Ohhhh Please Dont Faint ……..

…. but I think I am almost back to ‘normal’ lol!!!!

More in a sec but firstly, Happy Christmas and Happy New Year lovely peeps and hope that you all had lots of nice prezzies and  jolly festivities etc etc.

It’s been ohhh so long since I made a card but what better way to get back into card making mode  than with a bit of fairy magic in the shape of this week’s Lili Of The Valley Thursday Challenge

and this week our very own Lena Katrine has a fabulous sketch for us ….

… and it’s this one here.

So ….

… this is what I did and you’ll be glad to see that some things never change cos I really struggled with the light and the editing.  I am so out of practice –  IRL this looks much nicer than it does on here.

The totally and utterly adorable image is Dandelion Clock and it’s one of the new LOTV images that are due to be released on January 11th – so not too long now and it’s a FAB release. They all are of course, but this is one of my faves I think. 

I used me Copics but no list sorry peeps cos it went in the bin :(   I’ll try harder in future but I’m just not used to this blog posting malarky!!!!!

The papers are Butterfly Kisses from Nitwits and the border punch was a prez from the one in the red suit (yes, Richard lol!!). It’s a MS Deep Edger Border Punch – Doily Trim – and it punches like a dream.

You can get them from Tracy at Dies To Die For and they are right here :)

I did go a bit mad with it on this card – I even used it to make the little corner pocket things

The beautiful blooms are from the wonderful Wild Orchid Crafts and so are those pretty pink self adhesive rhinestones as well, and they are available in lorry loads of colours.

There’s a couple of cheeky punched MS Frond Branch leaves hiding in there as well. Yes, that was another Christmas prez and of course you can get them from Dies To Die For as well.

                 

So that’s my first cardage since the beginning of December. I don't think I’ve ever gone this long without making something since I started the card thing.

So where have I been and what’s been happening? 

Well, not a lot really on the card making front, that’s for sure.

You may remember that at the start of December I had flu. So as it was getting near to the big day and there was still loads to do (and cos I am female), I tried to keep going as best as I could and was taking flu caps, cough medicine, decongestants etc etc till they were all coming out of my ears. I never usually take anything other than paracetamol  for a cold or flu but I just wanted to try and keep going to get it all done. But I was getting awful headaches and feeling queasy all the time and  generally unwell. Then I was driving Kyla back from a party  one afternoon when I got this pain in my head like I’ve never had before. I was literally panic stricken as she was in the car and I thought I was going to crash. This came on so suddenly and without warning and was so intense that it was scary. I did get us home but I was in tears and just had to go to bed and lie down for a few hours. The pain eventually went but it left me feeling rotten and I was in bed for days.  I put this down to some kind of sinusitis which I’ve had once before and it wasn't particularly pleasant. 

So I carried on taking the decongestants and after a few days I started to feel slightly better but there was always an underlying headache and nausea present which I could not shake off. I got through Christmas but we had to come home early on the actual day as my head was starting to hurt again. Then a few days later I was cleaning my teeth and a little bit of toothpaste hit the back of my throat which made me cough and sort of gag a little. Again from nowhere this awful pain started in my head – it felt like my head was filling up and was in a vice and I’ve never known anything like it. I was in such pain that I could not even speak (so it must have been bad!!!).

So I decided to go to the docs because to be honest, I was starting to think that there was something seriously wrong. Well to cut this long story short, my blood pressure was sky high. I’ve had this for a while now and I had really bad nosebleeds with it a while back. There was some talk of me going on tablets but it seemed to settle down again by itself so I didn't ever have them.  The doc checked behind my eyes and I was relieved to hear him say that there wasn’t anything growing in my head and that he was sure that these had things were down to the high BP.  In passing really, I mentioned to the doc that I’d put them down to the sinus thing and said that I’d been taking the decongestants etc and he looked aghast and told me that people with high BP should never ever take anything with a decongestant it. In fact, it can be dangerous.

So it was all my own fault – unwittingly of course – and rather than making myself better, I was actually making myself ten times worse. Of course, had I have known this, then I would never have taken them. So peeps, be warned,  if you have high BP stay away from them. I cannot tell you how ill I have felt. I am being monitored now and I may have to have tablets. The are reluctant to give them to me because I will have to take them forever if I start, but it’s better than feeling the way I have been feeling. It is coming down slowly which is probably why I am feeling better so we’ll see what happens.

Fingers (and toes and anything else) crossed that I don’t have another one of those head things again. But what a miserable month :(

Ohh lordy, this has turned into a bit of a novel. But before I go I just want to say a huge thank you to Liz at PP, Lisa, Laila, Bev & Jacquie at LOTV and Tracy at DTDF for bearing with me these last few weeks and not putting any pressure on me for my lack of work. Girlies, I really do appreciate that you did this and hopefully I will be back in full swing any day soon.

And finally to everyone who left messages on here and who emailed me, hugest of thanks to you.  It was nice to know that you were thinking of me and it cheered me up no end.  I am still working my way through the emails so sorry if I didn't reply to you.

So all being well, I’ll see you tomorrow with something Tilda-ish and with hopefully some better pics!!

Huggiest of hugs to all xxxx