Relapse

Well I found out on friday why I've been feeling so awful.  I'm having a relapse.

Its a small one so I should (hopefully) come out of it non the worse for wear.  I have to go to the hospital tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday for high dose steroids by infusion.  I'm just a day patient and will only be there for the infusion and then come home.  I much prefer being at home when I feel yuk anyway!

I had another craft day with Jo on Friday, a good way to take your mind off the way you're feeling.  I struggled a little but managed to finish the journal pages for Lou.  And here they are

Roll on the sleepless nights and munchies caused by the steroids!  But if they work, its a small price to pay!

Jackson Pollock style

On Monday Jo and I had a craft day.  Not really had one for ages due to her working and me not being too well.  So Monday was a complete 'blow out' day where we blew away all of the cobwebs from our muses!

We both worked on 6" x 12" Stampbord blocks, but both did completely different things.  I had decided the night before that I wanted to use some Claybord inks that I had gotten in a random stash box from Graphicus a couple of Christmas's ago.

I coloured the Stambord block with Pumice Stone DI and then dropped the Claybord inks on one at a time and blew them with an air duster (compressed air in a tin which is used for cleaning computers).  I had tried early with a straw, but the effect was sooo much better with the air duster.  I used a heat tool between each colour to stop it going muddy.

I then used one of Sir Tim's saying stamps on an ATC sized piece of Stampbord, already coloured with the DI, and scratched into it before colouring the lettering with Promarkers.  I've always known that I wanted to use this stamp but just didn't know what on.  I think its perfect here!

I then used an Elusive Images (EI) stamp from the Artistic Affirmations theme plate with part of the message being raised up on a domino sized piece of Stampbord, coloured with the same DI again.  Again I scratched into it (I love doing that!!).

The base looked a bit bare in the middle but I didn't really want to detract too much from the background so I used a coaster sized piece of Stampbord, coloured with the DI and blew the inks around again.  I scratched into it (of course!), edged it with black ink and stamped another EI stamp in the middle.

All that was left to do was sort the background as it looked a bit plain.  I used a speckle stamp of Sir Tim, inked with London Fog Memento and stamped it all over the base.  I decorated 3 Stampbord inchies with the inks and scratched a border round them so they'd stand out.  And here is the finshed piece.

And look what I was given yesterday

My Mam and I were both given a rose to mark International Women's Daywhich was yesterday, by a Polish friend called Pawel. He used to be a neighbour of my parents and they always got on well with him.

Apparently yesterday is observed in Poland and he just wanted to mark it with us. You can read about it here.

How sweet.

Pedicure

I try to have a pedicure once every 2 months to try to keep my feet in good order and also cos I can't paint my own nails now.  My Mam paints them for me in between, but I really look forward to having the treatment.  Plus the fact I'm having to have canulas in my feet again for my treatment and a girl needs to make sure her tootsies look good for that LOL!!

I had my latest treatment last Thursday.  My Mam found the number of a mobile manicure / pedicurist on the back of a local carers magazine.  She also does nail art and spray tans and will come to you, which is Just Perfect which incidentally is the name of her business!  Julie has only been in business less than a year, but she is simply wonderful!  She makes sure that the treatments suit me and is totally understanding of my needs. 

Please stop by her website and if you live in an area she covers, please book an appointment.  You won't be disappointed!!

I like to have unusual and bright colours on my toe nails and this time I asked her if she would do a french style polish but with 2 colours rather than normal naturals and white and look at the results!!  She even did a little nail art for me too!

I'm almost looking forward to going to the hospital on Thursday so I can show my feet off!!!

Great News!! (and a dreaded question)

I was at the hospital on Tuesday for my yearly check up with my Neurologist.  I had to have an MRI in January to check that I wasn't suffering any nasty effects from being on Tysabri monthly infusions for 2 years.

The great news is that my MRI hasn't changed since the one I had in 2009 which means that the infusions have helped to stop the MS progressing!!!  How cool is that?!

But...

I'm still having the most awful pain in my legs.  My MS Nurse, Carmel, thought it might be down to the new pills I was taking so I need to slowly wean myself off them.  Unfortunately it means I'm having violently painful spasms again.  Once I'm off the pills altogether I have to start on the ones I was originally on.  Confused???  I think I know what I'm doing!!

When I talked to my Neurologist about the pain he asked the dreaded question 'Does it feel like a relapse?'.  To anyone with MS, this is a shudder inducing question.  A relapse is when your MS symptoms flare up and is treated with high dose steroids on 3 consecutive days.  And if its serious enough it can leave you with more disability than you had before.

The good news is that if this is a relapse, its a small one.  Just gotta wait and see how I feel once I've swapped the pills over.

Wish me luck!!

