An Olympic Finish & Progress on the Bathroom Project

Flag City, USA
Designer: La-D-Da
Fabric: 32 ct. Autumn Fields linen
Fibers: GAST
Hooray for the Olympics and Team USA!! I have been enjoying the Olympic games and the stitching time it's afforded me. I put the final stitches in this little complimentary project a few nights ago. What a fun stitch!

The bathroom project continues. It's clear to me that it will not be finished before I return to work next week. That means that I will have to continue doing my contortionist act in the shower in the master bath. The hubby got all the plaster in the damaged areas scraped off, the places of sheetrock and cabinetry that were cut filled up, and is now ready to apply the plaster and paper to the ceiling. Ever wondered what it looks like underneath the plaster? That brown stuff is paper. Not sure why it's there, but something about it building the layers of the plaster.

After 2 coats of VERY smelly sealer, this is what it now looks like. It's ready for the plaster and taping.

It's been slow going because these sealers have to dry for 24 hours before you can do anything else with them. Hubby decided to take today off, so the plaster will be applied tomorrow. Maybe we'll be able to start painting on Sunday??

Hannah is wondering why there's plastic and a ladder in her bathtub!

The Great Bathroom Re-Do

I just LOVE home improvement projects, don't you?? (NOT!!) My husband is a very handy guy, but getting him motivated is a whole different story. We won't talk about unfinished projects.... I call them his WIPs. He doesn't like that. LOL It gives me ammo when I start working on a new stitching project, though.

A month or so ago, I told the hubby that I wanted to paint the den. We've lived in this house since 2005 and every room is painted the same color of drab purpley-gray. It was probably on sale and the previous owners were hoping to cover a multitude of sins with it. I'm kinda tired of the paint color and the half-wall wood paneling in the den. He thought about it and suggested we start small, so since the front bathroom ("my bathroom") had pieces of paint peeling off the ceiling, that's where we're starting.

Our home was built in the mid-1950s, so over the years, it's had some termite damage. However, the previous owners didn't repair it correctly, so that's why the chunks of paint were falling off. Also, due to poor workmanship and/or shifting of our home, the seams of the sheetrock on the long wall can be seen, so those will need to be repaired. We also have a retro wall mounted light, which hasn't worked since we moved in that I know of, and a wall of mirrors along the side of the bathroom opposite the bathtub. I think the smaller of the 2 mirrors will stay up, but we're doing something different over the sink. I'm hoping for an oval shaped mirror to put there. The rest of the wall above the toilet will just be painted, so pictures or something can be hung there.

See that thing under the light? Yeah, I thought it was a speaker at first, but today hubby told me it was a vent.

As you can see, the tile is ever so lovely. (NOT!!) I wish we had the funds at the time to totally get rid of the peachy-orangey-sandy colored tile, the peachy-orangey-sandy colored sink, and the peachy-orangey-sandy colored bathtub, not to mention the icky colored floor, but that's not the case. For now, we're focusing on the wall color and getting rid of the hideous mirrors and that God-awful light fixture!

Mark took down one of the mirrors and found this lovely piece of work behind it. He followed the wire and found that they went through the wall of the cabinet in the master bathroom then across the space between the walls and over to install the plug in the bathroom. The plug was in the side of the cabinet, so now not only do we have to fix this lovely cut in the sheetrock, we have to fix the hole in the side of the bathroom cabinet! Why not just run the wire down from the ceiling?? We also have a hole in the cabinet in the master bathroom to repair now as well. Obviously, a previous owner thought they were the DIY know it all! I don't think we'll get to painting this week.

Some Olympic Stitching and Events

Unless you've been in outer space or under a rock, you know that the Summer Olympics are in full swing. While I'm not really a "fan" of any particular Olympic sport, I do enjoy rooting for my country's athletes during the Olympic games. The bad thing about Olympic season is that I lose a lot of sleep staying up late watching the events. The good thing about Olympic time is that I get a lot of stitching time in! I decided to pick up the little patriotic piece I'd started oh so many months ago, Flag City 2005 (although mine will be Flag City 2012). Here's my Olympic progress.

