FIVE MONTH KIDNEYVERSARY...ALMOST...BECAUSE THERE ISN'T A FEB 30

 

HOCKEY NIGHT IN SOUTH BEND

My Irish defeated Michigan 2-1 last night in a very exciting game. We were told to wear green, so I fished out a 4x hoodie, layered it up, slapped on some eyeliner, and ventured out.

My sister said that Rich looks terrified in this picture. He was probably worried that I was going to try to stand up or do something else crazy.

I just love these green hockey outfits. I might have to put one of these babies on my wish list. (The outfit, Dearies. Not the cute boys in them.)

One of the traditions at Notre Dame is the playing of the 1812 Overture at the beginning of the third quarter/period of a game:

It was an awful lot of fun, but the sitting and walking did me in again. I am really looking forward to the day when my stamina returns. This not being able to move about thing is for the birds.

Today has dawned sunny and cold, so I suspect there will be lots of damn good slurping, cozy blanket application, and stitching on this beauty:

Happy Sunday, Dearies! 
 

FRIDAY...LAST DAY OF SPINSTERCATION

I went for my mammogram and a bone density test yesterday afternoon, and today decided that I had had enough running around for one week.

The transparent ones seem better on me somehow, so I switched out the two black floral accent nails for a more "boring" look for the week ahead:

This scene is familiar, no? I'm getting ready to stitch and continue my binge of Mary Tyler Moore. I just finished Season Four. Three more to go!

Talk about familiar! This is the same breakfast/lunch I've been having every day for a few weeks now. Tomorrow will be the last muffin day. I'm slowly cutting calories and this is the first casualty.

And I think I finally figured out that my little hairs need to be OFF my face for me to feel better about them.

The weekend is upon us, Dearies. Peace, love, comfort, safety, and good health to you!

THURSDAY

A little progress on Bower Birds and my breakfast/lunch:

 

HAPPY FUTZINGDAY!

 

HAPPY HAPPY 2'S DAY, DEARIES!!

I don't know why, but I am so excited about today! As a matter of fact, I have plans to stop and observe it at 2:22 this afternoon with a big WOO HOO!

On to other news...my next project is ready to go:

As soon as I get home from running errands today, I'm jumping right in and continuing my binge of Mary Tyler Moore!

What going on in your corner of the world today? Come tell me all about it!

THE FIRST OFFICIAL FEE NEE OF 2022!

 

The World In Stitches free chart

Colour & Cotton 28ct lugana in Blush

Colour & Cotton floss in Ruby

SUNDAY....

After a lovely few hours at a new to me salon getting my hair cut and toes fixed, I came home, ate dinner, and then sat down with stitching and Mary Tyler Moore. 

The little red case holding my goodies in the picture above is actually a case for holding masks! It's neoprene, has a hard shell feel, and perfectly holds everything I need for a project. They are readily available on the amazons in many colors.

My hair and I are not on speaking terms at the moment, and I confess to having a pretty good meltdown about it last night. It's short and not at all me, but I know this is temporary and will be much easier to manage. So I gave myself a good five minutes to bawl it all out in the shower and have moved on.

Here it is before and after:

My toes, however, are a different story:

For a girl who can't see or reach her feet, I sure do obsess over them a lot! 

So that's my story for yesterday, Dearies. I am now cuddled up in my fuzzy blankets with an afternoon cup of damn good, a big vat of ice water with lemon, and I'm going to stitch the rest of the day away!

Happy Sunday!

SSAAAAHHHHHHTURDAY

 

SELF CARE? OH, HONEY...I INVENTED THAT!

 

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU REALLY WONDER

I could have watched anything I wanted to last night. I could have binged Downton Abbey, You've Got Mail, 84 Charing Cross Road, or any other dopey chick flick kind of thing my little heart desired, because Rich is in New Jersey and I had the TeeVee all to myself.

So what did I end up with?

The Notre Dame vs Boston College basketball game.

NEW PLAN

 

That sound you heard was my big book of lists crashing to the ground after its launch out of the window.

Houston, we have a new plan.

Thanks to your excellent advice, I have decided to make this a true Spinstercation...full of all of the things I love and completely devoid of shoulds, ought tooose, musts, and really have tooose. Phooey on all of that c.r.a.p. I'm a fully grown Spinster who was recently cut in half and had her inner parts moved all about, and I'm a new mom to a bouncy baby kidney and I need to rest.

