12 hour stitch progress & stashing

Well I made it this time. There was no snow and it was a lovely day to sit at my LNS in Cochrane and just stitch. I made some new friends which was great! And got some stitching done (and was bad and got some new stash)

My first priority was to get a large section of Dragons done. I worked until it was complete. Here is dragons after the last two weeks plus my twelve hour of progress, section I worked on:

Full piece to date:

I also picked up Romantic Rose Garden in the afternoon. I got one new area of the motif done. This piece has stitches and things I have never encountered... so I am finding it good but challenging. Thank goodness that one of the ladies that runs my LNS was there to advise on how to tackle it! Here it is so far:

And last but not least, I needed a break in the evening, so I pulled out Stitch or Die. I am still a bit disappointed in the coverage on this one. Maybe it's because alot of it was stitched at the hospital... not sure. But it's okay it's not like it's huge or a gift or for competitions, just for my stash corner so I will live. Here it is so far:

I also got three new patterns while I was there. The two latest in the ornaments from LittleHouse Needlworks:

And this other pattern that I am just in love with. It's Book of Spells from Good Huswife. I just love it!

Thank you to everyone for your kind comments about Kihone. She will be missed. It's weird walking into the computer/snake room and seeing only two tanks with snakes and hers empty. But time heals lots of things and I already feel better than I did about the whole situation.

Coming soon... another giveaway, probably after Easter, but if I get to figuring it out beforehand it will be sooner.

Kihone passed

I just wanted to give a quick update to everyone who has been following that we had to put Kihone (that beautiful white cornsnake I posted about the other day) this afternoon.
We tried what we could and the only option left was a surgery to remove the mass stuck in her intestines. The surgery was just not a good option as it was only about 50/50 that she would make it. So we have let her go.

Thanks for all you support up to know and in the future.

Blog Awards and Snake Pics & Info

A number of people asked me questions about our snakes in my last post. So I have decided to post some pictures later on in this post of our three snakes and some info about them. (this is fair warning to those who may not like snakes or have a fear of them that the pics are later on).

Up first, I have been awarded by a few different people two awards.
Hopefully I have the list correct of who awarded which to me.

I this lovely Beautiful blogger award from Jo and Evalina. 

And this lovely Sunshine Award from Jade.

(hopefully I caught all the people who awarded me, please let me know if I have missed you and I will add you to you list).

Here are the rules...

1. Accept the award
2. Thank the person who gave you the award
3. Add a link to the person who gave you the award
4. Put the award on your blog
5. Write 10 things about yourself others might not know
6. Pass the award on to 10 others

Here are my 10 things:

1. I learned to cross stitch when I was only 12 years old.
2. I can't swim (and am terrified of water).
3. I love vampires (that are not Twilight related).
4. I collect unicorns, in any way, shape or form possible.
5. I read about 55 paperback books a year.
6. I love music in many forms including; heavy metal, rock, country, punk and classical
7. I play the piano.
8. My B/F and I dated years back for a year, broke things off for five years, and have now been happily living together for over a year in our re-inspired relationship.
9. I am the art director for a local magazine. I make things look pretty. ;)
10. I love all the people I have met online and through blogging, thank you to all of you for continuing to re-inspire me so, in so many things!

I am not going to pass the award onto anyone... I could make a list of 100 great blogs. Truly there are so many I don't want to miss anyone. So forgive me for not making a list. But thank you sooo much to the lovely ladies that sent these to me. And to those for your visits to my blog and comments. You are the reason why I love to keep this blog going.


On to the snakes... fair warning from here down this post has pictures of snakes.
Thank you all so much for your comments about Kihone.
I got a few questions about our snakes. So I thought I'd share with you pictures of each of them and some information.


First up, the first snake that my B/F ever had, he had this snake when we dated about six years ago. His name is Erinys. He is about eight years old we think. He is a Cornsnake. He has a special pattern, that hourglass on her back repeats across her whole body, making her worth more (and just plain prettier). He is about six feet long in total (and quite fat)

Next up... the sick snake. This is Kihone. We did not take her out to take a picture because she is still quite sick. She is an Albino Cornsnake. And my B/F got her about four or five years ago (we think). She has been doing okay... vet appt tomorrow. Not sure if she will need to be put down or not. She has a mass stuck in her intestinal track. We have tried everything including her hospitalization last weekend to help her. But if she cannot pass it we are going to have to put her down. She has passed a few small masses, so we will see what the vet thinks. Poor thing.

And last but certainly not least is Onyx. She is a Mexican Black Kingsnake (and if I am allowed to have one, my personal favourite). I think she is only about three or four years old. She is just beautiful in my opinion. She is all black except for one small flaw on the bottom side of her head. She is smaller, only about 2 1/2 to 3 feet long. So that makes it easier to handle her. She is a bit skittish sometimes

when we open her cage lid. But has never struck at either of us.

