Oct 23rd Monday Update

 Another Monday so time for Another Monday Update. Let's see what I worked on last week...

Monday was a day off. I did surveys and computer work all day. That's okay made money haha.

Tuesday was 1 year since my mom passed away. So in her honor I worked on a favorite WIP of hers...

Here is where it was before. I added 355 stitches to it...

She always wanted to steal this one to hang on her wall haha. I miss that. It did feel good to work on it again.

Wednesday I went looking for some white aida. I found some ecru and decided it was good enough. So I got busy and finished the last Halloween Mini on Saturday finally...

Here are all 9 now...

The fabric for the cauldron shouldn't show much at all when I do the cube finishes I would like to do. I doubt they will be finished for this year but I will make sure they are for next season. Love the way they turned out. 

It was a crappy weekend. A lot of drama. I still don't really know what's to come of it. Hurt feelings were definitely felt. I am really really trying hard to be the positive me I know I can be. Just get really frustrated that no matter how hard I try I just can't keep the drama away. People attack others just too easily. I wish more people would be as caring as I try to be. Hopefully it will blow over quickly and just be a bad mistake that never happens again. Hugs all the way around to my blog readers. 

Love yourself. Love each other. Be nice (is it that hard?). Smile.

Oct 16th Monday Update

 Hello Readers. I'm stitching and loving life but it has slowed down a bit. Just 2 projects this past week...

First up I finished the Halloween Mini Cat Face on Thursday...

Just one left to stitch now for this set to be done! Just need to dig out some white Aida haha.

Over the weekend we were busy but I had a project yelling for attention...

A Halloween Heart from Sekas & Co. I love these fun charts. The fabric is 10ct Metallic Tula and the threads are Pearl Cotton #5 and Glow in the Dark Kreinik. Look at it in the dark...

I enjoy these so much. I have 2 finished into decorative pillows. Two waiting to be made into pillows (including this one now). I have a snowman one still in my tote and trust me it will be done this winter. I have one other in my stash but I might have to start looking for some others haha. I find them on Ebay pretty easily. I think I seen a dog one! Oh my. They are fun and fast really. Just 3 days to finish this with not a lot of time spent. 

Over the weekend we worked on converting the well area to our winter shower house...

We got the walls up, the floor part down, and the metal on. Today dad did the door and the light. We will put up foam insulation next. Here is the normal shower we use...

We use a tankless propane heater for the water. It actually burns your skin if you turn it up too high so it's amazing. The winter house is a lot easier to heat and insulate. Plus it keeps the well safe from freezing temperatures as well.

A peek into our crazy campground life haha. Tomorrow is 1 year since my mom passed. Wow. 1 year. It's odd how much it hurts to be the anniversary. Yesterday I started crying just because. I think missing her a normal day feels different. I think I remember the hospital too clear right now. The hospital stay was just horrible. I wish I never would have seen her that way. She was so scared. In so much pain. The end just plain sucked. Watching her take her last breathes on this world was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. 1 year. How can it be 1 year? It feels like an eternity and yet it feels like yesterday. 

I know that we are happy. We are doing amazing. We love our day to day life. Then I feel guilty. But I know she would want us to be happy. Boy mom happy we are I promise you that. 

Anyway. Love yourself. Love each other. Hug your family and cherish them. Hug yourself. Smile. Find happiness.

Oct 9th Monday Update

Only 2 projects this week but I'm happy with my progress on both.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I worked on October from Season 2 by Hands on Designs. Thursday I finished it up...

1,384 stitches in this little design. Honestly at first the row of faces bothered me. Then I noticed the theme in all of these is a repeating type pattern in this section and I understood. I guess originally I thought it was supposed to be a design on the pumpkin. I LOVE the white pumpkin. Just beautiful overall design of course haha. I can't believe just two more to do and this set will be done! I think I've stuck with every month in the month they were supposed to be for. That makes me proud. I am toying with a different idea for a monthly design next year. We'll see.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday I worked on the Halloween Minis by Artecy. I started the cat face...

I'm doing this one symbol by symbol and I really enjoy that. Easier since it's a smaller design. So this week was 2,397 which was a little more then last week. Even though it was only 2 designs this time around.

The semi sane monthly challenge I'm in is a puzzle solving type. Each puzzle has 20 pieces and each piece we stitch 1,000 stitches to earn the piece. Then we solve the puzzle. 2 entries earned with each puzzle solve. We are on our 2nd puzzle now. It is fun but not near as much fun as last month's Go Stitch challenge. This one has a lot more planning and math involved. One nice part is we have a team of 11 stitchers working together. My blog friend Faith and a lady who we both know in the real world is on the same team as me. 

