Oops I did it again!

Ooops - I did it again folks - so sorry I keep forgetting about this Blog here because it takes all my time to keep the reprobates on the Loving Hands forum out of mischief. Please go have a look at the web page lovinghands.org.uk and if you click the link to the forum at the top right hand of the page you will be able to keep up with what we are doing from there.

The current challenges are;-

Pegasus Children's Trust - we are busy helping out author of Street Kid Judy Westwater's charity to helkp street kids in Africa - we are making clothing, toys, school uniforms etc for these lovely youngsters to help give them a better shot at a decent life.

We are also making hundreds of Teddies for Tragedy - some for Orphans in Cambodia and some for street kids in Uganda.

The last part of the current challenge is - once again - our shoeboxes for Blythswood. We made 200 last year so are hoping to achiee more than that this time round.

So you see we are very much here and very, very busy.

We have now raised enough money to have the new HQ built at the bottom of my garden (or glorified large garden shed as my DH says ;0) Just waiting for the planning permission to come through so we can build it and get the room in the house back - at last!

I am still waiting for the next stage in my reconstruction - the plastic surgeons are planning to put 4 tissue expanding balloons into my scalp, forehead and the side of my neck and spend 6 to 18 months slowly filling them with saline to gain enough new skin to rebuild my face. Once they come out the reconstruction ops can take place and after that they will insert clips into the bone around the eye socket so they can attach a new artificial eye/eyelid/eyebrow etc. So lots of fun and games to be had over the next 3 to 4 years in order to make me look good again! (Of course my lovely family tell me I look good anyway - I have booked them all into the opticians as a matter of extreme urgency ;0)

Right - best try to get some sleep - this is the worst side effect of my accident - I have been suffering from terrible nightmares since I woke from the drug induced coma they put me in. Sadly that is the one thing I just can't seem to shake off - everything else is just water under the bridge, que sera sera - the annoying thing about the bad dreams is that I know it was all just my mind running wild due to the cocktail of drugs they were pumping into me but somehow I can't find the peace of mind to get a good night's sleep! Never mind it gives me lots of time to work away on here or do some knitting and watch tv ;0)

Till the next time ...........

2010 - Would you believe it!

Well another year has almost passed before I have got around to updating this Blog - sorry folks!!! Keeping up with the forum at http://www.lovinghands.org.uk/ is a daily job that needs to be done or everyone gets all worried about me - bless their cotton socks xxx We are now over 1000 members and have five groups on the go (Kelty, Carrickfergus, Portsmouth, Stonehaven and a new one starting in Glasgow West on the 17th June !). Hopefully we will get some more before too long as well.

We are almost ready to build our new HQ (or a large shed style workshop at the bottom of my garden to be less grand !) it is to be 12 ft by 18 ft and will give me back space in the house - thank goodness! Our donations are flooding in daily now so it is a labour of love to keep them sorted, photographed, . listed on the forum and repacked and then sent off to our charities (who are all extremely grateful for all we send them). We are now sending to Blythswood Care, Linda MacDonald Foundation, Scotia Aid, SANDS, Hope4Children, Hope & Aid Direct, Algerian Action, UK maternities, Boobs for Breastfeeding (Tommee Tippee), Animal Shelters, Funsani orphans project and more. (Our latest challenges include coats for chickens and knitted donkeys to help raise funds for the donkey sanctuary!!!).

We also had a wonderful day out at Scotland's Knitting Only show which was up at Perth Racecourse again - there were over 20 members there this year and we all grabbed loads of lovely bargains! This was the third time they had had this and we have been to them all - not to be missed if you want a chance to meet up with other Loving Hands members and buy lots of great knitting bargains!

As for me - my wounds are healing very slowly so they are soon to begin my reconstruction. They are going to take me to Livingstone and there put 4 'balloons' (tissue expanders) under my skin - two on top of my head, one in my forehead and one in the side of my neck. These will be gradually filled with saline solution over a period of 6 to 12 months to allow the surgeons to harvest enough new skin to use to rebuild my cheek and close the gap in my hairline. This is apparently a slow, painful and very uncomfortable process with lots of risks and worries along the way but it will be worth it in the end I am sure. My family and local members are standing by ready to make sure I do not try to do too much during this phase as I need to be pretty much sedentary and protect the balloon filled areas at all costs - Suzanne and Rab (DH) have decided I should be wrapped in cotton wool and then bubble wrap so that if I fall I will be well protected and the sound of the bubbles popping will alert them to come and pick me up again !!!!! You see what I have to put up with !

Sadly this will also mean that I will be unable to go out to my daughter's primary to give knitting lessons till this is all over - I do love those little treasures and they work away making blankets for the kennels amidst lots of very bad joke telling and song singing - we do have fun (and the first class informed me that it was a 'life changing experience' ! ;0)

Once the eye socket has completely healed they plan to drill in and place clips to hold in a new prosthetic eye complete with eyelid and eyebrow so it should be much nicer and more secure than the original plan of having one that I had to stick on with medical grade glue each day (didn't like this idea as I had a vision of a very hot day and the eye dropping off into the potatos in Asda and causing some unsuspecting old lady to drop dead with fright in front of me - I definitely do not want to be responsible for that !!!!).

OK enough of the gory stuff - just had to update those of you who have been anxious for news.

So here we are - gloriously sunny again and I am going off this afternoon to Jenna's sports day at school. We are also having a weekend away on the 18th to Wemyss Bay (one of the those Sun newspaper cheap breaks - great bargain!) and on the 2nd of July we are off for a 10 day holiday which will involve crossing the border again so I am not telling anyone where I am going till I get there (don't want to tempt fate as the last time when I booked a holiday cottage in Staffordshire to visit Alton Towers I had my accident and didn't get!).

Keep knitting and crocheting away and do remember if you want ti knit, crochet or sew for charity get yourself over to the loving hands website and join the forum there - we need all hands we can get to keep the aid (and the love) flowing to where it is needed most xxxxx

OH - by the way - the photo at the top is from my 50th birthday celebrations in July last year - I decided to go for a blonde wig that night to shock the family! My DH is at the other end of the photo and the motley crew include daughters, Kelly, Zandra, Roxanne and Jenna, Sons Andrew and Johnny and Grandaughter Cassidy xxx