Uneventful

Another long day, but a fairly uneventful one. Schooling stretched longer than usual as we had an online meeting with one of the teachers, but after that I got some work done.

I had a few pairs of earrings to make and get relisted and one choker to finish and it all got done. See, busy, if not interesting. I'm actually starting today task free. Well, immediate tasks anyway. There are still pieces in the shop that it would be wise to have more pieces made of and I think I'm actually in the mood to get some of them done. Of course we'll see how I feel about that as the day wears on. I might be feeling creative, though that's a long shot. I'm finding it hard to even think of anything to ramble on about right now, so I'll leave you early with another cat picture and again ask the Universe to send me an unexpectedly interesting weekend so I can pretend my life is worth reading about again.

A Little Busy

It was so nice to have a day with tatting tasks laid out in front of me. In fact after I wrote yesterday I even got an order for a custom pair of earrings, so I had something that actually needed to be done straight away and it was wonderful. So after schooling and a not unexpected request from my mother to run errands for her, I got some earrings made up. I should have taken pictures because they really turned out nice. They were the onion ring ones in goldenrod thread with gold beads. Not my personal color choices, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate how pretty they were. Maybe I'll make up another pair for the shop.

I spent the rest of the afternoon making up the pieces that had recently sold. That is until I got a text from the husband informing me that he was bringing by a work friend from out of town after work...15 minutes before he was leaving. So then I got to rush around like a chicken with my head chopped off cleaning up the place. No, it's not some kind of sty otherwise, but I just generally don't bother with the kids clutter, the piles of stuff on the counters or the cat's ridiculous shedding fur in our bedroom unless someone is coming by. Even then I generally have more than 20 minutes to get that all picked up and tidied. Once his friend had gone he was soundly pelted with toy balls by my minions...or children if you prefer. I'm not certain he learned his lesson though. The point is, that was the end of my productivity for the day so I still have some pieces left to make today.

I'll leave you today with a cat picture which perfectly represents the amount of help I got from the household while cleaning. Yep, that's helpful, super helpful. You see see how I get so much done now? No? Neither do I, it's a miracle that anything ever gets done, a miracle.

Bead In The Belly

Another day of headaches, but this time more metaphorical than literal. It was my duty to shuttle my mother to and from the hospital for an outpatient procedure. The to-ing in the morning interrupted schooling which made the children adverse to finishing what needed to be done. They did, but it was less than pleasant. The from-ing in the evening was full of extra drama as I was lost in the  hospital thanks to high school volunteers who sent me all about and then for extra fun, the hospital called after I had fetched my mother because they had forgotten to give my us the discharge forms. This meant I had to go back to get them and take them to my mother who, by the way, lives across town. Why can't anything be simple?

Between all that though I managed to do something slightly productive, I made another Instructable. Something old and something new at the same time. I did one on the simple spider whose pattern I've shared repeatedly, but I added the bead belly variation which allowed me to teach how to put a bead in the center of a ring with needle tatting...my version anyway. You can find the Instructable here: Tiny Tatted Spiders.

I'm sort of hoping that I get some nice quiet time soon so I can do a video on the bead technique with the needle. Though I should probably check youtube first and see if one already exists first. There's no point in doing one if someone already did it, right? Plus, finding quiet time around here is like finding a mythical lost city.

I finally made a sale of items I can remake last night. It's been painfully dead in the shop lately, add to that my first customer return in a really long time and I've been feeling particularly bummed about the shop lately. I'm sure all the headache nonsense might have a little to do with that, but I was just plugging along, waiting patiently for an uptick. I'm hoping it comes soon so I can start complaining about too much to do instead of too little.

Ugh

So it turns out that when you basically have an all day sort of headache, creativity is nigh on impossible. The advil kept it under control but it was there all day. It was joined later by a lovely new cold sore which did nothing to improve my mood. I'm guessing that my body is fighting off some illness or other and though it's winning, I get the consolation prizes of the headache and cold sore. The up side is that I appear to not be sick otherwise...for now anyway.

The only thing I did get up to besides laundry, dishes, babysitting my nieces and schooling, was getting the new triforce listed. I was going to simply hang it from a jumpring at the top corner and string it on a ribbon, but it just didn't look quite right. Maybe the design is just too big for that, or maybe I just like to make things more complicated. So instead I hung it from brass chain on the sides. I think it looks more complete this way. Whether or not it will find a home like this is another question entirely.

