About Me

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Isle of Bute, West Coast of Scotland, United Kingdom
Too old to be a rock chick, so I am the hippy hen! Environmentally and socially conscious, eco aware vegetarian goddess. Human and animal rights activist Against discrimination in all its forms. LGBT Ally. Lover of music, chocolate and crochet.. Womb cancer survivor.

Tuesday 30 March 2010

Kind Hearts.

The good nature of some people never fails to amaze me! I set up my store on Folksy at the weekend to raise funds for Macmillan and within hours had offers of items from fellow Folksters!
http://www.folksy.com/shops/MacmillanFundraising

I've already made 3 sales! All money raised will be handed over to our local Macmillan Fundraising group here on the island.

Some of the wonderful people at Folksy have listed some items in their own stores especially for this cause! One of them is Karine at thepinkfairycake - go have a look at this (and the rest of her shop please)

http://www.folksy.com/items/397205-Donation-for-Buteartism-Macmillan

Its good enough to eat!!!!

Looking for a great card? Check out this one by Di at Adien Crafts
http://www.folksy.com/items/324901-Black-White-birthday-card?shop=yes
She makes some lovely cards!

Another lovely lady, Sue, has put some lovely flower brooches in her shop for Macmillan. Check them out!
http://www.folksy.com/items/151210-Flower-Brooch-for-MacMillan-fundraising?shop=yes
http://www.folksy.com/items/75643-Flower-brooch-for-Macmillan-fund-raising?shop=yes
http://www.folksy.com/items/75638-Flower-corsage-for-Macmillan-fund-raising?shop=yes

I have also decided to add my destash store to this fundraising effort - so all money made from sales here http://www.folksy.com/shops/ButeBitsandBobs will go to Macmillan aswell!

This is something else that raised funds for Macmillan here on the island a couple of weeks ago.
http://www.s1bute.com/news/macmillan-cancer-fundraising-evening.html
Everyone had a great time!

The offers are still coming in so I'll be updating you all again soon!

I go for my 2nd chemo session on Thursday! The hair has started to fall out so its time to get my hats out. Mind you, I'll need to velcro them to my head as its blowing a gale outside at the moment!!!

See you soon!!

Sunday 28 March 2010

Fundraising Project

As some of you will know, I am currently receiving chemotherapy treatment and I am seeing a wonderful lady, called Morag, who is my Macmillan nurse. She has been a wonderful source support for me, and knowing that Macmillan rely on donations to fund the work that they do, I wanted to try and raise some funds for them!

Now, I'm not up to running marathons or climbing moutains at the moment but I can manage to get my stash of beads out and make
some jewellery to sell!

But I wanted to do something slightly different, then I
remembered about my stash of old and broken bits of jewellery
that I keep buying from the charity shops and never get round
to doing anything with!!


So I got it all out on Friday and have spent the past 2 days playing
around with all the beads and bits and have made some pieces of
jewellery and then decided to open another store on Folksy in
which to sell it!

http://www.folksy.com/shops/MacmillanFundraising

I then mentioned it on my Facebook page and also on the Folksy
forums and before you know it some of the wonderful people there had offered to donate things to the shop! A FB friend sent me a
huge parcel of old jewellery and beads that have me going into
raptures!!!!! I just love beads!!!

This is where she sells some of her jewellery!
http://gbay.thequeervillage.com/2steps



Then another parcel arrived with some lovely orphan beads in from Jacqui at
http://www.folksy.com/shops/makingmoments


I've already made a sale from the shop - a lovely black bead bracelet on its way to Sue
http://www.folksy.com/shops/susiej


100% of the price from each item sold will be donated to our local Macmillan fundraising group here on the island.


Well, I guess I better get back to my beads and make some more items
to stock the shop!

Friday 19 March 2010

My First Folksy Friday

Right, I'm going to attempt my first Folksy Friday today! This is where I pick a theme and showcase some of the lovely things available on Folksy! Whilst trying hard not to succumb and spend money that I don't have.



Anyway, theme for this week is RECYCLING! I love the idea of
making something new and useful out of something that is no longer
needed or past its usefulness!





When I was a kid, I used to love playing in my Mom's button tin.
All those pretty mother of pearl buttons, and the big shiny ones
off Dad's old coat! This bracelet made from old buttons is right up
my street! http://www.folksy.com/shops/Recycloanalyst











When my Nan first taught me to crochet, I used to cut old strips
of fabric up and use a huge hook to crochet small rugs for my play
house! This lovely pink rug reminds of that!
http://www.folksy.com/shops/Thesunroom







If you're stuck with something to do with your old vinyl 45's,
then have a go at something like this funky bracelet!
http://www.folksy.com/shops/everlastinglifefashions






My last item is one that I'm going to show my hubby! Finally, he'll find something to do with his old bicycle tyres!!


http://www.folksy.com/shops/Peacepies








Well, I hope that you like my choice of items for my first Folksy Friday! I'm off back to Folksy now to see if I can find something nice for next weeks blog!!!















