Monday 18th May

Lou · **Posted:** Tue May 19, 2009 11:58 am

Well we had a great meeting today girls - what a fantastic turnout and two brand new members from Dunfermline as well! Welcome to Margaret and Irene who found us because Margaret's daughter had been browsing on the internet - thank you Margaret's daughter - I am sure your mum and Irene are going to have lots of fun with us - I think we did overwhelm them a bit to start with but by the time they left they were promising to come back next week so fingers crossed that we haven't scared them both away :0)

Present at todays meeting were:- Myself, Kelly, Irene,Margaret C, Stella, Margaret G, Suzanne, Wendy, Grace, Jean, Lena (and her two tiny sleeping cherubs - they are such good kiddies and never make a peep) Isobel, Rosie and Kate - Mighty Mo and her companion were absent today as she was off buying new clothes and Gladys and Isabel are in the Lake District in a lodge for a holiday- lucky things :0)

Kelly had been baking and brought along loads of cup cakes - plain, coffee and chocolate and all iced beautifully - thank you Kelly everyone really enjoyed them :0)

Stella told us that the Scottish Sea bird centre were delighted with our donation of 'puffin bags' - we have now managed to place the ones made for the last challenge with Edinburgh Zoo, Middlebank Farm Wildlife Centre and the Scottish SeaBird Centre as St Kilda had too many - our bags will be used for baby birds, hedgehogs and snakes which is great. I have asked them all to let us know if they need any more in the future :0)

Our local charity group (based in Saline, just along the road a bit) Scotia Aid who take container loads of aid to Romania two or three times a year are needing donations of aid again - we have helped them in the past with baby clothes and kiddies items donated by Tommee Tippee. This time they are taking clothing for all ages along with all the other household essentials they always take. I have told Frances (our district nurse and one of the Scotia Aid volunteers) to come up on Friday so we can give her some things to put in this container. This way our kiddies aid can go to Bulgaria, Algeria and Romania - we are helping more and more people every month - it does make me smile being able to say yes to most of the requests for help we get (and most of the time even if I don't have what they need right here we can pull it together very quickly if the cause is worthy and the need is great :0) I have to laugh at how little these lovely ladies know of the internet - they have been running Scotia Aid since 1994 and have sent dozens of containers full of aid over to Romania raising the money to pay for them as they go along and all without benefit of a web site or anything like that (they are however a registered charity) - Hats off to you girls and guys - we are delighted to help the people in Romania through your very efficient organisation. Frances has promised to try and help out with some towels and sheets for the ST project in return - she has already donated several lots of wool over the last two years to help us keep working :0) I am going to try to help them also by looking on Freecycle for Moses Baskets - they try to make up layettes in a Moses Basket to give to young mums in Romania who are starting out with nothing (baby clothes, nappies, talc, shampoo etc all made up in a Moses Basket - brilliant idea :0) If anyone has leftover nappies - either disposable or cloth or other baby things I am sure all three of our childrens charity groups would welcome them :0)

We are also going to make up packs this week to send to the Portsmouth and Aberdeen groups to take to their local hospitals with prem, newborn and burial items in them - if they need these items then that will give us more outlets in the UK for our baby items (Cherryl - do you need these or do you have some made by NI members already? I know how prolific your girlies have been :0)

Donations were great today as well -

Lena had made us 3 crocheted blankets and 4 prem baby hats - thank you Lena :0)

from Stella there were 2 ponchos (made from squares donated by other members joined together with the addition of fringing round the bootom and a drawstring around the neck - ingenious!) , 1 kids cardigan, 1 kids shrug, 1 cat quilt, 1 sands blanket, and a couple of blankets made from donated squares - brilliant Stella :0)

from Jean her first sands blanket - brilliant Jean - I know you were really pleased with this :0)

from Rosie there was 1 kids cardie and 3 kids jumpers in lovely brightly coloured DK - loved these Rosie - what a star you are :0)

from Stella's mum Isa we had two lovely crocheted blankets - thank you Isa !

and from Stella's auntie Ingie there was another pretty crocheted blanket - you two ladies are real troopers - thank you girls :0)

from Margaret G we had a lovely kids poncho and a beautifull shawl to keep some old person cosy - Margaret also returned a bag full of baby items that she had finished off for us as they came in with no buttons or no neckbands on and she took them away last week to sort them out :0) Thanks for that Margaret - you are a real wee gem :0)

Suzanne has finally finished the bright yellow dk that has been plaguing her existence for months - she made a pair of lovely fingerless gloves with what was left and even she won't be able to do anything with the scraps leftover now! :0)

Wendy had also made a pair of fingerless gloves and a lovely wee baby cardigan - thank you Wendy Woo ! xx

and finally from Kate we have 2 cat beds - made from large crocheted squares we had donated joined together with some wadding in the middle - very clever! 1 kids sun top , 1 wee boys slipover, 2 cat blankets and 1 sands blanket - you are so clever Kate - thank you! :0)

Right I have been to the clinic to give another blood sample this morning already (so they can check my liver function again) and now I am preparing myself to go in for my dressing change and to make the video of my journey so far to help with staff training - then a bit of shopping as I have Sarah and Roxy coming for tea with their respective offspring (Keira 12, Teagin 6 and James 2 with Sarah and our Cassidy 4 with Roxanne - they all want home made macaroni cheese with apple crumble and custard for afters so that is easy enough the boys (Johnny and Craig ) and Jenna will eat whatever is put in front of them anyway it can be a bit like feeding the 5000 at times around here but I don't mind :0)

cherrybee · **Posted:** Tue May 19, 2009 10:13 pm

Brilliant donations girlies - very well done.

