Another Funny Week Ahead!!

Hi Everyone hope you all had a good weekend and for those in the USA please accept my deepest sympathy for the terrible event in Aurora last Friday.  Why these things happen is a mystery.

It’s a bright sunny day here in the UK today, for a change.

Here’s a few more of the items I’m making for the Art and Craft fair on Saturday.  I used paint to cover these little notebooks from the Craft Barn and added images and stamping before finally sealing with a coating of Decoupage glue which is a waterproof glue and gives a lovely sheen.

 The Fair is on from 10 - 2pm in the Belmont Art and Community Centre here in Wellington, UK.  Anything I sell (well I stay optimistic) will be donated to charity. I haven’t entered any challenges yet this month as I’ve been busy doing these but will try and do some next week when my life is a little more normal.
The notebooks books and pencil cases come ready to alter and I've made some sketch books too which I'll show another day.

 I have the builders in today making a horrible noise but I cannot leave them so have to put up with it.  The Housing Association who rent the flat to me have been very good and are putting me a wet room in  the bathroom.  It’s so tiny and it must be so hot to work in there but they remain cheerful. They will be with me all week!!  I haven’t been able to shower or bathe as I can’t get in and out the bath anymore for the pain in my back and leg. (Yes I know what you’re thinking but I have washed, honest.) LOL.  I’m so grateful for the help these people have given me to make life easier for me.  They’re also fitting new door handles on all my doors which are rounded and wont be so hard to turn. I’ll post a photo when they have finished.

 Have a good day and thank you for looking at my work.  All comments are very much appreciated.

I’ve been away!

Hope everyone had a great 4th July, for those who celebrate it and a lovely weekend to all everywhere.

I had an invite last weekend from a friend to pop up and stay in Cumbria, at Ulverston in the Morecombe Bay for a few days as they had a room free. I didn’t need asking twice, lol. I packed a bag, booked my train ticket and some assistance changing stations as it's always a pain when you're trying to handle a bag, suitcase and a walking stick.  (It’s free when you book a train ticket and well worth it.)

They made me so welcome and this was the view from my room……..

Across the field you can see the sands and sea in Morecombe Bay which are famous for the shellfish farmed there.  It is possible to walk across the sands at low tide but very dangerous if you don't know the area, you can hire a guide to take you. People have lost their lives trying to farm the shellfish buried in the sand when they've forgotten to watch for the sea returning. I have the greatest respect for the sea, I stay out of it now.

 Pity they couldn’t arrange more sunshine and less rain but hey ho it was a lovely birthday present. They are a great couple and their children are such sweeties, little gentlemen to me. 

 Here we are fooling about in the Olympic cardboard cutout……. My next scrapbook page I think.

The village at the rear of the hotel is a typical little village in this region, tumbling up the hill behind the sea……………..

It hasn’t stopped raining since I got back so I’ll be having a quiet birthday today. We're breaking records here in the UK for the wettest Summer on record! People are being warned not to travel unless necessary.

 It’s my son’s birthday too and we’ve agreed not to celebrate this one as he's still not very good.  Next year I hope we’ll be able to celebrate his full recovery from the nightmare happenings of the last 6 months.

Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments on my posts, really appreciate all the love.  

I’ll be back blogging very soon. xx

A Lovely Day - but sad news too!!

We had a lovely day today at the Jubilee Garden Party at Daisy's School, Shortwood Primary. I made some cakes and decorated them with my Papermania, Portobello Road papers. My daughter made us some red, white and blue jellies too which I really enjoyed. Here's Daisy eating her cake.

And standing with the stilt man!!

We had sad news too. My dear brother in law passed away on Monday, a lovely man who would have made a wonderful Dad but never got the chance!

Thank you all for looking and for the love you leave, I'm gradually getting back into doing some crafting now which I'll post soon. xx

Big warning - this is a long post

 Saturday was a great day.  My Daughter and I went to an Arts and Crafts event in Ironbridge, Shropshire at the Maws Craft Centre.  The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm with a gentle breeze. We set up our tables and sat talking to other artists, painting and eating.  A truly wonderful day!!  We didn’t sell much but it didn’t matter.

 My daughter is painting amazing horse portraits in oils while I love my watercolour skies and flowers.

Afterwards we went back to my dd for a barbecue and I got these lovely pics of Daisy playing with her new inflatable which she’s named Sealicious.

