Ushaw Weekend

I arrived back home yesterday covered in acrylic paint, I now have bright green fingernails. Problem was before I went on holiday keith treated me to a 'nail job'. Never having had acrylic nails before I assumed they would be false ones that would come off after the holiday. No they paint acrylic on and cover your nail, it has to grow out. Being acrylic they dyed!!!! so green nails.
All in all though it was a wonderful weekend full of laughter, good company, a brilliant tutor who was very skilled, friendly and generous with advice and her 'bag of goodies'. We mono-printed, stencilled, stamped away to our heart's content. We all painted lots of fabric to take home with us to sew later. Some of my pieces were dreadful (heavy handed with the paint) others not so bad but I'll use them all up one way or another. This is Toni Hanley our tutor surrounded by some of her pieces (got her permission to use the photos but will add them later as google wouldn't let me put any more on.
Sample of the work done by one of our group it's a stencilled background and overprinted with a stamp. We also used resists on monoprinted backgrouns.
This is one end of the refrectory at Ushaw College and for once the place was heaving with people. It was so lovely to see the place so full. Ushaw College was built in 1808 and celebrates its 200 year centenary this year. It was built as a catholic seminary for young men entering the priesthood and was one of the top three colleges in the country. The other two being Downholme and Ampleforth. In its hayday in the 1960's there were two schools, junior and senior with over 700 pupils aged from 8 to 18. At aged 18 they either entered the seminary or went out into the wider world. After the 1960's it took a downturn and a couple of years ago there was a question mark over its future existence. Since then its joined with Durham and things are beginning to look up again, they now have 30 young priests in residence. It also holds conferences and weekend workshops with organisations such as the EG and QG. It's a beautiful place, really peaceful and some fine examples of Pugin's work. Very Gothic and a bit scarey if you need to go down the corridors on your own at night.
Window at the end of the refrectory
St Cuthbert's church one of three churches at Ushaw. When we were their there was a party of youthes from Walsingham in Norfold who were holding a youth festivatl. On Saturday the assistant bishop of Durham took a service for them and it was wonderful watching all the activity. Normally when we go it's in Lent so everything is covered.

Ushaw College Tomorrow!!

Nearly packed, just go my clothes to sort out now. It took me all day to sort out what I needed to take with me in the way of threads and paints. Myr friend Judy and I were going off at lunchtime but its been delayed slightly as Judy has people coming to view her house so I hope they don't take too long. Poor Keith is off to hospital tomorrow for the pain relief injection into his spinal colum. I feel a bit guilty not being there for him but he's in good hands with Sy and he'll ring and let me know how things are as soon as he gets his dad home.

Been meaning to sort out my fabric paints and dyes for ages but it takes something like a workshop looming to make me do it. Feel good now everything is tidy that's mainly because its all packed in a box ready to take with me!!

No photos today, I did have some really good ones of previous Spring and Summer schools at Ushaw but for some reason they won't upload so you'll just have to wait until I get back. I'll take lots of photos for all to see.

These are the threads I bought yesterday at Embsay Mills, near Skipton. They are mostly Oliver Twist and Caron threads. One by One my local outlets have closed down and now the only shop in town selling threads is Boyes but those are the cheap cotton ones. They have their uses but I wanted something sumptious and that's what I bought. These are for my EG Spring School course next week. Really looking forward to this but naturally have reservations about leaving Keith as he goes into James Cook on Friday for the pain relief injection into his spinal cord. I feel I should be with him but Simon has taken the day off to play 'responsible adult' and look after his dad. That should be fun.... On the way back from Skipton we stopped on the top of the moors for a cuppa in the car. It's become a bit of a ritual now, whenever we go onto the moors or dales we have to take a flash and sit in the car drinking tea. Think it's left over from the days we used to do a lot of walking.

