Holiday Season Week Three

Beautiful tree, beautiful granddaughter!

Linda Swanecamp's stunning hand painted Christmas card!!

This year is the very best.

MP holiday card says all the right things.

My friend Carolyn  gave me this for my birthday .  It is a pocket hug.

NC grands came to visit for my birthday....Oh, yes...a selfie...and love.

Not made quite in time...but maybe next year..

My hip joint pain is so bad now that I can barely walk even with a walker.

Called another doctor in another agency.  I am meeting him next month.  Meantime I have had two shots for weight loss;

Somehow, I had missed that I was quite the substancial woman.  Can you believe that in this clinic, there are two doctors who will not see anyone over 50!!! OMG

First I weigh too  much;  then I am too old;  maybe  next I will have been too political???

Meantime, I am trying to bloom where I am planted and celebrating all the wonderful things that make up my life.

Friends and family...so the best!!

 

A Holiday season : Week Two

Grandma O'Quilts is still potholder crazy.

Tree potholder process below.  I think I will sew a little button on top for a star.

I sew love my electric Accucutter!!!

I could not let these scraps go by.....

Good use for my cat cut outs..,

Today, I got  my first shot for losing weight.  I am still alive...

It has been 12 hours and I have not yet lost any weight and my joint pain still flares.

Friends gathered at lunch for a very fun "shot" support group,.

I am so very lucky!!

I had the medication, the needles and the instructions from the pharmacy.

The mean nurse here insisted that I learn to give myself the shot....No way!!!

She said if I did not learn, she would charge me $27.  I told her that I would pay the money

The nurse got meaner.  She insisted...So today was my first lesson in giving myself a shot....OMG

I am waiting for the awful side effects that google told me about.......waiting....

Tomorrow I just may put away my box of Christmas and Hannukah fabric.

I should do it before I get holiday potholder- making crazy,  out

 of control!!!

It has been rainy and cold here in Charlotte...brrr.

I, however, am snug as a bug by my sewing machine.

xoxo

 

A Holiday Season....Week One

With great excitement I show the cool swag on this tree...Variagated thread and my little star stitch..Perfect!!

Some of my work in the art room display...Accuquilt snowflakes for Christmas and Hannukah!!

Plus little hanging made for me by my girl many years ago.

The little snowmen are memories from yesteryear...When  my son was in fourth grade.  He hunted the acorn hats..Together we sprayed the clothespins and dotted the face with marker...I love them still

My improv tree quilt was chosen for exhibit this year.

Housewarming potholder for a friend who changed apartments.

She loves to embroider so I put this scrap piece together with a snippit of my grandmother's doily.

My talented grandmother lived from 1896 to 1996.

And, in Portland, our four year old Aoife visits the Llama holiday get together...A  yearly event for them.

Her Irish sweater celebrates the season with the Irish word for Christmas.

Mrs O'Quilts is finally getting an attitude adjustment.  It is not just old lady me with pain and grief..

The world is full of it and so is my apartment complex...

Getting a grip for the holidays with my new role as potholder queen.

Found my name here on one of the doors in our main building.

Why, I have no clue....but it kinda makes me smile:).

Continuing my prime goal of :  "Bloom Where You are Planted"

Already first week of December.

xo

 

Just Checking In....

Severe arthritic pain does not suit me....just sayin'

Below the sunflower pens I made...so much easier to find a pen this way and very easy to give one away to a special person.

Holiday potholders...relaxing and easy to make.

More fun to peruse my huge stash of holiday fabric.

When my girl visited last week, she made tortellini soup.

She froze some for my winter comfort.

New picture, just in...Mom and Dad went out to dinner.

The babysitter sent this picture of Aoife and her  dog, Rosie!!

And so it goes.   Just checking in with my blogging friends.

xoxoxox

Happy Holidays

Finding Joy as it Happens

In the mail today came my avocado friend here....from Melissa Quilts

Big thanks Melissa...a great treat on a stressful day. xoxo

My neice who suffers from Ovarian cancer...loves monkeys.

As a calming expression of love, I made monkey napkins for her.

A friend of mine has chosen an angel tree child for Christmas.

The child wants a doll buggy.  My friend asked me to make a quilt for the buggy..

Here it is, made with love.

Backed with one of my favorite bargains:

Tula Pink bunnies!!

My daughter is visiting here from Oregon.  We have had a lovely time.  She is off now to do errands for me.

