Is That A Challenge

One of the fun things about being in an etsy street team, in my case the steam team, is creative challenges. I haven't been able to participate in many of them, though I've enjoyed watching and voting on entries. This time, I can. The theme is a challenge of metal and cloth and lace counts as cloth. I found in the clearance section of Micheal's these large metal filigree pieces and saw something in them that I could work with.

I started yesterday by setting the piece with several different tatted necklace to find the right partner. I settled on the flower garland design and began tatting it directly onto the piece, which is not as much fun as you might imagine. The metal is heavy and pulls on the work so I have to hold it in my palm to avoid drama. Next up is figuring the best way to utilize the four rings at the bottom. I was going to do triangles to match a motif in the design, but they did not turn out well, so I'm rethinking that later.

Other events yesterday include getting another dozen boxes out of the garage to prep for more unpacking. Then smashing my already broken toe against a box when the 2 year old panicked over cats in the garage. I stopped pulling out boxes after that, but went ahead and started opening the boxes and managed to stab myself in the finger with the utility knife when I failed to pull the blade in all the way. This is when I decided to go ahead, sit down and just work on the tatting for the rest of the day. Yeah, I know, I just need to cut it out and let my foot heal, but there's just so much to be done.

Today, I add one more thing to the list of things to do, start the homeschooling of the 5 year old. If you've been following that drama, you know that I managed to wait too long to sign her up for formal Internet based classes and found they were full. This was followed by panic over my extreme parent fail. Then, I discovered that all was not lost as kindergarten is not required. This means that I can do kindergarten informally and get her signed up in time for first grade in the spring. I decided that the first of September was a great time to start and that's today so we'll see how this goes with all the tatting and house cleaning and everything else my day brings. Here we go.