INQUIRING MINDS WANTED TO KNOW

Dearies, this chart is a .pdf download from the etsy. I believe the name of the shop is: NARAxstitch. I was stalking (er, looking at) the interwebs for inspiration, and Ms JessieMarieDoesStuff was playing with a beautiful pattern from the same designer, so I went fishing.

Thank you for the comments about my pitiful decorating this year. As much as I miss him, it's a very good thing Stewey isn't here to see just how far I've fallen off of the Christmas sleigh. I honestly contemplated not doing anything at all this year, but my Jersey Boy found his little nativity set in the garage, and the look on his face when he asked if we could put it under the tree made me gird my loins and get the darn thing together. 

(Confession...I was really really really STUPID last year and literally opened the canvas Christmas tree storage bag I got at the Targets and just stuffed the tree in without undecorating it...pause for pearl-clutching horror....so fixing that MISTAKE and vowing to never ever do that again took some time and grunting.)

Football and stitching today and not much else. 

What's new with you?

APRES' THANKSGIVING...SPINSTER STYLE

 

THANK YOU, DEARIES. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

 

WHAT'S THIS POINTY SKINNY THING IN MY HAND?!

 

Oh my goodness, Dearies! I picked up needle and thread tonight for the first time in a very looooonnnnng while! I admit that the first several minutes were all fumbles and curse words, but methinks I might be home again, jiggity jig.

I still like the diamond painting, but I've decided to try to incorporate a little bit of everything I love into a day...stitching, reading, blogging, diamond painting...eating, sleeping...you get the idea.

Off to bed I go. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, and I'm hoping to be fresh and fantastic for every bit of it!

I hope your weekend was swell! Come tell me all about it!

WELL WELL WELL...LOOK WHO CHANGED HER TUNE

Notre Dame plays Army tonight at Yankee Stadium in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the game at the Polo Grounds that was immortalized by Grantland Rice:

"Outlined against a blue-gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below."

Instead of kvetching about the blue-grey outfits my Irish will wear, I will zip it...uncharacteristically...and instead appreciate the thought process behind them.

Cool, huh?

I'm under the blankets today and will enjoy some damn good, some stitching, and some football on the TeeVee with my Jersey Boy today. Christmas decorating, planning, and worrying can wait until another day.

Happy Saturday to one and all! I hope your corner of the world is exactly how you want it to be!

ONLY FOUR AND A HALF HOURS TO GO

The radioactive scrambled eggs and toast were lovely, but your portly yet loveable Spinster is so very very thirsty. Good thing I'm sitting in a chair staring at beverages.

Sigh.
 

WE'RE GOING TO DECORATE CS2 TODAY

 

IT'S NOT EASY BEING ME

This is one of those days when I wonder why I bothered to get out of bed. I started ANOTHER new med yesterday, and this one makes me feel like I left my car and several articles of clothing at a dive bar on the wrong side of the tracks someplace, and that a small, rabid-yet-friendly possum slept on my face.

(I swear, if I survive this, I'm going to find a way to make sure that everybody who ever wants to get a medical degree has to at least try every drug they're going to prescribe at least once.)

Friday I will go to the hospital for a "gastric emptying" test, which I just described to my friend Gail as showing up at 8am, eating a radioactive egg salad sandwich, and then laying under a CT scan for four or five hours.

Really? 

We can put a man on the moon, but we can't figure out why one simple, portly-yet-loveable Midwestern Spinster can't manage to eat anything without making a terrifying runwaddle to the nearest ladies room?

Come on, people. Work with me.

I did, however, manage to finish another diamond painting. I know, I know. Not one damn stitch has been made on anything in any one of the fifty-eight baskets of stitching crap I have laying around here, but I'm in a bad headspace, Dearies. Something is definitely broken in there, and despite a small retail pharmacy's worth of pills, we haven't yet quite fixed it all. The new compound cocktail that I started yesterday, however, shows promise, so let's keep fingers crossed that as soon as the side effects clear I will be back to my non wig-flipping, non profanity-spewing, non remote control throwing, and non getting escorted out of the Targets Optical place happening (I swear it to be true), self.

(She looks friendly, right? But if you want to know just how completely bad it's been around here, ask Rich how many hours and minutes until he can flee on the train for his Christmas visit to New Jersey. 🙄)

Anywhoo...here's the diamond painting finish, Autumn Mandala from Paint With Diamonds:

I logged it into my little notebook (because I do things like that now), and then I stuck it in the book/portfolio thing that lives under my chair.

