Luna 9/12/2010 - 6/9/2012

Luna, our beautiful naughty tortie Syrian hamster, passed away last Thursday morning peacefully in her sleep.

Luna was born at Hammysworld in Stockport and we picked her up when she was a tiny baby at five weeks old. We couldn't get over just how tiny she was! She settled in quickly, scaring both my OH and I during the night - her wheel screeched, waking us up and then my OH thought that she was escaping because of all the noises she was making. Turns out she was just having a good old look around her cage.

Her first photograph -

She was such a gentle hamster, taking treats with such care that you could hardly feel even a whisker. She was a food loving hammy, the best thing in the world to her being a big fat mealworm. We'll never forget the first time she had mealworms - she went mental! Bit them in half and threw them to the side to attack the next one! I reckon she thought they were alive but she soon realised they were just tasty treats and they soon became her favourites - she'd often refuse other treats until you gave her a mealworm. She would sit by the bars (with the big door of her cage open mind you) and wait for her treats.

When she would come out she would go and sit with my OH, running across his belly while I'd go and get her some fresh treats. My OH would be telling her to be patient as she was always on the move - sometimes scaring him by running up to his shoulder and attempting to get onto the back of the sofa. Once she'd got her treat she'd usually have to be careful with her balance because my OH would be laughing - she was a funny little thing.

Then she'd go into her massive playpen which she loved - loved to try and escape from! She would always do her slow investigating walk around, then scent mark a few things (always one of the boxes got a good rub), make sure her playpen food store was OK then she'd be off to find a good box to start chewing. She loved her box chewing for sure. Half the time I'd find her belly up, back legs in the air with her front paws gripped tightly on a box, chewing away. Always made us laugh! When she'd had enough to would scrabble at the sides until I put my hand in, then she'd jump onto my hand for a lift out.

Night times we full of odd noises - squeaks, bangs, rattles, all sorts. I used to go to sleep listening to her doing whatever it was she was doing. She would bounce around her cage, from her water bottle, to her wheel, back to her water bottle, to one hammock, then the next one, then jump off that onto her wheel the mad hamster! I'd often hear her digging, and running on her wheel. When she went to bed she would wriggle around, banging the bowl in the shelf above her making a right racket! Always made me smile though.

We both miss her so much, it’s strange not hearing her rustling at night, not seeing her little ears poking up above the base of her cage when we walk into the bedroom, not saving a bit of whatever veggies we’re having for dinner for her.

Luna was a wonderful, cheeky little madam who gave us so much in the two years we had her and I’m glad we were able to give her a good life, she was a very happy hamster.

These are some of our favourite photographs and videos of Luna.

You will always have a very special place in our hearts Luna, our little hammy hamster. Thank you for all the joy you brought us, all the laughs and smiles. We’ll always love you and miss you Luna.

Rest in peace little one xxx

Found a great new blog

I came across a Kitchen Witch blog yesterday and just wanted to do a mini 'shout out' and get you guys to go and have a look. 

Crimsonrose started her new blog this month and I'm loving her posts so far, as a kitchen-ish witch myself I'm certainly enjoying them and I expect a lot of you guys will to.

So, here's the link http://crimsonrose1014-witchkitchen.blogspot.co.uk/ go on over and have a gander :D She has another blog too - Witchy Woman which I'm going to have a read of while I drink my coffee and wait for my my CBT lady to call back (finished the first session today, was really good!).

Unrealistic Aims

I was listening to BBC Radio Five Live yesterday morning when Victoria Derbyshire was in an abortion clinic. The show was really good and I have to admit I was in tears when one of the women was talking about an abortion that she had.

Then a ProLife woman came on. Now, don't get me wrong, I do not think that abortions are good things, I think it's terribly sad when a woman has to make that decision but I really believe that every woman should have that choice. In other words, I'm pro choice.

I don't want to go into the wrongs and rights of abortion though, it's just that the show got me thinking about the aims of the Pro Life people. They want abortion to be illegal, campaigning for the repeal of the Abortion Act 1967. To me, this seems like a total unrealistic aim to have - it will never happen. It's just too extreme and there are too many women out there who believe that they should have the right to choose. They just won't get the supporter base that they need to have such a massive impact that the Abortion Act gets repealed. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic (or optimistic I suppose). Maybe they should have more realistic aims - reduce the number of weeks (currently it's 24 I believe). Reduce the number of legal 'reasons'. Change the views of woman so that there are less likely to choose abortion. You won't ever be able to convince the majority of the female population that abortion is always wrong (in the sense that they will never choose it) but you could make women less likely to choose it. Be realistic and you will have more of an impact.

