Mini Motif

With nothing set in stone to do yesterday, I admit I started with reading. One story later I remembered that I had started a pair of ankle corsets for extra stock and had never gotten back to them, so that was my next task. They were almost complete when I got to them, so it wasn't long before I was again reading. I knew I had to do something more physically productive with the day, so I opted to do some small doodling.

This is the second version I came up with. The first go around I was playing with lock chains. They just did not want to behave the way I wanted them to. I'm glad that I let them go though as I like the way this one turned out. It's much smaller than the last motif, so it won't be turning into much else though. I'll get it pressed today and if all the bits are behaving after that it will likely get listed as a pendant.

Upon more thought, I might muck around with it a bit and see if I can build upon it. I do hate letting a motif just become one thing. I think I might also see if I have any beads on hand that would look good in the center there. I guess I have a few tasks on hand for today after all. Here's hoping for many more.

The Weekend

It was a bit of a strange weekend and really I have nothing much to show for it. We headed out to Monterey on Friday. We go there often enough that the trip is generally without much surprise or stress. It was a lovely, cool, but sunny day and the almost complete removal from the computer and online life was a great distraction. I had brought tatting for the car ride, but without a project in queue, I didn't even touch it, preferring to just watch the world go by.

Saturday, the kids and myself were obligated to attend a baby shower. I dislike these things very much and was quite prepared to have an awful time, but the mother is a friend whom I like very much. Fortunately the one other person besides the mother-to-be that I knew was also a good friend and was as adverse to the social situation as I. We had a fine time with the aid of some champagne she brought and our complimentary senses of humor. Even the children were amused and the day was saved.

Sunday kind of slogged by as we had filled the days before it with so much. Again I read more Sherlock Holmes. In fact I think it's affecting the way I'm writing even this morning. So, my apologies for being a bit odder than usual. As I've only knocked out 13 stories so far, I fear I'll be like this for some time as I fully intend to read them all.

I still have no tatting in queue as the shop was fairly quiet all weekend. I'm hoping that it's just an end of the month lull and it will be back to normal in a couple of days. In the meantime I'll try to think of something interesting to create or make so I don't waste away the entire day reading. Not that reading is a waste of time, but it certainly won't contribute to my income nor creative body of work. So here's to a day of inspiration or tasks to complete.

The Injury

I managed to acquire myself a nice injury yesterday morning. Now, for most people this wouldn't have been a big deal at all, in fact it is the epitome of minor. During schooling I was pulling a worksheet out of the child's math book when I received a nasty, bleeding paper cut right across the cuticle of my left index finger. Why am I telling you this? It's a silly paper cut right? Put a band-aid on it and move on. Well, I did put a band-aid on it and became a handicap tatter for the day. Have you ever tried to needle tat with a band-aid on? It's cumbersome to say the least.

Right after schooling I decided that I needed to finish remaking the necklace I was working on so I tried and I finished it...hours later. Every loop of the thread had to be bigger to clear the bandage and the thread would snag half the time anyway. Then I would have to run the needle close, but not too close, again snagging the bandage with the needle, poking myself in the injured spot and generally having a bad go of it. Sure in the wide scheme of things, this was nothing, but it certainly slowed my day to a crawl and when I was finally finished with that necklace I happily dropped the needle for the rest of the day. The finger looks to be healed enough for liquid bandage today, so it was just a one day ruining ouchy.

There will be no tatting today either as we adventure to the coast for the day. It's the same adventure we always take, so there is literally no stress in the day. We go, enjoy, and return, only wishing we could have spent more time there. The rest of the weekend contains just one challenging task and the rest should be mild as well. So please go forth and enjoy your weekend when it starts. I hope to come back refreshed from mine.

Listed

I'm just not feeling very productive lately. I mean I got schooling done, then we went on a walk, mostly to get the kids away from the computers for a while. After that I worked on laundry and getting pictures done for all the new pieces. I got them listed, I sat down and then I proceeded to do next to nothing.

