Christmas chocolate

I wanted to make something for Tabitha to give to her classmates this year for Christmas. It had to be something easy, as I had to make 21 of them and as we all know, time is at a premium at this time of year. I found some Chocolate Santa lollies, and decided to make some 'envelopes' to put them in. This is how they turned out.

I used Rich Razzleberry ink on the neutral cardstock, and white craft ink on the razzleberry cardstock. I used the Scandanavian Season stamp set, and stamped over the cardstock, then foldered it into an envelope. I secured the envelope with some silver elastic cord, and added a stamped tag so everyone gets a named present.

I hope they like them.

In other news, our family has been hit with some very devastating news, which is going to make the coming months very hard. I may not be blogging much, as my energies will be diverted to concentrating on helping people who need my support. Difficult times.

Play time...

...play as in the nativity kind. This year, the girls nativity play was called 'The Stable Boy'. Tabitha's class were donkeys this year, and Ellie's class were angels. Last year, Tabitha developed her sickness after 1 performance (there were 3 and we had tickets for the third), and we didn't get to see her on stage, although her LSA did tell us she was none too impressed. This year we got tickets for the first performance, which was today. We were a little apprehensive about how Tabitha would be, on the stage, in front of an audience, who clapped, but there was no need to worry. Tabitha was fantastic! She actually took part in the play (with her LSA operating her arms!!), with a great big smile on her face. She is so loving this new year group and is joining in so well with them all. Here are some pictures of her on stage, sorry they aren't very clear, but no flash photography was allowed.
Then the angels came on, and Ellie was there, the brightest star of course, with a huge smile on her face all the way through the performance. She was born for the stage that one.

Tonight, we are very proud of our 2 girls. :-D

Card request

A very old friend of mine asked me if I could make a card for a very good friend of her's who is turning 50. I used this request as an excuse to buy in a few more supplies, namely patterned papers that I have coveted for a while, and this is what I made.It uses the Elegant Soiree papers, and stamps from the Occasional Greetings and Simply Said sets, with some basic grey taffeta ribbon. I used the scallop square punch to punch out 8 shapes, then used the teabag folding technique to create the rosette.

Inside the card, I added this.

I used my neglected craft robo to cut out the Very Vanilla cardstock, and cut out the 50. Then I rounded 2 of the corners, and stamped over them with one of the stamps from the Tiny Tags set.

All in all, I like it. I just hope my friend (and her friend) do!

Computing Progress

Tabitha has shown some wonderful interest and ability with the computer. She has been using a two-switch scanning system for a while now, and her LSA at school has been working on developing her mouse control. She uses a single button mouse at school, and they have sent it home for us to see how she's doing on our own PC. I plugged it in tonight, and this is what she did.

I think this is fantastic news for her. She can fully explore and use a computer when she masters this skill, and it's going to open so many opportunities for her. I am so impressed with how well she is progressing this year. Mind you, she is being a nightmare while I am on here, so some things don't seem to change!!

Christmas Preparations

I have been being a naughty crafter. I've been buying things, and hoarding them. That's not the plan!!!! When you buy, you must use! Last night, I got everything ready so I could sit in the lounge with my hubby, watching I'm A Celeb, and crafting at the same time. Imagine my disappointment when I'm A Celeb was cancelled for football. Grr. Still, everything was set up, and I got on with the job in hand, which was making Christmas tree decorations. I decided to make them double sided, as these things never hang the right way when you need them to, and here they are.

They are in Rich Razzleberry (which is my favourite colour at the minute) and use the Tiny Tags and Scandinavian Season stamp sets. I sprayed the Razzleberry cardstock with a glitter varnish before I punched out the Scalloped Circles, just for an extra bit of interest. I punched holes with the Crop-a-dile and threaded through the silver elastic cord. I'm really pleased with them and will be making more. By the way, they have chocolates between the 2 halves ;-)

In other news, we seem to not be making much headway with getting Tabitha to understand the significance of her glasses. Some days she'll leave them on fine, others she just throws them. She has 2 pairs, so that if one gets broken, she still has a pair to use......in theory anyway. Earlier this week, I discovered her usual pair were a little twisted, so I have been using her spare pair until I can get her into the Opticians to get them fixed. I put her spare pair on this morning, strapped her into the car, and drove to school. When we arrived, this is what she had done.

I have no idea how, but they are totally trashed. So, after school today, but the Opticians we go. At this rate, I'm beginning to think that laser eye surgery might be the cheapest option for Tabitha's eye sight!

