UM....

Yesterday was fingernail painting day. I tried and tried and tried to do a nice French manicure, but ended up making a big mess instead. So as I fished through my fingernail things to find another color, I came across a set of nail wraps.

These are from Lily & Fox, but I have to say...I'm feeling a bit silly wearing fancy nails while sitting here in my bathrobe for the millionth day in a row. Shouldn't these be on the nails on someone who leaves the house?

(Please excuse the dry hands. But when you wash them about a billion times a day...it happens.)

And I stapled myself to my chair last night, put a needle in my hand, and started a new start:

That little bit took me an hour and a half, but I am determined to plod forth and continue with this little guy today.

Still a bit under the weather, so I am taking one more day of rest before launching myself out into the world tomorrow to run errands and get some fresh air.

Happy Monday, Dearies!

FOUR MONTHS

 

UGH

Anybody who says you don't get sick from the flu shot or a second covid booster is welcome to trade places with me today. Oey and ugh, Dearies. Oey and ugh.

 

FRIDAY

I'm  headed back to bed, Dearies, but wanted to answer some quick questions...I can't figure out how to reply directly.

BIOTIN, Yes, I have heard of this but cannot take it. (Or anything else via supplements, vitamins, pils, etc.)

HAT: Yup...looking into something simple.

SHOTS: I got a flu shot and a second booster today. The second booster is because of my immuno suppressants.

SHINGLES VAC:  Can't get that for another month yet.

IBUPROFIN: Is a no no for me. But I can take Tylenol.

ME BITCHING ABOUT HAIR LOSS WHEN I JUST GOT A KIDNEY: No, Betty, I'm not bitching about it, exactly. It's more of an inconvenience to try to keep the darn drain from getting clogged. I understand that this is a normal side effect of medication, and I am happy to rock a beanie on my head while my new beanie does his thing.

(Besides, Rich has a head of hair full enough for both of us, so I'm not worried at all)

Thank you, though, to the rest of you for your lovely comments and encouragement and funny stories (I can't believe I didn't think to save Stewey's beautiful downy fur to make myself a little wiglet.)

Happy Friday, Dearies! I hope you are well and warm and safe and dry! 

IN WHICH WE MOVE MY IU CLINIC CHEESE ALL OVER THE PLACE

I'm supposed to be in the car on my way to Indianapolis today for transplant clinic tomorrow, but alas, I am not. The weather is dangerously cold for a road trip, and the covid numbers here in Indiana still have me very skittish to leave CS2.

So I called and asked if I could postpone to next week, and they said "Come on down!" on Thursday for a Friday clinic.

Then, they called back and said Dr Yaqub might be able to fit me in for a virtual visit, but if not, please keep the Friday next week appointment.

Then, Dr Yaqub called and we had a virtual visit and gabbed like a couple of old ladies across the back fence hanging laundry on laundry day.

A few medication changes, the suggestion to go buy a hat for my rapidly balding head, and the happy news that I can get my flu shot and fourth covid booster tomorrow, the shingles vaccine next month, and I can reduce getting labwork to once every two weeks now.

Whew! I need to go process all of this now and play with my book, Dearies. But all good news and we're off on more adventures!

FOR SOMEBODY WITH NOTHING TO DO, I SURE HAVE A LOT TO DO!

 

Managing these meds takes a phD in biochemistry, a photographic memory, and a LOT of patience while spending the better part of an afternoon getting them sorted.

There should be pills for this.

Oh. Wait.

There are, and I'm taking every single one of them!

No complaints, Dearies (so Betty, no need to scold)....every second spent managing these is worth it to take care of my Beanie Bean.

Cheers!

TUESDAY

 

MONDAY

Good morning, Dearies.

Thank you for all of your lovely comfort for both me and my sister. That little dog left such an enormous hole in all of our hearts...even Rich...who called him "Dawg" and cuddled him every chance he got.

I confess that I have been a huge lump for several days, and I'm not sure if I have plans to be anything but for the next several. I am sleeping pretty well and getting out of the big girl sleigh bed when I either feel like it or have to use the powder room, and then my day unfolds of its own volition.

Stitching comes in tiny little spurts, with lots of coloring and reading in between, and I'm OK with that. All three do wonders for my tiny little brain, and before I know it, an entire day has gone by without me fretting or kvetching about one single thing.

Maybe I'm onto something.

I will have to put actual clothes on tomorrow to get labwork done and take Rich to the eye doctor, and if I really behave myself, perhaps we'll

grab something good for dinner.

Tonight, though, will be soup and sandwiches to offset the cold and snowy day that is going on outside. I used to know exactly what the forecast would be for days and weeks ahead, and now I get the weather report when I put my glasses on and look out the window.  

