Well, My World Blew Up Again...

which is why I haven't posted in awhile. I was diagnosed with Stage I Melanoma two weeks ago, and have been busy seeing doctors and having tests. Meanwhile, YES I have been crocheting, and it is saving my sanity as usual! Right now I'm designing a very happy project, a potholder and identical thread ornament done in the same pattern, just different size of thread/yarn. I think it will be fun, and I hope my exchange partner will enjoy it! I know my daughter will enjoy the one I'm making for her, as it is one of her favorite things.

I'm having surgery May 22 on my face. It's scary, but my wonderful plastic surgeon will be right there to do reconstruction and he promises me "back to normal." Without the offending birthmark which went bad and was removed, of course. So, that's that. Movin' on.

My little Ladybug Schnauzer, age 3, got very sick last week and we had to rush her to the vet with dehydration and tummy troubles... all from an ear and gum infection. She's getting her teeth done next week. The good news is, she's almost fully recovered minus a little weight loss - she's down to 9 pounds, about a couple pounds low for her. Mommy's working on getting her to regain that.

Ladybug Schnauzer

The other furkids, Scrappy and SueSue, are doing well. Scrap just had his dental done a couple weeks ago and is happy with his shiny teeth. Sue is going to go to the groomer for the first time next week. I've always groomed all my dogs but my husband is trying to convince me to take them in and save the work on myself. Hmm.

We celebrated my husband's birthday last weekend, here is a photo of all of us.

Left to right, my daughter's significant other Russell, my daughter Cari, Dad (back), me,
my son's fiance Janette, and my son John. 

I'm so happy that I was able to get out the other day on our first really nice day and do a little work on my gardens! There is so much to be done, but it's a start! I planted two little bushes, a Hydrangea and a Rhododendron, along with all of the tulip and hyacinth bulbs we enjoyed having bloom indoors this winter.

The Spring bulbs we started and bloomed indoors, now outdoors!

A work in progress... my front gardens and plants that I overwintered indoors. 

I've published a few new patterns, you can get the links to all of them here. There's a Stargazer Lily, done in Intarsia crochet; the Picket Fence Potholder done in Intarsia, a tutorial on Intarsia... check out the free patterns.

My recent articles with links to the above patterns in SoCrafty Magazine are here.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful Spring and crocheting something amazing!

-Sheila

My First Giveaway!

It's about time I started doing giveaways on my blog, I think! Everyone seems to enjoy them, they're lots of fun. Most of all, it's a great way to meet other crocheters, which is the really fun part of blogging! SO... here we go!  So far, I have given away about 99 percent of my patterns free. I do have a few special patterns that I sell at my Craftsy.com store.

For my first giveaway, I'm going to offer the winner's choice of any pattern offered for sale at my Craftsy store!

To enter, you only have to do one thing! Leave a comment telling which pattern you would like to win the most! To make it easy, I'll show them to you right here so you don't even have to click out (unless you just want to!)

You can choose from any of the patterns shown below. Can't wait to hear from you - good luck, everyone!

My Current Patterns For Sale At Craftsy.com

On My Hook Today!

Just had to share what I'm crocheting with you! I'm so excited about it, can you tell?? I have always wanted a reversible (front/back, not inside out) sleeveless crocheted sweater, and I have never gotten around to it in all these years.

I mentioned the other day how my Dickie pattern gave me inspiration for the sleeveless sweater, and I just wanted to show you how it's going so far. I'm liking it a lot! I'll probably leave the silver side all silver, not sure yet.

I will be incorporating some color blocking on the back side shortly as I add length to the sweater. It is going to include red, gold and brown - and more black, provided I can find it in my attic stash!

Also wanted to share a link with you to my Craftsy.com pattern store!



Just wanted to mention that I haven't forgotten about my pattern book, which I've been hoping to get done in time for Christmas... I'm afraid my 2-month fight with cellulitis delayed that. But it's right there on the back burner, believe me.

Hope you are all safe from the bad storms that are going on right now.

Happy Crocheting,
– Sheila

One Idea Evolves Into Another!

Last week, I designed a turtleneck Dickie for my weekly column in SoCrafty Magazine. I'm still in the process of finishing the two I started! I ran out of yarn on the turquoise one. My friend Heidi has already claimed it as her birthday present when it's finished.

