Snow Daze

Report from the doc's office says I need an ultrasound to rule out an abdominal tear that would get bigger by doing things like: laundry, walking a 100 pound dog, and carrying bins of holiday decorations up and down the stairs. So until this coming Thursday I have lifting restrictions on top of the "ice/heat/take it easy" orders. Ordinarily that would be frustrating as heck, but a random act of viral infection, complete with a fever of over 100F made it easier to not care. Kitten cuddles made it bearable.

Before the fever set in I got started in heavily planning a costume for one of our dancers. It's rather... hmmm.... we shall say "geared for a specific audience" and "very adult themed." My portion of the costume work will be styled around the riding gowns worn during the Victorian period. FuzzyHusband, our resident leather worker, will be constructing the portion of the costume that gets revealed once the Victorian gown bits are stripped away. It's a tag team effort to say the least.

Speaking of costume pieces being flung around, I was supposed to be in a car driving home from a burlesque festival in Kentucky this weekend. But between the fever that wouldn't die and this yesterday:

... the trip was cancelled. The other ladies were still panning to go until this storm actually hit with the forces predicted. If you look closely in that photo you'll see two white tailed deer slowly making their way up the ravine.

This storm wasn't a total bummer though. Himself and two of his bestest friends took advantage of the chance to practice with their snowshoes and sleds before their trip north next weekend.

There used to be a large golf course about 3 miles from our home. It's been turned into a park and the pro shop building is now a restaurant, bar, and bakery. So they spent yesterday playing in the snow and then got to warm up with grown up treats. FH did bring me some cookies when he finally got home. Obviously I didn't go with.

The snow stopped falling sometime in the middle of the night. There's about a foot to remove from the driveway. Someone's going to regret forgetting to have the snow thrower serviced this summer.... but it won't be me!

My fever has officially broken now, but I've still got the lifting restrictions to work around. We're tag-teaming the laundry and some other chores today. I'd like to get the house tidied up before he's gone for a week. Especially if the ultrasound shows a muscle tear.

I'm off to oversee the sorting of laundry and whatnot. See you next weekend!

Really, Universe? Really?

That cold I had after the holidays stuck around and turned into bronchitis. I've been coughing all week because apparently I warranted antibiotics and oral steroids, but not an inhaler or cough suppressant.

Ellie is supposed to have her spay and at least 2, maybe 3, biopsies tomorrow.. along with getting microchipped and her rabies shot. However. Let's play "what's wrong with my kitty's face?" again!

Her left upper lip is swollen and hard and there appears to be an abscess on the left side of her lower jaw, right up against the teeth. So that's going to be a "fun" reveal to the vet in the morning. She was totally fine Thursday. I saw a bit of swelling Friday, but figured she'd gotten tagged in a disagreement with Pixel. And now it's atrocious. I'm hoping we go forward with the spay anyway. Her hormones are just going to keep getting her into trouble otherwise. Might have to hold off on the biopsies though. Dangit.

At least being sedentary this week has been good for critter snuggles and stitching.

See you next weekend, hopefully with good news.

Good Intentions As Paving Stones

I'd planned on doing an early blog post last week to commemorate FuzzyHusband's and my 10th wedding anniversary, but things were just too busy. I was too busy trying to finish this piece and neither of us wanted to deal with holiday crowds, so we've opted to wait until after the holidays to have a nice dinner out somewhere.

I did get the vest done and delivered on Saturday. Kinda bummed that I'm still too sick to see it being worn on New Year's Eve.

FH bought me some beautiful jewelry, which is a rare and wonderful treat reserved for special occasions.

He also picked flowers that were the same type he used to buy me when we were poor college students and just starting to date. So sentimental! <3 p="">

Saturday was busy right up until I passed out from exhaustion. I had a cake to bake, a wreath to finish, bags to pack, critters to prep... all kinds of things needed doing. The last wreath of the season got done whilst waiting on the cake layers to cool. I designed it for my mother-in-law specially because she loves nutcrackers.

Then I wanted to make a post for Christmas Eve/Day, but again life was filled with wonderful things that were more important.

