Healing Nicely And A Card!

 At last! I have the stitches out! My eye is healing well and it feels a lot more comfortable now.  No more horrible, drive-you-crazy itching!  That was worse than the pain:-(  

 I am still not allowed to get my wounds wet and am not allowed to wash may hair!  Two weeks of not washing my hair:-(  I have managed to wash my hair over the bath, by using  containers of warm water:-)  A rather long process, but hey, it worked!

This is a big heart card I made for a friend for Valentines day.  I made a small tab using the SU tab punch so the recipient could hang it on her wall.  She loved it:-)Thanks for visiting, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Looking For This...

I am looking for a bunny rabbit stamp and matching die set.  Must be cute/funny!  Can anyone point me in the right direction of which companies sell these, please?!  I've spent a lot of time on the interweb and can't find what I want, and yet I see them on blogs all the time!  If you can help, thank you!

I will be back with a post later...

Thanks for visiting, {HUGS from me to YOU:-)

Someone Responds!

 "Oh gosh!  I am so glamorous first thing in the morning!  Shocked at my own stunningly gorjuss sex appeal and beauty, I fell on the floor...laughing!"

Here's my injuries as of today, 21-2-2016.  I have had a couple of very painful days and am soooo looking forward to tomorrow when the stitches come OUT!  Yippee!  

The wound on my right cheek is looking much better.  You can't see it as the dried blood came off yesterday when I plastered my injuries with Lucas Paw Paw ointment! That stuff is AMAZING for all  kinds of scratches, stitches, burns, cracked lips, and itchy things!  Sunburn too!  I love it so much I have two tubes of it and a bar of the soap as well!

Ok, so I had a phone call from St.John Ambulance today saying the had received my email.  Gee that was quick, I only sent it... last Monday, 6 days ago!  Anyhow I was assured they are looking into it and I will receive a letter about the matter soon.  I was told they have had several other complaints about an ambulance not turning up when required.  My 91 year old Aunty was one of them!  Unbelievable.  

I was also told I could either leave the matter there, or take it further, but if I chose to take it further the response to my complaint would be that "the nurse did what she was supposed to do!"  Are you SERIOUS St. John??  She was SUPPOSED to refuse to send an ambulance to someone who had just had their eyelid ripped open with blood everywhere, and who was already partially sighted with no way of getting to the hospital without help at 6 am in the morning??  Come on guys!  This 'ain't my first rodeo!  I pay every week for this St. John ambulance service...where was it on the 15th when I needed it??

"Trust me", she said, I will get this sorted out.  I told her I wanted the RN responsible to see my photo's of my injuries.  I  want her to SEE what had happened. 
I have also sent an email plus photo's to my local paper about this incident.  We'll see what they do with it.  They will either publish it as a letter, or do a story about it.  I'll let you know!
Thank heavens for mobile phone camera's!  I would never have managed to take these photo's with my Canon camera.  The photo's are not great, but they show enough of what happened.

Okay, I've had my rant for today!  Thanks for dropping by, {HUGS} from me to you:-)

Feeling Let Down

No photo's this morning - sorry!  I have just called TV3 news room to see if  they are interested in picking up my story/complaint about St. John Ambulance.  I have given them the details of what happened and that St. John refused to send me an ambulance.  They will  call me if they want to pick it up or not.

I am sick of everyone involved passing the buck.  The reply I kept getting yesterday, was, "I don't know anything about your email/photo's, it's not my department".  Someone needs to own up and be accountable.  I'm sore, I'm itchy and I am  darn cranky. (And that is the polite version!)  I've been very patient all week.  I'm over it now.

Thanks for visiting, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Yippee! I'm Not "Plastered" Anymore!

 The top photo was taken this afternoon just before I went to see the nurse about the eye injuries.  As you can see I was, well, plastered! (And YES!  I have CAT'S ears on!!)

 I was very happy when the nurse said I didn't need the plasters on anymore and could go "naked"!  I just have the steri tape on the injury over my left eye. (Steri tape is in place of stitches and works well.)  I can deal with that!

