Halloween Weekend

My goodness, what an incredibly long and busy weekend. Friday started with schooling, then it was a bout of afternoon cleaning to prepare for guests on Saturday afternoon for my mom's birthday. I got to take a break from cleaning to get the kids ready to visit their father's work where they trick or treat every year. I took this picture of them before we left. I also posted this on twitter Friday as well, more on that in a minute. We spent some time at the afore mentioned rick or treating, then it was an evening of cleaning, mostly floors.

Saturday was early morning errands, last minute party prep, followed by a house full of people and food. That was in turn followed my more cleaning and a little afternoon rest before costumes were again donned. We headed to our friends' house to spend the evening with them and trick or treat in their neighborhood.

It was a nice long night with wine and good conversation. They even took a nice family photo of us before we went out. Of course my husband is hidden behind his paper craft mask. He spent weeks working on that thing. It turned out pretty good, though he complained about it's discomfort the whole time we were out.

Oh, one last thing, Saturday morning that picture of the kids got retweeted by Marvel and the kids got to be internet famous in a small circle of people for brief moment in time. It was just kind of cute so I thought I'd share that as well. Sunday, well we mostly just tried to recover from Halloween and the time change. The cats don't believe it changed and are insisting that I continue to wake up at what was the original wake up time. I'm going to have to baby step them to the new time. Until then I suffer.

I'll be working on the Gothic doily tatting pattern today and hopefully it should be ready to get in the shop in the next day or so. Other than that I have nothing else to work on since I did manage to finish the last circle cardigan gift while I recovered on Sunday. So here's to something new and interesting needing to be made by me soon.

Halloween

Friday was indeed, all about the kids. There was much makeup and trick or treating. Yes, in the evening the skies did open up and unleash a torrent ruining the trick or treat for any kid that waited until dark to go out. Lucky for my kids and their cousins, we were paranoid about the rain and went out early with umbrellas in an effort to beat it. We finished our rounds just as it began to really pour.

In case you're wondering, the oldest is a sugar skull or La Catrina and the youngest is Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. Both required much makeup by me, so I didn't bother dressing up myself.

The rest of the weekend was errands and movie watching. Well that and trying to regulate the flow of candy. Did I mention that because of the rain, we had only one trick or treater at our door? Yeah, that means we have an excessive amount of candy in the house...very dangerous.

On Sunday, I did get an order in the shop, so I got some tatting in while we watched a movie. It was definitely a nice way to wind down the weekend, Too bad I have yet to convince the cats that the time has changed and my morning is beginning far too early. This week also has the dubious distinction of being the week I have to remain available for Jury duty. It is truly, most frustrating since I home school and I can't exactly call on a substitute teacher. The best I can hope is that I'm only needed for a day or so and that I can get most of their shooing worked out before I have to be there. I'm not scheduled until tomorrow, but don't be surprised if it puts me in a mood for the whole week. So here's to some calming tatting in my future.

Weekend Recap

I don't think I touched a tatting needle all weekend, but I certainly managed to keep busy with other projects and not just the embroidery. On Saturday I finally put together the headpiece for my oldest daughter's Halloween costume. She decided on a Dia De Los Muertos costume. We're still not sure how she answers the question, "What are you?", but we're still doing it. I was pretty impressed with myself for figuring how to do this with absolutely no technical knowledge on the subject. I used two different kinds of silk flowers, some lace fabric left over from a formal dress my mother made me in high school, a headband, hot glue and lots of wire. It appears surprisingly sturdy.

That wasn't the only costume accessory I put together this weekend either. The other daughter wants to be Gamora from Guardians Of The Galaxy. The costume I could buy, but she needed rings and I wasn't going to spend money on many rings for a child who wont be able to wear them in a year. So I got some thick, flat, craft wire, some metal files, and I fashioned a half dozen adjustable rings with it. Yep, I was on a Halloween roll, never mind that it's still well over a month away.

