Gone

Just as I supposed, I got very little done yesterday, but I did rush to get the newest necklace listed in the morning before I gave the day over to the whims of the birthday boy. I suppose it's a good thing because I woke up this morning to the sound of it selling to someone in France. So, not a same day, but close bloody enough for me. It's been a good, good week for the shop. Even though it's sold, I thought you might like a look at the finished piece, since it was just a tease yesterday. This leaves just the purple one on hand.

The rest of the day was devoted to family adventures. We went out to lunch and then to see Monster's University. After that the husband has computer stuff to play with and new video games. This was all followed by going out to dinner and then ice cream. It was a long, long day.

I get to spend today catching up and cleaning so we can have family over tomorrow. Also it's suppose to be like 107º so I'm not leaving the house after 11. I've got a special order to make just as soon as I get a little more information from the customer and one other sold piece to remake. That should keep the weekend nice and busy, just the way I like it.

Last One...For Now

Another action packed day. Well, I'm not certain you can use that phrase for a day with as much sitting as my days typically possess. I mean I do my best work sitting down. Standing whilst tatting is a tad more challenging than its worth really.

I started the day with weed pulling and planting seeds for the windowsill. The kids are always picking out new plants to try and they come in these little covered egg shaped containers like mini greenhouses so they have a pretty good chance at survival. After that it was errand running and listing the newest red necklace, which I'm happy to announce is already off to it's new home as well. Two days in a row, I sell something the day it's listed. I feel downright spoiled. Anyway, I rummaged through my findings and came up with enough copper bits to make another piece in green. Again I tried to make sure it was different than the others, but it's getting more difficult for me. Luckily this is the last one for awhile. Even if I do run across more of those center filigree pieces, I'll save them for another time.

Today is the husbands birthday and he's got many plans for the day. I'm going to try to get this necklace listed, but it's quite possible that I won't. In fact it's quite possible that I won't get any tatting done today at all. It's a good thing I got all those earrings made up yesterday as well or I'd feel neglectful. It should be a nice day though, out to lunch, the movies and whatever else he'd like. Of course it'll likely make for a boring blog post tomorrow. My apologies in advance, but I hope you day is nice as well.

In Red

Another lovely, busy day for me. I got the two new necklaces listed early in the morning and by evening one of them has already found a home. The other is listed here. The same day sale happens so infrequently that is a cause for great happiness. I am getting ahead of myself though. After I got those listed I went back to getting that replacement bracelet made up. Once it was done I got creative again.
I think I only have one or two of these center filigrees left so there won't be many more of these. They were part of a grab bag years ago so I'm not sure I could find more of them if I tried. I'm also almost out of any brass bits thought I think I might have enough copper ones left to make another.  Again, getting ahead of myself. This one was cebelia thread in cranberry. I'm trying to make each piece as individual as possible, so the center on this one is completely different that the others, well it's all completely different really.

I almost forgot that I wanted to also show you one of the reasons it takes me so long to get photos, the help. JiJi, the cat, seriously would not get away until he was forcibly removed. Then of course everything had to be inspected for cat hair...again.

I also got an order yesterday for several of my earrings. I'm guessing from the customers previous communication that I can expect most of them to be returned after being seen in person, but I just can't have them unlisted while I wait, so I'll be working on getting all of those remade and relisted. It shouldn't take too long and having backups once some of them return, never hurts. I'll also get the new red necklace up and if time permits, I've got some bits in antiqued silver that may become some new one offs. It's going be another long day.

Pretty Filligree Pieces

I buckled down and got to work yesterday. I spent the morning painting headbands black and then I followed that up with a giant sorting of grab bags. The last two I got remained all mixed up and I obsessively sort them into glass beads, natural stone beads, wood beads, and metal findings. The metal findings are my favorite. In fact I'm sorely tempted to get rid of some of the other stuff, but it's just so heavy that I'll likely let it turn into a mini hoard, like a dragons treasure.

