Update Fairy on a Dragon

All in all today was a rough day thanks to the remainders of hurricane Irma. My back and pelvis were acting up, though not as badly as yesterday. To help distract myself from the pain and to aid in relaxing I did some stitching tonight while on a hangout with members of the facebook group The Stitching Nest. It was a lot of fun hanging out with my friends chatting, laughing, and stitching. Here is the latest progress picture of Fairy on a Dragon by Joan Elliott.

Fairy on a Dragon © Joan Elliott
2 over 2 on 28ct Jobelen using DMC threads

I've also been working on a post for my Living With Chronic Pain and Depression blog. It gives an overview of my day in the hopes of helping others to understand that being home all day with chronic pain is not the same as having a day off of work. 

Where is my stitchy bug? Heck where am I?

Well, to let everyone know, I am still alive and around. I know it's been close to (if not already past [too lazy to check right now, ok I checked it was Feb. 2013]) a year 8 months since I posted here, longer than that since I posted with any regularity. I haven't been stitching much at all. I put a few stitches (total of maybe 50 stitches all told) in a couple of my WIP's here and there, but nothing major at all. *Pictures people making a a cross with their hands and yelling at her: "No stitching?!?! Sacrilege! Back you floss deserter, back you project abuser, back I say!" [raven giggles at herself]* See? I have lost my mind I tell you!

Another odd image: 2 rather official looking ladies at my front door dressed in black suits, complete with sunglasses (think Men In Black, only women in the suits rather than men) and ID wallets. Their badges have the symbol for cross-stitch of a hoop with fabric and a needle parked in said fabric. The words surrounding them are "International Needlework Association: Cross-stitch Div.: Project Protection Agent". They hand me a court order allowing them to confiscate my stash, WIPs, UFOs, and even my Ghingers for their own protection from my abusive neglect. "Now Mrs. Shadowborne if you would please surrender your Needlework ID, Scissors License and Precious Metals Needle Approval Cards. Yes than, very well.  Thank you very much and have a lovely day!" (trust me, it seemed much funnier in my head...oh well never said I was good at comedic writing  LOL)

I signed up for an exchange (due back in February) in the hopes it would help me regain my stitching bug. I have stitched on it. It sits three-quarters completed (would still need put together etc) in my stitching bag (along with 5 other WIPs) and I just can't find the energy to finish it. It is so late and I feel so horrible about it. I have told my partner and she is being so wonderful and understanding about it. My brain however uses it to beat me up. Why does depression have to include mental self-flagellation via self-insults and loads and loads and loads of guilt? It doesn't help, just makes it worse.

What happened? Depression is what happened.

The truth is: I just haven't been able to drum up the desire to stitch, or when I had a tiny inkling of desire, I couldn't drum up the energy to actually do it. My depression finally hit the really bad stages where even the sadness and despair go away, leaving nothing behind....emptiness.

Those woods I posted about a while back, I got lost again I stayed lost and couldn't find my way out. I knew my depression was bad, but I didn't realize it could get even worse, but it did.  I'm not sure that I have found a way out yet, but I am at least forcing myself to try to resume activities I know I used to enjoy doing. But it is so hard to fight back when I can't really do anything but sit in bed all the time. The pain has been insane, and pain like that really does mess up the chemical balance of the brain and nervous system.  In some ways the depression and it's accompanying dissociation is comforting because it removes a lot of emotions, thus I don't feel guilt, emotional pain etc. Instead I just feel empty, vast sweeping blackness..nothing at all. I've had a day here and there where I did have some feelings, but not often, not for long, and not real good feelings/thoughts. Though, there is one ray of sunshine finally: those days with some emotion have been increasing in frequency so that's good. I know that in order to feel better, I have to allow myself to feel at all. Of course the first feelings will include all the guilt, anger, frustration, fear etc. that I have been hiding from and the idea of feeling those things in order to move through them is extremely daunting.

I have days where some feelings are coming back, and when they do I am struggling to let them, to not shove them back down. It is terrifying. Part of me truly wants to stay in the woods, the deepest darkest part where there were no real emotions more often than not. My last post, I tried to end on an improved note. I *did* go stitch (about 15 stitches before giving up) that day though.

