Of Post Notifications, #Crafting Progress, And Medical Mutterings

*NOTE: Post notifications have been a bit hit and miss for me lately.

 

Sometimes I get them through Feedburner (even though that's meant to have stopped) and sometimes I get them through Bloglovin' (which, for some reason, is happening even less frequently than the Feedburner notifications these days) or however I made sure to be signed up to get post notifications for your blog when Feedburner said they'd be stopping doing the notifications.  Sometimes I get them soon after the post goes live, other times I get them a day or two later, and other times I don't get them at all.  For some of you who are on Goodreads I'm also following you on there, and get a weekly digest of posts that way, but that's only weekly, like I said, and a lot of people I follow aren't on Goodreads.

 

So, if I've been slow with comments to your posts, or haven't commented on them at all, that - along with having not felt too great during this past week, so having not done much in the way of dealing with eMails and post notifications some days - is why.

 

*~*

 

Before we move on to the other topics of this post...

 

I got a thank you card from Rita, which arrived early on Friday morning – just before I had to leave for my hospital appointment.  So, thanks, Rita, and here’s a photo of the card:

 

 

*~*

 

In Last Thursday evening’s knitting session, we made some six pointed stars, which can be used as fancy coasters, sewn on to things, or made in to holiday decorations.  Here’s a photo of mine:

 

 

I figured it didn't really matter what colour it was, so I just knitted my star in the first colour I grabbed from the selection of random balls of wool I have in my craft room, which happened to be white.

 

~

 

I did some more work on my loom knitting scarf while they were demonstrating this month's kit in the Cosy Craft Club Zoom session on Tuesday evening.  I’m now about half done with it.

 

One of these days I'll surprise them and actually be working on the kit with them.  I have loads to catch up on (both from Cosy Craft Club and Makerly Crafts).  But mostly I end up just getting tips to try and remember for when I'm working on the kits later, while working on some project of my own, whether one of the ones I'd like to get finished from mine and Nan's unfinished projects, a project I ended up starting in one of the ACB Crafters sessions, or something else I want to make.  I enjoy going to their Zoom calls though, which is what matters.

 

~

 

I joined in with the crochet projects the ACB Crafters group were doing this week though.

 

Rather appropriately, since it was St Dwynwen's Day (day for the Welsh patron saint of love) on January 25^th, and that was the day the crochet Zoom call happened, one of the projects was a crochet stuffed heart.  I know they were thinking in terms of starting Valentine's Day projects, but it was still appropriate that they started it on that particular day.  Anyway, I made a red one.  I pulled it a bit tight when I was weaving in the end and closing up the bottom after it was stuffed and finished, so it almost looks like I was making a wooly heart baloon, but I still like it.  Here's a photo:

 

 

The other project was a crochet hot chocolate amigarumi.  This one we had to make some of the pieces ahead of time for.  Making the purple cup wasn't too difficult - though I was excited about being able to, since it was my first time really shaping anything using crochet - and once I'd done the cup doing the brown circle for the chocolate was comparatively easy.  The white part for the cream (which we did in the call together on Tuesday) really challenged me though, and it took me ages to get it to work.  Everyone else was already assembling their pieces by the time I'd made the cream.  But I managed it in the end.  And, though I stuffed my hot chocolate amigurumi a bit more than I should have when I was putting it together afterwards, so it looks like it's about to spill any moment (to me it does anyhow) I'm proud of it.  Here's a photo so you can see it:

 

 

~

 

My crochet blanket is still unfinished, but didn't get worked on during the past week.

 

*~*

 

Last Friday was my first time seeing my new Haematologist.  I hadn’t seen anyone to be regularly checking on my Anaemia and Thrombocytopenia before.  Well, the Anaemia was being checked regularly by my doctor when I was in Hastings, but that all stopped after I had the hysterectomy, and I wasn’t seeing an actual Haematologist, since it was my doctor and the gynaecologists checking it (or the doctors at the hospital whenever I showed up at A&E).  But I'd have needed a new Haematologist because of moving back to Wales regardless.