After the sorting was, well, sorted, I moved onto making stuff. After the two small pendants, I decided that this time I would go for the bigger pieces. I started with some copper findings, the last I had in the hoard actually and used Lizbeth evergreen in size 20. I usually use 10, but 20 is easier to work with when you have to work around suck small spaces in the findings. It also looks much more delicate. I almost just put the piece on a copper chain, but the only one I had on hand was a bit clunky for it. I opted for the tatted chain and even gave myself he excuse to practice my split chain. I'm not quite rubbish with it, but it could be better.

This is the point in the day where I pulled out a different finding that I thought looked neat and tried to work around it. Now, it was rubbish and was quickly cut away as were two subsequent attempts. I just went back to what I knew would work after that, the same center finding, but in brass. I didn't have any similar bits in brass so I tried a couple of different side pieces before I settled on a simple daisy. I used Lizbeth in dark purple, which doesn't want to photograph accurately with my phone. I  had some tiny brass filigree bead that I added to the chains for this one. There were some changes I made on the center piece as well.

The plan is to get both these necklaces listed today and then I'm making up a spare bracelet because I've gotten word from a customer across the pond that the one they ordered hasn't arrived yet. There's still another week or so before it's been a month which is usually the outside of when they arrive. Sometimes it's a week, sometimes a month. I do wish the post was more consistent, but there's nothing I can do but prepare just in case I need to send a replacement. Then if I have the time I do have one more of those brass findings and some red stones I can add, so I might try to do up one more of these sort of necklaces. Then maybe I'll rummage through the findings again for more treasure so long as my motivation holds.

Boring

Another weekend, another mostly interest free recap. I really did mean to do something interesting this time, but I just didn't. Let's see, I did sell one of the new one off necklaces I made last week, so I fully intended to replace it with something, but I never got round to it. I blame the postal service. They said my thread would arrive on Friday, which it didn't. If it had arrived on Friday I would have finished the medallion order by Saturday morning and had plenty of time to muck around with whatever one of a kind pieces I wanted. Instead the thread arrived on Saturday afternoon, so I spent the rest of that day working on the medallions and most of Friday was wasted remaking barefoot sandals.

I also got an order for my cat ears which meant I needed to remake a pair of them as well. I ended up using the last black headband I had, so today I'll need to paint the other headbands black, so they're ready to go. I suppose I could have used just a bit of yesterday evening to make something new, but by that point I was just tired since the weather turned on Sunday and we were just so lazy most of the day.

So I guess today is painting headbands and hopefully making up a few new things to keep the momentum going and provide me with some pictures to share with you because I too, do not want to be boring.

Listed

I was pretty much back on track yesterday. The first thing I did in the morning, well after writing and eating and the like, was to list the two pendants. Then it was right back to making the large medallions for the custom order I mentioned yesterday. I actually got much further yesterday than I thought and now I'm only waiting on my thread order to start the rest of them.

I checked the tracking yesterday and it said they were expected to be delivered today, so I guess I'll be able to get back to work on them this afternoon. I won't finish them starting that late in the day, but that likely means they'll be ready to ship on Monday at any rate.

In the meantime I'm working on the pieces I needed to get remade from the last two orders. It's two different pairs of barefoot sandals, so that should keep me busy for a while as well. We don't have any huge plans over the weekend, so if I get a bit of free time I may just make some more one off pieces. I'm tempted to make some in colors, but black is my go to color. I'm always afraid that I'll make something nice, but people won't like the color I chose, so I stick with black. I think I'm babbling now because I'm already run out of things to share, so I'll be off now and here's to a weekend full of tatting tasks.

Busier

Alright, I didn't do much I what I said I'd do yesterday. I have a couple of fine excuses though. So I didn't get to remaking the pieces that sold because just as I was sitting down to do my morning blog work for the Wunderkammer, I got a message from a lovely repeat customer with a request for 8 large motifs in some unusual colors. They are only unusual because I don't have any thread in those shades on hand. So this meant I spent a good part of the morning doing thread inventory so I could make a full order of threads from Handy Hands instead of just the three balls I would need for the order. That task sucked away a good portion of the morning and a great many dollars. The rest of the morning was given to getting started on her order with the colors I did have on hand.