Tuesday morning I woke up with a fever and very little voice. When we finally got home that afternoon, Ellie Bean was injured and we had to rush to the vet. She'd somehow injured her lip, and the vet (not our regular one) wasn't sure how so he gave us antibiotics and sent us home.

I slept through most of Wednesday and Thursday as the lurgy symptoms got worse. Thankfully all signs point to it being a nasty cold and not an infection.

We went back to the vet Friday, in a snowstorm, because her lip looked worse. FH was home around 2:30 after swinging by the grocery store and passing 5 wrecks in 3 miles. The roads were heinous. It took us a while to get there and I'm glad we left way early for the appointment.

 This time we saw our regular vet and she's seen this type of injury before. Apparently Ellie likely failed to stick a landing after jumping down from something, landed on her faced, and skidded. The vet was impressed that her lip didn't tear away from her face. Confident that we weren't dealing with a potential abscess next to her jaw, Ellie and I headed home in the storm.

It was still coming down late yesterday evening. I haven't even gone near the door today as I woke up coughing and have no voice. Himself has been taking care of me all day. I've slept through most of it, as rest and fluids are about all one can do for a virus.

I figured I'm likely to sleep through most of tomorrow too, but since I was awake now I'd go ahead and update the blog. So Happy New Year to all. May 2018 be kinder to the world than 2017 has been.

WIPs and Chains

I've been sick and in pain all week. I can testify that crocheting while fevered is hard. Currently I'm working on row 8 for the third time. But it's looking gorgeous. I've found two mistakes in the pattern and noted them on Ravelry.

Until we get test results back, we won't know for sure what's going on. I do know that the fevers are due to internal silliness and not a virus or bacteria that can spread. Various test start happening this week. This is what happens when you can't see your doctor until a Friday. Better than not seeing one at all.

I'm going to go curl up and watch a movie or something. Maybe try finishing row 8 or maybe not.

See you next week!

More Mercy

I've been sick all week so nothing really got accomplished.

Here are some pictures of Mercedes that are adorable.

I'm going to go back to bed now. See you next weekend!

Of Sewing and Strep

The past week has been interesting to say the least. Mr. P moved back to his bachelor pad, which means he was finally strong and healthy enough to live on his own again. Then I came down with strep throat. The timing was irritating, but I caught it fast (Thursday) and am already starting to feel normal again.

I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped in terms of cleaning, decorating, and projects but given the circumstances, I'll take what I've got.

I finished the cleanup work on these eight autumn napkins. I love the contrast of these too fabrics. The picture doesn't do them justice.

 The placemats are "pillowcased," trimmed, trimmed, turned, and pressed. They still need the side opening slip stitched closed and quilted. However I'm tabling them until after I get my holiday gift sewing done. I'm thinking about quilting them with autumn designs and that will take longer than I have time for currently.

 And whilst I was cleaning I unearthed these 6 1930's reproduction prints that I'd purchased to make quilt shop bolts from, so I got them cut last night. Like the other 59 from last weekend, I haven't cut the individual fat quarters yet. None of these particularly appeal to me for more use in miniature, so the remaining fabric will get put in my life-size quilting stash.

I finally found where I'd stuck this picture. I took it back in June. It's the quilt shop bolts I'd made to date, organized by color or collection. I need to get an accurate count at some point. There was one, but apparently the note was "put in a safe place." Plus I think I finished a few more bolts since then, not to mention the 65 bolts ready to be completed.

The hard part will be resisting the urge to buy more fabrics until I can get my custom shelves cut and assembled. That's actually going to be an issue for a few months. My friend who built a laser cutter sold it. He wants to build a larger one and needed the capitol to start the project. It will be a while before a new one is finished. I was also going to have him cut the other windows I need for the 1930's Nursery roombox. So that project is on hold for a while.

Now that I have access to the actual Patchwork Peach building again, I will likely start in on painting, flooring, and interior accents after the holidays. Perhaps by then I'll have found someone else with a laser cutter in the area who would like to help me out.

Ugh

Pollux and I are both sick.  I'll get caught back on blogging when one of us is well again.

Puzzling Distraction

I wasn't feeling well yesterday, so I played with two of my new puzzles.  I picked out the two which are part of a larger set.  Eventually I'll have them all.

These are really unique because not only are they made from recycled plastic, but they attach with hinges.

