Boosted

Good morning, my friends. It's Friday of a 3-day weekend. That should give some of you a boost. When you're retired, you call it "business as usual." And that's not what I'm talking about with my "Boosted" title. I'm talking about getting another COVID booster yesterday. Poor Mike also had to get a tetanus shot, and I'm afraid that made him sick pretty quickly. Tetanus always makes me sick too. Fortunately, I'm not due for another five years. 

As for him, he spent the day with fever and chills. He says he's feeling better this morning, but not yet 100%. I haven't noticed any ill effect from the COVID booster, although all the ones I've gotten since the first one have made me sick. I've lost count how many times we've been boosted, but our shot cards are filled up at this point. Neither of us has had COVID, and so we're just continuing to do whatever we're told vaccine-wise. It's working for us so far.

Before we left to face down the needles, I had some time to start on my newest embroidery piece. There is no instruction about what stitches to use, and so I'm doing whatever strikes me in the moment.

The flowers should be satin-stitched, but when working from a small center outward, it's hard to get good coverage while keeping the stitches even and straight. I decided to do a series of long and short stitches using two different oranges. The center is a triple-wrap French knot. Then I used a darker orange to stitch from the center to the edge. To completely cover, I switched to a lighter orange and stitched from the outer edge toward the center, just far enough to cover the fabric. I hope that makes sense.

When we arrived back home, we both took naps. Of course we did. We were only gone from home for about an hour and a half, but it was stressful just the same. When I was ready, I spent a little more than an hour on my "collage" challenge. I've finished the background section around the edges of the piece.

I'm thinking of this as a collage with three layers. I've completed the background farthest away. Now, there's a closer-in background to do. I'll start on that today. When that is finished, I'll be adding details to the subject of the piece. After working on it today, I might change my mind, but I think the most difficult part is finished. Trying to keep everything parallel was a challenge.

Sadie showed up about that time.

Please purrmit me to assist you.

When I told her we were going to build another tiny house, she fell over in a heap. She was suddenly 'zhausted.

Oh well...the show must go on. These are so painful to make, I've started instituting the one-hour rule on them. After one hour's time, sections "C" through "G" were complete. Today I'll try to finish it off.

Purrhaps you could make a tiny bird house next time. I really like birds.

And that brought us to the end of our sewing day. Mike was feeling too puny for dinner last night, and so it was a simple meal. He was in bed early, and I spent the evening reading. I've cleared the calendar for the day, reasoning that I might be feeling puny too. As it turns out, I'm feeling fine. I'll probably get out and hoe some weeds in the vegetable garden today, and then I'll spend the day sewing. The sun is shining, and it's going to be a good day.