Hot Stuff!

Okay, I promised you the down on capsaisin cream. In the UK it's a prescription drug but I see you can buy it from Amazon.com and other places I guess. I thought the Amazon site was interesting because, as with books and the like you can scroll down and read the reviews. They range from best cream I ever tried to the work of the devil which should be banned.

It certainly has a sting in the tail, or my tail anyway. It comes in two strengths and you only need the tiniest amount. It seems to be doing nothing at first bit it's a gradual build up. If you overdo it, watchout!

The other evening I was lying in bed having liberally applied the cream. The whole area was on fire and despite my best efforts to ignore it, I finally had to get up at midnight and have a bath to get rid of it.

I'm persevering though. Something is working for me and I feel better every day. Can't swear it's the Capsaicin. I think it has a lot to do with the idea of taking back responsibility for your own health.

I do realise how hugely blessed I am to be in a position to be able to do that.

A bit rusty

I'm trying to establish a mindfulness practice. Trying not to go through the day on auto pilot. To be aware of my thoughts. To be aware of my posture. To be aware of my breathing. But I have so much to do, how can adding to my burden help? Believe me, it can.

My fly's eye is trying to capture all I have to do in one glance, making it seem impossible. Instead
I'm going to consciously breath my way through washing the dishes. Until that task is completely finished, nothing else exists.

I can lazer focus in on my knitting to the exclusion of all else. Five hours to knit a glove seems like pretty good going. Five hours of focusing on chores would release me from the mess currently blocking my creativity.

I know it's do-able, one breath at a time.

Maiden Voyage

A chilly but beautiful sail from Largs to Portavadie on the west coast of Scotland.

Bring on the straw

I've became foster mummy to a spinning wheel this week. All I know about spinning wheels is that they enable men of small stature to turn dried grass into precious metal. Thought that might be a plan, given the current economic climate. Only problem is, it's broken.

Well not really broken. Just slightly wounded. Its real mum uses it for decorative purposes only and lends it out to amateur dramatic groups (!). Therefore a few bits have fallen off over the years.

Frank Herring to the rescue. The wheel is a basic Ashford single drive. I learned this by watching a series of Utube spinning videos until I found one that looked like mine. Frank Herring, gawd bless him, provides a maintenance kit containing all the missing bits and I have sent for one. It costs £11 odds and contains a new drive belt (piece of string) and guides (cup hooks). See? The gold from dross thing is happening already! It's just happening for Frank Herring. But that's only because he has more spinning wheels than me....at the moment.....

I also had some girlies round for messy play. We mono printed with acrylics and wallpaper paste on calico. Great fun! You spread the gloopy mess on a sheet of acetate (or similar), scrape patterns into it and lift then off with the calico. When dry, you can mask areas off and repeat the process with another colour or pattern.
Its the 'when dry' bit I'm not so good at. Hence mine looks a little more oganic than planned. One girlie described it as 'very sixties'. Yes, well, so am I.

Taking my hat off to Laura Reavis

We had a great knit night tonight. Two new ladies showed up and we crocheted preemie hats. How cute does this look sitting on my swift? Look a lot better sitting on a baby's head I guess. This is from an original design by Laura Reavis. You're welcome to use it for charity crafting. It's called Creative Preemie Hat

Did I mention I'm in the process of kicking my painkillers? It goes well but sleep goes completely. All I want to do is eat and part-aey! (and crochet-aey). Looking forward to the days when I happily slide off to bed at 9pm. Won't be long now!