hand eye crafts

Today is Best Friend Ever Shari's birthday.  Her real, actual birthday.  See, she was born on February 29th.  She only gets a true birthday every four years, so, Happy Sixteenth to you! She called me on my birthday, and in the middle of us talking about our respective medication issues, I stopped and said, "Remember when we used to talk about the Hudson Brothers?" Since middle school.  Love ya to death, Shari.

 Yesterday was TNT, wasn't it?  This headache is impairing me in many ways. Anyway, this is a piece I finished a few days ago.  It is definitely a favorite.  Maybe the  favorite yet: I really, really like this.  There's a good deal of backstitching in the pines, though it doesn't show up very well.  The moon is so lovely, and the ears are glorious. This has a "companion piece," for which I don't care very much. It just doesn't hit me like the rabbit, though I like the houses more.  Nothing personal, squirrel, or squirrel fans, I simply prefer the rabbit.

It has rained here today, and it is forecast to rain tomorrow, so, naturally, I got a screamin g headache yesterday.  Suffice to say it continues. Twinnie  wondered about my not using the cat prints I posted yesterday.  The truth is that I'm afraid I'll screw up any piece using them, so they stay unblemished. I feel myself getting into a knit-a-pair-of-socks mood.  Also maybe a hat.  I'm working on a Most Basic scarf: Have I ever mentioned that I love tweed yarn? Cross-stitching wise, the Christmas piece is moving along. Yes, the reindeer has green antlers.  Don't question the designer's choices.

I'm beginning to dip my toe back into collaging by, strangely, thinning out my supplies.  In doing so, I came across this: Now, I know I'll probably never use them in a project, but you know why I can't let them go. I'm not a fan of the word "chonky," but our friend with the sock there certainly is.  

More Christmas cross-stitch from your girl! I'm guessing this fever will break about May.  Or whenever the kits run out. Just kind of a weekend here.  I've been trying to watch Oscar-nominated films, documentaries and shorts, so I'll be semi-informed on the night of the awards.  I've gone through all the ones I'm A) interested in and B) are available for free.  I enjoyed "The Last Repair Shop."  The Los Angeles school district has a program to provide free musical instruments to public school students, and the film is about the people who repair them.  More goes on, of course, but I won't spoil it.  I also recommend "The Holdovers" and "Society of the Snow."  "20 Days in Mariupol" may be essential to watch, but it is brutal.  Steel yourself if you want to see it. Still working through Malcolm X's autobiography.  Twinnie asked if I'll provide a list of all the books.  The answer is yes, once the alphabet is done.  W

 My current cross-stitch project is wonderful.  I want to say "I love it," but that phrase is so overused, don't you think?  "Delight"?  "Partiality"?  "Zeal"?  Thesaurus.com did me no favors.  Whatever.  .  .  I just like it a lot. I didn't do much crafting yesterday, as I had a crushing headache.  That shouldn't have been a surprise, considering the dental work the day before, and the sudden sheer shock and stress of having to have the dental work.  Today is better, but there's like an echo in my skull: the headache saying softly, "Still here.  Ready to pounce on you at any time." Finished Educated  today. I'm now on The Autobiography of Malcolm X.   I remember in high school --- though I'm unsure of which class --- we could choose between it and Soul On Ice , and I chose Eldridge Cleaver.   Only "Y" and "Z" to go!

Today was to have been my "graduation day" --- my last visit to the oral surgeon to check the abutment and be released to my dentist for the crown. ", , ,was to have been. . ." The abutment had come loose.  It had never (apparently) anchored.   This sets everything back three months.  The abutment was removed, the site was rinsed with antiseptic, another bone graft was packed in, I was stitched up, and sent on my way.  I stopped at Bruster's on the way home and got myself some Graham Central Station ice cream.  What else is there to do? The dentist kept apologizing, and at one point thanked me for having such a good attitude about it all.  What else is there to do? *My favorite curse word, btw.

For as long as I've had this book, as many times as I've looked at it, only today did I actually see the cover art: Not just a pencil, but a girl standing on a hill looking up and out.   I'm enjoying the book, mostly as a social psychologist/sociologist.  The specific beliefs and behaviors of her family are beyond troubling, but how she grew up with them, and --- again ---- up and out of them, that's my wheelhouse.  Love that stuff.

I conquered that troublesome yarn, and am happy with the result.  Now if it were  only cold enough for me to wear it.

There's no real reason for my not posting the past couple of days.  Not an interesting or poetic one, anyway.  I just didn't. The adjusted medication will take several days to make a difference, if it even does.  The placebo of "let's try this;  it might work" is about all I feel.  Mental illness is a drag on life, folks.  Medication(s) can help.  Never be shy or ashamed to ask for them.

 My mental health journey over the past several weeks has been rutted and rough.  Quite rough.  The appointment with my psychiatrist today, therefore, came at a good time. Self-diagnosing, I came to the conclusion  that this was a medication issue, as opposed to a new or worsening symptom problem.  The doctor agreed, saying it was probably anhedonia, which can result from taking one of the medications I've been on for a long time.  So, cutting back on that one, and we'll see. Me, being me, heard "anhedonia" and went straight to this: Maybe Anhedonia was annexed as the war dragged on.

It's been a while since my biography/autobiography trek has been updated.   Where I left off, I do not know.  "S," maybe?   Katy Tur's Rough Draft   was followed by Hands of My Father,  which was followed by Her Little Majesty,  about Queen Victoria.  She's interested me for a good while, but I either forgot or had never delved deeply enough to realize that she and I have the same birthday.  Next up: I've had this forever.  This is giving me the needed prod to read it.   "X" and "Z" are all lined up;  still gotta get that "Y." TNT-wise? I told you wanting to make Christmas things always peaks for me after  Christmas.

The yarn tasks me.  I've started four different things with this yarn.  I refuse to let it win.

  I wasn't going to put the words in, but that would have left a weird blank space. Plus, as previously discussed, backstitching is a favorite. The starfish looks pretty cool, in my opinion.

Picked all the celery out of my vegetable lo mein.  I can't with celery in any form. Got my cross-stitch to the point of only having backstitching to do.  That's my favorite part. Have had a nasty, nasty left side headache. Discovered these. Man, are they good.  If I had any vanilla ice cream, I'd make an ice cream sandwich with some. Saw this print;  this is a dog who deserves to be called Sam Elliott.

Current cross-stitch project: And sticking with the sand, beach, star theme;  did you know that there is something called Star Sand?  It's found in Japan (which seems perfect).  How pretty is this?

That  Cotton Prompt  "stuff I like" shirt: In my head, I imagined Yoda knitting (purple yarn!) with light sabers (didn't suggest it, though) --- they made it happen. And don't worry about the lions catching Secretariat.  He will not be outrun.

My collaging mojo, that is.  The paper-crafting spirit just hasn't moved me lately.  Trying to get it back found me returning to a core competency: cutting things out.  Watching the Pro Bowl this afternoon, I went through some ratty books and got a good stack of stuff.  Haven't put anything together yet, but, you know, baby steps.

  From Instagram.  Study all the detail there.  Astounding.

 This week has been a string of meetings, errands, appointments, and other out-of-the-house stuff.  The places that I had to go into (as in when things couldn't be handled at a drive-thru window) when business was concluded, I was given hugs.  I returned them, as one most often does, but, how come those people --- some of whom I've never gotten past a handshake with --- feel the need to embrace me?  Am I emitting needy vibes?