Zombie fishing.

So, at Lorna's request, here is the story of the Zombie Fish Necklace. *g* It has a bit of a back story, bear with me.

Chookie was always fish mad. Her favourite day out place to visit is Deep Sea World in Queensferry. So, for her 3rd birthday we bought her a Biorb fishtank and some guppies. This was 4 years ago and we've had various collections of fish since - last year we bought a wee shoal of 10 Rainbow Neons. Now, the agreement in the house has always been I do fur (the rats) and Spouse does fins (the fish). It has worked grand up until this year. *hmph* Something weird happened and we lost 9 of our 10 fish just after Christmas. And that's when the neglect started.

There is one poor wee solitary fish in there *somewhere* swimming about in its own pee. The algae has become a forest and the baby Apple Snails (all those wee black spots on the surface) are in heaven. And still our wee survivor swims on, popping out from behind the plants to feed in the evening. So, Spouse has come to the conclusion that he is actually dead. Or rather, UNdead. As in a zombie. How else could be still be alive? That is a manky tank. (please don't report us to animal welfare!)

And so to the necklace! Chook and I have a new tradition involving getting the train to Stirling, spending some money in Monsoon, nabbing a Mackie D's and coming home. Last weekend I was having trouble choosing a necklace (I wanted a new long one) until I spotted this chap.

Now I'm big on the quirkier things in life (and Native American/First Nation stuff) but when Chook exclaimed "Mummy, it's the Zombie Fish!" well, I was totally sold. Twelve of your British pounds and he was mine! Sorted.

Mid-week Mundanities.

It's that time of week again!

my general mood? Is pretty happy and contented today. No special reason, things just seem to be easy ATM - long may it continue!

what am I wearing? My favourite Next boyfriend jeans, a £3 Asda t-shirt (they fit really good!) the Zombie fish necklace (that could be tomorrow's blog) and bare feet. My toenails are bright green.

what have I been watching? Absolutely naff all. Twilight (again!) with the commentaries on and the usual Lost and Fringe.

what am I reading? Kelley Armstrong - Personal Demon. I'm only a couple chapters in, too much else going on this week!

what have I been listening to? Green Day - Minority (I pledge allegiance to the underworld! *g* ) and Billy Joel's Glass Houses album. Still an all time favourite (thank you, Daddy. x)

what have I been creating? Still knitting the shrug (half way there!) and *almost* finished the Nativity LO. I've bought new Sassafrass papers from Artbase, though, so hopefully more being sticked and glued next week.

I love my genes.

Remember a few weeks ago there was a photo of me Beloved Wee Granny celebrating her 86th birthday? Now most people think she's marvellous for her age, in attitude and looks. Especially her looks. My Mum is another who looks pretty darn fine for her age (she's Wee Granny's daughter). Well it appears I have inherited the young-looking gene from Granny. Where is this going?

I am 35 in August.

I got ID-ed in Tesco buying beer last night.

Wa-hoo!! *g* And, yes, this is a phone snapshot of me on Red Nose Day this year. I tend not to have a lot of photos of me being insanely excited but made an exception when my good friend texted me a pic of her baby bump. The great thing about the mental expression is I have NO wrinkles!! *g* Although perhaps botox would be a slightly less extreme method of face ironing. Slightly startled versus sat-on-a-cactus. *snort*

My own personal cakewreck. :(

I have a link on my sidebar to the wonderful Cakewrecks blog. I recommend a visit if you need a wee laff - remember these are "professional" cakes. As in some poor beggar paid for them (or is expected to). I can't claim to be *quite* in the same league as some of the fiascos there but I've had my first proper baking disaster.

*wails* WHAT HAAAAPENNED?!?!? I got interrupted in the middle of mixing to answer the phone but I could only have been about 3 minutes. Actually, Chookie did most of the mixing. Lets blame her. *mua-ha-ha* They were tasty, right enough, just a bit Yorkshire-puddeny in the visual stakes. Hmph.

Life in the Bahamas!

No blog for 4 days? And I was doing so well. *tut* Well, the weather was delicious here yesterday and all the Chookie wanted was a barbie. Bless her, the top was off, the suncream and sunnies on, the pink lemonade doctored as a big girl cocktail and the sausages earmarked as hers before we'd found the charcoal. Check it.