 

Anyway, the Haematologist seemed terrified at finding himself forced to hold an actual conversation with a blind person.  My Dad had taken me, but I had him wait in the waiting room, which is something I usually do if someone goes with me, because doctors have a habit of ignoring me and speaking directly to him (or whoever takes me on those times when I have a family member or friend act as my transport and helper) instead.  Besides, I don’t see why I shouldn’t get the same amount of privacy when talking to a doctor that anyone else would get.  And I can tell you for a fact this would have been one of those doctors who spoke to my helper rather than me, since he panicked when the nurse made to leave me with him.  She had to promise to leave the door to the outer area where she’d be working open so he could call her if he needed to before he’d relax.  Even then I swear he’d have run from the room screaming if I jumped up and said, “Boo!”

 

He did manage to relax quite a bit by the time I was done talking to him, but his attitude makes me wonder if he really meant it when he acted concerned and told me to go home after I had my blood taken so I didn’t need to be at the hospital longer than absolutely essential, because they’d call me if there were issues with the levels, and it would be better for me with my immune issues not to be at the hospital longer than absolutely essential, or if he just wanted the scary blind person to go away.  Perhaps a bit of both?

 

I mean, he could have been genuinely concerned.  After all, Covid is bad again everywhere right now (not helped by those people who are either tired of social distancing, or convinced the jabs give them complete immunity to all strains of the virus, or both, so going back to how they were doing things pre-pandemic) so there is good reason for him to be concerned about me risking being exposed if I hang around where potentially sick people could come near me.  It's just that his decision coming after his reaction when he realized I couldn't see, and being completely different to how things are usually done when you go see someone at a hospital like that, makes me wonder.  After all, they had me wait for the results when I went to have blood tests a few months back.  But then, I suppose it is possible the way things are done now is different because of the continuing threat of the pandemic.

 

Either way, he even gave me the blood forms for next time, so I can go get the tests done a week before my next appointment, and then he’ll have them ready for me by the time I’m seeing him.  He said it would be easier for me, but that depends how you look at it.  Yes, I do agree it means less time hanging around at the hospital, which is a good thing, especially for someone like me.  However, it also means making the hour long round trip to the hospital twice instead of once, and in that respect it isn’t easier, because it would be a real headache arranging that if I didn’t have my Dad for transport.  This way also means I have to brave the big wide world more times, which is an unpleasant thought these days.

 

~

 

Anyway, I’ve heard nothing about my results from either the doctor or the hospital at this point, and the doctor surgery said the results weren't showing on their system as being available to share with me when I called looking for them (which I’ve done twice in the past week) so I assume that means my levels were at least not too bad.  Not too bad for me, I mean.  Had they been really bad, the hospital would have flagged them for immediate attention, and in theory I’d know about that by now.

 

Regardless of what my blood tests may show though, them taking the blood for the tests hit me hard this time around.  This either means my levels are at least a little lower than usual, or all the times I’ve had to do this are catching up to me, making it harder for me to bounce back these days.  Or possibly even both of those things.  Whichever is the case, I missed Friday's ACB Presents call, even though I was technically home in time to make it to that call, because I was just too tired, and it took everything I had to make it to the Free To Be Me Call Friday.  Then I slept a lot - in fact, most - of Saturday and Sunday, missing an ACB Crafters call I'd been planning to go to Saturday evening (opting to go for a nap instead) and almost cancelling my plans to go to kareoke Saturday night (had I been going out to do it, I'd have cancelled for sure, came close to doing so regardless, and hope how bad I felt didn't show when I was singing).  It took me until Monday evening to start feeling more like my normal again.

 

If I still don’t hear anything from either the doctor or the hospital by Monday afternoon, I’ll give my doctor surgery another ring to see if they can tell me yet exactly what my levels were, since I like to know and keep track of the numbers myself.  Apart from anything else, it makes it easier for me to be able to tell any new doctor or nurse I see if things are - or aren't - my normal. 

