Resurfacing!

Thought it was about time I resurfaced now that we're well into the New Year and my apologies for being absent so long!  Thank you to everyone who sent such lovely handmade cards at Christmastime - I really do appreciate them all, especially as I'm very bad at cardmaking myself.

Before Christmas, with much trepidation, I visited the consultant at the Royal Preston Hospital for the results of my neck scan and electrical conduction tests on my arm ..... the good news is that I don't have to have an operation on my neck (which I'd been told previously might be the case and which I was really worried about).  The consultant did a few more tests and concluded that I appear to have radial nerve damage in my arm (hence my weak hand), but has sent me for more scans to try and locate the exact centre of the problem before coming to any decisions about treatment (or not)! 

Just before New Year I came down with a nasty cold which lingered for a week or so and then just after I got over that, last week I became really ill with an even nastier stomach bug which had me laid up in bed - I don't remember ever sleeping for so long or for so many days before - I struggled to eat anything and was left very weak and tired, I've never experienced anything like it before nor ever want to!  I only just started to feel back to normal yesterday; ventured into town today but noticed I was walking around more slowly than normal, so I think my energy levels are still not quite 100% yet!

Sooooo ........ I've not really felt like doing much at all since Christmas as I've been unwell most of the time.  And as I'm still having ongoing problems with my hand which means I'm struggling to grip things and it takes a lot longer to try and create anything, until it's sorted out, I'm pulling back from taking part in any swaps or doing much hosting.  I'm going to try and do a little art journalling for myself (Ali in one of my online groups is throwing out weekly prompts for journalling ideas so I'm going to go along with some of them when I can - but no pressure involved) and will post swaps/challenges on my blog as and when I'm able.

Be back again soon !!!

"Merry Christmas"

Wishing You All a Very Merry Christmas

and

A Happy New Year 2011 !

Enjoy the holidays, however you celebrate them, and I'll catch up with you all again next year.

What's this White Stuff?

During the very cold spell of weather we had last week, Mia experienced being out in the snow for the first time.  There wasn't a great deal of actual snow, but the flakes that came down were quite large and she enjoyed leaping up and trying to catch some of them.  I don't think she knew what to make of all that "white stuff" though! 

  

Check out the bushy tail - all fluffed up because of the snowflakes !



A few days ago we decided to put up the Christmas decorations - we set up the tree, tested the fairy lights, decorated it with lots of tinsel and baubles.  We put up garlands and tinsel streamers around the room and Graham festooned more fairy lights around the bay window in our front room.  All the while, Mia was investigating what we were doing - checking out the box of baubles, running off with tinsel, exploring under the tree, sniffing the lights - absolutely no problem, nor had she with the decorations in the hall.

Then we put up some tinsel garlands in our living room - well, what a pallaver that turned out to be!  Mia saw what we were doing and went and hid behind the television for ages, too scared to come out, despite all our coaxings.  After a while she made a dash for the stairs and hid in the bedroom, until I picked her up and carried her back down, wriggling like mad and "shrieking" - I cuddled her and tried settling her on my lap, but she kept peering up to look at the tinsel then immediately buried her head in my arms so that she couldn't see it.  I thought she was finally getting used to it, but then she spotted some on another wall and that was it - up she jumped and fled behind the curtains, before once more going behind the TV.  No matter what we did, none of us could coax her out.  It wasn't until we all came to bed and switched off the lights that she ventured out and came upstairs to spend the night in our bedroom (as per usual).

Next morning, all seemed well - Mia was as perky and playful as ever whilst we were showering and dressing, but refused to come downstairs with us for her breakfast.  Once again, we had to carry her down and once again she wriggled and screamed in fear.  Sooooo ..... that was it ..... the tinsel had to go!  I pulled it all down and Mia was happy again.  We just can't figure why she took so against the tinsel in the living room, but is absolutely fine with it everywhere else in the house - Graham believes it's because she thinks of the living room as her safe place (it's where she spent most time the first few weeks we had her) and was scared by the tinsel being in it. 

What a comic Mia is - never a dull moment these days with her around! 

Brrrr!!!

....... how's everyone doing in this freezing cold weather?  We've been lucky here not to have had any real snow (so far), just a few flakes, but it's definitely feeling Arctic with frozen and slippy pavements.  It was like an ice rink in our garden where water had frozen over the paving slabs.  I hope the rest of you are all keeping warm and safe, if you're surrounded by snow and finding it difficult to get out and about.  Wonder if we'll have another White Christmas this year?

I've now swapped out all the ATCs and Xmas Triptychs for the last swaps of the year and hopefully they'll all be posted out tomorrow.  Here are pics of the four Triptychs I received for the swap ..... aren't they lovely and all with a nostalgic Christmassy feel to them ......

Sheila's

Chris's

Sandra's

Hilda's

As I mentioned in a previous post, I won't be running any swaps during December, but hopefully will come up with some new ones again after the New Year.   

It's all been happening in Blackpool!

Well, it seems that Blackpool was THE place to be this weekend!  I've been going along to some of Blackpool Football Club's home games - it's within walking distance of my house, it's a good afternoon's entertainment in the fresh air, with a good-natured crowd - and this weekend our opponents were Wolves (we won 2-1).  Little did I know that Prince William (complete with blue baseball cap) was also at the match, not tucked away in the director's box but in the stands with the rest of the crowd - he was spending the day in Blackpool on a "stag do" with friends and was also seen later enjoying some of the rides at the Pleasure Beach.  The media are now, of course, speculating that he was checking out the resort for his own "stag" celebrations next year!

