Saturday, February 27, 2010

Fund Raiser

Because of the earthquake in Chilie I will be donating 20% of all sales to Doctors Without Boaders from now till the end of March 2010. So check it out and pass it on. http://www.tinyurl.com/handmadebysheri .

They are dealing with much more than a sick kid(earthquake trumps e-coli any day), and I can not think of any other way to help.

Enjoy your families and pass this on to whom ever can help.

Thank you.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

A Blanket Update

I started this blanket as my Raverlary Olympic project. I know what was I thinking. A queen size blanket done that quick is never going to happen.

So here is the blanket by the numbers so far. It is 100 inches wide, yes I have allowed for shrinkage. To save Teri the horrors of the blanket shrinking I will wash and dry the blanket before I send it to her. Your welcome Teri.

I have completed 3 full rows of blocks. Which measures 12 inches high.

I have used 17; yes that is 17 skeins of yarn. Each skein only makes 3 modular blocks. I figure I need to kint at least 34 rows of blocks before I add the border.

I had origianly started this as a stash buster project, but considering that I only had 24 skeins of this yarn to start with I have had to buy more. I do hope that I have enough yarn to finish this without having to buy more yarn. I am mixing up the colors of the blocks and going on an angle so yarn form differnt years  land in the diffrent sections.  Cotton grown in diffrent colors vary in color from year to year.

Let me know if you want me to write this pattern down when I am finished and I will add it to my Art Fire studio and Raverly.

Have a good evening and enjoy your families.

Monday, February 22, 2010

The Day That Went Through the Blender

The day started off well enough. Although I should have known that it was not going to continue when my hot cocoa boiled over in the microwave oven, let’s just say the microwave had more cocoa than I did. I even got my to do list written out and was busy going down the list in a decent fashion.

Then at 10:30 I got the call from school. It was not “Urgent” but Eric was not feeling well. I asked the inevitable question did I need to pick him up now. The answer was no, but I called his doctor to make a same day appointment anyway.

So I recalculated my to do list and took the most urgent errands that needed to be done and went to go get Eric from school. We got to the doctors with a few minutes to spare, enough time to add one round to my never ending socks for this winter, at this rate they will be finished for our first 105 degree day of the summer. Did I mention that they were Lorna’s laces wool. We got in and saw Eric’s doctor very fast but it was getting the lab samples from Eric that took over 2 hours. The lab test quick results came back very quickly. So prescription in hand I took Eric home and handed him off to his afternoon aide and ran to get the prescription.

Mean while I told John that he was in charge of dinner, that I did not have time to make the chili I had planned to make for dinner. So after deciding he did not want canned soup and tuna sandwiches he went out and picked up take out. I find it so wonderful that after an equally long and hard day that he would go out and get us a hot dinner. You have just got to love a man who does this.

Two quick loads of laundry later it was time to put my day in writing. Yes one phone call does frequently turn my day upside down. I think it is time to go find some yarn and try to unwind before midnight. So have a great night and enjoy your families.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Not a Typical Thursday.

Well it has been a day of extreme highs and lows. The high's a very good lecture and fashion show by SWTC at knitting guild , lunch with friends and Eric’s big smile when he came off the bus. The weather was also wonderful. The lows having to deal with rude people who imply my life is screwed up when they make a mistake. Really is that necessary to insult your customers because your company screwed up?


I also discovered that I lost my cell phone today. I tore apart and cleaned out my car twice, my purse the counters, my closet floor, and all my knitting baskets and anywhere else I could think off. I even called my phone twice and it went straight to voice mail. No I don't know how long its been gone, this is how often I use it. So I am off to pick out a new phone and any suggestions would be lovely.

My hands are still sore from all the clapping at the Joshua Nelson concert last night. So instead of knitting I will be relaxing, yes I think I know what that word means.

So Have a good evening and enjoy your families and have a great evening.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Why Don't Things last forever?

