Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Saturday, 5 November 2011
Lost Swan
I went for my flu jab recently. Hideous experience, as ususal, but now with added hoops to jump through. They lost/misplaced large portions of my medical records and had no proof I was asthmatic, despite my hospital adventures earlier this year! Upon mentioning this, my crappy lungs were confirmed. I was then told that I was hospitalised for a reason that I'd not yet heard. This is possibly the 6th different reason I have been given. Then I was told I was not allowed my flu jab unless I am on steroids for my asthma. Despite my medical history. So I now have meds for "emergencies" and to allow me to get a flu jab.
After my wonderous doctor adventure, I was on my way home, when I remembered something. I had seen a swan waddling aroung the neighbourhood, looking in cars (kinda looked like he was admiring himself to me). Sure enough, almost an hour later he was still there. I wasted no time in sneakily taking this photo.
Here he is again, a bit more vintagey!
After my wonderous doctor adventure, I was on my way home, when I remembered something. I had seen a swan waddling aroung the neighbourhood, looking in cars (kinda looked like he was admiring himself to me). Sure enough, almost an hour later he was still there. I wasted no time in sneakily taking this photo.
Here he is again, a bit more vintagey!
Saturday, 1 October 2011
TwinPeaksOpoly
Just before we moved house last year, a work colleague/friend sold me an unwanted board game. It was a make your own Opoly game, and had not been made.
Once bought, and brought home, I gladly took on the task of brainstorming various themes for this board game. Hubby and I eventually whittled it down to a shortlist, and one idea stood out. TwinPeaksOpoly.
Once we had a theme, we had to come up with properties for sale and chance and consequence cards, linked into the Twin Peaks theme. This took forever. Again we favoured the shortlist method.
Next pictures had to be found for each property and for the game money. This was both fun and frustruating. Images that could be found of property in Twin Peaks, determined what we could use in our game. Some changes were made and then we began assembling it all.
We had a grand idea during production stage, to produce a mysterious BOB deck of cards. This idea is still being considered, but as yet, we have not done it. If we do get round to it, I will update and let you know.
So we played a few games with the finished product. It came with a few generic, plastic peg men as playing pieces. After all the hard work of making the game, the cheapy, peg men seemed half assed. Being the perfectionist that I am, this would not do.
Firstly I looked into buying dollhouse miniatures for playing pieces. It was proving costly. I couldn't find everything I wanted in one place. Also each piece seemed very pricy. So that option was out. When I was looking into little coffee mugs and pie slices, I noticed how simply made they looked.
New plan of action.
Make them myself. I started with looking up a tutorial on how to make a little mini coffee mug. Looked reasonably easy.
I remember that my air dry clay has dried out so a few wks later, when money allows, I buy some more. Happy dance home to find *nooooooooooooo!* I have lost all my clay tools in the move last year.
New tools. I decide to do research and find metal tools are preferred by many, for most clays. I had a great plastic set, but have seen many cheap ones. I decide to try the local art shops 1st. Eventually settled on metal double ended tools (set of 3) and a set of plastic fimo brand tools. Also found a sturdy, long sewing needle for fine detail.
Now the crafting bit begins.
I used Das brand air dry clay in white. I find this generally does not affect my eczema on my hands, just as a by note. Another shortlist, but this time with sketches. We decided that 6 playing pieces should be sufficient. We also decided that they should be be no bigger than a 2p piece.
I started by making Laura Palmer's Secret Diary. I figured the shape was the easiest to construct. It was fairly straight forward. I even managed to put in little page groves on the sides. When painting this I used ceramic paint and citadel. The citadel was to make the pages of the diary have a gold leaf look to them. I then varnished with ceramic varnish.
Next I made a broken One Eyed Jack's Poker Chip. I used a still from the series, found online, to get the detail just right. This is painted with citadel paint and ceramic varnish.
Log Lady's Log came next. This was a bit of a pain to get the shape right. Again I used another screenshot found on the internet. Painted with ceramic paints and ceramic varnish.