November Madness

Every year, a strange fever comes over us Somerset folk. November comes around, and after we all go through the well known tradition of Bonfire Night and Fireworks, we start Carnival season. Every year, this seems to get bigger and brighter. There are a large number of carnival clubs around the county, and each year they complete to win the prize for the best float in the carnival. The carnival moves around from town to town on a succession of nights, and last night was Glastonburys turn. This is the one that Ellie and I usually go to see, as my sister lives close to the start of the parade route, and it means we can get a really good view without having to queue up and wait for ages. Next year, the plan will change as my sister is planning on moving house, but for this year, we managed to follow the usual routine.

Unfortunately, Tabitha just couldn't cope with all the noise, and all the people, so this event is yet another that involves us having to split the family in half, Ellie and I going to the carnival, and Chris staying home with Tabitha. I do hope that one day things will be different.

I took a video of the most spectacular float but I can't get it to load on here. It was produced by the Gremlins Carnival Club, who seem to have fantastic ideas and win the best float category in most of the carnivals. It is truely amazing to see the amount of work and planning that goes in to producing something like this.

However, I have to say, there must be an element of madness involved for everyone who gets involved in the Carnival Season. Right from the amount of man hours that are involved in producing the floats, to the people who populate the floats and the choreography that goes on with them, right down to the people who stand, late into the night on the side of the roads, in November, come rain or snow to watch the displays. We are all a little bit mad in Somerset.

A new toy

Tabitha has been playing around on my iPhone for a while now. She can operate it really well, navigating the screens, looking for her favourite apps, and opening them. Until recently though, she couldn't operate the home button, as it was too hard for her fingers to press. She can now do it without a problem.

A while ago, Chris go himself an iPad. Tabitha has remained totally in the dark about this new device, until two night ago, when Chris and Ellie wanted to watch something on TV and they wanted her to be quiet. Chris got out the iPad and showed it to her and loaded her favourite app onto it. This is the result. Pretty impressive I think :-)

The only problem now is that Tabitha now knows what this device is, and so she demands to play on it all the time! Poor Daddy has lost his iPad.

Other Children

Tabitha is repeating her Reception year at school. As such, she has restarted the year in September with a class of children who are all a year younger than her, but most of whom are developmentally way above her level. They don't seem to notice though, and are all just very tolerant of her.

Today, one of the little boys had a birthday party, and we went along. While the children were eating their lunch, one of the other boys started to talk to me about Tabitha. I wanted to share our conversation.

Boy: I'm 5 you know
Me: Are you? That's big isn't it, Tabitha is 5 as well.
Boy: Tabitha is very small isn't she.
Me: Yes, she is quite small.
Boy: I have a brother, and he's 2, and Tabitha is about the same size as him.
Me: Is she?
Boy: When is Tabitha's birthday?
Me: January
Boy: The thing is, with her being so small, it's not a problem while she's 5, but when she's 6.....

I wonder how he wanted to finish the sentance? How sweet is that though, a little boy, not noticing that she doesn't eat or drink, not commenting on her lack of speech, just worrying about how big she'll be when she's 6. I thought he was very cute.

Convention Time

A lot of blogs I follow are compiled by Stampin' Up! demonstrators. At the minute, the European Convention is taking place, and this year its in the UK, so most of them are there, including my friend Karen. I can't wait for everyone to get home and start blogging so I can see what they have all been up to!

Good Friends

My very good friend Judith had her birthday yesterday. Last year, I was very bad, and didn't make her a card :( This year I was determined to get my act together. This is what I made.

Judith is an avid car boot sale buyer. There is a large boot sale that is held weekly, very close to us, and she goes as often as she can with a very strict limit on how much she can spend. I couldn't come up with any ideas for a gift that she would really like, so I made the small envelope in the matching DSP to the card, so I could put some cash in for her to use the next time she goes booting. I'm pleased to say she loved her card and the idea.

As for now, I am on here doing this instead of completing the mountain of paperwork that is slowly but surely growing dangerously close to crisis point. Now, where can I find a pen......

The place that I live

We are extremely fortunate to live in a beautiful part of the country, and I thought I'd share it with you. Yesterday, I decided to walk the dog out to one of the local hills, and climb to the top to see the view. We did really well, but because I had a time limit on how long we could be out for, as I had to go and collect my gorgeous girls from school, we fell just short of the top of the hill. In fact, we got this close.

Next time I do this trip, I must remember to leave more time. Anyway, from here, this is what I could see.The first picture shows just how steep this hill is!