Hospital and journal pages

I had my treatment last Thursday and saw my nurse.  My treatment wasn’t as smooth as it usually is due to no veins being suitable in my arms and the stupid doc who came down to put the cannula in my foot, wanted me to have a permanent central line put in.  For a once a month treatment.  I ask you!! 


My nurse (Carmel) thinks that the pain in my legs and the tiredness is all down to my new pills, so I’m off tweaking the dosage.  I seem to spend my entire life doing this kind of thing LOL!!! 


My friend Lou, who I met through Graphicus, is a teacher and has asked us on to help her show the kids what a talented bunch we are on the Guild.  She's asked us each to do at least one 8" x 8" journal page with the theme TIME.  Here are my first two:

This 'page' is made from the back of a breakfast cereal packet from Aldi.  The girl was already on the pack, so I sanded the whole surface and gessoed it and used 3 colours of Lumiere paint for the background.  She looked quiet dreamy so I pasted a picture of a pool and an advert for orange juice into the top corner and stamped 'O's' to make it look like she was thinking about the pool.  I sponged through sequin waste and used a baby wipe with white acrylic to bring the page together.

I wanted to make the girl stand out a little more, so I drew round her with a black PITT pen, but made a mess of her mouth, so I stuck a pair of lips from a different picture on to her face and coloured the lips with a Promarker in poppy.  A happy accident but it works!!

The second 'page' is made from corrugated packing cardboard.  I gessoed the surface and while it was damp I tore some of the top off it reveal the ribs.  I used Claudine Hellmuth paint in a Dash of Red and a Dab of Yellow, and a tongue depressor to spread it.  It really accentuated the texture of the cardboard.  I've had the image from a magazine for ages. 

Jo bought me a quote book a couple of Christmas's ago and she found this one which fit the picture perfectly.  I hand wrote it onto a piece of backing paper I got free ages ago, but I can't remember where from so I can't credit them, but thanks anyway. 

I was amazed that my writing was so good yesterday.  Couldn't do it today as I'm absolutely exhausted after mine and Jo's crafting session yesterday.

Legs and cool boots!!

My spasms have stopped (YAAY!!!) but I have really painful legs at the moment (UGH!!!).  They feel like lead and walking is really hard work for me.  I can get relief from pain killers but they knock me out so I'm trying to get by without them.  Its a different pain from the neuropathic pain that I'm using my TENS machine for.  This is like toothache from my hips to my toes on both legs!

I decided last night I had to journal about it after cutting some more bits from magazines.  So I cut out loads of pairs of legs and used Golden matte gel medium to stick them down.  Then I used a stencil and sharpies to write the word 'LEGS' and just spilled the rest of it.  It really helped to take my mind off the pain!!

Jo was here for a cuppa one day last week and we had a look at the Clarks shoe shop website sale.  She was looking for boots with higher heels than I can manage but I spotted these little beauties and, of course, I had to buy them!  Would have been rude not too!!  They're the original desert boot design with retro animal print suede.  The suede has a texture like real animal skin and is just FAB-U-LOUS!!!

I can't wear my Dr Martens boots anymore as they are too heavy for my poor legs to cope with, but these little babies will do just fine instead of the Docs!!!

Yumminess and journaling

I ordered some yarn from Flamboyance Yarns last week as Carrie has offered to knit me a scarf.  I needed to get some 4ply or sock yarn for the scarf.  When Carrie tweeted that Flamboyance had 20% off all yarn for one day only I rang her and we chose the yarn.

The one in the right of the picture is for my scarf and the one on the left is fibre for spinning.  Carrie has a spinning wheel and I'm gonna try and do it myself and is I can't manage, Carrie will do it for me.  This is gonna be fun!!!

Aren't the colours just yummy!!

As I've not been feeling too well I've ordered loads of crafty books and have a little bit of mojo reappear!!  My spasms have all but stopped now, but I'm still so tired so I've done a little bit of journaling to cheer myself up.  I still can't sit at my craft table for too long so I've pretty much done these pages in fits and starts.  But that's the beauty of journaling - you don't need to do it all in one go!

This first page is my first attempt at layers.  I originally wrote a letter to Martha (my gorgeous cat who died in May last year) and it made me so sad each time I saw it that I wanted to cover it up.  So I started with a couple of layers of gesso, followed by some watered down yellow and ultramarine Golden paint.  Once that way dry, I used torn book pages and used gel medium to stick them down.  Then I used white acrylic paint to make marks over the pages with bottle caps, credit card edges, the lid from a large Malteser tube and a texture stamps that I found in the kiddies section of an craft store.  I'm really pleased with the result.

The next page is something that just popped into my head one day when I was walking (carefully) downstairs.  I'm really pleased at the way it turned out.  I used music paper behind Darth Vader as I can't look at that picture and not here his music from Star Wars!!!