Long time no see!

Blimey, it's been ages since I've posted on here. I really must be more mindful. Would surely be better to rant like a tit on here rather than on Facebook since that seems to just piss people off!

Anyway... as ever, my life is pretty much the same. I'm currently pursuing an Employment Tribunal against the dick heads that offered me a job then took it away cuz of sickness absence from a job I had 8 years ago and then had the f*cking cheek to say they never offered me the job in the first place. I'm looking forward to throwing the book at them and in particular getting the woman who is doing all the lying on the stand and seeing if they truly pay her enough to lie in a court of law! I'm thinking not!

Other than that, battling with my landlord/estate agent over his wanting to raise the rent cuz he finally got someone to do a half ass job on the damp in the kitchen 2 years after I reported it. And then only cuz my son has developed asthma due to the exposure to the damp in his bedroom. Having been shafted by Estate Agents before, I'm not having it this time. If he doesn't like it, he can chuck me out - at least the council have to house me then!

The ex hasn't paid any maintenance for 6 months and hasn't seen our son for longer. I hear he's being sued and has the tax man after him. Well - karma's a bitch is all I can say! Hope his new wife is willing to put up with him skulking around the house and sponging off her! She's welcome to him! haha!

Christmas dinner overload is coming up over the next couple of weeks. Joyous! Spend out a load of money for a glorious anti-climax on the actual day cuz it's all over in about half an hour and there's bugger all worth watching on the telly! I'd rather stay in bed with my battery powered friend!

X-Factor final tonight - not that I'm watching. My prediction is that the only 'contestant' to make any impact on the musical world following the show will be One Direction cuz they'll be riding the 'Bieber' wave of paedo-pop.

Watching Strictly as per usual at this time of year. I'm behind Matt Baker on this one. And I want him or Pamela Stephenson to win. James Jordan's choreography has been ON FIRE this season. Everyone wants Kara & Artem to win but shagging your dance partner doesn't necessarily win you the competition - ask Ali Baastian! Kara always makes mistakes in the routines and it is overlooked by the judges cuz they think she's so awesome. I thought it was supposed to be about skill and development and not just looking pretty? They criticise routines that are technically brilliant and danced well but pick holes in the smallest mistakes yet Kara gets away with it. Has Artem got some friends we don't know about who've put thumbscrews on the judges? Is Roman Abramovic a good friend of his? Who knows! But I'm sorry, Kara is a good dancer, yes, but she's not precise enough. She's like Alesha was - good but never quite getting to perfection. Pamela should win really because she's had 2 perfect scores and she's done absolutely brilliantly in pretty much ALL her dances throughout the competition. And WHY is Alesha Dixon a judge? She knows f&ck all about dancing! I suppose she needs the money since her singing career is in the toilet. They should have someone who actually KNOWS what they're talking about on there - at least Len, Bruno and Craig know about dancing. She just did a bit of it a few years back and she probably couldn't tell you what half the technical terms are. I mean she came up with a comment on 'armology of the dance' yesterday. WHAT?! Someone needs to see sense and give Karen Hardy her job!

Right - rant over... I'm off to enjoy Armstrong & Miller's RAF Pilots isn't it, Blood? And shit like that....

Only took me 2 years!

I've finally finished the baby dress I started making for my hairdresser's baby (who's about 2 now!)! Think it looks rather fab but it wouldn't fit her now! lol!

Going to sell it on Etsy or one of those 'handmade' stuff auction sites. So watch this space for a link!

10 is the magic number!

Been to my weekly Weight Watchers meeting and I've now lost 10lb total in 3 weeks! Does that rock or what?! hehe! Well pleased with myself! As I keep saying to myself every week - imagine what I could lose if I actually did some exercise as well! LOL

Had a yummy dinner this evening - very simple (and if you're a fellow Weight Watcher - only 7.5 points for the lot!).

Baked Potato with bacon and veg stir fry.

Ingredients:
1 large baking potato (up to 375g)
6 or 7 rashers of Healthy Living bacon, chopped
4 mushrooms, chopped
6 - 8 cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/2 packet baby sweetcorn, chopped
(you can also add 1/2 chopped onion and a chopped courgette or any other freebie veg you wish, especially if you're particularly hungry cuz veg is free!)
Tesco Cottage Cheese with Sunblush Tomato and herbs


Put baking potato, washed and pricked, into top of oven at 200 degrees F for approximately 1 hour, turning occasionally.

