Great week off

This past week I was off work. The original plan was to just take off Wednesday through Friday. The stress of the year plus my boss will be gone for 2 weeks in August meant I needed the full week. On Monday and Tuesday I quilted. First I combined two row by row quilt patterns to make a wall hanging for my friend, Karla Sass, the Director of Ops for the rowing team. One pattern was from Gina's Bernina Quilt shop - it was the Knoxville Skyline and the other was from Atomic Fibers Quilt shop in Oak Ridge and was the mountains with rowers on the lake. Here is the finished quilt.

I was so pleased with the way it turned out. I can't wait to give it to her. 

The second wall hanging was inspired by Karla. She made me a sign for my office. It is the state of Tennessee in grey, orange and wood color. I took the plaque and traced it. Using wood material, I made the state and appliquéd it to some UT volunteer material. My daughter has requested it. Since it is her birthday August 4th, I am going to give it to her. Here it is.

A close up.

The rest of the week was spent at the Airport Hilton taking basket weaving classes. It was great! My first class was Wednesday night and was called Lil Twist by Nancy Matthews. It was a good class and I liked the teacher.

The next class was Gambler's Money Pouch taught by Joyce Smith. It was my first time working with cedar. Joyce was a great teacher. She strongly encouraged being creative with your pouch. I loved working with the cedar.

The bracelet you see in the photo was a Make and Take class. The teacher was not very helpful. But the bracelet was cute. Quick easy project.

Friday was my favorite teacher from last year - Billy Owens. Three weeks ago the material for this basket was a tree -a white oak tree. He harvest the tree and makes the weaving material. This project is called an Ozark Baby basket. He liked my finished project. One woman told me mine was the best. 

My final class was taught by Sandy Atkinson and is a Wind chime. It was an easy project but I wasn't crazy about her teaching style. It could have been she was tired. My wind chimes still need work but I will finish it.

I want to hang some beads from it, also.

Next year's convention is at Fall Creek Falls state park. I hope to attend and take more classes. I also intend to work on some baskets this year. My hands are killing me. Lol. I need to practice more.

Today was our second bridge lesson. Really enjoying learning to play bridge.

Catching Up

I promised to write and again and I never did. Life has been crazy so far this year. My friend, Carol is still fighting her battle with pancreatic cancer. She was released from her doctors on June 3rd to Hospice. It has been up and down since her diagnosis. We thought they would be able to perform a whipple but that was unsuccessful. While I was on my cruise in April, she was put back in the hospital. They had to do a bypass. Her tumor was blocking her stomach from exiting into the small intestines. She really struggled to recover from the two surgeries so close together and ended up back in the hospital. Our "Stitch and Bitch" group took her to the mountains for Memorial Day. We had a great trip and we were sure she would pass soon after, but she rallied and she is still with us. We are so thankful that she is still here and we can still spend time with her.

 

On June 24th my father-in-law decided to stop his kidney dialysis. As he told us, he has had almost 90 years on this earth and they have been great years. My children have been able to visit with him and say their goodbyes. He died on July 7th. He will be missed by so many people. He has always treated me like family even though I divorced his son many, many years ago.

 

I have followed through on my new year word - discipline. I have taken control of my health and my life as much as possible with all the things happening around me. The only thing I have let slide is my art. I hope to gain control of that soon and get back into it. I have been working with my chiropractor and my back is much better. My neurosurgeon said the only cure was surgery, but we are putting that off as long as possible. I have gotten a standing desk at work along with a balance disk. That helps take the pressure off my disk and strengthen my core. I had sinus surgery on June 3rd. It turns out it was a real mess up there. The week following the surgery was horrible. Couldn't breathe through my nose at all, but I am much better now. I didn't realize how much my nose was blocked. I am seeing a podiatrist on June 7th to see about getting my feet to stop hurting. I started Weight Watchers on May 7th. I have lost 24 pounds already! The best part - my sisters have joined me from the beginning and my daughter started last week. It is always easier when you have support.

 

I have had one great trip so far this year - a cruise in April to the Caribbean with Marian. It was such a wonderful trip. We left out of Miami after flying out of Atlanta. We spent the night before the cruise at a hotel in the Miami airport. That was fun. Once on the boat we discovered you could pay a little extra and use part of the spa which included a therapeutic hot tub and chiropractic beds. That was money well spent. My back didn't bother me all week! I went snorkeling for the first time and loved it. Cannot wait to go again. We took a bike ride and hike on one island, our snorkeling trip on a catamaran, a tour of the Barcardi factory and a shopping spry on our final island. We stopped at Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas, St. Thomas, San Juan and the Dominican Republic. It was our best cruise so far. Looking forward to the next one for sure. We had a cabin with a balcony this trip, but it did not enhance our trip any so we probably won't spring for that again.

 

Accomplishments so far this year:

87 books read

13 movies seen

17 plays seen

2 concerts seen

1 trip

 

I have learned to make yo-yos. That has always been Carol's thing and she got me started. I have 2 gallon storage bags full now. I am going to use the purple ones to make a wall hanging in memory of Carol. Purple is the color for pancreatic cancer. Carol sews them on pre-made quilts she buys from stores. She bought me a pre-made quilt in grey so I can sew my yo-yos on it.

 

I hope to be better at blogging.