January Happy Dances

I've not been blogging much recently - last Monday night I had an allergic reaction to something, not sure what, and had hives across my entire body for a week. Not a pretty sight! The highlight came late on Wednesday when my face started to swell up... not sure if this was the hives or a reaction to one of the many drugs I'd been prescribed, we had to trawl across Leeds (by taxi - I was in no fit state to drive) to the out of hours doctors, with strict instructions to call for an ambulance if I started to have breathing difficulties ... £30 in taxi fares later I had yet more meds and a diagnosis of 'probably the hives, perhaps you have had an allergic reaction to a cold virus'... I can safely say the trout pout is not a good look for me!

Anyway, Thursday the hives were getting worse (cue more meds...) and worse of all I don't know what to avoid to stop it happening again. I've been told I probably never will but the 'best guess' is a virus... how do I avoid viruses??? Anyway, all in all a terrible week (I was too itchy to stitch... now THAT'S a bad sign), but I am totally fine now...

As I started to recover on Friday night I decided to start an ornament - something little and not too taxing, and on Saturday I finished this little stocking by Blackbird Designs (from the 2008 JCS ornie issue):

(c) Blackbird Designs, stitched on bone Jobelan from my stash in the required speciality threads.

The I picked up Pomegranates and Pears again... I had a short break while waiting for beads to arrive from Sew and So, no doubt held up slightly by the snow, but I finished it last night:


Pomegranate and Pear Stitches (c) Jeannette Douglas. Stitched on Sparklies Parchment in the required speciality threads.

I even put a few lengths in to Fantasy Triptych, but not enough to photograph...