Thank you to all those who left me such wonderful comments! I read them all, obsessively more than once because they give me a warm & good feeling inside which is better than the empty nothing I had 99% of the time. I fully intended to reply to each one via email and when I realized a few weeks had gone by I just didn't know what to do. Reply so late? Let it go without telling them what their words mean to you? The self talk turned into how horrible I am, useless, etc etc., and I became afraid of the response I'd get if I replied after such a long time. I felt I would deserve it whether it be an angry/upset/disappointed/whatever response to my reply or no response at all. So, as with everything else for the last few years, I did nothing and just used them as more ammunition for those times when my brain played "beat up the birdie girl!". I truly am sorry for not responding to those comments before now and I appreciate them a great deal, thank you thank you thank you!

I am not posting any of this to make people feel bad for me or anything like that. I am posting it (terrified but going to do it anyway even if it means I have to ask DH to click the publish button) for a few different reasons. One to explain where I've been. Two, to release some of my feelings in hopes my doing so may do some good for someone else. There are other reasons as well, but I think I've rambled quite too much about my depression in what is supposed to be my stitching blog. If you've read this far, Thank You and give yourself a pat on the back, Well Done! (and no I do not mean that sarcastically). I appreciate it :)

Ok this is my 9th attempted post that has been sitting in the drafts folder for a while. It has taken me 2 weeks to write this one it as it is. "OK .......here goes...click publish raven! click it!"

Commenting System

On other blogs I have seen comment sections that allow people to post a response to a specific comment. The replies are indented and show up underneath the comment they are responding to. This allows people to have a conversation with each other and receive replies directly linked to their comment. On Rosemary's blog Seeking Equilibrium, I have greatly enjoyed the system she is using for comments on her blog. So I went ahead and followed the link to the website for Intense Debate, the company (I guess it's a company) that provides the program/coding for the comments. I signed up and followed their installation instructions.

I was surprised at how easy it was to install. I then tested it (hence the two comments at the bottom of this post LOL) and it works great! 

I wanted to do this because I can't always sit up for long periods of time and thus am unable to reply via email to all the comments even when I want to. As a result my response emails can go out days (or sometimes weeks) after the original comment was made. I feel bad about that and wanted a better way.

With this program installed on my blogs I can now comment directly to people in a faster yet still personal (to each individual person's comment) way.  When you make a comment on the blog there is an option to "subscribe" to the comments and you will receive an email update about further responses. You can select "all comments", "none" or just "replies". By selecting replies you will be notified when anyone replies directly to your comment. This notification will be helpful in letting you know that someone (either myself or someone else) has posted to you so that you can view the reply and choose whether or not to respond to it. Selecting none is self-explanatory and selecting "all comments" means you will be notified of every comment posted after your own, even if they were not in reply to your statement. 

I hope you enjoy this new system. Thank you again for reading my babblings, I do appreciate it a great deal!

Thank You and Still Alive

Thank you all for your condolences and caring comments on the post back in early December about Pharoah. I really appreciated every one of them. His loss has affected me more than I expected the loss of an animal to do. I've been saddened by it and felt "off" since then. I haven't stitched much at all. I did a few stitches here and there but not enough on any piece to take pictures. That is why there haven't been any new posts to this blog.

I spent 3 weeks of January sick as a dog, which didn't help my mood much. I finally got over the sickness only to land in bed for the last couple of days due to increased pain. We've had wet weather and that always makes me hurt more. Though I did finally catch up with all the blog posts I hadn't read yet. I don't comment very often but I do read them. Now that I am caught up I hope to be able to start commenting more often.

I know I missed my blogoversary (it was in October) but I am hoping to be able to do a giveaway for it within the next week. So keep your eyes peeled for that!

I did do a little bit of stitching today and will be doing some more tonight before bed, so hopefully I will have some progress that I can post a picture of tomorrow.

Again, thank you all for your support and concern. I really do appreciate it!

