What a week!

It is Friday evening and I am shattered. I don’t think I have slept properly for the past four days as I have a really annoying cough and so work has become a huge struggle, especially today. I have yet another grant to write and I have spent most of the past few days gathering together all my previous data on this topic. The grant is going to be based on a potential new drug for cancer therapy that I discovered during my PhD and we have loads of information about it which I had to try and organise so that I could work out what else we need to do. It is hard going at the moment and I feel like I can’t see the wood for the trees. I think it will help when I get some more sleep and can think straight!
Alex is being so funny at the moment…he is refusing to sleep again and so gets very tired. When he is tired he can get very attached to certain toys or objects that he has been playing with so when I try and take them away so that I can feed or change him he bursts into tears! His sense of humour is definitely developing and Tim and I can keep laughing for hours on some days. He also can play or watch the world with such intensity and a seriousness that is really endearing. I try and read a story to him every evening, and although he gets bored if it goes on too long, he loves it when I do fun animal noises. He still can’t go forwards when crawling, but now goes up onto hands and feet rather than just hands and knees. Isn’t it amazing how babies develop?
I have had a new toy this week…Tim bought me a new digital camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3. My little Nikon is over 3 years old now and beginning to show its age so it is a real treat to have a new one to play with. However, it is going to take some getting used to as it is a lot more complicated than my previous one. All the shots on this page (with the obvious exception) were taken on it.
I have had some time for crafting in the evenings after Alex has gone to bed which has been lovely. I have managed to complete the final three bookmarks for my family for Christmas. The one with playing cards cut up on it with red background on one side and black on the other is for my Dad who plays Bridge. The elephants are for Nel, my sister-in-law who loves them and the remaining bookmark featuring wine bottles and glasses is for my brother Andy who likes the odd tipple! Now that I have completed all 6 of them I just need to laminate them, punch holes in the centre of the tops and add ribbons.

I leave you with another cute photo of Alex taken on my new camera. More soon I hope

Love,

Caro

x

Apologies

I must apologise for not updating for a while...things have got a little out of hand in the past week with me still not being well and trying to keep up with work and home life. I will try and give a little synopsis of what I have done over the past 5 days...

Wednesday saw me going back to work still feeling a little rough. It was hard going but successful as I managed to do review a manuscript for a journal called Angiogenesis. In the evening I had a lovely play time with Alex and then after he went to bed I had a beading session in which I made this necklace, a commission from my mother for one of her friends. She wanted a slightly chunkier necklace than the one I made her...lets hope the lady in question likes it.

Work on Thursday saw me shortlisting potential PhD students ready for interview and beginning to gather some data on experiments that have previously been run using a potential anti-cancer drug that I discovered some years ago. The aim is to put together a grant to do some more research on this drug. By the evening I was shattered so although I had a great time with Alex, I was too tired to do much else so collapsed in a heap and caught up with the chat on the forum. I did recieve some lovely crafty post in the form of these trading cards...M is for Movies by Joanne, N is for Noddy by Christine, and O is for Octopus by Dawn...these are all great additions to my expanding Alphabet.

Friday saw me meeting up with a professor from London who supervised me on a summer placement just before I came to Sheffield 10 years ago. It was great to catch up with his news and he gave me some really useful advice on my potential grants as well. In the evening Alex and I were very silly and he giggled away like mad while we played. However, I was too tired to do anything else and collapsed in front of a movie with a Chinese takeaway. Very Yummy! I also received some crafty post in the form of these lovely snowmen ATCs from Kerry, Kayleigh, Doublesided (I don't know her real name) and Angela...wonderful!

Saturday was the most miserable day in terms of the weather...it rained, it sleeted, it snowed, it hailed and was incredibly windy and we had to go shopping in it! Poor Alex didn't think much of it screwing his face up against the wind, but he was very good...not a yell or cry in sight. The rest of the day after shopping was spent playing with Alex and writing masses of Christmas cards...sadly no time for crafting. Alex's favourite toy of the moment is an empty Pringles tube as the photo above shows!!

Sunday saw me taking a step backwards with this cold... I felt horrible! However, I did manage to get all the Christmas cards finished while curled up in front of the TV which was good. Alex was very good, and every so often tried to go forwards while crawling, but couldn't work out how to move his hands and kept toppling onto his nose and then crying lots. You shouldn't laugh because it did hurt him quite a lot, but it was an amusing sight. I also managed to find some energy and time on Sunday to make one of the 'special' Christmas cards using a rather cute photo of Alex in his Santa hat.