A Weather Report + #Crafting + #AmWriting + #Music + Day To Day Life

No sign of any more snow here.  Some rain, some sun, some chilly temperatures, but no snow.

 

Never mind, there's plenty of time for more yet, and it's not unusual for us to get our best snow in March, so I'm not giving up hope.

 

~

 

Anyway, it's been a busy week, so let's take a look at what's been going on in my world during the past week, shall we?

*~*

Friday was mostly taken up with Zoom calls.  I try to make it to the ACB Presents call every day at 9:00am Eastern, and like to pop in to the ACB Crafters call for a while before the Free To Be Me call I co-facilitate on Fridays.  But I also decided to go to another call, which I don't always attend, but is fun when I do.  Between that and the usual day to day chores, petkid care, etc - which you can just assume I did every day, and I won't bother mentioning every time - there wasn't much of Friday left.

*~*

Saturday was a day mostly filled with crafting.  I attended a Zoom call on ways to add crochet to other forms of crafts (cards, fabric, etc) which was fun and interesting.  I also finished up the crochet mug hug I'd been making, which I mentioned in last week's post, and which Kelly has claimed for his mug.  LOL!

Here's a photo of the green crochet mug hug (essentially a mug cosy) on Kelly's mug:

Oh, and here's a photo of the blue needle knitted round dishcloth/doily thing I made too:

~

 

I also wrote the first draft of an article on audio book production I've been meaning to get to.  I've been promising someone I'd work on it since about November, so it was long since over-due in my opinion, even if I didn't officially have a deadline for when I was meant to submit it by.

~

The other thing I did Saturday - well, I'm calling it Saturday, but it was technically Sunday, since it was actually early hours of Sunday morning for me - was to go to ACB's Saturday night kareoke, which I've started doing on a regular basis now.  And, yes, I sing each time I'm there.

I attend the ACB's open mic night when they do that too, but that doesn't happen every week like kareoke does, because the person who facilitates that can't do it every week.  But I read some of my poems for that instead of singing.  I mention it though because it's another one that happens late (when it's on it's a Wednesday night/Thursday morning thing) and I wanted to tell you about what happened after the last one ended, since you won't have seen about it if you're not on Facebook, and might find it as amusing as I do.

So, when open mic night ended it was about 3:00am for me.  And - seeing me remove my headset - Lilie and Logan got up and ran off in to the bedroom, knowing I go in there afterwards, even if I end up reading rather than sleeping.  I didn't pay much attention, but the next thing I know there's a whole lot of noise going on in there, so I went in to see what they were up to.

They were jumping on the bed.  Literally just bouncing up and down on the bed.

I asked them if they realized it was 3:00am, and they stopped bouncing for a moment, looked at me as if to ask if I had a point, and - deciding I clearly didn't - promptly started bouncing on the bed again.

I guess they didn't care if it was 3:00am, or see why that meant they shouldn't bounce on the bed.  LOL!

*~*

Sunday I finally got a chance to play with my potters' wheel.  I made two pots of slightly different sizes and shapes (one a sort of vase shape, and the other a little round pot) which you can see in the photos below.

 

 

 

 

I also made the pen part of a pig sty I'm making as part of the scenery I'm making for my Dad for gaming.  I told my Dad with how much crafting I'm doing he'd likely end up with handmade items for his birthday and Christmas the way I'm going, and he said the thing he needs most is more scenery for his figure gaming, and mentioned an interest in things you'd find in farms or rural settings, like a pig sty, a pond, etc, so I'm taking him at his word and making him a pig sty, and will later make him a pond or two as well.  He gets what he wants/needs for gaming without having to pay ridiculously high prices for scenery, or find time to make it himself,and I get to play with my clay.  Everybody wins.  But, anyhow, I only got as far as making the pen part of the pig sty on Sunday, since I wanted that to dry before I started working on doing the shelter for the pigs to go in it.  Plus ran out of time to do more than that anyhow.

