Friday, July 24, 2009

I bought a serger!

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At my friend Ann’s garage sale yesterday!  I have NO IDEA how to use it.  No idea how to thread the thing~let alone how to make it go!

It came with an instruction book~argh….. and a big thick book on sewing with a serger.  I guess now I’ll have to start drawing patterns on linen and trying to peddle them!   And it wasn’t an impulse buy either.  I actually let it sit for a whole day while I thought about it.  But why did I buy it?  I guess ‘cause it was a “deal”. 

I made a little promise to myself and to Mickey last night.  I’m not going to go to garage sales ANY MORE!!!  Why do I have this need to bring other peoples junk into our home?  I just had a huge sale, you know.  It felt so good to get rid of the unwanted and unused.  So why the need to bring it back in again?  It’s probably some deep seated mental thing.  I think it’s “the thrill of the hunt!”

I absolutely love digging through boxes to see what treasures I might find. 

But I’m going to try to put that energy towards something more practical and worthwhile.  Like finishing a rug, for instance.  I’ve been working on my Shabby Sheep mat for much longer than I’ve ever worked on anything!  Now I will finish it.

I did get some fun crafting done last week with some girlfriends.  My friend Susan had us over for craft day and lunch!  We used her daughters sand box and made casts of our hands with jewels and pretties in them! 

It was so much fun!  Here’s the starting impressions!  

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Then we inserted some dowels in the impressions before Susan poured the plaster.  So we could have standing hand sculptures! Now for the pretties.  The fun part….decorating them.

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here are our finished masterpieces!  From left to right~Abbey, Susan and Marilyn.  Aren’t they fun?

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Yours truly!~~~

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It really made us feel like kids!  Even smart assed Mickey said “it sounds like a kindergarten craft!”  Well maybe so, but who says old folks can’t do young things?

I also wanted to share with you the other crafty thing I did this week.  I painted these cork boards and covered them with some of my dyed wool!  I even spent half a day topping about 100 push pins with pretties!  I used super glue on some and the glue gun on some.  The marbles sure won’t stick with the glue gun.  What was I thinking?  It was really hard to get them to balance though , while the super glue dried.  At Mickey’s work they have a spray accelerator for this type of glue.  I’m going to see if he can buy me a bottle of it.  It makes it dry in an instant! 

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Are any of you familiar with the old PBS show, Roadside Treasures and Revelations or something like that?  Three guys traveled around the country going to unusual artsy places and taping them for us to see.  They carried with them the worlds biggest ball of video tape and took pictures of it wherever they went.  That’s what I want to do with this ball of wool!  I was at a sale a couple of weeks ago talking to the lady about rug hooking and she said I’ve got something for you!  She went inside and came out with this big ball of wool! 

ball of wool 

She was smiling from ear to ear.  She wanted me to have it!  I was trying to tell Tammy about the show and the big ball of tape the day we went junking but she had never seen it and thought I was kind of weird for suggesting such a thing!  Please let me know if ANY of you remember the show I’m talking about!  It’s still on at night~reruns, of course.  One of our favorite shows to watch!

I’m going to ask my friend Susan if she minds if I share some pictures of the inside of her house with you!  She is an art teacher and her house is AMAZING!  I’m sure she’ll be flattered, but I want to ask her first.  Hopefully next time I’ll share the pics with you.

 

Have a splendid weekend…

Peace,

Sheri

 

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Now that’s more like it!

I had a great weekend! Starting with Friday afternoon. I had just joined the group indie public. A group of talented independent artists. The moderator posted that she had purchased a full page advertisement in Somerset Life magazine. I LOVE this magazine! Anyway she said if we were interested in putting an ad in the annual publication to send her our info and she would send us an invoice if we were accepted. And to please not be disappointed if we weren’t chosen, because there would be thousands of interested people with Etsy shops. Well….you guessed it. Friday morning I opened my email and I saw an invoice from Indie public! “Surely not, I thought.” ShabbySheepWool is just an itty bitty shop on Etsy and there are soooo many more that have been open a long time and offer nice stuff handmade stuff for sale. But it was true!!! I know it sounds kinda’ weird to be excited to get to buy an ad., but this is a BIG magazine and a BIG deal to little ‘ole me! It will only be about 1.75” square ad, but still it’s me~ShabbySheep! Be sure to buy Somerset Life coming in October 2009.