Today I was too ill to go into work and so spent the day at home curled up on the sofa in front of daytime TV while Alex played on the floor and Tim went to brave the queues at the post office. It was a much better day in terms of TLC and I felt well enough to do a little crafting and finished the 'special' Christmas cards. It was a really pleasant change to make some original Christmas cards after making 80 of one design. Alex was on great form today and a joy to be around...we had giggles and fun as well as some serious mess with a felt pen (all over the desk, his clothes and my hands). I think it will be back to work for me tomorrow as I am feeling a little better this evening, although I have no voice and have developed a really annoying cough. More soon I hope,

Love,

Caro

x

Feeling rotten

Sunday got worse as I came down with the flue! By the time I went to bed I had a temperature, the shakes, extremely achy legs, couldn't get warm despite the house being boiling, golf ball in the throat etc. Needless to say the despite the huge amounts of work I have at the moment I didn't go in yesterday or today. Yesterday I still felt revolting and hoped for some extra sleep and a little TLC from Tim, sadly that didn't really happen. He took the opportunity of me being at home to go into town by himself leaving Alex with me. Fortunately Alex was a complete star and while I curled up on the sofa with a good book he played happily on the sitting room floor with the occasional cuddle time with me. We had some lovely giggles and lovings (a very sloppy wet kiss, probably more by accident than design, but extremely nice nonetheless), which made up for everything. Sadly Tim got a parking ticket in town which left him in a really bad mood for the rest of the day, so the TLC I had hoped for was somewhat lacking.

Today I have felt a little better, although my legs and head are still achy and I am still slightly fluey. To make up for yesterday Tim took me to Jencels, the bead shop in Sheffield where I finally managed to get the beads for a necklace I have been commisioned to make. My first commission which is exciting! I just had to share this photo of Alex with you...when I went in to check on him last night I found him asleep having buried himself in his toys! So cute!

One advantage of being off work is that I have managed to do a little more crafting, not a great deal because of feeling so rotten, but I did manage to make a further two bookmarks for Christmas presents...the greeny one is for my Great Aunt, and the purply one is for my Gran. I hope that they like them. I am much happier with these than the previous one. They were made using the same technique as before. I will probably be back to work tomorrow so more soon.

Love,

Caro

x

What a weekend

Not one to be repeated if at all possible. Not because Alex was difficult or because I didn't manage to get a lot done, because I did, but simply because Tim's computer has broken down and will have to be sent back to the manufacturers which meant that he has been in a brown cloud all weekend. We had a great family shopping trip on Saturday to Broomhill and managed to buy a number of Christmas presents, and because the weather has been so revolting the house looks like a Chinese laundry with all the washing we have done. It has been a very productive weekend as I have cleaned, tidied, hoovered, contacted people, changed the sheets, made 8 Christmas cards (current total 68), and washed up. However, it would have been a lot nicer if Tim had been in a better mood.

Alex on the other hand has been a complete star and sat quite happily while I stuck a santa hat on his head to take these photos. I hope to use at least one of the photos for a Christmas card for both sets of Grandparents. Alex looks so funny when he wakes up as his hair is often standing on end and it is now getting quite long. Tim keeps threatening to cut it, but there is still comparatively little of it that I am really reluctant to do so.

Apart from making some more Christmas cards, I only managed to re-do the back of the bookmark...I am really pleased with that, so pleased in fact that I am not as happy with the front anymore and may end up re-doing that.

The lid of the advent calendar box!
Inside the Advent Calendar showing lots of little boxes

One of the open boxes containing a chocolate!

As it is December it is time for an advent calendar. I made this one several years ago for Tim out of the top of a shoe box and then filled it with my own home-made little boxes. Each year I then fill the advent calendar with little treats, mainly chocolate, but anything else I think of. This year it is going to include a few home-made items as well, such as the little love note above.

Love,

Caro

x

Friday at last!

Well I can't really complain...I did have yesterday off as well! Work has been a little calmer since the BMedSci has managed to hand in his thesis. The only thing of note is that I had my meeting with the boss (Prof Malcolm Reed) and he agreed that I should have my permanent post confirmed (we have a three year probationary period as university lecturers) which is great news. I just need to get the Director of Research and the Dean of the faculty to sign the paperwork and everything will be fine. I have written a powerpoint presentation for a talk I will be giving in three weeks time, and today we went out to lunch at the very nice Chinese Restaurant to celebrate my PhD student going on Maternity leave.

