Puttering, Day Two

I had a few things I had thought about doing today, but I didn't. I slept late, had a leisurely breakfast, read for awhile, decided to waft a dust rag around the living room, and finally threaded a needle just a couple of hours ago.

I decided to take a day off from finishing and pulled out my travel project instead. Since I've done very little traveling this year--all the workshops I wanted to take have been cancelled--it hasn't seen any love.

The name of this project is A Chinese Imperial Yellow Queen Stitch Needlecase. The name is almost bigger than the project:

It was a class from Joanne Harvey.

I like Queen stitches. I like doing them, and I love the texture they create. I'm not so sure about the yellow--it is very yellow--but it is lively.

The only problem is that I think the strawberries look a little like radishes. I'm trying to get past that.

Puttering, Day 1

I am having a stay-cation.

Baby Girl and I were supposed to go to a workshop the first week-end in June, but Covid-19 put an end to that. That meant I had four vacation days that I had not anticipated, so I decided to add them to the Fourth of July holiday (which means we get Friday the Third off) and have an entire week off.

I actually sat myself down and made a list of projects that I wanted to finish and figured out how many days I should spend on each one so that I could optimize the time I had to get the most projects finished.

In the middle of the night, it hit me. 

This is exactly the way I plan my workload at the paying job.

Well, that doesn't sound like a vacation to me.

So I am making an effort to putter. I'm going to do what I feel like doing when I feel like doing it. There are some things that need to be done (laundry, and meals, and that sort of thing) but otherwise, I am making an effort to stay away from lists and check marks.

For the last couple of days, I've done a little bit of finish-finishing on Tsubaki.  This is where I am now:

Dinner is in the oven, and I think after we eat, I'm going to play with a different project for awhile. I have no idea which one it will be--we'll see what appeals.

I could get used to this.

Trying the new blogger

I'm trying the new blogger. So far, I am not impressed, but, like all the other changes that seems to be happening in my virtual world, I will have to adapt.

Anyway, after another round of muscle relaxers plus serious pain meds, the pinched nerve is not pinching quite as painfully. It lets me know it's still there periodically, but I'm getting back to normal. Slowly.

And back to normal for me means that I finally picked up a needle yesterday.

I am stitching the replacement for the panel of Tsubaki that I lost earlier this year. It is not as much fun as it was the first time.  But if I'm careful and work consistently, I could potentially finish this project before my July 4 stay-cation.

You'd think after working from my living room for weeks on end, I would want to escape. However, all the work stuff will be packed away and things will be back to normal-ish before noon on June 26, when I am free of work obligations for 9 1/2 days!

Frustration

Week Two of the Saga of the Pinched Nerve has ended.

The pinched nerve is still there. I now have stronger painkillers and a stronger muscle relaxer. I have had my first appointment for torture at the hands of a lovely young woman who is a physical therapist. She believes that hunching over the work laptop for eleven weeks probably precipitated the problem.  She is probably correct in her belief.

We are supposed to go back to the office on Monday. We are scheduled to have half of us there on any given day so that social distancing can occur. I am going to ask for a dispensation so I can use my lovely big, double monitors and my ergonomic desk chair. After all, I live in a corner with only one other person in my cube quarter--and she is 6 feet away. Besides, if this nerve stays pinched for much longer, I will not be responsible for my actions.

Especially since the most frustrating thing about this whole experience is simply this: Stitching makes my right shoulder and arm and hand hurt. Ergo, I should stop stitching until the nerve unpinches.

That is more torturous than the exercises the PT put me though.

Especially since the mail carrier has been dropping off so many lovely things . . .

The fourth installment of Barbara Jackson's Springtime Pleasures--this makes a dozen eggs she's offered over the last few years. Those lovely spring colors--even more enticing since I didn't get to see many spring flowers this year. And such sweet designs . . . they make me happy. Barbara's color choices always do.

Cynthia Jackson offered this lovely needle case on her website,  Gutter Lane Embroidery. It was going to be a class for EAC's Seminar this year.  It was cancelled like so many other events. The design has lovely ribbons and lace and gold threads. It's pink and we all know how much I love pink and how much I love delicate designs.

And then we have this. Several years ago, Alison Cole was going to offer an online class for this project, but some of the accessories she wanted to offer were no longer available. So it sat on a shelf somewhere until she decided to offer it as a limited edition kit. It arrived in a humongous box, chock full of lovely threads and beads and golden scissors. And if you don't like blood red, you had a choice of colors. This is a deep, rich red, and I like it, so I got it. (And, to keep up my reputation for enabling, I understand there are still some kits available.)

And I will have the class kits for the Betsy Morgan classes that were cancelled.  If there had been no pandemic, Baby Girl and I would be sitting in class together at Salty Yarns, having one last class with Betsy. I miss going to my happy place, but better to be safe now with the potential to go to Ocean City in the future. The alternative is not pleasant to imagine.

I guess these are going into the retirement stash, but since that date is getting closer, I don't feel totally guilty about adding to it.

As long as the nerve unpinches by then, I'll be fine.