Closing in on a Finish & Other News

My latest progress scan on Heart of America. It's creeping ever closer to a finish!! I've run out of English Ivy which is used on that bottom swirly thing that's not finished, but never fear! I have more in my stash closet, I just have to put my hands on it. I so want to get this one finished before starting on my new incentive piece, so I'm torn as to what I'll stitch on today. Do I try to finish this or do I go ahead and start "Give"? Decisions, decisions, decisions!!

In other news, I had a little gardening accident this past Tuesday while out harvesting bell peppers. I tried to lop off the side of my finger using my hand held pruning shears! OUCHIE!! This resulted in a trip to the minor emergency clinic, a DPT shot (diphtheria, pertussis aka whooping cough, and tetanus) in my arm that is STILL bugging me, and 5 pretty stitches on my finger. The stitches only impaired my stitching for a few hours. LOL I go back to see the nurse practitioner (a fellow stitcher btw) on Tuesday for the removal of the stitches. Things are healing nicely. I'm still putting some Neosporin on the wound and also some vitamin E gel on it to reduce scarring. At home, I try to go without a bandage, but if I'm going to be out and about, like at work, I put a bandage on it. I'm down to one band-aid now. Progress!

Here's the finger, all mummified after my visit to the clinic, with Callie investigating and protecting me:


When I first cut myself and was sitting on the couch trying to get the bleeding to stop, Callie immediately jumped up behind me and settled down on the blanket up there. She wouldn't leave me as she knew something was wrong with me. She was watching over me and wouldn't let Mark move her one inch! LOL When we got home, she followed me around constantly and was either on the floor near me or laying next to me at all times. I just love that cat!

Here are my not-so pretty stitches:


Surprisingly, I've not experienced much pain from the actual wound. Most of the pain and some bruising I've experienced were from the nerve block shot the NP injected into my finger to deaden it before beginning her little stitching project. I did experience some throbbing in the finger the day it happened and some tenderness, but mostly it's been pain free. Of course, if I manage to whack it on something, then it hurts, but left alone, there's no pain. I can even type normally now.

We have a few firsts in the garden! We have a pumpkin! After battling the squash vine borers, drenching rain, and heat, we've discovered at least one baby pumpkin on the vine. Woohoo!


We also have our first winter sown Purple Coneflower (echinacea)! I planted the seeds for these way back in February of this year. They've been slowly growing but have really taken off with the cooler temps and rain we've recently had.


Lastly, our first Green Zebra tomatoes! This was one of the heirloom tomato plants we got for $0.50 at a local nursery in May. We've babied these all summer and now they're producing babies! This tomato will not turn red, but will stay green with greenish stripes. If you click on the pic to see it larger, you'll see the green stripes already starting to form. Will be so fun to watch them mature. There's a total of 3 babies on the plant so far.



Fall is definitely here with football season well underway, the temps down to near 90º, and the days getting shorter. This is my favorite time of the year. Enjoy your fall!