Necklace finished

I finished my necklace made of size 3 Lizbeth.

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

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

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

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

Thanksgiving 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

I need to sleep soon. G'night!

A senior moment and some Dick

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.

Baskets and transportation for Curly

I'm still crocheting baskets. They're so much fun - I love them! I've moved on to making heart baskets, sort of in keeping with Valentine's Day.

These are two baskets made with different thread and different patterns, but the results are similar. (That's a US penny in between.) The purpley one is made with Lily's Sugar N' Cream (a cotton worsted weight), the color is Jewels. The redish one is Red Heart Chunky in Berry Breeze. Coincidentally, Berry Breeze is very similar to some HDT I just got from LadyShuttleMaker, Kopper Patina, with just a little less tans.

Berry Breeze

Kopper Patina

See what I mean? Both are pretty.

As I said, the patterns are a bit different. Here they are upside down. The Jewels heart is made by crocheting a square, then crocheting half circles on two sides of the square. The Berry Burst one is made by crocheting out from the center, starting from a chain & turning it to a V. Both are my own design. These are fun!

Thanks for all who expressed sympathy for my dental woes. I'm heading to an oral surgeon on Tuesday for a consult on the extraction. And I'll be making lots of calls to various folks (I've got a list of names) to see about the best prices for the implant. It's gotta be done.

This isn't Curly's car - but it's much like it.

Curly has been using his time to scrounge up some money so that he can have some transportation. He was able to get enough money together to buy a beater car, a 1993 Mazda 626 sedan. It runs and it's not a rust bucket - Curly is very happy. Now - on to find a job!

I'm trying to work on patterns for teaching at Tat Days. Hope I can get them together in time. If you need a little heart to tat for Valentine's Day, I have a cute one here.

Kiss your Valentine!

The comfy chair & progress on TIAS

It's not just Vader who enjoys my comfy tatting chair.

Cisco is trying to claim the spot too. He looks pretty good there too. He's looking at me with kitty love and curling his paw in happiness. Purrrrrr

I made another little basket, an oval one this time. I'm using it to keep remotes in our family room. (We've got a buncha remotes - who doesn't?) These baskets are so much fun!

The minivan that we gave Curly has finally bought the farm. (An aside: I loved watching "A Boy And His Dog" years ago and hearing Jason Robards flatly sentence people to "The Farm.") The van's transmission is kaput and it's not worth fixing. Damn. So we are looking at what we might do next, and how to dispose of the carcass in the most economical fashion. Curly still is unemployed and has been job hunting on the moped, something he despises. Plus. it's kinda cold to be riding it - winter, remember? We may be able to purchase a used vehicle from a relative. We don't have much cash to spend, so Curly may be stuck with the moped for a while. He has been behaving better though. And Saturday he asked me to make him an appointment with his psychiatrist so that he can go back on his medication. Miracle of miracles! Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

I don't expect we're done with the Curly drama, but he does seem to be making some forward progress. I'm eternally grateful for anything positive.

On another note, my blogger friend Melissa has written a lovely blog post on prayer. She talks about it in conjunction with changes in the regimen for her young son, Mr T, who has a form of epilepsy. Check it out here; she speaks the truth.

And I'm still working on the TIAS. Here's result for days 6 & 7, tatted today at lunch. Is it a lizard with funky toes? A type of gecko? I don't think it's an aeroplane any more.

Toodles...

TIAS and other things

What have I been doing? I have been tatting a bit.

Here's the results through Day 5 of TIAS. I obviously picked beads way to small for aeroplane windows. Because this is obviously the back end of an airplane.

I've been crocheting baskets. This one is for an old college buddy of mine. I like these and may make a bunch more.

Saturday, I took Moe to his interview for the IB program. He seems to think it went well, and he enjoyed meeting all the friendly current students. We won't hear from the program until March. Keep your fingers crossed!

I've been very busy at work. Fortunately, the weather has been a bit better here in Hotlanta than in other places, so my drive in is not horrendous.

This lovely sky greated me this morning before I got on the interstate. What have you been up to?

A basket for my thread

I got a wild hair and and crocheted a basket to put some of favorite tatting thread in. I'll keep it on my desk in my new office.

I think it's cute as all get out. It was quick to make up - I started it last night while I was watching Doc Martin. I found the pattern at the store, a freebie. You can find the pattern here. Whaddaya think?

Christmas in Hotlanta

Santa provided us with a big surprise here in Hotlanta - snow!

It started snowing on Christmas Day at about 10:30 am, and snowed on and off all day.

By evening there was 2 inches of snow on DH's car. It was the first measurable Christmas snow in Hotlanta since 1882, when they got 1/3 of an inch. For those with math issues, that was 128 years ago. No one living has ever seen a White Christmas before in Hotlanta.

It was lovely.

The cats stuck their noses out the door and came straight back in. This was a typical cat pose, courtesy of Cisco.

Vader got really excited about a catnip toy. He loved all the Christmas mess.

I have now crocheted 7 sets of these fingerless mitts for folks, and may do more. I made 2 sets for Mom and she loves them. Who would have thought she would like these? This pair is for my sister in Charleston.

I hope your holiday was good....

Remembrance and current affairs

Today my Daddy would have been 76. I talked about him at length in an earlier post - he died in 2007, and I miss him. He was a great guy.

He and Mom married in 1955. They were just babies, really. He had just turned 21, she was almost 19.

He became a Presbyterian minister - and an atypical one. Here he is in retirement, with his big BMW bike. He loved that bike. (Mom hated it and refused to ride.)  He never met a stranger. He loved life and lived it hard.

Here's Daddy at a celebration we had for his 70th birthday. Daddy loved wine and bourbon (I used to give him a quart of Maker's Mark at Christmas), and the telling of a good story.  Most of my memories of family gatherings are of getting together and eating and telling funny stories and laughing and laughing and laughing.

So I miss my Daddy, especially today.

But life goes on.

This is a picture I took when I visited Mom over Thanksgiving. It's the view from her front deck. You can see more than 50 miles, and it's almost better at night, with the lights twinkling in the distance. Daddy died in this house. It's so peaceful here - I love it.

I'm working on crocheting more fingerless mitts (Mom wears the pair I made her to sleep in!) and have started tatting a black and white necklace for me, using beads I found at Hobby Lobby. I know I should be working on Christmas presents, but the beads called to me. You know how that is....

I'm still grappling with Curly issues, but I think those are settling out. At least I hope so. I'll let you know when there is a bit more progress. Curly's not having an easy time of things right now, but he is ok.

My book club met at my home Sunday, and they enjoyed meeting Mr. Vader. Vader preened and jumped around for my company, who are all cat people. He enjoyed the attention mightily.



And he is 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.