Happy Anniversary to my Best Friend

On Monday my husband and I celebrated our 35th Anniversary.  Things were not "normal" at our house (more on that later) but I did manage to get a card made for him, here it is.

The sweet image is from Tiddly Inks, it's called "Best Friends" and that is what my husband and I are, so it's most appropriate.  I think it shows that even though two "people" have many differences they can still be best friends. Deep Ocean Challenge has Letter B as their challenge, I have Best friends and Brown cardstock, a Bone and a Bow on the fish; I'm in, lol.  Tiddly Tuesdays challenge theme is Critters, so I'm entering there.  I coloured with Prismacolor pencils and some Derwent Inktense pencils I've added to my stash... they're a bit different to use, but they give a lovely strong colour that I like.  

The papers I've used are from Inque Boutique and DCWV, the square behind the mat is nice and glittery so I'm entering Craft Your Passion's All That Glitters challenge.  I've used the colours that we had for our wedding; apricot and brown. I still love them, and usually make our Anniversary cards using them. Oozak has an Anything Goes with your favourite colour combo challenge so I'm entering there, Craft Us Crazy has Favourite Things, sweet digi images, nice papers and this colour palette are all faves, so I'm in :-) 

The fabulous sketch came from Sketch and Stash.  The sentiment is from a digi set by Bizzy Becs, I love it!  The ribbon and Card Candi came from my stash - I inked the edges of the Card Candi on the ribbon to "soften" it a bit.  Stamptacular Sunday Challenge had Two's Company - they want us to use two stamps (the image and the sentiment), two embellies (Ribbon and Card Candi) and two colours (Apricot and Brown) tick, tick tick - I'm in there too!

The image panel is cut using Nestabilities Standard Circles, the mat using Nestabilities Scalloped Circles.  Gem of a Challenge has Dies or Punches as their challenge theme so I'm entering there.

The inside is finished very simply.  The Paper Shelter has Celebration as their challenge theme, Totally Gorjuss For the Men - this is for MY man, so I'm entering, 2 Sisters Challenge has Love or Valentines, Crafty Calendar  has Love and Marriage and My Mums Craft Shop has Valentine's/Love so I'm entering those as well.

 That's about it for my card, as I said things have been anything but normal;  On Sunday (you may have read in my previous post) our little fur baby Rocky had an emergency... he swallowed a cocktail fork (!) and had to have it surgically removed.  We thought that was the end of the drama, and expense... if only!  The vet rang on Monday and said he didn't seem well enough to come home, but keeping him in was going to cost a further $1000 dollars for the extra night; having already parted with over $3000 (despite that being the absolute upper amount) we decided, as he always is slow to come out of anaesthetic, he just needed to come home.  

Rocky, when well... so lovable

He was very unwell, couldn't hold down water and still hadn't eaten (since the fork!) I took him to our "own" vet on Tuesday, she let me take him home but on instruction to return him if he did not improve.  Wednesday morning he was obviously very sick indeed; I took him back to the vet, she kept him there, did Xrays and rang me to say she was very concerned that it was Peritonitis, and that it is often fatal but she wasn't sure so needed blood tests.  The blood tests came back negative for Peritonitis (thank goodness), but positive for Pancreatitis - a serious and extremely painful condition in dogs, which can be caused by abdominal surgery, especially if not gently handled; Rocky has extensive bruising, suggestive of rougher than ideal handling - so I'm upset at the emergency vet.  
He was still not eating, he had held down a little water but was failing.  We went to get him on Wednesday night, so that he wouldn't be alone if the worst happened in the night but he was in too much pain to move - it was truly terrible to see, he is such a gentle soul.  The vet suggested putting a IV line up on Thursday morning to see if we could rehydrate and nourish him (still no food at all since Sunday am).  I went down on Thursday morning and really didn't know if it was worth the further discomfort to the poor little man, but he is only 6 so we gave it a go.
I am more than deliriously delighted to tell you he rallied on Thursday afternoon and has come home to us today, we have to feed him very small amounts five or six times a day - that would have seemed like a chore a week ago, but now feels like a privilege!  The $650 our vet has charged feels like a bargain too :-)
I work from home most days, Rocky is my constant companion; I'm glad to have him back, even though he looks like a patchwork quilt with his belly, both front legs, neck and underside of the base of his tail (huh?!) shaved :-)

My hubby was also obviously a bit distracted... he arranged with my son to organize flowers for our Anniversary, but got a card himself.  When he gave me my card I had to stifle a laugh... he had got a Birthday card by mistake, and had then put 53 kisses on it - apart from anything else, I'm 54 this year.  He's saying "can you read it? Count the kisses" and I'm saying, "yeah, it says Happy Birthday, Love Always, Stefan" he smiles sweetly goes to wash his hands then yells "Oh Cr*p, it's not your birthday", we had a really good laugh about it, which with RockyGate going on was most welcome.
Anyway, that's MY week, I'm going to share it over at Sassy Cheryl's Show Me Thursday blog - such a fun "challenge".  I'm hoping things are settled to the point of dull for a while!  Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna