The best thing I ever did!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I'll show you a quick stitchy-update and after that I will tell you about how I got help to improve my overall health in a pretty dramatic and unexpected way.  I think that many of you will find the read pretty interesting and I definitely think that it is a story well worth sharing.  Maybe my story will give you or someone you know some help, who knows?

Anyway, back to the "important stuff" - stitching!  ;-) 
I finally put the last stitch in the Scarlet Letter shepherdess and actually surprised at how pleased I am with them.  The colors were a bit less exciting than they showed up on the kit cover-photo, but all in all, both of them turned out pretty cute anyway.  (LOL on the sheep/pig/horse... and the black critter is a what..?)

The photo below shows the state before all the hundreds of filling stitches...  I decided to use a riskier strategy and stitched the white critter and the year Assissi style to avoid that the white stitches would be "drenched" in the grass.  It did work out nicely and it also made the actual stitching process a bit more interesting.

The kit came with a dark-blue velvet to mount the pieces on.  I am thinking of trying to find another color velvet.  The thing with velvet is that it doesn't necessarily like to be folded, stuffed into a bag and set on a shelf for a number of years....
The piece I have looks a bit sad now...  The "midnight blue" is also more of a dusty blue and I would like something closer to a gem color, like dark sapphire or emerald.  Any suggestions?  (I know that the "midnight blue" looks black in the photo below.)  I have already decided to do a simple hem-stitching around the pieces and I am actually looking forward to that - I have problems, I know... LOL

I did also finally get myself in gear, looked through my long 2012 WIP list and decided to work on the second Rosenstand bird bell-pull.   There are still many leaves left to stitch on this one, but it is fun and I really enjoy working on it.  The chart is so easy to read, which is a wonderful break after the shepherd and shepherdess.  It is divided into four large pages and the photo belows shows a tad more than a quarter stitched up.  The top-part is the busiest with the "leaf tuft" at the top (I am stitching "center up" and will start on "center down" as soon as the top part is completed).  It will be so much fun to stitch the sweet little bird, so that is something I really look forward to!

This piece and its already finished companion will also be hemmed along the sides before making them into bell-pulls.  After this project is complete, there will be a hemming party at my house... :-)
I picked out a couple of bamboo bell-pull hardware sets to use with these designs - can't wait for these to be done!  I even know where to hang them!!!   :-)

I don't think that I have shown you the companion before, so here it is (should be clickable!):

All right!  On to the health part of this post, so feel free to skip!  :-)
  A few years back I started to feel like I had no energy whatsoever.  I slept badly, it never seemed enough and I was really more passed out than sleeping (I can not recall ever dreaming during this time).  If a colleague so much as sneezed in the same room as I was in, I could pretty much sit back and wait to get sick too and for a really long time - it never failed.  I was eating healthy, exercising regularly (as high impact cardio at least 4 times a week) and I tried to get 7-8 hrs sleep a night.  Yet, something was really not right.

I finally decided to invest in myself and try to get some help.  Instead of going to a doctor that would either give me pills or tell me to change my busy life-style to a slower pace, I went to a holistic medical doctor, recommended to me by a female colleague.  (DH calls her "The Witch Doctor" - LOL)  This doctor is fantastic!  First of all, the doctor was a female, so she could relate to what I was talking about on a whole different plane than any male MD can.
Within meeting her the fist few minutes, she already had a pretty good idea of what was going on.  She told me that I probably had an inflammation in my intestines that had changed my hormone levels, specifically cortisol.  She explained that the change of the cortisol level will affect everything else that goes on in your body - all the other hormone levels will get out of whack automatically, with all the problems that follow.  Furthermore, she explained that she is not a magician, but that this is a really common problem among women and that she had seen it countless times before.

