Keep Calm and Carry OnJuly 31, 2013It feels great to be needed, to be the one people turn to for advice and decisions, and to be the one who is always "cool as a cucumber". I know I'm that person to some people. My husband looks to me often to make the decisions, to be calm and comforting, to be the rational one. But there are times when I don't want to be that person, when I want someone else to take on the burden of command. There are times when the burden is too much and the emotional eruption is inevitable. These moments are few and far between. And when they happen, they don't last long. My virgo self yells at me, "buck up, princess, shit happens! Time to take control." And then the mood passes and I find my strength to keep calm and carry on. Posted by Brandy Appleby. Geeking OutJuly 25, 2013I'm a geek and pretty proud of it too. I discovered today that two of my very favourite actors are going to be at the Toronto FanExpo in August. My inner voice was squealing in delight and drooling over the thought of going. And now I have convinced myself I must go. The world will end if I don't! Life will be meaningless! Posted by Brandy Appleby. Girls Just Wanna Have FunJuly 24, 2013We watched great family shows like Fraggle Rock, Family Ties and the Cosby Show. I begged to stay up past my bedtime to watch Richard Dean Anderson MacGyver his way out of another tricky situation. It was a great time to be a kid. And tonight I'm sitting at my computer, singing and dancing along to a great compilation of 80's tunes streaming on Youtube, remembering the good old days when girls just wanted to have fun. Posted by Brandy Appleby. The hot days of summerJuly 23, 2013We were able to get the plugs in our bedroom fixed, the breaker back on and find a work around to have the a/c unit running without burning the house down (yay!). And during all that we've been up to the trailer a few weekends, spent other weekends with friends and have worked on parts of the house including minor renos to the bedroom. Yes, never a dull moment or a slow day. The weather has cooled, at least for now, and the house is comfortable. I'm slowly getting myself organized. My home office is somewhat clean now. We pulled the carpet up in our bedroom a while ago. It was a much bigger task than we anticipated and sadly, it isn't done yet. We had to remove the quarter round after removing the carpet and we weren't able to get all the tack tape off the floor. We put new quarter round down and need to caulk it and paint it after removing the gooey tape from the edges. Then there is a bit of touch up required for the parquet floor. That all will take place in the fall when the weather is much much cooler. My home office was storing some of the bedroom furniture (mainly the dressers and then some totes and clothes) and now we've moved out one dresser and a lot of the small stuff. And now I can properly set up my crafting station in the other corner. I have several projects I'd like to work on over the next few months, Christmas presents mostly, and a fall/spring jacket I'm creating partly from an existing pattern and partly my own creation. We'll see how or if it turns out. I need to sit down and map out my crochet projects. I'll need more yarn for them and I'll need to make sure I have enough time to work on them. I'll have to set deadlines for each section of each project. I think it will work out well this way; instead of the mad crocheting I was doing before when I over committed myself. I'll post the finished projects here so everyone can have a look at whats been done. I always take pictures! I expect more hot days to come; but I expect they'll be more relaxed and chilled, at least inside! Posted by Brandy Appleby. Hope Springs EternalMay 12, 2013As winter dragged on into spring, hope seemed to remain buried under the snow that stubbornly lingered into April. I tried to be positive through it all but failed miserably most days. There were moments where I thought I was going to go insane from the stress of all the chaos in our lives. I think I could have handled everything much better if I was getting a full night's rest. But sleep deprivation was a common thing and I'm only now getting back to my regular sleeping habits (which still involves me waking up two or three times before the alarm goes off). I'm a night owl by nature. Its hard enough getting up early during the week to go to work, tougher on the weekend when there's no set bedtime. Thor was waking me up anywhere between 5:45 am and 7:00 am by sitting at the bedroom door yowling and jiggling the door handle. If we had the flat door handles instead of the standard round knobs, he'd open the door whenever he wanted in. The ridiculously early morning wake up calls had to go. So we moved their night feeding two hours later and now they are quite patient in the morning. The other difficult thing was that we were used to the cats being in the room with us. When Thor got sick and started peeing everywhere we had to ban him (and Loki) from the bedroom to save our mattress and clothes. He wasn't happy with that. Both like to curl up with us at night. But Thor is healthy again and we've resolved his peeing outside the litter box issue (by getting two additional litter boxes and cleaning them twice a day). He's a much happier cat now. Both are more affectionate with us. Especially since I'm up with them in the mornings on the weekend. The good news is Thor is on his last few cans of the medicated food and we're switching him back to his regular food on Monday. Its funny watching him eat the medicated food. He stands as far away as possible, pulls his gums back and picks