New WIP

I started a new design as my desire to stitch smaller pieces continues. Here is my start on Quaker Welcome by The Stitcherhood. This is a small Quaker design that I really liked. To give it a little extra impact I chose to stitch it on opalescent jobelen from Enchanting Lair called Meadow. It is a very pretty shade of light blue. Rather than stitch the piece in black I chose a dark navy blue from DMC, number 820. I am really liking the dark blue against the light blue fabric. Like the larger Quaker WIP I have it seems to be crisp, and clean even though it is a dark blue floss on a light blue fabric. I wasn't sure I would still get that crisp appearance on a colored fabric like I got with the white, but it still looks that way to me. The colors in this picture are a bit faded. I took the picture late at night, using the flash because that is when I finished stitching.

Quaker Welcome © The Stitcherhood
DMC floss 820
28ct Opalescent Jobelen "Meadow" By Enchanting Lair

I did do a little more on Christmas Dreams by Joan Elliott, but it wasn't enough progress to take another picture. I filled in a little more white on his beard but not much.


I noticed that I now have 75 followers! WOW! Thank you all very much for following my little blog despite the occasional rambling post. I really enjoy reading other stitchers' blogs and am happy that you seem to enjoy reading mine.

New Finish And Wonderful Find!

I have my third finish for 2010! YAY! I finished Lizzie * Kate's "Peace, Love, and a Cure".

Blogger still won't let me upload pictures so I uploaded to Webshots again. Here is the front of the piece.



I am so very proud of the back of it as it is one of the neatest backs I have done so far. Here is a picture of the back as well.





I really enjoy stitching works by Teresa Wentzler. I was very sad when she announced that she was closing her needlework design company TW Designworks. So I was very happy to find that she started a second blog, solely for her needlework and that she will post updates to her designs (and new designs as well) on this blog. For any of you who would like to read her needlework blog here is the URL: TW's Needlework Blog (http://twneedlework.wordpress.com/) Her original blog will now contain updates for her artwork, which are very beautiful to see. The URL for that blog is here: TW's Artwork Blog.

A Blogging Milestone and Giveaway

Cindy of "Cindy's Cross Stitching: Ornaments and Projects" has reached 100 followers on her blog! Congratulations Cindy!

To commemorate the occasion she is hosting a giveaway, check it out!

Here is where I am at on Lizzie*Kate's "Peace Love and a Cure". For some reason Blogger is not wanting to let me upload pictures, so I placed them in my Webshots album for WIPs and will try to link them.



and a closer view

My Friend Returns To Blog-land & Frogging Around Update

One of my best friends, Angi, has returned to blogging! She stitches and scrapbooks. She is the one who introduced me to hand dyed fabrics, silk threads, designers such as Passione Ricamo and Mirabilia. She taught me about railroading, thread heaven, and so many other things. She is responsible for taking my stitching beyond aida fabric and teddy bears and I am grateful to her for all of it, but mostly for her friendship.

Please hop on over and say hello to Angi and welcome her back please. Her blog is Scrap Or Stitch. I am really looking forward to reading her updates!

After I finished the Delft card last night (with all that help from Ron, Angi and Dan) I was all excited to keep stitching. So I pulled out Frogging Around and got quite a bit done on it. Hopefully I will finish this tonight or tomorrow! Here are 2 pics, but no matter what I do I can't get a picture that shows the colors properly. The variegated thread for the words is darker than it looks in these pictures, thus the words are easy to ready. The fabric is not such a light green either. Oh well, at least you can get a decent idea of what it looks like LOL

Frogging Around
© Jessica Burr from Six Strand Sweets
From The Gift Of Stitching magazine Issue 6 July 2006
Irish Fields Hand-dyed 28ct Jazlyn by Enchanting Lair
DMC threads

Frogging Around
© Jessica Burr from Six Strand Sweets
From The Gift Of Stitching magazine Issue 6 July 2006
Irish Fields Hand-dyed 28ct Jazlyn by Enchanting Lair
DMC threads

Wednesday Stitching

After I did the yard work, cooked dinner and such I was stuck in bed. So I pulled out the Delft Card and worked a bit on it. I got the flower half way backstitched. Hopefully I can do more tomorrow and get a picture put up.

Stephanie has completed the backstitching on the rose part of her design and it looks fantastic! I am so proud of her! She has learned very quickly and does a great job. She seems to really enjoy doing it as well. She should put a new WIP pic up soon (on her blog), or even a finished pic as she is very close to finishing it.