So you can create a decorative piece to stand on a table or shelf.

They only took about fifteen minutes to put together, but I'm in love with the pictures.  I can't wait to have the entire series to display.

Lull

Life has been doing its level best to get in my way lately.

I've been sick for the better part of a month now with no real idea of what it wrong. Blood tests have been attempted, but really all that happened was I became a pin cushion. I'll get whatever results from whatever tests they were able to get blood for sometime soon.

There are more color problems on the Flowerpot Kitty. There wasn't enough black floss to finish the back-stitching and the DMC black is has a duller sheen. So I'm pondering what to do about that.

Castor had a seizure in the wee hours of the morning. His thrashing woke FH and I up around 4:40am. He'd been having little seizures for a while, but they were only little tics. This was a full blown, spittle covered, thrashing seizure. It took him a little while to come back to himself when it was over and then his back legs didn't want to work correctly. The vet took blood today and we'll know more tomorrow morning.

One of our young nephews (aged 12) had his appendix burst three weeks ago... the problem wasn't caught for two days due to flu being present in the house to confuse the symptoms. He survived that, survived the abscess that followed, and battled his way through the surgery when they finally took the pieces of ruined organ out. Now however he's spiked a dangerously high fever and is red over most of his body...and has been that way since Friday. His parents are going to switch hospitals tomorrow if no progress is made in diagnosis/treatment.

FH got the desktop PC fixed with the help of his friends over the weekend, so I've been getting all of my pictures in one place again and organizing them. Next comes backing things up. At least I can do that while resting.

I'll hopefully have something interesting to look at soon. Right now I"m just concentrating on being able to attend a wedding this weekend.

Crafty Ramblings

At least that's what my mind seems to be doing. The brain waves keep flitting from one idea to another right now. Being sick right now isn't helping me stay focused on anything at all.

One minute I'm gathering images and making sketches for Ara's swap, the next I'm stitching a gift for Holly's upcoming birthday. For those of you who just recently started following, Holly is one of my dearest friends. I tend to stitch gifts for her when I find something that fits her taste. Last year I made her a patriotic themed sampler with teddy bears on it. This year it's something a bit more nautical and will fit the decor of her bedroom.
As you can see I've got the main body of the lighthouse done along with the roof of the keeper's house. I've been working on this at night when I need to relax. Fortunately I have a true color lamp that can still next to me while I'm on the couch or move into my room if I need to stitch in bed.

The Rendezvous sewing is still lurking throughout the house. I'm maybe a quarter of the way through it. But I haven't touched it in a few weeks. My mental reset button with quilting started with this purple and blue quilt top. I am waiting for a chance to take it, the batting, and its backing to my friend, Donna's, house so she can help me get it layered and basted. Currently I'm fiddling with making appliques to go on this wall quilt.

Here is my bag of templates:I had tried to avoid it, but I believe I have to put up the sewing accouterments this week so I can use the kitchen table to work on the swap. My work room (read: glorified closet) is in too bad of a shape for me to try and work in there, not to mention I need as much natural light as I can get for this project. [Are you curious yet, San? ;- ) ] So the fabric gets to be piled neatly against the wall and in plastic boxes while I get the swap item under way.

Obviously I won't blog about that until Ara posts on her blog about all the pieces.

Since autumn is right around the corner I decided our spring-themed wreath needed to get changed out for something more appropriate. So I reclaimed a chunk of kitchen counter and set to work.I'm quite happy with it and the Fuzzy Husband was pleasantly surprised when he came home to it. Autumn is his favorite time of the year.

Last week also found me at a gathering of the quilters from the Peoria Stitcher's Guild. We were helping another member baste a quilt top. I didn't think to take my camera with me. Perhaps the artist will allow me to get a picture of it at the next guild meeting in October. The most amazing thing about the completely hand stitched quilt top was that she used only the leftovers from other projects to piece it. The colors all blended perfectly and it truly looked like she had purposely selected the fabrics to match. Other than the batting, she just had to buy fabric for the backing.

Next week the "surface stitchers" from the guild are having their meeting. I'm driving Donna and myself there, as our other friend who usually drives has a work obligation out of town. I may pack the blue and purple quilt in the car in case we have time to play with it after the meeting. As far as a project to work on at the meeting goes I will most likely take the lighthouse if I haven't finished it this weekend. I still need to sit down and finish that baby layette too.