The Cherry Pie was a new challenge for me. I've not successfully managed, to join seperate clay parts together, to make one finished piece before. I knew I had to do this with the next few pieces so looked up online tutorials. Seemed too easy, but worked exactly as described. Again finished with ceramic paints and ceramic varnish.
Damn Fine Cuppa Coffee! Using my new found skills I made this coffee mug with coffee still inside. Half drunk with little ring mark on the inside edge of the mug.
The Owls Are Not What They Seem. The most challenging was left til last. Another screenshot provided inspiration for this. I painted the owls eyes with glow in the dark paint. The other multiple layers are ceramic paint. And ceramic varnish.
Now to play our first big game with our new playing pieces.
I'll get back to you on the BOB deck.
Once bought, and brought home, I gladly took on the task of brainstorming various themes for this board game. Hubby and I eventually whittled it down to a shortlist, and one idea stood out. TwinPeaksOpoly.
Once we had a theme, we had to come up with properties for sale and chance and consequence cards, linked into the Twin Peaks theme. This took forever. Again we favoured the shortlist method.
Next pictures had to be found for each property and for the game money. This was both fun and frustruating. Images that could be found of property in Twin Peaks, determined what we could use in our game. Some changes were made and then we began assembling it all.
We had a grand idea during production stage, to produce a mysterious BOB deck of cards. This idea is still being considered, but as yet, we have not done it. If we do get round to it, I will update and let you know.
So we played a few games with the finished product. It came with a few generic, plastic peg men as playing pieces. After all the hard work of making the game, the cheapy, peg men seemed half assed. Being the perfectionist that I am, this would not do.
Firstly I looked into buying dollhouse miniatures for playing pieces. It was proving costly. I couldn't find everything I wanted in one place. Also each piece seemed very pricy. So that option was out. When I was looking into little coffee mugs and pie slices, I noticed how simply made they looked.
New plan of action.
Make them myself. I started with looking up a tutorial on how to make a little mini coffee mug. Looked reasonably easy.
I remember that my air dry clay has dried out so a few wks later, when money allows, I buy some more. Happy dance home to find *nooooooooooooo!* I have lost all my clay tools in the move last year.
New tools. I decide to do research and find metal tools are preferred by many, for most clays. I had a great plastic set, but have seen many cheap ones. I decide to try the local art shops 1st. Eventually settled on metal double ended tools (set of 3) and a set of plastic fimo brand tools. Also found a sturdy, long sewing needle for fine detail.
Now the crafting bit begins.
I used Das brand air dry clay in white. I find this generally does not affect my eczema on my hands, just as a by note. Another shortlist, but this time with sketches. We decided that 6 playing pieces should be sufficient. We also decided that they should be be no bigger than a 2p piece.
I started by making Laura Palmer's Secret Diary. I figured the shape was the easiest to construct. It was fairly straight forward. I even managed to put in little page groves on the sides. When painting this I used ceramic paint and citadel. The citadel was to make the pages of the diary have a gold leaf look to them. I then varnished with ceramic varnish.
Next I made a broken One Eyed Jack's Poker Chip. I used a still from the series, found online, to get the detail just right. This is painted with citadel paint and ceramic varnish.
Log Lady's Log came next. This was a bit of a pain to get the shape right. Again I used another screenshot found on the internet. Painted with ceramic paints and ceramic varnish.
The Cherry Pie was a new challenge for me. I've not successfully managed, to join seperate clay parts together, to make one finished piece before. I knew I had to do this with the next few pieces so looked up online tutorials. Seemed too easy, but worked exactly as described. Again finished with ceramic paints and ceramic varnish.
Damn Fine Cuppa Coffee! Using my new found skills I made this coffee mug with coffee still inside. Half drunk with little ring mark on the inside edge of the mug.
The Owls Are Not What They Seem. The most challenging was left til last. Another screenshot provided inspiration for this. I painted the owls eyes with glow in the dark paint. The other multiple layers are ceramic paint. And ceramic varnish.
Now to play our first big game with our new playing pieces.
