Mollie Update

Well Mollie and me had a much better night last night, she seems to be in less discomfort and she is eating a little and drinking. She's slept alot today, so I managed to paint all the coving in the lounge. Steve came home this evening, and as he's watching the football, I've come up to my little craft cave, to make some cards, whilst Mollie sits with her dad.
Would just like to say thank you to the lovely well wishes for Mollie on here and the forums, and the phone calls from my mum and crafting buddy Kara. Mollie gives you all a big sloppy lick....lol.

Now I best get on with some cards, so watch this space xxx

A long day and night

Yesterday Mollie was in the vets to be spayed, I dropped her off at 9 a.m., came home and Steve and me started on the decorating of the lounge, I was glad for something to take up my time as I was really worried. I know being spayed is a common procedure, but it didn't stop me worrying. We were awaiting a call around lunchtime when the surgery should have been completed, we got a call just before 12 to say that the vet had been called to an emergency at their main vetinary hospital, so he was going to take Mollie with him and they would perform the surgery there. Finally at 3:20 we got the call to say the surgery went well and Mollie had come round ok. We were told she'd be transferred back to our local surgery around 6 o'clock and we could then take her home. She seemed quite chirpy when she saw us and was definately pleased to see us. We were told that she maybe a bit sleepy through the evening and may not eat, but gave us a special food for her to have for the first 24 hours and sent us on our way with an aftercare advice sheet. All seemed ok, until we got home. Poor Mollie doesn't know what to do with herself. She has been sick a couple of times and she just can't seem to settle. She appears to be more comfortable if she is sat up, then she dozes off and falls over. I decided I'd sleep downstairs in the lounge with her, but I've only literally had cat naps. Soon as she lies down she'll be lucky if she'll last 5 minutes before she has to move. She's in her bed, on the duvet, on the floor, everywhere, she must be so uncomfortable and very tired (like her mum) as she can hardly keep her eyes open. I don't think she is in any real pain, just extremely uncomfortable, though she does let out little whimpers when she stretches. The sickness appears to have stopped and she has been taking a little water, so thats something.
I just feel so bad, that we have put her through this and feel so hopeless that we can't seem to do anything to help her other then give her love and try and make her comfortable. I knew that obviously there would be some discomfort and that she'd probably be feeling sorry for herself, but I didn't expect it to be this bad or so distressing. I'll obviously be keeping a very close eye on her. Steve has work today and away tonight, so I think Mollie and me will be having a very quiet day (hopefully) on the sofa with a duvet, catching up on sleep.

Here are a couple of my favourite pics of Mollie, both taken not long after we got her, aged 6 months. One cutie pose and one smiley pose.

Welcome to the Lake.....

This is another card for Steve, this time from his mam. I had to do a fishing themed card sometime, so this is it. The image is decoupaged, with matching backing paper. I've run some braid down one side and attached three brads, there's also a little silver brad and thread for the hanging 'welcome to the lake' picture. Good old peel-offs were used for the sentiment.

Secret Crafters Saturday Challenge #6

This weeks Saturday Challenge sketch was set by SCSC sponsor Wendy. This week for a change I've not done a Christmas themed card. The image is a pyramid. The backing paper is actually a sample of wallpaper I had in my crafty stash. I've added some gold ribbon, some gold outline peel-offs and gold peel-off sentiment.

Below is this weeks sketch.

Flippin Men

I made this card for Steve using a sheet from the new La Pashe range called Flippin Men. Other than fishing Steve loves cricket and a beer, so I thought this sheet was perfect. The decoupaged image is double-sided so you get a front view and back view from the inside. It is an aperture card and acetate so the image has been attached to the acetate on bothsides. I designed the backing paper myself in PSP with the word 'OWZAT' (a cricketing term) and a cricket ball image. I cut a rectangle out of the backing paper to creat a frame, and outlined with blue sticky crepe tape. The sentiments were printed and matted onto blue card.

I'm showing two images one of the front of the card and other of the inside.

La Pashe - Home Sweet Home

I made this card for my brother and his family using one of the wonderful La Pashe, Remember When... sheets.

