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!!