Napping, contacts, and booties, oh my

Hmmm, do you think maybe this is why I don't get much stitching done? Someone is always taking a nap in my chair, this time it is Bug.

However, now that I finally got an all clear from my eye doctor hopefully I'll be able to get more stitching in. I went to see him on Monday, and he said my eye is all healed up so I can wear my contacts like I normally would again. He went ahead and ordered me some (as I only have the trial ones now) so I should have them in about a week. I am so happy. My right eye seems to have weakened a little over this, as he had to raise that prescription slightly, but not by very much. Overall I was very lucky not to have really damaged my sight.

The timing was perfect on getting cleared to wear my contacts full time, as I'll be going on a stitching retreat shortly and I really wanted to be able to wear my contacts. On finer count items (which is what I generally work on, but really I use for any count above 18) I wear my contacts and then wear magnifying glasses over them. If the material is really fine, at times I'll put it under my magnifying glass as well. Needless to say, when I had my glasses on, I couldn't wear my magnifying glasses as well. However, on a couple of times when I got impatient I did try. Trying to balance two pairs of glasses on your nose does not work very well, LOL.

Sasha's foot where she injured the one pad has been doing better. For the last week or so when she goes out I have been putting booties on it to protect it.
They are little blue ones with white trim, and she seems to like them. However, wearing them everytime she goes out is causing the booties to rip a bit, so I ordered her some new ones in red. Hopefully in a few weeks the pad will have healed and she won't need them. But then, in a few weeks we may not have any more snow and ice and she may not need them anyway. The booties are shaped like little mittens without the thumb. When she comes in, I take them off and turn them upside down on the rug to dry. To protect her feet I actually have both of her front feet wearing them. Jazmine also seemed to not be happy with the way the snow was matting up in her front feet either, so I bought some black fleese ones for her to wear to keep the snow off her front feet too.


Between both of their booties drying after they are done playing outside, it looks like I have a bunch of little kids in the house, they do so remind me of how my daughters mittens would be set up to dry when she was little.

Well that's it for tonight, next post I'll show you some fun mail stash I got. :)

Dogs and Contacts

Well, I have actually managed to get some stitching done on my Dogs of Duckport project. Not as much as I would have liked, but at least some headway. I really like having pictures of my WIP's, as that way when it seems like I have accomplished next to nothing, I can see that I really did make some progress, which always helps keep me motivated. So, here is what Dogs currently looks like.






And this is what it looked like in my last posting. I'm almost to the half way point, if you don't count the backstitching. The backstitching will be what gets me, as I hate to do it. However, this one (as do most projects) really needs it to define the dogs.


I want to thank you all for your kind comments on my eyes, they do continue to improve. When I went to have them checked this last time they fitted me with a trial pair of contacts to see how I do. Tues. I could wear them for about 4 hours, Wed. about 6, Thurs. about 8, and today I had them in almost 10 hours. At the end of that time, the glasses went back on. So far, I think the new ones feel fine, but then I really couldn't tell my eye had problems before until it got really bad. Evidently my eye sensitivity is really low, so I don't notice things. That is not a good thing, as the little signs that would signal an infection early I don't notice. So by the time my eye is bad enough to be bothering me, I have a real problem, like my recent infection and ulceration. Anyway, this weekend will be the first time I've been able to have them on and have time to stitch. During the week I had them on only at work, which meant struggling to stitch with my glasses in the evening if I wanted to stitch, and by then my eyes were tired. I go back to the eye doctor on Monday again, and if my eye looks like it has adjusted well, I'll be able to keep the new prescription and wear my contacts all the time. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Little stitching but lots of furbabies

Well it has been a busy week, although I haven't gotten a lot of stitching done, for one reason or another it just didn't get fit in. My eye was better at my last check-up, so I was able to stop taking the eye drops daily. However, I still can't wear contacts as my doctor wants to make sure that it doesn't start up again once the drops are stopped. So...it is back to the eye doc again tomorrow for another check-up. If my eye is clear still, I should be able to have contacts again. However, since there was some permanant damage (although it didn't harm my vision thankfully) I can't have the same type of contact I've used for the last 20+ years. The new ones will need to be slightly smaller (so don't touch the scarred area) and more air permeable (so my eye can breath better). Since they will be different, it will take a bit for the order to come in, and then I'll have to wear them in increasing amounts till my eyes are used to them again and can wear them all day. While it is frustrating to have to continue to wait (my glasses I have just don't work well for stitching and close type work, the focus is off), there is a light at the end of the tunnel hopefully and it will be great to be able to have contacts again.

Since I didn't get much done, although most of the small dashound dog is now done, I didn't post a close up of where I was. Instead, here is a shot of D'artagnon sleeping in my stitching chair, along with a shot of my current progress. Doesn't he look comfy. I almost feel guilty enough not to make him move when I want to stitch, notice I did say almost, LOL.

Just for the fun of it, here is another picture of D'artagnon and Sasha at my stitching corner, don't they just look like they are saying Come on mom and stitch for us? And yes, that is my completed Jack and His Cat Tabletopper in the one corner, I still have it out even though it is Halloween, LOL.

