Catching Up - Lots of Pictures

I received an email on Wednesday asking if I was okay.  This person was concerned because I hadn't posted for four days.  I thought "four days?"  I looked at my last blog post & sure enough, four days had gone by. Where does the time go?  A week ago yesterday, I was in the hospital having surgery.  Now here I am, safe & sound at home.  I'll ask it again ... where does the time go?

I am feeling pretty well.  The neck port sites are still somewhat sore & I still end up napping at least once a day, but those are minor complaints.  The heart pain is almost gone as is the raw throat.  No a-fib episodes since the surgery, praise God.  On Wednesday I had a strange stroke-like thing happen but it hasn't happened again so praise God for that too.  It didn't really alarm me.  It was more of a nuisance.  While it was happening, all I could think of was how much I didn't want to get dressed & go to the ER.  The episode itself didn't last too long.  I was typing an email & suddenly I had this odd tingly/numb feeling on the left side of my head.  I could feel it as it traveled down the left side of my neck, across my left shoulder, & down my left arm into my hand & fingers.  It was kind of interesting how it just meandered along at a slow but determined pace.  I was kind of tingly/numb in those areas for a bit of a while, & eventually I was left with just some tingly sensation in my left forearm, the left side of my hand, & my pinkie & ring finger.  It's pretty much all gone now. A fluke incident, I'm sure.  I did promise John that if it happens again, I'll let him take me to the ER or I'll call my doctor to see if it's of any concern.

I have been stitching although my first project, a simple ornament I had kitted to stitch during my recovery, was frogged as much as it was stitched.  I was sure I was counting carefully.  I even counted the same areas 2 or 3 times to make sure I was starting each part of the design where it was supposed to be started.  However, I'd then be stitching along & discover I had miscounted where to start, or I had missed a stitch in one motif which ended up causing me to begin the motif below it in the wrong place.  Be that as it may, I persevered & here is the end result.

Designer:  Blackbird Designs

Design:  Love Letters
(from the book Joyeux Noel)

Floss:  Combination of suggested
GAST & DMC

Fabric:  32 ct Putty linen ... maybe

I was kind of taken aback by the colors.  I don't know why I didn't notice them when I was looking at the model photos or gathering my floss together.  Very spring-like. If I get ambitious, I may re-design it a bit to look more Christmasy.  I have a couple ideas.

I next started an ornament from the 2013 JCS Ornaments magazine.  There are several in this magazine that I'm looking forward to stitching.  This one called out to me because of the house with smoke coming out of the chimney (because I'm inside stitching by the warmth of the fireplace), all the snow outside, & the deer in the front yard.  I thought the deer looked rather odd with those big kind of yellow eyes so I just kept stitching with the brown.  I am pretending they have their eyes closed in prayer, thanking God for all that beautiful snow & the sweet woman inside the house who takes time from her stitching to feed them   : )

Designer:  Prairie Schooler

Design:  Christmas Tree (2013 JCS Ornaments)

Floss:  Suggested DMC

Fabric:  Suggested 32 ct sage Jobelan

I haven't stitched anything on Jobelan for a while.  I kind of enjoyed using it!

Today starts the September IHSW (click logo on sidebar for details) & I will choose another ornament to stitch.  I haven't decided which one yet.  

I stitched 2 gift items last month & asked Myra if she could finish them for me so I could get them in the mail before I went to the hospital.  Happily she was able to do this.  I stitched this first design for my dear friend & sister in Christ, Vicki.  I'm using Myra's photo ... I hope she won't mind   : )

Designer:  Trail Creek Farm

Design:  Dearest Friend Cross Stitch Collection

Floss:  DMC alternates

Fabric:  Can't remember

This next gift I stitched for Mary (no blog), an old & dear friend in North Dakota.  She is the person I always refer to as "the old bat" because she is so much older than me (5 months older).  I probably should have done something creative here & stitched Old Bats Are Like Angels On Earth, or maybe stitched a little bat on it somewhere.  Hindsight ... what can I say.  Once again, Myra's photo    : )

    Designer:  Lizzie*Kate

Design:  Friends Are Like Angels

Floss:  Suggested DMC

Fabric:  It's anyone's guess

I don't know if I've ever mentioned that I have a brother.  I do.  He is my only sibling, 12 years older than me.  He & I are in some ways the same (us both having OCD, for example), but in other ways we are very, very, very different.  I always knew he was blessed with a talent for drawing.  He could sketch things at the drop of a hat & they actually looked like what they were supposed to be.  He never really used his talent though.  There were times when I wondered why didn't God give that talent to me.  I certainly would've made use of it!  I always wished that I could draw.  I've always been in awe of people who can.  

Last Christmas my sister-in-law surprised my brother with a gift certificate for an icon painting class taught by a nun in some convent somewhere.  Obviously I don't know the details   : )   I'm guessing this is somehow connected to my cousin Susie who is a nun. Perhaps the icon nun is in her order? Whatever the details, it turns out that my brother not only can draw ... he can paint! He very much enjoyed his first class & has finished painting 2 icons & is almost finished with a third.  I received an email from him the other day.  In it he mentioned that there is a professional icon painter coming to Pittsburgh to give a workshop & this icon nun is encouraging him to attend.  He is not sure if he can.  He has very bad arthritis & attending 8-hour-per-day classes for a week might be too much for him.  You are probably wondering why I'm sharing this information about my brother with you.  It's because he sent me photos of the icons he's painted (the last one still a work in progress) & I thought I would share them with you.

This first one is archangel Gabriel.  

Pictured in this second icon is St. Raphael, the healing saint.  My brother painted this for my sister-in-law who has had several health problems over the past few years.

My niece (their daughter) is named Patricia. Her name saint is St. Patrick.  Needless to say, my brother is in the process of painting this third icon for Patty.

I just wanted to share these paintings with you.  I think they're pretty impressive   : )

I will leave you with some bird photos I was able to take yesterday.  We have 2 very small birdbaths in the garden off the back porch.  We have always enjoyed watching the birds splash around in them.  Up until this past month or two, a few birds would come throughout the day & that was great! However, suddenly a huge influx of birds started flying in around 5 o'clock in the afternoon.  John has started needing to go out to refill the birdbaths 2 or 3 times to give them all enough water!  First to arrive are these little brown birds we don't know the name of.  They always look a bit unkempt so we we call them scruffy birds.  More than a dozen of these scruffies vie for their place to bathe in these teeny tiny birdbaths.  While they are finishing up, the bluebirds fly in. During our first four summers here, a pair of bluebirds would sometimes make an appearance.  Seeing them was a rare treat & I used to wonder how we could get them to come more often, maybe bring some friends, maybe build nests on our property & raise families.  Well, I don't know where they're living but more than a dozen of them fly in every afternoon to take their baths. Unfortunately the photos showing more than one of the bluebirds turned out blurry.  I'll try again the next time they fly in   : ) 

Now I had better choose my next stitching project so I can get my IHSW off & running! Some breakfast might be a good idea too  : )