Bless her, we live in Scotland, remember? Apparently not.

We were at a lovely wedding reception last night, wee (not so!) Richard from work and the delightfully giggly Caroline. I hooked the bridesmaid back into her bra in the loos, kept an eye out for imminent boobular containment failures (there were a few girls with puppies bigger than the blankets they were fighting under!) and we sauntered home at half past midnight full of the joys of young love. And vodka. *cackles*

Had a baking catastrophe today. Pics tomorrow, I'm too traumatised to load them from the camera today.

Mid-Week Mundanities

My friend Mrs Wookie has a couple of really cool weekly lists that she does, as she says to capture a "snapshot" of daily life. So, Wednesdays always being a bit slow for general news (apart from the usual getting over Humpday-ness) I thought I'g give it a go myself. Here we go!

my general mood? Is generally tired! Too many late night last week with the Easter holidays. Even though I wasn't off work I still feel like I'm on leave when there's no school run and preparations for it! Hence the holiday timekeeping.

what am I wearing? Comfy jeans, white t-shirt and bare feet. Pretty standard.

what have I been watching? Fringe (the TV series) catching up last night and the last film I saw was Twilight - which I liked *better* than the book! That never happens!!!

what am I reading? Kelley Armstrong - Broken. Weres, vamps, celebrity necromancers and a zombie controlling Jack the Ripper. *g*

what have I been listening to? 30 Seconds to Mars - A Beautiful Lie, Bat for Lashes - Daniel, White Lies - Farewell to the Fairground.

what have I been creating? Still knitting and not a lot else! Except Sophie's book and a half finished Nativity layout.

How long d'you think those YouTube links will last?

Sophie's book.

One of the school-gate Mums has asked me once or twice before to make her a mini book for newly parented friends. Now, I'm not fond of doing work (work? How pretentious does *that* sound? Y'know what I mean though, right?) for other people but Catherine is always so appreciative that I can't say no. Anyhoo, her friend has had a baby girl (Sophie, obviously) and asked if I'd rustle up something for her. I've done books with massive tags in the past but I've finally exhausted my supply of Memory Avenue tags *pouts* so plumped for a not-quite-star-book style that I've done a couple times before and enjoyed making. So, a couple of hours stickin' an' gluein' last night and I came up with this.

I've had that adorable cover paper for *years* and the inner papers even longer (nearly 7 years, I think!) but was really happy with the end result. It's only 4x4in but big enough for the wallet size prints and has a couple journalling spots for pertinent info. Sorted.

I do wish I'd ironed the table runner before I took the photo, though! It's fresh off the rope. *tuts* Morto!

Slightly less Stinky!

Following on from that random tag photo a few days ago, this is a Stinky Eric update. Okay, so the Spouse restores old cars in his*ahem* spare time. So far he's done a proper Mini (as in Rover, not BMW!), a Ford Anglia (1961, fangyoovermuch), my beloved Mk1 Golf GTI (miss you, Gaz!) and now Stinky who is a 1973 MK1 Ford Escort. After a disastrous attempt at buying an already restored (supposedly) Mexico from EBay a girl at his work told him about her brother's "partially restored" *gurglesnort* MK1. £250 later and Eric the Escort came home to live with us where the then 4 year old Chookie pronounced him "Stinky." That was 2 years ago and the only original parts of the car are the roof and a couple of inner panels on the rear.

Anyhoo, big day at the weekend. Look, an almost complete body!!!

RAWK indeed! The wheels are just balancing for effect but that's a whole side of solid, straight panels. You will never know the work that's gone into that wee car!!

All I need is a partridge...

Spring has definitely sprung! The Chook and I spent the afternoon tidying the back garden - it was so needing it! I think we had a wet autumn; I definitely didn't get as much general weeding and cutting back done as I normally do so it's been a bit messy this spring. Still, it's all pretty now and look at our pear blossom! Third year the tree has been in and not a solitary pear yet! Although Chookie *did* admit this avo to knocking all the tiny post blossom proto-pears off it last year. *hmph* That will explain how they all suddenly disappeared!

So, remember those shoes?

