A letter in the post

Do you remember when I blogged about the collar I made?

You know - this one.

When I sent the collar off, I included a letter explaining how the collar was made, my personal history in tatting, and that I did this in tribute to a late member of the Supreme Court who was famous for wearing beautiful collars with her robes. Oh, and I gave information on the Care and Feeding of the collar.

I mailed it off to the recipient last fall and hadn't heard a word. I figured it had gotten lost in the pile of presents that officials get.

I had kind of hoped to get some kind of official acknowledgement, perhaps a form letter from a staff member. I would have been satisfied with this.

I hadn't thought about this in a while. I had given up on hearing something.

UNTIL YESTERDAY!

Yesterday when I checked the mail I found this letter!

Please note the return address

(I checked my mail on the way to run errands. I HAD to open it immediately!)

And inside I found this lovely, handwritten note - from the Justice herself! And on her personalized official notecards, much more informal than official stationary!

And there was more - she had to continue on the other side!

OMG! OMG! OMG!

I am ecstatic! To receive such a personal thank you from such a high official is really unheard of these days. Usually the best one might get is a member of staff sending out a nice letter on official stationary.

For those who live elsewhere, this is as if you might have sent something tatted to your Home Secretary and got a hand written thank you note in return.

I look forward to seeing her wear this collar on the bench. When I do, I'll post about it!

Tatters are the nicest people

First off, I really, really appreciate the sympathy and warm wishes after our recent fire. Folks have been so kind to us. Lots of people have reached out and sent emails, cards, and more. I feel really fortunate. It's good to be loved.

And if I haven't responded to your email, don't be offended. I'm, um, kinda busy.

By the way, things are going pretty well. We are moving into a furnished rental home on Friday, all paid for by the insurance. It's close to our old place (AKA the ash heap), it's the right size, and quite by accident, it's on Moe's school bus route! I can't wait to have a kitchen again - eating out all the time really gets old. 

Back to tatters.

I found a lovely card that appeared in my mail.  

It was a card from my friend Joanie, with this pretty tatted angel inside. Wasn't that nice? It made my day. The angel is beautiful. Thank you, Joanie.

Later in the week, a box appeared. (BTW, my neighbor is getting the mail. My house burned, but the mailbox still works great.) What could be inside?

Wow! A treasure trove of things, all the basics any good tatter could desire. All courtesy the wonderful Georgia Seitz. Three balls of Lizbeth, a crochet hook, two shuttles and picot gauges (made by Richard Seitz), plus a ton of tatting patterns. I'm overwhelmed. So thoughtful. Thank you very kindly, Georgia.

Now - on to deal with all the stuff that happens with moving. Utilities, deposits, furniture, etc.

I think I will fix meatloaf the first night. The Stooges like meatloaf.

Back to normal soon....

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!
 

Some friends I have

I am a lucky gal. I have great friends.

I came home one day this week to find a fat little envelope waiting for me, one with a Canadian stamp on it. Hmm, what could that be?

And of course, it was from dear Fox. She knows of the hoo-ha in my household, and she sent me a little something to cheer me up.

And cheer me it did. It made Cisco feel blissful.

Fox sent me a sweet card, some lovely variegated thread (love the colors!), and some of her own gorgeous tatting. You can see the tatting on her blog here and here. Thank you, thank you Fox!

I had to look a ways back on her blog to find the tatted snowflake, and it made me realize how very prolific our Mme. Fox is. All I can say is WOW.

Lily is intent on me....
 

Mom's necklace is finished.

I have finished the necklace for my mother.

It's inspired by Sally, from a star pattern by Jane, in Lizbeth 20. I hope Mom likes it - 'cause if she doesn't, I'm taking it back. I think it's pretty, if I do say so myself.

My friend Mrs V gave me some nifty gifts. The little boxes are for holding beads - they originally held dental crowns! (Mrs. V does dental work.) And the darling little kitty is a needle minder with a VERY powerful magnet. Me likey!