I'll get back to you on the BOB deck.
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Smelly House
We have been living in our current flat, for a little over a year now. Almost everything about it is better than our last abode. Almost. Sadly there is a condensation problem. We need to buy a dehumidifier at some point, but they are bloody pricey. So for now, we have to put up with the condensation, and the problems that causes.
Aside from the obvious sweaty windows and walls (the wall thing only happens in the kitchen when cooking I have to point out), the other major annoyance is smells. Due to the fact that there is more moisture in the air, smells hang around for a lot longer. This is not too much of a problem in fair weather, as I can leave windows open when I am home. In nasty weather however, this is not practical.
We have been trying various deodorising methods to keep on top of things. All of them had to also pass the asthma wheeze test and the fussy nose test. On top of that, I won't buy the generic big company products, but the reasons for that, are for another blog.
We tried scented candles from many companys. Yankee candles smell lovely and seem to have a lot more scent than cheaper competitors. They burn most of the way down. You do have to leave it to burn until the whole top layer is liquidy, molten wax. If you don't then the candle will tunnel inwards leaving an outer core of unused wax. We found careful chipping of this outer layer, with a butter knife, meant it could be used. Do this before you light the candle, and only a little at a time or you can flood the wick, and it will go out. I don't like the amount of carbony soot that collects on the jars, and goes into the air, but this happens with all candles to some extent. Also once the wick has completely burned down, you can reuse the leftover wax. Use a cheap, glazed oil burner (once you use it to do this you can't use it for oil and water again) and carefully chip the wax into small pieces. I used a blunt dining knife and kept it aside for wax use only. Pop the chipped wax pieces into the top of the oil burner (be careful not to use too much or it will overflow once it melts!) and put tea light in bottom and light. Once this starts to melt you will have a scented room. Once smell goes from the wax, wait til solid and carefully chip out of top of burner with blunt knife. You could refresh the wax with essential oil instead. This does not work well with any other candle brand I have tried - only Yankee.
Reed diffusers. The generic shop bought ones smell rank and cloying as a rule. I did find of all the ones I tried that the ambi pur ones smelt more natural and less headachey. Once the supplied fragrance evaporated, I looked into various refill options. Now I got my ambi pur on special offer and was a bit taken aback at how expensive the refills were. I found a gift shop in my neighbourhood that sells various reed diffuser sets, spare reeds and refill oils. I bought a 250ml bottle of refill oil for £10. This is enough for me to refill both of the diffusers in my house, and refresh my pot pourri at least twice per bottle. It's best to choose the same or similar scents when changing the oil, as the reeds will hold onto a lot of scent. You can, of course, buy new reeds and change the over. I have found annoyingly that the more the windows are open in a room, the faster the diffuser oil evaporates. Grrr! All in all these don't really get rid of bad smells all that effectively, they do provide a pleasant ambient smell.
Incense. Boy have I tried loads of these over the years. Eventually I have found a brand I love. Nag Champa. Found only in the bestest of shops. I like most of the smells in the Nag Champa incense range except Jasmine. It smelt like cat pee to me. Blergh! The original Nag Champa, Satya Aastha and Sunrise (the one in yellow box) are my favs. Nag Champa incense smells like incense should. The only downsides are that incense is kinda messy, you need a safe and reliable holder, like candles you need to keep an eye on it whilst it's smouldering and sometimes the smoke can be annoying. Good at smell killing, but not takes a while to work and is smokey.
Air freshener. I normally hate these chemical laden asthma inducers and so rarely to never buy them. Years ago I used to be able to geta brand called Orange Mate. This stuff is pricey yet amazing. A little goes a looong way. All natural too. Super effective and instant. Downsides are that it's concentrated citrus so be very careful where vapours land as it can eat away at plastics and wood, it is expensive and nigh on impossible to now buy unless you are willing to shop online in some odd places! I found another, much easier to find air freshener, which smells good, is concentrated, works fast and does not set off my asthma. Yankee air fresheners. Teeny wee spray looks to be a rip off, but really you never need to use more than 2 small sprays, to kill smells. Mine has lasted over a year so far! Not cheap, but worth it.
