Meet Ryan!

I'd like to introduce you to Ryan Lennon Fines!  Born on Christmas Day, 2014 after an exciting and terrifying delivery!  Ryan has long gap esophageal atresia-which means that he has a gap in his esophagus so he cannot take feedings by mouth (more on that in a minute) this condition also creates excessive amounts of amniotic  fluid and usually results in premature delivery.  Poor Bri was just beyond misery at 34 weeks!  On Christmas day at 3:37 pm I got a text message "Bri's water Broke" the doctors had told them that should that happen they were to call an ambulance which they did.  Scott said it was a wild ride at 70mph down the highway with the sirens blaring!  Almost as soon as they arrived I got a text "emergency c-section" and Ryan was born at 4:47!  Momma hit every goal the doctors had--34 weeks gestation, he was born at 34 weeks and 1 day, and over 3 pds, he weighed 4.5 lbs--and watched her stomach go down as 30 pounds of fluid left her body!

I made a mad flight from Beth's house where we were eating dinner to my house, packed, got gas in the truck and drove to St Louis to arrive at St Louis Children's hospital at 10:30pm.  Even then Ryan was doing well, really red and on a little oxygen.  Mama was recovering and enjoying the fact that she could turn over in bed!

On Friday Ryan had a gastric tube inserted so he can be fed directly into his tiny tummy and he did really well with that as well.  Since he has long gap it will be some time before he has it corrected as they will wait for him to grow.  Scott said they will do a test next week to determine how long the gap is and that will give them more of a time line for the procedure.  He's tolerating breast milk via the feeding tube just fine and they increased his feedings from 2ml to 3ml yesterday.  Boy, a full tummy can sure make you sleepy! Also he hates all the tube and wires!  He pulled his nasal oxygen out more than once and yesterday he pulled his heart monitor wires loose-he really doesn't like the suction line in his mouth but so far he's left that one in!

Mama was discharged yesterday, looking much more like herself!  Ryan will remain at Children's for some time yet as he is a preemie, but the outlook is great!  He has none of the other birth defects associated with EA for which we are all grateful.

Our family's Christmas miracle!

My Studio!

For the longest time I called this the "basement" or the "sewing room" but I've taken to calling it my studio lately.  That name makes me feel like an artist.  Maybe that applies, maybe not-I think that depends on how much trouble my current project is giving me!  I sometimes have trouble bringing my vision to life, sigh.  Enough of that!

Pictures of the current state of my studio:

This is my new IKEA cabinet back to back with the old one.  Big space on the top there-perfect for wrapping gifts as well as stitching!  The drawers hold clothing patterns, large piece of fabric, felt and fleece.  Both cabinets are on wheels so I can have a really long, high top for pin basting quilts, or if I need them out of the way for a gathering. (The fireplace has not been lit since I moved in-in 2000- and in fact has a "Plug" of batting and fabric covered insulation board in it to keep the cold air out and the warm in!)

 Here you can see the two cabinets back to back, ironing board at the end.  I may make a large rectangular ironing space for one top then the ironing board will only come out to press trousers!  The other IKEA cabinet has twelve drawers and holds

fat quarters, ribbons, lace, and scraps that don't fit the scrap sorters boxes under the cabinet!

There's a six foot table for my sewing machines, as well as a four foot cutting table (on stilts to make it easier.) behind one of my Treadle machines "Grace" which needs some TLC before I can use it.  You can see a bit of my design wall as well.

My slow-stitching chair, light etc where I can usually be found in the evening; quilting, knitting or cross-stitching while I watch TV.

The doll house is in the corner-still setting that space up and thinking about the doll house.  This is one my Dad made for Elizabeth in 1986 for Christmas.  She only has boys and no place for it so I got it!  Always wanted one.  It does have a long way to go and miniatures have a pretty steep learning curve--may take a while.

Non-quilting fabric, quilt batts, yarn, etc have found a home in the laundry room where I can easily access them (especially nice that I no longer have to freeze to get something out!)

Lastly, these are the bookshelves that store my craft books, buttons and the grandsons toys!  Just to the right is the opening to the under stairs area that I call my safe place when there are serious thunderstorms, read tornados!  I keep a crate in there for the cat, as well as other emergency supplies May though October.  Quinn likes to go in there and lay on the rug at night.

That's it the creative cave!  I think I'll go down there now and wrap some gifts!

At Last-some show and tell!

I've been absent from blogville off and on this whole year, I hope to change that!

For those of you that don't know Scott and Bri are expecting their first child soon (more on that in a minute) and I have been busy making things for shower presents etc.  The baby boy (Alexander or Christopher or Ryan or Henry--not the be decided until he's born) has a gap in his esophagus and will require surgery soon after he's born.  So they have migrated from their home in Columbia, Mo to St Louis, Mo to be near St Louis Children's Hospital.  He isn't due until Feb but his issue brings with it excess amniotic fluid-lots of excess-and so Bri is a candidate for preterm labor.  Anyway, I'm sure that he will be fine in the end but it has been quite nerve wracking for all of us-especially them!  So I decided that I should give this to her before the shower and it's good thing I did as the shower has now been cancelled!  So this is my Version of "Moon Dance" a pattern by Kris Meares that I won in a giveaway quite a while ago. (Thought I'd never get to use it!  Now there are baby boys all over the place! Although it can be made for girls too!))

