Crazy Mom Tats!

TIAS Day7

2012-01-28T21:06:00.000-05:00

TIAS Day 7:

Continuing to say Oink. (But leaving a small possibility that this could be a Sheep!) (Baa!)

And for a little fun, a conversation this morning at my house:

Curly (who's supposed to be cleaning up bathrooms): Mom, there's cat poop on the carpet in front of your bedroom door.
Me: What!?! What are you talking about?
Curly: Yeah, there's a steaming pile of poop!
Me: Then clean it up.
Curly: That's not my job!
Me: Clean it up.
Curly: That's Moe's job!I don't clean up poop!

*pause*

Curly: Oh wait, that's not cat poop, that's panty hose.

And so it goes..

TIAS Day 6

2012-01-26T14:09:00.000-05:00

My results so far:

Oink. Just sayin'.

Oh - I forgot to mention that I had put a widget with all my patterns on it. Look to the right on the blog. Look for My Designs - you'll find it.

In other news:

Filming is going on around my office. Did you know that the state of Georgia is the #3 place for filming in our country? My guess is California and New York are the top two spots. Lots of TV shows and movies film here. The area near my office has been in a number of lesser films, and a spot close to home was in the opening sequence of a zombie themed TV series.

I have no idea what this filming is for. Maybe the vampire series that films here. Do vampires drink coffee?

Vader thinks he's a movie star. "I'm ready for my closeup, Mr DeMille."

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful," sez he. Damn, he's a fat cat. Worthless.

Tonight - off to watch Archer!! This is from last week, when Burt Reynolds was on it.

TIAS Days 4 & 5

2012-01-23T13:52:00.000-05:00

I've been tatting Jane's TIAS (Tat It And See for you non-tatters), and have finished Days 4 and 5. Here are my guesses:

Would you fly away, in my beautiful balloon? Or..

I'm still sticking with my first guess - it's a pig!

I saw this gorgeous sunset on the way home the other day. Today won't be so pretty. It's been raining for some time. My drive in to work today was not pleasant.

This is what I'd rather be doing today. See how happy Sophie and Cisco are on my messy bed? So warm and comfy. Instead, I'm working on 1099's for my company.

And here is Vader in his preferred spot, perched on my chair in my home office. He has a good view of the world there (and of a tatted heart Jane made). No real work for him!

Now Jane, how about Day 6?

TIAS 2012 Days 2 & 3

2012-01-16T15:11:00.000-05:00

I'm still working on Jane's TIAS. Part of the fun is guessing what it is.

Day 2 - Is it a train?

Day 3 - how about a dragon? (Do ya like my fine drawing skills? I should have an exhibition!)

In other news, DH came into my home office/tatting room looking for some container. Like most of you tatters and crafty folk, I have a bunch of decorative metal boxes that I use to hold supplies. He has a bunch of hat and lapel pins he's collected over the years, and he was looking for a place to keep them.Could he have one of mine? Sure, if you can find an empty one.

DH looked in my containers and seemed very surprised that I had stuff in all of them. (I'm only showing you a few of these - I have a zillion.) Imagine that - I have stuff that fills my containers! Am I the only person like this? I don't think so....

In good news, DH is back at work today. First day since late October. He's watched everything on Netflix and cleaned out things he shouldn't have (like my bathroom sink - no!) and made a lot of bread and read books and got really really bored. Plus this has drained our finances, so I'm SO glad he's better. Life should be better.

Here's a sunset I saw Friday - isn't it gorgeous?

TIAS 2012 Day1

2012-01-11T22:16:00.000-05:00

I'm doing Jane's Tat It And See, and I suggest you do too. Find it here.

Here's Day One. Hmm... What will it be? Who knows - that Jane's a wily old git!

What's been going on

2012-01-10T12:20:00.000-05:00

We are back after the long weekend in Florida, attending the funeral for DH's brother. Moe came with us, as did DH's sister.

DH's brother was diagnosed in April with stage 4 cancer and died at age 48, way too young. The memorial service was at a church in the area DH had grown up. The minister knew DH's brother. The minister talked about how hard headed the brother was - he and the brother had played on the same baseball team as teens, and had collided HARD going for the same fly ball. Brother was fine, but the now-minister was knocked out cold and had his jaw broken by the brother's head.

It was a sweet service, with a slide show of some happier times, and nice comforting words were said. Afterwards, all adjourned to the fellowship hall where there was a light luncheon and folks could visit. It was as good as a sad event could be, and I hope it brought some closure to family members.

We got back late Sunday afternoon, and we were beat. The drive between Hotlanta and my MIL's home is long and dull, and much of it looks like the above picture. Zzzzz.

We got back in time for Curly to inform me he had Found A Car.

Not a looker, but seems to run ok. It's a 93 Mazda hatchback with a manual transmission. I test drove it (Curly didn't believe that I'm VERY competent on a stick shift). All systems seemed ok to me, the engine is in good shape, the clutch and brakes seem good. It was only $400, and being sold by folks who had to raise some cash quick. The guy's a mechanic and had put some work into the car. Curly paid for the whole thing himself (!!!) and has enough, after insurance and tag, to make any basic repairs. Not a car for heavy driving, but should be ok for Curly.

Whew! This is a relief for us - I was sick of carting him around.

In other news...

I hate my dental hygienist. Hate, hate, hate. While cleaning my teeth not long ago, she got really aggressive with the screws in my dental implants. And now not just the first, but the SECOND screw has come out. This time, I'm going to have to get my gum cut on to get the thing screwed in properly. Bitch better not be touching those screws again, because I'll be biting the living shit out of her. Sorry, but it hurts.

And..

I'm going to write my own obituary, just so it will be written correctly. My MIL wrote my brother in law's obit, leaving out blood relatives but adding step-siblings, the children of her current husband (her fourth spouse). She asked me if I thought the obit was OK, and I suggested adding the blood relatives and leaving out the step-sibs, as my BIL had scarcely even met them. My MIL had a meltdown at this. (So why did she ask? WTF?)

Haven't done much serious tatting, as I've been pretty busy with family and work. I've been working on designs for Tat Days 2012 in spurts. And some good news - DH is doing much better and should finally be going back to work next week, hurrah!

New Year

2012-01-03T09:24:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to you and yours. I'm glad to see 2011 behind me. I have to say it's been a pretty dreadful year here at Chez Crazy, and I'm hopeful that things will be better in 2012.

I've been spying on some book buying services and have purchased a few more tatting books for my collection. I've just gotten "Tatting: Technique and History" by Elgiva Nicholls, "The Craft of Tatting" by Bessie M. Attenborough, and a collection of tatting patterns from Workbasket Magazine, "Tatting Patterns (Aunt Ellen's Treasury)".

Cisco has enjoyed the Christmas season. He's been enjoying my Christmas rug. It shows off his fur nicely. (He is handsome, isn't he?

Christmas has been put away by DH and the Stooges, and I have to go back to work, dammit.

Brings me to mind something a friend told me about her 4 yr old son. Seems he was misbehaving, and when caught he said, "Dammie-whammie." My friend told him he shouldn't say such things, and he countered with "But Mommy, I didn't say dammit."

She had to stifle her laughter.

I don't want to go back to work, dammie-wammie.

I want to be like Sophie and lie around on the bed.

Or like Vader, and doze.

Or be like Cisco, and enjoy lolling around.

Note: shortly after I wrote this, we got the sad news that DH's brother has died in Florida. This was DH's only full sibling. He was just 48 and was diagnosed with Stage 4 small cell lung cancer last April. At the time of diagnosis, it had already metastasized to his brain. DH has suffered a lot from depression lately, so I'm trying to spend as much time as possible with him. Please keep that family in your prayers.

A senior moment and some Dick

2011-12-28T12:43:00.000-05:00

Christmas is done, thank heavens.

The Stooges, DH and I all had a good Christmas. The boys seemed very happy with their gifts, and I got more presents than I expected. There was no fighting, no biting. What more can a mom ask for?

The cats enjoyed the mess, although Sophie was a bit confused. She's been enjoying having people at home to use as furniture. Vader of course knew immediately the best thing to do with such a mess.

I fixed a delicious turkey with all the fixings, including yummy dressing and giblet gravy. Mmmm

I did some tatting. These are some earrings for Mom (she used to keep bees).

I also crocheted some toys, catnip balls for the cats of my siblings and for Mom. We all have at least one cat - we know what's good! (Vader almost didn't let me wrap these. He found some and slobbered on them.)

The next day, we visited family. My sister in Charleston came with her family, and we all met at other sister's home (the one who lives across town). Mom came too. We had a lovely dinner and exchanged presents. Cats were admired. (Here, DH is petting their top cat Sasha. She rules the roost.) Mom loved her earrings. And the cat toys were appreciated, as was the homemade fudge and spiced almonds that I gave.

Mom then gave me this little item, which puzzled me. Canned English custard? She explained that it originally came from my Uncle Kent, a lovely English chap who is married to my dad's sister. Kent was one of the children shipped to the English countryside during the bombing of London in WWII. At this year's Christmas gathering, Kent gifted everyone with the above custard and...

Yes, Spotted Dick. Mom passed this along to me as she thought I would be the only one who would appreciate this. And she was right. It is more of a novelty item for us, and remains unopened.

I asked the Stooges if they wanted to eat some Spotted Dick. They all blanched and giggled. Larry allowed how it sounded like something with perhaps a disease. Oh my.

The next day my Charleston sister and her family wanted to see some sites in Hotlanta, so we went to the King Center. Our father was a big local advocate for the Civil Rights movement, so this means a good deal to us.

And while there I chanced on this sign. I couldn't resist. Mom offered to stand by it, but I just couldn't do that to her. It was bloody cold, so we didn't stay long to admire the sign.

So a good Christmas was had by all. We did miss Festivus though. I mentioned this to DH as I was getting in bed the night of Festivus. I had meant to cover our broom handle in aluminum foil and let us dance about it, and have some arm wrestling (a feat of strength). I told DH that airing of grievances was part of of Festivus; did he have any grievances that he wished to air? "Yeah, I will when you can stop talking," he replied.

And so it goes.

Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T18:07:00.000-05:00

Not a Creature was stirring, not even a cat.

Vader, dreaming of biting Sophie.

I've been wrapping and buying and making things and working and picture taking and visiting and all things Christmas.

At this time of year, my bedroom turns into Wrapping Central. It's chaos there. But most things have been wrapped.We aren't doing a lot for the kids this year, as money is so tight. But folks are doing better at the house. I think DH is going back to work at the first of the year. He is feeling much better, and for that we are grateful.

I got to see my Mom this week, at a place of my choosing, a nice Thai place. We had a nice visit and laughed and enjoyed ourselves. I'll see her and 2 of my siblings (my sisters) and their families on Boxing Day. We'll meet at my sister's place on the other side of Hotlanta, and we always have a good time.

In between things, I've been amusing myself by watching Very Mary Kate (so bad). and crocheting catnip balls to give to all my family - we ALL are cat people.

And I found this, about Christmas presents for children. It is AWFUL. And very, very funny.

And look for the Stooges in an upcoming film, filmed in Hotlanta!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Christmas Frenzy

2011-12-18T22:31:00.000-05:00

It's a bit wild here at Chez Crazy, but I'm sure that almost everyone who works and has kids is in the mode right now.

We did get the Christmas tree up. (Please notice the large Vader cat underneath.) Somehow my entire box of handmade Christmas angels has disappeared, hence the conspicuous bare upper branches. I especially miss my cornhusk angel, purchased at a farmer's market.

As you can tell, I haven't wrapped a damn thing.

Moe has put lights on the outside of the house. He keeps begging for more lights, including the icicle kind for the porch edge. He's a Griswold in the making.

Today I took Christmas pictures of the Stooges in front of the tree. I had to threaten various forms of torture before I could get them together at the same time in something other than a ratty t-shirt. They all claim that this is a huge imposition and why didn't I tell them about this? (We do this every year at this time.) Do we have to? Umm, yes. Because I'm the Mama and that's final. Suck it up, cupcakes.

I was able to get some good shots of the trio plus some individual pictures. I've gotten pretty good at this over the years.

Moe got Vader in on the action. Vader wasn't happy. (He's so funny. Vader seems fierce and tough, but when picked up, he goes LIMP. No claws.)

In other news...

My mother is now is Hotlanta for the winter, renting a condo on the other side of town. She arrived on Thursday, and I'm very glad to have here closer by. The mountain home is lovely but remote, and the generator doesn't work. She's been snowed in for as much as 3 weeks at a time. Mom not getting any younger, so I feel she's much safer here. (The condo is about a mile from my sister #2.)

Mom never really worked and never had to deal with rush hour in a big city, so she's sort of clueless of what my life is like. She called me and wanted to schedule dinner with us sometime this week. Normally this would be lovely, but it's the week before Christmas and I'm absolutely crazed at home and at work. I'm in IT, and the end of the year is dreadful at work. Plus I never know what time I can arrive in the traffic. Anyhow, I suggested meeting on Friday (the best I could do). Unfortunately, that was absolutely not what she had in mind. *sigh* We've agreed to try for lunch on Wednesday.

Now - off to wrap presents...

Some Over The Top Christmas Spirit

2011-12-14T10:16:00.000-05:00

First of all, the ladies in my Sunday School class are all delighted with their tatted Christmas tree ornaments. So I decided to tat something else seasonal.

This is a pattern that my friend Sharren has been tatting. I told her that even if it started with a Mary Konior pattern, since she altered it A LOT, it should be hers. Don't you think so? The thread is Lizbeth Christmas Green in size 20 and the beads are some size 8 ones I got in my Tat Days teacher's goodie bag. I've never used this size bead before, and I think it's pretty cute here.

I just can't get in the Christmas mood. But some of my neighbors have and have decorated to show their spirit. In fact they go overboard, kinda like Clark Griswold. The below house is at the front of my subdivision, which means I have to pass it coming and going. I need sunglasses at night.

See what I mean? And not all their lights are on in this picture. I took this from my car using my iPhone, so you don't get the full glory.

I'd hate to see their power bill. Or live across the street from them.

But wait! There's more!

These folks live down the street from me, but you can't miss the light display, timed to audible music. I shot this on my front porch. Unfortunately you can't hear the music on the video, which was some Paul McCarthy Christmas song. (There's lots of different Christmas music that they use.) Once again, I'm so glad they don't live across the street from me.

Cisco doesn't give a damn about Christmas. Or as we say here at Chez Crazy, Honey Badger don't care. Honey Badger don't give a shit.

Maybe I'll get in the mood tomorrow...

When mothers go mad at Christmas

2011-12-09T13:14:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but I'm being driven crazy by kids asking - nay - demanding outrageous stuff for Christmas. I've tried to explain that these are lean and mean times, but no. Curly thinks we should buy him a car. Moe wants a laptop. The cats think we should concede to their every whim.

I want a winning lottery ticket. Or a rich relative who thinks I'm deserving of their inheritance, and conveniently dies. But neither of those things will happen.

Recently I came across this blog entry that made me think of all the ~~work~~ fun I have at Christmas, and why my mother hates Christmas. And that made me think of a funny family story, which I will now share with you.

When I was about 15 and my next closest sister was about 13, my dad was pastor of a small church in NC. We didn't have much money, and Mom worked hard to stretch our pennies. She shopped hard, and by the week before Christmas she was ready for the big day. Santa was done, finished with his prep work.

That's when my sister saw a television ad for something called "The Skin Machine". (See the video below, at about 30 seconds in.)

The Skin Machine appealed to a teen girl, and my sister decided she HAD to have it. It would cure all her teen ills and make her attractive to all. And she MUST have it as part of her Christmas. So she appealed to the source - Mom. And Sis told mom she really, really wanted this.

And Mom said no, her Christmas shopping was done. That was the end, as far as she was concerned. Mom was not about to buy some TV crappe for my sister at the last minute.

But it wasn't the end of the argument. Sis appealed further, trying hard to make her case. She demanded The Skin Machine in an obnoxious fashion, as teens will, over and over.

And something in Mom snapped!

