Nayu's Craft Time #167 Free but not free

Does this clock tower look familiar to you?

A few days ago I thought I had a fairly free week, but I hadn't known then that I need to take my mega strong meds today, which need a good 4 days of nothing to recover from (I go a bit loopy, it's unwise for me to be online!), so what's a free week is now not a free week, as I need to rest and get through whatever symptoms my body likes to throw at me. It's either hyperactivity (in which I do want to climb the walls, but can't as I'd tire quickly & hate heights) or the need to stay horizontal and just not move much. >_< 

I am not moving!!! (Looks like but isn't my cat Belle)

I have no idea if I'll do any craft in the next 4 days, I hope so, but who knows! I know that I'll almost definitely be watching dvds to chill with, and I'm desperate to read. Beyond that, only God knows! I don't have any posts prescheduled (sorry) so I hope to be posting again by Sunday. I hope you have a great rest of the week and look forward to the weekend! 

Now you may recognise the clock tower  it's set in the fictional town of Storybrooke, part of the Once Upon A Time world which I'll be catching up on over the next few days!

Recovering from a migraine

Looks so cute & peaceful!

Had it yesterday, got the usual post migraine exhaustion so am resting lots today between necessary tasks (which are nearly all finished, yay!) Have a super weekend and hope to post some more tomorrow ^o^

Nayu's Craft Time #166 Hairball, anyone?

It's a gloriously hot day - sadly no Mount Fuji is in my skyline.

So today has (so far) been a non craft day - well, I'm about to do some writing which is a craft, just not one involving yarn which I usually deal with. Earlier today I had errands, and this afternoon I came face to face with an ongoing problem which my family never had with our other cats: hairballs. 

Found this while looking up hairball cartoons  - it made me smile ^o^ Very appropriate for this blog!

I will spare you a disgusting photo of a hairball - they aren't nice. While they are associated with long hair cats (my cat is medium long-haired), short haired cats can get them too. Google hairballs and you'll get a wealth of information. In an attempt to help Belle we are now brushing her at least 2 x a week, which she doesn't appreciate. Unfortunately she's had a sore on her chin that we've had to treat with cream and special solution, so if me or my family so much as look at her with a tissue in our hand then she runs away. 

From her behaviour she always feels bad after being sick. Never her fault though.

This is sad but unfortunately she has to have the cream, and we have to brush her. She's had several hairballs this year which have been completely gross (yes I'm the one who deals with them now, probably making up for all the times my previous cats were sick and my family dealt with their mess). Today I even squidged the lump to be sure it's a hairball - I'm 89% sure it is. 

I'm undoubtedly biased but my cat is gorgeous, hairballs and all!

I've looked online for help about hairballs, and I think the next step is probably going to be making sure some of her diet includes specially prepared anti-hairball food. I hope she likes it! Gross factor aside (I'm now oddly used to cleaning up hairballs), hairballs if not thrown up can create blockages in the intenstine - no one wants a poorly cat. Here's hoping for less hairballs for the next half of 2016! 

I'd love to hear if you've dealt with hairballs: is there a particular brand/treatment which works for your cat? 

Nayu's Craft Time #165 Unexpected Cat Alarm

Tick tock! Would love a pretty alarm clock like this one (although it might just be a normal clock...)

A lot of people wake up to an alarm. I used to almost every day when I had my last job. For now I'm able to be alarm free most days, which is nice, since I have trouble sleeping (wake early most of the time sometimes for no reason but mostly because of my chronic pain issues). 

If you read my last post you'll know I didn't sleep great on Sunday night, so really needed a good sleep Monday. I wear both a sleep mask and ear plugs to help make it super dark and quiet. Imagine my surprise when at 4.30am (my family checked the time) I get woken up by my cat who is purring super strong (she doesn't do that often) and wanting cuddles. My minor annoyance at waking up dissipated fast because I adore tickling her soft furry tummy, especially when she's in a super good mood. 

Look at that tummy!

Unfortunately I fell back asleep - if that happens it makes me even more tired that day than if I'd stayed up (doesn't make sense to me, but that's how it is with me). So yesterday was another quiet day. So is today, but at least I'm up for some crochet! I'm still working on this blanket, but it's growing steadily. 

After lunch I am switching to gaming, since one game I'm playing, Love Live School Idol Festival has an event that finishes today: for some reason the game's clock seems to be set to Japanese time, even though obviously the tablet is set to English time, so I've got until about 4pm to get 9 more special hearts so I can get special cards from the event. I realise to most of you that may not make sense, so I promise not to say more than that on it! 