(Pause for eye roll and smirk of derision.)

I do need to at least clean out the fridge today for a grocery delivery at 3:00, so despite my best intentions, I will have to actually stand up at least once or twice. My list said to completely gut the kitchen, clean and disinfect it to within an inch of its life, and then re-organize and containerize, but instead I think I'll just throw away old cheese and shove stuff to the back and forget about it.

Baby steps, Dearies. Baby steps.

I do have my menu figured out, which is a huge thing for me. I'm pretty happy with my breakfast/lunch tray: greek yogurt, a banana, two mandarins, and a "sweet" of some kind (like a biscotti or little scone, etc). For dinners, I've given myself three options: a veggie pita (*), veggie soup, or baked salmon with veg and rice. That should get me back on track in the nutrition department quite nicely, and get me off the Rice Krispy treat binge that I've been on.

The one thing I know for sure, is that I'm going to stitch. I was having so much pain in my hands, but I got the OK from Dr Yaqub (my new IU nephrologist) to use a topical cream, and it has really done the trick. I miss stitching, and I know you are probably as tired as I am of mindless blathering coming from this here blog, so we'll see of we can't fix that. Today.

My latest fancy nails are fun, but have been vetoed by Aunt Chrissy. I think I did it backwards and should have used the pattern as an accent instead of vice versa, but I'm leaving them on until Sunday.

OK. So that's my blathering for today. I am going to get some laundry started, because that's not really a chore, but rather a way to force me to get a little movement.

See how I did that? I snuck a list item in there and justified it as something I actually WANT to do!

Happy Futzingday, Dearies! I hope you are warm and safe and dry and that if you are in the path of anything you are all stocked up and have lots of stitching to keep you company. We're supposed to have a storm here tomorrow, so I suspect it might be another cozy pajama day for Yours Truly!

GOODBYE...HELLO...GOODBYE

Well, my Spinstercation didn't quite start as planned. I dropped Rich off at the train station last night and then picked him up from the train station two hours later. 

(There was a long delay that would have meant him missing connections in Washington, so he decided to try again tonight.)

So.....

I am re-canoitering today and moving my list one day forward. I have quite a few things I'd like to accomplish while he's visiting his mom, and I am determined to get myself on a better daily routine.

But...

You know as well as I do that I'll end up spending a whole lot of time doing nothing...slurping damn good, watching girlie things on the TeeVee, sleeping, reading newspapers in the big girl sleigh bed, and yes....hopefully stitching!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, DEARIES

 

OH...WHAT FUN!

One of my lovely gifts from Rich was tickets to the Dinner Detective. We went last night, and it was so much fun! If you have one near you (there are 75 different groups throughout the US), it is a great way to spend an evening.

You assume an alias upon entering. 

Rich didn't really understand the idea of an alias...Jiggs is actually his nickname in real life. (He inherited it from his dad, who was also known as Jiggs. I think it has something to do with "junior" in Italian?)

So today I am recovering from our big night out...reading papers, slurping damn good, making little meatball sliders, changing my nail wraps, and then hopefully stitching my eyeballs out during the Super Bowl.

Happy Sunday, Dearies! I hope your day is wonderful! Come tell me all about it!

SATURDAY MORNING SPINSTER BLISS

 

FINALLY...A GOOD IDEA

I'm out of sorts today, so my JB suggested that I watch The Mary Tyler Moore show and stitch. Brilliant, really, since I can feel the weight of the world lift, and I've only been watching ten minutes.

Aaaahhhh.....

WEDNESDAY NIGHT INTO THURSDAY

My JB took me to the Notre Dame vs Louisville basketball game last night, and we sat center court. It was a lot of fun, and I got to watch the handsome Coach Brey stalk the sidelines and bat my eyelashes at him:

The halftime show was Red Panda. Have you ever seen her? She balances atop a six foot high unicycle and flips bowls onto her head. 

She's amazing.

Today has been a very very laaaaaaazzzzzyyyyy day. It's 4pm, and I have been sitting in my pajamas slurping both hot and cold damn good and contemplating starting this:

It's a freebie, and I'm using fabric and thread from my stash. Hopefully my motivation will kick in and I can get a few hours in before bedtime.

