I am still alive

Contrary to what you might believe cause I've been so quiet lately I am in fact alive.
I apologize that I have been away so much. Just getting my life back in order and been quite busy.
And have been video gaming a bit more this past week or two just cause it's a bit easier than stitching when I don't feel great.
However I have gotten some stitches into a few projects. Including pirate. Here is his progress so far:

I do have some stitchy days coming up though. One next Saturday (12th) at my place with a few new stitching friends. I soo can't wait! Need to get that dragon page finished before the end of the month!
And then another at the end of July (a 12-hour) at my LNS.
I also have a ton of stuff to pick-up at my LNS. But because it SNOWED, yep snow at the end of May, this past weekend I didn't get out there. But maybe next weekend I will.

Other than that, just getting life back in order a bit. Working on feeling like something other than crap and waiting for news on test results from the Dr. (also have a procedure on June 18th, so we'll see what that brings up for results as well).

That is pretty much all. Sorry not too exciting here today.
But hey, if I tell you... GIVEAWAY. Coming up soon!!! Soon, I promise. No more claiming I will have one and not doing it. This week for sure I will post one.

Thank you for visiting even though I have not been around much. I have been trying to comment on blogs, but it is time consuming and tough it seems these days. But I love reading them and will try to do better.

A long update...

(forgive me this is a long post, I just have so much to share!)

We have returned from services for my Grandfather. It's an eight hour drive there and then back again of course. The service has very nice. My B/F and I made a slideshow of pictures for it, and helped to set up the hall and take down as well. I even spoke on behalf of the dozen grandchildren my Grandfather leaves behind. He will be missed.
After the service all the immediate family (22 of us! My Mom has a huge family) stood on the lawn at the farmhouse and released a balloon each that had a little note to my Grandfather (yes we know bad for the environment but it was a great goodbye, and good for my little cousins; youngest is 8).
Here is what they all looked like on the cloudy day as we released them (forgive the spots on the lens, it was raining and I'm just too lazy to photoshop them out right now:

I did get some stitching done... I have the saddest start ever. On another Sue Hillis pirate. I stitched these few stitches in the car:

It will look like this when done:

I also got some stitches into Rose Garden. I had to frog a bit (but with my pretty new frogging needle, pic to come below) which is always annoying. But here it is:

I had the most amazing mail day ever when I returned from my trip. I had FOUR packages in the mail for me!! It definitely helped cheer me up after being at the funeral.
The first was a belated birthday present from Meari. She is tooo kind!
Look at all these goodies. I especially love the scissors. AND I have Summer Unicorn so now I have Winter to go with it!

Next was a frogging needle from Lisa. It's sooo pretty. I do love it! (and it's already been put to good use):

And then two packages of items I bought through private sale for a great deal.
This is an out of print HAED. (more unicorns, gotta love it! :)  )

And the last is three patterns I was so pleased to receive:

Whew! Well that is all for now. I have some lab tests to go to later today. Bloodwork and stuff.
But my new meds are helping a bit. And I ate some chicken! I miss meat so much. It was nice to have some chicken. I think we will keep trying to integrate it back into my crappy diet.
It's a long weekend here in Canada and most of it will be spent just chilling out. I can't wait to just sit at my house and stitch and catch up on some shows. Gotta catch up on Idol before the finale next week! :)

Thank you to everyone for all your sweet comments about my Grandfather. He will be missed, but such is how it goes.
I will leave you with a great photo that the B/F took in front of the farmhouse last year of my grandparents.

Sad News...

I am sorry to tell you all that I will be away from Sunday to Wednesday (likely) this coming week as my Grandfather has suddenly passed away.
I was quite close to him and my Grandmother. Those of you who have followed my blog for awhile will have seen pics from our trip out there last summer and of their cute farm house.
He will be dearly missed.

Please forgive me while we travel to the funeral (it's 8 hours drive away) and spend some time with my family. I will return when I can.
Thank you.
Mel.

