A Haylee update

Apologies for lack of stamping but ...... I will get back to it shortly.

An update on my great niece (I am a great aunt!).  

Haylee went back to hospital on Monday for a check and to have the contacts removed, and the doctor is very pleased with her progress and says her vision has improved and healed well.  She will need to use eye drops for the next 6 weeks or so, but things are looking much better for her at the moment.  She is having a great time opening all the cards and packages that have been sent, some from people neither she nor her parents know.  If you were one that sent something, Thank you.  

An update and a Christmas gift

Thank you to those who read through the previous post on my niece, actually she is my neice's daughter.  I can never remember what that makes me.  Stupid I guess.  

A little update anyway on how the operation went - Apparently Haylee was in surgery for over an hour and recovered quite well.  She came home later that same night (Monday) and slept through the night OK (not sure about her mum though).  She was given eye drops, but is only allowed to use 4 drops in total otherwise it can poison her system.  They were saving the final 2 drops for Tuesday night.  As of Tuesday morning she still hadn't opened her eyes as the light hurts.  They apparently placed contact lens in her eye to try and hold off the progression of the degeneration and she goes back to hospital next Monday to have the contacts removed.  Eventually Haylee will have to have corneal eye transplants but they are saving this for when she gets older.  So I guess she is feeling a little miserable not being able to do much for the next couple of days.  Hopefully her mum will read her lots of stories to keep her entertained.  

My sister (Haylee's grandmother or Nana) had collected quite a large bag of cards, letters and gifts from friends and family for Haylee before and after the hospital visit, and this has cheered her up.  So if you have the time, a card would be welcomed. The address is in the previous post.  

Here is a little gift made using the Petal Cone Die.  It's made in Cherry Cobber and inside is space to hold a few choccies or lollies, or it could even be used as a place tag for your Christmas guests. 

 

 

A get well card

My 7 year old neice in Queensland has recently been diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) which is an inherited disorder whose symptoms include double jointedness, easily damaged, bruised and stretchy skin, easy scarring, poor wound healing, flat feet, increased joint mobility, joints popping, early arthritis, joint dislocation and pain, premature rupture of membrane during pregnancy, soft and velvety skin and vision problems.  

Haylee went to a paediatric rheumatologist a couple of weeks ago and the doctor was suprised that she was not in any pain as she was one of the most flexible children he had ever seen.  Haylee has EDS type 3 but fortunately she is not in pain at this stage.  She does have very flexible muscles and can contort many parts of her body.  She has to be careful in life and cannot do a lot of normal sports, but can do low impact stuff like swimming, walking and cycling.  Fortunately she loves to swim and is apparently quite good at it.  Haylee does have flat feet, heart problems and problems with her eyes.  She now has to wear glasses all the time and also an eye patch for a couple of hours each week. She is finding the patch very hard work as she can't see much at all out of her bad eye, but they are trying to see how much sight can be restored to that eye.  She is also having physiotherapy to help her.  Her future life will involve lots of doctors, medical and hospital visits and is quite devastating for her parents and grandparents to deal with.  Haylee's brother Jack possibly also has a mild version of EDS.  

Anyhow, today Haylee is being admitted to hospital for an eye operation which will slow the degeneration of the eye, and this is the card I have sent up for her.  The zebra is the symbol for EDS and other weird illnesses.  This is not actually a stamp, rather an image of a stamp the owner let me use.

If you would like to send Haylee a card or a little letter please send them c/- PO Box 986, Park Ridge, 4125, Queensland.  

Thank you for reading through all of this.  

You have to resist

This is a great technique to try out.  It's called the Emboss Resist technique and it's easy to do and very effective.  The main panel here has been stamped with the leaves from French Foliage in VersaMark and then embossed with clear embossing powder.  The En Francais background stamp has then been stamped with black StazOn over the top, and then when dry I used a sponge dauber with More Mustard to shade around the embossed leaves, darker around the image.  Just added another leaf as an embellishment, and it's done.  Very easy.

Family stuff - My poor daughter had her four wisdom teeth removed on Monday in hospital.  She hasn't been eating for the last two days, and is only now just starting to swallow (can't chew) food.  Her face is swollen and slightly bruised, but she is gradually getting better. 

The males in this house are hoping for good weather today with no rain so they can head out with their go-karts tonight.  Too cold out there for me - I'll support them from home. 

Mid week trip and a card

Greg and I returned home yesterday from a night away at Echoes in Katoomba.  I was given a voucher when I left work earlier this year, and we finally got away to use it.  Echoes is a Boutigue Hotel perched on the edge of the escarpment in Katoomba and has great views over the valley below.  Our room was very luxurious with a door onto the balcony, and then through the garden to a lovely sunny grassy area, just great for lazing about, dreaming and reading.  Dinner was included, and for dessert I had a delicious rhubarb tartlet with a strip of white chocolate with colourful patterns in it.  Looked pretty spectacular.  Thursday morning after a leisurely breakfast looking out over the valley we took a trip around the area to the scenic railway, skyway and cableway, and then we took a walk to the Leura Cascades.  I remember our family used to holiday up in Katoomba quite a bit so it was a nostalgic walk down to the Cascades.  After an icecream in Leura and a visit to the lolly shop where we found different flavours of Skittles, we travelled back to reality. 

The front entrance to Echoes.  The MX5 looked quite good parked out the front.  At least the car fit in, even if we didn't

Beautiful room, with views to the garden and beyond

The gardens, with a dorky tourist enjoying the sun

The view at breakfast

Leura Cascades

Echoes is a beautiful place and I am so pleased we had the opportunity to enjoy it.  Thank you to my old work.  

And where's the card?  This one has minimal stamping and a few rub ons.  Sounds simple, but as you can see I didn't line the stamping up very well.  

 

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums.  Hope your children look after you well.  We are off to Glenbrook for lunch with the family.  Enjoy your weekend.

Kaitlin's 18th birthday

This is a family post for Kaitlin's birthday with a few photos.  We had the family here for lunch, and had also invited three of Kaitlin's friends from school as a surprise.  We had to have a cake that had something to do with Skittles, so after trawling the internet I found a rainbow cake that was decorated with Skittles.  On Friday I had the house to myself (a rare occurrence) and cooked.  This is the state of the kitchen at one stage during the preparation.  

  
Actually, that looks pretty good.  Am sure it was worse than that.  I had to make six separate cakes, and only having two cake tins you can imagine how long it took. 

Four down, two to go.  

The final masterpiece!

All lit up, ready to go.  Yes, it was lopsided, but the skewers were there to hold it together in case it decided to slide.

And the best bit, the inside.  

 

It turned out just like I wanted.  The colours were beautiful, all layers were cooked properly and it stayed together while cutting - it did topple over later when there was about a quarter left though.  I was incredibly happy with the cake and Kaitlin liked it too.  

Not a great photo, but the birthday girl, happy with the final book in the Hunger Games series. 

And to justify being here, a few cards. Ours - spent more time on the cake than the card.

This one was made Grandma 

and this one by Kylie

So sorry for the long post, but we had a great day - it's just a shame my family couldn't have been here too.