The afternoon started off with my second excuse, the family dental appointment, which is starting to take a bit longer since the children are getting old enough to be treated to the more aggressive cleanings. The lucky little buggers still have yet to get a cavity. Yes, I know that's a good thing. I guess I'm just a bit jealous.

When we got home I almost went ahead and got the new pendants listed, but the husband was home for the afternoon and his mocking of my self portrait photography is legendary, so I just left it for today and went back to the motif order.

That's entirely what is on tap for today as well. I'll get those pendants listed this morning so I can spend the rest of the day working on the motifs. It'll take me a few days at least to get these ones done and a couple more days once my thread order arrives to finish them. Then I can get back to the pieces that need remaking. I am truly pleased at the change back to busy around here. I enjoy being productive and hopefully it keeps up for a long time.

Busy is Better

I managed to stay a little more focused yesterday. Of course part of the reason for that was the youngest child wasn't feeling too well and so I wasn't spending as much time entertaining the kids, just the frequent, 'do you need anything?' question. She was mostly just a little feverish and tired.

I got the new bracelet listed and thought a bit about what else to do with the technique. Since I couldn't think of anything straight away, I went back to cross stitching. It's a set of four hummingbirds if you were curious. They were in a large bag of needle work kits passed on to me from a family friend who no longer does them, so I didn't buy them. That being said, I am fond of hummingbirds as are the kids, so I'm making these ones for their room.

After I finished one more bird, I went back to tatting. I figured it had been quite some time since I had some one off pieces in the shop. I started with some fairly simple ones and just tatted around some bits. I'll put them on chains today and get them listed. When I get more free time, I think I'll just try for some more one of a kind pieces. They sell slowly, but I don't have to pay attention to the patterns at all since they won't likely be replicated. I just make them up as I go.

I was granted two sales overnight, so I'm pleased to say that I will be remaking some pieces today. We also have the family dental appointments this afternoon so I'm not sure what else I'll have the time to get up to. I'm crossing my fingers that the tide is turning back to busy. I'm much better at being busy than bored.

Productivity

I won't lie, yesterday did not start out on the right foot. After getting the kids up and going out on a walk and doing laundry, I should have gotten back to work on something tatting related, but I didn't. There was more reading and cross stitching and general stalling. Heck at some point I even took an 'almost' nap. You know the kind where you never really fall asleep, but you still can't be bothered to open your eyes or move. After I stirred from that time wasting nonsense, I was determined to do something, anything.

The first thing I did was turn that last piece into a necklace and get it listed. I almost copped out and went with a metal chain, but decided that I really needed to tat something straight away or the stalling would just continue. I forced myself to get it finished and photographed and listed. I needed to get something new in the shop. Something new to share on facebook, on twitter, here. Once that was done I almost curled back up with a book, but I had started back to work and I needed to keep the momentum going.

I decided that I needed to work on the other ideas I had for this basic design technique. So I started by changing the center and working out from there. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this idea either, until I laid it across my wrist and a bracelet was born. The side sections were worked with one fewer row and rather than join them at picots, I wove the end chain through the larger motif. The resulting bracelet is a little too big for me, but since I can hook it further in the lace, it will work well. Plus, most people have larger wrists than me.

So that was an unusually productive day, at least compared with recent days. I have the finishing work to do on the bracelet and hopefully I can continue to be motivated enough to get to listed today. Maybe I'll even be motivated enough to keep working on new stuff while the shop remains in an unnatural hibernation state. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just the lack of sales but they are joined by lots of questions that lead nowhere getting my hopes up and dashing them back down. Oh, well, the only way out is through.

Boring

Well, I had a bit of a vacation this weekend. Not because we went anywhere too interesting, but because I managed to not do much worth noting. Again I didn't tat all weekend. I spent a good deal of time on Friday staring at the new design, but I just didn't feel motivated to do anything with it at the time. Maybe I was just burnt out, maybe the quietness of the shop in June is finally taking its toll on me. It's always quiet in June, but without the need to make for the shop or a customer, I lose my motivation pretty quickly. Whatever it was, it sent me in other directions.

