Very Late Theme-tas-Stitch and Feeling Sorry for Myself

Theme-tas-stitch is hosted by the wonderful Kerry and check out all the info at her blog here. I've been really enjoying the SAL all year and have been happy to be able to use her themes to progress along in all my stitching. 

This past month was September Smalls and I switched up my usual rotation to get a few things done. I also had almost no stitching time at the start of the month, so that kind of made BAP week disappear anyway. 

The smalls I worked on this month are:

Palko-lap's September

 stitched with Jodryi Greed from her Seven Deadly sins thread series on Chromatic Alchemy Nimbus? (from a card pack, so not sure the name or count)

Cross for Baptism

A cross for a Baptism on 22 ct hardanger with Caron Watercolours Vanilla and a whitish Wildflowers. I modified this chart from an anchor freebie on Mabel Figworthy's Fancies. 

Totally Nuts from JCS October 2015 on L'Amour by Chromatic Alchemy

 the stitching was complete on this one last year and I kept putting off turning it into a needle book because I'd never made one and was letting myself be intimidated by it. Now I've finished! And I've learned a lot, like to make a 2nd side!!

Brooke's Books freebie

I turned this into a card, but my exchange partner has yet to post a photo and I forgot to take one, so I'll try and update my blog when I have a new photo. 

And now, why I've been feeling sorry for myself. I had some pain in my hip in August and wasn't sure what was going on. I had a doctor's appointment coming up, so I waited to see her and she diagnosed bursitis in my hip. It hasn't really gone away yet, despite taking anti-inflammatories. 

Now my left shoulder just started acting up 36 hours ago. I saw a different doctor at urgent care and was told that was also bursitis. It was incredibly painful and difficult to sleep on. Plus no hockey last night, no hockey tonight and I was supposed to play in a charity tournament this weekend and that's not looking good either. And of course NO cross stitching either... 

I was very down last night although I watched a George Carlin special and ate some marshmallows, so that helped somewhat. One of those is probably healthier than the other :) 

I'm a little better today, although I still won't go to hockey tonight. The doctor wants me to take a steroid prescription which I need to fill, pharmacy was closed last night, but I'm really worried this is a sign of something else. I'll let my regular doctor know and see how it goes, but I'm worrying too much about all this and especially not being able to stitch is so frustrating! There's a new freebie SAL by Lakeside Needlecraft for specialty stitches that has an interesting start. You can find it here. 

I'm pretty sure I will not be stitching in pink though. Some blues, maybe greens, I'll have to rummage through what I have. And that might help lift my mood as well. Plus, maybe I'll be stitching slower with different stitches so I won't aggravate my shoulder. 

I tend to be able to be positive, so feeling down in the dumps is really frustrating too. 

I hope you all have had better weeks and will have a good weekend. 

Happy Stitching to you!

Tiffstitch

Gifted Gorgeousness - September Edition - Better Late than Never!

It's GG time again! Head over to the marvelous Jo's blog for all the details on how to shoe-horn your GG projects into this fun, all-inclusive SAL. 

I've done a bit more stitching than last GG post and let's run down the list and see what I can find. :)

Tribal Dragon - I haven't worked on this any more, but it's so pretty I want to share it again! I hope to get this back out again soon. 

Autumn Leaves freebie from Brooke's Books

I wasn't sure what to do with these 2, then I decided to paste them onto a card and of course forgot to take a photo. They were sent to an exchange recipient that doesn't blog, so maybe once she shares a photo I can show you as well. 

Totally Nuts - adapted from 2015? JCS magazine. They had made it into a door hanging, I decided to make it into my very first needle book. I hadn't realized I should stitch something else about the same size, so instead I made this into a teeny weeny needle book. :)

Modified anchor into cross by Mabel Figworthy's Fancies, another freebie

This was stitched on 22 ct white hardanger with Waterflowers Vanilla and Waterlilies Heather? It was for a Baptism we were invited to for a Baptist, and it was an immersion Baptism, a new experience for us. The person was baptized in Lake Champlain, so that was pretty interesting to see. 

Palko-lap September

I'm stitching this one with Jodyri Seven Deadly Sins - Greed and it's on 16 ct Chromatic Alchemy Nimbus I think. I need to get this one finished soon and off to my Grandma. 

As you may have noticed, there are lots of smalls in this post and that fits well with Theme-tas-Stitch too! I'll try and get that post up on time and finish September by then. 

I hope you've all had a good month and Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

Top 5 Cold Palliatives and Updates

I hope everyone is feeling well! I'm suffering through a fall cold and have been since Friday. We had a big party Friday night for our new deck and gazebo and my birthday and the gazebo turned out really well! 

DH built it mostly by himself, although had some help from friends and my BIL to get it done in time. It was a good thing too since it poured that night! We have a small house, so can't really fit everyone in there, but we had the gazebo and 2 canopies and that helped a lot. 

I haven't had much time to do stitching because I'd been baking, trying out recipes, and cleaning to get everything ready in time. I do have one small finish so far that fits in the September Smalls theme:

This is a Brooke's Books freebie with WDW Autumn Leaves and I can't remember the name of the brown colour. We can pretend I planned it like that and it wasn't a "fix" when I ran out of Autumn Leaves, right? ;)

I have stitched another one, but apparently don't have any photos of that one yet. I'll try and remedy that soon. 

I failed miserably on the pavlova. I tried to make it healthy and not use regular sugar, and that might be the issue. It ended up not crispy at all, like a meringue should be, just kind of marshmallow consistency throughout. That was okay, but not what I was going for. 

