Progress

I'm already running a little behind this morning and I still want to get on the treadmill, so here's yesterday's progress on the Armenian lace. If I think of anything else I should have shared, I'll add it to Monday's post.

Hot

Man, it's getting hot around here. It's not just that it's well over 105º everyday, it's that's it's been this way for long enough that it's not cooling down at all overnight. The heat is definitely not helping my productivity. Luckily I got an order yesterday and that got me tatting again. It was for a slave bracelet, so I spent the morning and early afternoon working on it. I even bit the bullet and ordered more black thread as I'm on my last one now.

Then because I had nothing else on hand to do, and I certainly wasn't going to go outside in the afternoon, I worked on the Armenian lace again. I'm at 21.5cm across now and I'm really liking how the larger pineapple round turned out now that it's framed by the rounds of small loops. I'm thinking maybe one more repeat of the design and it should be a nice enough size to stop. What I'll do with it at that point I've no idea though. I can't see anyone buying it and I don't think anyone in my life wants to be gifted with it either. I'll figure something out, I really like it.

Two

So the trip to the DMV yesterday was harmless. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it was pleasant. I had made an appointment and I think I spent a grand total of 15 minutes in the place and only three of that in line. Then I got home to no projects, so I got out some crafting stuff and played with the kids for a while before settling in with my Armenian lace.

At this point I had made about 2cm of progress. After this I actually finished the last couple of pineapple rounds with no ruffling at all. I did also tackle a couple more house projects, but they were small ones, so I have no new soreness this morning. I have no projects at all on tap for today, at none that I've thought of yet. There's only about a month of summer vacation left, so I'm trying to get things done before I have a good excuse to not do them at all. I was hoping to have a brilliant lace project idea, but so far I've had no new ideas at all. I guess there's still time, but I'm not holding my breath.

So Sore

I am stupid sore this morning. I spent yesterday morning moving comic book boxes upstairs to our closet in an effort to make space downstairs. I'm not going to say exactly how many boxes I lugged up the stairs, but my arms and shoulders are now sure it was too many. I then spent the afternoon cleaning out the rest of the space in the room they were moved from. I am totally wiped from the effort and reminded that we have way too much stuff.

When I needed a break I did work on the Armenian lace piece. I'm on the second round of another pineapple layer. I've taken to pressing the piece every few rounds so I don't end up with the ruffle again and it's working quite well. This time I did the pineapples over two spaces instead of one and added an extra picot, so they'll hopefully be bigger, but proportional.

I have a trip to the DMV this morning, so I'm certain to be in a mood later. Of course I'm also done with the cleaning and moving of boxes for the time being, so maybe the two things will just cancel each other out. Either way, I'm sure I'll work on this a little more as it gives me joy to watch it grow. I don't know when I'm going to stop on this one. I guess whenever I reach a nice mat size, whatever that is. I'll know it when I get there.

Weekend Recap

Alright, weekend recap, I spent Friday mostly tatting the second barefoot sandal and dealing with some family issues. I think as far as the issues are concerned, we've reached a bit of a stable point. It's far from over, but the stress level has gone down significantly and I can mostly put it aside for the time being. That said, I still didn't get much more tatting done over the weekend.

We ran errands and started binge watching Stranger Things on Netflix. We also had a nice dinner out of town with the other side of the family. There was a healthy dose of cleaning around the house as well. We tackled some projects and I manage to wound myself repairing cabinets. The bruises are spectacular. I did also manage some knotting on the purple piece, mostly which watching television.I'm about done with the small loops and then it's back to pineapples. So today's plan is this, maybe tatting up a pair of ankle corsets, and probably more house projects that will likely further injure me.

Tatting

I really got to work yesterday. Well first we went on what we're now referring to as a Pokéwalk. I'd complain, but not only do I like playing too, it really does as advertised and gets the kids out of the house and moving around. We even interacted with other people, albeit in a somewhat minor fashion. Once back home it was reading and tatting.

The order I got was for a pair of ankle corsets and a pair of barefoot sandals. The ankle corsets I have no issue remaking as I've done it dozens of times, but these particular barefoot sandals sell far less often, so it was in my best interest to remake them while I still had the existing pair right in front of me. This is just the center and the first arm of the piece. I actually finished one of them and then started on the second before the day was out. I knew this was going to happily give me tatting to do for a few days at least.