Chop up mushrooms, baby sweetcorn, cherry tomatoes and bacon.
Spray a non stick frying pan with low fat cooking spray and place on a medium heat.
Tip all veg and bacon into frying pan.
Stir fry veg until soft and bacon has cooked.
Stir in 60g (4 tbsp) Cottage Cheese.
Add a dash of Worcestershire Sauce to taste, if required.
Keep pan on a low heat until baked potato is ready.

To serve - split baked potato and add low fat spread if required. Pile the veg and bacon mix on top then scoff the lot! No seasoning required - there's salt in the bacon!

Beautiful! And not only filling and easy to make, but with all those veggies, you could potentially have all of your 5 a day in one meal! Hoorah!

So that was my yummylicious dinner! My dad makes "Eggy mess", mine is more "veggie mess"! ho ho!

On another fabulous note, I've had a reply from Simone Legno about my Mozzarella ami toy:

Hello Rowena!
Many thanks this looks very very very cute and perfect actually!
Many thanks for thinking of mozzarella for it!
Ciao ciao
Simone (^-^)y

Approval from the horse's mouth! What more could you want!

So I'm ending my Monday on a high! Makes a change! Must now get Aston to bed and retire myself. It's 10.30 and I'm exhaustificated!

Another finished ami!

Here's my interpretation of Mozzarella from the Moofia by Simone Regno (Tokidoki). Had to improvise the design as I went along and the felt tommy gun was a bit of a challenge! lol



Still, I think she looks pretty good! Since it's a copyrighted character, I'm not sure if I'll be able to publish the pattern though. I did send a photo to Simone to see what she thinks but haven't had a reply yet. So will have to wait and see!

It's bunny time!

Yes - another of my few and far between posts! Since my last one, I've been on holiday to the US for 3 weeks and been back about as long! I am a truly useless blogger!

Anyway - here's a piccie of my latest completed amigurumi which is from a pattern by AmigurumiParadise. This is the small Snow Bunny but I'm now working on the larger version using Lion Brand Vanna's Choice and 5.5mm hook. Will post that one when it's done.



I used the Catania cotton yarn and a 2.5mm hook for this small Snow Bunny. Didn't have light blue though so had to use this lovely royal blue. And I'm crap at embroidering so the flower on the sweater is rather pants! Still not quite sure about the ears... I'm sure they should have been a bit wider but I did follow the pattern. Hmmmm...

Anyway - big white Snow Bunny to come!

Let's get tweeting!

I have officially become a sheep and joined Twitter. My reasoning? I will be off to California on 7th June so by joining the Twitterati, I can keep people up to date with what I'm up to and where I am etc. Can't promise I'll remember to keep it up to date after that! Much like this blog! I really should get better at this blogging lark. I blame it on an M.E. befuddled brain!

Gotta cut this short - Aston's asking for lunch!

Finished Spiderman Afghan

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Originally uploaded by Ro-Ho!

Woohoo! I've finished it! It's now pinned out to my sofabed mattress thingy in the front room (as you can see) so that it dries out nicely in the stretched position it should be in rather than the 'I buggered up my tension' state it was in when I finished it! Gave it a good steaming with the iron as well so hopefully it does the trick.

Hope my brother likes it - he's often an ungrateful sod but he did think the Yoda figure I crocheted him for Xmas was 'the dog's!" so let's hope this gets similar appreciative comments! I will report back later!

Script writers of Eastenders be DAMNED!!!

They killed off Danielle!!! How could they? That's so unfair! And with the whole nation rooting for her to tell Ronnie she was her mum, she finally gets to that point and they kill her off!!!

Mind you, I can see a whole run of plot lines coming off it now... the whole vengeance thing from Ronnie toward her Dad for denying her the return of her daughter which he knows she wanted most in the world, the wrath of Peggy cuz Archie has cast out one of the "faaaaaaaaam'ly" - I'm sure the line "Call yourself a Mitchell?" will crop up somewhere in the next week's script! Stacey's going to go on a bender, guilty that she wasn't there for Danielle when she needed her, and then there's Janine. She's not going to go revealing Bianca and Ricky's secret now that she's preoccupied with her own predicament. Of course, there is one person who can sympathise with how Janine feels right now and that's good old Pat, but perhaps Janine has burnt too many bridges where Pat's concerned... oooh, things could get good (not to mention Peggy wanting Phil to 'help her out' with Archie!) although I'm not sure I can deal with an even whinier Ronnie while she grieves the loss of a daughter she had already grieved for... very confusing!

I'm still gutted that they've killed off Danielle. Hopefully though, Lauren Crace, the girl who plays her will get loads of recognition when the TV awards season comes around. She's been fab, especially the last few weeks. The character had a wishy washy start but ever since it was revealed that she was Ronnie's supposedly dead daughter, we've been rooting for her to get the relationship she wanted with her mother.