Guess what Jeremiah got last week??? A phone!!! It was time. Plus I found out with his health insurance he gets a fantastic phone with a fantastic package for free. So that's extra nice. Can't turn that away can we? He's trying hard to get used to it. He seems to be enjoying it. Even getting on Facebook more. I'm really proud of him. He gets in moods where he feels like he doesn't have friends. Hard to believe that when he posts something and gets so many comments and likes. Goober. So he's enjoying that part. 

Saturday we had fun attending a charity BBQ event. They raised at least $7,000 they said. Maybe more with donations. How neat. The charity buys Christmas presents for low income families. A great organization it sounds like. So we were happy to pay back. Plus we got a delicious meal and enjoyed our time out. 

Things are really chilling down. We even had to turn our little heaters on. We are building the winter shower house this weekend. I'll try to remember to share photos this time around. It's perfect and stays nice and warm for us. I'm happy things are slowing down. Now I can settle in a do my winter stitching haha. I have so many fun ideas of what I want to do. Now to get my fingers to cooperate and stitch faster on all the things haha. 

Okay well have a great week. Love yourself. Smile. Enjoy life.

Sept 25th Monday Update

Another fun challenge week with the Go Stitch Challenge. This has been a fantastic challenge for me. I've enjoyed it very much. Let's see what stitching I did last week...

Monday -- Day 18 Letter G. Grow Together HAED 200 needed ...

Tuesday - Day 19 Letter H Jeremiah picked Halloween Minis from Artecy...

You can see in the photo with all of them I was close to finished with Ice Monster. After 534 stitches it was finished. Now just the cat and cauldron left. The other 3 I just don't care for bat, scarecrow, and grave stone. I didn't like the cauldron and Jeremiah convince me it was kind of cute haha. 

Wednesday -- Day 20 Letter X. Go Stitch Day needed 400...

I decided to finish up Wish Upon a Starfish first...

216 stitches finished it up. I am so happy to have this one finished. I started it in 2015! Of course I only worked on it 21 days. I would put it down and completely forget about it. 

The rest of Day 20 I put stitches in Book Dragon...

195 stitches added brought my total for the day 411 so Day 20 was complete.

Thursday - Day 21 Letter Wild. Minimum stitches on any choice. I went back to Country Life from the Just Cross Stitch Magazine...

Added 219 for Thursday

Friday - Day 22 Letter J. Wow no J for me. So 400 stitch day. Back to Country Life already on Q-Snaps...

638 added.....another close finish

Saturday and Sunday no stitching. Letters....B and D were called. I have WIPs for both so that's awesome. Just 400 stitches to make up. Today is T which I get to start a new piece for. Why no stitching this weekend?

We've been working hard and finally Sunday was our last trip to the house. We got the rest of the stuff we needed out and let the rest go. Fred has to stop and get a few things that he can pick up easily after work. Our poor little truck just couldn't haul any more in one load. It was full. But Jeremiah and I said Goodbye. It was hard. Tears were shed. 15 years here. 15 years worth of memories. We are ready to move on with our lives. We are ready to change some things drastically. We are changing things drastically. I learned a lot finally. No more hoarding. No more getting more things that we just don't need. Cherish the things you have don't get more and more and more. I am so curious to see what the auction will bring. If the company knows what they are doing it should be great. Honestly though I'm so thankful they are doing the rest. They will clean out the trash. Clean out the stuff for sale. Do the sale. I'm so so thankful. Yesterday I was just done and disgusted with how I let stuff overtake my health. Everywhere. Stuff. Junk. Just never going to live like that again. Anyway I am healing now. Our poor storage shed door barely closed. We need to get in there and sort everything. My crafts is spread into box and box after box. So I will definitely be organizing everything better. We luckily found a lot of containers and tubs to store stuff in. Now we can breath and take our time with that. No rush. No pressure. Just getting the storage shed better haha. 

 

Love yourself. Breath. Hug your loved ones. Smile. I'm off to stitch and catch up. Have a wonderful fantastic week.

Monday Update

What a week it's been. I got a call from Surgeon and they moved my surgery to Friday. They had an emergency surgery come up. Fred decided to go ahead with taking Thursday off work so we could get some other things taken care of. We went to pick up mom's ashes...

She has line of sight of the TV which was her favorite thing in the world well other than the ocean. A family friend got me a stuffed Snoopy which she also loved so it is sitting right beside her. I also got a new comfy chair to sit in...

So much more comfortable than the wooden rocker we had in the spot. Which fit perfect in between our two beds to replace a much more uncomfortable chair that we had there. This chair is perfect for long stitching hours ladies. Love it!! Also perfect for my surgery recover as well. 

I was worried about the early morning surgery. They called the day before and we needed to arrive at 12:30pm. Perfect. So we slept in and took our time. I went in for surgery about 4pm. I was waking up about 6pm. The doctor told Fred that when they cut the muscle in my chest the Xyphoid popped even more out so it was definitely ready to come out. Hope this photo doesn't bother anyone I find it fascinating...

