Speedy is Sorted !!

Yes peeps, Speedy has 3 kidneys! His transplant went really well yesterday and his new kidney started to work straight away. All the surgeons are made up. He came back up to the ward sporting a bag full of pee!! He was really groggy and wired up to the hilt. I left him in a semi awake state.
I went back today and this is Speedy under the influence of lots of morphine and a bit of ice cream.

A few minutes after this ,there was a bit of a trauma because his morphine ran out at the same time as he needed to cough. The pain came back, and as 2 qualified nurses had to deal with the replacement as it was a certain type of drug, he had to wait what seemed like ages but was probably about 15 minutes. It wasn't nice to see him in so much pain and I had a go at the nurses when they arrived but this is what the NHS is turning into. The second nurse was dealing with something equally urgent and we had to wait.

Anyway, as much as I love him to bits, enough of him. Without his sister Diane this wouldn't be happening. She was always the family hero anyway. She was in nursing as a career, and she and her husband Gareth, along with Speedy, took on the major role in looking after after their dad in his later years after he had a stroke. Dad has now departed and Diane spends a lot of time at Mothers helping her as she is almost blind now.

Monday was a very emotional day for her husband and myself. He must be so proud of his wife. I know I'm very proud of my sister in law. Thank you Diane. Love you so much. xx.

Once again thanks for all cards received so far, and those yet to come.

How time flies.....

...............when you're not having fun .The last six weeks have not been the happiest. I always thought it would be great not to have to go to work and just potter around doing housewifely stuff and crafting the day away. I was so wrong. My mojo disappeared with my self respect when I lost my job. I mean, OK winning the lottery would have made a bit of a difference but "jobless" is not the same, and the Job centre is a really degrading experience.
  BUT!!!! That's all over!! I've started work today. Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe closed down a few months ago in Chester and has just been taken over by a lovely lady. We spent all day stocking up for the reopening tomorrow. There are three fantastic students working there and another girl ( who may be assistant manager) who is on hols at the mo. I have the same hours as in my last job but better arranged, and it's in the same street. I'm going to go and give my ex boss Patrick a hug next week as although he was a bit naughty, I still love him to bits. Water under the bridge now. These things happen for a reason.
 The best news?!!!! Speedy is having his kidney transplant on sept 3rd. His sister is donating. My new boss is very understanding and the students are willing to cover some of my hours..........................I can feel a card coming on!  Watch this space.   Love to you all.

My final regular post.

Happy new year everyone. I hope you achieve everything you wish for this year. After a long hard consideration I've decided not to continue with my blog on a regular basis. When I started out the blog was influenced by my card making. Somehow I let this totally turn around so my craft was ruled by my blog and what my followers would like to see. I felt (and quite rightly too) the need to give links to the free artwork I have used in my creations, which sometimes took me a long while to trace the origins if I hadn't already saved the page addresses. My blog also sometimes got in the way of doing stuff that wasn't really blogworthy i.e. repeat stuff or items using images I didn't have links for.
I didn't do typing at school and as a result ( although I was good at  English), I can look up from my laptop and find I've done a whole sentence in capitals which is a real pain. It happens all the time, lol.
 Thank you so much to the 14 people who have asked me to carry on. I will continue to follow your blogs. I had 203 followers. 4 have jumped ship already. It sort of says it all.
If I have anything unusual or particularly seasonal to share I will post it here.

Thank you to my faves, Coops, Jules,  Lee from St Agnes, Jules ,always with a heart, Teresa, Incy , Liegh, Irene ,Kay, Faith, Barbara, Julie Smith, Tilly, Sheila Cyprus, Triciasconfetti, Ali, Purple mad Alison, Lynn, Crafty Loops, Judi, Ali, Karen, And any regular readers.
My next project is to update my really naff rented kitchen. Curtains, tablecloth, mugs etc. Maybe a crafty make or two................

Oh and this is the real biggie....Target weight 9st 2lb. Today a whopping 9st 6lb1!!!!

A sad day for Speedy's family.

As we all know Gary Speed took his own life yesterday. Gary was my  Speedy's second cousin i.e. Speedy's dad's brother was Gary's granddad. I'll never understand suicide but my heart goes out to my husbands family especially at this time of year.

Oats so Hilarious.

No cards today but a bit of a giggle instead. Now, no way am I about to take the wee wee out of my boss as I respect his position as proprietor and besides, he pays my rent,lol. No, I love him to bits, partly because he's such a sweetie pie, but not least, because he makes me laugh. He doesn't tell jokes or funny stories. He doesn't need to. He makes me laugh just by being Patrick. On Friday morning he arrives on the shop floor with a sachet of Oat so Simple which his girlfriend had given him for his morning break as he usually skips breakfast due to the 6am start.

