A major happy dance occurred this week as the final stitches
were put into Bluebell, and I completed work on the six
squares that comprise the Cottage Garden series by
Country Cottage Needleworks. So here is Bluebell....


And here is the whole piece. It's a rainy, dull day here today
so this is the best that I can do with the light coming in the
windows, and with the adjustment settings on my i-photo.
Violet and Daisy appear washed out here, and they are
lighter then the others due to the threads used to stitch them,
but they look fine in real life. I'm very pleased that I managed
to stitch this entire project in less then a year.


I needed a new project for this week, but didn't have much
time to fuss and rummage through my stash, so ended up
grabbing my very first Lizzie Kate project. This is "Bone
Appetit" from Halloween Thrillogy. I'm stitching it on
28 count Queen Anne's Lace Jobelan. I've also messed up
stitching the bone (Aaarrrgghhh!!) and will have to take a
closer look at it later and make the necessary repairs.
That's what I get for stitching in the uncertain light at the
hospital. I may have to backstitch the bone too, to make
it stand out more.


I did a bit of exploring on the site for the On Line Needlework
show during the week and have chosen my favourite design.
This is Hitchin' a Ride by Lavender Wings designs and I love
it. Okay, so the sheep is wearing the colours of the American
flag...but maybe I can adjust them to reflect the Canadian flag
colours instead. Wonder if there's somewhere on line where I
can find a Maple Leaf pattern to stitch as well. Oh well, I'd
probably stitch it as is. This is just so cute!!


I was in the bookstore last week. I picked up a couple of books
that were on sale, and a couple that just caught my fancy. The
sale books were the Mary Higgins Clark and the Isabel Allende
book. The books that just happened to jump into my arms (as
books tend to do when I'm browsing around a store) were L.J.
Smith (Vampires again...) and Carolly Erickson.


I started and finished the Carolly Erickson novel The
Tsarina's Daughter during my weekly commute this
week. Carolly Erickson usually writes historically
factual books about the many colourful characters
from the past, but lately it seems she's also been
writing the odd fictional book based on historic figures.
This is one of those books.

It tells of the life of the Tsar's second daughter
Tatiana as she grows up in the Russian court,
experiences the upheaval and turmoil of the
Russian revolution, and falls in love with a
young soldier that she nurses back to health
during the first World War. It's established
right at the beginning of the book that Tatiana
survived the massacre of the Tsar and his
family, and lived a long and full life while
hiding her true identity.

I've been fascinated by Russian history in
general, and by the lives of the Russian
royal family in particular, for many years.
The incredible, colourful history that
Russia has, the quirky and often odd
members of the Russian nobility, the
sadness and tragedy of the last Tsar and
his family, and the mystery regarding the
fate of one of the Grand Duchesses all
combine to make for compelling and
compulsive reading.

Although I did enjoy reading this book,
I would have liked more from the author.
I guess I wanted more history, more
detail and more adherence to the true
history of the main characters, instead
of a romanticised version.

It annoyed me that Erickson made three of
the young duchesses pretty unlikable, while
making Tatiana the one with the best attributes.
Surely all the girls had their good and their
bad points, and should have been written
as such. Then I would have cared more
about their fates, and become more emotionally
involved in the story then I did. And I'd like to
think that they were closer to each other in real
life then they were as written in this book.

I think Erickson did do a good job of writing
about the characters, their phobia's and their
faults, when writing about Nicholas and
Alexandra...the Tsar and Tsarina. Two people
who were entirely unsuited for the roles that
they were born into.

An okay read but not a spectacular one.

*******************************************

Mom was deemed well enough by the Doctor this
week to leave the hospital, but not strong enough
to return to the retirement residence. Since she
disagreed with him on that point the Doctor was
wise enough not to try and argue with her. He
just arranged for the head nurse at the residence
to visit her one day to assess her and make the
decission. As it happened, the owner of the
residence also came along. They both agreed
with the Doctor's assessment. So did I. Mom
isn't happy about it, but deep down I suspect
that she knows we're all right.

So the paperwork is being finalized to transfer
her next week to a Rehabilitation facility, where
she'll stay for about a month. They'll get her
back on her feet and gradually build up her
strength and stamina so that she can return
to the residence and resume her life there without
concerns about the potential of her not being
able to look after herself, or of falling.

The downside is that any of the Rehab centres
that she might go to are not close by. So I won't
be able to visit her every night, as I've been
doing during the month that she's been in
hospital. She isn't going to like that.

And to add to the fun is the fact that DH has
come down with a cold, which means he has
to stay away from her until he's well again.
And I think that I'm coming down with it now
too. Oh joy!

We want to take her to whichever Rehab centre
she'll be moved to ourselves, to help settle her in
and make the transition more acceptable to her.
It'll be next Wednesday that she goes, so hopefully
we'll both be healthy by that time.

Dani, I'd love to go to the Creative Sewing show
in October, but since Mom will probably still be in
the Rehab place at that time I doubt that I'll be
able to go. But I'll make note of the date and
stuff, and who knows. I'll keep you posted.

I'm going for my first mammogram on Monday,
so have the day off of work for that. Hope it'll
be okay to go even if I'm sick. Guess I'll have to
play it by ear.


Well, I'm going to go have some lunch, and then get
ready to head over to the hospital. I'll leave you
with a picture of Rupert giving Phoebe a wash,
which was taken last week.

Thanks for stopping by. Take care all and have
a great stitching week.

Cheers