 

There you are. Our babies (as we call them).
They are all fed mice. We have them frozen (dead), they get unthawed and fed in a container separate from their terrariums so that they do not strike us because they think we have food each time we open the lids. Mostly snakes are a very low maintenance animal. You only feed them once a week. And just want to make sure they have enough water and clean up their excrement after them. it's that easy!
Any other questions about our babies let me know.

Thanks for your comments. I will update on Kihone once we find out what is going on at the vet's.
And I'm totally getting stoked for my 12-hour LNS stitch on Saturday! My fingers are just itching to get at it. :)
(PS. I have clearance for exercise from my surgeon, no other change in the pain or food issues... next appt is in a few weeks... I will update on health as I have more information, for now just continuing to tolerate what I can for food and stuff).

Cherly's Bouquet and other Happenings

It's continuing to be a bit crazy for me.
One of our snakes, named Kihone, was at the vet hospital for the weekend. We picked her back up yesterday... we have to give her a shot and take her back at the end of the week. It's not looking like great news for her... but *fingers crossed* that she pulls through. (we have three snakes total).

In and amougst that of course I'm still battling meds and stuff. See the surgeon on Thursday, be interesting to see what he has to say. I'm still on the veggie diet and stuff for now. I tried chicken again on the weekend and it didn't go all that well... so gonna stay veggie for a bit (even though I do kinda hate it).

But on to the reason you are really here... STITCHING! :)
It was the HAEDless Stitching SAL this weekend on the HAED BB, so I worked on Cheryls. I love working on this piece. The colours are really coming together for me.
Here it is so far:

I'm getting really excited about this coming Saturday. My LNS is holding another 12 hour stitch at their location. Remember that one in December when my car was stuck cause it snowed so much and I couldn't go? Well... this time there is no snow forecast *knock on wood* So here's hoping I actually get to go!! :)
I have been continuing to work on Dragons and will post a pic later this week if I get a chance.
Also... I think it's almost time for another giveaway.
I have more stash to giveaway for sure. So stay tuned in the next week or two for one.

As always, thank you so much for your comments!

Page Finish!!! (Also HAED Stashing & health stuff)

Well I have done it. I finished the most recent page I was working on on my Dragons piece.
I am pleased that I got it done as quickly as I did (even with my huge break because of hospital and surgery). I do want to keep trucking on this piece... so more updates for sure on it to come (I want to finish at least three more pages this year!)
Here is a pic of the page I finished:

and here is the whole piece to date (camera skewed it a bit again sorry, it is straight in real life I swear):

I have some exciting news... I won a Bingo on the HAED BB! So I got to pick on full pattern as my prize. I chose "Fly me to the Moon" from Josephine Wall. Here is a pic:

And then... they announced that they are having a one day only 30% off sale for St. Pattys. Soo... I used some more birthday money to take advantage of it and got two more patterns. (I know I'm supposed to stop stashing, but they were so cheap, and B/F decided that I should cause I've been feeling so crappy). So I got Linda Ravencrofts "Dark Queen" and Johnathan Earl Bowers "Invariance". (Love Johnathan's work and he's Canadian so love supporting him). Here's pics of them:
Dark Queen

Invariance

You can of course check out all their awesome patterns and items at (I couldn't get the photos to link up... damn new editor, it's frustrating to be a designer and not be able to make blogger know what I want sometimes)
www.heavenandearthdesigns.com


In other not so good news... I am having some issues. I have pretty bad acid reflux back again. I can taste the acid for the last few days in the back of my mouth. And the clinic where my specialist works out of has not gotten back to me about my appt that is supposed to happen at the end of the month. (they tried to tell me it would be in May, except my meds are going to run out at the end of March and I have the same problem still... so we probably need to up or change meds). this really frustrates me because my discharge from the hospital says they would call me last week to fix it all up and get appts, but when I called yesterday inquiring about it the girl seemed to know nothing about it. *sigh* I really hate the medical system sometimes. Here's hoping that gets worked out. EDIT: So the clinic got back to me just before I posted this... and have changed my meds slightly. It was a complete gong show to get this going and I am not very impresssed. But I guess it is better than nothing. So *fingers crossed*.

Sorry I can't share all good news... but hey, page finish and new stash. I can't complain too loudly I figure. ;)

Thanks to everyone for your comments on my latest posts. I really appreciate them. I am struggling with the new diet still (and still getting acid reflux and pain) so that is frustrating. But fingers crossed that we are gonna get somewhere, in a timely fashion I hope!

Dragons Progress (and more health updates)

Well... the good news on the health front is I am back at work.
The bad news is that I have a few funky side effects from the meds. But we are working through them.
Also being on a vegetarian diet is hard and kinda sucks. We are slowly adding meat back into my diet, but fatty things have to remain gone indefinitely as well as coffee and coke. :(
But I'm not dead yet, so we'll keep on trucking. lol.

