The Alleles - McCauley

I saw a lovely post on Facebook, on the page for the Alleles. The company that makes the cool leg covers. I thought I would share it with my blog followers. 

"Hey friends! This is McCauley here...designer and co-founder of the Alleles. I just wanted to share a bit of my soul with you all about how strongly I feel about the importance of fashion and the impact it has on people's self image....It may be obvious, but I am obsessed with fashion!

This company came about because I was so peeved and sick and tired of hearing people talk negatively about fashion and how it is so 'frivilous', 'meaningless', 'consumerist', 'impractical', and blah blah blah... If you are one of those people, look around the room you are sitting in and look at what everyone is wearing...are you wearing the same thing? no? why?... my point is exactly that. Whether or not you think you don't care about fashion, you wear clothes that you like for some reason. These 'clothes' then become an expression of who you are and how you see yourself as an individual. You hear people say things like, 'I could never pull that off!'... if it is 'just' an article of clothing that is meaningless then who cares?? But it's not, it is much much more than that.

Our entire point of existence is to give choice to people so they can express themselves...to show the world that despite of missing a limb, there is a still person who has more to talk about then 'just what happened to them'....there is a person who has interests, who has flare, who likes music, who loves motorcycling, running, art, their family, etc. We hear stories from our clients all the time of how their cover has transformed the way they see themselves and how complete strangers interact with them differently now that they are wearing a funky cover. This is quite humbling for us little designers that a chunk of plastic that we made to fit on ones prosthesis has that much power and can shed a bit of positivity and remove stigma that is more often than not 'hush hush' and 'pitiful'... no one wants to feel like that.

I attached this photo of myself and Nadine at the last photoshoot we did. It may be a bit 'too much' for people to wear this look out on the streets...but it does show the potential, the fun, the beauty and energy that can exist in a complete head-to-toe look! These dresses were designed by moi and Nadine's covers were influenced by the floral of the fabric. Thinking about the socks, the stockings, the shoes, the hem length, and the color combinations really does take weeks to figure out and to bring together so when people get excited about the images we share our hearts flutter a bit. Makes us think we are doing something right!! Details matter, style matters, beauty matters and being timely matters.

Thanks for being such a force of life during this photoshoot Nadine xo

And thank-you everyone else for listening to my little fashion rant 
-McCauley

 — with McCauley Wanner, Nadine Richards and Alison Andersen.

#SSSSS - Someone Special's Sunday Smile Sermon ;)

A little carried away with the S's there! 

So I haven't posted since I turned 26! The age thing was hard to deal with! This is a girl who woke up from a coma thinking she was 16 speaking, so the turning another year older was a bit sore! I'm dealing with it though, nothing to moan about. It was well celebrated with friends and family before going under the knife again. (If you're a new reader, It's not plastic surgery! Although it was some sort of surgery for cosmetic reasons. I'll go into it later.) 

Thank you so so much to my amazing family for all getting together and going for a lovely Sunday meal at the Crown at Wergs, in my neck of the woods, Tettenhall. It was a lovely pre birthday meal, and very nice to see you all together! For the ones that didn't make it, you missed out on an amazing Sunday roast! Unlucky! I wore my lovely dress from Oasis that my Aunty Tee bought for me! I love it! Thank you Tee, David, Urbie & Xiggy! 

The day after this meal, it was my gorgeous, super cool cousin, Jack's 1st Birthday!

I'm sure he had a lovely day over in Paris with Aunty Eve and Uncle Gerome

  

I hope this little rascal comes over to the UK soon, so I get to cuddle him before Christmas!!! 

Eve and Gérôme would obviously get one too, but Jack is just waiting for a cuddle from his crazy cousin. I really really would LOVE to see you all soon, if you can't get over here, I'll be hopping on a plane in the new year to see you three! That's a promise! 

So, I've been eyeing up the gym classes for the past couple of weeks, when I've been going swimming. I'm looking to get back into the gym gear and getting fit and healthy again, I say again as if I was before my accident, but seriously, I wasn't that fit and healthy before hand. I think it's more of a desire to improve myself now, because I've been all delicate and sore. I need to get stronger and of course slim down a bit too. I have such a sweet tooth and for someone who can't walk things off as much, I should eliminate all forms of sugary goodness, but no, I just can't! My aunty Eve posted me some amazing brownies for my birthday! Seriously heavenly! They were demolished in just a few hours! I have a very deep love for chocolate, so deep a love that I will never be able to eliminate it from my life. Never! So I need to start getting more active and fit in the gym to even things out a bit. Plus, I am aiming on doing a marathon as soon as I get a running blade! I won't go into that again, I get too carried away with the next cool leg I want and I might as well wait until all of my further surgeries are done with before going off on a tangent looking for the next cool prosthetic to go after. Trying to fly before I can crawl, as Anna referred to me last week, when I said "I'm always trying to run before I can walk". It made me laugh, but it's so true! 

