Progress #2

Can you hear the happy dance?   I am feeling so much better.   My splint has been reduced a little and I have more freedom of movement in the fingers.  The grazes on the face have all but vanished and I feel much happier to be seen in public.

We have a public holiday on Monday, so next week I will go back to work on Tuesday.   There are still therapy sessions for my hand, appointments at the dentist to replace the broken tooth and visits to the optometrist to replace the broken spectacles.  But all is looking good:-)
And tonight I was able to stitch again so there is progress on the Quaker Christmas too.

So on that note....until next time

Progress

Almost a week has passed and I am making progress.  Doctor, hand therapist, dentist; I am on first name terms with all of them now and ACC contributed greatly to their retirement funds.   There are multiple subsequent appointments but I am certainly grateful for progress thus far.
My sense of humour must have survived!  The hand therapist asked what colour I wanted for my silicone splint. "Beige", says I.  And this is the result:-) Does that look beige to you?

With the therapists permission I have been able to have ten minutes stitching tonight and there is progress on that front too.

And that's all for today.

Thank you very much

So many good wishes.  Thank you very much.  I am feeling much better really and still running the gaunlet of medical people.
Monday I go for a silicone splint on my right hand and to see what can be done about something wrong with my left jaw socket.   Then I will be able to get to a dentist to have the broken tooth fixed/extracted.  At the moment my mouth won't open wide enough!

I'm only able to eat very soft foods: yogurt, hummus, cottage, mashed potatoes and scrambled egg.  This diet is achieving the weight loss the walking was designed for:-) 

And I'd only had them a month !!

It only took a second for me to do this to the new spectacles. Skewhiff the frames, remove the paint from the left hand edge (that's embedded just under my eye) and thoroughly scratch the fancy and expensive German lenses.

 I took a tumble last night while on my daily walk.   Despite falling elegantly, I destroyed my new glasses, broke a tooth and badly grazed my face, both knees and both hands.   Today has been spent at the doctors and at X-ray and no stitching, or walking for that matter, for a while. It's even hard to talk and see through the swelling.   My fifth metacarpal on the right hand didn't stand up to the fall too well.   So more reading than stitching methinks.
Back soon!

A riddle

Do you ever do what I do and despite listing stitching projects add extras in without any concern for time available?
I do this constantly but usually manage to talk sensibly to myself and not get carried away.   But this time I am going to take action and with a deadline of April.   My current manager will return to her original position at the end of her secondment in April and I want to make a thank you gift for her.  She is keen on patchwork and gardening so I pondered much and finally inspiration struck.

A journal book cover with her initial in Embroidered Garden Flowers.   What a clever idea is that!

One man's trash is another man's treasure

Brian who lives in our apartment building is the self-elected rubbish policeman.   He checks, informs, prohibits, as needs be, in his attempts to keep everyone in line.   Today he came bounding up, all smiles  with a bag of what had been in the recycle bin.   He thought the DBEM might use the yarn.
She carefully sorted through it and found these among the "yarn of lurid colours".   The yarn will go to a local charity shop, untouched by the DBEM's knitting needles.  I took these as even if I don't use them, they will be snapped up on the Guild Trading Table.

I rather fancy the Hampton Court Palace card but either way these would be good "extras" to take when I go on holiday.   Maybe.

I'm patting myself on the back for learning how to post to my blog off my iPad.  The desk top computer is sick nigh unto death so until I find a suitable replacement I am an Apple girl.   So far so good.   My computer guru aka Brother-in-law, is away on holiday in the South Island, so I'm having to voyage into unknown technology waters on my own.   Just as well the little Asian man at the mall is helpful and not too expensive:-)

And another pat on the back for 55 kilometres walked so far this month.   Will I get to 100 by midnight on the 31st?   I have promised myself new walking shoes if I do.  My current ones won't hold out much longer.

Fairies in the garden

Alice lives in one of the ground floor apartments in our block and is currently on summer holidays from her kindergarten.   She is a child who needs constant companionship and her mother has some really creative ideas.   A couple of days ago this appeared in our front garden.

Alice and her mother had created a tiny fairy garden.   Isn't it cute?   She was right chuffed when she saw me taking a photo:-)
And stitching progress?   Well, this was the first week back at work after two weeks annual leave.   Life has been busy, very busy, far too busy for the amount of reverse stitching I have had to do.  It is really a wonder that the white silk did not turn black! But the last lace panel is now complete as is the the next line of words and I made a start on the multicolour band of partial Rhodes stitch.

