I LOVE IT WHEN A LESSON COMES OUT OF IT

One of the things I've learned during this little for-ay into diamond painting is PREPARATION IS KEY. 

I watched a lot of the YouTube when I started doing DP, and two terms I learned were "kit up" and "kit down". (Or words similar to that effect.)  It means exactly what you'd think...before playing with a new piece, you have to take the time to organize all of the parts so that you have them readily at hand.

In DP,  you need to un-bag all of the little bits and label the colors so that you can easily select the one you need at the right time.

I've translated this into my stitchy life, and I find that it's yielding great results. By taking the time to set up my threads, I can enjoying stitching more by just selecting the one that I need. My Bitsy Bob (the thingie you see in the bottom pic with the threads in circles on it), makes things super organized and tidy.

I like that.

So, Dearies...I'm ready to start stitching for the day, and after dinner (a salad with grilled salmon on top), I'm going to see if I can finish my DP.

Happy Weekend! Do something that blows your skirt up and come tell me all about it!

GOODNESS, GRACIOUS!

We've had an interesting few days, Dearies!  Sunday brought us massive storms with devastating winds and quite a bit of destruction.  I can honestly say that there was a moment there when I honestly thought we were gonners.

The lights were out for about four hours, but like any good stitcher, I was prepared.

I think I've confused everybody with all of this diamond painting business. Imagine a cross stitch chart printed on a canvas and then covered in a light layer of stickyness.

And the symbols correspond to different colored "drills", or little pieces of acrylic (either round or square) that you attach to the canvas with a pointy-ended pen that you've put a little bit of putty or wax or sticky dots on to hold them.

Believe it or not, oftentimes the color numbers of the drills are actual DMC numbers, so there is something that feels very familiar about this!

The thing I'm enjoying about diamond painting is that a) it's something new and different and b) so far I've managed to just keep things very very simple, uncomplicated, and affordable. I figured out a very good system and have stuck with it, haven't gone crazy amassing a huge stash, and the time I spend doing this new craft has been stress free!

 On the stitching front, I am just LOVING this little bird. The chart is in the etsy: nathnolu. Please note, though that I am not following the colorway on the chart...I am using Colour & Cotton fabric and threads from my stash.

 

Dearies, I have a kinda sorta update on my ick-ness. It appears that the thyroid was causing all of those scary symptoms that kept sending me to the ER thinking I was dying. As for everything else, my liver, pancreas, and gall bladder all seem to be on the fritz. Oddly enough, I scored an S0 on the liver fatty scale, but an F3 on the liver scarring (cirrhosis) scale, which is severe. The gallbladder needs to come out, but if we can get the symptoms under control, postponing that would be preferable to undergoing surgery at this point, and the pancreas is problematic and susceptible to pancreatitis because of my kidney meds. 

BUT!

With proper meds and a massive lifestyle change (in effect since March 5), I should be able to get things a bit back in whack to the point that I will start to feel better. Fatigue and the screaming mimi's are the biggest issues I have, as well as protecting my BellyBean, but eventually all will be well once again.

Thank you for your prayers and notes and happy thoughts and wonderful cards in the mail (looking at you Robin!). Time for me to just pull up my socks and trust that the plan is good and I finally have docs in place to keep an eye on things.

If you're in the path of these darn storms again today (as we are), please don't be afraid, but stay safe and prepared! Then, when they're all over, please check in and come tell us all about your corner of the world today!