After Hours – Who You Gonna Call?

I just used this after hours medical service for the first time, and I can not believe I didn’t know about this sooner!

We were given a magnet at our local G.P. when our son was sick on a Friday, it was for an after hours doctor who does house calls. I never knew such a service existed that we could access! It’s amazing how much help you get when you have a child. Luckily we didn’t need to use the service then because our son got better, but we just used it for the first time on Saturday. On Saturday afternoon and I knew I would be in a lot of discomfort by that night and into Sunday if I didn’t get a script for some antibiotics. I really didn’t want a stranger to come to my house, but I started to feel desperate and decided to give this a try.

When we rang, we had to become members of the ‘Family Care Friendly Society’ so we would then be bulk billed. This membership was just under $45 for the year, and covers everyone who lives in our house for 12 months. Membership means that every doctor’s visit for the next year will be bulk billed, which I think is a fabulous deal. I gratefully agreed to pay, as I was expecting the call out fee to be well over one hundred dollars just for the one visit! So these doctors are not in it for the money, and are working to keep people out of crowded and busy hospital emergency rooms. We were told the doctor would come within 3 hours, but they came after an hour and a half. When the doctor came, she was lovely of course and the job was done in a very timely manner.

What a great service. I just wish I knew about it earlier, and that I didn’t have to suffer through many nights, weekends and days in discomfort waiting for an appointment to see a daytime G.P.

Adventures in Glass Fusing

About 4 years ago I did some glass fusing courses as I just love the look of coloured glass.  It was very technical and a bit expensive but by the end I managed to have some pretty things I made myself.

I still have a yin – yang dish that David’s keys and change go into when he gets home, a drink coaster set which we don’t use, plus the 3 pendants that are left, the rest I gave to my father, I presume he sold them in his shop. These were made from 96CoE glass, some of which I still have left over. With some fibre paper strategically placed, I could turn the unfused glass into some pretty beads using the kiln my father gave me.

Recently, my dad found a new invention that simplifies the process of glass fusing so much that you can do it at home in your microwave! Each of the pendants below took at least 40 minutes while we waited for the kiln to cool down, which is only big enough for one small piece. We spent more than a whole day on this, plus three failures, making these 16 pendants not too bad a success rate but very slow going. This is the 90CoE glass, which can not be mixed together with the 96CoE. If the kiln lasts long enough, I hope to eventually get around to fusing all my left over glass into pendants and beads. It looks like you can craft glue recycled magnets to the back of these so they make pretty fridge magnets, but they aren’t strong enough to hold up a postcard. In the image below, the top 3 are a set that goes together, the second row is also a set I call “Peeking Kitties”. David made 5 of these pendants, 3 black ones in the bottom two rows, and 2 green ones on the right of the second bottom row. David has written more about microwave glass fusing on his blog.

Lucky Love Charms for the Home

So much of what we do in our cultures is to reassure and lift the spirit. We place flowers about the home to celebrate life (although in some cultures, dead flowers mean death, so they prefer plastic ones). Symbols of a happy sun and golden round images for wealth are also popular. Fen Shui is a set of rules to decorate the home to create a feeling of peace and balance by reducing clutter and placing good luck charms in certain places.

David and I recently decided we would like to decorate our home with lucky love charms, or what we cheekily describe as ‘lovey-doveyness’. There is nothing profound about good luck charms. For me, it’s merely a symbol placed about and for good luck, it should be meaningful. This symbol reminds us how very important it is to have love in our lives, to have a home filled with love. To always speak to each other with a tone of love, to always save the best of ourselves for those who are dearest to us.

Getting out of the house is a bit of a big deal, but hunting and gathering for lucky charms for our home makes it more fun than intimidating.  I especially like the Russian Dolls who are perfectly sized to be a practical set of measuring cups, and they also have some lovey-dovey designs on their dresses! Only hassle is hand washing is recommended, but I think I can risk popping them in the top shelf of the dishwasher, maybe on a light cycle. The love-heart shaped measuring cups and spoons, dish and love heart coffee mugs were the booty from a trip to Indoorpilly Shopping Centre with David’s mum a month or two ago.  We also picked up the love-heart beach towel, which is actually a kid’s towel! Three cute little love-heart magnets go well on our fridge as a daily lovey-dovey reminder!

I really like the love heart shaped white Maxwell and Williams dishes, quite an impulsive buy which is unlike me, but they are particularly nice so I just had to have them. I did think they might be impractical but they do get used. At the moment one has drying rose petals from David’s mum’s house, another has our home grown tomatoes. Yes, the tomatoes are tiny. Good for homemade chilli relish or homemade pizza! I picked up the love-heart candle holder quite a few months ago when I went for a walk to the newsagent across the road to buy a gift card for someone. Can’t remember who it was, otherwise I’d remember when it was. Now it has some homegrown sprigs of lavendar in it. Well, that was good of me to walk across the road, wasn’t it? I should try it again sometime!

One of the best things we’ve nabbed is a love-heart shaped ice-cube tray from BigW. It’s plastic is pliable so it’s easy to remove the ice cubes and we use them all the time. What better way to remind yourself of the lovey-doveyness in your life than sipping on a cocktail with your love while sucking on love heart shaped ice cubes?! Interesting how the four love hearts look like a four-leaf clover, that’s luck right thar!

I nearly forgot to mention the lucky love charm hanging on our front door! I think this was meant to be a Christmas decoration, but now it hangs on our front door all the time! Beware – you are about the enter the House of Lovey-doveyness!!

A Little Heart

A little heart, but do try not to have too much. Or at least don’t leave it lying around where careless people can hurt it, that’s my advice! Take care of your little heart, its a precious and fragile thing, no matter how strong it feels.

free pattern at http://www.crochetspot.com/free-crochet-pattern-heart-fridgie
this sample by Teena following Rachel’s pattern

I thought I’d give this crochet pattern a go, its free at http://www.crochetspot.com/free-crochet-pattern-heart-fridgie. I must admit I was surprised it actually worked and ended up resembling a heart at my first attempt, so I’m particularly proud of it. Rachel Choi has an excellent site for those who crochet and according to the articles there, crochet is good for your health. That’s no surprise to me as all kinds of sewing, knitting and craftywork fit into the catergory of distraction and diversional therapy. So that’s good news for those of us who make managing good health a lifestyle, while enjoying a good yarn!

Being part of a significant, meaningful, loving relationship is another big part of my new lifestyle. There’s plenty of research out there about how positive relationships are good for your health. That’s why I chose the love heart motif…. coz it’s alll Lovey Dovey!!!

enjoy
xoxox