Catch up.

Just a very quick catch up now that we seem to have a spell without visitors.  My husband and son are away working in our eldest son's coffee house Ground in Hove, doing the hard ground work (forgive the pun) to convert the basement.  So far they have relocated the boiler, plumbed in for a new toilet , demolished a staircase, broken up the floor and laid a new one needing literally tons of ready mixed cement.  In fact they bought all the cement available in 3 DIY stores including B&Q!!  They are now on the last bit of their 2 week working away, in London fitting a kitchen for someone then they will be home tomorrow hopefully.  I have really missed them although I have been so busy working through my to do list before we jet off to Australia at the end of the month.  Only 2 weeks left and still so much to do.  My daughter has offered to do my usual craft fairs so along with my friend, we have been making all the Christmas crafting goodies.  Kerry Cox aka Pickle inspired me a few years ago with the snowman covered choc bar and they go down a storm.  last year I added a reindeer version and this year I have created a penguin version but he's a bit labour intensive.  I'll pop a picture of them on here in a day or so.  meanwhile I am working through all the birthday cards that need to be ready to send while I am not here.  Just to add to the list my daughter asked for a pirate kind of card for a 3 yrs old and in a great hurry here's what I came up with.

Home sweet home.

Yesterday we saw my Mum finally settled into a fabulous care home within the community she has lived for many years. It is like a 5 star hotel with absolutely no timetables although some things have alloted times, if those don't suit you then they will accommodate your wishes.  She can eat when she is hungry, get up when she is ready, go to bed when she feels tired and just do things as she would have done at home.  For me the most important thing is that she will have someone around 24hrs.  Every night, at her request, someone will just pop in her room and check she is ok, if she is awake they will get her a drink, take her to the toilet or just have a chat with her.  Her room has patio doors that open onto a beautiful garden with rabbits and squirrels popping close by.  After what has been a very hard life for her I am grateful for this opportunity for her to enjoy this final phase of her life and hopefully be there for many years to come. We have had a few occasions to go to lately, one being the Christening of a friend's granddaughter so I just had to get on and make cards!  Hoe you like them.  My daughter asked why I had placed the gems in that position on the dove card and I just replied that I wanted to follow the contour of the bird to which she remarked that it looked like the dove was pooping!  Too late to move them, hope no one else thought that lol.

I really liked the dove card - until the comment - but I am still unsure about the dress one, think I would put some netting or tulle on for the skirt bit another time.  I was pleased with the wordart though!

Getting there!

I seem to be starting a lot of posts with an apology but once again - sorry!  My Mum fell again last week and was admitted to hospital because she had a nasty bump on her head.  I had been waiting for this to happen as I didn't feel she was safe at home.  Finally the powers that be have listened and now assessed Mum and agrees that she needs more care.  This past week has been a bit manic with me travelling up and down the A19 daily to meet with social workers, visit care homes, be present at assessments and yesterday the manager of a very lovely care home assessed Mum and offered her a place.  Today we will be creating a new home there for Mum and taking her bed and furniture there along with her clothes, pictures, ornaments etc.  If everything is ok then she will be discharged from hospital on Friday and move in.  I feel very relieved that there will be someone around for her all day, every day although I have wrestled with my own feelings of getting her to this stage.  I felt very guilty that I was needing to encourage the decision for her to give up living independently even though I knew that she wasn't very independent!  Once I know that she is settled then I am sure I will be more at peace with myself.  As for crafting, well, I have done very little as I have also had my niece and her friend from Germany with us for the past 2 weeks+.  I feel as if I have neglected them a good bit.  They return home on Sunday so we are trying to fit a few things in before then.

Let's hope we won't need one of these just yet!

Just a few cards I made a little while back.  My brother, in Germany, was asking at the weekend if anyone had seen Noah so I was expecting us to need him next.  Not sure these would have been any use though!

Better late than never!