Anyway, this walking the dog, combined with some healthy eating and patience, means that I can now report that I have lost a stone in weight. Yey! Go me! Lots more to go, but this milestone means a lot. I am now 5lbs heavier than when I went back to work after having Ellie, and following a well known plan, I made it back to a healthy weight in about 3.5 months then. I can see it happening again now, which is great considering that at my heaviest, I couldn't see how I was ever going to lose all that weight. There is nothing so satisfying as getting back into clothes you used to love, and couldn't bear to throw away just because you got bigger. And I am planning a wardrobe change when I am at my target weight. I keep seeing some lovely clothes around at the minute, and I can't wait to be able to go shopping for new things. There is much work to be done in the mean time though, and still a long journey ahead, but in tiny steps, I am getting there.

Realisations

Being the parent of a special needs child is a complicated job. Not only do you have to deal with the numerous 'professionals' interested in your child, you have to meet a whole bunch of needs you never imagined, and for a lot longer than you could ever have believed. Tabitha is now a couple of months away from being 6, and it's bringing home to me just how delayed and severe her needs really are. She is still doubly incontinent. She is non-verbal. Her communication skills are restricted to a few signs, that she will only use when she is prompted to, not spontaneously. She has little or no understanding of other people's needs. In effect, we are living with a petulant toddler, who is 6 years old, and is showing no sign of developing rapidly to try and catch up with her peers.

It is hard not to look ahead and panic about what the future may hold for us. It is looking very unlikely that Tabitha will ever be independant and as much as being a parent is always a full time post, it's hard to know that in our case, it will be full time, for the rest of our lives with no break. We all love our children, but to know they will never leave you because they can't, and that no matter how things go for you in the future, there will always be a fully dependant child to worry about is one hell of a responsibility.

Birthdays!

Today was my nephew's birthday. He is now 3, and getting to be a grown up little boy. I made him a card and some tags to go on his presents. Here they are.

We spent the day at my Mum's house with the birthday boy, and little Rosie, my niece and had a lovely time. Ellie loved playing with Alfie and Chantelle (my mum's little girl), and Tabitha roamed around doing what she does. It was very good to be out of the house though, as the girls need a lot less entertaining when they are somewhere different.

Then, when I got home I found this.

A fabulous new Stampin' Up! set that I bought second hand on eBay. Called Terrific Tags, and will go brilliantly with my punches. Can't wait for a chance to use them!

I found something to share

Every parent of a disabled child knows the essay "Welcome to Holland". It gives a basic insight into how life changes when your child is disabled. As much as I agree with it, today I found this that Dana Nieder has written, "Amsterdam International". It is about how you enter Holland, and the difficulties you encounter before you even get to Holland. And it's very true.

Please take the time to drop in and read it. If you don't live with a child with a disability, it may give you an insight into how those of us who do, really feel.

Ooops!

I haven't updated in over a week! Well, not really that much has happened to us if I'm honest, things just bobbing along as they do. I have been crafting, but what I have been making are my Christmas cards, and I'm not blogging the design until they have all been completed and sent at the beginning of December. This year, I WILL be organised! The design is now finalised, and I'm really happy with it, now the production line starts. I have already cut my cardstock, so the fun can start as soon as I have spare time :-)

Life's a hoot!

One of the things I have got my sticky mits on, is a really, really cute owl punch from Stampin' Up!

I used it today to make a bookmark for Ellie, who, I am relieved to say, has rediscovered the joy of reading. Interestingly, this week, she has been bouncing out of bed in the morning, and demanding to go to school early, because she LOVES school. I am so pleased to hear this, this is exactly how things were before last year, which was horrible for all of us due to her teacher. I have now spoken to her about how sometimes these things happen, and you get teachers you don't get on with, but that you then get teachers who you love, and that makes up for it. Anyway, here is the bookmark I made for her, to celebrate her new love of reading.

I used Close to Cocoa, Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, and Almost Amethyst, with Basic grey Taffeta ribbon, and the Itty Bitty Stamp set. And most importantly, the owl punch. What do you think?

Oooh, look what I got.

I got some new toys today. I am very pleased with them all, and can't wait to have some time to be able to properly use them and see what I can come up with. All lovely stuff, and not even inked yet. I wonder what I can do with them. I must say a very big thank you to my wonderful friend Karen, who enabled me to get these things.

In other news, I took Tabitha to ENT out-patients today. She was a pickle, she totally refused to play the 'now, lets try and check your hearing' game, and she made it clear she didn't want any one looking down her ears. We got sorted in the end though thank goodness. Trouble is, her grommets are blocked and she's going to have to have more put in. This will be the 4th set, and her 21st operation. Speaking of operations, we are still waiting to hear if the PCT will fund her surgery to correct her protruding ears (I refuse to use the term they use to describe them), which could be number 22 if they agree.

