SPINSTER STITCHER: October 2024

Oct 5, 2024

VIEWER MAIL

Hello, Dearies, and Happy Saturday!

As I type, JB is doing his thing over on campus, I'm slurping my second cup of damn good, and the most beautiful cool and sunny day is happening right outside the bedroom window.

A few quick answers to notes, emails, and comments Yours Truly has received...

DIAMOND PAINTING : Yes. I really really like it, and to date I have completed a total of six canvases that now live happily in a book thingie that is kind of like a big scrapbook. (Note to self. Pressing finished stitchy pieces and then slipping them into an album-type book might be better than wadding everything up in a big box under the big girl sleigh bed). No. I haven't abandoned needlework as my favorite passtime, and no, Betty, I will not be selling/auctioning/donating/or trashing my needlework stash. Diamond painting is just something I tried and discovered that I a) liked and b) can do whilst this damn head of mine has the wobbles.

STITCHING : I seem to be able to stitch in very short spurts, mostly in the morning/early afternoon, so I continue to play with the Emily Call Autumn project. I really do love the colors of it...the details are here, since more than a few have asked: Chart is called "Cozy Autumn Medley" from Emily Call Stitching on etsy. (You purchase a pdf chart and can download it instantly.) Fabric is Autumn Squash from Colour & Cotton, as are all of the threads. (I belong to a monthly subscription service from C&C and receive fabric and threads from them, so whenever possible, I try to convert my projects so I can stitch from stash.)

MY CRAZY HEALTH : Remember when they told me that life after transplant might be a constant calibration of meds to keep me in balance? No? Yeah, me neither. To put it succinctly, at the moment I am a complete mess. The vertigo has ramped up, my once-quiet Crohn's disease decided to move back into my basement like a college kid home on break, and it seems that my 58 year old female self said "Hey! Watch this!" and decided to put every hormone in my body into a cocktail shaker and have a party. Add to all of this the decision to stop anti-anxiety and anti-depression meds, and throw some ridiculous seasonal allergies in there, and you've got a very fat, very tired, very dizzy, mean, weepy, frustrated, sick, dehydrated, angry, crazy lunatic, running to the bathroom every fifteen minutes, miserable, all over the place, exorcist spewing, head-spinning, banshee screaming, almost bald because her hair is falling out ... cow.

I. Am. Out. Of. Order.

I do appreciate your tips, tricks, suggestions, referrals, potions, lotions, herbs, recipes, and nuggets of wisdom, and I especially appreciate your thoughts and prayers. I made it over to the Grotto on my transplataversary, so fingers crossed that whatever Catholic voodoo thing happens there will kick in any minute now ... but as with all things Spinster, methinks we need to be patient.

I will see both primary care and gastro docs this week, as well as visit the lab and (hopefully) get results back from a Pharmacologist who is supposed to be able to corral all of these different meds and straighten it all out. So don't cry for me, Argentina. We'll get there. Eventually.

IN THE MEANTIME : Let's drink coffee and talk of happy things. As soon as I get myself somewhat pulled together, I'm going to try to stitch a bit, sleep a bit, diamond paint a bit, and drink enough water to float a barge. I have a new stitchy project to kit up (a canvas work piece from Nancy's Needle) and a new diamond painting to distract me today. No Notre Dame football, but Phillies/ Mets at 4:00!

Happy Saturday, Dearies! Come tell me something fun that's blowing your skirt up today!