My Family & Other Animals

Saturday 12 May 2012

"Needles and Pins..."

So this week I want to talk about friends and family (or F & F in text speak!). Firstly family and the good news, is that my mother has finally come out of hospital after three weeks following a pretty bad fall. She has officially been diagnosed with dementia now but that was not really a major newsflash to anyone who has been around her for longer than five minutes. She can remember the ages of her sisters but not which ones are still alive and she will tell you repeatedly how happy she is that you have come to visit her but she can't remember the way to the toilet without directions. Her personality changed a lot after having her first stroke (as expected) but she is a battler, at 84 she still has more fight in her that Lennox Lewis and only the stupidest person would ever count her out. She has become a lot more loving, never having been a very touchy feely type of woman in the past. It is nice that she is sharing more of herself with me now than she ever has before and I feel a lot closer to her than at any other time in my life. I look into her eyes and I can se how much she loves me, I only hope she can see it coming back to her too.
On the friends front I have to give a big shout out to FaceBook. Over the years I have been in touch on and off with lots of people. I spent twenty three years in the Royal Air Force and as you can imagine, you get to meet an awful lot of people during that kind of time frame. One of the people I always regretted losing touch with was a young man called Neil who became one of the best friends I have ever had. When I arrived at my first proper unit after Trade Training he took me under his wing and showed me all the best bars in town. We were kind of inseperable for a few years but the military is very good at moving people around and you just lose contact. Things were exacerbated by the fact that I knew he had gone to Australia to live and I kind of gave up hope of ever making contact with him again; until this week that is, when I received a friend request on FB. You could have knocked me down with a feather. I gave Neil my contact details and honestly thought that we would just maybe write via email but last night I got a call at 22:30 and he was on the other end of the line, speaking from tomorrow! How awesome is that? Not only do I get to talk to one of the best friends I have ever had for the first time in 26 years but he was talking to me from the future too! He didn't sound any different (apart from the upper inflection in his voice and the odd use of the word 'mate' now and again - just like Alf in 'Home & Away') and seeing his picture on FB, he didn't look any different either, time sure has been better to him than to me!. We chatted for over an hour, before his wife had to go to work but there was a strong promise to stay in touch and I believe we will now, friends mean more to me the older I get and it was just so nice to hear from him, I don't think I could bare to lose contact again.
So, on to this weeks card and I must apologise for being so late in posting. I always post on a wednesday but (and I am being 100% honest with you here) I just couldn't be bothered to turn on my main PC to transfer the pictures of the card onto my memory stick so I could do my blog from bed on my laptop! So now you know just how lazy I am! The challenge over at I ProMarkers this week is Hat Pins and Charms and as you can see, I have used three pins on my card. When I first noticed them on cards in magazines, you couldn't get them anywhere but now they are (excuse the pun here) quite old hat but I still think they give a card a classy look. The image is another Saturated Canary and the papers are from Magnolia's 6x6 range. The sentiment is made up from Papermania's glitter letters and the small ticket is from Whimsy Stamps, anything else is from my stash.
So I hope you like it and I also hope you are as lucky as I am to have some really great family and some even greater friends, who you know love and support you, no matter what. Hope to see you on wednesday next week! Take Care.
Hugs 'n Stuff,
Andy
x
Entered Into: ATC's and Cards with Attitude Challenge #13 - Anything Goes/Butterflies & Blooms
2 Sisters Challenge #91 - Make It Girlie
Catch The Bug Challenge - Things With Wings
Crafty Calendar Challenge - Things With Wings
Crafty Emma's Store Challenge #85 - Anything Goes
The Happy Scrappers Challenge #1 - Anything Goes
Sweet 'n Sassy Digi's Challenge #53 - Feminine Card
The Squirrel And The Fox Challenge #17 - One For The Girls
Sentimental Sundays Challenge #102 - (B)irthday
Platypus Creek Digitals Challenge #6 - Flowers
Paper Sundaes Challenge #120 - Things With Wings
Great Impressions Challenge #3 - Anything Goes
The Corrosive Challenge Blog Challenge #149 - Flowers and Doilies and Bling - Oh My!

20 comments:

  1. Glad your mum is finally out of hospital, Dementia is a terrible illness and your mum will know that you love her. Family and friends are good to have around as well xx

    Your card is stunning as always, just love your work, thank you for joing us at ATC's With Attitude this fortnight xx

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  2. Hello Andy, I am a new DT at ATCs with Attitude, nice to meet you. I love your card, it is so colourful and pretty. Sorry to read of your mother's illness. I hope you and your old found friend do stay in touch. Caz

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  3. Lovely card but sadly we cannot add it to our challenge at The Happy Scrappers as we are a scrap booking challenge
    hugs Shaz

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  4. Hi Andy, I am really pleased your mum is out of hospital and doing well.
    Your card is gorgeous, lovely image which you have beautifully coloured and embellished. Thanks for joining us this month at Crafty Calendar Challenges.
    Kim xXx
    p.s I am currently in the process of moving to a village just outside of Lincoln.

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  5. Great easel-card! Your colouring is gorgeus!
    Berit x

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  6. Very cute easel card! Love it! Thanks for joining the Anything Goes challenge at Great Impressions!

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  7. Love your card and happy that your mother is better and that you made contact with your friend from your military days.

    Carolyn PCD DT member

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  8. What a fabulous easel card! Love the image you used too! Thanks for joining us at Sentimental Sundays! :-) Amy

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  10. Great easel card, fab colours & layout!

    Thank you for sharing with us for our last challenge at Crafty Emma's Store & Platypus Creek, good luck!
    Hugs Shell xx

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  11. beautiful card love the image thanks so much for joining us at paper sundaes this week
    hugs sara x x

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  12. Beautiful card! Love the handmade flower!Thanks for participating at Platypus Creek Digitals - Challenge # 6- Flowers.
    Ruthie ~DT

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  13. A lovely card! Make sure that you spend all the time that you can with your Mum. As they say, life is what happens when you are making plans! Thinking of you.

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  14. gorgeous card Andy. Love the image
    Many thanks for joining us at Sentimental Sundays this week
    hugs
    Doreen

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  15. Very pretty card Andy. Great colouring. Thanks for joining us at Platypus Creek Digitals.

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  16. Lovely! Thanks for playing along with us at Platypus Creek Digitals.

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  17. Andy this is such a lovely card, I particularly love your crochet flower and pins. Thanks for joining us at Platypus Creek Digitals.
    Danie - PCD DT

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  18. How adorable, I love it! I am so glad you joined our Things with Wings challenge at Catch the Bug Challenge Blog! I hope you will join us again!

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  19. What an absolutely fabulous card! Thanks for joining us in our Things With Wings challenge at Catch The Bug! Hope to see you again soon! Good luck!

    :=) Becky G

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  20. Great card, love the image, thanks for joining us at ATCs and cards with Attitude this fortnight

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