I'm the Ogre !

Poor little Mia!  Last week I took her along to the vet's for her annual "flu" vaccine and when the vet gave her a health checkup she spotted some problems with her teeth - gingivitis and at least one tooth which needed to come out - even though Mia is so young, it's a problem that can afflict some cats (especially Siamese and orientals) due to an allergy to plaque.  Mia wasn't exhibiting any signs of pain or problems eating and there was nothing wrong at her last check up, so we had no idea.

So yesterday I had to take her along and leave her at the vets all day (she was whisked off to the other surgery in nearby Kirkham where they have all the latest surgical equipment).  Of course we were worried all day, having an anaesthetic and everything, and I couldn't collect her till 4.30 pm.  She was fine, she'd been very nervous of course, but had had to have 3 teeth removed at the back - the rest were fine with a scale and polish. 

Unfortunately I've now become the Big Bad Ogre ..... one look at me and Mia just fled the room and stayed out of my way.  I think she's just about beginning to forgive me a bit today.  Only problem is I have to take her back to the vet's on Friday for a check up so I'll definitely be back in her bad books ...... oops !

The start of a New Year

Well, I have to say that I wasn't too impressed to start the new year off with a raging toothache ..... a visit to the dentist on Tuesday resulted in a week's antibiotics to clear up an infection under the tooth (a wisdom tooth, which really is past its best I'm afraid) and if it flares up again (which it will eventually) it's bye bye, tooth!  Good job I don't have a phobia about the dentist as others I know have!  Tomorrow I'm off to see the consultant at Preston Royal for the latest check up on my dodgy hand, though I don't expect there to be any particular new solutions offered to the problem.  But that's enough about that.

We had a quiet but pleasant Christmas and New Year, hard to believe it's already time to take down all the decos tomorrow.  Mia has had a high old time climbing under and up into the Christmas tree, knocking baubles off and running of with tinsel bits.  She also decided to be my little helper on New Year's Day when I sat down to update my new diary and calendar for the year - as you can see ........

As I mentioned in my last post, this year I want to get back to being a bit more creative again and have decided to join in with the latest Art Journal 2012 project in Ali's Vintage ATCs UK Yahoo Group - each month there's to be a theme with a page relating to that theme to be created each week.  January's theme is "Life's A Beach" and the first page has to include these words and what they mean to me.  I tried to keep up with the prompts for the 2011 journal but didn't get too far I'm afraid so I'm going to see how I get on this year.  I managed to put aside a couple of hours yesterday afternoon to sit down and play/create and this is the page I came up with.  The book is a "Pink Pig" one, 8" x 8" with nice sturdy white pages, so provides a good base to work on.  It's a simple page - used TH distress inks for the sky, sea and sand, with white acrylic paint for the waves, a few stamped images and simple writing using Sharpies (thought I'd ease myself in gently)!

I'll try and post a picture of each page that I complete for this Journal - wish me luck that I stick at it!