October 2012 – Thimbleanna

Halloween Socks

39 Comments / October 30, 2012 March 8, 2016 / Knitting, Socks

Thanks for all your wonderful comments, prayers and wishes for BigDaddy. He gets a little stronger everyday, and in classic recovery mode, he has up days and down days. Mostly up though, and I’m amazed at his strength. As long as we have two steps forward to each one backward, we’ll eventually get there. Patience is a virtue!

In the meantime, as I said in my last post, there’s been hospital knitting. Just a few days before all the excitement, I purchased some Halloween yarn from Simply Socks Yarn Company. It’s funny, at the time, I was worried that I wouldn’t get the socks done in time for this Halloween.

I had envisioned taking some fun pictures outdoors in all the fall leaves, but a) there’s no time to be outside right now and, b) it’s ugly, ugly, ugly weather out there this week. (Sending big hugs to everyone in the path of Sandy, btw.)

So, I took a few pumpkins to BigDaddy and we had a little hospital room photo fun.

I used my favorite Ann Norling pattern and followed the sock tips that I wrote up in this post.

I know it’s kind of weird to take your sock photos in a hospital room. But hey — I think it was meant to be. Did you know hospital rooms have automatic sock dryers???

I was thinking they might be a good addition to my laundry room. ;-P

Happy Halloween Everyone!
XOXO,
Anna

Dodged a Bullet

58 Comments / October 27, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Family

Phew! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted — thanks to all you sweet invisible friends who have checked in on me. They say, “Into every life, a little rain must fall” and here in ThimbleannaLand, we’ve had a Monsoon. We’ve been on a roller coaster ride through Hell in the last two weeks and I’m hopeful and cautious to say “Every little thing’s gonna be alright.”

On October 11th, I took BigDaddy in for a little procedure and his heart stopped — which landed him in cardiac intensive care for two weeks. If you’re a long time reader, you know that BigDaddy is the heart of our family. He’s funny with a huge heart and we all adore him. The first week was up and down and full of tears and after 30 hours off of the vent, he ended up back on it. Then, the second week was even worse — capped off by calling the kids home and being assigned a palliative care doc. It seemed that we spent a lot of time trying to convince medical staff that just because you’re in your 80’s, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have some life left in you. MyDadLovesMeBestSister and I decided we should write a book about the experience — I’d like to title it, “Bucking the System When They Already Think You’re Dead”.

BigDaddy is finally out of ICU and making slow, but sure progress. We couldn’t be more relieved — and thrilled. MyDadLovesMeBestSister and I spend all of our time either at the hospital or eeking a few hours out at our jobs. We were sent an angel in the form of Aunt Annie. She’d had an already planned trip and her plane arrived just two hours after BigDaddy’s ill-fated procedure. She ended up extending her trip and we absolutely couldn’t have done it without her. She was such a huge help and support to MeMum. She left yesterday and we miss her already.

Anyway, there hasn’t been any time for blog reading or posting. There has been hospital room sock knitting though. Maybe I’ll take a picture of new socks on a hospital bed LOL. The next few weeks will still be sparse on-line — we’ll be concentrating on helping BigDaddy get well and back home. I hope you’re all having a beautiful fall (or spring if you’re down under) — it looks like it was gorgeous here — as viewed from hospital room windows! ;-D

XOXO,
Anna

A Button Board

46 Comments / October 7, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Around the House, Crafting

Did you all have a nice weekend? It was dreary here, but still beautiful. Our trees are turning early this fall — makes me worry a bit about what winter might have in store for us. The view from my kitchen window was so pretty today. I’m really happy that I snapped this picture today as we’re expecting a freeze tonight and the zinnias probably won’t be so vibrant tomorrow.

Someone had a really nice post not too long ago about moments that take your breath away. (Aha! It was Jody!!! ) She said that sometimes you see something so beautiful, it just grabs at your heart and you feel like it might burst. I felt that way today while I was out mowing the lawn. Even though the sun wasn’t shining, the trees and all the fall color were just so gorgeous. At one point, I mowed up to an area with a little thimble forest. If your blog is called Thimbleanna, you can’t pass up a thimble forest, so I ran inside and grabbed the camera. Thus, the new blog header.

It wasn’t all teary-eyed appreciation of Mother Nature around here this weekend. I did pick up a needle and thread. I sewed buttons to the new bulletin board that I made for my kitchen desk area.

These are so easy to make. Wrap foam core with batting and fabric and sprinkle a little hot glue here and there to hold it all down. Oops — I laid my hot glue gun down in the batting. I hate it when that happens.

I use a long doll-making needle and some pearl cotton and just stitch right through the foam core and fabric. Here’s the new board pressed into the desk area.

You can see the old board lying on the desk. It was from our previous house and it never really fit that wall very well, so I’m glad to have it replaced.

More stitching coming soon…. Have a great week!
XOXO,
Anna

P.S. The new Auriful block of the month is up and it’s adorable! It’s by Amanda Woodward-Jennings. Run over to the Aurifil blog to get this cute pattern and read Amanda’s interview. And don’t forget to load pictures of your finished blocks into the Flickr group for a chance to win some Aurifil thread!

Thinking and Pondering

19 Comments / October 2, 2012 June 22, 2013 / Chat

Ooops, I was supposed to be here yesterday to announce the winner of the Brit Bunny Giveaway. I do have a good excuse:

TheSecondChild is here for a quick, surprise visit and he’s brought his Mookitty with him. Poor Moo — he does look unhappy, doesn’t he? The first day of a visit is always a little stressful for him as he re-adjusts to Paulkitty and Scruff. Moo really is excited though, ’cause he wants to tell you that The Random ManoftheHouse Generator belted out Number 25 as the Bunny Winner. BARB — that’s you, so send me your address!

Meanwhile, I’ve been floundering around since I returned from the UK trip, trying to decide what to make next. Or more likely avoiding the next step of my yoyo quilt. It’s going to be a tricky process and I’m a-skeered! So, to bide my time I trawl pinterest. I love pinterest but it gives me a very unsettled feeling. Like I’m looking for something that I’ll probably never find. {Sigh.} I am trying to get a little done, so I’ve decided to make use of this down time and try to pre-wash and fold some of the stacks and packs of fabric that I’ve accumulated over the last several years. That way, when I decide on the next project, the fabric will be ready to go. Or so I think.

Oooh, hey — did you see that cute little clothespin people fabric? Jenny alerted me to that fabric several months ago and I forgot all about it. It’s a Heather Ross print that was available at our local Hancocks fabric store.

Isn’t it cu-u-ute? Like most of my fabric, it has no plan. Yet. But I’m working on it.

Have a good week!
XOXO,
Anna

Month: October 2012