Sunday, June 26, 2011

One has to wonder?

On recommendation from Royal Australian Mint, our Government is considering scrapping 5 cent pieces. What will be next?  It was in 1990 that our copper one and two cent pieces were recommissioned so to speak.  And now it seems the metal required to produce each 5 cent piece exceeds their face value.

I wonder if 10 cent pieces will shortly follow.  The biggest loser in all this will be our charities.  I know I clear out my ever breeding 5 cent pieces to the lovely old Salvation Army volunteer most Saturdays.  And lets not forget our lovely guide dogs ever present at every Coles and Woolworths checkout.

What about the prices of items.  Will you still have to pay 65 cents for an item and will it be rounded up or down.  Who will be the winner here people.  Maybe they should redesign the 5 cent piece to a more economical design.

I wonder if in twenty years time I will be blogging about the demise of the $2.00 coin?

Friday, June 24, 2011

Just keep swimming Just keep swimming


Just a quick post to update on how I am faring since last coming out of hospital approximately 4 weeks ago.  I am treading water.  I am not struggling yet but I am still not out of the deep waters.  I had a Mental Health Nurse visit me on Wednesday.  Her role and function is to:


  • establish a therapeutic relationship with the patient ie me
  • liaise closely with family and carers as appropriate
  • regularly review the patient's mental health state
  • administer, monitor and ensure compliance by patient with their medication
  • provide information on physical health care to patients
She can also provide treatment modalities such as psycho-education, CBT, mindfulness skills, relaxation strategies, skills training and interpersonal therapy.

This is an in home service provided as part of the Council of Australian Goverments Better Mental Services for Australia initiative.

This service will continue for as long as my psychiatrist and nurse feel I will benefit from it.

My first meeting with her went well.  I liked her.  That is a big bonus.  I felt she was very competent and capable and I felt I could trust her and hopefully her strategies and support will help me not just stay out of hospital but start seeing some kind of light at the end of the tunnel.

Either that or I will just have to eat more chocolate.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Get your blocks off....

Am eagerly looking forward to watching the new series of The Block starting tonight.  I love the tension, adore the interior design and become very jealous at the budget allocated to each couple.

I have no idea of who the couples are this year but of course there will be the couple you love to hate and then everyone's fave.  Always is.

Had a good day at art today.  Finished a pastel drawing.  Am living with it on a wall for the moment and when I feel more confident might put in a pic to share.  Have received nothing but compliments so far.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

You know your getting old when...

You know that famous must watch and know all the lines for Aussie legendary movie The Castle.  Yes you know it, you do.  Think "this is going straight to the pool room"  or "ah the serenity".  Well Stephen Curry who played Dale Kerrigan (yes the one who dug the holes) was in the recent Cloudstreet.  He played Sam Pickles who was a middle aged character.  What? Yes you heard me right.  Dale Kerrigan little Dale.  Was playing a middle aged character.

Gee I felt old.  It was a wonderful series.  Truly a feast for the eyes.  It would be great to see more of Tim Winton's stuff turned into great Ausse drama.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Normal is just a setting on your washing machine

Thanks to a number of reasons I actually had a really great day today.  About time I felt like I was not carrying a huge load or felt totally flat and numb.  It was wonderful to feel alive today.  I won't go as far as saying I was totally happy but I did feel pretty good.

I hung out with a couple of friends today.  Firstly we did a bit of shopping and I picked up some Riot branded pens which are the same as Copic Markers.  But these ones were much much cheaper.  They Copic ones cost about $12.99 each.  The Riot ones are $5.99 but I picked up 15 discontinued colours at $2.99 each.  Saved me some big bucks.  These markers are going to be very handy with working on my art journal.  They are an alcohol based marker and blend really well.

We then had a knitting lesson.  Big Oh.  The ladies who were of a very excellent vintage were amazing.  They get together on a regular basis but where I live on the 3rd Friday of each month.  They knit for kids in crisis who have arrived at a Foster Family with just the clothes they are wearing.  They also, this year have knitted items for flood victims.  AND, today donated their 1000th item for flood victims.  It was a beautiful rug.  We had our local Federal MP Ross Vasta drop in to commemorate the occasion.  Such amazing women.  Lil ole me is going to attempt a scarf for their cause.

