Pearl Element and Update on Chaotic Life!!

It has been so long since I posted everyone will have forgotten who I am!! So I thought I would post a quick update and a little goody for you.

At least I hope you'll think it's a goodie!! It's a pearl and ribbon element that I made when playing with some brushes a few weeks ago. The preview doesn't do it justice...or I could just be biased, lol!!

Have a look and see what you think. If you like it snag it and then if you want to catch up with my news read on.

You can Download the Pearl Element here

Well,  finally have my mum back in her own home again and everything organised on that front. It does mean lots of driving backwards and forwards now but the transition seems to have gone OK, so fingers crossed.

I have news on my insomnia...yep it's still there but now I know what to do when I can't sleep...go calm down the dog!! I have a new visitor, Charlie, one of my son's dogs and Charlie is taking it hard being an only dog in the house. he's with us for retraining...well training actually!! He is a real cutie but his energy levels are sky high, he is like a coiled spring...the slightest excuse and he is bouncing off the walls.

He is 2 years old and a Spring/Cocker Spaniel cross. He also has the habit of collecting things..in fact anything. He doesn't chew many things, he just looks after them...or in the worse case scenario..he hides them. Today it was my husband's work keys. They are lurking somewhere in the house or garden so I just hope I find them soon or the fur will fly!! DH was not amused!!

I am just glad that Charlie doesn't wear shoes, he would have worn out half a dozen pairs by now if he did!!! He paces, runs, walks...always moving. Finally this evening I have him sitting quietly at my feet...not on them but just next to me. He has decided that I am one of the "alphas" in the pack and so he is paying a bit more attention to me...well, for now at least!! I have to admit despite his energy levels he is not a natural born alpha himself...more an omega!

The cat of course just hates him!!! With a large H!!! So we are slowly getting the message over to Charlie that if he likes living...stay away from the cat!! But he is a slow learner it seems. The cat doesn't help as he sits out of reach and then taunts Charlie...who of course reacts..jumping etc. Mind you Tigger is not daunted, he knows that dogs have very tender noses!!!

Lilly made an unplanned visit to stay with us at the weekend and she found Charlie great fun...they both ran circles around me for two days. She loved it and so did he but I was just a little less keen. He was so gently but he found Lilly's laughter and games totally irresistible. Lilly however, found it hard to understand why grandma kept spoiling the fun!!! She let on Sunday night and yesterday I felt slightly zombiefied (is that a word?) all day. I was on automatic pilot until bedtime...then...yes you got it...I woke up, lol!!

Tomorrow I am taking mum to the doctors, so yet an other early start to get there on time but then hopefully I will get a couple of days "me" time. I live in hope!!!

My computer and I have been strangers recently but I hope to be back at work next week and that things return to some sort of normality. OK, so it's never completely normal in this house but as close to it as I am likely to get!!

So hopefully my postings will be back to normal and I can enjoy blogging and chatting with you all...I really have missed it. Thank you all for the wonderful advice and tips on insomnia, I am going to start in ernest with some of them to see if I can sort this problem out or at least improve it. I really appreciate all the comments people have left..thank you for caring.

Well, that's all from me for tonight...I need to go and strangle the cat. (Only kidding..but it is meowing and winding up Charlie again!) Take care and be back soon.

 

Technorati Tags: Pearl Element,freedownload,update on me chaotic life

Insomniacs Unit!!

Before I get to the freebie...yes I know you all want one!! But first...my little problem. Was that a groan I heard? Who said not an other one? Honestly, it's not a bad problem...just a teeny, weeny one...that is DRIVING me MAD!!!

Today I feel like I need two matchsticks to prop open my eyelids...yep, I need some sleep!! The only problem is that recently...well, for quite a while really.....I can't get to sleep and to add insult to injury....when I do manage it, I can't stay asleep for any length of time either.

Result, one tired lady. I feel sleepy until I lie down and then suddenly...I'm wide awake. I've tried everything, hot drinks, warm baths, soft music, reading, not eating after 8.00pm, counting sheep...OK, so you get the message!! It is murder...or could lead to it, lol!!

