Sunday, July 31, 2011

Crackhead....

...I don't usually write about more personal stuff on this blog as it is for my main blog, however, since this one is linked to my SplitCoast Stampers' signature line, I am writing this here.

I was supposed to have the first part of my surgery last Friday. Two weeks ago, I had been to the pre Admission clinic and the anesthetists who examine your suitability for anesthesia both declared me high risk. Needless to say, that freaked me out. Mostly because it was only four weeks since I had quit smoking after 35+ years and I am seriously overweight. Of which, quitting smoking did not help me.

They ordered me to have a blood test at the pathology section of the hospital, which I did.

I was so upset by them saying I was high risk, I went to see a doctor on the Monday. My previous doctor had left at the end of March to take up lucrative lodgings on the North Shore as a private doctor. So I had to find a new doctor. Luckily for me I recalled that my medical office had sent me an SMS saying there was a new lady Doctor starting that very week.

Very nice, older lady. She listened to everything I had to say, because she realised I was very upset by then. She said that she would get some blood tests of her own done, that she knew of some medication I could take as a hunger suppressant and I could delay the surgery until I was less of a risk. Although the Specialist had informed me without the surgery I would die, this Doctor seemed very skeptical about that, which has cheered me up.

The following day the hospital rang, and said that the anesthetists wanted to see me again, in light of the blood tests I had had done. I asked the person who rang me if it was possible for them to postpone the surgery for three months, she said it was, so I am relieved about that.

When the Doctor got the blood tests back it showed that my blood sugar levels were very high. She immediately ordered a diabetic glucose test which I had the following Monday after a three day high carb diet over the weekend.

Well, it is not quite diabetes. But she prescribed the pills which are not on PBS and are extremely expensive. They are based on amphetymine (hence my daughter calling me a "crackhead" - in the blog title). I have been on them for three days now and waiting for my appetite to be suppressed.

Meanwhile, my daughter is again unemployed, thanks to her company closing its doors and she being only a casual employee. So I am making cards for swaps and will post photos of them quite soon.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Coloured image swap on SCS


This is one of the cards I made for the swap. It is the first card swap I have ever entered, so I was not sure if it was what they wanted. I guess since I have uploaded it to my gallery on SCS I will find out soon enough.

The fish image was stamped first and then coloured, I did a mask for fish and placed it over it and then coloured the water. I used a darker color around the fish to give it some dimension - but looking at the pic I am not sure howwell that worked. I added the pearls for air bubbles.

The shells and "seaweed" were stamped and coloured and cut out. The white edges of the card stock were then coloured so that it was more even. A small star fish bead seemed to let me finish the card.

Coming up with colours for the matt cards was a bit of a challenge, but I found a blue the same as the darker blue for the fish part of the card and felt the back ground was sandy enough to pass off as sand. I made a tiny horse logo with my name and year to stick on the back of the card.

Hope they like it...

Thursday, March 17, 2011

On being slow...

I have not been doing much of my paper craft things. I am slowly building the ugliest stationery box you are ever likely to see, and doing some cross stitch.

If you have read my other blog you will know that I have bones pressing on my spinal cord, causing mental depression and slowing some of my other faculties as well - or maybe old age is catching up with them. ;-) . So I find it hard to concentrate for very long on anything. Walking is becoming harder and harder for me. I will be having an operation, probably within 3 months and another one a month later which should remove the bones from my spinal cord.

After that I should be able to gradually build up and begin my crafting in more earnest. So I beg your indulgence for a few months that will be spotty to say the least.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Updating



Gosh, I hadn't realised it was so long since I had updated this site. So sorry. I thought that you might enjoy seeing a few things - first up being my bigshot. In my last post I had said that I didn't really feel I could justify the expense of having one of these. Little realising at the time that just before Christmas Lincraft would have them so cheaply it would impossible not to get one. Normally these retail above the $150 mark and hover around $200 but this one was on special for $99. I thought it would just be the body itself and not really worth it, but it included all the folders and two acrylic blocks for the sandwiches that are made for cutting and embossing.

Because of the width of this machine, I can use my embossing folders which up until now have been pretty useless because of their width. Now I can use them on appropriately sized paper and cardstock. I have three dies now as well, a flower, some leaves and a corner swirl. The dies themselves are relatively expensive, but if I get enough use of them, can probaby justify the expense. Tim Holtz has some dies and embossing folders that are, what seem to me to be, reasonably priced and hopefully I can get some from a Queensland retailer in the next couple of months. No holding any breath.

This is a photo that I recently scrapbooked - she is my cousin's daughter. The wedding was last year and she posted pictures to Facebook. I had been wanting to do it for a while and finally got around. This is one of what will hopefully end up being ten pages. I want to make a 12" x 12" album in the same way I made the last one, but with white wedding dress fabric that I have. When those are finished I will post them here too.

I have some medical issues to be taken care of over the next few weeks so maybe not post again for a while. Once those are out of the way, I will show you some other things I have been doing and talk more about the above photograph.

Leaving final word up to Starbug

Talk to the butt ...