I tried in the afternoon, before my babysitting charges arrived, to work on the devil horns idea, but I failed miserably at my first two attempts. That would be the allusion to impossible creativity in my first sentence. There's still a few more ways I'd like to try to make it happen, but I completely gave up and I think I'm going to need a little more time between attempts if I really want it to work. I also need to make sure that all these physical annoyances are done with me first as well. I still have the faintest twinge of a headache this morning and the cold sore is growing strong, so I don't have high hopes for today at all. Add that to the list of annoying errands I have to do today and honestly I'm surprised I bothered to haul myself out of bed at all. I just realized how much of a downer this post has got be for you to read. Sorry about that. I'll try for some sunshine and lollipops for tomorrow. You hear that Universe, sunshine and lollipops and good, good things.

Weekend Recap

It's never a good sign when you wake up on a Monday morning with a headache. It's doubly bad when you have just woken up out of a dream in which you were angry with your children for not listening to you. So now I'm in an unpleasant mood with a headache on top. The outlook for the day is officially grim. I'll back up now though and recount the weekend as best as I can under the circumstances.

Friday was a field trip to Columbia State Park, the gold rush town I mentioned on Friday. Fun as it was, there was a whole lot of walking in the unseasonably warm weather and when we got home, I had zero energy to do anything. This picture of the youngest child asleep on the way back perfectly illustrates my energy level for the remainder of the day.

Saturday we headed out of town to go shopping for the husband. He needed some semi formal wear for an upcoming wedding since he owns nothing besides t-shirts and his work clothes. Usually his work clothes stand in when he needs to dress nice, but we thought he could use an upgrade. After a wonderful lunch it was hours of walking back and forth across the mall and leaving with a list of things to order online because his size was absent in the things he liked. On the plus side I never have to feel bad about taking my time shopping for myself ever again.

When we got home I was exhausted, but it was early and I was inspired to make something. Through a strange series of 'this reminds me of that' I decided to make a tatted triforce. When I posted it on the facebook page without naming it at all, I was gratified that many people knew exactly what it was. The children loved it too though, so I spent quite some time making one up for each of them to...play with. Hopefully my mood and headache will subside long enough to get a jump ring on it, photograph and list this one as a pendant today. Since the pattern is made up of a only slightly modified version of a very familiar vintage motif, I might even get this one written up and through on Instructables soon as well, though probably not today. Today is likely a wash, so I'm not even going to bother with a list of tasks. I'm just going to ask the Universe to bring it up from here.

What A Yoker

Yes, I'm afraid it's gonna be another boring post. In fact the most interesting thing to happen yesterday was my morning egg. It had a double yolk. I know, exciting right? Yes, I took a picture, but it was to show the sleeping daughter when she got up. I thought she would think it was cool. The day never went up from there really.

I got another piece remade for the shop and though I did indeed get one interesting idea in the comments, thanks Victats, I didn't get around to trying it out. I suppose mundane household tasks won out over creative thought yesterday. I will try out the idea though because it's a pretty good one and I think I can make it happen. Not today though, today we have a school field trip to a nearby gold rush town. We've been there before and it's a fun place, you know if you like that sort of historical thing.

The Universe clearly has not been listening to my pleas for interesting things to happen, so I think I'm going to try and use the weekend to turn it around myself. I've got to get back to creative and away from production work soon because I am running out of time before the holidays are upon us and I really won't have time for creativity then. I must fight the rut and get interesting all by myself. Wish me luck!

Bored Now

This is really getting bad isn't it? Days and days of nothing interesting to share. It's not like I'm not tatting, I am...you've just seen it already and so it's not exciting in the least. I did do what I said I do yesterday. Public proclamations do wonders to keep me on task. I painted up some headbands early in the morning and spent much of the day tatting ears. They are odd things to made. I start with a slightly modified vintage triangle motif. Then I add an edging to two sides. After that I add a horizontal base to the bottom that lets the ear stand up on its own. Of course that's not only what it's for, it also provides me a base to sew onto the headbands. Speaking of headbands, I just thought I'd let you know why I'm painting them instead of simply buying black ones. I like using thin fabric covered headbands. They're perfect for sewing the lace onto.

