MAY SHE REST IN PEACE, AND MAY HER MEMORY BE A BLESSING

Dearies, our family is smaller by one today, and although very sad to hear the news, I am so very thankful to have enjoyed such beautiful creations from such a beautiful woman. Dear Miss Barb, one of the designers behind Blackbird Designs, passed away over the weekend. 

I shamelessly copy the following from her friend and partner, Miss Alma:

 From Alma Allen of Blackbird Designs:

My dear friend, Barb Adams passed away on the morning of July 4th. It’s so hard to imagine what life will be like without her. I will miss our daily talks, extensive travels and the excitement we felt as we developed new ideas for projects. Barb always said she didn’t want to quit working and leave so many unfinished ideas on the table. She called me two weeks ago and asked me if I could come back to Kansas City and go to the doctor with her. I will be forever grateful she called me. She gave me the gift of her presence these final two weeks.

Barb was always kind and compassionate. Her sense of humor was quick and came at unexpected times. The surprise of it could bring uncontrolled laughter and tears to my eyes. Her sense of personal style was classy! Some of my favorite times with Barb were spent in the shoe department of Nordstrom’s. As we both wore size 11s, we could both try on shoes the other had chosen. With all of the booths we set up at wholesale markets and all the heavy boxes of books we had to haul, we said we had to have Excedrine to spend time together. I told her all of my worst times were spent with her. But really just being with her made those times better. She never ceased to amaze me with her mastery of color combinations and design ideas. Many of her quilts and cross stitch projects were based on patriotic themes. As the fireworks light up the sky on the 4th of July every year it will always have a special meaning for me. Leave it to Barb to make sure she exited with fireworks! Blackbird Designs will never be the same without her.

MONDAY

 

HAPPY 4TH, DEARIES!

 

OFF TO A GOOD START!

Happy Saturday morning, Dearies!

Yesterday turned out to be one of the better days I've had in a long time. 

I did get pretty sick at treatment, but as soon as Miss Dana took me off of the machine (early, unfortunately) I started to perk up a bit. By the time I made it home, I actually felt wonderful.

First, I sat outside in the cool breeze and enjoyed my ColdBrew and the paper, and then when Rich came in from running errands, we walked over to a lovely restaurant here in the apartment compex and had a delicious lunch of salads:

More balcony sitting for me, and then I came inside and futzed a bit before starting a new piece...the wolfratsen embroidery kit:

 As I texted my sisiter...I highly recommend this! Why I didn't start it sooner, I'll never know, but I'm so glad I did.

The kit comes with everything you need to stitch AND finish the piece (except scissors), and it is stitched in satin stitches with floss on pre-printed fabric. There are several other purchase options, like pdf patterns, etc., but I opted for the fill kit.

The website is: wolfratsen.com.

Today I am watching Wimbledon and thinking of Miss Myrtis from Guild. She is an avid tennis fan, and I miss seeing her so much and just marveling at her latest finish or project.

If I can rally, I really hope we can play golf later, but I seem to be a bit worse for wear this morning in terms of hangover. Oh well.

I hope this finds you resting and well and enjoying your weekend! Come tell me all about it!

TGIF

I'm not going to lie to you, Dearies. I'm quite happy to have this week in my rear view. Between rough dialysis treatments and having my barnacles removed and the resulting sores...I'm finished, thankyouverymuch.

Rich made it back to Hoosierville at about 7:00 last night, and I made us a lovely dinner of grilled chicken on top of salad and then we starting catching up on our re-watch of Sopranos and the Talking Sopranos podcast after. Hopefully, he will be able to rest a bit today and then we can get back into our happy little routine.

Tomorrow promises to be beautiful, so we are going to get some golfing in, and then I hope a nice long dip in the pool after. On Sunday, we're going to a party at Fish Lake, but I fear the forecast of 90 and humid. I might have to wear a hat and take some stitching and find a nice shady spot to just chill.