at the food. If he gets any on him he freaks out and good luck with getting him to eat it again. But he knows its making him feel better and he gives me his kitten eyes and starts purring as soon as I pick up the fork and feed him. I am totally wrapped around his paw; but he's just too cute to say no to! So Thor's health issue, which gave us great stress, is resolved. Now we can save up the money to take Loki in for his ultrasound. Loki seems to be in good spirits and I don't expect anything to have changed from last year's. But its still good to take him in. I'm expecting a big pay raise at work (sending good vibes out to the universe!) and when that goes through we'll be able to go on our honeymoon and start saving to buy a house in four or five years. And its gardening season. Very soon I'll be able to start planting! That's good because my front yard is dirt and yellow, dead flowers and my back yard is dirt with trillium and other random plants (I'm not sure what they are). There's a patch around our spruce tree i'm going to put plants in. Can't wait! So many cool ideas. Posted by Brandy Appleby. Our Pet BoysApril 5, 2013
We have two male short-haired tabby brothers - Thor (orange) and Loki (grey). We adopted them in November 2011 from the Gatineau SPCA. They were taken in by a kind foster family who took care of them until they were old enough to be adopted. They took to us almost immediately, crawling all over us before we even left the foster home to do the paperwork at the SPCA. They hated the drive home. I played a game with them while they huddled in their box on my lap - fingers darting into the holes trying to escape kitten claws. We got home and let them roam around the living room. After exploring a bit they started playing. It was nice to see them adapting to their new environment so quickly.
 Loki developed a love of technology. He would curl up with me on the couch if I had my laptop or against me or Mike if one of us was on our computer. He used to love to watch one of the interactive games on Facebook and he tried to text message me on Mike's phone one day. Of course it didn't say anything in English but Mike and I like to think that he was trying to say something to me...lol.  Thor is a mommy's boy. He loves to snuggle with me, interrupt me when I'm knitting and of course he wants to eat whatever I'm eating! He loves wrestling with Loki and with passing feet. Both love chasing our hands under the blankets (and sometimes our feet!). They also love chasing us around the house, either trying to catch us or catch one of their toys trailing behind us. Our house now is a two story, four bedroom garden home with an enclosed backyard. The boys have lots of room to run and run they do! We nicknamed them the Thunder Cats because when they run around it sounds like rolling thunder. They seem much happier here. We have a computer room upstairs for Mike and I and the boys like to sit at the window and stair out into the various yards.  In February, we had to take Thor into the vet. He had an inflamed bladder. We were told to switch him to wet food only and to give him a special medicated Royal Canin wet food. He didn't like it and refused to eat it. So I did research on the best all natural grain free wet food on the market. I found three brands - Fromm, Wellness and Before Grain. They didn't like the Wellness brand but they loved the Fromm. Unfortunately, Fromm is quite expensive and we couldn't afford to have them both on it. After a time we settled on Before Grain - which is a meat only pate wet food. Its less expensive than Fromm and doesn't contain any grains, gluten or veggies. After a few weeks he was doing much better and was back to his normal playful self. We got a Feliway diffuser, which helps to calm animals down. It seemed to help both cats. Unfortunately, Thor started to get worse again in late March. So a few days ago we took him back to the vet. He had developed an infection. So now we have the joy of trying to switch him over to another medicated version of the Royal Canin brand and he's on antibiotics for a week. I've introduced the new food to him slowly, and although he doesn't particularly care for the new food, he's eating it. I have to encourage him, watch him and even sometimes sit with him to get him to eat his food. He takes his antibiotic pill with no fuss. It will take a while before he's back to normal, but we know with the new routine he will be healthy again soon.  Posted by Brandy Appleby. AfghanFebruary 23, 2013 Last year
I took up crocheting and created an afghan for the big leather chair that’s in
my office. I started the blanket at our old house and it fit with the colours
in the living room.  I watched
a bunch of YouTube videos and learnt how to do the basics. I created
my own pattern (I was quite intimidated at the time to use a pattern), chose
two colours and started my work. It worked on it bit by bit. I put it down for a bit in the summer. There were other priorities in July and August and then in September we moved. It took us a while to settle in to the new place and then wedding plans took over.  I still tried to work on it a little bit but it wasn't until the Christmas holidays that I was able to find time to sit down and finish it. I finally completed this project in January and I and the cats have been enjoying the big leather chair a lot more! :D Posted by Brandy Appleby. | Blog Archive |
Keep Calm and Carry OnJuly 31, 2013Geeking OutJuly 25, 2013Girls Just Wanna Have FunJuly 24, 2013The hot days of summerJuly 23, 2013Hope Springs EternalMay 12, 2013Our Pet BoysApril 5, 2013AfghanFebruary 23, 2013 | Blog Archive |