You feel as though you are on top of the world up here and on a clear day you can see for miles. On the far hills there was still snow but although the ground was boggy there was signs of life renewing itself.
Blue remembered hills, maybe that should be one of my JP's.
We took my Mum out today just to get her out of the house for a bit. We went up into Teesdale and then across the top into Weardale and back home along the old Roman Road to Hadrian's Wall. Guess what!! I forgot to take my camera and the naturally the sun shone and the colours were bright and fresh. Normally it lives in my handbag but I took it out to upload these photos and forgot to put it back.

Not got any sewing done this weekend but Keith's on nightshift this week so once he goes to bed I should be able to get on with my journal quilts. I know what my next one is going to be but don't want to say too much at present.

Projects to take care of this week include:
1 a brooch/pin for the UKembellisher swap
2 Mellow Yellow JP
3 Red Red Wine JP - redo don't like what I've done so far.
4 BQL April bag
5 TIF challenge - still now sure what I'm going to do, I dreamt about it and an idea came into m mind but I lost the thought once I was fully awake. Really must put that pencil and paper next to the bed.

Well I will see how much I get done by next Sunday.

More goodies from the postman

More Orphan Block cards in this mornings post this time from Sharon Zurbrigg, top card. I love the sentiment on the card Sharon - I had one of my five portions of fruit and veg this afternoon - carrot cake!!! I now don't feel guilty. The second pretty card is from Leah Malasky. Leah tells me this is an orphan block from a baby blanket she made for a friend some time ago, well I'm happy to adopt both cards.

Been to Embsay Mills today spending lots of money on embroidery threads. I'll post a photo later as Keith is making starving faces, I think he needs refuelling and I'm a bit hungry myself.

More goodies from the postman this morning the red and black flying geese block is from Maureen Eastwood. Its my first one from the ArtsntheMail 'Orphan Block' swap. Mine are in the photo below. April Showers card arrived also this one is from Brigitte in Angers. Brigitte and I had the same thought about the design for this card but as she got hers out first I'll have to rethink. Lovely card though Brigitte, as usual from you.
Finished the "16 Block" blocks for the Block Lotto run by Kate North and friends. In each of the blocks three of the square had to be plain black. The cards below are made from some mainly black wild geese blocks I had left over from another project. These are my orphan blocks, not true orphans as I had only made the wild geese not put them together but I hope this will be excused.
I've joined two mini quilt swaps recently one run by Kate North on her "Anotherlittlequiltswap" blog and Toni's blog. Both swaps have closed now and I nearly missed Kate's swap due to Yahoo problems. Not sure what's happening with Yahoo but although most posts get through the odd one is either missing or very late.

Decided I don't like my "Red Red Wine" JP and have decided to pull it to pieces and approach it from a different angle. If anyone know of a song with orange in the title please leave a comment with the title. I seem to be stuck with this colour. I could use Oranges and Lemons but that's not really a song.

Both mum's are remaining well although mine still has a sore eye as a result of her nasal biopsy. Apparently some instrument they used flipped the wrong way and caught the edge of her eye. Luckily there's been no more nose bleeds but she's quite nervous about the prospect of having to go back to hospital sometime in the future.

I've joined Terri Stegmiller's 'Paper Quilt' on-line class which starts the end of the month and am really looking forward to this. Got a token for Mother's Day (Mother's Day in the UK is in March not May) for the local art shop so am going to use it to refresh my paint supplies for the course.

Goodies from the postman

The postman brought me a lovely surprise yesterday an apron from Fibre&Stitch zine. I had forgotten about it so I was delighted when I opened the package, the apron was my prize from the Recipe challenge. It's come just in time for me to take with me when I go to Ushaw College on the 18th. I'm booked on Toni Handley's "gorgeous gardens" course that she's running as part of the EG's Spring School. I'm really looking forward to this and hoping my breathing will be back to normal by then. This is me in my 'sewing area' wearing the f&S apron. As you can see I don't have a lot of space I really envy those people with room to spread. I've used up all the wall and floor space next step the ceiling!!
Another good by post this morning is this paper pendant from Marcia DesRosiers. The photo does not show the colours in their true glory as there is too much reflection from the beads. I took the flash off when taking the picture and its better than the first couple I took but still a bit washed out.

