Happy Halloween

I absolutely adore it when the Universe listens and grants me my silly requests. Yesterday was a busy, busy day. We had to be quick with schooling to get to the oldest child's teacher meeting. Even so, we still had more to do when we got home, taking us right up to lunch time. After lunch, I had promised to put up more sugar skull pieces in the window with the kids and then we decided to make more skeleton cookies. This time we did snicker-doodles...they didn't look great, but they were tasty.

All this family time put me pretty late in starting some tatting for the day, so I really concentrated to get as much done as possible, still I didn't even finish the pair of ankle corsets I was working on. This is a shame because while I was working, I sold the last pair I had on hand as well as a few other pieces. This means I now have a full queue of items to remake again.

Today is not only Halloween, which means a trip to the Husband's job with the kids for trick-or-treating in the afternoon, but it's also my Mother's birthday. So with all that and plenty to get tatted up and schooling, I have yet another busy day on my hands. Man, do I wish this was a Friday.

Happy Halloween to you all...once tomorrow hits, Christmas will be everywhere and personally, I'll start getting a tad annoyed that they can't wait until after Thanksgiving. For today though, enjoy. I'll be handing out unsold tatted spiders to all the adults I run into I think.

Stand Up

If there's one thing that ruins the possibility of a lazy day, it's housework. Specifically that housework that really can't wait, like laundry and dishes. So with that on the agenda yesterday, I was far less lazy than the previous day. Schooling also ran longer than usual because we needed to collect work samples to turn in and I confess we do far more work online or verbally than on paper. This is partly by design of the program and partly because I am generally more concerned with making sure they are learning than I am with a perfectly written paper. I know, I need to change my expectations.

After schooling and in between the other chores I managed to complete both masks that needed to be finished. I've also decided that whenever I am just working on orders or remaking pieces that I'm going to just go ahead and take an abstract photo so I can have some lace to share in the blog at the very least.

I also got an order in yesterday for a pair of ankle corsets, so I started remaking a pair of those. It's actually been some time since I sold some, so the pattern didn't immediately come to mind. There were a couple of false starts before I really got the rhythm of the piece. Speaking of rhythm, well not really...um, I decided to give tatting while standing a try. This relates to rhythm only in the sense that I was listening to music at the time. I realized that I sit far too much because I am working and I wondered if I could stand and still tat at full speed. I knew I could tat standing, I just didn't know how much it would slow me down. Not as much as I feared, it turns out. So I am going to make an effort to do so at least for a time everyday.

Of course as I made this decision, I was confronted with my lazy lounging cats and wondered why it is that they can lounge and it doesn't shorten their lifespan, but we sit for too long and we lose years even if we exercise. Ah, the cruelty of life. Well, I have those ankle corsets to work on today as well as a teacher meeting in the middle of the morning. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and the orders keep steadily coming in to keep me busy and standing.

Lazy

What an incredibly lazy day I had yesterday. Sure, I did schooling int he morning followed by some light cleaning and then there was the mask order I worked on all day, but I felt lazy. I suppose my definition of lazy may not be the commonly accepted one.

The kids decorated more sugar skull foam shapes and I just sat there, tatting at the mask. I should have that done today and there is still one more mask that needs to be remade. That one is almost finished as well so I should get it finished too. I stopped working on it to get orders taken care of. I should also make up some more kitty ear headbands as I am again down to the last one. They actually seem to sell all year round, so it's always a good idea to have more than one on hand.

That's about it though. I really did nothing of interest to share and I don't have much faith that today will be any different. Maybe I should ask the Universe for something interesting to happen...you know, just so I have something to write about in the morning. Here's to hoping.

Making

It was a Halloween sort of weekend. With the holiday on a Thursday, we used this past weekend to do those things which must wait until closer to the holiday, like pumpkin carving. I didn't do one this year, since I had already done the artificial ones and the pumpkin the youngest got on our outing to the pumpkin patch last week had already gone south. I gave her mine and helped her a bit. The one in the center there is a fake one...I just thought we need something else out there. I'll put the ones I carved out later, so you'll see them when the whole display is complete.