I got the jacket finished, minus trim and buttons, moved on to the second bootie and started swearing under my breath. Apparently I discovered during the first bootie 5 years ago that there is a mistake in the pattern instructions. Of course something happened back then so I didn't work the second one while the changes I made were fresh in my mind. So now I have to sit down and count out how I did the first one so they will match.

Did I mention my nephew and his wife are expecting their third child next month? Yes I said nephew... I'm all of two months older than him. Gotta love huge families. I have fabric for a crib quilt to throw together but I haven't touched it since I washed the sizing out of the fabric.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention the new blog background. I love purple! Even better with a touch of black and grey.

So that's it for the moment. Once projects start getting done I will blog more about them. Hopefully I will start feeling better soon.

Unproductive

I'm tired and dizzy. Not quite sure why. It appears to be "just one of those days" where I'm a bit off.

Trying to choose a color of paper for the walls in the Greenleaf is simply exhausting for some reason.

I did manage to listen to the swarm of gnats in my head and start experimenting with making realistic, modern mattresses last night. I need a bed for the Greenleaf, two for the BD, one for FH's hunting cabin, and probably others down the line so I decided to let the gnats win and started measuring.

These two pieces are the same width and length, but different thicknesses.

I only had one piece of foam that was 1/2" thick and when I went looking for more I could only find 1" thick pieces. So I thought I would play and see which I liked better.

Modern mattresses tend to be thicker these days, so 1" thick might not be a bad thing. I can always use a thinner piece for the base or box spring to make up for it.

I followed the directions for making a mattress in Dodge's Doll's House Needlecraft book and covered the 1/2" piece. I have to say I'm not happy with the way the sides turned out.

I think the cover is way too tight. I'm going to take it apart and try a wider piece of fabric for the side. That ought to do the trick nicely.

I haven't covered the thicker foam yet. I'm waiting to see how much wider the fabric needs to be for the 1/2" thickness and then I will adjust it for the 1" thickness.

I also think I will break out the sewing machine for these. I stitched the first attempt on the 1/2" by hand. The seams are alright and are holding well (huzzah for even backstitching) but it just took too bloody long. So I will be dragging the machine out at some point in the next few days and trying again.

For now I think I will drag myself over to the couch and maybe put in season 1 of the new Dr. Who. I may or may not do some stitching. I think it depends on how ambitious I feel once I leave this chair.

Sick bunny and bunnydaddy

Albert Wilbert is feeling a bit under the weather. From the looks of things he's probably working on a bit of a hairball. I'm guessing nobody brushed him while I was so sick after Thanksgiving... I know I didn't have the strength to hold him then.

So since it's Saturday/Sunday and the best rabbit vet is 200+ miles away, we're administering canned pumpkin mixed with banana baby food via syringe and forcing extra water. If I don't like the feel of his skin tomorrow (too loose) we're going to give him some sub-q fluids... that shouldn't be necessary though. Thankfully we've been through the mill with our other bunny to the point that our vet back in St. Louis loaded us up with various things to create a lapine critical care hospital in our living room and the knowledge about giving fluids and force feeding.

From the looks of the litterbox his kidneys and bladder are functioning well. It's just his bowels that are not their usual selves. The last time this happened two rounds of force feeding is all it took to set him straight. I'm hoping that works this time around. Otherwise I may have to somehow get the two of us to St. Louis.

FH has a nasty cough that is sounding drier and more painful by the day. He's coughed his back out and I'm starting to try and use logic to persuede him to see a doctor. Apparently the pain he's currently in still isn't enough to get him to see reason...not even when added to the guilt of keeping me up at night with the coughing. I'm wondering if he will be sick enough tomorrow that I can load him up into the car and drive to the nearby Urgent Care place. That's what it took the last time he was sick.

I'm going to go collapse and see if I can get to Holly's in time tomorrow to let her dog out before he has an accident in his kennel. It's been a long day.

Maybe if I get some sleep I can blog about the awesome market that sells only locally produced food, including fresh bread made by the monks at the nearby abby.