SPA DAY

 

I've just returned from the salon, and I feel like a billion bucks. I had my toes tended to, my hair cut, and my brows waxed. In just three short hours I went from looking like something scraped from the underside of a bridge to a semi-retired drag queen.

On the way, I treated myself even further by stopping at the Starbucks and trying the new Pistachio Cream Cold Brew, but I did make sure to skinny it up as much as possible with sugar-free syrup and light on the cream. It was...delicious!

So now I'm settled in with my water...ready to stitch the night away!

Happy Spaghetti Day, Dearies! I hope today has been a treat for you, too...in whatever form!

IN WHICH WE DECIDE TO HAVE A DO-OVER

Today didn't exactly start any better than yesterday, but my feeling about it is entirely different. Instead of bemoaning and bebitching and bekvetching about everything I haven't or have done, I decided to pull up my socks and get on with it.

There are two things that I used to do during Operation Go that held me accountable and made me sit up in the buggy. One, is that I tracked my food on an app called LoseIt, and the second is that I wore a step-counter thingie to remind me to move my fanny.

Done and done.

I enjoyed a Naked Juice this morning instead of a meatloaf sandwich, and although I should have selected something with more protein and less natural sugar in it, the choice was a good one and I got lots of lovely vitamins in me to boot.

The step thingie is charging its little brains out, so as soon as it's done, I'll slap it on my wrist and contemplate a walk later. It might only be downstairs to the mailbox and back, but steps are steps, and it doesn't matter if I get them futzing or on the treadmill at the gym. Right?

Dinner will be crab cakes and salad. My JB is starting his own journey by trying to eat less and move more, so I will have plenty of company and support along the way to getting healthy again. (Our combined weight is enough to threaten the structural integrity of the floors here at CS2, so we've got a whole community service/health and safety component built into this thing, too.)

My BellyBean is fifteen months old now. Time to stop using recovery as an excuse and get on with doing everything I can to make sure he lives a long and happy life. My biggest nightmare is that I lose him and run down to IU for another and Goggins says "Are you effing kidding me?! I gave you a miracle and you didn't think enough of it to take care of it!  Go back to dialysis, you ungrateful lump! No more kidneys for you!"

(Or words to that effect. If you know Dr Goggins, there would be a lot more effings in there.)

So I will try to pay better attention and be diligent and stop thinking that unless it's perfection it might as well be failure. You know exactly what I mean. You're on a diet and "slip" by eating a donut, so you eat six more donuts because you've already screwed it up...why not go completely overboard in the process.

Oh wait. Am I the only one who does that?

So, Dearies, the moral of the story is that I'm still here with all of my flaws, idiosynchronies, and quirks, and I'm pretty sure that somewhere along the way I'll go face first into a pile of RiceKrispy treats or fettuccine alfreddo with ham and peas, but at least I know that no matter how many damn times you fall off of this stupid wagon, it never moves far enough away that you can't claw your way back up and into the driver's seat.

Cheers to those of you out there who inspire me to get my proverbial act together. You consistently make me want to be a better human person. Thank you for that.

Happy Tuesday, Dearies!

STARTING WITH A WHIMPER INSTEAD OF A BANG...SURPRISE SURPRISE

So how many of you started 2023 by going to the gym, having a healthy breakfast, organizing your datebook, paying bills, straightening a couple of closets, cleaning the kitchen, and starting a new journaling/praying/meditating routine while simultaneously selecting a theme word for the year?

Good for you.

It's 4:30 in the afternoon and I'm still sleepy, had a meatloaf sandwich and Cheeze-Its for breakfast (at 1:00), and I'm still in the same pajamas I wore on New Year's Eve. 

I suppose if I still had a Dr Melfi, she'd talk to me about self-sabotage and how I can never seem to get out of my own way, but since it's just me combing through the freak show in my head,we're just going to chalk this up to the weather and move on.

I finished the ornament hanging from Santa's mitten, so now it's on to the moon:

I really do hope your year has started exactly as you hoped it would! Mine will get there eventually...I'm sure. In the meantime I'm going to keep stitching away and enjoying my meatloaf and then head to bed.

Happy New Year, Dearies!

STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

 

I had not performed the ritual in three years, but that didn't mean I didn't have all of the yearly orts carefully collected. Today I transferred 2020 - 2022 orts into their final resting places and labeled the jars accordingly.

