Well, finally got diagnosed...

....with carpel tunnel in both hands. A few weeks ago I was at the doctors for a regular check up and mentioned that my hands and fingers go numb at night and sometimes my fingers are really painful. Also that when I am on the lap top my wrists hurt. She said probably it was carpel tunnel and referred me to a rheumatoid nurse. I eventually got round to ringing them today and she asked me to go in straight away to see her which I did.

Parking at the hospital is bad so I drove to the railway station and then got a bus to the hospital (first time I have been on a bus in years!!).

She did some tests on my hands and confirmed carpel tunnel so now I have some very lovely splints that I have to wear on my hands at night and when I'm on the computer although I have just tried to wear them whilst I am doing this and they are very awkward. Apparently I have small hands and large arms!!!!!! so the splints are a bit loose but they will do the job at night.

I have to wear these for the next 3 months and then see how it goes. If no better then, then it will be an operation!!

We have also had the date for our friend's funeral. A bit spooky as it's on the day we were all due to meet up for our regular meet. We are all going to the funeral and we will have a meet in the evening and raise a glass to Barbara.

haven't made any cards for a few days now and getting withdrawal symptoms but am at the moment scanning a load of decoupage papers so that I can pit them on my website and ebay to sell... what a boring job, but nearly there..

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I got an award...

......at slimming club tonight. I lost another 3lb (whoo hoo) taking my total to 8.5lbs so I reached (and passed my 1/2 stone loss.

Only another 5.5lbs to my first goal of a stone before I go away on May 7th. 6 weeks to do it in :-)

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Cally Ancell is fundraising for Cancer Research UK

Cally Ancell is fundraising for Cancer Research UK

Yep I am doing it again this year, this horrible disease is affecting more and more people. My close friend, Pam has been affected over the last few months with her husband Paul being diagnosed with prostrate cancer. The treatment he is on is working well at the moment which is fantastic but they are still waiting to hear about a mass on his his kidney. My fingers and everything else is crossed for him.

I lost both my parents to cancer and this is my way of trying to help find a cure...and get a bit of exercise as well so any donations would be greatly received.

Thanks for reading this.

Oops!!

Well yesterday it was another lovely day so I decided to go and mow the lawn. Got the lawn mower out, plugged it in via circuit breaker. Started mowing lawn and it was quite hard as it's the first cut of the year. Merrily going along then came to a hard bit, pushed on the mower and the opps! mowed over the wire. We had a little bit of fire and a bang! I just stood there and went 'OPPS!' :-)

Lucky the circuit breaker was there..... still hubby mended it when he came home from work and I will have another attempt today.

There is a reason why I don't do manual work....:-)

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Mother's Day Cards

Yesterday I had a really lovely day with my mate, we went shopping to Crawley and then went and had a lovely pub lunch at the King's Head in Bramber, West Sussex. The weather was beautiful, Spring is coming..

Now to my card or cards for today. I never look forward to mother's day as my dear Mum is no longer with us and I miss her very much. For a few years I haven't had to bother with Mother's day cards as my hubby and I were not talking to his parents (long story). However a couple of years ago his mum came back into the picture and although I do not get on with her I am polite when I see her (which isn't often as she lives in France). Anyway I had to make her a card so this is what I have done.

The card was made with one of the La Pashe Nice and Easel sheets which can be purchased here. I do like these sheets. I have made a twisted easel card (my first attempt at this) and really likes it. I have used coloured card from my stash and added some gems. The greeting is simple (no slushy words) and was computer generated. This I placed with foam pads. The flowers used were from my stash, I'm not sure where I got these from, probably from some craft show.

I really like the card.

My friend also liked the card alot and asked if I could make her two for her mum and mum in law. Again the decoupage was from La Pashe and the making of the cards is the same as my mother in laws one. The flowers used on these two were mulberry roses that I have had for years.

I now need to go make up some boxes so that I can send them and they don't crush.

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March Inspirational

On the forum that I belong to craftersreunited.com we have a challenge each month. For March the challenge was to use a set sketch. I found this quite difficult to get all the elements in but here is the outcome.

The image came from a new range from Papermania - a bit like dufex. The backing papers were from my stash and the top layer was cut using a Martha Stewart edging punch. A bit of ribbon and some gems were added to finish it off.