That family stress event I mentioned a couple of days ago is, I fear, just beginning and may possibly cause quite an upheaval. It's still quite fresh so I feel the need to vent strongly, though I'll try not to and I'll keep what I do say purposefully vague. Suffice it to say, a sizable amount of money falling into my lap from a secret millionaire reader or fan to fix it is my primary daydream at this time. I'm not fool enough to think it would actually happen, but one can dream. I'll just keep making lace hope for the best and try to prepare for the worst.

Joy

Well I woke up to a nice sized sale in my shop, so I'm starting the day with tatting tasks and the pieces are big enough that it should keep me away from the purple thread for a couple of days at the very least, so yay! Not that there is anything wrong with the purple thread. It's great for keeping my hands busy and my mind at least a little distracted, but nothing beats having lace to make for other people.

Yesterday was another story of course. There was no walk out and I spent much of the day engrossed in a book and tying knots. As I neared the end of this row of pineapple motifs, which I love, I was afraid that I had given the piece too much ruffle. A quick press and the piece flattened right out without any real distortion of the design. In fact it occurred to me that had I just tugged outward on the piece while working the same thing would have been achieved. If I can manage it, the plan is to keep going just repeating these two sections. One of pineapple motifs followed by a section of  small loops. I think the pineapples will have to get bigger as I go, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. For now, I'll get on to my tatting tasks and bask in the feeling of joy I get from actually selling my work.

More Purple

Another day with not much to share. There was an early morning Pokémon walk that put the children in a good mood. I even remembered sunscreen so there were no ill effects. Then it was home to read and tie some knots in string for much of the afternoon.

I think I'm just going to keep making this one up as I go and then stop when it stops growing at a steady rate. The table cloth is tucked away for the time being as it stopped growing and started bumming me out. I'm sure I'll pull I back out to work on some day, but I need some easy wins. There's some new family stress going on that's giving me a new case of anxiety. Nothing near what the person whose stress it actually is, is dealing with of course, but it's spilling over and may continue to do so for quite some time. Just one of those things that only an exorbitant amount of money can fix and since that's not likely to happen, just don't mind me and my stressed self for awhile. I'll try not to get too whiny about it all.

Purple

There were a lot of weird little house projects yesterday. I fixed some holes in the walls and painted over some scuffs since we have flat wall paint that will not be cleaned. There was also one long Pokémon walk with the kids over to the community college near us that gave me a nice mild sunburn. My own fault for not putting on sunscreen.

When we got back I pulled out some purple thread and started working some Armenian knotted lace. I'm not certain what my plan is here, but I wanted to be knotting and not not wasting what little black thread I have left. I did sell another piece yesterday, but it was a cat ear headband and I already have a few of those made up. So at least today I have some purple lace to play with. I won't be photographing those necklaces to list anytime soon now, because that afore mentioned sunburn makes me less photogenic than usual. Oh well, not that I had all that much motivation in the first place.

Routine

Well, here we are at the start of a normal week. I've got no plans, no adventures, nothing. I was even treated to a tatted lace order over the weekend that gave me tatting to do. I did start with some knotting on Friday after I restocked my etsy shop though. I finished this last black simple Armenian lace piece and hopefully I'll get my act together this week and get them all photographed and in the shop. It's been quite some time since it was actually busy around there and I really need to do something to increase business.

Then I got a tatting order on Saturday. It wasn't custom, but it gave me a reason to tat up the pieces that sold before I can ship them this morning.  It was a bracelet and a necklace. I was so happy to be tatting that I got them both finished on Saturday leaving me nothing left for today. I'm still lacking that creative push to really get me into the groove of working again, but I'm crossing my fingers that that is right around the corner. In the meantime I've got a small house project and I think I still need some vacation recovery time to get back to that routine I love so much.

Vacation Recap

Obviously I did a terrible job of blogging while we were on vacation, sorry about that. We drove through Nevada to Utah to visit my family for my grandfather's 90th birthday. That was followed by a drive through Utah to visit my husband's nephew, then back to Nevada through Arizona to visit some of out favorite people in the whole world in Las Vegas. We stayed there for about 4 days and saw Red Rock Canyon, Bonnie Springs, The Springs Preserve, the Atomic Bomb Museum, oh and IKEA. Don't laugh, we've never been to an IKEA.