The final pictures I'll leave you with in case you are wondering what my other critters are doing while Sasha and D'artagnon are hanging out in the stitching corner. Bug and Midnight have found a fun sunbeam to lay in and enjoy.

While Jazmine on the other hand is keeping herself busy. I had earlier filled Sasha and Jazmine's Kongs with peanut butter and a couple of cookies. Normally it is Sasha that trys to eat both her and Jazmine's treats and chewies. However, this time it appears that Jazmine was the quicker of the two, because as you can see, she ended up with both Kongs with the treats inside.

Mail Goodies and Dogs project

Hopefully this works ok, when I went to log in tonight blogger told me I had to convert. Guess it got tired of waiting for me to get brave and try it so it decided for me, LOL. So far it looks ok, and I haven't noticed too many changes.

The first thing I want to show you is my recent surprise from Lucy. Lucy recently celebrated her blogiversary, and I was one of a couple of bloggers that were picked to get a surprise. Here is what I got -

This was a fun package. I like snowmen, so I'll enjoy doing Greetings. The neat Greetings hanger comes with the kit, so the finishing should be easy, which is good for me as I hate to finish things. I also got three types of teas and a couple of flavorings for my coffee, Hazelnut. I love tea, and coffee I only like if it is flavored, so this was perfect for me. Finally, the little angle you see has a little velcro strip on its front. Each of the other shapes have a bit of velcro on the back. I can put whichever decoration on the angel pin I want, being able to switch them around. So.... I'll have a holiday decorated stitching angel that I can put on my stitching basket. Hopefully she'll watch over me and keep the frog away. The card was cute too, a bright springy looking one, perfect for an offset to the cold winter weather we've been having. :) Thanks Lucy for such a fun mail surprise.

The other thing I have to post tonight is the update of my Dogs of Duckport project. I've been working on this little guy for awhile. Originally it was my lunch project, but I've been working some on it at home recently too.
A couple of weeks ago I got an infection in my right eye, which turned into an ulceration. Luckily it is in the inside corner in the white of the eye. My doctor said if it had centered itself in the eye it would probably have permanently affected my vision. That scared me. The treatment hasn't been to bad, the first day I had to put drops in my eye every hour, the next couple of days every 2 hours, then every 3. Over the last 2 weeks I've had to go in to have it checked 5 times. I currently am putting drops in twice a day. Hopefully when I go back in on Monday I'll be done with the drops. The hardest part of this has been I can't wear my contacts. I'm trying to work with my backup pair of glasses. The prescription is pretty close, but I haven't worn glasses since high school and they feel weird. They also seem to work a little differently from my contacts in how they correct my vision, so that my eyes get tired easily, and I have a little difficulty focusing on things that are close, like stitching. So.....working on my 14 ct Dogs project has worked out pretty good as it is easy to see.

When I get Dogs done, this is what it will look like. I'm enjoying working on the dogs, I love their faces. They are so goofy looking, they make me smile. They just look like they are up for anything, and that they think whoever they are looking at is the greatest. Kind of like my Jazmine and Sasha. If the big one in the middle was black it would really remind me of Sasha, she has the same goofy type grin.

On another note, my nephew finished his school project. He had to build a replica of a famous place in the United States and he chose San Simeon, one of the few castles we have here. I think he did a great job, and the others in his group liked it too. He is in a group called Odyssey of the Mind where they do all types of challenges, and they are pretty much expected to do them on their own with only minimal, or in many cases no help, from the parents. My DSIL Kim posted a picture of it on her blog, along with an updated picture of her current project Palms.

Well, I'm off to stitch some more, I love weekends.

Making progress with the camera

I think I'm beginning to get my digital camera a little bit. I'm starting to figure out a little on the lighting, and on how close to stand, how to use zoom etc... so hopefully my pictures will be better. So to start them off ...

Here is my finished and fringed out topper. I'm really enjoying looking at it all done.


This next one is a little older. I've done Groundhog three times. Twice as a tuck pullow this last year, and once the year before. The one I did the year before my daughter saw and loved so much she ran off with it. She had me get a plain frame so she could decorate it herself. I think she did a great job, and told here I thought she should go into some type of designing. I couldn't believe the decorations she did on the plain wood frame. Without a digital camera I've never been able to show it off before. So here is my first Groundhog and my daughter's decorated frame. She used buttons and puffy paint. I would have bought the finished item even is she wasn't my daughter.



The last picture for today is the 40ct. silk gauze project I did. As with my daughter's framing job, since this was framed I couldn't scan it in, so haven't been able to show it before. I like this one as it is so different. The dime next to it shows the size that it is. It was funny, but I could actually see the holes in the silk gauze easier than I can some of my much lower count regular fabric. However, it is a real bear when you have to frog.


I've decided to work a bit on my Dogs of Duckport pattern, as have to many new ones I want to start to decide. So, next time I'll have an update on that one. Hope everyone is staying warm, our outside weather here is freezing, and they are saying the windchill will go to 20 below or more tonight. Ugh!! A good night to stay in with a warm cup of tea and my stitching. :)