Another topic that there seems to be people with completely unrealistic aims - vegetarianism. I'm not a vegetarian as I believe that it's unnatural and that by not eating meat we are further removing ourselves from nature. But anyway, I hate it when seem to have made it their personal mission to make every single person they know a vegetarian. It's not going to happen - simple as that. There are too many people who (sadly) simply don't care, those with similar views to myself and those who need meat to stay healthy. Why not be realistic and work towards the reduction of meat people eat and improve the conditions of animals that are bred for meat? You will have a much bigger impact by improving the practices of the meat industry instead of having a totally unrealistic aim of destroying the meat industry.

I'm a member of a large hamster forum and a lot of people on there, including myself, are against the sale of pets in pet stores. I've said it time and time again - hamsters (or any animal) aren't packets of crisps and shouldn't be sold like packets of crisps. But I think a more realistic way to have a impact would be to improve things - improve the conditions of the animals in the stores, improve the way that they are bred, provide more information to potential owners and regulate the sale of animals more strictly. For me the big thing is education - a lot of people pop into a pet store to get some dog food, see the cute little hamsters and buy one without knowing anything about their care. Most pet stores don't have a clue when they talk about the care of the animals they sell which makes things even worse. If they provided the correct care information with the sale they would improve the lives of so many of these pets. I hope that one day animals won't be sold in a supermarket fashion but I think we need to make the smaller steps before we get to that point.

By no means am I saying that every prolifer or vegetarian has these aims, these 'missions', I'm purely talking about the ones who do. I'm saying that if people had more realistic aims they would make a bigger impact, would make a bigger difference, by making small steps at a time which could then lead to the, currently, unrealistic aim.

Phew. Well, that was a bit of a rant. Apologies if I don't make too much sense in places, just wanted to get that off my chest lol.

A New Direction

Spring is in full swing, summer isn't too far off and I feel like I've woken up, almost like I've been hibernating.

The last year or so I've been contained within my own flat, held by my own fears. I know that it's not something I should be ashamed of as it is an illness, one I've yet to recover from. But I will, one day I will. I made some progress just the other week, going out for the third time since I became really poorly. Spent a couple of hours in Tesco (it's a big store...) with my mum. It was great and made me feel really good - it added to my hope, to my determination to get better. In a post the other day I mentioned that I will be starting cCBT and I'm now just waiting for some ink for my printer to come so that I can print off all the booklets I need for it. Once I've got the ink I'm going to get stuck in and I really do believe it will help me. My other half thinks it will too.

The year hasn't been wasted though - I've learnt a lot, taught myself a lot, probably things I wouldn't have bothered trying to learn if I was working full time. My cooking skills have improved loads - I've gone from hardly being able to fry bacon to doing full roast dinners with all the trimmings. I have my other half to thank for my cooking skills though as he has taught me a lot, certainly where meat is concerned (my mums a veggie so didn't eat much meat at home and didn't cook it). I can now, er, sort of, bake too. Ignore the suspiciously sunken effect the cupcakes have...

I can now sew, or at least sew well. I've picked up so many techniques from books, my mum, YouTube and trail and error I'm now confident enough to sell the stuff I make. I've even made my mum jealous - I can do french knots and she can't hehehe! Took me a hell of a long time to learn how to do them mind, it included lots of swearing and a bit of blood here and there too.

And of course, I've learnt a lot about Wicca, Witchcraft and Paganism in general. I'm now at the point where I feel I need to start getting my beliefs down on paper to provide myself with a proper foundation so that I can further explore aspects that I've been hesitant about so far. Which brings me to why I made the 'you'll be seeing a lot more of me' comment in my 'Blog Redesign' post. I've picked up so many bits and pieces, so many ideas and want to start sharing those, a long with my own thoughts, via this blog. Not only as a tool for me (ie getting things 'written' down) but so that I can share with people in the hopes that I might inspire some, help maybe a few and bore the pants off a couple more :P I have loads of ideas for posts, ranging from working with crystals to 'magically' cooking and a few mundane, maybe with magical twists, posts on things I love and enjoy.

