February 26, 2009

You might think I'm boring, but I slept for thirteen hours today! Obvoiusly I needed the rest. My theory on sleep is that I go to bed when I'm tired and I wake up whenever I wake up. I know this doesn't work for alot of people, but it's how I ensure I get all the rest my body needs. I only set an alarm on dialysis days and don't feel guilty if I sleep for an exorbitant amount of time. Since the body needs sleep to recouperate and heal, and I know there's alot wrong with mine, I sleep til it says I've slept enough. I think if more people did this, instead of constantly on the go-go-go, they'd be less prone to alot of the nasty "bugs" that are out there. As long as they keep their germs to themselves, they can keep on rushing through life but I'm going to enjoy mine while I have it!

For the fourth day in a row, Mr Mailman brought birtday cards and floss! Cards from Debi, Teresa, and CJ arrived. CJ even sent a piece of Fairy Blush 18ct Aida when my card was returned to her. I don't mind late cards, CJ! It extends my birthday fun! Thank you for the thoughtful gift!

If you've stayed away from joining a birthday card and floss exchange in your groups, you should certainly give it a go! It's the easiest way to increase your floss stash! I belong to three BFC's and look forward to them each year.
I was determined to complete Lasseter's Reef today! I forbade myself from turning on the laptop until the last stitch was in. It took most of the afternoon and evening, but at 10:00pm on the dot I did it! Lasseter's Reef is my fourth Dinky Dyes quilt square finish and my seventh in the Year of the Sampler.

I was on the telephone with Debi and I finished LR and we discussed my next project. I'm not allowing myself to start anything else until I finish the stitching on A Stitcher's Companion and my BRD gameboard. I honestly don't like having more than one project on the go. I like working on one thing until it's done. I complete things faster that way, rather than spreading my stitching out over several projects at a time. Later this year, I may work on a smaller project to take a break from whatever BAP I decide to work on, but not right now. I might switch back and forth between my two projects if I get bored, but NO NEW STARTS! Here's my progress on the inside cover of A Stitcher's Companion by Enchanting Lair. All I need to do is to put in my personalization and stitch the corner motifs.

I'm also very proud of myself for adhering to my stash diet! I've spent a total of $14 in the month of February for stash. Has anyone else cut back? For me, it made a huge difference this month! I haven't been scrabbling the last week of the month, making do with what's in the pantry. I still had money to go get a few groceries and other things. Being on disability, there isn't much left after I pay bills, so I honestly do live "check to check."

Next month I will have another car repair bill, this time replacing the rear tires which are showing the wear bands. That's not a repair that can be put off so my diet continues! The only thing I'm allowed to pay for is the auto-ship of My Stitching Album. I'm hoping to be able to trade for anything else if the need arises. Right now, there is nothing I need. To fight temptation I haven't even looked at the Nashville new releases. They'll be there when I have the means to purchase them. If not, it just wasn't meant to be.

Back to my question about cutting back, has anyone gone a less-expensive route when kitting up a project? Using a less expensive substitute to the reccommended fibers? I've opted to offer my Soie d'Alger silks for trade. I'm not going to buy the rest needed for my Just Nan projects. I can't afford them so I will use the Vikki Clayton Hand-Dyed Fibers. So if you need/want any of the silks I've already purchased, just let me know. They'll be on my trade blog soon. My wishlist is in the sidebar of my trade blog, too.

The Year of the Sampler...SAL Anyone?

Okay, so I didn't DO any stitching today but I would like to TALK about future stitching. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I am not making a list of projects to stitch in 2009. Instead, I am proclaiming 2009 "The Year of the Sampler." I have dozens of samplers in my stash and would like to see many of them stitched. To that end, that's what I'm going to work on next year. If anyone would like to stitch along, even for one project here and there, please let me know!

I have joined the Gallery of Samplers blog so that I can share my finishes. I know there are Sampler Yahoo groups, but I'm in enough groups already and don't wish to add to the email time each day.

