Where have the first 6 months of this year gone???

I can't believe that it is the 1st of July already. Life has been soooooo busy during the first half of this year I don't think I've stopped to draw breath WHEW!!! Jim has had more tests, physio and speech therapy sessions this week so things continue to be hectic. We saw his Consultant yesterday and they have now ruled out any problem with his heart and have referred him to the Southern General Neurological Department for more tests on his brain. I suppose it's just a matter of waiting for the appointment to come through now.

I managed to do an 8" x 8" page for my New Home Journal that I've been making for quite a while now (hangs head in shame LOL) and I hope you like it.

Catch ya'll later.

Fee x

Clean Up Campaign

I took today off to catch up with my washing, ironing and general housework and although I'm exhausted I'm quite pleased with what I've achieved. I managed to get 3 loads of washing done, hung out and dried now all I have to do is iron it (or do I???) maybe I'll call The Press Gang LOL.

Till tomorrow.

Fee x

Thank Crunchie It's Friday

This week has absolutely flown past and I've struggled to keep up with everything I had to do so nothing new there then LOL. Today Jim went out for lunch with his sister (Evelyn) and although he enjoyed it he was so tired when he came back that he had to go to bed for a couple of hours. While he was snoozing Laura and I were gardening. She really likes to help with the digging and planting but not so much when I ask her to do some weeding LOL. I bought her a couple of strawberry plants so that she can grow her own strawberries and she couldn't wait to get them. I'll need to get some wire netting or a little poly tunnel for her to keep the birds away though!

Here is a layout I recently completed of the girls (Laura, Sophie and Jenny) playing in the sun. They had a ball just running around barefoot, climbing trees, squirting water at each other, etc.

Gotta go now duty calls!

Fee x

Training Wizard

Yesterday and today I've been busy running a two day training course on Supervisory/Management skills in Glasgow. I'm glad to say it went well and I scored perfect 10's in the feedback from the delegates. I always find that bit rather nerve racking because if the delegates don't rate you highly then you may not get used again. All I can say now is WHEW I'm glad it went well. At work I've been up to my ears doing a salary review and I really haven't had much time to sit down.

My crafting time has been severely limited of late but I wanted to share my latest toy from PTI. I used their A2 envelope liner die to make these pretty envelopes. I already have plans to use this excessively at Christmas time.

Till later.

Fee x

Thank You

Thanks to everyone for all the support over the past few weeks, we have been having a pretty rough time of it lately with Jim being ill. He got home from hospital on Thursday and I have been doing my best to allow him do absolutely nothing (not an easy thing to do). It's been confirmed that he has had another stroke and I'm being really tough on him when he does anything he's not supposed to. He is unhappy that he can't drive at the moment but he does understand why but gets a bit frustrated about it.

On Friday evening, the sun was shining and I decided to take Laura, her friends Jenny and Sophie and their Mum (Anne) up one of the local hills to see the beautiful view of Loch Lomond. It took us about half an hour to climb to the top of Duncryne Hill (locally known as "The Dumpling"). It was good to get a bit of exercise and some girl time. I took a bottle of peach water and bags of crisps with me and we had a rest at the top while munching our crisps and drinking our water. The view is absolutely stunning and it is a fairly easy climb as there is a track all the way up. I would recommend it to anyone. I've posted some photos for you so that you can judge for yourself. The first one is near the bottom of the hill and the girls are doing their yoga (and chanting), in the second one Jenny had climbed onto the stone plinth at the top and the third is a beautiful view of the loch and some of the islands,

A mega thank you to Val and Sandra for looking after the shop on Sunday to let me have some R & R time with the family which was much needed and appreciated. I was under strict instructions from the girls to go home and chill which is what I did. Later on in the afternoon we took a short drive to the beautiful village of Luss on the East side of Loch Lomond. It was a wonderful sunny day and wandering round the village helped me to de-stress. Jim managed to walk from the Car Park to the Coffee Shop and back but he was exhausted after just a short walk. I think it just proved to all of us that he really needs to take it easy for a while.

Gotta go now or I'll be late for work if I don't get a move on.

Till later.

Fee x

Hospital Visiting

Apologies for being missing in action for a couple of days. Jim has not been too well again and ended up back in hospital yesterday. He is experiencing pain in his right arm and leg and it's a bit odd because 1) he shouldn't really be in pain and 2) the injury to his brain was on the right side and it is usually the opposite side that is damaged. He is in the right place anyway and I feel better just knowing that he is getting 24 hour care instead of being on his own at home. He will be getting more tests done today so we will see how that goes.

Gotta go and get ready for work now. Catch ya later.

Fee x

Fun in the Pool

Another busy day today and I fell asleep for an hour when I came home. I must have needed the rest but it meant that we were eating dinner at 8.30pm which is a bit late for us.

This photo on this layout was taken in Florida 2008 when Laura was having fun in the pool at the villa. The paper is from the Baby Safari Baby Girl range of papers. The backgorund paper is by Doodlebug and has embossed flowers on it (although you can't really tell from this photo). The letters were cut from chipboard using my Sizzix dies and covered with Posie Pink Bazzill then stamped with Versamark to achieve a watermark effect. I hope you like it.

Till tomorrow.

Fee X