I'm Still Here

 I'm here, still alive and kicking. Just haven't been blogging because I've been under so much stress the last couple months. My body does not handle stress well. My brain starts randomly tossing stuff out, making my memory difficult to live with, and the panic attacks start. Thankfully, I have medication to help deal with it but it still interferes with my life. So lets catch up.

In my last post I mentioned my husband was going to have heart surgery. (He has a bad case of AFib) That appointment was postponed because the doctor had an emergency come up. It was rescheduled for July 31, which is the day after sweet hubby's birthday. The surgery happened. The outcome was a disaster.

Turns out, hubby's heart had Adhesions. At some point in his life (we'll never know when) it was damaged and when healing, the scar tissue attached itself to the bag that surrounds the heart. I had NO IDEA the heart can do that! I read up on it and sometimes the heart will actually attach itself to other organs, which can be a serious problem. Attaching to the bag will cause him no problems as far as his heart functioning, which is a good thing. It could have been a lot worse.

Anyway, the doctor could not do the prodedure. Unfortunately, this condition can't be seen any way except by actually going in, so that is where he was when it was discovered. Sweet hubby's body didn't take too well to the surgery so he spent 5 days in the hospital recovering. His lungs had filled somewhat with fluid and whatnot. I tell you, it sucks being old. The body just can't handle what it used to, but I'd rather be old than dead.

So what's next? Thankfully, we still have options. We're going to try another standard Ablation. It's scheduled for next week. In the meantime, sweet hubby's cardiologist has moved away to somewhere else, so we've been dealing with delayed appointments while they figure out which doctors get his patients. Our last appointment was with a nurse practitioner, and she was awesome! We walked away feeling very good about it all, and it's had an amazing effect on my husband. 

He's been down and depressed for months and pretty much mostly sitting in his chair watching videos all day.  This consultation pulled him out of it. He's suddenly doing things. He's been taking walks, and playing with his lathe, and most recently he's started fixing things around the house, and very cheerful. Two weeks ago I mentioned the back steps are dangerous. I've been mentioning it for a couple years. They are rotten and falling apart. I'm afraid to walk on them. I didn't expect a response. Next thing I knew, I was in the truck going to Home Depot with him.

This is what the steps looked like.

The bottom step actually was so rotten it broke off. This is what it looked like the day after we got home from Hope Depot. We all participated in ripping the stairs apart.

This is what the stairs look like now.

Future firewood

Sweet hubby decided that he wanted to build them like the front steps, with a little deck. We've got deck now. It's just big enough for a chair or two, and a pot of flowers. I'm luvin' it!

I've been knitting a lot! It helps with the stress. I went gung-ho on the blanket. This week I finished the last (6th) panel and got all the ends woven in. Next is blocking. Then sewing the panels together.

I purchased some light blue flannel to back it so all the floats and stuff are out of sight. 

I really miss Joann's. It was the only real fabric store we had. Now I have to get it online. It's been difficult. You can't really trust the color you're seeing on the monitor, and there are restrictions on amounts you can buy. A lot of places have a 2 or 3 yard minimum and you need half a yard, and then there's the cost of shipping. 

Now I'm back to working on the socks I started last May. I'm at the heel of the second sock. I also have ordered another knit afghan kit from Mary Maxims. I find myself wanting to make another one. They've been so fun to work on. This one will be a ripple with lace pattern.

Another thing I worked on and finished is this chair. Most of it was finished for several weeks, but I hadn't got around to putting the fabric piece on that goes underneath to cover the ugly. I finally did that on last Tuesday. It's fully completed now.

One of the stabilizing bars underneath was broken. It's been that way for years. My mom bought me this chair when I was about 13 or 14 years old from a thrift store for $13. She covered it with new upholstery fabric and designated it my knitting chair. I sat in this chair for hours and hours knitting. It got broken when we moved up from California (1992). 

Anyway, I asked hubby to fix it. I didn't expect a reaction because he's been so down, but he took it out to the shop and then completely tore it apart. I was so upset! It didn't need to be re-upholstered (or so I thought) and I just wanted that bar fixed. The fabric was in great condition. He'd ripped it all off. We ended up refurbishing it entirely. This is the fourth time it's been re-upholstered. It looks beautiful now. 

