Silver lining

I’ve been unwell the last couple of days as my Crohn’s disease has flared up and I’ve been feeling completely miserable and sorry for myself.  As much as I don’t like taking time off work sick I stayed home yesterday and will stay home again today, just to make sure I’m 100% before I go back.  Working in a very small office with only one loo shared amongst everyone really isn’t good when you’ve got Crohn’s lol.

However, the silver lining to this dark cloud is that I spent most of yesterday stitching and intend on doing much the same today!   I worked on Travelling Stitcher and Growth Rings yesterday….

As it’s Wednesday today I think I’ll do a little more on Celtic Welcome, but may also squeeze an hour or two on Growth Rings again as I really enjoyed stitching on this yesterday.

Moonlight Garden

Not much stitching for me this week (again!),  it’s been extra extra busy in work trying to catch up with the work that wasn’t done when I was off last week.  Also, when I got to work on Tuesday something made me check the firm’s holiday spreadsheet where details of days taken, days left to take etc are stored.  I discovered that the two days I was off work last week for the colonoscopy had been taken away from my holiday entitlement for this year.   I appreciate that my employer is not legally obligated to “give” me those days off however, I have worked for this small firm for 22 years and in fact for the same person within that firm for the last 18 of those years, the same person in fact who is in control of entering information into the holiday spreadsheet.  I have also worked far above and beyond the call of duty on numerous occasions and without trying to sound big-headed the place (and in particular my boss) would probably run to a standstill if I was not there for a prolonged length of time.   I would guestimate that I have probably worked at least two weeks worth of unpaid overtime so far this year.  To be honest, this made me feel horrible (again) about my employment situation.  I wish I could afford to give up work or at least find another job, but jobs are scarce and at the moment Phill’s business is going through a quiet patch and he may have to lay his apprentice off if things don’t pick up soon so we really do need every penny I can earn, and the only good thing about my job is that I am very well paid.   Anyway, I immediately confronted my boss, who despite being a successful businessman, and a lawyer to boot, hates confrontation and gave him a couple of home truths – I now have my two days back.   Phew, if you’re still reading, thanks for listening and sorry for boring you all with my ranting!

On to prettier things altogether now.  If you have a look at Claire’s blog you will see a little suprise I made for her a little while ago – a mattress pinkeep.  She has named him Quills and has far nicer pictures over there!  The chart is a freebie from The Workbasket.

I stitched a bit more on Growth Rings and I also stitched on Moonlight Garden by Drawn Thread.  

Phill has just left to go to an open mic night, where he plays guitar so I”m going to find a good film to listen to and get some more done on Is That All?

A thank you and an update

I’d like to thank everyone who left a comment last week wishing me well for the Colonoscopy on Thursday.  The procedure itself wasn’t too bad, but it has taken until today for me to start feeling back to normal.  The diagnosis at the end of it is Crohn’s Colitis, but luckily only moderately active.  I have to wait for an appointment to see the Consultant at the Hospital in the next few weeks to discuss any treatment/management, but as I’ve been symptom free for a while now I think that it wil probably be a case of carrying on with a sensible diet and just waiting to see how things go.  You know the old saying “every cloud has a silver lining” – well the one good thing to come out of the last week is I’ve lost half a stone in weight LOL.  I’m sure it won’t stay off for long as I get back to eating normally but it’s good to see those scales moving in the right direction for a change!

I have been stitching this week, but not really sticking much to my rotation, apart from my SAL days, I’ve just been working on whatever takes my fancy.  It did take ALL of my willpower not to start the new Passione Ricamo chart I bought at Polstitches to cheer myself up a bit,  and if it wasn’t for the fact that I haven’t made a working copy of the chart yet I don’t think I could have resisted.

First up, my SAL with Claire – Is That All?  This is coming along well, Claire is still ahead of me though – you can see her progress here.

Next up, Growth Rings and Grand Marquoir SAL.  

And finally, Cirque des Triangles.  I got loads done on this yesterday and finished page 4, which is bottom left.  I wish a could get a decent picture of this, it looks so much better in real life.

I have been a bit slack on my blog reading/commenting this week.  I will definitely try and catch up this weekend, a lovely long Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, but as the weather is fantastic today, blue skies and not even a breeze, I think I shall sit in the garden for a while today and watch Phill working LOL.