Well, I was picking them up in packs of three and then the brand stopped making the exact ones I used and started making only packs of multiple colors. I can't even seem to find anywhere, including the beauty supply places that sells black fabric covered ones individually. So this means I'm buying the color packs, using the one or two black ones in the pack as is and not to waste the others, I'm using fabric paint to turn them into black ones. I'll of course keep looking and might run into exactly what I need one day, but for now I'm making what I have found work for me.

I got three headbands completed yesterday, but I still have three more headbands I can use, so I'll likely work on some more of them today as well as get to the last few pieces that need remaking. Now I feel like I've gotten enough done that I can switch back and forth between tasks. I think it's also about time I came up with a new design as well. I don't currently have any ideas for one, I just think I ought to switch gears before I begin to bore even myself.

Kitty Cat Ears

You remember a couple of weeks ago when I was planning my future projects and I stated more than once that I really ought to work on getting more kitty ear headbands and masks made? If you do then you probably also remember how I kept stalling and getting distracted by nonsense and didn't do any of that. Well, it turns out that I really ought to have done what I told myself to do. I've sold five kitty ear headbands since August. Now, I know that doesn't sound like much, but for me, that's a frickin' best seller. Since my original headband source dried up, I've had to start ordering them online and painting them black before I can add the tatted ears. It's not a lot of extra work, but it takes some time to do and to let them dry.

So today I'm painting the rest of the headbands I have on hand to get them ready for the lace. Then I'll tat up as many ears as I can handle making and get them all sewed together once the headbands are dry. I tell you all this so I have clear instructions to myself. No matter what other nonsense I get up to today, this task must get done. I just can't keep up when I just make one at a time. I do still have a couple of other things to finish making, but given the sell rate of these, I'm making them a priority. Of course as soon as I do finish this task, they will immediately cease selling and I will be stuck with half a dozen headbands sitting about because that's just the way things seem to go down around here.

Sorry I didn't have anything too interesting happen yesterday to liven up this post. It was just a normal day of schooling and tatting. The cats weren't even terribly entertaining. Let's hope the Universe provides today or this is going to start feeling like a rut and I don't like ruts, routine sure, but not ruts.

I've Got Nothing

Started the day yesterday without the use of my laptop and it was another rough one for schooling. While I tried to stay on task with my tatting after that, I didn't get nearly as much done as I had hoped and I'm starting today with plenty more pieces to make up for the shop. So once again I have little to share this morning.

My laptop was revived in the evening and it was wonderful to have it back. I think we take these tools we have around us for granted. It is clear to me now that I wouldn't be nearly as productive without many of these conveniences. Of course having those conveniences is not giving me anything else to write about this morning. Seriously, I have nothing...so I guess I'll just leave it here and hope for something interesting to occur today to brighten up tomorrow's post. Have a wonderful and productive day!

The Faire

After I wrote my blog post on Friday and started the day, my laptop which is positioned next to me throughout the day decided that it didn't want to boot up. I alerted tech support, who is also known as my husband. He only had a few minutes before he headed off to work, but a preliminary analysis predicted that I needed a new hard drive. This meant that I was going to have to get along without my trusty companion. Schooling was handled using the kids computers and an ipad which was awkward and slow. When the husband took a longer look during his lunch break, the diagnosis was confirmed, a new hard drive was ordered and I resigned myself to a weekend without my laptop.

At first I thought, well with no twitter or email right next to me, I'll get some real work done. Only it turns out that those silly things actually keep me on task. Checking email on my phone is cumbersome and takes away from the task at hand and I certainly can't tat at my computer desk where the desktop computer lives. Plus every time I go in there to work during the day, I worry what the children are up to in my absence as it's hidden enough to allow them a little too much supervision free fun. The hard drive will be in today, but not until the evening, so hopefully it's just one more day of this and everything will be back to normal. At least the experience has left me with proof that I need my laptop and it's use it more helpful than not.

We also headed off to the Renaissance Fair this weekend with the kids. I didn't dress up this year and it's a good thing because the oldest has outgrown her bodice and the only thing we had around here to fit her was mine. We really should get new ones, but they are so not cheap. This is them watching horses before the joust began. We had found a spot of shade that we moved from so we could actually see well.

As usual the kids has fun, but wished we would have spent more money so that they could do more things. Sometimes I wonder at the amount of money some of these families I see doing everything must drop at these things. Alas, I had a sick laptop at home and we have plans next month, so dropping that amount of money is just not in the cards. Still they got a few things and I'm sure they're just happy we went.

