Card for a New Home.

Right,I made this card a few weeks ago, and with waiting for it to arrive, then going into hospital, I've just realised that I hadn't blogged it.

The main stamp is by Hobby Art, from a set called 'Hares'. We spotted this at The Happy Stampers Festival last year, and as Doug pointed out, it would be perfect for anything for LLJ, as she is known for her love of Hares. So when Jan announced they were moving to Wales, and that they had a date for moving in, I remembered this stamp set.

This is the journal I was trying out some scenes using Card-io stamps in a while back, and I can't figure why I've never done this before, instead of winging it and hoping for the best. I've always got a stack of scrap paper under my work, and have occasionally done a test imprint on that, but never tried figuring out placement and colour.
 Anyhow, first off I stamped him in black, then built up the grasses around him using an assortment of green dye inkpads, and some stamps from an Inkylicious set called 'Essential Grasses'. Which it is, I think. A great selection of types of grass.








I didn't think I liked the black version, so instead tried it in Archival Rich Cocoa, which is what I went with for the card.
 When I stamped him onto the card base, I also stamped another onto Post-its, so I could mask him when I wanted to add the sky.
 The hare was coloured with Distress Markers in Antique Linen, and Walnut stain, using a waterbrush to drag the colour.

Bit of a jump here to the finished scene, when I realised I'd forgotten to take any 'in the process' pictures!
 I stamped the hare in Archival Rich Cocoa, then the grasses surrounding him in Adirondack Meadow and Lettuce.
 Tearing some scrap paper into hill shapes, I used a soft brush to create the hills with the Adirondack greens again.
Using Adirondack Sunshine Yellow and Sunset Orange, along with a dry baby wipe, I created a sunrise behind the hills, then put the mask over the hare.
Again using a soft brush I applied Adirondack Stonewashed all over the sky area, then added Sailboat Blue onto the upper portion of the sky, to get a sort of mottled look.
 A portion of fencing from another Hobby Art set was stamped in Archival Black onto one hilltop, then an Inkylicious Flock of Birds, and a butterfly added.


 The corners were rounded off- this little rounder from X-Cut is actually really good, better than other cheap ones I've had. I do have the Corner Chompers, but this one was handy.

 I matted the image onto dark blue cardstock, then rounded those corners too.
 Next it needed a sentiment, and one of the Phill Martin sets I've bought recently, Mini Baroque Occasions Set, has a New Home one in it.
 That was stamped in Archival Cobalt in the upper left of the scene.
I mounted the image onto a 7" square card base, then tied a blue and white spotted chiffon ribbon along the bottom.
 And then it was done.

Stamps Used:
 Hobby Art, March Hares
Hobby Art, Woodland Glade( Hillside fence)
Inkylicious, Essential Grasses
Inkylicious Take Flight( lots of bird flocks)
Inkylicious Playful Cats ( Butterfly)
 Phill Martin Mini Baroque Occasions Sentiment Set.

WOYWW #403

Another week further into the year, and time for linking up again with our favourite Hostess, Julia, over at The Stamping Ground.
 Not much going on over here, I seem to spend a lot of time sleeping, and doing very little else. We did go out to buy some meat last weekend, and the farm shop we get our meat from is conveniently right next door to our local craft shop!

The two handfuls of stuff followed me home- love that Impression Obsession snowman, really cute.
 The Thinlits die is one of Tims latest releases, and to be honest,is one of the few items that grabbed me this time around.

Some wooden snowflakes in two sizes, and some metal embellishments made up my shopping.






Earlier in the week I'd had some more stamps arrive- some of the latest releases from Visible Image.

 Bottom right is a face mask/stencil, to work with the eyes stamp set next to it.
 Well, I'll be around to visit in a while, in between naps, lol.

The Making Of a Valentines Card

Well, I promised a blog post on it, so here it is.  It all came together fairly quickly, as the general idea had rattled around in my head over the weekend. Of course, the smart thing would to have got it made before I went into hospital, but lets not go there, hey?
 Kept it simple in colours- Black, White & Silver, with a small splash of red at the end.
 We bought the word stamp at the Hobbycrafts NEC last year, as it's a phrase special to us, we use it between us often.