I spent my free time over the weekend doing a little cross stitch kit I found while cleaning which I should have taken a picture of so you'd at least have something to look at, but I didn't. The rest of my time went to family activities or cleaning. We saw The Man of Steel on Saturday followed by a visit to a friends house to meet their new baby. We spent Sunday celebrating Father's day, by letting the children hang out in a pool with their cousins and eating copious amounts of food.

So here I am at the first real week of the kid's summer vacation and I haven't a clue what to do with myself. I'll have to make sure to engage the children for a while, then I'll likely stare at that last piece again hoping for some inspiration or just a sharp kick to get me moving. If that doesn't happen, I fear I will just let another day pass by full of mindless cross stitch. the reading of an overly involved sci-fi novel or worse binge watching on Netflix. I already miss being busy, so here's to a day full of unexpected things to do that I hopefully will want to do.

I Tatted Something

I was pretty afraid I was going to be a liar again and not get around to any tatting. I was just so determined to finish this CD project that I should have completed, you know 5, 10 years ago. Good news, I did finish and thanks to a hardware assist from the husband, I still had time to get back to tatting.

I didn't have anything specific in mine to create, so I went with the, browse old tatting books until something catches my eye, method. This, I don't know what you'd call it, fish scale, sort of design looked interesting, so I started working it as written. Usually even when I know that I'm going to drastically change an older design, I work at least some of it up without my usual mucking with it.

I only got that far before I started in with the changes. As it got bigger I thought about all the possibly uses for the design, how I might change even the center beginning, but I still wanted to be able to use the piece I was making as something. After a couple more rows it was already huge, but I think it will make an awesome pendant necklace. Not a subtle one, of course, but I'm rarely subtle. I will definitely have to stiffen this one though. Those long outside chains are behaving pretty well right now, but I know they will revolt after being worn. I think I might even have to go with fa-brick on the backside which holds much better than Stiffen Stuff. It has a sheen since it coats the lace, so that's why I'd just use it on one side. I like the lace to retain it's natural look as much as possible.

I don't have any other tasks planned for today, except maybe some gardening, but I dislike gardening so I may stall on that a while longer. I should have plenty of time to get some more work done with this design, theoretically. Man, it really needs a name so I can stop spacing when I mention it...I guess I'll work on that too.

Sad Realization

Well we had our pajama day...well, they did. I couldn't possibly do that. I have to get up and get dressed. The children did nothing of consequence, but rather than use the peace to create, I used it to clean. I tackled the catch all that is my half of the computer room. It turns out I do in fact have a desk and the amount of boxes I kept around 'just in case' was a bit ridiculous. Their removal revealed much floor. I even tackled some of my tatting mess. I have a nasty habit of hanging on to every little thing. So I chucked a bunch of failed attempts into the trash along with some threads I tried out and hated. Don't get mad, they were just small little samples. You know I'd offer that sort of thing to you if I thought it would be useful at all.

The only other worthwhile thing I did with my time was continue the importing of our CD collection into my computer. While I was stuck in the room I finished reading The Invisible Man, as tragic and violent a story as I've ever read. Unfortunately the rest of the tasks that occupied my day make for really boring reading. Sure I battled several fronts of ants. Don't bother telling me how to sop them, they are an unrelenting force that I will just have to battle every time the emerge from a new location, which will likely be daily for the rest of the summer. We also set up a tank of triops for the childrens delight, but it will be days before the eggs hatch.

Today I am determined to run some errands and then do some tatting. I may have two months of no schooling, but I still have to occupy their time and sometimes it's harder to do without the structure of classes. Running up to summer I always forget this and imagine all this free time to create for two months. Yep, that doesn't exist. The summer is really no different. I still have kids to take care of and entertain, a house to clean, blogs to write and a household to run. Such a disappointing realization. Oh, well. Here's hoping for some tatting to show you tomorrow.

My Time Is Now Mine

As I anticipated, yesterday was a serious waste of time, save for a few small things. We finished up their last day of school pretty early and then I spent the rest of the morning just hoping luck would be with me later at jury duty.

My in-laws took us out to lunch to celebrate the last day of schooling and I even got a few little "teacher" gifts. My in-laws are the best, seriously wonderful people. After that though it was off to the courthouse to waste the afternoon away. Luckily they now have free wi-fi and I had The Invisible Man on my phone, so I spent a couple of hours reading, in between "informative" videos.

