Getting by...

I can't tell you how difficult it is to type up a blog post with one hand...
That's one of the reasons I haven't been posting as frequently as I'd like to be. It's frustrating.
This whole shoulder thing is just dragging on and on. The surgery went fine, aside from the fact that we discovered I have a MAJOR sensitivity to anesthesia. I came to after surgery gasping for air and yanking my air tube out, then proceeded to vomit violently for the next three hours straight - which I can tell you is no fun after just having had a pin put in your shoulder. Todd told me that in between vomiting and passing out I'd plead with the nurse to help me, but they had literally exhausted all their options they had to stop it. It was so bad they tried to admit me into the hospital. I was stubborn though, and insisted on going home.
I don't really remember the next couple of days due to the heavy dose of pain pills they had me on...which caused a reaction 4 days after the surgery and I had to be brought back to ER because I was so violently ill I thought I was dying. I've never been so sick and in so much pain in my entire life.
Oh, and evidently being shot up with morphine causes me to start making really weird phone calls from the ER...cause that happened.
Surgery was 18 days ago on May 10th, and I personally felt that I was bouncing back quickly. Still can't sleep on my left side at all, lift anything over a pound with my left arm, stretch... but the incisions healed great, and the pain was getting better each day. Then this last weekend we did a lot of stuff around our house and I went a little too hard. Suddenly the tip of the collar bone is sticking up really far again. It actually looks and feels to me as if the shoulder has dropped. There's no more pain than there was before but you can definitely see that damn collar bone popping up. At any rate, Todd has made me promise to wear my sling constantly and do nothing but rest for the next couple of days. Which I'm game to do. I am really, really nervous about having this gigantic bone sticking up forever. It is really noticeable in my opinion.

Sooooooo I'm couch bound and Netflixing... and have time to type one handed basically...

Here are a few shots from our our Memorial Day weekend. I was so busy I didn't take many. We worked on our yard and planted our little gardens. We're late planting, but our last frost was just a week or two ago. Carrots, broccoli, tomatoes of several varieties, peppers, herbs, yams, peas, green beans, and okra all went in the ground.
I'll be stoked if I can keep anything alive though. Last year we had an influx of Japanese Beetles and they cleaned out almost our entire little garden.

We also drove down to a creek and got some rocks for our fire ring, which we then threw together. It's a work in progress but so much better than the hole that was dug in the ground. Keeps the dogs from dicking around in it too. Spent time at some farmers markets (obligatory fresh egg pic...I can't wait to have chickens). And I found an adorable chair art with little air plants that I must now try my hand at. Yesterday was a bbq and waaaaaaaaaay to much food. And today, the couch.

I've got to figure this out. It's adorable!!!

That short-story-long and disjointed post was about as good as it's gonna get today, folks.
Time for me to find something else to watch on Netflix. Any suggestions?

Oh, hai!!!!  I'm kinda sorta bored.

Photo Challenge Day 19 - Shadow or Silhouette

Me and my Daddy-Long-Legs up at the cemetery again.
Is it weird that we spend so much time there?
It's just too damn pretty.

Photo Challenge Day 18 - Something that made me smile...

I don't think this one even needs an explanation.

♥

Photo Challenge Day 17 - Creature Comforts

I'm lazy, and I absolutely love my Keurig. It's getting old, but it still works fabulously!

We run only distilled water through ours and it's been 5 years and we haven't had to descale it once!
I don't usually buy the pods anymore, unless Mister Man has a hankering for a particular kind of coffee.
They start to really add up cost wise.
We use the little reusable basket and fill it with whatever loose leaf tea or ground coffee suits us. When we initially bought the basket it was about $20 at Walmart. But it's been a couple of years and I think you can get them for about $8 now.
Mister Man makes fun of me because I really like Lipton tea. Not just that, but I prefer the Lipton finely ground tea in teabags as opposed to the loose leaf tea in the box. I think it's stronger. So I still buy the tea bags, and just rip the top of each one and dump it in the little Keurig basket. I find it convenient and less expensive!
He thinks I'm a total nerd though :)

Photo Challenge Day 16 - Faceless

I have no idea what's gotten into this little guy lately, but he has been all over us.
Mister man especially.
I always get a kick out of that, Mister Man with Mister kitty.
Doesn't get much cuter that.

