One Year Ends, Another Begins

I know it's not quite 2012 here yet but my regular readers will know how rubbish I am at posting so thought I'd do it today while I'm in the mood lol.
First of all I have lots of updates on my life in general since my last post so here goes.
The day after I posted last I had an appointment with my doctor about my depression and we agreed to keep going as things are, taking one day at a time and hoping that the second operation on my coccyx would prove to give me some relief again, along with waiting for my counselling to start and also hoping to get approval from our NHS trust to be referred for a coccygectomy if necessary.
Anyway, I went home and a couple of hours later had a call from my doctor who said he'd just chased the trust again and they had given approval, so he was in the process of referring me for the coccygectomy! Then later that afternoon I had another phone call, from the counsellor this time, who said that she had had a cancellation and was I interested in starting my sessions on the Friday!!! So within 24hrs everything changed.
So as of now my pain after my second operation is greatly reduced and I'm taking it one day at a time and hoping it lasts as long as possible. I've had a letter from the hospital about the referral for the coccygectomy and will be making my first appointment in the New Year to start looking into that if it comes to it. I've also had a couple of counselling sessions which although so far I don't feel have had any benefit, I'm trying to keep an open mind about.
Now onto what this blog is meant to be about, stitching! One very welcome result of being in a lot less pain with my coccyx is that at the moment I'm able to sit comfortably for much longer than I was and so my stitching time has increased again finally!
I haven't been following a rotation, have just stitched on what I've wanted when I've wanted really, except for my SAL with Sally on Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Men which we have been doing on a Wednesday night. Here is a pic taken this morning with it as it stands.
I'm really enjoying stitching on this although have to say everytime I stitch a snowy design I wonder why because I hate stitching with white lol! The solution I think I've found is to do a bit of white then when I get bored I move onto a different area with another colour, and so on.
I've also stitched some more on my Nouveau Encore Designs Personalised Sampler and have finally finished my 8th page out of 20. This page seemed to go on forever as it overlaps quite a bit onto the other pages, but hopefully when I get to those pages they won't take as long lol. I still can't seem to get decent pics showing the true gorgeous colour of the silk, maybe in the Spring when we get some brighter weather lol.And my final stitching has been on my HAED QS Alisha. I don't know how but I did finally manage to get a pic which shows the true colours of this one, they are so yummy!
I'm so happy that because I'm able to sit and stitch for longer at the moment I seem to have got my enthusiasm for my stitching back again, and so I'm hoping to work things out and get back to a rotation in the New Year. Sally and I were chatting a few weeks ago and if you read her blog you'll know that she has decided to try to stitch only from her stash for the first half of 2012, except for any fabric and threads needed to complete charts she already has, within reason. Well mad woman that I am I decided that this seemed like a good idea because I already have more stash than I and probably all my lovely blogging friends can stitch in our lifetimes haha! So I have agreed to join Sally in her challenge which will begin on 1st Jan. Funny thing is, I seem to have volunteered to start my challenge early as I saw some charts a couple of weeks ago that I would love to get. However when I was looking for my New Year's Day start which I'm happy to be doing with Sally again (Kelmscott Miniature Monogram Hornbook this year) I came across yet more charts that I'd forgotten I had, and it just reminded me how much stash I have and how much I'd love to actually stitch some of it in 2012 instead of just collecting it lol! I've also had some gifts half kitted up for at least a couple of years which I'd really like to get stitched so that I can give them to the recipients in 2012, so I've dug those out as well.
I was trying to see earlier by going back through my old posts if I'd recorded how many wips/ufos I started 2011 with, but I unfortunately I didn't. I do have a strange feeling that it was 11, and I currently have 10, so I'm going to say that that's progress hehe. So in order that I can keep track of my stitching in 2012 I'm making a list of those wips/ufos now. I've decided that my main goal for 2012 is to reduce that list by another one, so getting it down to 9 lol. Keeping this in mind will also hopefully stop me getting too carried away with new starts, although I do have several planned, but the idea is to keep them reasonable so they can all be finished in 2012. In my dreams I'd love to finish QS Alisha and my Personalised Sampler in 2012, but I'm sure I said that at the beginning of this year and it didn't happen, so we'll see.

1. HAED QS Alisha
2. Nouveau Encore Designs Personalised Sampler
3. LK 6 Fat Men
4. HAED Cabin In The Woods
5. HAED SK Moon Fantasy
6. HAED Romeo & Juliet
7. HAED QS Garnet
8. HAED QS Always Dreaming
9. Cross My Heart School Of Dolphins
10. L&L Celtic Autumn Alternative Colours

As for planned new starts, these are:-

1. Kelmscott Miniature Monogram Hornbook (New Year SAL with Sally).
2. Prairie Schooler September (gift for DH who really loves this design which means it's a must stitch as he doesn't usually show much interest in my stitching lol) Aiming to stitch this when he's on a late shift at work etc so that I can do it in secret.
3. LHN Gentle & Kind (gift for DH's Nana).
4. LHN Quilting (gift for MIL).

