the gift of gab

this post is longer than I expected.....
I know I haven't been great at blogging but I have a good excuse... a few of them really. School is a lot of work and I spend most of my time doing that. Add chores and meals and I have just been super busy. I am getting over a pretty nasty case of strep. I guess I wasn't paying attention since I was was so focused on the other things. I had a sore throat for a few days so I used a numbing spray and kept chugging along. Three days later the sore throat was gone - good for me!! I was still worn out but didn't think anything of it. A few days later I woke up in the middle of the night ablaze and hurting from one end to the other -pretty sure I was dying (you know how weird things are when you wake up sick in the night - crazy thoughts!)!! I didn't go to the doctor for two more days (of course) When I got there I had taken 1500 mg of acetaminophen two hours earlier and still had a temp of 100. I thought I had a UTI - I'd never had one but EVERYTHING hurt!! That was clear and the flu test was clear but the strep test was not. The doctor gave me Augmentin which I am apparently allergic to - that was fun. I got another antibiotic and have been getting better every day!! Who knew strep could be so very awful?!? Looking back on last week I lost a few days there. I was sick enough that instead of stitching, like I usually do when sick - I laid in bed. I had a pysch test yesterday and was worried because I had been so out of it but managed to get 78 out of 80 whew!!
 I did mamage to finish my Renato Parolin two or more weeks ago - I don't even remember when!!

Mr Parolin sure has a thing for odd shapes. This one is 27x3 He never uses very many colors. When I was doing the snow I thought I hated the colors but once you put in the houses and trees the colors look right. He does use some odd colors though. I still love his patterns. I did some of that huge border on my flights to and from Vegas! I also started another small picture

I got that much of it done - sadly with variegated thread  - and realized that when I centered it I didn't figure the sweater (which is a real sweater - not a cross-stitched sweater) into the math and so there is no room for it, so it's trash. I was so mad at myself for that - maybe that's why there are no centering arrows on the pattern itself grrrr. I don't know if I want to stitch those words again so it will be put aside for now - plus I need to buy another skein of the variegated thread grrrr. I am back to working on the terrible fruit bell pull by Teresa Wentzler. I have a new pattern obsession  - of course the patterns are OOP!! It's the mystery sampler Blackbird Designs stuck into some patterns they put out years ago called "Where my Heart Blooms" Here is a picture I found online

I only found it because they named a new pattern the same name - one I saw on Barb's blog Wicked Stitcher that I loved so I was looking to buy it - never did because I got caught up in trying to find these patterns!! The mystery charts are in:
Blessings and Kind Wishes, Loose Feathers #31  with Bonus #1
Beyond My Heart, Loose Feathers #32 with Bonus #3
Keepsake Box & Pinkeep, Loose Feathers #33 with Bonus #4
Two Hearts, Loose Feathers #34 with Bonus #5 
One of them has two bonus patterns in it so that makes 5. I love this pattern - I love the birds - the saying  - the snowflakes - I just love it!! So, I continue the struggle of trying to find the last two patterns. I don't understand how patterns can go OOP - it's not like the old days where you had to have so many printed in order to get them printed at all - nope. It's probably a PDF on someone's computer and could easily be sold on etsy. I still continue the search for L'Atelier Perdu as well.
Last year my girlfriends went on a stitching shop hop and they took me along (a picture of my head lol)

Sharon, me and Jessica

 They sent me presents!! They sent me the projects with supplies for all three shop hop projects - isn't that sweet of them!! I have such nice friends!! One of them had tea and cookies in it - not there now yum! I'm excited to make these projects! What a wonderful package!!

look at all that fun stuff!!!

Scott found these in the biggest truck stop in America on I80 in Iowa while on business

they tasted just like birthday cake....crazy! I found these at Walmart - they say white chocolate on them and if you think about it while eating them you can taste it but if you think about carrot cake while eating them - they taste just like carrot cake - crazy!!!

Last night I tried the new recipe on Skinnytaste Shanghai Beef with "broodles" - broccoli noodles. I didn't like it. The broccoli noodles weren't as good as I had hoped, I like zucchini better. I started to take pictures because I thought I would love it - nope.
I hate to complain about the snow because we haven't gotten much this year and some states have just gotten slammed but I'm gonna! I have a ridiculously long driveway and even though it's my fault for buying it and not buying some snow removal device I am still going to complain. I was at the doctor on Friday and shoveling on Sunday - ugh. Scott tried to keep me from helping but that is too much heavy snow to do alone. Plus, it didn't kill me and it was a good workout.

  My bird feeder has been having some fantastic visitors!! Along with my normal visitors I had a male and female Northern Flicker, Red-headed Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker and even an Eastern Bluebird - the only one not a woodpecker! I guess my suet feeder really brings the woodpeckers to the yard (Scott hat was for you haha)

Scott does not allow the cat on the bed but here he is so focused on his phone call that Mo managed to get up there and snuggle - I was shocked!!
I forgot to tell you about the calendars Scott made - at the end of the year we got a couple of coupons for Shutterfly calendars so Scott made one of the diners we've visited and one of family. You can have a different picture every month and he could even add birthdays  - these are so cute!!

I hope everyone is doing well and staying warm - and NOT getting sick!! Thanks for stopping by!!