The top square is the incision and then they also put in a pain pump. The two tubes you see. It seeps numbing medicine directly into the muscle area slowly. Purpose is to have people on less opioids. I still have one for pain management. But this helped a lot I'm sure. I had a little purse that held the ball of medicine...

The thing was annoying. I was so worried about pulling the tube out. But it probably helped me stay still. Last night I noticed a wet spot on my shirt and after we got to looking the medicine was leaking around the bandage. After a quick call the surgery team said I had probably healed and the medicine wasn't going into my skin any more. Luckily we could remove the tubes by ourselves. Quick YouTube look and I seen several videos of how to remove it. So Fred was able to painlessly remove it. Ahhh I was free of the tubes. Today I notice no real pain difference. I guess a little more tightness but very manageable. Follow up appointment Nov 23rd which is great since Fred has the day off that day. 

No pushing or pulling for 6 weeks. Light duty. No lifting. All those make sense type of things. So I'm taking a break and poor me I will have more stitching time haha. Fred and Jeremiah are doing fantastic taking care of me. I'm a lucky girl. Spike is so sweet too. He can sure tell something is wrong...

He loves to sit beside me and hold my hand. So adorable. He is being very gentle. He nudges my shirt and wants to smell my stomach and then lays his head down and pouts. It's just precious. So I will be okay. Just need time to heal.

Life has been working out. Jeremiah and me were talking this morning about how things are just falling into place. We are doing well. Of course we miss my mother dearly but I swear this was all meant to be. We are moving on. We are okay. Yes I still feel up with tears. She was my life for 43 years. But now I have a new purpose myself.

I finished up the Embroidery challenge. I fulfilled the requirements. Here is where the Ice Monster ended...

Then I started working on the last Year of Celebrations piece again. Here is where I am right now...

So we've been busy. But happy. Loving life. I'm going to go get my stuff done that I want to do and STITCH. Love yourself. Smile. See ya next Monday.

Monday Update

Hey Readers. I've been working on the Embroidery.com half hour a day challenge. Today is the last day and boy I'm ready to work on something else haha. Anything else. Here is my Ice Monster now though...

Love how cool he is turning out. 

Well we are okay. Sometimes the emotional wave is crazy. I keep wondering if it was all a dream. Then I see signs and remember it wasn't. The sadness, happiness, guilt, loneliness, relief, etc etc that hits is so confusing. But I've talked to a bunch of people and it's all normal I guess. I've read some little books the hospital gave me. Again it says my range of emotions is normal. So that helps a lot. We talk to her. We have made a spot so when we pick up her ashes she can watch TV because that was her favorite thing in the world. 

Halloween was fun. We had a party here Saturday night. We were supposed to have our family band but everyone within 50 miles got sick at the same time. I know Jeremiah and I had our yearly sinus infection. Fred took 2 sudafed and was fine. Thursday is the surgery to remove that stubborn broken Xiphoid. I admit I am nervous about the pain but ready to get it taken care of and MOVE on. 

Have a great week. Love yourself. Love each other. Smile!

Hard Update

Some of my readers follow me on Facebook and know what I'm about to post about. Last few weeks were a year long that's for sure.

We went up to Fort Wayne for a doctor appointment on the 12th. It was an appointment for a cardio-thoracic surgeon to see if he would remove my broken xiphoid. He asked some questions and then told us when he does bypass on people some people have xiphoid's that just look like they will cause problems and he removes it to be safe. I said Great so will you remove mine. He said definitely. So what a relief! Surgery is scheduled for November 3rd. We ran by the house since we were in town. We had a fantastic visit with mom. She was so excited about my surgery and that it will finally be over. This time of year she panics about Christmas and what to get for us. I had some ideas and she was so excited about them. She was really coming to terms with we needed separation for a little bit. She understood we wanted to live at our cabin and then purchase a house. After a few years if her health declined we would move her in. She was at peace. 

Thursday morning at 6am I get a phone call. My mom was at the ER and they think she had a major heart attack. She talked to me on the phone. She told me stay here with my dog. He needed me. I listened. 6pm that night the doctor called. She had taken a turn for the worst. I needed to get there now. So we hurried up. They took her to emergency cath lab instead of waiting for the next day. 