Before you all ask me about the jars and labels and where to get them, I have to warn you that it was a total PROCESS of crackpot spinster craziness that caused Aunt Chrissy to stop talking to me for three years and then eventually move far far away.

(Michael's, Dearies. Just go to the Michael's or JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby or Container Store near you...or go on the amazons and make it work. It will literally take you three minutes, even though it took me four months, seven days, and a bottle of bad vodka to finally scratch my psycho itch.)

2023....here we come!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, DEARIES!

 

WHEW!

 

NOTE TO SELF....STITCH, SPINSTER! STITCH!

It's amazing what happens when I put the iPad thingie away and pull out my stitching. The troubles of the world go away, my brain stops spinning over the dumbest things, and I actually feel my breath slow with each pull of the needle and thread through the fabric.

Ahhhhhh. Progress.

I might play with this one a bit longer. It's really quite enjoyable, and I seem to be doing this one at a time thing. When the heck did that happen? Remember the spinster who used to run around with her hair on fire? 

I guess the last several years have changed me in so many ways, not the least of which is that I am certainly less...frantic.

Ahhhhhhh. More progress.

Rich returns tomorrow. I will fetch him from the train station at 7:30 in the morning and will then go get labwork completed for my upcoming visit with the Bean Team. They will be here in northern Hoosierville on the 5th to check on me, and I'm really looking forward to seeing them! 

Well, Dearies, it's time for my second cup of damn good, and then a few little homekeeping items before I settle in. I managed to get all of my laundry finished yesterday, so that leaves just a few things on the list before I can call it complete!  WooHoo!

Happy Thursday! What's new with you?

WHELMED IN THE MOST OVER WAY POSSIBLE

Hi, Dearies!

The sun is shining again here in Hoosierville, so I spent a good amount of extra time with my face in it before hurling myself out of the big girl sleigh bed this morning.

(Sorry for the visual.)

(These's something about putting my head on a pillow with sunbeams on it. As I'm sure I've mentioned before (two or three thousand times), one of my favorite afternoon rituals with Stewey was the afternoon snoozy nap with our faces in the sun. Still being able to do that here at CS2 with a south-facing bedroom is a real treat, even if it's not quite the same without that little furry lump under the covers.)

But I digress.

I received an email from a Dearie in California telling me that she has arranged for me to have my very own rose on the Donate Life float in this year's Rose Parade. Needless to say, I am still a bit gobsmacked by the idea, and am sitting here feeling like the Queen High Exalted Of The Whole Entire Universe again.

As I explained to "C" (I don't want to reveal her identity without permission), one of my very best memories as a kid was sitting in front of the TeeVee with Aunt Chrissy watching the Rose Bowl Parade. Everybody usually came to our house to have food and watch football, and the first to arrive was Uncle Connie...who made sure that we were watching the parade and who reminded us that our Aunt Mary lived right there in California. 

I STILL watch that parade every year, and I have promised myself that some day I will see it in person so I can marvel at all of those beautiful floats up close. Who knows? Maybe I could figure out how to get a gig volunteering to help decorate one? I'm sure with the right supervision I could do a respectable job and fulfill a bucket list dream simultaneously.

So forgive me for being a giddy mess today, but I am still floating around inside Cloud Ninety Nine that I have such lovely, amazing, and perfect Dearies in my life. How did I ever get so blessed?

IN WHICH PUFF IS QUITE A LITTLE CHAMP

Puff, God bless her, started right up with nary a complaint. And this was after sitting in all of that icy cold and wind for almost a full week!

So I did what any Spinster would.

I took her for a Cinnamon Dolce latte.

The rest of the day was spent stitching and watching various and sundry things on the TeeVee. I made the mistake of watching the Casey Anthony thingie on Peacock, and ended up re-litigating the thing in my head until 4am, so today we're getting a late start.

Laundry laundry laundry, I think. Or I might put it off one more day and just enjoy the brilliant sunshine and listening to the world start moving out there again. I think my neighbors are all starting to return from their holidays, and the restaurant across the way finally has some visitors again!

Happy Tuesday, Dearies! I hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods! Come tell me all about it!

ALL OF A SUDDEN IT WAS MONDAY

I feel like I have been lounging and feasting and stitching and feasting and resting and feasting for a month and a half, Dearies!

Oh wait.

I keep forgetting that my life is one big lounge/feast/stitch/rest/feast. The only thing that separated last week from the rest of it (aside from Christmastide, of course) was the abundance of twinkle lights, ham, and these stupid sub-zero temperatures.

