Progress and a Great Treatment for Yellow Jacket Stings

Let's do the fun stuff first, here's my Dog Lessons:

and this time I took a photo of the bottom of the fabric. There are a few rows of green under the doghouse, but there will be plenty of room. I'm almost out of the green I'm using, WDW Moss and I happened to be in Stowe, VT so I went to The Wooden Needle. Unfortunately she was out of WDW Moss as well, but she can mail it to me. I did find a few Watercolours that might work for some Xmas hardanger projects, so that was fun. And it's always nice to visit a LNS too.

And a close-up of the modifications on the dog:

Original:

More basset-like:

My friend and I ditched our male counterparts and spent a fun afternoon touring around Stowe. We enjoyed The Dog and Cat, looking for our respective four-legged companions and we took a trip up the mountain to the Trapp Family Lodge. 

We did head home up the scenic route 108 through Smuggler's Notch in Mt. Mansfield. We had traveled that way to Stowe as well, so it was fun to drive it from each direction. It's a lot of fun to drive, especially if you're on a motorcycle. One side has some really severe switchbacks that aren't wide enough for 2 cars, and we saw a lot of bicyclists riding that road. I like biking, but that seems insane to me. Maybe it's a "bucket list" for bicyclists kind of thing. 

On to the yellow jacket.... I was watering my flowers when I heard a buzzing and I waved my hand a bit, then felt a searing pain on my leg. A yellow jacket had zoomed up the edge of my shorts and stung me! 

It was getting extremely painful and swollen before DH found some plaintain weed and used that to help get the venom out. So I'd like the pass on this tip to everyone, as I'd never heard of it before. 

from wellnessmama.com

This is what plaintain weed looks like and many people probably already have it in their lawns. Now you know it's actually useful! If you or anyone you know gets stung by an insect or gets in nettles, or maybe even poison ivy, pull out a leaf, fold it up and squish it a bit, then rub it on the injury. For a sting, rub towards the area of the sting to push the venom out. The leaf absorbs the venom. 

I felt a lot better after DH used the leaves, and the stinging stopped almost immediately. DH says you can often find plantain in sandy areas if that helps. 

I hope none of you ever get stung by a yellow jacket, man, does it burn! And it swelled up and made me limp because it hurt so badly, until DH used plaintain. Then it was much easier to deal with. 

Hope you all had a great weekend, and happy stitching!

Tiffstitch