  My Supplies: Silver Encore Pigment pad, Black Memento ink,- there was also silver EP and Black detail EP not in the picture- A Moon stamp from Lavinia Stamps,  and the word stamp from Inkylicious. The notebook was to try out the positioning of the moon & words, to make sure I could stamp it and die cut it with a heart shaped die.
 I had a 7" square card base as a starter, and cut a silver cardstock square to fit the front, then cut a black pearl layer to sit on top of that.
 Next came the stamping, and I first stamped the words in Memento Tuxedo Black, and then heat embossed with Black detail Powder, onto white pearl card.
 Positioning the Moon stamp needed a bit of care, as I wanted it to fit easily into the heart, but not obscure the wording.

Here you can see I had positioned the heart die I was going to use after I'd stamped the words, and drawn lightly around the outer edge of the heart, to give me a guideline.  

 I stamped the Moon using Silver Encore Pigment Ink, then heat embossed using Silver EP. That did actually cover the lettering in a couple of places, but I used a finepoint Black marker to bring the letters back.

The heart shape is from a set by Nellie Snellen, and is the largest die of the set.

I was intending to add a white card layer slightly smaller than the black one, to leave a narrow border, but then I looked at the white offcut that I had die cut the focal heart from, and it made a pleasing layout with  a larger black border, so I went with that.
I'd already pictured that I wanted a sort of sweep of hearts from one corner to the opposite one, so set about sorting some out. There are a various sizes, some punched, some small die cuts, all from oddments of glitter card/ stamped card or paper and vellum.
 I lay out my small hearts,roughly lining them up to opposite corners, then used some dabs of silicone glue to adhere them, so I didn't have to unassemble everything. Finally added the main Focal Point on top, using some foam pads.

WOYWW #402

And as most of you will know from following all the updates, I'm out of hospital, and starting to get back to my desk. Doing everything very slowly, trying to gradually build myself up again, and bolstering myself with painkillers along the way. Another week, and another WOYWW, over at Julia's place, The Stamping Ground.
  A balloon decorating the back of my PC desk chair!
 A huge bunch of flowers were waiting for me when I got downstairs, from my Beloved Hubby.

I'll blog this card I made for Hubby in the next couple of days- one of those that all sort of came together in my head, then everything went where it was supposed to!

I'll be round visiting on and off, I still can't sit too long in one position or my side hurts, so I end up going off for a lie down every now and then.
 But it's wonderful to be back home with Beloved Hubby, and to be able to visit all my Blogging friends.

I'm Back!

Yes indeed, I finally got released from hospital on Thursday 9th, but it's taken me a few days of doing pretty much nothing to settle in again. It was actually a bit of a shock when she said 'You can go home today'- I wasn't expecting that at all. Thought it might possibly be Friday, or more likely Saturday.  Quite sure I've come out with twice as much as I went in with! I'd already messaged Doug to let him know not to bother bringing anything else in with him, so I knew he's get that message later in the day, as he'd have been in bed by the time they did their rounds, and that I could keep a check on when everything was going to be ready, so he could get there  and not have too much waiting. As it happened, they were pretty efficient with the prep of the GP's letter, and all the medication.Everything was ready by about midday, so it was just a matter of waiting for Doug to wake up and get my message.
 Not having any problems with breathing, that has got better day by day, and as long as I do things slowly,all is fine. No real pain, more soreness and uncomfortable, but as I have slow release morphine, I expect that has something to do with it.
 If surgical scars bother you, you may want to skip over this next bit 😒
 
 Funny how you don't actually consider some things- I'd been expecting a smallish- maybe up to 5" scar once I realised it had been open surgery. Which means I got a heck of a shock when I saw this! Definitely not was I was expecting to see. Nice patch of bruising below it, and that stitch- somehow or other, when they remove the drain from the surgical site, that stitch is attached to the end of it, and pulls everything closed when it comes out.
 So I'm currently doing something I've never done before- PJ days! Just makes it easier to dress/change if Sid has any accidents, without getting myself short of breath managing alone.
 Finally, I want to say a huge Thank You to all of my Blogging friends for their kindness, prayers, love & support for us both not only for this surgery, but all of the time. We love you all.

WOYWW #401 (Hublet Edition)

Linking up again with our Julia over at The Stamping Ground, to show off this weeks desks of goodies (well cards at least) I have had a go at Scheduling this on Sharon's behalf. I will have a go at doing linky when i get back from work in the morning , but should a kind soul find the time before me that would be fantastic.
I did it and it worked :)

So whats on the desk then I hear you ask? .. (queue asking so Doug whatever could their be on Sharon's Desk?) Well lets take a look then....