As soon as I can muster the motivation, I'm going to bundle up, head downstairs, and attempt to start the car. I am almost 100% sure it will be deader than a doornail, but that's why we have AAA. One phone call, and all should be well once again, I'm sure.

A fair bit of stitching has been happening here in Hoosierville:

Santa is coming along, and I am delighted that even the Kreinik has been a complete joy to stitch. I think the fact that I'm stitching on 28ct fabric has a lot to do with that, but I am also giving it a nice gentle stretch/tug before putting it through a bit of Thread Heaven. I hope to continue further with him through the week, and if I'm still feeling it, might just take him into the new year until finished. 

I do hope your holiday was perfect and that you are heading into a week of rest and good leftovers. I'll be eating ham and crockpot candy for the foreseeable future, but promise to pump the breaks by Thursday or so. 

Happy Everything, Dearies! Come tell me all about your Monday!

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS, DEARIES.

Stewey and I are snuggled in with a peppermint cold brew, Christmas shows on the TeeVee, lots of stitching and twinkling lights, a tummy full of ham and Mom's potato salad, and all of my best wishes to each and every one of you for a happy, healthy, peaceful, and perfect Christmas.

Merry Christmas, my dear friends.

 

ONE MORE SLEEP!

 

SCENES FROM THE BLIZZARD OF '22

 

THIS ALL SEEMS VAGUELY FAMILIAR...

 

OH...DEAR.

 

When I was in fourth grade at St Sebastian's grade school in Pittsburgh, I won a reading contest. The prize was a party aboard The Good Ship Lollipop with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Each of us had our own Steeler host, and mine was Franco Harris. I remember that he was incredibly kind and soft-spoken and very interested in talking about books. I've carried that memory with me forever, and am so sad to hear that my "friend" has passed away. May God bless and keep his memory and may his family find comfort in their grief.

WAITING FOR THE SNOW TO FLY

Apparently we're going to have quite a winter storm for Christmas! I am well-provisioned and looking forward to hunkering down tomorrow after I get some labwork done.

Tomorrow will be a day for laundry, and if all goes well I'm going to make peanut butter fudge and crockpot candy. Both are super easy, so hopefully it will give me confidence leading into Thursday's Greek cookie extravaganza.

No stitching tonight. I did my nails instead and decided to chill in front of the TeeVee for a bit.

Rich made it to New Jersey safely, and I'm sure his mom will love visiting with him for the next week and a half.  He spoiled me rotten before he left with tickets to a basketball game and dinner in the VIP club, a beautiful ring, an air fryer (!), leggings, and a fridge full of goodies for all of my Christmastide feasting. He'll be home for New Year's Eve, and we have reservations to go for dinner at Tippecanoe Place...the Studebaker mansion. 

Well, Dearies, I suppose it's time to head to bed. I've been reading Les Miserables, and am really enjoying it. I had hoped to finish it before Christmas, but alas, it might take me well into the new year to finish.

Come tell me all about your corner of the world! Are you doing anything special for Futzingday?

SUNDAY

Still feeling a bit punk, but I have been stitching and watching lots on the TeeVee. Last night:

 And today:

All in all, a wonderful weekend! How was yours?

FLU. SHOT.

 I'll be better by Monday, Dearies.  I promise.  I'll be better by Monday.

FUTZINGDAY

 

The laundry is doing its thing in the washing contraption, dinner is in the mini crockpot (*), the lights are all on to ward off the afternoon gloom, and I am happy as a clam with Alexa playing the Christmas tunes while I catch up on reading the papers and look forward to stitching tonight.

Our weather has been quite grey and blah dee da the last several days. In my opinion, we need a couple of inches of sparkly snow to cheer things up around here, but the temperatures insist on hovering in the upper 30's and low 40's...just a tad bit too high for a Winter Wonderland.

Rich will be heading to New Jersey next week for Christmas, so I'm starting to menu plan my Crackpot Spinster Christmas Feasting. I'm yearning for things like chicken stew and shrimp scampi, and I'm sure there will be a cheeseball or something similar involved, but we all know that I'll probably just go face first into a ham and be done with it. I just saw a recipe from Ina for marmalade glazed ham on country biscuits, so that might have to be Christmas dinner.

All this talk of food has me looking forward to getting myself back on track in the New Year.  

Again.  

For the seven hundreth time. 

I have come to the conclusion that my dad was right. He always told me that if I ate what I liked in moderation and saved goodies for treats and made sure to get some exercise every day I would be fine. 