I've had to order a new cutting mat as my old one is only fit for the dustbin. EverytimeI try to cut out I leave almost as much fabric in the mat as on it. Anyone got any good ideas for recycling cutting mats?

Products of an enforced restg

At least I've made a start on my journal pages during this enforced rest but unfortunately that's come to an end now. Keith's on day shift this week so needs must I've had to face the dreaded housework on my own, ah well nothing new there. Actually I am feeling better, still coughing but not quite so tired all the time. The two journal pages I've started, but not finished are: February - Green Door sung by Shaking Stevens, I thought I'd finished it but after looking at it for a couple of days something is missing. I'll leave it around and it'll come to me what needs to be done.
March - Red Red Wine by UB40 also is unfinished. I printed red wine grapes and a glass of red wine onto cotton and using the glass as a template reversed the images. I then quilted contour lines around the glasses but I'm not sure it works. I think I should have printed two glasses and used the grapes as the background. Might start again with this one but it's part of the way I want to go.

I was given this needle case kit as a birthday present (two years ago) and finally got round to putting it together. Its miniature log cabin blocks on a foundation background. It was very satisfying to make and I was sorry when I came to the end. Might make another one for someone's birthday.
This is the inside of the sewing kit and it rolls up quite neatly.

Spent a pleasant hour this morning watching quilting videos on Kaye Woods site
I have a couple of Lazy Girl bag patterns so it was interesting seeing them put together by the designer.

Journal Pages

I've had three wonderful journal pages over the last couple of days all from the Colour Composition swap on the Surface Design Group . This one is from Charmion Stephens and is based on the Triad colour, hers were blue, orange and purple. The handmade beads make this one special.
This was Sandy Reis's 'Perfect Circles' just love the gradient colour in this one.
And my last but definitely not least is 'Favourite Artist' Klimt from Britta Ankenbouer. I don't know anyone who dislikes Klimt his patterns are compelling and Britta has done them so well.

Been doing some hand sewing on my Arch for Pam but I'm not yet at the stage where I want to show it. It's in fuschia silk with origami flowers and that's all I'm saying for now.

Been to see my mil today and was really pleased to see she is doing well, they've taken her off some of the pain killers, still has the morphine patch but that's all. She seemed so much brighter and can now potter around on her own. Still difficult to understand as her speech is poor but there's a twinkle in her eye as she was obviously cracking a joke. Pity I didn't understand it. My mum is fine too and has been out on her scooter to do some shopping. I think its the sun we've been having it has lightened her mood. As for me, not too good in the mornings, still quite breathless and my hands don't stop shaking until mid afternoon, something to do with the stuff they've given me to keep my airways open. But I'm assured it'll stop as soon as I've finished all my medicine.

Still not got my portrait photos in the post Keith keeps forgetting to take them with him when he goes out but I will get them in the post tomorrow.

A few more pictures of Egypt

We rose at 3.00am to catch the bus to Abu Simbel near the border with Sudan. It's a 3.5 hour drive across the desert to the bottom end of Lake Nasser where the temple was relocated. We all went with a breakfast box and just like school children on a trip we'd eaten it by 4:00am One of the highlights though was to see the sun come up in the desert. The Temple of Rameses wife Neferati is next door to Rameses temple and smaller but also quieter and less humid. However there was still a queue to see inside, its about 7:00am and the temperature is around 37 degrees C already.
We took the opportunity before we left Egypt to have a ride in a hot air balloon over the Valley of the Kings. This photo was taken shortly after the sun rose and shows it shining on the tops of the mountain where the Valley of the Kings and Queens is hidden.
Below us was the Valley of the Queens and the tombs of Rameses III and Hatsheput. One of the things that was very visible from the air is the distinct line between the desert and the fertile Nile valley.
We visited Kitchener's Island and his botanical gardens. These are well maintained and the Egyptians are very proud of both Kitchener and his gardens. The 'Tourism and Antiquities Police' were very visible in the gardens and a group of small boys playing football on the paths got short shift from them. One of the gardens came running after me and gave me a handful of lemon smelling leaves and indicated I should rub them on my skin to avoid mosquito bites, they seemed to work. This is a view of the fellucas on the Nile from the gardens.
Not done much today except sleep, still under doctors orders and Keith is taking it serious and insisting I rest. Must admit I've not cough as much today, except when I tried to talk to my Mum who appears to be very well. I've been mulling over ideas for my arch swap and trying out some origami flowers not got the size right yet so I'll keep trying. Tomorrow I'll try and get some sewing done.

