Square Motif Done

I finished the Square Motif from the May 2013 edition of Tatting Times. See Fox, I finished!

Here it is, unblocked. I made a couple of errors in joining, but I just didn't want to go back and fix the error. And I cut thread for no man! This was done as a continuous tat, no breaks, using split rings and split chains. It's in Lizbeth 620 size 20. I think it's a pretty thing, and blocking will improve it.

I continue to interview and job hunt. I had a good interview 2 weeks ago, but the company is slow in making a decision. I had a phone interview for a contract position yesterday. Gotta keep looking until I find something new. Until then, I keep going to work. Because:

It's My JOB. (I love Mad Men.)

Things are relatively quiet at Chez Crazy. Moe is pleased about the pool opening on Friday, though I think he'll be amazed at how COLD the water will be.

Lily has been pretty wild.

She has been quite a bad thing lately. She talks a LOT, wanting attention, and begging to go OUT (we don't let her). If DH (her Person) does not pay sufficient attention to her, she nips at the back of his legs. "You've created a monster," I tell him. She best not dare nip at me. Up with that I will not put.

And finally, I will be teaching at the Palmetto Tat Days in September 2013. Hurrah! I hope you all can come!

The Twirly has been tatted. Thank you for a fun tat, Jane!

I love the Twirly! It's tatted in Jess's Queen Anthias size 20.

And Fox has beaten me to my assigned tat of the Square Motif in the May 2013 issue of Tatting Times. Darn. But - Fox is no longer a working gal, and so she had more time to tat. Unlike me. I am undaunted. I'll finish this soon. (Tatted in Lizbeth size 20.) I'm trying to do this all in one pass, no cuts until the bitter



I also found this wonderful item Monday - actually recorded and filmed by astronaut Chris Hadfield aboard the International Space Station.

Upon request, the furry guys:

 

My gorgeous and dignified Cisco,

And the not-so-dignified Vader.

BTW, Vader's original owner, Curly, has been retrieved from the poky. He seems to be repentant of his sins, or so he appears. We shall see...

 

Tatting the Twirly

I'm tatting Jane's lovely Twirly pattern. Jane has the nicest patterns - so clever, and a real pleasure to tat!

This is done in Jess's HDT called Queen Anthias. I'm sorry for the color on this - it's taken by my cell phone under fluorescent lights. The thread is really a bright pink, yellow, and purple. Oh, and the top shuttle is one I blinged a long time ago.

Here's another bit with the same HDT. This is my own Dainty Heart pattern.

Here's what's happening on the home front:

Curly is getting Out Of The Pokie on Monday. I have to retrieve him early in the morning, and will be taking him to see his probation officer immediately afterwards, before I come home. And Curly says he wants to take his meds regularly, so I have an appointment for him with his psychiatrist on Wednesday. I hope Mr. Curly has changed his ways. He turned 21 yesterday, while incarcerated.

Larry has moved out! He is now living with roommates in Florida, having taken an enormous pile of crap out of my house. I hope he finds it satisfying and is happy. He tells me that he is a better cook than any of his roomies, so I feel I've accomplished something!

After Larry moved out, DH and Moe cleaned out his basement area, and lots of things were discovered. So that's where all those forks and plates were! Also discovered: a leaky water heater. Sigh. I purchased a new one last week and Moe and DH have installed it. At least I don't have t worry about that appliance...

I am seriously job hunting. No raise in 6 years with the cost of benefits going up exponentially takes a toll on me. Makes it hard to pay the bills, much less feel good about myself. Fortunately, it seems my skills have real value again. I've been doing phone interviews, and I have a face to face interview this afternoon at a company I'm excited about. This is for a full time position and the commute would be better. Cross your fingers for me!

Lily continues to be silly and to be her own bad self. But she's so cute!

Travels

I did some traveling recently, and here are some pictures from my trip.

These are great bags someone had made and was showing at Finger Lakes. Aren't they GORGEOUS?

The Finger Lakes conference is held in the Lodi NY Volunteer Fire Department hall. And here's a piece of antique fire fighting equipment, right behind the vending of Zig Zag Corner.

 

I went to a software conference in Denver right before Finger Lakes. Denver has a lot of public art, like this 40 ft tall blue bear sculpture looking into the Denver Conference Center. It's called "I See What You Mean". He's huge and cute!

 

As part of the conference, we got to go to the Denver Art Museum. It was WAY cool, lots of spectacular Native American art and Western themed tradtional art. When we got to the museum, these Native American folks were dancing and drumming. I really liked it.

Here's an example of tribal art in the museum. This carved statue was about 20 feet tall.

Here's some examples of the gorgous Native American blanket making. I have no idea what tribes did these, but they are really wonderful.

 

This is a contemporary Native American sculpture called Mud Woman Rolls On. It's quite large, and was created on site. There's a cool video of its creation here.

I liked Denver. It's a really hip city, very walkable, very pretty. And they have great views of the Rockies.

This charming 7 month old was on my row of the plane leaving Denver - isn't he a charmer? He was good as gold. And yes, he's watching a video, a Baby Einstein one. His headphones are lions!

 

Miss Lily was glad to see me when I got back.

 

I'm not dead yet

I'm back...

I'm not dead yet.

I've been very busy with non-tatting stuff. It's been a hard, tough few months, but I'm getting through. I'm sorry I haven't blogged.

