Reminder about the new blog

Hi All!

I just wanted to post a reminder about my new blog. I noticed that there were still quite a few people still subscribed to this blog's feed and I can only assume you think I'm totally lazy. Truth is, I'm just being busy someplace else!

Come on over!

Here's the direct link to the Museum of Kitschy Stitches blog.

And here's the direct link to the knitting blog.

See you there!

It's Moving Day!

Ok, I’ve dusted, mopped, burned some incense and the fumigators have been over, so most of the bugs should be taken care of.

There are some big changes that I’ll explain when you get there. The most obvious one is that there are now actually two blogs. When you enter main url, you automatically go to the brand new Museum of Kitschy Stitches blog. That’s right, the MOKS has grown up and moved out on its own. There’s a link to the knitting blog from there, or you can just bookmark each blog separately.

And why, you might ask, does the MOKS have its own page? Well, I just thought it might help book sales if I started posting daily exhibits.

!!!

Come on over!

(Here's the direct link to the knitting blog, just in case I ever have time to knit again)

I Feel Like My Towel Fell Off

As you can see, my blog template went all screwy, including some of the formatting in my posts. I feel kind of weird with it looking so different, like I should cover up or something. What are you staring at?! Don’t look at me, I’m a hideous mess! Seriously, my butt looks huge in this blog now, doesn’t it? You can tell me. I can take it.

And what, you may ask, is the reason for this little episode? Well, my pets, I’m moving my blog to a different pasture. Hopefully it will be greener, but who knows. I’m heading over to WordPress and while all my posts were being transferred over, a lil’ gremlin took over and wonked things up something fierce. Luckily, all the posts seem to have made it to the new place in one piece. I was hoping to make the transition a little smoother, but what can ya’ do? No biggie.

Does anyone know if there’s a way to see all of the images you’ve posted to your blog using Hello? I lost some images that were linked on my sidebar. I knew I should have copied the template into a separate file. (this is the part where you’re supposed to go and copy the text of your template to a separate file)

I don’t think I’ll bother cleaning up the formatting here or trying to replace the original look. The switch should be done in a few days and this version of the blog will just kind of be lingering for a bit. I need to do some light dusting over at the new place before you can come over, but I think you’ll really like it. I’m very excited about the move. Once it’s presentable, I’ll post my new address and invite you all over for an open house.

Wheee!

Beware – This is the End of the Line for Cuteness

Are you sure you want to look? I mean, emotionally, are you ready to see the cutest thing you will EVER see? You might as well poke your eyes out after this, because there is simply no way for anything to even parallel it in cuteness, never mind surpass it. And yes, I admit it, I am just enamored with the inter-species love-in that seems to be going around the globe lately. (I’m going to regret using those words in that order as soon as Google sees them, I just know it.) This time, it comes to us from Malaysia.

You sure you want to see it? Once you see, you cannot unsee.

Last chance, folks.

Ok, you seem pretty determined. Here is the cutest freaking thing EVER.

Don't blame me if you get despondent because you've been to the top of Cute Mountain and there's nowhere to go but down, smacking your head on every rock that's just not quite as cute.

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Thanks to Cute Overload for the link, and to the original photographer, Kazzie*, for taking them. In her comments about the photos, she says that she spent an hour just hanging out with these two and the kitten was purring like crazy. Seriously, what more is there after this? I'm just an empty shell now that I've attained Cute Nirvana. I have achieved supreme encutenment, I'm ready to move on to the next level of existence. No, wait, Owen and Mzee are still out there! I can't leave yet.

In knitting news, almost done the Clapotis scarf. I would have finished, but I lost the piece of paper that had the pattern on it and I didn’t know how the last 12 or so rows go. Argh! Soon it’ll be off to Iowa. Hopefully it’s still a little chilly there.

