The Dangers of Needlework

This past weekend, my husband and I went on a mini-vacation to the beach. It started out wonderful. We stopped by to see my new nephew on our way there, and we also stopped at our religion’s temple in Washington DC. Then the real adventure began as we set out to uncharted territory (for us). My husband’s phone died about half an hour before we reached our destination. We had been using it for directions. It was a pretty straight shot from there to our hotel, so we weren't too worried. We stopped and had dinner at a wonderful Mexican restaurant and then made our way to the hotel.

The next morning we got up and went to the beach. We chose to go to the state park beach rather than the commercial beach. It was perfect for us. Since we got there in the morning, the beach was still pretty uncrowded. Neither of us had been to the Atlantic Ocean before, and I had only been to the Pacific once, earlier this year. It had been winter then, so this was also my first time getting in the ocean. We enjoyed getting in the waves, exploring the beach, and making sandcastles with the sandcastle-shaped bucket we bought. After a few hours of fun, we decided to return to the hotel for some lunch and to get out of the sun, since we were both starting to get red despite the sunscreen we’d put on.

After lunch, we hadn't decided yet what to do with our afternoon. So I turned on the TV and pulled out a cross-stitching project I had brought with me. It was enjoyable. But then, as I turned over the cloth, the corner of the fabric flipped up under my glasses and scratched my eye. It hurt! I went to the bathroom to try and look at it, but it was difficult to keep my eyes open. I could see, though that nothing was in it, even though it kind of felt like there was a straight line of something in it. The TV show was almost over. Once it was over, we turned off the TV. I explained to my husband what had happened and then asked him to give me a priesthood blessing. (In my religion worthy men are given the Priesthood. With the Priesthood they can give blessings of healing and comfort.)

After that, my husband suggested I lay down. He started looking for eye doctors in the area, since that was our first thought of where to turn to. He called one. They told him he needed to call a different place. He called that place, but they were closed. By this point, I was in shock and shaking all over. He then called our insurance’s nurse hotline. They recommended he take me to the ER, so that’s what we did. It hurt too much to open my eyes much, so my husband had to lead me around. It was an interesting experience.

When the doctor came to see me, she put some numbing drops in my eyes. This made it possible for me to open them. She put a dye in it and used a black light so it would easily show the damage. I had cut my cornea. My husband got to see all of this and thought it was pretty cool, except the part of me hurting, of course. The doctor told us that my eye would heal itself, gave me prescriptions for pain medicine and an eye ointment, and told me to see an eye doctor on Monday.

It was nice to be able to see some as we left the hospital, though my vision was a bit blurry and my eye bothered me some. We went to a nearby pharmacy. They did not have the pain medicine we needed, so we decided to go to another pharmacy. By this point, the numbing of my eye was wearing off, and it was getting difficult to have my eyes open. We went to the next pharmacy, only to realize we’d left the prescriptions at the first pharmacy. We retrieved them and returned the second pharmacy. They were also out of the pain medicine. They called a nearby pharmacy, who also happened to be out of the pain medicine. They called another pharmacy and that pharmacy did have the medicine. So we went there, got the prescriptions filled and returned to the hotel.

At that point, it was too painful to really open my eyes. Opening my good eye made my injured eye hurt more, so I just kept them both closed. My husband got us food and packed up. The next morning we left, as scheduled. I still could not open my eyes without a lot of pain, even with taking the pain medicine. The drive home was long, especially since we ran into a number of traffic jams. We stopped by my sister’s house on the way back. We gave the sandcastle bucket to her 2-year-old son. I was glad I’d gotten to see her newborn on the way up, since I couldn't open my eyes on the return trip. We made it home safely.

The next morning, I could open my eyes some. It still hurt and was blurry, but at least I didn't have to be led around everywhere. The first available appointment for the eye doctor had been on Tuesday, but my brother was scheduled for an eye doctor appointment on Monday. My mom was able to get the appointments switched. The eye doctor told me it had healed up nicely and would finish healing up over the next month, at which point it shouldn't be blurry and sensitive anymore. Now, over a week after the original accident happened, my eye doesn't bother me much and is only a little blurry. I am very grateful. I even worked on some cross-stitching last night (a different project).

I have pricked by finger on needles—drawn blood even with the duller cross-stitching needles, burned myself with hot glue, and cut myself with scissors, but this freak accident was definitely my worst crafting injury. One friend jokingly commented, “I've warned you about that extreme cross-stitching,” but despite this injury, I will continue crafting. 

My College Scrapbook

A few months ago I acquired this scrapbook kit from the Provident Living Table. In our ward (congregation) when the women meet together for an activity, there is a Provident Living Table where people can bring things they don't want and other people can take them if they do want them. At an activity on blogging (which inspired me to act on the idea to start this blog), I saw the scrapbook kits on the Provident Living Table before the activity started. I didn't pick it up, telling myself that I didn't need it and that surely someone else would take it. After the activity as I talked with my mom and ate some refreshments, I noticed the kit was still there. I wanted it, and after an activity that inspired me to tap into my creativity, I picked it up and brought it home.