But now housework chores are calling!

Three Wise Men

Grim determination made me hang on until the end and the panel containing Balthasar, Melchior and Gaspar is now completed -  just a little too late for Epiphany but at just the right time to satisfy me.

I don't really enjoy cross stitching pictures and wonder to myself why I even chose this chart so many years ago.   Probably it was when I got sick and tired of everything Christmas being Santa Claus!   Who knows?   I did add the gold star in the gap - after I took the photograph.

But I am well over half way now and the next few bands of the sampler are interesting specialty stitches and will bring me much closer to the hardanger treat in store at the end.

My only firm New Years Resolution in 2017 is to walk 1500 kilometres by December 31st.   So I have mapped out a 3.5km walk around my neighbourhood and another exactly 1km at work.  Simple mathematics tells me that seven days a week I must do a nightly walk and that I need to do the one kilometre circuit at work each day if I am to reach my target.   So far so good:-)   But this burst of energetic resolve will reduce my evening stitching time :-(

A final treat for the holidays

Today dawned cloudy and I resigned myself to a day indoors with chores.   While I burned off energy at the end of a vacuum cleaner and floor mop, the sun rose high enough to burn off the clouds so I drove the DBEM out to a local beach.
The ice cream shop was shut!   So instead we sat in the sun and enjoyed the view.
Yesterday it was the DBEM's time in the spotlight so today it is my turn.

I didn't take the tripod with me but how fortunate to have a blue car and catch a great reflection in the roof:-)
I'm off to do some stitching - a wiseman and a couple of trees so there will be photos tomorrow.

Spot the Difference

Today the DBEM and I went button shopping.   Almost  12 months since we were last at this shop!

2016

2017

Little Sister says it looks like she's in her "happy place".   Maybe so but I now have 37 buttons to sew on the little garments;-)   I promise to show this years knitting haul when all is complete.   

I'm off now to sew the hem on two dresses and then my summer sewing is complete.   Photos tomorrow hopefully.

A camel and a wiseman

I got tired of the Quaker Christmas so when page 4 was finished I put it aside for a while.   Now I'm working on the next "panel" in the Heirloom Nativity Sampler.   This one is the three wisemen - but so far I only have half a man and a camel!   There's a small squirrel, a cardinal bird and several other items that might not have been in the original Biblical party.   But it is fun to stitch.

This afternoon I cut out the fabric for a summer dress and after a day off sewing today am now ready for the final spurt to the finish of this summer's sewing.   Having these days off on annual leave has been great:-)

Windows

Today I have been busy.   This morning I sewed a new skirt and tonight have just completed the hem.  Cross that one off the list.
Then this afternoon I cleaned the window frames, windows and the drapes of both the bedrooms.  

Once all were sparkling,I hung the new sun-filter curtains and the DBEM exclaimed "they do look cleaner".   Not better, not pretty, but clean!   She was, as usual, correct.   But they are also newer and prettier.
And another item crossed off the list.

In 2017 I want to....

While I currently have three projects on the go I have decided on what I will stitch in the coming year - hopefully!   WIPS are

Quaker Christmas Sampler

Heirloom Nativity Sampler

Hardanger Table Runner

 I have no UFO's and experience has taught me that rotations don't work for me so only when I finish two of these will I allow myself to start anything new.   I know that three projects on the go won't work either so I need to get that down to one at a time.   My help is required a lot more for the DBEM's knitting so time will be at a premium.
These are what I have chosen for this year's To Do List

A Merry Cox  project-Shaker Spool Box

A Betsy Morgan Box

Another Betsy Morgan Box

Shepherd's Bush Christmas Story Sampler

A needlebook/etui SAL Alexandre which I printed off the internet eons ago.

As I am well and truly over Christmas and am working on a Christmas Sampler "big project" as well as the Nativity Sampler "big project",  the first  to be kitted up will be one of the Betsy Morgan's I think.   Although I do have all the ingredients for the Merry Cox - bought many years ago from Criss Cross Row.   Maybe I should do that one first??  SAL Alexandre will be the last as I want to stitch in Caron Waterlilies silk and there is an overabundance of beautiful shades so I'm having trouble making up my mind.   Definitely not pink though:-)   Still there's plenty of time for decision making.   Tonight I hope to finish page 4 of the Quaker Christmas Sampler and then I will do the next panels on the Nativity Sampler.   Christmas is out of my system now, so I need to get it out of the needlework basket too!