OK, that was Friday morning. Pretty good start to the weekend, right? Then Friday evening I was in my hooking room organizing some wool and I heard a knock at the back door. It was Paula, my neighbor and her sister-in-law. Paula was holding a BIG STACK OF WOOL in her arms like she was presenting me with a prize winning cake or something!

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It was her mother-in-laws and she said she was going to get rid of it! Paula knew I hooked rugs and she just caught a glimpse of me dyeing wool last week! She thought that was the coolest thing! The citric acid really made her think I was a mad scientist or something! Anyway, she told her mother-in-law she knew someone who would put it to good use and now I have about 10 yards of new old wool. Her sis and I were looking through it and she kept pulling out pieces and saying, “Oh, I had a jumper out of that!, or I had a skirt out of that.” I was so excited. Immediately after they left I put it in the washing machine. This is my favorite. I love red, white and blue. They all washed up nicely. Perfect for hooking!

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See, I told you my weekend was much better than the last! I stayed up really late Friday night looking on Craigslist for garage sales and carefully plotting out my route. Starting at 6:30. I even number them 1,2,3 etc.!

I woke up at about 5:30 to the sound of thunder. Drats!

I ended up sleeping until 11:00! I had, after all stayed up until 2:30 Friday night. But eventually the sun came out and I decided even though it was 2:00 in the afternoon, and I never had been garage saling that late, that I would give it a try. I drove to five or six sales. Following their signs on the street corners. I would drive up and down the streets and NO SALES!! The signs were still up, but they weren’t having their sales I expect because of the rain! For goodness sakes, people….Take Down Your Signs if you’re not having a sale! I didn’t give up and headed towards a different part of town. Jackpot!!! I had told myself to be on the lookout for some skirt hangers and a clothing bag, zippered, to put my coats in in the basement. The first sale I went to she had a huge box of NEW skirt hangers. 10 cents for 13 hangers.

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I said I’ll take the whole box. She said, oh well then you can just have them! I also scored a beautiful red plaid wool blanket! Looks Brand New!

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Also got a couple of wool sweaters to felt and sell on Etsy. Here’s you know who. He’s the nosiest dog I have ever seen! He learned it from me though.

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More rubber stamps and more of the rollie thingys for stamping. I tried it out! FUN!!! It has ink cartridges that fill it up as you roll along. All of my mail will now be decorated!

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The last sale I went to was the best for poking around in boxes and looking under tables. My favorite thing to do! I found this vintage pink velvet. Three different shades of pink! Oooh laa laa. Her husband makes bottle trees out of welded metal and the lady took me on a backyard garden tour. They had a lot of great folk art and primitive art in their yard. Just my kind of place! I’ve been wanting a bottle tree for years and we just haven’t been able to find the right tree. I really want a cedar tree for the tree part. And all of the bottles will be cobalt blue. Mickey’s brother drinks quite a bit of wine in these bottles and they have been saving them for me! OK, I added some of my own too! Anyway, back to the sale. I also got this pretty red plaid fabric on a roll. Just because it’s pretty! If nothing else, I’ll wrap this years Christmas presents in it! I love to do funky stuff like that.

DSCN4170Oops! There’s Mr. Nosey again. Honestly I can rarely take a photograph that he hasn’t butted in to. Just curious. Should have named him George!

So I’m talking to the lady who owns the house. They go to auctions all the time. She had cool stuff. I’m just running out of room in my house. The cutest prim childs table~blue. my favorite blue too. It would have been a great end table or night stand. But I got my senses about me! We were talking about hooking and she said, wait a minute, I have something inside for you! She came out with this big ball of wool!