So this week begins with more remaking for the shop. I still have a few bracelets in the queue and a few other things that need to be done as well. I feel like I wasted the entire weekend since I didn't have my laptop to remind that I had pieces to make. Man do I miss that thing and I am so lucky that my tech support lives under my roof.

The Spiders Are Back

It actually took a couple of minutes this morning for me to remember what I did yesterday that might be worth mentioning. There was schooling of course and I was working on getting a large choker made up for the shop. When that was done, rather than work on more remaking, I decided it was time for the spiders to get made. I always sell a few of them this time of year and they're fun to give away to kids. They're also one of the few tatted things even the nephews think are pretty cool.

They're the same ones I listed last year when I also made this post for them: Spider. It has a few vague tips at the end on how to make your own spider. Just to recap more clearly for this year though. It's a simple two ring design.

R: 4ds 1p 4ds close
R: 4ds 1 very long picot(vlp) 2ds 1vlp 8ds 1vlp 2ds 1vlp 4ds close cut and tie.
Snip the picots in half for legs and done.

Variations on the theme include, increasing stitch counts for bigger spiders, encapsulating a bead within the body or leaving a thread space between the rings for a smaller spider hanging from it's web.  You can even stiffen them and shape the legs so they stand on their own. These are my favorites though, perfectly simple and they are wonderful for using up the otherwise useless ends of the thread ball.

I just thought it was about the right time to share these again and you'll have plenty of time to make swarms of them up to decorate for Halloween, or everyday if you want. I'd love to see your spiders if you make any. I'll toss photos up on the blog near Halloween if I get any. My email is in my blogger profile. Enjoy.

Different Sizes

I find it interesting how often I'm asked to change the length of a bracelet since they're not made of easy to lengthen chain elements. Many of the pieces I make are basic designs where I can simply add a repeat, but of course even that means that I can only change the design in set increments. There are others I've managed to change with a stitch count increase throughout the whole piece thus increasing the entire designs width and length, but again there are limits to how effective this can be. Every once in a while I even state in a listing that a length simple cannot be changed. That was the case with my newest, the strata bracelets. The design is so dense that any change in length would constitute an entire design change and that's just far too much effort. Since it's already longer than most of my pieces I figure it's in a pretty good place already.

Yesterday I had a custom request for a different color and size on my Forever Scrolling slave bracelet. The size difference needed was about an inch, far too small for any additional element to be added symmetrically, so I had to think about all my other methods for increasing size. An all over change would be too great as well, but I was sure I could do something. So I spent much of the morning guessing and doodling in the air to work out the issue. You might be asking why I just didn't test tat an idea out. Well, I just didn't want to. I wanted it right the first time. By the time I got to tatting I thought I had worked it out. I increased the number of scallops on the end scrolls and made each a bit larger as well. Doing this just on the wrist side of the design along with a couple of ring size changes as well seemed to give the desired result. The toughest part was waiting until the entire design was finished to see if it really had worked or not. The other tough part is anytime I make a piece that doesn't fit me, I can't try it on and make sure it sits right. All I could do was press it, measure it and pack it up to head to its' new owner and hope it works out perfect for them.

Once that was done for the day, it was back to the pile of pieces that need remaking. I'm feeling a bit frustrated because some of the pieces that sold are ones I had made two of and I feel like I want to keep that many available, but there are still pieces I don't have listed at all that I should get made. I guess I'm just conflicted about the order in which I should be working. I also want to get a few piles of spiders made up for the shop as well, but that task has landed at the bottom of the pile. As you can see, I still have plenty of tasks on hand for today and nothing interesting to show for it.

A Day In The Life

As I was pretty darn focused on tatting yesterday, I have nothing too interesting to share with you from my days events. That said, there was one comment on yesterday's post that gave me something to think about and so that's what I'm going to share today.

The question was, how many hours do I tat a day? Of course there's no answer that covers every day, but I thought maybe I'd just walk you through a typical day and give you an idea of the nonsense that goes on around here.  I get up around 4:30 in the morning. Sleeping in is not an option even on weekends as the cats are determined to eat before 5, so they are fed first then it's into the computer room. Yes, we have a computer room...don't ask how many computers are in there, it's less ridiculous than it used to be. Anyway, this is when I check emails, pack orders if there are any, blog and read the news. I even occasionally walk on the treadmill. I also use this time to get laundry, dishes or other housework started including my favorite, the kitty litter. Then, it's upstairs to shower, get dressed and face the daylight. Breakfast, coffee, morning news, more blogging and little light tatting until the kids are down and have eaten their breakfast. At this point it's back up the stairs for hours of schooling.