Another LO in the making I hope.

Since my move the time has been flying by, my days have been filled with trying to furnish my flat on a tight budget, filling out endless forms to apply for benefits and still going through the  round of highs and lows over my own circumstances and my husband and son’s illnesses. I don’t know where I’d be without my little bolthole to run back to after another week of upsets.  I am having serious withdrawal from crafting but am slowly getting sorted.

I made this little key house for myself, in the vain hope that I wont spend half the day looking for keys to something or other. Forgot to put the hooks on before I took the photos!!
My eyes are getting as bad as my memory !! Lol

Talking of which I’m so sorry I haven’t been visiting your blogs  lately, the screen plays havoc with my focussing so I cant stay around for long.  Hopefully as my life settles into a more sedate pattern I will be able to craft and blog more.  In the meantime, have a good week everyone. xx

Thank you for dropping by, I truly appreciate all your visits and comments. xx

Online at last!!!

Hooray I'm back on line at last! How is everyone? I hope you've all been behaving yourselves while I've been gone. Thank you all soooo much for your kindness and comforting words during my absence. Your words brought tears to my eyes. It's been a hellish time with my son facing his demons and I'm pleased to say he's come through and fighting this addiction back. He still gets the craving but is battling it. It was a terrifying experience and I just couldn't cope with it all. I've been so lucky to get this little flat, in a lovely part of the country and only 8 mins walk from my daughter's house. I can just about afford the rent, which is quite low asd it's social housing, I have a lovely outlook from my window of trees and grass with loads of wild life around.

I had the keys to my flat on the 10th April and spent the first week still sleeping on my daughter's sofa while it was redecorated. I moved my bed in on the 17th and have slept here ever since. I've painted walls, a bookcase, side tables; made curtains from old ones, cushions and cushion covers, a valance for my bed; built up a flat pack bedside table, tv table, hung the curtains, put up light shades etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!

I ordered my telephone and broadband service when I moved in but there was a mix up and while I was sitting patiently waiting, for some reason somewhere along the line, my order had been lost!! Just another of the many little glitches since I moved here. You just have to have a sense of humour and a bit of patience!! All my crafty stuff is in boxes in my very large store cupboard and until I can get some craft space organised they'll have to stay. In the meantime I hope I'll be able to catch up with you all soon. Take care and bye for now. xx

New Beginnings!

I've just experienced 2 of the worst months of my entire life when my world was turned upside down by addiction. I don't need to go into details here except to say today I finally broke all ties with my DH&DS and came to my DD's.  I am having the keys to a one bedroomed flat tomorrow and starting afresh in the country.  I shall be leaving all my own family but have my DD,DSIL, and Daisy.  It's broke my heart to leave everything I've worked for but I just couldn't do it anymore!!  I have to organise everything as it's unfurnished but will soon have it ship-shape if my DD has anything to do with it!!  Nearly all my craft stuff is back at home so until I can get it I may not be posting much but I will keep looking at other blogs until I do.  Thank you everyone for your continued support and kind words for me. xxxx

II'm Baack!! I've been featured at Scrap for Help!

This is the artist Dina Wakeley from America who did a weekend workshop exploring paint and mediums at Art from the Heart here in Harrogate, Yorkshire owned by the fantastic Dyan Reaveley. I was lucky enough to get a place and my lovely daughter drove me there last Friday. I had a fantastic weekend of playing with paint and Paula treated us to a treatment at the Royal Spa Treatment Centre too. Aren't I the lucky girl. I did so much painting, stamping etc that by Monday my right hand seized up!! I didn't get to finish my book but when it's done I'll show it here. I'm sorry if I haven't answered posts I will try and get round to it. When I came back I had the news that I've been featured again on SFH here. Some nice things happening for a change, is my luck changing, I hope so.

Woo Hoo whose a lucky girl then?

Woo Hoo guess what I just had from the postie today.  A lovely box of Valentine goodies from Mitra in New York!  I'm such a lucky girl and I thank her from the bottom of my heart for her generosity.  Haven't had time to take any pics myself yet but if you look here you'll see some of the little beauties.

 I have to take Hubby to the Gardening Allotment now to meet the supervisor and hand over the keys.  So sad but neither of us are fit to look after it any more.  I'll be back this afternoon to play with my new box of goodies.