They move into their new home today, so I'd like to wish them good luck and much happiness in their new home. I hope the move runs smoothly and I can't wait for when I next come down south to see them and their new home xxx

The new series 5 and 6 of Remember When.... is to be released on Monday 10th November on Create & Craft at 6 p.m. For more details visit Jak's Blog - Crafters Kitchen

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge #5

This weeks Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge was another sketch with a twist. The sketch is by DT member Jill, the twist was to use the colours Pink, Brown & White.

I've used a victorian style christmas image and made into a shaker. The outer frame has been glittered in pink. The mirror card is actually a bronze colour, not that it looks like it in the photo. I ran a strip of DST down the middle of the side border and used the pink glitter again. The base card is brown and then pearlised white card on top. Finished with a brown and silver embossed oval sentiment. Sorry there is a lot of reflection on the picture and as mentioned earlier the colours aren't what they seem.

Below is this weeks sketch.

My weekend and a 40th Birthday card

I went to Kanban again on Friday to meet up with some crafting buddies old and new, Kara, Ann, Greta and Pam. We had a lovely few hours filling our boxes with Kanban goodies and having a lovely chat over a coffee when we finished. It was lovely to meet Greta and Pam for the first time, they came up north for a craft get together over the weekend to meet up with some Image-n-ation and Joanna Sheen forum members. I was unable to go to the craft weekend as it was our youngest daughter's birthday, but from what I hear everyone who went had a lovely time.
Saturday was Charlotte's birthday, much of the day was spent getting her pressie, she wanted a laptop as a combined birthday/christmas present. It was something she really needed as the room she rents is so tiny there is no room for her desktop pc, and a computer is a must for her uni work. We found one for her after a few hours, that had everything she needed and wasn't to heavy or too big, quite boring when someone like me doesn't have a clue about all the tech stuff, but Steve seemed to be in his element...lol, we were all going to go for a meal in the evening, but Charlotte was asked to work and she decided to take it for the extra pennies.
Sunday Charlotte and two of her sisters came over for the day and to have dinner, so was nice to see three of the girls all together.
After a fairly full weekend, there hasn't been anytime time for crafting, but I have started to have a big craft room sort out, which I really need to try and finish today as everything is all over the place, so no crafting will get done till it is.
However, I do have a card to show you. I made this card last week for a crafting forum buddy who is 40 today, so Happy Birthday Paula :-). The letters and numbers were cut on my Bug using the Hippie Chick Alphabet Cuttlebug die set. I've added 2 fabric flowers from my craft stash and attached by using flower eyelets. The butterflies are holographic peel-offs stuck to card, cut out and then slightly bent into shape so that the wings are lifted up above the body and then attached using a little silicon under the body part.

Happy Halloween

Well yesterday was spent on a different kind of crafting, it was taken up with pumpkin carving and making pumpkin pies. All the girls are grown up now and away from home, but we, especially Steve, still love to have pumpkin pie. So why waste the pumpkin shell, so it will take pride of place on my doorstep this evening ready for the trick or treaters. Last year there was a knock at the door, and when I opened it there stood a minature pony with a witches hat....lol, then a little girl popped out from behind a post saying trick or treat. It was so funny and so novel, I wonder if they'll be back this year, to bring me a smile. Happy Halloween Everyone xx

Fred's Flowers

I've been meaning to use Fred's Flowers from Fred, She Said for ages, so I decided to use them on the two birthday cards for my step-daughters.



The backing papers are Floral Felicity Papers with matching die-cut swirls and flower. Brown organza ribbon runs down the joint between the two different papers. I printed the fred's flowers on glossy photopaper, they were yellow but I've used Chestnut Brown H2O with a water brush to darken them. Green brads hold the layers together. Made a gift tag greeting using brown card, striped paper and a printed sentiment in brown.




The pink flowers are on the same sheet as the yellow ones, so again on glossy photopaper. The background leaves and flowers are stamped onto light green card and stardust sakura pens were used to colour the detail. The fred's flowers are again attached with gold brads. Mounted onto glossy pink card and then the light green card again. The base card is pink with gold peel-off decorations. The sentiment is printed on pearlised pink paper matted onto the glossy pink and light green card.

The flowers on both cards have been creased down the middle of each petal.