Tis the season

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from my place. Here's my funny little Christmas tree.

I've been cooking Christmas treats for friends and family. This is toffee - mmmmmm

And these are spiced roasted pecans. They are sweet, salty and spicy. People love them.

And meringe cookies with cereal and chocolate chips. Nummy

Finally - a view from my balcony. The sky being painted by the setting sun.

Blessings to all.... 

 

Last days at old job and a new bag

Elvis has left the building. I am now free of my old gig. And Monday I start my new one. Hurrah!

I have to say - I went out on a high note. I gave appropriate notice before leaving (that's two weeks here in the States) and I did excellent turnover of my responsibilities. I spent a lot of time documenting what I did and then I trained people on my old duties. And I think there was some appreciation of what I had been doing.

For example, while going over one large section of my work, my immediate supervisor's eyes started to bulge and then glaze over while he began to comprehend what I was doing. In the past, the guy (who's really very nice) had done basically nothing to supervise me. The sum total of his supervision was to ask me for a report that I gave monthly to my user community, and to ask me to write my own performance evaluation. Really. So he was a little taken aback once he was forced to pay more attention. Heh.

But in the end I turned over everything and no more questions came.

And then there was cake.

My director threw a little party for me, inviting all of the department for cake and ice cream. (The cake was roughly the size of an air craft carrier deck. The leftovers stayed at work.) Some very nice things were said, and I was especially surprised when I received a lovely card signed by the group. And there was money inside, a group gift!! Woo-hoo!! How nice!

And then there were balloons.

Balloons from Accounting

The next day - my last day - my group took me out to eat. They also invited a number of my client base, who came bearing balloons and gifts and cards. And questions like "Who's going to help us now?" When I told them, their faces fell. Oh Dear.

But everyone was super nice and hugged me and congratulated me. And I went on. Time for the new job!

I do feel very good about the way my old job ended up. Sometimes people can't wait to push you out the door. But not this time. What a lovely thing...

And after I ended up at my old job, I found a cool new toy.

For those of you who have a Aldi near you, they have this great rolling bag now for $15. It's nylon and has outside pockets and a top that zips and a long collapsible handle. It would be great as a tatting bag (especially at conferences) or a bag for travel. It's the right size for using as carry on for airline travel too. It comes in several colors - go get one now! I'm going to decorate mine with tatting.

Next week - new job! Hurrah!
 

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!

Prepping for Tat Days

I'm getting ready for Tat Days. I'll be going there a week from Thursday - can't wait!

I've made up my kits. These are for my Summer Breeze bracelet pattern.

I'm cleaning up and making stacks and piles of stuff to take with me. And lists, making lots of lists. Will DH and the Stooges survive a few days without me?

I've been cooking too. This was my Cornbread Tamale Pie after the Stooges plus a girlfriend took a first pass. Five minutes later, the pan was completely empty.

Honestly, the cats are not helpful when I need assistance in cleaning. This is how Vader spends most of his time. Really, he's about worthless.

Cisco has become a serious attention hog, wanting constant petting from me. And he has some strange ways. Here he knows he's been caught with his entire head in Moe's size 13 (!!) sneakers, snuffling up the stench. Why does he like that awful smell? He's no help either.

(Don't you love Rhymes With Orange?)

DH has been getting tons and tons of places cut off of him at the dermatologist, basal cell carcinoma. Today's fun was on his ear, taking much of the inside and some of the back skin off. He had to get a skin graft from the back of his ear to replace all the cancerous skin - and that hurts a lot. Needless to say, he's been no help to me.

Heeeerrrrreee's Walt!

Larry caught a wild hair and shaved his head and part of his beard. Now he looks like a young version of Walt, from Breaking Bad. (Or the Unabomber.)

BTW - here is Larry's latest creation - a jazz bar for the toys. I think one of the toys needs to be passed out on a table. See the couple dancing on the left? Sweet.

As you may be able to tell, Larry is not helping me get ready for Tat Days. None of the Stooges are. Why did I have them? I forget.

But - I'm putting those lads to work cleaning, as we have company coming this Monday. I'll tell you about my company after Tat Days - you'll be too jealous if I tell you now.

I better get back to packing. BTW - don't forget to enter my 400th post giveaway!

Hope I see you at Tat Days!

Dullsville

I'm afraid I've not been a good blogger of late. Not much posting going on.

In truth, things have been a bit dull over here - which is a welcome change. I crave dull. There has been too much goings on in the past few months. A relief from all the drama is a great thing, I promise!

Shall I show you how dull things are?

Vader has been declared a worthless beast, as he does little but lie around and show his fat belly all day.

I've been cooking. DH doesn't normally eat anything with cheese on it, but he asked me to make a cheesy item for him yesterday....

It was a huge macaroni and cheese with peas and ham. I meant to take a picture of the whole cooked casserole, but we dug into it as soon as it came out of the oven. It had more than a pound of cheeses in it and was delicious. And it's all gone. Nom nom nom.

Moe has been accompanying my in my grocery trips, and he and I found this item the other day at Aldi. Moe giggled a lot, and declared that the cuke plus the plastic on the outside reminded him of, um, something else. Not a vegetable. Heh.

Spring is coming early. We actually have a pollen count - ugh. But spring has big benefits, like these trees.

I went to book club today. We were there for 3 hours and discussed the book for maybe 20 minutes. (We like each other a lot.) These daffodils were outside our hostess's home - aren't they lovely?

I've been watching Downton Abbey, and wept at the end of last week's episode. Today's wasn't as dramatic, but it's always fun to see the Dowager Countess in fine, manipulative form.

And I'm going to work. Friday I meet with the Vice President of my group, and he told me several times what a good job I'm doing. Which is mighty nice to hear, even if he has no money to give out for raises. Oh, the joy of working for a semi-governmental agency...

Almost home!

After work, I come home. This was a recent sunset - isn't it pretty?

I'm grateful for the drama-free times! I hope your life is easy these days.

Post Turkey Day let down

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....)

Tat Days 2011 Part Two

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!