It still bothers me when I see these photo's, but the good news is I am healing!  I have always been a good healer, (I usually heal quickly) so this time will be no different.  The only challenge is...the stitches are ITCHY!  Like, REALLY itchy!  I have to keep them dry, and will have them removed next Monday at 10.15 am.  This will be great!  I am looking forward to that:-)  
Frowning, sneezing, raising my eyebrows or blowing my nose is NOT an option at the moment...it hurts too much!  And I have ha fever?!  SO much fun:-(

Now, I had not heard from any of the people I complained to about not sending me an ambulance, so at lunch time I called HOME CARE MEDICAL and finally got put onto a Team Manager.  She knew nothing about my email I sent, or the photo's attached.  She took my phone number and said she will look into it and someone 'would call me as soon as possible.  A hour or so later 'someone' did call.  Another manager of some sort.  She too knew nothing of my complaint but said she would certainly look into it and send an urgent email to St. John Ambulance to let them know what had happened and see why an ambulance was not sent out to me last Monday morning.  It is now 5.20 pm and I have no heard anything more about it.  This manager said yes the RN'S there do work for St. John Ambulance taking their 111 calls, but they don't actually work from HOME CARE MEDICAL.  She said they actually work at the St.John Ambulance hub.  I am not 100% sure what this means, but I had better get some PROPER answers SOON, because I am losing patience!  I feel like there is a bit of "passing the buck", going on.

Ok that's me for today...gotta go and scratch an itch...

Thank you for dropping by, and thanks to everyone for your support:-) {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Thank You Card

 OMG!  I made a card!  My vision is still blurry and my eye is quite painful, but I made a card!  A "thank you" card for the staff that treated me at the hospital on Monday.  I know I've said it before, but they were brilliant!  I will take the card and give it to them personally once the stitches are out and I can see properly.  I am not sure how in focus the photo's are, I use my camera on manual focus, but not being able to see well means these may not be as focused as I THINK they are!  Apologies:-)

This is an easel card - aren't they fun to make?!  It did take me four days to get it done though.  I just did a bit here and a bit there.  

I am supposed to be "relaxing", however I am not the sort who can just sit around doing nothing.  I am what you call an 'active relaxer', I have to be doing something kind of meditative to relax.  Card making does it for me!

I have written some emails of complaint to the appropriate places about the ambulance not being sent out to me and NO-ONE has replied.  Not St.John Ambulance, and not HOME CARE MEDICAL who supply the registered nurses to answer emergency calls, and who is responsible for sending out the ambulance.  I sent the emails four days ago!  Why is it taking so long for someone to reply??

I AM NOT HAPPY.  This is not good enough.  And I will NOT be leaving it there.  It will be going further until I get a response and someone is held accountable.  (And an apology would be great) It will either end up on tv or in the news paper.  How long does it take to send a quick email saying, "thanks for your email, we will check into it and get back to you?"  COURTESY!  It makes things flow in life!

Okay, I've had my rant for today, my eye is sore and I need to go!  
Thank you for visiting, and I WILL be back stamping, hopefully by next week!  {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Eye Injury Update

 This is me an hour ago!  I had to get the wounds cleaned a dressed at the doctors surgery.  The nurse took these for me.  I had a look in

the mirror before she re-dressed the wounds - YUKK!  I nearly threw up!  I am not good with stuff like this!

 I was very lucky the injury was not my actual eye.  I only see with one eye and it is that eye that was injured.  My eyesight is not damaged  because of this injury, but things are blurry!  Thank goodness for spell checkers!

And here I am all re-plastered after the nurse dressed the wounds.  I have to go back on Friday to get the wounds cleaned and re-dressed again, and then next Monday I go back to have the stitches out.  I had to get a friend to come and help me cross the road to get the bus to the doctors this morning as I really can't see well enough to do that on my own.  She only has a motor scooter and I was not going on the back of that!  My balance is not the best for that right now!  And it is $15 each time I need the wounds dressed - ouch, that hurts way more than having the stitches did!

Ok, so I am still alive and this will heal.  Any scars can be covered by some makeup, if I chose to do that.  I am not vain at all so may just leave the makeup off!