Here are just some of the needlework-related definitions of sampler from Webster's Dictionary:

1. a decorative piece of cloth embroidered with various designs or mottoes in a variety of stitches, serving as an example of skill at needlework.
2. a piece of cloth embroidered with various stitches, serving to show a beginner's skill in needlework.
3. a piece of embroidery demonstrating skill with various stitches
4. a pattern; a specimen; especially, a collection of needlework patterns, as letters, borders, etc., to be used as samples, or to display the skill of the worker.

With so many different definitions, I'm sure we can make anything fit, right? *wink* Have fun and happy stitching!

Hopefully I will get a good number of samplers done next year; wish me luck! I hope some of you join in along the way!

September 16, 2008

Happy Birthday, Mom!
I can't divulge how many years' experience she has after 29 because I value my life, but Mom did tell me that Ian took her out to dinner and gave her the bird feeder she's had on her wishlist for quite a while. Ms. Sheila next door put balloons and a banner on the front porch early this morning to suprise Mom as well.

I had to be at DORS first thing this morning again and completed everything I needed to before 2pm. I went straight home to pick up Kasey and found new stash had arrived!

I am on the auto-ship for the new Jeannette Douglas Design, My Stitching Album. A new chapter in this journal of stitches will be coming out every other month until next November. I can't tell you how excited I was to finally get the first part. I now have the front and back covers, as well as Chapter One, Mosaic Muse. I am trying to hold off on starting this because I need to get to work on smalls to meet my 100 finish goal. Also in the picture is my trade from Lizzie in Scotland. Thank you for the Waxing Mood Design! If I Stitch Fast is a very cute chart!

I'd like to thank Christine for trading with me. She sent Folk Heart Designs' Quilt Patterns in exchange for some linen and also included CS&CC's Nov/Dec 1993 issue from my wish list as a RAK!
CJ, even though she's a Redskins fan, RAK'd me with two tea towel leaflets from Leisure Arts. She sent Tea Time Towels and Kathie's Fun Fingertips. Thank you, CJ!! You can't help being a fan of those Deadscabs. Hee hee! Yep! I replied in Carol's blog to your comment!!
This is Charmed Dreams as far as I can go right now. I put in the other two sets of beads this evening. I'm waiting for the gold beads and to find out how the medallion needs to be treated. I'm not calling it a finish, but I hope to have the materials to complete it before the end of the year.

I also started Take Time to Stitch Too by Jeannette Douglas. I've only started the boxes so far, but hope to finish this quickly. Luckily Petra was able to find the Needle Necessities' MacAulvey Manor (127) that was required for this design. Thank you, Petra!

After mentioning it earlier, there seems to be some interest in making 2009 "The Year of the Sampler." A couple people have said they'd like to SAL with me as I try to deplete my stash of some of the samplers I've accumulated. We won't necessarily be stitching the same projects, but they will all be samplers. Because "sampler" covers such a wide range of sizes, shapes, and complexity of designs, I think I can stick to this theme for the year, although I will be breaking off from time to time in order to complete bread covers and biscornus. I am not going to name specific charts that I will stitch because I don't want to feel boxed in like I did with my 22 Project Challenge this year. I will say, however, that this will give me the perfect opportunity to complete some of the Just Nan, Sweetheart Tree, and myriad other samplers in my stash already kitted up. Better yet, My Stitching Album falls under this category, so I won't be starting it until January! Anyone else who would like to join is certainly welcome! You don't have to stitch JUST samplers, but you can join the SAL if you're working on a sampler at any time. If there is enough interest, I may even create a separate blog for everyone to post to, or a Yahoo group for those participating in the SAL. Please just let me know at bethxs@yahoo.com. The more, the merrier!!

September 3-5, 2008

It has been several days since my last post, but there was a reason (which I will get to later). First is an update on my arm:

I haven't been online much this week except to read and reply to email because I am still having alot of trouble with my arm. Not only am I having continued pain near the incision closest to my elbow, but also the bloodflow that was re-routed to supply the CryoVein has not redistributed to effectively supply the rest of my arm. Consequently I have large areas of tingling and/or numbness. Most of the time my hand and wrist are very cold because there isn't enough blood flowing through them. The lack of proper bloodflow has also caused the muscles in my forearm to tighten up when I use my hand and arm too much. The process of the bloodflow redistributing evenly throughout my arm could take several weeks. Until then, I will be limited as to how much I can do with my right hand and arm.