Luck was with me as I was not in the only group sent to a court room and the rest of us got dismissed, I spent the remainder of the day on a quest to import our CD collection into my computer. Sure there are many of them there already, but we have tons of them since I used to work at a music store and I've been missing some of the older music.

Today, I've promised the children a pajama day. You might think because we home-school that that's every day, but I have a thing about getting up and getting dressed, so this is a rare occurrence. I also promised them that they could have a real day off and I won't bother them with things to do which means they'll be playing Minecraft all day. So I'm hoping that I either get a sale to work on or I get inspired to create something new since I clearly have the time for it today.

The End

Well, here we are at the last day of schooling. I'd be much happier about that if it was immediately followed by an afternoon of jury duty that could potentially ruin many future days. It's my own fault though. I needed to postpone it to avoid ruining end of year celebrations and doctor's appointments. So I will suffer as long as is required of me.

I got a lot done yesterday, just nothing very interesting. I had my back drop necklace to remake which starts by making dozens of bead links and assembling them with the chains. Then they're the actual tatting followed by the assembly of the lace with the chains. It's a long drawn out process that took all day. Well all day save for the couple of hours it took me to get all their school stuff packed up and ready to send back. With two kids this year, there are far more boxes and I'm dreading the trip to the UPS store with it's many trips back to the car to get another box. The first part is done at least though.

I'm afraid that's all I have to share today. I don't anticipate getting much chance to tat since I can't do that at jury duty. Apparently a long needle frightens them as do scissor and even nail clippers. So I will likely spend the afternoon reading. I've moved onto H.G. Wells books for the time being. I got through The Time Machine over the weekend and now I'm reading The Invisible Man. I really am ashamed at all the classic books that I only know of from adaptations and popular culture, not from actually reading them. It's kid of surprising because I was a voracious reader as a kid, but I guess I just wasn't as exposed to these kinds of books as much as I would have liked.

So to recap, last day of schooling followed by jury duty. Who wants to bet tomorrows blog post will be equally boring? I know, not much of a bet is it?

Hot

It really was such a long weekend that I'm having a bit of difficultly remembering what I even did on Friday. We had a bit of a heat wave over the weekend and I contend that it cooked the memory right out of me, not to mention the number it did on my productivity.

On Friday I managed to do the one thing I swore I was going to get done for days. I finished and listed the two color necklace. Then I don't think I did too much else. I had a house to clean up a bit as my brother was staying with us Saturday and last night, so I think that's where I focused my energy. Then I got a text from my sister letting me know her youngest son had appendicitis and was going in for surgery. Everything worked out just fine, but that did occupy much of our thoughts the rest of the day.

On Saturday was had a Lowe's Build and Grow building thing, followed by early errands as the heat was already getting powerful. Then we had a family birthday party for the poor nephew that had just had his appendix removed. That was pretty much the whole of the day as I couldn't be bothered to do much else when it's 106º outside.

Sunday was another lazy day. We watched the children swim the morning away at the in-laws house and then sat about not doing too much at all. Today I do have to make up for all the laziness though. There are two days left of schooling and I did all one piece over the weekend that I need to get remade and it's a big one, so that should take my spare time today. Then I really should get all the school stuff ready to be packed up and sent back so as soon as I get the labels It can get it all out of here. Then I can spend the rest of the day dreading the jury duty I have to attend tomorrow afternoon and crossing my fingers that it is just a one day inconvenience. Yep, it's going to be a long day, but at least is suppose to be much cooler.

Up and Down

I have a good news, bad news situation regarding yesterday. Although that really makes it out to be much more than it is. Maybe minor success, minor failure. I did avoid that blasted casual game all day. I didn't touch it, not once, but I only managed to get a couple more color variations done before my mind wandered off and I didn't get the lot listed at all, I didn't even get to the point of pressing the pieces. The blue one up top there is actually two different shades, but my phone camera is incapable of distinguishing them, so you'll have to wait until I actually get my rear in gear and use the real camera before you'll see them properly.