I'm tittering to myself now before I've even told the story, lol. It was fairly busy in the shop so I couldn't give him my full attention, but he was basically trying to figure out what to do with the sachet. I glanced at it  ( I've never had one of these either as I don't like porridge) and said well have you got a bowl ? He said  "no, I'll make it in my mug", which is quite large.  Then he said,  " oh come one Di, it can't be as hard as it looks on the packet" (!!) and went downstairs.  2 minutes later he went back to check on his gorgeous smelling brekkie. I heard a load of expletives and he was standing there with a microwave turntable covered in oats. "What happened", I said. "I dunno, it's a load of s**t ",  he said. It was only half an hour later after a load of questions, I realised what he'd done. He'd stood the packet of oats in the mug,  filled it to the mark with milk and switched the microwave on!! Well we laughed our heads off. At least the shop smelled of lovely syrup for ages. I told him he was going on my blog  which he doesn't look at anyway. Love him to bits , he's so funny, much better than working with a load of  boring women talking about bleaching and cleaning..................

Happy Birthday Speedy !!

Today is my lovely Speedy's birthday.

Happy birthday you big softie !  Mind you this photo is 12 months old and Speedy is now one and a half stone lighter, but still a big softie. Everybody loves him, even the men, lol. My mum used to say you could tell if a man will be a good husband if he looks after his mum and she was right. Speedy  goes to his mums every day after work and makes sure she's had something to eat and everywhere is locked up.He bought my mum a little pressie just from him and asked me to pretty it up for her. The little bag contains some Thorntons chocs.

We are going out tonight for another of those Roman meat feasts. I may opt for something a bit smaller , but then I'm a greedy so and so , I'll let you know tomorrow...........

Edited for Ali. The sentiment is from Ginger's House. There are loads of sentiments on this site, it's fab.

Winner of my little prize.

I'm back from, whoever would have thought.............Weymouth !! I never thought in a million years we'd be heading south and neither did anyone playing my little guessing game. According to Google maps, although it was a very close shave, the winner is Kay.  Well done Kay, if you could either e,mail me or pm me at Docrafts with your address I'll send it to you.
We had a few excursions and one of them had a little stop off at Shaftsbury where the Hovis advert was filmed.

Here's that famous road.

And here's the famous loaf.
I had to work my 11 hour shift today but I'm off tomorrow so I'll be washing and ironing.   Lovely.............

A Little Competition.

I'm going away tomorrow for 4 days. It's a mystery coach trip so we don't know where we are going. I was tidying my den and found a few things i wasn't likely to use so i decided to do a little competition.  Try and guess where we end up (leave comment) and the person who guesses nearest wins. If more than one person gets it right i'll get Speedy to pick a name out of his pint glass,lol.

Not the most exciting prize, just a few odds and ends for a bit of fun .I may find a few more bits but won't have time to take another pic. We will definitely be in either England, Scotland or Wales and don't forget if you choose a place which there is more than one of like Whitchurch or Whitby etc, to say which one. Closing date/time, 6pm Monday2nd May. I will let you know who wins next week, either Monday or Tuesday night. Sorry, open to UK residents only due to postal charges. Good luck. XX

Happy Mother's Day.

Off to mum's now. Be back later. xx

No milk today milk carton.

Just a quickie post to show you a short notice gift i made for a friend of Speedy's who was having an impromptu retirement drink at the local pub. He is, or was a milkman. so it had to be a milk carton didn't it.

The stamps are Elzybells . The milk carton instructions are HERE but i altered mine to come out bigger. Then i had to find something to go in it. Hey... Crawfords Malted milk biscuits with the funny captions.

The sentiment on the tag could only have come fom the bowels of my computer,lol. I also made a matching card but didn't have time to take a piccy.

Get Out of my House !

O.K. Here comes January and the instinct to clean the nest. I said instinct, not desire lol. A lot of us are turning our thoughts to black bin bags and rubbish dumps. My home is like a rubbish dump at the moment.

Well it isn't really but that's how i see it. Today i've made a start clearing stuff that's been accumulating over the years. Most of it belongs to Speedy by the way and it's going to be hard work getting him to part with useless items. The living room is fine but the bedroom and spare room need a total sling out. Anything new that enters the flat has nowhere to go. Storage is a problem anyway as there are boxed in pipes all around the outer walls which means nothing can go flush against the wall. I'm going to have to be totally ruthless.  I think if i get this sorted my mojo will come back. I tried to make a card today but i can't seem to get on with paper and card at the moment as i know i should be doing more important things. Wish me luck y'all !

