Lyn Lou

Anne Being a Jack of all trades is a good job. Whilst most people may excel in one job, you have many skills that are useful for any other job that you may need to do. (transferable skills). That is an achievement. I have changed my career a few times, and when I worked in the school they tend to give you different jobs to do as well as the one you are employed to do. To me it made the job more interesting having a variety of things to do.

I use 2022 and Jasc 7 I have 2023 but have not used it as much. I created mine as 800x800 and found the overall image looked smaller once I uploaded it. And as you say it was still readable.

Susan, I wrote mine in Word, and you can also use a text file. The one I had written it in Word, then I changed the colour of the background and did a print screen of the area where the text was and pasted it into PSP, then cropped it to size and added it to the design.

Great work ladies Here is mine, please excuse any typo's Lyn

My mum had a stroke last June, we had been out for fathers day, when mum took a turn. We left the restaurant and and drove back to my daughters as it was just up the road and phoned for an ambulance. They came quickly within the hour and took mum to hospital. As she is 92, and they deemed her to be a fit person for her age, they decided to "Thrombolyse" her to prevent any blood clots it meant she had to lay flat for 24 hours without movement. They do not normally do that for elderly people. Also, the fact that we got her into the hospital quickly and she was treated within the 4 hour window, it lessened the damage that could have been caused by the stroke. The main area it effected, was part of the brain where the short term memory is located, and she is struggling to walk. She used to do a lot of walking. (She started having a number of falls and did not tell us or accept offers of help or treatment). After a few days they let her home and I stayed with her for a few days till I was confident she would be ok on her own over the weekend. Within a few days, there was another emergency, she kept getting vertigo and panic attacks, so once again she was back in hospital in the same department, and each time they would do all the stroke checks, as it is possible for people to have a 2nd or 3rd stroke after the first one. That was not the case for mum.....as we discovered when she was placed in a bed, there were bruises up her arm, we did not know how they got there! Mum was confused and not sure how she got them?.....We had since discovered that she had gone out into the garden to sort an overgrown bush and as she tried to pull the branches off, she fell backwards, hitting her head, and falling on her arm.......since then her arm is like a frozen shoulder, she has torn tendons, and is still having problems with that, its been 8 months now since the stroke!! (she is banned from her garden, it is not safe for her, she used to spend everyday working on it). She had a few more vertigo/panic attacks and headaches, so an ambulance called out another couple of times, and not taken her in, with out help and that of the stroke team she has since learned to manage it, and now no longer gets these attacks, but did get headaches for a while). Over the following 5/6 months we had a stream of medical people from the Stroke team visiting mum assessing her house, assessing her needs, assessing her memory. And providing services for her, and making her home as safe as they possibly can. I make regular visits to see her, and put her tablets in her dispenser every week and take her to all her appointments and there have been loads of appointments since the stroke. Considering our health service as been struggling to cope with the volume of patients particularly since covid. These ladies, were amazing with mum, and including providing advice to help me look after mum. It was not easy to do so. Mum is an easy going person, and is profoundly deaf, so we got her some new hearing aids. which has helped a lot. But she is set in her ways of doing things, so it has been tough trying to retrain her to be able to stay safe at home. We had a few incidents, ie she had called me to say she had a fall but was ok, I mentioned it to my sister who decided to go over there, and when my sister opened the door she smelt gas, it had been on all afternoon, mum was unaware of that, she was in the lounge watching TV! So my sister and her son got mum to safety, turned the gas off and opened all the doors and windows. And stayed till it was safe for mum . Even though mum was signed off by the stroke team continued to organised appointments for mum and a few more visits. I cannot fault their dedication to their job and to mum, without them, mum and I would have struggled without their support and the amount of time they have spent with us since her stroke. Sorry its a long post. There was a delivery company called Hermes, their deliveries were often late, did not not turn up with parcels, parcels got lost. Everyone was complaining about them. Then they changed the name of the company to Evri, (I think the company was taken over). After that, we had a regular guy delivering our parcels, and we became friends with this guy, he was friendly, always on time, and if we were not in, he knew to either deliver it the next day or place it in our safe place. (other companies struggle to find that safe place!). Over Christmas, we also which is always our busiest time of year, it was our busiest year as mum had a lot of appointments before and after Christmas. It was the busiest Christmas ever!. Our delivery guy was brilliant with managing our deliveries so that nothing went missing and everything was delivered! Such a great guy.