When I got home I sorted my very expensive markers, Prisma pencils, charcoal and graphite pencils and had so much fun doing it.

We have had trouble free pizza for dinner and I am about to pig out on chocolate.  Yay what a day.

Hope your's has been as good.

The A - Z of me

A. Age: 42

B. Bed size: Queen – I’d love a king size though!
C. Chore that you hate: you mean I can only pick one - how about all of them 
D. Dogs: Would love a labradoodle one day.
E. Essential start to your day: A coffee then a long hot shower.
F. Favourite color: for decor red and white for clothes white, black, grey and any neutral colours
G. Gold or Silver: Gold
H. Height: approx 167cm depending on the time. 
I. Instruments you play: none, zip, diddly squat...get the picture
J. Job title: CEO of my family
K. Kids: Yep got two of them one of each kind too


L. Live: where else but Qld, sorry could not resist.  More precisely - Brisbane on the bay.
M. Mother's name: begins with D sorry this is my blog not hers and if she wants people to know her name that is up to her
N. Nicknames: Lau, lauzie, yitty, lozmeister
O. Overnight hospital stays: ha this year heaps.
P. Pet peeve: fairweather friends I don't get them.  You are or you aren't you don't sit on the fence
Q. Quote from a movie:  Party on Wayne, Party on Garth (Wayne's World) 
R. Right or left handed: Right
S. Siblings: one sister
T. Time you wake up: weekdays about 7.30 and weekends as late as the kids let us
U. Underwear: yep I wear it.
V. Vegetable you hate: cabbage!  
W. What makes you run late: my husband
X. X-Rays you've had: arm, teeth, stomach, ankle and probably more can't remember
Y. Yummy food that you make:I make a divine trifle, a scrummy choc pavlova and anything else I set out to do really.
Z. Zoo animal: Giraffes - just love them but can't figure out where they fit in the world.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Today's post is bought to you by the letter 'D'

D as in depression. I am so over myself at the moment.  I have had my youngest home sick all week and she has been quite unwell.  The best way to keep her in bed is to stay there with her so I have pretty much spent most of this week in bed.  Not the best way for a person like me to spend the week.  I struggle as it is to get out of bed so to force myself to stay in bed has not been great.

I haven't posted for the last few days because I have not felt I had much to contribute and seriously who wants to listen to whining and whingeing.  I know I don't.  I get so over myself and think it must be a strain for anyone reading to read the same old moans and groans.  I try very hard to keep this upbeat and either be positive or at the very least informative.

Today I feel neither.  I just want to wallow.  It is cold and my baby girl is still sick so I am just allowing myself to wallow.  She is better than she has been so I have arranged for my Mum to look after her tomorrow so I can get out of the house and make an effort.

Tomorrow I plan to catch up with friends and go to a knitting class.  Am a bit looking forward to that.  Knitting is one of the things I want to learn this year so I will feel like I am accomplishing something on my to do check list.  I also want to check out the bead shop to buy some beads to make some necklaces using woollen tubes (I will post pics as hard to describe but oh so gorgeous).

I might try and do some art journalling today.  If you read my previous post about Jane Davenport and checked out her website you would have seen some truly amazing and sublime art journalling and I thought I would give it a shot.  Do take the time to explore her website for some amazing eye candy it is really worth the journey.

Take care, stay warm
Laura
xx

Monday, June 13, 2011

Drawing

Yesterday at the Papercraft Expo, Jane Davenport did a small talk on drawing faces.  Jane Davenport is a very talented professional artist base in Byron Bay.

This is what she has to say about drawing "Listen to me, if cavemen could draw, then you, who has mastered a microwave & email, can do this!

She was great and really did make it seem all too easy.  I took photos as she worked her way through which will help me when I finally get a chance to sit down and practice.