No other news to report. I finished that tree on Good in Everything, so I might pick up something different this afternoon after my nap. We'll see.

I hope this finds you all well and safe and happy and healthy. If your're celebrating anything this weekend, have fun doing so! Otherwise, come tell me all about what's new in your corner of the world!

THURSDAY

Well, here we are on a Thursday morning in Hoosierville. I'm a bit bleary-eyed today and am already contemplating a nice long nap in the big girl sleigh bed later this afternoon.

(I used to look forward to what I was going to have for dinner. Now it's looking forward to nap time. Sheesh.)

I caught a second wind after dinner (grilled chicken breast on salad, thankyouverymuch), so I stitched a bit more on Good In Everything. I'm not crazy about my linen selection for this one, and I even contemplated starting it over on something different, but my better angels prevailed and I decided to stick it out and just get this one finished once and for all. I would estimate that I am about a third of the way done thus far, so maybe I can continue along and make a nice dent in it.

A little futzing about in the cube room studio resulted in three new "focus" projects for July and August. Let's face it, I go into a complete schlumpadink every time this year in anticipation of Fall stitching, so I decided to just go with it and play with these:

I also have Star Spangled Banner somewhere in the mix, but at the moment I have no idea where I tucked it away for safekeeping. (Don't you hate it when that happens?)

OK. Time to get on with it. Yes, I have a newspaper to read today, but only because I gave up completely on my old subscription and ordered a new one under Rich's name. If you work for the South Bend Tribune and are reading this...you win. 

Happy Thusday to one and all! Do something fun today, blow your skirt up, engage in some bally-whoooo and come tell me all about it!

YOWSA

Happy Futzingday, Dearies!

(At least I think it's Futzingday.)

The last few days have been a bit rough on your loveable portly spinster. Between medication changes at dialysis and some procedures at the skin doctor to remove barnacles from my neck and shoulders, I am full of holes, woozy, and ready to stay in the bug girl sleigh bed for the duration.

Phooey.

One of the oriblems with kidney dusease (among many) is that blood levels of certain things can go whacky from time to time. Phosphorous is one of those things, and to combat a build-up of it, I take pills with meals that bind to the excess phosphorous to get rid of it. Combined with this is a calcium issue related to the parathyroid glands, and there is another pill you can take that helps regulate that. Unfortunately, I seem to be intolerant of it, so they are trying to give me an alternative in my lines at the end of treatment, but I don't seem to be faring much better on it.

Ugh.

The weather isn't helping me, since hot and humid and I are not friends. At all. But the yood news there is that it's supposed to be beautiful here in just a day or two, so I should be able to breathe and flit about again in my golfing things.

Here's a little progress on Good in Everything:

If all goes well, I hope to spend a fair amount of time with it tonight and tomorrow. I have a few small chores to take care of in the morning and then have a visit with Dr Melfi at 1:00, but hopefully I will be able to grab a few hours with needle and thread.

Hope your day was swell! Come tell me all about it!

DEAR SPAMMERS...

I write this here blog for several reasons...not the least of which is that I am a hermit spinster with social anxiety issues who still loves to have relationships with people, as long as I can have them from the comfort of my Happy Chair and when I am feeling well enough to do so.

I read the comments on this here blog as though they are replies in a conversation. In my mind, the comment is coming from one of my friends who loves and knows me for the nutball I am, and we've met in a lovely coffee/tea shop someplace in our pajamas and we're chatting the day away with our needlework.

Some of these conversations are very serious and personal...like when I reveal my big fat soft white underbelly and my friends rally around with love and support and encouragement and advice. Other times the talk is more lighthearted, and I get giggles and eye rolls at whatever shenanagins I've been up to.

Our table on this here blog is large and accomodates absolutely everybody who wants to sit for a moment and join in the fun. We don't discriminate on the basis of anything at all, really, and if you don't stitch or knit or draw or twiddle your thumbs...that's OK. We'll teach you.

But.

