An Uphill Climb

Today started out less than perfect for me. I did not sleep well. I also found a baby tarantula ( about the size of a silver dollar) in the bathroom at around 2am. I did manage to get him outside without waking the house. Although I think he was more happy in the house than outside. The question that still remains is how the heck did that little guy get all the way to the middle of the house? After that I found it hard to get back to sleep. So I woke up with a pre-migraine. I took my Tylenol and caffeine with breakfast. Around lunch time things started clicking for me.

After lunch I got the grocery shopping done. I also noticed something at the check out line today. When I save money with coupons the cashier usually says you saved x amount of money today. Today was different, I approached the $100 mark in savings with coupons. I did not even get to the 40% off mark. There were a lot of buy one get one free along with a few high value coupons. The cashier just looked at it and handed it to me. Then there was just enough time to put the frozen food away and pick up Eric from his program.

I added another 1 1/2 inches to the never ending poncho, I did make it to the second half of the second piece so that went well.  I also listed a few audio books on e-bay. Then went on to start stocking my Etsy shop Handmade~by~Sheri . John has mentioned that I have a little to much hand spun yarn hanging around and a lot of finished items. So it is time to zen the house a little. To that end I listed 13 items today with more to come in the next few days. To help things move I have added a coupon code for 50% off all items in the shop. Just use the code: "Husband" at check out. It will apply to your entire purchase through August 25, 2013. Please feel free to share the sale with all your friends. There is no limit on the amount of coupons that can be used. One coupon applies to the whole transaction.  The more that leaves the house the happier my guys will be, yes even Eric.

I almost forgot to mention that I have a new Face book page just for Handmade~by~Sheri where I will put all the shop updates. Just type in Handmade~by~Sheri in the search field. I would like to get to 50 followers of the shop by the end of the month, can you help me make that goal?

Well I think that it is time to call it a night.

Sick Child Day 7 and Counting

We are at day 7 and counting with Eric home sick with a cold, no it is not H1N1 because you get a fever with that. This is just a runny nose and a cough.

So you might wonder what I do for an entire week at home with a sick child. First and foremost I do an incredible amount of laundry. Last night I was up with Eric most of the night so at midnight I threw in a load of laundry and by 5 am the last load of the night was in the dryer. I am told by the local electric company that this has a positive impact on the environment by doing laundry in off peak hours. I really believe it was a female employee trying to convince her husband that it is really OK to run the washer and dryer in the middle of the night when she was up with sick children. So she started a environmental campaign and probably got a bonus for it too.


There is also taking care of Eric. Which basically means that when ever there is a noise coming from his room day or night I go running. I tend to give him lunch in bed, because I find it to hard to get Eric out of bed and into his wheelchair. I also try to keep him amused with his music, DVDs and TV. I try to change his position every so often because he is in bed for so long.

Yesterday I also re-took all the pictures of the items in my Art Fire Studio and listed a bunch of new items. I will also list more items today.

Then there is the paper work that seems to go by the wayside when I have a chance to get out of the house. I have no idea when I will get to the post office but I will have a bag of mail ready to go. This of course leads to cleaning and a neater house. I try to do odds and ends chores that can be put down at any time to go take care of Eric. There are also regular chores such as running rumba and scooba. And once the counters and tables are cleared I might just try to organize the house a bit. There are dinners to cook although John is absolutely great when it comes to knowing when to bring home take away for dinner. The dishwasher to run and empty.

Some days I get a lot of knitting done, especially when Eric wants me to sit with him for hours at a time. All the knitting leads to a basket full of finishing work that needs to be done. Which will lead to more pictures and listings on Art Fire.

I also sneak away to Twitter and Face book to check to see if the world outside of these 4 walls is really still there. I try to find a few minutes for myself and today I am going to make a pan of brownies, because I really need the chocolate.

I know that I am getting tired of being home because I am planning some retail therapy and a lunch at Sweet Tomatoes. I printed out the lunch coupon and have decided with my new hair style that the first time in years I need a blow dryer for my hair.

So to sum up what it is like to be home with Eric sick for the week it is basically a busy week.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy your families.

My Art Fire Studio

I have been thinking about my Art Fire Studio http://www.tinyurl.com/handmadebysheri a lot lately. I still have not had one sale. So maybe it is time to take some things out and put others in.