I mean it all starts with tasks aplenty, but then I just can't muster the energy to do much more than read some more Sherlock Homes or catch up with the shows on my dvr. I've knocked out two novels and four short stories so far, by the way. Of course that leaves like sixty stories left including two more novels, so I don't think I'll be an expert anytime soon.

I guess I should just focus on what I did get done. I named the new pieces 'Garden Portal'. I added the subtitle horizontal to one bracelet and diagonal to the other. I hope the difference is obvious enough to folk looking at the two. They're right next to each other in shop, at least until one of them sells. It seems most people had a clear opinion about which version they liked better so I guess only time will tell which will sell better...or at all.

Today I have to double up on classes with the girls because we're taking a day off tomorrow to adventure. My husbands jury duty interfered with the adventure we were going to have during their actual Spring break, so we're just going to carve out some time. After that, I do have one necklace newly in the queue to be remade, so I have at least one clear task for the rest of the morning. I do better with a nice clear list for the day. Let's hope I can focus then.

Two Ways

Well I got part of what I intended to do yesterday done, but not everything, by a long shot. Schooling was better, but I had mistakenly believed that exercise was a good idea on Monday and I suffered for it yesterday. I mean we get out and go on walks quite frequently, but it's been some time before I did anything resembling an exercise and I went ahead and did squats and push ups and crunches and I could barely make it up and down the stairs all day. Go ahead, laugh a little...it is amusing, but it means I spent more of the day sitting than I had planned.

The other snag in my day was my desktop computer. The hard drive has been telling my husband that it was sick for some time and I finally got a new hard drive to cure it, so it was out of commission yesterday. Since I use my desktop for all my listing pictures, I didn't get the new pendant or bracelet listed, but I did work on making the bracelet.

In fact I made two bracelets. I just couldn't decide which way I preferred the motifs to join, so I made it both ways. I thought I could figure that out when I saw them both completely made, but no. They each have their own distinct look and feel.

The bottom one was the first way. It's the easiest and most straight forward way to join them and has a very structured look to it with the row of rings across the center. The top one I did second and it required adjusting the pattern with a creative join as well as a new loop for the hook to attach to. It has more visual interest and this neat 'X' pattern. I posted this picture to the facebook page and opinion was split between which was liked better, so I'm just going to list them both.

Now that the computer is back, after schooling today, I will get these new pieces listed. I'm not sure what I'll get up to after that though because I've got all my orders finished and there's nothing left that I plan on remaking right now. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the day brings.

New Motif

Well, schooling didn't go too bad yesterday, at least not because the kids didn't want to do it. No, our problem was that the online school went down just as I was finishing up with the youngest kids classes and starting the second half with the older one. Luckily she had three chapters of a novel she needed to read so she did that while I beat my head against the computer until they finally got the problem sussed an fixed.

After schooling I went straight outside to check on all the new plants. I also got it in my head to prune the grape vine and remove a nuisance rose bush that sprang up last year near the established one. I'm not certain ripping a plant up is very "Earth Day", but it was in a bad place and I'm not overly fond of roses to begin with. Plus it will give my stargazer lilies more space to bloom. All this gardening nonsense followed by some vacuuming took me all the way to lunch time with no tatting.

By the time I got round to picking up my needle and thread I was in the mood to create rather than produce, so I doodled a bit. I literally drew the proposed image out with my finger on my couch first and it actually worked up like the impression. The first time I did it without the third, outside ring at the corners and it didn't feel complete. The second time I added it and I was already pretty happy with the result. If one was so inclined, the larger rings might even look neat with a big bead, or I suppose you could substitute the center ring with a button. Though I am definitely not a button tatting fan. It just not my bag.

I did take it one step further and began turning the motif into a bracelet, because that's what I do. It will likely be a little on the short side, but it will fit me perfectly. I might work out a few slight changes to make it fit more universally, or maybe not...I guess we'll see. I also noted that the motif would work up into a square mat fairly nicely. Though again, that's not really what I tend to do.

