Something for a windy, rainy day

It was my turn to be the nurse in charge of the youth group on Saturday and the plan had been to take the young people sailing.  When it came to finalising the plans on Friday the weather forecast was force 7 and heavy rain. So we had to make a decision in the best interests of the young people we care for taking into consideration their conditions and needs.

In the end we spoke to the sailing club concerned and decided to postpone these plans for another day.  We also didn't have a huge uptake due to it being the bank holiday weekend.

So Hannah (respite nursery nurse) and I set about making plans for staying at the hospice and making a fun day in for the teenagers. 

We got popcorn and DVD's together. The Wii set up.

We planned to make scrapbooking canvases and because it was short notice I searched all our photos of previous events and printed out a 5"x7" photo of each of them (I'm unable to share these photos, photos of the event or photos of their canvases, as I need to protect their identity on the Internet).

Hannah was great, she phoned everyone concerned to change the plans.

I couldn't believe it when yesterday dawned and it was sunny, but it was short lived and by 11am it was stormy, raining and dark.

At the last minuet, I left home early and got cake baking stuff so we could make and decorate cupcakes too. So did Hannah! Great minds!

In the event the kids got engrossed in the crafting and had the DVD's running at the same time. We still had the picnic lunch we had arranged but had it indoors instead of on by the riverside.

The craft work went on all day in the end (their choice). Each child made a canvas of themselves, and we made one for the girl who was unwell and unable to attend at the last minute. In order to demonstrate we made one of Hannah with a photo from last year's Christmas party, when she came dressed as a snowman. The Cricut came in very useful and was a bit of a novelty to the youngsters.

Here is the joint effort canvas of Hannah the Snowman! 

After the canvases they went on to make cup case boxes using the Sweet Treats cartridge for the Cricut, and mini canvases with their names on. In the end we had a job to get them to go home!

... and I do believe, Hannah may be getting a little interested in crafting! ...

... as she set about making another canvas for her colleagues at Sara's wedding back in June.

Will be interesting to see what the rest of the team think of the creations on Tuesday.

Baby Hand and Foot Casting

Glynis (our Play Therapist, friend and fellow scrapbooker) and I went to Quidenham, Norfolk to learn how to do baby hand a foot casting. The staff at EACH (East Anglia Children's Hospice) agreed to share their skills with us. It was a lovely warm sunny day and we have good journeys both ways. The lovely Anne looked after us all day and we enjoyed a good lunch with the staff and children and even had time to spend in the garden while waiting for the casts to dry.

Here are some photos of our day and my castings, we learnt so much, but still need to practice!

We practiced with dolls, which was just as well ....

....then each other!

My pieces straight out of the moulds.

Then after painting. 

Thanks to Anne for teaching us and passing on so many useful tips.

Thanks for Glynis for your good company.

Lovely day and much t pass on to the rest of our team.

chYps, Siblings and Canvases

I am a children's nurse specialist and work for chYps (Children and Young People's Service) We are a hospice at home service for the London Borough of Bexley and West Kent. We are part of the EllenorLions Hospices. We are currently expanding our service further into West Kent.

We were recently granted some Department of Health funding to set up some Sibling weekends, to support and acknowledge what bereaved siblings and siblings of children with life limiting and life threatening conditions go through. Together with Glynis our Play Therapist, and Tracie our Lead Nurse I have been involved in setting up a weekend of activities for these children from 5 to 18 years.  Hopefully these weekends will become a regular feature for our organisation.

This coming weekend Linda and I are running craft workshops at this event and have decided to make memory canvases with the children.  They have been asked to bring along a photo or two of their sibling.  We have been shopping for lots of materials and have raided our own stash too. Lots more memory work has been arranged too.

This weekend I made a few samples for the children to see. I have tried to keep it simple due to time and age range.  We plan to take the Cricut along so they can  cut a character and a name each.

For these three canvases used scraps of Basic Grey Boxer, Archaic and Blush. The Storybook Cartridge was used for the lettering. The Create a Critter Cartridge was used for the dinosaur, the Paisley Cartridge for the owl and toadstool and the Princess Cartridge for the Princess! For the purpose of these samples I used photos of my great nephew and nieces.

I think we will have fun making these next weekend and with the young people's permission hope to share some of the craft work.

We are planning to keep these workshops going on a regular basis. If anyone feels they would like to donate some craft materials to this project please contact me at this email address. Many thanks.