When I was a kid, my grandfather used to live with us. One day my mother was not feeling well she was laying in bed and the phone rang....She got up to answer the phone and could smell burning she looked into the kitchen and there were flames, my grandfather had tried to make his own breakfast, (for the first time), he had put the toast in the toaster and had some eggs in a frying pan, but he had left them there and forgotten about them......When I came home for lunch with my sisters, a lady who lived several doors from us told us that mum had said we should have lunch with her that day.....so we were not aware of it till we got home from school and the fire had been put out, and the kitchen was black with soot!!

Another funny story, I was rushing around that day and decided to put a pizza in the oven, when it was done I took it out of the oven, used the pizza cutter to divide the pizza, then went to serve it to the family, but it smelt a bit odd, and then we realised......they had put a polystyrene base underneath the pizza and it had stuck to the bottom of the pizza......I had cooked it with the pizza and it had melted into the pizza 🤣😂🤣 So I had to find something else for dinner!!

One funny story, when my kids were young they were invited to a birthday party with one of their friends. So a week later I got the kids ready for the party, drove them to the event, and no one was there yet, even the door was locked....I thought I must be early.....so we went back to the car and I checked the invitation to see what time the party was......turned out it was for the following week and not that day!! DOH!!

I have a couple of stories; Garden Furniture; The first was last year. I have always wanted a rattan garden set. One store I was a customer of sold all sorts of goods at great prices. I saw a Rattan garden set which was originally £1500 and was on sale for £500 a great deal, so we ordered it. on day of expected delivery, we got a message from the Delivery company to say that when they received the garden set it was damaged so they sent it straight back to the store. We contacted the store hoping they had another one at that price, however, they did not have another one to replace it, and it was reduced as it was their "showroom" product. (We did not know how it was damaged?). So we asked for a refund......that's where the problems started!! They often say it will take 7 days for it to get into your account, so checked 7 days later no sign of refund, waiting another day just in case of delay....so sign of refund. I phoned them up and they checked and said I would get it in a few days, they were under the impression it was broken when it arrived to us and kept asking for us to send it back...but we had not even seen it! It was in their warehouse! Few days passed and no sign of the refund, we sent an email to them asking about the refund and no response! Hubby phoned them up and he explained the situation, they said they will look into it and get back to us.......but they did not get back to us, they kept saying we would get it in a few days... This went on for 7 weeks with emails and phone calls!! On the Friday I decided to contact the bank and get a chargeback, they agreed to do the chargeback......Monday morning the store got back to me and sent me the refund straight away!! So I cancelled the chargeback. Surprising what it takes to get your money back!! Mums Hearing Aids The other issue is still ongoing. Mum needed new hearing aids, she was using hospital hearing aids, and we decided to get better hearing aids. The Audiologist arrived and tested her hearing to find that she was profoundly deaf in both ears. We knew she was deaf, but had not known to what degree she was deaf in both ears. So we ordered a new pair to arrive 28 days later. An appointment for a Friday 27th September, was made, but my niece was not happy as she sees mum on Fridays.....I tried to reason with her but she was being unreasonable and difficult! So I postponed the appointment to the following week 3rd October. On that day, I was at mums early for the appointment at 9am, we waited for him to arrive and no sign, by 12 noon I decided to ring and find out why he was not there. They apologised and said they would get back to us as they will contact him to find out what happened. We were told he was unwell and they made a new appointment. They made a new appointment for the 8th October, but that was cancelled and was told that he was still unwell for the foreseeable, so they will assign another audiologist out to mum, however, the first man had mums new hearing aids and they would try and get them back. They had cancelled that appointment as they were still waiting to get the hearing aids back from the first man. Another appointment was made on 17th October and was cancelled on the 18th!! I emailed them regarding all the cancellations and that I was not happy with all the cancellations, I understand that he was off sick and wondered why we had so many cancellations and mum is disappointed that she had not got her new hearing aids. She apologised and said they were unable to contact the him to get the hearing aids back and that they have now ordered a new pair to be made for mum, to her prescription, so if they did not get the original ones back at least this will sort the problem, and when they arrive we will assign a new audiologist. They made another appt for around the 8th November, providing they have the original hearing aids or the new hearing aids by then. Will update with any future developments Carole: When I tried to submit this information it disappeared! And rather than write it all again, I went to my emails and was about to copy the information from there, i spent time editing, making it ready to copy and paste in here......at that point I found it had restored my previously typed conversation! This time I quickly copied everything here, before submitting again, in case it disappears again!