I wanted to show the dickie done in two very different yarns, to show what could be done with the pattern. So I started one in Vanna's "Glamour" yarn.  Well,  when I got the front and shoulders done, I realized that what I was looking at was the perfect beginning to a sleeveless sweater, crocheted top-down! I've worked it up through the shoulders and the beginning of the dickie back today. Now I know that somewhere in my stash lurks more "Glamour" yarn in gold, brown, red and white metallics. So this may end up being one very colorful sweater! It's one of those projects that you get excited about and can't put down.

On my "to do" list now are a men's neck warmer (by request), a cowl, and a v-neck sleeveless sweater. Watch for those in the next few weeks.

It's been my kind of weather this week - it started out with some misty, foggy cool mornings which are my very favorite.  We had one day with 50 mph wind gusts and that managed to blow a good deal of the leaves off of the trees! After one very cold day, I went out and took pictures of the flowers that were still blooming after the freezing temps. Then I picked some and made my "last bouquet" which is something I try to do every year. Here are some pictures of the flowers.

There was something about yesterday – it was one of those days that just stands out as a really good day! While shopping for a replacement for our microwave, I received an amazing surprise late birthday gift from my husband. He bought me an iPad, a really cool case for it and some new headphones that actually stay on! I was somewhere beyond thrilled.  We picked up sandwiches from Subway which were outrageously good (the new Tuscan chicken melt). The schnauzers were all on pretty good behavior. I spent the rest of the day crocheting and setting up my new toy! It was a good day.

Today was not quite so good - I woke up with one of the all-over pain flares I get from time to time. So while the husband golfed, I spent the day crocheting and hanging out with the dogs. Didn't get much else done, and oh well!

Well, I'm off to work on my sleeveless sweater, which I cannot wait to wear! Happy crocheting, everyone!

-Sheila


Lion Brand 444114 Superwash Merino Cashmere Yarn-Ivory (Google Affiliate Ad)

SO Excited About The New Crochet Coffee Shoppe!

Let's get one thing straight off the get-go – online crochet groups are THE single best resource for crocheters to talk to each other! I have one myself, in fact, called Crochet With Sheila. But there's always one "taboo" subject on such groups – you don't promote your own work or designs unless you are offering them for free. If you're an "indie" designer like I am, that presents a bit of a challenge!

Free is a great thing! It's a fabulous way to promote your work to a lot of crocheters and it feels amazing to share. I will always offer patterns – and lots of them – free! But let's say I have a new pattern which took me weeks (or months) to design, and I really want to sell that one. Where do I go to promote it? If there's a place, I've never found it. So I decided to create that place myself!

It's called the "Crochet Coffee Shoppe," and it's one place where you can say "Hey, here I am, and I have this great pattern for sale!" Or, "I just crocheted this amazing afghan for a gift and decided to give them something else, so I want to sell it." Or you can post a question to the "Ask Sheila" section. Or you can watch a YouTube tutorial to learn to crochet or pick up a new stitch for you repertoire!

You can also say things there like "Here's this great free pattern link I just found." Or, "Look at this amazing crochet blog." You can offer to crochet for cash, make custom items for people... whatever!

At the Crochet Coffee Shoppe you will find links to thousands of free patterns from known sites, and you can ADD your favorite link! You'll get news on the latest sales at your favorite yarn retailers. And perhaps best of all, a link to my other new page, the "Crochet Shoppe Classifieds," where you can post FREE crochet related classified ads!

I'm very excited about this new site, can you tell? Please come by for a visit here. Bookmark it to come back again, because the site will be constantly updating! And please leave any suggestions for anything you'd like to see there in the "Suggestions" section. I want to give you what YOU want!

Lion 73876 Crochet Hook-Size 35 19mm Red (Google Affiliate Ad)Boye 70385 Plastic Crochet 

Hook-Size Q 15.75mm (Google Affiliate Ad)

"Fall Is Just Up The Stairs..."

(Ever get tired of saying "around the corner?") Going up the stairs means I have to climb to get somewhere, and that I do, both literally and figuratively. 

Once the weather cools down just a little bit, I have to go upstairs to the attic to pick up on the long overdue unpacking. (Yesterday was a blazing 97º and the temps in our attic are far above that). I did manage to tough out about 45 minutes up there Saturday to sort out several big piles of clothing into different sizes. By the time I finished I felt like I'd spent an hour in a sauna. We have been through an extraordinarily hot summer for Omaha this year, and I don't like that one bit! Along with the extreme drought we are still in, it's been a struggle to keep plants alive. 