In other news, Melanie is still in the hospital but doing ok. They’re still fiddling with her innards, but things aren’t as dire as they were a few days ago. Hopefully they’ll fix her up for good this time and she’ll be home in a couple of days. Cross any and all appendages available to you for luck. I printed out all the comments left for her with me and on her blog and she was so touched at the outpouring of support and good wishes. She sends her love. Now, give me some good blog gossip (real or fake) to give her. :)

It’s time for a Melanie update

I just spoke to Melanie and she sends her love to the interweb. Unfortunately, she is back in the hospital. She’s having some pretty serious post-pregnancy complications. She’s feeling fine right now and is being monitored closely. She has selected me as her Official Spokesperson. I wonder if I get a cool blazer with a badge that says “Melanie Action News Team – From her Uterus to You”. She wanted me to post an update since she won’t be able to do it over at her blog for at least a few days.

Here’s what’s been happening:

Last week, Melanie was admitted to the hospital with a very high fever. It was 104 degrees when she went to the hospital and topped off at a little over 106 a short time later. With Hydration IVs and a long sponge bath by her husband (unfortunately, not as sexy as it seems), it came down. It turned out that she had a massive infection from retained placenta left over from the second placenta she delivered. They didn’t diagnose this immediately because she wasn’t having any other symptoms besides the fever. There was none of the pain normally associated with it. She was given a D&C and had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days to be sure the infection was managed properly and that she was free of fever for a set number of hours. They found two types of common bacteria and were confident that the antibiotics would take care of them. She was sent home, feeling healthy and well.

Yesterday, she started to have some heavy bleeding. Enough that it freaked her out and made her call an ambulance. She went to the hospital, they checked her out, the bleeding stopped and I guess they chalked it up to being a result of the D&C. She wasn’t having any pain (again) or any other symptoms, so home she went. And then the floodgates opened. Like the elevator in The Shining, she was gushing blood at an alarming rate and took her second ambulance ride within a few hours of the last. She said the amount of blood was so much worse, that by comparison, she could have leisurely strolled to the hospital earlier that day. The had to transfuse her with 4 units of blood, gave her another D&C, and ended up removing a blood clot the size of a football.

Clearly, something is very wrong with our Ms. Melanie.

The doctors seem perplexed and have stopped sounding so sure that this is all due to retained placenta. But maybe it is. There is talk of this ordeal ending with a partial hysterectomy, so on the scale of deals, this is a Big one. But Melanie is very pragmatic when it comes to things like this and she’s not too traumatized at the thought of the partial hysterectomy. She said that it wouldn’t change her future plans too much because she didn’t want any more that two kids before, and she certainly doesn’t want more now. So while it’s not a great solution, if it happens, she’s ready to deal with it. She’s not looking forward to the recovery it will require, but at some point, it may be the only way to stop all this craziness.

When I last spoke to her, she seemed frustrated and tired, but still as sweet as ever. She’s as comfortable as you can be lying in a hospital bed while wearing a gigantic pad, not in any pain, and is wearing her badge of Medical Mystery with extreme grace. For the time being, the bleeding has stopped. Her mother and mother-in-law are now helping Dean at home with the babes, who are doing very well but miss their mum. She asked me to thank everyone for their well wishes and the many gifts she’s received. But she also wanted me to ask people not to send her more stuff because they don’t really have room for it in their little apartment, and I also think she feels a little badly that she’s not able to thank people the way she’d like to for all their kindness. But mostly, with one husband, two babies, and three mothers, there’s just not a whole lot of space. What she does love more than anything are emails and well-wishes on her blog. Now that her computer is up and running, she can access them and it really makes her smile to see the love in her Inbox or comments section. She said that through this whole thing, she can’t stop writing blog posts in her mind about it all. She’s a blogging champ!

When I know more about her condition or anything else she wants me to tell you about (maybe a really cute doctor for one you single folks . . .) I’ll let you know. She’s trying to stay on the down-low for this hospital trip, I really think it’s starting to wear on her and she just wants to chill out, so she asked that no one call her until she’s feeling more up to it. But by all means, send all the good vibes you can muster her way. She really appreciates all the support she gets from our amazing community here in blogland.

Maryse Wuz Here

Many people leave their mark when they've been somewhere. It preserves their place in history so that all who follow will know that they've been preceded by greatness.

Zorro leaves a swooshing "Z"

Gangstas leave behind intricate spraypainted tags

Maryse? She leaves sweaters on the soap.



