Only good things

Surprising as it is - or maybe I just imagine that I have been companing quite a bit last year or so.

The most important good thing, is that today is/ was our 2nd anniversary as a couple!
Admittedly it is not surprising as for some reason it has always felt that we are us, period (if anyone undertands what I am trying to say).
But I have come to realise that I have really been found by a really great Man, much greater than I thought even I have always thought very highly of Him. (Admittedly He is sometimes somewhat frustrating, but no one is perfect, I guess.)

Secondly: recently I have come to see the light after years of darkness.
I would have never imagined that my life was so dark, muted, dull than I have now realised it was. And all just because one wise doctor gave me prescription for little white pills. Those little pills are like candles, they are bringing light to the ultimate darkness I used to call "life", and now I see how dark it was and still is.
But I know it is only getting better from now on and I know there will be more and more candles. Some day my life will be filled with light, even occasionally some candles become dimmer.

I don't know am I exorcising evil spirits as I am beginning to hope that my thyroid would just turn off completely as it would make life much easier in the end. Even though it would also mean that in case I do not have access to thyroxine I will fade away fast.
I just hate not being able to eat nectarines. I hate seeing my thyroid grow and shrink on daily basis. I hate those dim days because my thyroid has decided to take a day off causing the glass jar dose being too small.

Thirdly: I have finished (stitching and finishing wise) six (6) stiching smalls within last month!

I am soon beginning to think that the medication has had some kind of an effect on me!

Rare OOP TWs just make your day.

Most of my stitchy friends probably know how difficult Teresa Wentzler's "Fantasy Triptych" leaflet is to find and how incredibly expensive it usually gets at eBay, and how important essential to one's insanity it is to have the leaflets even if you have all the collections where the designs are...

Some time ago (ok, maybe a bit longer time ago, but that doesn't matter) I asked some help from Angela with an eBay seller who had FT available, but only for U.S. residents (like there is no life outside U.S. or ability to use Paypal - ok, I am sometimes just a bit peeved about that *evil grin*). So, being such a darling Angela got it for me in great price (I think it was like $10?) and long story short... it arrived yesterday (after being maimed by our mailman, poor pattern)!

SOOO pretty, isn't it?

And, Angela added BIG piece of lovely 32 count ivory linen with it! Thank you Angela, you have made one crazy stitcher VERY happy!

Beware: there are clay huts even in your own neighbourhood!

We were eating egusi soup yesterday (to make my point here clear: it's eaten by hand, with garri) and something popped to my head.

We were waiting for a bus home on the day when Mr. Wonderful came home and there came a woman with her little daughter in a pram; the little girl had icecream.
At some point the girl started to eat that icecream with her hands (well, as far as I know kids like to do that) and the mom started to nag to the girl about it, my favourite part (I may be sarcastic) of it being: "Why are you doing that?! We don't live in a clay hut. People in *clay huts* eat like that, but in *here* we use *tools*!"

I actually found it depressingly funny at that point, thinking myself that in that case those, oh so intimidating, clay huts are far closer than she thinks. And that occasion came into my mind yesterday as we were eating dinner.

The clays huts are in fact in their neighbourhood: they got off the same stop as we did...

Hypothyroidism: Never a dull moment

I am beginning to feel entertained by this.

Day before yesterday, after poorly slept night (which is a big no-no), I headed to the laboratory and gave some blood for science because I wanted the realistic result, not the post-vacation one, even though I should have got the bloodwork done later.

Rebellious, aren't I?

Well, I got the results and the reference between these and the previous tests is not the same so comparing them is a bit more complicated - add to that that sleeping poorly keeps your TSH levels down so basically I can add anything from zero to 1,5 mU/l to the result. Which basically means that my TSH levels have actually risen after the medication.
But so have my thyroxine levels, though just slightly.

The fun part is that this could mean that I have central hypothyroidism or autoimmune or both or something else.

Regardless, my real thyroid is a mess and that little glass jar (also know as my glass thyroid) in the kitchen cupboard is my saviour.
And my dosage will be upped. Probably quite a bit.

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N! and... Stashy mail, part II

Actually my first ever full length summer vacation starts on Monday, but I took asked for few days off before it and therefore I am off starting from today until 29th of August!

