Stitch Along and Shoulder Updates

I really did not expect to be able to post an update for quite some time following my shoulder injury. Here it is, 3 weeks later and I am so happy to be able to cross-stitch a little more each day. Following my orthopedist visit on Friday, I am now allowed to remove my sling during the day for as long as I am comfortable. I also no longer have to sleep with it on. He gave me a couple of really basic exercises to do once a day to start getting my arm and shoulder more flexible. I can't straighten my arm at the elbow just yet. At my next appointment in 3 weeks he will give me a few more exercises to do before I even start rehab. 

All that being said, here is where Santa was on my last update.

This is how he looks now. I have added some more red to his hat and started on the holly.

Thanks so much to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other talented bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. You will see a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, 

Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan,

 Deborah, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy,

 Anne, AJ, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen  

Thanks for stopping by! 

Gradually

I am gradually able to do a little more cross-stitching and knitting each day. I surely jnow when I have overdone it though as my upper arm aches. 

Yesterday I worked on Santa for the first time in over 3 weeks. I added a few stitches of a pale blue to the fur on his hat on the right side. I'm not sure you can even see it. It almost looks grey.

I then promptly dozed off sitting in my rocking chair. A good night's sleep has been hard to come by since my injury. It is recommended that you sleep propped up to limit the shoulder pain, but that aggravates the herniated discs on my lower back. I have had little to no pain in my shoulder when sleeping flat in my back in bed.....too bad I like to sleep on my sides. That is just not possible until my shoulder heals. So most mornings I wake up at 4 a.m. and cannot return to sleep as I am no longer comfortable on my back and my legs are restless. The latter is no doubt due to the fact that I am no longer getting my mile and a half walk in each day. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I can resume those walks.

I have made decent progress on the Butterfly Baby Blanket. I had trouble getting the pattern started and had to remove the first pattern row twice, but I am on track now. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching.  Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

No surgery.

After deciding to go ahead with the surgery to repair my shoulder, I had an appointment with my orthopedist on Wednesday. In the end, he favored just letting it heal as he feared I would have more pain (I currently don't have any) and, as the surgery is invasive, it might do more harm than good. So I am not having surgery. I am allowed to remove the sling during the day while keeping my arm near my body in order to allow the upper arm muscle to start doing its job holding the bone correctly in the socket. I have been doing this on and off as my arm begins to ache after a while. 

I can also knit or crochet while the sling is off, but casting on 119 stitches for another Butterfly Baby Blanket (you can see the 1st one here) tested the limits of my arm's endurance. I believe I have enough yarn. 

This is where I am so far. Just a beginning.

Throughout last week I added a few stitches here and there to my secret stitching. Again, my arm starts to ache after stitching with less than 18 inches if floss and all it is doing is holding the standing hoop steady. Here is a peek.

I have done a lot of reading. I am catching up with some back issues of Country Home and Good Housekeeping magazines. I also read "Year of Wonders" by Geraldine Brooks. Set in the 1600s during the time of the Plague it was not the most uplifting story, but it had its merits and was easy and enjoyable to read. Now I am reading "The Winter Sea" by Susannah Kearsley. I am already a quarter of the way through it. It is quite intriguing. I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Over the weekend prior to my fall I started filling some of the pots that sit on my deck. I planted 2 cherry tomato plants and some lettuce.

I also filled some pots with salvia, petunias, and impatiens.

My rhododendrons are in bloom, though yesterday's cold rain have since depleted the blooms.

My irises are looking very pretty this year also.

Hubby and I took a drive down to a local bayside beach the other night to enjoy the sunset.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site and see what other bloggers are stitching. I will be visiting other blogs and attempting some kind of crafting.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Stitch Along Update

As I explained in my last post there is most likely going to be a break in my stitching updates every three weeks as I have broken my left shoulder. Thankfully I am somewhat ambidextrous, but I still have to wear a sling and I am going to opt for the surgery that will probably occur this week. That will result in another 4-6 weeks of wearing a sling followed by physical therapy.

So, here is where Santa was three weeks ago. 

This is how much I had stitched prior to Monday's fall.

In the last three weeks I filled in a lot of red and some blue in the fur trim of Santa's hat. It going to be diificult to work on Santa as he currently resides in a scrool frame that is too unwieldly to manage one-handed.

I think I may be able to continue to slowly work on my secret stitching, but obviously I won't be able to show my progress. 

By the way, for someone who normally touch types, typing this post one-handed is exhausting and annoying.

Thanks so much to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks.

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other talented bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. You will see a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, 

Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan,

 Deborah, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy,

 Anne, AJ, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen  

Thanks for stopping by! 

Totally Sidelined

It looks there is going to be huge lull in my crafting and blogging for quite some time. I was out on my early morning walk on Monday. Usually I walk in the street, but the school buses were picking up the middle school kids so I moved to the sidewalk to be safe. That was a mistake. I tripped on a raised sidewalk and fell onto my hands and knees. Well I actually fell on my right hand and both knees, but my left hand slipped on the slick grass and I fell on my shoulder. Oh the agony. I was found by a nice man walking his dogs. He called my husband who called an ambulance when he got to me. I thought I had dislocated my shoulder, but no it is broken. I have a sling to keep it immobile as well as pain meds and a muscle relaxer. Right now I can't really do much for myself. Washing and dressing are impossible especially as I can't put my arm in a sleeve.  My daughter had to cut off my t-shirt and sports bra Monday night. Walking is even tentative as it hurts to jostle the shoulder. Getting up from a chair is painful as is getting out of bed which I can't do on my own. This is going to be a multiple week recovery most likely followed by therapy. I go to the orthopedist tomorrow. 

