Stash!

Sometimes I wonder if I may have a problem... but then I come back to my senses.

And anyway, I was severely enabled!

Friend hinted me of Hemflit and to my surprise I was able to shop around in there with my (rusty) high school Swedish! Which lead to things, of course... so you can see why I am innocent, right?

 

To my surprise "Love Will Find A Way" seems to be out of print (and these lovely people had put it on sale, which was why I bought it). And "Peace On Earth" has two designs I kind of liked, those two in the bottom row (backside here).

Then, another day, I was checking what's new at Sewandso and... ooops, got lost to their Sale section again.

 

I know, I may have claimed that I am not much of a flower person, but these were just too difficult to resist (cheap and pretty)! (Despite how it may seem these were chart packs.)

 

This is the same booklet, back and front cover as I just love all of it too much not to show.

Stash!

I got new stash from Sewandso and Chouett'alors ages ago, but just haven't had inspiration to blog about it - even I have had the pics in my temp image folder for ages.
But, once again, it is my thyroid's fault: even though my thyroxine dosage has been upped few weeks ago to winter setting it has taken time before it started to affect on cellular level. In addition to that December was crazily busy month which really didn't help.

Regardless, stash!

 

The designs are from Chouett'alors: "Arbre à chouettes" and "Le chaudron de la sorcière".
Owl tree was a limited time SAL project, but because my thyroid hormone levels are not completely in balance I missed the last parts because I simply forgot... But it was SO cute that I just needed to get it!

Fabric is 32 count red Belfast for my Holiday Sampler model and some of the floss in the bag is for that and for "Star Sampler" SAL I am organizing at PD.
Others were just bought because they were pretty.

Stitchy Progress!

My first plan was to star "Star Sampler" with other stitchers, but then, I wanted to see how it looks like when stitched and also wanted to provide stitchers realistic picture of the sampler before they start part one.
This is first half of the part one, there's few stitches of part two just because I wanted to stitch all the floss I had on my needle because in the end it saves floss (you know how easily short bits get lost).

I have also stitched replacement for my first Halloween Ornament Exchange ornament (almost done), Holiday Sampler model and started a cute Valentine's Day freebie for PD - because I have had time, my ankle has tendon issues again and I've been on sick leave almost two weeks, and Husband is traveling again.

Unconcsious Mutterings: week 415

I have missed memes and after a long long time without them I guess it's time to dive in again.

Unconscious Mutterings: week 415

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Speech :: Disability
2. Meredith :: Meryl
3. Consensus :: Agreement
4. Attack :: Shark
5. Sue :: Court
6. Voted :: De-
7. Epic :: Fail!
8. Checking in :: Husband
9. Dishwasher :: Machine
10. Underneath :: Beneath

Two months later

Where did the time go? It was November just yesterday!

Anyhow, my minor cross stitch inventory revealed that at that time I had 43 WIPs, 661 skeins of floss. Now that number is far greater on both regards.

(Honestly it wasn't me! It was Lou!)

Wishlist Items

A is for Ark

Oh yes, I seem to have a thing for designs for kids nowadays.
My stash needs to be prepared for miracles, you know. *grin*

Life, stitching and everything

I have been stitching, but have also managed to practise my jewelry making skills and grow my bead stash even more.

Blue ones are for me, their pink twins are for Linda and other pinkish ones are for me.

 

Scissor fob was a giftie for Bea and those red earrings were a surprise for my mom, who so cunningly hinted that she might like to receive some jewelry I have made, some day.

There would be new stash to blog about, but I am tired and my head is on holiday because I managed to find a cold from somewhere - even I have been on a sick leave last week because that blasted tendon got inflamed again; now I am on sick leave for five more days because of that blasted tendon and cold.

So. Fun.

Writer's Block: Rise and shine

Take thyroxine and my BBT.

Glamorous, ain't it?

Since when sedatives made you sleepy?

I was listing my cross stitch WIPs (41 and counting...) and found an old photograph of Ronja from one drawer:

This was taken when she was young (before coming to me at the age of ~seven).

Beautiful little lady she was. ^^

And now I am off to create a full inventory of my floss and embellishments... yes, I know it's almost 2 am and I should be sleeping.
I am not tired and Hubby is away for few days so it's a great opportunity to list everything I have without letting Him know how much I have exactly.

November, designs and thyroid

November isn't my kind of month, I guess. I have been on sick leave last week with varying diagnoses. It started with viral infection and asthma, then went to asthma and now we are back to viral infection and asthma... but I think I am finally getting better, at least I am coughing less, now that I was prescribed HC cough syrup to stop the cough (ethylene morphine hydrochloride and rum, sounds like fun, right?).
Which is nice actually, I haven't been able to talk normally since I got sick because I have been out of breath. In addition to that I haven't slept much and have coughed too much.

