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Trying on clothes in the Endeavour recycled, Labels, clothing store, I could see that I have recently lost quite a lot of weight off my thighs. This will look great in clothes but not such a great look standing naked in front of the mirror in the store under those harsh store lights, I look like I need stretch mark cure and a leg lift. Well more toning exercises might improve the look, I cannot expect to lose 30 kilogram in my 60’s and not be left, with a little flab.  I spent less at the Endeavour clothing store than I had thought I might, $8. for a pair of Perri Cutten black slacks,  so I was considering a special wedding anniversary symbol as something I could afford. 

I left Reg and Indigo in the park near the Obi Obi Creek, in Maleny while I visited a small jewellery store I had investigated on the Friday before and admired the Pandora bracelets and beads.

I asked the jewellery store assistant for a Pandora bead that might represent 50 years friendship and our 42nd wedding anniversary and she showed me exactly what I wanted, a Russian wedding band of a silver and a gold ring, intertwined that she says symbolised the engagement and the wedding ring combined. As I do not have either and had hoped to replace these one day, I felt this was perfect and saves the expense of needing to buy rings later on, I will be even happier with this than a ring on the finger.   

I also bought a safety chain for my bracelet, as I would not want to lose something so special.  I wore it out of the store, showed Reg, explained what it represented and  I  think he is happy about it  J, it will be very special to me and I will always wear it.

 
 
 
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Of all the careers I have had during my creative life, non have worked for me as well as my current hobby business of blog writing, in being able to be compatible with carer duties.  I am currently reluctantly turning away a great deal of commissioned art work as I cannot paint major art work in a caravan while being a dementia, carer.  I can make and sell the fridge magnets that feature the art works I made during my active art career and I can write, so I am very grateful that creative skills are still able to travel on with me as a big part of my life.  We do not have to give up our dreams just modify them when circumstances change. 

It is great to start children out early in learning diverse creative skill, it teaches them about adapting to life as well as learning how much they can create by themselves.

In order to adapt my life to increasing carer duties and earn a little more income while being the carer for a husband with frontal lobe degeneration I have increased my affiliate work with Fishpond.com.au, Australasia’s biggest on line store. They claim that their prices are better than AmazonTM.

So I will be adding book reviews like this one, to my blogs, with links so you can purchase the books if they interest you.

I will be selecting titles that personally interest me and I will be gaining a 10% commission income from Fishpond only on new customer accounts for the first month, if the customer  arrives at Fishpond directly through the link in my blog or website.

I will strive to choose great value for my readers too; this book is currently selling at 31% off regular pricing.

 

Creative Crafts for Kids Over 100 Fun Projects for Two to Ten Year Olds

By Gill Dickinson, Cheryl Owen

 

Stimulate your child 's creative talent and imagination with fun crafts for two to ten-year-olds. This colourful book contains more than 100 fun projects plus numerous variations that will keep little hands busy using a range of materials. There are novel ideas for cards, gifts, decorations and accessories, attractive ways to jazz up a T shirt or create a costume, and delicious recipes for fancy cakes and other edible treats. Each project comes with easy-to-follow instructions including an at-a-glance guide to age suitability, time taken and materials needed, while handy templates allow you to cut the perfect shape.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION; FUN WITH PAPER; Make your own personalized stationery, including birthday and Valentine cards, novelty pop up designs, decorated notebook and paper bags, wrapping paper and gift tags, DAZZLING DECORATIONS; Includes festive table decorations, beaded curtains, wind chime, shell mobile, artificial flowers, salt dough butterfly, paper friezes and 3-D paper decorations, MAKE IT, WEAR IT; Includes jazzed up T-shirts, tie-dye, scary skeleton shirt, skull and glitter masks, feathered headband, wizard's hat, flower power bonnet, finger puppets, BAUBLES, BANGLES AND BEADS; Includes beaded candles, foam necklace, papier-mache choker, button key ring, sequinned glasses case, jewelled hair clasp and colourful bangles, HOME SWEET HOME; Includes fridge magnets, bird clock, sweetheart photo frame, hen egg cosy, desk tidy, animal napkin rings, SMELLS NICE; Includes beeswax candle, lavender pillow, novelty soaps, tussie mussie, winter candle-holders, fragrant drawer sachet, YUMMY FOR MY TUMMY; Includes stained glass window biscuits, chocolate fudge, white chocolate truffles, sweetheart cookies, bat biscuits, chocolate Easter nests, TEMPLATES;

About the Author

Gill Dickinson studied at the Central School of Art and Design in London. She now works as a crafts writer and creative stylist and is the author of several books. Cheryl Owen is an experienced crafter who has also worked as a dressmaker and fashion designer. She is the author of many books and has contributed to numerous magazines. Location: London, UK

Prizes

Creative Crafts for Kids has sold over 26000 hardback copies in the past year and a half Perfect for school holiday boredom Projects can be made using inexpensive or recycled materials and store cupboard ingredients

Reviews

Gr 4 Up-With its attractive layout and crisply formatted text, this oversize volume is sure to entice children and those who work with them. Each spread presents one project, including its name (often indicating a holiday theme), potential audience, approximate time to complete it, and materials needed. Step-by-step instructions are numbered to correspond with close-up photographs. Tips, variations on the craft, and pictures of the final item are included. There's even a bit of information on child development tossed in, hence the range of ages recommended for each activity. Reproducible templates and an index complete this useful though not essential book. Though most kids won't have their work turn out quite as sleekly as the full-color photos (and there is little multicultural representation in the photos), this appealing book should find its audience.-Maria B. Salvadore, formerly at Washington DC Public Library Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

 

Publisher:

Hamlyn
 
 
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The evil, :-) leg of lamb that triggered the stress overlaod, exhaustion, attack.
I have decided to talk more often and more openly, in my blogs about dementia care as it is a big part of my life and a big part of my blogging, is as a creative outlet for an artist who put aside my carer at her peak and making sure I have other creative releases to replace that.  I can hope that the journey I share may help others as I plan it to be as positive a journey as we can make itJ.

