SAD TIMES AGAIN

This Friday is the 1st year Anniversary of the loss of my MIL and the memories of that time bring back much sadness.

   To add to this sadness my husband's Aunt (my MIL's sister) passed away yesterday after a 3 year battle with Dementia.  Although we had been warned last Friday that her deterioration was a concern naturally we are still shocked to have lost her and of course are feeling the heartache today :(  We were very close to her and she has a been a big part of our lives and adored our children ~ a truly lovely and kind lady.

What a cruel disease this is both for the sufferer and the carer ~ to not know a name anymore, to not recognise a face anymore and to live in a world you no longer know and when events that only took place a minute or so previous are straightaway forgotten.  I am happy for her to finally be released from the cruel symptoms she suffered and know now she is peacefully sleeping xxx

I do wish life would pick up!  I'm so fed up with feeling sad and unwell, my foot doesn't want to co-operate and get better and now I have been called for another scan to check my bone density ~ grrrr life!

I have been stitching non-stop ~ I guess it's my way of coping and by concentrating on counting stitches I can try and block both sadness and pain out, not always successful but it helps!

'A Beautiful Dream' is progressing well and a new tree has grown complete with conifers and golden stars are now scattered above the rooftops.

'Santa's Nap' is looking good too and Santa is now growing a lovely white beard, next I can start his face which I'm looking forward to.

Thank you for your comments on my last post and it was nice to hear that many others of you get a lot of comfort from your pets.

Monty was a lucky pup at Christmas and received toys galore ~ he's a real chewer and nothing stays in one piece for more than a day but one toy, a squeaky sheep, took his fancy and that went everywhere with him!

Last week the squeak gave up!!!!  So a dash visit to the Pet Centre and a hunt for a new sheep, none left so instead a new cow . . .

(looks like a fish in this photo but it has 4 legs and udders so definitely a cow!)

Success! Monty love him xxx

Thanks for stopping by, it means a lot to me

{{{Hugs}}}

Jane

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TWO WORKING FEET AND A BEAUTIFUL DREAM . . .

Good afternoon blogging friends!

It's a lovely sunny but very chilly day here in the South and a welcome sight after a whole day of heavy rain yesterday. 

Well, finally I have 2 working feet again and am walking without crutches.  I'm now in the transition stage of air boot to orthotic and so far so good ~ 30 mins to start with and increasing by 30 mins each day until I can wear the orthotic without pain during or afterwards for 4 hours :)

I go back to the Specialists in 4 and 8 weeks time to see if all is as it should be on an X-ray and then to decide whether I need a permanent orthotic or not.

Fingers crossed!

In my last post I showed you my new WIP and a couple of bloggers have asked who the design was by, sorry I missed typing that info and sorry I haven't been able to contact those bloggers personally ~ my computer just won't let me and if I am successful the emails come pinging back to me with the message 'fatal error' ~ that's not very nice is it?  Anyway . . .  the designer is Sara Guermani, the design is called 'A Beautiful Dream' and she has her own web shop and also sells on Etsy.

It's a treat to stitch and my little Christmas Village now has some greenery as five lovely conifers have joined the scenery!

Think this is probably now my only way of seeing snow this year and that's by stitching it!

Lovey Christmas reds and greens

I'm stitching 'A Beautiful Dream' alongside another design.
With the birthday money I received last year for my 'special' birthday I wanted to buy a cross stitch that would commemorate that day to me and something all the family would appreciate in future times so after surfing the internet for some considerable time  I chose this one ...

'Santa's Nap'
A rosy faced Santa and lots of puppy dogs ~ who could resist?

I was a little shocked at the amount of thread that came with this kit, thank goodness it was already pre-sorted!

Not much to show so far and it's back to the old days with this kit as it's stitched on good old Aida, 18 count and has lots of lovely back stitching afterwards but I know, although a pain, backstitching will really bring this design alive.

Tilly and Oscar continue to do well and now only have 2 more days of medication ~ no more symptoms and her condition remains stable :)
I would miss any of my pets so much if I lost any of them, whilst I have been laid up with the fractured foot they have been such good company, sounds silly doesn't it? (must be an age thing!!!)

Thanks for stopping by
Stay warm
{{{Hugs}}}
Jane
x

GOOD NEWS ALL ROUND

Well it's good news so far for Tilly and Oscar ~ we're now 2 weeks through the 4 week course of medication and Tilly remains stable and Oscar fully fit!  Tilly still has her head tilt but we had been warned that that might stay and hopefully she'll learn to cope with it, certainly at the moment these two little bunnies are full of life and sensing Spring is on the doorstep ~ thank you all for your lovely comments, thoughts and prayers xxx

Good news for me too as I saw the Orthopaedic Surgeon on Monday night and my foot is making good progress.  I am still having some pain and swelling underneath the foot which may take some time to improve so I am now waiting to see another Specialist who can make me an orthosis so I can gradually transfer from the air cast boot to a normal shoe ~ nearly a Happy Dance!!!

And .... even more good news ~ I actually have 2 finishes to show you!

That's quite an achievement to me after my poor offering of 3 last year!

They are 2 more Mill Hill Santa's . . .

Holly & Ivy Santa

Lapland Santa

With the one I finished in December I think they will make a nice trio on the tree next Christmas, it's hard to see the beads sparkling in a photo but they are really pretty when the light catches them.

Our promise of snow here in the South of the UK has still not happened, we have the odd flurry and it settles on the roof and car tops for a little while but doesn't hang around for long

so disappointing ~ Monty's waiting so patiently  . . .

So whilst we sit and wait I've started my next stitch and at the moment it has about as much snow as we have had . . .

A Beautiful Dream

This is my 2nd attempt on this design as the first one was using the DMC colours listed on the chart and the result was really dull colours and not too my taste so whilst the air turned slightly blue as I unpicked the 2 middle houses a 2nd attempt began and as shown above it's with my choice of hand-dyed threads!

I'm trying to keep it as Christmassy as possible so lots of Christmas reds and the greens are my choice for the trees, the fabric is as suggested ~ what a brilliant fabric ~ just imagine stitching all that falling snow!

Tomorrow night the Great British Sewing Bee is starting its 3rd series, love this show, 10 contestants whittled down each week to the final 3 and along the way showing us some fantastic (some not) skills and ideas on their sewing machines ~ this will definitely be a me-time with a Do Not Disturb Sign on the door!

Thank you for stopping by

Stay warm if you have the white stuff and if you have lots of it could you send me just a little bit!

{{{Hugs)))

Jane

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