You would not believe what we found under the old upholstery fabric. More old fabric. We also found powdered foam. I did not know this chair actually had padding. You sure couldn't tell by sitting in it, which tells you how long ago it self destructed. Consequently, I've learned how to upholster a chair. I even put new foam padding in it. Now I know why getting it done by professionals is so expensive. It was a very challenging project.

I found this awesome chenille fabric online. The photos don't do it justice. The chair is pretty comfortable too. Husband did a magnificent job of fixing and restoring the wood to it's shiny self. He restored the broken pieces, sanded it all down to bare wood and stained it. It looks like a brand new chair. It's very comfortable too. By the way, this chair is over 100 years old.

I have about a yard of that chenille left. I'm planning to sew myself a new knitting tote with it. I have been purchasing what I need for it a little bit at a time. I still need to find a couple zippers, thread that matches, and something to use for the straps.

We had an unfortunate experience in July. Cashmere, Merino's brother, was looking a little off and was panting a lot. I took him to the vet as soon as I could. 

Cashmere Park

2013-2025

It was an emergency appointment, which means I left him there early in the morning, they would get to him between patients as time permits, and give me a call. Well, on the way home, after dropping him off, my phone rang. I pulled over and answered it. It was the vet and she was quite upset. She'd taken Cashmere out of his crate to examine him. He panicked, had a heart attack, and died. Later she found that his lungs were filled with fluid, which is why he was panting. He had pneumonia and was a very sick kitten. She felt terrible, but it wasn't her fault. He had seemed fine just a couple days before and cats can be very good at hiding how they feel. I know it's been stressful for him living without Merino, and being ill too? The stress that morning was just too much for him. It still was a huge shock. We'd just lost his brother, Merino, two months earlier and I had no idea he was so sick. July really was a nasty month.

The weather this summer has been exceedingly hot! Hottest summer on record. We didn't even get the yearly frost in August. We haven't had any frost at all. We haven't even had cool weather. It's been in the 90's for weeks. I wish I'd known ahead that it would be like this. I would have bought a couple tomato plants because I would have got ripe tomatoes.

Earlier this year I said my chronic cough is gone. It's still gone. Hooray! Not only that, but my asthma has been so much better. I am thrilled about it too. Now, if only I could get the arthritis to go away.

Well, that's the highlights of the last 2 months. 

Live long and prosper. \\//

I'm So Behind

 I am so behind on my blogging. I didn't intend this to happen, it just did. Life was pretty difficult all March and April. I got very sick. There was a virus going around and the Parkarosa household got it. It knocked me out for almost 2 weeks, then I got something else making me sick. That turned out to be a serious sinus infection. My doctor got me a prescription for an antibiotic and it killed the infection, but it took awhile. Now I'm feeling a lot better. But what a miserable month that was.

In April I sprained my right knee --- in my sleep! I have no idea how that happened. First I knew about it was when the pain woke me up and my kneecap wasn't in it's right place. I pushed it back into place (OWW!) but the tendons were in agony. It's healing, slowly. I'm glad I own a cane.

Another thing not going well is my husbands heart. He has Afib and they have not been able to get rid of it so far. He's had 2 Cardioversions and 1 Ablation. He left the hospital feeling good all three times, and then his heart returned to the Afib. It's affecting his quality of life badly. His doctor said he's lost 20% of his hearts ability with this. He is running out of breath very easily and just feels so lousy. It makes me want to cry.

I went with him to his last appointment with his cardiologist and we're looking at another surgery. It was suggested and, to my husbands surprise, I went for it. I told the doctor I'm tired of him effin around my husbands heart and lets get this fixed properly. I need my husband back to his old self. We have a meeting with the heart surgeon later this month, but we've had to wait weeks for it. We have too many patients and not enough doctors in our area and it's really affecting all of us in a negative way.