Anyway on Tuesday 11/11, I wore my poppy with pride and held a moment of silence in the car with Anna, as we drove down to the QE for my pre op.  After my pre op, I went to the Durkin's to stay with Alex for the night, to wake up to tea and toast in bed with presents to open! And so I did! I had some lovely gifts from them all! I'm a very lucky girl. I went out for a meal with all my friends in the evening, Byzantium, a lovely tapas restaurant in Kings Heath. I bloody love that place! So tasty  It was lovely to see all the girls too, lots of lovely cards and presents from them too. Now, with my operation the next day, I had to be very diligent with my intake of alcohol! I didn't have any in Byzantium with the meal, after the meal, most of the girls had to head home, being a school night and all, Mary, Catherine and Elaine were all willing to pop over to the Hare for one cheeky nightcap, so we walked over and I had a lovely pint of Guinness! I thought I'd keep it safe with a Guinness, rather that an eye shot of Brandy! I didn't want to do anything to jeopardise my operation that was going on the following day. A pregnant lady can drink 1 pint of Guinness so little old me could have that before my 12pm cut off! 

The next day was very exciting, not even nervous, I was purely excited! I felt like I'd been waiting for this operation to come around for years! It had been a long wait, with annoying cancellations. So now it was all on the go and I felt great to have this ball finally moving! I knew it would be a slow and painful journey, but I was excited for it to be moving at last! 
So Alex was with me as we walked into the QE, I stripped off and got into a gown, and gave her my clothes to bring home with her. We both sat down in the room where you wait to go into theatre, she started to cry! The smell of the room brought back lots of memories for her, of the time I was in the QE and it was all scary and sad. The time I was peacefully sleeping while my family were all worried and tearful! It brought it all back to her and she just burst out. Poor little thing. It must have been a horrible ordeal for them all. Smells can really tug at your memories and emotions. I was just excited to be getting this next step done! I gave her a hug and then went off. 
I woke up in the recovery room and was moved to the burns ward. I thought I would be in and out that day, but they thought it best for me to stay in over night to make sure everything was ok. It was fine, I must have been very drowsy and out of it for a while, I was looking forward to ordering some ice-cream and jelly while I was there that night, but I ordered a cake and custard and then I didn't' even eat it! When something interferes with my appetite you know I'm not fine! 
It was lovely to see some of the nurses there, I wasn't in my old bedroom but I still saw a lot of familiar faces. They were all kind and said how well I was doing and things. 

I went home to the Durkin's and waited there for a while until Anna came and collected me. I thought I would start taking photos of my scars and tissue expanders, so that anyone else who might need to have them done, can look them up and find them in my blog.  So I'll take a picture of them and add it to my blog weekly. This week is just the pouches under the skin, which you can hardly see really. Here is an image for you 

The 3 white plasters are cover the 3 little scars from where the skin was cut in order to slide the tissue expanders in. The ports for these are nearby. They will be injected each week and so the 3 pouches will get bigger and bigger, growing as it expands and allowing new skin to develop which will be used to cover my scars. You can't really see these pouches at the moment, only slightly. They will hopefully get bigger and bigger in a few week and in a couple of months, the extra skin will be pulled over the top of the scars. Then it will look much better. I'll show you all a picture like this each week so you can watch them grow along with me. It is interesting isn't it! It will be so good to see a before and after in a couple of months.

I missed the Great Gatsby Ball, an event held for Limbpower on Saturday 15th. I've just noticed it again in my diary! So gutted to miss that! I bet it was so fun! I'll do my best to make the next event they hold.

I also missed a Banks gig on Monday! Gutted!!

I had an early appointment at the Malting's Mobility Centre, I tested out my new leg a little bit, it still needs a few alterations before I can take it home.

It was my cousins Jake & Keira's birthday on Thursday, the two little tinkers turned 8!