In other Olympic news, the felines had a bit of competition last night. Daisy performed her floor exercise routine, or maybe it was rhythmic gymnastics with a ribbon toy routine. There were many jumps making her routine filled with high difficulties. However, she petered out early and didn't finish her routine. I think the paper bag was too big a draw for her. The floor routine was followed up by the team pursuit event. Hannah and Tumbles teamed up to pursue a clicky bug! They brought home the gold and successfully brought the bug to its knees. The hubby swooped in for the capture and disposal of the bug. It was truly a team effort! Tonight's events include boxing, wrestling, and the track events. :)

Six Months of Daisy

It's hard to believe that it's been 6 months since Daisy's adoption! Little did we know how much our lives would change when she became a part of our family! She has taught us the importance of putting all food away in a cat-proof place before leaving the kitchen. She has taught us that kitties like bread and flour tortillas. (Not good for them!!) She's taught us that every surface is for kitties. (NOT!) She's also taught us the importance of sweeping the kitchen floor daily so she has a clean surface to perform her version of box art daily. (See above picture.) She's also taught us to have Clorox Wipes handy at all times in the kitchen.

For the past 6 months, we have been teaching Daisy that humans are okay, she is safe and loved, and that we have some expectations for her behavior. She is learning that kitties don't belong on the counters, the stove, or the table. It's hard for her, but she's doing well with her training. Just a bit ago, I was sitting at the table eating my salad and she jumped up on the table right beside my plate. UGH!! I gently escorted her off the table and wiped it down (again) with a Clorox wipe. I should buy stock in the company!! She came back, but she sat on the floor very patiently. While she was sitting and I was eating, I repeatedly praised her for sitting so nicely and for not jumping up on the table. Sometimes the training process is slow going.

I do believe that Daisy is finally "at home". She is comfortable here and doesn't try to dart out the door or escape through the windows any longer. I mean, would you want to venture out on your own if you knew you had a steady supply of good food, safe napping places, lots of love, and lots of toys?? She has her favorite napping and hanging out spots. She LOVES to play, which really makes me happy. She is a little playing machine! She comes into the bathroom every morning, jumps up on the counter, and walks over to the edge and headbutts me while I'm using the facilities. :) She greets me with a chirp when I come home in the evenings and she sometimes comes to visit us in our bedroom at night and in the mornings. She's not fully comfortable and at peace in all the rooms of our home, but she's getting there. Her belly fur has grown back in from her spay surgery and she's at a very healthy weight. (Maybe even a bit too healthy!) Her fur is now silky soft, her eyes nice & bright, and she is never late for a meal.

Here she is playing the other night. She has a paper and cardboard fetish and had already torn a hole in the side of this bag. :)

For the Love of Sunflowers

I have long adored sunflowers, but have never grown them in my garden. This year, I decided to change that and planted some Lemon Queen sunflowers. I am so in love!! Today, I planted some Mammoth Gray Stripe (the kind that make edible sunflower seeds). Let's hope they do there thing before first frost!

Nothing says summer quite like sunflowers!!

Not a lot of Stitching Going On

But I have been very busy in the gardens! Last year, all our gardening efforts were a bust due to the hubby's heart issues. Now that his heart is working better, he's got lots of energy and drive to get out and do stuff in the veggie garden. We did get a bit of a late start, but I don't think the garden noticed. Also, we had a very warm period followed by more "normal" (cooler) temps so that worked in our favor, too.

So far this spring, the peas have been producing like crazy! In the past few years, we've grown both Alaska and Wando varieties of English peas (regular podded peas, not sugar snap peas). I think we planted every pea seed we had left and I think every single one germinated and produced. We have peas running our our ears and they keep on producing! We've also harvested a couple of jalapenos from a plant that hadn't even been transplanted yet!

The pole beans (Blue Lake green beans) have really taken off and we're harvesting some beans every couple of days. This is only the second year we've grown pole beans and the first year, out support blew over early in the spring ruining our attempt at growing them.

On tonight's menu, this morning's harvest of green beans and peas.