Ionisers. Bought two of these to help keep dust, pollen, dog hair out of the air. These are also supposed to help with odors. They do this reasonably well. They do the removal of pollutants from the air thing very well. In pollen season, whilst windows were open, I felt this helped to take a lot of the pollen out of the air. Not worth putting on when burning incense at same time to make air smell nice, as it pulls the smoke out of the air and thusly the fragrance. Works well at removing most smells, it's a bit ugly and a little noisy, brilliant at removing smoke from the air.
Bicarbonate of soda. I use this on carpets instead of shop bought stinky chemical carpet refreshing powders. I used an empty bicarb tub and carefully poked holes in lid with a cork screw to make a shaker. I mix bicarb in a bowl with powdered cinnamon and powdered nutmeg. I use about 2/3 bicarb to 1/3 spice mix. Mix well and decant into shaker. Sprinkle on carpet and leave for at least 30 mins then hoover. Voila - cookie scented carpets! I also use a small bowl of bicarb in fridge to keep it stink free. If I have a few smoker friends over I also put some bicarb in the bottom of ashtrays. It puts out all ciggies and smouldering embers quickly and kills most ashtray stink.
Finally my fav new stink killer. The Fragrance Lamp.
We bought this a few days ago, on recommendation from the owner of the shop where we buy our reed refill oil. He told me that this was the ultimate in household deodorising and scenting. I looked up reviews online and decided that it sounded wonderful. Apparently these lamps were invented in the 1800's by a French mortician looking to keep the mortury smelling fresh. The way it works is quite unique. You fill up the base with the fragranced lamp oil. This is very flammable so I did this in the kitchen sink. You then add the burner top on and the snuffer, and let the oil soak up the wick for 30 mins (this step only needs to be done when you refill or use for 1st time). The burner top consists of a wick folded in half which soaks up the lamp oil, with a small stone on top. This stone is what you set fire to, and not the wick. This means no black carbony smoke! You remove the snuffer and decorative cap, light the stone and leave it on fire for a little over 2 minutes, then blow out the flame. You then replace the decorative cap over the stone. Then leave it to smoulder for as long as you need. You then carefully remove the cap (i put mine on old matchbox as it's little hot and I don't want sideboard all burn marked) and carefully put the snuffer cap on the stone, and the decorative cap back on. So far, I have found that about 10-15 minutes seems to kill all smells and the fresh smell lingers for a long time afterwards. The smell is a little paraffiny but not overpowerly so. That is the only downside so far. It is also very pretty. Mine is from a company called Ashleigh and Burwood. The lamp cost a little under £25 and the oil is £5. So far the oil seems to last as you don't need to use much for it to be effective.
Aside from the obvious sweaty windows and walls (the wall thing only happens in the kitchen when cooking I have to point out), the other major annoyance is smells. Due to the fact that there is more moisture in the air, smells hang around for a lot longer. This is not too much of a problem in fair weather, as I can leave windows open when I am home. In nasty weather however, this is not practical.
We have been trying various deodorising methods to keep on top of things. All of them had to also pass the asthma wheeze test and the fussy nose test. On top of that, I won't buy the generic big company products, but the reasons for that, are for another blog.
We tried scented candles from many companys. Yankee candles smell lovely and seem to have a lot more scent than cheaper competitors. They burn most of the way down. You do have to leave it to burn until the whole top layer is liquidy, molten wax. If you don't then the candle will tunnel inwards leaving an outer core of unused wax. We found careful chipping of this outer layer, with a butter knife, meant it could be used. Do this before you light the candle, and only a little at a time or you can flood the wick, and it will go out. I don't like the amount of carbony soot that collects on the jars, and goes into the air, but this happens with all candles to some extent. Also once the wick has completely burned down, you can reuse the leftover wax. Use a cheap, glazed oil burner (once you use it to do this you can't use it for oil and water again) and carefully chip the wax into small pieces. I used a blunt dining knife and kept it aside for wax use only. Pop the chipped wax pieces into the top of the oil burner (be careful not to use too much or it will overflow once it melts!) and put tea light in bottom and light. Once this starts to melt you will have a scented room. Once smell goes from the wax, wait til solid and carefully chip out of top of burner with blunt knife. You could refresh the wax with essential oil instead. This does not work well with any other candle brand I have tried - only Yankee.
