The Graduate

Good morning to you all. Yesterday passed in a whirl and Juli looked wonderful in her gown and hood. The procession of graduands were piped into the hall which made for a very moving scene. Here she is just after the ceremony:

And here she is with her extremely proud mum and my DH, her step-dad.

It was a very special occasion made all the more special because Juli is disabled - she has cerebral palsy and is profoundly deaf - and so this accomplishment is all the more hard won by her. So to Juli, HNDip Accounting, here's my tribute to you.

Juli was born with Rhesus Disease and was not expected to live more than a few hours. However, she was then, and still is, a real wee fighter. Growing up she tried everything and didn't let her disabilities get too much in the way. She very quickly learned to lip-read, long before her deafness was identified and when in her teens she learned sign language. At school she excelled in maths and art but struggled with anything associated with language. She also excelled at swimming and diving gaining numerous badges and a trophy or two on the way. She joined the Girl Guides and again excelled at collecting badges (I eventually sewed the badges together in strips so that when she outgrew her swimsuit or her Guide uniform I just had to sew one huge row of badges instead of all the individual ones!)

Unfortunately, because of her difficulties with language Juli left school without any qualifications. Soon after she met and married her husband, Graeme, and they have been together now for over 22 years and they have 5 children, ages ranging from 21 to 7 years. When she was in her twenties Juli had to have her jaw re-aligned - the spasms caused by the cerebral palsy had taken their toll and pulled her face out of line.

When her youngest child, Shari-Ann, was at the nursery school stage Juli decided to go to college and get some qualifications at last. With excellent assistance from the staff at Kilmarnock College and a sign language interpreter/note-taker she was able to study efficiently. However, in the first year she contracted glandular fever but somehow managed to complete the year. Then in the second year she had a mild stroke - she was only 37 at the time. It was discovered that she had a hole in her heart - apparently there from birth but undiagnosed until the stroke. Just before Christmas that year she had an operation to close the hole from which she recovered very quickly and we all breathed a sigh of relief!

By this time Juli had gained an HNC in Accounting and had gone on to obtain the HND as well. She then started on a degree course even though she was finding it even more challenging but 2 months ago she suffered another stroke, albeit another mild one, and was forced to put her plans on hold. She is now taking a year out to recover fully and get accustomed to the medication that she has to take for the rest of her life. And, she is also looking forward to becoming a grandmother for the first time - all this and she is still only 39 years old!

So, you see, I think my daughter is amazing and I am more than proud of her for her persistence and insistence, against a great many odds, to live a 'normal' life. She rocks:)

Signing off
Elizabeth

WOYWW - Week 75

What's on You Workdesk Wednesday again and another week has flown by. Here's my desk this morning, left as it was last night when I decided to call it a day.

I was too tired to clean up. That's an easel card almost finished for the Alphabet card series - if you don't know what this is about take a peek at some of my previous posts - this one is the G card. Behind the topper is the scissors I keep for cutting double-sided sticky tape (lurking in the background), in fact anything sticky, because I hate it when my favourite scissors get all gummed up, yuck! There is also the lace die cut pack I've used waiting to be put away and the card and design paper to finish off the card. At the back is a pack of Prima flowers which I think will be a good match for this card, there's a sentiment stamped and embossed, the Versamark, the embossing powder, my favourite glitter product (not used on this card, so why is it still out?), and a couple of punches still waiting to find a home. And, of course, you can see my chicken box and various other bits of clutter.

It's my daughter's Graduation Ceremony today and as it is in Kilmarnock I will be MIA for a few hours while we attend that and the celebrations to follow. I'll be sprucing up because my daughter wants a photograph taken with both her mother and father - we're divorced so that should be a bundle of fun:) But, we're taking the digi camera and my DH will be doing the honours so I should be able to post a photo or two of the occasion tomorrow.

That's me for now and for anyone who has just strayed into this crazy world wondering what WOYWW is all about take a dash over to Julia's place, Stamping Ground, and take a peek. You will be able to view the workdesks of other creative folks from all over the world.

Bye
Elizabeth

Edit Note: For those of you who have expressed interest I have now posted snapshots taken at the Graduation Ceremony.

F for Fairy (Christmas Fairy)

Here's the next in the Alphabet card series - the F Card. I'm beginning to have something in common with one of my favourite crime writers, Sue Grafton, who writes the Alphabet murders - she must have to exercise the old grey matter when dreaming up titles. (She has got a lot further than me though, her latest is U for Undertow).

It's a front opening card which opens to reveal this:

Apologies for the glare in this photograph.  The card can be tied at the front, fine for posting as it goes flat into an envelope, or at the back for display once it's been received.

The gorgeous holly  paper is another free download from Donna at Bearly Mine Designs and it is matted onto gold card (well not exactly gold, it's that gold that has lots of colours in it but for the life of me I cannot remember what it is called!)and then on to the light green pearlescent base. The gold-edged green ribbon is from Papermania and the white glitter flowers are from KARS X-mas Collection - I coloured the centres with a green Promarker to match the ribbon and holly pattern.

In the centre is my first attempt at twisted decoupage, or is it pyramage, I'm not sure! It was taken from Crafter's Companion Make Christmas Cards pack. Wasn't too sure about it to begin with but it's easier to do than I expected. I used a silicone adhesive to do the layering with and it worked very well.

She is rather a sweet Christmas Fairy. So, another card made that did not involve a stamp - I think I will be having withdrawal symptoms if I don't do a bit of stamping and colouring soon. The sentiments came from the CC pack too.

That's it for today - almost bedtime for me so bye for now,
Elizabeth