Someone is sitting in my chair

I am finally starting to get past the swelling and nasty and uncomfortable nerve pain - that only took 7 weeks!

I get the purple cast removed on Thursday!! Yay. Then on to the next phase - which will probably include a new a different pain as I start putting weight on my foot. But hopefully it is a good pain -a "things are getting better pain"!

I have been up to the chair more and more. The chair is reclining but it doesn't quite work well enough to get my foot higher than my heart.

But it seems I was not out of bed early enough this morning! Somebody is sitting in MY chair! And not all that happy when I demanded she vacate!

A New Year.

Happy New Year!

I have been slowly getting better. My foot is swelling less and not turning such a deep shade of purple when it is down.

It has been a very quiet Christmas season around here - years from now when I look back on the photos I will wonder why there isn't a Christmas 2012 folder! I didn't even pull out the camera. I took a couple of pictures with my phone and that was it!

Jim has gone back to work after his Christmas break - I'm sure he is happy for the break from his Christmas break!

I have been able to be up in the chair more and more so I have been busy hand quilting the Civil War BOM quilt.

I have it in a puddle on the floor beside me and Jenny thought one day that it might be there just for her.

Merry Christmas from the West ( Wet) Coast

It has been incredibly wet and rainy here. I'm not sure if it is wetter than normal or if one wet winter blends into another wet winter.  Since I haven't left the house for three weeks I am certainly not the best judge of the weather anyway.

I am still trying to figure out the bet way to upload pictures and post to my blog from my iPad. I am still finding the most comfortable spot for me is in the bed with my foot elevated higher than my heart.  Within a few minutes of my foot being down my toes turn the same shade of purple as my cast and then the more they are down the more tingling and burning I suffer by the end of the day.

This is a picture of Jenny on a walk to Whyte lake in West Vancouver. My neighbour and walking partner took Jenny and her dog Django for a walk last week and took photos all along the way and sent me the Picasa photo album so I could enjoy the walk as they did.  That was such a wonderful thing for her to do. I go through the album often and I think every time I view it I cry.  But I know that this will end and I will be back!

A couple of pictures of Hunter and Phoenix

I am on my laptop - trying out the Picasa Blog This - which I used to use to post all the time - so I will see how it is working.  I have my laptop upstairs now and I have moved to the reclining chair in the living room - sort of -- I still get a lot of swelling in my foot and my cast is quite snug and I don't have a lot of room for swelling so my foot really needs to be elevated most of the time. 

These a couple of pictures of Hunter and Phoenix that were taken this fall at a farm close to where they live. 

Hunter is doing great.  He is so sharp - he just doesn't miss a thing!  He turned 4 years old last April.  He just had tubes put in his ears the beginning of December.  He is just a sweetie and Jessica says he is really growing up.   He wears the glasses to correct a bit of cross eye - and he used to just pull them off and throw them as far as his little arms could throw.  He has lost a pair or two.  When I was there in July we were running around a park in Jessica's neighbourhood and she said -- Where are Hunter's glasses?  I panicked and spent 20 minutes searching the ground where we were playing - and then decided to look a little higher - and there they were dangling from an inside branch on a bush - thank heavens I found them!!  But now he is keeping them on more often than not.

 

Phoenix is such a cutie - and she looks a lot like her mother!  And she is chatting up a storm!  She is a very determined little girl - much like her mother - and her brother.  She just turned 3 in November.  Her and Hunter will only be one school year apart.  I think it is so wonderful they are so close in age. 



This is a small quilt - I can't remember the exact size - 24inchs by 20 inches or so.  There was a challenge in my quilt guild - "In the Gloaming"  We were given two fat quarters of fabric - the black batik and the blue batik.  

" A Wound with a View"

 

This was a challenge for me.  I used a photo ( the photo below) that I had taken with a photo app on my phone.  The photo was taken from our deck one evening - as I had been on the deck with my broken ankle most of the summer - 2011.  Hence the name. 

I used all of the batik fabric as one piece for the to foreground and then the blue fabric plus a lighter blue fabric for the sky.  I had to make a line drawing of the photo and then enlarge it in sections and then I traced it on to fusible Steam a Seam.  I did a bit of thread painting for the moon and then used my friend Dianne's Shiva Paint sticks to blend the blue sky and add a bit of glow to the orange sunset.  I think if I did it again I would change a few things in the sky and the sunset but otherwise I was pleased with the result - and I won a ribbon for the challenge!  Yay!  

 

I am going to try to do a bit more blogging - as I don't really have much as to do! 

The Lion Finally Sleeps Tonight

So now I am testing the blogger app for my phone - which apparently doesn't work on the iPad.

Today is Jim's birthday. He is 56 today. And today is my parents 56 th wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary mum and dad!!!
Poor Jim is stuck spending his birthday with me - in my state. I can't even go out and buy him a card. :((. He says its alright but...... Anyway there is nothing I can do about it. He has invited a friend over for a Ploughmans lunch and a pint of his home made English bitter. He has been saving a nice piece of Stilton just for today.

He has been working very hard at all the various household tasks. He took the first two weeks of my recovery off work as I was basically on bed rest. Although I found it didn't hurt as much as Holly had exclaimed! Thank goodness for that. Holly - the orthopedic surgeon's receptionist had scared the stuffing out of me. Although it did hurt a lot and now my big toe is numb and tingly.

I am going to try to post a couple of quilt photos. The quilt is "The Lion Finally Sleeps Tonight". It is a quilt I made for Eric. I upload the pictures from my phone but I can't see where they have gone. So I am not sure what will happen when I publish this post.

My Left foot is --- purple

It's been a bit of a time of it!  Well mostly I haven't posted because I have been mainly working off my iPad and most of my photos are on my computer. So that's my excuse.

I am trying out posting from blogger on the iPad. This will be a bit of a test.

After returning from our latest boating adventure I had a big surgery on my left foot.

I had  -  are you ready for it-----
1. Arthroscopy and micro fracture of the ankle joint
2. Triple arthrodesis
3.  Calcaneal osteotomy
4. Bone graft
5. Gastrocnemius slide.

I was in plaster cast for two weeks and yesterday it was removed and all the various staples and sutures were removed and I got this nice purple cast - kind of matches the colour of my purple toes. I am doing quite well - all things considered. Although it has required a fair amount of medication to maintain my wellness.

I have been quilting. And if I like the way this blog post turns out I may try posting again. I am on crutches ( again) for the next 6-8 weeks. Depends on how long it takes for these poor bones to heal.

So we will see what happens when I press publish.....

Orca's

We had another fun trip up to Desolation Sound in September. Saw a small pod of Orca's around the Copeland Islands

Prideaux Haven is now a new favorite place.

I am trying out a new blog app for my phone - so thus is a test.

Jim is not an Orca!  I can't quite figure out the photo upload in this app -- Jim and I went swimming in Prideaux Haven.