Keeping Busy

It's been a very productive couple of months here, so much so, I wonder if there's anywhere I can order extra hours to add to the days :o)

We had the garden path widened at the end of April, so now Shaun can get up to the top of the garden for the first time since 2010. That's the good news. The bad is that he was then able to see for himself how neglected & overgrown I've allowed it to become since his paralysis & amputation. However, slowly but surely, we've rectified it & now we've almost got it looking lovely again.
That will be the next blog, though.

This one is more of a crafty nature :o)

Since April 2014, along with my friend

 Liz at Granny Creations

I have been making ducks, on & off,  for the

Little Yellow Duck Project

The aim of the project is to make people more aware of the need for blood, tissue, organ & bone marrow donation. The little ducks are knitted, crocheted, sewn or made in some other way & are then placed for people to find them. We tie a label on them, which has their name & the website address. All we ask is for them to be registered on the website, because that way, we know they've been found & that people have taken the time & trouble to see what the project is all about. No money or personal details are asked for, all we really need is the ducks name & where & when it was found. Any extra details, such as the finders name & any message they'd like to add is entirely up to them. Unfortunately, only about a quarter are actually registered, so please, if anyone reading this happens to find a little yellow duck with a label tied to it, saying it was made with love & that you can take it home, please do so. And when you get home, please crank up the ol' laptop or PC & register the duck :o)

These are some of the ducks I've made. I've left them in hospitals, parks, a church & even a castle :o)

Alfie & Dottie.

Ruby & May.

Walter.

Wilf.

I'm not a crocheter, but I've had a go & made loads of little duck bookmarks. This pic shows at the back: Euphemia, Wilf, Dottie & Alfie and in front, 3 of the bookmarks - Malcolm, Ophelia & Peggy :o)

The ducks may not be perfect, some have wonky eyes & twisted beaks, the sewing up may be a bit untidy, but each duck has been made with love, by someone somewhere across the world, who only wants two things - firstly, to make people aware of the need for donations & secondly, to brighten your day, put a smile on your face & hope that you will, at least, have a look to see what these little ducks are all about.

So, what else have I been up to ?

Cards :o) Thse first two are from May's swap parcels.

It's grandson 1b's 5th birthday soon & as well as trains, he loves dinosaurs. What little boy doesn't ? :o)
This card was made from Liz's parcel & the technique was heat embossing. All I did here was colour in a dinosaur digital stamp in Paint Shop Pro & then I used holographic embossing power on the toes, tail & back.

This was for Shaun's birthday & came from Terri's parcel. The technique was die cutting, so all I did was die cut the image & the sentiment. Simple :o)

April was our Christmas card making month :o)

From Terri's parcel. I used a recycled card that she'd included, matt & layered it on red & gold cardstock, added the ribbon & finished it off with a greeting.

This card, with the robins looking rather like serial killers, is from Liz's parcel :o) Again, plain & simple - die cut the stamped image, coloured with Pro Markers, added glitter glue & stuck it on a die cut circle. The background paper was included in the parcel, so I just stuck both bits on a card, die cut the greeting & added the image.

Two Christmas cards for 2015 down, goodness knows how many more to go :o) But it's a start, right ? :o)

We've been forecast thundery showers today, but as we need to get on on the garden, I'm hoping the forecasters are wrong.

Oh pooh. It's raining . . .Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Never mind, the garden DOES need the rain & if I want to show you a lovely garden, I need the plants to grow.

Watch this space :o)

Quiet on the blog . . .

but not on the patch :o)

I know I'm like a broken record - & showing my age by saying that - but where has the first third of the year gone ?  

We've been busy here at home, trying to get the garden ready for summer & my sister in law has been painting & decorating indoors for us. 

