SPINSTER STITCHER
The almost true exploits of an intrepid spinster and her stitching...and all of the things that make up her crazy, happy, quiet little life.
Apr 5, 2025
Apr 4, 2025
I LOVE IT WHEN A LESSON COMES OUT OF IT
Apr 2, 2025
GOODNESS, GRACIOUS!
On the stitching front, I am just LOVING this little bird. The chart is in the etsy: nathnolu. Please note, though that I am not following the colorway on the chart...I am using Colour & Cotton fabric and threads from my stash.
Dearies, I have a kinda sorta update on my ick-ness. It appears that the thyroid was causing all of those scary symptoms that kept sending me to the ER thinking I was dying. As for everything else, my liver, pancreas, and gall bladder all seem to be on the fritz. Oddly enough, I scored an S0 on the liver fatty scale, but an F3 on the liver scarring (cirrhosis) scale, which is severe. The gallbladder needs to come out, but if we can get the symptoms under control, postponing that would be preferable to undergoing surgery at this point, and the pancreas is problematic and susceptible to pancreatitis because of my kidney meds.
BUT!
With proper meds and a massive lifestyle change (in effect since March 5), I should be able to get things a bit back in whack to the point that I will start to feel better. Fatigue and the screaming mimi's are the biggest issues I have, as well as protecting my BellyBean, but eventually all will be well once again.
Thank you for your prayers and notes and happy thoughts and wonderful cards in the mail (looking at you Robin!). Time for me to just pull up my socks and trust that the plan is good and I finally have docs in place to keep an eye on things.
If you're in the path of these darn storms again today (as we are), please don't be afraid, but stay safe and prepared! Then, when they're all over, please check in and come tell us all about your corner of the world today!
Mar 30, 2025
Mar 29, 2025
Mar 27, 2025
Mar 23, 2025
IN WHICH WE HAVE A LOVELY SUNDAY, INDEED
My Lady Irish are doing their thing against Michigan, I had a great scrubby shower and donned my comfy sweats, and now it's time to stitch! Rich will be home after the game for steak pizza iola (salad with grilled chicken for me, Betty), and that will be that.
What are you up to today, Dearies? Come tell me all about it!
Mar 20, 2025
IF THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT SHOWS UP...IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, DEARIES
OK, you actually ARE the boss of me.
Today, I am lounging in my pajamas under the blanket, with stitching, damn good, my book, and diamond painting near and Robert DeNiro on the TV for company.
I have a clean sink and a nicely loaded dishwasher, the trash has been duly collected and placed in the can to put outside tonight, and I have prepped my veggies for my salad tonight and put them in their little fancy storage containers that I bought in a frenzy three years ago and then immediately regretted the purchase, but that's as far as I got.
The floor and countertops and Kitchen Cart 'O Crap That Needs Purging and everything else that needs doing will just have to wait for another day, because my better angels (looking at you, kids) told me to stop my nonsense already and just...rest.
Thank you for your excellent advice and care and concern and for the proverbial whack upside my head to get me re-pointed in the right direction! It's very helpful, when you are a Spinster of a very tiny little brain, to have fully-adult supervision to rely on!
What are you up to today? We're cold and blustery here, with more of the same predicted for the next ten days, so I guess we'll just have to hope for a warmer April!
That's the report. Do come tell me all about your corner of the world today, and if you're in the path of these terrible storms or have been affected by them, you have my fervent thoughts and prayers that you are safe and well.
Mar 19, 2025
OH FOR PITY'S SAKES...
Mar 18, 2025
EASY LIKE A TUESDAY MORNING...
Rich is over on campus doing his thing this week with the ushering, so I have lots of time to do my spinstering with pajamas on and the birds sweetly tweeting their little heads off out there in the semi-cloudy sunshine. It's supposed to be near 70 degrees today, but in the 30's again by week's end, so I'm not too frantic about flipping my closet to warm weather clothes just yet.
Mar 14, 2025
Mar 13, 2025
TWO DOWN...ONE TO GO
Two tests completed today, so I'm home and enjoying some beautifully fresh air and sunshine while contemplating my ToDo list for the day.
Ready?
Eat. Stitch. Futz.
That's it.
What's on your lists, Dearies? Come tell me all about it!
(Laura J Perin posted this on the Facebook, and I just couldn't pass up a chance to re-post it. Isn't it fabulous?! Thanks, Laura!)
Mar 10, 2025
AND THEN IT WAS MONDAY...AGAIN
I've been spinstering while Rich visits his mom in NJ, and as much as I'd love to tell you that I've been busily crossing things off of my ToDo list...um...not so much.
Laundry is sploshing away, and I did manage to get the big girl sleigh bed changed yesterday, but all of the other stuff?
