Breast Cancer Awareness

Breast cancer is a major concern for me as my family history is riddled with it. Every female in my family (both on mother's and father's sides) have died of breast cancer. My biological mother died at 44 and her mother (my maternal grandmother) died at 31. None of the women lived past 45. So I have a mammogram and an ultrasound every year and have been recommended for a prophylactic radical mastectomy (both breasts) that I have not consented to have done yet.

Please visit this site and click on the pink button that says "Click here to give- its free!". This helps to provide women with free mammograms! You can click daily. The sponsors give money based on the numbers of clicks, so please take a moment to click to help someone today! In case the link doesn't work here it is typed out to copy/paste into your browser:

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2


Now to provide even more incentive to go click (hehe evil aren't I?) I will do a drawing at the end of a week. All you have to do is click at the breast cancer site then post a comment to this blog entry to let me know you have clicked. (Please do not cheat, this is too important!). On Friday Oct. 10th, I will draw a name and send the winner a package that includes some stitchy goodness or a chart of their choice! So what are you waiting for? Get clicking!

Now for health and stitching updates! I saw my doctor today and she adjusted my medication. I did not realize I had been on the same dose for just over 5 years! She was real surprised as many people need their doses adjusted much sooner than 5 years. By the time I got home I was in a great deal of pain, so I took my afternoon medication from the new dosage. I did not take breakthrough medication as I wanted to see if the new dose would be more effective than the old one. I am quite happy to report that it was! I went from an 8 to a 5 within an hour! I think this new dose is going to help me manage my pain more effectively and that causes so many feelings that I just can't express them correctly.

I did stitch while I sat in the doctor's office for 3 hours. I worked on Blackwork Winter by Tam's Creations again. (per my rotation it is a smaller project day) I got 1 mitten, snowball and hat in then moved to the 4th "round" (the pattern is pieced together by corners, so it is half of each side at a time) where I put in an ice skate and skis. I would have gotten more but I had to keep getting up and walking around. The chairs in that office just kill my back! I will post an update pic tomorrow.

Pics As Promised

This is Teresa Wentzler's Stroke Of Midnight before I stitched on it yesterday:

This is after I stitched. To see any difference you'll have to look closely. I filled in the 1 over 1 edges of her hair around the face, and filled in some of the balcony behind her.

Now for Winter Blackwork by Tam's Creations. Before:

I didn't get much done because my meds made me real sleepy so I put it aside and went to bed. But I did get a mitten, snowball, and partial mitten done. I'll do more today while waiting at the doctor's office.

I hope everyone has a good day!

So far so good on rotation, stitching and yanking out of depression!

Well October is the month long stitchathon on Cross Stitch Crazy, so I am thinking the rotation schedule I posted yesterday should help me stitch a bit every day and thus participate in the stitchathon more than I did in September.

My September stitchathon total was 500 minutes so here are my totals so far:

• January: 1,531
• February: 1,941
• March: 3,580
• April: 1,640
• May: 0 (depression sucks)
  
• June: 0 (I mean it really really sucks!!)
  
• July: 1,590
• August: 0 (*sigh* Stupid depression)
  
• September: 500 (YAY! started pulling myself out of it, good thing I am stubborn huh?)
  

• total: 10,782 minutes

I think I will hit the goal I set for the stitchathon challenge of 12,000 to 14,000 minutes. Hell I might hit it before the end of October! WOOT! I'm well on my way and since this is a month long stitchathon so I should be able to rack up some time, specially since I have integrated rotation and so far I have stuck to it. (Though I did not stitch last night, was too damn tired) I am really excited and so very very pleased with myself for actually sticking to my plan and stitching for 3 hours today!! I will probably get more done tonight but I wanted to be sure to blog. I don't want to have so much time go by between posts and would like to start being more regular with my entries (yeah right, I am so lazy and tend to forget things so easily..so don't hold me to this!).

Today I stitched for 240 minutes (so far)! I made a little bit of progress on "Stroke of Midnight" from Teresa Wentzler. Due to a high level of pain, I couldn't concentrate very well so I only worked a little bit on it. I got a bit more of the rails behind the girl, and a bit more of the over 1 on the girl (the hair around her face). Then I switched to " Blackwork Winter Sampler" by Tam's Creations as it doesn't require as much thinking or concentration as a TW over 1. But I did find an error in the chart. In the second "round" there are mittens, hats and snowballs. On the right hand side (chart for upper right corner) the snowballs between the mittens share their top stitch with the outline for the "round". They are supposed to be one row below the outline stitching. Luckily I caught this as soon as I put the first snowball in, so I only had to frog a few stitches instead of a whole bunch.

Edited to add: I am an idiot! There is no error. I saw the line that marks the 10 squares of the chart as a backstitch line. My printer printed it dark so I confused the two. I am sorry Tam that I posted this so late last night before I realized my error! (Yes I am an idiot! LOL)

I am really liking the way both "Winter Blackwork" and "Stroke Of Midnight" are shaping up! I have found that I enjoy (and need) more than one project going at the same time. This allows me to switch between them based on how well I can concentrate at the time I stitch, how much time I have to stitch, and whatever mood I might be in. My rotation is a nice guideline for getting stuff done, but I consider it very flexible. If something comes up that is not in my rotation, I will simply add it somewhere and go from there. LOL

I am really pleased with my progress and I hope to keep it up. I really like the way it is turning out with 2 strands over 2 threads. Changing the colors, as I mentioned in an earlier post, did not work very well so I frogged it and decided to do it all in the dark purple the chart calls for. I am really liking it that way too! I will be taking this piece to the doctor's office with me tomorrow as it is easy to carry (just 1 color LOL) and I am sure to have at least 1 to 2 hours waiting to actually the see the doctor so I can stitch during that time. I think I am off to a great start on this month long stitchathon!

It is so nice to have that depressed "I don't want to do anything" mood replaced with being excited about stitching and NEEDING to stitch! Gosh it feels sooo good!

I have taken pics (before I stitched today, and after I finished stitching) but it is late and I am really hurting so I will post them tomorrow.

I borrowed my DH's glasses, they are bifocal and I have found that the bifocal part makes it so much easier for me to see the over 1 stitching. So I am going to find me a good pair of reading glasses to help me with the higher count fabrics since I can't use a stand so a lighted magnifying glass won't work for me.

Well that is pretty much it for me today! I hope everyone has a wonderful night filled with joyful stitching!

Raven