....blog undergoing renovations, please be patient!....

When Life Intervenes....

...my blog seems to go to pot. I am still here, I am still reading blogs and I am occasionally commenting on them. Really.

So, what's been going on??? Well, let's see.... Just after my last blog post my parents returned from a holiday in Cuba. They had seen enough snow (they live about an hour North West of where I live right in the middle of something called the Snow Belt - trust me, they get snow!) and wanted some sun and sand. Well, they didn't get too much of either - on the 4th day of their trip, my mother slipped and fell in the bathroom of the hotel, breaking her left wrist in two places! A trip through the Cuban medical system had four people holding her down while the doctor straightened and re-set her wrist. Can you say ouch??????

She returned home upset, weepy and in a cast that went from her armpit to knuckles. She has never before broken a bone and was just really undone by the whole experience. I made her go to her own family doctor for an x-ray and sure enough, her wrist was not set straight. So another week passes before she gets an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. I made the drive up to my parent's house and drove them both to the surgeon (my dad doesn't see very well and isn't the best at driving in unfamiliar places - my mom wasn't driving anywhere, so that left me). Luckily the surgeon felt that he didn't need to re-break and re-set her wrist but instead took off the monster cast, straightened her wrist to his satisfaction (a somewhat painful experience for my Mom, but it beats surgery) and set her up with a handy, dandy fibreglass cast that ends a couple inches below her elbow and leaves the knuckles on her hand free.

It was a stressful experience all around, but Mom is on the mend now and will get her cast off in another week or so - then she'll have a splint for another week or two, then off to physio most likely.

Anyway, don't go to Cuba.

In more stitch-related news - I am working on two models right now, so my time is mostly spent there. However, I did manage to squeeze in some time on a few other projects, so here's the skinny:

First up, Nantucket Rose or The Big Grey Blob:


She's coming along nicely and I'm enjoying her, but I'm really getting sick of 5 shades of grey. I'm heading into greens next...

I started to lose a little of my stitching mojo after I got to this point on NR and realized that I really needed to do something that doesn't involve little x's. Don't mistake me, I'm still a cross stitcher, but I really needed a change of pace, so I picked up one of my class pieces from last fall. It's called Triangulations and it has been designed by Anna-Marie Winter:


I was strongly reminded about why I love Japanese-style embroidery. It's just so *pretty*. The dark blue is stitched in Kreinik Silk Mori - and believe it or not, all the little squares are stitched with the same fibre. I used 4 strands of Silk Mori and my laying tool and a good chunk of time. It was heaven. The lighter blue is Silk Serica which is a pain to work with (if it happens to catch on the canvas it frays and goes bad, very, very bad) but I do like the finished effect. I'll go back to this one the next time I'm fed up with little x's.

My friend and I continue to progress on our sampler from the CreativFestival:



Now, before you hit comment - no, I did not spell Creativ wrong. No, it doesn't need an E on the end. It is the name of the Festival - CreativFestival - no e. Does it drive me loopy? Yes. Am I tempted to add the e? Yes. Will I? No, because then I won't be describing the festival. The proofreader in me squirms every time I see it (I'm the proofreader for A Needle Pulling Thread). Someday I'll get over it, right? (Sorry for how wavy it looks - I haven't got it mounted straight in my Q-snap and didn't feel like fixing it!)

And finally, because I have the resistance of a gnat, I had to start this:



I have to give this one points - it stitches up fast and easy. It's my reward for when I've spent some time on the models. I think it's saving my sanity there - more black fabric.

Off to work on the models for a bit - then maybe I can make that thing say Love instead of Lov. :-)