Just Like a Broken Record

It’s been a little quiet lately…again.

The recovery from Patrick’s transplant has continued to be one rocky road.  In March, with a fever and other issues going on, he had to once again check into the hospital at UVA where he remained for just about 2 weeks.  Very long and angst-filled story later, he came home on March 20th.  This stay was the scariest one – for me – yet.  Several days after he was admitted, just when I thought things were going smoothly, I got a phone call that he was being transferred to an intermediate care unit because he was not doing well. By the time I dropped everything and drove the 75 miles to get there, he had an oxygen mask on and his kidney was failing. In short order, they moved him into ICU and put him on a ventilator.  I don’t know about you, but I hear the words “breathing tube” and I think the worst.  I was scared to death.

Fortunately, thanks to the stellar, dogged, and thorough care of his medical team, we have a happy ending.

But 2 weeks in a hospital – including 6 days in ICU and 10 days without ever getting out of bed – takes a toll.   The doctors say it will be about a month or so before he gets his strength back to where he was before this little detour.  The good news is that things are definitely looking up.  Let’s hope we are done with big problems!

With all that has been going on, I, naturally, have had to curtail my work schedule.  As a result, I made the wrenching decision to withdraw from the Nashville Country Living Fair at the end of this month.  As sad as I was to have to do this – for the second year in a row – my stress load has been considerably lightened, and that’s a good thing.

I am still planning on being at the CL FAir in Rhinebeck in early June. I am looking forward to being back in the beautiful Hudson Valley.

So…I’m once again slowly getting back to work.  I’ve finished a couple of new wreaths that I wanted to share preliminary photos of.  I’ll get the camera out soon to take the “real” pictures but for now here are some I took with my phone, under the dreadful fluorescent lighting in the workshop.

This is “Christmas Tapestry” while it was still only partially completed.  I love the unusual palette of this one.  The finished wreath is truly stunning.  The big ribbon ball and the large deer were my starting points.

After this one, I decided to make an (almost) all red wreath.  And, boy, is it ever red.  In fact, when struggling to name it, the best I could do was this: “It’s Red.”  Oh, well.  I guess I was tired…

I finished “It’s Red” last evening and was, perhaps for obvious reasons, ready to move off in a different direction color-wise.

I was also in the mood to do something angelic.  So, I pulled this darling girl from her box:

Isn’t she adorable in her shabby sweetness?

I am envisioning a pale wreath with primary colors of silver, light blue, and perhaps a little gold.

We’ll see where it takes me once I get to work on her.  Funnily, the end result is often quite different from my original plan.

I’ll keep you posted.