So today I imagine I'll get the bracelet done and then decide if there's anything else I'd like to do to exploit the new motif. Then I'll try to get it listed as a pendant and bracelet. I think I'm done with remaking for the time being. There are still a few masks that I should get made up at some point, but masks haven't been selling much lately so that's really not an immediate need. Maybe I'll try doodling again and see if anything else comes of it and I will also try not to do anymore gardening because it's a lot of work.

Break Is Over

I had a pretty productive weekend. My etsy anniversary sale started out quite slowly. In fact it was
pretty much dead around here most of Friday. This allowed me to get the flourish pendant and earrings listed and I made up a new bracelet in a completely different pattern. It's another vintage pattern that I mucked with a bit until I thought it could withstand wearing. It's pretty dense so it took a bit longer than it's simplicity would suggest, but it gave me something to do while I waited for the sale to kick in. I should get it listed later today so long as I manage some free time. We're back to schooling today and there will likely be some kicking and screaming from the children which usually exhausts me.

It may have had a slow start, but the sale definitely didn't stay that way. I had plenty of orders, many of which that were custom color or length and I spent much of the weekend tatting away. I managed to get all the orders done up by last night so they'll all go out this morning. Then I just have a few pieces that will need to be remade.

The part of the weekend that wasn't spent on tatting and orders was spent planting. The college next to us has an annual plant sale in their horticulture department so we took advantage and picked up some plants we'd never heard of. Sunday morning I dug holes in difficult clay soil, planted everything, added drip lines and complained about the 90º weather even though I know it's going to get so much hotter that, I'll long for 90º soon enough. I know I should have saved a little for today, to celebrate Earth Day, I think it was close enough. So today, it's schooling, listing the bracelet, remaking a couple of things and trying not to get annoyed at the children. Should be fun.

7th Etsyversary

Yesterday did not really go my way at all. In fact I completely forgot that I wanted to look at my thread inventory. I did look at what I should remake and then proceeded to do none of it. There wasn't much really, except some masks that have remained unmade for quite some time. So then I decided to go ahead and play with the flourishes.

I tried a few other things with them, but most of my 'interesting' ideas failed miserably. In the end there are just this version and then a second where I substitute a zig zag chain on the outside. I haven't decided which I like better as the difference is fairly subtle. I do like how zig zag/Victorians sets break up the uniformity of the chain so I might go with that version. Either way I'll get them turned into earrings today and listed as well as a pendant version...I think.

The only other news today is that it's my 7th anniversary selling my wares on etsy. Anniversaries always make me nostalgic, so I went looking at my first sold pieces and promptly hung my head in shame and wondered a bit how I managed to stick it out so long. Etsy was a different place back then, I would have never been able to sell that stuff if I started with it now. In fact the tatting world is a lot different than it was back then too. I was the only tatter on etsy for one and it was a couple of years before I virtually met another one. My, how times change. So here's to progress and 7 years.

I know I kind of gave up on doing something big for the anniversary, but I can't let it pass without a little something. So today through Sunday evening get 17% off (because 7% would be silly) with the code ANNIVERSARY7 at my etsy shop. I'll also include a FREE flourish pendant as a gift with all orders over $20 as well. You don't need to mention anything to get the free gift, but don't forget the code for the discount.

Color

I didn't get to play with my new little flourish at all yesterday, but that's okay. I didn't get to play because I got a nice little custom order in the afternoon. So I stopped my remaking marathon to make up a few bracelets in custom colors and lengths. I actually had three to do, but I took the photo at two because I wasn't certain I'd finish the third while there was still good enough light to take a picture. The third was done in navy thread and the whole pile was a bit more colorful than I'm used to, but I think it was a good diversion from the usual.

After they were done I still had some time in the evening to work on more remaking and I think I may have actually gotten almost to the end of it. I needed to order more bobby pin bases so I can remake those though. The large order ate up all I had on hand in silver tone and black. Once those come in, I'll have to get those made as well. I should also take inventory of my threads. I know I'm running low on a few and I should take the time to figure out which so I can make a proper order, but it's such a pain in the neck.