Now for a stitching suprise:
Followers of my blog may recognize this piece as Mount Coot-tha by Dinky-Dyes Designs. I started this at the beginning of July and became frustrated with it because I had to do so much frogging. Near the end of July, I decided to work on a smaller project for a "finish fix" and set MCT aside temporarily. As of Tuesday, two months had passed since my last finish, so I thought it was high time I completed something. There was just the border of MCT to work on so I knew it wouldn't take me long to get done. Walking away from this project was obviously the right thing to do because stitching went much better this time; there was not nearly as much frogging going on.
I took MCT with me when I went to get my dialysis treatment on Wednesday and made even more progress. I also stitched once I got home, as my arm allowed.

I didn't even turn the television on at all on Thursday because I was focused on completing MCT. It was a disappoint-ment that it wasn't done by Midnight, however, the last stitch went in at 2:05 Friday morning!

This is Finish #29 for 2008!
Once I got MCT put away I decided it was time to work seriously towards that "crazy" and "unrealistic" goal I set to complete 100 pieces this year. So far, I have 29 cross stitch, four pillows, two shams, and two Q-Snap covers, for a total of 37 pieces completed to date. That leaves 63 to go.

I wanted to work on some UFOs that are done except for the backstitching. First, I tried working on a bookmark that I started back in 2006. I don't have the chart anymore because I was so disgusted with all the quarter-stitches in the designs. I had to look through all my Stitch Bow storage binders to find the correct shades of purple and pink to complete this project. Unfortunately, I had to put the bookmark down because of the uncomfortable cramping in my right forearm and hand.


Next, I worked on Good Dog. I put it in my 3 1/2 inch spring hoop but I ran into the same problem: my hand couldn't hold the small hoop without cramping and Good Dog, too, was set aside once again.
Since I only have four months to finish 63 projects, they need to all be small. Therefore, I decided it was the perfect time to stitch one of my Doodles for Leftovers by Hob-Nobb Designs. I chose to start with God Bless America and changed out the fabric. I switched from the hand-dyed dark blue that the LNS included to some light blue opalescent Lugana from my stash. I chose Navy and Snowflake by WDW and Cranberry by GAST as my blue, white, and red. I hope to have this finished tomorrow so I worked on the border at dialysis and continued stitching once I returned home.

August 4-9, 2008

I received a call Monday morning that threw the beginning of this week all out of kilter. My mom's neighbors, who I gave my Saluki to almost two years ago, needed a dog-sitter Tuesday so that they could drive to New York. I agreed to watch Shandi and Nemo for them and drove up to Mom's Monday night following dialysis. All I had to do was feed the Salukis in the morning and take them for a walk a few times during the day. Joe and Susan were paying for my gas to get there and back, so how could I refuse?

The bonus was that it gave me time to spend with Mom, which we mostly spent playing our new favorite card game: Skip-Bo! I also went to Mom's office to eat lunch with her Tuesday afternoon between walks with Nemo and Shandi. I stopped at Wawa (I'm still addicted to their subs & Lemonade Tea) and bought for both of us.

I had the house to myself all day while everyone else was at work so I did some stitching on Mount Coot-tha by Dinky-Dyes Designs. This is the project I got frustrated with a few weeks ago and set aside. There isn't much progress, but at least I didn't have to do any frogging this time!

Sarah dropped Anna off this evening and we all shared in watching her. She helped me do some of my stitching again and then she and Mom and I went into Mom's bedroom to watch Shrek. Unfortunately, Mom and I were the only ones who fell asleep. Little Miss Anna Lynn watched the entire movie again. I'm beginning to think that letting her watch a movie at bedtime is simply cause for her to stay awake longer. They don't seem to make her sleep at all. As a matter of fact, when she catches one of us not paying attention she pats us until we acknowledge her and look at the television screen! It's really funny to see, but not if you're the one she's waking up and you only had 4 hours of sleep the night before!