Apparently it was a viral infection making my asthma go worse, that cramping my bronchi and cramps causing me to keep on coughing (and panting if I had to talk) even though my bronchi are ok. (And "funnily" my asthma was once again questioned by a doctor. It's fun to have abnormal levels of normal in so many things.)

Funny thing is that this is third year in a row when I have prolonged sick leave in the beginning of November. Last year it was that crazy three weeks fever...

But there is silver lining in everything

Because I have been tied to bed/ sofa whole week lacking energy and inability to have much social contact with anyone I have stitched a bit and designed a lot. (The best way to deal with insomnia is to forget it and spend the time not spent sleeping well.)

Actually stitching a bit is the reason for why I have been designing a lot as I fell in love with the colour scheme I used with the ornament exchange item and things kind of evolved from there to a point where I have now designed two, gorgeous (even I say so myself), complementing samplers.
And I have to admit that I have a plan for the smaller one, a SAL plan. (Actually only thing I need to do it to decide when...)

Did I forgot to mention?

I got great news regarding my thyroid in October: we have medicational balance!

Officially I am slightly hyper, but as I am feeling good (no jitters) my endo said it's not an issue.

What surprised me was that it took only 4,5 months to get there. (Actually I think my endo was surprised too as my bloodwork really crashed in six weeks, from TSH 2.7 + T4 18.3 to "whopping" TSH 0.19 (0.4 - 4) + T4 21.4 (11-21).)

Now it finally feels that my hormone levels are really getting where they should be as this is really the first time when my ankles aren't swollen after standing on my feet whole day and when my throat actually looks something like normal person's throat... and sometimes I even feel attached to things happening around me. That hasn't happened in quite a while.

On a negative side my wedding ring is getting loose and I hate the thought of having to have it made smaller as it would ruin the carvings inside. And I am emotionally attached to that lovely piece of jewelry, I don't want to lose a bit of it.

But now, after being awake for 20 hours I think it is time to start another day and hope that when the time comes later today I could actually sleep at night.

Ta-ta.

Halloween Ornament Exchange, meeting online folks, earrings and life

I have been in a blogging mood for few days already, but for some reason I have felt like I couldn't say what I am thinking so I have let it be. I am still not sure, but there is one beautiful biscofleur to show so I can not delay this longer even though my brains have vanished somewhere (I apologize about the appalling "quality" of this entry).

EMS Halloween Ornament Exchange

After a long, long absence I returned to EMS Cross Stitch Forum and participated Halloween Ornament Exchange as I have sorely missed exchanges (and the excuse they give to disregard housework and stitch).

Few days ago I received the prettiest little Halloween biscofleur from Samantha! See and drool!

Beautiful! Thank you Samantha for bringing this loveliness into my life!

Samantha told me that she wanted to try (yes, this is her first if I understood correctly!) this finishing method and maybe *ahem* inspire my dear alter ego to design some pretty biscofleur patterns (cunning woman I must say - Samantha, not my alter ego. Lady P. is just a bit cooky).

Meeting people

I thought of tens of different ways to sound smart, but I guess it's better that I stick to my usual style... what ever that is.

Anyway, few days ago I spent a lovely morning with tamaraland and her boys here (or rather there as I don't live there) in Helsinki.
We went to the Natural History Museum to see... dinosaurs!
It was great fun (I may be a bit geeky, though the company was very good) and it was really great to meet tamaraland (and the boys) in person.

Jewellery

I have always been and I still am very picky about my jewellery, and I have wanted to learn how to make them for quite a some time, because of my pickiness, and therefore I headed to a jewellery course yesterday.

It was for learning "twisted links", which proved to be easier than it sounded even though my links are really twisted due lack of practise: see for youself.

Yes, turquoise is the new black, at least in jewellery. Though I am still looking for the perfect shade.

And yes, I really need yet another addictive and expensive hobby.

I was planning to blabber much more, but as I mistype half of the words and can't think straight (when I have been able to do that?!) I guess it's time to drag myself to bed and continue about other things later.

Life, cross stitching and everything

Actually I am still alive, even though I haven't blogged in whole month. It all started with a cold, which, even after I "got better" continued keeping my energy levels somewhere (way) down below and... then I caught bacterial infection (IIRC the latter sick leave paper I got says something about laryngitis and sinus (sinus sphenoidalis was doctor's guess as it wasn't visible in the sonar thing they use) infection)... you know how it goes.

But on a brighter note my last course of antibiotics was almost six months ago! Houston, we seem to have improvement!

Somebody stop me!

