A freebie to cheer up the place

Since Crazyville has had a pall over it the last few days, I thought I would share one of my most favorite freebies . . . ever. I've probably shared him before, but the little snowman in the tree is adorable.

http://tiens.donc.free.fr/k_d_eau.htm

It makes me smile when I see him.

I think he MIGHT be getting stitched by me this weekend. A weekend o' smiles!

Hope you like him too.

Hello

I wanted to thank you all for the support you gave me on my last post. Things have been going better. I had a follow-up visit with my doctor on Monday. He had put me on medication on Thursday, and that showed great improvement as of Monday. They did up my dosage, but I feel a lot better, and, with some changes in my lifestyle, I am hopeful that I'll be better soon. I had also gone with another issue, but that did not resolve itself as we had hoped. I can look at the logical reasons for it happening, and they make sense, and look to the spiritual for comfort, but it doesn't seem to be helping. And, making it worse is that I feel like my doctor wasn't very supportive after he gave me the news, like it was no big deal and I can just move on. I'm going to have to do some soul-searching about this situation in general. In a few weeks . . . when I'm not reacting from anger or sadness or fear.

Anyway . . . that's that.

I finally turned back to my stitching this weekend. I decided I wanted to start something brand-new, so I pulled out a project I kitted up last year, Santa's Pets, from the 2009 BH&G calendar. It's a design by Liz Goodrick-Dillon, a magnificent Santa surrounded by puppies and kittens, so it was a natural draw for me. It's a huge project, solidly-stitched, but it actually is fun to stitch. Very little confetti stitching, and it's moving quickly. I am using the 10X10 block, stair step method or I'll get hopelessly lost, but I'm hoping I can make good progress on this.

I will post pictures of my recent work tonight. I've just been in a daze for the last week. I feel like I was ejected from a roller coaster I didn't ask to ride, but I'm going to get back to normal soon.

Where have I been

I know I have been sadly neglecting my blog.

We had a bit of a rough week here in Crazyville. It's health-related, something I wasn't prepared for. I can't say much, except it's definitely not cancer, but it's worrisome. I spent yesterday in a daze at the doctor's office, scared and crying. However, my doctors are closely monitoring me, we caught it early, and they seem very positive that we can fix this. Left-brain is being my rock; he's confident this will be OK. He was trying to cheer me up while I was in the doctor's office, with silly inside jokes, and, because some witch lady got mad that my doctor got pulled out of a consult with her (I had an appointment with the physician's assistant, but she pulled him out of his appointment and started acting like a jerk in the hallway, which upset me more, because I don't like to cause problems), told me I need to not worry if anyone else is upset, that, for once, I need to put myself first. I'm trying that. And, as I so often do when it's too much, I put it in a higher power's hands.

The very wierd thing is, my stitching, which always gives me comfort when I am troubled, is the farthest thing from my mind right now. I got home last night (after spending 45 minutes trying to find the CVS for a prescription I need, because I was in a daze when the doctor told me where the prescription was filled), took a few stitches, and put my stitching down. Beazer crawled up on the bed with me, and I just petted him and petted him. He gave me a look, like, "You have no reason to be afraid, you has pittybull protecting you. Nossing bad will happen, Mummy," and then licked my face. He's a good boy, that old dog of mine.

I know I'll be back to stitching in a day or two. I just need a moment to process.

Trick or Treat?

I am sure most of my Northeast friends know this already, but we had snow this weekend here in Crazyville. Not as much as they had originally called for, but enough to mess up plans and keep me inside. It was snowing when I got up on Saturday morning, and probably snowed til 8 that night. My mom, down-county, got nothing. Zippy. It just rained.

But I'm not going to complain. It was nice to spend the day, going through my sewing room, putting things away. I organized the huge stack of books in the corner, which fell over the day we left for vacation and that I just couldn't deal with restacking. I started going through my WIPs so I can participate in WIPocalaypse. I think I found about 6 I really want to work on, at least on the initial pass through.

