Alive and Stitching

First off I want to thank everyone who has sent me prayers & good wishes.  Surely I have never been so sick in my life.  I feared that pneumonia was settling in (I've had it twice in the past) so last Friday I got an appointment with the doctor.  No pneumonia, thank God, but no flu either!  Turns out a virus is going around with the flu & I caught the virus.  I was told nothing could be done but get lots of rest & wait it out.  Today I am feeling a bit stronger & for the past 2 nights I have been able to go to bed without plastering my chest with Vicks VapoRub. Although death is still gripping at my ankles, I have the feeling that by the weekend I should be right as rain.  I hope so!

Now that I'm not constantly thinking "take me now, Jesus," I am thinking of rather unpleasant things like taking down the Christmas decorations, opening the last of my gifts (yes, there are still gifts under the tree) ...

... wait a minute!  Gifts aren't unpleasant. Scratch that last part   : )   Starting again, these unpleasant tasks include taking down the Christmas decorations (that string of lights at the end of the stairs was not part of the decorations, by the way ... I just tossed it up there the day after Christmas & that's where it's been ever since), filling out insurance forms, filing complaints against my dentist regarding the bad bridge episode, attending or rescheduling various appointments, & of course dealing with the very, very, very bad thing.  Please continue to pray about the very, very, very bad thing. I'm afraid it's going to be in my life for quite some time   : ( 

Regarding the gifts still under the tree, most of the ones you see are from my friend Mary in North Dakota.  She & I exchange Christmas stockings every year & we both were late in mailing our packages this year.  Her package to me arrived the day before Christmas & I set it aside to open at a later time.  After John & I opened each others gifts, I put my packages from Mary under the tree & they looked so nice under there that I just left them.  Mary had informed me that she had ordered a couple things for me that were not in the package & she would be mailing them later so I thought I'd wait until those arrived & open everything at once.  Then I got sick & didn't feel like opening my eyes let alone opening packages.  The gifts Mary ordered arrived yesterday & I placed them under the tree.  I learned that yesterday was Russian Christmas (I was never quite sure when it was) so I thought opening them yesterday would've been a great idea! However, the virus thought otherwise & I slept most of the day.  There are also a few packages under the tree from a blogging friend who wants to remain anonymous.  

To tell you the truth, I really, really don't want to open the gifts because that means Christmas will be over.  Although it was not the best of Christmases what with the very, very, very bad thing coming into my life ... & my decorations were quite minimal ... it was still a lovely & blessed time.  I hate to let that go but I know I must & I will do that maybe later this week, ever keeping my eyes on & looking forward to next Christmas   : )

I did manage to do some stitching while at death's door.  I really don't have any stitching goals this year.  I know what I want to do but I'm not going to give myself any sort of list or schedule.  I'm just going to go with the flow   : )   I do want to fill the year with stitching a lot of Christmas things & I have one finish to share with you & a WIP which is causing me a bit of grief.  First I will share the finish ... a design by Tralala Collection called Duo Noel.  I chose to do the sheep design stitched on Wichelt 32 ct antique tan linen & DMC floss.

My WIP is HE's 2011 Sampler Ornament Jingle Jingle.  I am loving stitching this!  I actually have quite a few HE ornament charts in my stash which I'm looking forward to stitching this year.  I have decided that HE's ornament designs beat LHN's ornament designs by a mile   : )   Anyway, I am using the DMC equivalents & stitching the design on the recommended 30 ct mink linen.  However, I was quite disappointed with my linen because it has a few yellow spots on it ... as though someone was using a bottle of yellow food dye near it & a few drops of the food dye landed on the linen   : (   I was very careful to make sure that any yellow spots would be covered up by my stitches. Unfortunately I was not careful enough & as you will see in the second photo, one of the spots that I thought would be covered up by the stitching is actually going to be showing a bit to the left of that line of white stitches. I apologize for the blurry photos.  I took them 3 times & this is the best of the lot.  

I wet the linen & ironed it before stitching to remove any creases so I fear that yellow spot may be permanently there   : (   However, if you have any idea how I might remove it, please let me know.

I do have a bit of a bone to pick about the DMC equivalents in Jingle Jingle.  I know the designers always say that if you use the DMC equivalents the finished design will not look exactly like the design model, but honestly ... my salmon colored Santa & houses & bell are nowhere near the color of these things on the model!  Surely HE had better equivalent choices   : (   I will need to check colors more closely in future projects & possibly break down & use the designer floss.

I wish to welcome my new followers!  I'm so glad you came to visit my blog & decided to stick around   : )   A big hug to all my regular followers as well.  I hope everyone's new year is starting out better than mine has, but then again, it could've been worse. When you think about it, no matter what happens, there's always something worse that could've happened.  Something to always keep in mind   : )