This event is for girls in the unit called BiBI (part of the Muse unit) - it includes 2 of my favourite characters, Eli (right) and Maki (left), plus Nico (middle)

Have you ever spent a few hours trying to either get something in a game for a special event, or maybe lined up/queued to buy a special item/get something signed? It's similar to what I'm doing today! 

So true!

Nayu's Craft Time #164 Zoink!

I felt like an owl last night! They are such beautiful creatures ^o^

That's the sound of my thoughts today! I'm having a quiet day reading since it took until gone 2am to get to sleep last night, so I'm feeling what I term as being hungover (since I don't touch alcohol). Craft is a no-go as my body is too tired for it. Might watch dvds later, might not. Doing my best to avoid a migraine which can happen when I'm this tired. See you tomorrow!

Nayu's Craft Time #163 Rest, Crochet, Malificent ,& Friendship

I love silhouette pictures, this one is peaceful

Sorry for being absent for nearly a week! I've had a busy one. Monday was a super long day for me visiting a friend (I didn't get home until 5.30pm), so inevitably Tuesday I was shattered and needed to rest. Wednesday I had an important meeting which was a little stressful, so Thursday I rested all day. I'd planned to do blog work on Friday, but my body didn't like the weather trying to rain so I needed to rest all day again. 

A previous progress picture (possibly not the latest one, but that's ok)

Resting I've gamed lots, read a bit, and done zero craft...however Monday I was doing craft with my friend! Making good progress on this blanket, as you can see.

Here's where I am now!

...which is all the craft I've managed to do. Regular readers know that some weeks are like this for me - my body has a mind of its own, frequently not connected with what I want to do. Still I make the most of resting by watching fun dvds. I finally watched Malificent by Disney. 

Go watch this film!

It's AWESOME!!! I absolutely loved it as a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I may review it on Nayu's Reading Corner soon, although I got a smidge annoyed with Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) being permanently upbeat. She only got upset once. I was even captivated by the darker parts, which are more sad than scary (sad because of what happens during/after them). The CGI parts were seamless, and it's an all round amazing show. 

Today I had coffee with a friend, which was nice. She is sadly moving in November, so taking advantage of seeing her as much as I can before then (we usually meet twice a month, but she is going to be several hours away rather than a mere 15 minutes). I will get to visit her a few times a year, but it's not the same as every other week. On the upside I'll get to visit a part of the country I haven't been to much - Devon! I think of clotted cream tea & fudge, so will make those top of my things to experience while there. (I could be getting confused with Cornwall...)

Yummy clotted cream!

That's it for now. Since I suspect the weather could be up and down this week, I'm doing work when I can, and resting when I can't (if that makes sense). Going with the flow of life is all any of us can ever do! I hope you're having a fun weekend ^o^ 

Dory has the right attitude!

Nayu's Craft Time #162 Unity of gaming & craft

Wish I had a relaxation corner like this! I could curl up and read, or game on my handhelds, or do craft...

So today I've done a bit of blog work, and shortly going to game and read. Craft may be later, I'm a bit flaky today so anything that can be done is a bonus. I definitely want to read the next chapter in my wip that I'm working on (work in progress), hopefully even make notes on it too. 

This morning I came up with today's title, because it makes sense to me. I find gaming so (or should that be a bad pun of sew?!) motivational. There are heaps of colours and patterns in most games, the cuter the better! While at the moment I don't have enough supplies to create game specific items, I feel inspired by what I see, and want to share today's favourite picture: 

Miku's standard outfit!

This is the vocaloid (non-human synthesized voice) Hatsune Miku, known as Miku! She is extremely famous with her twin ponytails, but, as you can see in the photo below she has many different hair styles & colours + lots of outfits. 

Miku with gorgeous ombre hair! (if that's the correct term...)

This is one which I've unlocked in the game. I adore the combination of green and pink in her hair, it looks super cute, and provides a colour combination for me to store in my not so brilliant memory for future projects. Here's the other outfit I've unlocked - I wanted to put pictures of my game but my email is taking ages to load. 

She's so cute! Got a snow white outfit here, I think.

I'd love to hear about your ideal relaxation space, and what games/music/videos/something else inspires you in your craft!

Nayu's Craft Time #161 My mini vacation

A novel way of reusing a suitcase - make it into a pet bed! Sadly not my cat...

Hi all! I'm back ^o^ Had a super time with a friend in Bristol. Had traffic issues on Friday, so it took me a good 4 hours to get there. On the way home it took about 2 hours, that was including nearly ending up in Wales (which borders England).