I also took a good long look at my stash and thought again to myself that it really is a distinct shame that I continue to acquire stuff and do not take the time to work on things I already have. I mean, I love it all, or I wouldn't have bought it. But is owning it REALLY appreciating it and being a good steward of it? Particularly when I have a lot of money tied up in it and there are people who go to bed hungry for lack of money? I fight this battle in my head a lot of times, now more than ever. And, even take the greater socialism out of the equation, what are the opportunity costs to myself of acquiring and never actually completing? I tend not to think too hard on that one--it would probably only upset me.

So . . . I've decided that, for 2012, other than my WIP charts, and another project, I'm stitching from stash. And kitting from stash as much as possible. And by "other than", I mean I'm only going to buy specialty items when ABSOLUTELY necessary. The point is to stay out of the stores and use what I have.I've been thinking about it for a while, but this weekend put the exclamation point on the need to do it. I think, when I'm not having a small panic attack about it, that it will be a good exercise for me, in creativity as well as being a bit more appreciative of the blessings I have been given.

Now I'm not stupid enough to believe I'll make a huge dent in my stash by doing this. That isn't really the intention. But I think that it will help me in refocusing and highlighting what purchases are REALLY important to me, versus which just make me feel good.

So, bear with me. I might be a bit neurotic for the next few months. But I'm hoping to be a better person on the other side of it.

Interesting site!

I was given this link to some very high end cross stitch art.

http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/arts/sevrija-incirauskaite-kriauneviciene

I figured someone here might enjoy it. Can you imagine all the effort it would take to make the "fabric?"

A Halloween freebie

I hadn't seen this mentioned in many places. I think this freebie is darling and thought you might like it too:

http://silvercutedwarf.blogspot.com/2011/10/halloween-is-coming.html

Working for the weekend

If I ever needed a nice quiet weekend, or a fun weekend, it's this weekend. I thought I would get home at a normal hour last night and enjoy my leftovers from Date Night with Left-brain on Tuesday (quite the surprise and I rubbed his back to show my appreciation), but, due to some issues with one of the family dogs (not the twins, not Beazer), I didn't get home til 10 last night, having spent the greater part of the evening at the vet's, only to find out said dog is just older, and has arthritis and might be depressed. And that the only thing she dreads worse than the vet is having to be muzzled. She did provide a bit of comic relief at the expense of the receptionist when she started growling at me. Nikki is a bit of an . . . intense . . . dog and she doesn't really like me, which I accept, so she growls quite frequently. And snarls. At us, at her sister, the JRT mix (who doesn't seem to care, and, besides, moves fast, so as to be out of the way of errant teeth, and just loves her.) My rule of thumb is, we're fine if she just snarls, getting annoyed if she starts sneezing, and stop immediately if she's drooling; I think it's a perfect system, so simple to understand, so reliable. We should all come with it, it would make life more simpler. The receptionist saw her snarling, said, "Oh, look, she's smiling." I had to explain, she wasn't smiling, but that it was OK. I'm used to it. The receptionist said, "Oh, yeah, I do have to get the muzzle for her, don't I?"

Yeah.

I am sure it sounds wierd to be so non-chalant about her, but she is what she is.

Cranky. She's at least found people who understand her.

Long story short, she went home with glucosamine tablets to see if they help her. I went home exhausted.

I'm going to go home tonight and stitch. I'm not folding laundry, running errands, NOTHING. I may eat ice cream. I already had a Choco Taco this morning. It was a Choco Taco kind of morning. But I need to make inroads on my LHN Ornaments. I have decided I am not re-upping for that next year, but want to get some of the ones I have kitted up stitched before it gets too overwhelming. I'm hopeful to make good progress on my current one, "Bringing Home the Tree," and will post a picture.

Til then, may your day be drool-free, tension-free, and may we all have the energy and joy of a Jack Russell.