Lola

Well the visit to Mum was full of ups and downs. 

We booked a new-to-us cottage about 15 mins from Mum's home.  It was only one bedroom, so DB had to sleep on the sofa bed in the living room/diner/kitchen It was nice enough,and the people were lovely.  It wasn't ideal with the sofabed in the living room, but it was relatively inexpensive.

Mum was a little under the weather, and her dog obviously had nouth problems again. I told Mum that the dog had problems again, and she made a vet appointment for the following day.

The Home is lovely, the staff are wonderful, and Mum is very happy there.   We saw her again the next day.  Her friend took the dog, Lola, to the vet.  We decided to wait until she came back, just in case.

It wasn't good news.  She did bring Lola back with her, but Mum had to be told that Lola needed to be put to sleep before very long. 

We had to leave later that afternoon, and Mum was mostly OK.

On the way home, we phoned to see how Mum was and was told that they were waiting for an ambulance to take her to hospital.   We asked whether we should turn the car round and came back, but we were told there wasn't any point as there was a long delay for the ambulance.

We got home on the Friday evening,  phoned the hospital on Saturday.  We got an update, and had a brief chat with Mum before she was moved to part of A&E where there was no phone signal and where they couldn't get a phone to her.

We went back early Sunday morning,  having booked a different place to stay.  The new place was just a couple of minuites away from the hospital.    W We went to see Mum several times that afternoon and evening.  She asked us to arrange for Lola to be put to sleep, before she came out of hospital. She said her friend's husband would take Lola to the vet.   

We weren't happy about this, it wasn't fair on the poor dog., She was a rescue,  and being bundled into a strange cr, with someone she barely knew, to be taken to a Vet 45 mins away and which she hated visiting, would be a horribly stressful thing for her.

So on Monday morning, we drove to a local vet.  I asked them if there was any chance they could come out that day to put a dog to sleep.  I explained that we weren't registered with them, and I gave them all the details.   I paid up front, and said we would be there to meet them at 12.00

We phoned the Home to let them know what was happening.    We then went off and visited my Mum's old house,  and then got to the home with about half an hour to spare.   

Lola had been staying in the lounge area while Mum had been in hospital.  She got lots of fuss and attention,  and even more so that last morning.  They gave her roast beef, took her for a couple of "walks" outside.  We sat in the lounge and played with Lola for a while, until the vet arrived.

My brother welcomed the Vet, and I took Lola along to Mum's room.  She got up on the bed, and we made a fuss of her while the Vet and her nurse sorted things out.    I asked the Vet if Lola would know we were there.  She said that, once she'd had the injection, she wouldn't be aware of much but she would be able to hear us. 

My brother played with her while the Vet gave her the sedative,  and I talked to her throughout, right up until the Vet confirmed she had gone.

It was the best ending she could have had under the circumstances,  and I am eternally grateful to the wonderful people at the Vet who went out of their way to help us.

Mum came out of hospital on Tuesday.

Snap

Still no embroidery done.  

I sent bought cards instead.

On the positive side, I produced some phot prints for OC's lovely widow.  A friend had kindly left her a beautiful frame photo of the friend and OC. It was black and white, and was taken on bonfire night, not long before OX went into hospital.  

It's  a lovely pic, and OC's wife mentioned that she'd love to have just her husband in the pic.  She got a digital copy of the original and sent it to me, and I did some cropping and did 2 versions,  one which was just cropped and enlarged, and one which had attempted to sharpen the image (which was a little blurred on enlarging) .   DH dropped them both round, and OC'sW preferred the unsharpened one.  

She asked if it might be possible to have an even bigger version printed,  so I did 3 sizes for her.  She's very happy.

....

I had a series of medical related appointments, none of which gave me any answers. 

I signed up for the Our Future Health initiative, and had various measurements taken, and a blood draw,   during the week. That highlighted some areas of concern and I was advised to see the GP.   I do have a GP appointment this coming week, so I guess I'll have to talk about these things now, instead of what I booked the appointment for.

I wish we could just get to the bottom of it all. 

...

My Mum has arranged a trial stay in a retirement home.   She's in a particularly lovely and caring place, and they seem very on the ball,.  We're going to see her next week.

....

It was our village litter picking weekend this weekend.  I did not want to go out and do it.

I'm glad I did, this time there was a huge amount of rubbish (2 dustbin bags instead of 1).  This was mainly die to the hedges being cut right back, and all the detritus underneath them being accessible.  It normally takes me an hour to do my road,  today I was out for about an hour and twenty minutes.

.

