A cuppa...

I got my free sample of "Jamaican Me Crazy " coffee from Joffrey's Coffee and Tea Co. It's a flavored coffee, and I can't quite figure out what the flavor is... maybe maple syrup? Hhhmmm... their website says this: "Caramel, vanilla and coffee liqueur flavoring. ..." It would have taken me two pots to come up with that. I don't go for flavored coffees anyway; I find they tend to smell better than they taste, which frustrates me beyond belief.

Ms.Axeu seems to be doing OK; I took her for a 20-minute walk on a lead rope around the indoor tonight. I think she felt better after that. She was a wee bit crabby when I lifted up her blanket to make sure no swelling was going on underneath, even though I didn't touch her. Then I laid my hand along her spine to feel for heat (and thus infection), and while she put her ears back to say "Watch it, you idiot- I had a bunch of needles-big needles! stick me there 2 days ago and you just stood there and watched and didn't even TRY to save me!!! (And I'm a horse and we talk in run-on sentences)", she allowed me to run my hand the length of her spine.
Back in her stall, I scratched her withers on her favorite spot, and she said "Thanks".
That's the Axe, back in the day, winning at Suffolk Downs. She still loves her mud.

Ouch!! Part 3...

So the vet came to look at Axe; she has some minor lameness in both hinds, but she was very back sore, so he chose to treat that for now, so we can have a better indication of the leg lameness. One condition may be causing the other, and vice versa. The treatment involved multiple injections of a cortisone-type medicine along her spine- can we say MEGA-OUCH? I can start her back to work on Wednesday, surprisingly; he said to lunge her for a few days just so she realizes she isn't in pain, and then I can start riding again, and to work her everyday and build her back up. Since she doesn't lunge to the right (ex-race track thing) he said I could even ride her. She was still sensitive along her back this morning, though, so I think I'll lunge her to the left, and hand trot her to the right (until I run out of breath).
Now I'm going to try to do some stitching since my lunch break was entirely out of my jurisdiction.

That's Gonna Hurt! - Part 2

Well, she does have a concussion- she managed to get herself to the Health Clinic and the Dr. chewed her out for not going to the ER the day before (rightly so!!!) She had neglected to tell me prior to my last post that she had slept for 12 hours Wednesday night (the kid who can't sleep for more than 5 hours at a time!) so I'm glad she got some real medical advice. She's supposed to take it easy for a week- no exercise at the gym, not eat spicy (?) foods, take Tylenol instead of Aleeve because of potential bleeding problems and some other instructions. She's in a lot more generalized pain- neck and back and some leg pain like wrenched, pulled muscles. Today she'll probably feel even more sore the poor thing. God this kid causes my heart to pound!!!
Thanks for the good wishes Anna!

Progress and I finished something....

Here's progress on FOS. I started the lettering:

It doesn't seem like I did a lot, but I finished this first:

Just Nan's Christmas Biscornu, Side B

32 ct Jobelan "Lambswool" with recommended fibers.

Ree, The Pioneer Woman, has created an all new website with all of her various sites available in one place. PLease check it out! I hope that link-y thing works- Anna at Stitch Bitch told me how to create them (Thanks Anna!)

Off to ride the horse. Emily rode yesterday afternoon, outside for the first time, and got bucked off. Landed on her head, thank god for expensive helmets. SHe was out briefly and has symptoms of a mild concussion, but she was spending the evening with her BF, so she didn't "want to waste time at an ER". He brought her back to school today and she asked me to look up the hours of the college health clinic (again, why waste her time?), so maybe she'll get herself checked out. Her vision was doubled , but back to normal by 10 pm. This morning she woke up very stiff and sore. People tell me that the worry never stops. I guess it's time to give up my fairy tale otherwise.

Snowflakes

I've re-stitched a bit of what I ripped out, and added to other areas (I hate re-stitching! It's such a rub-it-in-the-nose kind of thing!). Here's my progress from today:

There would have been a bit more, except the masking tape holding the fabric to the scroll rods unstuck and I had to waste precious stitches tacking the fabric to the rod.

I had those missing bottom 3 pine boughs all stitched before. The red berries to the right of the bottom corner snowflake is where I messed up & didn't leave enough room.

Ms.Axeu is a bit on the lame side- she seems to be having a stifle issue, or a combo hock/stifle issue. I had to make an appointment for the vet to come out on Saturday. He's Irish, and very cute. I think he used to be one of the vets for the Irish Olympic team. He's very thorough, which is awesome for me because I can listen to him talk all day long- the longer, the better- I just love the accent! I can still ride her, but I can't work her at a trot very much, especially going to the right.