Poor Tabitha. She certainly has more than her share of surgery.

Another birthday and a suicidal cat!

I had a bit of time last night and so made a card I needed to get done for the weekend. Here it is.

It was made in Pale Plum and Lavender Lace, using the Happy Everything stamp set. I made a flower using the Scalloped Circle punch, and added a clear button in the centre, that Karen gave me for my birthday. As she had been to visit today, she also brought with her the Cute By The Inch Hostess stamps set for me to play with, and I discovered the square buttons fit this stamp perfectly. The additional accents were from Simply Said, the set I seem to come back to most often.

We have 3 cats, all of whom are getting on a bit. I'm getting a little worried about Willow, our black cat. I think he is feeling his age, and maybe feeling suicidal after I found him today, behind my car. I took this picture before I moved him on.

Really not the safest place for a cat to sleep!!!

More illness

Poor Tabitha has been suffering again with her vomiting over the last few days. For a while yesterday, she was being sick every 10 minutes, which is pretty intense.Today, she has been improving thank goodness. Yesterday, I spent a very very long time on the phone to Karen, who was fantastic. Just being in contact with the outside world during these times can be vital for my sanity, and she offered to pop over today and keep me company as well.

I was pleasantly surprised by Tabitha's reaction to Karen, who she hasn't met before. She was so comfortable in her company that she ended up sitting on Karen's lap, having a cuddle watching tv. I took this picture of them together.

Isn't it cute? Karen's son is autistic and will not tolerate closeness and cuddles at all, which is something so hard to comprehend. Anyway, that made Tabitha's cuddles even more special, and I was so pleased to see her happy and trusting of someone new. She used to hate new people because of her early experiences of hospitals, but I think she is a lot more aware now that not everyone out there wants to stick needles in her. Little by little, she's learning more about people, and she's getting more confidence, which is so lovely to witness.

Evening Out.

Last night, I went over to my friend Karen's house for her official Stampin' Up! launch party. She signed up as a demonstrator in September, and has been beavering away making samples up ever since in anticipation of her launch party, which she timed to coincide with the new catalogue launch.

In return for a small fee, Karen provided drinks and nibbles, and we did 2 make and takes, which I will photograph and add to this blog tomorrow. It was lovely to go out, meet some new people and one or two familar faces, and have fun making lovely things in a great relaxed environment. Some of the ideas Karen has are so fantastic and creative, I can't help but be envious of her talent. I am already planning Christmas tree decorations that she showed us last night, well, I don't have the punch yet that she used, so I will have to alter it to another one that I DO have instead.

Please visit her blog to see more of her work, the samples on display last night really were exceptional, and this lady has worked so hard, she deserves to do well in her venture. And I'm certain that she will.

Rewarding myself

After spending the morning shampooing the carpets, I decided to reward myself by doing some crafting this afternoon. It's the birthday of a friends little girl on Sunday, so I had to come up with a card for her, and this is what I made.

It's in Close to Cocoa and Cameo Coral with Chocolate Chip ribbon. I used my large tag punch, the 1 3/8" circle punch and the scalloped circle punch, and the sentiment is from the Basic Phrases set with the image from Big Bold Birthday. I embossed the cameo coral cardstock with a happy birthday folder in my Cuttlebug.

Little things completed.

It's been a while, to be honest, not a lot to report has happened here. The girls are both in school, no one (for the moment) is sick, and the weather has taken a downward turn :-( I will have to go and walk the dog shortly, but I'm not looking forward to it.

One thing I have done, is get the photographs we needed for our new passports. You see, we have been granted a short break to Disneyland Paris in December (Christmas at Disney, how exciting!), and my passport had expired in 2003, and the girls had never had one. Trying to get a photograph of Tabitha with a neutral expression, looking straight at the camera, against a light background.....not easy! I hope the passport office accept what we managed to get. Also, we haven't told Ellie anything about the trip yet, she would drive us round the bend, so trying to get it done of her, without explaining why she needed to not smile at the camera, tricky! Still all done now, and tomorrow I will be sending the applications off. Fingers crossed all is ok with them.

Another thing I have achieved, I have complained to the PALS team about the Registrar we saw. I often get wound up about things, but don't take any action, but this time I have. They asked me what I hoped to achieve from the complaint, to which I said I wanted the guy to listen to parents, not throw potentially life-limiting illness into a consultation that had no baring on what was being discussed, and not spend all his time obstructing me from speaking to the Surgeon, who has actually met my child, operated on her, and knows her pretty well. I now have to wait for the outcome. I feel better knowing I have raised it now though, even if nothing does come of it, there will be a question mark over his manner in any case.