Then there's the awful news. My boy, Merino, started coughing up blood one day in March and was definitely going downhill, fast. In addition he stopped using the litter boxes completely, and was drinking an enormous amount of water. Life became nothing but cleaning up cat messes all day, every day. Not a piece of living room furniture was left un-peed on. He was in a lot of pain too. We could see it in his face and how he moved. Not behavior for a cat that's supposed to be as healthy as a horse. 

We took him to the vet later that day, which was March 17th. We ended up having to put him down. He was dying and in pain. I don't know what it was that made him so sick, but it was definitely good at hiding from the vets. Now we'll never know what it was.

Merino Park

2013 to 2025

He was almost 12 years old. He was an awesome hunter and general trouble maker. I'm missing him so much. I don't have my morning cuddle with him anymore. My other cats, his brother, Cashmere, and grandkitty Boba have handled it well. Cashmere looked for him for about a month and finally stopped. They definitely loved each other. I feel bad that there's no way for me to communicate what happened to his brother. I had him cremated and buried in a group burial. It's the first time I haven't brought a fur kid home for burial. The ground was frozen and we couldn't handle trying to bury him. There's no way sweet hubby could have used a shovel, even if the ground was not frozen.

Well, after all that negativity, how about a positive. When my husband and I discussed when we were going to apply for our Social Security, one of the things my husband said was we could afford to buy me a new Prius if we applied. We did just that. This is my brand new blue Prius.

I am very happy with it. I need to mention, though, that I stalked this car. After we applied for Social Security I started researching for a new Prius. I wanted one that was colored with something other than Black, Grey, Silver, or White. I don't know if you've noticed, but the overwhelming majority of automobiles are those colors. Anyway, about a month before we went to the Parker Toyota dealership in town, I was checking their web site fairly regularly. Nothing but a greyscale selection of cars. Then one day, a Blue one appeared on their web site labelled as ordered from the factory for inventory. I checked that car every day. I saw it loaded in Japan, shipped across the ocean, and arriving in port in Oregon. When it arrived in port, I called Parker Toyota. I told them I wanted that blue Prius. They called us when it arrived at the dealership. They also reserved it for me. I put down a deposit for that. 

I love my blue Prius. It's so cool! It's had a lot of changes made since the last one I owned (which was the 2012 Prius V I bought two years ago). It's been redesigned to be a somewhat larger sports car. It has a lot of power, but still gets the same mileage as the old smaller one did. I'm lovin' the immediate response when I push down the gas pedal. It has a lot of electronic doodads I've never seen in a car before. Heated seats, heated steering wheel, cameras all the way around the car. It tells me when someone is in my blind spot. It beeps if a human is near. The cameras for backing up are so much clearer. It can tell me when I've drifted across the lane edge, and correct it - if I had that turned on. Assisted driving is what they call it. It actually can steer the car all by itself. I haven't tried it yet though. It has cruise control too. In fact, there's so many little doodads I haven't figured them all out yet. I also have a sun roof which I'm enjoying now that spring has arrived. It's really nice to drive, and even better-Sweet Hubby fits in it and can drive it comfortably. Hurray!

There's more news which I will address as the week progresses. I've been finishing projects, and starting new ones. It's kept me sane through all the stress that's been in my life. Until then...

Live long and prosper. \\//

Random Newsy Stuff

Spring is here. Yay! My flowering Cherry is in bloom. It has 4 small bunches of flowers on it.

Not as good as last year, but I'm not complaining. At least it's blooming.

My daffodils are in full form too. These ones were planted the year we moved here. We had a huge bulb garden. Unfortunately, the deer thought it was their personal smorgasbord. The only thing they didn't eat was these daffs. We planted grass and turned the bed into part of the lawn. The daffs survived and are 25 years old now. I admire their persistence.

This past week I've been working on a baby cardigan for the next layette set.

I got an idea to make it look like a lettermans jacket. It requires knitting in Intarsia if I want to knit from the top down and have no seams to sew. Haven't done Intarsia since I had my shop. I'm happy with how it's going so far.

I had intended to do a Caturday post yesterday, but my plans were altered. So I'll post the pics of my kitties now instead.

