This is a piece of bondaweb that will be posted today for the packs to the workshop for Valentines Heart Pin, what I wanted to share with you was my printer wasn’t playing ball today. My frustration levels started to increase as the pattern for the hearts were not printing out and I switched the printer and computer off a few times to see if it would print. I tried to print from the copy that was on the scanner bed, but when switching the printer and computer back on, I thought lets see if I could print from Word and it did, then I thought let me see if it will print from the saved scan of the heart patterns and it did and I was so happy.
When I have worked in the office in administration and things went wrong there was always someone on hand to pop over to help me figure things out, but now those days are gone and I am at home trying to figure the technical bits out on my own.
What did I do so I didn’t get too down, was to shut down the work station, have some lunch, (a break) and come back to it, I think I will have to give myself a lot more breaks, especially with the recovery of my wrist, yesterday I did a marathon of two and half hours on the computer, although great and lots of tasks were completed, afterwards I had sharp pains and I had to do a recovery of finger and wrist exercises and then wrapping the heat pad around it. I have soreness starting in my hand now and so it is time to log off!
Wed 14th July I was walking with my friend Carl along a pavement path in Carron Scotland in the Highlands. I stepped onto a piece of round circular bark and the next thing I knew I was on the floor.
Carl wanted to lift me up and I was screaming at him don’t touch me. At first thought I had broken my left ankle and right wrist, but after getting to see the paramedics they confirmed I had sprained my left ankle and broken my right wrist. I was given gas and air to help with the pain while on the thirty five minute journey to Elgin hospital, it was between 8 and 10 level of pain. After around 5 in and out exhales I pulled the devise out of my mouth, it was affecting my head and voice, after a while I asked if they had any water and I was given a small container of water to take the edge of the thirst. We arrived at A&E and waited in the ambulance to be admitted, from the conversation I had with the female paramedic, I learnt Elgin has only two ambulances to cover the surrounding areas, calls were coming in and she said the night crew will be busy as they had four emergency cases that will need to be driven to Aberdeen. I was wheeled into A&E and then taken into a room to wait for a doctor, he examined my right wrist and I am ouching in pain and I said what about my ankle, (it was the end of his shift and he was tired and I felt he could have been gentler with me.
The consultant came in who examined the wrist, he said the wrist was broken, but smashed and I would need an operation to have a metal plate and pins put in. Dr. Papolopapos gave me options, the two were, 1 – I could make my flight and been seen in a few weeks for an operation in London, (as they were so busy) or 2 – he could give me an operation tomorrow, (now the next day)so I opted for the 2nd to stay in Scotland to be operated on. Andrea from Dalmunach House collected me with Carl to drive me back to Carron, she was our Airbnb host and was fantastic on all levels. http://www.dalmunachhouse.com I am now left handed and cannot link correctly, please click on link.
The day of the operation arrived quickly and I was awake at 6am to make sure luggage was packed and breakfast was eaten, our orginal flight was at 8.55pm and we needed to have left at 11am, a taxi was booked for 8.30am, Carl had to make sure everything was out by then as he wouldn’t be back in time before check out and now with the accident we had to come back to stay in another part of the house. I am so thankful Carl came with me in the cab, I couldn’t have done the journey without him or negotiating the hospital either. I was booked into the day hospital and taken to a room, i needed assistance to go to the loo and as I was in there the nurse undressed me so I could wear the hospital gown. It was very humbling being in a position to having to rely on others for help, I had worn a dress and blouse the day before and I opted to sleep in them and go to the hospital with the same clothes on. My right arm was not going through the sleeve and I agreed to have the sleeve cut open, thankfully on the dress I had 3/4 length sleeves with elastic in the hem and that was taken off in tact. The nurses came in to take all personal details and my earrings had to be taken out ready for the operation.