Over the past month, Shaun has been hacking away at the ivy on the side of the garage & made a trellis for a variegated Jasmine & for the honeysuckle that we found hidden in the ivy. It's just a large root & one single branch with a few leaves on it at the moment, but hopefully, it'll thrive now it's not being strangled :o)

This past week, we've had the garden path widened so Shaun can get up to the top of the garden in his wheelchair & we've also had the slabs that I'd just chucked down, laid properly. But, that will be another blog.

This blog is Ivy-gate & the freeing of the garage wall :o)

This is what the ivy looked like & has done ever since we moved here in 2001.

It wasn't much of a problem really, as long as we kept it cut across the top to stop it creeping in where the roof meets the walls. How it managed when there's no gap is a mystery, but that's ivy for you :o)

However, I decided I wanted it gone. Don't know why, I just had a funny 5 minutes & that was that. My mind was made up :o)

Shaun decided it was something he could do from his wheelchair, so he set to. It would have only taken him a day or so in his pre-wheelchair days, but it took about a week to get the ivy off & another 4 days to get the root out.

Right at the back, attached to the wall, was this bird house. We'd never seen it before, so it must have been there a good 15-20 years or so.

Also in among the ivy was this old bird's nest. It was pretty much dust & only held together by luck. I thought there was a nest in there a couple of years ago because I'd seen birds flying in with worms, but although I'd had a poke about, hadn't found it.

One half of the ivy off the side wall. Shaun's made another bird house to replace the one we found, but whether the birds will use it or if it'll just be decoration, only time will tell..

I'm hoping like mad that now the ivy has gone, the snails will not be as plentiful this year !! :o)

As you can see, there were hundreds of them, all hidden in the leaves & clinging to the wall. The birds had a good feast with the ones I flung on the garage roof ! :o)

Nearly all gone. Just a few bits left & the huge root. After it was all off, I wire brushed the walls & Shaun scraped as far as he could reach & we prepared it for painting.

Just the root to go & it put up a fight !!

It grew under & on top of the cement footings.

Grandson 1a helped to cut it out . . .

& Grandson 1b helped fill in the hole it left :o)

 Ivy all gone, flower bed prepared. All it needed now was to be painted.

 Grandson 1a & . . .

Grandson 1b were on hand as willing helpers . . . 

& this is the end result. I painted the far left side as Shaun's wheelchair couldn't get down there & I also did all the high bits, green & cream :o)

All it needs now is the trellis on the walls, the flower bed needs to be planted up & I'm going to put pea shingle on it to help keep weeds down.

A good few weeks work & even though it's caused Shaun some health problems along the way, he feels a real sense of achievement.

Our garden has always been bright & sunny, but I think this year it'll be even more so.

IF we get a summer, that is :o)

2015 already ???

Where on earth did 2014 go ?
One day it was July, the next day it was January !!

 When I was a kid, I used to say *I wish I was 10, I wish I was 13* etc. & my Mum always used to reply - *Don't wish your life away, it goes quicker than you think* Of course, I'd snort & not believe her - after all, the summer holidays lasted FOREVER & the sun shone every single day :o)

Now, I know better . . . :o)

Christmas here on my patch was a very busy family time,  but I didn't get to see my Mum & Dad because they were too poorly to visit. It's 300 miles each way for them to drive & to be honest, I think it's too far for them to come. Unfortunately, we're unable to go to them because of Shaun's continuing health problems, so my Uncle played postman for this Christmas. It's not ideal, but we have the year to sort something out. Unless of course one day it's July & the next it's January again :o)

Every year in January, I decide what I'd like to accomplish in the coming year, but it never works the way I hope, so this year, my expectations are nil :o) There are things that have to be done - we need to decorate, for example, but I hate decorating with a passion. Shaun always used to do it - I'd only be allowed to paint the middle of things because I don't have a steady hand - but unfortunately, there's only so much you can do in a wheelchair & decorating a house is not one of them :o) Luckily, we have his sister who likes decorating & said she'd do it as a Christmas present to us :o) We've just got to get the paint now :o)

Having the patio laid last summer was the best thing we did in the garden. However, I now need to tackle the rest of it.

