SPINSTER SANTA LOVE

 Oh, Dearies...I forgot how much I love these Santa canvases! I have had them in my stash at least fifteen years, and I pull them out every December to play, but it seems like forever since I've actually gotten to them.

When I pulled this out yesterday, the hat (minus the star) and sleeves were completed.

Within a few hours I completed his mittens, the bottom of his tunic, his socks, and his boots:

I started the central part of the tunic at about 10:00...definitely past my bedtime...and I could have stayed awake all night finishing it had prudence not prevailed.

I am stitching this with a stitch guide written by the artist, Pat Thode, but I switched the threads to Vineyard Silks. Oh my goodness, they are absolutely lovely! 

There are several more in the series waiting to be done, and one already finished in the FUPPY box under the bed. If I complete another (or two or three) I might actually send them off for final finishing after the first of the year. 

Needless to say, my basket has yet to be filled. As soon as it is, I promise a glimpse of Christmases past, present, and future!

Buzzy and I are doing our thing, and then it's home for a walk and vegetable soup. We were supposed to have a winter storm overnight but missed it, so I should be able to get out there and loop the block a few times while the soup simmers away.

Happy Monday to one and all. I hope you had a peaceful, restful weekend and that the week ahead is full of fun! Come tell me all about it!

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE...

 Organizing my Christmas stitching basket today, Dearies! Stay tuned for details!

SATURDAY SPINSTER BLISS

The strangest thing happened to me last night. After dinner (a Greek salad with grilled chicken thankyouverymuch) I felt compelled to take a walk.

(Pause for reaction.)

Yup.

A walk.

So walk I did. It was only a few loops around the apartment, but it was really refreshing out there in the brisk night air, and I felt simply wonderful after.

You will never guess what happened next.

I took another walk after breakfast (spinach quiche and a bagel) moments ago with my Jersey Boy in the breezy morning sunshine! 

This time we went around the little neighborhood AND a few loops around the apartment complex. And I am happy to report that my fat little legs were able to not only keep up with his much longer stride...I actually set a pace that had him huffing and puffing away while I was humming right along!

I don't want to jinx myself, but if I can get myself up to a couple of miles a day it will bode very nicely for my recovery, I'm sure. Plus, the benefit to my mental health is already being felt, since it is 1:00 on a Saturday afternoon and I'm quite calm and peaceful rather than running around like the proverbial headless chicken.

We are showered and in freshly washed pajamas, enjoying the light from the big girl sleigh bed. The to-do list will have to wait. I'm going to enjoy a few hours of uninterrupted paper and book reading and then a few more hours stitching away in the Happy Chair!

Happy Saturday, Dearies!

 

THE 2020 THANKSGIVING REPORT BY THE SPINSTER STITCHER HER VERY SELF...

I enjoyed my Starbucks and a little Charlie Brown on Wednesday night after getting the bird into the brine:

There may or may not be a pound of compound butter under and over the skin:

I saved calories for two days and really enjoyed this!

This year's sides were all cut in half, which means there was enough for eight instead if sixteen:

Lots of stitching on Pretty Pumpkins:

And my first time trying roasted chestnuts. They were delicious! And yes...there is pie under there somewhere:

 

I've been sitting here for the better part of a week trying to come up with adequate words to tell you how full my heart is with love and gratitude. For each and every one of you. For being my friends, my family, my inspiration, my support, my guiding light, my...everything.

Turns out, there just aren't adequate words to say all of that.

Instead, I will tell you that my life is beautiful and happy and peaceful and lovely because my thoughts are now completely focused on blessings and potentials rather than grief and regret. I was trapped under a lot of very heavy things, and you all came running, lifted the lot of very heavy things from my shoulders, and pulled me right back up onto my big girl feet.

All without ever asking for anything in return except for me to just be me.

My prayer and hope is that I will be worthy of your gift and that you and yours will be safe and happy and blessed and enjoying everything that makes your own heart full.

Happy Thanksgiving, Dearies!

AND THEN...EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT

I. Love. Snow.

There. I said it. 

Now ask me again in about an hour how I feel about it after I've gotten bundled up and driven to the d-chair.

Cross stitching last night! Pretty Pumpkins!

 

WE'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER XANAX...

No trip to Indy for me until January.

Stupid Covid.

(The numbers here in Hoosierville are just too high for it to make sense to travel at the moment.)

BUT! I have confirmation and double/triple/quadruple confirmation that I am ACTIVE and at the TOP of the list for a kidney as soon as one becomes available.

So today I will unpack, try to peel myself off the ceiling, relax a bit, go to dialysis tomorrow, and then have a nice simple no-fuss no-stress Thanksgiving with my Jersey Boy and get on with it.

I will still behave and pretend I'm a Victoria's Secret model food-wise, to be sure. Who knows? Maybe this will eventually become normal for me and I won't have to think about/obsess over every calorie anymore?

Happy Monday, Dearies!