Yesterday we ended up going to Meadowhall...talk about amazing...I haven't managed to go there for three years. Now, we didn't go to every part of it...in fact we only did one end, but it was very successful. I bought a pair of boots, which are my birthday present from my parents, and we bought Alex's Christmas present, a convection heater, a new phone, some matress protectors, a graphics card, 7 rolls of wrapping paper, some kits for making crackers, some stickers, and investigated strollers (which will be our family Christmas present from my parents). It was a pretty successful trip and Alex behaved beautifully, only crying once because he was hungry, so we fed him and then as we were walking around he drifted off to sleep. Perfect.

I have had such a lovely Mummy time with Alex this evening...he has had me in stitches as he has been laughing at the strangest things...including me rustling some paper, playing rowing with him, tickling his tummy, and making silly noises. It has been the greatest of fun and he really didn't want to go to bed.

I have done a little crafting over the past few days, but not as much as I should have done...I have only finished 60 Christmas cards and I have another 20 to do. Instead I started on the bookmarks that we are giving people for Christmas...this is the front of one of them...the back is a disaster and needs re-doing!

Yesterday I recieved a lovely ATC from Doreen (Momiji) which is a cross stitch Christmas tree with little beads to represent baubles...I think it is a lovely ATC and I am thrilled with it. Anyway, must go as my son is yelling. More soon,

Love,

Caro

x

Exhausted and glad it is over!

The past two days have been totally mentally exhausting! I have been frantically editing the BMedSci thesis which has to be completed and go to the binders by 10am on Thursday morning. I have now done all that I can, in that I have read through the entire thing and made corrections/suggestions etc where relevant and it is now up to the student to finish it off in time and as to how good a job he makes of it in the end. Lets hope he does well as he has worked really hard this year. The photograph above is of some normal human breast tissue stained with an antibody to semaphorin (a protein involved in regulating blood vessel formation) which he stained as part of his degree. The brown indicates semaphorin staining in the normal breast milk ducts and in some blood vessels.

Alex has been my little ray of fun throughout this time as cuddles with him have made everything seem so much better. He is interacting more and more with his environment and is beginning to spend time sitting up, but only when he is sat on the floor in front of my lap. After about a minute he suddenly seems to realise what he is doing and the potential for a game and throws himself backwards into my lap. All good fun! Bath times are getting splashier than ever and although he is still looking really tired, he has been sleeping more in the last two nights. I really hope that he learns to sleep properly.

In the past two days I have actually managed to make a couple of cards which was great. They are very similar with one being a paler version of the other. Both of these cards used the StampsAway rose and music stamps with the rose being stamped onto white card then coloured in, then layered over with a scrap version before the card was then stippled all over using two colours. Finally the music background stamp was applied and the scrap paper peeled away to reveal the rose. This central panal was then mounted onto either a pale pink card or dark red card and then applied to an A6 card with a yellowy parchment card edged with ink.

I am really pleased with the effect of these two cards and they will be perfect for two friends who are musical...one sings and the other plays the violin. Anyway, must dash now. More soon.

Love,

Caro

x

Weekend!

I was so tired at the end of last week that all I wanted to do this weekend was collapse in a heap. In reality there were a number of jobs to do and I didn't have as much time to myself as I would have liked as Alex was really unusually tired and grumpy. He hasn't been sleeping very well again and as a result is becoming really moody during the day needing lots of attention and cuddles. I don't mind as I love spending time with him, but it does make doing jobs like washing up and hoovering rather difficult. We had to lower the mattress in his cot as well this weekend as he has become too mobile for it to be safe and he is trying to learn to sit up.

Alex and I have had so much fun together despite him being so tired as he is making a greater range of extremely funny noises including a sort of shriek (not in pain, just because he can -he giggles immediately afterwards!), Darth Vader heavy breathing, and numerous giggles, grunts and shouts. I try and read to him immediately before his bedtime feed each evening and on Sunday night he had a fit of giggles over the pig noises I was doing for him.

My desk and craft area have been such a complete mess that I have done very little crafting this weekend, but I did succeed in re-organising things so that I can now see the desk again and will be able to craft tomorrow! The only bit of crafting I did was this ATC that I owe Angela Clerehugh for her lovely Splat! This was done with a background card that I made a few days ago and then embellished with angel kiss flowers, a dragonfly brad and a rub on. I hope she likes it!

Isn't it wonderful when things turn up at just the right time? I have had such a tough week that it was lovely, a real treat, to find this cute card lying on the door mat for me on Saturday morning. This card was sent to me by Lindsay as part of the CM&PC forum's send a smile scheme where we each send one person a card each month. Brilliant!

I also received a wonderful ATC from Kerry Knowles on Saturday which was very special because she used the flower image from the business card that I sent her. That's all for now. More soon.

Love,

Caro

x