Quiet, but lovely here in Spinsterville today, Dearies. I hope your corner of the world is the same!

 

LOOK AWAY, BETTY. LOOK AWAY.

Fair warning, Dearies...this post is about nail wraps and not about stitching. (Betty hates it when I talk about things other than stitching, so I decided to give her a heads up.)

So here's my first set of Lily & Fox nail wraps after ten days wear:

(They still looked great, but I was bored and trying not to eat my face off, so decided to change them.)

First I removed the old set:

I dipped each nail for just a few seconds and used the little scrubby thing inside, and they came off like a dream in a matter of about ten seconds.

Then I put the new set called "Adore Me" on. For my middle finger and ring finger I needed to stretch the wrap a bit to make sure it covered completely, but this was very easy to do and I'm happy with the result:

I confess that the "accent nail" look is new to me, but in the spirit of getting out of my ruts, we're going with it.

To "seal" everything, I used this top coat, and I made sure to cover the edges:

And then, finally, I used this oil on my cuticles like I do every night like clockwork:

I'm not a spokesperson for any of these companies, but I do love their products! The very best part of this for me is that the nail wraps are very inexpensive compared to a salon manicure (or even a bottle of good polish for a diy). Three dollars is an indulgence I can afford every once in a while, and I love that I can look down at something cheery!

Back to stitching tomorrow, I promise!

I STILL DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS BOOK...BUT I LOVE IT

 I've read it twice now and still don't understand it, but the writing is gorgeous and I got lost in its world. Maybe I can find a "Starless Sea For Dimwitted Spinsters" book and try it again.

MONDAY

For somebody who has an aversion to clutter, I sure seem to have a lot of it! I know it's a cooped up side effect, but the walls are closing in around me today, Dearies, and I'm ready to start chucking stuff off of the balcony into the snow drifts below.

I am, however, nicely showered and dressed in clean, comfy pajamas, and I've had a lovely light breakfast of yogurt and a banana, so now it's time to do a little bill paying and paperwork tending, and then an afternoon of stitching awaits me.

No additional progress on my piece, I'm afraid. I spent the entire day yesterday screwing around on the interwebs and staring at the TeeVee, so not a stitch was taken.

Shame, shame, shame.

Thank you for you comments and questions about the new "look" I'm trying to rock. The nail wraps were a total accident, actually. I use a company called Beyond Polish for my nail stuff, and they had these Lily & Fox wraps for a few bucks, so I thought I would play with them. I have to say...they've been on a full week now and still look exactly like they did when I put them on. I think the trick is to apply a nice coat of clear topcoat and seal your edges. (In my case, that's CND Vinylux clear top coat.)

As for any other hippy dip things for me to try, I'm thinking of tattooing my head with flames a la Bam Bam Bigelow, the professional wrestler. Wouldn't THAT look great at 10:00 Mass in the Basilica?!

(I sat next to Bam Bam on a plane once, and when I offered him my grapes and told him they are nature's jelly beans, he giggled like a little girl, and I loved him there and then.)

(Sadly, I think he has passed away, so any head flames would have to be an homage.)

Seriously, though, I am contacting a company here called Hello Gorgeous, that can refer me to stylists who are experienced with this issue. And again (this is for you, Betty)...I am in no way complaining about it! The gift of my new kidney is worth ANY side effect, and despite my fussing with nails and ear cuffs, I'm totally sweating the small stupid stuff that used to drive me bats**t crazy.

Happy Monday, Dear Friends! I hope your week is off to a wonderful beginning. Come tell me all about it!

WHAT'S NEXT?!?! SNEAKING OUT AT NIGHT AND GOING DISCO DANCING?!

Thank goodness Stewey isn't here to see this. In addition to my experimentation with nail wraps, I am now sporting...wait for it...an ear cuff!! I know a lot of this has to do with me feeling like a rapidly balding water buffalo, but I am actually concerned with what comes next. 

(Editor's note: This post in NO WAY implies that there is anything wrong with women (or men, for that matter) who wear nail wraps and ear cuffs. But have you met me?! I am the absolutely un-hipest middle aged portly spinster on the planet!)

*** The nail wraps are from Lily and Fox and are $3 a set! The ear cuff was from the amazons and was $10!***

PROGRESS!

 

 

CANNOT. STOP. EATING.