Well I've been to hell and back

It's been seven (7) months since I last posted? It really seems as though I've been to hell and back. Last November I had a surgery that was supposed to be a

small thing......local anesthetic....no stitches....no pain....no biggie....per the surgeon's mouth. It was to be a biopsy the size of my thumbnail on the scar where my mastectomy was. That was done in March 2010 and it had healed up great!!! I had this patch of dry skin along the scar though and it scared my oncologist that it might be a recurrence of the breast cancer so he ordered the biopsy. I arrived at the hospital on Nov. 2nd. Mickey took me, of course. I told the surgeon in the "holding room" that I was afraid that since I already took so much pain medicine that I might wake up or feel the surgery. He talked it over with the anesthesiologist and they decided to give me a general anesthetic. When I woke up in the recovery room the Dr. told me he had cut open the whole length of the mastectomy scar (close to 5 inches long) to "relieve pressure", WHATEVER THAT MEANS!?!?! I had stitches inside and out. After about 10 days I had the stitches removed. The nurse didn't really Remove them, she clipped them.....I Removed them myself with tweezers in front of the bathroom mirror later that day. Proceed to Nov. 28th. I was lying on the couch on my right side. The same side as the surgery. And I used my elbow to skooch up on the couch a little. I felt this splat..... and fluid. Lots of fluid. I ran to the bathroom and grabbed a washcloth. I knew what had happened before I looked. The whole incision had split wide open.

Of course it did. Because I had had radiation on that skin. There is no blood flow to the skin that has been radiated. I know that. Didn't the surgeon know that? Well, yes it seems he did. He told me that when I asked about getting a skin graft to the huge wound since he said they couldn't stitch it up again. "There's no blood flow there because of the radiation so you can't have a skin graft. Remember I told you about that before the surgery?" Um, excuse me....you said it was going to be no biggie, no stitches, no pain!!!

So I've been going to the Burn and Wound Unit at St. Johns Hospital since the first of December. At first twice a week, now I'm down to once a month. I have had to change the dressings at home and try to deal with the PAIN. Eating pain pills like candy and lying on the couch for almost 5 months. I am Finally feeling like myself again and doing my usual things. Still have pain, just not near as bad and I guess I've learned to tolerate it.

BTW....we have talked to an attorney about this, but he hasn't gotten back to us yet. He said the surgeon will probably say he did what he had to do. blah blah....bull shit.

I want to say the biggest THANK YOU to all my blogging and real "in person" friends who wished me well and prayed for me. I got cards in the mail almost every day for a while! Isn't it great that we can make such great friendships on the web and not have to leave our living rooms? again....THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

BUT during my down time on the good days I started packing up my craft room/studio into boxes with the intention of redoing it in a bright Bohemian style. Of course I bit off more than I could chew and the boxes sat all over the house for Weeks. In the living room, dining room, and the other 2 bedrooms. The basement is about to explode!!!! How did all that stuff fit in that little 10' by 11' room? I don't know, but I got lots of it back in there and I'm letting go of the rest. I figured I can't have the whole Hobby Lobby Sheri store in my house. If I didn't use it last year I let it go. If I want to take up those old hobbies again I'll just have to go buy the stuff again!

I'm going to show a few pictures every day. That way I'll get back into the habit of blogging and I can show you what all I did. I literally made Everything that's in that room! From the bedspread to the painted floorcloth, curtains, pillows. You'll see!

So after I got that room finished, the rest of the house looked kinda blah. Remember, I had all white slipcovers and a real shabby look? Well I had to redo all the other rooms too!

Here's the first thing I thought of to do. I had this old loveseat that my Grandma bought at a garage sale 20 years ago. It is so comfy I couldn't get rid of it. So I PAINTED IT!!! With a roller and latex paint! Now it looks just like purple leather!!!!

Here's before

During

And after

You can see the bright turquoise wall. That's actually the first thing I did was to paint 3 walls turquoise and the other one chocolate brown. (You'll see that later!) That purple tapestry you see hanging will become a curtain for where I took down the closet doors. At the Salvation Army I ran across some lavender curtains with sequins along the top. Made just for a teenage girl's room!!! Guess who had to have them? Part of them and part of the tapestry became this curtain for the closet.

Well sorry, but now the old Blogger that I forgot about fighting with is back. I can't put my pictures at the bottom of the writing. I have to cut and paste!!!!! Sorry, but I can't do that tonight. I'll work on it tomorrow and have Lots more pictures for you.

Glad to be back

Peace,

Sheri

Where have I been, you ask?

I've been working on stuff to take to be a vendor at the First Annual Truman Lake Rug Show and Hook In that was put

on by Patty Wallace and her "flock" from Saltbox Primitive Woolens. What a GREAT time! I was also taking some horrible
medicine that is supposed to prevent the breast cancer from returning and it had me crippled with bone pain. (literally walking with a cane in my house) I got off that stuff about three weeks ago and the difference in my health is unbelievable!!! For the better, I should say.

Here's our living room before the show.

Hungry? This is our dining room! (can't believe I'm showing you this!?!)

This is some of the "hooker" jewelry I was selling at the show.

You can order these necklaces here from my blog before I put them in my Etsy shop. They are only $14.00 and come on 18" or 24" ball chains and this beautiful ribbon too! Email me at shabbysheep1@gmail.com to order!