Maybe I actually have some time to stitch during this month. *grin*

Stash p0rn

I have got some lovely mail from States during this week, one of my 1-2-3 Stitch! orders and one Clearance haul from Stitching Bits & Bobs (Good G-d, they have summer sale! Must control myself (vacation compensation is paid tomorrow and we are planning to buy some furniture with some of it (and after Augusth 15th's payday my next pay will come in the end of September) so I must be good..)! O.o).

Pretty pictures under the LJ cut:

I bought To Get To Heaven just because I found it cute, though if I start to think about the etymology any deeper it becomes kind of disturbing... still, I don't think it any deeper, hence it is cute.
Though the chart, even being made in 2007, is dreadfully small print and the symbols are much too alike to my liking so in future I have to avoid the charts made by this designer unless they are *must* haves - unless someone tells me this one is an exception.

My brain is asleep (didn't take my thyroxine in the evening, long story, and then took whole 125µg when I woke up... my body doesn't like it as such high doses, even less just after waking up, at least not yet) so... until next entry: behave!

Stashy mail, part I

For some odd reason I tend to have stash shopping spree always when Mr. Wonderful is not at home. Maybe it's that I want to keep my addiction secret or that I need something to improve my mood. I am inclined to think it would be latter one, I am not an addict or anything...

I am not!

Ok, I know no one believes me.

One day, when looking for a suitable over-dyed blue floss, I noticed one design from my wish list at 1-2-3 Stitch!'s Clearance section: Needlemania's "Fire Flower".

Of course one thing lead to another, soon my cart was full of pretty colours and I had to seriously reduce the amount of floss I eventually bought ...

You know how it goes.

In need of recommendations

When I changed to my current photo hosting for my blogging needs Twango was all I wanted, but few years later, now that it has become Ovi, all the functionality has been lost and now I can't even tag the pictures as they have such stupid scripts that they jam my browser...
So, I need would like to find a better (free!) service for myself before I lose my mind totally.

Not Photobucket as it doesn't have the functionality I want and Webshots is a bit too... ermm... whatever to my taste.

Ooh!

Found this from strangeglitter's blog and I have to say that I would have never thought that I'd get this result. O.o

I write like
Daniel Defoe

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Ho Ho Ho

My mother smsed me yesterday that she had transferred little birthday gift to my bank account... my original plan was to buy clothes with the money, but as I have bought quite a few clothes lately and I had been drooling after certain design earlier that same day I decided to satisfy my stashy needs and bought this (and the accessory pack!) - to crown the day it is on sale at the moment:

And of course little something(s) to justify the postages as I had to place two orders to avoid the customs risk. For once I *love* customs.

Now I just need the fabric... yet another justified shopping spree! Ah, do I just love kitting or do I love it?!

Blaah: ankle, thyroxine, D3 and yadda yadda.

Well, my ankle was completely ok for a month after starting thyroxine...

Then it wasn't and on Monday I had to see a doctor about it...

The result was: inflamed tendon (which is, based on the doc, quite common issue even months after ankle injury), ton of pain killers and week off - in forced rest.

So - *not* - cool (even though I have now had the advantage of being able to lay next to a fan 24/7 as it has been over +30°C for last week or so (coming to think of it the heatwave started when Mr. Wonderful traveled to Lagos)), as I am dead sure that my thyroid dislikes naproxen even it should not affect to thyroid function in any way (like I would believe that?!) as I don't feel very good.
Well, I upped my thyroxin dose two days ago and quit The N today. Let's see what my thyroid says about it.

 

On other news I decided to try "unhealthy" dose (at this moment 100µg/ day) of D3 (recommendation in here is 5-10µg/ day, which is way too low in a country with short summer, everyone knows it) as I have been told that it might actually boost thyroid function, but what really made me try it was this: Vitamin D Can Aid Fertility.

