Week Three and What Will It Be?

Stitchie Stuff - I learned to do Huck Embroidery this week!  Way cool!  I already looked in my new Nordic Needle Catalog and they carry the fabric.  Huck Embroidery is Swedish and was popular in the 40's and 50's.  The special fabric has threads that 'float' and you lay you floss under them without pearcing the fabric.   Talk about a neat back. 

And what a quick stitch. I need to look online for some books and add them to my Wish List.

So if I was busy doing Huck, then maybe I didn't cross stitch too much......not so!  I am pleased with my progress but I know I need to put in my "fast key".   The "fast key" is something my eldest used to say when she was little.   If she was poking along and we would tell her to hurry up, she would say "wait a minute, I need to turn my fast key" and would proceed to pretend to take a key out of her pocket and place it in a pretend keyhole in her tummy and turn it.   Of course that was followed by her zooming all around!  So, 30 years later, we refer to the 'fast key' when we need to speed up!   I am sure this is not a unique thing but wow, just writing about it I can see her at 4 years old doing it!  Where did those years go??!!??!!!

Health and Happiness Things went well this week that is until Thursday.    Funny thing is as the week started, my calendar was empty.  As the week progressed, my evenings filled up.   The ladies from my Board came over on Wednesday for dinner and to work on our final report for our grant.  We had a change of our Treasurer during this last year and some check register's were lost. This made it difficult to figure out our actual expenses for the purpose of the grant.  Thankfully each event has a re-cap sheet and we were able to grab numbers.  The new Treasurer is using Quicken so when we need to pull numbers to next year's application and this year's final report, we will be set!  I do find it rewarding to help people and 'my ladies' as I call them, are 25 years my senior!  I can only hope to be as active and vibrant as they are when I am in my 70's!

So anyway, what happended Thursday.   Well it's like this.   I take various vitamins and a thyroid replacement hormone each morning.   7 pills - Women's One-a-day, fish oil, flax see oil, Vitamin C, etc.  Often, I grab the pills, throw them in my pocketbook and pledge to take them at work.  Some weeks I end of with 21 pills in my pocketbook.   Get the picture.  The past couple of weeks I have been really religious about taking my thyroid as soon as I get up and the others with breakfast.  Then Thursday came.    Wednesday I carried the pills to work never taking them.  Thursday I carried them to work and took them sometime around noon.   Friday I carried them to work and took early on.  Thursday and Friday I was a little more agitated than I have been.  Not bitchy or mean just I knew things were irritating more than they had earlier in the week.  Definitely not much patience!  Wednesday and Thursday I didnt' sleep well.   Could this be related?   Doesn't matter if  there is no scientific relationship, I believe it made the difference.      Look Sunday is empty!  

Oops!   Where's Friday?    This is the neatest giveway from a BC/BS healthfair.   The 'days' slips apart.  Makes it great to pop off the Friday/Saturday/Sunday when you travel.    Friday must be in the bottom of my work tote!  Oh no!

And more happiness.....my daughter had her offer on her house accepted.   Settlement is something like the 21st.  Her sister and I are making the trip to the Boston area on the 28th to help her move into her new place.  We are so excited and so proud.   She has done this all by herself.   I mean literally. Shopped, toured, made the deal and got the mortgage.   It is not like I could do to open houses with her when she is 350 miles away.   It was kind of bittersweet to think this means she is never moving back to Jersey.....   I just feel so bad when she is so far away and sick or so far away and we can't do the fun girls day out.  But alas, she is a career woman and she listened well.   I told my children not to settle for south Jersey.  There was so much more out there.  And two have followed that advice with the third wanting to move.

And yet more happiness.....I was asked to join a private stitchers group.   Five ladies meet every other week rotating whose house they meet at.   This is an invitation only group and I am so excited to be included.  The last few years I have grown lax about decorating my house for the different seasons.....I think the silk forsythia stayed in the large crock I place them in until August.   I will have to be on top of that if I am having visitors regularly.   Face it ladies, we do decorate for ourselves but we decorate for others to see too.

My change of the Week  - It should be obvious after my rambling above....This week I will add to my growing list of pledges to  make sure that each and every day I take my pills at the same time, the right time.    Funny thing, the aggitation and crankiness I was experiencing, I have experienced before but never found a corelation.  Maybe there isn't one this time either I am not going to chance it!  I have dealt with thyroid issues for over 30 years, you'd think I'd be more observate and figured this out a long time ago.  I liked the positive mood I was experiencing, I liked the general sense of well being, and I like to sleep good at night!  

Work   I only stayed one night late this week and that was until 8 pm!  Who would think a secretary would have so much work?   It was a week of meetings! and work still needs to be done.   Plus I had to go to PA to look at new copiers for the Company.   Why me?   because I am a high volume user I guess.   And I find out that the joking remark to my boss about being in charge of the Annual Report is not a joke.   For the most part it is a scheduling and coordination thing making sure items are circulated and approved and submitted on time.  Remembering we can rate a man on how he handles kids, dogs and tangled Christmas lights, I plan to take me time and be thorough and on top of things as I untangle the string of Annual Report tasks! 

House  I am painting the small bedroom upstairs on this 3 day weekend.   I always seem to plan a project like this on a 3 day weekend.  On Saturday I took all the furniture out, removed everything from the walls and patched holes.   There was a 3 inch wallpaper board that I got for $1.99 a roll from Walmart and what a bugger to get it off. 

Today, I hope to breeze through the room.   Forturnately the ceilings are low and I don't even need a ladder to paint them.   By end of the day on Monday I plan for everything to be back in place and all the shelves, etc. hung.   I have a really pretty blue pastel plaid polished cotton that I want to make curtains out of.   It is all the more special because it was my mother's.  I found some blue in the blanket chest and will use it to line the curtains.   When I am finished, this will be my sewing room so as I put things back in there, I want to fold my fabrics to display in the cabinet with glass doors.  I also have an antique drying rack that I want Mr. Wonderful to put up so I am display fabric on it.   I don't think I will be able to do all that AND sand and polish the floor........I need to know my limits because I have a stack of reviews I need to do Monday before returning to work on Tuesday and starting the week right will be the foundation for another positive week!

now to stitch for an hour before I get the paint and rollers out.....

Reply to Blu - My initial quick search resulted in not much on the internet and seems only one series of books on Huck Embroidery.   I think mostly pillow cases, tea towels and tableclothes were stitched this way.   I can see it looking really cute on a little girl's pinafore.   My project is a needle case.  Thanks for stopping by and commenting!!