Nope.
What I HAVE done, is sleep. And eat really really really super duper I can't believe it healthy and light. (*) And I've stitched and diamond painted every day, and I started a new book (Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver), and today I stood outside in the fresh air and sunshine for a full eight and a half minutes before my crazy downstairs neighbor started puffing her ciggie on her patio below while hollering into her cell phone about having Legionnaire's disease.
(Is it me, or does crazy just seem to follow me wherever I go?)
(Which reminds me of the old Dr Melfi joke..."You tell me that everyone around you is an asshat. But what do they all have in common?")
OK, so maybe I'm the one that's actually crazy and the Walter Mitty part of my brain turns everything into a cartoon fantasia of talking fish and whatever else magical things were in that movie.
Tomorrow is inspection day here in the complex, and they will come in with their paper booties and test things to make sure they work. I'm sure that some people find this a bit intrusive and a pain in the neck, but I find it...comforting. The screeching of the smoke detectors might hurt my eardrums, but knowing they work gives me one less thing to worry about.
Speaking of worry...only three tests this week. One will be a specimen sample that I have to collect here at home that under NO circumstances am I going to talk about (if you know, you know), the second is a liver scan, and the third is an endoscopy.
So, Dearies, by the time I get the results from this round, if there are no answers, then I am convinced that it's the universe's way of saying "Sorry, kid. This is it." and I'm heading over to the IU/Notre Dame Medical School and offering myself up as a test subject and to sign all of the paperwork to donate myself to them once I've gone to the big needlework shop in the sky.
(Hopefully in more than a few years!)
But...in the meantime...the sun is shining, the breeze is lovely and warmish, and the birds are tweeting sweetly. Who's happier than me?
Mar 9, 2025
Mar 5, 2025
SHADES OF 1989
Mar 3, 2025
HELLO MOJO!
Just when I thought my stitchy career was over...the mojo returned. I've had a delightful few days of playing with the Sampler Game Board, and as soon as I post this here love note to you, I'm going to get back to it.
I await test results this week, and will visit with my gastroenterologist tomorrow. The pieces of the puzzle are still scattered about the table, but at least now I feel like we're going in three or four different directions instead of eleven.
What's new in your corner of the world? Come tell me all about it!
Feb 27, 2025
IN WHICH THE SPINSTER STARTS TO GET TWITCHY
Feb 24, 2025
Just a quick update, Dearies.
Tomorrow I'm taking some crazy breath test to determine if my gut bacteria is OK or if it's gone awry like my Craft Days of yore. Then I'll get the results of the sleep study (with Rich in tow so that I can firmly but politely say "I just want the results of the test and nothing else, please"), then pick up five new prescriptions, throw two away, get thyroid labs done again (because my last TSH was 11.8 😖), and then get ready for more CT scans and appointments with four different docs.
(Yes. I said a TSH of 11.8. In the event that you're NOT an Endocrinologist (my dear Dr Cavanaugh who was mine for 35 years and saw me through thyroid cancer along with Mayo Clinic retired) and apparently nobody (including me) thought to check it)...a TSH of 11.8 is N.O.T.G.O.O.D. At all. As a matter of fact, I am now about 78% sure that the majority of my symptoms are related to everything just shutting down.)
(But I'm not a doctor, and I stopped attending Google Medical School, and now I let the professionals do their job.)
(And yes....I am desperately trying to find new professionals who will take me on as a patient.)
In between this mish-a-goss I am trying to remain calm, eat and sleep well, put shoes and socks on and do things every now and then (like go to a music performance or see my GodDaughters), and make sure to stitch and diamond paint every day.
No stitchy progress to show, since I get about three little x's in and then start rummaging through baskets, but here are a couple of small DPs that are done and in the portfolio/book thingie under my chair:
And now it's time for a nice long nap, Dearies. Thank you from the bottom of my pitiful little heart for all of your thoughts and prayers and notes and cards and wonderful, wonderful support. I am, as always, completely overwhelmed with gratitude for each and every one if you.
I'll be back as soon as I can!
Love,
coni
Feb 4, 2025
AND THEN...SHE WENT COMPLETELY OFF HER LITTLE NUT
Feb 2, 2025
AND THEN...SHE WAS ALMOST NORMAL AGAIN
First up...a diamond painting finish. This was the kit that prompted me to start diamond painting in the first place, I think. I seem to remember that it popped into my Instagrams and I thought "I should try that".
I'm so glad I did.
I honestly don't know what came over me yesterday, but after my second cup of damn good, I decided to try to push myself to "just do one thing" and change the sheets on the bed.
