Have only just discovered this page, so maybe I'm not so nosy as I thought I was.smiley: laugh

Hi, my name is Loraine (with one 'r' - mum said I was English and not French ??), I'm 50, and have been married (for 22 years now) and have two children, Calum who is 18 this month, and Laura who was 16 last June. We also have two guinea pigs in the family, both females, called Tink and Belle, who generally get along but have their moments, (much like my two human children). We all live in Liverpool, although hubby Ian is a Scot, born in East Kilbride, just outside Glasgow, a fact of which he is fiercely proud.

I worked for Natwest Bank from 1979 to 2008,  just under 30 years in total. I left because of ill health.

Around about that time, a friend of mine from my schooldays (who had just introduced me to cardmaking) suggested opening a craft shop, which we did with another friend of hers, who I didn't know very well. It turns out that she didn't know her very well either, because they fell out and this friend left the business 4 months after it opened. We carried on, but in February 2010 we had to admit defeat and closed the shop. I am now left with debt on my credit card which we are struggling to pay off, and a lot of stock which is clogging up my hallway, but which is gradually dwindling as I sell it on Ebay. Life, eh, sometimes it's good, sometimes it bites you on the bum!!

I love to craft, have done something or other craftwise since I was little, knitting, drawing, making shell pictures being the 3 main ones. Since I discovered cardmaking I have gone a bit mad and built up quite a stash of my own, which I am attempting to prune down, selling unwanted/unused stuff on Ebay as well. I still get quite a few orders, a few customers from the shop still order from me, and by word of mouth I have some new ones. I make all my own cards for family and friends too.

I suffer with depression, so the cardmaking can be really helpful with that, but I also suffer from a bad back, and so sitting at the table for too long takes it's toll sometimes.

That's about it really, oh, my Dad is a big part of my life, he is 78 and lives on his own still, but he was diagnosed with Parkinsons just a few months ago, and so I am gradually having to do more and more for him. I do have a younger sister too, but we are currently not on speaking terms, due to the fact that she has always been a bit jealous of me and my life, which came to a head about 18 months ago.  I was the brainy one who did well at school, then I met a lovely man, had a big white wedding, we bought our own house, always had a car, had some great holidays in Florida, both had good jobs. She got pregnant at 17, insisted on marrying him, had a quick registry office do with her 8 months pregnant, lived in a grotty council house on an even grottier estate, he treated her awful and beat her up regularly, and so on and so on. She did eventually divorce him, and has now been with a nice fella for the last 7 or 8 years, and they have a little boy together, but still in rented property, and neither can drive. I have always supported her and helped her out whichever way I could, but she has always been a bit envious. She was horrible to me at my wedding, even though she was chief bridesmaid, and her 2 little girls were also bridesmaids, and it was her birthday the next day, so when it turned midnight at the 'do' I arranged for a big cake to be brought out, the DJ to play 'Happy Birthday to You' and had asked family and friends to have their cards and pressies for her, we made such a big fuss, but when I gave her my pressie (which I had spent a lot on) she chucked it to one side. When I excitedly asked her to open it she told me to P*** Off, and she wouldn't dance with me or anything. Over the years I had plenty of this kind of teratment but I always forgave her because I understood that I had sort of been the golden child, while she had had it rough. But when she finally blew, the things she said,  she was so horrible and vicious, there is no going back from it. I cannot forgive her.

So, that's my life. Hope you are still awake and I haven't bored you to sleep.

Loraine x

Last Edited By: tinksmum Nov 9 10 12:26 PM. Edited 1 times.