Thanks for stopping by!

A finish and some flowers

 I have finished the Bobble Baby Blanket! Isn't it pretty? 

I am so glad that I purchased this yarn and decided to make this blanket on a whim. No, there is nobody expecting in my family. I have decided to keep this blanket to either save for one of my own future grandchildren or give to a little one I meet along the way or eventually donate. For now it is residing in a closet with the Butterfly Baby blanket.

I have already begun another crocheted baby blanket. I made this about 16 years ago for a friend's baby and vowed I would make one for a future grandchild. Again there isn't one on the way yet. I want to be prepared.

Isn't that elephant so adorable? 

I also planted the flowers for my front porch pots. I had thought I would change things up this year, but I returned to my tried and true geraniums and sweet potato vine. I do think that they look pretty. I have plenty more plants to pot today. Yesterday was spent washing the windows in my living room.

I also planted the pots on Mom's front stoop. These were her Mother's day gift from me. 

I just have to show you the beautiful japanese azalea that my mom has.

My hyacinth were so pretty a couple of weeks ago. 

My azaleas are blooming also.

Still waiting for the coral colored one to come into full bloom, but the lavender and the pink are putting on a show though.

I added many stitches to Santa. 

I have been working on the red and some pale blue in the hat's trim. I am really enjoying adding stitches to this.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site and see what other bloggers are stitching. Today I will be planting my pots, but I hope to stop and add more Santa stitches this afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by!

When it Rains

 Happy Mother's Day! 

I am so happy that our son is visiting us this weekend. He actually planned this visit not only for Mother's Day, but to give me a hand as Hubby had hernia surgery on Thursday. Hubby came through the surgery wonderfully and was feeling great all the rest of the day Thursday and most of Friday. He was walking around just fine and having no trouble getting up and down from the couch or even walking up and down the stairs to our second floor. I was even able to leave him for a half hour each day to take a quick visit to mom. Then the nerve block that was used wore off Friday evening and the pain and discomfort began in earnest on Saturday. Thankfully our son drove up yesterday morning so I have some help. He or I can help out my mom or Hubby's mom if necessary. Mother's Day will be quite low key today. 

Now for the 2nd story about Thursday. Hubby is showering to get ready for his 7:45 am surgery appointment. I had just finished showering and was on the first floor gathering a water bottle and the newspaper. I hear a "click, click, click" which turned out to be a "drip, drip, drip" of water from the top of the window in the downstairs bathroom to the bottom. Now this window is directly below the shower in our bathroom and there was a puddle forming. Needless to say there wasn't much I could do except dry up the puddle and leave a towel on the windowsill at the time. This did manage to distract Hubby from some of the anxiety he was feeling about the surgery though. After a plumber's visit on Friday, it turns out that the drain pipe has dislodged (I thought the problem had to do with the water regulator as I now have to turn the handle all the way up to get hot water. I was worried that the tiles that we recently - two weeks ago - had regrouted would now have to be busted up.) The plumber will hopefully be able to fix the drain pipe this coming week from the outside of the house through the overhang. He will also be changing the regulator for the hot water....no tile busting needed. 

Now about the 2nd story about our son's visit. Unfortunately his car was rear-ended in traffic on a local parkway in Brooklyn about 30 miles from home. The damage isn't much thankfully and our son wasn't at all injured. The car that hit him wasn't registered. On a better note, my son gave me this beautiful hanging basket of flowers for Mother's Day. 

On Friday, the deck guys came to replace some boards and part of the railing cap as well as seal the deck against water. All of our patio furniture as well as our grill are currently on our back lawn.

Speaking of the back lawn...a bunny decided last Sunday to start burrowing to make a nest right in the middle of it. Now this must be a first time mother bunny as our back lawn is right out in the open. Needless to say, after checking the area for possible babies, we discouraged Miss Bunny from continuing her burrowing by covering the area with an overturned garbage pail. We saw her hopping around the yard later this week. Hopefully she found a more suitable place for her nest. 

On Tuesday I realized that the air-conditioning in my car wasn't working. Hubby had noticed a leak under my car when it was parked in the driveway that we knew wasn't oil. My car went in for repair on Wednesday and is all fixed now. It is 15 years old and I think it is getting to be time for a new one. I had the same air-conditioning problem last summer.

So you can see, the past week has been a case of "When it rains, it pours".

Despite all that going on this past week, I did manage to get a bunch of stitching in on my secret project. Here is a little peek. 

I am filling in the half-cross stitch background on the upper half of this piece. Once these stitches are completed the upper half will be complete except for backstitching which I will leave until the end. I am making steady progress, but I can't work on this over the weekend while my son is here.

That means Santa will be getting all the attention for the next few days. I really enjoy working on Santa, because I get to stitch large swaths of one color each time. 

I added some stitches to his hat since my last update.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I will be taking care of Hubby, visiting with our son, stitching Santa and maybe planting some flowers. That is for another post.

Thanks for stopping by!