I did do some tatting on and off as I had a custom mask order over the weekend. Honestly, I'm still a little worried that the customer is expecting it in time for Halloween. As soon as I got the order I sent a message making sure they were aware that the mask needed to be made, wouldn't arrive in time for Halloween and I gave them an approximate ship date. So either they got the message and everything is fine or they didn't and I'll get an annoyed response in a few days. Or worse yet, I'll ship it and they'll cancel the order and I'll have to deal with all that drama. I am definitely hoping for outcome number one here.

The rest of the weekend that wasn't usual errands was used making sugar skulls. Well, made is probably not the right word, decorated would be more appropriate. I made one late year, but left it black and white. This year I made two and experimented with a little color. Of course these really have little to do with the Halloween decorations. It's just that this time of the year is the only time to buy the paper mache bases. These will be on display year round.

Then I had found some foam skull shapes on sale and girls and I decided to decorate them as sugar skulls as well. Currently they are in my front window for the holiday, but I have a feeling they might relocate somewhere in the house for another everyday decoration. We actually made and added a whole bunch more after I took this picture. Also taking pictures of windows is incredibly pointless, but I suppose you get the idea. We spent the weekend making things, now it's back to finishing up mask orders and schooling and errands and I miss the weekend already.

Scallops

As usual, once the idea for a new piece was in my head, little could keep me from playing at it. First I did remake the bracelet for the shop. I even further modified it to a size I liked a bit better than the one custom made. It's still a little big for me, but I have stick wrists, so it should fit an average wrist just fine.

Once that was done, I got to thinking about the idea I had had while writing yesterday morning. I thought that perhaps the necklace would have more presence if I gave it a three motif arch instead of a single pendant like the custom order. It still needed to be adjusted though. The bracelet has three, but it's meant to lay mostly flat. I wanted the ones on the necklace to curve and that meant more join changes and more stitch count changes as well. These are the sort of things I should have mucked with when I first played with the original antique pattern. I must have been feeling particularly lazy then.

As you can see, no hardware on the necklace, so I'll get to that today. Then I suppose I could get back to the mask that needs remaking. It's far too late for it to see Halloween, but I actually tend to sell more masks in late winter for Masquerade balls. Nothing too interesting came along yesterday, so that's all I've got for you.  I'll just keep working and hopefully something new and interesting will pop up this weekend.

New

It was another lovely, busy day and oh, so filled with routine. I did schooling followed by some tatting, lunch followed by some more tatting. I watched shows on the dvr and just kept right on tatting. I did eventually get a little tired of tatting, probably because it's been awhile since I had so much time for it in a row. So the last bit of the evening was mindless computer and game time. I feel quite rested.

One of the things I was working on yesterday was the matching jewelry set I mentioned yesterday. The necklace there is meant to match a pair of earrings. As you can see, I never got around to getting the hardware on the pieces, so that's today's task. The bracelet was meant to be an existing design, but since the customer needed it longer, I took the opportunity to redesign it from the ground up. Sometimes I just get so stubborn about a design and I keep making it the same way even though I know I could probably make it better.

When that happens I eventually get frustrated and let the piece expire out of the store and generally it stays that way. Since someone actually asked for a matching piece, it was my excuse to bring it back from the dead and make it better. I changed the join locations as well as some stitch counts and now it's longer and I think better looking. In fact I should really make another and get it listed in the shop. I'm not sure about the necklace though. While it matches exactly like the customer requested, I probably wouldn't have made it otherwise, it's just...I don't know, not me, but I did just get an idea I might try out.

So today, it's finishing up this order and apparently making another bracelet to list. Then I still have one last mask I want to remake. That should keep me busy for at least one more day. So hopefully something interesting will come along to take care of tomorrow.