It has been a very good day today. If you can’t tell Eric slept for most of the night and I got a lot of running around done today. Eric and I almost finished watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Vancouver you have a very nice city. I shall add your city to a list of places I would like to go someday.


I was in the throwing mood so before and during breakfast I went through a lot of papers and made a good start to filling the recycling barrel. The bad news is my recycling basket is starting to fall apart; I will have to look and see what basket we can destroy next in the name of recycling. You should not feel bad for this basket though I have had it since my first apartment in 198? and it was a hand me down way back then. Don’t you just hate it when things wear out before their time? I sure do, things I like are suppose to last forever. I think I will add the quilt on my bed to that list; I made it the year before Teri was born and it has the audacity to start falling apart this year when she is only in her first year of grad school. And I can only blame the poor workmanship on myself. Well a new one will have to be added to the long term to do list.

To make the planning of the quilt more interesting if you will send me the names and or pictures of your favorite quilt blocks or patterns it would be very nice. I am also looking for something that has a lot of strip work and not any flowers. I want to make it husband friendly.

Well it is time to go and make dinner. So have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Is it Still Valentine's Day?

OK, I am the first to admit that I am very grumpy after a long night with Eric. A lot of knitting got done just not what I wanted to work on which is Teri’s blanket, but let’s face facts here it is impossible to keep a straight count when I am up and down, then throw in tired. So I worked on a plain square blanket that has 1 yarn over per row till I get to the middle, then the decreases start.

I finally got Eric to sleep at 5 am and took the luxury of sleeping till 7:30 am, just enough time to re-set up the pump – don’t ask, give meds and put Eric on the bus. Yes I really did put Eric on the bus; he was happy and feeling better. I was very tired and grumpy.


It was at lunch that I realized that I had skipped breakfast, actually I could not remember if I had eaten or not and was too tired to care or feel hungry. I went out with Marge and thankfully she drove. When we got to one of our favorite lunch spots we both order chicken tacos. What got delivered was chicken and cheese enchiladas. When I said that I did not order this the waitress got this old fashion I put this plate in front of you and you are going to eat it attitude, well she may have intimidated Marge, but I sent mine back and got what I ordered in the first place delivered with an attitude that did not belong in public. So this is my rant for today. Treat your customers with the respect you wish to be treated; after all they are paying your salary; and if you can’t do that please, please find a job without of public contact.

But the day was not all that bad. After lunch we stopped to pick up some medicine for Eric and this is where the Ganga* of the day kicked in. With Eric’s medicine I got a $25.00 gift card, that’s good but it got even better. I bought 3 packages of toilet paper marked down $5.00 per pack with my loyalty card and a bottle of Tylenol I had 2- $3.00 coupons with a $15.00 purchase, so I knocked off $21.00 off the total price and then used the gift card that they just gave me in the pharmacy to pay for it and still have a balance of $7.54 left on the gift card. So this was not a bad shopping trip for this tired mom.

Dinner is filet of leftover so I am not cooking tonight. I am off to try to play some Wii tennis if I can find the disc. So have a good night and enjoy your families.

*Ganga is slang in Tucson for a totally awesome deal.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Valentines Day

Well it is Valentine’s Day today. So I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful day. I would also like to wish all of you who are celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year a Happy New Year. We are having a very low key day today. John and Eric took me to Miss Saigon for lunch today. I had a wonderful chicken bun which is a salad with cucumbers, rice noodles, curried chicken, and lettuce. I f you are ever in Tucson Miss Saigon is a must go to. We did miss Teri on this very family orientated day but I am sure that the books are much more important right now.
I will conquer the laundry monster while Eric does his breathing treatment and then make a quick antipasto for dinner. John got some wonderful looking strawberries for desert so I guess that I will not make the brownies I was planning on...darn. I hope to have some knitting time later today. I can only work on small projects in the car while John is driving and I really want to make some headway on Teri’s blanket. Not that it will be done by the end of the Olympics. On the side is a picture of tone of the yarns that I am using.