My hip causes so much pain, I cannot lift it into the car...Jeeze Louize and more!!!

I need a Pfizer Covid shot delivered to me....Sigh, somehow I do not think that is on the delivery options.

Yesterday;s treat was a visit from my sister and my niece and nephew.  With my girl here...it felt so much like family.

I have craved that feeling lately as my grands are teenagers with their own lives...I think that they have forgotten that they still have a grandmother!!!!!My pain causes me to feel sad.

It was so great to see my sick niece and my dedicated sister.

I love them so.

The doctor ordered weight medication is out of stock...OMG. The entire country must need hip replacements!!!!

All I want is a Butterfinger candy bar.to calm my  nerves, sigh....

Doing Something

Keeping my mind calm; I did one of these!! 

I keep a star to be on my small design wall by my machine for a quilting quicky when I have the chance.

Looking to  gifting, I made two more Japanese knot bags....

The one below is made with corduroy scraps gifted to me years ago.

Something new for me here...Cord holders to keep mess down.

Cord Keeper patterns from Apple Green Cottage

The cord wrappers are a new experiment form.  I have put one on my long I-Pad cord by the sewiung machine.

The Green Apple Cottage has the templates ready to copy.

And so goes this Saturday.  The ortho guy told me to walk thru the pain...Big Ouch.  He also sent me to a weight reduction program where they are going to give me a shot in my stomach so I will lose 40 pounds...OMG>  Then I will probably stay in bed and wait for the promised nausea and dizzsiness.  I am supposed to lose 40 pounds in two months..Jeeze Louize..I do not know...New rules say...no low BMI, then no operation...even though 8 years ago I had 4 joint replacements in 12 months with a very similar BMI...now doctor and new rules..

 I am walking around in pain, I get depressed!!  I have been offered a riding cart, but physical therapy says I have to walk...so walk I do!!

 Goals:  losing weight enough for me to get a medical release. ANd so it goes.  I have not heard from my grands in forever. It is OK...I am concentrating on getting better..

Tonight's share is from John Roedel

                              *****

I wrote this poem a couple years ago to keep myself from falling off the edge.  I need these words today more than ever.

                              *****

oh my troubled lovely,

oh my weeping daisy,

oh my fading candle,

oh my broken beauty,

oh my crumbling stronghold,

stay with us

here on Earth

don’t rapture yourself;

~ we need you - we need you

- we need you - we need you

before you decide to leave,

sit with me here in your unmade self

at the edge of your unmade bed

and listen to me

tell you one last secret

oh my tearful songbird,

if you can find

a way to

survive long

enough

someday you’ll become

the answer to somebody

else’s most desperate prayer

by just being there in

the same room that they are in

~ as they gently fall apart

and in that moment

you won’t need to say anything

you’ll just need drape your hands

over theirs like a Good Friday altar cloth

until they believe in resurrection again

~ that’s why you can’t give up

your life will someday be the rainbow

at the end of someone else’s storm

if you aren’t still here

when they fall off

the bridge

then who will be there to catch them?

I know it’s not quite fair

~ but your life isn’t just yours

it also belongs to that person

who is going to need you

to be alive later

you are part of the community

of unintended angels

who has a sacred calling

of surviving your darkest night

so someday you can be the

sunrise for somebody else who

will need you to prove to them

that daybreak always returns

oh my clouding diamond,

oh my shaking sunflower,

oh my doubting saint,

oh my disappearing moon,

oh my quieting symphony

stay here

with us

on Earth

because if you do

you will save a dozen lives

by first saving your own

it’s the great pyramid scheme

of hope

you must persist

so they can watch how you persist

turn this riptide you

are drowning under

into a ripple

of hope

that stretches

through time

that you can ride until

you reach that one moment

in your life where you’ll find yourself

in a quiet room with somebody

who wants to become a shadow

and you’ll be able to say to them

with authority the same thing

I am saying to you right now:

“oh my troubled lovely,

oh my weeping daisy,

oh my fading candle,

oh my broken beauty,

oh my crumbling stronghold

stay with us

here on Earth

don’t rapture yourself

we need you...”

by john roedel

Bloom Where You are Planted, etc

 This election, pastors are asked to go to the voting sites to help keep the peace..

Dear me!!

My friend asked me to make her a shawl for the occasion.

Bringing together different cultures, this shawl is made from African fabric.  It is embellished with a Celtic cross.

I hope she likes it.

The giving tree:  Or plant...etc.

