Prairie Schooler Halloween Exchange

I received my PS Halloween exchange this week, it is so cute! Mary Louise chose to finish it as a coaster and it is a delight to watch. I might exhibit it or I might just use it so I can see it daily :)

I am back in Warsaw since a few days and very busy packing everything possible into boxes. Dear H. arrives on Wednesday and the next day we're going to drive it all to my aunt in Poznan. Moving out is exhausting! I'm working several hours per day and I see little progress but I still have 3 days and I think I'll be ready in time... not sure if I'll still have a backbone by then! :)

All is fine, just very, very busy with all sorts of things that need to be done after being away so long and before renovating the flat. I made arrangements with the person who will do all the works and I am just delighted he agreed to take care of all that.

But, I miss Norway, I miss H. and I miss Szpulka and Lucky terribly. Money allowing, I'm hoping to fly to Oslo to see them just for a couple of days by the end of November. Till then, it is going to be a lot of work, a lot of traveling.... seeing my family in just a few days is a soothing perspective though!

More later. Off to attack a big furniture with clothes and I need to arm myself with enough strong will to actually throw/give away all those old clothes "which I surely will wear one day because they're soooo nice" but which I haven't put on for... 15 years. Ah, moving out, decisions, decisions...

We've had several beautiful days of lovely sun despite the cold temperatures which some nights dropped to -6,5 C/43,7 F. Winter surely comes early this year! Within a few days the garden froze and the nature changed colors to a burnt orange, but the sun made dog walks so enjoyable. Today, the whole world has changed to an unfriendly atmosphere of strong wind, rain and general grayness. Not nice! Toska refused to go out, Happy did his morning obligations very fast, Lucky (who has short but thick woolly fur) went out for an hour and returned running at my first shouting, totally wet and hungry.
I don't have work since over a week, which is almost a blessing or at least what I really wanted to gather thoughts and stack up on good energy before my return to Poland. The last weeks had been stressing and I was overworked, so I am accepting these few days with a big smile. It's a good time to catch up on lots of small things at home and at my computer.
H's leg is healing but very slowly and it's definitely a difficult case. Nurses continue to come daily to change the specialized thingies on his wound and he drives to see the surgeon once a week now. Still on antibiotics (which we laughingly call anti-idiotics) because of the staphylococcus aureus infection he got at the hospital and a part of the wound has opened wide (eeeeek) but the necrosis seems to heal.
I feel so sorry for him, that it all is due to the blood thinning medicine he is taking after his heart op' and unfortunately such problems arise with a sad regularity even though he's very careful at preventing them. But it is also an eye-opening situation, what do we know that will happen to us later in life? He'd been in perfect health till the age of 50, and his heart condition was not due to high cholesterol, obesity or anything like that. It was suddenly discovered there was a genetic malformation in the heart, his life was saved and the quality of his live is perfect, he's certainly just as/more active than any of his active friends, but very regularly, problem arise with the blood. He goes to have it checked bi-weekly if it's okay or daily when it's not, but sometimes the problem occurs in between the good periods and most often the values jump because of a simple cold or medicine. He has now returned to work and can walk a lot better so I'll be leaving for Poland on Sunday, with Toska and Happy. Not that I look forward to it, because *a lot* of tasks await me till Christmas, but I already got my ticket back to Norway before the New Year, and that eases the heartache a bit! (also that of leaving little Szpulka here).

My blogging was so erratic over the past year that I thought it would be a good idea to catch up on the crafty part and post finishes from that period. To start, here is a box I sent last year to Jill F. for her birthday (exchange). I was so proud of me! I painted the box inside, covered it with matching fabric outside and glued a white cardboard piece to the bottom. I knew that Jill liked purple and peacocks s I chose this pattern and adapted the color. So glad she liked it! It is a bigger size box that can be used to hide all sorts of crafty treasures :)

Pinberry Lane - Mehitable Wright's Redwork Sampler

Among the birthday goodies, I added this hand-made felt hedgehog, because Jill likes them.
I used a pattern I found on the web after searching long for one I liked and I stuck pins in it :)

I'll leave you with this heart-warming video of Szpulka and Lucky. I am sure you will melt down! We sure have a very patient dog :)

Guess what? I am still in Norway. Dear H. had serious complications after his leg operation, his blood got too thin, made an internal bleeding in the wound and he had to be re-operated two weeks after, with a bacterial infection to top it all and also a part of the skin after the second op' died and they're not sure yet how bad it will be :( This time they kept him in 10 days to handle the whole situation very seriously. He is back home today but not in a very good shape, to say the least. He's been in a lot of pain the last weeks, he's very pale and a nurse is coming in daily to change the thingies on the wound. They don't want the wound to be opened at the usual doctor so it doesn't get infected again (more). He's also supposed to be seen by the surgeon every third day at the hospital and they say it will take weeks to heal!
As you see we've been through a lot lately, I stayed to take care of him, none of us thought he would be away so long, so I cat-sitted alone. Had to change my flight in a hurry already once, and now we've decided that I stay 2,5 weeks more. Walking is very painful for him so I clean, cook, handle the furry family, do the shopping, deliver lots of hugs and all that's needed to help at this moment! Poor H. was operated 3 times in 6 weeks, that's a lot!
I was very busy with work as well during that period so I'll come back with crafty news tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this sweet shot of Szpulka and Lucky. She's growing soooo fast! :)