"A study has found a link between low levels of Vitamin D and problems with ovulation.- - - The team from Yale University School of Medicine studied 67 infertile women and took Vitamin D measures from them. Only 7 per cent of them had normal vitamin D levels and the rest had either insufficient levels or clinical deficiency.- - -

Dr Lubna Pal, from Yale, said: "Of note, not a single patient with either ovulatory disturbance or polycystic ovary syndrome demonstrated normal Vitamin D levels"
(Editorial note: Bolding by yours truly)

Now that's something.

Of course the thyroxine will also help with ovulation as it raises my desperately low basal temperature to normal levels and balances hormonal function: at the moment my basal temperature is about 0,5°C higher than it was pre-thyroxine - and I have only used it 6½ weeks.

I am a body yes...

You Are a Pond

You are modest, pleasant, and reliable. You are content and confident. You are harmonious and caring. You truly like other people for who they are. You are a very genuine, humble person. Because of this, you're very approachable. You are soft-spoken and a bit sensitive. Your mild personality is a refreshing change for people. What Body of Water Are You?

Writer's Block: Capital offense

Ah, don't we all just love questions like this.

Coming from a country where there haven't been any executions during peace since 1825 (Capital punishment in Finland) there is the predisposal (sp?) that I am a liberal extremist.

I am, admittedly, in a sense that I see no sense, moral or legal, in death penalty. If you really want to punish someone take their freedom from them for the rest of their natural life, but there is no excuse to murder a murderer in name of justice.

It is not a surprise to anyone that innocent people are killed by their governments in the name of moral and justice because of corrupt and / or biased courts, even though the spirit of justice should be that an innocent man is never convicted, that even guilty person have be set free if there is reasonable doubt about one's guilt.
Still, every year several innocent people get into death rows because the reasonable doubt is forgotten.

Many reason death sentences with religion, how it is deathly sin to kill someone... but killing someone because they have committed a sin is brutal, and I am quite sure that G-d is not very fond of such practises either as in such cases humans raise themselves to have the undertanding and rights of G-d - and last time I checked that was blasphemy.
Basically human being has no right to judge anyone in such drastic manner - if we use religion and G-d as the basis.

And if we don't I do not see what kind of ethic code would give anyone right to kill someone else. If killing someone is a crime everyone taking someone's life should be judged to death and all the sudden there would be piles of dead bodies...

Sin or no, killing anyone for whatever reason is simply utterly wrong. Period.

Talking of past...

... why it seems to me that people from past are eagerly coming back to my life, or at least trying to, in growing numbers? It has been such a "Hiya, still remember me?!" month...

Blast from the past

Someone commented to the first entry of my little blog yesterday and that got me into reading my divorce related entries again (well, it was after 1 am and I didn't want to sleep because my Darling is not there by my side) and noticed interesting prediction: One thing seems to be sure for me. If I found someone someday, he wont be from this country. I do not know how I know it but I just do. For some reason..." (Editorial note: please excuse my appalling lack of grammar, my tenses suck even worse then than they do now.)

 

Since the separation I did not date one single Finn (went to a date with one Finnish man though (and even he had been born and raised elsewhere), didn't work - even I rather enjoyed it (some men just have so poor taste when it comes to women )), and then eventually was found by my Darling Husband and proved myself right for good.

I had fun while reading this entry: "I need someone stubborn enough, someone with his own free will. Someone strong and reliable, who keeps what he says... " as He really is like that. Two very stubborn parties in one relationship makes it sometimes quite interesting though.

And, of course, reading those old entries also made me appreciate the fact that ex-SIL is an ex as she would have harassed me SO badly about Mr. Wonderful (ref: this) and got into such levels with her questions which would have made me just feel plain disgusted and angry. (Remembering all the nauseating questions and comments she made when I was dating Abhi (who was/ is Indian) I would almost imagine that she would have got much worse about her questions and comments regarding my Wonderful (just knowing all the idiotic stereotypes some people have about black men..)).

Anyway I have been pleased to see that I really did achieve what I hoped for: I grew up, learned to love and appreaciate myself, and eventually found a good husband: Mr. Wonderful who is really a gift from G-d.

That's all folks, see you again some other day!

Kitties: The Boys a Decade Ago

These cute little kitties are Neko, Seiichi and Mash-Mash (R.I.P.; not to be confused with Masa) when they were still kitties.