I texted people I knew to pray for me and especially a fashion Christian group that I belong to, my lively hood is in the balance and I wanted them to lift me up in prayer, because alot of peeps in the group are also makers and would understand the full aspect of what had happened, plus I needed the comfort from my community. Twenty minutes before the operation I spent personal time in prayer and I became so relaxed and peaceful that I knew I was ready. They wheeled me into the operating theatre and then I realised I wanted to go to the loo, the anesthetist was so kind and organised for me to go. I went back onto the table and somehow had to shuffle along. A needle was put into a vein on the left hand and I closed my eyes, they asked me what my job was and I said a style consultant before my position was made redundant through Covid, then I explained what I did while the woman was putting the pads on me to monitor my heart. The mask was put on for me to breath into and I said ‘I am still awake’….. The next thing I knew I was woken up in recovery and then again back in the room. Every thirty minutes they came to get me awake and then something to eat and drink, I had gluten free bread with butter it was the best meal I ever had and a few days after that’s all I wanted to eat. The operation was a success, all I now need to do is rest and heal.
I was in my happy place making these flower petals, 5 flowers they were made into for my next live online workshop in teaching how to make your own flower crown red.
I am quite excited in showing this technique as it is quick and easy and a new flower garland will be made in a few hours, so if someone is going to a festival, they can make it either on the day itself or if they were super organised the day or few days before.
Yesterday I taught how to take a pair of your jeans, cut one side of the leg and transform into a Boro (Japanese inspired mending) sewing roll. I took mutiple photos of each stage of the creation and created a PowerPoint, in total I had 40 slides. I needed all those slides so the participants could understand what they were doing. As I am teaching a craft base subject, the more slides to show the greater the comprehension and confidence of the participants to complete the project.
Above is a screen shot of a post that I asked in the creative hive, one of the groups that I am in on Facebook, I made a video of the sewing Boro roll that was not made up and I asked for feedback and the feedback given was show how to use the Boro sewing roll to create excitement and also mention that it is a live workshop.
I created a new video yesterday and realised that although I knew what I wanted to say, I needed to write it down and make a script so I was clear and precise in speaking while in camera. I also used my phone to make the video and used the phone holder to position the video correctly, this stood me in good stead. If you are thinking of making a video for social media, just showing your product, write out what you are going to say, so you do not fumble over your words and do a few practise session runs with the script and working through the actions of how you will demonstrate how to use your product on camera.
Saturday 24th May saw me leading the above workshop, when I was composing my lesson plan, I had on there teacher demonstrates and students watch demonstration, and then work on making the fascinator, then I realised the participants will be making the fascinator along with me. Now that I am teaching online a whole new concept of guiding participants through the stages of making a project is quite different from in person teaching.
As I was demonstrating, these lovely ladies followed the stages of making their own Blackheath Ladies Fascinator. I was asked by Rebecca Cole-Coker who is the current chair of Blackheath Embroiderer’s, we used to be Blackheath Embroiderer’s Guild, but the Guild decided to cut loose the branches and slim down to hold the collection centrally and many branches have either closed or gone online during Covid to fight in keeping going.
A lot of reflection has gone into making this fascinator for the group, I realised I needed to make it as simple as possible, it turned out great, but there were a lot of stages in thinking, designing and creating it. I generated a PowerPoint, I had 15 slides in the presentation thinking that was enough and when I asked for feedback, (which was very constructive) I realised I needed to create more slides and photograph each stage of the process, I did work on the PowerPoint and I have now added a further 10 slides so it comes to 25 slides in total. I used black tulle as the main point of the head piece as black stands for Blackheath and I knew that would stand out great, I worked with a new piece of material which was tulle and it turned out to be quite fiddly and the feedback given was this workshop would not be the best for a beginner to start off with, especially if you haven’t worked with fabrics before, it could be quite frustrating and likely for the student to give up at the first hurdle. As this group has been meeting over years, we have tutors within the group sharing their expertise with us and another tutor had taught a workshop on how to make a bead mandela which was used as the central piece for their fascinator, not everyone used theirs and so the majority used the bead that was given.
This has been a great learning curve for me in creating and delivering workshops and I know this will be an adventure for me working with people online encouraging them in making projects they can complete and have a great sense of achievement knowing they have made it themselves.