I really can't go into the BIG stuff, but here's a bit of what I've been dealing with:

I had a breast biopsy that showed something, and I had breast surgery. Fortunately, it's not cancer, just something called an intraductal papilloma. And it's gone. My surgeon doesn't want to see me again for a year.

My mother has sold her big house in the mountains, and has bought a condo on the other side of Hotlanta, within walking distance of my sister A. Mom is delighted in her new place. She has a lot of friends in the area and is happy to go onto this new phase of her life. I helped Mom clean out her big mountain house, and I inherited a bunch of new-to-me furniture. I'm really relieved that Mom is off the mountain - I worried about her there.

Curly has violated a probation rule - twice - and is now in the pokie. He'll be getting out in 3 weeks. I'm sad, but it's all his own doing.

Little Larry

Larry is moving out!!!! He's moving to the middle of Florida, on the east coast. He has a good plan and affordable housing. He's studying and hopes to pass his FL EMT exam soon. I'm very pleased with this - he's moving on Friday!
 

At Finger Lakes

And I've been teaching - I taught at the Finger Lakes Tatting Conference the 2nd weekend in April.

Here's J and my hostess Ginny

 I stayed with Ginny, who's just lovely. She taught a great class on a doily she designed.

Lots of folks there - here's Dr Vicki (a hoot and a half!) and Diane.

The Finger Lakes ladies were so sweet and kind - and great tatters! I had a great time....

More later - not such a long wait this time!
 

Flaky

I've been VERY busy at work plus had some medical tests run, so I haven't tatted much.

But here's a couple of snowflakes as eye-candy, tatted in Lizbeth Ice Blue size 20. One is a 'flake by Diane and the other one is the first round of Kira's Star.

Hope your holidays are merry....

Tatting Heart's Desire

I got to meet Susan Fuller this September while I was teaching at Palmetto Tat Days. She came to our room after hours, so Isdihara and I got to chat with her. She's an interesting person, and I enjoyed our time together. For those who don't know, this Susan Fuller is the very Susan Fuller who designed a favorite Tatland pattern, Heart's Desire. (Yet another reason to attend tatting conferences - meet designers!)

It's been a while since I've tatted Heart's Desire. As I had some lovely HDT, I thought I'd take another run at tatting this classic pattern.

Here's my progress so far, tatted in Yarnplayer's gorgeous Roses in size 20. True confessions here - there are two mistakes that I just continued so it would be consistent.

I'm enjoying tatting this again. It's a wonderful pattern and this thread is simply scrumptious. It's a fun tat! I've needed something to divert my attention - I've been laid low with a cold and I have some medical tests coming up. Heart's Desire fits the bill.

I got another diversion in the mail this week - my own copy of Vicki Clarke's "Tatting the Stone"! I had test tatted some patterns for Vicki, who's a sweet lady and a good designer. So I'm excited to see this and I hope to have some fun with this book. Plus, she added in some of Karey Solomon's HDT and a few fun beads. Thank you, Vicki!

What are you working on?
 

Necklace finished

I finished my necklace made of size 3 Lizbeth.

It has a purchased pendant and lots of 6/0 glass beads. I like it! (That's a pin by Jane you see there hidden in my hair.) The necklace is crocheted with a size D hook.

I'm tatting stuff to teach in 2013 conferences, so I can't show you much! I'm hoping to teach at both Palmetto Tat Days AND at the Finger Lakes Tatting Conference. I'm working on some starry things for Finger Lakes. And I've been schooled on how to pronounce Lodi - it's not LOW-dee, it's low-DYE. Alrighty then!

Lily has been very very interested in our fish (two Oscars) and has worked hard on catching them. Today the top of the tank slipped, and she went swimming. This has not deterred her one little bit.

FYI - Lily likes to sleep ON my head in the bed. I wake up and there she is.
 

Thanksgiving 2012

The 28 pound turkey fit in my oven with no problem, except for the fact it was SO DAMN HEAVY.

Fortunately, DH helped me load it in. And it cooked up beautifully and tastily. Nummy. My guests were happy with the feast, which included rice and giblet gravy. cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole, squash souffle, green beans, broccoli in a cream sauce, spinach dip & crackers, rolls, cranberry jelly, pumpkin bread, 2 kinds of wine, and 4 kinds of pie (pumpkin, apple, cherry, and chocolate chess).

I'm too stuffed to move, and I ate dinner 7 hrs ago. Oooff.

In other news, my crocheted necklace is coming along nicely. Almost done, in fact. This is done in size 3 Lizbeth with 6/0 beads.

Larry has been working on a castle for his guys. It gives them a place to hang out. Heh.

Lily has discovered a wooden bowl and now sleeps in it.

I need to sleep soon. G'night!

Gratitude

Just a brief post on things I'm grateful for.

My friends, who support me and who understand my warped sense of humor.
My children. Much about them seems magical and wonderful.
My husband.
Those who have supported me through the very tough situation we are going through.
God's grace. It's given me strength and the ability to remain calm.
The fact that something told me to stash money away as hard as I could for a rainy day.
My tatting - it makes me feel good.
My home and the ability to keep it.
My tatting buddies, near and far.

Oh, and turkey! Here's the 28 pound monster Larry brought home for us to eat Thursday!