This is not my mother

She got a weird glint in her eyes and said, "Santa knows what you need!"

Sis said, "C'mon Mom, I'm not kidding. Stop it!"

Mom (AKA Santa): Santa KNOWS!

Sis: Mom, cut it out. I want that!

Santa: Santa knows! Santa knows what you NEED!

Santa chuckled and left the room, leaving my sister to pout.

And Santa DID know.

That Christmas, my sister got Santa's special version of The Skin Machine in her stocking.

A bar of soap and a Brillo pad.

Santa Knows!

Christmas tatting

2011-12-07T22:08:00.001-05:00

Just a bit of tatting - these aren't finished yet.

Well, one is almost done. I need to hide the ends on all of these and put the star on most of them. These are ornaments for the ladies in my Sunday School class. The pattern is here, tatted in Lizbeth Dk Leaf Green size 20.

I decided to tat Frivole's snowflake, but I've decided that size 10 Cebelia is not the way to go. Too floppy, and this will end up to be about 6" across. Size 20 Lizbeth is going to work better.

How are you coming with Christmas preparations? I'm in sad shape - even Vader has some things to say about it. Of course, he's not helping much. Lately he's been coming in during the night and wedging himself between me and DH. He puts his front paws on the bed and sits with his butt on my shoulder, twitching his tail repeatedly in my face. This results in not much sleep on my part. Bad thing.

See the gold chair in the corner behind Vader? That's where my Christmas tree should sit. The Stooges are asking when are we getting the damn Christmas tree. The truth of the matter is: I just can't get in the mood. No $$ and not much time. I think DH and I are going to a Christmas concert on Friday - maybe that will get me in the Christmas frame of mind.

That's Sam, the cat in my profile pic. She didn't do it.

I'm not sure if that will help. This happened before Christmas of 2001. The glories of Christmas past - the horror, the horror.

Hope your Christmas prep is better than mine...

Ephemera

2011-12-01T20:56:00.000-05:00

First things. Does anyone recognize this pattern?

I got this oval doily along with some shuttles (including a large pink pumpkin seed one) on Etsy.

This smaller one too. Evidently they were a set. (Interestingly, the thread was described as ecru. That's the greenest ecru I've ever seen.) Anyhow, the tatting is lovely. Someone did a fine job, and I'm happy to have this.

I'm still making Christmas trees, over and over again. I won't bore you with them. I'll show you a grouping when I have enough for my Sunday School class.

A side note: for all you bloggers, please check the Spam contents of your Comments folder on Blogger. For some reason, my comments have been going to Spam. Help me by marking them Not Spam! I promise, I'm not writing vile comments!

Sophie is showing off a thrift store find of mine - I found the lamp, complete with shade and working light bulb, at the local Value Village for a whopping $10.10. Not bad, huh? I didn't have to re-wire it or anything!

The employees club at my company has a Christmas party every year. (I don't belong to this group, and don't go to the party.) Evidently folks don't know how to dress for such an event. Seriously, cat suits? Leisure suits? Masks? Plus, they need spelling lessons - or at least spell check.

Cisco is perfectly dressed for any occasion. He's the cleanest cat I've ever known. See how white his fur is? It's softer than any bunny.

Vader feels he is also perfectly dressed for any occasion. Like planning BADNESS.

Badness

2011-11-29T12:10:00.000-05:00

We frequently say that Vader is Curly in cat form. The reverse is also true.

Here is proof: How to Turn a Cat into a Machine Gun

No cats were harmed in the making of this video. And the cat was not even embarrassed.

Post Turkey Day let down

2011-11-28T21:38:00.000-05:00

So sad.

The preparations.

A twenty pound bird, cooked to succulent delight.

The yummy sweet potatoes.

Broccoli with good stuff on it.

All the goodness of quarts of giblet gravy from scratch. (And it was damn fine, I'm here to tell you.)

All that and more, and it comes down to this. The remains of the day.

Lunch - turkey, dressing, gravy, green beans, and sweet potato casserole

Leftovers for lunch. (Oh, but such good leftovers....)

In turkey mode here

2011-11-23T11:12:00.000-05:00

We are in "Go Turkey!" mode here at Chez Crazy. I actually bought 2 turkeys, as the first one, weighing in at 19.5 lbs, seemed too small. (We'll eat that one at Christmas.) I have a big freezer to keep the other one in, as there is no such thing as Too Much Turkey here.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. We usually don't go anywhere, and we have a nice meal with friends. This year I'm cooking the bigger turkey, rice and giblet gravy (we don't do mashed potatoes since South Carolinians Make Rice), yummy Southern cornbread dressing, sweet potato casserole, green beans, steamed broccoli with a cream sauce, maybe a dilled carrot dish, cranberry jelly, pumpkin bread, and rolls. We'll have a few guests, mostly folks with no place to go, who will join us to eat on my nice china and silver. DH does his part by cleaning up afterwards. I don't make much in the way of desert because we're stuffed by the end of the meal. But maybe I'll get a nice apple pie....

The feast in a prior year

The Stooges are salivating already at the thought of eating turkey, dressing, and gravy. And I can say in all honesty: my dressing and gravy is now better than Mom's is. And she's a good cook. But she's not cooking regularly for teeming hordes anymore, so she's out of practice.

I like Thanksgiving because, outside of cooking the meal, there's not much else you have to do. No presents to buy, no tree to decorate. Nothing but a nice meal and some visiting, then eating leftovers and lying around afterwards. I won't go shopping on Friday either. It's just a pleasant, relaxing time. And I'm grateful to have a nice family and friends who love me.

I know I need to sew in that green thread

I'm making these little trees for my Sunday School class to use as ornaments. I think they're cute, don't you? The ladies in my class will love them.

What are you doing for Thanksgiving?

Things I've discovered recently

2011-11-19T12:21:00.000-05:00

There is such a thing as too many beads in tatting. They made made it hard to close rings on an item.

This is Mary's Christ Mass tree, in the new Lizbeth Leaf Green Dk, size 20. I think this is going to end up as a pin.

Vader thinks he's scary when he has his mouth open. Aren't you afraid of his teeth? (DH was pulling on his tail hair a bit, teasing him.) C'mon, you know you're afraid.

Also - Vader now answers to "Bad Thing" and is proud of it. It makes him feel regal.

DH is somewhat better, and his therapy has been cut to half days. He has been so grateful for my help he bought me these roses, something he has only done spontaneously on one other time in our marriage, about 25 years ago. This was very sweet of him, and I'm so glad he's feeling better. (Sophie doesn't care about roses.)

And lastly but perhaps most disturbingly, I found out that Moe can pick locks. He tells me that all the Stooges can and have picked the lock on my desk at one time or another. I have misplaced the key to my desk, and Moe helpfully picked that lock for me, using a paper clip.

Lock picking is a skill that warms the cockles of a mother's heart - rather, it would if I was Ma Barker.

Um, thanks Moe.

Seasons changing and more

2011-11-15T17:24:00.001-05:00

First off - I have been tatting, in spite of my new eyes!

A lovely little bit, using Lizbeth's new Pink Cocoa in size 40.

And this - also Lizbeth,in the new Leaf Green Dk, size 20. I'm working on some Christmas presents, and this was a failure. Too many beads.

This is better. I'm working on Mary's Christmas Tree avec beads, and this should be festive.

I didn't have this green Lizbeth thread until yesterday, and I'm glad to have this. I didn't go to the store, and I didn't order any from an online supplier. So - how did I get thread?

This is how: I came home yesterday to find a gift had arrived for me. My good friend Isdihara had won some thread from Handy Hands for naming thread and suggesting color ways - and she shared. She shared BIG.

I had a box filled with five Lizbeth boxes. Wowzers!

Each box had five balls of thread. Yup, I got 25 balls of thread, all for ME!!!! How lucky am I? Isdihara, you are the best, most generous tatting friend I could have!

Now, what should I make?

DH said to me as he looked at my present, "You'll never be able to use all this thread." To which I replied, "She who dies with the most thread wins." So there.

On to things outside tatting - I have found great, cute reading glasses at the local dollar stores, and have them stashed all over. I'm enjoying being able to drive sans spectacles, something I've never done (except briefly with contacts)(which doesn't count). And I can read the clock across the room in the middle of the night! Woo-hoo!

DH is continuing to improve, and his doctor told him today that he is a model patient, as he's done everything that is asked of him and more. DH is determined to get better. He seems much improved to me.

Fall has been here for a while. The colors aren't so great this year as it's been very dry, and now many leaves are gone, as they are off my little sugar maple in my front yard.

But some trees are still pretty, like these.

And these. Fall continues to be my favorite season.

Moe was not sure what a ginko tree looked like, as we don't have one in our yard. There's one at church. I love their leaves.

I used the Paper Camera app on my phone to take a different picture of the leaves on my dashboard. I think this is the Comic Boom setting. Nifty, huh?

And I took this shot of Moe, using the same app with the Sketch Up setting. Moe is more handsome than this picture shows.

Here's hoping that you see pretty things or have good surprises waiting for you at home...
in the car

Done with that

2011-11-09T21:25:00.000-05:00

I got my second cataract surgery completed this morning. I'm glad that's over. No more driving with one eye closed!

In the space of about 2 weeks, I've had a major dental procedure (two dental implants) and two eye surgeries. Thankfully, all my procedures went remarkably well with no complications. Which is good, as dealing with this along with DH's illness has been pretty stressful. But how many folks do you know whose eyesight was changed overnight AND can show you the bright green screws imbedded in their mouths? Huh? Huh?!!

And for my next trick, I will turn into the bionic woman and shoot laser beams from my eyes.

What I will NOT do is drink this nasty chocolate wine (Now In Raspberry!) that Larry found. Isn't this disgusting? I made the smart choice and left it in the store.

I have been tatting, a little bit. It's hard when your eyes don't work together. I finished this cross, a Mary Konior one done in Lizbeth's Spring Garden.

And I made this little item, Mary's Butterfly, using HDT I got at Tat Days, thread by Shuttle Lab Trends. I put the butterfly on a pin - it's for a woman who was recently widowed. She loved butterflies and always wears a butterfly pin.

Since I've been spending some time at home, the kitties have been enjoying spending quality time with me. I'll look up from my computer (or a nap) and find them all around me. I love my kitties. They make me happy.

I was amused by this - the size of Cisco's paws compared to my large hands. He's a BIG kittie!

Now we must work on recovering, DH and I. I'm trying to rest and recuperate. And durn it, Thanksgiving is two weeks from tomorrow! The horror, the horror....

One down

2011-11-05T13:01:00.000-04:00

My first cataract surgery went really well, piece of cake. (I just misspelled that as "sugary" - it wasn't quite that tasty.) My problem right now is the big vision difference between my eyes, and the fact I'm carrying around 2 pairs of glasses. One for the left eye, one for the right. Pick your poison.

The left eye sees distances really well, and the colors are nice and bright. I'm seeing distance at about 20/25 at the moment, which compared to my pre-cataract vision of 20/650, is pretty great. What's not so great is near vision. So blurry! I've found a cheap pair of reading glasses to get me through on that eye, at least for now. (Hurray for dollar stores!)

My right eye has been my dominate eye for a long time. Before I developed cataracts, its vision was 20/450. (That's without glasses. I've worn glasses since I was 8.) But that vision has gone downhill - I can take off glasses and see near things fine with that eye, but my vision is yellowed and now very blurry with my old glasses. (The reading glasses are useless for this eye at the moment.)

So... I have two eyes that don't work together. Sometimes I feel a bit drunk. And I'm driving with one eye closed, a lot. Heh.

But all should get better next Wednesday morning, when I get cataract surgery on the right eye. At least my vision will be roughly the same in both eyes at that point.

So far I haven't tried to tat anything, and I think I'm going to have to invest in one of those magnifying devices for the little stuff. But that will sort itself out. I can go to meeting and read presentations without glasses, so it's a huge improvement.

And now that I don't wear glasses for a lot of things, people know what color my eyes are (brown). And they can see I have big dark circles under those eyes.

In other news, we are still struggling at home with many issues. DH has been very ill and just started 4-6 weeks of out-patient therapy. We only have one car (he has a work vehicle, which he can't drive if he's not working), so we are sharing to get to work and therapy. (He's not drugged up, thank heavens.) Lots of juggling, lots of appointments, lots of money going out. This weekend we are concentrating on resting. DH and I are pretty exhausted, and the Stooges are all stressed too. But we are working together very hard and hope things will be better soon.

I leave you with a Vader pic. Larry likes funky toys and he pulled out a Transformer. Which he put on Vader.

Vader tolerated this for about 20 seconds, as you might imagine. (Gian - Sophie is in the upper left corner.) Then he was off.

Hope things are good at your place.

Wish me luck

2011-11-01T21:39:00.000-04:00

My first cataract surgery is in the morning, for my left eye. I get the right one done next Wednesday. Hopefully, I'll only need reading glasses when both are done.

I should be able to see things like this amazing sunset even better. Gorgeous, isn't it?

More Doin's at Chez Crazy

2011-10-28T19:43:00.000-04:00

Fall is in full swing here.Thank heavens - all of us in Hotlanta are SO sick of summer.

The colors aren't great this year, since we've been in a drought. Pretty leaves require rain. Still, this is nice.

And this - a neighbor's red maple.

Here's the little sugar maple in our front yard.

And the foliage in front of the headquarters of my company.

I love fall. I love sleeping in a cold room, snuggling under the covers. I love the crisp mornings and the smell of fireplaces and burning leaves. I love the incredible blue the sky gets on clear October afternoons. I love taking out a new season's clothing out and putting it on. Fall colors suit me especially well too.

I'm sorry I haven't posted much. We've had an incredible amount of things going on here. For once, it wasn't all about Curly (though he's done his share of piling shit on). Things have been... things have been bad, there's no getting around it. And they may be bad for the foreseeable future. I can't go into much other than 1) We all have our jobs, 2) we have our physical health, and 3) we are together as a family. But DH has been in the hospital all week and there is much much stress over some private issues. No, there is no possibility of divorce - that's not it at all. But we've just had something happened that is causing us to plunder out retirement savings, and who knows what this will do to us as us as a family in the future.

But that's for down the road. I may not post much in the upcoming weeks and months. I'm keeping everyone at Chez Crazy together pretty well in this stressful time. Many people have told me I'm handling this situation almost too well. But I'm really good in a pinch - I'm practical and I don't panic. I work on what I can control for today. Plus, God has blessed me with many friends and family who care about us deeply, and I feel very lucky.

'Cause sometimes bad things happen to good people. So just keep us in our prayers, an unspoken request.

A picture for your amusement - a common garden spider in a web in our front shrubbery, photographed at dawn. If you click on the picture, you'll see the web. I think it's lovely.

What's shakin' at Chez Crazy

2011-10-20T15:38:00.000-04:00

It's turned into Fall here. Thank heavens! That was a durn long hot and dreadful summer. Fall is my favorite time of year.

The trees are turning a bit. Most are still green, with some going straight to brown due to our drought, but this one is pretty. I took this picture on Sunday, when the sky was soooo blue. It's cold and windy today.

Just the kind of day to do some lying around, like Cisco is here. His fur is even softer than it looks. And he is the cleanest cat I've ever known - all that fur is white and shiny and perfectly groomed.

I want to relax like Cisco does.

Larry has been doing his first paramedic hand-on training on an ambulance. He did ride-alongs when he was training to be an EMT, but a paramedic is a much higher level of certification.

This is the first group of texts I got from him while he was on the ambulance. I was worried about Larry dealing with the baby, as Larry has a pretty tender heart. He would do a good job, but if things went south, Larry would take it hard. Fortunately, the baby will be fine.

Then I asked him what other patients he had.

Heh. I hate autocorrect too, but it does help sometimes. Larry did well this time - they got the pregnant lady to the hospital and all is good. His next training session is Sunday.

Now that the days are getting shorter, I'm driving more with my headlights on. And I notice all the halos I'm seeing around lights due to my cataracts. Pretty rainbow halos. Violet to indigo to cyan to chartreuse to gold to orange to crimson..