Change of plans

I was due to meeting a friend for lunch today, but unfortunately this morning, she sent me a text message saying she wasn't feeling well. I pondered what to do with the spare time for a while, should I tidy up, do some more cleaning, washing maybe? In the end I settled on having a play with my lovely new craft goodies that arrived yesterday :-)

My latest order was comprised of all retiring Stampin' Up! stock. Well, the colours are changing, and with ink pads at half price, the offer was too good to miss. I got some coordinating cardstock too, again reduced, and a whole bunch of punches. When I brought in the (rather oversized) box from the car last night, my hubby didn't say a word.....he just gave me a 'look'. So, to try and make up for my expenditure (which was hugely reduced due to the fabulous offers), in the extra time I had on my hands today, I made him this.

The main colour is Almost Amethyst, with Pale Plum and Sage Shadow. The stamps are 'Happy Everything' and 'Basic Phrases', with the heart coming from 'Simply Said' and I added a couple from the Tiny Tags set.

I haven't given him the card yet, but I can't wait to surprise him :-)

Follow up

Having spoken to my contact at the hospital about what happened during our last appointment, I am now awaiting a complaint form so I can notify the people who need to know, that the guy I saw needs to be watched. Hopefully he will be and they won't just 'file' my complaint.

Last night, I made another card. I have lots and lots of crafting kit now, and I can't justify the expense if I don't use it!! This card is in Cameo Coral, and Ruby Red, with Close to Cocoa and More Mustard ribbon. Its yet another Big Bold Birthday example.

It's a bit plain, but I quite liked it.

A quick mention for my girls. Both of them are doing very well at school this year. Tabitha has to cope with a whole new group of children, and is doing so fantastically well. Ellie has all the same children in her class, but a new teacher, and this one seems to be firing her up to learn again. We got to school ridiculously early this morning, as she was so anxious to get in and get started. I hope she will be able to recover some of the ground she lost last year.

I have to tell you this, and ask a question.

We had our appointment at the hospital on Thursday morning, and to be honest, I was disgusted with the guy we saw. With all of Tabitha's issues, I like to see the people I know with her, so I now they know her background and her issues, and I went up to Out-patients expecting to see her Surgeon. We actually saw the Registrar. Who knew nothing about Tabitha, her syndrome, her history, and suggested a totally inappropriate regime to cure her intermittent constipation problem. At that point, I kind of switched off to be honest, which is not the best thing to admit, but when I know what works, to be told to increase the medication by a factor of 6 and then titrate it down (with the guy explaining to me what titrate means, if he knew me at all, he'd have known that was a major part of my old job). My word, if I upped her medication x6, she'd explode!!!!!

So, there I was, listening to this guy telling me what I consider to be the biggest load of rubbish, for him to look at Tabitha's rather substantial notes, and then suggest that she be tested for Cystic Fibrosis. Ok, so from nowhere, you have linked some constipation and vomiting, to oxygen dependancy, and come up with a potentially life threatening and life limiting condition. Given Tabitha's long term relationship with the Respiratory Professor, and the Gastroenterology team, and her full genetic screen (which showed her deletion fully, but failed to show any other anomalies), to suddenly suggest this sort of disorder is completely inappropriate. Another mum may have been completely freaked out by this suggestion. I shot him down in flames, told him her genetics showed nothing of the sort, and waited for the next shot. He then went on to tell me how busy the Surgeon was, and how he would speak to her, and if I could wait 30 mins he would tell me what she said. I decided I couldn't wait that long, and I'd rather receive a letter telling me what she said, as a way of getting the hell out of there.

I am still pondering what to do. This guy seemed to know next to nothing about what he was telling me, and I'm worried that could be dangerous to someone. Do I take it further?

Using tools

Back in July, we had a meeting at the school to discuss Tabitha's needs, and progress. One of the things that was mentioned at this meeting was her willingness to explore new textures and tactile experiences, but only with her hands and fingers. She just never tried to use any kind of tool, even when one was pointed out to her, demonstrated to her, and even put in her hands.

Today, while I was trying to cook dinner, she was hanging around in the kitchen, and climbed up on the footstool and started playing with a little water that was in sink. She loves rubbing water onto her arms and legs, and gradually realised she could drop the cloth in the water, lift it up and let it drip over her arm, then rub the water in. She did this over and over again, my floor was soaked in the end and I had to say stop, but I did get this video of her doing it.

