Designing and Stitching

Good morning world!  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Ours was a much needed effort at winding down after a long and sometimes difficult week.  More on that in a minute.  First, I wanted to share some stitching.  I have released a new pattern, which is shipping to shops today.  It is called "Give Us Liberty" and is a small design that can be easily stitched and turned into a cute pin pillow:

The model is stitched on "Heroic" linen from Picture This Plus using overdyed cotton threads from Weeks Dye Works.  It was fun to design and stitch, hopefully a few of you will enjoy stitching it as much as I did!

I also had time this weekend to work on finishing some pieces that I stitched earlier this year (or the year before).  Both of these are kits from Chessie and Me.  I backed each with a different patriotic-themed fabric (should have taken pictures of that!) and here they are:

I am debating adding a trim on the edges of one or both of them, but there's nothing at the house that works for me.  I'll check Mom's stash when I drop by her house later today and then maybe swing by M's as well.  I always love these little designs of Chessie and Me!

Which brings me to the reasons why this week has been so challenging.  For starters, my husband spent most of the week out of town on a business trip.  He doesn't love the traveling, and I don't love his not being around, so we were mildly stressed to begin with.  In addition, this week was Vacation Bible School at our church.  For the first time ever, I volunteered as a teacher.  I hadn't been to a VBS since I was a child myself!  Do not get me wrong, I very much enjoyed my teaching experience.  The kids were funny and sweet and adorable.  But keeping them safe and happy takes a lot of energy.  A lot.  Totally worth it, but tiring.

Then, Tuesday evening, this cute little grey guy here put the scary in my week.  About 9:30 pm, he starts peeing in all the wrong places.  Gross, and a sign that of a bladder infection or uti, which can be deadly in cats.  So off to the emergency vet we go.

We arrive back home around 12:30 in the morning (yep, see where that exhausting part is happening), with some meds and instructions to check back in if things do not improve within 24-36 hours.  Lucky is quarantined in the master bathroom with all the rugs removed so that, should he be unable to use the litter box I provided, at least he wasn't going anywhere I couldn't easily clean up.

The next day is full of worry and concern as he fails to really improve his bathroom behaviors.  How long is too long? Is my cat going to get better or is he going to fall out and die before I realize he needs more help?  No significant improvement, so Thursday am bright and early it's back to the emergency vet before the start of VBS.  By Thursday afternoon, the vet informs me that his kidney levels are bad and they want him to stay overnight for an iv treatment.  My poor little cat!  My poor heart!  I'm just sick on my stomach at the thought that he might be going into kidney failure.  That was a long night for me, probably longer for the cat.

Happily, the vet called the next morning to say that his kidney levels were back to normal, he was urinating appropriately, etc, etc.  I brought him home after VBS and returned him to quarantine.  I've spent an anxious few days watching over him, making sure he was still acting right and giving him tons and tons of pills (he loves that, not!).  He's out of quarantine now, and seems to be over the hump.  I hope so.  He'll be back at the vet's on Thursday for a checkup, assuming there are no more crises between now and then.  I think about my anxiety and worry for him and then I think about how much worse it must be if it's your child instead of your cat.  Wow!  Tough to think about.

Hope that wasn't tmi for anyone.  Hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of summer.  I am off to package some patterns.  Later!

Life goes on

Howdy folks!  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Things were nice and relaxing here.  Not too much going on (although fun stuff is in the works).  I thought I'd share a photo of my geraniums.  I really love geraniums, and I have some on my front steps every summer.  I decided to dial back on the summer flower purchases this year though.  Only three pots of geraniums, and nothing in the porch baskets.  Just seemed like a good summer for a break.  I'll be back in flower power mode next summer though.









We've been enjoying our usual crew of visitors to the bird feeder so far this year.  And a new guy showed up this evening: an eastern towhee.  I'd actually seen a pair of them in the back part of the yard in February, but this is the first time I'd seen any at the feeder.  Always love seeing new birds on the porch!

I've been up to quite a bit of stitching recently.  Some of it I can't show you just yet (waiting on my first magazine publication, squee!), but here's a sneak peek at a reproduction that I hope to released in February (yup, we're doing some long term planning here).  This is the mostly finished top third of a rather large sampler.  I am having so much fun stitching it, and hope others will be interested as well!  Not only do Adam and Eve make an appearance, complete with explanatory verse, but there's a gorgeous rendition of Solomon's Temple as well!  Like I said, lots of fun.  It may be a little early to start sharing previews, but I wanted to show something I've been working on!

The cats are being, well, cats.  This first shot is a rare snap of the elusive Miss Priss.  Most of our house guests never get to see her sweet little face.  She's so funny, and so very, very shy!

Princess is highlighting the fact that I am not the world's best housekeeper by holding down the pile of 'clean' laundry on my dresser.  At least she hasn't thrown the tap shoes on the floor.  I'm auditing a tap class Tuesday evening to see if I can still hoof a bit.  If all goes well, I may be spending my summer stomping my little heart out!

Dear sweet Lucky!  He looks exhausted doesn't he?  Must be from all that unwanted smashing of buttons on the keyboard.  He can make typing a blog post quite challenging!

Til next time, stay safe, and stay crafty!