Simple Woman's Daybook

Better late than never, huh? Just got around to doing this for today. I had a very busy day, but one of my resolutiuons was to try and do this on a regular basis, SO................

FOR TODAY January 26th, 2009...

Outside My Window only a slight breeze and it's dark except for the gas light, I see a couple walking up the street, arm in arm...
I am thinking it's been a very short day and it's later than I thought...
I am thankful for friends that like to talk on the phone and listen to my woes...
From the kitchen, dinner has long since passed and everything is washed and put away...
I am wearing black jeans, black turtleneck and RED pullover sweater ...
I am creating nothing very exciting, but thinking about some new stitcheries ...
I am going to get finished with my chores, have a cup of tea and get ready for bed...
I am reading the brand new Country Sampler magazine...
I am hoping that my test results are better tomorrow...
I am hearing faint TV sounds coming from the bedroom...
Around the house I need to paint a few frames for the hallway, make a few pillows for my bed and the number one thing is finish my craft space....
One of my favorite things lately is looking at other prim homes and reading about them...
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: finish some orders, go to the doctor (again) and make some things for Spring.

Bakers Dozen Grungy Homespun Hearts

These will be available soon on my web site at a bargain price!

~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Until next time,

Hugs,

Shari

Barter Anyone??

Hey guys! Hope everyone has had a great weekend! I'm kinda looking forward to getting back to work this week. I have so much to do and last week was sort of screwy. I am so blessed to have so many orders with this economy. Every day, I am more amazed.....I have some of the best customers in the world and I thank God for them. OK enough of the mushy stuff.

My question and thoughts for today are ......is anyone out there interested in bartering??? I see several folks on their blogs are doing it or have at least tried it. I think it would be fun!!! If you're interested, email me.
shari@homespunandprimitives.com
I would be totally excited about anything iron, woven placemats/runners, wood cabinets, crocks/pottery, patterns, basically anything I don't make.

Keep me in your thoughts. It's getting close to when I have to go back to my oncologist to see if the medication is helping my blood problem. (Not a fun time). I'm trying to be optimistic, but they said it could take up to a year to get my numbers up. We'll see.

Gonna get to bed soon. Until next time.

Hugs,
Shari

Shari's Friday Favorite

Hey Guys!

It's been a few days since I have felt like posting. Finally, it's Friday and I am feeling better. This is my favorite for this week. But, I have a few other thoughts from earlier this week that I would like to post later or tomorrow.

Believe it or not, but I have had this sofa table for over 20 years. I went to one of those huge craft shows at Harper College in Schaumberg, IL. Caity was just a baby. I remember pushing her around in a stroller for hours at this show. If I remember correctly, I paid like 79.00 for this. Wish we had shows like that nowadays.

The pottery pieces came from Seagrove, NC. The step-stool, cat and heart were made by me. The sheep came from a local prim shop and the shaker boxes were painted by me . The resin bowl came from an outlet in Archdale years ago. Lots of prim goodies!

More to come soon.

Until next time.

Hugs,

Shari

Web Site Winners Update

One of the web site winners back in October chose these for her gift certificate.....

Patricia Potter was VERY busy at the time with Christmas orders, so we decided to wait until her schedule wasn't so hectic. She recently picked these and I'm posting the pic for all to see.

I sincerely hope she enjoys her selections. The Simply Blessed sign is one of my personal favorites.

The winner for December has finally contacted me....her name is Ashley Weber from San Antonio, TX . She is trying to decide what to choose for her gift. I'll post it here when she makes her selection. There's still plenty of time to enter for January!! Just email me:

shari@homespunandprimitives.com

and put January contest in subject line. That's all there is to it. No purchase necessary!

It was much nicer in K-ville today, not nearly as cold as the past few days. Thank goodness! We're just not used to such cold temperatures. Personally, I just about freeze anyway and the last few days have been miserable for me. I have bundled up like an eskimo!! LOL!!

I wanted to show you guys the needle punch that I learned how to do. It's kinda hard to see the detail, due to the small size. The design area is only about 1 3/4 x 1.5 inches. I designed it myself after my large sheep pillow. This one is on Weaver's Cloth and believe me...this is the only fabric I will attempt this technique on. The trick is keeping your fabric tight in the hoops and not letting it become loose from the punching. In the beginning, this was the hardest part for me. I was trying to use the same hoops as I have for embroidery (the spring tension kind), but they didn't work at all. And then I tried using some (very expensive ones with a separate stand) designed for needle punch and I couldn't use those either. Finally, I tried the cheapie wood ones with the screw and they did ok. After much frustration, I found plastic ones at Michael's with a screw for tightning. Low and behold, just what I needed! After finding the hoops that held the fabric in place, I didn't have any problems doing the needle punch at all. There's more designs in the works and I'll let y'all know when I have more finished. (If you're interested, you can do a search on line and come up with all kinds of instructions.)

(The fabric looks blue, but isn't.)

I'm think about putting it in this little burgandy frame? Anybody have any thoughts on this???