I'll probably go over my 'sold out' list with a fine tooth comb and see if there's anything else that really needs to be remade. Then I'll avoid this whole thread inventory thing by playing with the flourish. Then I might resign myself to doing it anyway, but too late to do it right. As usually I'll also be crossing my fingers that I get approached about making or doing something that requires more immediate attention thus avoiding the tasks I really ought to do anyway. I may be a bit dysfunctional, but at least I'm honest about it.

Flourish

On one hand I'm really enjoying not having to do schooling the morning with the kids, on the other hand, I am already getting bored with all this remaking I'm doing and I can't even claim to be halfway through the list yet.

For the sake of my sanity I took a small break in the afternoon to let my brain have a bit of exercise. I
doodled a few shapes and thought I'd give them a go. The first idea fell apart as I realized that the lace was not going to behave the way I wanted it to without resorting to creating the shape in highly complex ways. I was not in the mode for something to be that challenging so I tried another shape floating around in my head.This one was far more cooperative and though I don't think I've hit the final design quite yet, still a bit more tweaking to be done, it's shaping up nicely and I feel a bit better. I'll play with it a bit more today and hopefully I'll find the sweet spot and have something new to show for it.

Once I felt satisfied that I had made a creative effort I went back to remaking for the rest of the day.
We did also manage one nice walk in the morning, but the wind here was bad again making another wise beautiful day a little too cold for my liking, so when I needed a little break, I read some more.

So today I'll focus on remaking again and when I need a break I'll play with the little flourish here. I already have other ideas what to do with the shape once I get it finalized. Oh, the other thing I realized yesterday was that I had my etsy anniversary day wrong in my head. It's actually the 19th, not the 18th. About the same time I discovered that I also decided not to worry about doing something too interesting for it. I was stressing myself out trying to come up with something and that's not doing anyone any good. So to recap, anniversary is not a big deal and there will be more tatting today. Yep, that about sums it up.

Working

Yesterday went just about how I expected it would. I stalled for a while before steeling my nerves to work on getting the large order finished. I've often thought that if I ever hired someone to help me, which is beyond unlikely, it would be just to put on clasps and press my pieces. This time I had the added fun of also carefully bagging up bobby pin sets and earrings, but I think everything is ready to go. I'm still deciding the best way to ship them all safely, but they should be on their way today or tomorrow at the latest.

Then I got to work remaking pieces. I've gotten quite used to working with my thread and finished pieces in a large plastic bag. With all the cats shedding for Spring, it really is the only pragmatic way of avoiding too much fur contamination. I wish I could say that this gets it all, but I still spend quite some time picking off stray bits as I press them. I have plenty more to tat up today. In fact I'm fairly certain the remaking will take me the entire week, but I'm determined to take a little time off as well. Maybe a little more of that book reading and if the weather would like to cooperate, a few nice walks could be good as well.

I took one other photo for you yesterday. The cat was being strange and that seemed a good thing to share. I believe she was attacking a cat toy that was on the floor beneath the chair. Why she couldn't have done so from the ground, I really have no idea.

So here's to a productive day so I can get around to some creativity this week as well. My brain needs the exercise.

Read A Book

I think I have finally found the key to forcing myself into relaxation. You see when I say I'm going to take a little time off, I get bored quickly and generally start tatting or worse if I'm really determined not to tat, I clean. Since I read a book a few weekends ago I've been going through the house finding what is on the shelves that I hadn't had the time to read yet and pulling them down. This seems to be the ticket. I pick a book and I consume it over the weekend. My need to finish them quickly precludes too much else giving me a brain busy, but body relaxed sort of break. This weekend it was the novel my daughter has to read for school, The Book of Three. I hadn't read it as a kid so I thought I better have a clue before I start making her answer questions about it. Then I even started reading some Sherlock Holmes as I am embarrassed to admit I have only experienced as derivative works, never the original stories. Now all that is over for the week and I will get back to work knowing I finally I finally know how to take a weekend off.