Two challenges for the price of one

I've been given the go-ahead by my doctor to do absolutely nothing!! He's told my dh that he has to do all the washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning and shopping for at least the next few weeks. This is to give my poor lungs a rest. I can however sit and sew so there you are 'sewing on prescription' This came about because I attended a routine COPD clinic appointment this morning and my asthma was so bad I couldn't speak, most unusual for me Im such a chatterbox. The nurse was quite concerned and called the doctor in to check me out - hence my R&R instructions to my dh. Whose a lucky girl then......

I had two challenges to complete before midnight tonight and made a start on them yesterday. The glue gun dribble challenge from Textilechallenge group and TIF challenge for March. I started making dribbles and realised that the green glue (coloured with dye and heated in my HeatPot) was exactly the same green as in the TIF colour scheme. Two challenges with one stone (or glue gun) and the three cards here are the results. Think Egypt has rubbed off on me, especially the sandy background card as to me it looks like a crocodile and a snake.




This is my 'p0rtrait' for my private swap group, dh thinks it makes me look like Harry Potter and he may be right there. Its from the photo on my blog which was taken a couple of years ago. Insulin and steroids however have 'resculptured' me and I'm quite a bit heavier now although the hair is still short but mostly grey/blonde now.

Mum's doing okay at the moment but not too pleased that I'm out of action for 'duty calls'. I feel sorry for my brother as he'll take the brunt and he has enough on his plate with a disabled wife. I'v started coughing again which means I've stayed upright long enough so had better put the blog away for now, I'll dig out some more Egypt photos later.

Block lotto - March Shoo Fly

Been trying to catch up with the normal detrius of after holiday housework/washing etc and at last I think I'm beginning to win. Anyway I gave up and make my floral shoo fly blocks for the block lotto. Photo isn't too good though I appear to have something dark at the bottom and the flash as wiped out the colour in some blocks. Still they should show what I've done. I had hoped to see what was on offer in Egypt in the way of fabrics/embroidery etc but it was so unpleasant trying to run the gammut of traders I didn't manage to find any. Having said that I did buy a Galabeya with lots of embroidery on. We had a Galabeya party one night with everyone of us wearing Egyptian clothes. Keith bought a quite smart white linen Galabeya with red embroidery round the neck and cuffs with a matching overcoat. When I find the photos I'll post them.

Got several jobs outstanding to finish before the end of the month, not least is catching up with my monthly journal pages. So jobs for next week are:

1 Finish TIF for March
2 Finish Textilechallenge - glue gun challenge
3 February and March Journal Pages
4 Swaps - Portraite and April showers

That should keep me out of trouble for a bit.

Egypt

Well Egypt was memoriable for several reasons, the camel that ran away with me, the hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings, the non-stop hassel from the traders, the beauty of the Nile in the early morning light and the heat. It was their Winter and we were expecting temperatures of around 24-27 degrees C but we were the lucky recipients of a heat wave. It never dropped below 37C and reached 46degrees at midday in the Valley of the Kings. The heat took its toll on me, my poor lungs couldn't cope with the dry, dusty atmosphere and I'm afraid the last few days were spent prone in my cabin with the air conditioning going full blast. Still I did actually enjoy the holiday, despite my lungs.
Our guide assured us all that the camels were slow and we would have plenty of time to admire the beauty of the Nubian desert before we arrived in the Nubian village. Wrong!! mine stood still for a photo and then took off at a fast trot with me clinging on for dear life. I have the bruises to show for it but you don't really want to know where the bruises are.