I won't bore you with too many details, but after meeting with my MD about 4-5 times and running a number of (pretty costly, paid out-of pocket) tests through a company called Geneva Diagnostics, it was determined that
- my cortisol levels were completely out of sync with the day rhythm it is supposed to follow.  This explained why I was dead-tired every day at 10AM, but ready to play at 11PM. 
This test is called Rhythm Plus Profile
- the intestinal inflammation was caused by a number of delayed allergies to a vast assortment of foods.  Delayed allergies are just what they sound like, they show up hours or even days after you have  been exposed to the allergen and are there really tricky to pin-point.
The list of foods that I was allergic to was very long and a bit over-whelming at first, but the MD assured me that I only had to carry our detox for 6 months and I would be back to feeling a lot better again.  Just a few examples of things that I was allergic to were (are) corn (this is the one I am very allergic to), cow milk, coffee (this is pretty interesting and may explain why coffee has always made me sleepy rather than perky), sugar, chocolate, yeast, a number of fruits and veggies, all sea-foods including shell-fish, turkey, all seeds, rice, potatoes, and the list goes on.  She informed me that most of her patients do not have the will-power to cut all of the foods that they are allergic to out of their diet, but I did manage stick to it for the half year to come.  It was half a year of not eating out, not eating anything processed, and a lot of time spent reading labels in the store.  (If you think that it is hard to live with gluten allergy, try to buy anything, ice-cream, yogurt, you name it, that is made without corn syrup or corn starch here in the US...  )
This test is called IgG Food Antibody Assessment
- I had about 0% protein in my body and I was told to eat more meat.
This test is called Optimal Nutritional Evaluation or ONE

After the 6 month detox, I did notice some significant and very nice changes:
- My immune system finally got back on track and I could stay healthy - even when co-workers dragged all kinds of stuff in to work
- I had a lot more energy and my sleep pattern started to change - I started remembering dreams, I was awake during the day and I got tired in the evening
- I lost a bunch of weight (not strange, since there was not a whole lot that I could eat)
- My skin improved - finally - after struggling with acne since I was 12!!! more than 2/3rds of my life!  (Lots of heart-ache there, let me tell you...)
- My pain resistance levels went down.  This may sound bad, but in my case, my body could override and "walk off" pains that most people can not function with, which is not a good thing - we are designed to feel pain for a reason.

If you think that this may be something that I may have imagined or changes that were very subtle, I can tell you that I had never ever gotten a compliment on my skin until after I did the detox.  People that I don't really talk with on a regular basis would tell me how nice my skin looked and ask what I had done!
If you feel like I felt a few years back, this may be something to try out.  It is no fun going through life feeling drained, you should not have to live like that if you do! 
Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!

Well, time to start working again.
Take care, have a great weekend and Happy Stitching,

Reporting In! (... after days worth of napping... )

I hope that your Monday was as all right as mine was!  I think that my Monday was so good partly because I have been doing a lot of well-needed resting lately.

In all honestly, to say that I have been taking it easy is an understatement; the weekend was filled with one nap after the other.  As most of you probably agree with, things tend to all bundle up and happen at once and last week was one of those crazy "perfect storm" times.  What was nice was that the vast majority of all the craziness was very good such.  The outcome could not have been better for any of the events either, so not only am I napped out and "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed" as one of my friends always says, but very pleased with life in general as well.

On the other hand, there is not a whole lot of stitching to show off.  I did manage to finish the third part of the EMS 2012 SAL and I "cheated" and worked ahead a bit on the second blue-bell border.  It is turning out pretty, if I may say so myself.  I am a tad nervous about the next assignment, since there seems to be an awful lot of confetti stitching in the flower bunches...  I am really not a fan of confetti...

So, I finally managed to iron the sampler before taking a shot.  Next time I'll try to remember throwing a ruler or something in there, so that you can see how small it really is.  (The pics are clickable, if you'd like to see some close-ups.)

 

Here is a close-up of the last couple of motifs.  I love the little brown bird perching on the budding rose branch.

I did manage to pull this Scarlet Letter shepherd together too.  This one is stitched over-one and let me tell you, after stitching the green hill that he is resting on, I am done with both green and over-one for a while.  I assume that the critter dancing to the pipe is a dog...or a very small horse..?  LOL

I have started his shepherdess companion, but not gotten very far (as can be seen from the pic below).  I am excited about her, since she has a pretty brown skirt with pink dots on.  I think that she will be cute! 

