WOULD IT BE WEIRD TO DO THIS ALL YEAR?

 

MAKING A LITTLE PROGRESS

 

I suppose if we compare my stitching progress to last year's output, I am failing miserably.

But you know what?

I'm not going to do that. 

My gift to myself this year is to just STOP the nonsense in my head and just...enjoy. I have somehow managed to get up each day and let the hours unfold as they will. I am, unfortunately, still not feeling well, but instead of worrying about it I'm trying to just do what I can do, sleep when I need to, and learn how to be...quiet. A trip to IU or Cleveland Clinic or Mayo Clinic in the new year will figure this out, I'm sure, and then I can get back to running around like a crazy person.

But for now, I am really enjoying stitching in the daylight hours and then diamond painting at night. This seems to work pretty well, since I can concentrate on the stitching...which is necessary with that Santa beard (*)...and then I can watch the Yellowstones all night and drool over Kevin Costner and Rip to my heart's content.

Hubba hubba.

(*) The Santa is from Janet Zickler Casey. The outline of his head is pencil-drawn onto a piece of 18ct mono canvas, and then you fill in all of the various parts according to her instructions. The beard on this on is stitched with a really cool pattern that looks like a cable-knit sweater, but for the life of me I can't get my head into a rhythm with it and need to really really concentrate.

After the stitching is completed, two different types of beads will be added into the pattern for some sparkle! I can't wait to see it finished!

So that's it, Dearies. Absolutely nothing at all going on here. Alexa and I are loving the Christmas Instrumentals channel that she found. She was belting out Frank Sinatra and Co, but quiet piano carols are much more in keeping with our laid-back vibe this year.

What's new in your corner of the world? If you're in the thick of it, take a minute to breathe. And if you need an excuse to do so, tell everybody you're visiting a friend and head to the Starbucks and have a big fat damn good (or tea. tea is good too) and look at pretty pictures of stitching for a minute.

Come tell me all about you...

CHEERS TO THE FRIDAY THAT FELT LIKE A SATURDAY!

 

THIS IS A TOUGH ONE FOR YOURS TRULY

 

Tonight, the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish take on the Hoosiers of Indiana University in the first round of the College Football Playoffs. The winner will advance with an opportunity to vie for the National Championship.

Notre Dame is my Alma Mater, as well it was for my dear departed Dad. I bleed Blue and Gold and live under the protection of the BVM and pray for my ND Family daily.

But my BellyBean...my most sacred gift of a new life...came from IU and the amazing team of doctors, nurses, and staff there. I never really thought about the school that's just a few hours down the road, but in 2021 I vowed to also bleed Crimson and Cream for the Hoosiers.

So, good luck, boys. Play well, be safe, have fun, and make a memory to last a lifetime! 

AMEN

 

 

A DP FINISH, A NEW DP START...AND A LITTLE MORE STITCHING

 

TUESDAY NIGHT...APRES' DINNER

 

TRUE STORY

 

 

IN WHICH WATCHING A BAKING PIE MAKES ME INSANELY HAPPY

On YouTube TV they play these lovely videos of various things along with the note to "Enjoy the zen". Most are of nature scenes or of the ASMR variety...this one is of a beautiful pie baking in an oven.

Aaaaaahhhhhhh.

Cold and snowy in these here parts, so I am under the Snoopy blanket happily stitching away. 

Progress is super slow, but I'm sure it will speed up if I stick with it. I might switch to the Mirabilia Santa later, but for now I'm enjoying playing with this one.

Happy Thursday, Dearies! 

WEDNESDAY

Good morning, Dearies. Short and sweet today...

First up, the latest diamond painting finish. I got this one on the amazons and it's from Diamond Art Club:

This is the one that I'm working on now...also from the amazons:

And yes, Betty...I still stitch. I'm sorry that it's not up to your standards, but this is what I'm enjoying at the moment. This is a downloaded .pdf chart from the etsy shop NARAxstitch.

Enjoy your day today, Dearies! 

 

 

TUESDAY

 

INQUIRING MINDS WANTED TO KNOW

Dearies, this chart is a .pdf download from the etsy. I believe the name of the shop is: NARAxstitch. I was stalking (er, looking at) the interwebs for inspiration, and Ms JessieMarieDoesStuff was playing with a beautiful pattern from the same designer, so I went fishing.

Thank you for the comments about my pitiful decorating this year. As much as I miss him, it's a very good thing Stewey isn't here to see just how far I've fallen off of the Christmas sleigh. I honestly contemplated not doing anything at all this year, but my Jersey Boy found his little nativity set in the garage, and the look on his face when he asked if we could put it under the tree made me gird my loins and get the darn thing together. 