If I'm really busy in the shop I bring my tatting with me and get a little done during the classes that don't require my physical involvement. If the shop is slow, I just work with the kids. Schooling is usually mostly wrapped by lunchtime and we all take a break for that. Around one, it's back to tatting. The afternoon is mostly tatting interrupted by occasional housework and whatever the kids need. I steal a couple of hours to catch up on television while tatting, usually during the youngest child's nap while the older child reads. I will keep tatting on and off all evening taking a break for dinner and up until we all head upstairs to wind down for the night before bedtime. We're out by 9. Don't laugh, you see how late you can stay up when you rise before the sun.

So I tried to do the math on the actual hours spent with a needle and thread in my hands and on the short end it's about 4 hours and on the long end almost 8. I spent much of that time with a laptop next to me so I can be fully available online and fully available to the family as well. I have been getting better about spending more weekend time just being with the family, but if we sit to watch a movie or something else sedentary, the tatting gets pulled out. It's definitely my full time job and I can't imagine there are too many other people out there with this many hours to spend tatting, but it's what I do.

I hope that wasn't too boring a read for you. It's not a glamorous life and I don't have much time for anything else too interesting, but I do get to spend my day with my favorite people. Well, it's about time for me to get to that housework stuff and I have much tatting on tap for today, so I'm off for another typical day.

When You Wish...

Today's post is brought to you by the, 'Be careful what you wish for', files. Let me just back up a bit though and get to that in a minute. It was a nice morning of schooling. In fact the five year old's teacher called just to talk to her and tell her what a good job she was doing with her progress. I thought that was mighty sweet. She is flying through her kindergarten math at warp speed having picked up most of it through osmosis while her sister learned it. It also helps that she still really loves learning.

When schooling was over I grabbed my white thread and went to work on the first of the white pieces in queue and spent a good few hours with it. I was so proud of myself for not stalling anymore that I decided it was time to tat up some spiders for Halloween. I got out the jewelry spiders that didn't sell last season and readied my thread for the simple ones when the order came in. It was an order for four larger pieces, one of which needed to be made and to top it off there was a note on it that requested it be shipped to arrive by a certain date. The request was within the realm of possibility, but required that I drop everything and get on the necklace straight away. Since all the pieces in the order were popular ones as well, as soon as I do get the necklace done I must begin remaking them too. I admit I was feeling pretty good about this and got right to work.

We went outside in the evening to do a little yard work. Well, the husband did a little yard work. I was there solely for consulting purposes. Anyway, while I'm out there taking a well deserved tatting break my phone makes the cha-ching noise the etsy app has for sales and it's another multi-piece order of things that will need to go right into the remake queue as well. So yesterday when I said I was hoping for orders to keep away from remaking the white pieces, I got my wish and then some. I'll be remaking all week I imagine and it's all in black thread so you'll hear no complaint. Boy I sure have a reason to stay on task this week. Get ready for the boring blog posts because they sure are coming.

Cleaning

On Friday, the sun was out and I got good pictures of the brown and teal bracelet. I'm actually quite glad I waited for the weather to cooperate as I didn't even have to edit the colors on these ones, it was just perfect as is. See, being lazy something works out just fine.

Speaking of lazy, man did I ever avoid getting to my queue of white pieces that need to be done. Anything and everything I could think of this weekend to avoid it. In fact I don't think I did any tatting at all. The shop has been pretty quiet save for all the notifications I keep getting about my masks getting added to Halloween themed treasuries. So there's been nothing new sold for me to remake and I haven't had any good new ideas recently either. All this means I let my needle lie and instead...I did some housework.