Much like this. Pretty. *SIGH* Less than two weeks until I get my first cataract done. Can't come soon enough.

I'm tatting a bit, but I'm very distracted of late. This Mary Konior's Large Cross. I've made this pattern a zillion times, but this time I keep making mistakes and having to retro tat. I'll bet I've picked out 10 rings and 10 chains in this cross alone. I'm stressing We're having to spend a lot of money right now and we really don't have it. Dental implants, eye stuff, the dryer breaking, my retirement funds going to hell, and everything is costing way more than we thought. Plus, while Curly likes his job, he's not getting many hours, therefore not much money. I can't really help him and I'm worried for him. Grrr.

I've recently gotten addicted to this. It's BAD. But it helps me during sad times.

Why can't I be more like Cisco? "What - me worry?"

Are the rest of you stressing these days? What do you do for stress relief?

Lord Vader

2011-10-16T08:58:00.000-04:00

You know who I am - I am Vader, lord of all I see. That includes lesser felines and those dumb tall non-furry critters who dole out food in this enclosure. The non-furries worship me, as they rightfully should.

When I wake up in the morning, I stand on the non-furries and demand my breakfast. I don't understand why it's my job to wake up the help, but what can you do.

Then I go downstairs and wait for breakfast to be served. You just can't good help anymore - they insist on serving me food in some sort of container on the floor. And I don't get to eat first, as is my right at Feline Royalty. Those wretched other felines eat from the same area! It is difficult to bear this.

I take out my revenge on the other felines often, especially the small and weak white one. She is useful to me - I can keep my hunting skills sharp by practicing on her.

Then I like to take a bit of a lie down. Who doesn't appreciate a good stretch?

Later I get up and see what other ruling I need to do. Here I'm telling one of the dumb non-furries to get the &%^)? out of my hiding cave.

Ruling tires me out. So it's time for another ~~lie down~~ royal nap.

I am so handsome. You may kiss my paw.

Please tell the non-furries to bring me more food. I'll be down in a minuzzzzzzzzzzz.

Presents and a change of seasons

2011-10-11T22:40:00.000-04:00

At my meeting of local knitters, crocheters, and tatters last week, my lovely friend Thelma brought me a little something. Thelma is one of those people who knows how to do every single knitting and crochet stitch, and will gladly teach you how to do them. She always comes to our meetings ready with a sock project (her socks are gorgeous!) or some really complex Christmas stocking she's making for a grandchild. She can tat a bit too, but she claims I'm a much better tatter. (I'm honored.)

Thelma brought me a whole box full of Irish linen thread, plus 3 balls of Star tatting thread. The ten wooden spools of Barbour's Linen Thread were in their original box. Thelma's aunt had purchased this linen thread many years ago with the intention of learning how to embroider a cutwork tablecloth and napkins. Unfortunately, it wasn't as fun as the aunt imagined, so the thread ended up in Thelma's hands, and now in mine.This thread is marked as No. 35 - anyone know what size that would be?

Thelma tells me linen doesn't decay like cotton does, so working with 50+ year old linen thread shouldn't be an issue. I'll have to try it out. It was SO generous of Thelma - she is such a gem!

I got home today and found a little surcie from Isdihara had arrived. It was a lovely heart pattern designed by Myrtle Hamilton. Isdihara did a wonderful post recently about Miss Myrtle - go look at it. The heart is shown in blue on her post - I look forward to tatting this.

It's cooler, and the leaves are beginning to turn here. I drive by this every day. I love fall.

The neighbors are enhancing the fall color.

And they're starting to put out Halloween decorations. Some folks in our neighborhood go all out.

Things are going pretty well at our house. I can't wait to get started with my dental and eye work, even though the pre-op appointments are taking a lot of time out of work. My eyes are going downhill fast. I never thought I'd look forward to having eye surgery. But I can't see the smaller writing on TV, or read any presentations on big screens. It'll all be better soon!

The Stooges are well. Larry is about to start ambulance ride-alongs as part of his clinical paramedic training. He's very excited about this - he'll get hands-on training. Moe spent all last weekend at a big Boy Scout camping event, a campout for the whole district. He had a blast! And Curly is working. (Thank you, Jesus.) He's working in the home improvement section of the local Sears, seems to like it. And he's feeling pretty good - he says he's taking his medicine and it's really helping. I've told him how proud I am of him for making this progress.

Vader playing with Gian's gift

Vader is not working. He does nothing to earn his keep. He's kind of worthless, really. But he's so cute...

Something for the cats

2011-10-08T09:54:00.000-04:00

When I got back from Tat Days, I found that the postman had brought me a little present. That's not quite right - it was a present for the cats.

It was from Fox's cat, Gian!

He sent a little present addressed to Sophie, Cisco, and The Big Bad Vader, in care of me. Please note the lion sticker on the envelope.

The card reads:

Hey You Guys!
Make your S**** (me) dangle this for you!
It's fun!
♥ Gian

And inside was a lovely length of cording, meant for me to dangle in front of some little catties. Let me demonstrate with Cisco.

See how excited he is biting the ~~string~~ cord? All the cats are pleased with their gift, and they beg me to dangle it.

Thank you Gian! Sophie sends all her love, purring "Mon cher Gian" from her place in DH's open sock drawer.

In other news, I promised to show you the tiny red hat again. But first - I needed a hat model.

My model was not very cooperative.

But I eventually got a marginally acceptable picture. Vader wasn't bored, just pissed.

Off to make bookmarks...

Tat Days 2011 - The Loot!

2011-10-04T16:43:00.000-04:00

One of the niftier things about going to Palmetto Tat Days is The Loot. By Loot, I mean extra Stuff you come home with, separate from projects you were working on. You get lotsa loot at Tat Days.

This is what everybody attending Tat Days got this year when they got through with registration. A nifty bag to carry all your stuff, some Omega thread from Mexico (I think this was courtesy of Maria) and a clear bag CRAMMED with stuff. Tatting patterns, bead, paper clips galore, things to put your projects in, pens and pencils, notepaper, tissue in a cute (handmade) container, bookmarks, note paper, pin cushion, etc, etc, etc. The Tat Days folks are some classy ladies - they think of everything.

But my Tat Days freebies were not at an end. This was my Teacher Loot. (Ignore the shoes of the Stooges behind this.) There was this cool tatting bag with a lovely snowflake on it (tatted by Joanie), thread, beads, finger wipes, candy (for sustenance), pens, a terrific Miser's Purse made by Sharon Goldin, and two WorkBasket magazines, with tatting patterns marked. I also got a Tat Days CD with all the patterns from this year's conference on it.

The Stooges want the Miser's Purse - it's really cool.

And Isdihara brought me this little kit as a thank you for driving her to and from the airport. As you may know, Isdihara is a big advocate of Tatting Tea Tuesdays. The little beads on the tin are made like teeny-tiny chocolates! (Once again, the Stooges are claiming something. This time it's the giant eraser.)

And Nina gave me these gorgeous earrings, tatted by her. Sparkly and loaded with beads too. Aren't they lovely?

Here endeth my list of freebies. (Woo-hoo! Lots of freebies! I was very, very fortunate.)

Now begins the part where I Spent Money. And was kinda BAD.

I visited Vending. Always dangerous.

In vending I got a few (HA! Many!) items. Lizbeth thread, HDT, shuttles, books. Plus I got two more Tat Days CDs for folks back home. I got Nina to sign her book for me. Isn't the thread yummy? And I love the shuttles.

Then I went to the Silent Auction. And bid. And won. Above you see some of what I won. I got a bunch of Omega thread in size 20, some of the tiny crochet hooks (center), and the tiny stocking earring (on the Tat Days program). The itty bitty stocking are knitted, can you believe it? I bought the book by Ineke Kuiperiji from Riet. It has 3-D Christmas tatting.

But that's not all I won.

I got Nina's gorgeous, phenomenal silver beaded necklace. Yes, me! I kept thinking "Surely someone will out bid me." But no one stepped up, and I got mighty lucky.

See? And it is so lovely in real life. It looks like jewels. I love the feel of it.

Now - where am I going to wear this gorgeous jewelry?

Tat Days 2011 Part Two

2011-10-03T12:43:00.001-04:00

One of the great things about the Palmetto Tat Days is that the guild gives out scholarships, so that tatters who want to come but can't afford to pay part or all of the fees/room & board have the opportunity to attend. The scholarships do not cover transportation, but that's usually a manageable element. The guild gives out a lot of scholarships for Tat Days - there's an application on their website. If you live close enough to drive and you thought you couldn't afford to attend before, apply for a scholarship next year! Update: 12 folks got scholarships for Tat Days 2011 - a really generous outpouring of tatting love.

Click on the picture to get a better look

Since the guild gives out scholarships, part of Tat Days is devoted to scholarship fundraising. There was the big quilt auction. Georgia Seitz runs thisruns this, and she is an expert on extracting $$$ out of folks. The gorgeous quilt shown above was sold, plus smaller, similarly themed wall hangings and table decorations were auctioned off.

Then there is the big Silent Auction. Many folks donate items to be sold, and it goes to the highest bidder. Some wonderful items - shuttles, books, thread, thread, and more thread, plus tatting and funny things. Above is a necklace that Nina Libin donated - it was the example for her Snow Queen class.

This was another of Nina' donations - a jaw-dropping, fully beaded silver necklace. Really and truly spectacular. There were things there for everyone's pocketbook and hearts' desires.

Everyone is trying to outbid each other on the goodies!

In fact, there was a whole room devoted to the Silent Auction. I think enough was raised in this auction to fund 3 scholarships next year. And much more was raised with the quilt auction. Tatters are a generous bunch!

The Friday night banquet was great fun, as always. Folks broke out their special tatted items to wear. Here's Kathy Berndt wearing here gorgeous tatted shawl - I think I recognize a Mary Konior pattern here.

Hope and Riet opening their Crackers

Since the theme of this year's Tat Days was Tatting in a Winter Wonderland, the tables were all decorated with winter things. Snowmen, snowflakes, snow scenes, etc. And everyone had a fun Christmas Cracker by their plate, to pull open at the end of the meal.

If you know about Crackers (they are often in use at my house), you'll know that they usually involve a paper crown and a silly toy. Here's PTG President Donna, looking queenly in her crown, as she reads stories submitted about how folks got started with tatting.

It wasn't long before everyone got into the spirit of the fun crowns.

Isdihara put hers on for me.

And here is our youngest tatter, Violet, in her crowning glory. Violet is the granddaughter of Marie, and she's a good little tatter. She a cutie at ten.

Back to my classes! The first Saturday class was my snowman one. Here are Robin and Jennie hard at work learning how to use a picot gauge. Jennie took three of my classes - I hope they were good for her! Or maybe she's a glutton for punishment. Either way, she's a sweet lady.

This is Chari is my bracelet class. Chari had been a needle tatter, and had only recently learned how to shuttle tat. She was great! I taught her to make split rings in this class, and she caught on immediately. What a terrific student!

And here's Karin, working in the same bracelet class. Karin only recently learned to tat, and is a needle tatter. She did a terrific job as well. I'm not a needle tatter, so I was hampered in how much I could answer needle tatting-specific questions. Fortunately, Karin's sister Shari is very experienced and was in an adjacent classroom. Problems solved. I think Karin left my classes a happy camper.

Joanie and Jennie, working with beads

Joanie was also in the Bracelet class. She was my wonderful test tatter, so she was familiar with the pattern. We had a big discussion on jewelry findings, specifically on the value of split rings vs. jump rings. (Split rings win hands down - jump rings can open too easily.)

Warning: thong tan ahead. Avert your eyes if you are too sensitive to such things.

Joanie showed off her thong tan. 'Nuff said.

My earring class went really well too, but I stupidly didn't take any pictures. In addition to finishing an earring in the class, all my students learned how to use the Magic Thread Trick using floss threaders. I think they liked the earrings very much. Joanie had made a ton of the earrings and had given them out to a number of folks who assisted with Tat Days, and they were all wearing them.

One of the great things about Tat Days is the chance to meet up with folks you only know through a blog or a screen name. It is SO much fun to connect with folks. Here are Arlene, Kerrieann, Hegla, and Maria. Maria came all the way from Mexico City - she is a love, and a lot of fun!

When Tat Days was over, we sadly said our goodbyes and headed down the hill. I had Nina and Isdihara with me again. Part way to Hotlanta, we stopped to stretch our legs, and I gave a brief lesson on Southern flora. This is kudzu in bloom. Isdihara was not familiar with this scourge of the Southern landscape, and she was very interested in it. I also identified crepe myrtles, magnolia trees, sweet gum trees, dogwood, weigela, and white pines (and why we hate white pines).

As we had a bit of time before Nina's flight, I took the ladies on a quick tour of a grand Hotlanta street, Ponce de Leon. There are many lovely home here, and the street has large parks lining it. Isdihara was very amused with the local pronunciation of the street's name: Ponss duh LEE-on. (Really.)

Isdihara soaking up the atmosphere at Mary Mac's

It was lunch time. So after we dropped Nina off, Isdihara and I went to a classic Southern restaurant, Mary Mac's Tea Room. Mary Mac's has been there forever (I've been going for decades) and it serves delicious southern eats. It's also a place to meet and greet folks, including politicians and celebrities. Isdihara wanted to see Jimmy (Carter), but she had to content herself with several signed pictures of him, plus a big mural of the Carter Center.

We ate well at Mary Mac's - turkey with dressing and gravy, sweet potato souffle, creamed corn, green beans, and yummy homemade cornbread, rolls, and cinnamon rolls. Since Isdihara had never been to Mary Mac's before, they brought her a cup of pot likker (also known as pot liquor) with cornbread. She ate it all up. (Yes Sprout, I saw your mommy eating green vegetables! For real!) All the leftovers were taken back to Isdihara's hotel room and gobbled for dinner. And I got our nice waiter to bring more cinnamon rolls for her breakfast. Yum, yum, yum.

I was worn out after I dropped off my passengers, but I was so glad to have gone with them to Tat Days. Next time - Tat Days loot!

Tat Days 2011 Part One

2011-09-29T16:44:00.000-04:00

Before I headed up the hill to Palmetto Tat Days last week, I swung by the Hotlanta airport and picked up Nina Libin and Isdihara. They were coming in from The Hinterlands and I was happy to be able to give them a ride. Since it was lunch time, I twisted their arms and we went to the quintessential Hotlanta fast food place, The Varsity. I love The Varsity. The Stooges love the Varsity. Frank Bruni of the New York Times loves The Varsity. (DH does not, but that's his problem. There's no accounting for taste.)

And what's not to love? Lots of 50's chrome, hot dogs and onion rings, cashiers shouting "Whaddaya have?!?" at anyone who elbows their way to the counter. (It was slow when we went, so no elbowing needed. But I've done it many times.) It's great. I had my usual, chili slaw dogs and homemade onion rings with an FO (a milkshake that tastes like a creamsicle.) Isdihara had chili dogs for the first time since she was in college! She tried the slaw chili dogs and declared them yummy. Nina was eating a heart-healthy meal of a chicken salad, unlike the BAD girls. Both Isdihara and Nina tried the rings and declared them to be delicious. Which is quite true - but all the food at The Varsity should come with a side of antacid. It bees greasy, ya' know?

Isdihara and Nina living the high life at The Varsity

Then we headed up the hill to Toccoa, about a 2 hour drive. We had a nice visit with each other. I hadn't had a good chance to visit with Nina before, so this was lots of fun. And then we got to ...

Lake Louise, as viewed from the cafeteria

Tat Days! Which was at the lovely GA Baptist Conference Center in Toccoa GA. And we saw a ton of friends like Martha and Sharren (and her DH) and Joanie and Donna and Hegla and Karen and Kerrieann and Anitra and Maria and Georgia (and her DH) and John and Erin (and her DH) and Hope and Marie and Teresa and And AND everyone else! There were 86 folks there - pretty amazing!

And if you weren't there, you missed out. I'm talking to you, Jane. You'd BETTER be here next year. And Sally - please come with her!

