making

With so many wonderful people helping in raising money for Maybelle's wish to go to The Ellen show, Maybelle was very keen to help too.

I don't know what made me more proud.

The fact that she thought of helping all on her own.

Or the fact that she's making little hexie brooches a la dearfii style. 

Either way, I'm bursting with pride xox

Maybelle's Wish

Maybelle is amazing. She rarely complains about cancer or the treatment. And she hasn't asked for anything. She really is remarkable. She has come to terms with her cancer faster than any of us grown ups.

Dont get me wrong. She is a pre teen. She is not perfect. But for a large part of the time she is extraordinary.

So about 3 weeks ago, when she looked at me and said, I know what I want to wish for. I listened.

And when she said her 'wish was to go to The Ellen Show' asked if she was sure and said ok, we'll try our best. Thats all we can do.

Naturally I tweeted and facebooked. The response has been amazing.

Make-a-wish no longer do overseas wishes, the cost is too much. So we are on our own with the help of hundreds.
And here is how we are doing it!

Cam has designed bags as a fundraiser.
You can pre order them here.

Cam has also designed the little Get Maybelle to the Ellen show logos and we already have business cards thanks to Cam!

We have a facebook page and my dear friend Mel is running a facebook auction.
Donations very welcome as are bidders! Auction is in November, great time to get some Christmas shopping done.

Lisa (also Cameron Solutions) has designed us a webpage!

Our local Rotary, with the help of the local Bendigo banks are running a BBQ at the Ballarat Spring fest next month.

Huge thank you to you all!

And there have been hundreds of others send emails, tweets and messages on facebook. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Our goal is to get 1/2 the family there. $9,000. It's huge. But we will get there. I know we will.

If you want to help, please see the web page, facebook pages or email me. Blogging, liking, sharing all help get attention and help raise money. And if you like, you can email the ellen show directly.

Lets get Maybelle to The Ellen Show!
Thanks so much xox

while I was away...

While I was away we have had 3 birthdays in this house. 

7 hospital admissions for 2 different kids.

We have moved house.

Curtains I made for new kitchen

Maybelle hair has grown, fallen out and grown again.

Her treatment has finally reached the less intense 'maintenance' stage.

However this means she can still get sick and land in hospital.

And most importantly....I leant to knit

So folks, what have you been up too? xox

a little catch up

Lots to tell you so I'll just dive right in!

Huge thanks for those of you who donated to the Worlds Greatest Shave. The 2 teams that were shaving for Maybs raised well over $10,000 for the Leukaemia Foundation! I'm so proud! 

Article for Skye's shave here

Article for Nita's shave here

As you can see by the pictures, a great time was had by all. 

Massive thank you to Skye, Tony and all the crew at Irwin racing for giving us the chance to go to the Grand Prix! Was very very cool, even for us non car people ;)

In other fundraising news, my mum, brother, sister, brother in law, 2 cousins and a couple of friends did  Run for the kids, a major findraiser for the RCH. Mum walked the 5kms while the others ran RAN the 14.7kms!! 

As you can see the raised a lot of money! So proud :)

That brings us to Good Friday. Maybs was in the RCH that week for chemo so happened to catch some of the Good Friday fun! 

The girl is now a Hawthorn supporter. I know, it pains me too ;)

We have passed the 5 month mark now. It is hard to believe that we have been doing 'cancer' for that long but we have. The good news is, Maybs is going it well. Really really well. Text book well I tell her, so far everything is perfect and she is on track to be cured! Yay!!! You see so much heartache in the RCH sometimes you forget to celebrate success. We spend a lot of time feeling very lucky. Which is weird because having cancer isn't 'lucky'.

I have more to talk to you all about, but for today we will celebrate! xox

Today

Today is the day my gorgeous friend Nita and her 3 kids show their love and support for us by cutting and shaving their hair in the Worlds Greatest Shave.

For a fundraiser, the kids school I having a crazy hair day! And at lunch time Maybs will be helping shave heads!

Miss D, 8, dyed, yes dyed!! Her hair purple. 8 washes it says it lasts....we'll see about that....







And Mr C, 5 sprayed his hair blue




And seeing as though it's crazy hair day, and well Maybs has no hair, she thought it would be funny and crazy to wear hair....




There is still heaps of time to donate. Links over there on the side bar :) xox

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BE BRAVE

Never never never never in a million years did I ever think that The Leukaemia Foundations Worlds Greatest Shave would mean anything to me other than a feel good charity event. 

