OLYMPIC STITCHING

 

AND ONCE AGAIN...THE SPINSTER IS A WEEPY CROCKPOT FULL OF HOT MESS

Don't rain on my parade, Betty. I bawled from the moment Rich said "Con, are you going to get out of bed today? The Olympics is getting ready to start" until the Balloon Cauldron of Who The Hell Could Have Seen THAT Coming rose into the Paris sky.

I swear...I have no earthly idea why I do this every four years, but I suppose that the splotchy face, snotty hankie clutched tightly in my hand, and Celine Dion belting out something spectacular right there on the Eiffel Tower are All. Just. So. Very. Worth it.

God bless and keep the athletes and all of the peoples of the world. For the next sixteen days, let's just enjoy the very best of us for a minute and be inspired to do, know, and be better. Amen.
 

 

SUGARPLUM SANTA FEE NEE

 

It's nap time for Yours Truly, but first some happy news. There would be happy dancing if I felt better, but a little happy jiggle wiggle will have to suffice. The final stitches have been placed on Janet Zickler Casey's Sugarplum Santa, the latest project for the Hoosier Heartland Chapter of ANG.

So I'm off to the big girl sleigh bed for a bit, and then I'll have a good rummage through my basket to see what's next on the list!

Cheers, Dearies!

HOW MY GUILD LADIES ARE SAVING MY LIFE...BY THE SPINSTER STITCHER HER VERY SICK AND MISERABLE LITTLE SELF

I made an attempt to go to my ANG Hoosier Heartland meeting on Saturday, but alas, had to excuse myself abruptly when my body decided it needed to be elsewhere. 

As you might remember, our project for June and July is Janet Zickler Casey's Sugarplum Santa:

I was so excited to attend the meeting, because I had completed my "homework" and was going to learn all about the beard, but...drat.

So I came home and futzed about for several hours and:

Something just didn't seem quite right, and the more I looked at that space between the beard sections, I realized that they just had to be wrong. So out came the mobile, and a few texts to Miss Charlene later, I was back in business.

(My error resulted in running out of thread, naturally, but thanks to what I am sure is a Stash To End All Stashes, Miss Charlene located a few extra cards for me, so I should be able to complete the beard this weekend.

My EGA South Bend/Michiana guild met Tuesday night, and we are completing ornaments that we will learn how to finish/finish at our annual picnic later this month. We were instructed to stitch anything we want within a four-inch circle, so I futzed a bit and came up with:

The linen is from my Colour & Cotton stash, and is called Red Velvet...thread is also Colour & Cotton in Tusk. 

My plan is to use the top two back to back at the picnic and then give the finished ornament to our "Tree Committee". Each year, our Guild decorates a Christmas tree at the Copshaholm Museum (one of the Studebaker family mansions in South Bend), and I am going to add my ornament to those that have come before!

I think I might do one more snowflake (or possibly two), and then finish those for myself so that JB and I can enjoy them with the Festive Display of Craptastic Spinster Christmastide 2024.

I wish I could tell you that I am back to "normal", but unfortunately, I am still really battling whatever this awful demon is. In addition to the tummy issues, the joint pain has ratcheted up to DefCon One, so I am just not a happy camper.

Never fear...we're still working on a plan and if it hasn't started to work by the end of the week I will submit myself to an MRI under what I pray will be heavy sedation. Just the thought of that test makes me want to run far far away, since I am ridiculously claustrophobic.

Happy Friday to one and all! Come tell me all about the shenanigans in your neck of the woods!

 

IN WHICH THE SPINSTER HAS A NO-GOOD MAD-COW VERY-BAD WIG-FLIPPING KIND OF DAY

Remember when Kathleen Kelly flips her Pixie cut at the Cafe' LaLa and goes into a rant at Joe Fox and all of the crazy comes spilling out and she tells him exactly what she wanted to say at that very moment she wanted to say it and then she feels really bad about it?

Well, cue the Spinster.

The difference is that my very own rant this morning did not include a twin set or a Pixie cut or a crimson rose and a cup of coffee sitting in front of me on a whimsical little cafe table My wig flipped right off in the middle of the living room while wearing eighteen year old Costco pajamas and involved more f-bombs and fist shaking than I care to admit while Fox News blared away in the background.

(Note to self...a good title for this chapter of my memoir is "How Fox News and the 2024 Presidential election cycle tried to kill me").

