Birthday Girl!

Another year older, another year .... wiser? Well I'm not sure about the wiser but I certainly feel my age today!

I've had a standard Melody birthday in that the boys were far more excited than I was and wanted birthday cake for breakfast. We did have cake this afternoon though and the boys bestowed gifts of chocolate and flowers, that they had chosen themselves, upon me. They helped me to eat the Galaxy and laughed at the birthday cards that they had chosen. Littlest Melody was so thrilled with the birthday card he had chosen he kept opening it up to giggle about it. Some witticism about too many candles on the cake and setting my hair alight. Hmph! Cheeky Monkey!

I had some fab gifts - I had spendoolies from Mr Melody and the Melody Parents (which has been duly spent on a gorgeous selection of woolly delights already and some saved for the next yarn splurge), a gift voucher to spend at Cucumberpatch from Pictish and a gift voucher to spend at Socktopus from Terri, neither of which were expected and therefore a real treat. Murdo had already sent me Kim Hargreaves new book "Thrown Together" back at the beginning of August for my birthday but also sent an unexpected parcel of lovely, green, variegated yarn which is truly scrummy and will make a lovely winter jacket.

Piccies tomorrow when I have a bit more time!!

I've had a truly wonderful birthday and have been well and truly spoiled by my friends and family - thank you everyone, I really appreciate you thinking of me and your gifts brought a lump to my throat.

And if by any chance anyone from work happens to be reading this - yes, there will be cake tomorrow *wink*

I've Got Alot to Say!!

What a few weeks it's been. I went back to the dentist last Tuesday for what I thought was going to be the last appointment on my root canal filling but unfortunately it wasn't the case. I had the maximum amount of local anaesthetic allowed and goodness knows how many injections into my mouth and gum, had anaesthetic directly into the tooth again, and I could still feel the pain as the dentist poked around in my tooth... oooya...

The dentist explained that I still had part of the nerve left in one of the roots and popped in more of the 'stuff' to kill the nerve. The result is though that I have to go back yet again to have the third part of the root canal filling done and hopefully the bit of nerve that was remaining will be well and truly gone by then. I never 'numb up' properly at the dental surgery anyway, especially when work is done on my lower molars, and can always feel a small area of the tooth that the dentist works on; usually I relax and block out the pain somehow but I just couldn't be that brave last week!! I even apologised to the dentist for being a wimp!! And unfortunately the high dose of anaesthetic made me feel quite unwell that evening and the following day, with a nasty headache and feeling sick and light headed and I really hadn't been prepared for that :(

So - next appointment in the half term holiday - boy I can't wait *rolls eyes*

Fortunately, a couple of days before my experience at the dental surgery we'd met up with Murdo and her gang for a car show in Stafford at the Stafford County Showground. Murdo has a vintage Triumph car (don't ask me what type! LOL!) and we went along to look at and admire all the other cars on display. The boys had a whale of a time with the PiratePurls and they now want to buy a vintage car to rebuild in the garage with Mr Melody. Looks like the only part I'll be playing is making the tea and taking biscuits and juice out to the 'workshop' then!

But by going up to sunny Stoke I did get the chance to pop into Knit 2 Together, or Cucumberpatch has it's known on t'interweb. Biggest Little Melody volunteered to come into the shop with me and was treated like a VIP by the lady in there, who asked him questions about which shade of yarn another customer should choose for a baby boy's cardigan, tested yarn out on the back of his sensitive little neck to see if it would 'itch' and generally heralded his visit with great attention and fabulous customer service.

Of course, after all the value added attention, Biggest Little Melody was even more keen to buy some yarn for himself and chose seven balls of Patons Smoothie in black - he wants me to knit him a black hoodie with long sleeves. He had originally insisted that he would only wear cotton next to his delicate skin (!) but was persuaded by the Smoothie as it is indeed soft and silky. And 100% acrylic.