This is part of my booth at the show. See the wild wool on the left? It's from Jane Green's new dye book. It's called fry-pot wool, as it's done in an electric deep fryer. You roll up the wool lengthwise and put it in the basket like a turbin. Then dye each color and let it "cook" until one color is absorbed. Then I let it cool, roll it up again and do color number two, etc. Some of these pieces have 5 colors of dye and took four hours each to dye!! I plan on putting these on my Etsy store too. I'm selling them "by the notch" so people can either buy the whole piece, half a piece or just pick out the part they like. Most at the show bought the whole piece, however. It's so beautiful. Not bragging, but it's Really cool!!!!

I know that Tammy from Skip To My Ewe posted some pictures of the rug show on her blog. I'll post some tomorrow too. (Still not back up to normal energy levels yet)

I just got a tip that a lady from Ridgedale, MO has been to an estate sale and has Tons of Dorr wool for sale at her house. It's only about 40-45 minutes from here so I'm thinking about taking a little road trip tomorrow to check it out. I just got a mid-life crisis car!

Until tomorrow,

Peace...

Sheri

Well I went to a garden party

Last night at Marcia's house! What a glorious garden! We ate, drank, even got in a little hooking! I almost didn't make it. I thought yesterday was Tuesday all day long~'cause of the holiday. Tammy called me at 5:00 and said, "what are you doing?" "I'm at K-Mart picking up some hairspray, then going to Barnes and Noble to look at magazines. I asked her what she was up

to and she said, going to Marcia's garden hooking party! I said no, that's tomorrow night!

I was an hour late, but I'm so glad I made it.

Marcia's garden was just beautiful. Meticulous. Nothing like mine! Since I was late I asked her to take me on my own personal tour. Rita was late too, so we got a private showing!

She lives in this beautiful saltbox in a grand old part of town. Her house is perfectly period decorated. Prims everywhere. Her rugs look so good on the floor. Of course I forgot to take pics inside the house. Maybe she'll share some with us!

Marcia said that at one point she had 36 clematis in her collection! WOW!!! I have three and think they're stubborn and difficult!

Some views of the back of the house. See by the hammock? That's where we were hooking.

Rita finished the binding on her rug! She said she'll "throw it on the floor in the fall!!!" It's a big rug in my book.

And Belva was working on the binding of her Three Bears rug. I forgot to ask her if this was for herself or a gift!?!

Just as we were leaving all the lights came on~but the mosquitoes were also coming out!

I am working on a portrait class from Wanda Kerr of The Welcome Mat. Some of you will recognize her from her dyeing lessons in the Rug Hooking Magazine. This is Much harder than it looks! It's all done with 8 values. I'll show a finished picture in a few days~hopefully. (We hook a bit, send her a photo, she critiques it, then we re-do it, and so on!!!

Thanks for dropping by!

Peace,

Sheri

OK…I’m a plant-a-holic!

Friday I filled up the back of the Durango with flowers from a local nursery.  This is my kitchen!!!

See that cast iron skillet?  I wonder who put that there?

Saturday I went with Tammy, her husband and his friend to Ash Grove, MO to a nursery I’d never been to.  Uh-oh!

Here are some pictures from our yard~before planting the new stuff.  Sunday Mickey and his friend were walking around the garden and said they counted 50 plants that needed to be planted!  I said did you count the 6 packs as 6?  They both said NO!

I’ve planted Mon, Tues. and Wed.  No pictures of that new stuff yet!  It has started raining here and is not supposed to stop until next Wed. or Thursday!

Hope you enjoyed your garden tour.

Peace,

Sheri

Finished the hooked purse and some gardening!

I finished the purse just in time for my mom’s birthday on the 27th! Crunch time. It only took a little while to hook~I mean FAST. But putting it together with the metal frame took a little longer since I had never done that. Here’s a pic with the hinges open. I like it and have ordered more hinges. I started out making this for me, than at the birthday dinner my sister said she wants one for her b.day in August.

I tried something other than the pattern directions (imagine ME doing that!) and braided 3 pieces of wool for the loops for the handles to go through. I love the way it looks. The pattern is Karen’s of Primitive Spirit and she had used embroidery thread for the loops. It just didn’t look strong enough to me.

You can also see in the following picture the strap itself. I did 4 rows of a decorative S shape stitches on it. Makes it look sturdier too! All this for a purse that’s only about 10” long and 7-8” tall!

A friend hooked this pattern a few years ago and I have always wanted to. Her colors are more “me”. Mickey looked at my hooking and said, “WHAT are you doing?” He’s never seen me use these muted colors that much either!

And Renee’ is getting ready to put the lining in hers. I love seeing the same pattern hooked by different people!

Remember Mick’s friend who is working on his parents house for an estate sale? Well, he told me I could go over any time and dig plants too! Stupid on my part (because of my health), but what fun I had.

Until this…..Remember those cute black clogs I hand painted? Well little miss priss was wearing those to dig in! I fell on our uneven brick patio. I cuss that thing every year. This year I’m covering it with river pebbles!

And doesn’t everyone wear their best jeans to garden in???

That was the only clean pair I had left as our basement was flooded and had a small river running through it. Guess where our laundry room is?

Then to top off that perfectly lovely day (until I got home, anyway) I fixed myself a plate of leftovers from Logan’s Steakhouse from the b.day party. Brought it to the living room, sat the tray on the coffee table and watched it in S L O W motion fall on the carpet~face down!! Ate it anyway!

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Peace,

Sheri