You remember, dontcha? The absolutely glorious seventy quid ones that I wanted but WAS NOT having? Well, I still really wanted new shoes for this wedding reception. So, Chookie and I took the train to Stirling this morning and discovered........there are exactly TWO pairs of green shoes in Stirling. *hmph* One I had seen already in Next (a bit officey so they were) and.........a gorgeous pair of Irregular Choice ones in Schuh. Also seventy quid. *sigh* AND they had the glorious pink ones. Even Chook said they were "even nicer!" in real life. So what did I do?

I walked away.

Seventy bucks is too much for heels I may never wear again. I have sandals that are a great match for my lime minidress. I bought this instead.

It is gorgeously quirky (see the two wee wooden birds?) and picks up on the red/green/black/white wedge heels on my sandals. They sound hideous, don't they? Trust me, they're cool, comfy and (as Gok would say) bang on trend. By accident since I'm so anti-fashion. *g* Anyhoo, with the new bracelets I also bought and my favourite daisy basket handbag I'm all set. Of course, I then spotted the purses while standing in the queue. One fell into my basket.

Fresh as a daisy indeed! With a proper big clasp for a proper big opening - I can never get my fingers into those wee zippy ones!

Get knitted!

After the success of the felted bags before Christmas I've not touched my pins but since the more springlike weather has, well, sprung on us up here I'm short of a nice wee cardi. This (hopefully) will be a green shrug, the pattern is from Ravelry which is the most fantabulous knitting and crochet site. Not for old ladies. *g* Watch this space.

I got tagged!!

Mrs Gallifrey has tagged me. Woo-and indeed a hearty-hoo! So, I'm to upload the fourth photie from my fourth folder on me 'puter. Hmmm. This could be pants coz I'm on MY 'puter upstairs and it's only got about 2 weeks worth of photos on it (unlike the notebook which has 2 years!) Checking now.....nope. The fourth folder is all of me new barnet taken this avo. *runs to laptop* Be with you in a minute.....

*mutters* Fourth folder. Fourth photo. Oh. Sweet Mary. *cough*

Righto. You asked for it. This is from June 2007. Ta-da!!!

Can ya tell what it is, yet? *g* This is Spouse's pet project "Stinky Eric" the 197.....5(?) Mk1 Ford Escort. He was rusty when he paid the princely sum of 200 bucks for him. As in ain't-nothing-worth-saving-here rusty. He's in much better nick now. That could be a whole blog on its own! Anyhoo, I think this is the nearside floor pan (check me with the proper terminology!) and the offside was SO much worse! And the wings. The inner sills. Boot floor. Entire car - except for the roof. 200 quid for an Escort roof isn't bad, eh? *grins*

*edited* Ooops, I'm supposed to pass it on, aren't I? So, I tag Mrs Wookie, Biff (whose blog has cobwebs!) aaaaaaand.........Juliet, have you a blog? You can pass it on if ya like! Ooh, and Nicki. Ha!

Snake hair!

Okay, so when I was a teenager my favourite band was Skid Row. The guitarist was called......y'know. I can't remember. But his nickname was "Snake" and he had weird stripey hair (brown and blonde). I've been to the hairdressers today - I have Snake hair. Granted, my stripes are blonde and copper and the whole underneath is dark brown but the effect is the same Stripey hair. It's just how I wanted it. *g*

P.S. Yes, I appear to be the only person in Scotland having her hair highlighted DARKER than it is. Bye bye blonde!!

P.P.S. Kudos to the Chookie for taking the photo!

P.P.P.S. Last one! It came to me in a flash his name was Dave "the Snake" Sabo. *mua-ha-ha*

Happy Birthday Wee Granny!!

This is my beloved Wee Granny and today is her 86th birthday. I love her more than I love most people - she is an extremely special and inspirational woman (although she will argue the point and be mortified that I've announced that to the whole internet. *g* ). Happy Birthday Ickle Old Lady and PLEASE wear the new jammies and don't keep them "for hospital"!!!!! *laughs*

the wonder that is Flea-bay!

