My darling dad

EJW

15 November 1939 - 25 December 2007

My darling dad passed away in our arms in hospital late afternoon on Christmas Day, aged 68, after a most brave and courageous battle with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.

He fell the day after my last post and was rushed to hospital as he had stopped breathing and we have been by his bedside all day every day ever since until Christmas Day. The funeral is on Monday.

Mum has lost her life partner, married to him for 44 years. My brother and I have lost one of the best mates we'll ever have.

Proving it wasn't a fluke

I have now completed my SECOND pair of socks for Southern Summer of Socks knitalong. So there you go, my first pair were not a fluke.

These are full of soft smooshyness (that's my made up word) all for me. They are knitted in the most delicious shade of purple Rowan wool. Gorgeous gorgeous.


The feet look abnormally large, but it's just the angle of the photo. My feet really aren't that of a giants, I assure you.

On the digi-scrapping front, I have used Sharon's fabulous blog freebie which is still available but you better be quick. What a gorgeous shade of pink, reminds me of fairy floss (cotton candy for Americans). Don't you think the name fairy floss just is so much more fun though??? And the glittery swirl adds that touch of bling.
Click on the preview to take you to Artistic Musings so you can go download the freebie. And this is what I did with it. The darling little niece of my workmate.

Credits here

Back to work for me tomorrow after 3 glorious weeks off ~~sigh~~ All good things must come to an end right?

Long time no blog

My word it's been almost a week since my last entry. Where did the week go? Oh I know ... shopping, knitting, wrapping, tree setting upping (LOL).

Actually I'm being rather flip, I went to see my parents on Thursday and took my mum shopping for the day. We went to Highpoint, it has doubled in size since I last went, was a fabulous day. She had booked a carer to come in for the day to be with dad, the first time mum had had a whole day off. We got back with 4 minutes to spare! We had had fun, we shopped, we had the most glorious hot chocolates at Max Brenners, a first visit for me. Mum really enjoyed the break knowing dad was in good hands.

Because the heat had really hit dad hard, we had a difficult time that night getting him to bed. My mum deserves a medal, I don't know how she does it. Mum being 4'11" and dad near on 6'. It takes about half an hour from getting dad out of his lift chair to finally pulling the sheets up in bed. He has a lot of trouble walking and it's really slow going. More often than not he freezes where his legs won't do what his brain wants them to do, sometimes he falls. When it didn't look like it was going to work the first time we sat him back down in his chair and mum went out to get something. I held his hand and he looked at me with tears in his eye, a look of defeat. It was heartbreaking. I hate this for him, I really do.

So I guess that's a fair bit why I haven't been in a Christmas mood as yet. Still haven't mailed my parcels, still got some cards to mail. I only just set up the tree this afternoon. I've only had 3 weeks off work! Don't you love how I work best under stress and leave things till the last moment.

Number one son is staying with us at the moment. He has just finished high school, not quite sure which way to jump. It's been fun having him here. Took this photo yesterday of two partners in crime!

Credits here.

Sharon put a fabulous new paper pack with some bonus goodies in the shoppe at twolittlepixels, called Xmas Brights. I had started out thinking I might do some kind of Christmas layout and it ended up into Shed Talk. Shows how versatile these papers are. Trust me, our shed is so far removed from anything Christmassy at all. How absolutely brilliant is the pink in this paper pack, I can't wait to use that too.

22 more sleeps

I really better get my act into gear and start mailing my overseas gifts. Yikes!

Mum and I are going shopping all day on Thursday. I'm so excited. This will be the first time she's been out of the house for the whole day in a long long time. Dad will have a nurse/carer come in to be with him and mum and I are going up to Highpoint to do the remains of the Christmas shopping, lunch, girl stuff, try on clothes, shoe shopping, it will be fabulous. Very very much looking forward to it.

So in the spirit of Christmas approaching, poor Molly was ribboned up, tinselled up, every which way to try to get a festive photograph of her. I really was against the odds. The dogs next door started barking, there were flies, my goodness the flies are already bad this year, I dropped the bribery treats which lead to a free-for-all dive at my feet. But I did manage a couple of shots, so this is what a did. Perhaps a bit busier than usual, but it really went with the momentum of the day, LOL. "Another year. Another Christmas photo to endure" ROFL.

Credits

Paper from Paper Essentials – Ruby/Coconut by [ksharonkdesigns]

Ribbon from Small Packages – Ribbons 1 by [ksharonkdesigns]

Flourish from Springshine Kit [ksharonkdesigns] altered utilizing Atomic Cupcake Pristine Chip action
Frames from Small Packages – Frames 4 by [ksharonkdesigns]
Back frame and small tags – Serenity freebie by [ksharonkdesigns]
Magic Sparkles No 2 by Anna Aspnes
Dollar Buys Frippery – Tracy Ann Digital Art
Fonts – Fontdinerdotcom, Lainie Day and Century Gothic

Think there's a storm brewing

Molly has gone all wide-eyed. Who needs a barometer, LOL. She knows if there's a storm coming easily half hour before it hits. She hates storms, starts the trembles, the eyes get all wide, and she sticks to me like glue. Bo the cat on the other hand goes out and plays in the rain. Go figure.

Not much energy this weekend, I'm still getting over the cabaret we went to on Friday night for South-West Health, a fundraiser for a vital piece of equipment. Isn't right is it? A vital piece of equipment and yet it's not supplied to the hospital and they have to buy it themselves. Seems to be the way of the world. We had such fun, dressing up, going out dancing all night long, terrific band, great company. All the tables had a full sized silver Christmas tree (minus the bottom branches) on them, so that has really got me into the festive spirit now that December has rocked around. Summer has hit with a force, it's been so hot this weekend. Well hot for us!

I have a pic here finally of the terrific sock bag and one of the stitch markers I was fortunate to received through Southern Summer of Socks knitalong. Thank you again girls. You can just see my purple Rowan socks peeking out from the bag. You'll have to wait until they're finished to see them properly, I'm so proud of them. But already I have my next wool at the ready and am browsing around for a not too hard pattern, but a pattern nonetheless.




On the digi scrapping front, I've done a layout for the first page of our family book that I am going to give to mum next year, where it all began. Don't you just love her glasses?!?!?!? Sharon has some terrific ribbons at twolittlepixels right now so go have a look. They really are lush and so so pretty. I've linked supplies from twolittlepixels in the credits below so you can go find them if you want them too. :-)



Credits
Paper from Paper Essentials – Ruby/Coconut by [ksharonkdesigns]
Ribbon (recoloured) from Small Packages – Ribbons 1 by [ksharonkdesigns]
Grungy tags by Vintage Charm
Frame from Small Packages – Frames 5 by [ksharonkdesigns]
Confettified Overlay by Leora Sanford
Font – Jane Austen
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Now, off to cook this corned beef. You either love it or hate it. We love it. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.