Chenille is hangin' in her window bed. She loves this silly thing and spends a lot of her time in it. It's just her size. The boys are too big to fit in it.

Here she is atop the cat tree. I actually took this before we moved the tree to the dining room. Just never got around to posting it. She loves posing for the camera.

I got Merino on the cat tree a couple days ago. He has his "I'm a ferocious panther" expression.

That changed when I started giving him chin scritches.

I could not get Cashmere to sit for a photo. I had to wait until he was asleep. When the boys did this, I had to grab the camera. They don't sleep together very often. There isn't quite enough room for both of them on this chair.

Some news I haven't shared yet. I was texting with my sister earlier last week, talking doll talk as usual. I brought up the subject of an Iplehouse JID doll I've been wanting. I've been saving the money I make teaching knitting classes for this doll. I went to the Iplehouse site to get the link so she could see it, and we ended up both talking each other into ordering new dolls. They were on sale. A good sale at that! Price was knocked down $150. I've ordered JID Asa. She'll have the same face-up as in this photo, and I've ordered that beautiful black wig for her as well. I could not get the red outfit. Not to fear, though. She's the same size as Sierra, so she'll fit in clothes I already have.It's no longer available I guess. She will be here in a few weeks. I'm excited.

We were discussing how hard it is to find clothes to fit these dolls. It's the biggest complaint about them. We're going to see if we can fill that need a bit and make clothes to sell.

Speaking of doll clothes. I've already been working on some dresses to fit the JID girls to sell in my Etsy store. The knitting is done. One is pink.

The other is light yellow with blue fur yoke.

Not very good pics (I took them with the phone while texting sis), but you get the idea. I'm making jewelry this weekend to go with them. Then it's official photo time.

It's a beautiful day out today. I think I'll go get some sunshine.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Hoping for Some Cat Love

Cashmere and Merino seem to be adapting to Ruth being away at college. They're doing much better than I thought they would seeing as how she was their favorite person in the house. They just barely tolerated me. For the first couple days the boys wandered around the house yowling loudly and looking for her. Then they got over it and went back to their normal selves and are having second thoughts about me. I'm helping that idea along with frequent offers of treats. They are all spending a LOT more time in my lap. I can't sit down without someone wanting to be on me.

At one point, Merino and Cashmere started to fight over me-in my lap. I put an end to that right away and did it without losing a single drop of blood. I know they don't actually care about me yet. They just want a warm spot to lie down and their favorite human is not available. But I like to pretend. Who knows, we might actually develop a relationship. In the meantime, Chenille, who does love me, is not happy having to share me now. She'll get over it.

Cashmere in my lap bagging z's.

When they can't be in my lap, they lay on the back of my chair half on my head. Sometimes Merino lays there batting me in the head because he wants his chin scratched. His butt half is heavy. My neck starts to ache if I don't push him off.

On Wednesday I took my car in to an auto body shop for an estimate on repairing some damage. Last winter (or was it the winter before?) my car slid into the mailbox when I was creeping up to it on the ice. The ice was a mound and the front tire just slid sideways right off of it. The result was 2 little dents where the front bottom corners of the mailbox contacted and a nice long scratch as I tried to move the car away. It's never bothered me, so I wasn't planning on getting it fixed. I saw it as a way to tell my dark gray Toyota Camry apart from the thousands of other dark gray Toyota Camry's around here. (It was the only dark gray Camry on the lot when we bought it. Thought it was unique. I didn't realize it was actually the last dark gray Camry and all the others had already been sold.) However, Sweet Hubby has been on my case to get it fixed lately, so I am. The estimate was lower than I expected, so I've made an appointment for the repairs. The closest appointment I could get was February 25th. Must be a lot of folks hitting their mailboxes this winter.

I had a couple Sears repair guys in on Friday to look at my stove. It's a ceramic top stove, and I love it. Doug and the kids gave it to me as a Mothers Day present several years ago when I still had my yarn shop. One of the front burners will only run on high. Off or high is all it will do. Nothing in between. Makes it hard to cook things, and it's the burner I like to use the most because it's a double burner. A large one with a smaller one inside. The guys figured out what is wrong and will be back on Monday with the new parts to install them. I'm looking forward to it.