In more up and down news. I received two request messages yesterday and they were written ever so wonderfully. At first I was a bit embarrassed that I might have guilted them into writing like that, but then I decided that even if I had, I was glad of it and I hope I might have done the same to others with my rant. On the down side, I woke up to another rude request in my etsy shop for a pattern of a finished necklace...in French. My French is, shall we say, awful, so I had to use a translator to tell them no, I don't care if you 'preferais le faire moi meme' I'm not giving you the pattern. Two against one for civility though, so still feeling good about the day.

I also recently received this photo of the Thread Studio at the Denver Art Museum which is displaying a pair of my ankle corsets.

 

Hopefully I left the picture nice and big, so you can click on it and view it better. It really is a lovely display and I feel so humbled to be part of such an exhibition.

I just have one more minor success to share, though you likely don't care all that much. I finally finished the entire cannon of Sherlock Holmes stories. That's 56 short stories and 4 novels and apparently it took me just under two months to do so. I really didn't think it was taking that long, but it really was a lot of stories. Now, if I was still in school I would likely be writing one hell of a report right now, but since I'm not, I'm not certain what to do with my newly acquired knowledge. I guess I just pick something else to read and move on.

I did get a couple of orders overnight, so I have plenty of tatting to get on with. Hopefully being busy will get me back into work mode and I will actually get the two color necklace finished and listed. I have the whole weekend before I have to confess if I don't, so there's a good chance.

Casual Gaming

I went from having too much to complain about to next to nothing to share at all. I did a silly thing yesterday morning. I downloaded a new iPhone game and then I started playing it. You know the machine from Princess Bride, the only that sucks life away? Yeah. it was like that, but instead of years, it just sucked most of my day away and I have absolutely nothing to show for it.

I did make a couple two color variations of the motif up, but I didn't even get a picture of them. The only other things I achieved throughout the day were entertainment based. I got some more netflix shows watched and a couple more Sherlock Holmes stories read. I'm starting to think the end of the school year for the kids is having a deeper effect on me that I realized. I think my brain wants a vacation and it's taking one without my permission. Too bad it will have to wait another month of so for real one.

So today I am going to try to get a couple more motifs made up and actually get the two color necklace listed. Getting things done like this is always a challenge. I need more pressure to get things done. If there is no one waiting for it, no anticipation, I just get so unmotivated. So here's to someone ordering something up today so I can get back in that head space and get some work done. Otherwise I'm likely to fall back into the trap of a casual game...the horror.

One Forward, One Back

Well yesterday's issue turned out about as good as can be expected, though I didn't think it was going to for sometime. When the customer first responded they acknowledged that they must have missed the sizing, but didn't want to incur the shipping costs to return for an exchange or refund, so I feared that neutral was mine to keep. Then the oddest thing happened, they initiated the process to change the feedback and suddenly all my complaining was for nothing. Don't get me wrong, I still wish that I have been contacted before the feedback was left and I still wish more people would read descriptions more carefully, but that's more of a general complaint anyway. Another side effect of complaining out loud was the wonderful commiseration with others who'd had similar or in most cases worse experiences and the other nice things they felt compelled to share, so all's well that ends well.

I also got my rear in gear, decided that the new motif looked most interesting on it side and listed it as a necklace. Hanging from a corner it did resemble a lot of other motifs, not exactly of course, but the squared version I found to be more unique. I might do up the two color version as a choose your own colors listing, but I'll need to make up a few more examples before I do so. I don't have any big plans today, so there's a real possibility that it will get done.

Now, one more bout of complaining. I know you're getting sick of it, but remember I mentioned something that got to me over the weekend, well it came back this morning, so I must get it out of my system.

Even before I started to share some patterns, people would message me asking for patterns. Now sometimes people are very polite when they ask and I can tell they only hoped I would acquiesce, not assumed I would. Every once in a while they were in luck as I did have that pattern written up and didn't mind sharing. More often lately though I get requests all the time that run a little like this: 'Can you email me the pattern for this piece?' Yep, that will be the whole of the message, just GIVE ME. No greeting, no closing, heck sometimes there is not even a name except in the email address.

