Pet Service at our Local Church

This afternoon we attended the Pet Service at our church. When it was being planned, my hubby said we must take Lily and Ruby but at first I was reluctant to agree to this, thinking the experience would be too frightening for them and I didn’t want to add stress to their happy little lives, but eventually he persuaded me, and as it turned out, they were pretty relaxed!

They have had lots of visits and are used to people, and are remarkably unfazed at the vet’s. Several people from the church have seen them, but for the others it was a lovely opportunity for them to meet our two girlies for the first time, and they were universally admired!

The service was short, and consisted of a hymn or two, a reading (which I did, from the Book of Genesis, the account of the creation of the animals and mankind on the same day, and how God saw that it was “very good”), some prayers, and a lovely talk by a representative from our local Animals in Distress charity.

Here are our two babies enjoying their first visit to church!

Amelia, who was responsible for inviting us all to the service, and who belongs to one of the churchwardens. We had heard so much about her, and it was lovely to meet her at last. I stroked her through the bars of her basket and she rubbed her ears against my hand and purred and purred!

Cats were outnumbered by dogs.

 

One very special dog was in attendance, helping her owner.

The lady from Animals in Distress giving her talk.

She told us all about the puppies who had been in the local news recently. Someone came to them with a cardboard box that they had found abandoned, containing six tiny puppies, clearly only about 24 hours old. The staff at Animals in Distress fed and cared for these tiny babies around the clock, bottle feeding them. All but one have survived, and they are all now going to their new forever homes. How can anyone be so cruel as to abandon these defenceless creatures in this way? All they had to do was to hand in the box to Animals in Distress or one of the other rescue centres – the staff receive all animals in a totally non-judgemental way, and all they would have asked was the whereabouts and welfare of the mother.

An offering was taken up for the work of this charity.

This young lady had lots of photos of the puppies which were handed around afterwards when we all gathered at the back of the church for tea and cakes.

This was such a lovely celebration of our beloved pets. As we often see when we go out, when dog walkers talk to each other and to other walkers – animals bring people together. Everyone there had such special relationships with their fur babies, and were proud to show them off and introduce them by name for a blessing. Such a happy afternoon!

Our two little darlings survived their first outing to somewhere other than the vet’s very well indeed, and they were very quiet and well-behaved throughout. I am sure it helped that they were both together, keeping each other company. We had a few tears in the car on the way home and they got a bit cold going to and from the car because there was a very cold wind today, but once they were home again, they soon snuggled up together and got nice and warm again before it was time for their supper. We were very proud of them for behaving so well!

Allerton Three Tea Party and New Chandeliers

Warning – Long post, picture-rich.

On Friday we had our Allerton Three Anniversary Tea Party. The Allerton Three is the group of us girls who met up on Allerton Ward last year, all having our bowel cancer operations. (It sounds like a criminal gang. I am convinced they discharged us for bad behaviour.) We became firm friends and have kept up, meeting when we can, and are in regular email contact. We all attend the monthly relaxation sessions put on by the Lodge, the cancer support centre at the hospital, which is a good regular contact time, and we’ve had lunch out together, and last week one of them had several paintings in her art group’s exhibition so we went over for that, on a day that she was stewarding, so we could see her.

We decided to celebrate the first anniversary of our friendship by having this tea party. Unfortunately we couldn’t do it exactly a year on from our meeting because the other two were away, and Friday was the first day when we were all free. It also coincided with a Lodge day so we met there and all came back here together afterwards – first we chilled out, then we pigged out lol!

It was lovely showing them where we live, and both of them enjoyed seeing my studio and some of the work I have done, and the artist denied being green with envy!!

I had laid up the table in Mum’s room with my best embroidered cloth, and it was groaning with plates of all my baking! Unfortunately, in all the excitement, I completely forgot to photograph it so I will have to leave that to your imagination, but it did look lovely. Afternoon tea is a great favourite with us all, and we agreed, happily, that this seems to be an institution that is at last coming back into fashion. I got my pretty cake plates out (I wish I still had Mum’s old wooden 3-tier cake stand!) and my Denby pottery tea set – this is rather thick and heavy, unfortunately, but the beautiful bone china one that was my grandmother’s all got broken over the years and is no more. I put out my little tea knives, though, and the silver jam spoons for the cream tea, and the matching table napkins that go with the cloth, and it all looked very pretty. I’m so fed up with myself for forgetting to photograph it!

