WOYWW but its the last one.....

Welcome back you lovely lot X

 
So here is a dilemma I faced the other day, you see I asked the lovely Annie to make me some bears, not just a few either as we are a large loving family.

So I did what anyone would do and think, right I need a thank you card. 

Shaz made large amounts of cards, and kept them in a large box all sorted with index cards so you could find them ( I know right how organised is that?) , anyway when I go into box to get a card out there is just the one thank you card left.

Now I know what some of you are thinking, it was meant to be.

But for me I was in a dilemma, this was Sharon's last thank you card, and it was sealed down, how could i open it and use it, I wanted to save it....

So conflicted I take it out the box and take it downstairs, staring at it willing it to somehow multiply, but alas it did not. So still unopened I went to bed, the next morning the bears were due home (they may need a lift, it's a long walk and they only have short legs) so I needed to make a decision.

I could almost hear Sharon mocking me "the cards are to be given, not kept, you keep received cards not unsent ones"  

Anyway I open it and to my dismay, there is no stamp on the back?, It is sealed you unfinished? WTF, this cant be right!

I can't hand this over like this, it has to have a stamp on the back, Sharon's handmade by ShazSilverwolf, it was not there...


Slow down, yes I did but let me tell it.....

Now I am not a stamper, so I could really stuff it up, right, couldn't I?

This is the last of its kind, there will be no more of these made by my wonderful Wifelet, and I am about to deface it.

The decision was made, the next challenge was to actually find the stamp, it had to be close to hand as surely it was in constant use, so a draw maybe, on the desk possibly.

And it was, but OMG the ink, wtf does she need this many ink pads for, ink is ink right, I get the different colours but come on... Really?  

There is just so much of it!

So with shaking hands after looking at the colours on the table, at the bottom of the pile is one that compliments the colour on the front of the card, it’s a "VersaFine Clair  - Warm Breeze" and I am now looking for Sir Tim Holt's stamping platforms, (look I am a noob ok , don't judge)  Shaz had at least 3 of them in this room ........somewhere......But I can’t find them.

I am going to have to free hand this bad boy

 The time is ticking and i need to be on the road, so the stamp gets peeled off and stuck on the acrylic stamping blocks, cleaned with the baby wipe and dabbed dry on kitchen towel and I practice until I am happy.


Jobs a good one, I did it and it looks kind of OK, not wonky, not as defined as I would like, but I did it, go me!


I close the ink pad, dry it and think, but there are other things on that sheet, and the top needs something. Like the newbie I am, I open the inkpad upside down and end up with ink on my finger.



Does this make me a crafter or clumsy ?

                                                         answers in the comments below


I then balance it out with little crow, and dragonfly that was with the set, (had a smart and stuck them on opposite ends of the long thin acrylic block, give them a quick dry with the warm air gun and take it down stairs feeling like Shaz is just grinning at me all the way down stairs.

I did not think to take a picture of the back of the now finished card, but i am Sure Annie will be sharing it ..

For actual proper bona fide, qualified crafting head over to the queen of the deskers at the stamping ground  and check out some more crafty goodness from those that actually know what they are doing.


Another gratuitous picture on our way to Tenerife back in 2016

And that just leaves the and  finally ...

Note to self type much less ha ha 

Donations preferred over flowers please

 I have been asked about flowers etc for Sharon's funeral..

 We will of course be having some on top of the coffin, and if you feel like you would very much like to do something in memory of Sharon please donate to either Cancer research UK or Wolf Watch UK or both.

You guys know the history of sharon and cancer, but let's talk about the wolf side (no she is not part wolf) but she did love them, so much so that I adopted one for her through wolf watch UK, this Wolf called Pepe sadly passed away in 2017 but before that we went out to see him.

A nice day out in 2009 to visit wolf watch
featuring Maddah 

Pepe was a male Timber wolf  bourn in west Midlands safari park back in 2004, where he was ousted in a scuffle for dominance.

Pepe lived out the rest of his days at wolf watch where he was able to roam the vast 100 acre with a beautiful valley on the shropshire/welsh border.

In Sharon's memory I have adopted 2 new wolves  Bosch and Sansa, and plan on continuing to do so going forward.

Meet Bosh, Bosch is a grey wolf (almost silver) and is not quite a year old born in may 2020, he was owned privately until the human malware pandemic meant that his owner could no longer afford to look after him.

He has been well socialised and extremely well cared for.

 Bosch is settling in nicely in his new home and has a delightful nature. He appears to be quite comfortable around women but is cautious of men he has not met before.

Sansa is as the name suggests is a female, born  April 2016, she is a Norwegian wolf, hence why I was drawn to her.

She is inquisitive, and likes to know what is going on, and is typically the first to investigate food, or chase of birds trying to steal the meal.

Sansa is a wild wolf, and not social at all, although she is getting used to people passing by the enclosure.

Funny thing about the Norwegian bit, take a look here 



Wolf Watch was established in 1993 by the founder Tony Haighway, and has been a safe haven for displaced  wolves ever since. It is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the rescue, welfare and conservation of displaced wolves from captive situations across Europe.

Please use the links below to donate , thank you 

 

An end of an era

I write this with a broken heart, that only time can heal

My beautiful, wonderful wifelet Shaz (Silverwolf) passed away peacefully in the early hours of Saturday morning (13/02/2021) she was not in any pain, she simply drifted off to sleep never to wake up again. possibly the best outcome we could ever have wished for and a way most i think would want to go.

I had been blessed to have met my soulmate while I was quite young and eventually married her. We both loved each other deeply, we had planned on spending eternity together, but apparently, eternity in our case was just 28 years long.