We used to do board games and learn crafts. As a family we still play card and board games with our family. Always looking for new games too. Ravensburger games and puzzles are great for all ages, and recently a company called the HappyPuzzle.co.uk have some new games.

I think it is too young for a child to get addicted to a mobile, even with mobile games for young kids. If that child learns to explore other areas on the internet, they could find things that are not suitable. There was a survey done a while back and most 10-15 year olds had come across unsuitable content on the internet.

When our kids were young, (pre-mobile phones), we bought "learning" toys, ie my son loved play phones which made noises, talked, and played tunes, as well as his cooker, (mini kitchen). We loved board games, and creative toys, ie Lego and alternatives to Lego. I would also let them help with the washing up, with a bowl of warm water, and their plastic dishes, cutlery and plastic cups, (not toy, but crockery they eat from), whilst I wash the china plates and glasses. They loved doing that, and it allowed me to get the chores done. They learnt to do their own washing too. Also, when they are at their nan's, she did not have many toys, they played with the button box, and saucepan and wooden spoons etc. They would also find things to play with. The photo is one thing they did at their nan's house, with her dressing gown that was hanging on the door! (their feet hanging or tip toed!). It is a great family photo and memory. (not great quality photo, it was also pre mobiles). One thing I hate seeing is my great-nephew, now aged 7 relying on playing games on his mum and nan's phone to keep him "quiet", since he was a young toddler, rather than learn by playing with ordinary games. He does have other games, but he gets bored of them and wants the phone all the time, which keeps him "quiet"!! To me it is a bit like a dummy as a pacifier! It does not increase his learning skills and ability to be creative. Some of the schools now have made a pact not to give mobiles (cell phones), to kids under 14, it gives them a chance to grow, and learn without being dependant on the phone! Mine did not get a phone till they went to senior school.

That's awful. <hugs> My husband has the sports package as he watches all the sport.....fortunately, I can work in my little office and watch non-sport programs, though the main channels have the Olympics and some of the non sport programs have been moved to another channel, as myself and others complained as the sport was replacing our regular programs! I suggested they move our programs to the other channels, and they have recently started doing that for some of the popular non sport programs.

I am not a fan of any sports, and it frustrates me that Sport dominates our TV channels with one large event after another. My husband is a BIG sports fan and loves to watch all the sports, especially football as he goes to all the football matches. So we have our own TV's in this house so that I don't have to watch it, but they cancel many of my favourite programs, and weekends is mostly sport!! Hubby is constantly talking to me about sport, and who has won the medals for UK. and other stories! I do catch some of the sport, including Diving, Tom Daily is our UK champ, who also has a passion for knitting, even when in the audience watching other divers! (He is a great knitter). I have in the past watched gymnastics and trampoline as my daughter used to do those sports and was a trampoline coach. Now she does Zumba, (she is a coach for Zumba). She does Hoop, not as high as you see in the circus and previously did Pole Dancing,-not in clubs, just learning in a group. Me and sport does not mix, my son is like me in that respect, though he loves walking and recently joined a gym just to stay healthy.