~

I also went to a cooking themed ACB Zoom call on Sunday, where they sometimes do cooking demonstrations, and other times discuss things on the general theme of cooking.  This week they were talking about meal planning and prepping, which is something I'm trying to get back in the habit of doing.  It was an interesting call, which I'm glad I went to.

*~*

Monday afternoon I had a papercrafting Zoom meeting scheduled with someone I won it from in the ACB Crafters holiday party I attended a week before Christmas, which for various reasons has taken us this long to be able to arrange.  So I tried to make sure to have everything ready for it before the ACB Presents call, since with my time difference I was scheduled to literally come out of one meeting and in to the other.  I forgot a few things though, so had to go run and get them during the call.  Despite not being quite as prepared as I thought I was, I still managed to make two cards during it though, trying out a couple of new techniques for me; I'd never done cards with extra folds like these before.

One of the cards I made was a star-themed one.  The bulk of the card is white.  The inside has green stars stamped across the top of what would be the back of the card front, and blue presents stamped across the bottom of that same side, with a strip of blue running down the other side.  When the card is closed you can see that strip of blue, and the rest of the front has a strip of green on it, more stamped green stars and blue presents, and three slightly overlapping stars (two blue stars, and a bigger silver glittery star with a small red star in the center of it).  Here are photos of both the inside and outside of that card:

 

The other card is a more feminine card.  The inside has purple butterflies stamped on a white background on what would be the back of the front of the card, and the other side is a yellow background with a pink balloon up near the top of one corner, and a pink heart almost centered at the bottom.  When you close the card the balloon and that area of the yellow background is visible.  The other side of the top of the front has an orange background with a silvery glittery heart on it, and the bottom of the front is left white with purple butterflies stamped on it, and a pink ribbon in the shape of a bow. Here are photos of the inside and outside of that card:

 

 

~

 

I have roleplaying some Mondays, but this wasn't one of them.  Just as well, since we ended up having Mam's dog, Izabel, over for a sleepover Monday night, because Mam was unwell.

 

Lilie loved it; Izi and Lilie had a great time playing together.  Logan wasn't so pleased about the idea; Logan thinks Izabel and Lilie are much too energetic, and spends most of the time when Izi is here just trying to stay out of the way of the girls' games, while also trying to keep them in sight so he doesn't miss anything he might decide he'd like to be involved in after all.

 

*~*

 

To Logan's relief and Lilie's disappointment, Izabel went home Tuesday early evening, during the time when we often have had Dad over for roleplaying and dinner, but as it happened this week I only saw Dad for him to act as mine and Izi's transport, since he and Wayne had their Covid boosters Tuesday afternoon, so we had planned on us not seeing him until it turned out I needed transport to first pick Izabel up on Monday, and then take her home Tuesday.

~

Shortly before Izabel went home on Tuesday I went to a different ACB cooking Zoom call where they were making ginger brownies, and offered some substitution tips for those who might want to reduce the amount of sugar they use (or use a different kind of sugar) or avoid using eggs for whatever reason.

~

I also went to an online clay workshop on Tuesday, which was for the visually impaired, but not run by the ACB.  It was run by Future In Sight.  Officially it was a beginner workshop, but to me it was just an excuse to play with my clay again.  LOL!

Anyway, I made a sort of oval shaped shallow pinch pot.  And here it is:

I also made the walls for the shelter part of the pig pen.  Since some games are better with no roof put on buildings you make for scenery to use with them, while for others a roof is a good idea, and I'm not sure which kind Dad wants this for, I decided to let Dad do the roof if he wants his pig pen to have one, so here's a photo of the finished pig pen, which is essentially a round pen with the walls for a square-ish structure inside it, and a gate like you'd find on a farm in one area of the pen's wall.

*~*

Wednesday was one of those days when I needed a lot of resting time.  But I also had my keyboard lesson, and there's a fun chatty call I like to go to about an hour after the music lesson ends, so I did make sure to be up for those, as well as for the ACB Presents call.