For the next couple months it sat in my crafts cabinet while I racked my brains for an idea of what to use it for. And then the perfect idea hit me—I would use it to make a scrapbook of my college years. Once I had the idea, I then began planning and searching for photos.

I began brainstorming what I wanted to include in the scrapbook. I wrote my ideas on the back of the album packaging (see picture). I mapped out where I had lived, where I had worked, and other important experiences. I quickly discovered that a lot had happened in my college years and that it would be difficult to condense it into sixteen pages. As I got a better idea of what I wanted to include, I began using the step-by-step guide to plan what I wanted to include on each of the pages.

As I planned, I started looking through old digital photos and created a file on the computer to copy photos I might possibly use. During this process, I ended up reorganizing my folders of pictures by year to make it easier to find pictures from my college years. After looking through my digital picture files, I realized and remembered that for my first few years of college I did not have a digital camera.

Then began the search for the photos from those first few years. I found a box of photos that I thought they would be in, but unfortunately they were not there. That box only contained pre-college photos. I knew the pictures existed and even remembered specific ones I wanted to use, but I didn't know where else to look. A couple weeks later my mom asked me if I'd found the pictures yet. I replied that I had not, and then instantly, a picture came into my mind of where they were located. I went and looked, and they were there! Gratitude, relief, and happiness filled my heart.

Having found the pictures, I eagerly looked through them. I found some I wanted to use but was discouraged to discover that some of the pictures I wanted I didn't have prints of. But, I did have the negatives. So, I narrowed down the digital pictures, put them on a jump drive, and and took it and the negatives to Walmart to see if they could reproduce them. They could print the digital pictures, but not the negatives. However, they suggested I try CVS across town, and at CVS they were able to print the photos from the negatives.

Once I had the photos printed, I did some more planning and also began scrapbooking. Some pages I knew for sure how I wanted them to work, so I did those pages. Other pages I had a harder time with. I had to narrow down the photos even more. I also had to decide what order I wanted the events presented. In the end I chose to alternate the spreads between places I lived and other experiences. I spent a lot of time deliberating. My husband laughed when he saw that the packaging claimed it only takes one hour start to finish. Perhaps if I had not spent time altering the design of the pages and not spent so much time deliberating over what to put on the page, I could have taken me only an hour.

It took me a few days to finish it once I had all the pieces. I made mistakes in the process, like cutting photos too short and writing captions wrong, but I worked around those. In the end, I have a scrapbook I will treasure. Doing this scrapbook brought back lots of good memories of good friends and experiences, as well as a few bad experiences. It only scratches the surface of my college career, but I hope someday when I have kids and I show it to them, it can prompt the telling of stories from my college days. Below are pictures of the scrapbook pages.

After I finished the scrapbook, I showed it to my family. In doing so, I discovered that my sister had sent the scrapbook kit with my mom to the Provident Living Table. The kit had been given to my sister as a present, but since she's not into scrapbooking like I am, she decided to pass it on in hopes that it might get picked up by someone who would use it. Well, it was and I am very glad she was willing to get rid of it and didn't decide to keep it just because it had been given to her as a gift. Sometimes the best thing to do with a gift is to pass it on to someone who will treasure it more.

A Special Gift

A special gift—there are two parts to this idea that I want to discuss in this post. The first is epitomized in the image above of a bookmark I cross-stitched for my husband, Jason. It is the most complex bookmark I have made to date. I would guess that it took me around 15 hours to make the bookmark. So why did I do it? Number one, because of my love for my husband. He wanted a bookmark I had made, and that design caught his fancy. So, I made it for him. Most of the things I have cross-stitched over the years I have made for and given to friend and family I love. The second reason I spent all that time and effort making that bookmark for my husband is that I love cross-stitching.

I first remember being introduced to cross-stitching at a youth group activity when I was twelve. We were given a pattern, embroidery floss, and cloth. I loved it and was excited to complete it. I even tried to work on it as we moved across country. However, somewhere along the way, it fell to the side and got a grease stain on the cloth and pattern. So, I stopped working on that project. Later on, throughout my teenage years, I picked up cross-stitching projects from time to time, but I usually didn't finish them.

Fast forward a few years until 2007. I was living at home for a semester and spending lots of time with my new friend Jenn. Lucky for me, she not only knew how to cross-stitch well, but she was also working on some cross-stitching projects. So, I decided to take up cross-stitching again. Her help whenever I hit a snag and advice on better ways to do things is really what kept me from giving up. By the end of the semester I had cross-stitched Christmas gifts for each member of my family (a few of them are pictured below) and had come to truly love cross-stitching.

A special gift—the second part of this idea that I want to write about centers around talents. We have all been given talents of all sorts and kinds. As a teenager, I refused to acknowledge the fact that I had gifts and talents, even though deep inside I knew that I did. I now acknowledge my talents, but often disparage them by pointing out that I have not developed them as much as others with similar talents have. However, I think doing so is a bit of a disservice to myself and to others. I don’t think I should be prideful about my talents, and I should recognize areas I can improve in. But I think the quote below expresses very well what I want to say on this subject.

I hope through this blog to develop and share my talents—the unique combination I have been blessed with. And hopefully through sharing my talents I can bless the lives of others and encourage them to develop and share their talents.