Special Friendships

I have made some totally awesome friends since I began bloggin, what 4-5 years ago.

I have friends who encourage me with my quilting and knitting: they are very patient with my never ending questions and they alway inspire me and offer advice....(You know who you are! Thank you xxxx)

I have friends who comment on my posts no matter what nonsense I write about: even though I have been MIA, often for long periods of time and who email me every now and then to ask how I am.
(You too know who you are: Thank you xxx)

I have friends from many many miles away who send me things to help with the sponsorship challenge: design charts for me and have great ideas on how to raise funds and who, despite their own health issues, join in with exchanges and all sorts of wonderful schemes with me (again: You know who you are: Thank you xxxx)

I have friends who share their lives with me through their own blogs and we know each other as if we had been neighbours for years: close neighbours: next door lol.  (Thank you: you all know who you are and thank you from the bottom of my heart).

And then every now and then one of you will totally amaze me.  You have done some fantastic things, all of you to keep my spirits up through this journey but one of you has completely, mind boggingly, gone a whole step further!

Parsley, you made me laugh because it is the sort of mad, spontaneous thing I would think of doing: you went a step further though and did it!

You made me cry because there was oh so much thought put into it: I am still 'gobsmacked' and am amazed.

I love Tinkerbell: that is kindda obvious really because I have Tinkerbell on my blog and on my fb page.

I love having things stitched for me; well, who doesn't ???

So look at what Parsley (Deena) stitched for me!

Isn't it beautiful; look, it has G for Gaynor and D for Deena.  The design is (I believe) one of Nancy's from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.

Amazing...but that isnt all...oh no.

Look at the back!

Can you see what it says????

It says 'To Gaynor, Love Tinkerbell'

Seriously: I have a hand stitched gift autographed by Tinkerbell!!!!

Ah, I know what you are thinking; you are thinking I am making it up because there 'are no such things as fairies'....well go and wash your mouths out!  Don't you know a fairy dies everytime you say that????

Shame on you!

I know it is from Tinkerbell because Parsley got proof!!!

OMG yes she did; Deena stitched it for me and then took it with her Disneyland and then hunted out Tinkerbell (which can be quite tricky because if a fairy doesn't want to be found they can be very good at hiding!), and got her to autograph it for me and had photos taken to prove it.

Wow.

And again Wow!

And that isn't all.

This wonderful, thoughtful lady also sent me this!

A Tinkerbell key ring with my favourite fairy sitting on my favourite flowers, daisies!

I just can't believe you went to such trouble just to make me smile!

Thank you soooo very much.  It is one of the coolest pressies I have ever, ever had.  Thank you xxxxx

It made me smile on a miserable, rainy, hailey sleety day: thank you

Happy Dance..New Arrivals...and long post (ed)

Hi everyone,
Happy Mothers Day to our USA friends xxx

I trust you are all well this late Sunday Morning.  Boy, have I missed you all and your stitchy inspiration.

I have fallen into the same old trap I always end up in and am now hauling my heavy self out, ruining my far-from perfect nails as I do so.

Yes: you know the trap: the one where you try to start back at work and before you know it, it takes over your whole life.  I have volunteered myself for some mentoring schemes (unpaid) and with the fund raising, I have found myself online working none stop.

What the heck is wrong with me??????
Why do we do this to ourselves?

OK: so now I am setting boundaries: internet on weekends is ONLY for blogging.  Nothing else.  I need my craft time.  I have found myself back on anti-anxiety meds again and yet yesterday and this morning with my crafting, I haven't needed them.  I have to learn to be good and look after myself!
This is me seriously telling me!!!!!
There.  That is me told.


And yes, I have a happy dance.  I have finished my March Page for the Needlework masters book: It is one of Nancy's designs 'I've Time to Spare, said the Hare'.  Perfect for March because we get Mad March Hares in our fields every March, getting ready for their tittivated season (see Bambi, Disney version).

Darn this lack of sunlight....honestly, it is May and all we have is rain, hail, sleet and the odd hint of sunshine to remind us of what we are missing.

The fabric is actually a nice straw colour.  I stitched it in some of Nancy's threads, some Belle Soire and some WDW.....you know me by now though: I put the threads back and can't be bothered going in to find the colours lol.

I have a book called Crochet Motiffs but can't make head nor tail of it: so I made the flowers up.  My brain is as good as it is going to get apparently so that means my person-recognition and name recognition is screwed and I struggle with following written instructions.  Never mind: at least I am still here to be confused.

Hospital appointments are still three monthly which is a pain: as soon as one says, go six months, the next dept finds something and says back in three months!

On a bright note, I have raised 2002 euros for the Cancer Walk!!!!!  Woooo!!!  In four months!!! So that is just fantastic.  Still a way to go yet though!

And finally: though my brain is mush, my ability to use irony and sarcasm isn't.  Without going to too many details on my craft blog, here is a letter I wrote to my welfare office which deals with my disability benefit; I am soooo angry with them especially as I just found out I could have been doing a little bit of work which would have helped!  I have never received anything from them telling me about what I am being paid and why and how much I can earn...tossers, and I have lost so much money through their imcompetance...it is beyond a joke!  Still writing this made me feel better lol

Dear Sir,

I am sorry to hear your department has lost all three of the letters I have sent either directly or through Castlerea Welfare office.