For the love of St Sebastian, if your only purpose in coming here is to spam our comment section, could you just move on, please? I'm very certain that nobody here wants your herpes, HIV, digestive, fertility, or mental health cures from Dr Voodoo or Dr So and So or anybody else for that matter.

As Jack Nicholas says in "As Good As It Gets"...We're all full of the crazy here. Go sell it someplace else.

WHOA...NELLY!

It feels like a long time since we've had crazy summer storms, but yesterday surely made up for it. At one point the tornado sirens were going off and my poor neighbor next door was in a complete panic. He's a single dad, I think, and from overseas, so he was unsure what to do.

We have a ground floor clubhouse here with interior rooms, so I told him that was an option, or our laundry rooms or bathrooms are also interior, so I told him he and his little could head in there if they didn't want to leave the house.

As for me...I stayed in the Happy Chair with my eyes on the news and closed the front window blinds that face the direction of the way things roll in. It was, though, pretty cool to see the clouds coming over the horizon.

Stitching and laundry and nails today. The air outside is positively beastly with humidity, and it looks to rain off and on again today and most of the week ahead. Hopefully, though, no more severe things out there to send us scrambling.

Happy Sunday, Dearies! Hope you're having fun and will come tell me all about it!

SATURDAY...

Chello, Dearies!

It's going on about 2pm on a drizzly Saturday, and Yours Truly is settling down to do some stitching and TeeVee watching.

I'm contemplating movies or a binge of something interesting, because I feel like my brain needs a rest and a good scrubbing with a non-abrasive brush after three days of Housewives.

Oey.

My pool time might be non-existent for quite awhile, since every time I look outside it's either blowing like mad and looking like the heavens are going to open up, or the pool cover is firmly in place because the nice lady that opens and closes it is either late, has forgotten completely, or they are doing something with chemicals. 

Oh well. 

I forgot to post this photo from Thursday. I had two appointments at the same location, but they were separated by a bit of time, so I grabbed a Starbucks and wandered through my old neighborhood to have a look at Chez Spinster. (I do that from time to time whenever I am feeling nostalgic.)

The new owner (who I hope is also a happy, portly spinster) has installed a window box under the studio window...something I always wanted to do in my 14 years there, but never did:

I would have liked it to be much longer...the width of the window and shutters combined, and I would have liked more vining/trailing things hanging, and possibly some color, but one fact kind of hits me between the eyeballs.

I don't live there anymore.

Spinstercation is still delightful, but I really need to learn to lay off the salty things for a bit. I had edamame, gyoza, and California roll for dinner last night and awoke to a very puffy face and hands. The scale told me that I had not gained anything after treatment yesterday (which in itself is a miracle), but I am going to be super careful for the rest of the weekend and watch it.

My weight is still well under transplant goal weight at 109kg, and although I have been careful, I haven't been actively losing recently. A few medication hiccups are to blame, as well as some less than perfect choices on my part, but hopefully I can ratchet it up a bit and get a kilo or so off each week until I either hit my ultimate goal weight or get this transplant...whichever comes first.

On that note, there is no news. I hope to have results from the latest liver test soon. My coordinator left me a message that the doctors were reading the test now and should have some reports back within a few days, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

Well, I suppose that I should get myself moving, or it will be back to the big girl sleigh bed for a snooze. I have been rather sleepy this morning and a little wiped out, so I'd like to put at least a few stitches into something before "resting my eyes".

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

BACK DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE...

 I'm doing this for my goddaughter, Sara. She is a fan and caught up on all of the Housewife shenanagins, so I decided to re-visit my Bravo addiction and jump back in.

Besides...it's Spinstercation and I've finished Downton Abbey, so a little mindless indulgence won't hurt me.

Off to two appointments and then hopefully home to stitch and do laundry. 

Happy Thursday!

WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE...

If you've been with me any length of time, you probably know that I thoroughly love the morning newspaper with my damn good. I think I have been reading the paper in the morning from the time I was in my first little tiny apartment in college....which is about a billion years ago.