So, you'll be seeing a lot more of me from now on, that's a promise (maybe a hint of a threat...?)! I'll keep you updated where the cCBT is concerned and my progress with it. Fingers crossed this time next year I'll be running my fingers over freshly cut grass instead of a keyboard!

PS - Hope you like the new design of my blog, if you noticed anything that looks totally screwed up or something doesn't work, please let me know. It wasn't till 6 hours of coding that I realised the header only appeared on the homepage :/ I'm not the most observant of people.

Blog Redesign

I'm at it again but in a few days you will know why and expect to see much, much more of me very soon! Just don't think, "What on Earth has she done..." if you take a peak and see that my blog is totally messed up, I'm probably doing something at the time lol.

After spending a few hours (oops) on Pinterest and finding some amazing peony photographs I couldn't resist basing the colour scheme on the beautiful flowers.

The one below is the one I chose to use, plus the colour pallet at the top to give you an idea of what colours I will be using.

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Luna and an Update

I haven't posted about my Syrian hamster Luna for a long while, thought I'd give you an update. She's going to be 17 months old tomorrow and oh my has time flown past! Seems like only yesterday she was just a baby. She's definately grown though, I found a couple of photoraphs of her in her toilet, one from when she was a baby, one from not too long ago and I was absolutely amazed at the size difference.

I wanted to share some photographs and videos of her, she's a massive part of my life and it's only fair that she gets some 'blog time'!

That's actually an old photograph of her but it's one of my favourites. I'll post some recent pics of her at the end of my post.

For those who didn't know about Luna, she is a tortoiseshell and white Syrian hamster, born at Hammysworld in Stockport on the 9th of December 2010. She's a little attention seeking madam! Maybe not so much of the 'little' though, she was tiny when we first got her but now? She's a big, big lass!

We used to use a plastic storage box as a playpen for her, here's a couple of videos of her in it -

She now has a massive playpen made out of Correx (or at least the UK version, can't remember the name). At first she was a bit hesitant in it but quickly gained her confidence in there and now zooms around like a mad thing. 

The last two nights she's been exceptionally active, I reckon it's because last week we called her old lol. She did give my OH a few scratches on his face though, apparently faces don't make good ladders to climb. Lots of claw gripping is needed which just ends up with yelps. 

I was a total idiot the other night... Left her cage door open >.< Thankfully she just went back to bed rather than escape but ever since I've been paranoid that I've left it open and keep going to check it lol. It's the second time I've left her cage open, the first time I didn't reattach a couple of tubes. That time she just went back to sleep instead as well lol. Touch wood I won't do it again! 

These are her most recent photographs, sadly I don't have a working camera anymore so can only photograph her when my mum stays. I can still video her though, if you want to see any more vids of her click on the YouTube icon at the top of the sidebar on the right :)

Luna has lost some fur on her hips, we think it's a combination of molting - her bum goes from black in the winter to brown in the summer - and her age. Although she's not on per say, she's not a spring chicken anymore. She's now having Debittered Brewers Yeast and Cod Liver Oil to help, fingers crossed she grows some of it back, or at least doesn't loose any more. Any healing vibes you could share for her would be appreciated x

I was a bit sad recently as I found a Robovoski hamster called Poppy on Preloved that needed a new home, convinced my other half, found the perfect place in our flat to put her cage and as she came with everything she needed I didn't need to buy any more. Turned out she was allergic to the substrate I use and we don't have the space to buy another massive bag of substrate... But, I posted about her on a hamster forum and someone on there has re homed her :D I know that she's in a really good home now, just wish I could have met her!

An update re the agoraphobia/anxiety problems I've been having... I start cCBT soon, possibly this week! A friend sent me some info about these self help people, I referred myself to them (saved going through my GP) and I've got an assessment on Friday. I have to admit I'm not in any way looking forward to it, I'm a complete bag of nerves but I know that it will help me so I'm gritting my teeth and getting on with it. It's all done over the phone and on line which makes it much, much more suited to me as I'm not able to get out and I'm not so good with person to person things. At least not when it comes to problems I'm having. 

