getting back to "normal"

I'm healing, and slowly adding more activity

and learning some new ways to do some things -- like using a chair in the kitchen to sit down and put things away in bottom cabinets or scoop dog food out of the container instead of bending over (which puts more pressure on those little blood vessels in my nose)

it's a slow process (and I'm already impatient with it!!)

there has been some real progress on projects in the last week, however

the columbine piece is ready for the stitching, and I'm pretty pleased with the way it looks

 

I've been doing the stitching on this piece

there is a layer of silk over the top of this that I am stitching through right now

the plan is to finish stitching the background, cut away the silk that is over the wheel, then stitch or paint the tall grass over the top of the wheel and the bottom edge of the piece

so far so good

which means it's time to start working on the "map" for the big piece

the background for the mail boxes is coming along nicely too -- it's been worked down far enough now that you can actually see the outline of the boxes

one of the days that Benson and I went walking, it felt like we were in a cut from the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds"

the bare trees in our neighborhood were full of robins!  I had never seen (or heard) so many robins in one place

I know sighting one robin is supposed to mean spring is coming --- not so sure what a huge flock means

Benson thinks working in the studio is all about him hanging out with mom --- with the occasional posing for a photo op!

he has a new friend that he met on Wednesday -- the lady that runs the service we hired to come and pick up the yard each week so I don't have to do that (more avoidance of activities that require me to repeatedly bend over!)

on the whole, we all had a better week last week!