JD with ball of wool yes, there he is again! Boy,I just start talking to people and see what happens? She said I could just have it too! But I gave her a big $2.00 for it. Also got a rusty metal basket. Can’t have too many of those. I almost forgot to add that at this sale I got the zippered cloth coat saver thing. You know what I mean. It’s big it will hold 7 or 8 coats no problem. That means my day was a TOTAL SUCCESS!

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Last weekend, in the middle of all the crappiness I forgot to show you my toenails I painted for the holiday!! Aren’t they fun? People noticed them everywhere I went. You know the Dr.s office and the pharmacy!?!?!

DSCN4176And on that topic, I’m still on the antibiotic and there is still a ring on my hip~though barely a pink ring now. I still have to wait another two weeks to see my physician for the second blood test for Lyme. They can tell with this one if you’ve ever had it in your life! Then I think there is still one more test two weeks after that! That Lyme disease isn’t something to mess around with. You know in all my life I don’t think I’ve ever finished the WHOLE 10 days of antibiotics. Usually I start feeling better and just kind of forget about it. Not this time! I’m taking every single one of them!

Yesterday I got a little more hooked on Shabby Sheep, but not really enough for a picture yet. I spent most of Sunday getting more wool ready to sell on Etsy. I still can’t get my photographs to show the correct colors. Really just on the light or low value wools. Like pale greens and yellows. They just look kind of gray. Someone must be seeing them though, I’ve made something like 35 sales already! I’m so excited. Met a lot of nice people too. And sent a big box to England today! Can’t wait to see what she makes with my wool. She said she would keep me informed. That will be a fun part of selling, I hope. Seeing what they create from my dyeing the wool.

It’s one o’clock in the morning! My Gosh…I’ve got to get to bed! My mail lady has said I don’t need to call for her to pick up my packages. She’ll just be on the look out for them every day. Boy, print labels and shipping in your living room and then have your packages picked up at the front door! How great is it to be alive in 2009!!!

Come and check out my Etsy shop: here! Tomorrow I’ll be listing quite a few felted wool sweaters for making bags, purses, wine totes, etc. Use your imagination! Have you seen where you just cut the sleeves off of a sweater and stitch the bottom closed. Leave the cuff open for the top of the bottle (the neck) and then tie it closed with a ribbon or raffia! Great gift! That way you can choose feminine or masculine too!

Have a great week, friends

Peace,

Sheri

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

NOT the best weekend of my life!!!

Well the beginnings of my troubles actually started the Sunday before this past Sunday.  (the 28th of June)  I felt something itchy on my left hip.  Then I felt a bump!  I immediately knew what that bump was…….a tick!!!!   EWE!!!  A TICK!  MICKEY HELP ME, I’VE GOT A TICK ON ME!  EWE!!!! He’s shouting now,  “chill out” (who uses those words anymore anyway?)  So he pulls the tick off of my hip.  Bad news the head is still in me.  So we decide to get a needle and dig it out!  He thinks he got it though.  So OK, everything will be alright.  The days pass and I forget about it.  That is until last Friday.  I was over at my mom and dads and was telling them about my tick bite episode.  I unbuttoned my pants and pulled them down to show them!  It’s like my dad has always been my “real doctor”  They gasped when they saw it.  I turned and looked in the mirror and I gasped then too!  It was this HUGE red ring~~~the kind they tell you to watch out for.  Then my dad says, “ Oh yeah, it’s a lot lighter in the middle too! That’s the bulls eye!  I think that’s what they say lyme disease looks like!!!”  Nooooooo no no no no not me. Oh I’m sure it’s just a little infected from trying to dig him out.  All the time knowing that it looked EXACTLY like the pictures I had seen of lyme disease.  Just sounds gross, doesn’t it? 

Well I woke up the next morning.  The fourth of July, I might add and discussed it with Mickey.  He really wanted me to go to the Urgent Care Clinic that’s associated with our hospital.   I knew, but hated to admit it, that I had to go.  The Dr. walked in, I told her about the tick and proceeded to pull my pants down again!  Her eyes grew huge--------Boy that made me feel better.  Then she got out a ruler and started filling out paper work!  Oh crap….I’ve got it.  She said I have it-she knows that without the blood work.  But she’s still going to have my bloodwork done that day,again in two weeks and again in another two weeks! I guess there are alot of false negatives with the first and second tests. And the CDC wants to count each case in every county.  But in the mean time she loaded me up with antibiotics.  She said it is very treatable if caught early.  I asked is 7 or 8 days early?  Yes, she assured me. 

