This Close to Bat Shit Crazy

Having an itching leg for seven months can grate on a person's nerves and push ones sanity to the brink. Since I am on the edge I may as well share. Its a punishment on a person who HATES to wear socks at the best of times, to have tensor bandages from toe to knee on one leg and compression stocking from toe to knee on the other leg all day every day!! A horrid punishment pushing me one step closer to crazier than I normally am. Paying $50.00 for stuff that is supposed to help stop the hot flashes, ( did for awhile but now has given up), is another step. Having hot flashes one after the other on plus 30 days is another step. Then there is a whole 'nother kettle of fish that I am not sharing here or any where or with anybody, ( no its not a health thing)  that has nearly completed the path. I have first world problems and for today I am wallowing in them.

Those marigolds that I worked to get planted, are now dying. I have no luck with plants from this particular green house, and yet I continue to buy stuff from them. More money and energy down the tubes. I am the walking, talking definition of insanity.  Aw well my yard looked nice for a few days anyway.

I have fallen behind on the puppet production . Maybe next month I can get caught up again. I did get some quilting done.

Teddy Bear was talking about them needing something bright to hang in their office. I have tons of material just sitting about so out of scraps and spares I made this for their office. Four seasons of stars.

It also gave me some practice at piecing stars together, I am not very good at it so any chance to work on it is a good thing. I will give it to her today.

I will start on the next quilt this week. The backing is bouncing around in the dryer at the moment. I need to get a batt for it but I can do that tomorrow. Mommybug is coming tomorrow and we are going to sew her a bathing suit, or we are going to try. I need to do a Walmart run for cat food before she comes and can stop for the quilting supplies on my way. I can also pick up the painting supplies for doing the shed. I have the paint but not the right rollers. That is the reason its not done yet, not because I am a great procrastinator.

I need to go flop infront of the fan before I pass out from the heat. Hopefully next time I am here I am  in  a better mood.

Toodles,
Linda

Pinterest and Poverty

I was going to post about my birthday, expound wisely about growing older and learning new lessons everyday, being grateful for all my blessing but I think I will save that for another day. I am not in the mood to be all wise and profound. Lets just say this, I am grateful for having another birthday and all the blessings that come with it.

I do feel like sharing my latest results from a recent of a burst of creativity. I moved the loom out and whether it sells or not its not coming back into the house. It can go in the shed if needs must. As a result, I had an empty spot in my house, which will never do. I need storage, I always need storage  and my first thought was ...... buy a cupboard, then I though get a pie safe made. Then I remembered I have no spare money so I had to figure out something else. I really need to work on not having my first thought to be  "SPEND MONEY"

THis chest of drawers was in the shed. Its free and its solid wood, not to mention its already a cool colour. Also in the shed,  I found this top off an old buffet in the rafters. It had possibilities.

I gave the thing a good scrub, washed, primed and painted the inside of the drawers. then stripped the paint off the top.

Once the wood was naked,  I stained it and varnished it. I think its oak but since I have little to no knowledge of what wood is what, I could not swear to it. Whatever tree gave its life for this, it came out really nice.

I then spray painted the drawer pulls red. I was going to get new ones but that fell into the "no spare money" category, spray paint it is. I had all  the supplies on hand so no money was used at this time for this project. The paint, stain, and varnish were all from other projects.

I cut down the buffet top to fit.  I did plan to stain it to match but that was not going to work. it would be darker than the top. What to do, what to do,  I grabbed the red spray paint and hey presto:

Now instead of a loom that I was not using I have extra storage in my front entry. It cost me nothing and I really really like the look of it.

doing a little happy dance!! Pinterest and poverty, the mothers of creativity.

Toodles,

Linda

In the Garden

I have been working in the yard. I did next to nothing there last year but plant flowers in the spring. The ongoing maintenance mostly fell to a friend and her three girls. They tended my yard for me as I had little to no interest or energy to do anything. PLUS she wanted to start giving her girls lessons in giving back. She is a good person and a good Mom. This year I, at least, feel like doing stuff, however no matter how willing the spirit, the flesh poops out really really quickly these days. We forge on and do a little at a time . I work, I sit, I work, I sit. I need to do this as its good exercise for me

I am starting practically from scratch with the back flower bed. Its a work in progress  as most of the plants died over the winter and the rest have been overrun by a very invasive ground cover. Kitkat came over and weeded a lot of it for me. Now I just have to dig out the rest. I also plan to paint the shed but more on that project in a later blog post. I will share more when I have done more.