I have another small quilt to show you but the only photos are on my phone and want to be quite difficult about moving over to the laptop!  Maybe later!

I made an IKEA run last week for another cabinet for my studio!  It will be the same height as the other one giving me a very large surface for cutting out clothing patterns or a very long surface for pinning quilts.  Both cabinets are on wheels to allow moving them about.  When I get the drawers put together, installed and loaded I'll put up pictures of my new studio.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!  I'm hoping the four large drawers will allow my small fabric stash to find a home in the studio and not on shelves in the garage.  I think I'll store it by yardage, it's already wrapped around file folders and measured so that should be rather simple.

Also in the studio, I moved two four drawer cabinet units out of the laundry into the studio and am setting that area up as space to work on the doll house.  That's a very slow-work in slow progress.  I need to kilz the entire house and then draw up a lighting plan.  I don't think I know enough about how I want to decorate the house for that or for that matter how to do the wiring--Youtube here I come!

Perhaps with all the other studio tweaks I'll finally cut some shelves down to length to add to the bookcases in there, who knows?  Also I need to go buy a couple more project boxes-I like them as they are not too deep and I have taken to rolling up strips already cut for quilts.  It keeps them from getting wrinkled!

All this talk about the studio makes me want to be down there!  I'm off!

Grateful Day!

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Enjoy family, food and fun!

Now I'm off to load the truck!

Never in the Office

I am almost never in my office.  The place where my computer is.  It's like I moved my stitching to the basement, created a studio and never want to go any where else in the house.  Weird.

I have been very busy stitching and still can't show anything!  After the 20th of December I can show some different things, but for now you are stuck with this weeks cross-stitch update!  This is last week.

This is tonight.

There are so many thread changes in these patterns!  They are slow!  And I'm doing it backwards to the pattern-tricksy that- some unstitching is usually required.  I don't think I spent as much time on it this past week as I've been working on the deadline pieces.  (One of which I will finish tomorrow--Praise all the Gods and Goddesses!)  Then over the weekend I should finish another one leaving me with only two and one of those will be quick-I hope.)

I have changed a couple of other things around.  I am no longer making lists!  I was a total list maker for years, thinking that I accomplished more by checking it off but lately I've found it better to just decide at the moment what I want to do.  Of course, if I have a appointment or something then it goes on the calendar but otherwise I just choose.  Thing is many times I'd make the list and then choose to do something else so why bother?

I think I told you I was doing only one hour of housework daily.  It's soon going to be difficult to find enough housework to fill an hour as it's surprisingly quick to do most household chores.  Plus the house is pretty clean to start with now.  I LOVE THIS!  Now if my fifteen minute chores where going as well, sigh.

Cross-Stitch Stocking

Here's this week's update on the current Christmas Stocking (Kolby's)!

Last week

 And tonight

There's quite a bit of the beard of the Santa on the right filled in but it's so light it doesn't show well.

I'm quite pleased with my progress as I'm doing it along with other projects.  Perhaps I'll be able to hang this one with the others by Christmas.  Then I'll only have three more to make--Nora's up next, she gets Christmas mice!

Winter came!

The cold the weather guessers said was coming?  It came.  Yesterday, Quinn and I got up to a thin layer of sleet on everything outside and temperatures well below normal-like 25degrees below normal!  Today is cold as well but I don't mind-more time to read and sew!

I spent two days finishing up all the things I needed to do to be ready for cold weather over the weekend-finially finishing on Monday with a little painting outside.  Now I only need to fill my truck up with gas and buy some more ice melt and I'll be set.  I'll probably add some groceries to the house later this week but I'm pretty good there as well.

I've decided to spend no more than one hour every day cleaning house!  I had let things get to a mess while painting etc and it's taking a bit to get it back in shape.  By limiting the time I have to spend at it I actually DO it!  What can I say works for me.  I do have a "Suffer for 15" minutes clean up going on in the garage but again by limiting the time I spend at it I actually DO it-it will be nice to be able to find things on my workbench.

I finally got all the roofing wood off the doll house.  Spent hours scraping, pulling staples, and trying various solvents to take the glue off only to discover as a last resort that the glue was water based!  A wet paper towel covered by a plastic grocery bag and it peeled off easily!  This is the second time I've fought with removing glue only to discover that it was water based, hopefully the next time I'm confronted with old glue I'll think to try water first!

I've nearly finished all three secret tops, one is being hand quilted and the other two will be machine quilted in the ditch.  Looks like I'll make my deadlines easily!  That means I've had more time for cross-stitching.  I'll post progress on that later today.

Life is good!