I finished tatting up the large order, but I still have all the finishing work to do today. I need to add clasps, ear wires and press the whole lot before I can get it all mailed. After I take care of all that I still have several pieces to remake for the shop and get them all listed again. If by some miracle I get all that done this week it will be followed by some designing, because it is more than time for something new to fly off my needle, but it will have to wait its' turn.

I'll try to get some pictures of something to share for the rest of this week's posts as well because unless something interesting and unexpected happens, it promises to be a fairly boring and work oriented week. I don't want to bore you completely.

Rest

I think I implied during my post yesterday that I was running low on energy and apparently that was truer than I thought. We managed to get schooling done early enough that it was done before the doctor's appointment. The doctor was running later than we're used to so we spent far longer so we spent far longer waiting than usual and I think that's when it started.

When we got home it was already about lunch time, so we ate and after that I got back to tatting. I've been working off the receipt in order which was conveniently purchased by type, first bracelets, then necklaces, followed by earrings and bobby pins. So I just finished the earrings and I thought I'd sit back for a few minutes before I got to the one necklace I skipped and then the bobby pins. Instead, I sat back and drifted away. Not to sleep really, but I really just zoned out and before I knew it the afternoon was gone, the husband was home from work, I'd gotten nothing else done and I was still feeling pretty dazed.

I suppose I had been running on fumes and my body had finally had enough of it. I often get comments and questions about how I manage to get so very much done. Apparently I just run myself until I can go no further and then after a short rest I do it all again. I really don't recommend it. Hopefully I'll find a little quiet time this weekend. There isn't too much planned except for the unexpected request to babysit my nieces overnight on Sunday again. I'll keep, slowly, working on the large order and next week is the kids spring break so rest and recovery may be on the horizon either way. I may even have time to create. I'm not holding my breath of course, but sometimes possibilities are everything.

One Task Down

Another day sitting in a hallway. It wasn't exactly exciting, but I did get quite a lot of tatting done. Apparently I'm even faster without the distractions around the house. You know, the million little things that are always calling for my attention, the kids, things that want to be cleaned or put away, even the television that occasionally wants me to actually pay attention to it. Sitting in the hallway there were only a few moments that required I actually stopped working so I think there's a good chance I'll be done with this large order far sooner than predicted.

We got out of testing a little later than we were suppose to, but she is completely done for the year, so it's all good. Plus as we rolled up to the house, the fence fellow was just departing having already finished the work while I was away. Though they had to completely replace the damaged posts, they'd only had to change out a few slats, so it doesn't look bad at all and the work is guaranteed for a year, so I'm feeling pretty good about all that. The rest of the day was more tatting and more tatting and getting a new printer because I was about to throw the old one out a window or go all Office Space on it.

Today won't get me back to normal yet though. The youngest child has her yearly doctors appointment right after schooling which generally consists of waiting for what seems an eternity and then being seen for 10, 15 minutes. Which is fine because she's healthy and we have no issues, but it will keep the day from reaching normality. I am starting to think about maybe doing a sale or something for my 7th anniversary selling on etsy that's coming up on the 18th. Someone on facebook suggested a new pattern, but they are so very much work for me to put together. I envy those who can create, write out, diagram and post them so efficiently. I can create them okay, but I don't think I even have the energy for that right now, forget about all the other parts that I can barely pass at. So, it will more likely be a one day sale in the shop. It's still a little ways off, so it could change. I guess I should just continue to focus on the large order for the time being.

As Expected

Nothing went sideways yesterday. All was basically as expected. I rushed through the youngest child's classes so we were done in time to take the oldest child to day one of her standardized tests. While she took them, I sat in the hall with the youngest child, as a volunteer hall monitor, tatting. At one point during the day I had the familiar, 'what are you doing?' conversation with a complete stranger. I found it's been too long since I had to explain and I did a poor job of it. She didn't seem to care though and the question flew for a good fifteen minutes.

