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Monday and Tuesday went by so slowly, but Wednesday and Thursday absolutely flew past. Weird.

I finished the little dress! Here she is in her full outfit.

So many teeny tiny seams and hems!

Nurse Adam from my palliative care team came over for a visit today. He’s working on getting me some oxygen tanks to use if we have a power outage. He always checks to make sure my docs are following up and doing what they say they will. Such a kind fellow.

Chloe told me about an online pharmacy that sells drugs at a reasonable price (15% above cost) so I’m working on getting them to supply the drugs that my insurance company won’t cover (my rosacea cream and an allergy med that is VITAL). Seems totally legit so I’m really excited. They are CostPlusDrugs.com . Founded by Mark Cuban, billionaire who apparently has a heart and isn’t merely playing space tourist.

I finished the bodice of Doll’s first proper dress. The tiniest, fiddliest pieces you can imagine, all sewn by hand with teeny tiny seams. So much FUN. I think I will need to make a duplicate doll for myself so I can continue making clothes for Lulu’s doll after her birthday (need to custom fit everything).

Watm and Springy today. Very proud of myself for taking a small walk in the morning.

I re-drafted the bonnet pattern and made one that fits properly, though while sewing it together I thought of a way to improve the pattern even more for next time. As promised here are pics! She’s in her full set of underclothes: drawers, chemise, and petticoat.

This one shows the 1/8” tucks on her drawers. So tiny!

And here she is in her sun bonnet. I’ve cut pieces for a dress from the same scrap of ultrafine Liberty print cotton, a donation from one of my mom’s friends. I can’t afford Liberty prints! Although doll clothes are so tiny I could buy the odd 1/4 yard now and then :D

Super tired tonight but in a good way.

Forgot to take photos of Doll! Maybe tomorrow. I sewed her a sunbonnet tonight, which is a little bit small because the pattern was drafted for a doll with painted hair. I’ll redraw the pattern and make her next bonnet big enough to fit nicely over her braids.

Went to UPS this morning to ship the spider socks to mom and return yet another bad medication pump. Safeway was nearby so I hopped in to get ingredients for a creamy lemon pie I just read about, and made it when I got home. Basically lemon juice, condensed milk, and whipped cream. We haven’t tried it yet but how bad could it be? Lol.

And THEN I made a big batch of scalloped potatoes! My first time using that recipe and it turned out great! Dave was thrilled to have a lovely cheesy potato dish to eat with his dinner.

Slept nice and late, less fatigued! I sewed Doll’s petticoat, so now she has a full set of underthings. Pics tomorrow.

Got my MRI done this afternoon, easy-peasy. Only took about 20 minutes in The Machine, and Walter the Tech streamed Bach’s Goldberg Variations for me to listen to. Soon we will know if I have a pituitary tumor…

Big fatigue still. Went to fabric store for hooks-and-eyes, and finished Doll’s little drawers.

Fairly tired today but I didn’t need to go anywhere so I sat on the couch, listened to podcasts, and worked on Lulu’s doll. Got her little drawers nearly finished; just need to buy hooks and eyes for the waistband. It is so much fun to sew these tiny clothes by hand! I’m having the best time. I’ve always wanted to make a doll like this, but Em wasn’t really into dolls. Now I have the perfect excuse :D

Doc appointment in the morning (just pcp check-up), therapy at noon (my monthly FaceTime session with wonderful Suzanne), and then CRIPPLING FATIGUE for the rest of the day, ugh.

Gorgeous warm humid day. I went to Trader Joe’s and bought a load of groceries for Henry and Co, dropped them off, went BACK to Trader Joe’s and bought food for us, came home. Jayla and Freya and back from their California trip and everyone is recovering from Covid.

Had a big rest and then tidied my garden zone!

It’s small, but I can only do minimal physical stuff so it’s pretty much all I can handle and I’m very proud. Tomatoes, peas, pole beans, a zucchini, spinach, strawberries, and plenty of onions and marigolds for pest control.

I made playdough is six colors for Lulu this morning, and then we went to the Kohler showroom in the city to look at sinks… the combo we liked came to ~$4500 so yeah I think we’ll try Lowe’s instead!

Gorgeous clear warm day, sunny and 72°.

In the afternoon I traced all the clothing patterns for Lulu’s little ragdoll. Maybe tomorrow I can give her hair and a face.

I started making a doll for Lulu’s 5th birthday, which isn’t till the end of September but that means I have plenty if time to make lots of tiny clothes. Using the pattern for “Great Aunt Maude’s Little Cloth Girl” from The Sewing Academy.

Em’s 9th birthday is in just a couple of weeks so I need to come up with an idea for her asap!

I finished my zipper pouch! It was so much fun and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. My remodulin supplies fit in beautifully with room to spare. I added two exterior zipper pockets, one for the pump and spare batteries, and one for alcohol wipes.

Top down:

Next to my previous bag for contrast (note zipper running the short way lol)

For reference, I cut the pieces of this one at 16×12“, and boxed out the corners at 2“ (slightly less on the exterior, slightly more for the lining.