Before I knew what hit me, I had not only done that, I had cleaned the entire apartment to within an inch of its life and did about seven loads of laundry to boot.
(Yowsa.)
I managed to get a long hot shower completed before the water heater decided to fritz out (emergency maintenance technician Robert reassured me that it was a good thing I called him), and I spent the rest of the night watching YouTube videos about the Philadelphia Mob with JB while Robert putzed and futzed about in the utility closet, declared that it was unfixable, and turned off the gas and water "just to make sure nothing blew up".
(Well, that's reassuring.)
(They'll be here Monday to fix it.)
(Good thing I got that shower!)
So by the time I put my head on the pillow last night I said a teary thank you to BG* for helping me get so much accomplished, and I fell into what I hoped would be a good long sleep.
Nope.
In addition to everything else, I have started waking up two or three times a night unable to breathe, which then causes me to have awful panic attacks that "roll" throughout the day. I just can't breathe, Dearies, and if you know anything about me, you know that not being able to breathe is second only to being buried alive on my list of things that are in my NO THANK YOU column.
Then, just to make sure I'm paying attention, my abdomen is distended and so sore across the middle that I feel like I've swallowed a bag of wet cement studded with push pins, my hair is falling out, my skin is so dry it's cracked and bleeding, I fall asleep with a needle in my hand, I've screamed so much at Rich that I caught him looking for an Exorcist yesterday, and my face turns bright red every night at 8pm and feels like it's on fire. (There are about ten more unpleasant things going on, but I'm going to spare you, since I really start to sound crazy when I talk about it.)
(Besides...boundaries.)
(She says while grinning maniacally.)
I've diagnosed myself with everything from colon cancer to a pituitary tumor, and I'm pretty sure that if I tried hard enough I could pass whatever test you need to pass to have MD after your name, thanks to my attendance at the Google Medical School. Meanwhile, I have seven doctors going in seven different directions, I have so many new and different drugs to try that I'm seriously waiting for the DEA to execute a warrant, and my Facebook algorithm has changed from stitching and book ads to nothing but miracle cures and Weight Watchers Ozempic subscription information.
The best part of all of this is that I stand in front of Stewey's little box of ashes every night with my hand on BellyBean and I say "Boys, Mommie is decidedly unwell, so I need you both to do the things that you do to watch over me and help me make it through the night so that I can get better, lose 150 pounds, get my eyebrows done, and go back to doing the things I love while simultaneously figuring out a way to be worthy of all of the blessings of my life, pay them forward, and make a big fat difference in some small way in this wonderful world we live in."
And then I crawl into bed and wait for the panic attacks to begin.
So that's what's going on over here in Crazyass Spinsterville. In between telling myself not to die and making a pot of chili, I'm going to try to get back to stitching Alphabets today.
What's new with you?
Jan 31, 2025
REST IN PEACE, DEAR MISS JEAN
I never had the privilege of meeting Jean from Attic Needlework, but once upon a time a million years ago, before I was a stitcher, I visited her shop with my sister. I didn't understand it fully at the time, but entering that place felt like walking into a cathedral.
Now that I am a stitcher, I see just how accurate I was in thinking that.
My prayer is for Jean's family and the needlework family. We've lost a giant. May her memory be a blessing.
Jan 29, 2025
A FUTZINGDAY UPDATE
Dearies, I miss my old Futzingdays of yore.
Remember when Stewey and I would awaken on a Wednesday and await what shenanigans were upon us? I seem to remember always looking forward to the mid-week point of things, and even though nothing was ever accomplished it felt great to progress through one more day and get closer to a week's end.
I suppose I am melancholy because I have big hard serious scary stuff coming at me from all directions. Most of it is medical...some of it is just situational...but all of it is stuff that I just wish would either get here and go already or just take a big detour and leave me alone.
Dr Yaqub, my transplant nephrologist, will be here tomorrow to poke and prod, and I've got a list a mile long of questions and observations and requests for him. I'm pretty sure he'll just pay attention to the kidney parts and leave all of the other stuff to other specialists, but I have some small hope that he'll just grab the ball and play quarterback for a minute.
Sorry to dump and run. I just need a few happy thoughts flung my way if y'all have a minute.
In the meantime...back to Alphabets I go!
Jan 28, 2025
WOW....WHERE WAS THIS ONE HIDING?
Stay tuned...I actually stitched for more than ten minutes last night! Updates forthcoming!
Jan 26, 2025
Jan 24, 2025
Jan 22, 2025
Jan 21, 2025
HELLO WINTER, MY OLD FRIEND
It's been a long time since it's been this cold in these here parts. If you are similarly affected, please be safe and smart and take care of yourself today! I'm staying under my Snoopy blanket with damn good and some stitching!