Finally, here is a framing (gasp! - You know that very rarely happens here.).  This is the Goode Huswife bunny framed in a cheap standard Michaels frame/mat kit.  I added the bunting scrap-booking stickers to the matting to give the arrangement a happier and more spring-time celebratory feel.   He is standing together with all the Easter carrots on my mantel now.... after all that Easter stitching, Easter is not over in our household for a while yet!  :-)

I did take a number of photos of spring flowers in the garden this morning, but I feel another nap coming on, so I'll have to show you those some other time...  ;-)

Take care, Happy Stitching and don't forget to sign up for the giveaway if you haven't already done so!  Oh, and speaking of; thanks so much to the 18 followers who have left comments so far.  Your lists of three things that make you happy are so uplifting!  I have a feeling that I will go back to re-read your "happy" comments many times in the future!

Check out all these cool blogs!

Happy Monday (I have 2 hrs left here...) too all blog-peeps out there!  I hope that you had a great weekend and that you had to clean a lesser amount of bird-cages that I did.  DH is out on business travels again, so I spent a long Sunday cleaning the house.  It was actually quite enjoyable and all the critters have had fun scrapping everything down while I was away at work today.  The state of our house strives towards entropy much faster than it does in the rest of the universe, I have noticed.  Well, enough with the cleaning monologue and the nerdy science jokes...

I almost fell off the couch today when I saw that I have 99 followers.  I am so glad and so humbled that 99 people have signed up to follow this adventure.  I truly appreciate it more than I can express.  

So.... I really should sit down and think about a fun give-away.  I will see what I can come up with.

I did also get my first ever blog award - I am thrilled!  Heather, from It's Geek To Me, e-mailed to let me know that she has given me the Liebster Blog Award!  Thanks so much Heather, this will be fun!

So now I have to do the following (shamelessly copying the fine-print directly from Heather's blog here):

"Liebster is a German word meaning favourite, dearest or beloved. The Liebster is awarded by bloggers to other new bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, to help spread the word about their blogs and to help them gain wider recognition.

The Liebster award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting.

1. Choose 5 up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers to award the Liebster to

2. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

3. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award to with links to their sites. Leave comments on their blog so they know about the award.

4. Share 5 random facts about yourself that people don't know about you.

So, here are 5 of my Fave-Under-200 blogs (Hmm, should I have checked that they will accept the award first maybe?  Dunno, I am new to this.  Well, I'll take the chance!)

Here they are, in no specific order:
-  Stitching with Kittens!  The blog title says it all!  LOL  She has stitched plenty of fabulous pieces - I can only dream to get pieces on this level of advancement accomplished one day.
-  Diane at Nan's Needlework Notions.  Diane is so talented - her finishes are absolutely perfect, not to mention that she has a knack for picking out the cutest designs.  Right now, she is showing off some Easter decorations that are to die for!  Nan is also the host of The All Year Long Christmas Stitch-A-Long.
-  Ruth of The Musing Badger.  Stitching and reading - can't get much better!  She is participating in the Pratchett Reading Challenge 2012 and check out her gorgeous Beatrix Potter - love those colors!
-  Marsha of Everybody Loved Clark.  She just came back from a trip to Arizona that looks fantastic AND she got to visit the Attic - lucky girl!  Absolutely beautiful stitching is not the only craft Marsha does, but she makes soaps too.  And she loves bees, which is why I usually refer to her as Bzz*Bzz*Bee...
-  Blue Star Stitcher shares photos of the neighbor wildlife (including love-birds!) and she has a huge heart that she opens for needlework that need an adoptive home.  Do you ever think about what will happen with your stash and finishes in the future?  We can only hope that there are more people like Blue Star out there.

Well, the next one is trickier.  5 random facts coming up:
1)  I love hot-dogs with mustard!  I don't really eat them especially often, but I love'em!
2)  I "almost" became a LNS owner a few years back.  My friend Pink tried to talk me into buying a store that was closing down with her.  Luckily, we decided not to and then the economy tanked, but it was a fun dream.
3)  I love opera - I wish I could sing like that.  When I was in high-school, I used to sing the aria of the Queen of the Night in the stair-wells while running between classes.  I was not half-bad... htne I became an engineer (read between the lines here).
4)  My dream house is a southern Victorian wood house with painted details, wood-work like an ice-cream cake, and a wrap-around porch.
5)   I miss the ocean pretty much daily!