I hope that you're all well and enjoyed the Super Moon! I'll post an update about the cCBT soon, fingers crossed it goes well!

Easy Peasy Cheesy Parlsey Sauce

I've recently decided I should eat more fish (or should I say, any/some fish!) and thought that fishcakes were a good place to start as I used to love fishcakes and chips from the local chippy where I used to live. Started off having them with a bit of mayo and some chips but wanted to turn it into what I call a 'proper' meal. Stuff straight out of the freezer (like burgers and chips) are our quick, no fuss, no-food-in-the-cupboards foods. Anyway, went looking for some sort of sauce that I could put with it and Google kept giving me parsley sauce results. I hate parsley! It smells horrible and tastes even worse. Gave up but a few days ago I asked my mum if it actually tastes like parsley, she said it didn't so I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go. Made it last night and oh my, it's wonderful! Wasn't difficult to make, didn't taste like parsley at all and went amazingly with the fish cakes. We had a couple of fishcakes each, new potatoes, peas and cheesy (yum!) parsley sauce. Was so good, I thought I would share the recipe!

Cheesy Parsley Sauce

Serves 4
50g butter
40g plain flour
500ml milk
25g parsley, finely chopped
150g mature cheddar, grated
Salt and pepper, to taste

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Once melted, add the flour to make a thick paste then slowly add the milk, ensuring that the milk is Incorporated in with the flour and butter before adding any more, preventing any lumps. Reduce the heat and cook for a few minutes, until slightly thicker. Add the parsley and cheese, cook for a further few minutes on the low heat then season. Your tasty cheesy parsley sauce is now ready to serve!

I actually cooked mine for a good 20 minutes after adding the parsley and cheese as I got the timings a bit wrong (not my strong suit) but it didn't seem to make any difference other than it was very thick. It was absolutely gorgeous! Definitely a hit with my other half too!

Happy cooking!

I went out

A little while back I told you that I was having problems with agoraphobia - well, I seem to have made a tiny step towards being able to function normally.

I haven't been able to leave my flat for a 11 months but last week I went to the corner shop! It's a five minute walk away but I haven't been able to go further than the car park (I live in an apartment building, 2nd floor) for so long. I don't know why I was able to go then, I just went downstairs with my OH to see off the landlord but my OH wanted to go to the shop and I had left my keys behind, I said that I would borrow his keys and come and let him in when he got back. Then I decided walking a few steps wouldn't hurt and ended up going all the way to the shop.

Very proud of myself, it's the most progress I've made for almost a year. Sometimes it's hard just leaving the flat to check the post (which is on the ground floor).

Anyway... I'm proud and just wanted to share >.< Go me :D 

The Daffodils

I maybe kinda sorta forgot to take pictures of the daffs when they all bloomed >.< They've gone over now too so it's too late for pretty fully bloomed pictures. Thought I'd share the ones I got when they started to open up though!

Candles and Daffodils

Happy 2012 everyone! I hope yours has gone smoothly so far. Mum came to stay for a week on New Years day and left her nasty cold behind. Both my other half and I caught her cold - knocked me for six! I spent four days in bed, coughing, spluttering, sneezing and wheezing. Not nice. We've both kicked the cold now and I'm raring to get 2012 started.

In my last post I told you how I had felt magically blocked for a while - that I had lost my witchy feeling. Guess what?! I have it back! *does a little dance* Thank you everyone who commented on that post, I felt so much better after reading what you had said, knowing that I wasn't alone. I hope that you guys have your witchyness back too!

Want to know what sparked it of? Candles! My aunt gave me two packs of beeswax sheets and wicks to make my own rolled candles and I had a go the other day. It was great fun! Took me a couple of attempts to get the hang of starting them off but I think I did quite well. Here's a photograph of the first one. Excuse the table - it's scratched to hell. I really need some new candle holders as all I really have (except for the one pictured which I don't like) is tealight and votive holders. Anyway, I made 20 candles in total and loved every minute of it :D I still have some wax left too to make some more. I just wish rolled beeswax candles wouldn't burn so quickly!

I now have a wonderful collection of candles, including the ones I've made and ones that my other half bought me a while back. I've got loads of different coloured mini spell candles too which is always handy!