~

The only other thing - besides essential petkid and personal care tasks - I stayed up to do on Wednesday was to take the time to use the bit of clay I hadn't used up from the open packet Tuesday to make the foundation and walls for another building I'll be giving to Dad.  Again, he can either add a roof or not, depending on what he wants to do with it.  But here it is:

*~*

Thursday I finished working on that article, and finally sent it to the person.

I also got caught up on laundry - in case you're interested in hearing about that.

~

The only other thing of note about Thursdays is that I have a knitting Zoom call I go to late evening my time on Thursdays.  This week's was needle knitting.  It's needle knitting on the first and third Thursdays of the month, and loom knitting on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month.

*~*

Since I'm putting this together Thursday ready for it to publish Friday morning while I'm on the way to the hospital for my Haematologist appointment, that's you all caught up with everything that's happened between now and my last post.  I hope you enjoyed having a day by day glimpse in to my week.  Not all my weeks are as full as this one was... I had a lot going on this week, that's for sure!

2022 So Far; #Snow + Creativity With #Music & #Crafting + #AmWriting

I got two Christmas cards too late to get them in my post about the holidays.  Both cards came from online friends.  So, before I tell you what's been going on in 2022 so far, here's a photo of the two cards:

 

*~*

 

It tried to snow late on the evening of January 4th.  But it was more sleet than snow, and didn't come to anything.

 

They promised it would try again over the following few days though, so I was hopeful for snow to enjoy.  It was certainly cold enough for snow... 

Finally, on January 7th, all my hoping and wishing paid off, because we got some actual snow!

 

Which, unfortunately, we forgot to grab a photo of.

 

Admittedly there wasn't much, and the ground having been rained on so recently when the snow fell meant most of it was gone as fast as it fell.  But there was enough so I could go catch some snowflakes as they fell, and I managed to scrape together a small snowball.  So at least it was snow worth mentioning.

 

Of course, I'd have liked more.  And it would have been nice if it hadn't warmed up just enough that what I woke to the following morning was rain rather than more snow.  But you can never have enough snow in my opinion, so I'd be telling you I wish we'd had more even if we had a foot of snow.  LOL!

 

Besides, the rainstorm we had next day was awesome to listen to.

 

*~*

I've used most of my Christmas money to get a few craft supplies I want for spacific projects.  In particular wool in certain colours to knit a cosy for my new teapot.  My old teapot has a purple and blue cosy to match the fact it's purple, so I want to make a black and orange one to go with my black "Witches Brew" teapot.  I thought those colours would be appropriate for it.

 

I haven't started making the cosy yet, but it's right near the top of my crafty to-do list.

Well, I don't actually have a to-do list exactly.  I've not bothered to make a list of the projects I want to get done.  Though several times I've wondered if maybe I should.  But there are a lot of them, and this tea cosy would be right near the top of the list if I did sit down and make one.

*~*

I've been learning to play the keyboard since some time in December.

 

I'm not all that good yet - in fact, far from it.  And half of what I can play is only the start of various songs.  But I'm slowly making progress, and trying counts.  So, here's a clip I did at the start of January of me playing the only things I can play in full (though hesitantly, and far from perfectly).

*~*

Another new thing I've started doing is learning to loom knit.

 

They do it on one of the crafty calls via the ACB, so I decided I'd go along and see if it sounded like something I'd like to have a go at.  It did, so I used the birthday money I hadn't spent yet to buy myself a little set of knitting looms (since it was one of the few things I didn't inherit from my Nan when I got her craft stuff).

 

The knitting Zoom classes/sessions are usually held on Thursdays (needle knitting one week, loom knitting the next) but they had a special beginner loom knitting class planned for the second Saturday in January (so, this past Saturday) and I was able to get my loom in time to join that.

