Reading or Stitching

I love to read, at least I used to all the time. When I worked full time (7 years ago) most lunch breaks you would find me with a book. I could have spent all my time reading. I did stitch, one project at a time and usually a large one, like L&L angels. Then when I retired somehow both those hobbies took a back seat. I guess helping Mom look after my Dad was more time consuming than I remember.

I got back into stitching and discovered all these new designers whose patterns I fell in love with and started stitching and stitching and, well lets just say it has taken over, but I don't mind in the least. Just wish I could stitch as fast as they design.

Then I bought an e-book (Sony) and as I didn't have anything to compare it with, thought it worked fine and didn't think too much about the fact that one page could be 4 lines and the next a full page. Not only was I helping to save trees, I was saving money by borrowing from the library without having to leave home. Only I still did not read like I used to, but at least I was reading a few books a year, probably what most of you read in a month.

A few months ago I bought an iPad. You need an app for something, they most likely have it. There's ebooks and ibooks and I'm sure others. Well I finally figured out how to get books I already have onto ibooks and am impressed with it. Every page is full and it never stalls (at times the Sony would freeze up). In the last 2 days I have read 1 book and started another. Okay they are not intense or huge books, but hey this is a start back into a hobby I once thought I couldn't live without.

The books are by an author I had never heard of, Gayle Trent . Murder Takes the Cake was so good I had to start Dead Pan right away. She has also written 2 books under the pseudonym Amanda Lee. These 4 books is all she has written, I do hope she continues the series with them.

So if you like cozy murder mysteries, you will most likely like these.

Now, the question is do I go stitch or read ?????

Friday Finishes

This was my New Year's Day start, I changed the year to 1919 in honour of my Dad's birth year. (2/14/1919)

The Sampler Girl

28 ct. Jazlyn Bone

DMC 3831

These were all previously stitched. I did all the finishing/sewing by hand.

The Sampler Girl

I can't find the pattern for this one anyone know who the desinger is ?

Stacy Nash Primitives

Snow

A picture is worth a thousand words !

So I will only write a few :) I looked out the front at 11:00 to see how much snow there was and the above picture is what I saw. There has been a warning of snow since yesterday morning, and as predicted it came. Okay they were off by an hour, kept saying it would be 8:00 and it started about 9:00. Just the same, would you not try to get home before then instead of taking a risk. I know I would and yes I also realize anything can happen in the blink of an eye. Thank goodness no one was hurt.

Friday Finish

I stitched this back in October 2009 and it is now my first finish of 2011. How bad is that ? But then again I came across a piece I'll be getting framed that has 2007 stitched on it.

This is #1 of 8 from my "needs to be finished" pile. Since there are 4 Fridays this month, I thought 2 every week was reasonable, but time just got away from me, maybe there will be 3 next Friday ;)

Wee One

Winter Bird

Heart in Hand

28ct. Kahki (?)

WDW and DMC

There wasn't much to do on this one, in fact it was the one color in WDW that I did not have. So I decided I would use the DMC, could not find any 268, well long story short it turns out the Anchor and DMC conversions were reversed.

First UFO Finish

My first Stitch to Finish is Cherry Hill by CCN . I saw on another blog where the stitcher put in more sheep than the words and I liked the look so "borrowed" her idea. This was a thread pack, so I used the Crescent Colors that came with it and it called for DMC 3865. I'm not sure of the color name for the fabric but it is 14 count from Sassy's Fabby's. All that needed to be stitched was the sheep, windows and a bit of grass. It does look much better in reality, I had to scan it as the camera battery needed recharging.

Stitch to Finish

I thought about joining in the 15 Day Challenge, but with the amount of UFO's I have it just did not seem right. Not only that I tend to be a "I'm going to stitch this one" at whim type. So I am going to set up a small plan and see if I can stick to it.

JANUARY

1. Stitch only UFO's, nothing new.
2. Gather and organize those finishes that need to be finished off or framed.
3. Finish off 8. Get 2 framed.
4. Organize stitching stuff (this will be on-going, till I get it right *LOL*)

I do have plans for the rest of the year, but will see how January goes. I already broke #1 with a traditional New Year's Day start, but it's small. My plans include using up my DMC collection some colors I have 3-5 times over. Some I know I will never use, but I think they will make cute little fobs or biscornus. That idea will take some planning and I'm still thinking it out.

In the meantime this is the first UFO I pulled out to work on. You'll notice it says 2009.

I will post the others as I pull them out of hibernation.

Happy New Year

Kincavel Krosses

28ct white linen

DMC 666,699,and 3821

All the best for the 2011 !

