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.

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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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