Oh, and listen to this !!! Me and Speedy fell asleep after a couple of drinkies on Saturday. I was woken to the Sound of Speedy saying  "Di, there's a fly in my ear, there's a fly in my ear" ! We tried to flush it out with water and a dropper without success and i was thinking it must only be a tiny little thing to get into a mans hairy ear. But no, he went to the docs today and it was a full blown house fly,lol. How gross !!  And no my flat isn't that bad that it's full of flies. It may be cluttered but it's clean,lol. See you soon.

Shopping Trip

No cards today because while my mojo is on strike i took the opportunity to go to Liverpool Papermill Shop yesterday. As all their shops seem to be closing down one by one i thought i'd better go and stock up mainly with the white card i use for my 6 x 6 (ish) card bases. There were 3 assistants at the till and i asked if people had been panic buying. No answer, so i said " you know, with some of your other shops closing". Just a one word reply "no". Then i said " there's plenty of panicking going on on the Docrafts website". No reply again. So i didn't pursue it any further, no point, they must only employ robots. I don't slag shop assistants very often as i am one myself and there's always 2 sides to the story but these 3 were just not interested in conversation,lol. I got 3 large boxes, so come on mojo where are you?
Here's a little photo fom Cute Overload. A great site with lots of funny pics and videos. Daft dogs and scatty cats etc. Go and have a peek.

Yes, i know what day it is lol. Ahem...... target weight 9st 2lb,   todays weight, 9st 5lb. Not bad as i've ate and drank for Queen and country for 3 weeks . No point in doing anything about it yet as there's still "stuff" in the house but look out treadmill, i'm coming to get ya soon....................

Hopefully the last.

I think (hope) this is my last Christmas card for this year apart from Speedy's and the 2 mums. Oh to make an Easter or spring card,lol. Something with flowers or rabbits on it. At least this one has spring colours.

I love this Little Clare's elephant, i sometimes paper piece the umbrella. The leaves are done with an X.Cut
Botanicals embossing punch. I will be spending my Christmas money on more of these. I've got some of the Woodware ones but they are a bit too big. The backing paper is DCWV.

Well, enough about cards for today because i need to go into town to get a frame for this.

Our grandson Michael at 3 months old. Sweet or what?

I did it! I did it!!

Ten years ago today i got married. I weighed 9st 2lb. This morning i weigh 9st 1lb ! I've lost my stone plus another pound. I have worked so hard to get here in time for today. I've not dieted seriously at weekends but i've walked myself stupid to compensate.I'm so pleased !! I know it's not weigh in day today but the reason i'm telling you today is because i'm likely to be fat on friday after my big scoff tonight. Happy days!

Blog Award.

I received this lovely award from my blogging buddy Kay on Crafty Spider. Thank you Kay. Now i need to pass it on to 7 other bloggers. It was very hard deciding which 7 but here they are.

1. Coops Cluttered Corner.
2. Rainbow Days.
3. Always With A Heart.
4. Vixx Handmade Cards.
5. Crafting All Day.
6. My Inky Hands.
7. Wishcraft.

I wish i didn't have to stick to 7 as there are loads more blogs out there which inspire me.

More bargains from WHS.

Just when i thought i'd had all the bargains from WHS i went in yesterday to find more stuff had appeared. I'll have to keep visiting because i think they must be getting stuff from other branches.
     GET THIS !!

Yes that's right 12 x 12  DCWV card stack for £2! I've had a couple of these before and i've only got bits of naff colours left so i was well chuffed. It had no wrapper on and was slightly scuffed at the edges but who cares for that price.

I also got a scrapbook stack for £2. It has a few pages of press out tags and things which aren't my cup of tea but the letters are ok and the papers (40 sheets) are really good quality.The plain kraft gift tags were only 20p a pack. There were boxes of stuff piled up to be unpacked so i'll be back asap.There were two assistants chatting in the corner and i felt like saying for gods sake get these boxes open now.
I did this as a scheduled post last night as it was going to be a longish one and it's workday so i'd best get my skates on.   Di.x

Friday weigh in, just about 9st 6lb,(9.7. yesterday) so  i've managed to remove one of the offending 2 pounds i gained , total loss so far, 10lb. Speedy went to Nantwich show on wednesday and came home with two big bagfuls of cheese so that's next weeks hurdle!

How sweet is this baby?

Say hello to baby Michael. He has melted the heart of the least interested person where babies are concerned,I usually just look and grunt ( a bit like a teenage boy) with disinterest. I looked into that cot at the hospital on sunday and was gobsmacked. He was only 6 days old. No wrinkled up little creature, not one bit.Just look at this.

How could i not be smitten. Although at the time i didn't know this. You see at the time i was sitting to the right of Speedy refusing to have a hold of Michael as he has a broken collar bone ( Nina was begging the nurses to get him out as nothing was happening, 1 hour later doctor came and said head is wrong way and baby is wedged behind mums pelvis and decided to yank him out) . Mum had 22 stitches and now has a hernia.The wedding in september will most likely be moved to a later date. But Nina and Michael are doing fine. Daddy Neil is starting his new better paid job on sunday. He has always worked hard in the hotel/catering trade and we are very proud of him. It wasn't until i started editing the quickie photos i took that i realised how cute this little chap is.  Talking of proud, look at Speedy, bless him.

