Oh oh!!!

I went AWOL for many weeks earlier in October/November, due to my mum tripping and dislocating and breaking her left shoulder. UGH! I happened to be away in Sydney/Melbourne on holidays at the time; but once we got back, Mum came to stay with us and I had to look after her, doing everything for her. The resulting stress caused my Chronic fatigue to flare.

The great news is that both of us are continuing to heal. Mum's back in her little place and I'm back doing some cardmaking and housework. Yay!!????

Some of the things I missed posting about included:

Angie's Digital Stamps had its last challenge for the year with a "Happy Holidays" theme.

I used Angie's Little Lila with Musical Instrument digi stamp for my card and coloured her in the reds and greens of Christmas. Some distressing and edge inking gave the card a slight vintage feel; but I just had to add a touch of glitz with the gold die cut "greetings". Nuvo Ebony Black Crystal Drops completed the card.

Get Creative Challenges also had its last challenge for 2017. Challenge #64 had a theme of "Holidays".

My card used a digistamp by one of the sponsors, Rick St Dennis called "Winter 2017". I coloured the image using my Copics and combined patterned paper, white paper roses,

organza red ribbon, some silver flower centres, leaves and a stacked red die cut sentiment. I have always admired Tracy Wray and her distressed and layered cards; and wanted to have a go at it.

Simply Create Too's last challenge for the year had the theme of CAS and I had fun creating a card using a Santoro Gorjuss "Fly Away With Me" stamp set. Did you know that Nuvo Crystal Drops will flatten? I stacked it along with some other cards (after it had been sitting out drying for several days) and when I later looked at it, the drops had flattened.

Anyway, off to have some more adventures (disasters???) in my life. I'll be back soon.

Bye for now,

Love,

My Poor Mum

A month ago, my Mum tripped while walking along the street in her retirement complex. She face-planted the bitumen and ended up being taken to hospital. This is what I saw when I finally got there (I had to phone a number of hospitals in the area before I found out which one she was in). (It's not a flattering photo, at all!)

She severely bruised her right eye socket and cheek, as well as her chin, left knee and hip. She also cut her lip and broke two teeth. Miraculously, she did not break any bones or require any stitches etc. Considering she is 79 years old, I reckon that's incredible. She stayed in hospital for four days and then came home with me for another four days, as she had a really severe concussion. I'm pleased to say that she's now mostly recovered, except for her teeth (She did have a dentist's appointment that she didn't keep, but that's another story) and her damaged glasses.

The reason I'm sharing this is because I disappear off the blog landscape for long periods of time, and I often feel guilty about not spending more time of my blog and cards (though I did also have two commissions for the magazines during this same time). ~O~ (That's me with my hands in the air, shrugging) But with me, family always comes first.

But I'm able to share this birthday card, today, that I made using a "make and take" from Craft Giraffe a couple of weeks's ago during their Silly Weekend Sale. I made it with help of Tracey Cooley from Couture Creations. (She's such a scream. I'm looking forward to catching up with her again in June at the Papercraft Expo here in Brisbane.) I love the layering we put on the paper (which started off plain white). 

Anyway, this card is for my niece who's 11 today, so "Happy Birthday, Sarah!"

I'll be back soon with some cards I've made from practice pieces while I was researching for a series of cards I made using watercoloured backgrounds. Wait and see!

Bye for now.
Love,
Janelle

Back again ... Sorry it's been so long!

It's been such a long time since I've posted ... I thought you might like to know what I've been up to.

I had my hand and wrist operated on to release the carpal tunnel. I'm slowly recovering from this, but I have to admit it's not healing as well as the other wrist I had done 10 years ago. The scar on my palm hasn't healed properly and now has a hard lump that sticks into me when I grab onto something. But enough about that!

During this time I also had my Mum in hospital for emergency surgery for a twisted bowel and a complication from diverticulitis. It was very serious at the time, but she's well and truly recovering brilliantly. She astounds me with what she perseveres with - nothing stops her for long! Mind you, this happened the day after we buried her last remaining sibling (and her favourite sister, Ellen) who died the week before from mesothelioma. Quite stressful which has caused my CFS to flare up. Not good but I'll get better.

During this time I also completed my finals' projects for the Heartfelt Creations Design Team. I've included some close-ups and sneak peek of the flowers I made for my projects. 

I made a scrapbook layout using the blue flowers, featuring one of the last photos of my Mum and Auntie Ellen together. I've made another copy so Mum can put it on her wall. 

I created two cards using the pink roses I made. I was sent the Vintage Floret Collection paper stack, floral stamps and matching dies to create my projects and I loved creating the flowers (esp. the pink roses). I luckily had some other HC stamps and dies to incorporate as well.

I find out on 30th October if I've made it onto the Design Team. (fingers, legs and eyes crossed! :)  :)  :)  I hope I am good enough as I'd love the opportunity. 

Finally, today my husband was told that as from the 13th December he will be made redundant from his job with Main Roads (our State Government Road building authority) because of changes that have been made by our state government leaders - $#%$$@# idiots! Darryl was one of about 100 people "sacked" today. This is from a government that spruiks that it's about job creation. Hah! Luckily my hubby will have a little/some time to get another job before it impacts on our lifestyle, so once again fingers crossed.

Promise to post again in a couple of days.

Bye for now,
Janelle

P.S. Sorry for today's post - but it was a much needed vent! Thanks for suffering along with it!

A Wonderful Mum

I had to let you see the cute handmade mini doilies my mum made for me. She's been doing some crocheted hand towels (you know the ones with the crocheted tops) and she had lots of leftovers that weren't enough to do much with. She saw a doily that I'd bought from Kaisercraft and decided she'd try some herself. Consequently I now have a collection that I'm just loving to use, because each one comes with love...from my mum.

Mum has had an incredibly horrible year so far and I've had to (wanted to) spend a lot of time helping her out, yet she still is so thoughful that she did this for me - just because she could. That's what I call a wonderful Mum!