Last Stitches of 2010

Here are some of my latest stitching. There may be a couple more lurking around. Check back tomorrow for my "Stitches to Finish".

Heart Snowflake

2011 Easy Cross Stitch Calendar

28 ct. white evenweave

DMC 816

Small Token

Blackbird Designs

Merry Christmas by

Liberty House Primitives

28 ct. white linen

DMC 321

All Hearts Come Home for Christmas

The Cat's Whiskers Design Studio

JCS Ornaments 2010

A Bird in Hand

La D Da

Murphy's Law

As I look back over the past month, if it was to go wrong it did. First my hot water tank, car battery, my Mom's fall and hospitalization. Then the hot water tank "again", parking ticket, door key breaking in lock, luckily there was enough of it to pull out. The tank needed to be replaced, the parking ticket was issued at Save on Foods parking lot at 4:18 p.m. stating I was parked there since 13:00 p.m. (2 hour limit) which was impossible as I was at the hospital. Finally figured out what went wrong, the chalk mark on my tire was from the day before. I disputed the ticket and they "forgave" it this time only. Since I am usually there every day I will now need to check my tires, hopefully it does not happen again. I'm sure there was something else, just can't think of it right now :)

Took my Mom to the cast clinic 4 days after she came home and there is a fracture, so the cast will be staying on till at least the end of January. The cast dr. who saw her will not be there so I need to make an appointment with another and their office is closed till Jan. 4th so we may even be looking at beginning of February. She hasn't been wanting to go for her coffee and donut, so I go and bring it home for her. She's making do with a pair of readers I got her, I know they are not the best but she does use them. Finally convinced her on Wednesday she needed to go and see about getting a new pair. We did and they will be ready in 2 weeks.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my stitching and plans for the new year. I was tempted by the 15 day challenge, but decided that really was not right for me.

I now think I have one in place for myself and with some tweaking, it should be ready for revealing tomorrow. So come on back to see what it is and there will be some pictures of my latest stitches.

Merry Christmas

Update

It's been a hectic and stressful week, with my Mom coming home from the hospital yesterday. More on that later.

I received The Recipes for A Cure cookbook from The Attic and am very impressed. Not sure what I was expecting, but this was way beyond anything I thought it would be. As I was flipping through I came across this recipe and immediately thought of my Mom. I read through the recipe and sure enough they are the same cookies she used to make every Christmas, only I think she used rum, but I suppose you could use any liquor :)


Mom with my Dad's help would make dozens upon dozens of them, pack them up tin cans and we would all get them for Christmas. Oh how I miss them, now that I have a recipe I'll try and make them one year.

Then I came upon this free pattern from The Sampler Girl and thought of all the years Mom had Christmas Eve dinner, where these cookies always made an appearance.


Funny, how memories can make you happy and sad at the same time.

Now onto my Mom. She was admitted after spending 2 nights in emergency. At this point she was very confused, didn't know where she was and just was not herself. Without going into too much detail, she has a UTI, no head injuries, minor blockage to her heart and as she kept complaining about her wrist the dr. had another x-ray taken and they put a splint on, but as she kept taking this off she now has a cast.

My brother and I now believe she has dementia and this has been going on slowly for about a year and this hospital stay made it all the more recognizable. My dr. once told me the Mayo Clinic web site is very good for information and upon reading what they say about dementia, she has all the signs.

While getting her to bed last night, I think she may also be having "sundowning". I'm going to get a notebook and start making notes about the "little" things I find different and see where we go from there. In the meantime I will do my best to look after her. Which may be easier said then done.

Never Ask

Earlier today I wrote about how things happen in 3's and told about my first two. I should never have asked what #3 could possibly be. First off, let me say that my Mom is and will be okay.

Late this afternoon we went for fish and chips at our favorite place. Not sure if this was related, but she had a terrible coughing fit, so bad I was almost gagging myself. Luckily this was at the end of our meal, so we left. Just outside the restaurant Mom fell, it was like slow motion I'm behind her watching this and trying to grab her but can't reach and she falls flat on her face. I get down to see if she's okay and there's blood gushing out. Some people come to help and I ask that they call for an ambulance as she has hit her head. Even before the ambulance guys look at her, one asks did you push her, meaning it as a joke to lighten up the moment but of course I'm panicking at all this blood, forgetting that head wounds always bleed profusely. Thinking back I should have replied that if I did there would be no witnesses :) Seriously they did handle the whole situation professionally.