(I will NOT engage in political, religious, or sexual debates, conversations, or comment wars on this here blog, Dearies, because political, religious, and sexual debates, conversations, and comments live in ABUNDANCE here on the internets, and I'm looking for a big fat deep quiet hole to crawl into and this is the best that I could come up with.)

I don't feel good.

And when I don't feel good I become something akin to a rabid opossum protecting her nest of ugly little ropy-tailed babies that just want to scuttle about your back garden and eat bugs and errant trash.

After two visits to two doctors yesterday, I really am nowhere closer to knowing just what the heck is going on, but more labs were drawn and pancreatic enzyme samples were given and I came home determined to keep a cheerful and loving attitude in the face of trying to ignore the freak show in my head.

I have self-diagnosed ovarian cancer, anal/rectal cancer, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver failure, lung cancer, lupus, arthritis, spinal cancer, a Crohn's flare up, a diverticulitis flare up, medication reactions, medication interactions, medication allergies, and a bacterial infection caught from a micro-cut on my legs after shaving that allowed a rare paramecium into my bloodstream from the apartment complex swimming pool.

(Before you cancel me and label me ridiculous and offensive to anybody who has had any if the above, may I just point out that I had thyroid cancer, have Crohn's, diverticulitis, pancreatitis, and kidney failure, am a solid organ transplant patient and who has a chart that explains how my family history IS the history of heart disease, cancer of multiple types, and a ton of crap that probably wasn't even invented yet.)

So when I tell you I don't feel good, I'm not trying to get out of gym class. When I don't feel good, something catastrophic usually follows.

I have faith. I really do. And I practice gratitude and pray to God OFTEN and only ask for one thing...that I can live in a way that is worthy of all of the ridiculously amazing blessings of my life. But every now and then I guess I just need a good little wig-flip to clear the cobwebs.

Now if you'll excuse me, in the words of Hugh Grant in Four Wedding and a Funeral, I think that I really must be where other people are not for a minute. Fortunately for my Jersey Boy he is working over on campus this evening, and I'm hoping that a few hours of stitching will screw my head back on straight.

I'd love to tell you that I've embarked on something new and wonderful from my July basket, but the truth is that I'm just going to pull out a WiP and stab it a few thousand times to see if that exorcises my demons.

Updates when I have them, I promise. For now, I promise you that I am doing absolutely every single thing that every single doctor has advised me to do. My (bleepity) might not be together, but I'm damn sure not doing anything that's going to make anything worse. I swear.

Happy Weekend! Enough about me and back to you. What are your plans for the next few days? Come tell me all about it!

YUP. FINALLY CRACKED RIGHT UP.

 

AS MY GRANDMA LOUKOS USED TO SAY...GOD WILLING AND THE CREEK DON'T RISE

WATCH THAT 4,357TH CROHN'S/DIVERTICULITIS FLARE UP...IT'S A DOOZY!

Dearies, I'm afraid you're going to have to continue shenanagins without Yours Truly for another minute. I am just sickety sick sick.

I have absolutely no earthly idea what the heck is going on, but I promise you that I have every single doctor I know on speed dial.

My tiny little brain tells me that this is simply my gut misbehaving, and now that I am decidedly older (ahem) and only have one kidney (hang in there, BellyBean), it's getting harder and harder to bounce back from flare ups.

Tons of labs and cultures and tests have been taken, so once those come back we might have a better grasp, but until then, I am concentrating on hydration and keeping calm and happy thoughts.

I am stitching...here and there. I managed a finish of:

Please excuse the wrinkles, but getting it off the q-snaps and photographed was as far as I could get.

And I've made progress on:

In between there have been several days of doing lots of nothing at all, but that is perfectly fine with me for another little bit, if I'm being honest. The quieter I am, the better, I think.

Please carry on. I'll keep you posted and will do all of the things I'm supposed to do. In the meantime...what's new with you?

MOMMIESTEWEYVERSARY

This is a repeat post from many years ago, but today I celebrate the day in 2005 that my life changed forever.  

He was my baby from the moment I picked him up on July 6, 2005 until the moment I let him go on November 14, 2016.  This little creature was the best thing that ever happened to me and I miss him so much I think my heart will break.

Happy anniversary, Baby Dear.  Mommie misses you and hopes you are snoozing in a patch of sunlight with some daisies to keep you company.

HAPPY FOURTH, DEARIES!

 

MONDAY