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Life goes on, winners have been picked

October 11, 2011 By 8 Comments

Well it’s a strange time and that’s putting it mildly.

Firstly a thank you once again for all your kind words, we both appreciate each and every one.  It’s the first time Adrian or I have had to deal with all the arrangements and sort out the estate as Alma couldn’t manage it.  Today we met with the vicar conducting the funeral service and Alma was involved in the discussion about how we celebrate Derrick’s life and she made some of the decisions about readings and hymns.  Adrian’s cousin was there too and it was almost like a little private family memorial as we each shared stories and memories of Derrick.  We saw four rainbows last week and reckon he had his paintbrush out already.

It’s pretty exhausting stuff and we are taking the rest of this week off now to get the funeral over and catch up on some rest I hope.  My crafty mojo has completely vanished which is hardly surprising, so I’m not going to force it though I do have some cards to blog at some point that I made a couple of weeks ago.

However,  it’s high time I picked a winner for our Christmas giveaway and I have in fact picked four, as there were four sets of stamps released.  The random number generator was called into action and the winners are:

Lavinia

Mickie

Dee Wicks

Pamela

Ladies – can you email me and I’ll get your stamps organised for you – I’m pretty sure we have most of your addresses already, but could you just confirm your address when you email, thanks.

Take care everyone and thank you again for your kind words of comfort.

 

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Peace at last

October 5, 2011 By 45 Comments

I am sorry to tell you that Adrian’s dad, Derrick, is no longer with us, he passed away on Monday.

This photo shows him on a trip out from the hospital after his stroke in 2008, being spoiled rotten by some of the Graphicus girls.  He had been home with the physiotherapists to assess his care needs at home and Adrian brought him to the office to see everyone as a special treat.  After weeks in hospital, you can see how thrilled he was to have escaped for a day.

He had another stroke on January 1st 2010 and spent months in hospital.  Over the next two years he went through shingles, cellulitis, c-diff, a hiatus hernia, a broken rib, a broken pelvis and so many bouts of pneumonia and pleurisy that we lost count.  He was on palliative care once last year with pleurisy when his rib was broken, but he confounded the doctors and pulled through.  Back in July this year we were told he wouldn’t survive the weekend and again, he promised us he would.

He then developed acute pancreatitis and the hospital team did everything they could, but knowing he could not survive surgery, they offered Derrick the chance to go home and spend his remaining time in his own home with his wife and family around him.

When he arrived home last Monday, he was still full of fighting talk, but as the week wore on, we could see the light going out.  He spent his last week in his own home with a wonderful team of carers and district nurses who kept him pain free and as comfortable as possible.

Adrian was with him at the very end, holding his hand and talking to him and I know it means a lot to him that he was there to tell his Dad that it was ok to go, that he would take care of his mum and that everything was going to be just fine.

I know that many of you have followed Derrick’s story here on the blog, and will be saddened by this news.  We have been so grateful for all of your kindness and heartfelt messages in the past and even though he never really understood the mysterious workings of the Internet or blogs, Derrick always understood that there were people out there who were rooting for him and he always asked me to say thank you.

The funeral will be taking place next Thursday and in preparation for that, we have set up an online donation page in Derrick’s memory.  The charity to benefit is the PSP Association because Derrick’s dearest wish would be to find a cure for his wife’s illness.  If anyone should feel inclined to make a donation (and this is NOT a request at all) there is a link below.

Adrian and I would just like to send out our warmest wishes and supportive thoughts to anyone else out there who is caring for a sick or frail loved one – it’s not easy, but the reward is the quiet internal truth of knowing you did everything you possibly could.

Farewell Derrick and rest in peace.

http://www.justgiving.com/Derrick-Waterworth

 

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Difficult Times

September 28, 2011 By 30 Comments

I have some rather sad news to share. Adrian’s dad, Derrick, is not well at all and he was sent home from hospital on Monday so that he can spend his remaining time with family. The hospital doctors don’t think he has very long left, but of course no one can predict how long that will be. Those of you who have followed Derrick’s story will know that he has confounded the medical world before!

They told us on Friday, but didn’t want to discharge him on a weekend, so we’ve had a bit of an anxious few days and now he is home, it’s just a horrible waiting game. He is not in any pain thanks to morphine, but he has acute pancreatitis and there is nothing more that they can do for him other than make him comfortable and pain free.

We have a great team of carers, nurses and overnight hospice support in place which means that we are free from the practical day to day care and can spend quality time with him and Alma.

We also have support at work – after all, the bills still have to be paid, so we have to continue running the business with as much normality as we can. I’m delighted to say that Design Team member Lesley Wharton has now joined the Chocolate Baroque team. She’s been helping out on an ad hoc basis for a while, but we are delighted to have her on board officially now for three and a half days a week.