I'm pretty good with the first two. It's that e-word that always gets me. 

Never fear...my BellyBean gives me all of the motivation I need to get those shoes and socks on and get on that treadmill and back into the water at the walking and swimming place. Stay tuned, Dearies. Before you know it, Yours Truly will be running marathons.

I'll close for now with heartfelt wishes for a Happy Futzingday. I hope you got to do everything your heart desired today! Come tell me all about it!

(*) Rich is slowly introducing me to favorite recipes from his past. Tonight we're having hot roast beef sandwiches with gravy on Atlantic City Italian rolls. It really doesn't get much simpler than this...brown gravy mix made on the stove top and really good deli roast beef (sliced super thin) all mixed in the crock pot for a few hours on low to heat through. I like my sandwich with a few tablespoons of gardineria and horseradish to cut the richness of the gravy. 

IT'S BEGINNING TO FEEL CHRISTMASY IN HERE!

Biscotti...done! This is Mrs C's recipe...Rich's mom...so he'll give me his verdict tonight when he has a couple with his post-dinner hot chocolate.

Now all I have to do is gird my loins, take a slug of booze, and jump into my mom's  @#$&* Greek cookies tomorrow (koulourakia). I will curse and grunt and sweat and wonder why I do it every year, but in the end I'll hear her laughing and dunk one in my damn good and it will all be worth it.

I might also try my dad's cookies (cuccidati), but until I learn how to roll out dough without plastering the kitchen, they might have to wait a bit. I think my problem is hot hands. It seems like everything I try to shape or roll becomes a sticky mess, and no matter how much flour I apply, I end up with...paste.

Time to thread up and get stitchin' Dearies? What's new with you?

MONDAY...AGAIN

Good day, Dearies! 

Well, here we are at the beginning of another new week! Only two items/events for us here at CS2...a Christmas thingie for my local Notre Dame club on Tuesday, and hopefully a trip to Indy on Friday for the Monet exhibit at the museum. 

(Yes, Betty. I've had two negative covid tests and will be masked up for both events.)

I suspect the Indy trip will be postponed yet again due to weather, since I saw a forecast for snow and such headed our way Friday morning.

Drat.

No matter. The exhibit runs until the Spring, and I am perfectly happy to stay cozy and stitch all day. I am making tiny bits of progress, but not wigging out too much over speed. This one isn't going to be finished for quite some time, and I'm OK with that.

My new nail wraps are a bit Vegas-y, even for me, but it is the Season after all, so I am choosing festive. I think it was the name that sold me on this set...Dreams Are Forever.

Chores are complete, and now I'm settled in to enjoy the afternoon with one more cup of damn good and the paper before threading up. In an hour or so I'll turn on the little candles and the crackpot spinster fireplace and get down to the business of the evening.

I'll leave you with something I saw on the Pinterest that stopped me in my tracks. This one is definitely going in my Dream House file!

(There's only one problem with this set up...I'd never want to be anywhere else.)

Joy joy joy to you today! I hope that your corner of the world is exactly how you'd like it and need it to be today! Come tell me all about it!

FRIDAY!

You can't really see it, but the sky is full of big fat white puffy lovely perfect snowflakes! 

Looks like I better get busy....newspapers have piled up this week!

Happy, happy Friday, Dearies! My tootsie are warm, I have my damn good and the twinkle lights for company, and I'm off like a herd of turtles to have some Spinster shenanagins!

 

 

MONDAY SPINSTER SHENANAGINS

This was in my email this morning. Obviously, a mistake, but it punched my little heart. (It's a note from Stewey's old insurance saying they received my claim.)

(You know what kills me the most? Seeing his little name printed as "Stewey Rich".)

This is next up in the stitchy basket! I managed to get the fabric prepped, the threads gathered, and the q-snaps covered.

I'm not sure if you Dearies know this, but you can make working copies of these extra huge charts at FedEx Office. This one cost about $3 and will save me so much angst and anxiety trying to mark my progress!

My buffalo plaid nails tickled my fancy, but I noticed a chip in one this afternoon! That has never happened before, but no biggie...another set is just as ticklish imho.

Rich just put the Sixers on, so I'm going to settle in with my new hand toes (*) and get that Santa started!

(*) I wish I could take credit for that, but it's all Ted Lasso! If you haven't seen it yet and need a feel-good giggle fest, I highly recommend!

(*) And yes...foot fingers are exactly what you think they are!