DAMN YOU SCRIPTWRITERS FOR KILLING OFF DANIELLE!!!! GAH!

Yes.... I am a total sad case, but you're all thinking it!!!!!

Welcome to the Arena of the Unwell

It's my monthly "feeling crap" time again. Actually on antibiotics this time for a chest infection so I can't be accused of blowing things out of proportion! It's amazing how you can be diagnosed with M.E. and yet people still think you're a hypochondriac!

And if it wasn't bad enough that I'm constantly coughing and blowing my nose, I have this bizarre red, blistered area on my left nostril which looks rather odd. I'm not sure what's caused it but it only came up on Friday. I did have a spot just inside my nostril on Thursday which went with no problems but the swelling/blisters/eczema-like area is on the outside only. Very weird!
Lovely view isn't it! lol

Aston's been on antibiotics too - he's had a throat infection which we thought was croup. Luckily it wasn't and he seems to be on the mend although he's still coughing now and again and he seems to tire more easily. Still manages to be a total pain in the bum though! The first couple of days he was bad, he had spontaneous nosebleeds as well - great fun to cope with at 3am when your child is coughing and spluttering anyway without their nasal passage filling with blood! Thankfully he's now got an appointment at the ENT clinic in Maidstone for May so we may get some insight into why he gets them and whether they can do anything about it.

I'm still working on the Spiderman Afghan for Christopher's (my bro) birthday. Wouldn't believe he's going to be 33 would you!

I've also got the usual 5 or 6 other projects on the go! I want to get a few things finished before I go to America in June. Yes, I finally managed to get the tickets after Sefton coughed up £850 to pay for our flights - he paid me that to get the divorce application signed! Sucker!!! Now I just have to save the spending money. Going to have to seriously tighten my belt! Hopefully I'll get some money for my birthday and I'll have to put a fair few pennies away each month too. Going to need a nice stash cuz we're going to be there for 3 weeks AND take in Disneyland as well! I can't wait - it's going to be a lot of fun!

Well, it's back to the afghan for me... and a programme about Cleopatra before the next installment of Heroes! Monday nights are improving! ;-)

Badgers, wolves and Prince Albert!

It's been a busy weekend again but I have finally made it to blogland! Hoorah! About bloomin' time I hear you cry - yes, I am a useless blogger, I will admit it!

So what have I been up to this weekend? Yesterday I took Aston up to WildWood in Herne Bay for the afternoon (cuz my parents have a free pass! woo hoo!) and we were lucky enough to see the otter and badgers out and about as well as my favourite wolves. We got there late afternoon which meant we were in time for the feeding schedule and it was funny watching what are still essentially wild animals waiting excitedly for the keepers to come along with their grub. The otter was parading round the enclosure looking through the fence to spot his keeper and bounded round his pond to get to him when he arrived and the 2 handreared female wolves were trotting over to the fence when anyone went past just in case they happened to come bearing edible gifts! hehe Was great to see the badgers - they have been handreared as well apparently after being discovered on a rubbish dump where their sett was. I think that's the first time I've seen badgers out in the open in reasonable light (when some ignoramus hadn't squished them with his car). I did see one when we were in Wales but it was getting very dark then and if it hadn't been for the white stripes on its head, I wouldn't have seen it at all!

Today, having seen Aston off on his swimming trip with his dad and running some errands, I went with my Mum to Chatham to see The Young Victoria. What a fantastic film! Have to admit that I did have a few tears toward the end of the film - when Victoria proposed to Albert, their wedding etc. The film over all was beautiful and the Victoria and Albert love story is such a wonderful one - if only we could all have a love like that. Sadly, a lot of us don't have such luck! I was thinking that their romance wasn't disimilar to the 'internet' romances these days - let's face it, most of their courtship was conducted by letter! But how amazing is it that they were so in love that even after Albert died, Victoria still mourned his loss every day for the next 40 years. Now that's proper, true and real love if you ask me. It's quite sad when you think that she lost the one person in her life who wasn't trying to manipulate or take advantage of her, her only true ally in the world. Makes me want to cry just thinking about it! Awwwww!

I do think I have a burgeoning crush on Rupert Friend now though! hehe! He wears the Victorian look so well!



I think the last thing I saw him in was The Libertine! blimey! Anyway, he is rather gorge and I think I may appoint him this week's "Knitter's Totty!". If you weren't jealous of Keira Knightley before - you should be now! She gets to snog that! Damn her! ROFLMAO As for Paul Bettany (someone who could have easily been a past nominee for the KT title), the make up failed to make him look middle aged so much as just plain freakish! I don't know whether he had contact lenses in or something but he just looked bloody weird!

