What a Week!!!

It's Labor Day (tomorrow!)!  It's a day that has always marked - for me - a day of LABOR!!!  I always looked at it as an extra day off to labor around the house, laundry, cleaning, ironing, or doing special projects that needed doing.  Now that I'm retired, there is no certain day to do any of those things, and there is certainly NOT that "Sunday Night Syndrome" I always experienced just before school started.

  

In fact, today I AM doing the usual changing and washing of the linens, and I have to continue with the house cleaning (until I find someone to clean for me - a project I AM going to work on this week!)  I'm going to play tennis and go for a walk with my DH and the dog; I'm going to relax, I hope too!  But let me tell you why I need to do that..........!

This week marked the third cardiac ablation for my husband.  The previous two were for ventricular tachycardia - which required him to go off and then resume blood-thinning therapy, and consequently required a week's hospitalization.  This one was for atrial fibrillation, a procedure that REQUIRES coumadin, so it meant a MUCH shorter hospital stay.  In fact, he went in for the procedure on Tuesday - a very long, tedious procedure - and on Wednesday, we were on our way home!  Miraculous! and scary!  He seems more tired, but he is coming along and will be able to resume all activities in another week.

So I tried to manage myself through that extremely long day on Tuesday by working on a custom order for a Wrapsody, more photos here.  Fortunately, my daughter came to stay with me.  She was a wonderful support.  I owe her a lovely dinner (promised for Vin Rouge in Durham), but we weren't able to leave the hospital until long past dinnertime.

So.....we came home on Wednesday, and I wanted to stick close by.  I am relieved, of course, because this MAY mean the end of ablations - if all goes well.  We don't want to think of what it means if they fail - because the only remaining step is transplant - and that is REALLY SCARY!!!!

So I've spent the subsequent days playing tennis (badly!), knitting many new things, finalizing the Port City Pottery & Fine Crafts newsletter, negotiating with a show venue and then finally declining due to their vastly changed and dual-structure fee schedule for different types of artists, shipping items to customers, and working a fabulous trade arrangement with local artist and friend, Alexis Seabrook, to do drawings of my designs (to show women various ways to wear my work) in exchange for product.  The beginnings of this arrangement have been just right.

Here is the first set of drawings - to illustrate how to wear my Bloomin' Neck Gardens!

The next set of drawings will be of my shawls and Loopies!  I already gave Alexis this shawl for her to keep.  She was thrilled - as I am!  And I am looking forward to a set of illustrations to show MANY ways to wear the shawls/wraps!  I think the arrangement is ideal!

Another connection I made this week was with Leslie Willett, a local potter who makes amazing ceramic buttons.  You can see some of her work on the cachecols shown above.  She is also willing to trade, so I imagine a whole line of my work that sports HERS!  Another HAPPY ALLIANCE!

My decision NOT to participate in the above-mentioned show supports a decision to host a home show chez moi!  I'm always a little reluctant to host my own show and never want my friends and neighbors to feel obligated in any way to attend and/or buy something, but it's been FOUR years since I've done one, so I think it's possibly not too soon to try it again.   No date has been determined yet, but I'm shooting for right after Thanksgiving/first week of December.  More to follow later,

That's it!  I think I've caught up with Scarf It Up! and personal news.  All's well that ends well, so I'd have to say therefore that it's been a good week!  Hope yours has been too!  Enjoy the rest of Labor Day Weekend without laboring too, too much!