Ready for my surprise?

Hint number one…

Number two…

 

Surprise!!!

I’ve been a blond my whole life!  Until October of 2007 when I decided to see what it would be like to be a brunette!  My sister is the true brunette of the  family and she’s blonde now! 

Of course now I have to change my whole make up palette too!  But see how my eyebrows match my blond hair?  I have been in a Funk lately and just couldn’t get out of it.  I just attributed it to not feeling well.  But I kept looking in the mirror and not liking who I saw!  I told my mom and she said they had been talking about my hair too!  And  that I’m a blond!

Now I’m saving my money to get this turkey wattle of a chin cut off!  I’ve already seen a surgeon.  What I am wanting is called The Lifestyle Lift.  It’s really just a mini facelift that lifts everything from your nostrils down.  But it’s an in office procedure that only takes one hour!!!  Now to get that $4000.00 saved.  My chin is completely inherited from my dad!!!  (My dad is blond too)  And his side of the family the women have these HUGE upper arms.  Guess who also inherited that?  LOL  My dad told me his mother used to have to have inserts added to the arms of her dresses when she got older!  GREAT…. Do they have an arm flab reducing surgery too?  I Love modern medicine!!!  But I’m afraid by the time I get that much cash saved the cost will have risen.  Gotta have a goal though!

I’ve been dyeing wool since early this morning.  Just taking a little break to eat a sandwich. 

Let me know your opinions about blond versus brunette!  It won’t bother me either way.  Those of you who have known me for a long time will say blond.  I asked Mickey if it was weird looking at me and he said no, I just look like Sheri!   I don’t know if I told you, but when I changed to brown he wouldn’t even come close to me for a couple of days! Really….he wouldn’t even touch my arm!  He said I was like a stranger!

Hope you have a great weekend,

Peace,

Sheri

 

I’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do!

JoJo said she never knew I had kids!  Well, technically I don’t!  Mickey has four grown boys!!!   They were already out of the house by the time we got married.  Coincidence????  I don’t think so!!!  Kidding… kind of!!  They all live in town and pop in all the time.  Except for Jeff  (2nd youngest) He’s in the process of moving from Denver to Panama City!  He’s the gypsy rebel of the boys.  Foot loose and fancy free. 

Anyway I get to have grandkids with no kids!  How’s that for lucky?  Again…kidding…kind of!

This past Tuesday was our monthly hooking group but it was also our grandson Seamus’ fifth birthday.   They had a little party at his house!  He has an older sister named Emily.  This is grandpa Mickey with his grandkids!  He has to be right in the middle too!

Birthday boy!

I just try not to invade their lives too much by blogging them all over the world!  It’s just a thing with me, not putting kids on the internet.  Especially since their parents aren’t bloggers.  But we love these little boogers more than anything!!!

Ok JoJo how’s that?  I’m the wicked step-mother! tee hee hee

Getting ready for my big surprise this evening!!!

Talk to you tomorrow.

Peace,

Sheri

Missing in Action

Well, missing…. no action!  As you could have guessed, I caught the flu from my parents.  And sure enough like they say it lasted about ten days. 

I did have to force myself to get dressed and go out to the post office one day and I saw a garage sale sign.  Remember, I’ve promised myself not to go to any more sales?  It’s my car’s fault!  It just turned right down that street!  Anyway, as usual~I’m glad I did!  I found the best cabinets for my hooking room.  One is 60 inches long.  The other 36 inches.  They are both 40” high.  And they have doors on them!  But this created a much bigger problem once inside the house.  Remember we live in a tiny little 1300 square foot bungalow.  That doesn’t leave any room for new any thing!!!  Just listen to what these cabinets causes us to have to move.  (We actually gave away some furniture)

First, there was a huge trestle dining table and bench in the craft room.  Pushed up against the wall.  It had the TV, two printers and my sewing machine on it.  Problem was,  it was always so piled up with Stuff that you couldn’t even see the table.  Let alone work on it! 

So I decided that table should go to the dining room!  BUT, we already have a dining table and four chairs in there.  AND a love seat, wing  back chair and a TV cabinet.  See what I mean now about not bringing any more stuff in this little house?    Moved the loveseat to the living room.  (Gave the one that was in that room to our son)  Moved the wingback chair to my hooking room.  Let’s see… living room coffee table to the basement.  Cedar chest in it’s place. See what a mess I caused???  All because I stopped at a stupid garage sale and bought two simple cabinets!!!

But oh, the rewards!  Here is the room now.  Ready for a few friends to sit and hook with me!  All of the wool I’m keeping is in the new cabinets.  Oh, and that little loveseat was in the basement!  I plan on making a slipcover for it soon.   I’ll also have to make new curtains! 

 

That little Shabby Sheep mat is STILL on the frame.  I have totally lost interest in it!  I need a new, big project now.  I’ve been sketching some patterns.  Now to commit.  Now that I have my hooking room just the way I want it hopefully I’ll settle down and start hooking again.  No more sales~hooking!

And dyeing wool!  My little shop is Etsy doing quite well.  Thanks to everyone for buying my wool and taking a look at my shop!  I plan on dyeing some wool this weekend.  Some rich fall colors.  I can hardly wait for fall!