Who has had enough of winter then? It's not my favourite season to be honest - I much prefer Autumn and Spring. Spring is just around the corner now though! I know it's a bit early but when doing the weekly food shop I couldn't resist getting a bunch of daffodils >.< Daffs, as I like to call them, really signify the beginning of spring to me - for me spring starts when I see my first bunch of daffs growing. I'll be having a look in my books later, do a little bit of research online and will write a post all about daffodils soon.

Here's my bunch, in a ribbon wrapped Kilner jar, I can't wait until they open up -

Well, I hope that you're all well, had a wonderful Yule and New Year and that you are looking foward to spring just as much as me. If I don't speak to you all before hand, have a wonderful Imbolc!

Magically Blocked

You may have wondered why I've not posted anything remotely "witchy" lately - to tell the truth I seem to have some sort of magical block. Or something. I'm the type of person who if something doesn't feel right, at least where religion, magic, witchcraft etc is concerned, I don't do it. The thing is nothing magical has felt right lately. It's like I've been cut off from my witchiness. Even Samhain didn't make me feel any better - I bought a pumpkin and it's sitting uncarved on my worktop looking quite sad. My Pagan books are collecting dust and I haven't opened my Book of Shadows, not even for a little peak, for months now.

Maybe I need to be more disciplined with my faith in regards to both studying and practicing. Forget the "if it doesn't feel right don't do it" thing and just get on with things. I really don't know. Maybe Yule will give me the boost I need - it's my favourite holiday and celebration.

Do you ever feel like this? How do you get past it? I need some help guys!

Trying my hand at Embroidery

Mum gave me a few copies of Mollie Makes - my favourite crafting magazine - and I instantly fell in love with the "Lovely Ladies" embroidery projects. I'd never done embroidery before, plenty of cross stitch but that was always on Aida and what have you. I gave one of the ladies a go and oh my, I'm so pleased with her! My other half loves her as well!

I started another one last night, from the same series, I'll be finishing her later. Including making her right eye bigger, looks like she's squinting at the moment -

I don't have any linen at the moment so I've stitched them calico (the only plain fabric I have it seems!) and plan to make the second one into key ring.

I've definitely fallen in love with embroidery and will be going through all my crafting books and magazines to find some more projects!

Mum went Scrumping

My mums staying at the moment, not only did she bring loads of fabric, magazines, a massive hamper, a beautiful bracelet, mugs, a spoon rest, cocktail glasses and loads more, she's given me a massive bag of apples! Someone she knows has four or five apple trees and is away for half of the year - if no one took the apples they would just rot. The lady is happy for people to take the apples so mum went round and collected six or so carrier bags full of apples. This is my bag -

The picture is quite deceiving I think - there's an absolute ton in there! I took the picture after taking some out for a crumble as well. The apples are huge!

Mum and I made a apple crumble last night, I'm going to find a few recipes for other things and probably freeze stewed apples this weekend.

First off, I peeled the apples and mum chopped them -

Then I stewed them with sugar, cinnamon and cloves with a little bit of water (excuse the state of the hob...)

 While I did that, mum made the crumble topping -

 Then, once the apples and topping were done I put everything in here -

Forty minutes later we had the most amazing apple crumble! It smelt fantastic too!

Here's the exceptionally simple recipe - 

Apple Crumble 

Ingredients

For the filling -
900g apples
25g brown soft sugar (I used dark but my recipe says light >.<)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves

For the crumble -
110g almonds, chopped
75g salted butter
175g self raising flour
1 dessertspoon cinnamon
110g demerara sugar

Method

Simmer the apples in a little water for 20 minutes or so, until they are all mushy. Stir in the cinnamon, cloves and sugar and simmer for another 5 minutes.

For the crumble, rub the flour and butter together until it resembles crumbs. Mix in the sugar, cinnamon and almonds.

Place the apple mixture into an oven proof dish, put the crumble mix over the top and bake for 30-40 minutes at 200ºc, until golden on top. Leave to stand for 10 minutes then serve with custard or cream or ice cream - whatever you want!

Yum!

More Apples

As the first apple I made was such a success I rooted around in my piles of fabric for some green, pink or red cottons. Found a few and made five more apples last night. I'll be making a load more in the red and green holly leaf fabric for yule, the rest will be displayed all year round (want to find some sort of wire basket to put them in).