In good news... I worked on some Dragons. I am determined to finish this page (which had a goal of end of Feb, but then I got hosptalized). So I am not working on anything else until I get this page done! Should be end of the week I hope!

Excuse my slight bit of laziness for not taking it off the scroll rods but time is precious right now with meds, new food and being more tired than ever. So I just took a pic of the current page top.

As you can see I am very close. Maybe even tonight! But probably late this week.

I am very sorry I have not been getting around to comment on everyone's blogs. I am going to try and get around this week. However I am a bit overwhelmed to try and catch up from four weeks! So forgive me if I only comment on more recent posts (like the last week or so).
As usual thank you all for your lovely comments and well wishes. I appreciate them all so much. We are managing. There is still a long road to go but at least I am not in the hospital anymore.

Home of the Hospital (and other stuff)

I am officially home from the hosptial.
After seven days, million of tests, and a bunch of different drugs I am home. With the same pain... But with four drugs to take and try. (they can take awhile to kick in). So I have to try to get my life back in order, make some money, manage some new dietary restrictions and manage the pain. Ah, easy stuff right? lol.

The official diagnosis is Sphincter of the Oddi Dysfunction (SOD), Type III. You can google it if you want to know more. Also I have a back-up of Bile in my stomach, so on acid reducers for that (caused by the SOD issue).

But at least we have a name for the disease and so now can try starting to treat it. No magically solution sadly, it's trial and error. But that's the best we can do right now.

I have so many other things to update you on...
Terri visited me in the hospital on Friday and brought these lovely flowers, along with many hugs:

I was out on day pass on Saturday and Sunday (had to sleep at the hospital). On Saturday my B/F took me to my stitching store to spend some of my birthday money. I picked up two things. Halloween Quaker by Cherished Stitches:

Here's a better look at the colours I picked. (all silks):

And I also got one of two new Sue Hillis Designs "Shiver me Timbers":

As I had no IV at the hospital since Friday I worked a bit on Stitch or Die. Here is where it stands now:

My current plan now is get my life back in order... and stitch on my poor neglected Dragons. I do have to start work immediately tomorrow so we can pay some bills and stuff (and so I don't loose my job). Here's hoping I can manage.

Thank you to everyone for their kind thoughts and prayers. We are not at the end of the road yet, it may be a long one, but at least we have some progress

A hospital Update

I have been in the hospital since Tuesday morning.
I am home on a day pass right now. What it means is we have to make sure I diligently take my meds and that we are back at the hospital before 10pm tonight (I have to sleep there). Same deal tomorrow. And then more tests on Monday.
I know that the lovely Evalina, Terri and Meari have all been keeping all from ILCS in the loop and to them a huge huge huge thank you!

I cannot access my blog on my phone which was my only source of internet, so my apologies for not updating sooner.

I am hoping to be able to share more info on Monday after my last test.
We have solved one of my problems which was an acid taste in my mouth, caused by bile in my stomach. The meds they are giving me for it are working.
Unfortunately so far nothing is working on the pain. So it may be a bit of trial and error for awhile. Once I have Monday's test I will have more info, (and maybe a name for the disease to share).

I was able to stitch a bit last night from my hospital bed as they took my IV out. It was glorious!

I have missed all of you and hearing about your lives I'm so sorry to have not been around. I know some of you have been having a very rough time with things and do know that I am thinking of you as well.

I will update on Monday when I know more info (and hopefully when I'm home for good)
*hugs to all*

Not dead... yet (and a gift and a bit of stitching)

Well, I'm not dead yet. But working on it it seems.
We've run into a bit of a hitch with my surgery recovery. The actually recovery from the incisions and all that is okay. But sadly I have the same problem as before back with food (and it's almost worse). I am getting pain when eating and crazy acid back up my throat and into my mouth. :(
So I'm on a liquid diet until at least Wednesday (again!) and go for more tests tomorrow. Both the family doctor and the surgeon are being good and fast about helping us so that is good.
Not eating really sucks. (but I lost a bit of weight, or at least that weight I can afford to loose at 120lbs and 5"1)
So that is why I have been quiet. I'm sorry.

In other much happier news. I did do a bit of stitching. Not alot, it's been a rough couple of weeks, but a bit on Stitch or Die:

Also I got a great Birthday/Get Well gift from my friend Evalina. It's a very cool address book (so I can keep track of all my stitching buddies addresses!), a lovely card, and a book about stories of women in the Yukon. Awesome. And great to read before Stitching in the Midnight Sun in Dawson's City in July. (if you want to get in on this weekend in July email myself or Evalina for more details)
Here is the gift:

I'm so sorry I have been unable to get around to blogs. Please forgive me. I am not sure I will catch up at this rate. But rest assured as soon as I am better I will be back to posting as usual.
Thank you so much for all your comments and well wishes.
Here's hoping the next time I get to post it's with WAY better news!