And I got Presents! A whole bag of teacher goodies (which I'll show you later) plus this darling, Barbie-sized hat made by Stephanie! I love the hat. I promise to show you the hat again. I have a funny photo-op in mind....

When Isdihara (my roommate) and I got to our room, she discovered that The Sprout had packed a stowaway in her bag. The Sprout is a charming, delightful little boy of 4 who missed his mommy. So he sent his friend along so she wouldn't forget him. What a sweetie...

Ellen and Mary working on hearts

On Friday, I taught my first class. It was a long class (2 sessions), teaching my cross of hearts. I was worried that maybe I would do poorly, or my students wouldn't understand my instructions, but there was no cause for concern. My students were brilliant.

Arlene and Anitra mastering dimpled rings

My heart pattern has a tough, new concept in it - the vertically stacked split dimpled ring. Anitra said it blew her mind, as you have to sorta tat it backward. (No joke here.) But all my students GOT it. I felt great about this. And they did too.

And lookie-lookie! Finished projects! All my students either came close to finishing or actually finished this project during class. Above are Mary and Arlene's finished tatting. Lovely work, ladies.

Mary came up to me that evening and showed me these little gems, tatted heart earrings! I was wearing some heart earrings (made using the above technique) and Mary took that idea and rolled with it. Are they great? I was really chuffed.

Isdihara and Hegla

Isdihara and I were great roomies. We got VERY silly and stayed extremely late on Friday night telling funny stories. Hegla is a hoot and a half too. I've promised Hegla some special, very bad, inappropriate-for-viewing-on-a-blog tatting. With certain sections in blue. Right, Hegla?

More later....

A suggestion from DH

2011-09-27T12:59:00.000-04:00

DH is a funny guy.

He heard that the Palmetto Tatters Guild does fund raising for Tat Days Scholarships. And he had a suggestion.

His idea - sell a calendar of famous tatters, sans clothes, like a certain other calendar.

The name of the calendar? Tits for Tats!

A brief update from Tat Days

2011-09-26T15:57:00.000-04:00

I'm back from my weekend in Toccoa, teaching at Palmetto Tat Days. And I'm worn out! Of course I'm at work, so I don't have much to show you. But here's a little bit of info on the weekend.

There were 86 folks attending the conference. A few were spouses, who were all good sports for coming along and dealing with our tatting obsession. But most attendees were tatters from all over.

I drove Nina Libin and Isdihara to and from the Hotlanta Airport to Tat Days. It was great to spend some time with them, especially Nina. It's a bit over 2 hours drive, so we had some nice conversation. Nina is such a love. And Isdihara is a hoot and a half! She was my roommate - more on that later.

My classes went very, very well. I was really and truly delighted with how well they went. I was a first time teacher at Tat Days this year, so I was a bit intimidated when I had folks like Anitra Stone in my class. Anitra has taught at Tat Days before, and is a fine tatter and designer in her own right. Anitra, Arlene, Mary, and Ellen were all in my Heart's Afire Cross class.

Part of this class teaches a dimpled heart tatted a new way. It involves tatting some things in a reverse order, and is NOT intuitive. Anitra expressed some frustration, and said that perhaps her brain had disappeared. She was not thinking well, as you can see. Her brain was gone. What to do?

Poor Anitra - so confused she doesn't know which end is up!

So I emailed Jane Eborall and asked her:

"Anitra says you must have her brain stored with your brain cell 3. She knows that brain cell 3 was lonely, but she'd like it back, please."

Jane's brain cell 3. Was Anitra's brain visiting it?

To which Jane replied:

"Tell her I ain't got it!!!! Twit tooo hoooo (that's supposed to be an owl call!!). In fact I haven't got all three of mine at the moment either!!!"

Eventually Anitra's brain returned, and she was able to make the heart. In fact at least half my students completed this cross during class. Mary was so taken with my pattern that she made a set of earrings using this technique by that evening.

Aren't they great? Wow!

More later...

Not in focus

2011-09-20T09:36:00.000-04:00

I spent yesterday morning at the ophthalmologist getting tests run and things set up for my cataract surgeries. I'm scheduled for 11/2 (left) and 11/9 (right). The nice young doctor I saw was good and knew how to say the right things. "Now if you were my sister, I would recommend...." (I did the math - I graduated from college 21 years before him. I could be his mother. ) Anyhow, I'm probably getting a toric lens in my left eye, as it has a pretty significant astigmatism. That way I'll only need reading glasses. As I've been blind since forever (and am legally blind sans eyewear now), this will be a major improvement. Of course, the toric lens is an upgrade & is not covered by my insurance to the tune of $850. Donations are now being accepted.

During the exam I was asked to read the eye chart. Using my left eye, I couldn't read the top line with my glasses on. Pitiful, isn't it?

FYI - the first surgery is 10 days after I have to fork out $4800 for 2 dental implants. But it's either do both items, or be on the corner blind & gumming my food down, rattling coins in a cup.

I'm looking forward to having it OVER and being able to see well. My vision sucks big ones right now - I was a menace on the road driving in yesterday after I'd been dilated. Took me back to when I was in high school & my eyes sorta rejected my contacts & I'd lost my glasses. I walked or rode my bicycle to school, a menace on the road then. Ah, memories.

Shaking my cup while I still have coins to shake..... Toodles

Countdown to Tat Days

2011-09-18T22:47:00.000-04:00

Tat Days starts on Friday, and I can't wait. For me, it's a kind of vacation, one where I can get away from work and family, hang out with girl friends and be silly, plus the bonus of being about a hobby I really enjoy. I really need this break!

In the mean time, I finished my Count To Four Necklace. It needs a clasp, but that's nothing. I'll wear it at Tat Days.

I'm not sure if the cats will miss me when I'm gone. I think so. When I woke up from a nap last Sunday, they were all lying in the bed with me. Aww, they love me.

Sometimes I wonder if Vader loves me. I was reaching to pet him, and he attacked. Other times he begs for petting, but not that moment. He looks WILD.

Cisco is so laid back that he appears not to care if I'm gone. But he rolls on his back when I come by begging for a pet, and he grabs at me when I stop, as if to say, "Hey - why'd you stop? A little more behind the ears. Who's important here?" I think he'll notice my absence.

Anyhow, I'm busying myself with making up kits folks have ordered for my classes, sending out Tat Days emails, and going to various doctor's appointments. Thursday I went to my internist and felt like a pincushion afterwards (I have awful veins), but at least I got a flu shot out of it. Friday I got a dental CT scan. (Did you know they can do those things? I didn't either.) This was in preparation for dental implants. Tomorrow I go see an ophthalmologist about scheduling my cataract surgery. I'm in a class this week at work, so I'll be buried every minute until Thursday, when I leave for north Georgia, and Tat Days.

I'm planning on blogging some while I'm there. The internet connection is a bit iffy, but it can be done.

Hope your week is good.....

Prepping for Tat Days

2011-09-13T22:28:00.000-04:00

I'm getting ready for Tat Days, which starts on September 23. The four classes I'm teaching have a nice number of students, but they aren't full. That suits me just fine, as too many students would be overwhelming. I've got some kits to prep - those are easy peazie to do. The only problem with teaching is that it's hard to work a class in for me to take. I'll live though!

Isdihara is to be my roommate for Tat Days. She and I bonded last year, and we should spend most of our free time giggling and being BAD. We are really silly together, so this should be a really good time. I hope we can get some sleep!

I'm continuing to work on the Count To Four necklace, and plan to have it finished to wear at the Tat Days banquet. It's looking nice, don't you think?

Saturday I had a weird little pre-birthday "present" when I got my eyes examined. I knew my eyes were going downhill, so I got a full workup dilation and everything. (I've been legally blind without glasses since I was in grade school.) Lo and behold, I found out that I need cataract surgery in both eyes, and quick. This kind of hit me hard, because when I think of cataract surgery, I think of old folks - and I don't think of myself as old. I'm 54, that's not old is it?

*sigh*

Anyhow, I'm scheduling the surgery as soon as possible, going for my left eye first. I'm seeing double out of that one eye (really) and it's basically useless. The bonus of cataracts surgery is I should be able to get my lifetime dreadful vision corrected so that I'll only need reading glasses. And I can get cute cheap reading glasses, stash them everywhere! So much better than the one super-expensive pair of bifocals I've been wearing.

Other than that unwanted surprise, my birthday was relatively uneventful. DH got me a nice flat screen TV for my office, which I love. Mom sent me some cool earrings. I talked to a bunch of friends and took a nice nap, then went out to eat. I've had much worse birthdays!

If you're still interested in coming to Tat Days, you can register on site, so come. You know you want to...

Ten Years After

2011-09-09T15:09:00.000-04:00

Like a lot of people, I was affected by the attacks of 9/11. Not in the way folks in New York or Washington were, but it still made a huge impact on me. I didn't know anyone personally who was affected, but still it was The Day The World Changed.

We in America had been really sheltered up to that point. We saw bombings on the news, but they were so far away, in another country, so it didn't seem real. It was just television for most of us. Those things couldn't occur here. We were immune.

Until we weren't.

On September 11, 2001 I was at work, when someone rushed up to me and told me an airplane had hit a building in New York City. We all ran to find TV or internet coverage of the news, and when it went from horrible to unspeakable to unbelievable, I left and went home: I couldn't stand it. I wept for days. I'm weeping now.

So many lost. So many lives changed.

Today as I drove in, I heard a story on NPR about the death of Father Mychal Judge that day. The homily given at his funeral was exceptional, and I wept again in my parking lot. The story is worth listening to. Go ahead, do it now - I'll wait.

I have an aunt whose birthday is Pearl Harbor Day, December 7. My birthday is September 11. My aunt and I have shared having a birthday commemorating where Thing Changed. For her generation, there was resolution: ten years later, WWII was over and things were much brighter for all.

For we, the 9/11 generation, the misery goes on and on. Since that day, I had a phrase stuck in my head, "Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold". (It's from a poem by one of my favorites, W B Yeats.) And it's true, it seems that things have fallen apart around us - my birthday was just the beginning. We are engulfed in 2 wars that seem to have no end, and it seems much of the world hates us. The economy has gone to hell world wide. People are losing their homes. There is mass unemployment. I have struggled with this myself - I had two long stretches of unemployment this decade, totaling 21 months. I developed a brain tumor. My son and my family have struggled with his mental illness. We make less actual money (even less, adjusted for inflation) than we did in 2001, and our expenses are so much greater. Times are so hard.

It's so easy for me to give in to despair. Despair, and fear of what might happen. What if terrorists somehow make a major strike again? What if this recession/depression lasts for another 10 years? What if my health fails or I lose my job? What if some political extremists take power? What if Curly takes his life? What if - ?

And yet - I can't give in to fear. Fear strangles the life out of living. There is a great quote from the movie "The Shawshank Redemption" which says, "Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free."

I don't want to be a prisoner.

And so, I hope.

I hope. I hope.

And I hope you do too.

So you'll have to forgive me if this year, I don't watch the documentaries and TV specials on 9/11. It's not that I don't care - I really DO care. I care a lot. It's just that I'm tired of crying about it, and I'm ready to move on. With hope for better things.

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Emily Dickinson

Blessings to you all - in hope.

Life at Chez Crazy

2011-09-08T15:59:00.000-04:00

I've been chastised lately by a blogging friend, and rightfully so, for I have been negligent in my blogging. I haven't blogged on a regular basis lately, and I'm sorry. So let me get you up to date.

So what's happening at Chez Crazy?

Moe is muddling along as a freshman at the giant high school. He's doing very well in any class he's interested in, like Honors Math I and French I, and he's doing little or no work in classes he's bored with, like his American Government. Which is a pretty amazing, since that should be an easy A for him. I told Moe's teacher that we probably have more home material related to this class than anyone at the school. as DH is a HUGE history/biography/war/political buff. We have bookcases filled with Civil War books and biographies of American leaders. Moe has no excuse. I'm leaning on him.

Larry just had a birthday. It was quiet for the most part. His friend K came over and spent the night; they went out and had Japanese food and then we all had red velvet cake. Larry is continuing with his Paramedic training and will be starting some clinical training later this month. He'll finish the training in the spring, March I think. He's still working nights at the local grocery store. Larry has taken up an odd obsession lately - he's now a Bronie, and has 60+ figures. Weird. As long as he doesn't get a tattoo of a Cutie Mark, I'll be ok with this. (And yes, Larry is very hetero.)

Curly. Oh, Curly. Where do I start? Basically, Curly is off his meds, unemployed, has no transportation, and is back to his bad old ways. Completely and belligerently uncooperative. He refuses to do anything necessary to get treatment or ameliorate his situation. He showed up the other day with a bottle of his Lithium, prescription dated 6 weeks ago, and the bottle had not been opened. DH let him stay in the house some last weekend (over my strenuous objections), and Curly violated all the rules. We kicked him out, and he broke into the house, breaking window screens in the process, and stole money and medicines (not his). He's been staying nearby at a home that has boarders, and I hope he is safe. I don't think he has any money, since he doesn't seem to be able to get a job. When things don't go well, he flies into a rage, cursing, screaming, lashing out at those who care most for him. Since he is 19, I am powerless to help him until he decides to help himself. I am so sad for him.

But enough about Curly....

How about world records? Did you know that we are trying to establish a World Record at Palmetto Tat Days for most tatters tatting this tiny snowflake, all together at the same place and time? Pretty cool, huh? You can still register for Tat Days. Come on, you know you want to be there!

Someone who will NOT be at Tat Days is Vader. The other night, he was waiting for me at the top of the stairs like this, with his paws in the air. Very strange.

So I went up the stairs. Vader still lay there, with his paws in the air. (Pay no attention to the vacuum cleaner behind the curtain.)

And I found Mr. Vader lying there all twisty. His back paws were going in the opposite direction from his front ones. He's just fine - but it looks un-comfy!

He's so silly.

And finally - Sophie loves her new toy.

Count to Four pattern

2011-09-05T16:36:00.002-04:00

I've gotten requests for the pattern, so here goes.

I've made this pattern a number of times. Here's a necklace I made for my mother a while back - she loves it and wears it all the time, as the whole thing is very light. I'm not going to claim ownership, just give directions, as the pattern is so very, very basic.

This pattern can be used as a necklace or a bracelet. It lays flat very nicely. If made in Lizbeth size 20 thread, 9 rings should be about 2 inches.

You need:

Shuttle and ball with size 20 thread, or 2 shuttles wound CTM

Lots of seed beads (10/0), an equal amount loaded on the shuttles or the shuttle and ball, depending on the length you desire. A 20 inch necklace will take 90 seed beads on each shuttle.

Pendant (if you're making a necklace)

Jump ring and lobster claw closure, or other closing as you chose.

Bead threader

Begin

Place 1b on back of hand.

R1 (Shuttle 1) 8 b 4 - 4. RW

Ch1 4 b 4. RW

R2 4 +(picot of prior ring) 4 b 4 - 4. RW.

Repeat between * for 1/2 of length desired.
To attach pendant, make a chain.
Ch2 4 b 4 b 4.
At this point, it may be necessary to unload your thread and slide the pendant onto the chain you just made. RW, rewind shuttle(s).

R3 4 +(picot of prior ring) 4 b 4 - 4. RW.

Ch3 4 b 4. RW

R4 4 +(picot of prior ring) 4 b 4 - 4. RW.

Repeat between ** for rest of length desired.
Last ring
R5 4 +(picot of prior ring) 4 b 8. Cut, tie off, and hide ends.
Attach jump rings and closing hardware to first and last rings.

Enjoy!

Here's a funny for you - I laughed and laughed

The man had just finished reading a new book entitled, 'YOU CAN BE THE MAN OF YOUR HOUSE'.

He stormed to his woman in the kitchen and announced, 'From now on, you need to know that I am the man of this house and my word is Law. You will prepare me a gourmet meal tonight, and when I'm finished eating my meal, you will serve me a sumptuous dessert. After dinner, you are going to go upstairs with me and we will have the kind of sex that I want.