It's also made me cranky! I'm a cool-weather girl and I love my rainy, dreary days. Since June, there has been exactly ONE of those.  The weather man promised this morning that we're going to drop into the 80's by tomorrow and will stay cooler for the next few days after that with a chance of rain. So I'm hopeful!  Sorry, all you sun-lovers out there... your turn is over for awhile, I'm hoping! Anybody know any great rain or thunderstorm videos? I think I could use one.

On the figurative side, I have an uphill climb still ahead on my personal goals of more weight loss and finishing work on my book. Those are hard, but exciting things to look forward to! I'm looking at a total of over 75 crochet patterns here, and trying to decide whether to put them all in one book. I also have to find all of the crocheted items I can to re-photograph them. Pattern tester volunteers (God love 'em!!) are waiting for assignments. There is a lot to do!

Speaking of that... I'd better get to work now!

Working Hard At The Crochet Book!

For years there has been an ever-growing stack of handwritten patterns sitting on the shelf in my desk! Pattern books have always been a great source of enjoyment to me. The idea of books full of patterns gathering dust forever just seems wrong. They should be out there for the world to see and make.

"So what's the holdup?" you may ask. Well, I've had problems with my eyesight due to having Myasthenia Gravis for over 20 years, and they in fact cost me the ability to crochet from patterns! "MG" also gave me permanent double vision at certain distances. While I do receive treatment for MG to help symptoms, the condition itself is incurable. (To learn more about Myasthenia, visit the National MG Foundation's website). Myasthenia is also one of the many diseases supported by the Muscular Dystrophy Association!

But rather than quit crocheting, I decided to "do my own thing" and design my own patterns as I went.  That wasn't something that happened overnight; it was more of a gradual progress as I experimented with things and as my eyes became retrained to work in a different way. The picture below shows how I've always designed in the past.

Here's how I always worked before –
writing a pattern in a notebook as I went. This
project was my Easter Bunny Egg, free pattern available here.

That same eye problem I mentioned earlier makes it difficult for me to transcribe my notes to the computer. I have problems with focusing quickly back and forth.My very good friend Heidi came to the rescue this year when she offered to transcribe all my handwritten patterns into text files for me! Now I can manipulate the text to my heart's content... and achieve my dream of the crochet book!

I just wrote an article about my "Big Dream" at Squidoo.com – that big dream is publishing a book of all my crochet designs together! (You can read that article here). It will be called Crochet With Sheila – A Lifetime Of Crochet.  I'm almost unbearably excited over it!

Here is just one of the patterns that has never been published before – and
will be included in the new book –
my Stained Glass Afghan, made with every color of DMC's Senso size 3 thread. 

So we're working furiously at it now! We had a major setback when Heidi's computer was stolen before we had transferred the files over. (And we're now doing backups as we go - lesson learned!)

Rather than be discouraged, she jumped right back in and started back at point zero, bless her heart! We've almost replaced all the lost files.

Fortunately, I've discovered a better method of working when I'm designing - I pattern directly onto the computer as I crochet sitting in front of the computer! Weird, yes... but it seems to work! So future patterns will be far easier to compile into collections.

I hope to be making the big announcement that the book is ready in the next couple of months! It will include all of my previously-unpublished patterns. It will not include the crochet patterns I've made available free in my articles at Squidoo.com. I'll probably come up with a compilation of those someday, but my priority right now is the patterns that have not been shared before.

Many thanks to those of you who have supported my work, sent notes of encouragement, and provided feedback on designs you'd like to see!  Keep talking – I'm listening!

A Free Saturday, What To Do!!

I'm at one of those places where I've lined up entirely too many projects for myself, both crochet design and personal! My DH is out of town at a golf tournament, leaving me to my own devices!! Now what to do with all that free time...

My crochet to-do list:

– Design the Backward Rose Mini Doily
– Design the Backward Rose Hair Clip
– Design the Bingo Bag - a fun summery striped purse which my son's girlfriend, Janette, requested I make for her
– Design two more fantasy flowers for a pattern I'm working on

Crossed OFF my to-do list this morning, removing the sleeves from a favorite old top I've never worn much, making it sleeveless and adding edging to the sleeves and hem, plus edging and beads to the neckline. Have it on right now, feels so much better! Now I'll wear the pants off of it for years. It had this beautiful floral embroidery all over it, and nice fabric, but the edges were finished with this crappy plastic tape with stitching over it. Yuck!!  I have to say... please excuse my hair:)

Not crochet, but cool anyway - I bought this green dress, the "perfect sundress," this Spring. Sadly it's a floor-mopper! It stinks to be so short sometimes! Anyway I finally figured out a way to shorten it 5 inches without hemming, with lines of ruching. I wrote it up here if you want to see how it was done.