Now we are at the hospital, the condense version of 3 1/2 hours later is:

2 stitches to the cut above her eyebrow, where the eye lid is starting to swell and bruise. A tetanus shot, boy was that needle long. X-ray of her left hand as she says it hurts badly, nothing broken, but it did take the brunt of her weight. Blood tests and ekg. The doctors wanted to keep her overnight to monitor her heart but she refused. I tried to talk her into it, but she kept saying no she wanted to go home then says " If they are going to keep me you should go home", this went on for some time. They were going to arrange for her to come back and have a portable monitor put on for a couple of days, but in the end the final blood tests came back and her blood was elevated so she really had no choice. I asked what they meant and was told there was indication of muscle damage to the heart. So I'm guessing the drs. are thinking she had or has had minor heart attacks. This is not the first time she has fallen for no reason, meaning she didn't trip on anything but it is the first time she has hurt herself. I'm hoping they can find out what is happening or at least rule some things out.

She also broke her glasses beyond repair. This will make for a hectic week of getting her eyes examined and finding new glasses without her being able to see :)

All this stress is not good for my health, so I'm off to bed now, hopefully to sleep, if not at least resting and thinking soothing thoughts to calm me. Maybe a tropical island with my stitching and no worries haunting me.

2 out of 3

"They" say things happen in 3's, well here's my first two.

1. This happened two weeks ago. Go to take a shower, water is "ice" cold. Look at hot water tank, no pilot light and a "bit" of water in tray. Try to turn pilot light back on no luck. Call Sears, this happened on a Thursday, first available time was Tuesday. Okay, guess I don't have much choice. Monday morning repair guy calls and we are on his schedule for that day. Goodie,but I have a dr's appointment, so we'll try for late afternoon. He doesn't call first just shows up, good thing I was home by then. The tank is still under warranty so I only pay for labour. $100.00 plus taxes and 45 minutes later he has it going and so far all is well.

2. Yesterday I woke up and for the first time in many a day it's not raining. Took Mom for her morning coffee, drove her home and said "I'm going to Trout Lake before Tiger disowns me." We had a nice short walk about and the fresh air did me a world of good. On the way home we pass Wal Mart so I decided to stop in and pick up a couple of things. Get back to my car and it won't start, all that happens are a few dash lights flickering. I call CAA and tell the girl that I don't think it's the battery but something electrical. BIG MISTAKE ! She sends out a tow truck. Thankfully the guy was really nice and helpful, he jumps my battery and the car starts, but as soon as I try to back up, it dies again. He takes a look at the battery and sure enough it needs to be replaced. I then have to wait for another CAA guy to come with a battery to install. This all started at around 2:30 and after picking up some fast food for supper, I got home close to 5:00.

3. Wonder what will happen next ????

Angry Birds Day

You drive me crazy, keep me up to all hours of the night, drive me crazy some more and keep me up till 7:00 a.m. Oh did I mention you drive me crazy !!!!

Happy 1st Anniversay

Another Noel

Freebie from 123 Citrouille

32 ct. white linen

DMC 666

I only used part of the pattern and made a little pillow of it. Originally I was going to do the full pattern, but got this far and thought it looked good as is.

Noel

I was a lucky winner in Mylene's blogoversary and look what she sent me. The stitching and finishing is perfectly done. I LOVE IT ! Thanks Mylene.

4 Seasons

It seemed to take me forever to do this little Winter pillow, thanks to the Angry Birds :)


It's a freebie from The Stitcherhood It seems I didn't show you the Summer or

the Autumn one, at least not that I can find on my blog.

Here's all four together.

November Snow

Just popping in to let you know I'm still here and everything is okay. I still haven't gotten around to taking pictures of my stitching and there are a few, it will be soon.

This has been taking up all of my free and not so free time.


I decided I was going to get an iPad for my b-day/Christmas gift and why wait. At the same time I bought a red cover for it. Some of the apps from my iTouch work on my iPad, so that was a bonus, I didn't know they would. One being "Angry Birds" If you have not heard of this game and have an iTouch/phone/pad it is well worth getting. Of course it is much nicer on the iPad (bigger screen).

Now, on to my title for this post. I have lived in Vancouver all my life and I don't ever remember it snowing in November. And this is the 2nd time we've had snow. The first was not so bad. This time there is enough to last the rest of winter,(when it officially gets here). My brother came over this morning and took me shopping. We went to Costco and this is the first time I have seen it so empty, especially before the holidays. Then we went to Save-On-Foods and they were not so busy as well. Even with his SUV in 4 wheel drive, he was slipping around. We are expecting to get rain in the next few days and it has warmed up, but there is so much snow it will be slushy.

I'm off to see if I can get some stitching in before supper, that is if the Angry Birds don't follow me :)