So, I finally decided to start on a new "official" project and pulled the Shepherd and Shepherdess miniatures out of the stash.  I started with the tricky shepherd and his chubby dog - pony... ? .. you tell me!  The stitching is a bit slow, since it is over-one on a fairly larger count linen, but is does look sweet.  Not looking forward to the large, green hill though.  The chart is a bit tricky to read.  It is hand-drawn and the green and red in the honeysuckle border are a "V" and an up-side-down "V" respectively.  I am not a fan of ripping over-one... LOL I got a bit stitched, but then it got put away in a corner, so that I could spend some time on the EMS sampler before the April part would be published.

I did manage to get part 3 done; the left-hand side of the basket and the blue flower sprig were the assignments for last month.  Since this pic, I have down-loaded part 4 and the fun continues!

 

The is ending up much smaller than I had envisioned.  (I would recommend actually stitching this on a larger count, if you decide to work on this piece.)  It is petite, not a whole lot longer than 12 inches, but I love it!  Check out the crazy amount of colors that go into this beauty.  Piles and piles of DMC.  Luckily, I am stitching with one strand, so it is not too bad.  Yesterday I managed to finish the pretty little brown bird in the upper right corner and the upper flower border is finally done.  That little bird is too pretty!

Next part will be the one with the mushroom.  I am trying to come up with something else to stitch instead.  I mean, I like mushrooms and all, but maybe not in this sampler.  I think that I did find a nice butterfly that can come and live here instead.  any other suggestions would be of great interest too!

Since I am hopelessly behind in my photography, I can only show you this pic of the "half-baked" CRC carrot ornies.  I can report that all 12 motifs from the three booklets have been successfully stitched up and they are eagerly awaiting the finishing party.  There really are no excuses..  I have all the mat-board parts needed, I picked out my backing fabric..  I am still contemplating whether I should finish the edges with cording or with beads.  And am I efficient enough (read "lazy") to use the glue-gun instead of sewing each ornie together?  Plus, I do need to pick out a suitable ribbon somewhere.... decisions, decisions.  I am excited about adding all the beads and bling, though!  I guess that will be my carrot!  (Bad pun alert - heheheh.)

 

(Note how cheap I am with my linen - each precut from Silverneedle was meant for one ornament.  In other words, I have enough pieces to stitch each ornament at least one more time.  Maybe next year.. :-))

Here is an example of adventures waiting to happen when you live with a bunch of shredders.  This poor blue bird doesn't even know what hit it, while peacefully sitting on its nest.  The card-board, linen, floss, and the glass-beads (!) have all been eaten up by one or two of my little angles.  My reactions are surprising even to myself sometimes - I could tell that DH was so sorry when he fished it up from behind the couch and showed it to me, but I just shrugged and started thinking about possible way to salvage the piece.  Luckily, I generally enjoy the process of stitching and making more than decorating and displaying, if that makes sense.  Anyway, I am thinking about making one of those pretty little pin-pillows that are so in right now - you know the ones that have a piece of cotton sewn onto the linen on the front (yep, I know that my description totally blows, so check out these examples on Karen's Handiwork blog instead.)

 

I am very pleased to report that no angel has showed any sign of tummy aches after the disappearance of the glass-beads.

The spring bulbs are almost bloomed out in my garden now.  This pretty pink double-petaled tulip enjoys the mild spring, together with some neighboring fuchsia single-petals.

I managed to get all the pansies and the violets in the ground too.  the ones in the pots look fine, but the plants that I sat in the ground don't look pleased at all.  Life if tough, little violets!