Anyway, I'm now going to succumb to my urge for a curry (again!) and get Aston into his pyjamas before he soaks my living room with fruit juice! Then when that's all done and he's tucked up in bed, I can sit down and get to grips with the Spiderman Afghan I'm making for my bro's birthday. Then it's off to bed to contemplate candidates for next week's Knitter's Totty title! lol! Oh - so many luvverly men to choose from... if only I had one for my very own :-(

Doesn't time fly!

Yesterday was Aston's 3rd birthday. It's hard to think that this time 3 years ago, I was recovering in the hospital and my special little boy was up in the SCBU in an incubator, having only come off the ventilator just over 4 hours ago. He was so tiny and I had to get taken up to the unit to see him in a wheelchair because I was getting dizzy spells from the blood loss during the labour. He weighed only 4lb 10oz and was kind of like a baby bird that's fallen out of the nest. He was being fed through a tube and wired up to all sorts of machinery.

Now that little scrap of a boy is a strong, healthy boy of almost a metre tall and weighs just over 2 stone. He's happy and chats away pretty much all day, either to me, or making up little scenarios with his toys ("Oh no! Thomas is in the ravine!"). He's such a clever little chap and rather proudly, I can say that's all down to me since I've been the one looking after him single handedly for the past 18 months and might as well have been doing it on my own for the 18 months before that!

Next big milestone will be starting nursery after Easter - if I can ever get a response from the local school office!

If it hadn't been for that meddling kid....!!!!

Oh the joys of parenthood - they just keep coming, don't they!

This evening, I got a CD Rom out in order to attach a pattern to an email to send to someone on the LK forum and the flaming disc drive wouldn't open. I gave the computer a bash , as you do, and it opened, complete with a penny precariously balanced in the tray. I thought that was the end of it but no! The CDs wouldn't read and, close to tears and contemplating strangling my son, I ended up taking the computer apart and taking out the disc drive. I gave it a shake and, low and behold, there was still something in there. Next to come out was a button and yet, when I closed the drive and tried to open it again, it STILL jammed! I shook it again and another penny became visible but got lodged so I had to find a long pair of tweezers (thank heaven I'm a crafter!) and dislodge it. Needless to say, there has been much swearing and cursing , banging about and shaking of fists in my house this evening but my son is sleeping soundly in his bed, unharmed and my CD drive is now functioning as it should be and all my CDs are now readable! Hoo bloody ray!

And after that fiasco, I was off to the shop on the corner to get some Gaviscon for the raging indigestion I had, despite not actually having eaten anything! I opened the front door and stepped outside only to have my ghast well and truly flabbered - SNOW! And it's everywhere! Where the hell did that come from? I don't remember any weather forecast saying we were going to get snow tonight. Why didn't I see it coming down? My curtains were open til about 8.30pm! It's bizarre! I hope I've got enough money on the gas meter or I'm going to FREEZE tomorrow! At least now I've passed my driving test (YAY!!!!!! About bloody time - only my 10th test overall!) so I don't have to walk around in it!!!

Well, now that the indigestion has subsided somewhat, I'm going to try and get something to eat before I keel over! Don't know if I have the strength to do any knitting tonight even though I got 2 free balls of wool with my LK magazine. I must make some of the irresistably cute baby shoes in there - any of my friends willing to have a baby who'll wear them??? hehe!

About bloody time!

I FINALLY passed my driving test today! 10th time lucky! I had the chief examiner so I'd obviously been assessed by rank amateurs before! This time I got the organ grinder, not the monkey! Woo hoo!

Anyway, I'm not going to be zooming off round the country straight away but it will give me more freedom. I've already been able to go to Tescos on my own to do a shop! That's a big deal for me, I can tell you!

I've even managed to do some tidying in my living room - it's the high y'see! Here's hoping today's my lucky day and my lottery ticket nets me something too! haha!

Amigurumi tribute to Jimmy!

I've been at it again - designing my own amigurumis. I was making something for the LK Forum Easter swap when I had a brainwave and decided to design a rabbit, but not like all the other rabbits that are out there. My inspiration for my creation? My very own furball with the floppy ears, Jimmy!



The only difference between the two is that my amigurumi rendering has longer limbs and is rather skinnier and less fluffy! No amount of yarn will make an accurate rendering of Jim-Jim cuz he's just a big ball of white fluff that sheds everywhere and just becomes fluffier!




Anyway, here's a comparison!

Jimmy being 'cuddled' by my son

Amigurumi Jimmy!

See what I mean?