It is our intention to continue to provide exceptional service, but we know that this situation may bring unpredictable difficulties. If I’m slow responding to email or orders take an extra day, I hope you will understand.

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Carousel Horse

June 27, 2011 By 20 Comments

Well great minds think alike – this is the first card I made with Carousel Horses and the colour scheme and background is strikingly similar to Design Team member Debbie’s carousel card too which you can see on the Design Team blog here.

Click on image for Carousel Horses

These carousel horses are such lovely ornate designs that you don’t need much to show them off.  This is a simple card stamped with Versamark and embossed with gold powder.  I have coloured with watercolours, just sticking with a pink and aqua colour scheme.  The bunting at the bottom adds a fairground feel, as does the ice cream cone stamped in the background (with Versamagic Pixie Dust).

It is an interesting time for us again – Derrick is in hospital once more, though not as an emergency this time.  He has been taken into a local community hospital for rehab and physio on the recommendation of his community nurse who felt that he needed a little extra help.  We’re all quite impressed at this example of common sense as it’s just what he needs.  Sadly he’s been a bit poorly since he arrived, but at least we know he’s being taken care of.

However we are not able to visit at the moment as all my sick bed energy is reserved exclusively for my poor hubby.  I won’t bore you with the details of last week, but after a false start and a misdiagnosis, it turns out Adrian has chickenpox.  He’s slightly embarrassed about it, but it would seem his childhood vaccination has worn off and he is seriously spotty.  Thankfully I’ve already had it so I know I can’t catch it again.  I actually had it very severely and ended up with septicaemia, so I’m keeping a watchful eye on Adrian to make sure he doesn’t get any kind of secondary infection like I did.  Even though I can’t catch it, I’d never forgive myself if I carried an infection to Derrick, so for now we’ll keep our distance and paint a black cross on the gate or something.

It should make for a fun week at work.  As Adrian is under strict orders to rest and give his body chance to fight off the virus, he can’t run the presses and make stamps.  I’ve been pressing stamps today, but made a few phone calls tonight to draft in the cavalry.  My sister is coming in to help and Lesley from the DT is busy trying to re-arrange some of her training students so she can come in and help out too.  It’s hot work in this weather, so we’re stocking the freezer with fruity ice pops,  turning the fans on full and the music up loud.

I know one thing for sure – I definitely can’t complain of boredom!

 

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Up close with the bunnehs

July 8, 2010 By 29 Comments

Well up close with one particular bunneh actually.  This one came right up under my craft room window the other day.  I managed to get some shots through the glass, but when I tried to open the window quietly, he took fright and scampered off.

I saw a basement bunneh this morning, hopping and bouncing around with several other bunnies, but I didn’t have my camera to hand.  Shame as I saw something I have never seen before – a real live dust bunneh!  One of the bigger rabbits was rolling around on its back in the dust, kicking its little legs in what could only be a gesture of pure enjoyment – certainly a joy to watch!

Basement bunneh made another appearance this evening too, but again, ran off as soon as I reached for the camera.  I’m thinking of investing in CCTV just so I can catch him!

Meanwhile, Derrick is enjoying a wild last night party down at Bishop Auckland hospital at the moment.  We left the three inmates of his ward enjoying hot buttered toast – they know how to live, those boys.  Derrick’s really bonded with them and they’re swapping phone numbers, so I hope the other guys make as good a recovery as well.  He goes home tomorrow morning!!  When I look back over the last six months, there were times when we thought this day would never come.

My artistic output is a little thin on the ground this week with all the decluttering that’s going on. We actually had a day off work today and the two of us managed to generate another 8 bin bags plus two full suitcases for the charity shops.  My wardrobe is amazing – it used to be full of all the clothes I didn’t wear, while the ones I did would go from laundry basket to washing machine to clothes airer to ironing pile and never actually make it to a wardrobe or cupboard before they got worn again.  Now that I’ve got rid of all the junk, my wardrobe has all my favourite clothes in, all sorted by colour no less!  My drawers and shelves are all tidy, including my jewellery which all got tidied up and put away in a new jewellery pouch that is lined with special stuff to keep it from tarnishing (a very useful birthday pressie from our stamp designer Sue – thanks Sue).  Even handbags got the tidy treatment (though very few made it into the charity shop bag) and are neatly sorted and stored in the wardrobe cupboard.

I think perhaps when you don’t have children to set an example to, you can get awfully lazy about keeping tidy, especially when you are going through tough times and feel so exhausted you just don’t have the energy.  Having cats also made us tidier – you really don’t want your clean laundry covered in cat fur which would inevitably happen if you left it lying around.  Now we’ve made such a mammoth effort to clean our act up, we’re more determined than ever to keep it like this.