This afternoon I decided to plate up the leftovers and photograph them so you could at least see a bit how things looked.

Chocolate chip cookies. They are flavoured with vanilla. One of my friends said that instead of vanilla, you can add orange zest and/or essence and get a real Terry’s Chocolate Orange (“not for sharing” lol! – remember those adverts?) flavour. I must try this.

Cinnamon biscuits.

Shortbread.

Remember the little cakes I made with the sticky icing (featured in my previous blog post)? Well, that icing failed to set, so on Thursday I scraped it all off and chucked it out. I made some more, this time butter cream, which worked much better, and coloured it pink, and spread it on the cakes, and then coloured the remainder a nice rich dark red and piped the little stomas on top!

Here’s a detail. You can see that for added realism (!) I have added a chocolate chip in the centre!

One of my friends asked me, “What’s that little brown thing in the centre?” I said, “Well, it’s poo, isn’t it!!” We all fell about laughing at the stomas and she said, “Yes, but what is it really?” so I told her it was a chocolate chip! Then she helped herself to one of the chocolate energy bites and said, “These look just like poo, too!” More laughter!

I am convinced that our time together on Allerton Ward turned us into three giggling poo-obsessed schoolgirls! It’s all the fault of the nurses. They never talked about anything else – but then you can’t blame them – it was the gut ward after all! It was there that we learnt all about the Bristol Stool Chart – I couldn’t believe that someone had actually poked around in people’s poo and graded it, and was convinced that the nurses were pulling our legs, but no, it’s genuine!

What a lovely topic of conversation over our tea party.

A friend on the stoma forum I’m on came up with the Bristol Ileostomy Output Chart (being different from poo, we felt that we needed our own chart – I printed this out and took it in to the stoma nurses!)

It’s a good thing that for those of us fortunate enough never to have grown up, poo remains a subject of giggle-generating infantile humour. I’m sure it’s one of the things that got us through last year’s ordeal!! Guffaw guffaw!

Here’s a mixed platter of goodies.

You can see that there are some buttered Scots pancakes (drop scones) and a couple of plain scones spread with strawberry jam and clotted cream – a traditional Devon cream tea!

I also took some photos of my beautiful embroidered table cloth which we used for the tea party. This belonged to my grandmother and I think it may have been one of the pieces she brought back from the Canary Islands where she often used to spend the winter. It is a beautiful natural-coloured linen with slightly darker embroidery, with satin stitch and drawn thread work.

Last week everything went brilliantly, timing-wise (apart from the first attempt at icing the stoma cakes) and the two chandeliers I’d ordered both arrived. On Wednesday, when our sitting room one came, I phoned the electrician straight away, and he said he could come the following day to fit it, which was great – it’s now installed and looking so pretty! The light in the room is a huge improvement on the single bulb under a shade that did little to improve the dimness of the room – it has five arms, each with a nice bright LED candle bulb.

What pretty patterns it makes on the ceiling when it’s lit. Also, I love how I can see it reflected in the mirror from where I sit on the recliner.

The other chandelier didn’t require the electrician to fit it, as it is just a fancy sort of lampshade, but he did install a longer flex for it. When Mum was in her flat, she complained it wasn’t bright enough and got my hubby to take the shade off her ceiling light, and it was so grim with just a bare bulb. Having a pretty chandelier answers the problem, and I chose a particularly pretty one on Ebay, in the “cascade” style.

