Another "relaxing" day

Yes, I practiced relaxing yesterday and I must say I did very well for someone who hasn't really done much relaxing for quite awhile.  (The above statement is code for "I was lazy and sat on my rear end all afternoon!")  

And the reason for such laziness is this:  

I have  De Quervain's Tendonosis in my left wrist.  I finally saw the doc yesterday after suffering with wrist pain since mid-May and she diagnosed it as tendinitis.  I'd overdone it on a knitting project one evening in May and the next day, Holy Cow! Did my wrist ever hurt when I used it!  I thought it was a simple sprain but when it didn't get better in a few weeks, I knew it was something other than that. but after 2 months and it wasn't getting better, I decided it was time to see the doc. The diagnosis didn't really surprise me.

However, I have to wear the lovely wrist splint shown above for 6 to 8 weeks while this thing heals.  And Doc said I was to stop knitting!  Well, you can guess what I think of that idea.  Last night I tried holding my embroidery hoop in my left hand and although it's a bit clumsy, I was able to do it without any stress on the thumb.  So today I'll try to do a bit of knitting and see how that goes.

So all my great plans to get things done yesterday went out the window and the chores are still waiting for me!  Why can't there be a Housework Fairy like the shoemaker's elf who comes in at night and does the housework chores for me!  Not fair!

Today, I have a meeting at 1 and nothing else planned. I have to make a pan of brownies before the meeting. We're going to Don's cousin's cabin this weekend and I always bring a gluten-free dessert for the Celiac people in the crowd.  As well as for the rest of us.  This year, it's Chocolate Mint Brownies:

  

and here's the recipe if you want to try it too.  I've made this several time and they are truly delicious!  If I bake the brownies this morning, they'll be cool enough for me to add the mint layer and the ganache in time for it to refrigerate all night.

And here are a few more of the Bee-utiful blocks that I've done:

This dapper fella was done up with a red embroidered tie and a red band around his hat. Instead, I appliqued a piece of yellow batik for the tie and embroidered the hat band, also in yellow/gold

The designer embroidered all of these flowers but I appliqued the yellow one and the red one.  And embroidered the bluebells--more satin stitch!--and the sunflower.

And I love this one of the bee hive hanging from the tree branch.  I'm considering going back and covering the hive with rows of vertical satin stitch as some of the members of the group have done. What do you think?

Speaking of thinking, when I got up this morning, I was thinking about the aqua and cream quilt that I was going to add pieced borders to and get it finished in time for the guild meeting on Sept. 6. That's only a little more than 2 weeks from now and I'm not sure I want that kind of pressure on me. So I may just put that project aside and not worry about it any more.  We'll see how guilty I feel for shirking my duty on this one.

That's it for today.  Baking is calling to me so I have to go!