Obviously I have loads more ideas for things I'd like to start, but those are at the top of the list for now. Rotation wise I'm going to try going back to a rotation:-

Mon - HAED QS Alisha
Tue - LK 6 Fat Men SAL with Sally
Wed - PS September (DH is usually out on a Wed)
Thur - LHN Gentle & Kind/Quilting (haven't decided which to start first)
Fri/Sat - Nouveau Encore Designs Personalised Sampler (have decided to try to focus on this and hopefully make good progress by stitching on it two nights a week)
Sun - Free Choice (this way if I'm really enjoying one of my wips I can give it some extra time, or if I miss a night stitching on something because we're busy or whatever then I have a chance to catch up).

Well, that post turned into a bit of a marathon I'm afraid, congratulations if you're still here and still awake! lol I hope you all have fun seeing in the New Year in a couple of days, and that 2012 is everything you hope for. I'm nervous of what the year may bring with my depression, possible major operation, counselling etc, but also hopeful that it is going to be better than 2011 has been, and that I'll be able to do lots of lovely stitching along the way.
Til next time, hugs and happy stitching...

Don't Know Where To Start

It's been so long since my last post, although I've been wanting to blog for a couple of week just thinking about it has made me feel totally overwhelmed as I had no idea what to say.
So I thought the best thing would be just to do a quick post which will hopefully get me back into it a bit and I can then go from there.
The last couple of months have been really tough for me, my depression seemed to come back with a vengeance all of a sudden and nothing I tried helped. I did end up visiting my doctor who put me on medication but they actually made me feel worse, along with some unpleasant side effects, so I stopped taking those a couple of weeks ago. For now I'm just taking it day by day and hoping that one day soon things start to get easier. I'm seeing my doctor on a fortnightly basis to make sure things don't get out of hand and have also been accepted for counselling but unfortunately there's a waiting list so I have about another 2/3 months left to wait I think before that will start.
I've also been in a lot of pain with my coccyx problems again, the pain unfortunately had got to the point where it was a lot worse than before my first operation in April which helped me be more or less pain free for 3 months. Anyway, I'm pleased to say that my consultant agreed to do the same operation again, which I had done on 25th November, and although it's still early days I'm hoping that it's worked again and I might be lucky and get longer than the 3 months relief this time. I'm also waiting to find out if my local NHS Trust will agree for me to be referred out of the Trust to enable me to see if I can actually have my coccyx completely removed. It's a major operation with up to a year recovery afterwards, but my consultant thinks I'm an ideal candidate for it because of my symptoms and reaction to the treatments I've had so far, and as I can't have the op I've just had done again because of the long term side effects then it's really my only option. At first I said there was no way I wanted the removal because of how major it is, but then I got to thinking that I'm 38 now and in chronic pain on a daily basis, with maybe 40 years life left in me. I really don't know if I can handle the thought of another 40 years in this much pain, so maybe up to a year recovery for the big op if it works would be worth it. Anyway, the decision might be taken out of my hands if I'm not approved, so guess I'll just have to wait and see and hope for some relief from the recent operation for now.
Stitching wise I'm afraid I've managed very little over the last couple of months because of the pain. I can't sit in my normal stitching position at the moment and the position I now sit in I can't do for long as I get stiff and achy, so when I have stitched it's just been for a little while, and I've often had several days in a row when I've not even picked it up :( I use my stitching as stress relief and relaxation so it's really hard not to be able to fall back on it like I used to. But I have managed a couple of finishes. First up is the IStitch Mystery SAL which I was determined to keep up with. I stitched this 1x1 on a piece of 28ct unknown hand-dyed fabric using a skein of Vikki Clayton's HDF silk.
My other finish is my 2011 Christmas ornament for our tree. I've stitched an ornie for our tree for as long as I can remember now. This year I told DH and DD that I really didn't think I'd be able to do it because of how little I've been stitching, but when I saw their dismayed faces I knew I had to try. So as this Shepherd's Bush Merry Be came as a kit I thought it would be the easiest option. I really enjoyed stitching it as it turns out, but the finishing cause me a lot of stress! I've never done ribbon edging before and it took me about a week to work myself up to do it, but I'm ecstatic with the results and I've learned several lessons for when I do this sort of finishing again.
I also had a new start but haven't taken a pic yet. Sally and I began a SAL of Lizzie Kate's Six Fat Men a while back and I'm really enjoying it. I've stitched the first chart, Snowed In I think it is, and am about halfway through the next, Snow Friends. Last night I stitched on it for longer than I've stitched in one go in a good while and it felt so good, here's hoping things are starting to improve.
Well, if you're still here and made it through thanks so much. I hope to be back soon with a pic of Six Fat Men, positive news on the operation etc and talk of Christmas which will soon be here!