Testing was done by noon and it was back home to more tatting. I've made up a nice list of all the pieces I need to make up for the large order and they are getting done far faster than I actually expected though that will likely stop now that I've mentioned it and it'll start moving like molasses. Of course to get so much done, I am ignoring pretty much everything else on and offline. We did have someone come by about the fence yesterday with a little good news, bad news. The good news is that if the property owners next door approved the bid, he'll be back today to fix the fence and we'll be paying half. The bad, or rather, 'it figures' news is that they no longer make the same slats our fence uses and so we'll have an odd section of fence. I don't really care all that much about the aesthetics, but it's still kind of annoying and it has been par for the course in this half built development where the builders went bankrupt during construction. Exact replacements for things just don't exist, but what are you gonna do?

So today is day two of testing, so I will basically repeat yesterday. It should be her last day unless they don't get through all the tests they need to today. I really hope they do because the other kid has a doctor's appointment at the same time I would have to drop the oldest off tomorrow and that would make the day extra complicated. So here's to a nice quick, efficient day of testing and tatting in the halls.

Sideways

You know how you expect a day to go one way and then it just goes sideways and there's nothing you can do to reign it in. Yep, that was yesterday. It started with an order right after I finished blogging with a piece I needed to make, so I hurriedly finished the mask that was on my needle and then got to work on some barefoot sandals. Not sideways enough for you?

It was a terribly windy day here, not hurricane strength or anything, but a good 30 mph with some serious gusts. This is significant because we have a long fence on one side with a post busted at the ground level that does not like the wind. We had actually called the people who handle the property next door about getting it fixed weeks ago since it's shared property with no response. Well yesterday afternoon, this happened. The thing blew back and forth like a loose tooth until it snapped.

I propped it up as best as I could hoping it would fall and crush all our wild flowers, called the property management to let them know the situation had worsened, then after the husband got home from work, this finally happened. Yep, seen from out bedroom window, that's four sections of fence on the ground. Wind came and blew it right down leaving nails sticking out and snapped wood slats. We called the property management back since we figured the renters/University students next door wouldn't. Now we cross out fingers that it gets taken care of quickly. Small favor that it did fall down on their side leaving our flowers uncrushed...for now. I have a feeling they'll be destroyed when the fence is repaired.

Still not sideways enough? At the same time I'm trying to desperately stop picture A from becoming picture B I'm fielding messages regarding a large order I mentioned briefly maybe a week ago. I actually assumed that they had changed their minds so I wasn't expecting it at all. I had also initially assumed it would be a dozen pieces or so since that seems to be the generally size of an order of this kind. When, after some back and forth, it finally went through, it was about 40 pieces and my free time is officially cancelled for the next week or two at least. While some of the pieces are already made, most are not. Luckily they are mostly smaller pieces, no masks, large chokers or ankle corsets, but 40 is still a pretty big number for me.

So I started the morning assuming a nice meandering day before all the routine breaking tasks of the week and instead I got handed many more things to do and I didn't even tell you the story of the rebelling printer. Certainly half of my story is a happy one. Even if unexpected, a large order is a good, good thing. Now if it just hadn't been balanced by the fence and the printer, I would have called it a win. As it stands, it was a crazy, crazy, sideways day and I don't even need to tell you what I'll be doing today.

Whew

As you can imagine Friday was a bit of chaos. The three extra children in the house particularly during schooling was a bit of a challenge. Luckily the house is big enough to shoo them away to play elsewhere and my kids did manage to finish all their classes. I was also quite lucky that we had a few movies on hand that they hadn't seen yet which gave me peaceful hours to work on the ordered mask I needed to get done. Of course between movies, the chaos raised up again. I didn't bother trying to clean at all while they were here which was all day.

Saturday was a whirlwind of activity almost from the time I woke up. There was cleaning, decorating and assembling favor boxes. Then the house full of people for a couple hours followed by again cleaning, undecorating and attempting to wind back down. I've also been sneaking in some more reading since I managed to finish the book, I got a taste for it again. I finished the one I picked after that, but it was a much longer read.