We're still in the clenches of this @#$*$ heat wave/drought! I hate having to water every single day. There is a sprinkler system installed here, we've found the things in the yard - but there's no control panel, no place to turn it on that we can find. Guess I'll have to have a sprinkler guy come over and tell me what's what one of these days. Meanwhile, it's crochet awhile, move the sprinkler.

One last quick thing to share – a fellow crocheter is giving away a pretty amazing crocheted Crocus Doily on her blog tomorrow. You still have time to enter the giveaway here.

Not Christmas, But Sure Feels Like It!

Ever had a day where you wake up and feel like it's Christmas morning and you're running to the tree to collect your gifts? This is one of those days for me! I just knew there would be good news in my email (there was) and some great opportunity looms on the horizon.  LOVE days like this! I am very excited to start work on a brand new crochet design today. It's a SECRET!!  It's something I've had a couple of requests to do, and something I've meant to make for years. Something everybody in the whole world needs, too! So, wish me luck, I hope it turns out as well as I'm imagining!

Kind of disappeared a little for awhile, Koby's passing really threw me. (If you haven't read my prior posts, Koby was one of my rescue schnauzers who battled diabetes and finally lost. You can read about him here).  Anyway, here is a photo of Koby in much happier times. He adored his "swimmie pool," I always kept it for him every summer. I miss the little guy terribly. 

We had quite the adventure when we took five dogs in for vaccinations at the local low-cost vax clinic for area rescues. I'd never been to one before, and our budget demanded we give it a try! It was a snowy, windy day, about 18º outside, ice everywhere to walk on... my worst nightmare with two new hips!) But I didn't fall, we managed not to freeze to death, and all the furkids have their shots. Whew. Ron really was a huge help moving the dogs around.  Here they are playing in the snow during the huge snowstorm earlier this month. 

Got out my jewelry stuff to play in and had a great time with my friend Heidi the other night. I had orders for two of the Rainbow Bridge Memorial Gemstone Bracelets. I selected the stones and then turned Heidi loose on laying them out in her preferred design. I think they turned out really pretty, don't you agree?

I really need to start playing jewelry again. I tend to put it aside for long periods of time and then go back to it. 

I spent a lot of time this month sorting out my own costume jewelry and getting rid of the stuff I don't wear or like anymore. 

I'm not sure what it is about rainbows, they just make me happy! The person gets to pick their focal (standout) stone to memorialize an occasion of a particular month. People really seem to appreciate them.  The first one is an October focal that I designed using blue Peruvian opal, white opals, a pink Peruvian opal, and Opalite. 

Here's something new I've been doing the last month or so. There is this site called Listia.com. It works a lot like eBay with auctions, but you GIVE away your items! People bid points which you collect and then use to buy stuff from other people's auctions. It's beautifully simple, really. A very common auction on there is a "stuffed purse." Here is my first stuffed purse auction. It's a blue Coach bag stuffed with various goodies. I'm hoping to get lots of points from this one! Anyway, if you have a lot of stuff you don't want anymore, this is a great place to get rid of it! 

Well, I need to get busy crocheting on that secret project now! Hugs to the world - Sheila

Can't Give Up The Extra Sparkles Yet!

In years past, I've always taken the Christmas tree and packed everything up the day after Christmas.  For one thing, the day after Christmas is my daughter Carianne's birthday, and I always tried to make the two holidays very separate for her sake.  For another, I was always just ready to move on and get the house back to some semblance of normalcy! 


This year is different.  Carianne was not here for Christmas or her birthday, so that part didn't matter... and I'm just enjoying seeing the sparkly crystals and lights everywhere. The last two Christmases I didn't decorate very much due to "life."  This year I dragged out quite a bit of "HoHo" and I really enjoyed it a lot! So... we will sparkle on until New Year's, when I will have absolutely no excuse left for leaving it all up! 


