What I've been up to.

My Star of David paper weight was well received. My friend was absolutely delighted with it, and couldn't believe I had made it. However, DMC Metallic is a real bitch to work with, and I work with it sparingly. It's hard to make it look good. It's a good thing this friend doesn't know about tatting & didn't see the mistakes...

I have placed an order for this item for me. I used to play a classical guitar many, many moons ago, and I sold my beloved guitar back in a time of poverty. Now it's time for me to play again. This is a Yamaha C40 that I found at Musician's Friend. Fingernails, you're going to be short on my left hand very soon.

Lily has been bad.

She is about 6 months old now and in full possession of kitten power - she thunders through the house and she annoys the cats (and sometimes the people) to no end.

But this is keeping her in line. She has stopped jumping on the kitchen table now. A squirt of water can be a powerful motivator!

I've been loving the trees around here. This is a gorgeous Japanese maple that is a brilliant red.

And this is why I will not have any Bradford Pear trees. They split. At about 10 years. Then you're left with a mess to take care of.

I ordered size 3 Lizbeth today!!! Handy Hands has it in stock. I can't wait! I'm not going to tat with it, but it will be perfect for some necklaces I plan to knit and crochet. It's about the size of sock yarn, without the stretch.

I took Moe yesterday to get his driver's permit, and today I took him driving for the first time in a large empty school parking lot. He was so happy....

Vader continues to be pissed off at Lily, but he does have more Zen moments.

Tomorrow - going to throw pots. Can't wait.
 

Seasons changing and more

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

More Doin's at Chez Crazy

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.

Presents and a change of seasons

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...

Success in crochet and fall color

I gave my friend Mrs. S a pair of wrist warmers for her birthday. She's very happy with them and put them right on.  Mrs. S has perpetually cold hands due to a thyroid issue.

I added some tatted decorations to them, some of Jane's little tatted flowers on a button. They're tatted in Lizbeth 130, size 20. Cute, huh? I'll crochet some more of these.

My pumpkin bread was featured on Wee Folk Art. They made the bread in a lovely pumpkin shaped pan. I'll be making it soon - the bread's a big family favorite. The Stooges beg for it. But I don't have the cool bread pan.

We are full fledged into fall. No hard freeze yet, but the color around is lovely. This is a maple tree near my office.

And a bush in a local neighborhood. Isn't this gorgeous?

And I took this sunset sky shot in the parking lot at work. So pretty.

We're preparing for Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Lots of things to make...

And Vader doesn't care.

What we're up to

Thia afternoon I went for a pedicure, which is something I treat myself to about once a month. I lurve a pedicure. Of course, it's done by these sweet Vietnamese ladies who spend the whole time jabbering in Vietnamese, which almost lulls me to sleep. I'm jerked back to awareness by the question, "This OK, Miss Crazy? No hurt?" Un no hurt, just keep rubbing my foot. Ahhhh.

By the time I got through and the polish was dry, it was dark. I was driving home through a neighborhood, when all of the sudden, I hit the brake and shouted OH MY GOD! Why? Because I had come to a house that was fully decked out and lit up for Christmas. Big hard plastic snowmen, Santa Claus, giant lights in the tree, lights everywhere in the front and back yard. And what day is it? It's not even the middle of November yet! Jeez. And I'm already sick of the Christmas crappe in the stores. Must I put up with it year round?

Arrgh!

At least fall is in full swing. The trees are starting to put out some serious color. These are crepe myrtles at the front of my subdivision.

And here's a lovely tree I see on my commute, going towards the interstate. Love the full crown and the gold leaves.

I'm still making snowflakes - these are dull. But I've finished one set of wrist warmers (or wrist worms, BB!).

I like these. I thought about knitting them, but I'm not a great knitter and I didn't have the right kind of needles. (It really needed to be knit on several double pointed needles.) So I made up a quick crochet pattern. If anyone wants it, email me.  It's very dumb and simple - just my style. I'm going to make some more as presents.

Curly came by on Tuesday and spent the night. He's homesick. He wanted to spend two nights, but we ended up having some serious issues with him falling back into his bad old habits. Lots of yelling and screaming and accusations ensued Wednesday morning. There was a lot I won't go into here, but I ended up filling up his gas tank, giving him $10, and sending him back home. He called again Thursday and was sobbing and sick (fever and vomiting), and apologized for his behavior and begged to come home. But I can't do that. Nothing about him has changed. The best thing I can do right now is let him be responsible for himself, and not disrupt everyone else.

Mothering ain't for wussies. Yo.

Moe is spending the weekend hiking and camping with his Boy Scout troop. I'm sure he'll come back totally filthy tomorrow. Moe loves his scout troop. I love having some alone time with DH (who is watching football behind me even as we speak). It's nice and quiet here. Ah, peace and quiet. Maybe I can get DH to rub my feet too.

Here is funny Mr. Vader. (That's Sophie's tail.) He stretches out like this all the time. I love to see his little black paddy paws.

Hope your weekend is good...

Likes and Dislikes

Some things I like.:

My kitties. Here is Cisco, lounging in my living room. He loooves me.

Good eats. Here's a mess of lightly breaded & fried pork chops I whomped up Thursday. I made some scratch gravy too. Mmm. Larry had third helpings.

Beauty. This is the little sugar maple in our front yard. I love fall so much.

Some things I dislike:

Idiots. DH and I got an ugly letter from our home owner's association mentioning landscape maintenance. We were confused. So we trimmed the shubbery and cleaned things up. And today we got a certified letter from the HOA griping about the maintenance again, no specifics mentioned. According to our post man, a ton of these letters were delivered today. So I sent a response saying until they tell us specifically what their issue is, we consider ourselves in compliance. I suspect the problem is a board member that wants to be all about hitting people for violations, a guy who wanted to be a cop but couldn't make it. This has happened before, and I expect it to blow over.

Commercialism of holidays. I can't believe how much Christmas crappe is already in the stores. It sorta ruins a lovely time, especially when we don't have much to spend. I'm making a lot of presents this year.

Tangled thread and UFOs. 'Nuff said.