We recently purchased some new furniture to go in one room of the house that we've yet to furnish. We're still waiting for it to arrive and there was some prep work the empty room needed. While it's been empty, it is right at the front of the house and gets plenty of use as a cat bedroom, cat battle arena, a playroom and occasionally I catch the kids running laps around the rug. Before we put furniture in there I needed to clean the light colored carpet and the rug on top. You might have noticed the rug is mostly black and our cat population is currently three and a half white and two and a half black. The light carpet contained large amounts of black cat fur and the black rug? You guessed it, large amount of white fur. I'm still puzzling over the seemingly deliberate distribution of colored fur.  What I'm trying to say here is that the cleaning took quite some time and energy and I may have recovered enough fur in both the vacuum and carpet cleaner to make more than one new cat. Now I just have to keep it clean until the furniture gets here in oh, a month. I'm certain this will cause me no annoyance at all.

So,  sometime this week I will knuckle under and get to the white pieces and that is the only task I must get to. I'm of course hoping to get inundated with orders and have to switch gears thus avoiding it again. Best way to start a week, pipe dreams and avoidance issues. I think I'm ready for another vacation.

So Lazy

Well, I did half of what I said I would do yesterday, but I didn't get the newest bracelet photographed or listed. I'd like to blame the overcast nature of the day which provided no natural light by which to take photos. Of course that's only partly true. I really just didn't feel like putting in the extra effort required to take good pictures when the sun isn't cooperating. Maybe today will be better and I'll get it done without any of that pesky effort I try so hard to avoid.

The bulk of the day was spent remaking a mask and cat ears. I got one of each done, but I think I want to double up on both of the pieces so I'm going to do a repeat of yesterday to get that done. Then I might start working on all the white pieces I've been putting on the back burner. Just avoiding more effort again. I find it difficult sometimes to reconcile my innate laziness with my desire to be working all the time. These two things shouldn't exist in the same person, yet they absolutely do. I can't stop tatting, taking care of the household, family and other business stuff, but each of those things has an invisible limit I won't cross. Instead of committing effort beyond the limit, I just switch gears and go to another task. I'm sure a therapist would have a field day with that, but it's just the way of my world.

There are no big plans on tap for the weekend, so who know what we'll get up to or what I might tat up during any down time. There are no big projects looming, but I can clearly see the holiday season from here and I can't let myself forget how quickly it arrives and steals all my free time away. Great, now I'm going to be thinking about that all day. I'm going to stop writing now and get on with it.

Finished

Again, I can proudly proclaim that I did at least what I said I would. After schooling was wrapped for the day I got the new bracelet design photographed and listed. You can see the beading I went with for the center join here, there are more pictures in the listing of course.  It also turned into one of the naturally longer bracelets I've made and since the design is so dense it's also one of the only ones in the shop with the warning that I can't adjust the length. I mean, I suppose it's possible, but it just wouldn't look right. The dense design along with the beading being such a pain in the neck caused me to pop a larger price tag on it than it's size belies.

I also made another bracelet up in a chocolate brown with iridescent matte teal beads. Listing that one is one of the tasks on hand for today. The other two tasks are to remake the items I sold around bedtime last night, a mask and some cat ears. It kind of seems like the Universe is trying to get me back to some tasks I mentioned earlier and never got to. Masks and cat ears, huh? Of course if I had done them then, I'd have little to do today, so there's that then.

So this is a little odd, I had something new to show you, I have new tasks on hand for today, yet I still feel like this is the most boring I've been in a while. Maybe because I feel like I ought to get to work instead of just write about it or maybe it's the absolutely bizarre dreams I've been having of late. Whatever it is, I'm out of things to say, so I'll leave you with a, have a nice day.

A Bracelet

 I hesitate to say this because I fear I am just jinxing myself, but I think we've finally gotten a nice routine established that keeps me working in the afternoon. School wasn't the problem really, it was me. Shifting myself from a morning person to an all day active person was a bit of a challenge. As you probably know I'm up at a ridiculous hour and I get an insane amount of stuff done before the kids even wake up. So you can image by the afternoon I'm dragging a bit which meant I wasn't in the mood to get any tatting done especially since schooling has become an all morning activity full of much more work than ever before. Yesterday though it just felt good to work after lunch. I sat down and tackled the bracelet idea.

The first problem to overcome was how to link the motifs for the best visual. First I went with the small ends together as the center, but it just wasn't right that way though I did manage to tackle the second issue at the same time and that was creating a stable and strong join between the motifs while keeping the beading. I went with long beaded picots attached across and it is mighty strong.