Reed diffusers. The generic shop bought ones smell rank and cloying as a rule. I did find of all the ones I tried that the ambi pur ones smelt more natural and less headachey. Once the supplied fragrance evaporated, I looked into various refill options. Now I got my ambi pur on special offer and was a bit taken aback at how expensive the refills were. I found a gift shop in my neighbourhood that sells various reed diffuser sets, spare reeds and refill oils. I bought a 250ml bottle of refill oil for £10. This is enough for me to refill both of the diffusers in my house, and refresh my pot pourri at least twice per bottle. It's best to choose the same or similar scents when changing the oil, as the reeds will hold onto a lot of scent. You can, of course, buy new reeds and change the over. I have found annoyingly that the more the windows are open in a room, the faster the diffuser oil evaporates. Grrr! All in all these don't really get rid of bad smells all that effectively, they do provide a pleasant ambient smell.
Incense. Boy have I tried loads of these over the years. Eventually I have found a brand I love. Nag Champa. Found only in the bestest of shops. I like most of the smells in the Nag Champa incense range except Jasmine. It smelt like cat pee to me. Blergh! The original Nag Champa, Satya Aastha and Sunrise (the one in yellow box) are my favs. Nag Champa incense smells like incense should. The only downsides are that incense is kinda messy, you need a safe and reliable holder, like candles you need to keep an eye on it whilst it's smouldering and sometimes the smoke can be annoying. Good at smell killing, but not takes a while to work and is smokey.
Air freshener. I normally hate these chemical laden asthma inducers and so rarely to never buy them. Years ago I used to be able to geta brand called Orange Mate. This stuff is pricey yet amazing. A little goes a looong way. All natural too. Super effective and instant. Downsides are that it's concentrated citrus so be very careful where vapours land as it can eat away at plastics and wood, it is expensive and nigh on impossible to now buy unless you are willing to shop online in some odd places! I found another, much easier to find air freshener, which smells good, is concentrated, works fast and does not set off my asthma. Yankee air fresheners. Teeny wee spray looks to be a rip off, but really you never need to use more than 2 small sprays, to kill smells. Mine has lasted over a year so far! Not cheap, but worth it.
Ionisers. Bought two of these to help keep dust, pollen, dog hair out of the air. These are also supposed to help with odors. They do this reasonably well. They do the removal of pollutants from the air thing very well. In pollen season, whilst windows were open, I felt this helped to take a lot of the pollen out of the air. Not worth putting on when burning incense at same time to make air smell nice, as it pulls the smoke out of the air and thusly the fragrance. Works well at removing most smells, it's a bit ugly and a little noisy, brilliant at removing smoke from the air.
Bicarbonate of soda. I use this on carpets instead of shop bought stinky chemical carpet refreshing powders. I used an empty bicarb tub and carefully poked holes in lid with a cork screw to make a shaker. I mix bicarb in a bowl with powdered cinnamon and powdered nutmeg. I use about 2/3 bicarb to 1/3 spice mix. Mix well and decant into shaker. Sprinkle on carpet and leave for at least 30 mins then hoover. Voila - cookie scented carpets! I also use a small bowl of bicarb in fridge to keep it stink free. If I have a few smoker friends over I also put some bicarb in the bottom of ashtrays. It puts out all ciggies and smouldering embers quickly and kills most ashtray stink.
Finally my fav new stink killer. The Fragrance Lamp.