That's the last of the stash, so until I replenish my pin money fund, it's back to stitching or coloring I go! I do want to start playing with some Christmas things, even though the tree isn't up yet (Saturday, I promise), but at the same time, I also am feeling like a 7:30 bedtime with a book might not be too bad of an idea either.

Thanks for hanging in there with me, Dearies. This too shall pass...I know it will. I just need to keep doing all of the things they tell me to and stay out of trouble, I suppose, and we'll quickly be calling this a "blip of bother" in an otherwise wonderful year.

What's new in your neck of the woods? Come tell me all about it!

 

 

EIGHT YEARS WITH A BIG PIECE OF MY HEART MISSING

MEMORIES

Sometimes I like to look at my posts from years past.  This one is from November 13, 2009...15 years ago today. I still LOVE Laura J Perin designs, and need to do more of them:

Idaho Star

Laura J. Perin

18ct. mono canvas

Vineyard Silks, Silk&Ivory, Mandarin Floss, Ribbon Floss

Also...a little more progress on the Autumn Mandala diamond painting:

Off for my second cup of damn good, Dearies! Happy Futzingday!

SUNDAY...LOVELY SUNDAY

 

Hello, Dearies.

I've had a delightful, quiet, happy, healthy Sunday.  It started a bit late, but that's because I was up watching my Irish beat the Seminoles until the wee hours, and then the sun came into the window and across my pillow, and we all know how much I love to put my face in the sun while snoozing away in the big girl sleigh bed.

I finished the Autumn Birdhouse diamond painting on Friday night and am just so tickled at how much fun I'm having with these. The only one I've "framed" is the huge Village Under The Moon, but all I did was stick it in an inexpensive magnet frame from the Amazons and hang it on the front of my cabinet, because it wouldn't fit in my book.

(I have a book/portfolio that houses all of these finished pieces, and it lives under my chair.)

I started another Fall-themed DP...this one is called Autumn Mandala:

(It has a protective plastic covering on it, Dearies...that's why it looks so dull in the photo.)

I'll play with this for a few hours tonight as soon as my nails dry:

I'm back to using stickers/wraps...these are from an enormous gift of wraps that I received from a lovely stitchy friend. I know I've explained them before, but there are basically stickers that you apply to clean, dry, alcohol-wiped nails, and then after you've trimmed the excess, you add a nice clear top coat. I can usually get between 2-3 weeks out if them, and as long as I don't pick and remember to use my Solar Oil every night, my nail beds stay nice and healthy and the nails themselves grow long and strong.

For those of you convinced that I have abandoned the Good Ship Stitching, never fear. I spent the afternoon gathering and kitting four Christmas projects...one canvaswork WiP, two cross stitch WiPs, and a cross stitch do-over, but methinks I might wait a few more days and play with Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow just a bit longer. I'll reveal the Christmas projects later, but for now...

This will be a busy week and a rough week. Tuesday will be 37 years since my mom died, and then Thursday will be 8 years since I lost my Stewey. In between will be a few doctors' appointments and tests, and then Saturday will be the last Notre Dame home game.

Nothing else new to report, I'm afraid.  

How was your Sunday? Full of everything you wanted it to be, I hope! Come tell me all about it!

 

IT'S NOT EASY BEING ME...

 Holey Schmoley...recovery day is pretty rough thus far. 😱  But never fear, Dearies. I am from hearty peasant stock, and a few more cups of damn good and a vat of Tylenol will have me right as rain before you know it.

In the meantime...

IF YOU KNOW...YOU KNOW

OH...MY VERY DEAR DEARIES

I am always so overcome with love when I come to this here blog and see that you are sending me your thoughts and prayers and good wishes. 

Gobsmacked, really, since I am not feeling very much like somebody who deserves such lovely treatment...especially when you consider that I have been (and still am) a MAD. COW.

I'm not going to bitch and moan and complain about it here. God knows I'm doing enough of that in real life, and this is our Happy Place, right? But for those of you who are reallyreallyreally worried that it's something catastrophic...the truth is that I just don't know yet. The big game of Whack-a-Mole that is my medical life at the moment will continue with some tests this week that might get us closer to answers. 

So in the meantime, why not a quick little update on crap I've been up to when awake and upright(which has been about 6-7 hours in the afternoons). (Imagine the following as a moving picture display with some lovely music playing in the background):

That's it for now, Dearies. I'm sleeping, eating, slurping, reading, stitching, and diamond painting...pretty much in that order. Not a lot of any one thing, but enough to keep me going. BellyBean is still hanging in there (thank God), and he has endured a lot of poking and prodding and medication changes with courage and good humor.

Bear with me a bit longer, please. Until I feel better I might need to stay quieter than usual.

I love you...most sincerely...I do!