Three little finishes

Christmas gifts for three little sisters. This is one of my favourite designs to stitch, adapted from LA's Christmas Caboodle leaflet published in 1986. I have stitched nine ornments with this design in various colours this year alone, and I hate to think how many I have stitched over the last 20+ years, but I do know there wouldn't have been a year that I didn't stitch at least one.

September already ...

I couldn't resist the impulse to take this pic of Miss Maddie making herself comfortable on the lounge chair. This is her subtle signal to me that it's tme for us to go up to bed. It's such a pleasure to see her back to normal, when just 2 months ago it really did look as though she was on her last legs. Even the Vet is mystified by her recovery.

Here are my latest finishes - six little framed bead and button decorated Christmas trees.

I just framed the last of them a few minutes ago. There's no designer to credit - they just grew as I stitched - and they;re stitched on scraps of linen.

Another finish

A Christmas ornament for my 3 year old great-nephew Dylan. The designis by Kooler Design Studios, from the I Love Santa series in LA's Christmas Ornament book #3428 (2003).

Four tiny stockings ...

for four special children. I adapted this design from a chart in the Littlest Stocking series of Kooler Design Studio's LA book #3428, Christmas Ornaments (2003). It was charted to be stitched on plastic canvas, but I stitched this batch on 18 count Aida, tweaked the design a little and changed some of the floss colours, and I added the cuffs and the back, and made them into real little stockings. They are just over 2.5 cm (1") in width at the top, and just under 5cm (2") long.

I've lost count of the number of these stockings that I have stitched over the past 5 years or so. At a rough guess I would say 28 at least. These are my first for this year, and I doubt that I will stitch any more of these in 2011. But I already have two on my list for 2012, so I haven't finished with them yet!

Miss Maddie is doing fine, and getting away with some very naughty behaviour these days. I am just so happy to have her still, that I don't have the heart to discipline her. I'm going to have to pick up my act, I know - maybe next month! The vet was amazed at her improvement, and all but accused me of bringing along a healthy substitute dog for the visit (just joking - but she did ask twice if the medical record she had on the computer really belonged to Maddie). So, here's hoping the normal behaviour continues. All I have to do is feed her a low fat diet (which she is tolerating nicely) and keep her off the prednisone tablets she was on for her allergies, and withhold the cyclosporin eye drops for the time being. Not difficult tasks, for such a happy outcome!

Happy days ...

Things are back to normal at my house. Despite the warnings from the Vet, my little Madalyn has fought back to health, and is now behaving quite normally, and eating well. I am so very grateful. The Vet is still cautious about her prognosis, and keeps muttering about enlarged liver and spleen, but I'm just taking it one day at a time, and enjoying each day I have with her.

To celebrate her recovery, I have been making some beaded angels. Here are just a sample - in all I have made 84 in the past week. They're not as ethereal as they appear in the pic. Some of the angels will find their way into my 2011 Christmas decorating, others will be Christmas gifts or take-home gifts for Christmas guests.

Things are looking up ...

Maddie is much improved. Last Thursday the Vet was very cautious about her prognosis, and when the test results came back on Monday they showed liver failure, which the Vet thought may be caused by a tumour. The poor little baby was so lethargic and floppy that you could have mistaken her for a child's stuffed dog - except that she was warmer (she was febrile). The Vet pretty much said there was no hope for her, but he gave me some pain medication and food to mix with water and syringe feed to her. Within 24 hrs she started to improve, for which I am exceedingly grateful. She is more alert and responsive, tolerating her syringe feeds, drinking water from her bowl, walking a few steps, and has started to show some attitude - all good signs that she's on the mend, though she is still a sick little babe.

While I've been sitting around nursing her, I've managed to make one Christmas ornament (above). It's stitched on white 25 count linen (bought in France). The bear design is a freebie from DMC, and I added my own borders.

Sad news

I had an emergency trip to the vet today with my Maddie (12 year old Maltese). She just wasn't herself, very drowsy and floppy, and not eating. It doesn't seem that she's in pain, but there's obviously something major going on. I'm waiting for blood test results (which may or may not help in the problem identification), and not much the wiser about what's amiss. The vet suspects there's some intracranial problem, given that she did have a couple of grand mal fits earlier in the year, and there are some abnormalities with some of her spinal nerve tests. She's still drinking water, but has taken hardly any food yesterday or today. She has a bit of a temp, but the vet thinks that could be caused by the physiological changes in her brain rather than an infection. She may be having petit mal fits, but I've seen no sign of that today. I am so worried about the poor little pet. I am grateful that she appears not to be in pain, and also that she is not agitated, but appears very peaceful. I hope that tomorrow I can get her to eat some of the special food the vet has given me. She is still drinking water from the bowl, and I am also very grateful for that.

I just assumed that Maddie would be with me for another 4 or 5 years, and I don't like the thought that I may be going to lose her soon. The vet says that they simply can offer no treatment if she has a brain tumour or haemorrage causing the problem.