For fall and winter I was thinking about adding some wool scarfs. I hope with the weather getting colder they might be useful in other parts of the country. I got a good deal on some nice bulky Cascade wool at a tag sale so I can do a bunch an list them for about $10.00 each and still make some money.

I was also thinking about a line of semi home made felted purses and tote bags. I would knit the blanks and the buyer can decorate and felt as they please. This will give the busy person a chance to say I made it myself.

So look for the changes to come soon. If there is something in my Studio that you like get ti now before i start de-listing items.

Have a wonderful day and enjoy your families.

A Wonderful Day

I always find it interesting how I always have a wonderful day after Eric gets better. Friday was no exception. I did not even mind that my day would be cut short, the air conditioning was out on the bus, so I let Eric ride to school because it was still fairly cool. When he got out of school it was about 100 degrees outside which would equal an oven in the bus, no we do not want to do heat stroke again, once was one more time than was absolutely necessary.

It was a small but great group at knitting Friday. I finished one of my unfinished objects. Well not all the way finished but the knitting is done and I did not want to weave in the ends Friday. This morning I wove in the ends and listed it on Art Fire. Because of the 50% off sale this week the current cost $65.00 is only the cost of the yarn, no labor included. The price will go up Tuesday. John liked the blanket, but said that even selling it for the price of the yarn the blanket was still too pricey. I am hoping that if people want to support the handmade movement and the made in the USA movement the they would be willing to pay a little bit more for a nice handmade blanket. check it out at http://www.tinyurl.com/handmadebysheri ,I guess that only time will tell.

I was thankful that Wii did not forget me, and that I had a great workout. One of the few that have lasted 30 minutes since December. The real test will be tomorrow, to see if I can do 30 minutes again.

Have a wonderful day an enjoy the time with your families.

Art Fire Shop

I have been told by a couple of people that my Art Fire Shop has photos to dark to see the hand knits well. So I have started to replace some of the photos. Please tell me what you think. Thanks to Maggie D. also Loongirl, and ArtFireJohn on Twitter for there help and suggestions.

As I said in my first blog and on-line store, that this is a learning experience for me so all the help and comments are helpful. So with this in mind please tell me what you think. Keep in mind that not all the items have been updated yet.

My shop is at www.artfire.com/users/Handmade~by~Sheri .

Have a wonderful day.

We made it Through the Week or TGIF

Eric got the stomach bug that was going around camp. After a long night of wild eyrps on Wednesday. I trudged through a long day of laundry and caring for Eric on Thursday. Trying to get a few naps in at the same time. In between all that I hand made a basket full of 100% cotton make-up remover pads.

I wanted to let you know that the camp bake sale was an over whelming success. They raised over 100 dollars. They had so much fun that they will do one in a few weeks. I will keep you posted. A big thank you to all of you who stopped by and help the campers out.

Friday morning started off GREAT. Eric was well enough to go to camp. I finally had time to meet up with my friends at the Foothills Mall Food Court. This is the most wonderful group of ladies around. There were new projects to be shown off including hand knit doll clothes and scarfs. I known your are thinking scarfs in Tucson,it's over 100 degrees outside right now, but before you know it the temperatures will dip to a chilly 70 degrees and they will be here when we need them. We had a discussion as to what constitutes "vintage yarn" and decided that anything in your stash longer than 5 years should be considered vintage. I got yarned by Suzy, 2 skeins of super wash wool, it is already saying make me into a scarf, with a zig-zag pattern. Before I knew it it was 11:30 and we broke up for errands or lunch.

A group of us went to Mayco's, its been a while since I have been there and they have changed up the lunch menu for the better. You have just got to try "O" on the lunch special menu it was just a little bit of heaven-sigh.

I have added some make-up remover pads that are hand crocheted cotton of various colors. These were added before camp this morning. I have listed a set of 10 but if you want more please let me know. Please feel free to stop by my shop to see everything I currently have for sale at www.artfire.com/users/Handmade~by~Sheri.

This afternoon with the help of John from Art Fire.come I got a Rapid Cart working on my blog. Thank you so much John. For those of you who have not used Rapid Cart in the past it is very easy to use. I have 3 items randomly in a box in the upper left hand corner of my blog. If you decided you want the item all you have to do is to click on the image and you will be brought to the check out for my on-line shop, pay with Pay-pal and your item will be shipped to you as soon as I receive confirmation of payment.

To sum up to day there is only one word for it, WONDERFUL. Have a great weekend :p