I have 40 or 50 pots that all need sorting out & replanting, I have grass that needs cutting, bushes that need trimming, paths that need sweeping & no doubt, the weeds will soon be more like triffids. I have a horrible feeling that once again I'll be having another fight with the snails. I don't know why they like my garden so much, but in Spring & Summer, I collect over a 100 of the  *"!$%#!! every single day.

The front garden is mostly paving slabs but the weeds find their way through the tiniest crack, so that needs doing soon, as well. I'm hoping the heavy frost we have this morning might help kill them off, but I live in dreams :o)

I have made one garden decision though - this year, I won't be growing any veg. I might change my mind as it gets warmer but at the moment, I know I just won't have the time. The past few years have shown that & so I've decided to concentrate on my plants & flowers this year. Hopefully, I'll have a garden as colourful as it used to be, when Shaun was at work & time was pretty much my own. All I need to do is replant the pots with stuff :o) I have seed & bulbs, so in a few weeks time, when it's brighter, warmer & not so wet, I'll dig out the wellies, hat & garden jacket & get going.

Well, that's the plan, anyway :o)
Watch this space, you never know, a miracle might just happen !! :o)

The Four Elements

November brings our 2014 challenges to a close & the theme for this was my choice. Much to the disgust & distress of everyone. Me included :o)  I don't know what I was thinking when I chose it, but I was obviously having a funny five minutes or had finally lost the plot :o) Probably a bit of both, if truth be known :o)

Anyway, I managed to get one card per element from each parcel, so 8 cards in total.

First up, Terri.

EARTH

The only thing I actually used from Terri's parcel was the holly patterned paper behind 

the snowy scene tag. To give it some oomph, I used Stickles glitter glue for the snow.

WIND

You need plenty of wind to get a bi-plane in the air :o) The image was mine, but the gold mirror card & blue paper came from the parcel. I used a cloud embossing folder to echo the clouds on the image, added the card candi & greeting.

FIRE

Well, Fire BOY, but artistic licence & all that :o) Again, the image & greeting were mine, but the card & nirror card cane from the parcel. I added glossy accents to the hose & helmet to make it shiny :o)

WATER 

This is my favourite - I love the Forever Friends teddies & this one, walking in the rain with his little brolly, was perfect for the water card. Everything but the image, greeting & card candi was from the parcel.

Now on to Liz's.

EARTH

I loved the green background paper so decided that would be the main colour for this card. I like brown with green, so used the brown from the parcel as background for the image & greeting. I coloured the image - a digital stamp of mine - with pro-markers, die cut the circles & added the greeting.

WIND

In my head, this was a beautiful card. In real life, it's not what I wanted AT ALL. 

I loved the terracotta & gold coloured papers & thought the strippety stripy ribbon would go well with them. I still do, but unfortunately, the image isn't right :o(

FIRE

Well, a candle left unattended in a glass lantern, COULD  grow to become fire !! :o)

I love this image, but again, it's not as nice as it could be. I used it for a couple of cards last year & it was much nicer. The yellow & green paper was in the parcel & I thought it went quite well with the tartan-ish paper I had. I think it's quite a masculine card :o)

WATER

The blue & white wavy paper just screamed SEA at me, & living at the seaside, I just had to have a boat on the water for this card :o)  Yet again, the image, card candi & greeting were mine :o)

As usual, all very plain & simple cards - I can't do fancy, gorgeous or intricate, it just isn't in me, but

as the challenges for 2015 are all techniques, who knows what I'll come up with :o)

For now, though, I think we're all pretty much "carded" out for this year :o) 

Monday brings December & with it, our favourite parcels - ADVENT :o)

We give each other 24 little parcels, each containing a crafty item - it might be a small stamp, a few buttons,  ribbons, cardi candy or stamped images, and it should come from our stash :o) We are, however, allowed to buy something for parcel no. 25 - Christmas Day :o)

Roll on Monday, I can't wait to see what's in my parcels :o)

Remembrance 2014

I have very strong views about Remembrance Day & Remembrance Sunday . I don't think wearing poppies glorifies war, as some people seem to think & I don't think two minutes silence on each day is too much to ask.