Photo Challenge Day 15 - A Pair

These are a pair of the two most lovable, huggable, adorable dip shits ever.
However, it breaks my heart that it's only 'a pair' now.
There should be three...
I miss her.

Photo Challenge Day 14 - What I'm Reading

Remember how I was envisioning dog sweaters?
Yeah well Patterns for Pooches is going to take care of that urge! Most likely by proving to me that it's too difficult to do...
And I picked up a new library book by R.L. Stein, called 'Red Rain'.
Remember R.L. Stein? He wrote all the Goosebumps books. This is a new adult fiction novel of his that I'm eager to try out.
I'll let you know how they are :)

Photo Challenge Day 13 - Kitchen

I made these curtains sometime in the beginning of last year...I think.
They make up my favorite part of my kitchen, the kitchen window. What can I say? We live in a crappy rental and I don't like very much about our kitchen.
But the window, with it's pretty green view, isn't too shabby.

Photo Challenge Day 12 - Mother Nature

Sniff.

My leetle robins have left the nest.

Sniff.

I'm not sure they made it though...haven't seen any since.
Hoping the cats didn't get them. :/

Photo Challenge Day 11 - Someone I Love

See this guy? He's my little brother.

I love him. He knows this.

He loves me. I know this.

I think that pretty much covers everything....

Yep. It does. ♥

btw - he came to take care of me this weekend. what a flippin' awesome guy!!!

Photo Challenge Day 10 - Something I Created

This is the little guy that started it all. 

Walking through Joann's Fabrics one day in February of 2010 I came across a magazine called 'Stuffed'. It was filled with nothing but fiber artists and their creations (such as Katie from Skunkboy Creations - one of my top 10 favorite fiber artists and biggest inspiration for my blog). I fell in love. Decided right then and there that I wanted to make stuffed animals and fiber arts if nothing else then at least for a hobby. I came up with this guy from a picture I saw somewhere online - he seemed fairly easy and straightforward to do. I worked from a two dimensional picture and think I did pretty darn good for having never sewn anything in my entire life before this guy.

The blog came about at the same time as the doll. It was initially intended to chronicle my adventures in sewing and crafting, but has since evolved into...something else. Probably will never stop evolving. But despite the constant change, this little guy will sit above my crafting area as a reminder of where I was when it all did begin. ♥

Photo Challenge Day 9 - Broken

This is me. I'm broken right now.

This was the initial x-ray taken in the ER on the morning of Sunday April 28th. The orthopedist was going to be able to treat it conventionally with just rest and a sling. The tendons would have eventually pulled my shoulder back up. I would have always had a slight bump though, where the collar bone is sticking up.
I was okay with that.

Then last Monday I ended up having to lift Crystal up some stairs to get into our house and hurt myself even worse. I could tell it was bad. Had an appointment this morning with the ortho again and evidently I've completely severed the tendons. The new x-ray (which I desperately wish I had access to) looks even worse, as does the shoulder itself. The collar bone is sticking up approximately another 1/2 inch. It feels pretty miserable, and like the bone is going to pop out of the skin. I've been really fortunate to have had nothing worse than a broken big toe and I can't believe the amount of pain I am in. The drugs are helping a bit, but are also causing some extreme nausea.

The result is that I am going into surgery at 9:30am tomorrow morning. Talk about having something sprung on you...whew. I guess it's good that I don't have too much time to worry about it. I'll hit the sack here in the next hour, get up and shower about 2 hours prior, then go on in. Not too much stress out time involved.

But of course you know I'm still packing as much stress in the time frame allotted...I wouldn't be me if I didn't.

The doctor/surgeon, who was rather awesome, said they'll be stretching the torn tendon back over the collar bone and suturing them into place. That will pull the collar bone down, but the tendons won't be strong enough to hold it in place so in addition to the sutures I'll be getting a titanium pin in my collar bone/shoulder.