I have something BIG happening tomorrow night!!!  I’ll let you know about it Saturday!!!  I’ll even show you!!!

Until then, have a great Friday!

Peace,

Sheri

I have some wool ON SALE!

Last week I got lucky and had two days in a row of feeling good.  No aches or pains to stop me from dyeing LOTS of wool, anyway.  I do hate to say that the two days After I dyed all of it I was pretty much down again.  One day in the bed and one day made it to the couch.  I have just, in July started taking a new drug that was just approved by the FDA in June for this damned fibromyalgia.  I feel good/great one day…….Do waaaay to much, because I CAN!….but then dreadfully I have to stay in bed again for two days.  I know you get tired of hearing me say that.  I’m really TRYING to learn to just pace myself.  But no one can possibly understand it if you haven’t actually had to do it.  It’s like if I don’t do something right this minute when I’m not hurting…..like what if I wait an hour, but then I’m in too much pain again to do whatever it was I wanted to do.  Sooooo on feel good days I dye wool …..LOTS OF WOOL.  This past Thursday I think seven yards.

 

I call that Lots of wool for my little four burner electric stove and my washer and dryer being in the basement.  It really ends up being quite a big day!  Usually after I get a few pots off the heat I cool them off with the dish sprayer just as fast as possible so I can go hang them outside to see what they really look like!!!  I line them up across the neighbors fence and start taking pictures. 

 

I’ve had as many as three different neighbors come out to check the days colors.   It’s fun for all of us!  They are anxious to see what will start lining the neighbors fence.  THAT neighbor isn’t even home when the wool show is going on!!! 

Anyway you can click here to see the SALE WOOL on my Etsy shop!  Thanks for taking the time to look.  And on Monday I’ll be listing some fall colors in bundles of all different sizes of wool!  Some big, some small.  Just pretty colors that look great together bundled up and ready to hook with!

Back to the story of my life this weekend.

Then by Friday night I was really tired, but still keyed up and reading blogs at 2:30 a.m.  Took my sleeping pill at 3:00 and the phone wrang.  It was my dad.  He had taken my mom to the Emergency Room for vomiting and diarhea.

I stuck my head in the bedroom door and told Mickey I was leaving and quickly drove over there.  She looked awful.  Her coloring was just gray.  But after about an hour with an I.V.she was turning pink again.  The ran an EKG, stomach CAT scan and all kinds of bloodwork.  Everything was fine.  Just like the nurse said.  You take your car to the garage to be worked on and everything is running just fine!  So we took her home at about 7:00 am.  Then I followed them home to get them in and set up for the “sick room”.  Then I had to start cleaning their carpeting in the bedroom and master bath.  Don’t make me tell you what I was cleaning.  I really don’t even want to know.  All I know is I used a whole can of OxyClean and a shop vac!  Got her put to bed and got dad some dinner and went home to sleep myself.  I had been awake since Friday am around 7:00.  It’s now Sat. 11:00 am.  I went home and literally fell onto the bed and passed out but was only able to sleep for Two Hours!  I was worried about my mommie, I’m sure.

So this morning I had just finished my coffee and shower and my dad called.  He’s sick too!  He wanted me to come over “for support”.  That was really kind of sad for your daddy to want you to be there… Just Because..just in case they needed me.  I was so thankful I felt good today so I could go.  I would’ve gone anyway of course!  I took my Shabby Sheep mat to work on.  You know he really did want me there for a sense of security, I guess.  When I got there he was dressed with his shoes still on and within three minutes of me getting my mom settled he smiled and said he was going to go to bed too!  It’s a very strange feeling sitting in the house you grew up in ,but now I was the one sitting there with my sewing on my lap nursing my sick “kids”  They taught me well…. a cool washcloth for your head?,  some crushed ice to suck on?  They were in such a shape they had to have someone help.  My mom, by the way was a lot better today, but still not able to keep much liquid down.  I got her to eat a popcycle and sip a little water while I was there.  It was like they were safe when I got there and they could both go to bed and not have to worry about the other.  It is bitter sweet growing old with the one you love.  The good days are really good and the bad ones seem to be really bad.  I can get to their house in five minutes max, so I didn’t feel bad about leaving this evening.  They were both going to try to sleep some more.  And my dad told me to tell my sister not to call (and me too) tonight cause it would only wake them up!!!

I just feel blessed to have such wonderful parents and to be able to pay a little back.  How many hours did our parents sit with us brushing our hair with their fingers while we were sick?  Isn’t life something?  God, be with me when my parents go.

Please call your loved ones today and tell them you love them!!!!  Do it for me!

Peace and thank you,

Sheri

Rug Hooking at the county fair!