In other happenings Monday and Tuesday: my laptop had a brain fart! I spent a majority of my free time trying to fix a problem with my main user profile in Vista. After installing McAfee, scanning twice for a virus or other malware, restarting several times, creating a new user profile, and even going back to Sunday's restore point, the problem wasn't solved. Every time I started the computer it said that my user profile opened incorrectly and a temporary profile was created, but all changes would be erased when I logged off/shut down. Finally, I e-mailed Dad!! He was working in New Jersey for the week and I didn't want to call him in the middle of a meeting.

He contacted his company's IT people and their suggestion put me on the right road to solving the problem. THANK YOU, DAD!! In the end, I had to rename my old profile, restart the computer (which caused another profile with my original name to appear), and copy all my info (15,301 files) from the renamed profile to the original name. It took me until 5pm on Tuesday to finally get everything back to the way it was. The only files that were lost was the information in RoboForm, but I'm re-entering all my passwords to websites as I need them.

Now I just have to back everything up! I think an external hard drive is on the top of my Christmas list this year!

I came home Wednesday in time for dialysis and stitched a little more on MCT. Wednesday was also my Grandma Murchake's 75th birthday, so I called to wish her a happy day. She said that she wishes all of us would forget it, but everyone keeps reminding her each year. I told her there was no chance of that because we all love her so much

It wasn't until late Wednesday that I remembered I was supposed to go to Partners In Care for lunch on Thursday with the ladies in the office. Can you guess where I stopped to buy my meal? Hehe!! I arrived early so that I'd have time to visit with everyone and browse the Upscale Retail Boutique. I came away with some frames that I'll be able to use for stitching-either now or in the future. Some may get painted/refinished, but they all have potential. I picked out one CD of classical music to relax with at dialysis and they also had books at BOGO! I found two that I was especially interested in: a book of Colonial Maryland Houses and The Most Complete Food Counter. I even picked up some romance novels to keep me occupied when I'm in a stitching slump. All of this was under $20!

And I'm in a slump, in case you can't tell. I haven't finished anything in over a month and I'm very frustrated. I've spoken to the ladies in my private group about taking a stitching hiatus because I'm not staisfied with it right now. I know I probably just need a finish-fix, and that was what I was attempting with "Good Dog" but that project stalled at the backstitching. I have a serious case of Stitching ADHD! I can't settle on any one project, therefore I finish nothing. That just exacerbates my frustration!

Friday started out fairly normal, except I was once again awake before noon. I went to dialysis as usual. I even worked on the border of Mount Coot-tha. The picture is my progress from Wednesday and Friday. After dialysis, I came home to change clothes and go have dinner with Uncle Wes at Eastport Yacht Club. Friday was Wessy's 55th birthday and it was also 8-8-08. There were eight EYC members with the same birthday, but only 2 or 3 of them were there that night. We watched the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics and were just amazed at the artistry. The thing that got the standing ovation, though, was the Budweiser commercial (debuted during Super Bowl 2008) where the Dalmation trains the Clydesdale, Hank, to get a spot on the Budweiser hitch. Laughter erupted at the "high paw/hoof" at the end.

I drove home passing through Downtown Annapolis and noticed how cool it was for an August evening and decided it was too nice to stay home. I went back to the house, told Kasey to get in the back of the truck, and we went downtown for a couple hours. We walked from the far end of City Dock to the top of Main St and back, then half way back up Main St to get Kasey's birthday ice cream. I know I said I was going to get her some Frosty Paws, but I never made it across town to the one store that sells it, so I got her a 1/2 scoop of vanilla in a bowl instead. A very nice couple held her leash for me so that I could go in the shop to get the ice cream. She had an audience while eating it, but she comported herself like a lady. There were a few comments made about how calmly and nicely she was eating it, while other dogs would be gulping it down and making a mess.

