Wants and Needs

The following two things are in my thoughts. Want. Need. Mine.

This lovely and fabulous design is "Quilted Garden" by Blue Ribbon Designs. Belinda posted teasers on Facebook for weeks about this new design and has finally revealed it in all its colorful glory! She also designed several "smalls" to also make. I love the little pin cushion. It should be in shops by the end of August. It will be mine. 

And look at this! I am seeing postings all over blog world about the Go! Baby Fabric Cutter. I have been wanting one of these for MONTHS! I have entered every giveaway and every contest to no avail. It is already on my Christmas list! Want! Need!

Sigh.

P.S. Netflix is now available for streaming on my android phone. My life has improved in immeasurable ways because of this.

Progress

More progress on the sampler!

We were out over the weekend at a new Marshalls store in our area and I saw these cute bowls! I would have bought one or two but I know they wouldn't really GO with anything. Common sense reared its ugly so I just took a picture to share!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

Overwhelmed (please excuse my scatterbrain)

Its been a few days since my last post. Matt had his gallbladder removed last Thursday and has spent the last fews day recovering. The surgery is much simpler than in the "olden" day when they practically had to cut you in half. Now it is just 3-5 little holes, Matt has three, well, more like two, since one of the "holes" was his belly button. I know more about gallbladder and liver functions than I care to and I could educate a few people if they really want to know. We had a crazy heat wave here in the mid atlantic and with the lack of a/c, Matt and I stayed at his moms house while he was resting and just went home Monday night. Thursday and Friday I took off work to take care of him and make sure he didn't overdo it. I had some time to do some stitching and some reading.

I worked on the round robin piece (sorry, no pic) I had with me and managed to lose one of the threads in the doctors waiting room. Yes, we all know my luck with threads. Luckily, I had the same color in my stash, so I was able to replace it without having to make a special trip to a craft store in the spare time I didn't have.

I also got to inhale the fourth book in the Pretty Little Liars series. Danielle got me started reading them and now I need to get my hands on the next one. Anyone else read this series? I have been reading alot this summer, it has been very enjoyable. Especially since I rekindled my relationship with Goodreads. It is a great site to keep track of books I have read, want to read, and what I am currently reading. I also get to see what my friends are reading. Kind of like Facebook for books....if that makes any sense.

Matts post op appointment was today, and aside from a reaction to the suture glue they used, he should be on the mend! Hopefully, this means that things are getting back to normal soon and we are getting back into the groove of our daily lives (and Matt can go back to work). I won't bore you with all my feelings, but this sick spouse stuff is crazy. It is a constant overflow of emotions, even when you know they are going to be okay. It's leaving them in a hospital room while you drive home to an empty house, the doctor talk, the paperwork, the insurance aholes, the needles. It's the fear, the reassuring smiles, the brave face, those secret tears, and that blissful moment when the nurse comes out to get you and you walk into the recovery room, they smile at you and everything is again right with the world.

I Haz A Howse....Almost

Worked some more on the sampler the last couple days. Almost done the house, well, one house out of two!

There is also a pic of my new needleminder put to work!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.3

Lock It In

Yesterday, the fabulous Danielle and myself attended our first lock in at In Stitches needlework shop located in Virginia. One had been at the shop once before back in March during the Woodlawn show and had been planning our next invasion since then. It is such a nice shop, the staff is very friendly and helpful and the shop is chock full of goodies! I have been on a stash diet as of late, so I had no plans for purchasing anything, but had a few pennies to spend in case anything caught my eye.

That Danielle, she is so awesome! Last week she had gone to Bedecked and Beadazzled and got me this super cool gift while she was there!

Isn't it the cutest thing!! It is a cupcake needle minder. I will have to get a better picture of it when I go home tonight, but the pink rhinestones are my favorite! I love pink! I love cupcakes! Danielle also gave me a fantastic bag of stash that included some great threads and nice bags to keep projects in.

While at the lock in, I got the last two patterns in the mystery sampler and also a small chart from Blackbird Designs. If I was smart, I would have gotten the threads while I was there, but my brain stopped working properly the last few days. Haha. The ladies at In Stitches were so generous at this event! Upon check-in, everyone was given a packet that included a free chart and a $10 gift certificate to use during shopping that day! They were also having a Christmas in July sale so their trunk show items were 20% off and everything else in the store (except for a select few things, like framing) was 15% off! Like I said, I have been on a bit of a stash diet lately. There has just been nothing coming out that has given me that "gotta have it" feeling. But, I tried my hardest to find things to buy, honest! With the discounts and the gift certificate, I spent $10 to get the three patterns I picked up, what a steal! The staff also had a lovely spread of food for us to enjoy during a break and also had some great door prizes. Sadly, I did not win any, but it was fun to see what the other ladies won.