I did manage to make passable raisin bread, so that was pretty impressive to me!

I'm not that big a fan of raisins cooked in things generally, but I enjoyed the bread as well. DD, who was the one who wanted me to make it after seeing it on Daniel Tiger's Neighbourhood (spin-off from Mr. Rogers for our generation) didn't like it at all. :) DH really liked it, so I'm calling it a win. 

This has happened as well, DD is off to pre-school this year, giving DH about 4 hours in the morning all by himself. He's been busy this week, but he's looking forward to maybe biking more, etc once he gets used to it. I was home for her first day both going on the bus and coming home and that was really amazing to watch. She _loves_ school. I hope that continues. 

On to the Top 5 List! Here are the things I like to do when I get a cold to try and feel better faster:

TOP 5 COLD PALLIATIVES

1. Soup 

This is my favourite thing to have when I'm sick. I prefer Amy's low-sodium Lentil Vegetable Soup over all the others I've tried so far. My favourite soup used to be Campbell's Cream of Mushroom, but the dairy allergy made that an impossibility now. 

2. Tea

I love tea anyway, but have even more of it when I'm sick, with lots of honey. Some people swear by lemon as well, and I should really try some of the Throat Comfort tea, that can really help a sore throat. 

3. Warm socks

I even try and sleep in my warm socks and that seems to help me sleep better, even the times when I want to kick them off when I have a fever. 

4. A cat

There's not much better than a cat, or dog, but I only have a cat, snuggling with you when you're not feeling well. Besides the fact their body temperature is higher than ours, petting them can help you fall asleep. 

5. Hooded sweatshirt

My favourite article of clothing when I'm able to stay home and relax. Having the hood up means every part of me is as warm as possible and I can pretend all my body's energy is aimed at fighting off the cold and not striving to keep warm. 

What are your favourite ways to try and feel better when you have a cold? 

And Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch

The Results Are In!

Here we go, the results are in and here is what I stitched on in August. Thank you again all for guessing and I think we have plenty of charts to go around. :) I'm happy to sub something out if needed as well. 

WIPs

1. Princess and the Dragon

A fair bit of progress on this one, although I think it might be getting put away for the rest of the year so I can get some Xmas stitching done. 

2. Mini Winter Magic

A partial page finish means this one has reached the end of one side! This is the most complete any of my HAEDs are, which is maybe a little sad, but at least this one has seen real progress in the last year. 

4. Do Not Meddle

You might be thinking it hasn't really changed, and you're kind of correct, except I had been stitching this horizontally on a long piece of fabric and now it's going to be more vertical. This is stunt stitching for someone who can't really stitch anymore and her choice was a vertical hanging, so I frogged the original stitching and re-did most of it. 

5. Tribal Dragon

I included a couple pictures of this one because I'm so happy with my progress! I think this or the spider could be a finish this year with another 1-2 weeks of work. There is metallic on the underbelly and I love the effect! I'll get a close-up photo at some point if you can't really tell on these ones. 

7. Dragon Dreams Dragonlets of Xmas

Day 3 (3 French hens ;) ) complete and Day 4 with some nice progress.

That means I worked on WIPs 1,2,4,5,7 if you're counting along. :)

New Starts

2. Messy But Mine

I'm stitching this one on Chromatic Alchemy Nimbus 18 count I think. It was an off cut and I don't remember for sure now. 

I had a lot of fun working on all my dragons this week and once I got into Tribal Dragon I couldn't put it down! I did like having one smallish new start though. Great guess by Leonore to get that one, the only person who guessed my new start correctly. I would have loved to start all of them, but apparently I'm wising up in my old age ;)

By my count, Kerry had the most correct with 4, then Jo with 3, followed by Vickie, Lesley, Leonore and Justine tied at 2 and Faith and Preeti with 1 each. 

I'll be sending emails to all of you, starting with Kerry and Jo, and since there are so many ties, everyone will get at least one chart! 

Happy Stitching and have a great weekend everyone!

Tiffstitch

Thank You and Long Weekend!

Thank you all for participating in my giveaway and guessing game! I will go over the results and try and get a post up tonight with the winners. Here's a little hint for now:

there's a little bling on the chest if you can see it ;)

It's Labour Day weekend here so I'm also planning on working on some desserts this weekend. We have a get-together planned for next weekend and I'd like to experiment on some healthy desserts. I plan on attempting pavlova, so wish me luck!

My goal is to use only natural sugars, honey, maple syrup, etc. in a few things and see if they're something other people will eat as well. I might have some more traditional, possible store-bought stuff and my creations, just to be sure. I know that as my tastes have changed with decreasing my sugar intake, I find I'm a little overly sensitive to sugar and other people need a little more. 

I'd never heard of Pavlova before watching the Bake off show

and I've recently been watching the Comic Relief editions, they're awesome! and the recipes seem much more my speed. :) I know the above photo is the old crew and I've watched some of the new one and it's okay I suppose; although I miss Mary Berry and Sue and Mel. 

If you have any favourite recipes for desserts, especially if they can be easily substituted for natural sugars, please let me know! So far I've attempted some coconut flour cupcakes that turned out well and you can make frosting with avocado, maple syrup and cocoa that ends up very tasty. I'm going to attempt a cashew "cheese"cake again. It turned out well one time I made it, the same texture as an actual cheesecake and much healthier, so we'll see how that goes too. 

I hope everyone has a good weekend, whether it's a holiday one or not. Happy Stitching!

Tiffstitch