Back To Boring

Well, yesterday's doctor appointment certainly put an odd pause in the middle of the day, but I still managed to get some tatting done after lunch. Nothing new of course, so you just get a random, in progress picture. This one is a necklace being remade after I finished a mask.

I also had a custom request to field throughout the day. One of the amazing things about Etsy, is selling to an international base.  Conversely, one of the frustrating things about that is communicating with people far outside your time zone. Sometimes it takes days to complete a simply conversation because waking hours don't coincide. Despite all the extra complication involved, I woke to their custom order being purchased, so that's my task for today.

The order is a set made to match an existing earring design I have listed with a custom made necklace that will be entirely new, so at least I will have something fresh to show you tomorrow. Other than that though, it's going to be a nice, quiet, routine day, no extra errands, appointments or guests to clean for. This pleases me, as routine, next to busy, is my favorite place. No, I don't care how boring that makes me sound, structure is my friend.

I Love Busy

It was a busy, busy, busy day. I guess you just never know when it's going to be one of those days when, after months of stagnant water, a torrential downpour occurs. Now, it may disappear as quickly as it came, but it gave me plenty to do yesterday and for a few more days to come at least. I hope I'm not being too vague, it was a day of sales in the shop.

It started with a cat ear headband, prompting me to get to work tatting up more ears and painting more headbands since I was down to the last two I had in stock. I tend to make them in batches. in fact they are the only piece I do that with. I make a bunch of centers, then I go back and do the second round on each, then the third and finally I sew them all to their headbands in a row. I would have made more yesterday, but more sales came in. There were masks and another headband, so I got to work remaking a mask.

I've also been fielding more requests than usual lately though I fear most of them will amount to nothing. They're things like, make this custom piece, but I need it to arrive in three days...not happening. There have been others as well with as equally unlikely outcomes. Those are always frustrating and I find myself flashing back to when I first started selling when I would have bent over backwards to accommodate any request no matter the amount of stress it would put on me. I don't do that anymore. I now opt for honesty and realism in my responses with little regard for how that might scare away a customer.

So today, I have plenty to remake along with a doctor's appointment this morning. So, I'm bound to be busy one way or another, all day long. The fun part is I get to take the kids with me to my appointment since my usual babysitting folk are out of town. They'll be fine in the waiting room, but I sure hope I don't get the stink eye for bringing them. Well, off to it then and here's to another hopefully surprising and busy day.

Weekend Recap

While I did get a couple of orders over the weekend, giving me tatting to do during our downtime, most of our weekends are now family time. We're not very good at finding things to do that aren't cleaning or shopping, but sometimes we figure something else out.

The weekend started early with a field trip to the pumpkin patch on Friday morning. There were walks, regular errands and the like, but on Sunday, we got creative. I did a little needle felting because the kids wanted me to make them soot sprites. If those aren't familiar to you, you must watch a few Miazaki films. The soot sprites feature in My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away. I only made four, but if I can figure out a fun way to display them, I'll probably make more. I also picked up some skull foam shape for the kids since Halloween is already on dramatic clearance at Michaels. Christmas has already thrown up in the store and it makes me a little sad inside especially as there are 10 days left before Halloween even gets here.

We also baked. I know I haven't shared with you how much I don't cook, nor bake, but I just hate cleaning up. Also, I'm lazy and it takes too long with all those steps. I'm still waiting for the replicators from Start Trek so I can tell a computer what to make me and it instantly appears, but I digress. We baked because I found a kit for skeleton gingerbread cookies. The mix it came with wasn't the best, but I now have an awesome cookie cutter that I'm sure I can use with a better recipe. Plus, it's good to bake with the kids so they know that I have the capability to bake and just choose not to and not that I'm just bad at it.