Friday morning I was aware of it, as it had been mentioned on the morning news and I was very keen to get to pictures, it is something I have always wished I could see. Friday was a busy day and by the end of the evening I had forgotten about it 😞 The next morning my son posted his photos from the night before! I was gutted that I had forgotten about it! Then I heard that there was another opportunity for that Saturday, so I was determined not to forget this one. We had a pre-planned day for Saturday, as it was the Euro-vision that day and each year we get together with family and become home judges for the competition. Before the show, there were two new Dr Who shows being broadcast and my hubby and son are big fans of the program, so we we arrived at their house at 5pm had an early dinner together and then watched the programs. The Eurovision usually finishes around midnight which was good timing for us as we travelled back home looking for an unpolluted place to park up. Unfortunately, there were not many places, and even less parking spaces. we continued to drive around trying to find somewhere, but no luck, so we drove home and as we got home and parked on our drive, I looked up at the night sky, and all I could see were stars and dark skies, but no signs of the Northern lights 😞 I decided to stay up a bit longer and check again a bit later, but fell asleep in the chair and woke up at 3.30am. I looked outside briefly and could not see anything so went to bed 😞 Got up late the next day still tired. I heard on the news that there maybe more opportunities over the coming months, so hoping to be able to get another chance and will find a better place for viewing. Lots of others in the UK were able to see it and take photos, some further south than we are.

Over the years I have had many cars, but one car meant a lot to me. It was a Renault Scenic which I purchased from a close friend who had just been diagnosed from Cancer. It was more money than we would normally spend on a car, £6000 at the time, but for me it was the perfect car, it was not as old as the cars I was used to driving as my husband always buys 2nd hand cars, and this one was not that old, it was in perfect condition, it was spacious, with a large "boot" area, for shopping and transporting larger items, it had lots of "hidden" compartments to put things, also 2 sunroofs, one over the front seats and one over the back seats. I found it easy to drive, I loved driving it, it was the best car I had ever owned and driven, plus it had sentimental value as my close friend died within a couple of months of the day I bought his car. (I still miss him, he was a great friend). Most cars we had prior to that were shared between my husband and myself, and this was the first car that was my own car. I had the car for a number of years, until it came to the point when it started to have problems, i thought the problems could be fixed, but sadly it was the end of the road for my beloved car, 😞 I was gutted, as I was so attached to this car, which had never happened to me before. I wish I still had this car or that I could get another one just like that. The image was one of two images I could find (2012), the other one was when it was covered in snow, so the car was not recognisable.

My daughter got married summer of 2022 in a beautiful historic Tudor Palace built for King Henry VIII, (1520). Situated in a old Roman Town, now a City. She honey mooned in Italy, and sent us a photo daily of her eating one of many different Italian Ice Creams. (It was a hot summer!).

Yes, I still have a Lego train set, I loved my Lego as a kid. I also have an Etch-A-sketch, Monopoly, Hotel Board Game, 2 of my dolls, and Sindy Doll, together with a dress I made for her. I also had a Dolls house as a kid which I loved, but when we moved house, (aged 10), they left it in the old house as there was not enough room to take it to the new house 😞 I was not aware of that till we arrived at our new home. We have lots of our children's toys, saving them for when we eventually become grandparents!!

Thank you that helped <hugs> Just need number #3 now

I'm stuck on the 2nd Letter L and the letter "I" I have been going round in circles! ?????

Over the years I have tried many crafts. Even as a child I was creating things from card, paper, paint etc. I have done embroidery, knitting, crochet, pottery, jewellery. (Won a crochet competition which was for a knitting & crochet magazine and my design was published. I tried to encourage my daughter to be interested in crafts when she was younger, but she was more interested in sport. She did enjoy sketching now and then. A few years back she started doing Crochet, and she has made a number of things. I got my crochet hooks out, and realised it had been so long since I last did any crochet that I had forgotten some of the stitches!! Since then it has been Scrapbooking, Digital Art, Photography, and composites. UPDATE I have added Photos of an embroidery I created, with crochet back.

My cat when she was a kitten, she loved boxes, including the Easter Egg box, and my clean socks basket!! She also loves wrapping paper and will sleep in or on the paper.

quote; Lyn (#86997), you tweaked the template with circles instead of squares behind the flowers. Amazing how a little tweak makes a card look so different. Thank you :) It took me a while ensuring it was lined up, then I forgot to add the border you had put in the design, and added the outside edge one without a second thought! It was when I posted it I noticed I had forgotten that....I prefer your border, it looks better. At the start of the week I thought I had a free week to get this all done, but it has turned out to be busier than I thought, so not had much time to keep up with this. I want to try and complete it, not sure how much time I will get to do so this week.

Lots of great designs in here