What a Day!!!!

This was to be the start of a new month without any mishaps or emergencies!!! Yeeah who am I kidding!!

My poor DGD Faith, the middle one, was rushed to hospital this morning after collapsing unconscious at home.  She's had a bad tummy upset since yesterday but this morning wasn't any better.  She had a rash on her face and a temperature and the paramedics came in record time.  They revived her and took her straight to A&E. I can't tell you how much  I prayed today.   NO, thankfully she hasn't got meningitis but a nasty contagious tummy bug.  She's now sipping 10 mil of water every 10 mins and eating mashed up banana.  Hopefully she'll be back home soon.  She has to have the week off school, much to her disgust, and her Mum can't go to work either.
Hubby had his results yesterday, of tests to find out why he's lost so much weight (3 stone) and feeling so weak.  Well he's clear of the big C and the Parkinson's hasn't got much worse so they've upped his drugs to see if that helps him  I've been having my blood tested too, monitoring my rhumatoid arthritis as it's flared up again. I had a phone call this morning to say my white cell count was very low so I have to have another test tomorrow.  Ah well it could have been a much worse day couldn't it?

I've been away too long!!

Hi everyone I've not been Blogging much lately.  A mix of working on projects for Christmas and looking after my hubby and not being 100% myself.
My husband  has been for an MRI scan on his brain today and goes for another on his abdomen on Monday.  He has Parkinson's Disease and early onset Dementia which at 69 has been hard to deal with. Now he's suddenly started to lose weight and doesn't look like the man I knew.  It's been very hard living day to day with him as he's had really bad mood swings and drinking a lot, which hasn't helped.  We wont have any results until mid-January as the clinic is on a Monday and the next 2 are Bank Holidays in the UK so we just have to carry on and get through Christmas.
I shall try and post some of the projects I've been doing but entering challenges has had to take a back seat for a while.  Take care and please add us to your prayers at this difficult time.

Taking Time out!

Hi everyone I've been taking time out this week to try and put my house in some sort of order. With all the hospital and hospice visiting over the last few months, I've been putting things off, like tidying drawers and cupboards, sorting craft stuff and proper cleaning of the cooker etc. I was supposed to be going on holiday today with my friend, all booked and paid for but with so much going on at home.... I've given my place to another friend. Hope they have a lovely time. I am just not well enough to enjoy it at the moment and couldn't even contemplate packing. Mom is still grieving badly over my brother, hubby is getting worse and so is my BIL so altogether we're a right bunch. I've quite enjoyed putting my house in order today and I've now got to re-organise my crafting supplies ready for the Xmas rush. I love the build up to the whole season but hate all the hype on tv and in the shops. Buy this, buy that. When you're on a fixed pension it's not possible. I shall be making my pressies this yr, all courtesy of my craft stock!
The photo is of my brother and I, the next one to scrap.

My Chin - 204

Hi everyone hope you enjoy looking at this send up page of myself! I noticed that the one feature of my face that hasn't changed is the Chin! I did this LO to enter in the CCG Challenge 204 at Colour Combos. I used Stampin up papers for the grid structure and these cutie kats from KatselKrafts, to add to the fun. I had a lot of fun doing this page. Thank you for looking and leaving your links.

My absence explained!

Haven't been around to post as I haven't produced anything artistic for weeks now. Our family and my personal illness continues, leaving me little time or inclination to craft. I did go away with my daughter and her family last week to Devon, and it rained!!! I'm hoping the change of scenery did me good anyway.

My brother had a critical period in May, in his fight with cancer and it was a miracle he pulled through it. He's still in hospital and is now waiting for a bed in a hospice, as he's too weak to go back to live with Mom atm. What with visiting him, and my own treatment at the hospital I seem to spend half my life up there. The other half is spent looking after Mom and my brother in law whose 87 and blind who both have osteoporosis like me.

OK moan over. lol! Sorry for boring you all.
On the bright side my granddaughter, Daisy Dower, age 7, has been chosen as a winner in a children's painting exhibition and has her picture of an orange cat in the Saatchi online gallery and in London. http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/schools/education_room.php. The BBC local tv have been in contact too, to do a report about her on the local TV. The fame has not gone to her head yet!! lol.

Had a slight Hiccup there!!