Definitely was going the wrong way by going into Wales!!!

Yes, roads with more than 3 lanes are confusing, especially when sat nav takes time to tell me which lane to get into, so by the time I need to keep right I'm in a left lane and can't switch. Nearly ended up at a toll bridge but thankfully managed to turn off and go back the way I was meant to. Was so glad to be home on Saturday!

Possibly the toll bridge I nearly ended up on. I'm not a bridge person so I'm glad I didn't have to cross it!

We chatted a lot, visited a horse my friend helps look after, and watched almost all of the opening ceremony to the Rio Olympics.

I'm not a sport person, but for the first time I did watch some of the Olympics: gymnastics...
and shooting (two rather different disciplines). I'm hoping to watch some of the synchronised swimming too.

Rio Olympic pool!

Not being a sport enthusiastic I'd had my fill after about 20 minutes, but that was enough to keep me happy. Hope to watch a bit more today - I want to, and the Olympics only happens every 4 years (Winter Olympics in 2 years - can't wait as I adore ice skating and will be watching it for the first time ^o^)

So pretty!

I'm resting lots as the trip took a lot out of me (which I expected). Hence only the blog post today - hope to catch up over on Nayu's Reading Corner blog posts tomorrow. I've caught up with all my emails (I think).

My phone looks like this (only in black)

I've had an amusing 40 minutes with EE trying to sort a phone issues. Mine will only send 1 page of texts at a time, not the 3-7 page long texts it usually does. I'm getting a callback tomorrow to see if some updates have worked. I hope so as I send long texts to a friend several times a day, so having to send lots of short ones. Will keep you posted on the result of that incident.

Managed a little bit of crochet, but not enough to show you yet (as in I did 2 rows, which doesn't sound much but the blanket is growing larger). I may do some more later today, I don't know. Need a rest now ^o^

Not literally true, but I hope to have a smidge more energy by resting lots - I love this sewing! Not mine, sadly.

Nayu's Craft Time #160 Am I here?

A totally random picture of a beehive (with honey) for no reason other than the randomosity (is that a word??)

I'd love to be back online today, but given how full on the end of the week was for me I'm taking it easy. Hopefully that'll be with some craft that I can show you in my next post! You'll have to wait and see. ^o^

Nayu's Craft Time #159 Lazy Sunday

Cup of tea/hot chocolate also fits well for this saying!

This is so true! Regardless of when you have your day off in the week (I realise day off may be full of household tasks rather than pure relaxation), make it a relaxed one to counteract the chaos of the rest of the week. You will feel refreshed for it, even if you only have a few hours to yourself (or less). Treasure the down time!

Nayu's Craft Time #158 Happy Saturday!

I'm still with my friend (until lunch) so I hope you have a super day!

Nayu's Craft Time #157 On vacation!

I wish these cases were mine!

Today I'm off to stay with a friend I only see once a year! I will be offline for a few days after to recover from the exciting trip, but promise to leave a fun picture each day I'm away ^o^ 

Nayu's Craft Time #156 From flop to top!

Something's missing, and it's not the spoon...

This post is way later than I'd wanted, because the first half of this week was a flop. Tuesday I woke at 4am...not good since I had a 4pm hospital appointment (which predictably ran late) so wasn't home until 6pm, very over tired. Yesterday I woke not feeling great, then felt heaps worse & had to rest all day because I'd forgotten my breakfast meds. Lousy was an understatement, but thankfully I only miss meds 1-2 times a month, which is no joke when you're on opiates as your body wants to know why it's missing something so vital.

"Yikes!"

I am much better today, which is good as I have my annual stayover with a friend tomorrow! I'm super excited since we text over 20 times a day (not kidding), have similar health issues, both love reading. We borrow books & dvds which is so much fun! I stay over night because I have to drive there (it's too far for me to drive there & back the same day), and I'll be resting for a few days after to recover from the trip. Last night I thought I had to cancel, but thankfully I don't. Yay! 

I'd love a case like this Sanrio Twin Stars - I'd need more than one though for my trip!

With all that going on I honestly haven't done enough craft to show you this week. I can give you pictures of yummy fudge that I've made for my friend: 

& some chocolate chip cookies made from a packet which was just add water: much less tiring (& cheaper) for me than buying the individual ingredients. Cooked super fast & taste yummy (the cookie dough isn't all that great, but the cookies are more-ish.)

 

I'd love to hear if you've baked something recently (in the last month)! 

From scratch or from a packet, cookies are delicious!