Now We Need A Few Henry Magnets

Good Morning friends! We are having hot weather now. It was in the 90's yesterday and it will be again today. I have been planting and getting yard work done here and there when possible.

I did have that first test shot a week ago. It was considered a "positive" result. The injection is anesthetic, which gives a lovely numbing effect. Problem is that I was then required to go home and do strenuous activities for 6 hours!! Yes, that's right! I was supposed to do hard work that would normally flare up my pain good, for 6 hours. =( Well, I was naughty alright. I did a lot of yard work. I pulled dandelions for over one hour straight. I stooped over to pull them. A very, very bad position for anyone really, but it really brings on the pain for me. Well, guess what happens after the 6 hours?! Uh-huh, yup, the pain comes big time. I could only have gotten 10 minutes done without the shot. I got quite a bit of yard work done, but at a price. And the fun part is, I get to do another test injection in one week. =( Insurance requires two positive results before approving the radio frequency burning of the nerves.

Thank you so much for all of your positive thoughts, well wishes and prayers. I appreciate it so much. I could literally feel you thinking of me. I absolutely knew you were praying for me. I felt it!!

So, I should have sewn up a new curtain for the bathroom. I should have finished off my latest secret stitch. I was positively itching to stitch a Henry magnet. So I did!

I used this freebie. I had to change it up a bit actually. I changed all the colors. That was a problem. Henry turns out to be a difficult color to match. A cross stitch book from the library has an apricot poodle literally the orange color of an apricot. So I went to JoAnn and went through the entire collection of DMC and found one floss color. I needed more. I like some depth. So I took a trip to the LNS and brought home Anchor flosses that work pretty well. To get a good match for his hair color, I took snips from his ear, head and tail. Then I taped them to a notecard and labelled them. ;) Why guess? Poodle hair grows back fast!

I stitched this over one using DMC and Anchor flosses on 28 ct light blue evenweave. I decided to experiment. Do you tweed your flosses? Well I purchased a few apricot and tan flosses for "Henry stitching". To get really good color for him, I planned to tweed the tan with an apricot color for the main body. How do you do that while stitching over one? I did not want him to be a nice tan with light orange ears. For his body, not his head, I stitched  the first leg of each cross for the entire body in an apricot. Then I came back with the tan and finished all the crosses. It turned out nice actually. I don't know if people do this. I just decided to give it a try. Never heard of it done this way, but if I like it, then all is well with the world right?!? =)

So two days ago sweet Mabel started with her disc pain again. We caught it right away, so she is doing better already. I do know this is from her running around the yard for days with Henry. She ran for about 2 minutes at a time. Obviously that is even too much for her. It causes that pain to flare right up. Last week they played a bit in the house. I do not think that causes her issues. It is the full out running. She also went for a walk with Madeleine two hours before her problems began. The vet told us to walk her 3 or 4 times a week, slowly working up to almost 20 minutes. I do not ever see that happening. Madeleine took her for 10. That is the longest she ever took her. She had been taking them together for 5, then 7 minutes.

It has really made us realize how bad Mabel's pain can be. Dogs just don't realize they need to avoid all aggravating activities. We will have to stop her always now. It is sad. Henry is 3. Mabel is 4. She wants to play. They are so happy frolicking in the yard together. It just cannot be. We want her to live. The vet has told us that one of these flare ups some day will be the paralyzing one.

Well, here is a happy picture for you of the two of them. ♥

You can see what the last year of being on and off of steroids and restricted activity has done to our sweet girl. Now to be fair, Mabel is on the big side of toy poodle to start with. And she has that hereditary "poodle barrel chest". Henry is a tiny toy poodle. He is 4 lbs. She is now 14 lbs. The vet warned us. He said he does not have one dog or cat on the steroid that does not gain weight. It is the trade off for keeping them alive.

Well friends, I want to stitch, I do! I can't though. Jacob graduates this Saturday. I simply must prepare our home for the future graduation party. Next project is sewing a linen curtain for the bathroom.

Sewing and praying,
Vickie