strip quilt

For someone who is not supposed to be sewing
I am getting a lot accomplished this week!

Jill and I went to see my new great nephew today. 
We took him some Packer onesies (his dad is a Bears fan. Ew), and his quilts.
His mom got some hand cream, chocolates, and diaper coupons.
And his big sister got a colorbook and crayons, the doll quilt I make yesterday, and some of those "magic" baby bottles (from a last minute stop at the dollar store) . She loved the bottles, would not put them down.  I remember being a kid and being fastincated by them!

When I got home I got a fb message from my neice,
big sister (she is 18 months and not understanding the whole baby thing) had claimed baby brother's quilt.
So...
 I have some fabric laying around
   cut some strips 

and ta da.

Will mail it off to my niece for machine quilting tomorrow.

YAY!

doll quilt

Wow, two posts in one day! 
What's up with that??

Tomorrow we are going to meet Kase and deliver his quilts. 
Of course we need to take a present for big sister too.
We got her a color book
and I made this today.

 Its a little doll quilt for her baby.
Kind of I spy. And the back has a little redheaded princess :)

band practice 8/23/2012

Every year the band director has a practice at night before the first home football game.
Family is invited.
Here are some pictures of my favorite saxophonist.

new neon green shoes 

I lifted this one from the clarinet player's mom, that's why he is clear and Jill is blurry ;)

Famous Fresh Trash: percussion totally rocks in Fennimore!

Since the first football game is before school starts, the band is still on vacation. So they sit in their lawn chairs for half time. *That's my girl with the neon green chair*

for baby K

I made this a couple months ago. Excuse the wrinkles please, ironing is on my "don't" list. And the color is not so great, took these inside because I am lazy.

This is the baby blanket I made for my soon to be great nephew. He should arrive any day now. The picture is not great. My niece asked me to make a valance and crib skirt in the white swirly fabric.

I added some Riley Blake Mod Tod stars, some Robert Kauffman brown circles and made her this. I love the binding , its brown and white and reminds me of a peppermint candy cane stripe.The back has a little square of Packer green and gold. I could not resist. The dad to be is a bears fan and takes a lot of good natured ribbing from our family!

I will add a little tag "to ___ from great aunt Linda" when I find out his name and mail it off.

daisies

Today I had a visit from a sweet retired couple from church. They brought us supper for tonight, some magazines and this sweet daisy bouquet. Totally made my day!

Recovery

I cannot believe how boring this is.
I've been good.
No sewing or crocheting :(
Sleep a lot, although its not good sleep.Pain sucks.
My neck doesn't bother me as much as my shoulders and arm.
My incision is starting to bug me, its tight and looks very Herman Munster-ish.
The bruising is beginning to fade, lovely shades of green, yellow, and purple.
My voice is pretty good most of the time, it fades sometimes and sounds scratchy

I did attempt a new cookie recipe yesterday,
They were ok,
not great,
    did not bust the diet!
(always gotta look on the bright side!)

I painted my nails, they looked great til I did the dishes.
Not supposed to do the dishes, but no one else was doing them.
grrrr

ouch

Well, I can't say they didn't warn me.
I got to take off my bandage yesterday. 
Whoa! My incision is UGGGLLY!  
Swollen and bruised and pretty icky.
I have no pain around my incision.

But the pain in my upper back/shoulders/arms is unbearable.
:(
And I am taking my super duper p ain meds regularly.
Apparently, they stretch my arms straight out in some weird traction thing.
 Anchor me down so I don't move.
 I was asleep for this part (thank goodness!).
The surgeon told me the space where the smooshed disc was removed was less than a half centimemter
He opened it up to 8 cm. 
7 and a half centimeters is a lot for my old spine.
I am usually pretty tough, but I hope this resolves quickly. 

We did venture out to the grocery store today. 
I got stocked up on yogurt and jello
even bought some chocolate ice cream.
(Since I will be stuck with soft food for at least another week and a half. I
I am going to have good stuff)

I am home

I am home, had a nap.

Thanks for the prayers and well wishes.

Recovery will  be interesting.
The surgeon told me it was much worse that he expected.
It was supposed to take an hour, but was 2+

He said he took his time and did it right :)

whew!

nervous

Tomorrow is the big day.
Today I am nervous.
I know I have a wonderful surgeon 
and its great hospital,
But its MY neck.

I probably should have taken today off.
I still have a list of things to do a mile long. I have been so distracted by the Olympics. 

As long as I get my floors scrubbed tonight, the rest can wait.
Besides, if I don't get stuff done, I am going to try not to stress about it.

An apology

I am very stressed about my upcoming spine surgery
Sorry if you are here to see my sewing or crocheting,
Not much creating is going on.
Mostly cleaning, and other things I need to get done in the next several days. 


Check back later though, 
sounds like recovery will be long. 
But I will be back to creating as soon as I can!


Linda

pre -op bomb

Pre -op appointments today. I was at the clinic for three and a half hours!
holy crap.
I am registered, informed, and passed the physical.
The physical is a joke. She listened to my heart, lungs, check my reflexes. 
That's it.


The surgery educator gave me information overload.
And a ba-jillion restrictions.
No lifting anything for 2 weeks
No lifting more than 10# for 4-6 weeks after that. 
No lifting my arms above my shoulders, can't even take a plate from the cupboard,.
No pushing or pulling.
No sweeping.
No dishes (yay!)
No vacuuming
No turning
No twisting
No driving,
No using my hands
    Wait. what?
That's right. No typing, no crocheting, no sewing, no typing.
I am allowed to use the tv remote.
And go to the bathroom.
so glad they are going to let me do that!
The list of 'no' goes on and on. 


I am so glad I am getting this done before school starts.
Jill will be around to help :)


Also, I will probably not be eating any solid food for a few weeks.
He has to push my esophagus out of the way to get to my spine.
It will be very swollen for a while.
My larynx will also be "disrupted"  I could be without a voice for a few days.
She said its not unusual to wake up feeling like you are being strangled, because of all the swelling.
She said that so nonchalantly 
Yikes!
On the upside, maybe this will jump start my diet!
I wonder how I will choke down the pain pills?
There will be severe neck and upper back pain, the actual surgery strains the ligaments in my neck and between my shoulder blades. 
I have 20 or so pages of information to read;
It sounds like recovery is not going to be fun. 
All this and it probably won't relieve my pain.


*sigh*

August to-do list

Before surgery (on the 10th)

•  Find the fabric I bought for the back of Emma's quilt....I have searched high and low...no idea what I did with this, grrrr
• make a cute back for that and get it to quilter
• Get hair cut 
• Organize my fabric
• major grocery shopping so I don't have to think about it when I get home
• walmart run to stock up on TP , cat food, paper plates

After surgery. The surgeon told me I would be miserable for the first week or two, 

(I don't like the sound of that, but do appreciate the that he is up front with me)

and  I will be off work for at least a month.

• Sew
• Crochet - the surgeon told me none of this, the use of my hands will be very limited.
• Watch movies
• bind Emma's quilt.
• mail baby quilts

July recap

Making a list of things I got accomplished in July

• finished baby K's quilt. All I need to do is sew a label in.
• stocked up on some clearance yarn at walmart
• decluttered my kitchen cupboards (I tackled the worst one, the others will do)
• finished Emma's quilt top
• donated 6 (1) garbage bags of clothes to the local thrift shop.
• cut up a garbage bag full of t shirts for t shirt yarn

dang, I know I got more done than this, but I can't remember :o)