I don't really have any plans for today. While there are still a few piece left in the queue that I probably should make up, I probably won't. There's a mask I made with hand dyed thread and I'm almost out of it, so I'm not even sure i could get a whole mask out of it and there's a fascinator to make and I don't really feel like sewing anything to a base. So, I guess I don't know what I'll get up to today. Hopefully it will be something interesting though.

So Lazy

I wish I could say that I got a whole bunch of amazing stuff done yesterday, but after our house guest had  departed and schooling was over, I guess I was just ready for a nice break from everything. I fired up the DVR and watched all the shows I'd missed that last few days when I was trying to be a good host and not scare my grandfather with my taste in television. I managed to tat up two pieces from the queue while I watched but nothing new, nor interesting. Part of the reason I didn't do more was the rest of the pieces need different colored thread and I would have had to gotten up to look for it. Yes, I was feeling that lazy.

Today we have an early morning field trip to a pumpkin patch. It's the one we usually visit, but I
guess they have a little program available for school groups. So we'll do that and then go out for a nice lunch on our way home. I don't think we have much else planned this weekend, so maybe I'll fetch the colored threads and get back to the queue or better yet, maybe the weekend will be crazy busy in the shop and I won't have time to do anything but handle orders. Either way I will be back on Monday to bore you with it. I shall leave you with a crazy cat photo...well, because I can.

Chaos and Family

It was another very long day around here. I felt pretty neglectful of my guest while we did schooling, but he didn't seem to mind. We schooled and grandpa read. I was pretty determined to get some tatting done though, so after schooling was wrapped, I tatted while we chatted. Every time he visits the stories get more interesting, especially when he talks about his parents before he was born and I realize that we're talking about things nearly 100 years ago and it's history. Though the later stories with how his brothers manged to nearly kill themselves with injuries are definitely more entertaining.

Of course the real chaos occurred when the rest of the family was over for dinner. The cousins get loud, the cats all hid and the stories start to fly from everyone. Once they all finally exit for the evening we were so exhausted that it was almost straight bed for all of us. I love my family, but man they are a handful. The house is still clean, so I'm just hoping I can maintain the cleanliness until the holidays when we do this all over again, but with more food. I know, it's a long shot.

I think grandpa is heading off down south today to visit his brother so the household will get back to normal and I will really get working on that queue of tatting. I just barely made a dent yesterday and finished one mask.

One last thing, the lovely Cindy Marks who does Artizen Magazine, put my tatted spiders in their latest issue.

Grandpa

What a long, but lovely day. We finished up schooling early enough that I was able to get a few more bits of cleaning in before my grandpa arrived at lunch time. The children and I had a fine time talking and entertaining. The youngest even used her reading time to read out loud to her great-grandpa. Of course the only time I got in some tatting was when he decided to go take a walk, which he often does while visiting. It wasn't long until the husband came home and my in-laws arrived for dinner and there was more talking and entertaining.

The shop seems to be on a small roll as I got another order yesterday. This just makes a queue of things needing remaking that much longer. I still have to school the children today, guest or not and I will still have to get to some of this tatting as well. Speaking of tatting, I do have one tatting story that my grandpa told me. He rode some commuter train into Salt Lake City while working at a library there recently and a lady who was one of the regulars tatted on the train. He said that as the other regulars got interested in what she was doing, she actually started teaching classes on the train. So, I don't know who you are, Utah train tatter, but well done. I find that someone is always fascinated when I tat in public. I am not often out to do that though.

So today I will try to make a dent in that queue and this evening we have another get together planned with more of the family. Luckily the house is already clean because I'm not sure I have anymore cleaning energy left in my at all.

I Love Busy

Another day full of random cleaning and stressing over little things. It's just a snowball effect, everything is more bothersome when I'm preparing for events or guests. I did manage some good sitting time to get some tatting done. It really is lovely to have a nice queue of things to choose from.

First though I had the custom order to get made up. One of the pieces was a blue crown/headband. You've seen the finished piece before, so instead, I took an over processed abstract photo. The best part of this photo is that the blue looks the right color, at least on my screen. That's right, my phone camera captured a blue correctly. Sure, there are a few more shades that I need to test out to make sure it's capable, turquoise was impossible for the last camera, but things are looking good for it.