All those years were always filled with love, laughter, and friendship, we had our hardships like most couples but we never fought with each other, even despite the difficulty we endured over the last few years.

Shaz found an extended family in the crafting community, it was a passion of hers, a talent that I was incredibly proud of her for, she like yourselves could see the finished project even before starting it, in the same way a sculptor can in a bucket of clay. Shaz was also known as the enabler, for her ability to hunt out bargains and test them against brand products and reviews of them. I dare say many a penny or two may have been spent as a result of one of her post by not only Shaz but also yourselves :)

Shaz was never selfish with the knowledge she gained from countless experimentations in the search for results she was looking for, in fact she would often document it and share it online for others to benefit from, techniques learned were always shared.

Looking back, there are very few pictures of my wonderful wifelet not smiling, and of those when she wasn't, it was often substituted with a grimace of sheer bloody determination the glass was half full, it was seldom half empty. I am going to sign of with a few pictures of our Shaz with some of you wonderful crafters who I also like to call my friends too.

You welcomed me into your crafting community, and never once did I feel left on the side-lines despite not being a crafter myself, for that I thank you.

This is possibly my favourite picture of us, and yes its a few years old, but we have always felt the same about each other.

Please raise a glass to our Shaz (preferably a GnT) but what ever your preferred drink is fine, as we remember...

A Wife, Daughter, Mother and Friend, Fountain of knowledge, Enabler, and of course, the love of my life

Rest in peace xx

With love as always

Doug xxxx And a finaly

Pain what pain?

Where to start ? 

First of thank you to all the best wishes, your kind words mean a lot, last time I looked there were 17 comments now we are over 50 xx

Sharon's first Chemo session went well, due to the type of chemo she is at risk of loosing her awesome hair, so we have opted to try the ice cap treatment, this meant they would need to protect the scalp and hair with a generous helping of pre conditioner.

The chemo took longer than we both had anticipated, but they did take wonderful care of her.

Now here's the thing, when you can't get up two flights of stairs to where the shower is you improvise

So out comes the  single air bed, and a quick Amazon order for a hair washing bouncy castle thing and hey presto, the easiest stress-free way to wash someone's hair while they chill out in front of a fire.

This was not a small feat for Shaz to get down onto the floor or back up again, but I think it's fair to say she felt so much better for it x

Post Chemo, now this was where things went down hill, not as a direct result of the chemo,  but more of a result of the blood test they did, 

You see Sharon's haemoglobin levels were really low, so they had arranged for us to come back the next day for a transfusion of 2 units (did not know what a unit of blood was before now, apparently about 450-500ml) anyway, during the transfusion there were concerns over Sharon's blood pressure not coming up which I can understand, it makes sense, when you add something like air to a tyre you would expect at some point the tyre pressure would rise?

Brooksie logic, I can follow this, "consequently this get Shaz here for 09.10am, so we can start it off" actually meant we won't be starting until 10.30, and we will continue anyway. 

During some of our calls back and forth Shaz comments that she thinks her flip flow valve may have been left off on her urinary catheter (has a leg bag for long times between toilet visits or hospital stints) as she feels wet, she checks the valve and all is fine, so she ignores it (big mistake as we will find out later)

Sorry where was I?  Oh, yeah the down hill bit...

So eventually I pick Shaz back, and I can smell Iron, and something else that we kind of expect due to how long she has been out for (we would have changed her pad at least once, maybe twice by now) but this has not been done, at all. In fact, I ended up setting a reminder every 3.5 hours to wake me to change the pad throughout the night as it had been burning her (her bits glow in the dark they had got that sore) Sudocrem needs to come in larger tubs as the 400g only last a few days, and it does not stick to extremely burnt skin I have found.

As a consequence of the fissure, and the (sinus the opening on her posterior) a hell of a lot of the blood had simply been escaping into her tummy, and flushing her out on its way through, continuing to do so today only to a lesser extent.

Her tummy was hard with the pressure, she ended up backed, and 2 days later after vomiting a few times, 2 days after the chemo started (the next day after the blood transfusion) we are back at the same hospital to remove the chemo pump, we mention the issue we had when we left and the now constant need to keep changing pads and that the blood was running out of her but...

So apparently i don't do maths?   1+1=3 then, I always thought it was 2 but nope....

The blood transfusion is not the cause (according to the doctor I spoke to, it's her other blood levels that are causing it)
The ward we were in had no actual abdominal doctors (chemo ward) there was nothing the doctor could do about it, (nor did she offer to examine her) but instead berated us for not calling the help number in the book, or going to A&E  and offered to call ahead to them and instructed us to head over to there which we did.

Now bear in mind this is a day later so when we were seen by the doctor at A&E within 10 minutes  I might add (much more impressive) we had just changed her pad an hour or so before, this meant the doc found no issues, he did give her IV antibiotics and glucose to bring her potassium levels down, and let us go home again.

Shaz has been fine but weak since, she spent a night on the sofa to gain her strength and then managed to get up to bed, which is where she has been since. She is eating OK, and hates the word hydrate lol

But she has started to get some crap on her chest that she is struggling to shift, it never quite comes up enough to cough it up, so she is elevated a little in bed with extra pillows to help her sleep.

It is so sticky though, it is a side effect of the chemo and the medication she is on, so I am monitoring it.

Shaz is still extremely positive as am I we have to be, and your encouraging words really do help.
I think the post is long enough, possibly too long, I just want to keep you as informed as possible without writing it in book/diary form lol



As for the title of the post, pain is fully under control, it just means Shaz is sleeping most of the time, this we are going to address/ballance.


Much love to you all from the both of us xxx
Doug

Can't end without a silly

And finally (shaz would be displeased if I forget this)