And then, Saturday night, "Strictly Come Dancing" was televised from our own Tower Ballroom (the mecca of ballroom dancing) - tickets for this event are like gold dust, a friend of mine has been trying to get tickets for us for this event for the past couple of years, without success.  I've been watching the show each week on TV and there are some wonderful celebrity dancers this year - my favourites have to be Matt Baker and Kara Tointon - but I cannot believe that Ann Widdecombe is still in the show; I was sure this was the week she'd be voted out but no, it wasn't ....... sorry, Ann, but the 'dance' routines aren't funny anymore and poor Anton now looks like he wants to be put out of his misery as her partner .... definitely time to go and make way for the better dancers now.

Now .... just a reminder that the "Movers & Shakers" ATCs and Christmas Triptychs are due to me in a week's time. I hope everyone's getting on well with making them, but I know how busy everyone must be starting to feel with Christmas starting to appear large on the horizon, so if you're likely to be a day or two late, please let me know. As this is such a busy time of the year and we all grow short of time, I've decided not to run an ATC swap in December ........ I'll think up some new swaps for after the New Year and hope that's okay with everyone.

What a Night!

It looks like Lancashire took one of the biggest hits with the heavy winds (80 mph here in Blackpool) last night so I hope none of my fellow Lancastrians suffered any big damage.  The wind didn't sound too bad at the front of the house where our bedroom is, but in the bathroom you could really hear it roaring outside and it set up a very weird and ghostly-sounding high pitched whistle - creepy!  This morning we found a tile had blown off the roof and a few more have become dislodged, so we're now waiting for a roofer to come and take a look at what needs repairing (roofers were in very big demand today!!!) .... apart from that, we seem to have escaped fairly well.  But neighbours had several fence panels blown down and someone else had a lot of their roof tiles blow down and smash through their conservatory!  In Blackpool, some of the scaffolding at the top of the Tower blew down so the roads beneath were cordoned off, an estimated £1,000,000 worth of damage was done to the Illuminations and one of the sails was blown off the Windmill on the seafront at nearby Lytham ..... thankfully, no-one here appears to have been injured.  Tonight all is calm again, thank goodness.

I've not been able to craft much lately, but I did receive my beautiful altered book home again and as promised, here are pictures of all the pages everyone contributed ....... there were quite a few blank pages at the end of the book so I plan to turn them into an extra "shaker niche" type page and I've still to decorate the front and back covers.  The title/theme of my book is "Flights of Imagination".

My Pages - Collaged, Painted, Stamped

Ali's Pages - "Found Poetry" Technique

Liz's Pages - "Window Technique" (1)

Liz's Pages - "Window Technique" (2)

Mel's Pages - "Tipped-In Tags" Technique (1)

Mel's Pages - "Tipped-In Tags" Technique (2)

Barbara's Pages - "Folded Pages" Technique with inserted ATCs

Mima's Pages - "Karen Whimsey" Technique

Sandra's Pages - Own Choice Technique

These pages are all so beautiful and wonderful to see and touch close up, I'm very happy with how it turned out and hope to alter some more old books in the coming year - maybe some of you will be inspired to have a go at altering an old book too.

I can't believe how quickly November is moving along - and I'm looking forward to seeing your "moving and shaking" ATCs coming in for this month's swap, as well as the Christmas Triptychs .... still time to join up to one or both swaps though, if anyone is considering having a go.

Bonfire Night

I have to admit to being a real "scaredy cat" when it comes to bonfire night - I do like to see the dazzling bursts of colour as the fireworks explode across the night sky and I don't mind sparklers, but I'm not fond of the big bangs and the nearest I want to be to the fireworks is behind the safety of a window (or TV screen)!!!  Graham, on the other hand, has always loved bonfire night so for many years, especially when Max was younger, I've gone along to the local fireworks displays or stood at a safe distance in the garden whilst he let the rockets, volcanoes, starbursts, catherine wheels and roman candles off.  So I hope for those of you who enjoy this night, that you've had a safe and happy one and that your pets have all been tucked up safely at home too. 

Mia has been okay - it got very noisy earlier on and she was a bit uncertain as to what was going on, but it didn't stop her looking out through the window to watch the rockets shooting up into the sky.  Now all is quiet and she's curled up asleep on her cushion at the side of me as I type.  Max had been to the local shop on an errand for me at the start of the night and came in furious, because he'd seen a dog (spaniel type) running down the middle of the road, obviously unnerved by all the loud bangs going off around it, and cars having to slow down or swerve to avoid it.  There was no-one with it so it had either escaped from someone's garden or, even worse, someone wasn't bothered that their pet was running around alone and afraid in the dark.  It ran off down the road too fast for Max to be able to catch it (if that had even been possible) but he was disgusted, to say the least - he absolutely can't stand any kind of cruelty to animals at all!

It also looked like there'd been a bit of an incident too, up the road from us - there was an ambulance blocking the road and a police car, outside a house where some new people have just moved in this week.  Several people were standing around in the road, but we didn't see who had been put in the ambulance - I know there are young children in the family that moved in and I'm guessing they might have been having a bonfire party, so I do hope that if anyone has been injured as a result of a firework accident, that it's not too serious.  The daughter of some friends of ours was injured by an exploding firework a few years back - she did recover, but it was pretty traumatic at the time.

Now - to something more arty.  I've just received a link to a new blog by Laura Carson, an American lady who creates beautiful artwork and some of whose ATCs I'm lucky enough to own.  Laura will be posting instructions for some of the techniques she uses in her art (check out the wonderful stained glass effect one) and will also be having a draw every month where you can win a piece of her art.  So I would highly recommend that you check out her Artfully Musing blog right now - you'll love it!