Stitch or Die FINISH! (and more health updates)

I have finally finished up Stitch or Die.
This pattern was dear to be because it was also stitched by my dear friend Evalina. But it became even more important as a lot of it was stitched while I was in the hospital.
So the B/F and I have decided to find a nice frame for it and put it right above my stitching chair in the main room! (this is exciting to me as our walls mostly have items on them. But there is this small piece of wall before the window right above my chair that might work, AND that the B/F is going to let me put up more stitching, lol)

Here is the final product in it's entirely:

And at a cool angle:

I had my appt with the GI specialist this morning. As many of you know I have been getting more and more sick as time goes on. They have changed my meds. One of the ones I now have to take is like Tang flavoured Gravel. You put it in the water, it sort of dissolves and then drink it. It's sooo gross. I don't like it at all. But I will try it and see if it helps.
I now have a 'procedure' in June as well. The only one they didn't do while I was in hospital last. They are doing it to rule out Chron's Disease with this test. And then go from there.
So I just have to hope these new meds like me and help a bit until then. It seems like the longest road ever!

Thank you all so much for your support. 
And wow did I have some very lovely comments on dragons. Thank you soooo much. You all inspire me to keep going. I really do appreciate it.

Dragons Update

I finally have a dragons update for everyone. While I haven't gotten much stitching in the past few weeks (working late and all) I have gotten enough that makes it worth showing you dragons.
There is the page I am working on:

I have a goal to finish this page by the end of June. I need to get stitching! I mark off my charts in coloured pencil crayons, different colour for different days.
Here is what my page colouring looks like so far:

And here is the piece so far to date:

I am working again this weekend and will be working late until next Friday. When hopefully our massive magazine goes out the door and is done!
Then I can get back into more stitching. (and picking up my stash that my LNS has on hold for me).

On the heath front for those wondering... I am managing and have a specialist appt. on Tuesday morning. I will update you all on what they say.


Thanks for visiting and your comments! I really appreciate your understanding while I get through this crazy patch of work and health issues. 

Health Update, ComicCon and Smoke Stitching Finish

Well... I am still alive. Though it feels like barely. And I am still at work. Though very busy.
We had another trip to ER (that was useless) last week. But now I have an emergency GI appointment for next week (if you can believe that is the soonest I could get an emerg appt.) It's been all crazy. But I'm still holding on.

In the meantime I do have things to share with you. Some from quite a while ago. I will start with ComicCon that came to Calgary two weeks ago. I got a chance to go, even though I was pretty sick I managed to get through. I got to meet Tahmoh Pinkett (from shows Dollhouse and Battlestar Galactica)
Here is me with him and the autograph I got from  him:

I had a hard time getting good photos as the lighting was bad and we weren't allowed to use a flash. But also at the convention were Malcolm McDowell (best known from a Clockwork Orange, or for killing Captain Kirk on Star Trek), Leonard Nimoy (of course Spock) and Peter Facinelli (Dr Carlisle from Twilight). Here are pics of Nimoy and Facinelli (from a far).

It was a pretty good time. Packed like crazy with fans and stuff but good. And I bought all kinds of new comics and things. ;)

In stitching news I have a finish!
It's my Smoke project, design by me, for the smoke project on my friend TulipTree's blog located here.
I will finish it into a little pinkeep or mini needle book I think.
But here is the stitching all done up:

I was very flattered to be a part of TulipTree's project and want to thank her for the chance to participate. (for those that are not familiar with it, it was an interpretation in any creative way of smoke. I choose a sampler as it is the traditional cross stitch. I took the letters SMOKE and used a varigated thread to fade them out. The border is meant to represent smoke and it's transitions).

My last update is progress on my HAED SK, Elfland. From the first half of the year's SAL on their BB. I am behind... we only have one more month left in this SAL before the new one starts. And I am still on page one, not even page two! Ah well... I will see what the new SAL is and decide if I want to join or just finish up all my other many projects on the go.

Dragons update: I have not stopped working on Dragons. Just haven't taken a pic in awhile. It has slowed down a bit, but I am confident that when work settles in two weeks and I am not working overtime that I can catch back up and finish my next page by the end of June (to keep with my 2010 goals). Thank you everyone for your understanding that I am not get around to blogs. I will try and catch up soon. But for now it's just hard to find the time between working lots and not feeling good.