This time last year, I passed on to my neighbors, a Poinsettia plant that had been gifted to me.

It was small and lovely, but I do not keep plants anymore...simplifying my life.

They planted it in their garden.  Voila:  It came back in its loveliness to cheer us on.

As I have aged, I have worried about ways I could perish.  My vivid imagination never ever dreamed that it would be painful arthritis that would do me in.  Eight years ago, I had four joint replacements....two knees, a shoulder and a hip.

Now the other hip is killing me and I can barely walk.; the other shoulder hurts  and...This morning I awoke with it in my elbow...Jeeze Louize

Working now on resigning myself to my painful lot.  Seeing a surgeon on Thursday, taking meds that do not work.

If this is going to be how it is from now on.  I will try to "Bloom where I am Planted" and figure out what I can do. (instead of focusing on what I cannot do!!)

Continuing kindness is my first goal.  "Small things with great love", said Mother Teresa....

I am trying to have more realistic expectations of myself.

And, I am sewing small items to gift to folks...xoxo

Witches Three

 From Portland comes our Aoife...just loving Halloween

Age four is a great age!!!

Grandma proud!!

My Many Blessings

Here is  my brave and lovely niece with her new monkey family...Alexis is crazy about monkeys!!!

On the other side of our country is 4 year old Aoife with her Rosie.  Her dog came to help pick her up from preschool.

My girl and her girl made this cat pumpkin....very fun..

Experimentation in potholders...applique birds on a strip set.

Linda's special Halloween cookies... Lucky me!!

I ordered some yellow facecloths last month.  When they came, they were scratchy and poor quality.

I did not want to bother to return them, so I covered them with scrap fabric for kitchen/bathroom/ car, etc scrubbers.

Thanks to Sherry, my phone camera now works.  Taking off my nose bandage from my Moh's and plastic surgery on my nose, allowed my face recognition to again, let me access my phone...Here I am, grateful to be able to blog.

Grateful today for friendships....Before she left for Aldi, one friend came to ask me if I needed anyting,  Two friends fixed my bed and made it!!!  Like wow!!  A few quilters came today for lunch and laughter.  Dinner brought more laughter with 3 different friends...A friend showed up with my favorite candy bar, Butterfinger....as in Happy Halloween....My grandgirl called with teenage gossip, batting her eyes and telling me the adolescent news.  She also shared with me that she will do school work when she wants to, not when others tell her to...OK then..!!!!. 

She is always careful not to use cursewords with me...respect...makes me feel loved.

  I  just ordered a book for the bookclub in a few weeks...Had a spiritual chat and hug from housekeeper, Mary from the Congo...

Enjoying glimmers of joy...eg...sunshine and colored leaves...laughter and fabric mess....

 Thank God I moved here... I am indeed blessed!!!

Just for Today

My  new phone is not working properly...It tells me that my passwords are incorrect.  It will not forward pictures and I cannot recieve emails.... So, no posting here, no calmness for me.....Here are two of my latest iron on Halloween squares...I still have to applique them with the machine.  I am getting tired of Halloween and it is not even here yet...Time is going so very fast.. Guess I had better make some Thanksgiving items.....Slowly I am making new friends to replace (not really possible) lost family and lost friends due to COVID. Political stress abounds...

I now have four of these spider blocks.. I will applique them, then leave them for next year..

Above, the first of my fall potholders..

Below, jar openers for presents these holidays..

Seems I cannot get away from stress....Terminal cancer is visiting our family...scary as all get out.

I am dealing with it by sewing mindlessly and munching on the $5 chocolate bar from Trader Joe's.

Voila, washcloths

I bought new facecloths for my bathroom, but they came all cheap and scratchy.  Not wanting to dump them nor return them, I covered them with pretty for cleaning things.  All done tonight....so relaxing!!

No pictures because of my disabled phone.

The bandage on my nose comes off this upcoming Tuesday...I will so be grateful.  Also graterful that the MOHs surgery and the plastic surgery are over...and successful.

With a heavy heart, I am trying to de-stash in small ways....a fabric piece here and there...

Very, very grateful me has wonderful Sherry coming by tomorrow to check on my phone..

I am kind of out there since my sister is so busy now with her family...

Me, the former  matriarch of our family, is now trying to concentrate of her own mental and physical health and what I can control.  What I can control is so very little. I am glad I live in my apartment without the worry of a house.  I am grateful that friends still gather round with love and support.

Happy to still be alive.