This is unacceptable. Have we really gotten so uncivilized that we can't write a proper letter especially when asking for something that one has no claim to. They barely ask and it seems they think they are entitled to have their request granted. Look, I love that I can sometimes share or sell a few patterns. I love that people are inspired by my work, that I have in any way helped people to learn tatting, but giving the world some, does not entitle it to all. So, I don't mind if you ask for a pattern that you really want to make, I have on more than one occasion actually had one written up to share, but don't go assuming since most of the ones I want to share are already out there and please I beg of you put some thought into requesting something of anyone you don't personally know. Do not let the art of polite correspondence completely whither and die because of the ease of the Internet.

I'm going to go make some lace now that that is all out of my system. I hope that's the last of my whining for a spell. I know it can be irksome when I get like this and I don't really want to annoy anyone out there. I do, however, always feel much better after I vent, so thanks for putting up with it.

Neutral

I have just woken up to the second worst feedback in my shop one can receive, the neutral. Well, that put me in a mood. I've gotten one before when a package was shipped overseas and went through customs with one fewer piece that it started. I was blameless, but I also cannot blame them for the feedback as they never got that piece. This one is a bit more annoying as I feel it is unfounded. I suppose I should just be glad it wasn't a negative since those affect ones feedback rating and I have tried so hard never to get one of those. The feedback states that the bracelet was too small because they wear a 7" bracelet, which would be a valid complaint except that the listing clearly describes the bracelet as being 6", so it was never going to fit...if they had read the fairly short description.

I often remake my pieces to fit custom sizes, this one however is one made of motifs and those can only really change by adding or subtracting one, so I couldn't even offer to make it a better size for them. I offered an exchange or refund this morning, but I do so wish people would contact the seller before leaving feedback for something that would almost certainly be fixed had it been brought to ones attention. I also wish that it were possible to reply directly to feedback like this, but you can't and I've made my effort, so it that neutral doesn't disappear, I at least hope that some more people will actually leave feedback for their purchases to bury it amongst them, so few people do. So if you're reading this and you bought something you like from me, a piece or a pattern, over the last 6 months, please go leave your feedback. Of course if you didn't like it, you don't need to bother, but you could have messaged me and I would have made it better!

Well now that that is out of my system, yesterday was a fairly boring, quiet day. I worked on remaking and then playing with the new motif just a bit because of some kind comments here. I tried it with two colors just to see how it would play. I'm also now thinking it would look cute hanging from the corners as a square as well as a diamond. I don't know when I'll make a decision and get it listed though...starting the day annoyed does not bode well for my productivity.

I will try to get back to work and get the motif listed as well as some more pieces remade, but I will likely dwell on the mornings issue until I get some sort of response from the customer. I let things bother me far more than I let on, but I can usually let it go once I have done all that I can, eventually anyway.

Too Hot

In what is probably a very bad sign for the day to come, I woke up with quite a headache. It's likely due to the heat as the weather has decided that it's actually the middle of Summer instead of Spring and rocketed the temperature up past 100º and it plans to keep at it for some time. I don't mind the heat in principle, I just prefer a more natural progression to it.

I did get up to a little new tatting on Friday. I made this little motif with no real purpose in mind. I like it alright, but I think it might be too similar to other peoples work since I got a few, 'hey, that looks just like...' comments. I've never seen a similar one personally, but the comments put me off doing anything with it...at least for now. I did take some time to fine tune the design before setting it aside though and now the outside chains are a bit straighter.

The rest of the weekend was attempts to beat the heat for the kids. First a splash pool thing on Saturday and then their grandparents pool on Sunday. I don't really like swimming myself. You can chalk it up to a bad childhood experience. So instead I read while sitting outside with the family. I am just a few stories away from finishing the entire Sherlock Holmes original canon. Sadly I don't think the experience has done a thing for my powers of observation.

I also made a couple of good sales over the weekend, so I have a few bigger pieces that need remaking today. It's basically just that and schooling for the day though. I did have a few annoyances over the weekend as well, but I'm not really in the mood to complain this morning. Be warned though, if I wake up one day this week without anything better to share, you'll hear all about it. Here's hoping I don't run out of nice things to share.