Thursday 18 March 2010

Angels, Bunnies and Woolie hats!!

When I was told just before Christmas that I had cancer, I made the decison to be open about it and not hide the fact that I was ill! This wasn't me being brave (I'm anything but - as my husband will tell you when I see a spider!!) just honest!

I told my family and close friends before I had my hysterectomy and when the pathology results came back and showed that there was still some cancer cells present; I then decided to tell everyone! Not (as I have been accused of!) because I want sympathy - but because I feel that there is too much taboo of this issue and cancer is often seen as something that kills! Yes, it does sometimes mean that the person dies but often, its treatable and many people who get cancer go on to live for many, many more years!

The amount of love and kindness that has flowed my way since I was diagnosed has been overwhelming and has touched my heart!

I have people praying for me; lighting candles for me; sending me healing energy; and people sending me bouquets of flowers and gifts!


Some of the most lovely gifts have come from people that I don't know! Well, when I say I don't know them - I guess I do in a way! They are some of my fellow crafters from Folksy. People I chat on-line to on the forums!



When I mentioned that I would be loosing my hair,
a lovely lady offered to make me a hat to wear! It
arrived in the post and when I tried it on - it
reduced me to tears! Not at the thought of loosing my
lovely long black locks, but at the love and kindness that
had gone into making it!

Thank you Sue! It is a lovely hat and I will wear it with pride when my hair does fall out!


Next day, the postman arrived with another small parcel and
inside was a little angel sent to look after me!




She has been clipped to my hospital bag so will be with me when I go for my next chemotherapy sessions!

Thank you Michelle.



Today, arrived a strange little box! I thought I could hear rustling
inside so very carefully opened the parcel! Inside was a note giving me the details of the occupant!
This cute little thing is Bimble Bunny!
Thank you Anna!
So, here I am, surrounded by the love of family and friends, and with a cute pink bunny and a sparkly angel to look after me and a lovely woolie hat to keep my head warm!
Cancer is not a sentence - its a word!
I intend to have the last word!!
Many thanks to all you lovely people! xx



Tuesday 16 March 2010

Wonderful Folksy Folk!






If you visit the Folksy forums frequently then you will know what a bunch of wonderful people they are on there! Always ready to offer advice and support and words of wisdom to those of us who maybe are not as clued up as the rest of them when it comes to tweeting or blogging or getting your craft stuff out there and being noticed!


One of the things that I really like about the forums is the swops that different people organise and I recently took part in a couple.


The first was a Valentine's swop organised by noodleBubble http://www.folksy.com/shops/noodleBubble


I sent my swop to graciesgardenbazaar http://www.folksy.com/shops/graciesgardenbazaar




It was a nice little pink heart pendant!






In return, I got a lovely swop from sophiecat


A lovely purple squishy heart and a pretty card! There was also some chocolate - but you didn't expect me to photograph that, did you!!!!!

The second swop was organised by jewelbox



I received a lovely woolly brooch by HandmadeRevolution

Now I have to admit, that what happened next was entirely my
fault! I forgot that I had agreeded to the swop and never sent mine off when I should have done! It was only a week or so later that I realised what had happened and frantically tried to find out who it was that I should have sent my swop too!
After a few messages to jewelbox I found the address of my swoppee and made contact to apologise!
The lovely susiej http://www.folksy.com/shops/susiej must have thought that she's been forgotten in the swop! But I apologised and made her a lovely pair of earrings and a little mobile phone charm! However in the rush to get them in the post, I forgot to photograph them!!
Anyway, all is now well in the land of Folksy swops and I am looking forward to the next one! I promise to remember to make and post the next one aswell!!!!!!!







Wednesday 10 March 2010

Chemotherapy!

Tomorrow, I start a course of chemotherapy at The Beatson Centre, in Glasgow.
Am I scared? You bet - well, who wouldn't be! I guess its that fear of the unknown! Is my hair gonna fall out? I am gonna be constantly feeling sick? Will it work? All these thoughts, and many more, running around in my head all day (and during the night - hence the sleepless nights).
I am trying to keep a positive attitude but its so hard!
Its now over 6 weeks since I had the hysterectomy and I've had no problem with that thankfully. No nausea, no pain, the wound has healed well so that I'm hoping that I have as much good luck with the chemo!!
However, my creative jewellery mojo has disappeared so its been a long 6 weeks - stuck at home with nothing to do! I've read at least 3 books; countless magazines passed on to me by thoughtful neighbours and chrocheted 3 scarves to wear!! I have also re-arranged the furniture many times (in my head) and planned the garden bedding scheme for the summer!!!!
Oh well, guess I better get my bag packed for the ovrnight stay in the hospital! I just hope that the vegetarian option is better there than at the last hospital!!!