In preparation for our tea party, I also added a few things to the room to make it more homely. Mum had brought very little with her from her old house and the room was stark and unwelcoming and unattractive. Unfortunately she has no sense of style and if something was of no practical use she wasn’t interested. My hubby brought the rug down from the loft, and the red armchair and the Indian table had already gone through when Gary was decorating our sitting room. I finally got around to unpacking one of the remaining boxes from the house move and put out the sitting room ornaments that there hadn’t been room for in our other room. I rummaged in my studio to find my huge Chinese fan that I bought years ago and which had never been displayed. I also put up some other pictures in place of the horrible ones that had been there before! Now that the big bookcase has gone, the room is looking a lot more attractive, homely and welcoming. I brought the large silk ficus plant in from our entrance lobby (where everybody just walked past it anyway without noticing it) and that’s softened things a bit, too.

The standard lamp that we bought for her has a pink shade which doesn’t co-ordinate with the room but I am planning to replace this.

A view of the garden through the open door.

It was great that both chandeliers arrived in time to be installed before our tea party, so that both rooms were complete. Also, on Friday morning, again just in time, my hubby went over to the furniture restorer who has mended the broken section of my magnificent Burmese screen, and for the first time since we moved, it is now displayed in all its glory.

All three panels of this screen are as intricately carved front and back, so it can be displayed anywhere in a room so that all sides are visible. I’ve never had a large enough room to be able to use it as a room divider, which is what would be ideal. I inherited this screen from my grandfather and it has accompanied me throughout my adult life. It is made from solid Burma teak and weighs an absolute ton! Over the years various bits on the tops got broken and the restorer has re-attached the bits that I still had. When I disassembled it to move here, one of the top pieces fell into two halves and I could see that this had happened before, and that my grandfather had mended it, but the glue had dried out. These two pieces have now been stuck back together. This is one of my great treasures!

Our sitting room looks so beautiful now it’s all complete at last, and everything is integrated an appears “meant to be” rather than the overcrowded clutter of before, and with Mum’s room being so much nicer too, we are taking advantage of it and sitting in there sometimes, getting the afternoon and evening sun, and having a nice view over the garden, with direct access to the little patio with the pots of flowers.

I shall be taking some more garden photos soon, and possibly doing a video tour of the garden as things start to grow and mature. My hubby has worked so hard out there and it’s all looking lovely.

One final bit of news – I sang in church for the first time today! I was thrilled to do it and it went very well, and I got some lovely feedback, which was very encouraging. I am booked to sing again on 12th June. It is a number of years since I have done this. I have such a sense of many doors beginning to open for me now that last year is behind me, and it’s an exciting and positive time, with lots to look forward to now that I feel I’ve been given my life back and I am looking upon things in a new light, as if everything is all fresh and clean and new.

I just feel incredibly blessed.

WOYWW 361 Baking

Nothing in the studio this week, I’m afraid, because I’ve been too busy with other things to do any art. Apart from going out several times, I have been baking!

On Friday I am hosting an anniversary tea party for the Allerton Three. This is the three of us who met on Allerton Ward last year, all having our bowel cancer surgery. We became friends and have kept up ever since. We started laughing when we were in hospital, and we haven’t stopped since.

It was Kermit’s birthday on 27th March but the others were away over the Easter break and then other things were happening, and this Friday was the first day we could all get together. I decided to push the boat out and do lots of yummy baking for us all to pig out on.

In the above photo, top row, L-R: Cinnamon biscuits; small cheesy pastry thingies; lemon buns. Bottom row, L-R: more cheesy pastry thingies with ham in them; chocolate chip cookies; shortbread.

I also made some chocolatey energy bites – a recipe a lady from KnitterNatter (our church craft group) gave me but they are in the fridge and I forgot to get them out to photograph.

Still to come are some scones (plain and cheese) – we are going to have a Devon cream tea! – and if I get time, Scots pancakes (drop scones). I wanted to make a good choice of sweet, savoury and sugar free, because one of the members of the Allerton Three has diabetes and I didn’t want her to feel left out.

The lemon buns will serve as a sort of second birthday cake for Kermit (my stoma). I told him he couldn’t have another birthday cake (“awww…” he said). I am intending to put red icing stomas on top of each bun, however! The problem is that the icing isn’t setting and it’s still really sticky – I did them yesterday afternoon.