While they were here, I also had them look at my dishwasher. Ever since the pump was replaced a couple years ago, it's never worked quite right. I get gunk buildup way faster than I used to. I find myself having to clean it out at least once a month, and the odor! Ugh! Turns out it's not my dishwasher that is the problem. It's the dish washing soap. The formula was changed in all dishwasher soap to eliminate a chemical that was bad for the environment, which I'm all for because we need to stop polluting the planet, but what do I do about the gunk? They recommended a product called Affresh, which is a cleaner that is supposed to clean gunk build up. It comes in tablet form. I shall acquire some later this week. They also recommended a different brand of dishwasher soap that they say works better than the one I've got called Finish because it has a rinse agent in it that helps decrease the gunk build up. I use the Costco Kirkland brand. I guess I'll try their suggestion and see if I like it.

Well, a cat wants my lap so I guess I'll sign off.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Wild Fairy Hair

I made this silly yarn wig over the weekend. I call it Wild Fairy hair.

I crocheted the cap using worsted weight yarn, size G hook, and double crochet stitches, then tied strands of loopy mohair on each stitch kind of following these directions, but in my own way. I didn't separate the strands because the mohair is basically a single strand yarn. It was just an experiment to see what it would look like. I would have liked to have used longer strands, but I didn't have enough of the mohair. It was just a small bit of leftovers from a project done a very long time ago (So long ago I can't remember what the project was.) Which brings me to my next news.

I'm flying back to Michigan in October to see my father and take care of some things for him. He's still in the nursing home and probably will be for the rest of his life, which makes me sad in some ways. However, it's the best place for him to be. He can't take care of himself so he needs to be somewhere people can take care of him. The bright side of this is that he's in a place with other people so he's making friends, and they have lots of activities to keep the residents busy and happy. It is a very very nice Assisted Living place with a fantastic reputation. I'm looking forward to seeing it in real life. The above wig is going with me. I'm going to give it to my sister to give to her granddaughter.

I also finished the knitting of a little doll dress. I need to block it, etc for it to be completely done. After I bound of the dress, I did a bit of figuring and planning, then cast on for a little top in pink. I've got this idea for a peplum and whatnot.

The weather was very cool and a little bit wet over the weekend. It was the first time I've wanted to wear long pants since June. Yesterday we had a perfect weather day. The rest of the week we are returning to hot hot, starting today with an estimated high of 91.

Merino was playing with his giant stuffed mousy. I had to take a pic.

Mine!

Live long and prosper. \\//

An Apron

Someones birthday is coming up in about a month. In the past I've knitted her something, but I didn't feel like doing that this year. So after throwing several ideas around in my head, I decided to sew something for her. I made her an apron this past weekend.

I used to do a lot of sewing. I made most of my husbands clothes in the first few years of our marriage because it was so expensive to buy him clothes. He's 6'4" tall with extra long arms. Clothing for tall sizes was prohibitive for our meager budget.

After the second daughter came along, though, I ran out of time for sewing. Priorities changed. I know prices came down on tall sizes so it was easier to get store bought. But mostly, I was so busy taking care of 2 little girls.

This apron turned out to be a much bigger challenge than I figured it would be. In this simple little garment I had to quilt (the upper bib), put in darts (the lower bib),

do knife pleats in the skirt part,

and box pleats in the pockets.

 In addition, practically everything is lined. I say practically because the back of the skirt is supposed to be lined but I chose not to do that. There's also supposed to be some rick-rack trim, but I don't see the receiver of this gift as a rick-rack kind of person, so I left it out too.

I'm so out of practice I had a very hard time sewing a straight line, and finding all my tools was problematic. All in all, though, it turned out fine. I hope she likes it.

I love the fabric. I went to our local quilting shop, Bear Paw Quilting, for it. I'd never been in the shop before even though it's right next door to one of our local yarn shops. The fabric selection was jaw dropping. I expect I'll be going there again.