I've been a member of Ebay since....oooooh....before Chookie was born, anyway. I *think* about 2001. I've bought a fair amount (something like 100 items) but NEVER sold anything. Well, with the purchase of my Sony eReader I had a lot of books that weren't needed anymore and would normally have given them to charity. Well, sorry charity shops, we're in a recession and I decided I'd have a bash at selling them. I figured if I put say, 10 books up and got a pound each then I'd have made a tenner and I could save all those tenners together in my Paypal account and eventually buy something. Well, my first 10 books have made 26 quid!!! *shock* Yahoo! There's definitely going to be slogan t-shirt buying going on over here!! What else can I sell.......

Happy Hot-tubbing!

It was our friend Av's birthday yesterday and her and Sue were having a birthday barbie. Av had invited Chookie to have a shot in the hot tub when we'd seen her last and since her nephews were also going to be there and they're Chookie's age, she was very brave and decided she'd quite like to go. FOUR HOURS later we made it home. *rollseyes* Here she is with Sue having a ball and slowly turning puce - broiled Chook!


I should add for concerned Grandparents, she wasn't in the tub for four hours! Twenty minutes (twice!) and I had to bribe her out with snacks and then the promise of a sausage off the barbie. The sun shone (mostly) the company was lovely and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Thanks guys! *g*

Happy Easter!

We had our annual egg hunt in the back garden this morning (yes, I managed to find enough bits of tat to fill 8 eggs in Tesco and Asda!) although it was half ten before Chookie remembered what day it was - not like last year when she was out at half seven!

She was delighted that the Easter Bunny knew she loved pink and High School Musical *rollseyes* and bless her wee heart posed after every found egg for a photo. Then it was up to our bedroom for opening the eggs and more photos. I think this one below is my favourite, that's a Jelly Belly shower gel she's holding. It smells divine - want one!!

Do you know the muffin man....er.....girl?

Yesterdays baking escapades involved a newly acquired recipe. I've been a member of UKScrappers for nearly 7 years now but haven't done a swap for donkeys. This all changed when I spotted a swap being organised for cupcake recipes a few months ago. What a great idea! Well, the recipe cards arrived on Thursday and Chookie picked out the Berry Crumble Muffns for our first experiment. Here they are.

They are absolutely delish and there's none left now. *g* There's a fair chance that a second recipe could be getting tested this avo!

It's Friday and it's Good!

Yes, it's Good friday and I've got the day off. Woot! It should perhaps be noted that it's 12.45 and I've just come out the shower - lazy morning doesn't *begin* to cover it. I can hear the PS3 getting laldy downstairs (Chookie on Little Big Planet) but we really are about to launch into action and go buy stuff for making cupcakes. Honest. *g*

I cleared out my wee room on Tuesday (look, I have a desk!!) and found a pile of photos to be scrapped. Well, it would have been rude to not make the most of my newfound crafting space, wouldn't it? So I present to you, my loyal readers (both of you, ha!) the first layout I've done since January.

Fairly obviously, the Chook at Halloween. She wanted to be, specifically, "a CUTE bat." So I scoured the 'net and found someone had made credible wings from an old brolly. Genius! A trip to Tesco for sale clothing, a big pair of ears, foam nose and some facepaint and we were done! And, how proud am I, this page only took an hour. That's speed scrapping for me!!

P.S. Small panic, I've just realised I've nothing to put in the plastic eggs I hide on Sunday morning! And Chook really does think the Easter Bunny brings them! Horrors!!

Happy Birthday, Gee!

It's my boyfriend's birthday today. Okay, so he's not *technically* my fella. Think of him like a celebrity alternate-universe-where-I'm-a-rockstar boyfriend. *grins* So, my love affair with music received an adrenal kick up the proverbial when I discovered this guy and his band - about 3 years ago. He is, of course, the wonderfully talented Gerard Way - lead singer and lyricist with My Chemical Romance (or to quote 4 year old Holly, "Tentacle Romance" *gigglesnortcough* ). This was before they hit the real big time and they lead me to really searching out good music like I used to. So my hearfelt thanks go to them and a maHOOsive many happy returns to Gee who turns 32 today. 32?! That's nearly as old as me! *g*

Oh, wee Rizzo.