It’s been such a busy week, with a meeting on Saturday evening at which I sang – for the first time for quite a few years! We visited an art exhibition on Monday (one of the Allerton Three had several gorgeous paintings in it, and she was stewarding that day). Yesterday there was a stoma coffee morning at the Imperial Hotel in Torquay – we had the chance to wander around a bit and it was magnificent – so elegant, and with a stunning sea view. Who needs the Med when they’ve got Torquay lol!! The meeting was excellent and I met some new people and Kermit made some new little friends too!

Today I’ve been baking again, and unpacking the new chandelier for the sitting room which has finally arrived. I phoned the electrician and he hopes to come tomorrow to fit it. I have also changed Mum’s sitting room and it’s looking a lot more homely and welcoming now. I’ll take some photos when I’ve finished.

Tomorrow there will be more baking and getting the table ready and the room tidied. On Friday at lunch time there’s a relaxation session at the Lodge (the cancer support centre at the hospital) and I am meeting the other two there, and we’ll come back here together afterwards for our tea.

Phew. It’s all go chez Shosh.

Happy WOYWW everybody and my apologies if I take a while to do any desk hopping.

WOYWW 324

What’s on my workdesk this Wednesday? Unfortunately, nothing!

I had my fifth chemo last Friday and am still very wiped out, so haven’t been in my ARTHaven since then. I did manage to complete the Great Mystery Projects last week, though, and they all went off to our own Shaz, to encourage her in her upcoming surgery and to give her something to play with once she feels up to doing some creative stuff again.

I am sorry to have kept my fellow WOYWW-ers in such suspense over the past weeks, but All is Now Revealed!! This is what I sent her.

Please scroll down through the posts below to see what I’ve been up to, and what was under wraps for so long! I am happy to say that Shaz is very happy with her parcel of goodies, and I am sure you will join me in wishing her all the best in the coming weeks and months, and a full recovery and return to strength as soon as possible. She and I have shared this cancer journey together and have supported each other throughout, for which I am so grateful!

I’ve also made her a get-well card which is now in her hubby’s safe keeping, and I will share that with you once I know she has received it.

Before my last chemo I was told they would increase the dose of steroids to try and help me through the worst of the effects, but so far I haven’t noticed any difference from before, and after a reasonable weekend, went downhill again on Monday and have felt utterly pooped and wiped out since then. The double dose of anti-sickness meds is really helping, though, and I have not been troubled with nausea this time, so far. I just have to rest and go with the flow and know that it will pass, and look forward to the second half of the cycle when I feel more myself again, and can do more things.

I had my final scheduled appointment with the stoma nurse yesterday morning, and she is so pleased with my progress that she doesn’t need to see me again, but any time I need any help or advice, I can call on them, or make another appointment. She is delighted with how much better I look, despite the chemo, and very satisfied with the way everything has healed up, and that I am managing everything so well. Having set me up with a supply company to provide all the things I need, yesterday she advised me about special underwear to help support the stoma bag and I got on the Internet last night and organised a prescription for that – everything is provided free by our wonderful NHS, and I should expect these things to arrive in the next few days.

So I am doing well! After the next chemo I’ll be 3/4 the way through the treatment, with the final one being on 16th October, which suddenly doesn’t sound quite so far away as it did. Then onwards and upwards to the cancer-free life that they are all quite sure I am going to achieve!

Next week I hope to be able to show you that I’ve been busy with art again.

Happy WOYWW everybody, and have a great creative week ahead.

Packing Up the Goodies

THE BIG REVEAL, PART 10.

Many of my regular visitors have been justifiably very frustrated and impatient with me lately because I’ve been working hard on several secret projects that I wasn’t at liberty to reveal until now. With her permission, I can now reveal that I have been making stuff for Shaz. As many of you will know, she is about to undergo major surgery and has been through so much over the past year. She and her lovely hubby share the same birthday and I have made cards for them both, a get well card for her (still under wraps) and a selection of bits and pieces for her to play with once she feels up to being creative again. She opened the parcel on her birthday (14th Aug.) and now that she has received them I can share the making of them with you. Until now, I didn’t want to spoil her surprise as she visits my blog regularly. Throughout my own cancer journey, this wonderful friend has been such an encouragement and support to me, and this is one way I can thank her, and show my own appreciation and support. I know that she would love a visit from you to wish her well for her surgery on 2nd Sept.