Finally my Mum is home and life for me is even busier.  She is still in need of a lot of support and we have carers going in 4 times a day.  I naively thought that carers could empty the bathroom and kitchen bins, change sheets, make sure Mum has clean clothes on every day etc but no, apparently some of these are considered health and safety issues and ensuring clean clothes and personal hygiene is abuse if not volunteered by the person needing care!  Sadly my Mum has had a small stroke and so her memory is now very poor so she often forgets if her clothes are those she had on the previous day and to be fair to the carers, they are different each visit sometimes so they wouldn't necessarily know.  I have however made gentle suggestions such as ensuring Mum's clothes go into the washing machine at the last visit of the day and explaining to her why a shower / body wash is important.  I am not grumbling just frustrated at the things Mum needs that I need to do every time I visit.  This means I ned to visit more regularly now to do all these little jobs that pile up.  It would be so much easier if she lived nearer to me and I am making enquiries about this but it isn't looking too hopeful. I have managed a few cards here and there and I thought you might like to see one I made after testing a cut file from myscrapchick.com , I think my great nephew will love it.

Sorry!

Oh boy have I been busy but I won't bore you with all the details.  Following our computer disaster I have been recouping a lot of my stuff and trying to find all the lovely freebies I had downloaded but alas, they are hard to remember and are no longer freebies available in most places. Ce la vie!  

At long last, after 5 months of hospital, 2 major surgeries and a few weeks in a rehab home, my lovely Mum, 84 years old, is now back home.  She lives in a beautiful little bungalow which is owned by the village Church and is part of  4 bungalows known as cottages which are listed buildings.  The Church has recently renovated them all with new central heating and a combi boiler plus all rooms being redecorated with wallpaper and paint.  As soon as it finished we needed to get to work on the clean up job and wash everything, scrub here and there and replace some things which were in need of replacing.  After lots of hours it was all done ready for her return.  I did feel very nervous leaving her alone yesterday afternoon but I know that carers are going in four times a day and that she has two special pieces of equipment which she can use to get help if she needs it.  My concern was added to as we discovered her telephone volume wasn't working and it was really difficult for me to hear anyone and impossible for my almost totally deaf Mum!  New phone on shopping list for today.  This week is going to be another very busy one then hopefully I can get back to crafting next week sometime.

Computer disaster!!!!!!!!!!

I am SO sorry that I have been missing on here for a week, last Saturday I did an outdoor and very windy craft fair which resulted in a £45 profit.  However last Sunday we had a MAJOR meltdown, well our computer did!!  Sadly all my craft files on one of the drives was 

wiped out.  My wonderful husband spent a frustrating and fractious 18hrs working on it all until he managed to restore everything up to the end of December last year.  Since then I have been trying to discover what is missing.  Paypal has been my biggest help here because everything I buy that is digital, I do through paypal.  The next task was then to make lists and email everyone to ask if they would be kind enough to send me copies but I understood that this might not be possible.  I was overwhelmed with their generosity and I now have almost all of my bought items back and protected!  So thank you to Liz from Pink Petticoat, Regina from The Cutting Cafe, Sally-Ann from Digi Stamp Boutique.  Lisa from Pretty paper, Pretty ribbons and Tammy from A Day for Daisies.  I think I would have cried without their generosity.  I have re-installed most of the fonts I lost and now I have the job of setting my husband creating the svg's that are lost that he did for me.  Oh the joys of technology.  I must also say SORRY to those wonderful crafters who left me comments on the blog hop last weekend as I didn't get more than one or two done.  Won't manage this weekend either:(  I would like to welcome Sue to my followers though, thank you for joining me Sue!  Hopefully I will get back to some blogging this week. 

 

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

I bought a cut file earlier this year to make a Batman card for my grandson's birthday and it came with two other cut files.  I thought they would make good cards to sell at craft fairs and as I have a few coming up I set to and here are the results.

They won't be expecting that!

I just love these sunny and warm days we are having, they lift my spirit and make me remember what good things we have.  I was browsing some blogs yesterday and cam across this You Tube video, take a few moments to enjoy it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TM1XusYVqNY

A new week, new experiences.

I like to think of a new week in a positive way, bringing new experiences and hopefully, good ones! I am starting the week looking after two of our grandsons while my youngest son and my husband get started on the new kitchen for our daughter.  She is a single parent of 3 children of 5 and under whose father decided that parenthood wasn't for him!  Needless to say we are always here to support her.

   

Pink Petticoat is one of my favourite places to buy digital paper designs and I just loved this fun one in the moustache theme.

I enjoyed making cards, card and matching tag sets as well as tags for those male gifts that look odd with a flowery tag or boring with a plain one.

The digital images are wonderful and so versatile, you can play about with them and do so much more.  

I cut out a moustache for one of these tags then popped it onto the tag, I think it is my favourite.

 

I have been doing a spot of crafting in the moments that I find are suddenly 'free'. Hope you have enjoyed these!