Never ever did I imagine that my daughter, my family or I would ever know, care and love someone with leukaemia. Its what other families have. Not people we know, not people we love. 

But here we are. My baby has leukaemia and she has no hair. And every single day we are reminded of that. There is no hiding when you are bald. It is a red flag that the world sees and screams "I have cancer" "I am sick" "I could die"

It's confronting. It's scary. It's frustrating. It's heartbreaking.

I can't fix her. You can't fix her. The doctors are doing their bloody best to fix her. We are lucky. Maybs is expected to recover and go on to life a happy 'normal' life. Others not so. 

The Leukaemia Foundation do an amazing job. There's a huge amount of information about them on their site. I had always known they were leaders in providing funding for research, information and education but had no idea just what they can do.

Practical help with bills, fuel and food vouchers - unlike centrelink that wont look at individual situations, only numbers...

Transport to and from appointments and treatments - very handy if your too tired to drive to another appointment!

Accommodation - priceless!

And emotional support and counselling - nothing like talking to someone that gets it and is not afraid to talk about the hard stuff.

And the list goes on and on

The Worlds Greatest Shave is 3 weeks away. So this year, support those that are being brave. Like my gorgeous cousin and beautiful friend and her children 13, 11 and 9. All willing to brave the world with no hair to show their love and support for families like us. Anything over $2 is tax deductible. And every dollar counts :)

Please feel free to blog, tweet, facebook or whatever else people do these days to get the message out. The more that know, the more money we can raise and the better support the Leukaemia Foundation can give to families like us xox 

Donate life

Most of you know or read Ms Curly Pops blog. And if you don't, you should. Not only is she a very lovely, talented lady but Ms Pops is very talented, lovely AND waiting for a double lung transplant. True story.

I'm a donor. So are the kids. Even manpet too. In fact my whole extended family are. And if I am even in a room where a decision needs to be made my answer will always be yes.

I know 2 people waiting for organs. One, Ms Pops and the other a 7yr boy that was from Darwin but because they don't do transplants in the NT he and his family have had to move to Melbourne. While we are lucky enough to not need organs, Maybs does require lots and lots and lots of blood transfusions. I know how incredibly grateful we are for every one of those that keeps her alive. We often talk about how amazing it is that people take the time out of their day to donate blood, we wonder who they are, what they do. I'm guessing finally getting the organ you need is like that only 100 time bigger. They and they're family have literally saved your life. If blows my mind that people choose not to donate. Why would you not want to save someones life?

So. Tell me. Are you an organ donor? And have you had a chat with those around you? Do they know you are? Because they have the final say.

5 down

Swoon. I am so into this quilt! I've managed 5 blocks so far. 

I did a weee experiment with my blocks. 

First one I didn't iron. I know there are bloggers and quilters out there that don't iron to retain shape or something like that so don't laugh at me. 

Was not the best finish, so onto the next...

The second, I ironed all seams, one to one side one to the other, you know to "butt up" the seams...

Better but not the best finish...

Third one I ironed most of the seams open. This is not how I normally do things but worth a shot...

Much better! I then checked the flickr group and it appears I wasn't the only one having trouble with messy seams. I have even now started ironing every seam open. Fiddly but totally worth it!

Now I wouldn't normally show you this but Abbe asked me very nicely and now that it's out there on the interwebs I guess it's safe to show you here too....oh this feels like showing you my undies draws....

The back...

Like I said, I'm loving this quilt, only 4 blocks to go! Check out the swoon-alongers here xox

Swoon

I know. Blogging from my phone is not the best but seeing as though my life is now that of cancer mum, I can do this in between vomits, tears and tantrums. Please bear with me :)

Monkey lady is running a swoon a long. You know that gorgeous pattern Swoon by Camille from thimble blossoms? I know you do. I sign up for these things all the time. But then find I don't have at hand all the bits required and they fall by the way side where all the other good intentions go. This time, I have everything! I got the swoon pattern when it first came out and have been saving the Anna Marie Horner good folks fat 1/4's for something special. Quick trip to my local spotty and I'm ready!













I'm really happy with the grey solid from spotlight. Not to dark and not too light. It's part of their prima solid range, colour is called 'iron'. What do you think? Will work yes? xox

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A new year

A good time to learn a new skill.





I for one am very glad to see the back of 2011. Last year will always be the year my baby got cancer. And while 2012 is full of questions, worry and the unknown at least we know that there will be nothing 'normal' or predictable about it.

I hope you all had a safe, happy holiday season. And thank you all again for your awesomeness. Without Facebook, twitter and blogger I think I might have gone mad....er xox


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