We had Sniffy at the vets today getting her wound checked. She's doing hunky-dory but I was a bit worried about a similar lump Rizzo has under *her* forearm. A different vet had a look at it about 3 weeks ago and said to keep an eye on it. Well, I have and it is definitely getting bigger. The trouble is, she had a different massive lump removed from by her back leg in January - little animals don't like too many general anaesthetics. Anyway, I had also noticed a suspicious thickening around where her original lump was and sure enough the vet confirmed it today. She has another tumour growing at her original surgery site. *sad pout* So, we discussed it and he agreed with my feelings. That it's not fair to keep putting her through surgery (she was absolutely miserable the days after) for what amounts to a couple of months lump free for her. They look like they're going to keep coming and we'll just have to see how long it takes before she darts across that rainbow bridge (assisted or otherwise). Well, I say dart but this *is* Rizzo - the fattest, laziest rat in Scotland. Bless her fat-ridden heart, she has the softest fur I've ever felt. *grins* She's going to get *so* pampered!!!

Strawberry Butterfly Cakes.

Chookie and I were baking on Sunday afternoon. These wee beauties are from a recipe in the Crabapple Cupcake Bakery book (although the cakes and photo above are all mine!). It was -at least to me- a kinda weird recipe coz there was no fat at all in the batter. Just flour, custard powder, eggs and sugar. But they were SO light and yummy AND (and it's a big and) the lack of fat meant the papers stayed all white and pretty. It's the little things, y'know? *g* The strawberry cream filling was divine, too!

P.S. Still coveting those shoes but seventy quid is soooooo much money for stilettos. I'm not really a high heel girl. But they're so niiiiiiice.....

Oh my.

Richard from work gets married in 3 weeks and we've an invite to the evening reception. I've got a lime green mini dress that I *love* and 2 pairs of shoes that match (both sandals - one pink and one nude) and thought that was grand and I'd not have to spend any money on an outfit. Well, I don't *have* to spend any money but I WANT these Irregular Choice heels. SO not me to covet a pair of shoes and I don't know that I'd ever wear them again but just LOOK at them!! *drools* C'mon, they're just gorgeous and quirky. And seventy quid. Gah.

Typical.

Thursday and Friday were gorgeous here weather-wise. Today the sun is splitting the skies and the washing is already fluttering on the line. Yesterday? Yesterday was the district Beaver Scouts Easter Egg Hunt in the local woodland park. It was *chucking* it down. And I mean pelting with rain. The wee pets were soaked, Chookie's hair was plastered to her head and the event was cut short by half an hour. They had fun, though!

Competition 1 involved the traditional boiled egg rolling. Chookie did her bunny all by herself (I did the fiddly double-sided tape bits) and loved him so much she wouldn't roll him incase he got ruined. *grins*

Cute, eh? Anyhoo, competition number 2 was the bonnet one. Chookie spent hours last week making tissue paper flowers (I, again, did the fiddly stapling part) and deciding where the eggs and chicks were to go. She wanted "boingy chicks" for the top and was secretly hoping to maybe win a prize. Here she is before we left.

Well, the wee pet was delighted to win first prize!!! Another Easter egg (she has 5 now - that's a record!) and a very happy wee girl. If a bit wet. And cold. All she wanted when we got home?

A basin of hot water and some chocolate. Happy days!!

So we start again.

I've been having fun the last few days re-reading old posts on various forums I've been a member of - some for 5+ years - and discovered it's a really cool way of remembering the little bits and bobs that happen daily(ish). And *then* I remembered about this place set up for a photography course I started (and didn't finish!) last year. I always loved the title so, here I am. Hopefully recording the stuff that doesn't get scrapbooked on a fairly regular basis. We'll see how it goes!

So, poor wee Sniffy. She's had a big lump under her left front leg for the last few weeks and on Tuesday the vet decided it was time for the tumour to come off. She's got the most enormous wound with funky purple stitching but seems perky enough. So perky that she was back in the big cage with Rizzo and Riley after 48 hours - and no one's bitten or scratched the stitches out. Yet.


Do you know how hard it is to take a sharp photo of a wriggly rat desperate for some boiled egg? T'ain't easy, I can tell ya! This is the best I can do (and I'm not going to warn you how icky it is coz it's so out-of-focus it's barely recogniseable as an icky stitched mass).

The wee pet.

P.S. I've been very clever and inported my (admittedly few) posts from my other "Overlooked Challenge" blog. Yippee!!