It looks like being another lovely day and I am spending it cleaning my Mum's bungalow ready for her return.  She moved yesterday from hospital to a rehabilitation home where I know they will get her back on her feet and walking.  She has been a bit depressed over the past few days but it is the first time in 17 weeks so she isn't doing too bad.   I have recently purchased a great cycle die that I showed you yesterday in a set of cards I made, well here are 2 others with a sentiment I found on Pinterest and I think is perfect for this die.

 

I am just loving the sunshine and warmth, long may it last.  I have been busy making sets of cards recently and thought you might like to see this one.  The die is one from Die-namics and I think I'll be using it lots.

Just thought you might like to see some of my other recent creations.  I am addicted to Pinterest and get lots of inspiration from there.  Here are another two sets in the same style as the flower dies I used.

      I can't decide which I like best.  I have used the Memory Box delicate fern die which I find so versatile.        

A Grand Day Out

Our gorgeous granddaughter Eve, getting around Beamish Museum in the best possible transport!

Typical British weather, Friday it was 30deg and gorgeous and Saturday it was 9deg wet and dull!  Still,  we basked in the glorious sunshine and started a bit of a tan.  The museum had a Georgian Fair going on and the 'squire' of the manor house was opening it just as we arrived, lo and behold, who should we find as the 'squire' but my old boss.  Enjoy the pics and the beauty of the North East.

These show the school and church in the pit village, workers in costume going to the fair and part of a street which houses the dentist and a piano teacher's home.

Here is my old boss thoroughly enjoying his role as 'Squire'.  We were just at the right spot to get our ride on the horse and carriage and when we reached the town, had to visit the sweet shop where they make the sweets while you watch, then they offer you samples!  A favourite place to be.

Wake Up, it's a beautiful morning.....

I am an early riser and love the mornings when the house is quiet, the birds are singing and I can soak up the tranquility, it's made even better when the sun is shining.  Today I have a busy day as usual but I am taking my friend and my daughter and her 3 children to Beamish Museum for the morning.  It is a fabulous open air museum set in 1913 although there are plans to extend and have areas set in other decades.  My old boss now works there in his retirement and loves it.  I will take my camera and capture the beauty of the place to share with you.

Ive been making sets of cards suitable for all occasions.  Here are a couple of them:

A close up of both:

As you will have spotted, one is a die cut and the other uses the card where the die has cut from!  A positive and negative image of the die.

Keep calm and .....

Yet another set back this week for my Mum.  One of the meds. she was given gave her hallucinations which in turn scared us a lot.  These progressed over the week until they went from amusing to scary and frightened her.  Once the meds. were discontinued she gradually returned to her old self.  Phew!

On a positive note I have been making cards in abundance.  We have lots of relatives as we both come from big families and lots of those relatives live around the world so I try each year to make cards for birthdays, wedding anniversaries etc in advance!  I have a list next to my work desk and as I make cards I look to see who it would be suitable for and then cross them off the list.  I always write out the card, address it and put the date of the occasion on then it goes in date order on a little cupboard by the front door, ready to be stamped and posted!  It works for me, especially as we are tending to spend 3 months in Australia most years.  My daughter posts them for me when we are away along with all the Christmas cards I also need to make and address in advance.

As usual, on the day, our son was going to a friends engagement party and asked me to make a card!  Just noticed the tiny glue mark that wasn't easy to see when I made it!  Amazing how the imperfections are highlighted when you touch up your photos!

I love the Martha Stewart punch around the page sets and made lots with this particular one.  It's called Cherish and you can buy it from sirstampalot.co.uk

Breeding felt brooches!

In between hospital visits  etc., I have been making more felt brooches.  I really hope they sell at the craft fairs coming up.  I might even get to make a card or two today if I can fit them in!!  Sorry the photos are not as good as I had hoped but I've taken them quickly and the light is not brilliant today, it's dull and cold and threatening rain :(

I adore hedgehogs so this one is for me!

One step forward and six back!

Just as my Mum was improving and looking to return home to her beloved bungalow in about 2 weeks, she fell and broke her hip on Saturday.  Now she is starting her recovery again following the op to repair it yesterday.  At 84 she is amazing and has now had two major surgeries in three months.

I still have craft fair things on my mind and have been using a Pinterest pattern to make some little bow brooches.  I have a few other brooches cut out ready for sewing too so I best get on with them!