(Confession...I was really really really STUPID last year and literally opened the canvas Christmas tree storage bag I got at the Targets and just stuffed the tree in without undecorating it...pause for pearl-clutching horror....so fixing that MISTAKE and vowing to never ever do that again took some time and grunting.)

Football and stitching today and not much else. 

What's new with you?

APRES' THANKSGIVING...SPINSTER STYLE

 

THANK YOU, DEARIES. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

WHAT'S THIS POINTY SKINNY THING IN MY HAND?!

 

Oh my goodness, Dearies! I picked up needle and thread tonight for the first time in a very looooonnnnng while! I admit that the first several minutes were all fumbles and curse words, but methinks I might be home again, jiggity jig.

I still like the diamond painting, but I've decided to try to incorporate a little bit of everything I love into a day...stitching, reading, blogging, diamond painting...eating, sleeping...you get the idea.

Off to bed I go. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, and I'm hoping to be fresh and fantastic for every bit of it!

I hope your weekend was swell! Come tell me all about it!

WELL WELL WELL...LOOK WHO CHANGED HER TUNE

Notre Dame plays Army tonight at Yankee Stadium in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the game at the Polo Grounds that was immortalized by Grantland Rice:

"Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below."

Instead of kvetching about the blue-grey outfits my Irish will wear, I will zip it...uncharacteristically...and instead appreciate the thought process behind them.

Cool, huh?

I'm under the blankets today and will enjoy some damn good, some stitching, and some football on the TeeVee with my Jersey Boy today. Christmas decorating, planning, and worrying can wait until another day.

Happy Saturday to one and all! I hope your corner of the world is exactly how you want it to be!

ONLY FOUR AND A HALF HOURS TO GO

The radioactive scrambled eggs and toast were lovely, but your portly yet loveable Spinster is so very very thirsty. Good thing I'm sitting in a chair staring at beverages.

Sigh.
 

WE'RE GOING TO DECORATE CS2 TODAY

 

IT'S NOT EASY BEING ME

This is one of those days when I wonder why I bothered to get out of bed. I started ANOTHER new med yesterday, and this one makes me feel like I left my car and several articles of clothing at a dive bar on the wrong side of the tracks someplace, and that a small, rabid-yet-friendly possum slept on my face.

(I swear, if I survive this, I'm going to find a way to make sure that everybody who ever wants to get a medical degree has to at least try every drug they're going to prescribe at least once.)

Friday I will go to the hospital for a "gastric emptying" test, which I just described to my friend Gail as showing up at 8am, eating a radioactive egg salad sandwich, and then laying under a CT scan for four or five hours.

Really? 

We can put a man on the moon, but we can't figure out why one simple, portly-yet-loveable Midwestern Spinster can't manage to eat anything without making a terrifying runwaddle to the nearest ladies room?

Come on, people. Work with me.

I did, however, manage to finish another diamond painting. I know, I know. Not one damn stitch has been made on anything in any one of the fifty-eight baskets of stitching crap I have laying around here, but I'm in a bad headspace, Dearies. Something is definitely broken in there, and despite a small retail pharmacy's worth of pills, we haven't yet quite fixed it all. The new compound cocktail that I started yesterday, however, shows promise, so let's keep fingers crossed that as soon as the side effects clear I will be back to my non wig-flipping, non profanity-spewing, non remote control throwing, and non getting escorted out of the Targets Optical place happening (I swear it to be true), self.

(She looks friendly, right? But if you want to know just how completely bad it's been around here, ask Rich how many hours and minutes until he can flee on the train for his Christmas visit to New Jersey. 🙄)

Anywhoo...here's the diamond painting finish, Autumn Mandala from Paint With Diamonds:

I logged it into my little notebook (because I do things like that now), and then I stuck it in the book/portfolio thing that lives under my chair.

That's the last of the stash, so until I replenish my pin money fund, it's back to stitching or coloring I go! I do want to start playing with some Christmas things, even though the tree isn't up yet (Saturday, I promise), but at the same time, I also am feeling like a 7:30 bedtime with a book might not be too bad of an idea either.

Thanks for hanging in there with me, Dearies. This too shall pass...I know it will. I just need to keep doing all of the things they tell me to and stay out of trouble, I suppose, and we'll quickly be calling this a "blip of bother" in an otherwise wonderful year.

What's new in your neck of the woods? Come tell me all about it!

 

 

EIGHT YEARS WITH A BIG PIECE OF MY HEART MISSING