Another little step along the developmental road.

And this on the day she had me up at 4am being sick, and refused to go back to sleep. On the plus side, this afternoon she has finally shown great improvement and she will be back at school tomorrow. Well, when we get back from the latest hospital appointment that is....

Just a quick note

Hello world, I know I haven't written much this week , or should I say anything at all, but I have been getting back in the swing of school routine. Just about got there (into routine that is), only for Tabitha to get sick and so now, she won't be going to school. Consequently, I won't be posting again for a few more days, as Tabitha's sickness tends to take it out of all of us, and I just won't be up to it.

One positive, I have decided what I want to do regarding my Christmas cards. I have a colour scheme and design in mind, and when I can, I'm going to try and put it together and see what it ends up like. Last year, I didn't start on my cards until about 5th December, and I only made 20. This year, I am planning to be more organised.....

More Crafting

The other two cards I made this weekend are below. One was a birthday card, and one a thank you card. Neither of them are 'required' at the minute, but this time of year is always heavily over subscribed with birthdays in Ellie's class, and I wanted to get ahead this year rather than leaving everything to the last minute as I usually do!

The birthday card uses an Old Olive cardstock background, with Creamy Caramel and Not quite Navy inks, and Chocolate Chip ribbon. The stamp set is the wonderful Fox and Friends, which I bought specifically for childrens cards. The Happy Birthday sentiment is from the Big Bold Birthday set.

The Thank You card is in Soft Suede and Old Olive, using the Trendy Trees stamp set, with some Melon Mambo ink. I stamped off before stamping the Melon Mambo trees, as the ink is very bright, and I felt the other colours dictated that the pink should be a little less bright.

Please feel free to coment on my work, as always. :-)

A Peek at my World

I have made 4 cards in 2 days, somewhat of a record for me! The result of this is that my dining room ends up looking like a bomb has gone off. Have a look here, this is what happens when I craft....I wish I could have a dedicated space, like my friends have.....

Back to School

The girls have started back at school and so far things are going well. Tabitha is coping well with the change of children in her class, in fact she acts like she's barely even noticed. She does still look out for her little friend at play times and lunch time, which is reassuring, at least she has someone outside of family and support workers that she is able to identify with and relate to, and a relationship that she has grasped herself, rather than one that has been established for her.
Ellie has moved into Year 3, and and is very happy in her new class. I hope we'll be happier with this teacher too. Last year's was a nightmare. My little girl is now in Key Stage 2, aarrgghh, how did that happen???

The second card...

...which was actually the first one I made last night, but I loved the other one so much more!

This card uses the Big Bold Birthday set. The card stock is Melon Mambo, with Chocolate Chip, and the cupcake is stamped in Melon Mambo and Soft Suede, with the present in More Mustard and Melon Mambo. I used the Basic Phrases set for the sentiment.

I love this!

I haven't crafted for a while, so decided to get out my stash and have a go tonight. I am totally chuffed with what I have made!!!! It's just a birthday card, well 2, but I have only photographed one so far, and here it is.

It uses the Trendy Tree stamp set, which is one of my favourites, and I chose to use Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, and Chocolate Chip colours, except for the tree trunks, which are in Soft Suede. Don't you just love the polka dot ribbon? I do, but I don't have much of it, so it's strictly rationed!!

Cherry on Top Blog Award!

I am very pleased to accept this blog award, which was sent to me from Karen. Thank you so much Karen.



There are 5 conditions to this award :



1) That I thank the person who sent me the award.



2) That the receiver places the award on their blog.



3) The Receiver lists 3 things about themselves.



4) The Receiver posts a photo that they love.



5) Tag 5 people for the award to keep it going.



OK, so here goes:



1) Thank you to Karen for the award. Karen is a dear friend who I have become close to recently. She is a very special lady, who's out look on life is amazing, and who finds things to smile about despite life's considerable adversities. She has also just sustained an injury, so pop over and see her blog here, and wish her well. Oh, and her crafting skills have to be seen to be believed!



2) Award posted to blog :-)



3) Three things about myself. Trick one. What would people want to know? a) I have learned more about other people and life since having a disabled child than I could have ever imagined, b) I love crafting, and am craving a dedicated crafting area, but there is no room at the inn :-(, c) As much as I love all the animals we have, I am, and always have been, a cat person.



4) This picture is as recent as I could get. I took it today when I went with the girls to visit a friend.






I think it shows how little kids really need to have tremendous fun. A slide, a hose pipe, and a sheet of plastic kept these girls busy for 2 hours!


5) The people I would like to tag are below.