Dave and I spent a few hours watching great documentaries this afternoon. A couple episodes of the new Attenborough (Prehistoric Planet), the second ep of the new Jim Al-Kahlili (Secrets of Size) plus an ep of an older Al-Khalili doc, “The Beginning and End of the Universe”. I have a big collection of his docs — he’s one of my favorite BBC presenters. He is brisk and passionate, doesn’t dumb things down too much, and he’s obviously a brilliant physicist. If you can find ANY of his docs on YouTube I highly recommend!

Forgot to say — we finished season 42 of Survivor last night, and the person who I was rooting for the most won! WTG Mary Ann! What an excellent season it was. I hope they make a habit of casting Decent Humans from now on, too.

I did things today again! Made smoothies for breakfast, did a few days’ worth of washing up, decluttered the living room so the roomba could vacuum, and started sewing another zippered box pouch! I decided to piece this one together from leftover quilt fabric.

Here you see front and back attached to the zipper. I added a little zippered front pocket too. I’ll be using it for my remodulin supplies, so I decided it would be nice to have a pocket for the small stuff that tends to sink to the bottom, such as extra pump and batteries. Now I’m thinking of adding a second zippered pocket to the other side for alcohol wipes…

While I sewed I got almost caught up on the official Taskmaster podcast. Such fun!

Here’s Lulu in her little summer dress. The fabric has the rabbits from “Guess How Much I Love You” printed on it — a gift from Elli. <3

Lulu is much much better this morning, thank goodness, and Henry is only mildly ill. *whew* Got right up in the morning and went to the drugstore and the grocery store to buy supplies for them: tylenol in various forms, some all-natural cough syrup, various yummy fresh fruits, cheese, kefir, and ice cream. I delivered them carefully by leaving the bag on the doorstep, then waiting in my car till they popped out so we could wave. Lulu was running around in her undies and looking quite chipper. Henry told me later that her temperature is back to normal, yay!

Then on the way home I went to our AMAZING fabric store and bought some bag-making supplies because I’m tired of storing all my meds in a drawstring bag and a cardboard box,

When I got home I rested for a bit and then I made a zippered pouch for my Remodulin supplies. I followed this excellent tutorial: https://melaniekham.com/zippered-box-pouch-easy-sewing-project-no-raw-edges/. I followed the dimensions for the larger bag but made a goof! The instructions are for the medium bag, which is cut at 11×8, so when it says to attach the zipper to the 11” side, she means the long side. My bag was cut at 14×11, so of course my 11” was the short side! D’oh! So my zipper runs the short way around my bag. Well, it’s still cute and functional. It’s little too small to hold my supplies perfectly, so tomorrow I plan to make one that’s maybe 16×11 and use this one as a project bag or something.

I did a lot today!

Tired as hell. Did laundry, changed the bedding. Lying here enjoying the warm fresh air blowing through my bedroom window.

Another school shooting. Our greedy, feckless politicians and corporations have the blood of murdered children on their hands. Again. i can’t bear it.

Did I mention that my pulmonologist is letting me increase my dose of remodulin again? I’m up to 68 ng/kg/min. I was at 40 this time last year. I felt really good today and I’m hoping it’s not a coincidence.

When I got up this morning I felt like doing something, so I went to a little nursery a few blocks away and bought seedlings. Two kinds of cherry tomatoes, pole beans, sweet white onions, marigolds, and strawberries. I took them home and then realized that I forgot to stop and get some garden tools and bamboo stakes, so I zipped back out to Ace for those. Then I rested a bit, and then I planted everything! The onions and marigolds are to keep away pests (I read that somewhere…) Pics soon.

Then rested for a while and chatted with Dave, and then I suddenly got the desire to play my uke! Tuned up and ran through some of my collection of uke-friendly tunes. I keep a collection in my dropbox. Dave says I have a lovely singing voice *heart eyes*

Dinner: crusty baguette with cold butter curls (use your veggie peeler) and some green olives.

It’s 9pm now and I’m… not exhausted. What is this magical miracle? Perhaps tomorrow I can SEW!

I got enough sleep and felt excellent! It was a beautiful Spring day, warm and sunny. I sewed a little summer suit for Freyja:

And I lay out in the sun for a lomg time in the afternoon when the UV index was only 3. The trampoline makes a comfy sun lounger.

My hair turned out great!

Last night I had the most horrible insomnia. I was SO TIRED and turned my light off at 10pm, hoping for ten hours of sleep, but lay there till at least 1am, feeling as if I’d drunk a bucket of coffee. And then I woke up at 7am. Ugh. I was blaming my newly-increased dose of Remodulin (insomnia is a rare side effect, but women over 50 who’ve been on it for more than 2 years are the ones who get it) but then I noticed that last night’s dose of mirtazapine was on the floor by my bed. It must have flown out of my hand when I took my bedtime handful of pills. So that explains it. *eyeroll*

Today I took a shower and re-dyed my teal-blue forelock. And I finished My Brother Rabbit. And… that’s it. Oh, I also sat out in the sun for a while. It was a lovely day, 70° and sunny. Perfect.

So flippin’ tired. Did nothing today except finish my Spider Socks. They’re a bit big on my skinny skinny feet so I gave them to Mom :)

Pattern is “The Gardener” by Leslie Comstock.