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!

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!

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

Oops! 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!

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!

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!?!?!

And 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