Maybe I feel this way because I *do* my family tree & we have lost family members in both world wars & in recent conflicts.

Or maybe I feel this way because it's right to be thankful for the freedom we have today,  that we probably wouldn't have, had it not been for those who died defending us.

Whatever the reason, we shouldn't forget, not now & not in the future. Our children & grandchildren, their children & grandchildren, should always be aware of what went on before and be proud of the part their ancestors played in history.

Lest We Forget.

Dotty for Spotty

Well, I've actually managed to get this months cards made & blogged with a couple of hours to spare !! :o)

I only managed to make 2 cards from each parcel, not because there wasn't enough stuff to use, but simply because time wasn't on my side.

Anyhoo, here are the cards from Terri's parcel:

The only thing I added to this card from my stash was the silver card candi. A lovely little tag & two different spotty papers, made a nice plain & simple.birthday card.

Yet again, I used one of my favourite stamps for this card. The card candi ,stamped image & greeting, along with the black & white card & ribbon just cried out to be used as a Thinking of You or Sympathy card.

Now on to Liz's two.

The brown card, image & spotty card was included in the parcel. Using promarkers, I coloured the little bird. I then stamped the greeting, added red strips & the brown card candi.

As this spotty paper was quite busy-but-plain, I decided to keep it simple by using a lovely lily stamp that I'd forgotten I had :o) I just coloured it with promarkers, die cut the circles with card & paper Liz had included, stamped the greeting & coloured & edged it with a promarker & ink pad & that was it.

November's challenge is my choice & for some strange reason, I chose the Four Elements. Don't ask me what I was thinking when I chose it, I was probably having a funny five minutes :o)

Watch this space !! :o)

Whinge, moan, rant . . .

As a rule, I think I'm fairly even tempered & I take what life throws at me in a reasonably calm manner. I'm pretty much a heads-down-grit-your-teeth-&-get-on-with-it type of person. AFTER the first initial panic, that is :o)

HOWEVER.

This past month has seen me want to do my ravin' nana far more than I have in the rest of the year.

Why ? Other people's ineptitude, recklessness, indifference & just plain ol' stoopididity !! :o)

Where do I begin ?

Well, recently, we have had a few appointments at the Disablement Services Centre at Medway Maritime Hospital, Gillingham,  so that means going along the Thanet Way & M2. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am a bad traveller, a nervous passenger & a downright nightmare in a vehicle. I can't help it, travelling in a large tin can at speeds of up to 70mph scares the !%$@*! out of me & it hasn't been made any better by the mindless idiots who:

undertake when there's not enough room to do so

don't put their lights on when it's foggy and/or tipping it down with rain

tailgate

honk at us to get out of the way when there's NOWHERE TO GO !!!

Why on earth don't people read the road ?? Why don't they actually use their eyes & their brains ??
In my experience this past month, not one driver who illegally passed us or honked us out of the way got any further than being the vehicle in FRONT of us !!! What did they achieve ? Nothing whatsoever, apart from scaring the life out of me. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

What's next on my whinge list ? Data flippin' protection.

It's the 21st century. I am NOT my husband's property & I do not appreciate being told that until they have written permission from him allowing me to speak to them, they won't even acknowledge that I exist.

I phoned our electricity supplier earlier in the week to change our direct debit payment. I gave them the account number, my name, address, Shaun's name & date of birth etc. & before I could even say what I was calling about, was told, in no uncertain terms that data protection meant they won't deal with me.

Now, I understand why Data Protection is in place, but quite frankly, when it concerns a married couple, in this day & age, they should make allowances. I deal with the finances, always have, always will & any company asking Shaun ANYTHING about account numbers, online accounts etc. will be told - STOP right there, I don't have a clue, you'll have to talk to my wife because she's the one who set the account up, she's the one who inputs the meter reading, she's the one who pays the bill.