A week ago, I found out the little spot I've had on my face forever is a basal cell carcinoma. I was scurried off to the plastic surgeon who did a 45-minute surgery to remove it. I have never had a black eye before, but I had quite a shiner! I went yesterday and had the stitches removed. Here I am just before they removed the stitches. To all you young girls out there who spend hours frying your skin in a tanning booth, and spending days outdoors without suncreen, this is what you may be looking at 20 or 30 years later!  So be warned. 

One little brag... the nurse who took out my
stitches wanted to know if my eyelashes were
real and complimented them... I said yup they
are, thank you Latisse! She was glad because
she had just started on it herself!

I've been crocheting a lot this week. It seems I never finish all my Christmas gifts on time. (It's a resolution for next year!) A lot of times I don't hit on the just-right idea until the last minute, and then I have to make three or four of whatever-it-is.  This year was the mobius scarf. It was Laurie's fault... my dear god-daughter stopped by last weekend with a scarf she had just purchased in very thin knit material, and she was sure I could come up with something better to match her coat! So I did... but then she went out of town and I had to do one of course for John's girlfriend Janette in orange, her favorite color. 

Janette's orange scarf in Homespun's Spice

Sally's Scarf in 3 yarns... Cameo Bulky,
 Enchantress Sequin, and Premier's Serenity Chunky. It is heaven to touch. 

Heidi dropped by and saw the beginnings of Laurie's, and wanted the identical one. My best friend Sally is in KC and I thought a bright red one would be just the thing to brighten her trips out to doctor appointments (she spent 75 days in the hospital the last couple of months).  So far Sally's and Janette's are completed, I sneaked in a white fluffy one for myself, and I have Heidi's and Laurie's yet to do. Luckily I can get each one done in a day. I have one more planned but she may actually read this blog, so it's a secret for now! 

My White "Snowy Scarf"

I also wanted to design a doily for Sally, something special to sit on her little coffee table by where she sits. So the "Sally's Doily" is now in progress and up on my squidoo site as a crochet-along. As I complete it, I'm putting up the new rounds for everyone.  (They may get a clue of the doily's theme on the last couple of rounds I just put up today!) 

Sally's Doily In Progress

Well, I'd better keep this short as obviously I have a lot of work to do! Hugs to all... and have a very happy New Year!

"Someday, When I Grow Up... " Why I Crochet

Someday I want to be a "REAL" crochet designer. One who can spout yardages and gauges like times tables.  Like the ones I admired as a young woman, whose intricate patterns I struggled to follow, stitch by stitch, until the magic materialized and their work was replicated once more in the world.

A Josie Rabier design – one of the last patterns
 I was able to crochet  before I developed eyesight
problems. I'm still proud of this one! 

Alice Brooks, Laura Wheeler, Elizabeth Hiddleson... those girls made every end table in America a special display gallery for their work.  Every pillowcase from San Francisco to Boston lovingly edged by someone who needed to keep her hands busy while Dear Husband was off to poker night with the boys.

As a young crocheter I'd spend hours just gazing at their booklets, the black and white pictures of Hiddleson especially. They were, and still are, like eye candy for my soul.  I'm convinced it's the reason so many of us collect patterns we know we will never have time to complete in several lifetimes! It's why we snipped magazine patterns and lovingly glued them into notebooks before the Internet existed. And magazines with crochet in them - what a concept! My stack of ancient Workbaskets is among my most highly treasured possessions. I made the rose doily on the cover of this Workbasket, which belonged to my late mom Izzy, for at least two other people, plus a couple for myself. Mama made this exact same doily for many of her friends and family, which is probably one reason I fell in love with it too! I would give almost anything to have one of her rose doilies! But she never kept one for herself.

There is just something about crochet that is so beautiful... so hard to explain, as I'm trying to do here and not finding adequate words.  It... fixes me.  Yup, that's it. Crochet fixes me. And now it is even more precious to me as my stupid body tries slowly, inexorably to take it away with eyesight and arthritis.

   

It can be any upset, real or imagined... I could be crying my heart out one minute, pick up a crochet hook, and 15 minutes later my tears have dried and the world is on its way back to level.  Pain? With four back, two hip and one knee surgeries, you be the judge... but yes, I know pain... and crochet is how I have survived it since 1994 when my back decided to betray me. It takes me to some place, some zone, where I don't think about the pain somehow.  For years I've heard the old saying that if you have a headache and go to see a movie, the headache disappears... I'm sure it's the same concept.  Somehow the part of the brain that makes you feel pain gets blocked by the part that does creative things. Whatever, I'm grateful!