Here’s what my craft room is looking like at the moment.

Impressive isn’t it?  Well I have a lot of work coming up and some of it is going to be welcome news to you all.  Remember a while ago I was asking you all whether you’d be interested in online classes?   Well, I have actually been invited to join a prestigious American teaching site where I will be – you guessed it – teaching online classes!  I start off with two basic classes, basically stamping for beginners (or a back to basics refresher for those who already stamp) and an intermediate stamping class.  These will be open for registration in August and will start in September.  I promise I’ll bring you more detail on those once it’s all set up and I know my way around the site.

Once I have passed my ‘probation’ then I’m free to introduce more adventurous classes, so watch out world because I have some great ideas for the next semester.  I have to get the two classes prepared next week, so my lovely tidy workspace is going to make it all much easier.

You may notice in the photo above that I finally got my Ranger mirror finished off.

I wasn’t happy with the original colour, so I rubbed some Peeled Paint ink over it and much preferred the new tone that gave it.  This mirror will be available for sale at the Paradise Boutique – just one of the little extras we are setting up for the Paradise Weekend Retreat in September.  (We have the timetable all worked out, but it’s all scraps of paper at the moment – I’m trying to get that up on the website as soon as I can).

This weekend however, the de-clutter continues as we move on to the kitchen and futility room.  Our stalwart helpers are once again coming over, dressed for painting as we attempt to give both rooms a lick of paint – particularly the area around the new boiler which is just bare plaster at the moment.  Here’s the ‘before’ shot, let’s hope the violent sneezing I’m currently experiencing is just a reaction to all the dust and not the start of a cold, or you may not be seeing any ‘after’ shots for a while.

Wish us luck …


PS – As I’ve got a big pile of craft stuff that I’ve cleared out, this weekend, I’m going to give a random prize to a random winner from a random blog post in the last month.  That’s a lot of random – it could be you!

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Busy, but good busy

July 2, 2010 By 13 Comments

Adrian and I are on a mission to declutter.

For two people with no kids, we just have WAY too much stuff.  So the next two weekends, we have made a commitment to each other, we are having a declutter fest and will be busy filling bin bags,  boxes and possibly several large skips.

I have lots of brand new craft stash that I will be taking down to the office to put in the clearance section, plus some used stuff that I may actually put on ebay.  Don’t worry, I’ll let you all know when that happens.  I have something like 30 scrapbook boxes full of printed and plain 12×12 that I’m never going to use, some of them with coordinating stickers, journal cards, etc.  Plus a ton of other paper, pre-scored cards which I rarely use these days (I prefer to make my own with a score board), old punches, ribbon, flowers, etc.

We’re also getting ready for an event we honestly thought would never happen – Derrick is coming home next week.  He had a home assessment visit on Wednesday and they’re getting him prepared to leave hospital early next week.

This year has been a tough one and I really appreciate all the encouraging and comforting comments my readers leave me.  I really appreciate that you’ve taken the time to leave those words, particularly as I just haven’t had the time to keep up with other people’s blogs this year the way that I would like to.

Some of you have commented on how I have stayed positive throughout.  Like I’ve said before, this year has been a life lesson in stoicism, keep calm and carry on kind of thing.  I have also actively sought out resources to keep me sane and I found an awful lot out there on the internet, from lifestyle gurus to daily quotations – the things you need have a way of seeking you out if you put your attention on it.

It’s been a difficult trading year too – lots of our trade customers are reporting the same thing, people are just spending less and for those of us in business, that’s scary.  But if there’s one thing I’ve learnt this year, it’s that there will always be something to scare you and it’s when you react to that fear that you lose yourself.  I have had to learn to acknowledge fear and examine it for what it really is – irrational or real.  If it’s an irrational fear, you have to let go, if the fear points to something real, you can’t procrastinate, you have to stand up and face the issues.

Throughout the period where Derrick was critically ill, we felt like we were in limbo – not knowing what was going to happen was a big drain on energy as your mind is constantly preparing for all the possible scenarios.  Now he’s stable, a lot of that ‘what if’ stuff goes away and your mind feels clearer.  My Nanna was a wise lady – my mum reminded me of one of the things she would say whenever any of us were going through tough times – she would listen, then just quietly say, “it will pass”. And of course, she was always right.

So right now, I seem to be busier than ever – but it’s a good busy, not an anxious, fearful, worried busy.  There’s lots in the pipeline at Graphicus, (next Open Days August 13/14th) but this weekend I have a house to declutter.

PS, talking of spending less – here’s a quick heads up – we’ve just put all our nestabilities on sale!  They are in the Special Offers section on the website.

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