Birthday Happenings & February TUSAL

Despite being stuck at home on short-term disability pending my knee surgery (date is still TBD), I just haven’t been in much of a mood to blog. I’ve been fighting a slight case of the blues being I hate the feeling of being unable to do things for myself. I’m far too independent for being in this state. Since it has been a while since I’ve blogged, I’ve got a few different things to cover. Here we go …

First up is my birthday which happened last Friday (Feb. 17). My friend Nick flew out for a visit and to run the inaugural Rock ‘n Roll Pasadena half marathon on Sunday (Feb. 19). This marked the 10th half marathon he’s finished, so congrats to him! Anyway, he arrived a few days before the half, so he was here in time to help celebrate my birthday and he really did it up right! He surprised me with birthday banners and streamers, and even ordered an Edible Arrangements “bouquet” for me in lieu of a birthday cake. Other than the chocolate on the dipped apples, this whole arrangement was full of 0 PointsPlus fruity goodness on Weight Watchers.

Edible Arrangements Bouquet

He also took me out for birthday dinner at Green Street Restaurant in Pasadena. The food was awesome and our server Robert took such great care of us that evening. If you’re ever in the Pasadena area, you should definitely check it out! I highly recommend the grilled fresh carrots that came with the Herb Roasted Chicken. Of course, the complimentary birthday sundae made with Dr. Bob’s handcrafted Tahitian Vanilla ice cream was pretty awesome, too! YUM!

Herb Roasted Chicken

Tahitian Vanilla Ice Cream Sundae

I guess I should also talk about my weight loss progress at this point. I was doing pretty well up until my birthday. Despite being unable to exercise, I still managed to drop 5.6 pounds in January. I wasn’t able to make it to my Weight Watchers meeting on Sunday due to Nick’s half marathon, so I’ll be heading over in a couple of hours to face the music of my birthday indulgences. Oops! I know I’ll have a gain, but I’m OK with it. I’m back on track now and that’s all that matters.

Finally, it’s time for a stitching update. I’ve been getting in a LOT of stitching time while I’ve been off work. I’ll start with my photos for the February update in the TUSAL challenge. The first photo is of my orts collected since the January TUSAL update. The second photo is after emptying the February orts in with the January orts for my year-to-date collection. I’m amazed at just much how I collected in February! It really shows just how much I’ve stitched lately.

February Orts

Year-to-Date Orts

I haven’t done any more stitching on Hannah Beeby 1816 since I posted my last update on that piece. I’ve mostly been working on Lady Alexandra by Mirabilia and one of the Petite Christmas Angels by Joan Elliott. The Petite Angel has been a lot of fun thus far. It’s my first time for stitching a Joan Elliott design and stitching on a hand-dyed fabric from Jo at Polstitches, too. I’m stitching my little angel on Jo’s Marbled Lilac Lugana fabric.

Here are my latest progress photos on both of these pieces. I’ve actually made a bit more progress on Lady A since taking this photo on February 12, but I haven’t taken a new photo yet.

Lady Alexandra by Mirabilia

Petite Christmas Angel by Joan Elliott

I know this has been a long post, but I think I’ve caught up on pretty much everything that’s been going on with me. If you’ve made it this far without falling asleep, you definitely deserve a gold star!

Until next time …