HAPPY HALF-ASSED CHRISTMAS, CHARLIE BROWN

Remember how it used to take me a week and a half to decorate Chez Spinster for Christmas? This year...about seven minutes. If the outside light strings had worked, it would have taken eight minutes.

Thank God Stewey isn't here to comment. I can only imagine his disappointment.

But this is what it is this year, and I am perfectly happy with it.

New light strings will be here tomorrow. I'll put them up on Wednesday when I return!
 

SUNDAY SPINSTER SHENANAGINS

Buzzy and I are here at dialysis doing our thing:

The schedule is screwey this week because of Thanksgiving, and especially screwey forYours Truly. Today I am here, tomorrow and Tuesday I am in Indianapolis, and Wednesday I am back here having my d-chair time late before going home to brine a turkey.

I've never brined a turkey before.

But! The Pioneer Woman tells me I can do it, so brine a turkey I shall.

(From what I gather, I'm going to boil apple cider, orange peel, garlic, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, bay leaf, and rosemary together in a pot...let it cool...and then immerse the turkey in it overnight in a styrofoam cooler out on the porch.)

Then, on Thanksgiving morning, I will put said brined turkey into a bath to get the salt off, and then roast him in the oven all day while I watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and wait for Santa Claus, like every respectable Spinster should.

Provisions for all of the sides will be delivered today, so I will leave it to Magoo to figure out why two people need enough stuffing and green bean casserole to spackle a Volkswagen.

(It's my process, People. Cook for a hundred, eat one plate of it, and then spend two weeks shuffling left overs around before making a Shepherd's Pie and shoving it in the freezer...only to be thrown away next year.)

(Which reminds me. I need to throw away last year's leftovers from the freezer when I get home.)

All this talk of food is making me hungry, and it doesn't help that Ina just poured bourbon into some kind of custard thingie on the TeeVee a moment ago. Who the heck decided to put the Food Network on today?!

On the weight front, I am happy, proud, and relieved to report that I will see Dr Goggins at 110kg...a full 2kg below his goal weight. I am almost positive that he will be happy and immediately tell me to continue losing, but I am happy to do so if it means a new kidney. I will also meet with the post-transplant nephrologist, and have a CT scan, so it will be a busy visit.

The thing I am most excited about is scoping out the hotel and area around. I know I won't be able to go anywhere or do anything, but getting an idea of what's what will be good for my peace of mind.

So that is my full report, Dearies. I'm not sure if I will be able to check in with you over the next several days, so I will send you all my love, thanks, and prayers for being such a happy part of my life! Please be well and safe and happy and do all of the things that make your heart sing!

 

I LOVE THIS THING OF OURS

 

OVER THE MOON

 Dog Taxi by Sam Toft

Fernsby Hall Tapestries

10ct painted canvas

The kit came with Appleton wool, but I am going to switch that out for DMC perle cotton. I think the coverage will be better and working with perle cotton will be much nicer for me than wool. I will definitely mount this one on stretcher bars, which means I might have to dust off the floor stand for when it comes time to stitch. (I asked Santa Claus for a System 4, so we'll see if I've been naught or nice.)

In the meantime, I am just so very very tickled with this, Dearies! What a wonderful way to start the weekend!

FRIDAY

Stitching in the d-chair today! Hello, old friend!

And last night's stopping point on the Ehrman:

 

THURSDAY

We've just returned from a lovely walk in the blustery sunshine. We made it to the Martin's and back and managed not to blow away with the breeze...thank goodness JB and I both possess adequate girth to keep us firmly grounded!

I showered, scrubbed, and in freshly laundered big girl pajamas:

My afternoon is well-planned with the reading of the papers and some stitching:

My Venti double shot on ice with a splash of non-fat milk and two pumps of sugar free cinnamon dolce is doing its thing:

And JB Magoo is happily rocking away while listening to sports talk radio in his Happy Place:

 Life is beautiful, indeed. (*)

(*) This is in remembrance of Jimmy D. He was a very dear friend of JB's who passed away way too young. Today is his birthday.

WEDNESDAY

Have you ever met anybody who worries about worrying?

Hello. My name is Spinster Stitcher, and my crazy little brain could find away to screw up a cup of coffee with worrying and fretting and catastrophizing. 

But...today is a new day and I am in the d-chair writing lists. Lists of things to discuss with Dr Melfi, lists of stuff to do before next week, lists of food to order for Thanksgiving, lists of....you name it, I've got a list for it.

I did stitch a fair bit last night. I picked up Pretty Pumpkins and put about twenty or so stitches in, but went back to the Ehrman canvas and started working on the background. I decided to just let my mood take me where it wants to go, and if that means needlepoint right now, then so be it.

Thank you, Dearies, for all of the advice. I need to break out of this drama junkie cycle and just handle my business with quiet strength and dignity.

(I'll give you a minute to catch your breath from laughing so hard at that.)

Tomorrow I might fish out the Christmas stitching box and see what strikes my fancy. I have been drooling over so many of the new releases, but I am going to stay focused on stash for now and behave. (Or maybe I'll just write another list!)