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Happy & Sad

Yesterday I had a really good day as I went up to Bedford to see my big sister. I say big loosely as she is 7 inches smaller than me..lol. She and my brother-in -law are off to Russia in a couple of weeks for 3 months. They are sort of church missionaries and that's what they go out there for. They go out twice a year. So yesterday I took the train to Bedford, direct from Brighton, 2 and half hour journey. We sat out in her garden for a bit as the weather was beautiful. At lunch time, my niece came over with her youngest and we went shopping. A handbag jumped into my hands so I had to buy it...:-) We went to pick up my nieces other 2 children from school and thy were very happy to see me... I left there at 20 past 7 and arrived home just after 10pm. A lovely day was had.

Now this morning I opened my e-mails and had an e-mail from my mate Pam, we have known each other now for nearly 23 years when I first started working at the Prudential when I was a young 21. We all got made redundant in 1993 and all went our separate ways, apart from about 10 of us who have been meeting up every 4 - 6 years since then. Over the years spouses have joined our gatherings including John's (or JLD as he was always known at work) wife Barbara.

The email from Pam informed me that she had received a call from John last night to advise that Barbra had collapsed at Vancouver Airport on their way home from holiday. She had Strep A and died within 24 hours. She was a healthy person and a breast cancer survivor. To say it was a shock to me was an understatement but nothing to what John and his family are going through.

I have made the following card to send to John and his family. The image is from Just Inklined from their package 'Help for Katy' I printed off the coloured image twice and just decoupaged the flowers.

I am still trying to get my head around Barbara's death but my heart goes out to John and his family as he is now home but Barbara is still out in Canada.

Rest in Peace Barbara.

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Bit disappointed this evening...

with my weigh in. Only lost 1.5lbs tonight. Was hoping to loose a but more but on the positive side, I have lost a total of 5.5lbs in 2 weeks.

Well tomorrow is the start of another week and will try to do better.....

Retirement Card

Hubby asked me to do a retirement card for him for someone at his work and this is what I came up with.

I used 2 sheets of A4 card attached at the spine with ribbon (and double sided tape). The image I found when looking for something else. It was a pack of decoupage papers from a set called 'Golden Oldies'. I used large nesties to cut the mount. Used some card candy just to finish the header and footer which had been cut with stampin up scalloped edging punch.

The card had to be A4 for everyone to sign and leave their messages.

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Week 1 Weight Watchers

Last week I joined Weight Watchers as I desperately need to loose some weight. Tuesday is my weigh in day. 15th was my first weigh in day and I lost

4lbs

Next weigh in is this Tuesday. Watch this space.....

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Playday at Deb's

Last Wednesday 16th March a few of us all descended on Deb's house for a playday. There were 7 of us including Debs and a lovely day was had by all. Deb's had arranged some projects for us which even included a jewellery project using wire ribbon.

Here are the 4 cards that we made.

The first card was a stamped image with two flower heads decoupaged and then glitter put into the centre of the flowers. We sewed the ribbon to rouche it up and this was then stuck on the card. A bit of stickles was added to the bee stream.

This card was made using stamps form the Born to Shop range which I do have some but never used them before. After doing this card I will. I love the layout of the card (that's what I have trouble with the layout even when I have a sketch to follow. The image was stamped and coloured with promarkers. The top layer of card then had the rectangles cut out and the words and handbags were stamped through them. The card border and window borders were coloured with promarkers again. The top layer of card was stuck using foam pads.

On this card the image of the FF bear was taken from a CD and enlarged. The bear was matted using large nesties and cut using the Grand Calibre. Very effective and easy card to make.

This card was made using stampin up stamp sets. The ribbon was rouched this time using sticky tape and then hand rouched. A very easy method to rouche ribbon. Deb's can't remember where she originally saw this card but it's a very good design.

The necklace was made using wire ribbon which is very stretchy. Not sure if I would buy any but it was fun making the necklace and it looks pretty cool.

As well as providing all the materials for the above projects, Debs also provided a lovely lunch of jacket potato, chicken legs and salad and other nibbles. She had also cooked some cup cakes that looked delicious but as I am on the weight watchers plan, I didn't partake.

Just wanted to say a BIG THANK YOU to Debs again and look forward to the next one.

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My Dad

It's 35 years today since my dad passed away with cancer. He was 54 years old and I was 9. I have been thinking of him a lot over the last few months, don't know why bit I have.

My dad was 44 when I was born which was quite old for the 60's and he was very old school. Kids were seen and not heard, during school times we had to be in bed before he came home etc. He was very set in his ways but I loved him. He had many jobs including milkman, postman but I always remember him being an ice cream man. He sold ice cream in all types of weather and one of hos spots was Ditchling Beacon, a beauty spot on the outskirts

of Brighton. I remember going up there with my mum and sisters to see him work and he used to have a long queue outside his van while the Mr Whippy van man sat twiddling his thumbs..lol

I often wonder what he would have been like now, how he would have reacted to the 80's and the new romantics, he called my brother a long haired layabout at his wedding in 1972 :-) wonder what he would have made of Boy George..