It takes a lot to make me smile in the morning. Heck, it takes a lot for me to not wipe out entire countries in the morning. But this does the trick. Thank you, Maryse! And with summer just around the corner, the soap dispenser has been working out for bathing suit season. . . . hint, hint . . .

Last week, we headed off to Iowa for Jon's grandmother's 95th birthday and I am happy to report that I've discovered the secret to a long and happy life. Here she is demonstrating. I can't tell you how pleased I am that the secret hinges on two of my favorite things!



Sleeping and knitting (well, she crochets, but in essence, it's the same. Yes, it is. Pointy sticks, buckets of yarn, lots and lots of scarves. They have all the same symptoms.)

Actually, Edith is incredibly active, I just don't happen to have any action shots at the moment. When we arrived, she was just getting dropped off by the shuttle bus from grocery shopping. She does water aerobics a few times a week, makes hats and blankets for preemies at the local hospital, and is involved if a few church groups. She really is a powerhouse. She prefers the Word Jumble over Soduku, thank you very much, and has recently discovered a fondness for Vanilla soy milk. I don't think I could keep up with her, frankly. Now I know where my husband gets his fidgetiness from. She doesn't like to sit still, she's always buzzing around the house doing this and that, here and there. You go on with your bad self, Edie!

I got about 3/4 of the way finished with her scarf while we were there and I'm almost ready to mail it to her. I decided to do a thinner version of the Clapotis. She said the colors were perfect and this picture actually captures them pretty faithfully.



I'm really happy with it. The yarn, seen here, is Berger du Nord "Charmant". I've never heard of it before, but I'd definitley use it again. What the photo doesn't capture is the texture. It looks really shiny because it's 50% silk. But the other 50% is wool, and since it isn't plied, it has that gorgeous texture that's not rough, but lucious. And I just adore the way the bars of the dropped stitches look with this yarn. It's very rich and I can't help but stop after every pattern repeat to pet it for a little while before continuing. Good stuff, that Charmant. I got it at Neccesities for Needlework in Westborough. A few people asked about it, it's at 86 E Main St. They don't appear to have a website and I don't know Westborough all that well, but I do know it's near a CVS and a really annoying intersection. It's definitly worth a visit if you're in the area.

A now a message from Mama Melanie

Spring has sprung and so has Melanie! The babies have arrived and everyone is healthy and well. Melanie and Dean are in the most amazing state of blissed out exhaustion I've ever seen. She asked me to let everyone know that she's lost complete track of blogland, not only because she's now at the beck and call of two squirming, cooing little balls of cuteness, but her computer has gone and contracted it's own version of the bird flu. She sends her heartfelt thanks for all the good wishes and feels badly that she hasn't been able to get to her email or blog to thank people herself. But she did send a little visual message to let you know just how pumped she is about motherhood:



She's my new blog hero for allowing me to post this. Of course, she's ridiculously sleep deprived and probably isn't in any state to make such decisions. I took the liberty of touching up the more provocative bits in the photo. (Jon said the flower itself looks like a breast, so it didn't really help, and possibly made things worse. I like that it looks like she's wearing a big yarn flower pastie, so there.)

The pump she has is a modern wonder. It has a clear casing so you can see the mechanism working. I've never seen one in action and I just have to say, I'm impressed. Not so much with the pumping machine, but with the Melanie machine. Milk really does shoot out of there! Crazy, man.

And here is a fantastic family portrait taken at one of their many dinnertimes. I love this photo. Dean is holding Scarlett and Melanie is holding Blu. (See Scarlett's tiny little hat? Kellee made it in the car on the way over. She made one for Blu while we were there. It's fun to knit for itty bitty people!)



Scarlett is a little smaller than her brother, but they both pack a mighty diaper! All in all, I'd say that mom and dad are handling their new "Family-of-Four" status really well. Smiles far outweighed the tired sighs. I just couldn't stop looking at the babies, then looking at Melanie and trying to figure out just how they fit in there. They're not any bigger than they were a few days earlier, so there was some major baby origami happening. There's no way we're getting them back in there.

I predict that we're all going to be fighting over who gets to push the carriages at Rhinebeck this year . . . ME FIRST!!!