Thanks to Lorraine and Asha for your caring comments:-)

Oh yes!  I sent an email complaint to the St. John Ambulance about the RN not sending an ambulance, but am still waiting for a reply.  Now that I have downloaded the photos from my phone, I am going to re-send that email with some photo's attached so they can actually see at the injury was like.  It's not  St. John that is at fault, it's the stupid system they have of having to be assessed by a RN and SHE makes the decision that yes you need an ambulance, or no you don't.  I have MULTIPLE serious medical problems and when I call St J, you know I need an ambulance.  Plus I told her I have limited vision and the injury was above that eye.  Not good enough St. John Ambulance.

Thanks for dropping by, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

An Early Morning Visit To The E.D. 15-2-2016

 If you've just eaten and are a bit squeamish, then don't look at these!  This is what happened to me about 5.50 am yesterday morning!  Lying in bed, on back, asleep.  

 One of my cats tried to jump onto the window ledge above my bed, but the net curtain got in his way.  He slipped and fell onto my face, and ACCIDENTALLY gouged my right eye and above my left eye with his back claws.  Blood all over me, rushed to the bathroom to mop it up.  It wasn't working so I grabbed a handful of clean face cloths and held them to my face.  Called for an ambulance as I could see it was a lot more than just a "cat scratch".  Spoke to a registered nurse (this is a new thing) and she said it would be fine and she was NOT sending an ambulance!  She said just go to see my own GP later that day!  I wasnt happy with that so I called a friend and she came an rushed me off to the local hospital to the Emergency Department.  They took one look at me and whisked me off to have stitches in the eyelid.  As you can see it was ripped wide open and was way more than a superficial"cat scratch".

 Here I am after being stitched up - 6 stitches.  I had some 'laughing gas' to relax me as I was reeeaaallly stressed about having stitches!

Once I was all patched up they gave me a Tetanus injection  THEN I noticed a weird itchy rash coming up rapidly on my arms and legs!

I have multiple allergies to just about every kind of drug and other things, so they gave me some Antihistamine and within 20 minutes the itchy rash settled down.  a HUGE THANK YOU to Keith, one of doctors who treated me and also to Wendy, the nurse.  Both awesome people and they kept me calm and totally high on the laughing gas!  Love that stuff!  

 The bottom photo is before I had the eyelid stitched and was waiting to be seen.  They had washed the wound ready to be stitched.  Today I am okay, but I have quite a bit of pain.  I was better earlier this morning, but as the day progressed so did the pain!  

And all I cold think of from the minute this happened was, take selfies so you can see what happened!!  So I did!  Then my friend who took me to the hospital took over my phone and she took the photo's while I was in hospital.

My eye is swollen and is closing as the day wears on.  I am making so many spelling mistakes as I really can't see well at all.  It may be awhile before I can see well enough to stamp:-(

Thank you for dropping in to look at my "wounds"!  {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

Dog Cards

 The card above is made using heart shapes!  I used heart shaped dies I have.  A fun card to make:-)  I have used some SU DSP for the background as well as the strip at the bottom of the card.

These two photo's (above and below) are of some new Stampin' Up! card I got last week.  I was very disappointed with it as it does not fold neatly, but ends up with creases in it where I don't want it creased.  No matter how careful I was, it would not fold without the extra creases.  Very disappointing:-(  I ended up not using it as it did not look very nice.  For most of my cards I use cheap card from the $2 shop, and I have NO problems with it at all.  At $2 a pack of 20, I will definitely keep on using it.  

 Another dog card, once again made from heart shapes!  I wonder if I can make cat ones...?!

I made this card and gift bag from some Stampin' Up! dies and stamps.  The little white bag with gold stars came in a pack of six, from a local shop.  There are 6 bags for $3.  The stamp on the card say's, "...because you're awesome", and below it I stamped "Happy Valentines Day".  I forgot to photograph it after I had stamped it!  I made another card which I also forgot to photograph, and now I have posted it...oops!

Thanks for visiting, {HUGS} from me to YOU:-)

What Do You Do With The Empty Box Your SU Stuff Comes In?!

 ...you get in, look cute, get comfortable, turn around three times...

 ...and go to sleep for the rest of the day!

Well, that's what "Romeo-Valentino" did the day my Stampin' Up! things arrived recently!  He loved the noisy brown wrapping paper inside the box - the same paper I wanted to make paper flowers with - and just flopped down in the box for a big snooze! 

So, THAT'S what you do with the empty box your Stampin' Up! things come in...

