Spring Flowers

Just went out a little bit ago and took some photos of my flowers.  You can see some frost damage on some as we had a couple of nights where it got down cold enough to frost.  Am not posting any tulips as some are already bloomed and gone and others have not opened up yet.

These Pansys I planted last year and they came up early and are blooming so pretty by my front door.  Wonder if they will live over another winter?

The next two photos are of Candytuft which is a low growing flower that lops over my sidewalk every year.  Last year a lot of it died off but this year the snow drifts must have protected it more.

Some of my Jonquils/Doffodils are still blooming and some that grow right next to the south side of our brick house are done for this year already.  They are so pretty waving in the wind.

This last flower I could do without!  I have several large dandylion weeds growing and blooming in my flower bed.  Need to get them removed before they put out seed heads.  I think I would have solid dandylions everywhere if we did not spray for them each year.  I know the seed drifts in from the road ditches and fields so we will never be rid of them. They are bright spots of color when you drive past the yard but they have to be gone real soon.

 Have not gotten any sewing done for several days due to Dr. apts.  Saw my sinus Dr. on Monday and now am on several more things to control the bacterial infection and prevent more sinus infections.  Feel like a walking pharmacy.  Did find out from the culture of the bacteria and test on the different antibiotics that this strain is resistant to many oral antibiotics but did find one that would work (I hope)  With all the meds I have been on the last few years I have become resistant to some of them.  They assure me it is just this particular bacteria but it still worry's me as my only other choice is the IV kind.  I have wondered if that might be the problem but you follow orders and take what they prescribe.

My second Dr. apt. this week was with an orthopedic Dr.  I have been trying to ignore the pain in my right shoulder for months and the last month it has gotten worse.  When I had to start sleeping with a pillow wedged under my arm and against my chest when I slept I decided I had better see a Dr. about it.

The conclusion of the Dr. is I have a tear in one of the muscles in my rotator cuff on my right shoulder.  He gave me a cortisone shot and ordered a month of physical therapy.  I sure hope this works as I don't want to have shoulder surgery again if I don't have to.  I had surgery on my left shoulder in 2003 and it took me months to recover.  Granted it was more serious than originally thought.  With that one he removed the flexible joint near the shoulder at the end of the collar bone because it had much arthritis that were like points that were shredding the muscle/tendon, repaired the tendon, cleaned more arthritis out the the ball joint, then cut a groove in the ball and screwed in the tendon.  I know that is probably way more information than you really wanted to know - sorry.

Because of the screw the Dr. didn't want me starting physical therapy for 6 weeks and by the time I started my elbow and shoulder joints were stiff and I could not raise my arm above my waist.  It took 30 appointments with PT plus doing the exercises 4 times a day at home before I was done.  It was hard work but glad I did it as I have around 97% of my movement back.  Didn't think I would ever get that much back but now don't have much of anything I can't reach or do but don't have the strength back in that arm.  I suppose I could lift weights for that but just haven't.

Needless to say my right shoulder and arm have been a little sore since the Dr. apt. and more sore before the apt. and I have not gotten much stitching done on my quilt.  I did cut some more plastic today for luggage tags though.  A friend emailed that she had 30 more cut out and needed more plastic.  I think I am nearing the end if all who took plastic last month at our guild meeting make the tags.

I am counting down the days until I go to Paducah next week.  Will leave home on Tuesday and meet one of my sisters in Nebraska City.  We will drive to Kansas City to pick up our friend then head to near Columbia, Missouri to our other sisters where we will stay overnight.  Our niece will join us and we will head to Paducah on Wed.  We should make pretty good time I would think as we drove from Kansas City last year and got there around 4 pm.

We are all taking food to eat and snack on and have my bag getting full of goodies.  I will make encheladas tomorrow and freeze them plus will take some of my own frozen corn along for one meal besides all the snack stuff I have purchased.  I did buy a couple of local wines to take along too because we always have "happy hour" on our hostesses screened in porch when we return from the show each day.  Hope the weather cooperates for us to do that this year too.