We were offered hospitality after the ride at this Nubian home, the best in the village so we were told. This is the daughter of the house, I must say they were all very beautiful people. The lady who owned the house told us of her daily life and answered any questions (via an intepreter) we wanted to put to her. Afterwards she told us to wander where we will and have a good look around. All the doors had hand prints above them, sign of good luck, so now I'm going to think twice about wiping the dirty finger prints from my doors.

We got up at 3:00am to travel 270miles to Abu Simbel (about 25 miles off the border with Sudan) This is the temple of Rameses II and there is a smaller one next door dedicated to his wife. This photo was taken at 7:30am and the temperature was up in the high thirties already.All the temple decorations have lost their colour and much of the stone bas reliefs are damaged. The temples were originally several hundred feet further east which is part of Lake Nasser. They moved the temples to their new position when they built the new High Dam at Aswan.

Whenever you travel by public transport in Egypt you go in a convoy with an armed guard. The convoys leave Luxor/Aswan etc at set times and travel in groups of 200 or 300 buses. We found this very odd but the locals take it for granted.

Even travelling along the Nile there will be lots of boats around, you are never truly alone.

This is a typical view of the river bank, this one is looking towards the Nubian Desert (in the distance). Lots of wildlife on the riverbanks if you look for it. The fertile strip on both sides of the Nile varies from a few feet to a mile or two after that there's nothing but desert. No wonder they think of the Nile as a god.

Spent a lot of time looking at temples but to be truthful after a while they began to merge. The boat was a bit shabby but very clean and we were very well looked after, too well sometimes. Spent one day on deck sunbathing and sitting in the pool after that it was too hot. Glad we went in Winter, not sure how we would have coped in their summer.

Last minute jobs

Off to Egypt in the morning but I wanted to get some last minute bits and pieces finished before I went. One of them was this Journal Page for the CQ 2008 challenge. Its called Blue Moon the song of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra fame. It's one of my favourites and I often find myself singing it. I wanted to portray a sense of longing but wasn't too sure I'd achieved it or not but here it is judge for yourself. The next three photos are close ups of bits of the JP which is 12" x 12" , as yet I haven't put a label or sleeve on it. Think I'll do them all together.

I should do one of those "guess where the photo came from" no prizes for getting the answer right this time though.

The last photo was just for fun, I was playing around in Picassa with photos of grass and flowers and I quite liked the effect.

My mil is back in her nursing home though she is still far from well. She hasn't a clue who anyone is now and is yet again stressed as she doesn't remember her surroundings but she will soon settle down again. Her leg is quite swollen and red but her GP is reassessing the situation on Monday so I could come back to find her back in hospital. Left her in the capable hands of my son who knows just what to do if anything untoward should happen. As for my mum, well I got a call last night as she'd got another nose bleed. It turns out she'd got herself upset over something we would consider insignificant but Mum of course brooded on it and as a consequence her BP rose and her fragile nasal veins again caused problem. I managed to get her calmed down and the bleeding stopped and she was fine. My brother checked on her this morning took her out which she seems to have enjoyed. He tired her out, and now she's safely tucked up in bed not worrying about anything.

Well I've got my camera, notebook, pencils and a glue stick all packed. I was going to take some sewing with me but couldn't decided what to take so I've downloaded 4 books onto my ipod and will just sit back and relax, paint, draw or simply watch the world go by. I'll be off-line now until the end of the month, be good.

Whats in a Name

What Annette Means

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Go overboard interrpreting things, me, never....!!

Impulses get me into trouble, who me.......!!

Have a go it's fun.

Purple Haze

No problems with Blogger tonight my photos uploaded quickly and without any trouble, it must have been feeling a bit off last night.

