Wow - it's already Tuesday!?

That is pretty much how my weeks feel like right now. Sorry about being absent - I have tried to keep up with all of your blogs, but I fell short around Saturday... It seems that a lot of things are going on right now. Work is getting busier, which is great, and I seem to have things going on in the evenings and weekends too, which is not all that common for me. I like it!

Let me just say, as always, thanks for all your comment - it is so much fun to hear from you!
Oh, and Gwen from Guava Gems Blog posted her second post on the Brightneedle Blog, which was really cool! She is making a small needle-book that will look just adorable - and she finished all the stitching over just a weekend! The pattern is called Pumpkin Flowers and is too cute. I have never seen it before, so that was extra exciting. (I need to get my BN charts out and get going too!)

So, to make sure that I don't forget, here is August's TUSAL update - tadaaah!
(Well, that was really more of an introduction than needed; not a whole lot going on in my TUSAL jar right now. I have tiny pieces of Hare Pyns silk floss on top and I have already forgotten what the last project I really sat and stitched on was... my short-term memory has been gone for a really long time. At least, I think so.... Oh, never mind, I think it was the Noel Quadrielle!)

Moving on to the small progress on the Hare Pyns project. I have finished stitching all the "smalls" now, so the main part is left - the pocket. It is stitched as three panels on the same piece of linen and to finish the piece, the panels are simple folded up. The panel that I am currently working on will be the "inside panel" - the one that, together with the back, will make up the actual pocket.
The fabric in the picture showing all parts will be the lining fabric.

As I mentioned in my last post, these areas take a while to stitch since every last linen-thread is covered with some sort of stitch. I have 4 more zig-zag rows, that will be snugged in under the first row, to go and then the motif-stitching is complete on the inside panel. After that, I am afraid that I will spend quite a few evenings on filling in the back-ground with some type of darning stitch. It will look really nice though.
As you probably notice, I am cheating on the year too. I took the class back in 2007 and I simply refuse to try to chart out 2011, so 2007 it is. As a matter of fact, the charted 2011 is not even included in the chart-pack that the rest of the group got this year, so we are all out SOOL.

Do I dare writing that I believe that the middle panel will stitch up quickly!? It is all Bargello, so I have a feeling that it will be relatively painless compared to the "flap-panel" which is stitched entirely in tent-stitch and darning stitches... I am still looking forward to stitching that piece!

I also want to show some more crazy sun-flower pics from my garden. I know that it looks like total anarchy - and it is - but I like it.
To re-cap, this was the "weed" that self-germinated. Still going strong:

This is the mix of flowers that I planted about a month ago. No rules were followed when planting these babies - a mix of three-four seed-types were thrown into the ground (way too close together) and I did not go through and pull out the smaller seedlings after things started to come up.
Here are a couple of the weaker ones, happily crawling on the walking path:

This type looks almost black when the sun does not shine through it. It makes me think of the Disc-World's Death's sun-flower garden:

Aren't these just gorgeous in all their glory?:

And here is a part of this craziness (poor neighbors!):

I also have to show you a pic of a very tired and cozy bunny...

Currently, he is happily jumping, leaping, running, spinning, and I don't know what, around the basement, where the rest of us are blogging from right now. All the noisy parrots are in bed and it is a grand time to be a tiny black bunny. We all learned that bunnies are treated like Royalty here - from a pellet only diet, Bubba has now also added apples, carrots, lettuce, grapes, bunny treats (he hates all of them!), hay, grass to his repertoire AND he has moved into the guest-bedroom! He is living a posh life, let me tell you! He may need to be re-named Bubba Hilton, if this keeps up... We are getting to know each other better, which is a lot of fun. I have even gotten licks and that head-bump that means "I need my cheeks rubbed right about now, please!".

Other than that, not much going on. I did drag my own, DH's and a friend's butts over to a party on Friday. We had a really nice time, but at about 11.10 PM, I said enough and drove everyone home again. It was a good time and we did meet a bunch of friends that we don't normally get to hang out with. The host-couple has had this party every year for probably 5-10 years now. Everyone is welcome, including people they don't know "as long as you would invite them into your own home". What is really neat is that the party has gone from a "get as drunk and obnoxious as you can" type deal to more of a family party. There are more and more kids running about and this year they even rented a bouncy castle from small and big kids.