So have a good evening and enjoy your families.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Today

Not a lot got done today. I went with friends out to breakfast and was reminded why we don’t go out for breakfast very often. I choose to avoid milk, eggs (they just don’t like me) and pork products, so there is not much left on the menu to eat. Don’t get me wrong the Good Egg at Orange Grove and Thornydale in Tucson has home fries worth going back to eat again, combined with a half an order of fruit and ice tea, it was not a bad meal.


We went off to the gem show and went to 2 different venues. Since I go to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show more often than most of my friends I was the guide and the Navigation system rolled into one. I am glad that everyone found what they were looking for. I hope it gave me some street creds for being the lone Tucsonan in the group. We left just as it started to rain and by the time we were half way home I was glad that I was not driving.

With Eric’s help I listed more stitch markers in my Art Fire Studio; you will find the link on the side of my blog. I am up to 49 listed items and hope that something sells soon. Yes I know the pictures are not the best but I am getting better.Handmade~by~Sheri

So soup and something warm to go with it maybe homemade biscuits; for dinner.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

My Day

Well I had a good day. The Pomo said that Eric’s lungs were very clear- this is a big yeah. But the bad news is Repository Synctial Virus or RSV for short is making the rounds here. I said that he already had it as a baby, but alas this is one of the few viruses that you cannot develop immunity to. Worse yet in lives outside of the body for up to 8 hours that right 8 hours. Even worse it makes a lot of secretions and leads to asthma or bronchitis.


I did get to class today; they were running about 10 minutes late which was great. I had to drop Eric off at school before I went to class. It was a very good class today. I was so happy for a friend of mine, her son and his entire unit made it back safely from Afghanistan. With training it will be a while before he goes back. She must have nerves of steel.

I had lunch at a fairly new place in Tucson today. The Tucson Tamale Company on Broadway ½ block east of Tucson Blvd. The tamale was so good I picked up some for dinner. I think that I will try the corn instead of the beans next time. I also over heard good comments on the rice. When I am in that part of town I will definitely go back for more. All I can say is that it was a bit of heaven. I love a great tamale.

I even saw a road runner on the way home, How I love to look at them, but they move so fast.

Well it is time to go steam those tamales. I do love an easy dinner to make; the hard part will be opening the can of beans. One of these days I really will get an electric can opener- maybe for bad hand days.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Failed - Soup

Ok so I had some help in the kitchen yesterday. Instead of frozen vegetables in the soup last night John and I, make that John sliced a lot of fresh vegetables for the soup. I was a lot of work and tasted all right, but not as good as with the frozen mixed vegetables. Sigh. Lesson learned. Kiss = keep it super simple.


After a second long night in a row with Eric we will be laying low today, on the list is lots of knitting and maybe some new stitch markers.

For those of you who are snow in, have fun with the kids and post the pictures of the snowmen you make. Have a great day and enjoy your families.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

A Mixed Day

Today started out slow and blah. Errands and a trip to the court house to turn in a duplicate copy of the papers we mailed in December that they lost, well actually they shredded them, because we did not put an envelope inside an envelope with a cover memo taped to the inside envelope. And yes I did pay one dollor for an envelope so that I did not have to make a return trip. Now really was that necessary. Haven’t they heard of the save the earth movement and a reduction of paper usage?

So I headed off to the gem and mineral show by Tucson Electric Park. I have got to tell you that two and one half hours was not enough time. I had a fun time shopping and looking around. I missed last year’s show and this show just seemed to grow by leaps and bounds.

I did find some cute little things that are being made into stitch markers and they will have their first showing at knitting tomorrow and if any are left will go to my studio. Eric was a good helper when we sat together to make the stitch markers, I think anytime I am just sitting with him is a good time for him. I have not been this relaxed in a long time. So it is time to go make dinner.

Have a good evening and enjoy your families.