Then I decided to go ahead and make the bracelet up with the fat ends together and have these nice beaded sections on the sides. You can probably see my problem here. The design in nice, but joining at one point with a bead is a disaster waiting to happen. So this ended up in the prototype pile as well. For the final piece which is done, but not photographed, I added a three bead long joining picot on either side of the center bead for a similar look as the side beads. More importantly it is not stable and wearable. Hopefully the afternoon energy yesterday wasn't a fluke and I'll get this listed and maybe make it up in the same colors as the earrings and pendants so there are whole matching sets. Of course that has me wondering what creative way I can use the motif to create a choker as well. Not strung together like the bracelet, but maybe hanging down from a base design with a chandelier feeling. Yeah, don't know yet, maybe in a few days that idea will solidify. For now I'll take the progress I've made to productivity and enjoy it.

Oh, one more thing before I go. I've been asked by more than a few people if I plan on sharing this pattern and as I worked yesterday I tried to mentally write it down to see if I could communicate it. I'm afraid it's still a mess as a pattern, there are just these odd things I do to make it work that I have no idea how to write out in a traditional pattern. I know it looks like an onion ring pattern, but as I'm never tried one of those with an existing pattern, they seemed very shuttle specific when I first saw one, I'm not even certain I'm doing it like those are done. It might work in an Instructables format with plenty of pictures to explain what I'm doing, but I don't think I can justify squeezing in a project like that right now. So the answer to the question is, not right now anyway. I may at some point find the time to tackle it, probably during a school vacation or something, but don't hold your breath for it...sorry.

That's Done

I wouldn't call yesterday a particularly productive day, but I did do what I planned to at least. I got both the burgundy and green sets listed fairly early in the morning. I even started thinking about how to extend the design into a bracelet. That thought didn't get all the way from my head to the thread, but I had it so it might happen at some point.

There was a lot more cleaning yesterday in anticipation of having family over. They actually couldn't care less about the cleanliness of our house, but I find it is the perfect excuse to clean well. Since I don't really enjoy cleaning I need these sort of excuses to get the floors done and declutter spaces. You should see my desk right now...it's the epitome of clutter, but since I don't have a reason to clean it, it shall remain so. After all the cleaning there was a nice afternoon of family and food followed by exhaustion.

We're back to school today and I'm almost to the end of the remaking queue. There are just a few left and I think I'm stalling a bit on getting to them because they're white and I dislike working in white. My hands always seem extra dirty and I can't stop touching my face and I'm certain it's all psychosomatic since it's only white thread that brings it on. I know I'll have to suck it up and just get them done at some point, but don't be surprised if I stall a bit longer.

Distractions

I suppose there are many things I miss about being a kid or just a student with my life tied to a school schedule. Right now I miss vacation days. I remember when a day off meant nothing needed to be done...nothing at all. Sure today is a day off for the kids and even for the husband, but not for mom. No, I still have blogging and cleaning and laundry. I still have a little shop to keep running in cyberspace and tasks that will lie undone if I don't do them. It's fine, I've accepted it really, but that doesn't mean I can't whine occasionally when I know the rest of the house slumbers and I'm already working out what needs to be done for the day.

I did get some things done over the weekend amidst furniture shopping and family fun at the air museum. I got two sets of the new design made up. First I went with a burgundy with gunmetal beads. It is one of the most notoriously difficult shades to photograph though. It's a darker shade than it appears with more purple undertones. I also had to change the bead count because these ones are a slightly different size externally than the others.

Then I asked the facebook for color suggestions and I got one for green and brass so I made up a set in those colors as well. I fully intended to have both sets photographed and listed on Saturday, but I did no such thing. Instead we went furniture shopping all bloody day thoroughly exhausting everyone in the household. The saddest part is we bought all the furniture, but since it's all on order we have nothing to show for it save for one chair we got at a tent sale toward the end of the day. That chair has already been claimed for all cat kind by the way.

On Sunday I could have gotten to listing the new stuff, but instead we went to open cock-pit day the air museum. That almost thoroughly exhausted me, but then I got home and cleaned because we're having family over today. The cleaning did me in and I just didn't feel like exerting the effort to photograph and list anything.  Luckily that sort of not wanting to get up feeling is perfect for getting some tatting done. I used the opportunity to get a couple more things remade and feel a little productive after all.

I swear today the new pieces will be listed despite the many distractions that will undoubtedly be tossed in my direction. I will get back to work and labor on this Labor day. I will continue the tradition of working regardless of what everyone else is doing.