I think I like it better that way.

So, my dear dear friends, we're off like a herd of turtles on a Monday...armed with some damn good and a few extra fuzzy blankets for good measure.

What's on your agenda for the day? Come tell me all about it!

IN WHICH AUNT CJ WORRIES ABOUT HER SISTER AND MISSES HER LITTLE NEPHEW

 

 Bosco Oliver Willowswamp

Sept 20, 2005 - Jan 22, 2022

Please keep my sister in your prayers today, Dearies. Her baby passed away this morning, and our hearts are broken.

FRIDAY SPINSTER SHENANAGINS

One of my favorite movies is The Addams Family with Angelica Houston in the role of Morticia. And one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when she's looking through a closet and says (as she's removing huge canvas storage bags)...."Uncle Knick Knack's winter wardrobe. Uncle Knick Knack's summer wardrobe. Uncle Knick Knack."

And the big canvas storage bag thumps to the floor while Morticia's mother cackles away as she stirs the breakfast cauldron.

So, in that spirit, I give you:

I can hardly wait to haul this out of the apartment today and shove it in the trunk and then stash it in the garage. I really hope my neighbors aren't watching.

So the decorations are down and although I'm missing my lights in the evening, I still have the little lighted sticks next to The Chicken Sisters. (They were show girls, after all, and required stage lights). Because I have grown fond of the old gals, I happily oblige,  but I could do without the full orchestra fanfare that announces their five o'clock dinner show.

That's all the news from Hoosierville. I hope your very own Friday is perfectly swell and that you'll come tell me all about it!

COLOR MY WORLD

Dearies, I am in a rut of doing absolutely nothing, and I'm enjoying every minute of it! 

My days are starting late and usually involve a lot of resting, coloring, reading, sleeping, ice water slurping, and arguing about what's for dinner.

Can I still pretend that I'm in recovery mode?

Speaking of dinner, one of Rich's favorites is pepper and egg sandwiches. (For those of you who have never heard of this like I had not, it's peppers and onions with eggs and cheese served on good crusty bread). 

Because I'm me, I decided to make it in my new cast iron pan that measures 18inches across and weighs more than my first car.

(We're going to be eating pepper and egg for quite a while.)

I am going to put Christmas away today, I promise. The plastic bag I ordered for the tree was back-ordered and only arrived yesterday, so please don't judge me too harshly. Besides....I love the lights at night.

Cold and snowy makes me want to burrow under the blankets and snooze, but I know I'll feel better if I get at least one or two things done.

Wish me luck...I'm gonna' need it to get motivated!

 

OK. LET'S TALK BOOKS

I have always been a "reader". From as early as I can remember, my happiest moments were spent with a book in hand...escaping to this or that place and transforming myself into somebody new or learning about and meeting new people.

Thank you, always, for the questions about what I'm reading. I hesitate to answer that question oftentimes because my memory of the books I read is completely shot. I find that I cannot recall titles, authors, characters, or plot anymore. It's as though I never read the book at all!

(This is surely due to age and circumstance, and the fact that I often read to quiet my head and fall asleep, but it bothers me nonetheless.)

In 1991, I took a little road trip to Dayton, Ohio to visit my friend Dr Dan Gaughan while he was in medical school. We went to dinner and then a bookstore, and as I left, he gifted me with a little notebook to record the books that I read:

It never dawned on me that my Book of Books (or Bob, as he is more affectionately known) turned THIRTY years old last year!

2021 wasn't a particularly prolific reading year for me, but here are the books that I did manage:

(Yes. I am fully aware that I have the handwriting of a serial killer and that it is completely illegible).

This year has started very slowly. I just finished "The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett" by Annie Lyons and enjoyed it quite a bit, but parts of it did bring me to tears.

Now, I'm re-reading "The Starless Sea" by Erin Morganstern. She is the also the author of "The Night Circus"... totally not my normal genre, but one of my very favorite books. Ever. "The Starless Sea" is definitely second, and I find myself reading it slowly to absorb every gorgeous detail of it.

I love writers who write well and take me places I never could have imagined. The elegant turn of a phrase will stop me dead in my tracks, and if I can lose myself in a witty character or a perfect description...I'm sold!

So, Dearies. Thank you, again, for asking what's keeping my skirt blowing these days. As soon as I finish my little chore list for the day and have a bite, I might head back to the big girls sleigh bed for a bit and enjoy a few pages!

Come tell me all about the books and authors that you're loving!

I LOVE SAM TOFT

 

MONDAY PLAN

 

GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME!

 

Well, Dearies, your Spinster is decidedly pooped today. I confess to staying up a bit late reading, and despite my very best attempt to caffeineate, I find myself dragging.