Here then is a fourth complete with a letter signed by my son’s school. My son turned 18 on the 15th of March and we lost 30.00 euros a week from my disability payments with no warning nor letter of explanation. I am told because my son is still in school then I am entitled to this payment complete with missed back payments.

So here (again) is the letter to prove this.

Dealing with cancer is extremely stressful and I am sure your department did not mean to add to this stress by forcing me to feed a family of four on 30.00 euros a week. I have since found out that if I had been unable to pay my bills, the Welfare office would have covered them: foolishly I was brought up to pay my bills and manage with what was left. And that is what I have been doing.
I am sure the weight I have lost through eating just one full meal a day will do me good in the long run and won’t impact too much on my recovering from multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

I know you must be really busy so will leave it here and I look forward to receiving the full payments and back dated payments soon. I know you will do your best, despite the difficulties your office must be having. I didn’t ask to get cancer any more than you asked to receive a letter from a very disgruntled member of the public: I know how unfair life can be. Especially as actually I would love to have a job which I would do properly unlike the poor person who keeps loosing letters.

Have a lovely day,
Gaynor French



Heehee...and yes: I did send it rofl

And no, not really living on one meal a day: not with chickens laying endless eggs xxxxxxxxx But that isn't the point is it; he doesn't know I have chickens xxx

So, we have been managing on 30 euros a week to feed a family of four and boy is it hard work.
I make my own bread
I make my own pastry
I make my own pasta
If it isnt made by me from scratch: we don't eat it and wow...is that a look of cooking by me.  I go to sleep and I dream I am making the next days staples lol.

We have been getting lots and lots of eggs.

Duck and Hen eggs

Goose eggs (eq. three hen eggs each)

 I don't like wasting anything so I have been making my own icecreams, pasta, meringues and cakes and shoving them all in the freezer.
We also left some to make some of these!

Can you see the little head peeking out from under momma?

Our first five chicks: we have two more hens sitting.

And what happens when you have lots of eggs and spinich?

 You make green taglietelle

 And Spinich and potato or spinich and chicken curries:

And not to mention spinich and tomato pasta sauce (from scratch), spinich and salmon quiches (smoked salmon with the tin of salmon that lurks behind everything in your cupboard sneaked in to bulk it up so nobody notices), creamed spinich, spinich in stir frys and small spinich leaves used as salmon.
Much as I like spinich, I am relieved other things are starting to come up in the polytunnel!


OOOOO nearly forgot:
Here is my baby blanket, one more round and then I will try to work out how to edge it.  I haven't added new wool balls properly because I can't work out how but you can't feel the knots rofl xxx

I will edge it and block it and hopefully next post it will be finished.

Right, the best bit about finished something is you get to rummage through and start something new!  I want to get up to date with my Needlework book and then perhaps I will get a chance to work on Santa's Village.



Have a great week everyone!

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Take a moment.....

I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid. 

 T S Elliot

This is how I and many others feel with a Cancer diagnosis. 

This fear remains when you learn that when you receive a cancer diagnosis, your mortality is all about the number five. 

What percentage of people with the same kind of cancer who survive five years is the statistic which is given you: that is your new goal in life. To survive five years. To be one of those statistics which in itself brings fear, because you are also aware of how many pass with it each year. That is what we live with. It is one thing to know you are not going to live forever but the human mind is good at putting it to the back of your mind. With cancer, each hospital appointment, at the moment I have 10 a year, reminds me over and over again of my own statistics....they are looking constantly to see if the treatment worked or is it still there hiding, lurking.

At the moment 2 in 3 are surviving the five years in Ireland: but it is so important to see if we can get this figure higher. That is why research is so important.

Five years probably doesn't sound a lot, but this is what five years will mean for me:

I will see my youngest son reach 16: adulthood
I will have been here to help him through that journey which is high school and puberty and teach him to have faith in himself
I will see my middle son reach 22: hopefully I will have helped him learn to drive: helped him with his leavers cert exams: helped him deal with his girlfriend issues and remind him how wonderful he is.
I will see my eldest daughter reach 28. I may see her think about starting a family, and who knows, I might become a grandmother: a young grandmother lol
I will have taught people and touched their lives which though small, may have made some difference at the time
I will have told my husband I loved him, each and every day
I will have seen sunshine: rainbows, splashed in the rain and enjoyed every moment of it
I will have grown things: vegetables, flowers, trees. Lots and lots of trees.
I will play with my dogs: my wee rescue dogs who look at me with adoration in their eyes and to them I am an angel in physical form.
I will cook and clean and teach my children how to care for themselves
I will greet each day with a sense of gratitude and wonder: I never have bad days now.
I will live

So please, pop onto my sponsorship page and help me, either financially or with words of support as I prepare to walk 116 kms to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society and their reseach which works alongside every single research project in the world xx

Fund raising wise; things are going well. I taught in Dublin this weekend gone, have had sponsorship from the UK and have only two little owls left looking for their forever homes. 

Crafting has been slow but I am making great progress on Nancy'S I HAVE TIME TO SPARE said the hare...which if you think about it is a little ironic but hey ho: I will take it as a good sign.

I have had lots of hospital appointments this week: got to go back for another scan but I am trying not to dwell on it: rather, I am enjoying seeing my crochet blanket grow and grow.  Mmmmmm theres a point.  How big  is a baby blanket?????

Take care everyone and have a wonderful May Day xxxx