Larry got a bit of further bad news on Friday. While his injuries are healing nicely (thank heavens!), he has missed so many of his paramedic classes that he has to start over. Again. The next class starts in September. Larry is pretty morose and has been having a bit of a pity party. ("Why does everything happen to me!?!") I'm ok with a pity party, as long as it only lasts for 30 minutes. Then buck up, son.

Enough of the pity party. Here's a bit of what's growing in my yard.

Gladiolas!

And lilies! It's been a lovely summer so far...

Prepping for Tat Days

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...

Joy in Tuesday Mail

I got home after a tough day at work and found some love in the mail.

First, a 12 yard sample of Sulky Blendables thread from Lace-Lovin' Librarian. Diane is such a sweetie! I look forward to using this - and the color is gorgeous!

And then I found a parcel with English markings on it. Who could it be from? Why, the delightful Jane Eberall, that's who! I'm crazy about Jane; she's a a lot of fun. And she's a brilliant tatter.

Here's what I got.

• One of her famous roly-poly tatting bags, made by her own hands. Labeled, even. Kitties - squee!
• A poke-proof pouch and matching bobbin holder.
• A Shakespeare key ring, complete with his signature.
• A great Shakespeare souvenir cloth showing major sites in Shakespeare country.
• And... one of Jane's new patterns, a Flurry Heartache, tatted in some of Karey Solomon's HDT and presented in a pretty brass frame.

Oh so pretty.

I love the Shakespeare Country cloth.  Very cool.  When Moe saw it, he said, "I thought Shakespeare was from Austria." I replied, exasperated, "You're thinking of Mozart!"

Thank you, Diane and Jane! You made my day!

Holiday weekend

Things we are doing for Independence Day, the Fourth of July:

My wrist is a bit better. So I've finished off my 6 crocheted place mats, hiding all the ends. I'm sending these to my sister in Charleston.

Mow and I watched the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating contest. The winner ate 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Then he downed a bunch of Pepto Bismal.  Really, he wasn't about to hurl here.

We are amusing the bad kitten with a laser pointer. He is frantic with joy. This has not stopped him from jumping at my extremities - I got scratched on the back on my left hand before I got out of bed this morning.

I hope to get back on my tatting, with the improvement of my wrist.  I'm off work this coming week, and I plan to get some serious work done on my TAT course.  Plus the Winsome Drop Earrings!

I arrived at work Thursday and found a charming present on my desk.  I work with a very international group, and one of my buddies just got back from visiting his motherland of Russia.  He brought us all these great wooden boxes.  What a sweetheart...  I came over to his desk and sternly told him I needed to talk to him, which scared my Russian buddy.  (He's not much older than Larry.)  Then I thanked him and offered to kiss him, European style.  He was very embarrassed.

Aren't they great? All red inside.  What to put in it?

We are going to grill out today. I have some country style pork ribs and hamburgers and hot dogs and corn on the cob. Mmmm.  Nummers.

Larry's friend K is coming over to hang out and play with the kitten. Larry is worried about her, and brings her here to perk her up and feed her. Chez Crazy is comfy for K.

And this evening, we will go over to sit in the front lawn of my church and watch the local fireworks. It's fun! Then we'll come home and shoot a few bottle rockets in the driveway.  The Stooges love anything that explodes.

Happy 4th!

Another necklace

I'm making some Christmas presents.  I liked the necklace I made for myself so much that I decided to make some for my family.  Here's the latest:

It's done in navy Lizbeth thread, size 20, with two types of silver glass beads and a lobster clasp.  It's about 18 inches long.

I did a lot of work on this on the train, and some folks asked me if I sold them someplace, which I took as a complement.  (No, too much work.)  Larry liked the necklace enough to ask if I would make one for his girlfriend. (Maybe.)

I'm diggin' this one too.  I hope the recipient will like it.