P.S. what you can't see, is the fan beside him keeping him cool!

Two Cards and A Stamping Trick!

 I saw this cute dog card on Pinterest and just fell in love with him! (If this is your artwork, please let me know so I can give you credit!) He's made from heart shapes, even his tongue!  This one will go in my punch art book where I keep all my punch art idea's.  I will make another one to put on a card.

This card (above is one I made for a friend of mine who ALWAYS gives me a huge hug every time I see her.  She is such a lovely person and I just wanted to tell her how much I appreciate her and her awesome hugs!  She loved the card when I gave it to her:-)  I used Stampin' Up! dies, stamps and DSP for the card.

...and here's the stamping trick!  I had die cut these red and white flowers and stuck them on the white heart shape.  There were too many white spaces between the red flowers, and I wanted to stamp little flowers there.  Problem?!  When I put the tiny red flower stamp on my acrylic block I couldn't stamp as the block was too chunky and wouldn't fit between the big red flowers without squashing them.  I solved the problem (challenge?!) by getting one of my small peg stamps and sticking a tiny glue dot on the flat (top) end of the stamp, then sticking the tiny flower stamp to it and then stamping the tiny flower stamp where I wanted it!  If you look closely you can see the tiny flower stamp on the end of the peg stamp.  It worked perfectly!  The flower stamp came off easily once I had finished, without any damage to either the stamp or the peg stamp!  I have often had this problem and now I know how to solve it!

It's a wet day today and looks like the rain is set to last all day so I will be indoors stamping!  Happy New Zealand Day to all the Kiwi's reading this!  Have a great weekend!  {HUGS} from me to YOU:)

Apple and Cinnamon Muffins...Gluten Free!

...and they taste DELICIOUS!!  And here they are...

After seeing the dietician again I am back to being gluten free again.  I went off the gluten free diet for about a month just before Christmas.  I was finding it too hard and overwhelming.  However I have now been gf for 8 days!  I found a GREAT recipe for the above muffins, and believe me, you would not know they were gf as they taste soooooooooo yummy!  Here is the recipe:

Apple and Cinnamon Gluten Free Muffins)

2 1/2 cups self raising gf flour (I used Edmonds, a New Zealand brand)

2 tspns cinnamon (I added an extra tspn of cinnamon)) 

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

2 small size apples (I used three, it made the muffins nicely moist!)

Heat oven to 190C.

Mix flour, cinnamon, and 2/3 of the brown sugar in a bowl.  Make a well in the centre and add milk, oil and egg.  Mix with wooden spoon, and stir until just mixed.  Don't over mix or the muffins will be too firm when baked. Peel and grate 2 1/2 apples.  Fold into mixture.  Spoon mixture into muffin tins. (makes 12 muffins)

Thinly slice the half of the apple and add slices to tops of muffins. Sprinkle the rest of the brown sugar onto the top of the muffins.

Bake muffins at 190C for about 20-25 minutes.  Stand in tins for 5 minutes when baked then transfer to a wire rack to cool.  If you want to you can drizzle with honey.  (I didn't, but it sounds yummy!)  

Previous to baking these, I had not had any success with baking gluten free.  Nothing tasted right and nothing was actually edible! 

BUT!!  I can assure you, these are seriously yummy!  I will definitely be baking some more of them, and soon!  This recipe makes 12 big muffins and I put them in the freezer to keep them.  When I want one I take one out of the freezer and put it into the microwave for 48 seconds (heating time will vary with microwaves) and in less than a minute I have a delicious fresh tasting muffin!

The added bonus of baking these was, the entire house had a beautiful fragrance of apple and cinnamon through it!  Even my cats seemed to like the smell!

I got this recipe from here  an it was in the gluten free section.  This is an Australian website and I find it really good.

The muffins were SO nice that after baking them I ate two...one just wasn't enough!

I am not doing much stamping at the moment as it is sooooooooo hot/humid that I haven't got much energy/

motivation.  I also chopped my finger in the fan recently and haven't been able to use that finger as I had it taped up with stitches tape.  It's getting better now but the heat and humidity has got to me:-(  I am still enjoying checking out YOUR blog though, and will be back stamping on cooler days!

Thanks fro dropping by, {HUGS} to YOU from me:-)