2 finishes for the week

Thank you for your nice comments last week!  I appreciate them.

Another not-so-easy week. On top of everything else that's been going on, I have a back tooth with a big silver filling that has been slowly crumbling since I was pregnant. I didn't go to the dentist (too busy) and it bit me in the booty on Tuesday. I bit into a cookie and the tooth shattered.  So I had it extracted on Thursday. The tooth was in really bad shape, but my oral surgeon is excellent and it was not bad. Although I do wonder why they are so quick to hand out hydrocodone to people. I don't like taking pills, and I especially don't like those heavy narcotics. If they'd asked, I would have just asked for Motrin 800mg, but they never do . . . Just a wierd thing.

I got a couple small finishes this week. This is a SNN kit from March 2007. He's pretty cute and it was a quick stitch. The directions did not clarify how to use the Frosty Rays thread, which I hate with a passion because it's just NOT NEAT, so I stuck to doing half crosses:

They gave enough thread to do full crosses, I see that now that it's finished, but I prefer it this way. It's small for them--4.5" X 4.5". I am trying to figure out if I want to finish it as a cube, which would be easier-ish, or if I want to make it into an ornament. This is not an easy decision.

 

 

I also finished this little guy this week. He was actually a UFO from the fall and I just decided to finish him. He's a Sanman and pretty cute.  I know I have a tuck somewhere in the house that he goes into, but I have no idea where it is:

 

 

Someone Small told me he was "Cea-suh", and I do see the resemblance. Although I think, in her mind, dogs fall into two categories: "dee-dees", which are dogs in general and "Cae-suh", brown and white dogs. My brother's little JRT mix got called "Cae-suh" for that reason. Chancey is just "dee-dee" and my daughter shushed her the first time she met her. LOL (Chancey was barking at Left-brain, Chancey and Left-brain don't see eye-to-eye).   Chancey just kind of looked at her, but, when she got put out of the room, Katie kept pointing to the door and saying "Dee-dee, dee-dee," in the saddest voice ever. Chancey really does like her, she was just not used to someone so small telling her what to do.

 

Spring seems to have finally sprung. Maybe. I say that, knowing full well we had a surprise snowstore yesterday. They had called for snow showers, and it "showered" so hard there was accumulation. Today it's all melting. I don't think we'll be on water restriction this summer. The grass is like a sponge and it will take weeks to dry out.  But it's supposed to be 66 this week! Yay!

 

What I've been doing all month

It feels like forever since I posted. This has been a rough month for me. We have been dealing with some major health issues with my father, and, surprisingly, also with me. When I went into the urgent care with that stupid sinus infection at the end of February, they realized my blood pressure has gone very high again, and almost sent me to the hospital. I got a kind but stern talking to from the doctor there, got a referral to a new physician here, and was pretty much told if I don't make some life changes, I might not be around to see my daughter grow up. And that scared me. So I've been making small changes to start. I'm back on my blood pressure medication--not what I really want to do, but if it's that or dying til I get myself together, I'll do that--, bought a new pair of cross-trainers (and I can heartily recommend New Balance, I have never had a bad pair of NB sneakers, they're light, AND, in case this matters to you, they're made in the US), dusted off my pedometer, signed up for a walking challenge at work, starting to go back to the gym (I have to upgrade my membership so I can use the Crazyville branch, but I don't have the money for that yet, thanks to the sneakers), and trying to make some better food choices. It's not easy--the health issues with Dad kind of hit hard and I've been upset about that, and I have another sinus infection that I've been dealing with this week, but it will get easier. Change is never easy to deal with, but I heard myself giving the doctor all the reasons I don't take care of myself, and they were such BS. 100 excuses not to take care of myself and one really good reason to do it. So, that's where we are. Trying.

 

In between, I stitched this:

 

 

 

Is he not adorable?

It's from the leaflet, "Apples and Applesauce," by Pitter Patterns, who did a lot of House Mouse Designs. The chart is based on one of the pictures found here.  This site is one of my guilty pleasures.  I just find her pictures to be so sweet and clever, a gentle humor.

 

 



And some detail:

 



 

This makes me happy just to look at it. I was a little put off by the colors that it used, but, once it was all together and backstitched, I just love it.

 

Wishin' and Hopin'

For spring.

Although I do admit, I spent many hours of my small youth, on wintry days, perched on top of my parents' large stereo cabinet--remember when you needed one of those to house your record collection? This is why kids get in trouble these days, they don't spend hours looking for the Annie soundtrack in the millions of records it seemed our parents had--watching snowflakes fall down. Our house growing up was the same basic layout as this house--maybe the person who designed them realized small girls need a place to appreciate winter joys?

Someone Small and I spent a few moments on Monday, looking for bunnies and saying, "Shhh" in case the bunnies heard us in the house.  No bunnies, though, just, as she put it, " It's 'nowing."

And for a moment, the snow didn't seem so bad.