I got an email today from Olga, from Olenka's Stitches, in response to my post asking for assistance in picking a color for the words on Frogging Aound. She included a chart where she made the background green (the lightest shade from the pictures I put up of my hand-dyed fabric) and then added the word "frog" over and over in different color recommendations. She did this so I could see what the words would approximately look like in each color. I was very touched that she would take the time to do this for me, just because I asked for help! Thank you so much Olga, I really appreciate it! 3 of the colors she had chosen are in the variegated thread I decided to use and they show up well. It was really sweet of you to chart those different colors for me Olga, it helped a great deal. I could see how the different shades in the variegated I chose would definitely make the words show up as all three shades were the easiest to read on your created chart. Thank you thank you thank you! I hope to get back to the frog in a couple days. I want to finish the card first so I can get it in the mail to UK in plenty of time to allow for possible delays.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how many people posted comments or sent emails in response to my plea for assistance. Thank you all so much! I really appreciate the help. I've told people that stitchers tend to be wonderfully caring and generous people, and I still think that is the truth!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments, they make me smile every time I get one. I am very touched by how many of you read my posts and respond with an encouraging comment, it is truly one of the best things in my life. Thank you!

Still Frogging Around & Thank you!

I am still working on Frogging Around and put in some more. I'm not sure if I like the threads the letters are done in or not, but I don't want to pull it out (frog) them again. Here's the latest Pic. I just finished adding the "G" in "Go" and the "F" above it.

I still think this design is cute, just didn't really want to stitch tonight, but did add those two letters then called it good. LOL

I think I know how to make those letters stand out better, backstitch them even though the chart doesn't call for it. That should help, specially if I use the same dark color that is in the variation floss. Will have to give that a try.

WOW I have been pleasantly surprised by the many many comments and how happy people were that I clicked the "Follower" thing on their blogs. If I had realized it helped the authors see who follows their blogs, I would have done it sooner. Oh well, better late than never I guess! Thank you all!

Giveaway, Catching up on Blogs and stitching!

I have a lot of blogs (166 I think it is now) in my google reader, but I realized that this doesn't let the blog owners know that I read their blogs unless I comment on every single one. Due to chronic pain I can't always comment to every post as I can't sit here long enough, but I do read them. So for the last couple of days I went and became a "follower" on those blogs that use the google follower thing. I absolutely love reading other stitchers' blogs. The pictures they post of their WIPS and finishes are very inspiring, and the little glimpses they give into their lives (such as gardening, family events etc.) help me to get to know them as the people they are. Does this mean I am a nosy person? LOL Reading their blogs also helps me to deal with chronic pain by giving me something interesting to focus on instead of focusing on my pain. Thank you so much for that!

Anyway, I noticed today that I have 30 followers to this blog and I was amazed! Thank you all for reading my little posts, I really appreciate it. To celebrate I will be giving away a $25.00 (US dollar) gift certificate to 123Stitch. If you wish to be included in this giveaway, leave a comment on this post and I will draw a name on May 24th (1 week).

I did some stitching last night. I worked on "Frogging Around" by Jessica Willis Burr (Six Strand Sweets) from The Gift Of Stitching magazine's July 2006 issue. I had done the backstitch with the recommended DMC floss of 3799 but it didn't show up real well on the dark fabric so I switched it to black. The outline of the frog was done in 2 strands to make nice sharp edges, and the interior backstitch was done in 1 strand. I love the way it looks; the frog is just so cute! I pulled the words out because the floss I had chosen didn't show up very well, so I will be doing the words over using a brighter variegated DMC (4040) and the backstitch words will be in black (2 strands) so they show up real well. I am expecting to be done in a couple days and then I will have my first HD of 2010!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments, I really appreciate them!

Blacksheep's Blogoversary Giveaway! & Stitching Finally!

One of the many blogs I read belongs to Edgar and is called Blacksheep's Bit Of The Web. It is a wonderful blog full of beautiful stitching, pictures of his local area and information about movies. His blog will soon be 3 years old and he is holding a giveaway where there will be three winners. To be entered all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (click the word post to go to the specific post on his blog).

Good luck!

Whatever the illness was that I had last week, it has come back. UGH! I feel so tired and out of it. But I finally did some stitching! I have added the C, D and E on the Quaker and plan on stitching some more after I eat. My pain is not real good today, woke up with my back screaming. It took me 15 minutes to get out of bed, but I decided that I was going to stitch anyway and use it to distract from the pain today. For the little bit of time I stitched, it did distract me from some of the pain, but not as much as I was hoping.