'Afterwards, you are going to draw me a bath so I can relax. You will wash my back and towel me dry and bring me my robe...Then, you will massage my feet and hands. Then tomorrow, guess who's going to dress me and do my hair?'

Without even looking up from her morning paper the woman replied, 'The funeral director would be my first guess.'

Over the weekend, I made a little crocheted cat toy, a ball with some catnip stuffed in the fiberfill. Vader liked it for a minute, but he's not so wild about catnip.

Sophie on the other had, is simply crazy for it.

Tatting and confessions

2011-08-30T16:54:00.000-04:00

Ok, true confessions here. I am the least likely person in the world to abuse drugs. I hate any kind of narcotic or anything that dopes me up. I begged for ibuprofen when I had a craniotomy in 2005, while the doctors insisted on giving me Percocet. I don't drink. I'm boring.

But today - now we come to the true confessions part.

Moe, my youngest kid, has ADHD. (All the Stooges have ADD in some form.) I keep his ADHD medicine, Vyvanse, in my purse, since we've had issues with it disappearing from the medicine cabinet. (Don't ask.)

So today, I got out his dose. Had it in my hand, ready to give him. Got distracted talking to Moe - where are your socks? hurry the bus will be here soon, you need to EAT! Have you done your homework? what about your nasty ROOM?

And before I knew it, I absent-mindedly popped the capsule in my mouth and took it. Yes, I swallowed it. By the time I realized what had happened, the medicine was already in my stomach.

Now, I take medicines every morning, so stuffing pills in my mouth and glugging down water is part of my normal morning routine. But....

Not a 50 mg Vyvanse. Oops.

I told Moe, and he fell over laughing. I dosed out another Vyvanse for him, which HE took. Thank heavens.

If you don't know, ADHD medicine is more like taking speed or amphetamines for those who aren't ADHD. So needless to say, I am buzzing big time. I've been having trouble typing correctly all day.

DH laughed and called me a drug abuser.

At least I haven't been sleepy at work. And I've been super productive, when I can slow down enough to make my fiag - oops! - fingers work the keyboard.

Whee! Zoom!

In other, non-drug related news...

I'm working on a necklace for a pendant. The necklace is super simple, one that lies flat on your neck. It can be also used as a bracelet. I call it my Count To Four pattern. Let me know if you want it - I'll post it.

BTW - Register for Tat Days! Online registration is open until September 9, 2011! I'm teaching!

Vader is recovering, you'll be happy to know. And tomorrow I go to the oral surgeon for a consult on getting dental implants (yes, more than one). Tomorrow should only be painful in my wallet.

Go register for Tat Days! You'll be glad you did! GO!

Revenge is sweet

2011-08-28T22:06:00.000-04:00

I'm tatting and working away, plus I spent the weekend trucking kids all over the county. I'm tatting a necklace for me, and I'll show it to you soon. No hurricane or earthquake here, that heavens. I did see a lovely sky the other night.

Moe had a full calendar this weekend., which constituted the bulk of my driving this weekend. Friday evening he took his orange belt test in karate. On Saturday, he played airsoft war games most of the day with his buddies, then went to a pool party with his Scout patrol until that 10 night.

The guys planning the games - Moe is in the middle facing away. Can you smell the testosterone?

Moe has a good time with airsoft. The boys play war games in the woods at a friend's place, one with 11 acres for the boys to have fun on. Of course, there are lots of other things on those acres, like fleas and chiggers. Moe came back with his ankles circled with bug bites - he neglected to use his DEET. That's a mistake he won't make again. It was a full day, and he was really tired by bedtime.

I also trucked Curly around to his jobs. He's working 2 PT jobs these days, looks like he'll get about 30 hours for each. Works for me - he needs to keep busy and out of trouble. And he really needs the money.

In cat news (I mean, what else is more important?), Vader has been spending a lot of time trying to dominate the other cats at our home. He is relentless with Sophie especially, but he goes after Cisco too. Thursday night I came home from work and noticed Vader didn't look like himself. He wasn't so aggressive either.

I took a look at him and found that one of the other cats had finally gotten back at Vader. Vader has a pretty good cut just below his left ear. But who did it?

Sophie seems really innocent with her sweet little face. But she hates Vader with a white hot hate, since he's so mean to her. She says bad things to him all the time. I think she's cursing at him: "Your mother is a dog's whore! Your father sleeping in the litter box!" DH thinks it's more like, "If I had a knife I'd cut you!"

Cisco isn't admitting to anything, saying blithely "Who, me?" (Though I think he's the culprit here. And I don't blame him. Vader chases him all over the house.)

One thing is sure - revenge has been sweet for these cats. A few days of peace for them has been great.

I even woke up from my Sunday nap to find Sophie and Vader napping together in the bed with me. (Vader is yawning. See how big he is?)

But then I caught Vader back to his old tricks, jumping on Sophie and chasing Cisco. Guess he's feeling better, huh?

I should have some tatting to show you next time...

Wedding weekend in Florida

2011-08-17T23:16:00.000-04:00

DH, Moe and I spent last weekend in Jacksonville FL attending a family wedding.

A typical FL wedding - folks in shorts and flip flops

It was a quick trip - we weren't there 48 hours. DH's neice married a nice young man at a lovely location, Kingsley Plantation, on the banks of the St. John's River. Kingsley Plantation is a National Park service site, the location of an old plantation (built in late 1700s) with an interesting history. The plantation owner married one of his slaves, a Senegalese woman names Ante Madgigine Jai, or Ma'am Anna. Ma'am Anna was later freed and ran the plantation herself until the laws regarding freed slaves changed. She hightailed it to Haiti in 1837. The plantation is carved right out of the jungle (which still comes up to the narrow road), and somehow they cultivated Sea Island cotton and sugar cane there.

Anyhow, the wedding was held outside the main house, right on the river. Yes, that's outside in mid-August in Jacksonville, at 4 pm, with no shelter from the sun. I broke out my umbrella. It was absolutely sweltering with very high humidity. The wedding was blessedly short and sweet, and after a few pics were taken below the adjacent live oaks, we headed out to the reception, some 45 minutes away. (We had to catch a ferry get to the reception.)

Fortunately, the reception was heavily air conditioned. It was a nice big room, tastefully decorated. I was surprised to see that they were serving a meal (not a given here in the South). As the bride and groom were footing the bill, I had expected cake and punch, which makes for a nice reception. But they had a great little buffet and wine on all the tables.

Moe hung out with his cousin D (the bride's youngest brother) and played bartender, which only involved opening beer bottles and getting tea refills. We made him dance with the bride a one point, and I got funny pictures to use as blackmail at a later date. I am so bad.

These darling little boys were blowing bubbles and having a blast at the reception. It was a lovely event, good especially since DH's brother, the father of the bride, has been very ill lately. He and his family all had a great time, and we're very happy for them.

Sunday, Moe and I drove the 380 miles back in time for me to go the the grocery, get some laundry done, and drop with exhaustion.

While driving, I tried (and failed) to get a picture to the Big Peanut, a local roadside attraction on I-75. It is not to be confused with the Big Peach. But it's still kind of awful.

In other news, Curly is having major issues. He got sorta screwed by one of his part time jobs, which caused him to lose another PT job. Plus, he's really messed up with his landlord and is having to move out ASAP. And he's off his meds, which has made him mess up with me in a big way. We aren't really talking, and he can't live with us. If he does again what he did to me this week, I'll have to get authorities involved. I pray he gets it together.

This week I treated myself to some new thread, and I got these cool shuttles to add to my collection. You like?

Starting to come up for air - updated

2011-08-08T22:12:00.001-04:00

Things are a bit better here at Chez Crazy. I'm not so tired, and I'm getting caught up at work. I spent the weekend finishing my book club book (Gone With The Wind), plus getting a pedicure and some serious napping.

I even did a bit of tatting. Unfortunately, I can't even read my own directions well. This was supposed to be tatted with a smaller picot gauge. Now the scissors will have to come out. Foo.

I've also been spending time updating things in preparation for teaching as Palmetto Tat Days next month. In case you're interested, registration is open. It's a lot of fun - I hope to see some of you there. Come on down, ya'll!

Moe has started school with no problems, hurrah! He's got most of the classes he wanted, and we are trying to change the two that are not quite right. I wish he didn't have an hour bus ride in the morning. Fortunately, it's not so bad in the afternoon. Moe is very agreeable, bless him.

Hand cranked flashlight, $4.99

Moe has been amusing himself with the Ikea catalog. They have some nifty inexpensive things in Ilea. There is an Ikea store here in Hotlanta, close enough for me to make a flying lunch visit during the work day. That only works if I'm organized - the store is truly ginormous! Moe was interested in this flashlight (great for Scouts!), and I might get several to give as stocking stuffers.

Plant pot, 6" high, $2.99

I also like this lovely item. It's supposed to be a plant pot, but I think it's way too pretty for that. I think it could be embellished with some tatting or pretty ribbon, and would be perfect on my desk. Maybe I can use it as a type of plant pot - I have some terrific little dried flowers made from palmetto fronds that I got in Charleston. They would look just right in this.

Hmm. I may have to make a quick trip this week at lunch. I think Thursday would be good...

Vader sucking up the air conditioning

Vader has been making a pest of himself at night. He comes into our bedroom after DH and I are fast asleep, around 4 am, and he jumps up on the bed. This wakes up someone (usually DH), as Vader is a big galoot and doesn't tread lightly. But does Vader content himself with that? Nooooo - he then jumps over DH to land with a thud on my stomach. The next noise one hears is an oof from me, plus cursing. (Vader is approaching 20 lbs, and not really graceful.) So DH does the manly thing and shuts the cat out of the room until morning. I'm usually wakened later by Vader standing on me yet again, but at least it's after the alarm goes off. He is bad. And he doesn't care.

Now to take the scissors to my tatting. Toodles...

PS. I just went to my bathroom to get ready for bed, and found that some cat (probably Vader) has barfed all over my hairbrush. And it's now very dry. Ewwwww

I've been buried

2011-08-01T22:58:00.001-04:00

These days, I hate my job. I really do. I'm underpaid and very overworked, and I have huge pressures at work. It's very political at my job, and I'm not an office politics kind of gal. It may sound odd, but I like to do a good job and not get kicked in the teeth for it. This is usually NOT what happens at my current place of employment. It's like the end of the world when anything goes wrong. And while my boss is very supportive, there are many people at my job who are out to assign blame for anything they can. Gleefully.

This past week has been something of a cluster f*** at work for me. One of my systems had a big problem. I went in early, had awful, endless meetings where lots of fingers pointed at me (and I had done nothing wrong), culminating in very long, late, stressful hours. I finally got things wound up late Friday, and then I spent all day Saturday at the local hospital taking some classes for a medical condition I have. I didn't want to go to the classes, but Big Brother the insurance company was twisting my arm. Afterwards, I came home and dropped from exhaustion. I even ditched church on Sunday - and I go regularly. I needed the rest.

Good news - today was better at work! It was more a normal day, no major crisis to handle. Hurrah! The rest of the week looks pretty good too. I'm hoping things stay quiet....

I rested some on Sunday, took a little nap with Vader. I like having a kitty sleeping with me, it's restful. And they love on me so much....

In other news...

Moe starts school on Thursday, and had a good time at the Freshman Fiesta. He found his homeroom and was assigned a locker. He knows where the important things like the bathroom and the cafeteria are. And he saw a bunch of his buddies there. I've got him loaded up with school supplies. So he is ready for the school bus on Thursday.

Curly is out of town working some with the company he'd done work for earlier. It's a long stretch out of town, about 8-9 days, working with an old buddy of DH's. Plus Curly is working some at the local mall, and the place will work with his other work schedule. So - money is coming in for Curly, at least for now. He's having some issues with his landlord, but I'm leaving that up to Curly to manage. I hope he has a place to stay when he comes back to town.

Larry roared with laughter when I showed him these on the web (available here). (Flashbacks to PBS in the late '80s - "Let's put some happy little trees over here by this lake...") I offered to get these for DH, but he declined. His reason? He prefers boxers.

I picked up a few books recently via AbeBooks.com. which is one of my favorite places to get used books. I picked up two tatting books - Lynn Morton's Tatting Patterns, and The DMC Book of Charted Tatting Designs. I'm pleased to have these in my tatting library. I also got a great buy on current read for my Pulitzer book club, Gone With the Wind. I read this voraciously as a teen, and adored Scarlet. I found a nice hardback copy with dust jacket for under $4, shipped! Oh, Ashley....

Cisco cares nothing about Scarlett, and even less about that dumb old Ashley. He just wants me to pet him.

Quick Update

2011-07-27T22:59:00.000-04:00

I've been going a mile a minute at work, staying late every night, , and haven't had time to do anything but drop when I get home. I really don't like my job these days, way too much work and pressure and I'm so underpaid. So I've been too busy to blog..

At home, we're prepping for Moe to start his first year of high school. It's a brand new school, quite enormous for public education. Moe has a "Freshmen Fiesta" tomorrow at 4 pm to get a locker, meet some teachers, and learn his way around the giant school. Really, it's gargantuan - the gym has two full sized basketball courts with bleachers, much like a small college. The campus is on 80 acres - I am not making this up. Moe starts school on Thursday of next week. That's the way things are done here is the South, kids start school in the worst of the heat of the summer. Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either.

But I have been tatting a bit. I'm taking the Design Tat online class, and this is a motif I've designed in the class. It's called Butterfly Garden. I tatted it in Fuchsia HDT size 20 (by Sherry Pence) and a green DMC Perle. I'll post the pattern later. I'm kinda diggin' it.

I hope it's sorta cool where you are, 'cause Hotlanta is living up to its name this summer.

Monday ephemera

2011-07-18T23:00:00.001-04:00

I've been having a good time with the Hipstamatic application on my iPhone.

It's pretty nifty, don't you think?

Lots of lenses and film. (That's a mug I made years ago.)

Try it if you have an iPhone. I'm digging the effects.

In my next house, I'll have fences like this. Aren't they great? (Mercy, that was random.)

DH bought me a Snuggie. Really. The cats will love it. Me, not so much.

I spent much of this afternoon at the mental health clinic with Curly. Always an interesting experience.

This place has a big waiting room with lots of twitchy people in it, many pacing around. Most folks come in pairs - the patient and the patient's handler. (Handler - that would be me.) The handlers sit patiently, holding onto paperwork, waiting for their patient's turn in the back. The patients are easy to spot. A lot of them wander around, going outside for a smoke or to twitch or something. Lots of really, really twitchy people. Many patients have major social issues, and they make the rest of us pretty uncomfortable. Today some tall obese white fella in his early 20's, dressed like an overgrown 5 year old, was lurking around ominously, looking over people's shoulders and gabbering on his phone in single syllable words, which seemed to be the extent of his vocabulary. Last visit, a guy had 4 different cell phones and insisted on showing them all to me, explaining the details of all the cell service. And oh! his birthday was coming! Soon! Really soon! Want to see this cell phone? It doesn't work right now, but it might after my birthday! I just smile and nod.

Fortunately, we got called back for our appointment with the good doctor before things got too creepy. Curly isn't doing great, been irregular on taking his medicine, and it shows in how he deals with the world. I wish I could get him to go to his therapist. But we did walk out with prescriptions, and Curly told the doctor that he would take them. So it's a small victory.

I've not been very successful in tatting lately. This is the result of tatting homework, which I got a failing grade on. Argh. I'm working on a better idea, with pieces of this still in it. More to come, I promise.

But I did see this lovely sunset. It made my day. Two minutes later, it was all gone. But the memory was so worth it...

Time at Mepkin Abbey

2011-07-12T21:29:00.000-04:00

While I visited Charleston, my entire family went to Mepkin Abbey. Mepkin is about an hour outside of Charleston, in Mock's Corner, SC (and yes, I've spelled that correctly).

Mepkin is on the site of an old plantation. The property was donated by Clare Boothe Luce to the Trappist monks, and the order was established here.

