The magic of a chiropractor!

It's December and I haven't even thought about Christmas presents - omg where has the year gone to? I suppose we'll have to dig the tree out at the weekend. Last year we went for blue and silver but to be honest I'm a bit fed up with all the designer colour themed thing now. This year I'm going back to how I remember Christmas as a kid - multicoloured fairy lights and all kinds of decorations on the tree.

I went for my first treatment at a chiropractor today. My neck and shoulders have been getting more and more stiff and painful over the last couple of years. It's got to the point where I'm getting headaches every day, I can barely turn my head to the side and I'm spending way too much time with either a hot water bottle or a bag of frozen peas on my neck.

Having my necked cracked a couple of times was certainly an experience but that along with some deep muscle treatment has really helped. Hopefully a few more sessions will sort me out.

My little cat is doing well at the moment. After his embolism in his back legs I really thought we had lost him but he has surprised us all by making a full recovery. I have to inject him every day with blood thinning meds which I think are making a huge difference. We're keeping everything crossed that he will remain stable for a while as yet.

I've been busy catching up on made to order beads but I have a few sets that I'll try to get listed tomorrow.

I intended to update the blog Monday night to show you the new focal beads I'd made but our poor little cat had another blood clot. It was so unexpected as he had seemed so well but I guess that's the nature of the beast. He had just had some food and settled himself on my lap about 9.30 last night when he jumped off and his back legs just gave way. His back half was limp and he dragged himself along - it was so distressing. He didn't seem in too much pain though which was a blessing.

We got him to the vets straight away and he's still there now. We all went to see him this afternoon and he looked a lot better than I thought he would. He was very responsive, purring and rolling over. His back legs are still quite cold but the vet seems quite hopeful that he will get through this one. We'll know more tomorrow - keeping our fingers crossed that the movement will come back to his legs.

I've felt awful today but I've pushed myself to keep busy so I don't think about it too much. He's in the best place and they're doing all they can for him.

So now I'll show you the focal beads I made earlier last week. I used a lot of silver glass in these - I just love the ethereal effects you can get with it. I really like building up the layers of a bead using mainly transparents and lots of clear to create depth.

Beads Galore!

Our poorly cat is still doing well, thank goodness. He is such a little sweetie and really good at taking his tablets - as long as they're in a bit of fish though.

His brother had to go to the vet on Monday. He sometimes has trouble weeing and on Monday he kept going to the litter tray but couldn't do anything. The tablets we give him when he has this problem didn't seem to be working so off we went for yet another vet visit. They had to keep him in to sedate him so that he would be able to go but by the afternoon he still couldn't wee. They then had to give him a general anaesthetic and then finally he managed to empty his bladder. He's back home and is fine now - thank god we have them both insured!

It was my eldest son's birthday on Wednesday and we had a lovely day. We went ten pin bowling (I was the winner - yay!!) in the afternoon and then went out for an evening meal. We went with my parents and it was really nice to have a family day.

I had 3 days at the torch this week which resulted in 9 new sets of lampwork beads in the shop. I'm not sure which ones are my favourite but I really like these Santa Fe Lentils - I have a thing for turquoise and amber together.

I thought for a bit of fun I would put these colours into Etsy and see what came up. First is a beautiful painting by Etsy's MADART - I just love the colours in this. In fact I love almost everything in her store! The second pic is an amazing bead embroidered cuff from CindyCaraway - I am so in awe of the work that has gone into this.

At the vets again

It hasn't been a good start to the week so far. Our lovely 6 year old cat had to be rushed to the vet yesterday morning as he had a blood clot in his leg. He was diagnosed with advanced CHF, which is congestive heart failure, 5 weeks ago which as you can imagine, was a huge shock considering how young he is.

He had been doing very well on his medications though so this came very much out of the blue. I noticed he was holding his front leg up and couldn't walk properly. I pretty much knew what it was as the vet had warned us that this was very likely to happen at some point so we got him to the vets straight away. The trouble was we had to wait nearly half an hour to be seen and he was getting very stressed. By the time we got in to see the vet he was gasping for air and was rushed in to an oxygen tent. He had to stay in overnight as he had a lot of fluid in his lungs. I must admit I was dreading the phone ringing as I feared the worst but we were able to pick him up this afternoon.