A collection of some bought and fantastic hand made cards that's what , they are all fabulous 

So they had had enough of Shaz on HDU so the shunted her out onto the ward Yesterday, with the plan of reducing the oxygen to see how she copes without it. Currently she is on flow rate of 2 i am guessing that the plan would have been to step it down to 1.5 then 1 then .5 etc but nope, the sister in the bay she is in said they will leave things as they are then simply turn it off. Not what i would do but then i am not a nurse/doctor.
Other news Shaz went into hospital with high blood pressure and will be leaving with diabetes go figure ......Only shaz could do that.

Anyway Shaz may or maynot be coming home today it just depends on the above but they did say it could be Thursday so we will see.....


So that's in from me , I am sure Shaz will be going round and visiting you all to see what you may have all been upto .

TTFN

Doug

Day 7 Doug's​ log: Star date 07/02/2017.19:10

Just a quick post to bring you all up to speed as i am just about to eat my dinner before going to work.
Shaz was moved onto the ward today (Bed 1Bay 5) She has all the lines out now even the one in her foot. She is still on oxygen at a flowrate of 2 and then are going to be leaving it that way for tonight (unless the nightshift doctor feel changes it) tomorrow they are simply taking her off it to see how she copes. Sid is still fine too ;)
Release it could be tomorrow but more likely Thursday.

That's it from me as my dinner is going cold lol

Day 6 Doug's​ log: Star date 05/02/2017.23.20

Theres the bird , a happy one at that as you can tell from the picture .

A stark contrast from the day before when she was in pain, what a difference a day can make.

Well What can I say, So what changed i hear you all ask?...
Well  Sid has woken up and has been chatty today lol
We are most deffitaterly on a roll here, the drain is out Shaz is still on oxygen and they are looking at reducing it tomorrow to see how she copes without it. All the bloodworks have came back fine with one major exception .... Glucose it would appear that shaz is now diabetic, we are not quite sure how you can go into hospital none diabetic and come out needing tablets for it but there you go..





  A picture on the right shows how much trouble Shaz has given them when it comes to trying to get a line it . So inconsiderate if you ask me .

On the subject of coming out they have pencilled her provisionally for wednesday , I am guessing we are going to be looking at afternoon/evening time . but done quote me on that.

Hopefully we will know for sure tomorrow .

Well that's the lot from me tonight, apologies for how late the post was, I was at work 6-2 this morning then had to get a few hours kip when i got back as i stay up the night before my return to night shift. Then I got up and went straight over to the hospital for a couple of hours .

I have just gotten back, put the dryer on, sorted out the mail and then started this post. Now I am going to do myself a nice steak sandwich on a crusty cheese topped baguette :)

Edit

 my dinner

Day 5 Doug's​ log: Star date 05/02/2017.13:43

Shaz had a pretty good night's sleep , she is being moved onto the ward this afternoon . She has had the arterial line out (the one to monitor blood pressure etc) and the drain is looking good with no bubbles during normal breathing (may be different when the physiotherapist gets her doing exercises) so things are looking very positive at the moment. She does still have one in her foot for the antibiotics (not sure how long the course is) . She has had a sit out in the chair and a strip wash that I helped with, her tummy feels quite firm at the moment  that maybe because of Sid not doing anything as yet, the location doesn't seem right to be surgery related but I could be and mostly likely completely wrong ha ha xx.
All positive so far today too

Day 4 Doug's log: Star date 04/02/2017.17.45

No real change from this morning apart from the glucose is almost back to normal so everything is tickety boo.
 the male nurse said he will pop her back on the breathing assist machine tonight to ensure she fully exhales while she sleeps  and to help inflate them as she breaths in.

So i am off home to pop the washing machine on :)
i will call the ward (4) later to see how she is and then text her to see if she is up for a chat.

Happy dance time :) :)

Day 4 Doug's log: Star date 04/02/2017.13:07

Mini update

A much better morning so far, shaz has been comfortable but She had very little sleep during the night so is very tired .
Still extremely wheezy though. Bloods this morning have been fine with the exception of glucose being a little out, so the really nice male nurse is referring her to someone for it.
The nurse said after the wash that the Physiotherapist was going to pop in to see her then she can go into bed for a nap, this however took forever to Sharon's dismay.

