Francesca Pina Jewellery

I really wanted to share with you a post about an old school friend of mine.  We were in the same form in secondary school and she has been one of the very few people I have bothered to keep in touch with since leaving.

I wanted to share with you her phenomenal and inspiring business, Francesca Pina Hand Crafted Jewellery.

From what I remember Fran was always one of the most creative in our year group.  I remember in our Design and Technology classes everyone used to beg her to draw their title on their work in her unique bubble font.

I also remember her for her persistent and undisturbed focus whilst in Art class, resulting in her consistently producing work that out shone the rest of ours.

I am glad she kept aflame this creative sparkle she carried so well as some of her designs and creations are breathtakingly beautiful and unique in their own little way.

I am ashamed to say I haven't yet had the pleasure of buying any of her fantastic work but I intend to add a few bits to my Christmas and Birthday list in the hope someone buys me them!

I have included below a few of my  favourite pieces from her Luxury bracelet collection;

The Luxe White

The Carolina as featured in Vogue magazine!

The Clover (Sterling Silver)

Luxe Candy Pink

 all of these along with many, many others can be found on her website.

Francesca has been highly successful with her business before even hitting it's first year.  Celebrities and magazines alike have already been spotted with or featuring her beautiful pieces.

Why don't you check out her website and see if any of her designs tickle your fancy?

I can't wait to get my hands on some myself!

To keep up to date with Francesca Pina's latest news, trends, competitions and exclusive discount codes, follow her on Twitter today! [Follow Francesca Pina]

Swimming with dolphins

Back in 2010 on September the 1st I got granted one of my wishes, to swim with Dolphins!

I was in the Canary Islands and was picked out of the audience of a dolphin show, it was the most amazing experience ever and I want to do it again.  I don't think anyone could ever be so lucky as to experience it like I did though and for free too!

I see you could have your picture taken with them before the show started and begged my boyfriend to let me get a photo, he let me and also got one himself :) The woman said the dolphin was really calm with me and I was a natural with them and asked if I wanted to be in the show, erm YES!

Joey didn't get a very good picture of me whilst I was swimming with them but I have included the pictures we had with them before hand and some of the best of the worst :)

It would be so much better to swim with them in the wild but the ones I swam with where well looked after and all having the time of their lives where they lived so I didn't feel awful for them being in captivity.

Don't get me started on poor old Free Willy and his untimely death, I will blubber...

Excuse how skinny I look this is when I had a METABOLISM lol. I couldn't find the copy of Joey and the dolphin :( this is a snap taken of the printed photo! 

I was made to hold on to a body board for This bit and the dolphin pushed us around the tank, it was amazing how strong it was!

Here is me looking frantically into the audience hoping Joey was taking pictures lol! 

Two of the dolphins came to say hello :)

Such a great show, I wasn't really watching I was full of beans and buzzing with happiness about what I had just experienced!

I have also included some photos of the wild dolphins I see in the Red Sea in Egypt this year, It really made my holiday!

Me and my friend Jasmine snorkeling!

Just about caught these 2 with the camera!

This is myself and Joey #raybans

Left to right; Joey, Myself, Shaun and Jasmine

In a row just like in the Little Mermaid, I am singing 'Part of your world' as I type

and the last ok-ish shot!

what an amazing animal dolphins are :)

x

A month in photos

I have seen a few people doing 'A week in photo' posts but as many pictures as I take in my boring old life I don't think a week of photos in the life of Lulu would have the same effect as the interesting people ;)

So here is my small collection of October photos!

I am currently in Crawley looking after my niece and nephew as seen in the photos above, they are calling it a 'sleepover' it's so cute :-)

I have scheduled a few posts while I am away, so keep checking!

take care!

x

Dear Diary...

I haven't done a pain post for some while now.  I have been trying to steer away from the depressing posts!  Very hard as to be honest there isn't much happiness in my life right now lol.

I try to put a positive spin on things, add a 'lol' or a joke but it is really hard!

At the moment I don't do much else with my week other than hospital visits and my course work for my web design course.

I thought I would write you an update as to what has been happening at the hospital lately.  I will start from July, this is when I was diagnosed.  I won't bother to go into what, how, when as if you wanted to know the ins and outs you'd have read previous posts.

So yeah, I was diagnosed in July with Joint Hyper Mobility Syndrome after months and months of pain and numerous tests, I was then referred for an ultra sound on my hip and shoulder as these seem to be the worst effected of my joints, or they were at that point.  Now I am in a great deal of pain with my back too.

I had my scan at Whipps Cross on the 11th of September, so it was quite a wait from July! - at the Ultra sound he asked me when my last joint injection was etc etc etc, I hadn't had one so was a bit confused... He then asked me when my next appointment with the Dr who had diagnosed me was as he'd get all my paper work in before then in reference to some further injections... I hadn't had any injections and there was no following appointment of course so the guy who did the scan put me straight  back on the system (or so he said he had) as he could see from my scan that I was in need of pain relief.

It got to October and I hadn't heard anything back from the guy who did my scan or the Dr who diagnosed me.... Went back to my GP and they referred me to Physio Therapy as this is a possible way of helping me with the pain too.

As of today which is... 12th of November I have only had 2 physio sessions so I can't really comment on whether it is working or not.

In my last session I ended up crying for 75% of the time.  Considering I only get 20 minutes this didn't help lol.  I produced the letter I got  from the Dr who had diagnosed me that was supposed to follow after my scan.  (I finally had some sort of acknowledgement of my existence from Whipps Cross) HOWEVER, in between the September Scan and my 2nd physio appointment Whipps Cross had 'lost my results' turns out that by error I was signed off of their books on the same day I was referred for my ultra sound scan.... (makes sense) This resulted in a letter from the Dr who had diagnosed me, without my results.  They hadn't even been looked at after all that chasing and due to their error all that was said during my scan was lost and never considered... It never happened according to them! good old NHS!

As the waiting time to get onto the books took almost 6 months in the first place I have decided to try and give physio it's best shot.  I feel the scans route has been exhausted for now.

The therapist is OK, but I don't think she understands the condition very well.  She is asking me to do all kinds of ridiculous things and without any pain relief this is very difficult.  My back goes into a huge spasm and cramps up nearly every time I try, add my shoulder and hip and everything else on my list of sh*t joints and this is why I just burst into tears in my last session.  Frustration doesn't cut how I am feeling.

I am not getting my physio appointments frequently enough either.  They are more than a month apart each time.  I really don't have faith in the NHS any more...

As for me and my boyfriend at the moment.  What can I say.  my HMS has really had an impact on us.  Obviously while I am still in so much pain I am unable to work and I am not receiving any type of benefit as I am not entitled.  This p*sses me off too as I worked hard for 3 years full time paying taxes before it all got too much.  Oh well, government for you.  But as I was saying it has put a great deal of pressure on us as a couple.  I haven't seen him for almost a month now.  We do speak every day and I know I am not all to blame for our troubles as he has admitted where he has gone wrong but I can't help but think if I just had a little more support from the NHS or even a little bit of money our problems wouldn't have happened in the first place.

We lost our flat and a lot of things we enjoyed in life over the last year.  I wish with every thing possible that we could get our life back to a fragment of how it was.

Money is defo the root of all evil.

I will keep you updated as un-depressingly possible!

L.Ux