Eventually, I settled in to do some stitching and worked on my sampler.

This is the most recent picture I have. Friday night, I finished the empty spaces on the path and while at the lock in I started working on the one of the houses. Promise I will post an updated pic asap! So many ladies present at the lockin were working on wonderful projects. It was nice to see everyones progress!

Speaking of progress, I also have to show you what I was working on Friday while at the hospital while waiting for Matt to be discharged. Danielle and I had a bit of a laugh over it because, well I messed it up, and by the time I noticed it I had made so much progress I couldn't bear to undo it.

This is my progress on one of the new Mill Hill kits, Vanilla Cupcake. So, as you can see, it is stitched on perforated paper. The side I am stitching it on is white. The other side of the paper is blue. Yes, I am stitching it on the wrong side of the paper. Ooops! I was 3/4 of the way across the bottom stitching the blue when I realized it. Obviously, I just said "screw it" and kept going as I have a bit more done than the blue bottom border. Danielle and I both agree that since the background is solidly stitched, the background color of the paper really doesn't make a difference.

It was so nice to spend some time with other "stitchy" ladies yesterday and be able to shop around for some new stash. I am definitely excited to attend their next event!

Recovery

Hello Everyone. Thank you so much for your kind words of encouragement over the last few days.

Wednesday, Matt and I went to see a specialist about his condition. Upon arrival at the office, there was some confusion about whether Matt needed a referral from his primary (who never saw him about this), which resulted in me almost breaking bad on the Dr.'s office manager. Matt has never been this sick and never needed surgery so I knew as scared as he was, there were going to be some times I was going to have to step up and advocate for my husband. Not being a confrontational person, I really had to suck it up. Anyways, we were relieved to find that as soon as the doctor came into the exam room she knew exactly what was wrong, how to fix it and what to do. He need to have a endoscopic procedure to remove a gallstone from his common bile duct, which is the tube that delivers bile from the liver to the small intestine (in a nutshell). The blockage that he had was causing his bile to back up into his liver and overflow into his bloodstream, which then caused him to have jaundice.

The jaundice was the scariest part for me. It's one thing to hear your spouse/child SAY they don't feel well, but to see them visibly change before your very eyes is pretty terrifying. His skin was yellow, the whites of his eyes were yellow. Scary stuff. Plus the salt from the bile was rising to the surface of his skin and causing him to be extremely itchy. So, since Matt had eaten breakfast that morning, he was scheduled to go to the hospital the next day as an outpatient to get the blockage removed. Alas, by the time we got home that afternoon his pain was so terrible I called the doctor back and she right away to take him to the emergency room. To the hospital we went and waited.

Long story short, Matt was admitted to the hospital that night so that the doctors could keep an eye on him and manager his pain until his procedure the next day. I had to go home that night as I had none of my nightly provisions (contact solution, medicines) with me to stay with him. It is a terrible thing to walk into a hospital with a loved one and have to walk out alone. I cried the whole way home and slept on the beast of a couch that night. The next morning, I was back at the hospital at 7:30am. Matt was not allowed anything to eat or drink until his procedure Thursday afternoon. It was a successful procedure completed in less than an hour. The doctor who did the endoscopic procedure was not a surgeon so he could not remove his gull bladder while he was there, but gave us the name of one he highly recommended.

Since the procedure occurred so late in the day, the attending physician on the hospital floor where Matt was staying advised him to stay another night and go home Friday. I could not face another night at home without him so I had already brought what I would need. I spend the night in a chair next to his bed, being awakened every two hours by someone checking vitals and asking a sleeping man if he "needed anything".

The hospital we stayed at had an excellent staff and was very kind and caring towards Matt and myself. I think they kind of enjoyed having us there as it seemed that every other patient on the floor was above the age of 60. It was a relief to have such knowledgeable staff to help us through this ordeal. The doctors kept in touch with us to make sure Matt was healing well and there was no question about visiting hours or whether or not I would be staying with him. I was always welcomed and never looked down on when I had a question about what was going on.

