"Cheers (Drink To That)..."

So Sunday was Mothering Sunday and as much as I would have loved to have been with my mum (as planned!), you can't always plan for the unpredictable can you?
I spent most of last week in enormous amounts of pain because of my back again. It's been ongoing for about 13 years now so I really should be used to it, but recently the pain was getting unbearable again and I ended up taking most of the week off work. On wednesday I finally managed to get an appointment with the pain management team at Lincoln County Hospital. About twice a year I have injections into the nerves at the base of the spine (both sides) and the result is that this can give me a few pain free hours a day for up to 3 or 4 months. I then attend a meeting with the consultant who asks me how I got on, I tell him okay, he asks if I want the injections again, I say yes and a month or so later I am face down on a table, wearing what can only be described as a hankie with a bum flap that doesn't even fit where it actually touches! Well this time has taken considerably longer to get organised than usual. Funding for the injections was approved LAST JUNE! but no-one (that's me and my GP) has been able to get through to the right department at the hospital to try and organise a visit, so the pain in my back has just gotten worse as the days have gone on. I don't know if it was just me, but the consultant seemed particularly heavy-handed this time and the pain being inflicted on my spine was unbearable. I had to have oxygen because I kept holding my breath waiting for the pain to subside; overall it turned out to be a fairly unpleasant (and long-winded) experience, one that I shall not be rushing to repeat if I am given the choice!
So Mothering Sunday was a wash out. Jo and I were going to see mum and take her some flowers, sweeties and a really pretty card I had spent most of last week making! but come Sunday morning neither one of us was actually capabe of the (relatively) short drive over to Coningsby. To make matters worse, my sister then said she was planning to make dinner for us too!!! So rare an event as to actually warrant a mention by Nostradamus. Normally the only way you will get a cooked meal out of her is to actually invite yourself over!!
Anyhoo, on to this week's card and the theme at I ♥ ProMarkers is '3 Different Papers'. We are being sponsored by the lovely people over at StampFairy and the image I have used is called Lenny: Happy New Year 5. As per usual I have used the old PM's and the papers are all Basic Grey offcuts (Hmmm, have I mentioned just how much I love Basic Grey!) I had on my craft table already. I used some Bazzill Basics Dotted Swiss card (another one of my absolute favourite ever products) which has the adorable name of Mud Puddle! and a Martha Stewart punch. I have also used one of my Sizzix alphabet strip dies. I have had these dies for a good few years now and I'll be honest, they just sit there gathering dust most of the time, but I really wanted to use some old stash so I gave them a dusting off and I love the finished look of the whole card.
I have been on a bit of a spending spree lately (no, not my mother's generous donation - well, not yet anyway!) and have bought some amazing new products which I hope to be sharing with you over the coming months. The items include some of the new Nestabilities (Dies being my absolute weekness at the moment), I got some stunning feather dies today! I have also bought some fantastic new stamps including Sugar Nellie, Some Odd Girl, Gorjuss, Kraftin' Kimmie, Kanban and of course Magnolia, so keep an eye out for those real soon.
Hope you are having a good week so far, the weather looks like it is picking up at last (even managed to hang some washing on the line today!!), I will see you again real soon,
Lots of love 'n hugs
Andy
x
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