Oh- the Red Sox won the first game of the season today in 10 innings in Tokyo. Both Japanese players: Dice-K and Okajima got to pitch on their home turf. Go Sawx! (That's Sox with a Southie accent, FYI)

Undo..

Well, I did some more on Snowflakes on Friday- i turned the corner of the bottom border and made it to the right side scroll rod. I had threaded the floss for the berries that go in the brown stripe gap, just to the right of the corner, and realized I was one stitch off. One stitch off. At the start of the whole bottom border. I had already stitched the pine branches, too. They all had to come out. It wasn't a forgivable miscount- the berries wouldn't have fit in the gap- the berries being 3 stitches wide & the gap only 5 stitches wide. Maybe someone with less OCD could have suffered thru it. It took about 20 minutes to take it all out, and then I stopped my self torture for the day. Maybe I'll stitch some tonight and get a picture up.
We had yummy Carando spiral ham for dinner- DO NOT follow the enclosed cooking instructions if you like moist, soft ham. If you do, you'll need to serve toothpicks with it.
For just Bob & myself, I cut off just what I thought we'd eat, poured about 1/4 cup pineapple juice in a 9"x9" baking dish, put the ham slices in the juice and tried to baste some juice on every slice, cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Perfect! The last time I followed their directions, the ham was SO dry it was barely edible. ANd I had about 7-1/2 pounds of dried-out leftover ham.

Short & Sweet

FOS:

Snowflakes:


Now LOST!

So Look....

the other ladies at S &B do a lot of reading, and have all read Janet Evanovich. Joanne had brought #1-9 in & was about to bring them home, so I grabbed #1-3. I've just started #2, but, and this is the reason I've been declining borrowing books, if I'm reading, I can't stitch. All the other ladies don't work, and Deb stitches or reads in the store all day. I don't have time to read!!! I did most of the Harry Potter in bed at night, staying up way too late in the process.
Anyhoo- here's what happened last week on Creepy Kids: An Overall view:

And a closer view of the house on the right:

I love the purple silk for the berries- it's TGS "The Lavenders". (I think.) Those 2 berries are from one contiguous strand. Isn't the variation awesome??
Then I went temporarily insane and started this today at work:

It's LHN "Snowflakes". I'm substituting various WDW & CC's for the DMC, except the cardinal later on. It's on the recommended 32 ct. "Natural" linen.
Sorry to be absent this past week with stitch-y posts.
I've been riding the horse again since Emily went back. She (the horse) definitely gets too stiff in her joints when she doesn't get out to the paddock, so in all this crappy weather it's doubly important to get up there & give her a ride to loosen her up.

St.Patrick's Day Parade

Hey Daddy! The parade's about to start! We gotta go!

Let's find a good place to watch - next to my squirrel friends over there! Stay away from those evil bunnies!

If I put on my hat can I be in the parade?

Send in the clowns!

Put my hat back on Mummy! They're throwing marshmallows off the float!

OOOH! More marshmallows over there! And hamburglers!!!

*Burp!* I ate too much.

Gotta find a bathroom!

I need a nap now. Can we go home?

MMMMMMMMMMM-Food!

Pizza night with my best friend- Emily is joining us too. The ol' Town Spa linguica pizza and greek salad- I can't wait! Emily got another "defective"cake:
"Chocolate Decadence" cake- it's a flourless chocolate cake- it's like eating fudge or a slice of dense fudgy frosting- chocoholic heaven! Thta's edible gold leaf in the center.
The other cake http://anotherxcrazyblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/miracles.html
was awesome too- that one was a chocolate layer cake.
I haven't stitched this week which is frustrating as I'm so close to finishing that biscornu!
Editor's note: Sorry-but I don't know how to substitute a word for a link yet! And any typos can be attributed to having a jiggly dog on my lap who wants scratchies. Problem is I type with 2 fingers.