He has gradually improved in the time that he's been home. He's able to walk OK, he's eaten and had plenty of water and now he's stretched out on the sofa. We have to face the fact that he won't be here for much longer but at least he's at home and comfortable and will get no end of pampering.

I just wanted to say that if you are waiting for made to order beads, they may be delayed by a couple of days or so. Hopefully I can get to make some tomorrow and will get caught up on the orders.

Swine flu strikes!!

Ah well it had to happen didn't it? If anyone in our family was going to get it was going to be me!

I hadn't felt particularly good all last week - sore throat, headache, sweaty etc but not really that ill. A couple of times my mum said 'you don't think it's swine flu do you?' I felt a bit better on Friday but Saturday morning I started to feel a bit odd. By the time hubby came home at lunchtime I thought something was not right so he phoned the doctors. The doctor came out at around 5 and confirmed as much as they can without swabs/tests etc that I did have it and gave me some Tamiflu.

By 7 o'clock I was feeling awful - I had the mother of all headaches, I was hot then freezing cold, I ached everywhere and then came 2 hours of being physically sick. I couldn't even keep the tiniest drop of water down so I couldn't take any painkillers. Hubby had to go out at 9 to a late night chemist to get me something to stop the sickness which thankfully meant that I could take paracetamol (and keep them down) at about 10 o'clock so finally my high temperature and headache subsided for a few hours.

So here I am on Tuesday, day 4 and this is the first day without a headache. I still feel a bit sick and light headed and I haven't got much energy but I'm on the mend. I think it will be another couple of days before I get to work again. I just hope hubby and the boys don't come down with it. Can you imagine it - a man with proper flu!! God help us!

New jewellery website

Is it really over 3 months since I last blogged!! I've been kind of side tracked for the last few weeks as I've been trying to get my jewellery up and running. I've finally listed a few things on Etsy and I'm planning to list more pieces over the coming weeks. I know that Etsy is pretty slow at the moment especially for newbies like me so I'm prepared for it to take a while to get going.

I won't be using my lampwork beads to make my jewellery so don't worry - there'll still be beads for you to buy!! Besides you all make such beautiful things with them - I don't think I could compete!

I do have some lampwork beads to list on my website a bit later today. A lovely customer from Canada who is back in the UK for a while had asked for some beads so I've kept everything back until she popped round this morning.

The weather has been so unbearably hot and humid that it was near impossible to make beads. Thank goodness it's cooled down now.

If anyone wants to 'heart' my Rose and Raven etsy shop I'll return the favour.

Obsessions

I finally got round to blogging again!! I think the problem is that I just don't have enough interesting stuff to write about. I keep thinking that I really must try to get a social life but the sad thing is that I am obsessed with beads. There I said it - I am an addict!

My hubby just doesn't get the whole bead/colour/shiny objects thing. I just feel a constant need to fill my head with new crafts, beads, books, colour, art etc etc. My newest obsessions are resin and collage. Oh and after just watching 'About a Boy' tonight, I think Hugh Grant may join the list!


I have however still found time to make beads. These are some of my latest creations. I was really pleased with these beads - I thought they had a bit of an Egyptian look to them with the gold and blue.




I used lots of real gold leaf in this bead. Boy that stuff is a pain in the bum to use - it sticks to everything except the marver and the slightest breeze sends it flying.


I will *try* to blog more often but don't hold me to it! I'm off now to dream about beads and Hugh - sigh!

In print!!

I was a little excited to see my competition entry beads in the Beads and Beyond magazine today. This is the set I submitted - I called it Neptune's Carnival...

We'll have to wait until next month to find out the winners - I have to say there were some fab entries so it'll be a toughie for the judges.

I realise that I haven't posted here since November - I am such a bad blogger! I really admire all you people that can keep up to date with everything.

Well I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. We were all a bit poorly with coughs and colds - hubby had man flu of course! I say all, everyone except my eldest, Josh. He managed to avoid all the germs and stay healthy, which is rather ironic as he is the one with the least healthy diet. That didn't help my ongoing efforts to get him to eat fruit and veg!

So here we are, the start of another new year. It seems all doom and gloom for the economy at the moment although how much of that is media hype I'm not sure. Anyway just as what goes up must come down, vice versa is true. I'm sure things will pick up.

I've got a couple of prize draws running for January - you find the details on the website under Free Beads. I've put some new beads in the shop too.