Yesterday Reg and I had a wonderful day meeting friends that only I knew and Reg was fine, helpful, and happy, enjoyed the dayJ.   My friends had very young daughters and they too were happy and a joy to be near...until they became overtired.  Then it took a lot of parenting skill and powers of observation, as they were not expressing in words that a casual observer, (me), could understand, what their needs where, but the clever and attuned mums were able to decipher. These clever mums knew at what moment, their children’s needs suddenly needed to be nurtured, the children were getting tired, and we all know how a very young child's smiles will turn to a grizzles if we don’t identify the signals fast and slip back into carer mode. 

This is what I have been learning to do. As a carer, I am mostly on observer duty, most of the time, even allowing my man out of my sight when I feel he is well and in familiar environments (the park with his dog), and just needing to be there for him, when the child/man becomes overtired.

When he is overtired, physically or mentally, he cannot express to me what is distressing him, because he is not sure himself, I need to watch and prevent this degree of exhaustion setting in.

Yesterday, it was not our visit to meet friends it was my adding  the overload to his brain, when I bought a side of lamb that he was sure would not fit our oven, ordered a smart phone including an internet connection package that will only cost me an extra $5. month. I bought myself a $20 sale priced pink sun hat to wear with my good pink clothes when he could not understand why I will not wear a red one I already own with them. Then I mentioned the next meet up with friends on our trip and I went out of my free hour phone call time into my pay for calls time, while ordering my phone through Telstra.

All those things may sound like ‘life’, to anyone else, but try involving your toddler in all those events and they would no doubt, go into overload.

I broke the carer rules and threw him into high stress exhaustion. It was a total emotional and physical melt down for him.  I did all I could to settle his mind, and get him to bed after dinner reassured that life was going to be simple again..

I woke up this morning to the sound of the morning TV program and an advertorial about something like acnepril reviews, and Reg sitting there as happy as can be, doing familiar routine, having his breakfast watching TV then he took the dog for a walk.  I asked him how he was this morning and he said, (surprised too, as he could also remember his become so unwell last night), that he was fine (sounding very happy), this morning. He beamed with pleasure. J.

I think that my friends from yesterday will be his friends too now and I learned from them that dementia care at my husband’s stage of frontal lobe dementia, is just like caring for a toddler.

My new understanding of that fact may make it easier to try to explain to people, ‘what I am able to do and what I am not able to do as my man is no longer Peter Pan, the man boy, he is the man toddler now’.

My friends helped me recognise this change and I found the understanding comforting. It seems normal and easy enough to manage.  I’ve had toddlers before; I should have recognised toddler stage as different from ill’. The toddler similarity is all there, unsteady gait, loss of control of function, gagging on food and mumbled speech, when exhausted and absolutely charming, loving and a joy to be around when physically and mentally, rested.

I just need to explain and think ‘toddler’, and I ‘have it’, and understand, what to do, how to plan our life from now, for now and how to explain this condition and what engagements I can and cannot accept, to others and why I may need to change arrangements at a moments notice.  

His is rested today, back with the familiar, comfortable and my man/toddler is happy, as is the mum/wife.

I have a new, understanding of the balance I need to keep in our life, his needs and my own. 
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Familliar souroundings while out meeting friends yesterday, a park with his dog and a view, made for a beautiful stress free, enjoyable day :-)
 
 
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What triggers your special childhood memories?

It is funny how some of our best child hood memories are often because of the simplest things.

I spent a relaxing evening watching TV with Reg last night while I did a few creative activities. In the mystery series Reg likes to watch, this couple arrived home to this dimly lit house. In the TV show, the man picks up a remote control, clicks it and the next second there was a roaring fire in the fireplace.

How do they do that? 

Fire is fascinating to watch, I think electric fireplaces. are amazing. I am going to love our review tour of dog friendly caravan parks this year but Reg and I will still want to have some free bushland camps, as we would miss our camp fire,  too much  if we spent  all our time in places where we could not have a fire.

When I was ten, we lived at a house with an open fireplace. I remember one cold rainy night my mum created a special evening, to always, remember. We gathered around the fire, initially reading books together. Then when the pine cones were glowing in the hearth, we made toast over the coals and ate it dripping in butter, and mum told us a ghost story.

It is not part of my memory of that evening, but looking back now, I realize we must have had no power. I get my work holistic traits, (I now try to modify to a more balanced lifestyle), from having learned them from my mother. Mum would have normally been working, (part from necessity) I realize.  One other trait I picked up from mum was to turn lemons, (that cold powerless night), into lemonade. Mum created a wonderful atmosphere and a night that I still remember and can relate to with pleasure, more than fifty years later.

Do you have any special childhood memories that stem from sitting around a fire with loved ones?

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This post is illustrated by the card I have made from my camp fire , in the Pilbara, WA, painting, above, available from my cards-art.com web site ~ (see side bar for link) and by my fridge magnet of the same work, below, available from THE Western Australia, landscape pages on this website.

These art/craft/prints are also available to purchase, ‘direct from artist’, under our caravan awning studio, while we are on tour.

 
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