Georgie - My friend Georgie, another fabulous crafter, has become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. Her blog is here.


Monica - Another great Stampin' Up! demonstrator. She always has such fantastic ideas and photos on her blog, which is here.


Minna - My friend who is Finnish, but has lived in the UK, South Africa and now Saudi Arabia. She is always so busy, and I miss her so much. Her blog is here.


I am not able to tag anyone else at the minute, as I just don't follow enough blogs! Forgive me Karen, but as I am new to this, I just haven't got the connections yet! When I find new blogs to follow, I'll post here.

I hope that's ok, please visit everyone tagged and leave a note :-)

Adoption Card

My Mum, who is a foster carer, asked me to come up with an adoption card for a a child she knows who is going to be adopted this week. As she said, there are cards available commercially for adopters, but she wanted something more personal, and that could be more for the little girl to look back to one day, so she would have something from someone who knew her before she was given her forever home. After thinking for some time, and discounting using the little girl's name, which the adopters may change, I came up with this.

After I'd finished, I had a crisis, thinking that Mum would want something younger in design, using teddy bears for example. Luckily, she loved what I'd produced.

More fun!

Chris took the day off work today, and we all went out for the day to Crealy Adventure park. If you have kids, and are ever in the area, it's well worth a visit. They have indoor and outdoor activities and rides, and animals galore. We went last year during our holiday, which was in term time (how naughty!), which meant there were almost no queues and we spent all day going on and off of rides with Ellie. Today, being the school holidays it was certainly busier.

The first thing we headed for was the Pirate Ship, which took us ages to get Ellie to go on last year, but she made a bee-line for it today. Here is a picture of her with her Daddy having a ride.

Then we headed to the carousel, with the aim of getting Tabitha on at least one ride during the day. I took her on, and we sat together in a car, with Ellie riding on one of the horses in front of us. Tabitha seemed to enjoy this, which was a relief.

Feeling a little ambitious, I then took Tabitha on the log flume. She was very excited, looking at all the water while we waited to get on, then got a bit anxious as we went round. She wasn't keen on the tilt as the log went up on the conveyor, but seemed to be coping, and then we went down the other side, water splashed on her, and my goodness, she lost it! Unfortunately, it's a 2 drop flume, so when we started going up again, she was aware of what was going to happen, and became very tense. I sheltered her face this time, and she didn't get so wet, and although she wasn't all that happy, she recovered very quickly.

Then we went for our lunch, and had a wander through the wooded area, here's a picture of my gorgeous family, just before we went to see the deer.

Then we went to another barn, and Ellie had about a million goes on this. She started by going on with either Daddy or me, but then got very brave and was just queueing up by herself in the end.

Then I had the idea of getting on the mini-rollercoaster with Tabitha. I thought the speed of it would be ok for her, and she loves feeling wind in her face, so I thought we'd give it a go. Bad idea. One of the main problems was that people were screaming (as they do on coasters), and I'd forgotten that. Tabitha can't bare sudden loud noises like that. She didn't enjoy it at all, but we survived, and although it took her a while to settle afterwards, she doesn't seem to have been traumatised by her experience. Ellie and Chris went back on later, and she stood and watched it going round and round while we waited for them, and was perfectly happy. Sorry to say Tabitha, we are a family of thrill seekers, you better get used to it babe!

Ellie had a go at milking a cow, which she enjoyed, but didn't like the grease they used on the udders, and she got a certificate to say she had done it which she is proud of.

We were there for almost 7 hours, and on the way home, I took this photo. Always a nice image, you know you've done a good job when they crash out in the car :-)

Day of Fun

Today, Tabitha spent the day with a lovely lady who she has known for a long time. This lady was her carer at the Special Needs Playgroup (before the Council made the unbelievable decision to close this valuable resource down...don't get me started on that one!!), and since leaving there, she has become a part time respite carer, and we are lucky enough to have her services. Leaving a child who is non-verbal and has medical needs with anyone is extremely difficult, and I count myself very lucky to have Jo that I can call on. Anyway, today was one of our respite days, so Tabitha got picked up this morning, and Ellie and I had the day to ourselves.

Usually, we do things together at these times, that we can't do with Tabitha around. We have visited the local caves and climbed the hills before, and we have gone ice-skating, things you just can't do with a large and heavy special needs buggy. But today, funds are a little short (that's the school holidays for you!), so we didn't make big plans. I took Ellie for her morning swimming lesson (she's going every morning this week), then came home, and got the face paints out. I was pleased with the rabbit I painted on Ellie's face. She drew a butterfly on mine. I know I am going to regret this, but here we are, all painted up.

