I spent the last day and a bit making a mini book for my Mum for Mother’s Day. Inside were pictures of us as kids. At first I had no idea how I was going to decorate the pages (it was a spiral 7 Gypsies book) but then I found a post by Ali Edwards in which she described how to take the book apart. I thought I’d upload some photos of the finished product while my spaghetti sauce is cooking.

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I’d never had an IV before. And I should’ve become a little worried when I had to sign a waiver prior to having one done yesterday. But we’d been sitting in the waiting room for over an hour and I was just thankful that I was getting close to seeing the Doctor. They got me when I was weak, you see. Boredom caused a momentary lapse in inquisitiveness. I’d been occupying myself by walking to the water cooler and looking at all the organic, cruelty free skin care products while sipping ice water from a crinkly plastic cup when they shoved the bit of paper in front of me and asked me to sign. I is stupid and have no legal recourse.

The Dr lent over me, my arm prone and extended, resting on a pillow that had a blood resistant coating. He was squinting and peering intently at the inside of my forearm, trying desperately to find a vein. Every now and then he’d slap me leaving blotches of rosy skin. I knew from past blood giving experience that my veins were elusive and I had a feeling that they weren’t going to make this easy.

After 15 minutes he managed to find a vein and he started the drip going. “If you feel a stinging, or it hurts you at all, you’ve got to tell me straight away”, he said as he left the room. “I’m tough.” I replied.

And then the stinging started. Slowly at first. I thought that perhaps it was supposed to feel like this. Irritating and sore. But then it got worse and my breathing quickened and I started feeling nauseous. “This isn’t right.” I thought to myself. I looked up at the fluid left in the IV bag and knew there was no way I could make it through this pain for another 15-20 minutes. By the time Dad had got the doctor I was close to pulling out the needle myself. The burning feeling was unbareable and I felt sick to my stomach. Something had gone wrong.

I looked down at the crook of my arm and saw lumps had formed near the injection site. Apparently, the Doctor had popped the vein which meant all the IV juice was going into the tissue in the surrounding areas causing them to swell and the skin to tighten. I felt sick for hours afterwards and had trouble sleeping last night because it felt like my whole arm was corked. No wonder they get you to sign a waiver.

The pic above is what I woke up to this morning. Thankfully it’s feeling better tonight and is only slightly swollen. And despite my doctor’s pleas and attempts at coercion there’s no way I’m going to attempt to try the procedure again. I may not be tough but I’m not stupid!

Hello. Lots of stuff happening. Most of it sucks. In an attempt to shake the doldrums I thought I’d jot down a few items that have caught my eye.

One day, I want to have some personalised note cards like these G. Lalo Borghese ones from Kate’s Paperie. Aren’t these beautiful! And, surprisingly they’re quite affordable - 50 cards and 50 tissue lined envelopes for only $59 or $78 personalised.

And while I’m drooling over stuff from Kate’s Paperie, here’s another item that I’ve added to my wishlist. It definitely isn’t my usual style (being a lovely shimmery gold colour) but I could imagine one of my great, great, great, great grandkids finding it in a trunk of my old papers and being enchanted by it. I think it would inspire me to write something grand.

Every few days I get a newsletter from Home Couture. I love reading through it because they always highlight stuff from the home that isn’t too expensive. Today I came across a Pantone mug, perfect for the designer in your life. I love this red, Pantone 186 C, one but they also have a range of other colours.

Another thing to add to the Love List are these beautiful bookplates which were illustrated by the super talented Emily Martin (from Inside a Black Apple). You can download them here.

Just like the TV character that I named him after, Detective Lennie Briscoe, my beloved Siamese Fighting fish passed away last night. He hasn’t been ‘right’ for a while so I’m glad he’s now at peace swimming around the big fishbowl in the sky. We will miss him, but I think his mortal enemy Dr Spencer Reid (my other fish) will miss him more. Sad day.

I’ve recently applied for a lot of jobs and haven’t had much luck with any call backs so I started to think what I could be doing wrong. Apart from the fact that I’ve been ‘freelancing’ for the last year or so (which may be considered a turn-off I suppose) I narrowed it down to prospective employers not liking my resume. So I jumped on google and tried to track down some advice on how to better my CV. Here’s some info I found.

• This guy says you’ve got 30 seconds to make an impression when your resume is in the hands of a recruiter or employer. Pretty scary if your ramble - I guess the key is to be succinct and memorable in as few words as possible!
• Some pretty stock standard resume and cover letter layouts.
• Writing the perfect cover letter.
• Finding the right resume design - I tried this layout with an application I submitted today. I am hoping it does the job and sets me apart from other applicants but doesn’t freak out the employer too much
• and finally… Addressing cover letters (from Mefi) - for those in doubt over whether to use Sir/Madam or To Whom it May Concern

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

During our regular Sunday get together Mum sat down to teach my nieces how to knit. As I am still trying to come to grips with the skill I swiped some beginners needles and some cream wool and went head-to-head in a knitting race with a 7 and 5 year old.

I was going great, had knitted 15cm or so when a momentary lapse of concentration caused me to do something odd. Instead of going under the wool was going over and now it looks stupid and I give up!

I am not manually dexterous.

This year was the 5th that my family has gone for an early morning BBQ at Langford Park in the hills to celebrate ANZAC Day. Nothing like some sausages, bacon and pancakes in the beautiful Aussie ‘bush’ to get the day started.

Whenever a family member goes to Singapore they always have at least one meal at Tony Romas - so we were beside ourselves when we found out they were opening a branch of the chain here in Perth!
As it was Mums birthday last Tuesday we decided to try it out.

Located on Hay Street, just near the Milligan Street intersection. It was only opened 2 weeks ago.

My favourite page in the menu - the one with all the ribs. Mmmmm.

My meal - full rack of baby back ribs with corn and coleslaw

The carnage that followed

As we were leaving we spied Denis Cometti. He is about the biggest celebrity that you could find in the city on a Tuesday night.

The food was lovely but the service was a little slow which was a shame. They didn’t have their liquor license or any high chairs either which sucked a bit. Overall I had a lovely night and can definitely see myself going back.