Never fear. There is a lovely pork roast with roasted vegetables doing their thing in the oven, and I am freshly showered and armed with vats of iced lemon water and the Sunday New York Times for company.

If I can, I will resume stitching in a bit. I ended up pulling out my coloring books and markers last night because my hands were just too darn painful to hold a needle.

We are expecting some snow overnight, which might mean labwork will be pushed to Tuesday. So far, my numbers seem to be holding steady, but I will feel much better when I can have eyes laid on me at the end of the month.

Happy Sunday to one and all! I hope you are tucked in with something wonderful to occupy you today! Come tell me all about it!

DEARIES, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE...

Well, here we are on a sunny, but very cold Saturday. I slept in and am wrapped up in my Snoopy robe...trying to get motivated to get things done. It's the strangest thing that I just can't seem to get out of...the panic of only having a few short hours each week to do laundry or bake or pay bills or...

But as I was frantically trying to strip the bed and get the dishwasher emptied and and and...

I remembered that I have all week to do these things!

Happy, happy Saturday to one and all!

(By the way, the cinnamon roll verdict? Positively, absolutely, delicious!)

FIELD TRIP FRIDAY

The Cottage Care team was here this morning, which meant getting up early, putting on shoes and socks, and heading out while they puffed and scrubbed the place. (Why is it that I still feel guilty and sheepish about having help cleaning, despite the fact that I couldn't bend over or lift anything if my life depended on it?)

Rich is very good about reading the South Bend Tribune online and coming up with things to do, places to go, and people to see, so today we headed off in search of the perfect sticky bun. (The man has lived here four and a half years, and at least twice a week he asks me if I know who makes a good sticky bun.)

(According to my research, sticky buns originated in Philadelphia in the German community and are also known as schmecken.)

(I know them from watching Ina make cinnamon rolls and putting them in muffin tins containing brown sugar and raisins and nuts.)

We ventured to Buchanan, Michigan to a tiny little place called the Gustavsen Cafe and bakery. Apparently, Mr Gustavsen was a local tradesman and pizza maker who always wanted to make a special cinnamon roll and open a bakery with his daughter. Sadly, Mr G passed away, so his daughter has opened the place on her own.

 God bless her, she was making and selling cinnamon rolls and coffee in a perfectly lovely little place all by her very self, and there was a nice line of people buying cinnamon rolls and coffee from the moment we got there until the moment we left with four rolls for the weekend's feasting.

I don't know how they taste yet, but if they are half as good as they smell and look, I can hardly wait until tomorrow's damn good session!

From there, we drove home and had breakfast at the fancypants place in front of CS2, and as I was enjoying my eggs over easy, Coach Mike Brey (Notre Dame basketball) came in. It was at this point that I must have blushed furiously and made googly eyes because Rich just shook his head and wondered why he even bothers with me sometimes. (What can I say? Coach Brey is, in my opinion, a very nice looking gentleman in person, and I happen to appreciate that he is genuinely a nice guy.)

Now I'm all tucked into my Happy Chair with a Starbucks treat (trenta cold brew with three pumps sigar cookie syrup and a splash of cream), and I'm ready to start the weekend with stitching and some TeeVee.

But before I go, I have a question....for those of you with full sets of DMC floss...how do you store them?

Happy weekend, Dearies! Please keep yourselves warm and safe and dry, have lots of fun, and come tell me all about it!

JUMBLE JUMBLE JUMBLE

Does anybody know if there is a stitch guide out there for this canvas? Details, please.

This is a ring from the etsy that has Roman numerals commemorating my transplant date. (Before y'all have a heart attack that I paid thousands...it's just for pretend.)

(But as soon as I win the PowerBall, I'm heading to a jewelry store for the real thing!

Little more progress on the Mill Hill.

Deal of the Century. A $7 clearance shower curtain and voila'...the bathroom gets a makeover! (Scuse the wrinkles.)

Now it's time to get some breakfast and start attacking Mt Laundry that has piled up!

Happy Thursday!

I JUST CAN'T SEEM TO STOP MYSELF

I had a delightful day finishing my snowflake, and when I disassembled the piece and put it in the Mill Hill fuppy bag, discovered one last WiP from last January. So I sat right down and started playing with it, and before I knew it...bedtime.

Thank you, Dearies for the constant love and encouragement. I confess to being a bit lopsided and out of sorts lately (for one reason or another), and your lovely comments remind me to get the h-e-double-hockey sticks out of my head and back into a place of gratitude and humility.

Labwork is completed for the week and provisions have been delivered and put away, so my little chores for today are done! Time to stitch!