On Saturday, DH and I drove over to see our three God-children. We had a fabulous time. You remember how much fun the part was, back in the less-golden years? Yep, we got to experience that again. Climbing trees, going down on the slides, swinging on the swing set. The kids are too cute, but of course I forgot the camera at home. :-(

Finally, I promised weeks ago to tell you why we had to go to the ER. Well, after all my years of nagging, as all good wives do, about the importance of a healthy life-style, it finally happened - DH's total lack of bodily care caught up with him. I think just hope that he has been scared straight for a couple of months...
This s what happened; DH works nights and was just getting up and ready for work on a Wednesday evening around 8 PM. He was off the night before and had spent pretty much all day lying around, playing video games, drinking beer and napping. In addition, on Tuesday night, he had been playing out-door soccer, in an open field in 98 degree weather. Yep, you all know where this is headed....
I hear a bang from the bathroom and rush over to see what is going on. DH is just getting back up from the floor looking mighty embarrassed and confused. "I just fell" he says - yes, of course he hit his head on the way down. He proceeds to go to the kitchen to get a drink and since I am a bit worried at this point, I follow him. Luckily - he passes out again! I manage to, somehow, catch him (I am not short with my 5.6, but this man is a tall 6.3) and lower him to the floor. Seeing that this is my exceptionally stubborn husband, I decide to straddle him to make sure that he does not get up and insist on going in to work... sigh. (Anyone else have a stubborn man in their life, or am I the only lucky one? LOL) At this point, he is white, clammy, cold, and can not focus. I grab the phone, manage to remember the emergency number (yes!), and have just about time to think "wow, I am really doing great, keeping clam and all", when they answer on the other side and panic just seems to rush in and drown me. It feels like I can't breathe (I really understand that saying about "a weight on ones chest" now) and my voice comes out as yells in staccato - I even have a hard time remembering our house number. It is all I can do not to start crying out of shear stress and fear.
Well, an ambulance gets sent over, which I have to run out in the street to wave down from one block north-over (How can that happen? Don't they have GPS!? Or maybe I really did get the house number wrong...) Plus at the same time, I am dressing DH and asking him stupid questions like "Can you feel both your arms?" and "Do you have any tingling sensations?".
So, there we were - 3 firefighters, DH, and I squeezed into our minute bed-room. It would have been quite amusing, if it wasn't for the fact that I wasn't still pretty upset. All the standard tests were carried out and it was concluded that it was dehydration. Phiew! Here, just to amuse myself and make sure that DH would have to listen, I started to ask the FF really stupid questions, like "Tell me, I am not sure whether this is true or not, bu I have heard that it may not be a really great idea to play soccer in 98 degrees and go out for beer afterwards?" and "I am curious to know, if you may be so kind as to tell me, what is the better drink - water or Mountain Dew?". Show us that the nagging wife was right all along....
We got to chose whether we wanted them or me to get him to the ER. Seeing that he hit his head earlier, I insisted that they'd take him over. Well, that was lucky - the head and spine were fine( and I did get the satisfaction of seeing the doctor slap a neck brace on DH while DH gave me dirty looks...) but he needed O-N-E G-A-L-L-O-N of liquid before he could pea. I mean, really!? What was he thinking!? I did the typical emotional journey from "Thank God that he will be all right!" to "What the Hell can he have been thinking!?". We got out of the ER at 2 in the morning and by that time I was cranky!
Well, all in all, I am glad that he is all right an that he may have learned something... After all, he heard the firefighters tell me all about how to avoid dehydration... ;-)

So, on that note I will end with a couple of facts that my buddy Froggie sent me a while back:
WATER
- 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated.
- In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is mistaken for hunger.
- Lack of water, the #1 trigger of daytime fatigue.
- Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.
- A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

Who knew?
Take care, Happy Stitching, and Stay Hydrated!