I've started reading another book as well (haven't quite finished Kitty Raises Hell yet but I will, I know what happens but still). I had a look through all the books I have in a cupboard in our bedroom trying to decide what to read next. The thing is I've been completely hooked on Urban Fantasy novels for years now, before that I read a lot of crime/thriller stuff - mostly Andy McNab, Jack Higgins and Wilbur Smith. So I decided to get a McNab book out (one of his Nick Stone books, not the non-fiction stuff) and see if I could get into it. So far so good! I'm reading Firewall, the earliest Nick Stone book I have (really need to get the others so I can read it from the start...) and I'm enjoying it. Fingers crossed I enjoy it enough for me to get back into the crime books - I have 50+ of them to read!

Where have I been?!

I've been buried in books...

 
I got the Kim Harrison and Patricia Briggs for my birthday and whizzed through those, both of which were amazing! The Hollows series (by Kim Harrison), Mercy Thompson series (by Patricia Briggs) and the Kitty series (by Carrie Vaughn) are my favourite Urban Fantasy books. I've read each series 5-6 times now.

I re-read two of the Nocturne City books after finding three more buried in a cupboard. The first two were great, the third confused me no end, the fourth had a coincidence that annoyed me and the fifth.. Well, I nearly threw the damned thing out of the window. Yet another massive coincidence that really, really bugged me. It was ridiculous. I did cry at the end though >.<

I've also been doing crafty things, a couple of which I will show you as they are my favourites...

Apples! Little fabric applies with little wooden stalks. I love them! The pattern is from Tidla's Sew Pretty Christmas Homestyle.

And... SPARKLY PINE CONES! I love pine cones. I love glitter. Add some glue to the mix and you end up with these -

I've also been busy starting another sort of blog, don't worry, I wont be abandoning this one! I've just started a blog for hamsters where I can share all the knowledge I have and gain while doing research. So if you have a love for hamsters or have ever thought about getting one as a pet, pop on over to Hamsters Galore.

Well, I hope you're all well, I'm sure I'll be seeing you all before Samhain at the end of this month - looking forward to Samhain? I am! :D

Arty Farty Stuff

My lovely mum bought me some watercolour stuff for my birthday, thought I'd share what she got me plus a few other bits and bobs.

This is my "old" watercolour set, its a 12 half pan which is great for painting on the move but I really wanted a larger selection of colours so I didn't spend half my time mixing to get the right colour. Excuse how messy it is (and one of my hairs that seems to have jumped into the paint).

This is my new set, which my mum bought be for my birthday, the little box at the bottom is my old one from the picture above.

Look at those colours! There are 40 different colours! Really pleased with it :D It wasn't very expensive as it was half price which is always good.

I did a swatch thingie, writing down the names in the order they are in the box so that when one runs out I know what colour to buy.

I have a few extra blocks (that came with it, didn't see the point in opening two of some of them), all are colours I will probably end up running out of first too.

I have some tubes of watercolour paint as well, these are years old but after playing around with them last night are still in perfect condition. I wouldn't mind building a collection of the tubes as well as the blocks as they are great for making large quantities of paint for things like washes.

Mum also got me a few other bits which I'll show you as well, first up my sponges -

The natural sponges are amazing - they smell like the sea! I gave one a sniff (yeah, I sniff new stuff lol) and oh my goodness! The SEA! In my nose! Was like I had dunked my head in the ocean.

This is my paint pot, something I wasn't completely sure I would like but knew even if I didn't I would use it - turns out I love it! It's great, I can store my brushes without bending the bristles at all and it has these ridges in one side that make it really easy to clean the brushes too. Excuse the colour of the water in the pics, I had just finished doing the swatch thingie.

Mum also got me some new brushes, a size 1 Round, size 2 Script Liner and a 1/2" Short Flat brush. I have a nice little collection of brushes now.

And last but not least, the very boring but ever so important gumstrip (for stretching paper).

Couple more arty farty things -

Paper, not all of it but my three "best" pads.

The board I use for stretching paper (plus a random bit of watercolour paper...), really need to get a few more of these!

All my stuff together, how it sits by my chair :D

Seeing as this is an arty post, here's a photograph of another mini painting I've done. Thank you all for the lovely comments about the little painting I showed you on my last post!