I went back to the QE on Friday. They checked my 3 wounds, gave them a little wipe and redressed them. I've got a bag full of these plasters to use daily now too. Everything is looking good, no infections, I was like, "can you just inflate it a bit now!" Being eager to get it going and start the process, but they advised that I should let it heal a bit more and then next week we can start pumping them up! I hope it all goes well and I can handle it all, it is a little nerve racking, not knowing how it will feel and how it will take. I want it all done as quickly as possible though. I want this all to be done by Jan/Feb next year, I'd like to start the new year as a new, healed woman.

I treated myself a lovely red jumpsuit from Topshop, and a cool black dress. One of them is a present off my nanny D, a Christmas present, so she can wrap it up for me and I'll open it Christmas day.

It will be lovely to wear both of these in the new year with, hopefully, my scars all looking good and less apparent. 

I'm hoping my new leg, will be all sorted and I'll be confidently walking on it in the new year, maybe even with a cool cover, like the Alleles ones I mentioned in a blog post a few weeks ago. Alleles is company in Canada.

• The Alleles design Studio, designs and fabricates fashionable accessories for lower limb prostheses.

INSTAGRAM: @the_Alleles
TWITTER: @the_Alleles

Have a look at the Instagram pics to see some of the cool designs they do. 

I wish there was something similar to this in the UK!

Anyway, the new year ahead, 2015, is looking good for me!  

I'll be looking better, I'll be driving again, I'll be more mobile and hopefully able to get an apartment with my sister, Alex! I can not wait! 

Until next week when I'll give you an update on my 3 pouches, peace! xx

Remembrance Sunday Sermon of Smile

 They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

So it's remembrance Sunday today, so I hope my sermon of smiles doesn't take away the importance of the day!

I'm typing with my poppy on and I have held the lost soldiers in my mind. I probably wouldn't be typing this very sermon now if it wasn't for them! So I hope whoever is reading this now holds a few minutes of silence and gratitude for the lost lives. 

So, I had an absolutely beautiful break away to Gibraltar last week! It was so nice to see my aunty Theresa, Uncle David and my cute little cousins Urban and Xavier! So much love for that little family! <3 

Since I've been home, I have to say ITS FREEZING!!!!! It feels far more colder then when I left. I got spoilt a bit by Aunty Tee while I was there too, she bought me a gorgeous little dress from Oasis as a birthday present! I love it! I will be wearing it next week for my birthday meal with the girls.  I also got a lovely jumpsuit from Tee, it was very comfy and looked stylish, so I might wear that today for my birthday meal with the family!  

I'm going for meal after meal since I've been home! I went to Miller & Carter in Shirley with Liz Devey and Grace yesterday, for an early lunch. It was so lovely to catch up with them, it had been like a year since I saw them last! It will not be left so long this time. Thank you so much for my beautiful bracelet Liz!  I've got it on now and I always smile when I look down at it. I'm a very lucky girl. And of course the chocolate makes me smile too! Very kind of you all, Liz, Rob, Grace, Alex and Josh. 

I met up with the charity I'm working with on Friday too, it was so nice to see them all and catch up with them. We have a new chairman too. I'm looking forward to the next meeting and the roadshow in Dudley on 15th November. 

If any of you would like to come and check it out, please do!  

You can find their details on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Country-Neurological-Alliance/217276271775898 please give them a like if you haven't already, and on Twitter @BCNA2013 please follow them if you are on Twitter, to see what we get up to and how you can help out too if you want. 

I went to see the fireworks yesterday with Anna, Dan, Grace, Isabelle and James. It was lovely! Not as good at the ones we saw last year at Alton Towers but still very nice. It was at Twin Lakes, a little theme park for children, which was nice for James and Isabelle too. Of course I went on a ride with Grace. I'm a big kid after all! 

So, next week I'm going to be 26! That is scary! I swear I was 21 yesterday! Time really does fly, and my God how many things have changed since my 21st. Mental! 

Anyway, it's my birthday on Wednesday , I have a pre op on Tuesday, Birthday meal with the girls on Wednesday, and my operation on Thursday. Then, the Dudley Roadshow (in the above picture) is on Saturday. I think I may be a little too sore for that. Fingers crossed I will be fine and I'm able to go. it all depends on how I'm feeling after the skin expanders have been put in. I'm hoping I will be fit and vibrate enough to go to this Roadshow, there is no way I will be feeling up to the LimbPower Great Gatsby Ball, which is also on this same Saturday. It's a shame I'll be missing that. I will be in a much better position next year, so I will not miss a thing that LimbPower get up to! That's a promise! 

Until the next sermon, peace! x