Go Robo-Me!

That is the only possible way to get this giant knob, which my husband estimates to be sticking up "Oh! At least 3/4!!", to go away. I'll be trading the knob for a scar, but I'd much, much rather have the scar.

Anyhoo my friends, I figured this was a rather fitting submission for today :)

Wish me luck and I'll talk at ya'll tomorrow ;)

Photo Challenge Day 8 - My Favorite Color

This is sort of a sewing/crafting corner of my office. I should probably just set a match to it and start over, it's such a mess. Can you venture a guess as to my favorite color? By the way, my husband made my awesome desk and pegboard holder. Props to Mister Man ♥

See you at the farm, Sweet Girl

The last few days have been very trying and hard, I have to admit. Yesterday we had to say goodbye to a very dear member of our family, our oldest dog Crystal. She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in her spleen and liver over a month ago and her health has declined rapidly since then. Crystal was a cornerstone in our family and we're going to have to relearn our lives without her.

This is the first dog I've ever lost. I've owned cats most of my life, but Mobee and Crystal are my first dogs.
I knew it would hurt to lose her and I've tried to prepare myself and my husband for it to the best of my ability, but damn. I had no idea. I had absolutely no idea that it would leave such a gaping hole. I can just feel it. There's an absence in my house. It's so much quieter, and every 5 minutes it pops into my head to go look for her and check to make sure she's okay...inevitably followed by that slight start of realization that she's no longer there to be found. I keep forgetting that she's gone and then having to remember again.

Because she should be here. And I miss her so much.

My only reassurance was her. It was absolutely time. She and I tried so hard to wait for her papa to be able to come home. He was sent out of town for work and could not possibly get home in time - and trust me, he tried so hard. This was his baby, his girl. Those two were inseparable.  But her little body could not wait a moment longer. She was hurting and unable to eat or really walk. She was ready. My friend, Nancy, was awesome enough to drive us and sit with me the entire time. This was the most calm I've ever seen her at a vets office. Crystal laid her head and paw in my lap, settled in, and went to sleep as I held her. I'm so unbelievably relieved that she's no longer in pain, but at the same time I felt as if someone reached inside me and yanked something out of me the moment her eyes went dark.

We are taking her to the farm on Thursday morning to bury her. It was one of her favorite places, and will be in the family for generations to come so we can visit her. She loved to swim in the pond for hours and chase tennis balls. And if the corn was high, watch out! She'll be galloping through it. Squirrels, rabbits, birds??? She's on it. She would chase her dad on the motorcycle as far as he'd let her and wade through everyone's fishing hooks. The farm is where she'll be able to stretch out in the sun and scratch her back on the grass. And if Uncle Ron happens to run over a tennis ball with the mower...well, we'll know who probably left it there.

Crystal was roughly 12 years old when she passed, and I was only lucky enough to have had her in my life for 6 of those years. She showed up on my husband's cul-de-sac about 11 years ago as a stray. She was skittish and sleeping in the bushes. They tried for days to get her to come to them, but she wouldn't. Who knows what the poor dear experienced in her life before. Then one day my husband threw a tennis ball her way. That's all it took. Evidently tennis balls were Crystal's thing. From that day on she belonged to my husband. He used to tell me stories about how he would be working in the garage at night and she would be hanging outside with him. She would disappear for a while and come back with random shoes that neighbors had left out on their porches. My husband said that he had the largest collection of mismatched shoes and slippers he'd ever seen from this dog.

When my husband and I started dating he spent a lot of time at my house. Crystal would sleep on the floor in the hall outside of his room every single night. She missed him so much and became so depressed when he wasn't home that we had to start bringing her with us. Which I did not mind at all, but Crystal did. She was not particularly fond of me at first. She really enjoyed having her dad to herself and did her best to ignore me, lol. She most certainly wasn't fond of my cats. But I eventually won her over, gained her trust, became her friend, and then her mama. And I am such a better person because of all that. She enriched our lives in every possible way, down to the corn chip smell of her paws that she stuck in our faces in the morning. Every possible way.