Just like this piece, all her work is a whimsical delight that you just want to hang on your walls.  She also seems a vivacious person who just wants to share her talent with the world.  Imagine living like that full time.  What fun.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Today I am grateful for....

Today I am grateful for a wonderful husband who stayed home with the kids so that I could take off to a Scrapbooking Convention, the Lifeline bookfest and a Textiles convention.  Boy oh boy. What eye candy was there to see.  I was very restrained and spent very little.  I enjoyed my friend C's company and together we strolled the aisles enjoying all there was to see and behold.

Thanks babe, for that.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Oh what a day

Thanks to the lovely M, I had an awesome day today.  After dropping the kids off at school we planned to meet, have a coffee and enjoy a chat.  When that was done we both agreed a swing by Spotlight was in order.  Well, I totally planned to just window shop (as you do) but found some really great bargains to help merrily help me along my crafting way.

We than decided another coffee was in order because we needed a caffeine jolt to awaken our senses after a fun shop.  I love Spotlight.  Going there makes me realise how much I can't do but also gets my creative juices flowing.  There was a knitting for charity group out the front and they are at my local library the third Friday of each month.  So next week I am off to the library for a knitting course.  Yay.  That will be one tick off my list of things I want to learn this year.  The other two are sewing and am still working on crocheting.

After a full 24+ hours out of hospital I am feeling pretty ok.  I don't do stress good but who does?  I still find my son's challenging behaviour pretty tough but then again anyone would.  So all in all I guess I am doing ok.  I would like to be doing a bit better but this is enough for now.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Third time's a charm

For the third time this year I have been discharged from hospital.  I pray, wish, hope with everything I have that this is it.  That this is the last time I have to go in to hospital and of course the last time I have to be discharged.

Hospital is good when it is needed but I just want to be strong and not need it.  I will take every offer of support and help going.  I will rest, live simply, take one day at a time and not over do things.

I will do my art and also go to CBT follow up and keep revising my CBT skills.  I will try to keep stress out of my life and remember to do pleasant activities for myself on a daily basis.

You may think, gosh, why is this so hard.  My answer is - I don't know.  I don't know why I have fallen in a heap.  I don't know why I have not found it easier to recover.  I just don't know.  I never will know.  I never will understand and I just have to accept that it is what it is.

Having a disabled child and going through financial hardship certainly have not helped but I have lived with those two stresses for longer than this year.  I think I just got to a stage where I suddenly could not take one more stress.  I was saturated and over flowing with stress.

Learning to let go is hard.  It is much harder than you realise.  But I will keep at it and do my best.  Afterall, that is all I can do.

Monday, June 6, 2011

So take one step forward

Momentous day today. I took myself out on a date.  I saw two movies.  Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and Water for Elephants.  Pirates was as good as you can expect a 4th movie to be. Johnny Depp is excellent as Captain Jack Sparrow.  The special effects were great and definitely worth seeing in 3d on the big screen.

I had no idea about Water for Elephants.  I knew nothing about it.  No idea who was in it, the genre, the story nada.  I loved it.  A love story with a circus theme.  So I chose two great and very different movies and sat there by myself on my date enjoying myself thoroughly.

I even shouted myself a coffee and read it whilst flicking through a magazine.

At the present moment, I am hoping I will see my doctor tonight.  I want to tell him that option two seems to be a goer.  I feel different and better.  I am not sure if it is the increase in my medication or the cutting back on Valium.  It could be a combination of the two.  I don't care, I am just glad I feel some improvement.  That to me is gold.