After this, we ate lunch, then went to a family fun swimming session, with another child that my Mum fosters and who Ellie just loves to pieces. It was great fun, jumping about, chasing them around and tipping them off floats. Then we came home, and Ellie made a card for the person who has been running the morning swimming lessons for years. This week is his final course, and she is sorry he is leaving. Ellie has been going to these week long courses now for 4 years, and was a total non-swimmer when she started (at 3!). Now she is an extremely accomplished swimmer for her age, and she still loves it. We have a lot to thank him for.

Tabitha displayed great understanding this evening. She was using her switches on the computer, and constantly demanding the program was reset when it had finished. I went to do it one more time, but told her (and signed) that this was the last time, and then it was finished. When the program got to the end, she jumped down off the chair, and headed up the corridor to bed!!! She can demonstrate such great understanding at times, it makes things all the more frustrating when she's being stubborn and digging her heels in. Even her speech therapist once said the thing that holds her back the most, is her own personality. If only we could get her to understand that....

Party Time

Today was one of Tabitha's friend's birthday party. In fact, the party today was for the only little girl in the class that Tabitha actually likes and actively seeks out. Tabitha still is at the 'playing alongside' rather than the 'playing with' stage of development and quite a lot of the children just don't understand how to treat and relate to her. This little girl is very different. I've seen her with Tabitha on a number of occasions, and she is able to judge Tabitha and adapt to her cues amazingly well for such a young child. I took a photo of them coming down the slide together.

I know that Tabitha will be a little confused in September when she goes back to school, and her friend isn't in her class anymore, as she is staying back in the Reception class while they are all moving up. At least she can still see her at playtimes, and hopefully, she'll be a bit better placed to make some more friends this year.

We have 11 more days until school goes back. Sometimes, it feels like forever.....

A new skill

A couple of weeks ago, I attempted to make pasta with Ellie. It was a disaster. I had read various things, but one thing that stood out, was everyone saying how quick and easy it is. Well, we started making it at 4pm, and we didn't get anything to eat until just gone 8pm. We encountered a faulty pasta machine, which required my husband to fix a cog, dried out dough, and just about everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. After all that work, we had a couple of little bits of pasta each, with the rest of the meal supplimented with bought dried pasta.

I decided today to give it one more go. This time, I used the food processor to make the dough, rested it well, only had a small battle with the pasta machine, and was very proud of myself when I produced this:

200gms of fresh egg pasta tagliatelle. I was very proud of myself :-)

I am also very pleased to report that having made the pasta, I also cooked it perfectly, and everyone ate it up and commented about how good it was and how nice it tasted. So now, I might consider making it again, something I wouldn't have thought I would ever say after my first attempt!

Big Bold Birthday again...

On Tuesday it's my Brother-in-law's birthday, so I thought I'd better get on with making him a card. To be honest, like a lot of people, I struggle with male themed cards. Female cards are so much easier to do, a bit of pink, lilac, light blue, and you're done, but male cards are much more tricky. Anyway, as I have just got the Big Bold Birthday set, I decided to use that again, and came up with this.

I was quite pleased with how it came out. I used Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie and Creamy Caramel ink for the cupcake and the sentiment, and Old Olive ink on the Old Olive cardstock for the background. My scalloped edge punch got an outing, as did the two oval punches.

As always, comments are welcomed. x

Latest Cards

I've had to make 2 cards recently, so thought I'd upload the photos tonight. The first one was a thank you card for someone that helped us out recently.

This thank you card uses a background from the Blossoms and Butterflies DCWV matstack, with the Stampin' Up Trendy Trees punched out with the Oval punch and layered on the scalloped oval. The trees are in Old Olive, Melon Mambo and More Mustard. I was quite pleased with this one, although after it had been delivered, I thought how it would have looked nice with some Chocolate Chip ribbon as well.

The next card is a birthday card for one of Tabitha's friends. I'm afraid the colours on this photo are quite poor. I may try and retake the picture tomorrow in daylight to improve it.
This card has been made with the Big Bold Birthday stamp set that I got today :-). I've used Red Red, Summer Sun and Cameo Coral for this one.

Edit: The second image has been taken in daylight and is much more representative of the colours. I also added another stamped image to the card as I felt it needed something else.

Just as a last minute addition, I found this photo of another Thank You card I made for a friend.

This one uses the Simply Said stamp set, my favourite one so far, and I've used the Melon Mambo colour. I really like this card, it's so simple but very pretty.

Please let me know what you think. I think I make cards with varying degrees of success, I need to work on being a bit more consistent.