Almost a year!

I can't believe it's been almost a year since my last post! 

We have a new little boy born in April of this year. I'm also starting up an etsy shop! 

Finally, my bra fits!

I did it! My bra finally fits!

After what seems like a billion testers I got my fit down. No more floppy flaccid cups. 

Now to make all the bras! 

Late birthday present.

I am only a month late on my older son's birthday present: a requested Hobbes stuffed animal from Calvin and Hobbes! 

As you can see he isn't finished. This is Hobbes in the real world as everybody but Calvin sees him.

He's made of fleece and hand sewn. I despise hand sewing so I hope my now eight year old knows how much of a labor of love this is. 

Hurting so bad.

If anyone ever tells you that laparoscopic surgeries don't hurt they are lying. Liars, liars, pants on fire.

After 1.5 years of gut pain and numerous doctor visits and procedures, I had given up and mostly accepted the gastroenterologist's diagnosis of possible IBS.

I had always thought it was my gallbladder so I requested a Hida scan in 2014 but never knew what the results were. 

Last month we did a repeat MRI to check my liver hemangioma and it just happened to find sludge in my gallbladder so I called nurse and asked for Hida scan results: 39%.

I said, "I want to talk about this! Sludge and an old Hida that showed sluggish gallbladder even then?!"

The nurse, kind of snotty, asked if I wanted to speak to a general surgeon. Damn right I do!

Fast forward two weeks and surgeon says, "Yeah, let's take it out."

He told R (husband) that there was so much inflammation it should have come out a year ago. Dang it, doctors!!!

I caught this, they didn't catch it. I did. 

Now I had my cholecystectomy on Thursday (01/14/16) afternoon and they shoved me out the door screaming in pain. I spent all day Friday at the ER with barely any pain relief and the CT scan revealed fluid in my abdominal cavity. What did they do? Nothing. 

It's now 01/19/16 and I'm still in pain. Never underestimate the ability of the human body to find ways to torture itself. 

Christmas!

LI finished brother-in-law's fleece hoodie. Sorry for the lack of makeup and foundation garments and poor lighting; I was in my pajamas. I graded up from a large to a 2XL. 

Grandma loves her blanket. Minky is a slippery devil! 

I'm working on sister-in-law's fleece blanket now.

I got early Christmas presents: two new sewing buddies! 

Their names were sweetpea (the Siamese boy) and his sister Tiger (tabby). I renamed them Rick and Coral.

Yes, after "The Walking Dead" joke names. They are sweet as pie and cute as buttons. 

Sigh.

I'm using unisex Mccall's pattern 5991 to make Doctor Who fleece jacket for brother-in-law, leaving off the hood. The front is a princess seam and the center front is split upper and lower. I already graded the pattern from L to 2XL and put together the split halves to make one solid center front. I'm thinking about redrawing the side and center fronts to make one front since he's a boy and boys don't want princess seams, plus it would break up the fabric print if I left it as two parts. 

On a good note I finished husband's grandma's lap blanket last night. 

Still working on Christmas presents

We took a short family vacation to Disneyland. We already have annual passes and now my in-laws have theirs. We all stayed in their timeshare for two nights then we stayed in our cab-over camper for a night or so. 

Needless to say I did not get any sewing or crafting done for the time I was off work.

I am trying to decide how wide to make Grandma's lap blanket. The flannel is 45" wide, the Minky 58". I am using the edges of the Minky, pulling the selvages and cut ends around to the top of the flannel to self bind. I need to cut it and get it sewed. It won't take long, I just need to stop procrastinating. I even have the machine threaded and ready to go.

I have the pattern for the Doctor Who fleece jacket traced out and I graded up from a large to a 2XL. (I greatly need a cutting table since I cut on my floor and that kills my back.) The sewing on that should go fairly quickly.

I work today and until then, I'm watching my Craftsy class on sewing knits. She's a pleasant enough teacher, quite knowledgable, but says "um" a lot and constantly clicks and smacks her lips and tongue. It's a little distracting but she does give some good tips.