I spent the rest of the day on odd cleaning jobs, laundry and tatting up other pieces in the queue. I still have a couple of masks and necklaces waiting to be done, so my free time is accounted for. I suppose I won't have too much of that since my grandpa arrives today and though I am an abysmal host, I do try to at least engage. If I do though, I've got tatting and that's a wonderful feeling.

Weekend Recap

Oh, where to start? You see, my grandfather is coming to visit this week and will of course be staying with us, so the weekend needed to have a fair amount of cleaning in it along with the usual adventuring. I try to keep the house at a tolerable level of clean all the time, but we use the excuse of guests to do deep cleaning and clear away the clutter. We spent the weekend cleaning counters and tables off, doing laundry, vacuuming furniture and finally on Sunday afternoon I get out the carpet cleaner to take care of a layer of what six cats do to the carpet. Then, it broke...the carpet cleaner. It just choked, sputtered and died halfway through the living room carpet. This left me with the task of cleaning the stain left by the dying carpet cleaner with the little spot bot thing meant for small stains as well as the rest of the stains I hadn't yet gotten to. It was, tedious and bothersome...and now we need to buy a new carpet cleaner, fun.

At least the Universe was fair. While I was struggling with things breaking and making my life harder, it was sending me sales. The weekend felt back to normal with sales coming in everyday. So I start the week with a couple of custom pieces to make and a whole new queue of pieces that need remaking. Of course with the visit from my grandpa, my mother-in-law's birthday, a school filed trip on Friday as well as a bunch of other things I'm worrying about, I'm already feeling swamped and the sun hasn't even risen on this Monday yet. I suppose I'll just take a deep breath and tackle one thing at a time and just hope nothing else piles on. I have a bad feeling something is just waiting to pile on though, so Universe, if you're listening, some strength and patience for the week would be grand. Here's to the start of the new week.

Well, I Tried

The morning was all schooling and housework because laundry and dishes are as inevitable as death and taxes. In the afternoon, I attempted another doodling session to see if anything else worth making would fall off my needles. I'm afraid it wasn't a particularly successful enterprise. I had a few ideas, but they were less than fully formed.

This was the only piece that was even remotely interesting and it's far too close to heart shaped for my liking. I just think there are already too many tatted hearts in the world for me to go adding many more to the pile. I might muck about with it so see if I can change the shape more, but it's not all that inspiring right now.

With so few sales lately, I fear it won't be too much longer until I descend into daily complaints again so I'm trying to keep working on anything to keep my focus. It's a repeating cycle around here and I just need to go with the flow. I mean, I generally do, but if I can keep myself distracted with creation, I'm far less whiny about it.

I thought I'd leave you with a pretty flower picture because the camera on the new phone is orders better than the last one and natures work is always better than mine.

Listed and Lazy

I was just so very tired yesterday for no good reason so I got very little done. I know, yet again. I did get all three of the new pieces photographed and listed though. I decided to name the pieces after rickrack, that tacky zig-zag trim that I remember being so very popular when I was a kid. The new design has the same zig-zag shape, at least it does when you look at it from a distance.

The choker and one bracelet are essential the same and the second bracelet, as I mentioned yesterday is the design doubled on itself. Since tatting the design in one round makes the second side more fiddly, it did take longer to make as well.  I really should try it in two passes to see if I can speed up the process, but generally I think the lace behaves best when it is all one piece. Too many cut and tie moments create instability.

I didn't do any tatting yesterday at all. I had no motivation, external or internal, so after listing I just vegetated.  I did end the day with some more needle felting, but didn't bother to get any photographs. I made a spider with wire legs as an experiment. It wasn't quite right, but I was making it up as I went along, so that's not too surprising. I have no tasks on tap for today, so hopefully a sale or two might come my way to grant me some direction.