Ok time to go eat dinner which DH cooked (it smells fantastic), then back to stitching. I will try to get a picture and put it up later tonight or tomorrow. As well as pictures of the wonderful stash I got this week in the mail! I am so excited!

***Edited April 10, 2010 at 8:49PM (Central US Time)

I did some more stitching this evening. I didn't get as much done as I wanted to, but I got the top row of alphabet done (A-G). As promised here is a picture:

As soon as my niece lets me go to bed, I will get some more stitching done. My niece likes to have me in the living room and for a while she was helping me stitch. She helped me with the lowercase "f", then she wanted to play with my stuff so I had to put it away. We played "duck duck goose" and "London Bridge" and showed her how to do the Hokey Pokey. She had a blast! Me, Stephanie, Kyle and Bridgette were all laughing and having fun. I stopped when my back started to scream at me, but it was worth the increased pain to just play like that. Hopefully I can go to bed soon and then I can stitch some more. The first page of this piece is so close to being finished! I am anxious to get it done. I am still really enjoying stitching this piece. I love how crisp the floss colors look against the white background. It just looks very crisp, clean, and so very pretty!

Well that's it for me! See you all later :)

Draft Post

I have a blog post that has been saved as a draft. It is about what I received for my birthday. Right now I hurt too much to sit here and finish it. Hopefully after my nap I will feel better and can get the post finished.

NaBloMoPo and Second Secret Stitching Square

The month of November is NaBloMoPo Basically it requires that you post in your blog every day for the month of November. I wanted to give it a try as it should be interesting.

I finally managed to pick a pattern for the second secret stitching square I signed up to make. I had to ask for a bit more information about the person the square is for and found out that she likes blackwork embroidery. So I looked through all my blackwork patterns and found one that just made something inside me jump up and yell "Stitch that one!!". So I printed the pattern out and started stitching it. I chose two shades of DMC floss that are blue-green (she likes blue and green), 3850 and 3851. This piece is a mix of cross stitch and blackwork and shows the colors off beautifully. The blackwork section will be done in black, though I may try using the variegated thread that I have which has paler shades of blue-greens on it just to see how it looks. Since I do not know if the recipient reads my blog or not I can't post pictures. The thought just crossed my mind that I can post a small corner of the piece to show the colors and it won't give away the pattern thus spoiling the surprise. I'll try to do that tomorrow then. I'm really looking forward to stitching this piece. I enjoy stitching blackwork and I love the colors I chose.

As with the other square, I will be thinking good thoughts and praying for the recpient as I stitch. Historicaly women said prayers when they cross stitched and the pieces were used for churches. I've heard people say that when they receive an item that was stitched (knitted and crochet counts too) with the stitcher praying or thinking good thoughts and intentions for the recipient that the piece exuded feelings of warmth and comfort and love. I hope that the recipient of both of these squares as part of a final object will get those feelings from the piece.

An Award!!

A while back I was given an award for my blog. Ally, of Ally's Stitching Life, gave me this award back in July. Me, being the goof ball that I am, did not realize that I was on the list of recipients until September when I started re-reading old posts in blogs that I really enjoy. Until then I had assumed that "Missy" was another Missy, not me. When I realized it was me I was so excited as well as surprised as heck! I sent an email to Ally apologizing for not noticing before and thanking her for the award.

Ally, thank you again! I really appreciate it and I am sorry it has taken me so long to post about it.

Due to depression settling in again, I hadn't gotten around to posting it on the blog. But finally I have remembered and here it is!

The award says .."This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."

I find it so hard to choose just a few blogs out of the many wonderful blogs that I read. Buthe award has to go to eight other bloggers, so here are my eight:

1. 
   
   Spinster Stitcher
   
   
   
2. 
   
   Crazy Aunt Purl
   
   
   
3. 
   
   The Twisted Stitcher
   
   
   
4. 
   
   Litla Skvis
   
   
   
5. 
   
   Caring Stitcher
   
   
   
6. Living With Brittle Asthma
7. 
   
   Nutmegg's Blog
   
   
   
8. 
   