We returned home around 10:30pm and Uncle Wes came in the door less than five minutes behind us. Needless to say, after all that walking, Kasey and I were both wiped out. I think she might have gone outside once after that, but she spent almost the whole night laying on the cool tile of the bathroom floor.

Saturday was a usual weekend day for me: nothing planned, so just stayed in bed for a couple hours to read. When I finally got up around 1pm I started watching the Olympics. I have my DVR set to record the events I want to see. I finally got to watch the Opening Ceremonies in their entirety and it was an absolute feast for the eyes! I couldn't hear the explainations at the yacht club Friday night, but now that I understand the meaning behind everything as its happening it's even more beautiful. The precision with which everything was done was awesome! BRAVO!!

My friend Daniel called around 4pm to ask if I wanted to go to dinner. He asked me to pick a seafood resaturant because he hadn't had crabs in over a year. I checked online for some phone numbers and made phone calls to several restaurants on Kent Island. Then I found some magazine ratings. They were especially helpful because they ranked restaurants by including the average price of the entrees. I chose the Kentmoor Restaurant (sorry, no website) because it is right on the Chesapeake Bay.

We ordered the crab dip, which was very good, by the way! And we got a dozen steamed medium crabs. We each had a pitcher of our beverage of choice (Mountain Dew for him, Iced Tea for me) to help douse the burning from the Old Bay seasoning. Dinner was great until I got up while my foot was asleep and twisted my ankle. I was able to drive home, but I had to sit with my foot elevated for the remainder of the night. Lucky for me I had Olympics on the DVR to watch so they kept me occupied.

July 2, 2008

Today was a great stitching day! I worked on Butterfly Garden until about 5am and almost finished it. I had two mistakes and had to do a consider-able amount of frogging on the vine, though. As usual, I was determined to get back to where I was, pre-frog attack, before I would go to sleep.
Unfortunately, I had to take out the entire vine on the bottom because I worked it counter-clockwise from about the middle of the top, and of course my mistake was all the way on the left side of the bottom. Somehow both sides were correct; it was just the top and bottom that I goofed on. This is the picture I took before I went to bed.
I pulled it out of my bag to work on it at dialysis and decided I needed a second opinion about a choice I was contemplat-ing in stitching it. On the model, there is a varigated border around the vines and flowers that surrounds the motifs in the center. After conferring with Debi over the phone today, we both reached the same conclusion about that border: It works on the model because the only varigated part was the center medallion, so it ties that in; it does not work for my Butterfly Garden because I used the varigated for the flowers, the center medallion, and half of the motifs around it. The way I did it looks very delicate and pretty, but if I were to stitch the square border, it would look heavy and overpower the rest of the design. So this is my second full finish in my Dinky-Dyes Stitch-Along with Debi M in California and my twenty-eighth of 2008.

Here are all three finished pieces of my Dinky Dyes SAL with Debi: Southern Stars (L), partial Terra Australis(Top R), and Butterfly Garden (Bottom R)

I laid out several charts and had my favorite dialysis technician pick my next piece to work on. His choice? Mount Coot-Tha by Dinky Dyes. I only had three minutes until my treatment ended, but that gave me enough time to mark the center of the fabric with one of my marking pins. Regrettably, that's as far as I proceeded with it today. Tomorrow is another day! There's always tomorrow! (Okay, so now I'm stealing from Gone With the Wind, I admit it)

July 1, 2008

You'll be able to tell from my picture that I didn't sleep much today. I was awake all night because I found a lump on my arm, directly under and around my surgical site. I called my vascular surgeon on call at 1:30am and he told me it was most likely a hematoma (A localized swelling filled with blood resulting from a break in a blood vessel) but wasn't a major concern. I was instructed to call his office when they opened to get an appointment. He just wanted someone to have a look at it.

I slept for two and a half hours before leaving for my appointment. Dr. M's partner, Dr. H, took a look at my arm and said the hematoma was most likely because the technician at dialysis yesterday set the flow too high, so I was given new dialysis orders for a lower maximum flow, and also smaller needles for at least two weeks. The hematoma will go away on its own, but it will take a little while.