Anyway here are a couple of pics of me and my dad. The first picture is taken at Weymouth, I think I was about 3 or 4. I'm sitting on my dad's lap. The other two are my sisters. During this holiday I got lost for 1 hour apparently. I just wondered off and was found chatting to an old lady..

This picture was taken on the Isle of Wight ferry. It was my first trip there and it was a surprise. Mum took the photo and boy did she give him earache cause he decided to wipe his nose at the exact time she took the photo. I was about 7 here.

Love you dad and miss you lots.

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Card Class at the Glitterpot

On Saturday my mate Pam and I did craft class at the Glitterpot with Jane Gill. The morning class was using Woodware's Bubble Butterflies stamps (both sets designed by Jane) and the afternoon class was using a stamp called 'Lady June'. Again a Woodware stamp and designed by Jane.

The first card can be called a 'scrapping ' card (using the oddment card left after cutting an square card out of an A4 sheet of card. The butterfly was stamped onto parchment/vellum and then coloured using various gel pens. The flower was made of 3 layers, the large being cut from a die and the other 2 actual flowers, secured with a brad through the centre. The daisy stamps were made from a stencil that Jane made from acetate and completed with a greetings stamp.

The butterfly on the second card was using the large butterfly stamp from the new single's collection from woodware. The butterfly was stamped onto black shrink plastic. It was shrunk down and then decorated with gems, glitter glue, nail heads etc. The flower was handmade from 6 scalloped circles - 2 in each size. The circles were then cut into 8's and each piece was curled using flat tweezers and then stuck onto 6 small daisy punches, then layered into the flower.

The stamp was from a Hero Arts greetings collection. The backing paper was from GP stash and ribbon added. The edging was cut from a Martha Stewart edging punch. The butterfly was then added to the flower using silicon glue.

This card is an A5 card. The image was stamped onto an aval cut with a Nestie and the mounted onto toning scalloped oval. The image was coloured using watercolours which I hate. messed up the face but hey ho!!. The ovals were then layered onto a doily which had been coloured using ink. Backing paper was added to the card and some ribbon. Gems were added to the hat. The greeting comes from the same stamp set. All finished off with a feather.

The last card was done as a mono-chromed card. The image was stamped onto white card and a frame was put round the image. backing paper was added to the card and the image was placed on the card.Gems were added and a bit of red lipstick to add some colour to the card. Butterfly stamped onto card and 3d'd it onto the card. I love this card but then I love black and white.

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When your cardmaking mojo goes....

you make some jewellery....well that is what I did when hubby and I went to the Isle of Wight and here are my efforts.

It's very therapeutic once you know what you want to do.

My blue and clear creation.

Amber and brown. Earrings were a bit fiddly when looping the metal post but got there in the end.

My favourite of the bunch.

Like this one too..

Although I do enjoy the jewellery making I think my passion is still with cardmaking...

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Boyzone---Whoo Hoo!!!!!

On Sunday 6th March I went to the Brighton Centre to see Boyzone and what a fantastic night I had. They were great. The show was fabulous.. This tour was a memorial to Stephen or Steo as they called him and it was a fitting tribute to them all. It was lovely to see the others singing leads as well as Ronan. I booked these tickets in February 2010 ans it was well worth the 13 month wait.

I have included some of the pictures that I took but they are not very good but you can see who they are...

Keith

Mikey

Shane

Ronan

I was on a high all the next day.

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Isle of Wight

Last week hubby and I went off to the Isle of Wight for our annual chill out week. We love the Island and try to get over there at least once a year if not more. We don't do much apart from chill and it is pure bliss and we are normally very lucky with the weather. Although it was cold, the sun was shining as you can see from the pictures below..

This is Freshwater looking from Tennyson Down on the South West part of the Island

Hubby and me.

The Needles are just around that corner

Freshwater Bay

The greatest view of the Island (in my view anyway), Culver Cliffs in Yarverland and Sandown Bay.

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What a busy few weeks...

Two weeks ago I had my 2 sisters came down to visit. The older one, Sue came down with her husband as he was doing up a friends kitchen. I was really nice to see her as it was the longest time we have spent tome together in a long time. Then another of my sisters decided to come down with my niece to see me. She's been going through a bad time at the moment and needed a break.

On the Tuesday Sue's daughter, another of my nieces came down to see us with her 3 kids. It was lovely to see them as I haven't seen them for ages.The littlies were very good. Here is a picture of the 3 littlies and my older niece.

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