My father often took retreats here. He loved the peace he found there, and he was close friends with the late Abbott, Fr. Frances. Frances died a year before Daddy, his life cut short by a virulent leukemia. Before Daddy died, he said he wanted some of his ashes to be put by Frances.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to plant Daddy at the Abbey this trip. The monk's cemetery is private, and while we were allowed to go into it and saw Fr. Frances' grave, we were escorted by another monk who didn't know about our intent. So we'll come back another time, when we've been able to talk to the Abbott and make good arrangements.

The property is truly gorgeous. There are gardens and sculptures everywhere. And it borders the Cooper river, which flows into the Charleston harbor. Walking through the gardens is a blissful experience, even on a hot day. And it was hot!

We walked through the gardens in the summer heat. There are many lovely natives plants and flowers here. This is a hydrangea. One of the things the monks do is cultivate native plants.

The sculptures are lovely. Many blend in with their surroundings.

Some are more modern. This is a wonderful creche made of metal. The baby in the manger has a round golden saw blade for a crown. The monastery has a large collection of creches.

This is a wooden sculpture of the Holy Family, carved on site from this huge log.

As I mentioned, the property was donated by Clare Boothe Luce. The Luce family is buried at this location. You can see their cemetery just past the big live oak.

There were lovely views of the Cooper river in parts of the gardens.

A restful Madonna and child sculpture. It was very peaceful here.

If you're ever on the coast in the South and you see the live oaks with the Spanish moss on them, admire the moss from afar. The moss is loaded with nasty itchy bugs. Look, don't touch.

One of my nieces with her mother, my sister.

My family really enjoyed this visit to Mepkin, and I'm certain we'll be back.

When Moe and I returned from our journey to Charleston, you'd think Vader would be there to great us. You would be wrong. He was lolling around, pretending he didn't care. Of course, he jumped on me in the middle of that night and woke me up, purring loudly.

Visit to the Charleston Museum

2011-07-09T20:18:00.000-04:00

While I was in Charleston visiting family recently, Moe and I went to the Charleston Museum to see the Threads of War exhibit. Here's a bit of what I saw in the exhibit and in the museum as a whole.

Bodice and skirt from Threads of War

First of all, the Threads of War was a fairly small exhibit, limited in scope. I was hoping to see lace making or evidence of homemade lace, but saw none. It was mostly clothing items and other large textiles from that era, including coverlets and flags.

But those were very good, and the real deal. Here are some children's garments, with a bit of a slave shirt in the background.

Some Confederate uniforms and flags. The fact that these are in this good shape is pretty phenomenal.

More, including a quilt and nightgown.

Another uniform and a child's bodice. That may be a flag from a Texan unit.

Here are some small items from the exhibit. Can you imagine putting a child in those blue shoes these days?

And some infant items. including a quilted bib. No tatting. I looked.

This is the only sewing/handwork related item in the exhibit. Sigh. I'm sure people tatted. But I love the shoe-shaped pin cushion.

Outside the exhibit, there were other items. including this terrific Victorian doll house.

And some miscellaneous ancient items. Love the Egyptian cat.

There was an exhibit on the lower floor with a lot of small items, including this chatelaine set.

And hair jewelry. Moe was totally grossed out by this. I'm fascinated, but it's not something I would want to touch, much less wear.

The other interesting part of the museum was a large permanent exhibit related to the history of Charleston. Lotsa pictures, furniture, plantation and Civil war items. I'll just give you a few items.

Have you ever seen them talk about pottery by Dave the Slave on the Antiques Road Show? There were 6 or 8 large pots by Dave here. As a potter, I'm impressed. The form is lovely.

And some small cool face jugs. (I also have a collection of face jugs.) I love these!

I found a great little housewife. Look, knitting supplies! And a thread winder!

And finally, finally, deep into the exhibit, I found a grouping with sewing and handwork.

With a gorgeous sewing chest....

And OMG! Actual tatting! And 3 tatting shuttles! Plus crochet hooks and other goodies. It's not a good example of tatting - it look modern and kinda bad - but it is tatting. Success!

And for the Palmetto Tatters, I show you some cool palmettos, made as Confederate patriotic items.

There was more - Moe found a big exhibit of guns that he was delighted with, plus a mock-up of the Hunley - but I'll spare you the moth-eaten polar bear and all the weird animal skeletons. They were too strange.

Next time - Mepkin Abbey.

Back from Charleston

2011-07-07T15:55:00.000-04:00

I'm back from a family visit to Charleston SC. All my siblings came, plus my Mom was there. My sister from across Hotlanta brought her eldest daughter, I brought Moe, and my brother had has wife and 17 month old daughter. We met at the home of my other sister, who lives in Charleston with her husband and 2 college age children.

It was a lot of fun. We ate and talked and visited and laughed together. We stayed up very late. I was worn out by the time we left - I even had to take a stop for a nap on the way back!

Driving through Mepkin Abbey, a former plantation

We had a lovely visit to Mepkin Abbey, but did NOT get to plant Daddy there. More on that in another post.

A Civil War era gown at the exhibit. It is festooned with sequins.

Moe and I went to the Charleston Museum and saw the exhibit I wanted to visit, and more. We did not make it to the ocean. But we did eat a lot of shrimp.

Moe kayaked many times in the brackish lake behind my sister's home. We also observed the neighbors fireworks out back on the 4th. And it was HOT.

Seen and heard while there:

While I was driving near Columbia SC, Moe looked at a a sign and said, "Goo is love!?! What does that mean? Oh wait - that's a D."

My brother saw a sign for a clothes washing business. The sign read "Laundry Mat".

While driving back from Mepkin, Mom and my Charleston sister and I had a discussion about food quality of American vs. European grocers. (We were discussing Aldi.) Mom said, "Well, the quality of the food seem to be better, and if there is a problem, European vendors will commit suicide or hari-kari in shame, unlike Americans."

Finally, Moe and I saw these big cows in a chicken sandwich chain. The cows were hanging from the ceiling, and the girl cows looked, ahem, unusual with their tails between their legs. I went over and spoke discretely with a cashier, saying they may wish to move the tails of the cows. She said, "Why? I don't see any - Ooooo." And she got a manager right away.

More on what we saw soon. And thank you for the warm wishes everyone sent for our anniversary!

SIlver

2011-07-05T08:20:00.000-04:00

Way back in July of 1986, DH and I got dressed up. It was very hot that summer in Hotlanta, and the house we were renting only had one air conditioned room, but still we got some fancy dress clothes on for an afternoon gathering. A lot people were coming.

And they saw DH and I put on the dog and get married. We did it right, marrying at a lovely Presbyterian church in what's now a trendy neighborhood in Hotlanta. Lots of friends and family there. Had a great reception in one of those big houses on Ponce de Leon Avenue, ate lovely food and drank good champagne, with bluegrass music played by some friends.

DH looked like a stick - so slim! I had big hair, big glasses, and a hoop skirt. My younger sister was my only attendant , and I let her wear whatever she wanted. My dress wasn't fancy - I found it at Penny's outlet and paid $90 for it. (That included the plastic storage bag. Really.)

We had yummy cake - it was chocolate with raspberry filling, made by a friend.

And guess what? Three children, two houses, many jobs, a house fire, and a brain tumor later, we're still married. (We are firm believers in sticking to things, plus marriage counseling does help when needed.) Whoda thunk we would last?

So, what are we doing to celebrate? Not much. No money! DH made a laughing suggestion that we get matching tattoos, but I politely declined. Um, no. Not ever.

Happy 25th, DH. (And no tattoos.)

Vader shows culture

2011-07-01T11:19:00.000-04:00

Vader is a classy cat.

He watches Public Broadcasting.

Here he's watching Doc Martin.

Really - he kept looking at it.

It's summer and I'm a slug

2011-06-29T23:05:00.000-04:00

Honestly, I haven't done much of anything. I had days recently where I did nothing but go to work and hang out at home - alone! - and I didn't get anything accomplished.

I have no tatting to show you. Not that I haven't been tatting some - I'm taking the tatting design class and designing a small motif. Which I can't get right, so I have nothing to show. I'm also making a new cross, my own design. Which I can't get right, so again, nothing to show.

Le sigh.

But wait! I do have things to tell! Moe is back, and he had a great time at both camps! He came back stinky and filthy, but happy and sorta tan. With a leather wallet he made in crafts! And he's tallened... He's now taller than me - I am officially the shortest person in my house!

And Curly - Curly has gotten his meds and had a little appointment with the courts. DH and I went with him this morning for his arraignment. He plead not guilty to his charges. He qualifies for a public defender since he lives elsewhere and is pretty broke. Which is helpful, 'cause we aren't paying for a lawyer. We're pretty broke too. I'm very new to the court thing, so I'm not sure what to expect. We are taking it as it comes, day by day.

And what's coming for me in the next few days? VACATION! Yes - a week away from work. And I need it.

Saturday Moe and I are heading to Charleston SC, to stay with my sister the college prof. My brother and his family are coming down from Boston, Mom is coming down from the mountain, and I think my other sister is going to be there too. So we'll have a fun little gathering. I really love my family, and love to spend time with them. We have the best time! I'll be back on Tuesday. (DH is staying home to do some political stuff. It's his thing, not mine.)

I think Mom is bringing Dad too, or what's left of him. (He died in 2007 and we have his ashes. Mom had Dad on the pew with her when my brother got married. Made me giggle.) Anyhow, we are all going over to Mepkin Abbey, as the late Abbot was a dear friend of his and Daddy wanted to remain near Frances. Daddy used to go to the Abbey for retreats often - it helped him when he was having a hard time. So we'll tromp over to the Abbey's cemetery and scatter some of Daddy around.

I'm also planning to go to an exhibit in Charleston, one on clothing and textiles in the Civil War. I'm hoping to find some interesting laces there. And while I'm in the area, I'll do some genealogy research.

Oh, and we'll probably hit the beach. And eat. Have you ever been to Charleston? They have some good restaurants. And oh, is it ever gorgeous!

My sister has already planned a shrimp boil on Saturday. Moe and I can't wait. Come on, Saturday!

Comings and goings

2011-06-21T15:21:00.000-04:00

Moe has come and Moe has gone.

He went off to a church youth group camp on Monday of last week. I picked him up on Saturday afternoon, tired and tan. And Sunday morning he went off again.

Not all the troop went!

He went with his troop to Boy Scout camp in the northern part of our state. And he won't be back again until this Saturday. Since DH is out of town on business, I'm pretty much on my own this week.

I kinda miss Moe. He's a cheery presence, always glad to spend time with his mom and have a giggle. But I'm certain he's having a really good time now.

This is something Moe made in the youth group camp. Pretty nice work for a 14 year old boy who'd never done this before, wouldn't you say? It's a form of macrame. I told him I'd be glad to get him some supplies if he wants to make more.

On the Curly front... Le Sigh.

While Curly is doing better is some cases, he seems to have zero common sense about most things, and now he is reaping the rewards of No Sense. It's as if he never thinks anything possible could go wrong, and when it does, he's surprised and horrified. Most of us go through life as we do while driving - practicing defensive driving, assuming that the other drivers will mess up. Curly assumes that all is golden. He's very trusting, and he gets hurt. In lots of ways.

For example: months ago, he gave a military recruiter his Social Security Card, his birth certificate, and his high school diploma. Not copies, but the actual documents. Now he needs these items, and they have all been lost. All. I've gotten him a birth certificate several times before, and I'm not doing it again. He needs to learn how.

Friday he got a money order for $120 to pay court-ordered expenses. Curly put the money order in his wallet and went to some party. Who knows what happened there - but the money order disappeared. Previously he showed some of his less than trustworthy acquaintances (AKA his druggy friends) some money that he had put in a box ($600), and then the money vanished. Imagine that.

He left an open bottle of prescription medicine out where he lives. The cat knocked it into some water, and the pills are ruined. He can't get this re-filled until July1, and it costs a ton. Fortunately it was not his Lithium, only his ADHD medicine. (He's taking his Lithium, thank heavens. And going to his psychiatrist.)

This is chronic. He's always putting his things down and forgetting where he left them. DH and I are worried about him - how's the boy gonna manage? Curly is 19, and he should be able to pay attention a little better. Plus, he has an old girlfriend who's jerking his heart around BAD. He doesn't seem to be able to tell who might be a real friend and who is bad to be around. He's a remarkably bad judge of character, way too trusting.

Curly's NOT stupid by any stretch. He's a smart kid, great in book learning, very artistic and musical. He just has No Sense.

Ah, me. A mother worries. He IS working (some), and he's still living up the street from us, and he's still coming over and spending time with us. It's something. I just wish he could have his eyes opened without so much pain...

Vader doesn't worry a bit. (I love how he stretches out like this, getting his whole tummy on the cool tile and showing his black little paddy paws.)

Pineapple Heaven Doily Finished

2011-06-19T22:13:00.000-04:00

Finished - finally! I am done with Doretha Albee's Pineapple Heaven Doily!

Here it is before blocking.

Blocking in progress. Lotsa pins.

Finished. See the pineapples?

And in its resting place in my living room, with the picture of my maternal grandmother. She taught me to tat, and I think she'd be very pleased. FYI - this is tatted in Lizbeth size 20 Dusty Rose Lt (621).

One other note - the pattern has an error in round 8. The pattern says

Round 8:
Tat shell as directed above.
CH 5 *twist long picot of previous round 2 times and join to it.
CH 1 -(3/8" long) 1 repeat from * 3 more times.
Twist long picot of previous round 2 times and join to it. CH 5. RW
Repeat around.

There are no long picots created in this round. It should read:

Round 8:
Tat shell as directed above.
CH 5 *twist long picot of previous round 2 times and join to it.
CH 1 - 1 repeat from * 3 more times.
Twist long picot of previous round 2 times and join to it. CH 5. RW
Repeat around.

It's a fun tat, if anyone wants to try it!

Coming to the end of the Pineapple Heaven doily

2011-06-16T10:28:00.003-04:00

I am pleased to report that I am finally, finally, it's about damn time, finally tatting the 16th and last round of the Pineapple Heaven doily.

This last round is all chains, and should go fast. You can really see the pineapple shape in it now - pretty, isn't it? And I'm happy to say that I used split rings and split chains to crawl out of every round to go on to the next. I'll block it as soon as I finish, which should make a world of difference.

And I'm sooooo glad to be finishing. I'm really, really sick of working on this one project now.

I don't have really that much time to tat. Just sometimes at lunch and some in the evening - and then it's hit or miss. I work FT and have a hellish commute (2-3 hrs total a day) plus there's home and the Stooges. So - not much free time. I envy those who have more time!

In other news, since Moe is off at camp (yea camp!), Vader finds himself without a night time companion. Moe sleeps like the dead and doesn't care if there is a large cat standing on him. DH is not that way. The other night ,Vader jumped up on us in the bed at some really early hour (Vader seems to weigh 75 lbs when he's standing on your stomach with his pointy paws) and wanted petting. I pet cats automatically. DH, not so much. Then DH moved in the bed and Vader ATTACKED his feet, causing blood and pain. And cursing. This has not prevented Vader from jumping on the bed every morning since then - and I think he will continue to, until Moe returns.

Vader has been enjoying watching fish. A neighbor gave us this tank & fish, and Vader's been fascinated.

Mom says a fish tank is TV for cats, and I'm inclined to agree. (Sorry about the noise - DH was banging pots in the kitchen during this. The tank and everything about it belongs to DH, hence the mess.) Vader spends a lot of time here. Sophie and Cisco could care less.

Oh - I almost forgot this. The geek in me LOVES this.Look here for further info.

It's been hot. Bad hot. Hellish hot. It's been over 90F since May 29. (That over 32 for you Celsius folks.) I know I live in Hotlanta, but shesh, this is ridiculous! What will July and August bring? I shudder to think. We did get a little rain last night, and our plants are sooo grateful.

How is your summer going?

Weekend at Chez Crazy

2011-06-12T21:54:00.000-04:00

Not much goings on here. There has been, but soon it will be dead quiet.

