News & Updates from Elaine Sheldrake

The past year has been very eventful and full of ups and downs.

Our house in Devon has at last been sold and we have now moved back to Shropshire on the Welsh Borders, a place we consider to be home, having lived just over the Border in Wales for nearly thirty years until our move to the South.

It is wonderful to be back home and it is true what they say about Wales giving a warm welcome.

A big thank you to Nikki and Nigel, Mandie and Carl and also to our old and new neighbours for all their help with the move.

Although the house is a lot smaller our new garden is an absolute picture and has masses of different plants and flowering shrubs.

The photo is of some of the lilies in flower at the moment. Back in the Spring I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Rheumatoid Arthritis, which they now think I have had since 1970.

Because it went un-treated for so long it has caused a lot of damage, both to my joints and muscles, including heart muscle.

I am still undergoing tests and treatment and have been told that I must take it easy. I want to thank all the designers and card makers for all your lovely messages over the past eight months and for buying my designs.

I hope to be back full time again soon. In the meantime Happy Crafting Everyone! Two of my easy to make box card kits. They come with full instructions and fold flat for posting. There are over thirty kits in this series.

I was recently diagnosed with an aggressive form of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) which has been masked for many years by other long term problems including Osteo Arthritis and a heart condition.

This has meant that the RA has been busily working away causing more damage to my hands etc. and I have ended up having to use a wheelchair more often.

On a good day I love to sit and design card sheets and kits, but I do need to stop for rest periods every now and then.

My consultant is hoping to start me me on triple Dmards as soon as she is happy that my heart and lungs can take the Mtx, which is a chemo drug, also used to treat RA.

The reason I am making this public is because I want everyone who even thinks they may have RA to go to their GP and get a referral to a Rheumatologist because the longer it goes undiagnosed, the more damage it does.

RA can kill as it can damage major organs too, so please ask your Doctor if you have pain in wrists, hands, feet etc with a puffy swelling across the joints, especially if you are very stiff in the mornings and take more than 30 minutes to get moving.

Baby Girls Set 1 Card Kit, Envelope,inserts, Tags & Bookmark and 8" x 8" Baby Words Set 1 Backing Papers

Since moving to Devon, one of our favourite places to visit is R.H.S. Rosemore. The beautiful gardens there are a delight, even when it is raining, as it was the other day when we went to meet up with some old friends for a delicious lunch.

We sat and chatted in the bright and airy restaurant, then after lunch, when the rain had stopped we went out into the garden.

The main part of the gardens are arranged in a series of large inter-connecting rooms, with a rose garden, herb garden, cottage garden and so on.

The perfume from the flowers is wonderful and there are hundreds of butterflies and other insects.

I always take masses of photographs when we visit, and quite often one of them will form part of one of my designs.

Now that autumn is here I am hoping we can visit again in a couple of weeks time so that I can take more photographs of all the beautiful autumnal colours.

So my crafty friends, if ever you are in Devon, do try and fit in a visit to this Royal Horticultural Society garden, I can promise you a peaceful and relaxing day in beautiful countryside what ever the weather.

Pop-Up Cards that fold flat flat for posting. Easy to make and come with instructions.

This is our very brave and beautiful granddaughter Rhiannon who is 14 and has Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. She is in Bristol Children's Hospital for the next five months.

Rhiannon would like to say a Big Thank You to everyone who has sent messages and cards to cheer her up and show their support.

She has just finished her first ten day course of chemo and although she has been very sick at times she has kept her sense of humour, as you can see in this photograph.

Over the next five months she will receive Intensive Treatment for the Cancer so if you would like to make her a card or simply wish her a speedy recovery it would be very much appreciated.

The address to send cards to is: Rhiannon Deamer, Room 5, Ward 35, Bristol Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Upper Maudlin Street, Bristol BS2 8BJ Here are just two of my Pop Up card kits, they are easy to make, come with instructions and fold flat for posting.

Last Friday our world fell apart when we received a phone call from our daughter to say that our beautiful granddaughter Rhiannon who is just 14 years old had been rushed into Barnstaple hospital with AML, Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.

The next day she was transferred by ambulance to Bristol Royal Hospital For Children and was given more blood transfusions.

On Monday she was taken to theatre so they could extract bone marrow for biopsy and a line was put in to administer chemo.

Over the next five months of intensive treatment we will be back and forth to see her as often as we can.

The hospital staff are wonderful and have already said that they will provide my hubby and I with accommodation because of the distance we have to travel.

When we were leaving the hospital I noticed a poster advertising the Bristol Bake Off with cupcakes on it.

So yesterday I designed a sheet of cupcake wrappers to help raise funds for the hospital and to help other children elsewhere in the world who are either in cancer care hospitals or hospices.

The idea is that all the money raised form the sale of my Children's Cancer Awareness Cupcake Sheet goes to the Bristol Children's Hospital.

Anyone who wants to make cupcakes to sell anywhere in the world to help their hospital or hospice can also use these wrappers, just so long as you donate the money raised to your chosen charity, you do not have to live in Bristol to take part.

The other cupacake wrapper can be used to raise funds for Westie Rescue.