   Neo-Conduit
   

These are all blogs that I have enjoyed for quite some time and that have touched me in positive ways. I am very grateful that these people have chosen to blog and that I have had the wonderful opportunity to read their blogs and thus "meet" these people. Thank you all!

Year End Q & A

Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
--yes I did. My resolution was to stitch more than in 2007, and I did that.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
--My sister-in-law did and now they live with me.

Did anyone close to you die?
--Nope.

What countries did you visit?
--Just the USA, another state.

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
--rebuild my physical strength, keep the house cleaner, and stitch!

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
--Pulling myself out of depression by recognizing it sooner and acting to change it.

What was your biggest failure?
--Not realizing I was severely depressed until many months had passed.

What was the best thing you bought?
--My Sleep Number bed!

Where did most of your money go?
--bills, where else?

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
--Having a baby in the house again and visiting my in-laws over the Holidays.

What song will always remind you of 2008?
--Hate Me by Blue October I guess.

Did you fall in love in 2008?
--rediscovered many times how much I love my husband and why.

How many one-night stands?
--none of any one's business LOL

What was your favorite TV program?
--Dexter

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
--Yes.

What was the best book you read?
--I really enjoyed Stephen King's newest short story collection and Patricia Cornwell's new book Scarpetta. Other than that, I mostly re-read books I already own.

What was your greatest musical discovery?
--Blue October

What did you want and get?
-a new bed and some new charts

What did you want and not get?
--a new digital camera

What were your favorite films of this year?
-I didn't watch many movies.

What did you do on your birthday?
--nothing.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
--comfort and anything that did not add to my pain level such as jeans.

What kept you sane?
--writing in my journal, talking to my husband, playing with baby and stitching!

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
--Prince as usual :)

What political issue stirred you the most?
--Not sure.

Who did you miss?
--my DH's family

Compared to this time last year, are you:Happier or sadder?
--happier

Thinner or fatter?
-sadly, fatter (steroids suck!)

Richer or poorer?
--the same.

What do you wish you’d done more of?
--stitching

What do you wish you’d done less of?
--hurting

YAY A finish!!

I finally got the second Cow done. Here it is:



In keeping with the "silly cow" type of theme, I used a rather silly/funky looking alphabet to sign the piece. I'm not sure I like the black for the backstitch, but I don't know what else to use so I left it. Now to wash these three charity squares ( to be sure they are clean) and get them in the mail. I hope the recipient of the quilts these squares will be a part of really likes the quilts as much as I liked stitching the three squares.

Now to decide what to stitch on next. Go back to the Winter Blackwork, start the Anniversary Chart, or work on one of my other WIPS. I dislike having this many wips so I hesitate to start another piece. I think for tonight I'll just go ahead and do some more on Winter Blackwork by Tam's Creations. I'll try to post a picture of it tomorrow! I may give rotation stitching another try. Set a certain day of the week for each of my large wips (The two TW ones: Stroke of Midnight and Woodland Fairy) and do at least 2 hours on each one. On other nights work on my smaller wips. I think I will give it a try, it can't hurt.

Mon: small wip
Tues: Stroke of Midnight
Wed: Stroke of Midnight
Thur: small wip (break from TW)
Fri: Woodland Fairy
Sat: Woodland Fairy
Sun: small wip

The smalls in there should keep me interested by giving me that wonderful feeling that comes with having completed something (Xmas ornies and such) and having the large WIPS on regular nights may help me to actually make some decent progress on them. It can't hurt to try anyway. LOL (wish me luck, I'll need it!)

I've been trying hard to pull myself out of my depression and since I can be quite stubborn when it is something I really really want, I've been doing pretty good! I've been doing more housework, stitching, reading, talking with the kids, and playing WOW. I've cooked dinner a few times also! My pain level is not much better, specially since I've been forcing myself to move around more, but at least I feel like I've accomplished something and it makes the pain almost worth it.

I have gotten a lot of support from my family and friends, including online friends. I can't begin to tell you how much this means to me and what a difference it makes to know that people think of me and are pulling for me (prayers, good thoughts, hugs etc.) It really does help! Thank you ALL so very much!

Got tagged: 6 quirky or just plain weird things about me

I got tagged by Henny.