Lou - We haven't produced any packs for the hospitals yet. Could I ask you to send me one and we could duplicate it here? We had a lady who came to our meeting once who had a contact in the Ulster Hospital here but unfortunately she hasn't came back to our meeting for few weeks. I have sent a few text messages telling her that we had a donation ready. Perhaps I should get in touch with the hospitals myself and see what information I get back. I have a bag packed full of preemie hats, blankets etc.

I have actually put down the crochet hook and lifted knitting needles (shock!!) and been doing some vests for the knit a square group.

It is great that we can spread our wings and help more people.

Keep up the good work everyone - we are a great mixed bag of talents.

Cherryl xx

Molly Lawton · **Posted:** Wed May 20, 2009 8:22 am

More beautiful items - aren't we lucky to have such talented people.

Molly

skye · **Posted:** Wed May 20, 2009 8:35 pm

lovely work from all the ladies. My box is nearly full and after seeing these pictures I am going back to the knitting needles and crack on. Looking forward to meeting some people at the picnic in June. Lou hope you get on alright at the hospital, will be thinking of you.

winterknitter · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 6:33 pm

What a wonderful post Lou. I am so glad I am able to contribute to such worthwhile causes through LH.

My big box is coming! Keep finding things to add, although not alot of it knitted at the moment, can't seem to find the time. I had intented these things to go go LMF but please feel free to send them where ever they are needed.

Keep up the good work everyone

Dorothy · **Posted:** Thu May 21, 2009 8:07 pm

Wonderful donations and a great meeting for you all at Kelty. How did it all go for you at the hospital on Tuesday Lou? :roll:

Did they make a filmstar out of you

Dot

Lou · **Posted:** Fri May 22, 2009 12:21 pm

Don't worry we are still sending items to Algerian Action and Linda McDonald as well it is just nice to help Romania as well and we have so many members and so many items coming in now we can help them all! Which is wonderful - the ladies at Scotia Aid will be overhwelmed when they see what I have for them - 10 black bin bags full of all sorts of items from pre loved clothing to toys to childrens wear - sure it will be very welcome when it gets to the other end :0) I will try to get a photo of Frances putting it all into her jeep tonight for you (she is one of our district nurses as well as a Scotia Aid volunteer so a very lovely lady :0)

Yes I did make my movie on Tuesday - it was quite harrowing going through the whole story again but I saw the end result afterwards and it is very powerful and moving (the staff were in tears while I was doing it :0).

I am hoping it will get the message across to the intensive care staff to try to use different drugs that won't cause these awful hallucinations and also when a patient in a coma starts coming round instead of just saying squeeze my hand if you hear my voice and then upping the drugs to throw them back into the coma again with no warning (I got wise to that one and as I was so convinced I had been taken by drug dealers and was being experimented on I stopped squeezing their hands as I knew when I did I was going to be plunged back into the nightmare world I had just fought so hard to get out of ) I would like them to try saying don't be scared, you are in hospital, you are only dreaming. I know it seems like a little thing but out of all of this the experience in intensive care is the one that has stuck with me and still gives me terrible dreams. Since I came home I have spoken to quite a few people who were also in drug induced comas and they all had similar experiences (some of them had never told anyone before as they thought people would think they were mad). The girls at hospital have told me I had better get used too being recognised as the video is going to be used a lot in different training courses not just in my local area :0)

The other thing I am doing at the moment is trying to make a mask to cover the left side of my face and my missing eye - I dont' like the prosthetic they are making for me and feel that instead of wearing a very bad imitation of an eye I wouldl much rather be like Rhiannon and make it a fashion statement. I want to create a phantom of the opera type mask that I can customize with paint or rhinestones to make a selection of very pretty and unique accessories that I can wear with pride - I think that is a much nicer way to go than wearing a doll like eye glued onto my scarred face and still looking very freaky - watch this space - when I manage to get something nice and wearable I will take photos for you all to see :0)

maureen · **Posted:** Fri May 22, 2009 2:49 pm

What wise words Lou from a very brave and gutsy lady. I wish you well for the future. I know you still have a long and difficult path to climb but I know you will get there. All your friends at L.H. are there to give you not just our Loving Hands but our Helping Hands too.
love Mad Maureen X

Molly Lawton · **Posted:** Sun May 24, 2009 12:41 pm

I reckon you are going to start a whole new fashion trend Lou. Take care of yourself, we are all thinking of you.

Molly

Mag · **Posted:** Sat May 30, 2009 12:14 pm

Such beautiful work again, well done everyone.

Mag x

lovinghands

Monday 18th May

Who is online