New and Eyeballs

After schooling was wrapped and lunch, I just picked up my needle and thread and started doodling with them. Sometimes when I doodle, I at least have a bit of a picture in my head to guide me, this time it was pure and aimless. After just a few elements I saw the pattern emerge. It had a nice bit of stretch to it and it was quick and easy so I turned it first into a bracelet length and then a necklace length. I haven't bothered with hardware yet, that's for today, but once they were lying side by side, another pattern emerged.

It took a little while to figure out the best way to turn the design to
the second side and working the second side backwards was fiddly. It would probably have been easier had I worked them separately instead of in one round, but I quite liked the negative space so I kept right on working. I made this one to bracelet length as well and added a hook while working, so technically this one is done. I thought about making this version choker length as well, but the final design is just too thick to be comfortable around the neck. It would get all folded up while worn as well.

Once all that was made, I decided that I would save finishing and listing for today to give myself something that needed to be done. Then I happened upon this short how-to video on Etsy for making needle felted bloodshot eyeballs. Since I had all the needed materials and I found them adorable, I spent the rest of my evening stabbing wool to make them. I kept working on them while watching our evening television, so I have four of them now. They're even all about the same size, which I was pretty sure I couldn't accomplish given that I have felted for at least a year.

So to recap, new bracelets and necklace were tatted and will be finished and listed today. Felted eyeballs are fun to make and I'll probably make more of those too unless I get some sales to give me something more important to do. Either way, I guess I'm good.

Productive Yet Boring

Well yesterday wasn't nearly as bad I thought it was going to be after such a disappointing morning. It wasn't fantastic, it was still a Monday, but it wasn't a tragedy. After the blog writing and other morning tasks, I got an order in the shop. After schooling, which was a little long and a tad frustrating, I spent my day finishing up the last season of Supernatural and tatting up the order I had gotten. So it was certainly a productive, if not terribly interesting to recount, day.

The late afternoon added my nieces to the household for a few hours which increased the noise level, but honestly I was too focused on mainlining a television show to worry about them as long as no one was screaming or bleeding. I know, I am clearly a devoted care giver. When they were here I was putting together some more kitty ear headbands and they just kept asking why I was making so many of them. I'm fairly certain my family doesn't quite 'get' that I do actually make a bit of a living off my etsy shop. You know, when it's not silent as the grave.

The order I got was finished and while I could make even more cat ears, I think I'm going to try and see what else I can get up to today. You know that I hate boring you too many days in a row.

Oh, Monday

Let's see, weekend recap. Well first off, I woke up this morning with a large and rather painful cold sore, but at least this one is actually on my lip. I am taking this as a sign that the week ahead may be a disappointing one. Or I suppose I could try to think of it as, it could only get better from this point. We all know that's not true, but I guess until the sky does indeed start to fall, I'll try and treat it as an isolated event. Of course none of what I wrote counts as a recap of the weekend, so let me start again.

I didn't get much interesting done over the weekend. I did get the new bracelet listed and that was about it. Over the weekend I finished my, just in case it really is lost in the mail, replacement mask. I also spent a little time making more cat ear headbands as it seems to be the one thing selling from the shop currently.

Other than that it was mostly a family adventuring weekend without too much adventure. My brother was visiting to go to a wedding, we tried to visit a local fall festival only to be rather disappointed and I got out the Halloween decorations only to not put any of them up yet. I did marathon half the last season of Supernatural on Netflix because I didn't watch it at all and I wanted to catch up. I still have the last half to watch before the season starts this week, so expect little productiveness from me so a bit.

I guess I won't know how bad the week is going to be unless I leave this room and really start it, so I'm off. Here's hoping that I'm just being rather pessimistic and that the week instead, holds many wonders and happiness.