The Ozark Empire Fair is ending tonight.  It’s something I have looked forwards to since I was a little girl.  Something about the bright colorful lights and the loud rock music!  Mickey and I went last Sunday night and had a great time.  Although I ate junk food until I was sick…First we had an A&W corndog and root beer.  Followed that with frozen chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick!!!  Why do they put everything on a stick at the fair?  Oh….duh….so you can walk around with it and eat it….duh.     Anyway, after I had had a few bites of the cheesecake we decided we had seen everything and would head home.  But I hadn’t had a funnel cake!  CAN’T leave the fair and not get a funnel cake.  For those of you who don’t know what a funnel cake is, it’s something like donut dough put in a BIG funnel and they let it drizzle around in circles into a deep fryer!!!  YUCK, I know!  Deep fried dough.  Then they cover it with powdered sugar.

 

And did I mention it’s as big as a dinner plate?  There’s no way one person could eat the whole thing.  But since I already had cheesecake ~ while I ordered my funnel cake I got some giant napkins and wrapped my frozen chocolate covered cheesecake and put it in my purse!  Just in time, I might add.  My funnel cake was ready.  Of course Mickey won’t eat any.  You know he’s a picky eater.  The cake gave him a tummy ache last year.  NO KIDDING!!!  That’s just part of it!  Go to the fair and eat that once a year food until you’re sick!  Then go home and sleep it off.  Thank God we don’t have that stuff available all year long.  I really LOVE junk food!  Did I mention that? OK enough about food,  I haven’t even had breakfast yet. 

Let’s take a look at some of the rugs entered in the fair this year.  I was sadly disappointed that there weren’t more entries.  I’m really going to start a campaign next year to get some rugs out there for the public to see.

Let’s start with Dulcy’s.  I love this rug.  And do you see the fox on the left side of the girl?  It’s kind of her trademark thing.  There was a whole family of foxes living in her yard that they got to watch every day. 

Please forgive me if I get this wrong, but I think this rug belongs to Caroline.  I’m so terrible with names.  I met her the night we were there.  Hope I got her name right!  Love bunnies.  I would like to hook this pattern some day.

 

This one is mine.  The antique adaptation from the library book.  I have since purchased that book!

 

Dulcy’s fox rug and my snowman pillow.  Sorry Dulcy, I cut his nose off!

This is this year’s grand champion rug.  Beautiful and so prim.  Love it too.

I want to show you a few of the outstanding quilts too. 

 

 

 

OCTO-MOM!!!  I don’t know what category this was entered into, but it cracked me up!  Can’t help it. 

 

And next time you’re complaining about your job, just be thankful you don’t work in a lemon!

 

One more bit of fair fun.  This past Wednesday, Dulcy, Tammy and I took our projects and demonstrated rug hooking for the public.  We had quite a few people interested in what we were doing!  We also took some finished rugs and some dyed wool to show exactly how they come about.  I think we did more talking than hooking.  But it was sure fun!  I really enjoy telling people about rug hooking and a little history behind the craft.  So many people didn’t even know what it was.  Then when we explained that our grandmothers used old bits of clothing they looked like the “light bulb went off” and they said, “Oh, yeah….sure….Rag Rugs!”

Tammy on the left, me, and Dulcy on the right.  What a group!  We all immediately hit it off as friends.  Maybe it’s ‘cause none of us have any kids and we can pretty do whatever we want When we want!  So if we want to get together and have fun we don’t have to make any “kid arrangements”.  Just go for it!  And Dulcy retired from teaching this year so she’s free anytime!!! 

Have a great week.

Peace,

Sheri

Let the beauty of what we love be what we do.

Went a little crazy at Barnes & Noble

Saturday evening while Mickey mowed the yard I thought I would go to B&N and read some of those expensive magazines I love so much, but am too tight to buy! I loaded my arms down with them and found the perfect chair. I really liked some of them and thought I would actually buy them this time! Then I looked in the hobby and craft section for any new books they might have snuck in on me. Sure enough there was one I hadn’t seen. Mixed-Media Mosaics techniques and projects using polymer clay tiles, beads and other embellishments. Now, who could resist a title like that?

And this is the first page I turned to when I first opened the book! Uh-oh, I’m going to need a cart…

This is a table top made from tiles of polymer clay! She uses both a matte and gloss finish. I would prefer the gloss if I was going to make mosaics. I’ve been collecting garage sale jewelry for over a year and have been wanting to “dress up” a mirror frame with it. Now I can make some personal tiles to go on it! The polymer clay is one of the things I had in my “for sale” pile at my garage sale, but rescued at the last minute. See, things happen for a reason! Do I really need another craft to learn? NO! Can I resist? NO!

These are the magazines I couldn’t resist either…

This work is by artist Katie Shelton from Camdenton, MO.

not far from home. Who knew there were so many talented artists living in these Ozarks hills?

Artist Susan M. Hinckley works mostly with wool for her backgrounds.

This artist is Pam Cariker from my hometown, Springfield.

One of my favorite artists, The Crafty Chica

Kathy Caro-Murillo

I also found this book in the crafting section. Turns out pretty much everything in this book was a no brainer. Sucker….

So what came from going to have a cup of sugary creamy coffee stuff and reading some of those pricey magazines ended up costing me $85.00. That could have been a date night for the two of us. That’ll teach him to mow the yard on a Saturday night!?!?!

Have a great week.

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do…

Peace,

Sheri