Anyway a very little walk then into bed she went, nebuliser has just been done and she is currently in full nap mode with the odd little cough.

Day 3 Doug's log: star date 03/02/2017.06:45 (Part 3)

A little late and disjointed but it will have to do, as i am typing this at a little after 6am

A little better lunch time  , still wheezy, they tried her with a mask on but that doesn't work so well she gets a little claustrophobic in it . That then triggers a panic attack so it comes back off again. They have put the normal one (prongs that go up the nose) but as she is wheezy it tends to make her breath through the mouth so gets no benefit from the oxygen . I have got her calmed back down again now as her blood pressure went through the roof 2300/174 and the monitor was bleeping like mad . She was snoozing on and off this afternoon then she started having more panic attacks due to the mask. On top of that we think she has picked up the start of an infection so they will be starting her on some antibiotics and take a sample.of the crap she coughed up. 

tonight they have sent in a physio to help with her breathing due to being unable to cough up the crap on her chest causing her to panic a little, all the vitals apart from blood pressure are fine oxygen with either mask on is between 96-100% even with the weezyness.

Nurse just gone in with the physio to try and get the lines in so i have stepped out for a coffee (and help clear my head) and go back half hour later but they cant get a vein good enough to get the line in so i come back out, I quickly text her kids and Daughter and ask her sister to pass on a filtered message to her mom 

 end up with one in the foot, my head is fried 

They have given her a local anesthetic patch to place on her shoulder that last's 12 hours this evening that will be coming off at midnight.

Shaz is saying that this is the last time she is coming back in as she cant deal with this

It is now 22:45  I am staying for a little longer then I will shoot off but I doubt I will be getting much sleep. She is still on hdu as they won't be moving her yet as the one to one care won't happen in a normal bay. 

I leave at 23:15 and i am struggling to comprehend the turn off events.

Its is now 7am ad time for day 4

Day 3 Doug's log: star date 02/02/2017.16:00

Part one

So I arrived just before 9 this morning and shaz has been doing well, she had already had her breakfast of toast and was sat in her chair, she as all washed and changed . I brought with me he owl bag with her reading glasses so texting should be easier for her . Also brought in a large packet of bourbon biscuits for her (brownie points in the bag, you can never have too many).

Shaz looks to be being moved off hdu this afternoon sometime as all her vitals are ok .
The drain in side is bubbling away indicating that the lung is not sealed as yet, they don't seem at all concerned about that though. It will seal itself in time.

Pain management seems to be up and down  a little at the minute, but she is controlling it herself with the magic button.

She said she didn't sleep all through the night due to failed attempts at tossing and turning causing her pain from her shoulder. So she is more tired this morning than yesterday.
Lines wise she only has the one in now and this is for the magic morphine button.

We have just met the surgeon that did the op , he said they are happy that they took it all out . They have taken half the lung as the left hand side is decided into two sections. As she has emphasima her lungs are very thin so she will notice the loss but in time she will adapt and it will become normal to her.

It is now lunch time so I will leave her to eat her dinner and I am off to get some myself.

Part 2

I have just returned to find that she has just gotten over a a panic  attack  caused by the pain in her shoulder as she couldn't control the pain and the breathing at the same time.

Well I finally got to the bottom of what happened. shaz in her infinite wisdom and lack of patience decided that she fancied a nap. Her nurse of the day Daisey was busy with another patient so she decided she could manage to get to the bed herself.  In doing so she triggered the pain in her shoulder again, this unfortunately affected her breathing thus triggering a minor panic-attack . It took a fair while to calm down enough for her breathing to return to normal after that.
  She is now comfortable and snoozing waiting for her dinner.

A point of note Sid has not been active at all so far so she has been given some laxatives this morning.

At this point I am not sure if the planned room change will happen?

Day 2 Doug's log: star date 02/02/2017.22:02 (last update for today)

We had a doctor go round this evening and one of them was present during the operation so we had a chat with her; apparently they did go in with the intention of keyhole and the frozen slice (sample to lab then proceed) but she said once they opened her up they could tell it was in deeper than the scans showed and it would not have been worth doing it that way. So they opened her up (shan't go into detail like she told us due to some people may be squeamish) and proceeded to to take the nodule out by taking the upper left quadrant of the lung out all together and be done with it.

