draft and coming back later... Duh.

I did these pages using all the birthday cards that Colin received for his Hawaiian birthday (he was 50). I haven't found out how to put the pictures where I want them yet - or even if I can - so there they stand, one on top of the other, until I can find a way to change it without deleting everything.

Today is Easter Saturday and we were supposed to be going out but my feet are cracked which makes walking very painful so the thought of arriving somewhere and discovering that I would be staying in the car while everyone went for a long walk to get to wherever the attraction was did not appeal. Colin wanted to take us all out in the new car so I have managed to disappoint everyone because of this stupid eczema. I am really fed up with it now and want it to stop!

March and still not walking

My feet are still bad with eczema so I can't walk far. We managed to go to Tidworth to see the new arrival, did I mention that Matthew James has arrived weighing 8lb 14oz so he is keeping up the tradition. D-i-L is just fine although tired.