I haven't been online much the past while. A month ago I went to the dentist cause I had what felt like a fistula on my gum. If you don't know what that is it feels like a little pimple and it means that you have an abcess. It was just beginning but I thought if I have to lose another tooth I'd rather get it over before Christmas. My dentist took an X-ray, looked in my mouth and said that couldn't be what it was because I have no tooth there.. it's on the gum behind my back tooth. He said to rinse with salt water, which I won't do cause I'm on a salt restricted diet. I just waited for it to clear up like he said it would. Well, it didn't clear up and I've been feeling lousy along with having a sore gum/tooth, so I went back yesterday and he looked at it again and said maybe it was an infection and he'd refer me to a specialist. I asked if I should have antibiotics. He said that was an idea, not his idea though, my idea.

So I have 7 days of penicillin, got in to the specialist on a cancellation today. He did a cat scan of my teeth. It was neat. Never had one of those before. I beeped Fur Elise as it travelled around my head. Same as the ringtone on my cell phone. I have an infection in there alright. It's eaten away part of the bone in my jaw. It's because the dentist didn't get the whole root cleaned out when he did the root canal. Geesh! So I have to go back in on Jan 14th and he'll redo the root canal and clean things up. I'm very nervous about waiting so long if that infection is still there after the anitbiotics are done. I'm gonna see if I can get on a cancellation list.

You know what though? If we still have the same dental insurance we had when the dentist did the first root canal the insurance company won't cover the specialist redoing it for $1450.00!!

So I'm not feeling real well and haven't felt like doing anything much. So nothing to show today.

Here's my attempt at the folded star trivet. It needs to go directly into the garbage but it does look Christmasy and it certainly is thick enough to use as a trivet so it stays until Jan 1.

Once I started this I realized I have done this before but it was on the lid of a cookie tin. They make neat tins for keeping stuff in or giving gifts in. But my tins turned out way better than this. When I made the tins I had no conception of what they were costing me in fabric for one thing. Geesh! Some girl on Etsy has them for sale for $7.95 I couldn't even make it for $7.95. I think what it was costing was distracting me from doing a good job. We had extra expenses last month which is exactly what you don't need right before Christmas.

I Can't Believe I Walked the whole way!

We've had a beautiful day here for a change, sunny, no wind, 10C. So when I thought about going to the store to get stuff for dinner I asked myself what I'm doing driving everywhere when the store is just right there.... 1/2mile away. Oh, and if I'm going out anyway I should go across the street to the other mall and do this and that. Upshot is I walked for 2 hours straight at my fastish pace and now I'm exhausted.

I should have known better. I've been off my walking routine lately so I need to build up slowly again. I was so tired that I felt like I kept walking and walking and nothing was getting any closer, like I was just walking on the spot. Wonder what my legs are going to feel like tomorrow. My knees kept giving out and wanting to lock.

Okay, off to get dinner started now. At least I'm making stew so once I get the meat on it simmers for 1 1/2 hours so I can take a break.

Christmas Block

This is the block I'm using in the quilt block frame I bought from Angela. I wanted a Christmas block with a biblical name but couldn't find a Christmas one so I used this one called Cain and Abel. I got it at Quilter's Cache. It looks even better than I hoped it would.

Not much going on here today. It's Grey Cup Sunday so hubby is hunkered down waiting for the game to begin. I'm not a big sports fan aside from Curling and Skating. Although.. I just realized it might be a good day to go shopping. Wish I'd thought of it earlier.

Have a great Sunday.

Christmas Candlemat

I've been busy making gifts for everyone else but am finally at a point that I can get back to making a few things for myself. I've wanted to make this candlemat since last year.. actually I've had the pattern that long too! It's for 4 seasonal mats and I want to make the other three as well. The pattern is from Country Quilts. She has such cute patterns!

Next I want to make a quilt block for my quilt frame I bought from Angela's site. I found one I like that I think will look great done in Christmas fabrics. And then I want to do a small wallhanging for my kitchen. The block I may be able to do today. The embroidery wallhanging will take longer, of course.

Not much else going on. I've been spending way too much time on Ancestry.ca filling in my family tree. The number of connections in my dad's line are crazy. The family stayed in Cornwall, England. None of the Cornish ever left home until one of my ancestors dared to cross into Devon and then his son and family came to Canada. And I wonder why I get nervous travelling.. maybe it's a genetic fingerprint or something that makes me happy to just stay in my own area.

Happy Thanksgiving to my US Friends

Great Christmas Book and other stuff.

If you're looking for a great book to read for Christmas this is one of the ones I'd sure recommend. I've seen books by Debbie Macomber before but had never bought one. With the grocery store lineups so long these days it was sitting right at eye level and if there's one thing I can't resist it's a cozy book. Add angels to the mix and I gotta have it. After reading this one now I have to order all of her angel books from past Christmases. I just enjoyed it so much! I'll try the library and second hand book store first, of course. The Angels are Shirley (the smart one *LOL*) Goodness and Mercy. They get themselves into trouble a lot but Gabriel keeps letting them come to earth to help get prayers answered.

Went for my seasonal flu shot yesterday at a clinic they had here. They were doing H1N1 as well but I had mine already a few weeks ago. Since I have health issues and I'm almost 60 she recommended I get the pneumonia one too. So today my arm is really sore - glad I'd already had the other shot or I'd have two sore arms. My husband came with me and bitched the whole time. I told him if he didn't want the shot to just go home and I'd take a bus. The bus would have taken a whole 10 mins. Why do husbands complain about doing things they have a choice about and then do it anyway?

Today to add just a tich more misery I'm going to the dentist.

I haven't been doing a whole lot of crafty stuff. I'm embroidering a candle mat that I think is really pretty. Hopefully I'll have it read to show by Friday or so.

I'm trying to work on my family tree so I can share it with my family. It's really hard throwing out a lot of the paper stuff I had that is related to my family but in a distant way. I love that stuff but it would appear my family only wants to know about names and dates - how boring. On the other hand it's freeing up a whole lot of space in my file cabinet so that's a good thing.

Okay, off to the dentist. Have a great day everyone.