I've been working hard to get Moe ready to go off to 2 camps that happen consecutively. Tomorrow about noon, he goes with his church youth group to a small college for a week long retreat. It's for Middle School age kids, something called the Great Escape. He'll be there until early Saturday afternoon. Moe won't be home 24 hours, because about 8:30 am the next day, he goes off for a week of Boy Scout camp in North Georgia.

Two week of Moe being happy and a sort of vacation for DH and I. It's all good!

I spent a lot of time at big box stores this weekend, getting socks and underwear and flashlights. I've made sure all the paperwork for both camps is ready to go and clipped together. And then - I took a nap.

Cisco happily laid down with me. He was so pleased to have me to himself.

We lounged for a while this afternoon. It was nice. Cisco loves to be petted - he's such a good boy.

Other household members have been lounging too. Vader chose the kitchen table as his napping place. I woke him a bit, and he's stretching. (DH hates when the cats get on the table. I can't really blame him.)

My doily continues on. I found another spot I could have cut out, but I just ignored it and went on. I'm getting pretty tired of this doily and want to finish it soon.

Hope your weekend was good....

Doily sadness

2011-06-09T22:12:00.000-04:00

So, I'm tating along - la de dah, doe de doe, dum de dum. I'm on round 14. The doily's starting to get a real pineapple feel to it.

Honestly, I don't know why this is rotated.

Then I saw it. The sadness.

See? Rotated. Durn.

The place where there is only one ring, not two. See it? The scissors are pointing to it.

The scissors are put away, and now the healing has begun. Back to round 14 - I need calm thoughts.

This was the sunset on Monday night. Gorgeous. Ommmmmm. I feel better now, don't you?

On another note, I just got an iPhone, and I love it. Moe made a little movie using it.

Here's our fancy bantam chickens. The rooster makes the tiniest crow - it's really cute.

Not much happening here, except I'm working a lot, DH is working a lot, Curly is working (Hallelujah!), and it's hot as Hades here in Hotlanta. Moe is out of school, so he's not working, 'cept when we force him to do chores. Because we are mean parents, and expect him to assist in the household. So there.

Vader cannot be forced into doing anything. He does NOT care.

Threads. I has 'em.

2011-06-04T14:25:00.000-04:00

I got a package in the mail from my buddy Isdihara yesterday.

Now, you need to know that Isdihara and I met at Palmetto Tat Days 2010 and instantly bonded. I mean right that second. Since then, we've spent way too much time on the phone giggling about kids and tatting and life and husbands and silliness, though not necessarily in that order. She and I share a wicked sense of humor. (Ask her sometime about why her DH sometimes yells "Sanctuary!")

Isdihara had gotten some of the new colors of Lizbeth thread. And she shared!

See? All the new variegated colors, in size 40. I feel rich! The Sea Island Citrus is especially pretty. I like the Raspberry Frappe and the Purple Iris Fusion too. Hmm - what to make...

I'm almost through with round 13 of the Pineapple Heaven doily. I took this pic a couple of days ago - the pineapples are really showing through. And round 14 is on the last page of the pattern (16 rounds). The end is near...

Curly is doing better, and is working some. He is continuing to live in the neighborhood, and seems to be taking his meds to good effect. Whew.

Curly loves cats, and he just got this tiny,tiny kitten. I hope he can manage the kitty - they tend to be more money than teens are aware of. But the kitty seems sweet, and it helps Curly to have a creature.

We had some sad news this week. I'm not going to be an aunt again, not in October. My SIL's pregnancy did not go as planned. They are very sad, as you can imagine. Mom is going up on Monday to help them a bit - she does this a fair amount. (BTW - she had a great time on her trip to Barcelona!) My brother is 45 and his wife is 40, so their time is short for further children. They have a little girl, a toddler, who gives them much joy.

That's about all the news from Lake Wobegon, except for the fact that it's hellishly hot for early June. It's supposed to be 97F tomorrow, and was in the upper 90's all week. What's it going to be like in August? Ugh.

Sophie on my messy desk

Sophie doesn't say much about the heat. She's not much good at helping me tat either - no thumbs.

Stay cool...

Critter update

2011-05-28T18:52:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to report that DH was able to catch the mama possum and reunited her with her babies, all six of them. Then he took them out in the big woods behind us, and they trundled off into the wild. A good ending.

I'm not so happy about what happened afterwards.

DH tried to get me to go to an event called a Chicken Swap. Now, here in Hotlanta, a lot of folks have taken to having urban chickens. These are mostly hens raised in an enclosed outside area, kept for either their delicious eggs or to give kids a bit of the farm experience. There's a guy known as The Chicken Man, who helps folks get started with chickens. I have a sister on the other side of the metro area who got 6 exotic chickens from The Chicken Man.

For a while (until a nasty neighbor griped about poo on his little sidewalk), we had 2 sweet hens, gotten as chicks from the hardware store. We enjoyed their eggs. After we got grief from the homeowners association, the chickens went to live with my SIL.

DH seems to have forgotten all that fun with the neighbors. So he went to the swap, where people could swap chickens, learn about farm things, or BUY CHICKENS.

He came home with a tiny rooster and a hen. The rooster is full grown and very tame, the seller had him on his shoulder. I have to admit, the rooster's really pretty. And he's not supposed to crow much. The hen will lay small eggs for us. But still....

DH swears he'll send the pair to his sister's house later. Huh, yeah.

(Isdihara suggested I name the chickens Lunch and Dinner.)

I'm on round 11 of 16 on the Pineapple Heaven doily. Going much faster now. And I have a lovely hanky I got in the mail from sweet Diane - thank you Diane! You are a love! I got pink rose one from group B. I'll put a new corner on it, I'll figure out something pretty.

Gotta go - DH is making barbecued ribs, with corn on the cob and baked beans. Yum! (Note - he's not fixing fresh chicken.)

Doily progress

2011-05-27T12:32:00.000-04:00

I'm making some progress on the doily.

I'm on round 10 (of 16) now and it's starting to go faster. The twisted picots slowed me down. The doily is about 6 inches across now. It's tatted in a pink Lizbeth size 20 thread.

Vader is now jumping up on the bed (rather - on ME) in the middle of the night. At least it seems to be the middle of the night to me, not a morning person. DH says it's more like 5:30 am. Vader purrs LOUDLY and jams himself clumsily between DH and I. He is a horse - a large kitty.

The other night I dreamed that a horse, rather horse hooves, were stepping on my abdomen, mashing on me. I woke up, and Vader was standing on my stomach.

Here's a funny I posted that I took of Vader back in October. He was playing with a flattened roll of toilet paper in a bag - Moe was going to take this camping, but Vader pounced on it.

DH (who is sometimes just nutso) has a small creature living in the pond outside his man cave. Yes, that's a fuzzy dark duckling in the water. Not sure what type, may be a Khaki Campbell. DH somehow thinks the duck will be happy here. (HA!) I'm going to make sure this critter goes to his sister's house. She has ducks and chickens. Oh, in the picture above, you can see we are working on a small plum crop.

That's not all DH has brought home.

He has brought home 6 young opossums. No lie. This is Larry holding one. I'm told they are eating canned cat food. I don't care what they're eating, or if the Stooge think they're cute, I want them OUT of my house.

DH promised to have the 'possums gone on Tuesday. Huh. We shall see.

It's Memorial Day Weekend, ya'll! Have fun!

PS - The Blogger issue seems to only be with Internet Explorer. Firefox works just fine.

Things which have amused me lately

2011-05-21T22:22:00.000-04:00

Several items have caught my attention lately

This article about cats watch the NYC Hawk Cam, visible via the NY Times on this link. A red tailed hawk family is nesting on a tall building off Central Park, and people are excited about seeing the hatching. People and their cats, that is. The article give the names and ages of the cats shown. Heh.

None of my catties have seen the web cam yet. If they do, I'll share.

Cats like other things too.

This kitty likes the dolphins at a water park. Pretty cute.

Not as cute, alnost scary - the Center for Disease Control (here in Hotlanta) issued a bulletin about preparedness for the zombie apocalypse. The CDC's thinking is that a zombie preparedness kit would be really similar to what a family needs to prepare for a natural disaster, sans the baseball bat. (What?! You don't know that you do a zombie in by smashing his head in? What's wrong with you?) I found this pretty funny, especially since the CDC is featured prominently in a current American TV series on zombies.

Larry loves to discuss (tongue firmly in cheek) what location would be the best place to survive a zombie attack. He used to work at a pet superstore in a shopping center, and he had scoped out all the exits and where to find food. He had a plan for surviving in the store. All things he had learned from reading his now dog-eared survival guide.

You want to see tatting? I don't have much to show you.

I'm finishing round 7 of the Pineapple Heaven doily. Has anyone else made this? There seems to be a big error in round 8, at least if the picture is right.I'm going to continue the way the picture seems to be made.

Hope your weekend is good...

Badness

2011-05-18T11:23:00.000-04:00

Vader can be a bad boy. Here, he's harassing Cisco, while Sophie watches.

See what I mean? And Sophie spends much of her waking hours growling at him. Vader spend most of his waking hours stalking the other cats.

Larry says Vader is Curly in cat form. Heh.

Speaking of bad and trending toward mean (I don't think Vader is mean, he's just a teenage boy), have you ever had someone be truly mean and hateful? I'm having an issue right now with someone who is leaving hateful comments on my blog. Please note - this person is NOT a tatter or crafter, or someone I consider a blogging friend, or someone I have any association with. Said commenter is leaving me nasty grams about how terrible I am to Curly. I haven't told all the details of what's going on with Curly and our family (and I'm not going to), so this commenter is making a LOT of incorrect assumptions. And doing it virtually anonymously, with no way for me to respond back appropriately! It's like being stalked by someone you can't see, but who leaves you nasty notes in your locked house. Very creepy.

Which is why I've gone to moderated comments. I'd rather let people comment freely, but I can't leave this stuff up. (The offending comments have been deleted.) I'm only doing it to keep this type of ugliness (and those ones who post sex links) out. In God we trust, all other pay cash.

Speaking of nasty, I'm feeling nasty about my tatting. Well, disappointed about my ability to focus on it. I'm deep into round 7 of the Pineapple Heaven doily, and I've found a mistake way back, deep in round 6. The scissors will have to come out. *SIGH* I counted 16 rings that will have to be cut this time. Happily, I only have to cut thread from one shuttle - I can save the shuttle 2 thread. I was able to do this before as well. Durn it.

BTW - has anyone else tatted this doily? I'm looking ahead and I'm seeing an issue in rounds 8 and 9 - either round 8 doesn't match the picture and round 9 is wrong, or round 8 it wrong. Or maybe it's MEEEE...

Any and all happy or helpful comments would be appreciated.

I do not like it, Sam I am

2011-05-13T23:08:00.000-04:00

I won't go on and on about the loss of Blogger today. Let's just say I was annoyed.

I will, however, go on about what happened with my doily. I'm working on the Pineapple Heaven by Doretha Albee, tatting it in some pink size 20 Lizbeth. Yesterday I was tatting in the pediatrician's waiting room, waiting with Moe. This was his 3rd MD visit in 20 days. (Strep, sinus infection, now a viral throat ulcer thing - poor guy!) I was working busily on round 5.

I stopped and tried to figure out why the durn thing was cupping. Then I gasped - I saw the problem. See what I mean?

Now do you see it? I couldn't go forward, so I stuffed the the doily in my pocket and we saw the doctor. Later I counted how many rings I'd have to pick out and felt sick. Lucky thirteen rings and eleven chains. OMG. That's a lot of retro tatting.

So, today at lunch, I did the honorable thing.

I took my scissors and cut it out. It just kills me to take scissors to my tatting, but what choice did I have? Not in a moat, not on a boat, I do not like green eggs and ham. ARGH!

But I am soldiering on, and now there are no signs of my error.

BTW, Moe is recovering. He felt well enough to take his first belt test in karate tonight, and is now a happy yellow belt. Claims to be almost ready for the orange belt test next month. Go Moe!

And I'll toot my horn - go here and see pictures of what I'm teaching at Palmetto Tat Days in September. Oh, and there are a few other great patterns being taught too. You need to come!

Funny things for Mother's Day

2011-05-09T12:37:00.000-04:00

I'm not a big fan of Mother's Day. My family generally regarded it (and Father's Day) with great suspicion and ignored it. After all, it's a holiday strictly made for commercial purposes - to sell cards and flowers. So when my family doesn't make a big deal out of it, I'm fine with that.

However, Moe get me some cut flowers from the grocery and this funny card. The inside read "At least that's how we remember it! - from Moe, your beloved son". He's pretty funny, that Moe.

Curly (who has been staying up the street in a neighbor's basement) showed up with chocolates and homemade cupcakes. The lady he's staying with told him he had to do something for me. He immediately asked for a cupcake and scarfed it down. Curly is on lithium, new for him. And it seems to be doing some good! He's not as moody and doesn't react to things so much out of proportion. I hope this continues. He's working this week at a job he hopes continues - he likes the work and the company likes him, and it would give him some freedom and better wages.

Funny runs in my family. The below images are some my sister J did for our mother. The top group (and you should click on the pics to see them well) is of all Mom's grandchildren surrounding a picture of her (pouting)as a child. The second one shows Mom and her children, many years ago. Sometimes I bitch about my mom, but mostly she's great.

There will be another grandchild next Mother's Day - my brother and his wife are expecting a baby in late October. This will be grandchild number ten from four children. No word on the gender yet.

For Mother's Day, as she does every day, Sophie did the Happy Dance on me while I was in bed. Sometimes I wonder if it truly is the Happy Dance. She actively uses her claws in her joy, and it's Not Happy for me. I'm beginning to think she is just tenderizing me for later consumption - you know, like you might pierce a tough piece of meat. Hmm.

Vader did nothing for me on Mother's Day, except be cute in his badness.

Things I block (and things I don't)

2011-04-30T22:58:00.000-04:00

I hate all the finishing details of a project. I really do. And frankly, I'm lazy.

I hate sewing in ends. So I hardly ever do it. Most times, I either pre-plan and do the Magic Thread Trick using floss threaders, or I go from one round to another without cutting. Thank heavens for split rings and split chains.

I hate blocking. And really, I hardly ever do it. I never, ever block little things like bookmarks. I either smooth them out, or I cheat by soaking them in spray starch sprayed on a plate, then running them through the microwave. No, I'm not kidding. I stick them in the microwave.Works great.

But sometimes, I gotta block.

I finished my Daffodil doily last night while watching a re-run of the Royal Wedding. It looks nice (BTW - the pattern is wrong - the last chain of round 3 should have only 4 picots.) The fourth round of the doily started ruffling pretty badly, as you can see. But that changed, by golly.

I blocked the durn thing. As this is a round doily, I went to LadyShuttleMaker's blog and found her round blocking template. Very useful. And ya gotta have a whole lotta pins! I had some bad things to say to those little rings of round 3 - all of them are forced into submission. The same for the ruffling motifs in round 4. Behave!

And it did. what do you think?

a rough day, but progress

2011-04-28T22:09:00.000-04:00

I had kind of a rough day. I spent most of it in traffic court with Curly, trying to mitigate damage. During week long snow/ice storm in January, Curly ventured out in the van and had a little unexpected meeting with a stranger on the road. Curly was also driving a car with an expired tag and he hadn't paid his insurance, and he tried to flee the meeting. Hence, four ugly tickets.

His smart mom had maintained insurance on the car as the car was not properly registered, so one ticket went away. And the others got plead down to lesser charges. But the end results are a substantial fine and probation until the fine is paid. It could have been worse. Had the initial charges stuck, Curly would have lost his license. He was sweating bullets all day.

We were sweating bullets last night looking at the bad weather. Hotlanta was spared by the worst of the horrible tornadoes, which hit other areas of Georgia. And our neighbors to the west in Alabama are in terrible shape. About 200 people killed there when the tornadoes hit. If you've never been near a tornado, consider yourself lucky. They are terrifying.

And I'm still working on the Daffodil Doily.

I'm hoping to finish this afternoon when I take Curly to his appointment with his psychiatrist. (Yeah! Meds!) The doily is doing weird things in this last round. I think some serious blocking is in order.