Anyway, the pattern is available for purchase here: http://www.geocities.com/swampyeweknitted/patterns.html

First pattern I've published for sale... hope someone buys a copy! lol

Update (yes, I am a useless blogger!)

I'm a pretty useless human being as well. I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on! (and to prove it I've just had to go back down to the shop to get my lottery scratch card that I asked for and forgot to actually pick up!)

So, what have I got to update on? Er... failed my driving test again (I was ROBBED, I tell ya!). The examiner failed me for not observing properly. Yeah, right! The things he cited I don't remember happening and everyone knows that using observation as a reason for failing someone when they did everything else right is just a cop out because they have to stick to the statistics (i.e. they're only allowed to pass a certain number of candidates in any one week). It's a joke, but it's happening.

Got another test booked for next Wednesday morning. If I don't pass that time, I'm going to scream the test centre down!!! My instructor is going to sit in the back of the car while I do my test just so she knows whether I actually did what they say I did!

Getting a nice fat payment from the council who have underpaid my housing and council tax benefits since October! So that's going to go straight into the savings account and be put towards a trip to California. Sometimes you can get nice letters from the council!

Vroom Vroom!

Picked up my new car today! 'Av Eeeeeeet!!!!! A lovely 2006 model Toyota Aygo Sport! Now all I need to do is to get that all important piece of paper next week that says I can throw those bloomin' plates away and then I will be FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

The seatbelt digs in my neck a bit though cuz it doesn't have an adjustable height thingy so I've just knitted a little cosy pad thing to put round it so that it's a bit more comfortable. Off to finish it off now!

The Clock Tower Scarf... the saga continues!

The Sheerness Clock Tower is now with scarf!!! And it's still up there! haha! Been up for almost a week now and the thugs and morons of the Island haven't got to it! My bruv obviously managed to tie it quite tight despite being on his tippy toes on a ladder and having frozen hands! lol

The whole shebang has been featured in the Sheppey Gazette this week - we're Page 3 girls again! lol When I get round to scanning the article in, I'll post it on here - that reminds me - I must start a "Swampy Ewe-Knitted" scrapbook! Hopefully the Sheerness Times Guardian will be covering the whole scarf thing in their next issue (their photographers and reporters weren't hardy enough to turn up in the rain!).

Now I just have to get round to writing to all the knitting mags about it! That'll give the nation's knitters a good laugh!

Below: The scarf in all it's glory! Rolled out along Alma Street where I live! And finally mounted on the Clock Tower. Only took about 45 minutes to get up! lol

Woohoo!

I have finally finished Aston's tacky Xmas jumper! Yay me! I think it looks pretty good even though I couldn't get a big cheesy motif to go on it. The ones I have sewn on are quite unobtrusive! Maybe Aston won't end up hating me for it when he's older then.... Damn! *evil laughter*

All I want for Christmas is Matt Stevens!

Please Father Christmas/Santa/St Nick/Kris Kringle/Papa Noel or whatever name you wish to be known by, can I have Matt Stevens for Christmas this year?

Not only is he rather nice to look at and nice and beefy, but he's also a pretty good rugby player and looks like he would be ideal for cuddling up on the sofa with!

If you could get him wrapped up and under my Christmas tree on Christmas morning, I'd be incredibly grateful. I'm sure I could think of a way to explain the sudden appearance of a burly young man in my living room to my son - luckily at his age, he's pretty open minded and of course, Mummy can do no wrong!





Let's face it - I'm not exactly your typical rugby union fan and I'm not one for standing out in the cold, so I'm sure that I could be a more than adequate girlfriend to Mr Stevens. I can't be doing with the media spotlight and I'm quite willing to move to Bath! And the odd trip to South Africa to visit his family would be fine with me as well. Of course, I could do with a little help persuading him that an older, single mum is good life partner material! But if Gary Numan can marry one of his fans, then surely there must be hope!



I'm not after his money... I've learnt over the years that money really isn't that important. So, please put in a good word for me Santa and perhaps I might actually find something under my tree that I want this year! I don't normally ask for much for Christmas but there's only so many bizarrely mushy dreams I can have completely out of the blue about someone I've never met and am hardly likely to ever meet! But if you have any influence with Cupid as a fellow Legendary Figure, please can you ask him to help out a bit. Let's face it, I could do with some luck in affairs of the heart - haven't exactly had it all that good up til now, have I!

Well, Santa, that's what I'd like for Christmas this year. Thank you for reading my letter and I shall leave out the requisite glass of sherry (will Moniack Castle Mead do? I don't have any sherry) and mince pies on Christmas Eve for your delectation.

Of course, if you can't get me Matt Stevens, then I'm sure I could be consoled by a Terry's Chocolate Orange.