Now, my argument with the company was that I could give all the details they need to my next door neighbour & he could answer any question they asked & they wouldn't be any the wiser. I was told that would be fraud. I replied - prove it.

I also said it was funny how they were quite willing to talk to me on the phone when they wanted to sell anything or get us to change tariff or get our gas from them as well as our electricity, how they were prepared to take payment out of a bank account with MY name on it, how they used my email address to send meter reading requests & other messages,  but they would not talk to me about the actual account itself without my husband's PERMISSION !!!!

Am I living in a Victorian Melodrama ??? So much for equality between the sexes. Whoever thought data protection was a good idea between husband & wife needs his/her head examining IMO. I know more about Shaun than he does & I expect many, many other wives would say the same about their husbands too.

My next whinge is quite funny, really, now that I've had time to get over it :o)

Earlier this month, Shaun had a hospital appointment at QEQM. The doctor we saw was very nice & asked all sorts of questions, including was I Shaun's wife. So, it came a a bit of a shock, not to mention an insult, when we got a copy of his letter to our GP, stating that he saw Shaun *in clinic, accompanied by his mother*

His MOTHER ????!!!!

Now, I know I've had a few stressful years since Shaun's paralysis & I know I'm no longer in the first flush of youth, but - HIS MOTHER ???!!!

I think the young doctor we saw ought to get his eyes checked. VERY SOON.

*What's next ?!* I hear you cry. The saga of the stump board is what's next.

In Which I lose The Will To Live

Shaun had a below knee amputation on 17 July.

On 18 July we were told by the OT that a stump board had been requested for his wheelchair. (When you don't have/wear a prosthetic leg, you have to keep your stump on a stump board to help with swelling, circulation & muscle strain etc.)

We were told it should only take a couple of weeks to arrive, but after about a month it hadn't, so Shaun phoned the ward he'd been on & asked to speak to the OT. She was busy but rang him back. She said the stump board had definitely been requested so we just had to wait for it.

Fast forward to 11 September -  first visit to the Disablement Services Centre at Medway Maritime. FABULOUS team of people, very caring & really great at putting you at ease.

First question - where's your stump board ? You HAVE to have a stump board.
We explained we were still waiting & were told to phone Shaun's wheelchair OT the minute we got home.

Once we were in & settled, Shaun did just that. His OT wasn't available so he explained it all to whoever he spoke to & was told that the stump board hadn't been ordered till 26 AUGUST !!! Shaun said no, it had been ordered by the OT on 18 July, but he was told, again, it was 26 August.

I am not ashamed to say that I did my ravin' nana. I yelled *THAT'S DISGRACEFUL !! THERE IS NO EXCUSE TO WAIT 6 WEEKS BEFORE ORDERING A VITAL PIECE OF EQUIPMENT FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS JUST HAD HIS LEG AMPUTATED !!!*

I then heard the woman on the phone say to Shaun that she could hear that someone was rather agitated & upset, would he like her to talk to me. Shaun, knowing me SOOOOOO well when I lose my rag, diplomatically said - I don't think that's particularly wise :o)

Anyhoooo - upshot was that first thing the next day, the wheelchair OT we deal with phoned to see what she could do. She agreed it was disgraceful that the stump board hadn't been ordered & said she'd look into it. She phoned back later, very apologetic & said that the data required for the ordering had been received by them on 18 July, just like the hospital OT said. HOWEVER, when it left them to go to the people who actually order it, not all the data was received & they did absolutely NOTHING about it !! They just ignored the order !! It wasn't till a month or so later that someone picked up on it & redid the order. The wheelchair OT said she'd raised an internal enquiry because she & her manager both think not having the stump board has caused Shaun problems with his health & healing.