Procrastination - not always the thief of time

No, I didn't do any machine embroidery today.  What is wrong with me?!  I've got two birthdays and Mothers Day this coming weekend, and I just can't get motivated,

My procrastination today, however, was a triumph!

I made a replacement bag for my Pilates mat and ball!

I realised - early on - that I'd made a bit of an error in starting by sewing the channel for the drawstring.   I'd sewn the edge over with my seewing machine (first time in a very long time that she's had a bit of exercise),  and then I folded it over again and coverstitched it.

I hadn't considered that I'd need to leave a gap at the top of the long side, to enable nme to "open" the bag to put it on my mat.  I would be left with a raw edge.  However, I worked out a way to ensure that it wasn't a problem for sewing up the sides by quickly overlocking some extra fabric on to top of the side piece, then folding it over the raw edge and coverstitching.  Then I overlocked the rest of the side together.

It worked really well.  I should have realised before I started of course. And I sghould have just unpicked when I realised.   Buy, I didn't get cross with myself,  and I worked out a useable soluion, so that was a result.

I even managed to sew the bottom in without incident,   and I managed to get the drawstring through.  It looked very acceptable. 

And then I realised.

In my excitement at having worked out a slution,  I'd sewn up the side without putting the carrying strap in,  What an idiot!

I thought about my options for a while., If I hadn't sewn the bottom in, I would have just re-sewn the side seam,  I'd got enough space to do it.  However, I had sewn the bottom in, and I didn't want to have to redo it, 

In the end I decided to try just cutting two gaps and then resewing.  I thought abut what could go wrong, and took action. Firstly,  I marked where I wanted to insert the strap.  Then,  I used my sewing machine to zig zag along my marks.  reinforcing the seams either side of where i was going to open them.

I then unpicked the overlocking in the gap.  I inserted some webbing which had been threaded through a ring.  I then straight stitched it in place,  and then I went over this with a zig zag stitch many times.   I did the same at the other end.     I then did a lot of zigzagging on the webbing, to make sure that was reinforced as well,.  

Next,  i did a straight stitch, along my original seam line,, starting well before the webbing and ending well after.  I then zigzagged that as well. 

Finally, I used the overlocker to chop off the ends of the webbing, sealing it and giving another layer of reinforcement. 

It worked much better than I expected,

t would have been better if I'd just unpicked the channel.

It would have been quicker (with a better finish, this still has some bits that aren't great) i I'd just unpicked it in the first place.

But it was a good learning experience, and a great result.  I'm really, really happy that I saved it.

It's taller than I need, even with the ball on top of the mat, so I might redo the top bit at some point. 

Trying

This morning I hemmed all four skirts (the three the other day, and the one from a little while ago).

I also cleared and cleaned the table on which my machines stand, and put some haberdashery bits away.

I went on to do some clearing in the small room which had, as usual, become a dump.  I realised I couldn't find the little USB stick which contains the backup of the Orla registrations, so I had to try and find that.  I failed.

I've cleared and cleaned all sorts of places looking for it (the spare room, the klittle room, the kitchen, the hall table), and I can't find it.  It's very frustrating, as I want to sell Orla, and I need the USB stick.

My back is hurting now from all the shifting I've done.

I'm going to focus on the positives, to stop me sliding into a bot of a funk about it all.

Swings and Roundabouts

I failed completely to do anything with the embroidery machine.

At the beginning of the week, I didn't have the motivation/I had other things to do.

In the middle of the week, I had other things to do (and I didn't have the motivation).

At the end of the week, I didn't have the motivation, and I did other stuff instead.

I'm going to try again next week. I really am.   

 

On the plus side,  I made three (yes, THREE!!) new skirts.  The fabric had arrived, I washed it immediately, and I decided I'd better get on and make the skirts, otherwise the fabric would go in the fabric boxes, and that would be the end of it.

I had to clear the kitchen first, to have room to cut.  I whipped up the first skirt, without hemming.   I was worn out,   However, I realised that if I put everything away, it might be days before I got the energy to clear a space again.  So, I measured, cut, and made number 2, and then number 3.  I even cut and prepped a new waistband for a pair of trousers,  but I didn't get round to doing that.

All 3 (THREE!) skirts need hemming,  as does the skirt I made the other day.  I'm going to try and get them all done tomorrow.  I was going to do it today, but my back had other ideas,

Lewis and Shelby had fun with the pattern template, which had dropped onto the floor while I was sewing. It became a thing to skid on,  a thing to hide under, and a game of kitty hide and seek ensued.

I  Whatsapped the pic to DH (and Miss Teen), with the usual caption "Where's Lewis?"