We stayed up late every night and slept in all the way to 6:30 in the morning. I know, shocking right? There was also sight seeing Pokemon catching. I'm afraid there was no time for lace, but I did take some photos I can liven this post up with. You already got Red Rock and Utah, so here's Bonnie Springs which was a ghost town, not literally, it was just empty when we visited.

 This is a piece of the Berlin wall in the Atomic Bomb Museum. The kids favorite part was an exhibit on Area 51 where photos were prohibited.

 This is a small view of our abode for the Las Vegas leg of our trip, a perfect Twin Peaks themed guest room.

 This was the site of the world's largest thermometer in the Mojave desert in a town called Baker we drove through on our way home.

Hopefully today I'll get my etsy shop back in order and have a little time to decompress from many, many hours on the road. It was a good trip though and I already miss the people we went out to see.

Good Morning

Good morning from the road. We've managed a trip through Nevada to Utah and back through Arizona to Nevada where we'll be staying for a few days. I haven't touched thread or needle in days, but I have met as adults, family I haven't seen in nearly two decades. I'm pretty tired, but we should be able to calm down for a while while we stay with wonderful, accommodating friends here in Las Vegas. So here are some pictures of the trip so far.

Trip

Alright, so the family adventure begins tomorrow and if I manage to write it will be from the car on my phone. Don't be surprised if I don't bother at all. I will try to get to some blogging next week regardless. I know I'll still get up at an unnatural hour, so I'll likely have time. I still haven't decided if I'm taking any tatting, Armenian lace, knitting, or crochet with me. I doubt I'll have much down time save for in the car, so I might not bother. On the other hand it's hard for me to stay away from thread or yarn for too long. Well, I've only got today to decide, so I guess we'll just see how the day goes.

Nothing Much

I did nothing but read and clean yesterday, so I don't know why I'm bothering to write this morning, aside from habit that is. I will be starting the laborious task of deactivating everything in my shop that isn't a pattern today, because the last thing I need right before a family adventure is to stop preparing and work on a custom order. The shop will be empty until probably next Thursday or Friday and then all the new Armenian lace necklace will go up and I can start crossing my fingers for sales again. I'm also not sure how much blogging I'll be able to get up in the next week or so, so sorry in advance for being flaky. For now here a cat playing with the end of a ball of thread.

Simple

Well, we had a long holiday weekend around here, not that we got up to too much. We had a birthday party to attend and some errands to run and we watched a lot of movies at home. You'd think that would mean I got a lot of lace making done, but it doesn't. I did get a little done yesterday as we binge watched shows on Netflix. I had just finished the cord portion of the gray one here and the turquoise seems to have actually let its color be captured fairly accurately this time. I think I'm going to do one in black and then list them as a nice simple, inexpensive necklace.

We actually have a family adventure closing in soon for us, so I'm likely to be a bit distracted this week with planning for that. I'll also be taking everything that isn't a pattern out of my etsy shop in the next couple of days in anticipation of not being able to ship anything for a week. So I probably won't get these new necklaces listed until after the adventure either. I'd put the shop in vacation mode, but there's no need to hide the patterns. I will probably start on that tomorrow, so I guess if you wanted to buys something in the next couple of weeks, today's the day.

Sorry

Sorry I didn't pop by yesterday to write. It was bill day and I chose to sacrifice blogging time to treadmill time so I could do both. I'm trying to please my electronic overlord, the fitbit. I ignored it while I was recovering from overdoing it two days before, so I had to get back to work or risk the carefully cultivated routine I've got falling away. Besides I didn't do much the day before aside from actually getting the last two Armenian knotted lace necklaces listed in my shop.

Yesterday I worked on getting some really simple Armenian lace necklaces made, but the picture I took of the ocean turquoise one disappeared from my computer. It's still on my facebook page though. It is the hardest color to photograph, it never looks turquoise, just a washed out blue. Then I got an actual order in my shop, so I got to some tatting. This is a nice simple choker, one of my earliest designs.

I got another order last night for a custom pair of barefoot sandals, so that's my task for today. I should get them done today or tomorrow and then it's back to the simple Armenian lace pieces. I want to make that necklace in a few colors before I list it. So hopefully I'll at least have those to share on Monday.