I even worked for the paper for a brief time writing obituaries, and I have to say that I loved everything about that job, and got especially excited to walk through the newsroom. Had things been different, I might have stayed there and tried other positions, but alas, it was not meant to be.

Anywhoose...I have been locked in a six month battle with the South Bend Tribune over delivery issues. First, I wasn't getting the paper, then they were delivering it downstairs, then it was coming super late, and then it just stopped coming altogether.

Calling to report these issues became a complete exercise in futility and frustration, and on Thursday of last week I finally gave up, told the representative to cancel everything, return my payment, and just forget about it all together.

Guess who got her paper at 5:30 this morning right there in front of her front door?

So I've decided to just surrender my entire life to whatever/whoever it is that's up there running things for me, since he/she/it seems to be doing a much better job of it than I ever could.

(I'm pretty sure it's my mom, since she had a wicked sense of humor and absolutely loved irony.)

(Heavy, heavy sigh).

So now that I have all of this free time, it looks like I'll be able to get a lot more stitching accomplished. Here's the progress on Summer at Cherry Hill:

I'll need to move the q-snaps today to continue further, and I'm fretting a bit over the amount of thread I have left to finish this one, so I might need to make an emergency trip over to House of Stitches to re-stock. 

(Would that be so bad?)

Cool and rainy here today, so I think I might snuggle under my blanket and snooze a bit. I slept pretty well last night, but seemed to wake up every half hour to check the time.

Happy Fitzingday, Dearies! I hope your week has treated you well thus far. If so, come tell me all about it! And, if not, come tell me all about it too, and we'll see if we can fix it together.

HAPPIER SUBJECTS

Good Tuesday morning, Dearies!

I am enjoying my second cup of damn good and then going to head out for an appointment and a few errands. It's sunny and cool and positively lovely out there in Hoosierville today, so methinks I might try to grab a cup of something and sit with my face in the sun or a book in my lap. Or both.

Bliss.

No stitching to report. I was entirely naughty over the weekend and had too much salt, so my fluid gain was a bit higher than I would have liked. This resulted in a tough treatment that knocked me out, but I did manage to finish bingeing Downton in its entirety once again. 

My attempt at keeping plants alive at CS2 is working so far, I'm happy to say. Here's some proof:

I'm tempted to add more to the mix, but my better angels tell me to just concentrate on these for a bit before going too crazy.

I posted a pic of my lemon ritual and confused the heck out of everybody. I buy a big bag of them from the Costco and scrub them up with a veggie brush, slice, put on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and freeze:

Then I drop them into a Ziplock and keep them in the freezer to add to my ice water:

I must not have explained this very well, because folks seemed to be confused as to what the heck I was up to. Nothing revolutionary...just me being super lazy and wanting the convenience of just opening a bag instead of having to slice and scrub and whatnot.

Well, I think that's about it from here today. I'll leave you with one of my favorite pictures from the wedding:

I hope your very own Tuesday is perfectly swell! Come tell me all about it!

DEAR FRIENDS

In a million years, I never would have imagined that I would have to write a blog post telling you that I am OK because there was a mass shooting outside my front door.

I didn't think to mention it, but when I got here to the d-chair and opened my email there were hundreds of urgent messages asking me if I was OK.

Yes, there was a mass shooting on Saturday night in the Heritage Square shopping center in front of my apartment, and yes, I overlook the area where most of the bullets were fired.

One of the restaurants hosted a Juneteeth celebration, and at 3:30 in the morning somebody decided to open fire, killing one man and injuring several others. 

I didn't hear or see a thing, oddly enough. If I did hear it in my sleep, I probably thought it was fireworks and rolled over, and I didn't see any of the emergency lights because I closed the blinds completely (for the first time in the four years I've lived here).

Driving to dialysis this morning was very eerie, since it seems that all of the area has been cleaned and will return to "normal" today. The windows that were shattered will be replaced, the sidewalks will be scrubbed, and the people will go about their business on this summer Monday morning as if nothing happened.