So next time you are upset, or bored, or in pain, or anything else is rocking your world, grab your stash of crochet magazines or pattern books and spend some quality time. You'll feel better, and you may just end up replicating another masterpiece yourself!

On the Way to Week 5...

Well, here it is Saturday already! In two more days I'll have achieved post-op week 5. Good, because I did NOT like week 4! I just overdid it, a lot, and I spent the week paying for it. Do I ever learn? Nah...

I'm getting excited about resuming water therapy, as soon as the surgeon clears me to do it. I started it a few weeks before the hip surgery to build up strength in my other new right hip, so it could support me better. I absolutely fell in love with it. To make things even better, the therapy pool is part of the hospital complex 2 minutes up the street from my house! Yup, definitely excited. It kind of amuses me too, the idea of watching it snow outside the big glass walls while I'm in the nice heated pool indoors!

I've been trying to figure out what the he** is going on with my weight lately. Some of you may know I've lost 70 pounds over a two-year period. Actually, I've only been maintaining for at least the last six months. But somehow I think everything's rearranging, because my measurements keep going down. Now, what's up with THAT!  If only I could get the scale to move down 3 little pounds, I'd stop yapping... it's just a "magic number" i want to reach.  Here is me in my attempt at Old Navy Rockstar Jeggings. Hmmm.

They were too big, but I still like 'em!

Very excited that on my Squidoo site I was awarded "Giant Squid-25" status! I worked hard for it. You have to have 25 very good, well put together lenses (what they call web pages). They do a review of all your writing. It was kind of a neat feeling of validation for me. Right before that, I was named as a "Squid Angel." Angels go around blessing lenses (which gives them a bump in rating).  Here is a photo for one of my new recipe lenses, Chicken Wraps.

Sheila's Grilled Chicken & Veggie Wraps

So was being invited to write an article for Squidoo's "Winter Holiday" issue of their online magazine! I'm working furiously toward a Tuesday deadline on that. Years ago, I wrote a lot for "butyoudontlooksick.com" and really enjoyed it. What can I say, I love to yap!

On the crocheting side, I'm working on a scarf for a friend, a new afghan design, and finishing up a doily design. Busy, busy. No being bored here!

"A Different Rose" Doily - almost complete

The first square of a new afghan design.
More in the "Decadent Indulgence" series. 

I thought this photo was so cute! Ladybug is jumping up for her "Daddy time" that she has to have every time he comes home. Winnie and SueSu have already had their quality time, and off to nap. 

Well, I'm off to do something - hugs to you all!

OK... It's a Mulligan!

(As my husband would say in golf terms for a "do-over!"  I started this once before; apparently the plants were not in correct alignment and I just got lost wandering behind the little critters in southeast Missouri for four years (just kidding!!) But seriously, health issues and a lot of stuff managed to keep me pretty much limited to taking care of the furkids and the family. We were there for four years; I loved it and hated it all the same time.  Those stories can be read elsewhere... suffice it to say, let's jump to NOW.


At midnight, it will be seven days until my hip replacement surgery on the LEFT hip.  I just had the right one done in March with faboo results.  Sadly, the left one got sick of being the strong one during that rehab and decided to... quit. It was originally scheduled for about a month ago but had to be delayed for medical reasons. 


So I'm getting all my little ducks lined up in a row here so that when I get home (and am bored to death) I can jump on here, blog away, and bore YOU to death (ha ha). Seriously the seven miniature schnauzers always insure plenty is going on at all times.  


Back to what I first mentioned about the old blog -- I am not deleting the ancient posts until I have opportunity to archive them, so that's why they are still here.  


Another thing I want to mention is that I am trying to combine a lot of things together. For instance, my newly redone (and under construction always) website, sheilasparkles.com, takes the place of my crochet site, my miniature schnauzer rescue site, and other personal sites. That is IT.  You can just go there and jump to different sections depending on your interest now.  


Same thing with this blog. I'm not even going to try to carry blogs for three separate subjects. That means this is the same blog that covers my crochet and schnauzers, and keeps my family and friends up to date. So things will overlap.  We'll see how it goes.  


Take care, hope you had a great weekend, and hope to see you soon! Please sign my guestbook, feel free to do the RSS thing, go visit the website, whatever... you are welcome!


Hugs, -Sheila