So if I do get to see my doctor, I plan to ask him if I can go home tomorrow.  I hate being in here.  It is so boring, enough to drive you crazy really.  (joke)

Fingers crossed for me guys.
Love
Laura
xx

Sunday, June 5, 2011

See What the Day Brings



Hold up your end
And I'll hold up mine
Dancin' all the time
Dancin' all the time
And too late father
You know that that's for sure
You never find a way
Never find a way
So gather around
And see what the day brings
And see what makes you laugh
And see what makes you sing
And never, nevermind
The thing that people say
You'll never go away
You'll never go away
Who knows where the storm will take us
Who knows when the pain will break us
When will all the G's be given
Another chance to live in freedom
Hey now
Get your heart, get your heart
Off of the shelf
Make the grey sky blue
Yeah, I'm talkin to you
And nevermind
The sick and the afraid
Askin' out today to see a brighter day
So gather around
And see what the day brings
And see what makes you laugh
And see what makes you sing
And never, nevermind
The thing that people say
You'll never go away
You'll never go away
Who knows where the storm will take us
Who knows when the pain will break us
When will all the G's be given
Another chance to live in freedom
So gather around
And see what the day brings
And see what makes you laugh
And see what makes you sing
And never, nevermind
The thing that people say
You'll never go away
You'll never go away
So gather around
And see what the day brings
See what makes you laugh
And what makes you sing




This is my dreaming girl.  I finished her yesterday. I love her.  I have copied her from one of my fave artists Donna Heart.  She is a little bit different because her eyes are closed and in Donna's art work she has two girls.  I love her.  She reminds me of the song I have put up above.  Do take the time to listen and follow along with the lyrics as it is a truly beautiful song full of promise and just a little yearning.  That is how I want to feel - full of promise and just a little bit of yearning. I have hope so that is a start I guess.



Friday, June 3, 2011

Getting my mojo back

If you have been following my blog, you will know that on Monday I came back into hospital.  Not because I was unwell but because I had made no progress.  My doctor was not happy and wanted to look at changing my medication.

I finally saw my doctor yesterday.  Let me tell you that was one long and lengthy wait.  He gave me three options.

Option 1 was to wean off the current medication.  For about 50% of people there will be nasty side effects.  Jitters, shakes, headaches, nausea, vomiting.  Then go onto a new medication altogether.

Option 2 was to increase the current medication I am on and stay in to make sure I had no side effects and to make sure it would work.  (this involves the shortest stay if successful)

Option 3 was to do option 2, find it did not help and then start option 1.

Of course I chose option 2.  I figured it was the quickest path to coming home (if successful) and if it did not work well option 1 was really the only other choice I just took a more indirect path to it.

I do feel a little better having made the decision.  I was very anxious about what my doctor would be suggesting and what it would involve.  I also knew coming off my current medication can be hellish for some people.  I am missing home and wishing myself there but of course realise the necessity for the current course I am taking.

I also miss having access to all my craft notions as I am feeling very creative and would like to be doing something instead of just sitting around waiting for either something or nothing to happen.  Not a lot of fun in here let me tell you.  Most of the fun happens around the smoker's table.  A lot of people take up smoking when they come in here.  I can understand why.  I won't.  Can't afford it and can't afford what it does to my body either.  I am unfit enough as it is.

Will keep you posted on how I am faring with option 2.  Fingers crossed it will do the job and I will be back home with my lovely husband and kids very very soon.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Getting on my soapbox

I am feeling very frustrated and pissed off today.  I came into hospital on Monday on my doctor's advice.  I came in to get my medication adjusted and yet here we are it is now Thursday and not only has my medication not changed but I am yet to see my doctor.  Had I known it would be take this long there is no way I would have agreed to do it.  I should have been more proactive and asked him would we start straight away if not when and then come in that day.

I have wasted that time and missed my family and it makes me so mad.  This illness is something you try to learn to live with and you try to have a good team behind you but when things go pear shaped it affects everybody.  If I don't see him today I am going to ask if the medication change can be put off til a time when I am in hospital specifically just for that and not for wasting time.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

All we need is love ~ John Lennon

Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.  ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery


Today is our 10th Wedding Anniversary.  I can't believe it was 10 years ago today that we married.  It feels like both a second and a life time has past.   We have endured and overcome much in our first 10 years together.  If I were to list all the challenges and adversity we have faced together you would shake your heads in wonder that we have made it this far.


I guess it is a testament to our love and respect for each other.  We both have trusted each other and had faith we would be there for each other and the belief that it would all work out in the end.


Of course, me being in hospital today is not the ideal.  But, my health must come first so we can continue with happiness.