Fast forward another 4 weeks. Still no stump board, so I emailed the wheelchair OT again & this time, when she rang me, SHE did her ravin' nana !! :o)  She told me to make a complaint & gave me the email address & phone number of the dept. to complain to & she got on to the company who do the stump boards to find out what they were playing at.

A couple of days later, we got a phone call from the company saying they wanted to deliver the stump board on Thursday of that week !! HOORAY !!!!

Thursday came & at lunch time the front door bell rang & there's the delivery fella with stump board in hand. He handed it to me, I signed for it & off he went.

The next morning, we had to go shopping, so I got the bits & bobs needed for the wheelchair ready, got the stump board & guess what ???

IT DIDN'T FIT !!!

Sighhhhhhhhh.

We went out as planned & while I whizzed around the supermarket, Shaun phoned the wheelchair OT & explained what was going on. Long story short, when we got home, I took photos of the stump board & where it was supposed to fit on the wheelchair, emailed them to the wheelchair OT who then got hold of the  suppliers. Turns out because Shaun has swing away foot plates, the stump board needs a different fixing. Now, they KNOW what type of wheelchair he has - THEY supplied the flippin' thing !! Ugh,

The part was ordered that day - Friday - & the wheelchair OT was told it would be in Saturday or Monday & they'd send someone on Tuesday to fit it. So, Tuesday came & along with it a lovely bloke but with a somewhat shameful & apologetic air about him.

Written on his paperwork was something along the lines of - if part not in, cancel job. Because he didn't have a clue what that was about, he decided to call in to see exactly what the problem was & what was actually needed. He agreed the stump board wasn't right & said that if the part came in that day, he would come back on Wednesday.

It's now Sunday. We're still waiting. The wheelchair OT will be getting a phone call AND an email tomorrow & I am busy compiling my email of complaint.

We've been up the Medway 4 times since the amputation & each time we've been asked about the stump board. Because Shaun still hasn't got it- 13 weeks after his operation - the swelling hasn't gone as much as they'd like for him to have a cast made for his proper prosthetic. Now, no one can say for sure that not having a stump board has caused this, but they all say it's a possibility.

Oh, another thing I will complain about - at one time, we were told that the stump board had to be made especially for the wheelchair & that might be why it was taking longer than anticipated. When we finally got it, on the bottom is a big label saying  MANUFACTURED NOV. 13 !!!

I give up, I really do.

And finally - yes, I can hear you heave a huge sigh of relief - when we came home on Friday after Shaun's podiatry visit (remember - he does still have ONE foot !!) we found THIS in our shared driveway & Shaun's ONLY access in & out of the house:

I knocked next door to see if they knew anything about it - no answer.

I rang both their mobiles - no answer.

I then phoned the skip company & told them they had not only illegally blocked a shared drive, it was also the only access for a disabled person & I didn't care who had ordered it, I wanted it gone NOW !!

The bloke I spoke to was lovely - he said he'd ring the driver to come & move it & true to his word, less than 15 minutes later, a skip lorry came down the road. Turns out he'd been told to deliver it to our house number when in fact, it was a house further down the road. 

Just to add here:

I have NO complaints about the skip company or the driver - they were fab. Polite, punctual & true to their word. The person to blame was the idiot who'd given them the wrong house number & told them to stick it in the drive. Again, that wasn't the skip company, it was the company they were working for

Just then, our neighbour came down the road & I told her she & her husband would find missed calls from me & explained what had happened. I said that as I'd spoken to her husband earlier that morning, if they were having a skip he would have said something & she agreed.

Being disabled in any way is pretty hard going.

I think people forget sometimes that getting around isn't as easy for some as it is for themselves. And the strange thing is, now that Shaun's in the process of getting a false leg, some people have it in their head that he'll be running, skipping, jumping & walking. I just want to shout at them - what part of partially paralysed from the waist down do you not understand ??? It was his spinal injury that caused his leg to be amputated, it wasn't his leg that caused his back problems !!

But then, there's no telling some people, is there ? :o)

Rant over. 

Normal service will be resumed shortly :o)