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 For my eldest son Chris. A beach hoop for his beach home on Hope Island, QLD Australia :)
I found so much inspiration for this hoop. I thought of how he loved the south Gold Coast, but was actually living on the northern part at the time of making this. My granddaughters too, and how they loved picking up shells & sticks on the beach for 'Nanny from the bush' this helped to put me in a place of seaside dreaming :)
I added 3 white doves which I hope portray some sort of sea bird breed. Also I added 3 mini glass bottles for the girls with signs to the beach on them or notes or messages in them & one has disappeared off it I noticed on my last visit. Turns out my middle granddaughter loved it so much she had to have it in her hand :)
Life's good today & every day #inlove with the beach!

During the long months of recovery post accident (March 2015), I was at first unable to do anything other than read or listen. I couldn't hold up a magazine I couldn't speak when I first woke up from the coma...I had a tracheostomy in place so voice box was inactive I was being fed liquid nutrients & was hooked up to 6 or 7 tubes to keep me alive. The ventilator hoses were very very frightening & the trachy was overwhelming the whole lot I'd liken to being underwater & unable to breathe just not coping & in the most frightening situations I had ever encountered. But somehow one gets through.
I've decided to WRITE. Write it all down now I am this far away from the day I basically lost my life. I want to write it down as therapy for my life from here on out....I want to write it down it is cathartic to my recovery & it is a revelation to put it mildly.

"Beach"

But right now I want to share some of the things I've achieved in my creative life...my craft...one of the things that brings me great joy that I feared I wouldn't be able nor care to do & how I was scared things would change after the coma & all the rest...that maybe things would change & I'd no longer want to do the things I used to.....or maybe not actually even 'like' those things anymore. This on it's own was frightening....

"Wedding Dream Catchers"

"Nanna's Blue Flower"

"Blue Rainbow Lights"

"Rainbow Lights"

"Baby Boy Chicken"

"Teal Dragonfly"

"Pink Twitter"

"Purple Twitters"

"Beach Gull"

"Bird Of Paradise"

"Baby Boy Photo Frame Web"

"Baby Girl Dolly Blue Bird"

"Byron Bay"

These hoops are just some of the crafts I've completed SINCE the accident. I found I was still #inlove with my craft.....so thankful for mercies!

I fell to the ground 3m off my top step last March on the 13th.
I broke 12 ribs on my left side one of them punctured my lung & severed an abdominal artery on the way through. My back broke in several places. I was placed in a coma & needed life support & a blood transfusion. I lost 46% of my body's blood supply just bleeding out slowly over an 11 hour period before it was detected in hospital. Once it was found, there were problems with getting blood to me because I have a rare blood type, and then a surgeon needed to perform a thoractomy to go in & try to repair the damage & stop the bleeding, didn't seem to be available anywhere. Finally, an airlift to Brisbane where a surgeon was who could perform the operation.....was out of the question because I wouldn't have survived the hour & a half flight.
A surgeon was located from somewhere or other who could get to me & fix me up. WoW sorry that all just came out & I'm hitting POST before I change my mind & delete it :(
Now 12 months down the track I am still in recovery. My bones have healed to the near on best of my body's ability....just some fibrous tissue still being laid down between a vertabrae & my spinal column. The former has been pushed back to within mms so my body is doing the best it can to block the tiny gap left. My lung is better but not back to full capacity after months of limited activity. But it is getting there. I've regained mostly full use of my neck & arms which were paralysed for a bit. My head is all over the shop but I cope knowing I am one of the lucky one's. I will add more to this as it comes up because I have many people to thank & I don't seem to be able to thank them enough for helping me through this drama....x. 

Thankyou my girls xxxxxxxxxx

Thoractomy and drain and lung slip stitch scars

Tracheostomy scar

In recovery at Mia's ~ 3 mths post accident

With Nate ~ 2 mths post accident

Reece and Mel's wedding...with Edward ~ 5 mths post accident

  

Quietly enjoying Melbourne Cup day ~ 8 mths post accident