I also bought seven balls of Stylecraft Pure Wool DK in a gorgeous colourway, Berries, that I've admired onscreen many times. I haven't got a project in mind for it, but seeing it in the flesh made it jump into my basket (a basket that BLM had found for me in the shop I might add!), along with a ball of Opal sock yarn in a shade I'd never seen before and two balls of Regia sock yarn for a pair of socks for Mr Melody and some feather yarns for scarves for me as I don't possess a single scarf. And a huge button, LOL!!

AND I went digging around at the back of the shop and found two packets of All Seasons Cotton in the Heart colourway, the pink variegated one that Murdo had asked me to grab for her, at a completely bargainous price! Phew!! I've been up to other yarny adventures this week too but more of that later.

So all's well that ends .....well? As we were halfway between Stafford and the yarn shop I suddenly realised that I had completely forgotten to get what I had originally gone into the yarn shop to buy! Maybe next time we're in Stoke eh? LOL!

Normal Service will be Resumed as Soon as Possible

Oh dear what a week it's been and not in a good way :(

I didn't feel quite myself last weekend - I had a thumping headache on the left side of my head and my left eye was swollen. The left hand side of my face hurt too - around the jaw joint so I thought I'd been spending far too much time surfing and had a bit of time 'off'.

By Tuesday the pain in my face was bad. And I had a funny little niggly pain in my gum. Very odd :?

By Wednesday morning no amount of painkillers were helping. Even the diclofenac left over from my hip sprain earlier in the year didn't have any effect. Time to call the dentist I thought, to rule out any possible infection in my gum. I'd had an X-ray on my teeth at my six monthly dental check-up, there couldn't be anything wrong surely?

Oh there was... big time.....

I had, and still have if I'm honest, an abscess under the tip of the root of my molar on the bottom left of my jaw. And it bloody hurt.

Luckily I have an amazing dentist who discussed alternative treatments with me and I went for oral antibiotics with a review appointment two days later, but when my temperature started going up and I felt like death on legs there really was no option. Yesterday I had to nerve removed from the dead tooth and I am in pain no longer! I still have the abscess (I can still feel it to be honest) but the oral antibiotics and antibiotics shoved down into the empty tooth are doing their stuff and at least I feel human again.

I only need the final bit of root canal treatment for my tooth to be 'mended'. And my wonderful, empathetic dentist has squeezed treatment in before I start my new job at the end of the month. What amazing dental customer service eh?

So I haven't done much knitting this week - it's hard to knit with your left hand permanently attached to the side of your face to try to stop your pain.... :))

A Small Destash and Progress

I would like to buy myself some New Lanark Aran to knit Cassidy, the new pattern from Chicknits, but due to financial constraints (ie, I have no cash!) I have to destash some yarn to buy more suitable yarn for the cabled hoodie. I have already sold some yarn to a forum buddy and am looking to sell these two to make up the required funds....



I'm selling my Rowan International Gift of six full balls of Rowan Denim DK in shade 229, Memphis, dyelot 28B8 and pattern for the knitted messenger bag which I received as part of my Rowan International Membership a couple of weeks ago. It's in pristine condition and would be asking £10 for it plus postage. Leave a comment for me if you'd like to buy :)

Secondly, I'm selling three balls of Sublime Extra Fine Merino Wool DK in shade 016, Grape, dyelot number 6562. This is a scrumptious sqidgy yarn in a lovely drak dusky pink shade which was destined to become a Big Wave scarf from one of the Sublime books but then wasn't ever cast on. I'm seling this for £6 plus postage which is a snip considering it is currently selling for £3.65 per ball at Get Knitted:



Again, leave a comment for me if you'd like to buy, but be quick cos I'm listing these on the forum as well.
eta - all sold now
Progress continues on he Sirdar Buttoned Hoodie that I'm swooshing up on the knitting machine. I'm now handknitting the ribs and all the major pieces are complete:



and an update on the kitties.... both Cocoa and Pepsi take a well-earned nap





cute!!