Well...

it wasn't any worse than I thought it'd be, but it wasn't any better either. It was very tiring. The thing I've been loving most about not working at the barn is that I can enjoy my whole weekend: I'm not so exhausted by 4:00 pm that I can't do anything else but flip channels on the remote and sleep on the couch. (And be extra crabby by Monday morning!) All that came crashing back to me Saturday afternoon around 3:00, after I returned from my "other" side job, 40 miles round-trip in the monsoon rain storm we had here in New England. I really needed to get Axe more hay but I was too exhausted to drive to the other side of Middleboro and back (30 miles more round-trip), all the while hoping I wouldn't get caught on the wrong side of a flooded road.
I did make it back up to the barn at night and walked her around the indoor for 15 minutes and gave her her hay. The plan for Sunday was : Bob & Hayley were going to get started at 5:00 am, and I was going to show up at 6 and clean up behind them doing stalls. Then we'd be done with all the chores between 7 and 7:30, just as trailers started coming in for the show.
SNORT! I drive up at ten to six, and it's dark. "Well, OK, maybe the lights are on inside- Bob (who lives on the property) will already be at work".
I open the door to quiet darkness, and some of the horses nicker (Axe did- she always says hello to the waitresses). So I go back out to my car & call Bob, who doesn't answer. So I go in & get started. Like I said: it wasn't any worse than I expected!
Bob comes in around 6:15- he had remembered to change his clock, but forgot to turn his alarm on. Hayley- she shows up at 7:20- who knows why. I left around 8:20, finally done. The caterers started setting up in the aisle right in front of the stall where we keep hay & shavings, so we had to work around them, and try to pull a 75 foot hose up and down the aisle with riders getting their numbers and being meandering tourists. Anyway: I survived, and Bob has someone lined up to try the shift out next weekend.
Here's some stitching from Thursday & Friday last week:
Creepy Kids:

Christmas Biscornu2 back side:

OK! So I'm gonna go out on a limb here & guess that Blogger and the internet in general is experiencing a HUGE slowdown because of the surprising news that yet another politician of note has admitted to being involved in a * GASP!* sex scandal! And so i cannot upload photos right now. And if this posts uploads, it will be a bloody miracle.

Reprieve!

The kid came home for spring break this afternoon and went up to ride! YAY! It's like a 50-lb weight lifted off my back.
Now she's off to Disney World for a long weekend with school friends. So I went up to make up grain so I don't have to waste an extra hour tomorrow. Ugh- tomorrow- 16 horse's stalls- and a monsoon. It'll be a blast- I'm sure!

Angst...

every time I remember I have to go up to the barn to ride tonight, my heart starts pounding and my chest & throat get tight. I am really hating having to worry about avoiding people.
Tomorrow I have to get up early to work- it'll be at least 4 hours worth. OOps! 5- I have to make grain bags. Then I have to go to my "other" job, that started then disappeared when I first quit at the barn. I love how when I have drawing work (at double the $$), I have to "help out" at the barn. Makes me want to shovel shit all the more. Maybe Bob will ask me to work Sunday too!! That would be so awesome! Getting up at 4:00 to be there at 5:00, with daylight's savings starting- ooo- sounds like a bucket-nay- a veritable WHEELBARROW full o' fun!

Front Side complete..

I even added those tulip beads, which will be a hoot to work around when i sew both sides together. Now I have to do a reverse side.

Here's more progress on FOS- it's subtle, but it's progress (over one stitching in window & door and the roof and chimney)

Riding tonight. I hate having to get there after 7:30 to avoid jerks, and even that late, some are still around.

To Bead, or Not to Bead....

well, there's no question! Bead, of course!

I still have more to do- the left side and there are some around the middle.

On a Roll...

I finished the Wish Ornament except for the beads:

It came out bigger than I thought it would be over one...oh well. I LOVE this floss- WDW "Bethlehem"- I think it's my favorite color of cotton floss. This fabric is 28 ct. "Carnival"; I'll get the complete description when I put the final post up showing the beads.
At the barn, the new weekend shoveler quit or was fired- not clear on that detail- but Bob called me today to ask if I could help Saturday. Like the sorry sap I am, I said yes. I imagine he'll ask me to help out for Sunday then- Sunday being a show day- oh great- I just remembered- we lose an hour's sleep Sunday. Just frikkin pissa.

Miracles

Creepy Kids Update:

A finish:

Bright Needle

2007(8) Merry Xmas Pinkeep

32 ct Jobelan "Lambswool"

DMC alternatives

Chocolate-y goodness:

Emily has a friend who works at a bakery called "Finales" in Boston who gave her this "damaged" cake. I'll tell you who's going to damage it! It weighs about 5 lbs and is about 6" in diameter & 2" high. Can we talk calories???

YUM.