Lest you think nothing is going on with the flower beds, how about this gorgeous daylily that's been blooming? It's my all-time favorite, San Antonio Firecracker and does it ever "pop" in the garden!

Flag City, USA

I ran across this cute little complimentary design by La-D-Da a few weeks ago. It's been haunting me!! I figured it might help me get my stitching mojo back. Soooooo....While on vacation this past week, I've been stitching on this in the evenings. I spent most of my days nursing a hurting back/hip and trying to work out in the gardens. Oh yes, and one day I did about 15 loads of laundry! Okay, I didn't really do 15 loads of laundry, but it sure felt like it! Here's my progress so far.



Things are still going great in the garden. Of course, we've not gotten to the dead of summer yet. We've had oodles and oodles of butterflies this year. I don't garden specifically for the butterflies, but they do seem to like my flowers.

The first occupants on my passiflora foetida (passionflower) are 2 Gulf Fritilary cats (larval stage). I hope the plant is big enough to support their hunger! I've seen the Gulf Frit butterfly flitting about, but didn't think the plant was big enough for her to lay her eggs. I'm hoping these make it to adulthood.

Three Red Admiral butterflies and one Buckeye butterfly are enjoying the dill flower heads. The Giant Swallowtail uses dill as a host plant for her eggs and caterpillars. A few years ago, I rescued several swallowtail cats, brought them inside and provided food and a place for them to hang out until they burst from their chrysalis. It was a fun experiment!

The flowers are looking ever so lovely and I'm so encouraged when I walk outside and see all the flowers blooming. These Four Nerve Daisies are really putting on a show this year. I've never seen them bloom so profusely! I love yellow flowers in the garden as they are so bright and cheerful!

Daisy & Tumbles have been enjoying hanging out in the curtains of the big front window. Silly kitties!

Spring has Sprung!

Although I've not stitched on this piece for a month, I thought I should share a progress pic with you. Looking at it helps me think spring and think about my garden!

At this time of year, my thoughts turn to the garden. We have a large flower bed in the front yard which we have landscaped with mostly natives to attract bees and butterflies. In the back yard, we have our veggie garden and a smaller flower bed near the back of our yard. It also has mostly plants native to Texas, but since it gets a lot of shade, those plants are hard to find. My goal this year is to work on that back flower bed more and really get it looking good! Things are popping out all over (a lot of weeds!!) and I'm trying to remember what I've planted where so I don't pull out the good with the bad.

In the veggie garden, so far we've planted onions, pole beans (green beans that keep producing all season), peas (2 varieties), carrots, and radishes. It's time to plant cucumbers, which I'll do this weekend. My tomato seeds that I planted have germinated and the little buggers are growing well. I'll transplant those out at the end of April, along with the bell pepper seedlings.

Maters and Pepper seedlings. Some are getting big enough to transplant into bigger containers!

Radishes, in desperate need of thinning! Radishes are fun to grow. They sprout in 2-3 days and you're ready to harvest in about 2 weeks. Instant gratification!n Radishes are also great to grow in pots.

Things are coming to life in the flower beds! Plants are coming back from dormancy and the early bloomers are starting to bud in preparation of blooming.

Salvia "May Night" and Four Nerve Daisies. The daisies have been blooming all winter, but have really perked up with the recent rains and warmer temps.

Lyre Leaf Sage, a Texas native (or at least does well here). The more shade it gets, the more blue or bluish purple it is. This one has been happy in this spot for several years.

Four Nerve Daisies and wild onion or wild rain lily. Not sure which, but it definitely doesn't belong there! I will have to dig it out as it's very invasive.

The first monarch of the season visited my garden yesterday! So glad she could find something to nectar on since she's had a long journey and has further to go still.

Lastly, these two cuties have sprung up a friendship that involves, playing and roughhousing. They are not snuggle buddies yet, but they do enjoy each others company. Daisy has definitely come into her own and she's becoming more social with us and learning some boundaries. She still thinks it's cool to jump up on the stove (NOT cool in this house) and has learned that a spray of water from the water bottle will soon head her way if she doesn't jump down when told. While I don't like using the water bottle, it is necessary at times.