If you can stand to look I’m adding a picture of my bite so you can see what to look for on your own bodies!  I haven’t been hiking in the woods or anything.  The only thing I have been doing is using a hose a couple of times to water the flowers in the back yard.  I’ll betcha one of those ticks hopped up on Jimmie Dean (He’s been treated with Frontline-so it repels them)  so they jump up on JD, he doesn’t taste too good.  Well little jimmie spoons with me when we sleep…mr. tick just hopped on over to me with the meaty thighs for his meal.   EWE!!! EWE   GROSS!!!  How long was that nasty thing on me?  OK back to the picture.

Don’t look unless you want to see what my ugly tick bite looks like!!!

               REALLY!!

 

 

 

OK here it is if you really want to see.                                                                

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       Is that gross or what? 

I’ve been on antibiotics for four days now and a little of the redness is going away.  But I’m still having headaches and fatigue, as in I am sleeping all afternoon!  I’ll see my regular doctor in one more week.  Maybe –hopefully everything will be OK then.

Oh you think you’re through with my weekend story?  Sadly to say you’re not.  Please keep up with me now.  We still haven’t talked about Sunday.  Sunday night in specifics!   I was scheduled to go over to St. Johns Hospital to the sleep lab for my sleep study!  This being the day that the TICK BOURNE DISEASE IS SETTING IN AND I HAVE THE MOST TERRIBLE HEADACHE I HAVE EVER HAD…wHY don’t I just go sign myself up in that hospital and let then clamp 100 wires onto my head.  a dozen or so on my arms and legs.  oh lets don’t forget the chest , the two big black army looking belts. now catch this…these belts are attatched TIGHTLY ONE AROUND THE TOP OF MY BOOBS! AND ONE REMEMBER, TIGHTLY…AROUND THE BOTTOM OF MY BOOBS!!!   gETTIN THE PICTURE YET SISTA? 

Then I see him coming at me with a red sharpie—straight for my face!!!  He wrote all over my forehead.  That wasn’t so bad.  But then he started sticking things all over my FACE!  even a tiny little mustache like thing in between my nose and mouth so they can HEAR how I’m respirating in the night.  Oh yeah, they sit up all night and have cameras on you and they sit at desks and watch your every move!!!  Great.  Mickey says I hold in all my “gas” all day and wait until I go to sleep to Let It Out!  My God, it sounds like I’m writing a comedy tV show here.  No, this is just my weekend.   So I’m sharing something with you know, and if any of you know me personally, you can black mail me with this picture.  The guy took my pic with all these wires coming off of my head and on my face.  I photoshopped out the boobs in the belt thing!  NOT a pretty sight!!! oh……..  my ……… God………..

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I did get to pull a few loops of my ShabbySheep rug.  But I was going to do it on monk’s cloth.  It just wasn’t feeling right. I wasn’t enjoying myself so I pulled it out and went to SF and bought a yard of linen.  Came home and redrew my pattern and have managed to get a few loops in.   And for all of you primitive girls………….don’t look at this picture either!!!   lol   lol   LOL  LOL i crack myself up!?!?!   Any way it’s mostly PINK so you might just want to look away.  There will be one more picture and everyone can look at it if I can keep you all reading that long!  It’s little Jimmie Dean standing on a little table.  Awwww…..                                              DSCN3998DSCN4000

You know I just realized I’ve already taken my sleep pills!!!!  That’s why I sound so absolutly silly right now!  It’s 12:40!  I should so already be asleep.  Now I know how you feel if you don’t go directly to bed!  Wow.   Nity Nite,

Peace,

sheri

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Michael Jackson Man In The Mirror (Moonwalker Version)

Happy Independence Day! My wish is that we all would look at the Man In The Mirror (in our own mirrors), make a change and thank a veteran today. Peace, Sheri