August 2008Monthly Archives

Shoulder Update

Well, it’s 95% likely there will be no tri for me in October. I’m home from the ortho (who is a triathlete and sports medicine specialist) and have learned that the arthrosis in my shoulder is, in his words, “pretty severe”. In fact, he said that if I were a professional athlete, he would schedule me for immediate surgery. Since I’m not, he is putting in a request for physical therapy instead.

He did clear me to bike and run again, but to listen to my body and back off of those if my shoulder starts bothering me. I’m not to attempt any swimming until after at least a couple of sessions of the PT, and even then I can only do the breast stroke. I’ve been told absolutely NO crawl, backstroke, or fly for now. He said there is a slim chance that I might be able to do the breast stroke without pain and, if so, I could use that to still go ahead and do the tri. The only problem with that scenario is 1) since I have to wait until after I’ve started PT, I can’t get back in the pool until probably 4 weeks out from the tri which doesn’t leave much time for swim training, and 2) I don’t know how to breast stroke. *sigh*

He said in all likelihood, I won’t be able to do the tri in October, but said he absolutely could get me in a position to do one next year if I’m interested. He did say that if I were interested in continuing in the sport long-term that I would probably want to consider having the surgery. He intimated that it’s something I’ll mostly likely have to do eventually anyway, but understood that I probably wasn’t interested in having another major surgery right now since I just had the spinal fusion 16 months ago.

So, that’s where things stand for now.

29 August 2008

Misc.

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Yes We Can!!!

Here’s the video of Barack Obama’s speech tonight at the Democratic convention in case you might have missed it. It has renewed my interest in the Presidential race.

28 August 2008

Stitching

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New Floss Discovery

I just had to share about a new hand-dyed floss I just discovered. It’s from an eBay store called Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe (here’s the direct link to her floss category). This floss is just GORGEOUS!!!

Definitely click on the image above to see a larger version. I will say, as I always do, the photo simply does not do these colors justice! The subtle color variations just aren’t showing up that well in the photo. For a color point of reference, I have them on a piece of Maple Sugar linen from Lakeside Linens. I think this floss is perfect for those of us who enjoy doing monochromatic samplers.

Her prices are awesome as well! Each tag is $2 each which contains 20 yards of floss (DMC base). She even throws in extra floss with each order to cover the shipping costs which are already very reasonable. I only paid $1.50 for shipping on this order since she combines shipping. She mailed them the day after I ordered them, so I received them in just a few days.

With this first order, I got a couple of misc. assortments to get an idea of what her colors were like and I couldn’t be more pleased with what I received. I can’t wait to start stitching with them! I’ve already ordered more. I can’t wait to see the pumpkin set in person! Here are the links to what I just ordered:

Pumpkin (Pumpkin B, Rust Red, Russet, Nutmeg)
Antique Christmas (Light Antique Gold, Medium Antique Brass, Antique Red & Green)

I’ll post pictures of these after I receive them as well.

Until next time …

23 August 2008

Stitching

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Vote No on Prop 8

22 August 2008

Misc.

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Fiber Inventory

Jennifer posted on the Mirabilia Stitchers board a few days ago inquiring about floss inventory lists for some of the over-dye fibers commonly used in cross stitching. I already had one for the Belle Soie silk line since I’ve been working on collecting a full set of them. Her post got me thinking about how I really should inventory my other fibers as well.

So, I took a bit of time this weekend and put together inventory lists for some of the other fibers I use regularly. I already know I have a full set of DMC, so I didn’t bother with that. I just went with the over-dyes. I have a couple of others I still want to put together, but at least I’ve gotten started.

Before I started filling them in with my own stock, I converted the blank version to PDF files and thought I would share them here in case anyone else might be interested. Here are the links for each of them:

Crescent Colors (cotton)
Crescent Colors Belle Soie (silk)
Gentle Arts (cotton)
Weeks Dye Works (cotton)

I think these are all current with the most recent additions to the lines. I didn’t include the limited edition colors from any of the lines, but there are extra blank lines at the end of each of them where additional colors could be added.

I was able to find a listing of some of the retired colors from Weeks. I’ve included them on that listing, but I didn’t have it for any of the other lines, so they are not included on those.

If you find these useful and choose to download them, please drop me a comment and let me know. Thanks and happy inventorying! Is that a word?

18 August 2008

Cross Stitch

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Halloween Fairy Update

I spent some more time today stitching on Halloween Fairy while watching the olympics. The original design by Nora Corbett had her face & arms stitched over two, but I decided to rechart it for over one. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. This is the first time I’ve ever recharted something like this.

Here’s my latest progress pic after 12 total hours of stitching time: