News From The Front

They came at me from several fronts and each time I stopped them I was given only a brief respite before they again advanced from another location. Back and forth we battled throughout the day and though I closed my eyes to a victory I knew they would only be back in the morning. I am of course speaking of the ants in my walls. They burst forth from cracks on both floors of the house, from the pantry, the bathroom, the loft, bedrooms and back and forth to new undiscovered cracks wearing on my already fragile sanity and all of this madness started at dawn in the pantry. I am usually a very insect friendly person, we scoot spiders outside, catch other insects as pets, but I have no love for invading armies of ants. I'm certain I will finish typing here and find them already starting in on another room so the war will continue shortly.

In tatting news what little there is of it given my six legged distractions, I did indeed start the redesign on my throat corset. I had already worked on a modified version of it for the spiked color that I just now realize I never did list as I was waiting on a photographer friend...guess I have an email to send. Anyway, I didn't make too many changes to it, but when I made the matching gauntlets here, I added split rings between the weaved sections. That is what I'm going to do for the new throat corset. It has the same feel, but more open. I modified the split chain counts a bit and I think it's set to be the right finished length, but with a piece this long, I won't know for a while especially if the ants don't lay low.

As far as retiring designs, I decided, as no one else had any opinions to share, that I would simply make those decisions as they came up for renewal on etsy. The important thing is that I've accepted that some need to rest for a spell and I'm hoping the ones I pick won't be missed. It has been a frustratingly slow sales month so I hope these moves invigorate the shop a bit. My ad in Coilhouse is out though I've not gotten my copy yet, so I haven't seen it. I have gotten one sale from that enterprise, but otherwise no indication that it has helped. I signed up for 4 issues anyway, all that repetition is key business. I keep reminding myself that it is summer and generally not a hoping month for retail, but did I mention the cat with the new thyroid condition and pills for life and periodic blood tests. Deep breath, don't mind me, rambling again from stress. If the ants stay back, I'll get some creative tatting release from the stress, so join me in cursing the ants back from whence they came.