Michael when he was born was 22" long, a third of the height of an average adult. I will hold my "little lad" when his shoulder is healed, i'd hate do undo any of natures work because of my awkwardness.
       Neil and Nina, thank you so much,  If Michael is ever naughty just send him to Nanny McSpeed, (just joking).       Di.xxxx.

I'm back and Speedy's a grandad.

Sorry i'm late today. I went with Speedy for his renal check up and they've cranked up his lowish potassium allowance to extra low so i've been searching for recipes on t'internet all afternoon, there's potassium in nearly everything, plus they want him to lose a bit of weight. But enough of that for now. Speedy's grandson Michael was born at the same hospital while we were with the dietitian. He weighed in at a stonking 10lb 2 oz but is in an incubator for a day or so as he's having difficulties with his breathing. He was 2 weeks overdue and had to be induced. We are all really worried but apparently it's not an uncommon thing to happen and hopefully he'll be fine in a couple of days.
    Apart from this we had a really good weekend. We stayed at Letchworth Hall hotel in Letchworth in Hertfordshire.

This is the front of the hotel.

This is the "backyard".

And this is the lounge. Yep there's Speedy checking his phone for any missed calls,lol.We had a day out in ST Albans on saturday, what a lovely place. There was a big outdoor market with loads of fresh fruit and veg stalls. They all had big clear plastic bowls with fruit or veg in and they where all £1 each. We have nothing like that in Chester, ok there's an indoor market of sorts but no outdoor one despite having plenty of space outside. On the way down we drove through Luton. It is mainly inhabited by ethnic people. You can imagine the comments from the older people on the coach but i thought it was i sight to behold. Every other shop (well, nearly) had beautiful sari's or sari materials in their windows in gorgeous colours and in between these shops were loads of greengrocers with huge displays on the pavements. There was a Morrison's in town and i wondered how these small shops survived but it's probably only the English who go there for their ready meals and frozen stuff. And the women put us to shame in their beautiful sari's, not a pair of jeans or trainers in sight.
Well that's all from me for tonight, off to stir the chilli with no kidney beans and hardly any mushrooms and onions lol. He'd best not complain or he'll be wearing it!

Scrapheap challenge, and Happy Birthday Neil.

Well, i mosied back into my den yesterday afternoon after the birthday activities and was faced with the scraps from the last weeks creative burst (lol).i thought i'd best make a quick card for today. I looked at the debris and also remembered my quest to get rid of all those peel offs in the drawer.

It was one of the quickest cards ever. It took me longer to tidy up the mess than it did to make the card. Mind you that's about right isn't it? The music paper is by payperbox and the other bits are peel offs. "Sound", as they may say.
Big housework to be done today and big food shopping. Speedy's working and i don't drive so Dolly the Trolly is coming to Tesco lol. I'ts a trendy trolly, no tartan for me yet. I wont need a whole lot as we're going on another mystery coach trip on friday (fat) yippee!!                 Di.xx

Happy Birthday Neil!! (Speedy's son). Where is Michael then????  Baby Michael was due on the 6th, poor Nina, how can anyone so small be so big. Love you both . Dad & Di.xxxxxx

This is so funny, you've just got to laugh (again).

Regular readers will know i bought a treadmill about 3 weeks ago to speed up my diet which has been a source of amusement.This is a weekend off diet and i've either been losing a pound a week or "sticking" despite stuffing my face every weekend.Not bad eh? In fact too good to be true, even, strange. When i first hopped on my treadmill i was rather gutted to find i had walked a mile at 4mph and only burned 30 cals. Right Mrs, i thought, got to go further, faster. I've got myself up to strutting 4 miles in the mornings and one or two miles at night at five /five and a half miles an hour, but a 4 mile session  still  only burned 120cals. It has took me three weeks to start wondering if it could be wrong. HELLO?!  I decided to stroll a mile at 2mph to test it out, still only read 30 cals,a bit suspicious i thought ..........Hmmm...............!!!!..I've just been on endless websites with endless calculators for weight, mph, distance etc and they ALL say i've been burning at least 100 cals per mile at 5mph!!! That's on top of the calories cut on food in the week !!  This is so funny !! I've been strutting off at least 550 cals a day on that thing (700 today) plus walking into town and back (one and a half miles)thinking i was burning off a lettuce leaf!! This is the best ever discovery, to scoff every weekend and get rid in the week,.............justice will be done!! Best £120 i ever spent, lol. The best bit is that it gets easier every time i use it.