I completely forgot that I'd signed up for a swap on ArtnstheMail Group until I got a card through the post from Kate North (photo below). Kate of course had done a great card on the song Purple Haze by Jimmy Hendrix so I couldn't do that. I was at a loss for ideas so googled 'Purple Haze' and got the inevitable Jimmy songtrack, purple trees, purple smoke and a species of canabis called Purple Haze. But there was a really beautiful little crocus type flower called Purple Have so that's the inspiration for the cards below. I monoprinted fabric for the background and burned out the flower shapes from Angelina. I liked the leftover bits so they went onto the background too. The piece was held together with fme. I made a couple of purple beads from acrylic ribbon, wrapped and burned these then attached the flowers with beads. I painted shade lines on the flowers with LuminArte paint. They are now ready to go into the post tomorrow. My Purple Haze cards ready to go out tomorrow.
Kate North's Jimmy Hendrix 'Purple Haze' card and Priscilla Handler's patchwork 'Purple Haze' card.

A card arrived this morning at our house addressed to my Mum so we went over to see her taking it with us. It was a birthday card and on the back of the envelope was the verse:

Postman Postman do your duty
Take this card to my fair haired beauty

She was so impressed with the sentiment that she's vowed to keep both the card and the envelope for ever. We left her with a smile on her face.

Tagging

A couple of posts back I said I'd been tagged by http://tracyborders.blogspot.com/ Tracy (really must learn how to get the url hidden behind the name). Sorry Tracy I got waylaid and didn't respond to it so will do so now.

Seven things you might not know about me:

1 - I was a flower child but not into free love, my mum wouldn't let me!!
2 - I packed in work and did the hippy trip overland to Khatmandu in the 60's camping out under the stars, pity I wasn't interested in any type of fabric art then!!
3 - I married late, had my children late and studied for my degree late but glad I did all three.
4 - I've seen the Taj Mahal by moonlight and had tea with a Tibetan Monk in Nepal and slept under a table in a teahouse in the Himalayan foothills with several friends while rats ran over us - we slept through the lot.
5 - At the sight of slugs and worms my toes curl up, I hate them.
6 - I have an aversion to rubber buttons.
7 - I love Joe Cocker and R'nB' music.

Now my hubby has just walked in for supper so I'd better go and feed the brute. I'll post my 7 tagged blogs later.

At last I've got some more photos uploaded but as I put them one at a time they are, of course, out of sequence!! The first should be last so to speak.
Don't think I've blogged these photos before and have put them in for the private swap group as a response to their question "how do you store your fabric postcards?" I made a book to hold fabric postcards from a standard A4 ring binder. I made a cover for it from painted pelmet vilene, sheer fabric, burned back using a heat gun, scribbled fme all over it. I cut a second layer from the same fabric, more fme and finally added machine covered cords and fme flowers. The pages were made from clear freezer bags, cut down to size (two cards per page), sealed, sewn down the middle to make two pockets. Finally I made a slit in the back of each pocket so the cards could be put in and taken out. I used some left over base fabric to create reinforcing strips on each page, punching holes for the ring binder.

At last I finished the Bird Toras, these were the second ones I did as I didn't like the first set. They had more embroidery on them but they lacked a certain something. Not sure what I'll do with the first set but they'll probably find their way into some work later on.

I made seven of these birds in orange, dark red and pale blue.

Finished my March Challenge

I haven't done much sewing, or anything else, over the past week my family have kept me on my toes and running. I did however manage to finish the BQL March bag challenge, a stripey shopper. I changed it slightly as I wanted one to take on holiday that would serve as a carry-on bag. The striped piece along the bottom I turned into a series of pockets. I've also added longer handles and reforced these with an extra middle strip. I wanted something that I could wear either over the shoulder or across the chest. The handles are not sewn for the top 4" allowing me to turn the top down, making a smaller or larger bag as desired.
BQL March Challenge bag.

I've been having problems recently with emails not getting to where they are supposed to go and emails not being received by me so if anyone is expecting an email from me but haven't received one I apologise. I've also been experiencing problems getting Blogger to upload more than one photo not sure whether anyone else has had this problem. I'll have to upload photos in separate posts.