Sunday was a comparatively lazy day. The house was clean, the kids had new toys to play with and I picked yet another unread book off the shelf to start my morning. This one I managed to knock out in about 4 hours while the rest of the family played video games. Once that was done I got back to my tatting queue. I'd been so busy this week it's basically been ignored. I fished up a pair of ankle corsets and moved onto a mask. That one I should get done this morning and there are still a few large pieces on the list I can get round to as well.

This week promised to be nearly as busy as the last one. The oldest child has state testing to attend two days this week and the other child has her annual doctor's appointment the day after those. I know that that doesn't sound like too much to worry about, but every day away from routine...well, it just throws everything off. It's like I'm riding in the Heart of Gold and I'm just waiting for normality to be restored. Bonus points if you got the reference.

No Rest

The amount of cleaning I subjected myself to yesterday was excessive and I'm still not really done. I got a little tatting done before schooling started, but after that was done it was all cleaning, all day. I vacuumed, did laundry and dishes. I cleaned off tables turned to storage spaces and counters in the same situation. I even tackled bathrooms, which I do not enjoy. Though I suppose there can't be too many people who do.

After the joy of the bathrooms I allowed myself a bit of a rest to work up the last motif of the custom order. Then it was right back to picking up. I even tidied my tatting corner, which usually resembles a crows nest. Not the kind on a ship, but an actual crow attracted to shiny things. Aside from the threads and needles and crochet hooks, there's always dozen of stray bits of tatting and beads and crystals and it's really ridiculous.

Late yesterday evening my nieces and nephew arrived, wrought a little chaos and then we tried to get the girls to sleep in the guest room which is apparently scary. So they're all on the couch with their big brother. I am so lucky my kids have thus far not had bedtime issues. They sleep like rocks wherever and whenever.

So today will be wrangling the children who are on spring break whilst trying to teach my two children who are not. Then I still have floors to clean, counters to wipe down and other sundry things to do. Then tomorrow I've got decorating, birthday party and the cleaning up after that. All that and I have a mask that was ordered overnight that needs making. So I suppose I have my work all cut out for me. This is definitely feeling like a no rest for the wicked type of week.

One Down

I know I say this a lot, but what a day. I'm afraid I never did get the time to pick up a needle and thread because we adventured so completely for the the child's birthday. We started the day with a trip to the zoo a few towns over. We got there early securing prime parking and enjoyed the single best performance of their bird show ever. Not because it was flawless, but because the mistakes and bird incidents were many and hilarious, from the hawk who landed next to us refusing to complete his mission to the Black Vulture that chased an employee until she fell spectacularly. I should note she was fine afterwards, we asked, but just so very funny. The rest of the zoo trip was wonderful sighting things we'd not seen before and the weather was very nearly perfect.

After the zoo it was a trip to Toys R Us where they give the child a crown and balloon and announce her birthday while we shop. A few small toys later we're on our way home. I think we were home for maybe two hours when we headed back out of town for dinner. After dinner we were treated to our very first sighting of a hawk moth we mistook for a hummingbird initially. It was feeding at the jasmine outside the restaurant. The only giveaway to its true identity was a pair of antennae. We stayed and watched for quite some time before finally heading home and crawling into bed.

So today I have much work to do. I still have that custom order to finish and a house to clean. We're doing the birthday party on Saturday which would usually mean cleaning on Friday, but I am babysitting two nieces and a nephew overnight tonight and all day Friday. While I think I might be able to get some slave labor out of them for cleaning, I don't want to rely on that, so today I must clean and get things ready for the party and hope that a house full of 5 cousins doesn't result in complete destruction. All this while still getting regular schooling done both days. I'm starting the day with deep breaths and determination.

Busy

Another extremely busy, busy day. I started tatting even before I did schooling trying to get a jump on things. I didn't finish the pile of pendants until after though. I really shouldn't complain. It took me two days last year to make  all the Tatting Day sale pendants and another day to get them all packed and shipped out. Yesterday I got them all done, packed and ready to go out this morning.