In the meantime, I pray for the man who died to rest in peace. I pray that his family will find some comfort in their grief, and I pray for the injured to recover. But most of all, I pray that we will eventually figure this out.

Thank you, Friends, for checking on me.

SCENES FROM A SUNDAY...ON A MONDAY

 

WOOOOHOOOOO

 Sorry for the wrinkly mess, but all of the stitching is complete on Eliana! Now, on to the backstitching and beading!!

WHILE THE CAT'S AWAY...

Happy Saturday, Dearies!

Rich has almost completed his journey to NJ, and I am enjoying a completely different view of things this morning. 

I would love to tell you that I watched Masterpiece Theatre and ate broiled salmon last night while contemplating Proust, but the truth is that I went face first into takeout Japanese, contemplated dessert, and then watched the Philadelphia 76ers and the Kardashians simultaneously.

Baby steps, people. I need to take baby steps.

Remember when I used to write a big long list of projects that I wanted to accomplish on my Spinstercation, and then I did things like empty the cube room studio into the living room or cook my way through Ina's cookbooks?

Well, I guess I'm older and wiser now, because the only thing on my list for the next two weeks is to...chill.

I would have liked to start my day with a swim, but at the moment the pool is completely occupied with The Real Housewives of Hoosierville, about a dozen screaming kids, and enough toys to float the Titanic.

As our girl Stitcherista would day...."That would be a whole lotta NOPE on that one!"

So I think I'll read the paper, enjoy my damn good, catch up on magazines, and then maybe nap a bit today. If it clears out downstairs, I'll grab my suit and towel and make a run for it!

I hope your weekend is off to a wonderful beginning and that you get to do all of the things! Come tell me all about it!

IN WHICH WE SKIPPED RIGHT OVER WEDNESDAY AND WENT RIGHT INTO THURSDAY...

I had a "free" day yesterday to allow Buzzy one more day to calm down, and I spent it stitching, snoozing, and watching Downton.

Progress continues on Eliana:

Today will relatively quiet. A visit with Dr Melfi and then more stitching and Downton watching. We were goong to try to play golf, but I think temperatures in the high 80's will eliminate that possibility for me,

What's on your agenda for the day? Come tell me all about it!

RECOVERING

My head is still a bit fuzzy from the Fentanyl and Versid, but I'm enjoying a little stitching and Downton while another piece of salmon cooks away in the toaster oven.

(This time I think I'll make a little rice on the side in addition to the Greek salad.)

More tomorrow, Dearies! Thank you for your happy thoughts for the surgery today. It went OK, but as I suspected, Mr Buzzy was a hot mess!

MONDAY

Well, Dearies...here we are on another Monday in Hoosierville doing our thing:

We finished the weekend strong, with a really good dinner:

Where has this been all my life? I have watched people cook salmon in parchment a thousand times on the Food Network but had never tried it.

Until last night:

It was so good! A little olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon slices on top...baked at 375 for an hour (the salmon was frozen solid when I put it in), and then a few minutes with the parchment open to geta nice crust, and it was delicious!

The little salad was stupid easy...cucumber, tomato, red onion, kalamata olives, and feta dressed with a little bit of balsamic.

Very tasty, indeed.

I didn't stitch, but I did manage to do a mani/pedi and watch my Notre Dame baseball team win the second game of their series with Mississippi State. They need to win the next game to progress in the tournament, so...GO IRISH!

The humidity is supposed to be delightfully low this week, so I am hoping for some outside time. I would love to play some more of the golfing, but Buzzy is being tended to tomorrow, so I'm not too sure if I will be able to do so. (He's a bit of a mess, so I expect that the procedure will be a bit more extensive than normal.)

So that's the doings with your intrepid spinster this week. JB is heading eastward on Thursday or Friday, so I will have a couple weeks to stitch and watch Downton and do all of my spinster things!

I hope your week is off to a good start! What will blow your skirt up today? Come tell me all about it!