I finally got the last of the flowers planted in the front. Who knew planting 36 marigolds, a flowering bush and one hosta could be made onto a two day event??? Yesterday I thought I died planting half of it but today I did the other half and did not feel the need to lay face down on the lawn and wait for the buzzards to come.

I even trimmed the lilacs a little, but I need to do more of that, they have become over grown and spindly. The snow on the mountain has to be pulled out and maybe I will find the little potentilla bush that is planted between the two lilacs.

Speaking of little bushes, this is my second attempt to grow one of these. The name of it starts with a W but that is all I remember. The one I planted last year did not live through the winter. I am hoping this one makes it. They are so pretty. Ignore all the weeds that surround it. I have weeded twice but I never seem to do a really good job.

I have planted petunia in my dear Mama's old wash tub as she used to do. I also, in her honor, spray painted my dollarama butterfly ornament bright orange and added it to her tub. Orange was my Mom's favourite colour.

This ornate grate comes from The Banker. She had it in her yard for the longest time and now that she is moving she has decided to part with it. I think it looks lovely parked in front of the new hosta. It was rather rusty so I gave it a blast of spray paint as well. (Again ignore the weeds). My poor front lawn is more weeds than grass but I am working on it. It all looks green from the street. Tomorrow I am planning to mow which hide some of the weedy wonderfulness.

Can't wait to get my green bin from the city. I have loads of stuff to put in it already and much more will be ready in the next few days. I will still compost but I think I will make good use of the green bin as well. I am not a dedicated composter. like I am not a dedicated gardener. I play at it.

Inbetween mad bouts of gardening and the required recovery time, I made puppets. Yesterday it was work on the quilt, today is puppets, tomorrow will be back to the quilt. I plan to work in the back yard tomorrow as well and maybe get started on painting the shed. So many things to do.

At least today my legs were not as sore. I started to take the magnesium again and whether or not its in my head or the stuff really works, don't know and don't care, my legs felt better today. I think maybe I am beginning to get a bit of my energy back. Its baby steps for sure but I hope so. I hate not being able to at least walk around and do what I want without feeling like I am going to pass out.

Baby steps, baby steps, slow, steady, wait, it all takes  lots of time. All this is trying my patience but I am determined  to do the best I can to get back to my normal. Whatever the heck that is.

Toodles,
Linda

Doing a Little Happy Dance

So this week has been Doctor's appointments. Dr Arrogant (the surgeon) inspected my leg this week after a month's absence and pronounced it much improved. I still have to go every day for dressing changes but he does not want to see me for a month. This slow and steady road I am on is coming to an end, thank heaven. I was so wanting him to say I did not need to go every day but if this is the program that is working its best to stick with it.

Then I saw Dr Wait and See, my GP, and he was very happy with me. All my numbers are the best that they ever have been but I am low on B12. I need to get taking that but otherwise I am to keep up the good work!!

BEST BEST BEST result of all came out of the blue. In amongst the praise of how well I was doing , of course, he mentioned my never ending battle with my weight. He thought I had lost some and I knew I had lost 30 pounds over my hospital stay and that maybe I had gained a little back but I should still have been in the good. Moment of terror as "WE" got on the scale. I got on and promptly nearly fell off them, gone was 61 pounds since December!!! Drunken Monkey Dance of Joy!!!  Double check the numbers!! Get off the scale and get on again, just incase I maybe did not get on them all the way the first time. Same number. If I could do back flips I would have done one. I am a truly happy bunny.

SO I am to to keep up the good work, and I really want to because I am very sick of dragging this excess around with me. It all helps, lose the weight, pain lessens in the joints, I can move easier, I feel better, I fit better. Its such a domino effect. Some day I will do an entire blog post on how being over weight effects even the simplest things in life. But not today, today I am happy happy happy and I just want to savor the victory.

Toodles,
Linda

Perfect Sunday

Coffee on the veranda, gentle breeze in the leaves, wafting lilac perfume under my nose every now and then. Sun shining, lawn mowers humming away here and there on the street. That special quiet a that can almost lull you into feeling that you are in a small town not a city. Days like this are the best. On days like this I could veranda sit non stop.