Tumbles lounging in the sunroom.

Daisy loves the window sills! She enjoys looking out at the birds, bees, squirrels, and neighbor's cat that visits from time to time. She really has the sweetest little face, as you can see in this pic.

Lounging on the window sill!

Introducing Daisy Mae!

We did it! We brought Daisy home last Thursday. Since she was still snotty and sneezy, we set her up in the isolation room with a vaporizer and a space heater for extra warmth. She also had all the ammenities...water, food, litter box, toys, and warm bedding. She settled in very nicely and ate within the first 30 mins of bringing her home. We also immediately started her on our wellness plan. We feed grain-free canned food and mix in some plain canned pumpkin (to keep things moving), 1/4 t of Missing Link veterinary formula (vitamin supplement), an antihistamine (when needed), L-Lysine (this helps stop the replication of the herpes virus and supports a better immune system), and some evening primrose oil drops (helps with nasal inflammation caused by allergies). She ate her first wet food serving like a champ! We feed wet food twice a day, morning and evening. We supplement with dry food (also grain free), but the bulk of their calories come from the wet food.

On Sunday, we began introducing Hannah and Tumbles to Daisy. We put Daisy in the huge dog crate we have and let the kitties come in and roam. That way, Daisy stays safe, yet the others can see her, smell her and wander around in "her" room. Tumbles did slo-mo kitty through the whole room and Hannah hissed and told her off! LOL We did this a few times a day on Sunday. On Monday, we closed off part of the house and let her roam outside of the room. On Tuesday, we did the same thing. Yesterday, after we came back from the vet with Daisy, we just let her roam the house. They all did great! We did put her in "her" room overnight last night and let her out first thing this morning. Today, she's found a few new sleeping spots and everything's gone well. A few hisses, which is to be expected, but we're making progress.

Picked Up an Old Friend This Week

Way back in July of last year, I started this piece when I took Mark to the ER for the second time and knew he would be staying for longer than an overnight stay. However, after I got as far along as in the pic above, I realized I was one thread off and it was driving me crazy. So much so, that I was making many mistakes. I put it down, then decided I'd start all over again and frog everything that I'd stitched. I plucked out all of the blue and the red, decided I was tired of that and started stitching again, this time on the correct thread. I'd done a bit of the blue when I last stitched on it. Knowing I was going to be doing a lot of sitting in the waiting room at the hospital on Monday while Mark had his procedure, I took it along to work on. This is how far I got with it.

The white still needs to be taken out, but I'll do that when I get to it!

This past Monday, Mark had a defibrillator implanted in his chest due to congestive heart failure, a weak heart, and tachycardia (fast heart rate). He did great during the procedure and I brought him home on Tuesday. He has some limitations, but currently he's vacuuming the house. The defibrillator doesn't really help his heart work any better or more efficiently. It really helps if his heart rate gets up over a certain number of beats per second. It will send an electrical shock to his heart to try to get it back into a normal rhythm. If that doesn't work, then it will shock him (like you see with an external defibrillator on TV). Also, if he were to go into cardiac arrest, it would shock his heart back to life. If you'd like to read more, you can get some really good information from the Heart Rhythm Society.

In other news, we are picking up our new kitty tonight!! She's still sick and will have to be isolated from our other cats, but she'll be fine. I've already scheduled a vet visit for her next Wednesday for a wellness exam as well as a follow up on her upper respiratory infection. I can't wait to bring her home and get her on the road to good health!

A Little Bit of Progress Made

I've been stitching on my Quaker Friendship Sampler during my lunchtime for the past couple of weeks. While I don't get a lot of time to stitch during lunch, maybe 15-20 mins, I enjoy it. It helps me de-stress from all the hectic activity at work. I also get to see a bit of progress. Even stitching for 15 mins a day brings me one stitch closer to a finish. I also worked on this last Saturday evening.

Sorry for the crummy picture, but my picture editing software wouldn't let me crop it. Also, my scanner isn't big enough to scan the whole thing in one scan, so I had to "stitch" it together.