I think part of it stems from my lack of "me" time during the day...no space to think personal thoughts and so at night my eager brain starts catching up and crams in all the things it didn't have time for in the day.

I decided to checked some herbal remedies for sleeplessness and some old Victorian ones. Some of them were sensible but some were scary, some just made me laugh and some really surprised me. I thought that drug problems were a modern thing and perhaps they are, but drug usage was rife in Victorian times...really it was!!

Even Queen Victoria took cannabis for insomnia...prescribed by her own personal physician no less. Lots more people took laudanum, an opium based drug, all highly illegal now. If you were poor gin seems to have been the favourite. But I think that I will give these a miss, sounds like the cure could cause more problems than the problem!!!

An other nasty thing about insomnia is the tossing and turning. Last night I ended up like a grub in a cocoon. I twisted so much that the duvet was wrapped around my legs..it made getting out of bed in the dark pretty risky I can tell you!! I felt like a grounded mermaid!!

One of the "sensible" sounding cures involved "emptying your mind".....sort of like putting out the garbage each night before you go to bed, I suppose. The only problem is my mind refuses point blank to be emptied!!! I empty it and it just fills itself up, perhaps I need a tap to shut it off?

I suppose I could try the insomnia cure that appeared in the Glasgow Herald in Victorian times. This one involved taking old fashioned yellow soap, and rubbing it into the roots of your hair until your head was lathered all over. Then you tied up your head in a napkin (what was that all about?), went to bed and washed out the soap in the morning. ...oh yes and you had to drink tea before this. That soap sounds yucky!! Definitely an other to pass on!!!

On some advice I tried the trick of getting up again and not returning to bed until you feel really tired..but I just end up feeling like a human yoyo!!! In bed, out of bed...feel exhausted..in bed....wide awake, out of bed..and so on!! That could go on for ever until I got too weak to get in or out of bed and ended up a heap on the floor!!

I found one that said to tie a wet hankie or rag around your wrist... this sounds a bit like a recipe for a damp night to me, so that one was consigned to the bin too!!

So any good insomnia remedies...that don't involve heavy sedation, electric shock treatments or nasty ingredients...are warmly welcomed!!!

For now...I am still tired and I have acquired more trivia to fill my energetic brain with!!

Today I have a little freebie I made a while ago but never got around to using. So, I thought I would share it. You can use this one for personal or commercial use. I hope you like the two scrolls. Download them and pop them on your page and add a drop shadow to bring them to life.

You can download them here

Have a great day and if your lucky a wonderful nights sleep!!!

Technorati Tags: cu ok freebie,free download,fantasy scrolls,insomnia

Happy New Year

Where has the time gone? I found Christmas was a challenge this year, I was a cross between Florence Nightingale and the nurse from hell....with a little Kitchen Diva and a lot of Caterer thrown in for good measure!! In other words...organised chaos!!

But the big day has come and gone and I am relieved that it is all over. Mind you I am suffering guilt pangs at the moment. Have you ever started out with good intentions, doing something with the best motives and then found yourself having reduced to a secret plotter with bad thoughts?...Guilty!!! I am!! Really I am...at my age too!!

I am so glad that my mum is so much better after her operation...but two women in a house can be bad enough but mothers and grown up daughters don't do well over the long term!! I end up, despite my good resolutions, ending the day frayed around the edges. I have found the last few weeks have left me no room at all even for thought let alone anything that I would normally do. So I think I am becoming the Grouches understudy...fast!!

But enough of that...I don't have any more time for moaning, lol.

Happy New Year to you all, may 2009 be a brighter year than people are forecasting. A year when you will find a cloud with a silver lining and a song to lighten you heart. Life is good..it just has little hiccups. So if you are having a bout of hiccups...hold on, they always pass.

My little New Years gift to you is a paper pack in greens and turquoises. It's a little abstract and a bit impressionist, which makes it a versatile little bundle. I hope you can find room for them in your stash...I know those hard drives must be groaning after all that Christmas stuff!!!

You can download them here

Take care and enjoy!!

Technorati Tags: paper pack,freedown load