So that's the report for a lovelyWednesday here in Hoosierville. I hope life in your corner of the world is wonderfully swell today and that you'll come tell me all about it!

TUESDAY

Well, here we are on a Tuesday, Dearies.

I can't really talk about the last four days, because I haven't yet figured out just what in the heck happened. Suffice it to say that I went on a food binge of epic, salty proportions that ended up as a sixteen pound weight gain.

(This is where you shake your head in utter disgust and ask me why I think it's OK to self-sabotage when I'm an inch away from getting a new life.)

(Because that's what I did all night long in the big girl sleigh bed.)

(I came up with absolutely nothing, by the way, other than feelings of complete shame, embarrassment, and the humiliation that I can't seem to get rid of this particular demon, despite a life-long attempt to do so.)

Treatment yesterday was brutal and probably more than a little dangerous, but I came home at 112kg...right back on goal.

(And then I did it again and ate and ate and ate until I finally went to bed and had a good long cry, a few seconds of feeling sorry for myself, and then a long night of navel gazing.)

It's not easy to admit that you completely suck at something, or to confess your humanity in front of people that you utterly love and respect and adore, but sometimes exposing your vulnerable big fat underbelly is exactly what you need to do to move on.

I obviously have a problem that runs much deeper than being able to stay on a diet. Just what the heck that problem is, though, is completely beyond me, and as soon as I get over being ashamed about it I might be able to fix it. (The shame comes from feeling like a woman with two Virginia hams under her arms complaining that she has no bread. And I absolutely positively can't stand that feeling.)

Today is a new day. I am focused and back into paying attention mode and will have my egg white thingie in a few minutes and then vegetable soup later tonight. On Thursday, I'll talk to Dr Melfi about all of this and see if we can't have a good long sort out of the freak show in my head. In the meantime, I am just going to concentrate on seeing Dr Goggins (the kidney surgeon) a week from today down in Indy and letting him know I am ready to go.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming!

Today will be quiet, a chance to catch up on newspapers that I haven't read, laundry sploshing, and stitching. It's lovely and sunny outside, but a bit chilly, so I might try to walk a bit for some fresh air if the mood strikes.

I finished the flower last night on the Ehrman Tapestry, and am still just completely tickled by how much this has blown my skirt up! 

 My sister and I were talking about stitching the other day, and we both commented that colder weather makes us want to stitch canvas things. I never really thought about it before, but it does seem that I kind of hanker for needlepoint more in the winter for some reason. 

Does anybody else feel that way?

Pretty Pumpkins are still next to the Happy Chair, so I might decide to play with them a bit later:

The little pouch is from Erin Condren...I think she calls it a planner pack? It has an elastic on the back that attaches to the front of your day planner, but I'm using is as an an accessory pouch for Pumpkins because it's orange:

So that's your Spinster's happy life for the day. A little drama, a little laundry, a little soup, and a whole lot of stitching. 

Just how we like it!

Do everything you want to today and nothing you don't and come tell me all about it!

MONDAY

 

SUNDAY PROGRESS

 

SATURDAY...IN WHICH WE EAT ALL THE THINGS

First we had the Snack Plate: 

And then we did the stitching:

And then we had the brisket, mashed potatoes, and the green beans:

Which means, today we are doing the fasting.

And the stitching.

FOUR YEARS

 

FRIDAY

Well, here we are again, Dearies.  Doing our thing on a Friday here in Hoosierville. I am hoping for a big Starbucks treat at the end of my session today, and it might be a hot one since the weather is perfect for it.

For those of you wondering...I try to stay away from anything with calories and opt for sugar free flavorings and low fat milk. 

The Ehrman piece is coming along very nicely, and I am still enjoying it immensely! I think the change of pace is exactly what I needed, since I picked up Pumpkins to bring to treatment today!

Don't tell anybody, but I unpacked a few things from the Indy bag and figured I could tuck them back in when I get the call. The leggings just kind of screamed Fall Friday to me!

 My Irish take on Boston College tomorrow, so I want to be finished with my to-dos and in the Happy Chair by 3:00! I need to decide on a menu and get groceries ordered. Any suggestions?

Well, it's time to close my eyes, I think. I hope your weekend is wonderfully swell, and that you'll come tell me all about it!

NOW THAT'S BETTER...

The stars aligned perfectly, and the Ehrman kit is exactly what I needed! I confess, I was worried that I would be hugely disappointed or frustrated, but I got lucky...the canvas is printed perfectly, I was able to sort and swatch the threads quite easily, and thanks to a few little clips I was able to roll the sides and stitch quite happily in hand.

Yes....it's wool.

Yes...it's 10ct canvas and quite rough/stiff.

Yes...my backside is a bit more of a mess that I would like.

But you know what? I just managed to sit and stitch for about seven hours and I am very happy indeed with the results. The stem of the flower is complete...now on to the petals!