I know the hurt isn't over, especially because we still have to take her out to Indiana...but I feel such an astounding and profound amount of love for this little girl, and our little family...that it's doing a pretty good job of keeping the hurt at bay a bit.

Now I hope you'll bear with me here. I have quite a few photos I'd like to share with you of her.
I'm thinking things might be a bit nostalgic for a bit.

 She loved the beach so much

No tennis balls around? No problem.

How she dealt with her dad trying to leave without her

 Pops and his girl

She really liked the snow! Mt. Baldy

San Antonio Falls

 Cowgirl Crystal

Indian Crystal

Lobster Crystal (she was so tolerant of us)

 Her brothers absolutely adored her and rarely gave her room to breathe

She loved sleeping in laundry baskets...

...really, really loved to

 Chasing tennis balls in the pond at the farm

She obviously came around in the cat department

This beautiful face will stay with me for the rest of my life.

I will never, ever forget her.

RIP Crystal "The Pistol" Blain

Love ya Mamas

Photo Challenge Day 7 - Fur or Feathers

Well, there's almost feathers...

We still have four in the nest! I counted again just a few minutes ago.

Photo Challenge Day 6 - Words

...with all my heart and all my soul

Photo Challenge Day 5 - My View Today

It hasn't stopped raining all day. The creek by our house is overflowing and I kept my happy butt where it was warm and dry all day and did my best to learn how to crochet :)
After hours and hours (mind you, I'm on many, many pain pills and moving quite slowly) I finally have a teeny, twisted, misaligned, and different sized chain to show off!
I'm going to make something of this, damn it.

I have visions of making afghans for everyone I know. I have visions of scarves and beanies, gloves and sweaters for my dogs. I'm pretty sure we're going to get close to none of those things. But who knows? I may be a crocheting wizard once I figure out what the hell I'm doing (do not, I cannot emphasize this enough, do not count on any of that in the least bit).

On another note, I can't believe how well the Photo Challenge is being received! A few of my friends have joined in, my husband has, and apparently it has made it's way around the interspace a bit because there are quite a few people that have posted using #freakedoutnsmall that I don't know! I'm having an absolute blast seeing everyone's photos and interacting with them! Thank you and keep posting! We're only 5 days in to May, we can't peter out yet  :)

Photo Challenge Day 4 - Delicious

Cupcakes! Of course ♥
French Toast with Maple Frosting and Bacon / Peanut Butter Chocolate / Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese

We finally have a cupcake store in Frankfort! The cupcakes aren't anything to write home about, and the service is seriously lacking, but they are really reasonably priced, they have some unusual flavors and it makes for a fun little stop while we're downtown.

I absolutely had to share my husband's submission for his Day 4 (Delicious) of the photo challenge

The man truly loves his beef.

Made me laugh ♥

Photo Challenge Day 3 - Black and White

Crystal and Mobee at the creek today.

Photo Challenge Day 2 - On the Wall

Hanging on a wall in my living room.
City Girl by The Doll Farm, one of my favorite textile artists, and a picture of Kentucky Fletch.

Photo Challenge Day 1 - Self Portrait

I was dreading the self portrait so I made it for the 1st of the month to just get it over with.

Crap strewn all over the room behind me, Robo-sling, no makeup, been wearing the same shirt for two days...
I keep telling you people...
I'm a sexy bitch.  ;)

What would Spring be without babies?

It's Springtime here in the Bluegrass, and you know what that means! Babies!!!!

We had a Mama Robin build her nest in the eaves of our house and her eggs have finally hatched!

I stuck my camera up there today while she was out collecting food for her hungry brood and this is what I saw:

That would be four, FOUR, teeny, tiny, naked and blind little Robins. We though there were only three :)

This picture didn't do much to assuage my worries that the chicks were okay...they look a little stiff in the picture, so I flicked the camera onto video to make sure they were still wiggling around and sure enough:

Don't worry about Mama Robin coming back - she's been poking big fat pieces of worm into the nest all afternoon, and is currently sitting on her babies.

It's going to be a challenge to keep all the cats away from these little guys, but I think we can do it!

And man! What fun they're going to be to watch grow up :D