Monday, we meet with a surgeon to schedule Matt to get his gallbladder out. Thankfully, this will be an outpatient procedure and he should be in and out in one day. I am so thankful to the good lord and the wonderful doctors we had on our side that my husband was able to come home safely.

Stress

Sorry I haven't been around much this week. I also have not been stitching at all. Sunday, Matt complained of some stomach pain around bed time. I thought maybe he had pulled something while helping his mom move some things around earlier in the day. Monday, he texted me out of the blue and said he needed to see a doctor asap. For a man that never complains, it sent me into quite a tailspin. He had his coworker drop him off at my office on their way back through town from a job and I took him to Urgent Care. It was the first time either of us had been to an Urgent Care facility. It was a good experience, a much wiser choice than to go to the emergency room and sit around waiting all night.

The doctor thought as I did that maybe he had pulled a muscle and needed to take a couple days without any heavy lifting to let it heal. He decided to do some bloodwork just in case and, glad we did, as it came back with some abnormalities. We were then sent over to the local hospital for Matt to have an ultrasound. In an attempt to keep it light because we were both freaking out a bit, when the picture popped up I said, "Oh! It's a boy!"

All we know right now is there seems to be a blockage of some sort between the liver and gallbladder. Yesterday, he was supposed to go see a specialist, but of course they rescheduled the appointment for today. So, I have taken off work today in the hopes that when we get there, we can get some answers and solutions to the situation.

If they reschedule this again, I just might have to start throwing some punches.....

Happy Weekend

So glad the weekend is here! Last night Matt worked so I had some time to myself. After work I went and picked up a few items for a baby shower I'm going to on sunday. I also made a stop at Borders and Best Buy.

Once home, I started stitching and watching a movie I picked up at Best Buy. "The Other Woman" with Natalue Portman. I love everything she is in. I liked the movie very much. I got to work on my sampler and finally finished that darn swan.

That swan doesn't look like much but what a beast! She is stitched over one....on 40 count. A beast.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.2

It's Getting Hot In Here!!

Sorry friends, I have no updated stitchy stuff.

Tuesday, I took an extra day off work to recuperate from the holiday. Not that we did much, but sometimes after a holiday taking that extra day helps. It was fun to see all my Facebook friends posting about how they had wished they had taken an extra day and there I was, welded to my couch, laughing at them while they attempted to navigate rush hour traffic. I had told Matt I planned to do nothing, so he shouldn't expect to walk in after work and see a spotless house. I enjoy making sure my husband has low expectations so that when I do wash a dish, he is properly impressed. I stitched the majority of the day and watched movies and reality tv. I didn't get as much stitching done as a I would have liked to. Number one reason: IT IS SOOO HOT IN MY HOUSE!

No sir, we do not have air conditioning. June, not so bad. Sure, there were a couple nights here and there we might have had some trouble sleeping, but with the aid of a few fans in the bedroom it was okay. Then July came. What a biotch! Plus, as I have mentioned in previous posts, our couch....it's leather. Oh yes, which requires me to wear PANTS year round. If not, well, it is a lesson in pain trying to get yourself out of the band aid like clutches of that weapon of torture thing. So, frequent breaks were necessary and interruptive to my stitching process.

Instead of putting Venetian Opulence away, it has become an upstairs/downstairs sort of thing. Last week while Matt was working last night I took my sampler upstairs into the bedroom and worked on it while catching up on Private Practice on the computer. It was a nice break from Venetian, and that evil couch. I've decided to do that for awhile.

Matt is working tonight, so I will be upstairs at my desk stitching away on the sampler in front of a high powered fan. Hopefully, I can make some progess. Let's not talk about stitching over one on 40 count, we will just agree that I was experiencing temporary insanity when I went with that brilliant idea.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Well, not chicken, but Denise from Country Stitcher has won my first giveaway!! Yay Denise!!

Thanks to those that entered my first giveaway! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.2

TUSAL

Here is a picture of this months TUSAL! Getting full!

Don't forget to check my previous post and enter my giveaway!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.2

Giveaway Time!

Up for grabs are these awesome summer themed Crescent Colours hand dyed cotton flosses!!

All you have to do for a chance to win is be a follower of my blog and leave a comment telling me your favorite summer stitching pattern!!

I will be choosing a winner on Monday, July 4th. Please make sure I can contact you in case you win!!

Happy weekend!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.2