Hard to see in this picture but my lilacs are blooming like crazy, filling the yard with their delicate perfume. These poor bushes badly need to be trimmed. I meant to do it last fall but it did not happen. Its on the list to be done this year once the blooms are finished.

The kittens are enjoying the day as much as I am. Every one is snoozing away, because lazy summer Sundays were just made for napping.

I have been puttering, After I pried myself off the veranda, no easy feat let me tell you, I decided today was the perfect day to work on the puppet inventory. Sewing in the little inserts into the neck of the critters is my least favourite job connected with making the puppets but it has to be done. I have a number of puppets made and before I get too far ahead of myself  I need to do the inserts. Today is a perfect day for this. I finally got some old t shirts to make the inserts so there is no more excuses.

These little guys were first up for finishing. Its a Porcupine Palooza.

These cuties are an endangered species. The yarn I use for the quills has been discontinued and unless I can find a replacement, Percy the Porcupine may go the way of the Dodo bird. This happy little troop is headed to the big craft sale in October. I have a small stash of the quill yarn so I can make a few more but it makes me sad, these little guys are super cute and one of my more popular puppets.

I have been to the hospital for my dressing change and upon my return I found Princess Diva dropping me off a star form to mosaic tile. I have the loveliest of friends I really do. I need to get my shed painted and then mover forward with my plan!! I hope I can make it work.

Well I had best get back to the inserts.

Toodles,
Linda

Thursday Whatzits

Got up this morning and my blood sugar was at its very best its been in the morning for sometime so I hot footed it to the lab for my blood work. As I have a Dr appointment next week this should make my Doctor a happy camper. WE are working on getting me healthier and one half of our team struggles with doing all that she should do. Sigh.

I must admit that I have been feeling so much better these days, more alive and not so much of a slug. I want to do stuff, I am making plans and although the follow through is still terribly slow, I am at least showing interest in stuff. For so long I could have cared less about anything that this new "making plans" is quite refreshing. Lists of things to do are piling up all over the place !!

I have done a few things, I have started to work on the next quilt. It looks alot like the last quilt I made you say, well yes it does but this time I am using a plain and a print where the last one was two prints

This has proved to be a popular pattern and colour scheme for me. Its more contemporary than a traditional quilt pattern and seems to appeal to a broader audience.  This quilt is headed to my office to be used as a fund raiser for our social committee. I got almost half of it sewn up yesterday. I am not working on it today as I have other stuff I need to do. Quilting can consume me and its all I would do if I let myself. This should not take long to get done. It goes together quickly and is easy to quilt. Its Number Four on the list of what is now seven quilts I need to make so far this year.

I finally painted the little crate I have on my veranda. I found it somewhere, either a yard sale or a second hand store and decided it would work as a little table between  two chairs. Here is what it looked like after I peeled all the wallpaper off of it that someone had rather sloppily stuck all over it.

Here is what it looked like after I painted some of it and made a top for it. I had made the top some time ago but never got around to painting the crate. I decided against painting the whole thing as I sort of like the look of it this way. Plus there is a company stamp on one shelf that would have been lost if it was painted.

The colours are deeper and brighter on the top but I have yet to learn how to truly use my camera so its a bit washed out. It works perfect as a place to set a cold drink or a coffee when one is resting on the veranda of a Sunday morning.

My next outdoor project is to get the shed painted for once and all. Then I need to figure out how I am going to hang some things on it. I cannot wait to get it done. I have never been fond of the brown
colour of my shed, even before I moved into the house. Stay tuned and I may just have something fun to show in the near future!!

Puppet production remains on schedule and going full swing, I managed to get some of the fun fur yarn so I could finish an possum order. Eight little possums all in a row, already sold and ready to go. The lady who got me started on making puppets for the university ordered these to give as gifts. She is going to fill jars with treats and cover them with an "Awesome Possum" and give them to people who have helped her out over the years.

I am sad that this fuzzy fun fur yarn has been discontinued. It could mean the end of my possum and porcupine puppets unless I can figure out something else to use for hairy quills. These little piggies are ready to head to market, they are slated for the big craft sale in October. There are more of them in the basket but you cannot see them in this picture.

I not only make puppets, I make stuffies as well. These two are destined for a dear friend, she wants them for her granddaughter. I think they are rather cute, but then I think most things I make are cute so I am not a reliable source.

I may have to make one of these for my collection.


Toodles,
Linda