 

Neko and Seiichi were watching early morning cartoons from television. (First of the pictures should be in phrase dictionaries under "Cute as a button".)

This guy was Mash-Mash. He grew up to be big and fat, before passing away just before his third birthday.

So this is how it feels...

Honestly I can't remember when I had a day like this one last time, but it has been around 2006 or beginning of 2007 (I started to loose "it" completely around that time): I have felt creative and, not energetic, but not tired either and what is most important is that I have had ability to concentrate on something and enough interest to do it.

In addition of designing I have stitched, chatted with an old friend over the phone for a long time, chatted with another one online, finished two biscorni etc. - and all this after a very poorly slept night!

This must be how normal people with functioning thyroids feel like.

I am jealous of you people.

I really am and I can only hope that my glass jar thyroid can keep get me where you are and keep me there. I like this feeling. A lot. (And G-d bless The Doc, he has given me back that person I never have really been before.)

31 years

Yikes! I am old and grey!

Or maybe not, let's just say that I do not feel like 31 - but I guess not many actually do at this age, really. But, let's skip all that and get into business i.e. to lovely stash!

 

These here are the lovelies Jenna sent me: the design has been on my wsh list for ages, but Jenna, being the sweet person she is, sent me the whole kit! Thank you once again Jenna!

And of course I made a small stashy purchase today... for my birthday... And some floss for the Lady...

Mochies (i.e. Mokkapalat)

I would like to call them brownies, but really they are not (similar, but not quite) so Mochies sounds like a good English name for them (and yes, I am aware of the slang definition of mochies).

When I was little I remember our mom making these quite often, though it may be just my imagination, evn though our mom bake a lot when we were kids.
And when I was in my teens I had a phase when I made these all the time. Though today I changed the recipe quite a bit, but still... yummy!

Mochies, aka. Mokkapalat

• 3 eggs
• 3 dl of sugar
• 200g of melted butter
• 2 dl of natural yoghurt
• 5 dl of flour
• 2 tsp of baking soda
• 3 tsp of vanilla sugar (with real vanilla)
• 3 tbps of dark cocoa powder (sieved)
• 100g of dark chocolate, grated

Frosting

• 3,5 dl of icing sugar (just sugar, not those things with corn starch or something like that) (sieved)
• 5 tbsp of melted butter
• 5 tbsp of strong coffee
• 2 tbsp of dark cocoa powder (sieved)
• 2 tsp of vanilla sugar
• nonpareil/ coconut flakes/ crushed hard candy for decoration

Heat up your oven to 200°C, cover oven pan with baking paper.

Mix dry goods and grated chocolate in a bowl. Whisk sugar and eggs until they form a light coloured foam. Mix egg foam and yoghurt into dry goods, then add butter. Mix carefully, but throughly.

Pour the dough on the covered pan and bake approximately 15-20 minutes.

After the "cake" has cooled make the frosting by mixing all the ingredients, except nonpareils, in a pot on hot stove, until smooth. Pour on the cake and decorate with nonpareils. Let the frosting harden.

Cut, enjoy with a good cup of coffee/ tea.

30 days later

Oh yes, I am very much alive. I have just entered the phase which is said to be nasty to most people, one month of medication, and hence I am quite... tired. Though I would imagine that my problem is mostly that Mr. Wonderful traveled to Nigeria and I simply have not been sleeping too well. As usual.
It's also possible that I have started to take my thyroxine too late and stay awake until early hours because of that, but I would bet on lack of my Wonderful. I have never been good on falling asleep or sleeping soundly throughout the night when He is not by my side.

And of course I obviously need higher dose of thyroxine, but... I really shouldn't up the dosage before I get blood drawn in August.

Regardless, I love the stuff, which obviously means that my thyroid is not ok. Actually I foresee quite a high dosage eventually which means that my thyroid is either very dysfunctional (not literally dead, not yet at least) or my body just needs more of the hormone, for reason or another... but on a brighter note, I may be able to FINALLY lower my cortisone intake!