My body had a bad hiccup last week as a result of all the anti bios I was taking. My legs just wouldn't stop turning to jelly every time I did more than just walk from bedroom to bathroom. I was worried as I had to do a workshop on Tuesday which I didn't want to cancel so had an enforced few days doing ZILCH. The meds gave me problems I wont go into here, suffice to say I was only comfortable standing or lying on my side!!!! The joys of getting old. I hate it!!!! I shall spend the weekend tidying my craft boxes after Tuesday and sorting other work out to post on here so until then Byee.

Have a great weekend all those who can and my thoughts and prayers are with all the poor people all over the world who are suffering because of the quakes, tsunami's and uprisings.

My Mojo's gone!!!

I have had a bad tooth for a week and just when I have lots of family cards and 3 challenges to scrapbook for I have no energy. It's coming out tomorrow so I'm hoping I'll be up to scratch soon.

Sunshine after the storm!!!

Yesterday was a bad day here, the boiler broke down and it's going to cost big money to replace, then the manager of the club we'd booked, to hold Mom's 90th in next Saturday, phoned to say he'd somehow double-booked and we couldn't have the room we'd paid for. I just cried most of the afternoon. Anyway we've managed to find a church hall in Marston Green, not what we would have chosen but........ Now we have to phone or write to the 150 guests to tell them. Rest??? what's that??? lol We have a new boiler coming on Monday so I hope it stays this warm til then.

Today I woke dreading what I had to do, getting my money back from this horrible man and phoning everyone up, then the post man came and brightened my day completely. I had a lovley parcel of crafting goodies which are absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much Val for everything, they will be used I promise you.xxx

Now I must finish my feb calendar page .................

A fFunny Day!

I had to be up at the crack of dawn today!! Well that's what it felt like, at 6.15. I had a mammogram booked for 7.45am at the mobile unit a few streets away, Ughh. I rose, showered and dressed with my eyes shut then went to seek toast tea and pills. I opened the front door at 7.30 to a white freezing world. Thje car was completely covered in white icy frost and the windscreen was frozen solid. I had a choice of trying to scrapethe ice off everywhere, thereby risking frostbite in my sausage fingers or sticking gloved hand in pocket, and walking with my stick in left hand.

Boy!!!! I wont do that again.

It's been awhile since I actually walked anywhere further than the post box, and as I had been feeling so bad I thought the walk would do me good.

When I got back home I felt sympathy for the Innuits I can tell you. Then I had a nice surprise, my fav craft store, Melbicks, sent me a reward voucher for £65! Naturally I had to go this afternoon and see if there was anything I needed in the sale they had. Funny it seemed to be spent very quickly. lol Cheered me up no end though. I'll try and list what I got later.

NEW CAMERA!!!!!

I'm over the moon my new camera has finally arrived!! I've had a bomb proof one this time as I keep breaking them!! This is a Lumix which is waterproof, freeze-proof, heat proof and shatterproof. The hinged battery door has a double locking shutter and the lens is integral so I can't drop it while taking a photo and trash the lens either. Walking disaster that's me!! You know what it's like if you have arthritis in your hands. I just seem to let go of things without realising!! Hope it lives up to the advertising hype. I'll be posting with it as soon as I've finished Mums 90th Birthday Party invites. I only have 75 to do. Up to 42 now so more than half finished. Be good and take care. Thanks for dropping by.

Belated Christmas Greetings!!

I've got flu and haven't been up to blogging this week! Hope your Christmas/Holiday season was special. We had a fairly quiet one, church for me, then I cooked lunch for 6 but my middle grandaughter Faith had flu and spent her day in bed|!! Poor thing, she had a new dress to show me too. Hopefully I'll be better for New Year and we can have a nice meal out together. My new camera will also hopefully arrive soon, this will make it much easier for me to take pics of my work and upload them. Can't wait!!

45 years!!!

Just got back from a lovely weekend visiting friends in Pickering, Yorkshire. It's our 45th Wedding Anniversary, this weekend, so we took the train to York on Friday. They've had sooo much snow. We visited the really quaint village of Helmsley on Saturday, followed by scrummy meal at the "Fox & Hounds" in Dalby Forest. I had partridge, very Christmassy, it was delicious. Today we drove into York and spent a very interesting morning at the Railway Museum followed by lunch then took the train back to Brum this afternoon. Brill weekend.