Ph - and I'm taking the latest Design Tat class! It should be fun!

Easter and onward.

2011-04-25T15:01:00.000-04:00

I hope you all had a happy Easter. Mine was good. Moe was confirmed at church and my mother visited oh so briefly. She came for the 11 am service, and was gone by 2:30 pm. Which was ok with me, as I got to take a nap afterwards.

I've been tatting, this from today's lunch. I was eating the remnents of my Easter meal - some ham and sweet potatoes, along with fresh corn. Yum. I'm starting round 4 of the Daffodil doily. It wants blocking badly. But it will be a pretty little thing when it's done!

Mom brought me a funny thing - sugar free Peeps! Who knew such a thing existed? I'm not tempted to open them, as I think peeps are nasty tasting. The Stooges all received some yellow Peeps in their Easter loot, for them to either eat or torture. Some of both will happen, I'm sure. I know Moe has already stuffed one into his mouth. Yuck! Larry is going the torture route, I'm sure.

How was your weekend?

A bit of news

2011-04-21T20:28:00.000-04:00

Let me start out by saying that the Palmetto Tatters Guild has posted the teachers for Tat Days 2011. And this year, I'm one of them.

Yup, they liked several of the patterns I submitted. I'm tickled pink. So tickled that I've been clicking on the PTG site several times a day to see if they had posted the teachers' names yet. Because I Want To Be Famous. (Or sumpin' like that.) Post, dammit! Post! I'm Somebody Now!

(The very nice ladies at the PTG are actually VERY prompt. Ridiculously prompt, in fact. The reason for impatience are mine alone.)

Tat Days 2011 - Tatting in a Winter WonderLand

I'm sad that my buddy Jane Eborall is not teaching this year - her schedule did not permit it. And Stratford Upon Avon is not exactly a hop, skip and a jump from Toccoa, GA, where the conference will be. As for me, I will merely hop in my car and motor on up in a jiffy. We will miss Jane. Come back, Jane!

But if you want to see MEMEMEME! in September, come to Tat Days 2011 and take one of my classes. (I'm teaching four.) Or don't take my class, and just come anyway! I promise, you'll have a lot of fun!

In other news, Curly is home sick and miserable and blames me for his misery, since he is living in a tent the back of our yard. I had to remind him that it was not MY behavior that landed him there, it was his own bad choices. And then I handed him some medicine and locked the door behind him.

Moe is being confirmed at church on Sunday, Easter, and my mother is breezing through for the event. Of course, she is staying with my sister across town. I think the earth would crack and swallow up Hotlanta before she would spend the night with us. C'est la vie. It's nice she could come, at least for an hour or two. And now I have to shop for Easter clothes for me and Moe!

I'm on round 3 of the Daffodil doily, and I would be a lot further along, but in round two, I made a big mistake. And did I cut it out? Noooooo - I carefully picked out 5 rings and 5 chains. My fingernails are worse off for it, let me tell you. But I did NOT cut my thread.

And now I'm made another mistake at the start of round 3 and will have to pick out the first chain and ring, and part of the last chain of round 2. (I climbed out rather than cutting the thread - wouldn't you?) Arrgh. But boy, I love this Spring Garden thread - so pretty!

Regional weirdness

2011-04-18T14:57:00.000-04:00

I live (as I always have) in the South. That's southern USA, for you non-Yanks. The South is really quite different from the rest of the States. For one thing, we talk funny.

Now I'm not just referring to our distinctive drawl. (And on that - there are many regional variations. Georgia alone has at least 9 documented different southern drawls.) No, I'm talking about the way we pronounce the names of places.

For example, a town in south Georgia has the same name as the capitol of New York state, Albany. Albany, NY is pronounced ALL ban ee. The Georgia one is pronounced all BIN ee. Please note the middle vowel change, along with the change in emphasis. I'm not kidding.

Near me is the town of Buchannon GA. Not pronounced BEYW can uhn, but instead BUCK an uhn.

Sometimes the variation is different by an adjacent state. The coastal town of Beaufort, SC is pronounced BYEW fort. The coastal town of Beaufort, NC is pronounced BO furt, and don't you forget it!

Remember the story of the Breman town musicians? Nearby Breman, GA is not pronounced BRIM uhn, but BREE man. No musicians that I know of.

It's easy to tell the non-native Hotlanta folks. They mispronounce our major thoroughfare Ponce de Leon Ave, which is correctly pronounced pahns duh LEE on. Well, duh.

Sugah, whachew tawkin' 'bout? Shoo.

My accent is normally a cultured central Hotlanta accent, which to many Southerners sounds like virtually NO accent. I used to do international software support, and I can speak very clearly. But I occasionally say ya'll and use soft Rs, dahlin'. And when I visit family, I slip right back into the regional accent I grew up with. My father had an upper Piedmont SC accent, fairly strong. And my mother, well a dear friend of mine (from upstate NY) loves to call and talk to Mom, because she thinks Mom sounds just like Olivia de Havilland in Gone With the Wind. A different variation on the upstate SC sound, soft and cultured.

What regional accents/pronunciations/names are funny where you are?

Vader has no discernible accent. Just badness. (But he's so durn cute....)

I've been tatting a bit, to mitigate the pain of doing the bloody taxes. (I mailed off a large check today. Ugh.) I've become enamored of Lizbeth's Spring Garden. This will be a small doily, the Daffodil Doily from Learn How to Tat by Janette Baker. Aren't the colors lovely?

What I've been up to.

2011-04-12T21:12:00.000-04:00

I've been finishing up some tatting patterns. Sorry - can't show you much.

OK - you can see this. I know, it's a huge clue.

Now that I've finished this group of patterns, it's on to other pressing matters. Like doing the taxes. Mercy, it's depressing. I've got no real excuse for not having done them sooner.

Wait - does this count? I am sadly addicted.

We have just gotten Moe signed up for karate. He's taking classes 4-5 afternoons a week and he really likes it. He can walk to the dojo after school. We love this dojo - Curly used to take classes here, and was on their travel team when he was in elementary school. Moe has been harrassed by other kids in school lately, so the karate helps his self esteem. Plus it's good exercise. He's come home worn plumb out!

Larry is still working at the grocery, but now he's in school too, in paramedic training. Larry is certified as an EMT-I but is having trouble finding work since he has no experience. Paramedics are more in demand. On the days he has to work and has class, he's worn out. We don't see much of Larry. Mostly if he's here, he's asleep.

Curly has had some very, very serious issues lately. Very, very bad. There has been a period where he was, well, let's just say he was elsewhere. Curly has been off his bi-polar meds for 8 months, and it shows. He has betrayed our trust and it will be a long time before he can participate in family life again. He's back to living in the tent in the back yard. I'm hoping he can find some work to keep him busy. Please keep him in your prayers...

In spite of all of the Curly drama, spring continues full force here. It was in the upper 80's this weekend and really gorgeous. I lurve spring!

"What?"

Vader doesn't care what season it is.

Off topic: Passover

2011-04-10T20:38:00.000-04:00

What if Moses was hip...

Dogwoods

2011-04-07T13:15:00.000-04:00

Eye candy for Isdihara - pink and white dogwoods.

Spring has sprung

2011-04-06T19:20:00.000-04:00

Spring is in full bloom here in Hotlanta. (So is the pollen - achoo!)

Dogwoods are everywhere.

They're in everybody's yard. Pretty four-petaled flowers.

One of the fun things about this area is that dogwoods grow wild. You see them all through the woods.
(Apologizes for the gloomy nature of some of these shots - it's been pretty overcast and/or rainy lately.)

And not only do we have lots of white dogwood, there's pretty pink as well.

See? Pretty in pink.

Lots of yards have dogwood - plus azaleas are in bloom. This is a neighbor's yard.

And another. For those who watch golf, the Master's tournament course is loaded with enormous azaleas.

And one of my favorite spring flowers - the delicate lavender wisteria. It grows everywhere here. This is on the side of the road.

As are these. It's a weed here, really!

Some people train their wisteria on a trellis. I think this is lovely.

And some have is as a plant, not trained on anything. You really have to keep it cut back, though!

What's this? A hedge of old roses, starting to bloom near my company's headquarters.

This gives you an idea why my pictures weren't so bright - kinda gloomy on the Georgia dome!

I love seeing his back toes...

Vader doesn't care. He just stretches out and relaxes. He's not interested in flowers. A bug, however....

See me? I'm soooo soft...

And Cisco? You can see how much the weather bothers him. I want to be that relaxed!

Some tatting for you next time..

Spring Tatting Fling report

2011-03-31T13:20:00.000-04:00

I've been negligent in posting on last weekend, and I apologize. I've had a couple of other things to keep me busy, one of which resulted in me listening to Bob Dylan while driving, and bellowing "How does it feel?!? To be on your own!!!"

But I digress.

We had a grand time on our Spring Tatting Fling 2011. There were five of us at the event - Sharren, Marie, Karieann, Catherine, and me, all part of Palmetto Tatters. We got adjoining rooms in a cheap hotel and stayed up late and chatted and tatted and ate chocolate. It was fun.

Presents were handed out. Everyone brought things to give out to everyone else - tatters are so generous! These darling little tatted items were done by Sharren (the tiny dragon) and Marie (everything else). Lovely tins of chocolate were handed to all. Nifty boxes for holding things were given, plus there was home made and bought food. I brought yummy spicy almonds and a loaf of homemade banana bread (I can send recipes). Karrieann made some delicious oatmeal raisin bars. There were many chocolate treats and other candies, plus salty crunchy things.

I think I gained five pounds.

Did I mention we went out to eat? Here's Marie with a lovely breakfast fruit item that was almost too pretty to eat. We hit the Cracker Barrel, the Awful House, a Chinese buffet, and Denny's. Nom, nom, nom.

Really, five pounds.

We tatted and chatted. Here are Sharren and Karrieann.

We shared jokes and funny stories and pictures of family. (Here are Catherine, Karrieann, and Marie.) And we all roared at the Bill Cosby video of the woman from North, SC. We all know people who talk like that. Heck, WE talk like that sometimes!

Then we got to blinging shuttles. Several of us brought paper and other supplies, so we started going to town with scissors and Modge Podge. I brought skewers and we stuck them in things so we could dry and work on MORE shuttles. (Recognize that white box, Isdihara?) We had lots of possibilities for cool combinations.

Here's the partial results of blinging. I think I did six shuttles, including the one with my tiny Stumpy on it. We blinged so much that we missed lunch.

It wsn't like we were starving or anything. We ate. A little. Hee.

Enlarge me!

And then I had a wicked moment. I was sitting at the desk in my room with glue and rhinestones available and somehow, magically, the phone's buttons got rhinestones on them. Not all the buttons, just the 2, 4, 6 and 0. I didn't do it, I have no memory of this.

I think folks stayed up until after 2 pm both nights. I don't know - I pooped out before midnight.

All things must come to an end, so around 11 on Saturday, we exited our rooms. And then we went to a mega store.....

Where we met Phil. Hi, Phil! Phil is very nice. Phil agreed that we could disturb some of his store merchandise. And he even helped us with our last accomplishment, done for the benefit of a tatter who lives far away.

Names not given here to protect the guilty.

toodles

Spring Tatting Fling Preview

2011-03-26T18:40:00.000-04:00

Things were blinged.

Tatting was done.

Silliness happened.

More later....

World's smallest Stumpy

2011-03-23T10:05:00.000-04:00

I've done it. I have tatted the world's tiniest Stumpy.

Yup, it's about one inch long, done in size 80 DMC. Moreover, I altered the pattern and sized it down. It is little. (And obviously unblocked...)

Why did I do this, you ask? So that I can use this to bling a Clover shuttle. Maybe stick some jewels in the middle of some rings... That should work, don't you think?

Spring is in full swing here. Azaleas and dogwoods are starting to bloom. Leaves are coming out on trees. Cars are turning yellow. And Moe and the rest of the Stooges (plus DH) and suffering with pollen.

Oh my eyes, oh my nose!

Here is today's official Hotlanta pollen count. Makes your eyes water just looking at the picture, doesn't it? Guess what! It can go much higher!

Tomorrow I met folks for my Spring Tatting Fling in North GA - should be a blast! Will have lots of fun to report afterwards - toodles!

Crosses finished!

2011-03-19T16:27:00.000-04:00

I finished my group of crosses for the ladies who are in my Sunday School class. The Joy class is, by tradition, all women. I'm one of the teachers and the youngest class member. I love this class.

I'm pleased with these and I think the ladies will be too. It's nice to have a Bible bookmark. FYI - this is Mary Konior's Mark-My-Word pattern, and all are tatted in Lizbeth size 20. They're unblocked, just slapped up on the scanner.

The weather here is has turned gorgeous, and things are blooming. These purple flowers are in a hedge in front of my office.

And here's some pretties near my house. I love spring, don't you?

I"m prepping for a tatting outing in North Georgia. I did this last October, and we had a blast. It's much the same group as last time - it'll be Sharren and Karrieann and Catherine and maybe Marie Smith. We'll be staying near a big outlet mall, so I think shopping may be in order. Or at least serious browsing. I've just picked up some nifty paper and other shuttle blinging supplies, so we may get creative. Or we may just have a lot of giggling, like last time. I'm really looking forward to going, two nights this trip!

BTW - I got home after Curly was out most of the day, and he had come in and cleaned. The kitchen and family room were clean, and he was working on his own room. So, some progress there. And I made a visit to the dentist and got my filling replaced. As I hate novacaine, I got it done "raw jaw" and was out of there in 30 minutes without drooling. (The pain was minimal. I'm no martyr.) No more dentistry for a while, I hope!

Sympathy goes out to our tatting friend Fox, after the death of her beloved Burmilla cat, Misha. Misha was often featured in her blog posts. I feel for her - you all know how I love my kitties. Pets are wonderful, such unconditional love.

Enjoy the spring!

Luck needed

2011-03-16T12:46:00.000-04:00

Curly has been making me crazy lately.

Let me backtrack. When I was little, my father used to recite a nursery rhyme to me.

There was a little girl who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead;
When she was good, she was very, very good,
And when she was bad, she was horrid.

I was told it applied to me. Perhaps it did. I wasn't a perfect child.

But now, change the gender, and it's Curly. He can be really HORRID. For example, I explain house rules to him, and he basically spits in my face and breaks them. Then he apologizes and seems to be minding, and is sweet to all. The next day, he flagrantly breaks the rules again and has a meltdown when I enforce said rules with consequences.

What mean rules do I have? Two big ones are 1) no eating food outside of the kitchen/breakfast room, and 2) no sneaking friends in through the back at all hours (lets the dog out, lets hooligans in). I know, I know, it's asking a lot. But Curly finds these rules impossible to follow. Did I mention that Curly is almost 19?

So we had a big spectacle last night after I found that Curly had smuggled his druggie buddies into his basement room, plus I found tons of dirty dishes in his room. I told him he needed to leave the house when I left for work today. Much yelling and screaming ensued, especially when I told the buddies to go. There was another fiasco this morning, with Curly having a major fit when I told him time to go, slamming doors and flinging things around. Much drama. And screaming that I didn't give him any warning about leaving and what is he supposed to do all day? (He's working sporadically.) Yeah, yeah, yeah, go tell someone who's sympathetic. Not me. I've heard it. (It doesn't help that DH is out of town this week.)

For some non-Curly venting, I was flossing my teeth & being so good, when I flossed out a filling. The dentisit will see me tomorrow morning.

So - I could use some luck and some quiet times. Happily, my buddy Sharren gave me a nice opportunity when I test tatted her new Shamrock.

Isn't it cute? This is a lovely pattern and a fun tat. Go get the pattern & try it, just in time for St Pat's Day. Thanks, Sharren!

(BTW - has anyone else noticed that Lizbeth does not have any decent green thread? This was the best I had in Lizbeth. I almost resorted to DMC Perle, but just couldn't bear the floppiness of it.)

And, some pretty. The cherry trees are in bloom here. Lovely!