Aaaandbreathe...

...Pfoof.

Dad is out of the hospital.

I've managed to have a couple of productive evenings and have only got a small percentage of the necessary sewing for next weekend's wedding left to go.

The Long-Suffering Boyfriend continues to be amazing.

I've got 12 consecutive days off coming up as of Thursday.

:)

A bit of a bloggiday.

We've had a frantic time of it here recently with both of us having new jobs, taking various postgraduate courses, trying not to murder the neighbours, looking after demanding catdudes etc. and just as I was about to start to relax about the sewing for this wedding wot we is going to and take a big breath, my Dad got admitted to hospital rather unwell (and the disadvantage of being in my RealJob as Dr Duckie is that you know what all those big and scary-sounding words actually mean) last weekend. He's alright for a given value of alright, lots of tests on the go and a bit of improvement today, but it's still not ranking as one of the all-time best 48 hours ever!

So not a lot of time for Makies! Plink, Melchie and Wingnut are behaving themselves impeccably and looking after the Beastlies. We'll all be back on the blog as soon as this latest hair-tearing experience is over and I'm not having to spend weekends diving back and forwards to Wiltshire. In the meantime, feel free to make with the kitten photos to cheer us all up! 

Here's a cat photo for inspiration. 

We'll call it an indeterminate length bloggiday at the moment. I honestly don't know when I'll be back providing regular content for you all, but the focus has definitely shifted in the last few days and something had to go, albeit temporarily. 

Keep smiling, stay happy and give your family members the biggest hugs you can manage! 

Faaaabric!

The fabric has arrived...

...and I'm working all weekend! Foo. 

Have an old picture of a grumpy Bagpuss. 

Still Alive!

I'm here! It's on call week so I'm working 12 hour shifts most days, ow. 

Anyway. Funky news from MakieLab: they'll be a part of a 3D printing pop-up shop in Selfridges from  the end of October until Christmas. 

You'll be able to buy pre-made "Fashion Maven" Makies (called Tesla, Ava, Curie and Hopper) who will be prepped with outfits, eyelashes and face-ups...

...as well as dinky little make your own Makie gift boxes (which apparently include a 'flummoxing device' to fool humans inclined toward shaking). 

Congrats on a wicked new venture, MakieLab! 

Certified!

Phew! The course has been coursed and it was flipping hard work, but I'm pleased to report that I did really well and have been asked if I'd be interested in taking a training course to be an instructor in the future. I love teaching, so I'll definitely be putting myself forwards.

And now enjoying a glass of wine, but more importantly OFF UNTIL THURSDAY!

Win .

It's raining me... no. Wait. Rain.

Definitely raining rain here, with a possibility of some of the white stuff overnight and tomorrow.

Happily, we've got an umbrella to take care of the drips, and a pretty new duck egg blue striped dress to hang around looking glam in.

No, she's not going outside at this time of night!

Unfortunately, instead of spending my weekend cosily holed up and sewing/carving/glittering things, I'm going to be getting up at sparrow's fart and spending the weekend on a resuscitation course learning once again how to emphatically state that I'm activating this defibrillator now and everyone had better get out of the flipping way. I shall not be taking the Makies. 

Have a good one, everyone. See you next week!

Expectations

Put the books down and amuse you? Would love nothing more than to do that, but scary exam(TM) is on Monday!

See you when it's over.

48 hours...

4 shifts of 12 hours each attached to this noisy bleepy thing. Eurgh. All over for another month at 9am, huzzah.

Coffeecoffeecoffeecoffeecoffee...

Science is COOL

A brief glimpse into REALJOB; today I'm working on a presentation that I'll be giving on a teaching course for advanced nursing practice about blood tests and result interpretation. Thought you might like to see one of my absolute favourite you tube videos ever!

In this clip, a white blood cell is moving along the chemical signal path that's left by a bacterium (small black figure 8 shaped blob that's running away), moving between red blood cells (the big round blobs that look a little bit spiky). When it catches up, it basically stretches out a couple of arms, wraps them around the bacterium and engulfs it. The cell will then unleash chemical warfare on the engulfed bacterium, dissolving it.

Science is awesome.

Sewing for Humans: Stethoscope Cover

A bit of a digression from Makie-ness today, but I decided it's time to make something for myself again!

Us doctors are rather fond of our stethoscopes. They're an essential bit of kit for day-to-day work, and they get a fair bit of abuse.

Unfortunately, my previous model took rather too much abuse over the last 4 1/2 years, and has just ended up doing the above...

Boooosplit.

Yeah. Split. This means the acoustic is stuffed and I can't hear a thing. Not so good when you're trying to hear whether or not there's a pneumonia or heart murmur. It's happened because I tend to drape my tubes around my neck, where the lipids from my skin have reacted with the plastic and made it brittle.

So after a delve into the bank account for a new model (ouch), I've decided that a funky fabric solution is needed to avoid further splittage and financial distress.

Classy!

If you've got a medic in your life, why not make them one of these? It's dead easy.

You will need:

• Fabric strips 2.5" wide, 14" long. 
• Needle and thread
• Iron
• Snap fasteners

A sewing machine is helpful.

First, gather your fabrics. These are from a Moda "Jelly Roll", which is a type of quilting collection. They're the perfect width for making stethoscope covers. 

Funktastic

With your trusty iron and without ironing your fingers, fold all the edges under 1/4" and press. 

Fold and iron.

Take a moment to get distracted by the squirrel attacking the bird feeder in the garden.

You are a squirrel, not a woodpecker. Note the bemused pigeon.

Sew around the edges. I find you get a neater finish if you do the long edges before the short edges. 

From sewing and snapping.

Grab a needle and thread, chuck something suitable on netflix and sew on your snaps. One on each end and one in the middle will do. 

Attach the cover to the stethoscope and go strut your stuff on the wards. When the fabric gets a bit grubby, just snap it off and sling it in the washing machine. 

On-call week blues.

Eurgh. Yup, it's my week on call. This means I'll be working for 84 hours in the next 7 days, the rest of the time being spent driving, eating or asleep.

Happily, I'm not leaving you in the lurch. There'll be content on the blog (hoorah!) which is, as we speak, uploading and upsetting the boyfriend who is attempting to play Guild Wars 2.

Here's a bit of a clue as to what we'll be up to over the next week...

Hope your week is better than mine!

The times, they are a-changing

Saw this on one of my favourite sewing blogs today and just had to share. Of course, I am invariably perfectly lipsticked, powdered and with immaculate hair whilst creating my Makie Couture and not wearing my smelly pyjamas, oh noes.

Image snaffled from Did You Make That, via her friend via... well, we've no idea.

I must admit, there's a bit of me that would rather like to be sat serenely sewing with all of the housework done and a meal on the table when my hard-working husband comes through the door on the stroke of six. It's the same bit that rather enjoys waxing the dining table, baking, turning out cupboards and hoovering. 

Alas, it's not a terribly large bit, so it rather gets pushed aside by all the other bits, which are fond of faffing around and reading books, drinking wine, birdwatching, taking long baths and working twelve hour shifts on an alarmingly regular basis... but hey, I do wear powder and the occasional bit of lippy with the scrubs. And my hair is always imma... um... huh. Well, I have hair. That will have to do.