The pattern is a free one I found on the Internet called Pleated Apron. Actually, when I Googled 'free apron pattern' I was surprised at how many there are. Aprons must be 'in'.

I have some fabric leftovers so I'm going to make a couple matching potholders.

There's a little story I want to share that happened yesterday. As y'all know, I recently had a blog contest drawing. One of the prizes was a set of onyx and dalmatian jasper beaded stitch markers. Yesterday I went to pack the prizes in a box to ship to the winner. I'd left them on the dining room table, together. The yarn was there, and the jam, but the little ziplock bag with the stitch markers was nowhere to be found.

The thought came to me that perhaps Merino had managed to steal them. He loves to play with little plastic packages. So I searched the house. Ruth joined in the search. We looked everywhere. Under the furniture, behind the furniture, in every place we know Merino likes to hide his toys and places he wouldn't think of. Could not find it anywhere.

After some more thought I began to wonder if the scenario had more likely been Merino stole the bag, dropped it on the floor, and Cable grabbed and made off with it outside. She likes to chew on small things. Expecially plastic things. We try to keep them out of her reach, but Merino has become her partner in crime.

The guilty party.

I went outside to look around. The snow had finally melted off the back yard and the mess that is there is unbelievable! Little plastic bits of packaging all over the place, along with shredded paper towels, kleenexes, chewed up clothes pins, pencils, pens, missing computer parts, a pair of now-broken reading glasses, and whatnot. Ruth even found the buttons I bought for the lime and black baby cardigan. Everything Cable stole this winter is now showing. Oh My God! What a mess spread over the whole backyard! I began the arduous task of looking for the bag of stitch markers.

As I walked around searching every inch of the back yard it began to snow---hard. It snowed so hard the lawn was covered in just a matter of minutes making the search very difficult. Nevertheless, I spotted the upper half of the missing bag. Yup! She'd chewed it up. There is no sign of the bottom half or the stitch markers. This morning, after the snow finally melted away, I went out and looked everywhere for them. Either she buried them, or ate them. I keep going out to look every so often in hopes of finding them. I hope to laugh at this some day but right now I'm rather ticked off.

I made a new set of stitch markers. Fortunately I had enough leftover beads to do that.

Sigh. Sometimes I wonder what ever possessed me to get fur kids.

Live long and prosper. \\//

It's Caturday

I tried to get them to pose for a portrait. Not easy. If they're not moving, then they are sleeping.

Cashmere

Merino

Love cats? Care to join in the fun? Go here: Tanya's Caturday

Live long and prosper. \\//

Caturday 9/29/2012

Mine. AAAAAALL mine!

It's dark out there.

Sweet Cashmere

Playing with a paper bag together.

What is out there?

Love cats? Care to join in the fun? Go here: Tanya's Caturday

Live long and prosper. \\//

Pink Herringbone Sparkles Bracelet

Lets start with this weeks Caturday pic. Kittens sleeping.

Paws in the lower right corner are Cables.
She was guarding them while they slept on her bed.

It seems to be the only thing I'm able to get on camera these days. If they aren't sleeping, then they are moving non-stop running through the house playing with everything they can get their little paws on.

Yesterday I took them in for their second wellness check. They are both 3 lbs now. There are no more ear mites and the eye infections are gone. They are healthy little stinkers.

Who you callin' stinker?

This morning I gave them their first paper bag to play in. Oh my goodness but they had a good time with it! They played until they were exhausted and settled down for another nap.

All this past week I have been working on another Herringbone Sparkles bracelet. I finished it last night.

I got myself out of the blue rut I've been in and did something pink.

I used 4mm White AB firepolish crystals, clear ab size 11 seed beads, silver lined pink delicas, and magenta pink size 15s.

I used an oval shaped lampwork bead for the button clasp.

I added 4 beads to the beginning ladder stitch row to make it wider than the blue one.

Now I just need something to wear it with.

If you want to make this bracelet, the free pattern is here --> Herringbone Sparkles Bracelet

Love cats? Care to join in the fun? Go here: Tanya's Caturday

Live long and prosper. \\//