I have been uploading a couple of posts each day over the previous few days until all was revealed. Please scroll down for earlier posts.

The get well card will get its big reveal once I know Shaz’s hubby has given it to her while she’s in hospital.

Having now completed all the cards and bits and pieces to send off, I was ready to pack them all up in a box.  I have received similar parcels in the past and know how exciting and what fun it is, opening them up and sorting through the contents, and feeling so good that someone has thought of me and wanted to brighten my day. This is what I want to do – to share a little joy and happiness during the dark days when problems abound.

Packing Up the Goodies

Here is what went in the parcel, in the order in which I made them.

Steampunk birthday card for her hubby.

Her birthday card.

Some embellishments made recently from the moulds I made, and some from my stash.

After making these, I painted the hearts and wings, and some of these went into the parcel.

I made several backgrounds/small masterboards from A4 card.

The first one was made using my new Dylusions paints, with the addition of some gold embossing.

The next one was one using Dylusions spray inks with a gesso resist, on a background of black gesso.

When I made this one, there was a lot of ink on the craft sheet, so I created another background by smooshing some card in this ink, and adding sea salt for an interesting texture.

The second one on a black gesso background was of butterflies in Perfect Pearls.

I made a series of small shapes from card which had been sprayed with Dylusions spray inks and heat embossed, which acted as a resist to the distress inks which I applied afterwards. I made two A5 sheets in this manner and then cut out various shapes with a knife and with punches. (I kept the very small circles).

I also made some in the same manner, stamping and heat embossing with white embossing powder, using my lace stamps, this time with a pale blue/turquoise background.

I used several of these heat-embossed shapes as labels to go in the small packages in the parcel, and the rest went in with blank backs. They could all be used as small embellishments in a variety of projects.

One of the lace motifs I made into a simple card to go in the parcel in the form of a letter.

Coming back to backgrounds/masterboards, I made three faux leather masterboards in brown, green and red.

Here are some of the small packs of bits and pieces I put in the parcel along with the above projects. Included is a shallow DVD spindle box containing a selection of flowers from my stash, all made by me over a long period, from pieces cut with my Cougar cutting machine. There is also a pack of a few silk flowers, some sentiments also cut with the Cougar; the Friendly Plastic embellishments, some butterflies cut with the Cougar, and a pack of miscellaneous die-cuts, charms, stick-ons and so on, most of which were given to me by other people and which I know I shall never use – if she doesn’t want them, she can pass them on in like manner. Got to keep this stuff moving!!

I also made up a selection of fancy yarns in approximately 3-4 yard lengths, which could be used to embellish tags etc. The colours and textures are vibrant and varied.

I rolled up the masterboards and secured them with a label from the lace shapes collection. Everything was packed into a pizza box which hopefully will preserve it all in the post!

I had in my stash a beautiful piece of tissue which I had sprayed with Dylusions spray inks when I first got them, and which was finished by a spray of Crafter’s Companion Spray and Sparkle – this paper is very richly coloured and blingy with the glitter spray. It’s been in my stash for so long and I still haven’t used it, so I thought it was time it went to a new home and perhaps would get used! I can always make some more. It wasn’t large enough to wrap everything up in, so I laid it on top of the stuff and tucked it in, tying a length of fancy yarn around the whole collection.

I found two strips of smooshed and sprayed backgrounds on watercolour paper, which were just too long to go in the box, except diagonally, so I tucked these under the yarn, together with the lace card I’d made. I think it makes quite a nice presentation when the lid of the box is lifted.

I wish Shaz and her hubby all the very best in the coming weeks and months, and hope this parcel brings her some comfort and cheer, and above all, some fun when she feels up to making things again.