For those of you who may be interested in this chart and my conversions (thanks to Jan at Tree of Life Samplings and Belfonte Notes). I am stitching this on 32 count Mockingbird linen which is a nice deep brown color, from R&R Reproductions. The design can be stitched in one color, or it has a suggested color palette. I am using Crescent Colours cottons. Here are my conversions:

DMC ----> Crescent Colours
840 Wild Oats (I started off with Country Lane but it was too dark for my fabric.)
931 Blue Beadboard
729 Tufted Yellow
223 Secondhand Rose
3041 Fleur de Lilac
3363 Dandelion Stem
3799 Rod & Reel

In other news, the husband's heart continues to do weird things. We thought he was doing okay, but his heart rate skyrockets to unsafe levels when he does anything strenuous or tries to work out. Husband already wears a device that tells him his heart rate, so when it gets too high, he stops what he's doing, but because of the high heart rate, he could suffer sudden cardiac arrest and possibly die. We went to see a second cardiologist this past Thursday. This guy specializes in electrophysiology (the electrical function of the heart) and arrhythmias (irregular heart beats). Looking over Husband's files and talking with the husband, this doctor also confirmed that Husband needs an implanted defibrillator. In addition to acting as a defibrillator, the device also acts as a pacemaker and will send electric impulses to the heart if it starts beating too quickly. Tomorrow afternoon, I will take Husband to the hospital for the procedure to implant the defibrillator in his chest. He will need to stay overnight for monitoring and then I'll pick him up on Tuesday. Hopefully, this device will enable him to feel better and return to a more productive life.

The other bit of excitement in our home is that Husband finally agreed to adding another kitty to our family! I've only been pestering him for a year!! After looking for several weeks on Petfinder, I found a cute little tortie girl (finally!) a couple of weeks ago. I emailed back and forth with her foster mom for several days and then we went to meet her this past Monday. She was a TOTAL love bug!! I held her up to my chest and she put her paws up on my shoulder, gave me tons of headbutts and chin rubs, and purred and purred and purred. While we talked, if she heard a strange noise outside of the room, she would run and jump up on the bench next to me to "hide". Her foster mom was very impressed that the kitty took to us so quickly. Coming soon to our home is this little cutie!!



Unfortunately, we haven't been able to bring her home because she's got a little upper respiratory infection. :{ When we saw her on Monday, she was sneezing and had a bit of congestion, but her foster mom has been taking great care of her. She's on antibiotics and will go back to the vet on Tuesday for a re-evaluation as she's still a bit congested. We've told the foster mom that we're willing to bring her home if she's still congested but not sneezing. Due to Hannah's herpes, we have to be careful with any sickness, but as long as this little girl isn't contagious, we should be okay. We've been through so many upper respiratory infections with Hannah that this should be nothing major. Her name is tentatively "Daisy", but that's subject to change.

Dusting Off the Ol' Blog

I have spent the past couple of months trying to catch my breath from all the "stuff" that has happened in my life the past year. Sometimes life can just be so overwhelming! Since the end of November, 2010, the following things have happened in my life:

*My truck was stolen from my driveway.
*My grandmother passed away.
*We had to put my beloved kitty to sleep due to chronic renal failure.
*My husband was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and had triple bypass surgery. A follow-up to the cardiologist had a not so good prognosis, so we are dealing with that as well.
*The Christmas shopping season at work has come and gone and I survived

The last thing has consumed my life since April. On a good note, the husband has completed his cardiac rehab sessions (36 of those puppies, 3 times a week for 12 weeks) with perfect attendance. He now goes to the same place for 'workout sessions' as many times a month as he wants. It's much less expensive than a gym or health club, too!

During this time, I really had no desire to stitch. I'm working on getting back in the stitching groove, though. I've decided to work on my Quaker Friendship Sampler.


I realized as I was putting this piece in the q-snaps that including the current medallion I'm working on, I only have 7 medallions left until it's completed!! I can do it! I can do it!! I definitely want to finish this piece, this year.


The kitties enjoying the sun on New Year's Day! What a wonderful way to welcome in the new year!