I was updating my badly outdated freebie library at Be Courtadet's blog, saw a beautiful house at the sidebar, stumbled upon the album page and found these (charts can be found here - and the rest are in here).
And after seeing this and this (small world, I think she's one of my FB friends) I was sold (that's how Finns would say it, being "sold" over something absolutely wonderful) and now I am trying to remind myself of those two drawers etc. full of WIPs. (If someone suggests SAL promise to stab you with tapestry needles as you know how *weak* I am! (Please do, I need an excuse to increase my stash! *slaps herself*)

And signs of improvement

After being a zombie for few weeks and sleeping most of the weekend after the illness got me I have actually had energy to design new winter freebie and start to stitch it (when I have actually been awake... which is not much *grin*)!
Of course I can't share it with you yet, but here are the supplies (I am thinking one with beads and one without) for you to drool:

Fabrics in question are 32 count Belfast linen - for once I was able to find two different colours suitable for the theme, and I still have that Millenium Blue which I might want to use too...

Stitching, stitching, stitching

Oh, stitching, you are haunting me. Or rather, I am getting back to my normal addiction levels (isn't thyroxine wonderful thing?).

Yesterday I found myself thinking about rotation to get rid of some WIPs I have!

I guess that is a healthy thing, wanting to 1. stitch and 2. get rid of those about thousand WIPs I have at the moment. Maybe I mention this next time when I talk to my endo, could he understand it (probably he would look at it from the "energy level and organizational abilities" point of view and would see it as a good thing)?

Even more shocking I have been preparing design files for publishing! Gosh!

I was checking my cycle data at Fertilityfriend earlier this evening because I wanted to know did I had any recorded ovulations before I got thyroxine.

I had, one, in the beginning of April 2009.

Wth my newly acquired knowledge about temperature change patterns in menstrual cycle I found something from that chart, something that surprised me.
There was a triphasic pattern in it. Which can indicate pregnancy (I know it always doesn't).

Otherwise I would have just thought that I just had that kind of a pattern, but I remember that cycle well as I felt after the ovulation that there is something different in this cycle, and had increasing feeling of maybe even being pregnant. I just didn't buy the test because I knew they wouldn't say anything about it after just few days. I decided to wait until few days after my menses should begin.

Only couple of days before menstruation I fell quite badly (slipped) and the day after that I spotted. For one day. That same day my temperature dropped drastically. And shortly after that my menses started.

What ifs and maybes, yes, but it's odd and not all pleasant feeling. If it was so the good thing is that I can actually get pregnant (though based on that it's other thing to stay pregnant), but it also means that I miscarried. And I can't help to think that if I was pregnant and if everything had went differently our baby would be eight months by now.

And that hurts like hell.

And I am probably slightly crazy... but still, even the what if is good enough for me. And even the slight possibility can make me sad.

He is getting old...

I heard that Neko has cancer. He had a lump in his ear and my sister (Neko lives with her) took him to the vet to remove it. The lump was analyzed and it was malign. In today's check-up there was another growth (small) in his another ear so there is probably is a tumor somewhere, at least cancerous cells roaming poor kitty's bloodstream.

Nothing intrusive will be done to ensure Neko as comfortable old age as possible and when the cancer proceeds far enough Neko will join Ronja, Mash-Mash and all the others.

Gingerbread houses and other stashy things

Late birthday gifts are always the best, I think.

 

1-2-3 Stitch! accidentally doubled my other order and I received two accessory packs and 2 x two skeins of Orange Charcoal Valdani and since I haven't heard anything from them after emailing them on Saturday I am beginning to imagine that I can keep the things *knocks on wood*, which is, of course, more than ok with me, free stash (even more when we are talking of pricey accessory pack) is always good.

I actually got these few days ago, but then fell sick (for the first time ever Hubby got sick before me, hence I got the cold from Him) and lost my will to live blog (and stitch). Luckily only for three days, which was surprisingly short cold in my standards.

Last week of my vacation is slowly coming to an end and I am starting to panick as I haven't done even half the things I imagined I have time for. Though I also tend to demand too much of myself, as I (should have) know(n) that there is still over a week in every month when I regress despite the medication - and lately I have been in regression anyway as, no matter that I take 50% higher dose than I should, the thyroid medication level is still far from optimal.
I am beginning to think that I have once again proved that one should be careful what one wishes for as I have a nasty feeling that my thyroid really is quite close of actually "dying". Or maybe it is just the change of season as when it was +35°C I was feeling (almost) completely fine, whereas now that it is under +20°C my basal temperature has dropped over .5 degrees in one month and all the nasty symptoms are getting back - I am not saying that the medication hasn't been good, it has and in general I feel better than I did before the medication, but after tasting the life of a person with functional thyroid all the symptoms seem much worse when they return, basically just because the regression itself is a bit depressing (even I knew it was coming).
And now I have started to worry about the doc's appointment next week, even I know that my bloodwork was far away for being hyper or even good and even I know that my endocrinologist is known to prioritize symptoms before bloodwork.
The question is will he believe my view about the ideal dose for the winter or not.

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!