I noticed this within last two weeks as I wasn't taking my asthma meds as often as I was supposed to and used officially empty (the magic with easyhalers is that they are not empty at that point, the manufacturer just does not quarantee correct dosages at that point) easyhaler without any symptoms of worsening asthma. Pre-thyroxine me would have been hospitalized by now.
There has also been drastic change in my allergies: I have taken like five tablets within whole month of June, whereas back in old times I would have took approximately 60 by now from June 1st... AND the best bit is that my thyroid medication actually has corn starch in it and there are no issues, taking that I take it carefully (if it touches my lips there are symptoms).

Crossed stitches

I have been stitching, have two biscornus almost finished, but I haven't got around ironing and finishing them yet. I blame work for that: no matter how great evenings are because of the extra pay they kind of limit the things you have energy for outside work.

But, I took this weekend off as my birthday is tomorrow (yikes, I am 31 soon! ) and have decided to wake up early tomorrow (3rd) and spend the whole day... stitching and watching DVDs (and eating something less healthy *grin*).

I think that sounds like a great plan.

Maybe I have the energy tomorrow (after yet another day of coming home just before 1 am... from work) to post about the loveliness Jenna sent me, too!

Wonderful

I am not sure have I ever said that He is a real sweetheart? If not there it came.
I have an interesting feeling that now that we are married He is treating me even better than before - which is of course how it should be - He even cooked some food (tuna sauce (He makes the best tuna sauce ever) and okazi soup) for me "for a bad day" before He traveled, which He has never done before (well, intentionally).
(Or maybe He has found out that Nigerian food has become my comfort food and it is easier for me to cope with it - when I had the suspected Swine I craved for egusi soup...)

WIP Diet might be in order

I have lately found out that I have tons of WIPs and while trying to kit yet another project (it is Lady's project, it does not count!) I stumbled upon few more. It made me thinking that I may need some WIP dieting, though it would actually mean that I had to collect all my WIPs in one pile and I am not quite sure am I mentally prepared for it yet!

But honestly speaking I think that I have a problem, bad case of startitis and even more severe case of not-finishingitis (or maybe it is simply called hypothyroidism), and that eventually I need to do something to them.

I was thinking that in order to make it at least a bit nicer WIP diet I could set goals, like being able to start a new project after finishing two WIPs - and well, Lady's projects wouldn't count anyway so basically I get my starts from there.

By the way, did you notice, a really stitchy entry (not just pretty pictures of newly acquired stash, even though it is always good *grin*) after such a long while? Maybe I am really getting back to myself again!

And on the seventh day...

Well, generally I love the stuff. Thyrosine, I mean, but the nasty part is that certain symptoms get worse for a while (like feeling pressure in my throat, coarse speech etc.).
I foresee much higher dosage than prescribed, even though I am not taking the prescribed dosage yet.

As the doc said my energy levels are probably the first thing recovering... well, they are, but for some reason I think that having bouts of energy is almost more irritating than having none at all: now I know how it should be and those few minutes per day are not enough for me. I want normal energy levels now!
Impatient, me?

I was reading the summary regarding my visit this morning and noticed that The Doc had interesting choice of words: "TSH 3,7, T4-V and T3 within normal levels." I read that: "TSH is higher than it should be."

The most interesting thing those little pills have improved has been my ankle: since the accident it has been misbehaving and hurting, but I have just been too lazy to see a doctor about it (actually I saw one on week six - "just wait for a week and come back if it still hurts").

And today, all the sudden it does not hurt, there are no needles in my ankle when I run up and down the stairs at railway stations and I am not screaming in pain when my ankle twists for reason or another.
I actually suspected this, but it feels SO good to be right.

Little white pills.

It wasn't me...

... it was a pink elephant, called Lou, sitting on my right shoulder...

...and Lou went crazy at 1-2-3 Stitch! some time ago.

Twice, actually.

And as you may have noticed from the picture with floss I still have my turquoise period: I accidentally ordered five skeins of Weeks Dye Works' Blue Topaz.

"Ooops", in a good way.

And that scrumptious purple linen - also by WDW - is something I just had to buy because of the colour - and it is cheap(ish) too! (There was also a beautiful shipment of gorgeous earrings from KittyAndMe's Etsy store - but I will share them later, when I am able to get a decent picture of them.)

In other news: thyroxine seems to be working! ^^