I dropped off my new orders to the clinic because I was right around the corner and headed home around 4:00pm. I was contemplating going to sleep, but decided not to so that I could sleep tonight. What's that saying about the best-laid plans? I chatted online and stitched for a while, but my eyes just started closing on me around 8pm. Off to bed I went! ...Until 9:30pm when Kasey decided that she wanted to go out and she wasn't going to let me go back to sleep until she got her way! So that's it! Four hours of sleep today!

Once Kasey had me up, I was up for a while. I made very good progress on Butterfly Garden! I'm so pleased with the way this piece is turning out. I decided to deviate from the way I described the flowers yesterday. Instead I've allowed the color variations show. On the chart, all the flowers except the four corners and the two in the center of each side are yellow. My choice was to make the two center on each side blue and the rest will vary depending on where I am on my strand of floss, so they will be gradating in the purple/pink/grey range.

I'm hoping and expecting to have this finished tomorrow, barring any problems with my needles at dialysis.

June 30, 2008

Can you believe 2008 is already half-way over? Is it me, or has this year flown by for you, too? While I've had four surgeries and logged almost thirty days in the hospital, I feel like 2008 is going too fast. I guess I'm going to have to make more of an effort to get over to the Eastern Shore and visit my family (and hang out at Uncle Jay's pool!) before the summer is over.

Stitching-wise, I have a suprise finish. I learned a valuable lesson about charts today, too. As you know from my last few posts, I've been stitching Terra Australis by Dinky Dyes Designs. The chart says the finished design is 6.3" x 6.3" on 28ct over two fabric threads. Well, I'm here to tell you that it isn't.

I knew something was off when it dawned on me that the stitch count (117x117) was the same as Southern Stars and the fabric should have been cut into a 15" square, but because I went by the measurement stated on the chart, I cut mine to 12" square. I got the center medallion and the ring of motifs around it completed and realized I was going to go within an inch of the edge on all four sides!

Southern Stars says that it is 8.3" square when finished, but Debi and I both measured ours upon completion and found that they were both 9" square. The part of Terra Australis that I've finished is 5 1/2" square, so I have enough border for framing or finishing any way I choose. I will stitch the entire Terra Australis later (on a 15" square of fabric!) once I complete a couple more of the quilt squares.

I got a very good start on Butterfly Garden, which is one of my newest charts. I decided to start this one because the stitch count is 85x85 and I had a 14" square of Monaco. This is by far the smallest of the quilt square designs. All of the others (now that I've looked) are 115-119 stitches square. So just be warned: If you're going to stitch any of the Dinky Dyes Designs' quilt squares (besides Butterfly Garden), do yourself a favor and cut your fabric into 15" squares!

As you can see from the model, I've made drastic changes to the color scheme. I just lucked out that one of my colors is green (Saltbush), so I will do the vine and the leaves in green and everything else in the varigated (Yallingup). I will probalby do the flowers in one shade each, so there will be blue, pink, purple, and teal.

June 29, 2008

It was another day of relaxation here at home for me. That was my main goal for the weekend and I accomplished it. After not going to sleep until 6:00 this morning, I slept until 3p.m. and stayed in bed to read until 5p.m.

When I got up, I walked to the mailbox with Kasey to send back The Nanny Diaries and mail off a sympathy card to a fellow stitcher's mother. On the way back to the house, I stopped at our raspberry bushes and ate a couple dozen ripe berries. Meanwhile, the mosquitoes made mincemeat of my ankles and feet. One brazen fellow even bit me on the nuckle of my thumb! But the berries were worth it! Since it rained last night and this morning, I could eat them right off the bushes.

We returned to the house and I worked on Terra Australis, checked email, and chatted with some friends on IM's. The rest of the day was pretty much spent in the same manner, with the addition of watching P. S. I Love You for the 7th time. I just can't see it enough!

