...and then things went horribly wrong

We did not see this coming.  So happy to be home... then a 911 call to the medics, back to emergency surgery and a night spent in ICU.   Arterial blood is very frightening as it shoots out of a person, at home, eating a bowl of Cheerios for dinner.  Thank goodness everything turned out fine and he gets to come home again tomorrow.

Home from the hospital..again

Today was the scheduled surgery to complete the A-V fistula in the mister's left arm.  All went well and the surgeon let me bring him home, which she was reluctant to do at first.  She knows that I'm an RN but she has control issues which I get,  we came to an understanding and I will do everything a good nurse does in checking her post-op patient.
We are both exhausted, got to the hospital at 0530 with surgery scheduled at 7ish.  I drank so much coffee while he was in surgery that I was having palpitations while I sat and knit on a sock in the surgical waiting room.  I sure didn't want to keel over and have a cardiac arrest from too much caffeine so I threw out the last of my third huge cup and promptly became overwhelmingly sleepy.  Finally I got the call that all was well, I could go to the post recovery area and sit with him and then take him home.
We are having a quiet rest of our day, napping and making phone calls to family and friends.  Dinner is already made and I think a big glass of wine for me is just what the doctor would order if she were here. Pain pills for the mister and a piece of home made apple pie a la mode.  We're so happy that he got to come home!!!

The Tulip

...the story of a flower that has made men mad.  Greed, desire, anguish and devotion have all played their part in the development of the tulip from a wild flower of the Asian steppes...the tulip arrived from Turkey and took the whole of Western Europe by storm".  This an exerpt from a book I have called "The Tulip" by Anna Pavord.  Instead of being a gardening book, it is the story of the history of the tulip through the ages.  We discovered that the tulip has great historical and artistic significance in Turkey where many of the sultans gardens are covered in tulip beds.  The tiles that line the walls of the palaces are different variations of stylistic tulips twining their ways around the rooms in gorgeous patterns.

We are so fortunate here in Western Washington to have glorious fields of tulips growing each April in the Skagit Valley around La Conner and Anacortes.  Yesterday afternoon, our first sunny 65 degree day of the year,  Dennis and I took a drive up to the tulip fields.  We left our house in the early evening and got up there when the crowds were leaving so we had a wonderful hour of wandering and photo taking.

Happy Easter and happy Spring

They call me the finisher

I'm on a roll these days.  I decided that I was tired of looking at my unfinished business and so have gotten busy doing some finishing.  The hedgehog is actually a new little project  because I am better at starting something than finishing it.  He was easy and completed while I watched a marathon session of NCIS repeats.  Mark Harmon inspires me to be a better person. heh

 These socks are another matter.  I started them last October maybe?  I'd have to check on Ravelry, however I lost interest in the second sock towards the end.  Even though I knit them at the same time, I just couldn't manage to finish them.  Well, yesterday I said enough is enough.  It is cold out and I need some new socks.  So...I got them done.  They feel great and will be worn a lot here because Spring in the PNW is not warm.

Well it is about time!

*ahem*  I'm embarrassed to report that this shawl sat on my loom for over a year with only a little more weaving yet to go.  For some reason it was not calling my name.  Every time I passed it in the living room I would avert my eyes thus rendering it invisible.  After a while I didn't even have to avert my eyes, it HAD become invisible to me.  Until a week or so ago.  Then it became the only thing I would see when I passed through the room.  It began to call my name in despair.  It needed to be finished.  By me.  Now.  So I did.  And I am so happy with it and myself.  I felt like it had taken on a life of its own and was giving me the 'hairy eyeball' every time I looked at it.  If anyone else reads this post but me,  and you have unfinished business, you will know exactly what I am talking about.

Sewing and Food

Doing a little sewing today.  Spent yesterday cutting little 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 inch squares to sew into the above.  I'm trying out my new 1/4 foot on my very old SInger Featherweight machine.  It is working like a charm, keeping my seams even and yes, 1/4 inch.

Sunlight finally comes to Puget Sound

I think this should have made headline news.  We have been so sunlight starved here that myself and many of my friends were going batty from lack of sunlight and never ending drizzly grey days.  Except for Rebecca who escaped to sunny San Diego on Thursday.  Yesterday started out the same as usual, a brief peak of blue sky early in the morning followed by grey and rain.  Most all day.  It even made me lapse into lethargy and fall asleep on the sofa reading a book.  Then at about 5PM I walked into the kitchen and whoa!  The sun came out and made this pretty pattern on the wall.  Definitely a gift.  Today it is back to grey as usual but that little burst of sun yesterday has kept me from running into a wall with madness today.

Red roses for love and to celebrate a working fistula with great blood flow.  The Mr. doesn't need to start dialysis yet but this will be his lifeline when he has to start.  The plan is to go with continuous nocturnal peritoneal dialysis first with the fistula as backup for hemodialysis if the need should arise.  A good site to read about this is here.

Lastly...I've been quilting again for the first time in about 30 years.  I'm about 2 weeks away from finishing hand quilting my first project and have been itching to get at some more fabric.  I want to make a mini quilt/wall hanging so that I can practice machine quilting with my new walking foot.  So, I went down to a local shop called The Fabric of Life run by our friend Carol Schillios to get some fat quarters to start making a new project.  I love the idea of this shop.  Carol helps young women who have been living on the streets of Mali Africa by sending them to a craft trade school there called 'Here Je' to learn a trade and then helps them obtain a micro loan to start their businesses.  She brings the wares to her shop in Edmonds to sell, all staffed by volunteers.  The fabrics are hand dyed and stamped with designs - they are so beautiful.  Now I'm off to give them a wash and start cutting.