As she is drinking ok now they was talking of taking her off IV fluids, whats going in is coming back our clear too . H er drain in her side was changed to an rocket (old school one) as apposed to the modern flakey digital one that they are seeming to be having issues with.
She is still in HDU at the moment but i expect that may change tomorrow or saturday at the latest.

I am back home now as shaz was going tired, she has a fully charged phone, blurred vision and poor hand /eye coordination so expect some bizarre texts and post's until she drops off.

No eta on when she will be out but going by the difference from yesterday to this evening i reckon maybe the weekend is not that close after all.
Incidentally the biopsy results should be with us in 2-3 weeks time, shaz is convinced it was nothing to worry about and she has now lost a quarter of a lung for nothing.

Night night folks,

Day 2 Doug's log: star date 02/02/2017.16:16

I got back from dinner to find that the physiotherapist and nurse had taken shaz for a walk. Shaz unfortunately was in a fair amount of pain , so much so they restarted the morphine . From what Sharon said it was her shoulder that was giving her the pain and not nessesarily her ribs. The nurse said this was normal due to the  procedure  she had had done due the position That the surgeon has to place the arm in to operate, add to how relaxed your muscles are you can easily over stretch without realising it.

After about half hour or so the nurse returned to find out if the pain is under control, as it wasn't they have upgraded the box with the morphine in it to a push button one so she can administer small doses as and when she needs it.

She is just having a nebuliser and a coffee and has her pain back under control again now.

Day 2 Dougs log : star date 02/02/2017.0958

I got here at ten past eight due to traffic so just missed the consultant. But the nurse said they had to convert to open surgery . The epidural is out and they took her off the morphine this morning. Due to the morphine in her system she is drifting in and out of consciousness. She has eaten between naps a bit of toast and is taking sips of water. I have just left to get some breakfast while they tend to her.

Update on sharons op

This will be a series of copy and paste updates from my own blog so as not to screw anything up lol

So today (now yesterday) we arrived at 07:30 and checked in and then proceeded to hunker down for the wait to be called.

I have to say shaz does not seem as nervous as she was last time but then like last time  she is on tranquillisers to take the edge off.

mini update

We have been given info that she won't be going down until this afternoon so we are in for quite a wait by the looks of it.




News update still today 01/02/2017

Sharon went down at about 14:20, I have just had dinner . So now it is time to play the waiting game.

Tidbit of info , the surgery is called a frozen wedge it is where they go in as keyhole and take out what they can and sent it for sampling upstairs. They will get feedback this way on if it is a cancer and if so if it is either a primary lung or a secondary bowel. We are all hoping for a primary as the latter would imply the bowel cancer had not been fully removed, and intact had spread.

If they can removed all of it while performing keyhole then they will, however they may need to convert to open if they feel they can't be sure to remove it all.

By the way I hate the formatting of the blogger ap, it is a nightmare to do anything with it.




right update , just a quick one mind as it is five to twelve at night same day



Shaz came out of surgery and was in HDU she is groggy as you can imagine , the Epi is out and has been replaced with an IV morphine drip . I am unsure at this time as to if they successfully identified and removed the lump via keyhole as none of the nurses could really tell me anything , so i left at 11pm , messaged everyone i could think off and updated Facebook. quick blog update to let you all know whats what . My plan is to get a few hours kip and be there in time for when the consultant does there rounds between 8-10 am.

WOYWW #400

Okay, this is written early, and scheduled, as my desk will be pretty much empty and bare. The reason being, I told you all last week that my surgery date was the 7th of Feb. Friday morning I had a call from my surgeons secretary, and immediately thought ' Here we go', as I said, they have a reputation for cancelling ops. However, she went on to say that if I was willing to be seen by another surgeon, one of them had a slot open up in their theatre list for Wednesday the 1st, and did I want it. So I said yes, just to get it over and done with. Means my surgery is a week early, and chances are I will be coming home before I was due to go in. So that's where I am by the time you are reading this.
But didn't want to miss the big 400 milestone,happening over at Julia's place, The Stamping Ground. and I will no doubt be able to visit over the coming days while I'm recovering.
 Doug will put up a post on here, probably sometime on Thursday, just to let you know how things went.
So, thats a short & sweet post from me, and I'll be seeing you soon. XxX
 EDIT: I just did a bit of research into my new surgeon, and seems he's actually the lead Thoracic surgeon for the team, so looks like I got an upgrade!