A 5th Birthday Party and Slow Stitching on Sunday

February is moving by in a flash more so because it's been a busy month with birthdays to celebrate and blood work for doctor's appointments that for once came out on a positive side.  Yesterday was my great niece Tessa's 5th birthday party complete with bouncy castle and pony rides. The day was sunny with a nice breeze just perfect for a bunch of 5 year olds to run and bounce around, water bottles were everywhere.

Bouncy castle

Reggie the donkey and Millie pulling cart

The donkey in the background the kids brush and decorate with leis and hats, boas and generally just enjoy petting and talking to him.  After the pony cart rides each of the kids got to ride Grace

Tessa  riding Grace

I waited patiently for her birthday to get here so I could get her a bicycle I was going to get her one for Christmas I wanted to wait I didn't want to overwhelm her at Christmas time. 

My sister mentioned she had recently asked for a new bike as she outgrew the toddler size one she had so I thought it would be the perfect time to get her one.  She has such a hold on my heart my life is so much fuller with her in it.

Another Sunday for some slow stitching, I have been gathering my supplies together for a new project I am going to begin later today, in the meantime I am still stitching a project I started a few months ago. I left off at the bees I worked on the honeycomb and vines last night.

My new project is being made for someone so I can only give a peek at some of the parts but as you

can probably tell it does include some bare tree branches which can take forever to draw and erase and draw again and again before finally tracing it on to my fabric.  This time I used one of the Frixion fine point pens so if I need to make a change I can iron the lines and start again. 

A short time ago a friend requested a special piece to be made into a prayer flag she wants to send her friend I completed the hand embroidery on the Goddess and Hares prayer flag piece last Sunday.

The edges stay unfinished so that it unravels in the breeze, I'll add a small rod pocket on the back or possibly two small grommets at the top for ease of hanging.
I will be posting at Kathy's Quilts today here: https://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2018/02/slow-sunday-stitching_18.html  stop on over and check out what other bloggers are slow stitching on this fine Sunday.

My latest check up at the doctors went well my blood work numbers all came back pretty much in my favor, the best improvement was in my A1C test which came back as 5.8 still pre-diabetic but much better than the 6.5 and 6.8 over the past few years.  I have been working diligently to get that number down and my work is paying off, all my cholesterol numbers have improved, my overall number is still higher than I would like so now that is my focus. 

As a heart attack survivor my aim has been to get and keep my numbers all in the normal range which I did well doing up until about 18 months ago when every thing seemed to go sideways.  My main goal for 2018 is to get back my good health and so far what I am doing is working, even my blood pressure is cooperating.  I picked up a cold two weeks ago and just when I thought I was better when boom bronchitis! doctor put me on antibiotic and steroids to fight the worst of it.  My daily walks were interrupted while I was sick last week but now that I am feeling better on the way home from the birthday party I stopped at my favorite park to walk off the birthday cake a fitting end to a perfect sunny Florida day.