Spring is in full swing indoors too.  The birds are getting anxious about building nests and they have started to court each other.  They strut about, fluff their neck feathers and bob back and forth - all to impress each other; scaring away the competition while impressing the potential partner across the room.  I know that they aim to look super cool and majestic, but mummy just laughs and thinks that they are the cutest little down-balls ever.  Mothers!  So they are absolutely adorable, but a great deal less easy to handle.  They get very territorial and aggressive during this time, so I have grown a good collection of bite-marks on my right index finger during the past couple of weeks.

Here they are - guarding their club house with talons and beaks... and dirty looks.

Well, it is bed-time yet again.  I will try to round up Bubba so that we all can go to bed.  (That sounds easier than it is - it generally takes flipping over both couches in the living room upside down while trying to herd her towards her room.  Well, I'd better stop talking about it and actually start doing it.)
Have a great week and Happy Stitching,

Chugging Along!

Happy Monday to everyone!  I hope that your weekend was just as cozy and relaxing as mine was.  DH is back on night shift again, so that gives me a really good excuse to take looong naps in the middle of the day during the weekends.  It is so nice just to sleep next to each other - it is surprising how many of the things that we would probably label "smaller" that I find out I miss once they are not there.  Yesterday was really wonderful, with a nice lunch out at the local "luxury fish place", a stroll through the book-store, and some mending of torn and worn clothes in front of the adventures at Downtown Abbey in the evening.  Add to that that DH and I found a new British TV series that I am in love with - The Midsummer Murders.  Wow, oh wow - they are great!!!!   I am thrilled.  I have already worked myself through three mysteries and I can't wait to get back from work so that I can continue.  Life is good - doesn't take a whole lot to keep me content...

I did also do some limited shopping at Silverneedle during their Superbowl sale.  Very, very minor!  Is it bad when you feel like you already have everything that you want!?  LOL

Anyway... I have had these pictures uploaded on the blogger page for ages now, but finding the time to actually write a bit to go with all the photos has been trickier.  Too many things to do!  You know the feeling, I am sure!  LOL

Here is the first sampler that accidentally got added to the list of 2012 projects after I had constructed my WIPoclaypse list.  This is the Ellen Maurer-Stroh sampler that I mentioned in a previous post or two, stitched on a antique white 40-st linen over two with one strand of DMC.  Since I am one of the most impatient people in the world, I decided to stitch on the pretty bluebell border as far as I could.  It was easy to memorize, which makes it a quick stitch.  I did switch out a couple of the blues to darker shades and I like how it is turning out.  I am thinking that I may switch out the colors completely on the right-hand side border and stitch pink blue-bells there instead.  Thoughts?

The February part has already been posted, so I have it printed and ready to go.  Right now, I am devoted to the upper flower border and I have stitched 5 of the 10 repeats that make up the full border.  This one is not a border that you can really memorize, but it is lovely!  She has a unique way to play with colors and the light pink flowers look almost transparent, like really fine china!  Very skillfully done.  The February assignment contains a rose sprig and half of a very pretty fruit basket.  Can't wait to get working on them!!!  (Still not too late to jump over to her site and download these pretty charts - they are in color and very easy to read.  And let me tell you, they stitch up much quicker than you would ever believe!)

This is the current state of the Scarlet Letter EH sampler.  My favorite part is stitched up, even though many areas are meant to be filled in with trellis stitch.  Since the instructions in the pattern are pitiful, I will have to root around in my stitch-room and to to get out the Proper Stitch book by Darlene O-Steen.  I really hope that trellis stitch is in there (I am pretty sure that it is...).  On to a more narrow border where a lot is going on - carnations and knot-work - very pretty!  I think after that boder is done, the half-point is met...

Excuse the wrinkles - I only iron when my life depends on it! ;-)

I pulled Snapperville back out last week too.  Only one more square to go, plus the border around the little scenes.  This is an easy stitch, but somewhat boring and surprisingly slow, I think.  I guess that I am not thrilled because I have a hard time imagining that I will actually hang it somewhere.  The colors are pretty though - I am not following the colors at all, since I am too cheap to expand my already pretty significant overdyed thread collection.  I just pick colors from the existing bundle and go with that.  Don't you like my blond horse?  :-)

I am currently thinking about some alternate verse for the bottom border, since I am not thrilled about the original; "Teach us that we may learn the importance of every day. . .of every hour as it passes".  I found Kim's very pretty finished SV for inspiration: "North or South, East or West, Farm or Town, Home is Best" here.  I like how she made her "swirlies" in the lighter color too!  I am shamelessly copying that, once I get there!!! 