 

During the class we did a small piece with just a couple of rows to learn how to cast on, knit the basic "E wrap" loom stitch, and cast off.  Now I'm attempting to make a scarf with the loom.  It's one of those that will be double thickness, because I'm knitting a tube, and will darn the ends closed when I'm done.  Since scarves were what I did first for both needle knitting and crochet, it felt appropriate.  Only this time the scarf will be for me, rather than for my doll, Jo (who no longer has the multiple scarves I knitted for him growing up, but is currently sporting the crochet scarf I made last year)

*~*

I'm also working on two crochet projects.

 

~

 

One is a crochet blanket, which I started working on at the end of last year.

 

Originally I was going to do several squares and stitch them together, but then decided to do it differently.  If I just keep going with my square so it gets bigger and bigger until I'm happy with the size of it, I won't have to worry about sewing the squares together, so I'm doing it as one solid piece instead, because I liked the idea of avoiding needing to sew the squares together later.  LOL!

 

It's coming along slowly, partially because I'm working on so many other things, partially because I'm very slow with crochet, and partially because I forgot which way around the differences worked when it came to US vs UK terms for the crochet stitches, so am doing UK double crochet, which is US single crochet, instead of US double crochet, which is UK triple crochet, which makes the stitches more tightly woven (if you know what I mean) and the rate it grows at a little slower.  Oh well, never mind.

 

~

 

The other is a mug hug, which - for anyone who doesn't know and would like to - is essentially a mug cosy.

 

That's about half finished, even though I only started it on Tuesday with the ACB crafters in the most recent crocheters call, because it's a much smaller project so obviously takes a lot less time to complete.

 

*~*

 

In other crafty news: I finished the pillow cover I was making out of the tortoise print fabric I got for my birthday.

 

Well, one side is tortoise print.  The other side is plain purple.  Either way, here it is:

By the time you're reading this post, it should be among the throw pillows on my sofa.

*~*

Another thing I finished is this baby cardigan (sweater to those of you outside the UK).

 

 

The cardigan was among the partially done projects I inherited from my Nan along with her craft supplies, so I wanted to finish it anyhow, because I’m trying to finish up some of the partially completed projects – Nan’s ones, as well as my own – in between working on new craft projects.  But, on top of that, a family friend is having a baby in a couple of months, so I wanted to finish it to give to that person for the baby.  I won’t name them, since – though chances of them doing so are slim – there is a chance the friend in question might see this, and I don’t want them to know for sure it’s for their baby until I’m ready to give it to them.

 

Anyway, Nan had knitted most of the cardigan, but I finished it off and put the buttons on it.

 

*~*

 

I made a decorative round dishcloth/doily thing too, which I haven't had a chance to get a photo of yet.

 

 It was one of the projects the ACB Crafters knitting group was working on, and it sounded like it would be a fun one to do, so I decided to make one with them.  It’s a really simple pattern, so was quick to knit up (even for the beginners in the group).

 

It’s officially actually supposed to be a round decorative dishcloth, but because of the type of wool I used it’s better as a doily than a dishcloth - something I was aware of when I started, but decided I didn’t care about.  I could have gone and fetched a ball of my cotton yarn so it would actually be a dishcloth, but decided to just use the first kind that came to hand for my first time doing it, and use it as a decorative doily this time instead.  I can always make another using cotton yarn at a later date if I want one to be an actual dishcloth.

 

Anyway, I'll get you a photo of that soon.

 

*~*

 

And, yes, I've also been writing from time to time, though admitedly not a lot.

 

I'm not sure what to say about that though, because there's not really anything to report other than the fact a bit of writing has been happening here and there.  I'm slowly moving writing projects closer to completion, but nothing is at the point where I really have much to share with you about it yet.

*~*

Other than reading (I'm on my third book of the year, and so far enjoying what I've read this year) the general day to day tasks, playtime with the petkids (Lilie was almost as excited we got snow as I was) and the other ACB calls I've been attending (which include Saturday night kareoke) that's pretty much what's been going on around here since the start of the year.  So, 2022 is off to a great start for me.

 

I hope you can say the same, and have been enjoying plenty of the things that make you happy.