Of course there was a fun little etsy email glitch where it sent the wrong address along with its' shipping notifications rightly confusing several customers. Luckily one emailed me quickly, I was able to figure out who was affected and I sent out messages of apology. Etsy says it's fixed now, but boy that added a pile of extra tasks to the day.

I also managed to get back to a custom order I got before the Tatting Day pendants. I have two pieces left to finish on that and since we're adventuring to an out of town zoo today for the child's birthday, I likely will get nothing tatted today. All tatting tasks will be on hold until Thursday unless there is a lull in the day.

I don't think anything else of interest occurred yesterday. I'm waiting on a large order that may be coming this week, but I haven't heard anything on it since last Tuesday so there's a chance it's not happening either, but if it does I'll have quite the queue to remake on my hands soon. Until then it's a small queue and today it's just the zoo.

Whew

Well it wasn't as busy a sale day as it had been in the past as far as the sale motif goes anyway. Maybe I didn't try hard enough to come up with a motif that people just "had" to own. The saddest part though is that everyone who bought a motif had already shopped with me before meaning I didn't get any converts that way. On the plus side the pattern sales were okay and I sold quite a few of those to new customers. So I guess I convinced more people to create and changed fewer into consumers. Either way I do still have a lot of work to do today. I still have a handful of motifs left to make as well as a few other pieces that sold as well.

I got the strangest disconnected feeling as I sold patterns yesterday though. It was the first time I sold any under the new instant download method which meant I didn't have to do a thing. On one hand that's great, I get the sale notification and my job is over, but I am so used to fulfilling orders and messaging customers which makes me connect to them at least a little bit. This is much less personal. I suppose it's a good thing I don't have too many patterns to sell then. I really do like to get a sense of my customers and that's a bit difficult with no contact.

Tomorrow is the youngest child's birthday so basically I have today to wrap up the motif sale pieces to get everything in the mail by Wednesday morning. After that's done I have a custom order I'm working on followed by remaking the other pieces that sold yesterday since I think I got a few payday orders. Those will probably have to wait until Thursday and beyond. Then there's all the house cleaning I'll need to do in anticipation of having family over for the birthday party this weekend. I really should stop writing all this out in the morning. Just reading it makes me tired.

Before I forget though, Thanks to everyone that bought a pattern or motif or shared the deal yesterday. It may not have been my most successful Tatting Day event eve , but I certainly appreciate every little bit! Now that this is out of the way I can start to think about designing again soon...not sure when of course, but soon.

International Tatting Day

Happy International Tatting Day everyone! As I'm sure I'll have to mention every year, this is not an April's fools thing, just an unfortunately timed holiday. Seriously Google it, it exists. To celebrate this holiday I try to do what little I can to expose tatting to a wider audience, to get a few people off the fence to pick up a shuttle or needle and try this lace making stuff or to just own a little tatted lace and appreciate it as the versatile and unique craft that it is.

To that end I am offering this classic looking pendant in any color thread I have on hand for the today only price of $5 plus shipping costs. You can pick up as many as you like, shipping only applies to the first one. Give them out, hoard them in every color, do what you will, just get one! This is not a limited edition design, it will remain in the shop, but at it's "regular price" after today or more precisely when I change the price tomorrow morning.



But Pam, you say, my name's Pam if you didn't know, I can tat just fine, why should I buy something from you I could clearly make? Even though I'd still love for you to get one, I understand, so this year I went one extra step with my Tatting Day preparations and I worked up the pattern for this motif, the cuff bracelet using it and the derived motif that makes a lovely pair of earrings with. This is also for sale, but at it's everyday price since it's already fairly inexpensive and it will also remain on sale after today. So those you can tat, go ahead, pick up the instant download pattern, grab some thread and chocolate, head somewhere public and tat away. Someone is always bound to ask what it is you're doing and there's another convert right there. Why the chocolate? Everything is better with chocolate.

If you can't pick up the pendant or pattern or even if you can, do me a favor and spread the word. Share this blog post wherever you share things, twitter, facebook, pinterest, tumblr, your own blog, wherever. Let tatting spread as far as it can today as Jane always says, Tatting rules the world!