Here is another oldie that has been lying on the "almost finished" pile for ages now.  I only needed to add the text and then do the actual finishing work...  The chart is from a vintage German Burda magazine, so I needed to translate Frohe Weihnachten to Swedish and English.  To fit in the text, I had to stitch it over one.  Isn't is just amazing how you (as in I) can count something 100 times and still have it end up off-center!?  Rather than ripping up the entire Merry Christmas row, I decided to add a little sprig of something...  I think that it worked out all right, so next up is tracking down a backing fabric and some time to sit down and sew it all up.  I think that I will finish it as a wall-pocket that I can collect Xmas cards in (I should be ashamed of that though, since I don't send out Xmas cards myself).  Or I could have some pretty branches of seasonal plants.  We'll see - maybe even this Christmas!  (Yeah, right!)

There is a Valentine heart from the same (two-part) series that would be fun to stitch.  We'll see - maybe in 2013?

I went through a serious finishing kick a week ago and got a few projects completely finished.

Here is my Christmas Tree from Fremme.  The little picture is based on the pretty sad story by the Danish author H. C. Andersen; The fir Tree.  I love the little bunny jumping over the tree in the upper corner!

On display with the Swedish flag!

I did finally manage to do right by the nephew.  Nephew's "First Xmas" ornament and birth sampler in progress:

The ornament is a sweet little freebie by Brookes Books Designs.  I switched some of the colors to make it less pink and I tried to place the beads in the border on the side to create a lace effect.  That didn't really work out as well as I had hoped, but it is finished!

The birth sampler got framed.  I got the matting and frame from Michales general framing area.  No specialty materials or measures needed - don't you love when that happens!?  DH helped me pick out the frame.  It's a lot of fun - he had planned to run over to the pet-store right next-doors to Michaels, but decided to come with me instead.  I think that he knows that he is really good at helping me pick out stuff, so he enjoys it - as do I .  (No worries, we did hit the pet-store afterwards, so all our critters got fed this week too....) 

My parents are coming to visit in May, so my mom offered to bring everything back to Sweden in their luggage.  That will work out really well!  Last time I shipped a framed piece over to Sweden, the glass shattered on the way over.  Not so good....  I am really glad that Littlest Sis didn't get hurt when she unwrapped that package!

And finally, here is my "just for fun" project (it was not on any of my start-of-the-year lists...): Jenny Bean's Pin Tuffet from Shakespeare's Peddler.  Quick and fun and finished with the Sudberry House Shaker Round Pincushion. 

I switched out every single color for this piece, I think.  I went for purples instead of rusts and I am really pretty delighted with how it turned out.  My inspiration was the checkered flower in the bottom right.  It is black and white in the original, but it still reminded me about the Snakes Head lily, a very pretty Fritillary that is the landscape flower of Uppland, Sweden.  Since that is the landscape I come from, I felt that it was a fitting change and I switched the rest of the colors to go with the lily. 

If I would change anything with this project, it would be the foam that came with the Sudberry piece.  It is a polymer foam that has high friction, so it is hard to stick your pins into the cushion.  I should probably have switched out the foam for several layers of batting or maybe made an inner cushion filled with some other type of material.  Oh well, now I know for next time.

I am finishing this post with some amusing craft.  This Princess Leia hat from Bleu Arts at Etsy reminds me of a favorite scene from 30 Rock.

Liz Lemon is trying to get out of jury-duty by pretending that she is more than less peculiar -  this video is a shout out to my buddy Hip^Hip^Happy, who is on call for jury duty right now.... you go get'em girl!  :-)

Take care and Happy Stitching!  I will try my best to swing by all your blogs out there. it's been a while.

PS We had a mega-frost over night here - hope that all my spring-bulbs made it...  :-(