Family update, My Mum's 92nd birthday lunch had to be cancelled as she was too weak following yet another nose bleed and a bout of sickness and diarrhoea. Dh Keith also succumbed to the dreaded bug but was well enough to go back to work today. Mil is still in hospital but her fluid intake now is under control and she's comfortable.

I'm feeling virtuous tonight as I've done all my ironing leaving me free tomorrow afternoon to play, fingers crossed that there are no more emgencies looming.

The postman has been very good to me over the last couple of days and I received lots of goodies. This beautiful Laurel Burch Tile is from Hetty Bliek of Vlissingen in Germany is just one of them. I love the colours, so LB and the little embroidered bird in the middle really sets it off. Morning Dove (isn't that a wonderful name!!) sent me this colour perspective journal page, the first she's ever done. I think she's done extremely well.
I've received more tissue paper pendants, this set is from Michelle Bonds, Charmion Stephens and Aynsley McKay. Every one a winner and very different from each other.

Thse are some of my paper pendants, I forgot to scan them and had already put most of them in envelopes ready for posting. Luckily I still had a few left over to show. There are two layers of paper made from an embossed kitchen roll and an added bonus is that the embossing shows. I've used layers of the paper and strung beads on wire, wrapped it round the card. Because I didn't like the wire showing on the back I put another layer of paper over them. This unfortunately has made them slightly thicker than those I've received but they hang quite well. Finally painted them with acrylic paint, dipped the edges in UTEE and rubbed on Treasure Gold (although in this case it was silver). After a very hectic Mothers' Day with both mum's ending up in hospital things have calmed down to a steady trot. Mum is now home again but we are awaiting the hospital's call to let us know the results of the biopsies. Not said too much to mum about this as she would just worry herself. As for mil, well she's still in hospital, still quite poorly, dehydrated and not taking in much fluid. She cannot tolerate the drips and keeps pulling them out of her arm. Her consultant rang to asked if I would mind popping backwards and forward (ignore visiting hours he said) and try and get her to drink something, anything, so that's what I'm doing. As I have to cross the town to get to the hospital its very time consuming but I did manag to get her to drink almost all of a carton of Ribena.

Not got a lot of work done this week, finished my pendants and also my Bird Totas, pics later as I forgot about them when I was downloading the above pics. I've been checking out my holiday clothes, or at least what I have already that is good enought to take with me. I'm not too bad but Keith - well the least said about his wardrobe the better. If he can go in a checked flannel shirt and jeans he'll be happy.

I've been Tagged

I've been tagged by Tracy and I must apologise for not responding sooner, I found your comment a couple of postings down, nearly missed it. Thank you Tracy and I shall pass on the tagging as soon as I've rounded up enough victums (lol).

It never rains but it pours does it, both Mum's ended up in hospital last night, boy what that hectic. Keith had decided we'd go out for dinner as we'd spent all day shopping for holiday clothes and had nothing in the house to eat!! Just got back and was about to relax when the phone went and it was my Mum saying the ambulance was coming to take her into hospital as she'd had another bad nose bleed and would I come with her. Quarter to midnight Mum was tucked up in a hospital bed and we landed back home. Put the kettle on and the phone rang again. I wondered what catastrophy had happened to mum now. But it was Keith's mum this time, the home rang to say her leg was badly swollen and she wasn't well so they'd shipped her off to hospital. It turned out she was in the same hospital as Mum, on the same floor as Mum but in a different Ward. The home had been trying to get hold of us since 7:00pm (the time we went with Mum to hospital). I was a bit cross with them as they said they were short staffed and had sent mum in with an agency nurse. They just got to hospital, the nurse knew absolutely nothing about Jan's past history and as her shift had finished she just left her in A&E on her own. I couldn't believe someone would just dump an Alzheimer patient like that!!!

So I'm back home again, both mums okay for the moment but me, well I'm ready for bed!!