Please don't be shy...feel free to leave a comment! I welcome your imput!

That's enough rambling for today! Take care. Until next time.

Hugs,

Shari

Another Freezin' (Birth) Day in K-ville

We woke up early to another super-duper cold day with temps in the single digits. On this particular day though, we had no HOT water in our master bath! We had it in the shower and the rest of the house, just not at our double sinks. In all of our years together, living in all the different houses, condos and apartments, never anything like this. But, after leaving the cabinet doors open and hoping for the best.....we left to go eat breakfast and do some errands. When we returned home after 1:00 or so, everything was fine and back to normal. I think I heard this is the coldest it has been here in several years, so next time we'll keep the water dripping, maybe??????


Today is Bill's birthday! I won't tell you which one, but let's just say, he's getting on up ther. But, all in all, he says he didn't feel any different than yesterday, so I guess that's a good thing. We went to breakfast at one of his favorite spots in Winston and then for dinner, we went to Red Lobster. Not one of my favorites, but he loves their shrimp and we had a discount coupon to boot, so why not. It was really good and I totally cleaned my plate! LOL! I was absolutely amazed at all the folks that were there today! We waited close to an hour just to be seated! There is NO recession in Forsyth County!!!


Everywhere we went today, it was busy and believe me, we made the rounds. I spent about an hour in Michael's today shopping and they were very busy. I guess lots of folks crafting with the cold weather.


Every year around his birthday, we start discussing what he would like for a gift. He had mentioned a few things, some of which I don't have a clue what they are. But, I ended up getting him this really nifty little "Gadget" . It's like this really huge Duracell battery that can work as a portable emergency power .

300-Watts Household power

Vehicle Jump-Starter

12-Volt DC Power Source

250-PSI Air Compressor

And Detatchable Flashlight

You can fill tires along with toys and such. But, then it's still more.....you can jump start your car and it has a flashlight built in. Pretty cool and the perfect gift for him.


Sorry....y'all! This was supposed to be Shari's Friday Favorite, but I had such a lousy day, that I never got around to posting anything. Thank goodness, I'm feeling better today. I guess everyone has good days and bad days, huh???

This is one of my favorite places to sit and read. The lighting is great and wing chair is very comfy.

Talk to y'all soon!

Until next time.

Hugs,

Shari

Freezin' in NC

I thought yesterday was cold....but it's gonna be in the teens here tonight! Way too cold for us. It's in the low 20's now and it's not even 10:00. It will be colder than a well digger by morning.

As promised yesterday, I am posting picture of the huge candle I grunged. It is really nice in person, not as light as the picture. It's kinda hard to see the primness of it, but maybe you can get the jest of it. This probably won't be on my site, it's too heavy for the flat shipping charges. But, as usual, if you're interested, send me an email. shari@homespunandprimitives.com
I have 4 and they're $16.50 each plus shipping. (5 inches tall, 6 inches across with 4 wicks. )The patchwork candle quilt is $8.99 and will be on my web site soon. The rag balls are already on there.

This was another project that I finished up today. I must say, there are advantages to cleaning out and cleaning up in the craft room. I have found more treasures that I had completely forgotten about. It's really quite funny! This little grapevine tree and lites have been around since at least 2007, maybe longer. Just never got around to putting the pieces together. I think I'll keep this one for myself. Christmas is over, but I think it'll be out all year long.

Thursdays are my favorite night to watch TV and my shows are on.... So I'm gonna run for now.

Stop by my web site soon and try to STAY WARM!

Until next time.

Hugs,

Shari

Cold Wednesday Evening

It has finally turned REALLY cold in K-ville! I did not venture out of the house today. There are not too many days that I can say that. For most days I just have to run to the Post Office, Walmart or the Grocery Store or just somewhere!! LOL!! Believe me, today was not one of those days. Hubby stopped at the grocery store on his way home to pick up salad greens, so I decided to start dinner and make myself a cup of tea while I was waiting for him. I have actually had a very busy week and it's hard to believe that it is already Wednesday.

The other day I read a post by Karen of KM Primitives and I really got inspired to clean and organize my craft room! I told a friend yesterday that it was driving me crazy that my room looks like it threw up fabric, paint and wood. So, this week in between working on orders, I have been trying to figure out a PLAN...it's not easy when you do as many different crafts as I do, but IT IS going to happen! One way or the other! Thanks so much, Karen! One day I will post pics of my work area.

Yesterday, I woke up early and started grunging candles. I usually multi-task when I do that so I decided to make hearts from old and recycled quilts. I grunged them and baked them in the oven between doing the candles. This is how they turned out. They probably won't be on my web site, but if anyone is interested in them....the smaller ones are $3.00 each and the larger ones are $4.50 each. Grungy muslin is on the back of each. Do you love the way they turned out???

I'll post pics tomorrow of a new pillar candle that I did. And a few that I did for Valentines Day.

Okay, it's getting late and I still have a few things left to do. Still waiting on someone to give me some ideas for Valentines Saying.

Until next time.

Hugs,

Shari