IN WHICH WE FINISH THE SNOWFLAKE

 

JUST THE STITCHY FACTS, MA'AM

This is basically the full "kit" that I used to stitch the snowman:

I love That's So Kelly Co's Bitsy Biggie! It's the perfect organizer for small projects because I can contain everything needed, snap it up, and go! The borders of the perforated paper are covered with washi tape, and the piece is mounted on needlepoint stretcher bars with the little tack kit on the right. Inside the zippered compartment are a clickable highlighter, scissors, and a Tacky Bob beading thingie.

This little guy is the fourth in a series...Debbie Mumm's Snowbells for Mill Hill. His name is Flurry.

And, because I just couldn't help myself, I fished out this snowflake that I stitched last year but had not yet beaded and finished the top half!

 I'll finish the bottom half today and might finish another Mill Hill from last year before I move on to the cross stitch.

Happy Sunday, Dearies!

IT'S ALL OVER BUT THE BACKSTITCHING

Well, Dearies, I'm huddled under my new Peanuts cozy blanket (a lovely Christmas gift from Rich), and I'm contemplating breakfast, a hot shower, and a day of stitching.

Silly Spinster beaded her snowman last night and then realized that backstitching should have been completed first. But, contrary to my crazypants reputation for doing completely irrational things, I left the beads in place and finished about 75% of the backstitching before going to bed.

I'm a bit bleary-eyed this morning because my movie-like dreams have changed from romantic comedies to action adventure sagas. Last night I was being chased by a gunman that I kept trying to negotiate with while stuffing my friends and family through a little hole in the wall so they could escape to an attic.

(Never fear...I haven't finally lost the plot. This is one of the unfortunate side-effects of one of my transplant meds. I seem to be reacting more and more to them as time goes by, so I'm gathering as much info as I can in order to have a good conversation about them at my next clinic visit.)

(I've also got hair loss, skin sensitivity, heightened reaction to pain, insomnia, increased appetite, body aches, and extreme fatigue.)

(But I also have a new kidney, so these seem to be very minor issues compared to my past dialysis life!)

My diet has been choppy and inconsistent at best. I went from having absolutely no appetite and having to force myself to eat a little something to being ravenous from the moment I get up until the moment I go to bed. I have dropped a few pounds in the last two weeks, but I think the days of eating 800 calories are behind me. So for now it's all about trying to make better choices and reaching for apples and oranges rather than Tastykakes and Combos.

The weekend is upon is! Here's hoping that it's peaceful, happy, and lovely for is all! Come tell me all about what's blowing your skirt up today!

I RESEMBLE THIS REMARK

 

ARE YOU DETECTING A PATTERN HERE?

 

NEXT UP

 

LAUNDRY DAY

I made pretty good progress on my little Mill Hill Santa yesterday while watching old Sex And The City episodes. The laundry is doing its thing, so I guess it's time to pick up my needle and get back to it!

A nice surprise in the late post...a Christmas present from over the pond from Rich:

My collection of Sam Toft pieces grows with each passing year! I just love this one, and especially like how Doris patiently awaits her tea. Minus the patience, does it remind you of anybody?

Cold, but lovely and sunny here in Hoosierville. I'm so very sorry about the bad things happening elsewhere, and pray that those of you affected by it all are safe. 

Happy Laundry Tuesday, Dearies! Come tell me all about your neck of the woods!

HIT THE GROUND RUNNING!

Rich and I both have appointments this morning, so I'm up early, showered, dressed, caffeinated, and ready to roll. I have to get labwork for my team in Indy as well as labwork for my team here, and then I'm hoping for a nice healthy breakfast out.

Nothing other than stitching on the agenda for the day. The Cottage Care team is coming to puff and fluff the apartment, and I'm saving laundry for tomorrow, so it looks like I can don the comfies and get on with it when I get home!

Happy Monday, Dearies!

SUNDAY, LOVELY SUNDAY

 

I had such a long sleep, Dearies, that I'm just getting started on my Sunday at 1:00 in the afternoon! And, the best part of it is that I don't feel one bit guilty about it, and I'm going to have a lazy and quiet day with impunity.

The Mill Hill snowman is coming along, but I had to put it on stretcher bars due to some pretty significant arthritis pain in my hands trying to hold it without. As I was covering the borders in washi tape I wondered why I never thought of using washi tape on needlepoint canvases in the past.

Could it be the fact that I had never HEARD of washi tape?

I'm going to finish my damn good, read the paper, and then go play with my planner for a bit and get it all set up for the new year. I honestly don't know what will occupy all of the empty space now that I don't need to record dialysis info, but I'm sure I'll be able to figure it out. 

Happy Sunday, Dearies! I hope you are all warm and safe and dry and happy and that your day is exactly as you hope it will be! Come tell me all about it!

AND SO THE YEAR BEGINS...