So here we go:

THE RULES:
Link to the person that tagged you
Post the rules on your blog
Share 6 non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
Tag 6 people at the end of your post by linking to their blog
Let each person know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog
Let your tagger know when your entry is up

1. I smoke. (I know naughty naughty naughty)

2. I tend to pile books on the floor on my side of the bed.

3. I play WOW.

4. I swap out candy (will eat one for a while, then not want it anymore but want a different one)

5. I re-read books that I love until they fall apart, then go buy another copy. (preferably hardcover as they last longer)

6. I am a night person.

JUDGE AWAY...

the people I tag are:

1 Lilli

2 Litla

3 Spinster Stitcher

4 Christina

5 Edgar (Blacksheep)

6 NHStitcher (Desert Daze)

These are just 6 of the many blogs I enjoy reading. Check them out!

Watch This

No matter one's political views, no matter one's opinion of our government and its choices..the fact remains that our men and women are overseas. Away from their family and friends, fighting to keep our country safe. One can support the troops no matter how they feel about the wars themselves. The troops are people doing the best they can every day and they deserve our support!

New Stash, Driving, Stitching, Blogging, and Hurting

Well I went to see the surgeon for my broken sacroilliac joint. I was hoping he would put in a second plate, fill in the spaces around the screws, and remove the bone fragments that are floating around the joint and elsewhere in my pelvic region, like he said he would a few years ago. Instead, he is focusing on my lower back and thinks I had a lower lumbar fusion, which I never had. Needless to say this does not make me respect the man nor feel confident enough in him to allow him to cut me open. You would think a spinal specialist surgeon, who has been in practice for over 25 years, would know the difference between a fairly common occurance of the L-5 vertebrae becoming part of the sacrum on its own and a lower lumbar fusion. First, in a fusion of the vertebrae the disks are removed, I still have the disks at L4-5 and L5-S1. Second, when a patient comes in complaining of pain and swelling in the area where a fusion of the SI joint failed, the doctor should focus on that area not a different one. So I'm going to have to go out of state, or to another county, to find another orthopedic surgeon.

I spent the weekend driving to Raleigh North Carolina to pick up my brother and bring him to Florida. It is a 14 hour drive minimum from where I live. It took us a little longer as we had the baby with us. I expected her to be upset being stuck in the car for that long, but she did great! She barely cried, slept alot and when she was awake she giggled and babbled and played with her toys. I was worried she would not sleep in the hotels because she slept alot in the car, but nope she slept all night! It was almost like traveling without a baby in the car at all, she did that well! She seemed quite happy to see her Daddy and that was really sweet to see. My back handled the drive a lot better than I thought it would, but I am still hurting more than usual today, but not enough that it should be a day where I stay in bed all day. I am real happy with that because I was worried that my back would freak out completely, but it didn't.

I know I haven't blogged in a while and I am sorry for that. Things have just been so busy lately that I forgot about it. I do appreciate everyone's comments and emails so thank all of you who take the time to comment or write to me!

I have continued stitching on Tam's Creations Blackwork Winter Sampler. I have the entire center done which includes the first ring of motifs (snowflakes). The chart then breaks up the remaining rings into 4 corners; upper right, upper left, lower left, and lower right instead of doing each round of motifs. So rather than doing each "round" of motifs, I will finish it the way the chart is laid out, so I have started the third square of motifs in the upper right corner which is a repeating pattern of mittens, hats, snowballs, and shovels with snow on them. The next "ring" is a repeating pattern of skis and ski poles, cups of hot chocolate, snowballs, ice skates, and plates of cookies. The last ring is a repeating pattern of poinsettias, snowflakes, candles (in lantern type holders) and something I can't figure out what it is. LOL Anyway, here is an updates pic of the sampler. Enjoy!

I got a package in the mail today and it contained new stash for me! Woot, this made me feel good despite my back and pelvic pain. I already had two of the L&L Celtic Seasons ladies (Summer and Spring) so I ordered Fall, Winter and Christmas. They arrived today! I can't wait until they are all finished, framed, and hanging side by side, they are going to be gorgeous!

Again, thank you for the kind comments and emails, they mean a lot to me! (Also, it is nice to know that someone actually reads this blog LOL)