I've almost finished the ring of motifs around the center medallion. There are some green motifs that still need to be stitched, but I've decided to do the octagon around the center before I start on them.


I snagged this stitching poem from Dawn B's Multiply site. I hope she doesn't mind.

It starts out as a WHIMM (Work Hidden in My Mind).
After a FART (Fabric Acquisition Road Trip)
and someSEX (Stash Enhancing eXperience)
it becomes a PIG(Project in a Grocery Sack).
The PIG become a HSY (pronounced hissy
...meansHaven't Started Yet).
Once you have a HSY fit and begin work,
it becomes a WIP(Work in Progress).
TheWIP becomes a UFO (UnFulfilled Opportunity -
I like that better then Unfinished Object)
as soon as some other project grabs and holds
your attention more than the project that was a WIP.
That's my story and I'm stitching to it.

June 28, 2008

I've made some great progress on Terra Australis today. I'd been hoping to get it finished by the end of the weekend, but that just isn't going to happen.

Since my goal this weekend was also to rest and rejuvinate my system, I watched shows from my DVR and a couple movies.

I watched The Nanny Diaries and thought it was okay. The people she worked for were abominable, inconsiderate, and very emotionally troubled. The child, Greyer ("Grover" as he was called by his nanny), unfortunately got no attention from his parents. His father was too busy having an office affair with a colleague in Chicago and his mother was more concerned with her Parents' Society meetings than she was with being a parent.

In the end, everyone comes to their senses and Annie (the nanny) finds herself free to persue her dream studies and the Harvard Hottie she met while caring for Greyer.

I also watched PS I Love You for the sixth time. I refuse to give the story away, but I think everyone should see it. It's a wonderful tale of love and loss. I don't think I've ever laughed so much at a movie that made me cry, or is it cry so much at a movie that made me laugh?

June 27, 2008

I stitched today!

I'm not sure if I need to rip out and re-stitch the center medallion or not. My new silk floss has some different shading in it, so there is no violet-pink in the center. I just can't tell whether or not it's going to look okay. What do you think?

On an entirely different topic, you know how they say you learn some-thing new every day? Well, today I learned that not

only does my digital camera have a timer, but I also know how to use it now! So I took some pics of me.

I wanted to get Kasey in the picture with me, but she kept laying down in my lap. Guess that's what I get for having a Mommy's Girl! Believe it or not, but I've had her for 4 years, 11 months, and 27 days (it'll be 5 years on Monday since I brought her home from the shelter) and I don't have a single picture of me with her. It's mainly my own fault because I'm always taking the pictures, but I'm hoping to rectify that now that I know how to use my camera's timer. The trick is to keep her up and happy so she doesn't lay down or roll on her back for belly rubs!

June 23-The Rest of the Day

Here is my picture of Terra Australis as of Midnight. I ran out of the varigated floss, so I can't continue with it until my order from Wasatch arrives.

June 23, 2008-Morning News

Well, the fun just doesn't stop, that's all I can say! I got a call from my dialysis clinic telling me that a 10:30 spot was open if I wanted it and of course I said yes. I got there right on time and went into the treatment area. Mai Lou put the first needle in and there was no bloodflow. Some not-so-nice words and expletives escaped my lips. I cannot begin to tell you how frustrated, ticked off, fed up, disgusted...I'm sure you get the idea.

The bottom line is that I will be having the third surgery this month on my right arm. I haven't even had the sutures from the last one out for a week and I'll be getting more! Just when I get back to stitching, I'm probably going to be forced into another hiatus. And to make matters worse, I'm probably going to have to have a chest catheter so I can get my dialysis treatments while the graft is healing, which means I won't be able to go swimming this summer. I was so looking forward to swimming at Uncle Jay's!

This is a picture of my progress on Terra Australis as of 4:56a.m. I worked on it a little bit longer after I took the picture, but I only got half of another motif done.

I'm going to try to get a little more done before I go to the hospital tomorrow and will post an update here as soon as I can, on both my post-surgical status, and any progress made on Terra Australis