My shopping list is getting longer and longer each day so we had better leave soon or I will spend way too much money.  John teased me yesterday after my apt. with the orthopedic Dr. that he guessed that I probably couldn't shop at all since I am to watch it a little on carrying heavy things.  He wasn't serious though thank goodness.  He is happy I can go and enjoy something so much and get a chance to spend time with my sisters and niece.

Happy Spring,
Lynn

Great Give Away

I Have A Notion is celebrating it's year anniversary with wonderful give aways for 30 days.  That is right for a whole 30 days.  It is not too late to sign up for all the give aways so go to the site and get your name in for these wonderful products.  Just scroll backwards from the most current blog entry to find the others.  There are only 5 days left of the promotion so don't wait too long.

Tomorrow the prize is an AccuQuilt Go - can you believe it.  Wouldn't that be wonderful to win!

To get extra chances to win I needed to post the link to the blog and shop here on my blog.  I don't want to be selfish and keep this to myself so here are the places to go. 
Blog Link:: http/www.ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/
Website Link : http://ihavea-notion.com/store/ 

 Good luck to all of you and of course I am wishing myself some of that luck to win a prize too.

Lynn

Taking My Baby In For A Check-Up

I had neglected to take my Bernina 730 sewing machine in for its 1 year check up last June and finally remembered recently.  I took it to the dealer where I purchased it and had it checked out, cleaned and oiled on Thursday while I shopped in Lincoln.  Don't get to Lincoln very often anymore so called ahead and made an apt. to make sure the machine could be worked on that day.

I have an extra bobbin with the spring for added tension so took it along and had him check both bobbins and reset the tension with the thread I usually use for piecing, (Masterpiece Thread.)

He updated my BSR foot plus I took my walking foot along as I had heard that they should be oiled occasionally and I had never taken it in so that was done too.  I have had this walking foot since I purchased the Bernina 150 which I had for quite a few years.

I did get my machine back into my sewing table but have not had a chance to use it yet.  Maybe sometime this weekend I can sit down and sew a bit.

I was told me my machine had a little over one million stitches on it already.  It was a demo. machine for a while so some of those many stitches were already on it when I purchased it, but WOW that is a lot of stitches.  I really wonder how many I actually stitched myself.

I did miss out on a snow storm while I was in Lincoln though.  (Really don't feel bad to miss it though as we had so much last winter and don't want to see anymore for a while.)  I left here by 8 am to get to Lincoln by 10 when the store opened.  I drove in misty rain the entire way and it was a little sleety when I got there but it stopped soon and was just overcast the rest of the day.  John called me and said it was really snowing like crazy here at home.  I guess it snowed pretty hard for a couple of hours but was all melted by the time I came home.

Lynn

Jammer Boxes

I talked about these wonderful plastic boxes in a previous blog entry and told you I had not been able to find them for quite some time.  These are great boxes for holding thread.

 

A web friend, Tich from Island Hame Crafts sent me the following information and consented to let me post it.  I didn't know what the boxes were called before this - now I know they are called Jammers and might be able to get them again so I am excited about that.

She wrote:

"I copied the following from the Internet a while ago, when I read about the 'Jammers'. You seemingly still can get the 'thread' boxes."

"Hooray!  Walmart toy section has the plastic boxes back for the little cars again (they've been missing for several years).  It's the one that opens on each side and has 48  little compartments that are PERFECT for lots of craft bits and pieces! Jammers are in the Toy section of Walmart – where they have the Matchbox cars. Whew! I just checked a nearby WM and the cases are still in the regular place @ the regular price ($4.88 each), so I bought two more. I'm glad to see that they're still there.

They may have them but you don't notice them. They are often on the very bottom shelf or up above on the very top shelf."

"If your store did have them and they are being clearanced, then maybe consumers didn't show enough interest in them. If you don't support the product, then you won't get it."

"You can order the "Jammers" cases directly from Plano. You have to buy a case (6?) but even with the shipping charge, it works out to about $5."

Plano Molding Co., 431 E. South St., Plano, IL 60545,

toll-free (sales and service) 800-228-9868,

mon.-Fri. 7:30a.m.-4:00p.m. (central time)

www.planomolding.com -

Jammers are NOT on the website.

You must call and order model number 5315 (48 car garage)

Until Later,

Lynn