We got there and waited. The doctor came out. Grabbed a chair and sat down with us. Not a good sign right? Right. She needed a triple bypass. They couldn't do it. Her heart was too badly damaged. She was on a heart balloon pump to keep her heart pumping. Also a list of other things started coming. Kidney failure. They had to put her on vent because of lung failure. They needed to do dialysis but again... She was too ill for it. I stayed the night Thursday right by her side. Friday more answers that were scary. Nothing they can do. Let's give her a few days to see if she can regain strength but they would shake their head. She was stable condition all weekend. Just Waiting. Monday morning the cardiologist team said there was no hope. She would have died Thursday if it wasn't for the machines. They would send in a palliative care team to ask some questions. Then the nurse said they were busy and they wouldn't get there till Tuesday. I said Wait we are leaving her till tomorrow for no reason? So the nurse said well she could ask me the same questions. They are just hard questions to hear. Did I know my mom's wishes? Yes. She wouldn't want to be kept alive by machines if there was no hope. Everyone there knew it too. 2 of mom's life time friends. So they started the process on unhooking her. It was a horrible process but I know it was what she wanted. That evening at 8:45 she went to be with her mom and dad.

My heart is broken in so many ways and yet at peace. Her health was really deteriorating so much lately. She knew she couldn't travel any more. She knew she was tired. She was in so much pain. So now she can rest and be pain free. I want to call her so bad. That part is the hardest. Jeremiah is having a hard time as well. They were inseparable most of his life. Waves of emotion. The viewing was Thursday the Funeral was Friday. It was beautiful. So much celebration. So many stories. She is being cremated and we will take some of her ashes to Hatteras lighthouse. Her favorite place in the world. We will be okay because our support system is just amazing. So much love. Plus a dear angel looking over us. Life is changing but I know we will be okay.

We have settled into our cabin permanently until we can afford a house. The housing market is insane. So we will get a better vehicle and save up money. We needed one thing to live here that we didn't have...

A mailbox. Now it's installed and we wait patiently or not so much for it to be setup and ready. Need to go do some paperwork tomorrow. A cousin came by last night and left something for us. How fun!!! The pride I have to be back in my home town zip code. Home at last. We love this community. 

I have been stitching when I could....

Finished the Witch Face...

 

Started the next one (2 left!) Ice Monster...

So much white on white. Look close. 

Wow....What an update. So hard to write. Love yourself. Love each other. Smile. Enjoy life. Do it while you can.

Another Monday Update

Hellllllo Readers. Still here. Still happy and loving life. Still stitching. Least a half hour a day. I've been working on the Witch Face from Halloween Minis. Here it was on the last update (the 3rd)...

Here she is yesterday on the 9th...

Loving working on this one. 

The weather has been nice so I've been a little busy but still getting at least 30 minutes. I really need to stick with that. It's doable. No matter what just 30 minutes at least. Of course winter is ahead and normally I get A LOT more time during winter. I do need to pick up more of my Stash so I have more options. Then find a place to store it haha. 

I really hope everyone is doing good. We had a fantastic weekend. Jeremiah went Friday night with my Dad and Step Mom. They kept him overnight and headed to their favorite casino Saturday morning. Jeremiah won a little electric pizza cooker. Have to add that to our fun options for cooking. Then he sat down at a new machine with cows getting abducted by spaceships. I guess he hit the button 3 times and then hit free bonus spins. He kept getting new spins and winning. Dad said the machine was making noise and everyone was looking Jeremiah was all smiles of course. He ended up winning $400!!! How cool. I told him he can go any time haha. Dad didn't do well. Bev did fantastic. She said Jeremiah is her good luck charm. She went twice without him and lost both times. So that's too funny. Then we went to Jeremiah's favorite band in the evening. We had a blast. It was a wonderful weekend indeed. 

Okay I need to get my blog reading done so I can go stitch. Have a wonderful week. Love yourself. Smile.

Monday Update

Hi Readers. Still here. Still stitching. Last week I started the October Year of Celebrations piece. My last one!!! I was able to get progress 4 days...

Then Saturday was October 1st. I joined in the WitchyStitchy2022 challenge again. Just half hour a day. So I pulled back out the Halloween Minis...

I really thought I had worked on them last year for the challenge and evidently I didn't join in last year. So I'm really glad I jumped back in it this time. I am working on the Witch face. Here it was when I pulled it out...

Evidently I started it October 2020 and just never blogged about it. I am back and better than ever though now...New Me Girls! Anyway. I have 2 days so far already have a lot of new progress...

Love how you can see her eyes popping now. I will keep at it. Least a half hour a day. Yesterday I got 3 days worth of time haha so that helped a lot.

We had a busy weekend. The weather was low 70's so we did a lot of things we wanted to do before the colder weekends move in. We cleaned out our travel trailer we have parked beside our cabin. It makes great storage but was all thrown in there so we needed to empty and restructure. Then Fred made me a shelf to hold all our cooking items...

It was all piled to the doors so now we actually have space! Then he built a shelf for under our table inside. The extra drinks were in boxes and our towels were in a laundry basket and it was just taking up a stupid amount of space. So all organized now...

Perfect. We also got a lot of stuff around the campground done so that was great. Perfect Perfect. We keep talking about how great we are doing. It's so wonderful so be so happy.

Love yourself. Smile. Stitch!

Oh.....I'll leave you with cute Spike pics....