A Bracelet and a Tweet

So I was getting ready to put together the new pieces when I made a last minute decision to use a hook on the bracelet instead of a clasp. Now I could have just cut out a few elements and redone them to accomplish this, but I really do hate doing that with final pieces, so I held off on listing the bracelet and just got the necklace up instead. I've also been dealing with my face misbehaving lately, so I kind of skimped on the listing pictures.

Once that was listed, I went to work remaking the bracelet. As a aside effect, that gives me the prototype I need in the first bracelet, so two birds with one tatting needle. Oh, that would be gruesome. Forget I wrote that.


I didn't get the bracelet listed yet, but I should get it listed today. With the way I worked the hook side, I should be able to make it an inch longer if needed, but these designs with large motifs are otherwise too difficult to customize. It does also only look right when it's sitting low on the hand like this. It just looks a bit odd further up the wrist. At least I managed new things these last couple of days. I feel almost productive.

Oh, one last bit of, well, sort of, news. When I checked in on my shop this morning there was an inordinate amount of traffic overnight. I checked my stats and it was this lovely tweet sent out by Etsy that did it.

She arrived cloaked in mystery, but the room soon fell victim to her enchantment http://t.co/QbUDFvykGa
— Etsy (@Etsy) October 4, 2013

 So, thanks Etsy for the shout out and the extra traffic it sent my way while I slept. It was certainly a nice little surprise to wake up to.

New

With no more spiders to make, I thought at first of making a mask that "might" be lost in the post. There's still a little time before I can really consider it gone since it has left to another country and the tracking at least takes it there so far, but since I hadn't much else to do, that's what I started with.

After schooling I wanted to do something new though, so I put away the mask and started to doodle. I literally had no idea what I was doing. I had no concept in mind, but just started tatting anyway. I'm not sure what I thought I was making, but it started to have a bit of a triangle shape so I went back in and made a few more rings. It's no usually my style to make a piece in small sections as I much prefer tatting pieces in one or two rounds, but even though I tried to go back and work the new rings in, I had to do them separately.

Even at this point, I had no idea what it was going to grow up to be, but a little more doodling and I decided it was going to grow up to be a choker necklace. Adding the necklace portion did fundamentally change the shape of the original motif, but I still liked it so I kept working. It was also suggested that it needed a matching bracelet so I went back and worked out a new side section to create that as well. It only looks good as a bracelet if it's worn low on the wrist over the hand, but that works for me.

I didn't do any finishing work on either piece, so that's what I'll get up to later today. They both need to be pressed and get clasps put on and then if the fates are with me, they'll get named and listed today as well. I think I'm also gong to make up a third piece of at least the motif as a prototype to keep on hand because if I don't do at least that, I'll have to write down the pattern. You know I won't do that, but the design is unusual so if I have to remake it in a year, I'll just stare at it all confused like without a prototype. I guess that gives me plenty to do today and you know how much i like to be busy.

Just Like Yesterday

Some days are so very nearly the same as the one that preceded them, I feel odd bothering to write about them at all. Of course you also know that by the point I am somewhat compulsive about writing daily whether I should or not. Yesterday was, as you've already guessed, a repeat of Monday.

After schooling wrapped, which was a bit later than usual, I dug through my collection of beads to find as many as would fit the size and shape needed for spiders and I tatted. I made up spiders all day while catching up on all my recorded shows. By the time I was finally finished with the pile of beads, I had enough spiders for 14 sets of 6 when added to the ones done before. I did, however, use up all the beads that would work, so I'm done with spiders now. Either I hopefully, sell all of them, save the left overs for next year, or I give them away on Halloween. Whatever way it plays out, I'm done making them.

Of course that means I need to find something else to occupy my tatting time. I might actually have to get to designing again, but every time I say that I think, what else can I do? I mean I've designed so much already, why do I think there is anything left in me to create? I know that's nonsense, I'll think of something, but I really am afraid that one day I will run out of ideas and then what? Well, I suppose that's enough existential anguish for the morning, I do have things to get to after all. The day waits for no one.