We bought this a few days ago, on recommendation from the owner of the shop where we buy our reed refill oil. He told me that this was the ultimate in household deodorising and scenting. I looked up reviews online and decided that it sounded wonderful. Apparently these lamps were invented in the 1800's by a French mortician looking to keep the mortury smelling fresh. The way it works is quite unique. You fill up the base with the fragranced lamp oil. This is very flammable so I did this in the kitchen sink. You then add the burner top on and the snuffer, and let the oil soak up the wick for 30 mins (this step only needs to be done when you refill or use for 1st time). The burner top consists of a wick folded in half which soaks up the lamp oil, with a small stone on top. This stone is what you set fire to, and not the wick. This means no black carbony smoke! You remove the snuffer and decorative cap, light the stone and leave it on fire for a little over 2 minutes, then blow out the flame. You then replace the decorative cap over the stone. Then leave it to smoulder for as long as you need. You then carefully remove the cap (i put mine on old matchbox as it's little hot and I don't want sideboard all burn marked) and carefully put the snuffer cap on the stone, and the decorative cap back on. So far, I have found that about 10-15 minutes seems to kill all smells and the fresh smell lingers for a long time afterwards. The smell is a little paraffiny but not overpowerly so. That is the only downside so far. It is also very pretty. Mine is from a company called Ashleigh and Burwood. The lamp cost a little under £25 and the oil is £5. So far the oil seems to last as you don't need to use much for it to be effective.
Friday, 22 July 2011
Garden Bracelet 3
Garden Bracelet 2
Garden Bracelet
I made this!
Victoria Got Repotted
Totoro and Mai in the Forest of Cacti
Pig in Blue 2
Pig in Blue 1
Friday, 22 April 2011
This Tablet, Helps Protect My Tummy
New medicine regime means I need protecting on the inside.
Confusion
My antibiotics are confusing. This is what the inside of the lid says. Does this mean I am not to eat the antibiotics, or not to eat the lid of the tub?
Would You Try To Eat This?
Is there something else I should know about the side fx of my meds? Like an urge to cram plastic in my mouth?
Medicine Mountain
Almost finished 1, but I'll be on the rest for a wk or more still.
Saturday, 16 April 2011
And These Pills, Are No Fun At All
Another week another new medication. These are huge!
twinpeaksopoly - Not Coming To A Store Near You
We made our own board game, and it rocks!
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Thursday, 7 April 2011
Retro Tulips
The washed out colours remind me of a watercolour painting.
Pinhole Tulips
*pop* go the colours
Xtra Lomo Tulips
I told you they looked more perky today.
Tulips Light
Lomo Light effect
Medication Looks Better In Lomo
My Antibiotics
These Are The Dave's I Know
Playing with settings I've never investigated before
Tulips For The Sick
Hubby bought me flowers to cheer me up. Oddly they look more perky 24hrs later
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Brownie Pig
I was looking online at some photos taken with Brownie cameras, and loved the softer colours some of them seemed to produce. I was inspired and tried to recreate a similar feel with my vignette app on my phone. Probably way off, but I like the effect anyhoo.
New Camera App = Obsessive Me
I recently downloaded a camera app called Vignette. There was some initial wierdness with no shutter sound. Eventually figured out the app uses the phone's alarm volume to control shutter volume. This would be fine, if android phones had the ability to change the alarm volume, which they often don't. Annoyingly many androids seem to randomly reset the alarm volumes, to deafening or silent. I eventually found another app which allows me to change all system volumes on phone, this then made it possible to hear the shutter sound on Vignette. All worth it as I can now hear the lovely clicky sound (which is kinda helpful too) when taking pictures, and I can adjust all system volumes without tearing my hair out.
After getting sounds to work I started taking photos and saving favourite settings. I tried to save settings that were similar to real cameras. I wouldn't say they are all perfect yet, more like work in progress. I've been playing with the pinhole camera I set, more than most of the other favourites so far. Have a look and see what you think.
After getting sounds to work I started taking photos and saving favourite settings. I tried to save settings that were similar to real cameras. I wouldn't say they are all perfect yet, more like work in progress. I've been playing with the pinhole camera I set, more than most of the other favourites so far. Have a look and see what you think.
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