Long time no see

Surprise!

First of all, sincere apologies for my absence. 2012 was a very mixed year for me. My mojo went awol & it's been very hard for me to be creative. Last summer, I celebrated a milestone birthday, which was brilliant - I had a fantastic time partying with family & friends. I'd also put my foot down & insisted on a holiday (since we hadn't had a holiday in 7 years - so we did something I've wanted to do for many,  many years and went on a Kenyan safari. My youngest two came with me while my eldest opted to house/dog/cat sit. We had an absolutely amazing time, and I would so love to go again - though Tanzania inc Ngorongoro crater would be my choice next time.

Then it all went downhill

Ten days after coming home, I became ill. It started with the worst sore throat I've ever had, then proper flu-like symptoms, temperature, a constant, severe, dry cough, severe breathlessness, severe nightsweats - the works. I was tested for Malaria ( thankfully negative), after a week I was given antibiotics as I'd developed a chest infection. My heart rate was very fast, with chest pains, & I ended up in hospital for a day. No one seemed to know what was wrong with me. I've still got extreme fatigue, muscle pains, headaches, and intermittent blurred vision (making cards is hard when my eyesight is bad - & it's making me low), plus I've had episodes of dropping things, and one day wasn't able to hold a pen. 

I haven't been well enough to work since September, and I've had enough of feeling ill. I've been referred to the neurologists at the hospital, but the first available appointment isn't until April - I hope they know what's wrong with me. For now, I have to rest (don't I know it if I do too much, even meeting friends for coffee tires me out), that means no reading, sudoku, tv etc, I can listen to music, and watch the world go by, surprisingly (because I don't feel great), I'm not bored. When I'm feeling better, I hope to get back into blogging & blog hopping For now, I'm not able to spend much time on the pc, so I do what I have to, but not much else :-(

Anyway, it is my neighbour's 50th today, he's a retained firefighter - & loves to play cricket, so this is what I came up with for him.

I thought this great Kenny K image would be the ideal one for him, I found some paper in my stash with what would pass for cricket balls, so made a border out of them. I inked up a gears embossing folder & embossed some cardstock, then used distress inks to add more depth, finishing with swiping a black soot distress pad over the raised areas of the cogs, and inking up the edge of the image.

The image was coloured with Flexmarkers, & I used a silver Promarker for the reflective parts of the uniform. The raised "cog" is actually punched using a SU flower punch, then inked & triple embossed - I pierced a hole in it prior to embossing it so that I could use the brad to attach it.

Sentiments were punched out using SU punches

Tfl, and for any comments you may wish to leave.