All other sitting time I devoted to the embroidery kit. I am on the last stitch and it's my new favorite stitch ever, twilling. It's that stitch in cream at the top of the photo and I still have plenty of it to do before I'm well and truly done. My new least favorite stitch ever, the bullion stitch. It hurt my fingers and even though I got better at it as I went, it still looks nowhere near as good as the example photo. If I never do that one again I'll be pretty happy. Back to the twilling though, I kind of want to do that all over the place.

I'm still without any new orders in the shop, so that just means more stitching today. I'm afraid if sales get any further apart I'm going to forget how to make things. Maybe I'll pick up the tatting needle for a while today just so I don't lose my edge. Or maybe I will get an order and I'll have to pick it up. Here's hoping.

Grrrr & Halloween

Ah, my least favorite way to wake up, to a message that someone has stolen my work for profit or something...they use credits or something there. Anyway, I got a message letting my know someone is trying to sell my tatted mask pattern on a site called Lista. She's got my photo and the pattern, which by the way is free online at Instructables here for anyone to use to make a mask for themselves. I sent a message to the site to try and get it removed, but in the meantime, the most amusing part is when someone asks about tatting being hard, the seller responds, "Its The DIY Instructions On How To Make It Its Really Not A Tatt" So...she probably doesn't even know what tatting actually is, what a silly little bird. I'm tempted to make an account just comment on the listing, but that's a lot of effort for snark, so I likely won't bother.

But, back to nicer things for the morning. It was a lovely Halloween with cute kids that are getting bigger by the minute. They were a Cat-Witch and Bat Girl. We had trick-or-treating at the Husband's work site with all the requite, 'they've gotten so big' and I handed out tatted bead spiders to everyone. Then we had my mother over for her birthday presents, followed by a quick dinner and outside for more trick-or-treating.

It's funny we head about a block or two away from our house into the established neighborhood and there are tons of kids, but back at our house to hand out candy and we saw maybe a dozen. We are on the edge of the development in a newer section, so I guess they just don't want to come this far out. More candy for us though...we'll likely be eating the stuff for months, despite our better judgement.

I didn't get much tatting done though. I did finish the pair of ankle corsets I was working on, but that still leaves three more pieces that need remaking and honestly, I like to have two pairs of the ankle corsets on hand as well, so I'll likely do that if I make through the queue at all. The rest of the weekend should be pretty quiet... I hope. Man, am I overusing the ellipses this morning, sorry about that. It was a long day. I leave you with a picture of my sugar skulls and the artificial pumpkins I carved. Extra points if you know what the orange one is supposed to be. Here's to a nice calm weekend for us all.

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.

Spiders!

While I was determined to make yesterday a 'tatting day', I just couldn't get any fresh ideas. Instead I fell back on old ones, with a bit of a twist. I made spiders, lots of spiders. This time, I used some of the vast collection of beads I have acquired through buying grab bags. I figured they would never get used otherwise, so the kids picked out the ones they liked with the right size and I tatted the day away.

It took me a bit longer to decide on how to sell them. I mean they don't take long to make and the beads are from a grab bag so they're all different. It would take forever to list them one at a time, plus it wouldn't be very cost effective to do so since I didn't want to charge much for them. I finally opted to sell them as inexpensively as possible as a random set of six spiders with the option of adding metal jump rings to make them charms if desired.

I also noted in the listing that you may request colors and I will try to accommodate those requests, but it is on a first come first served basis. I did already sell one set so some of those pictured are gone, but they're are plenty of creepy crawlers left. If you can't buy any, but you have an overwhelming desire to add tatted spiders to your life, I did do an instructable for their creation last year. Just a note, I did have to adjust stitch counts to fit each bead better since they vary so widely, but it's fairly easy to do with a little trial and error. Just share your spider creations with me if you make some!

I'm not sure what else I'll get up to today. I thought about making more spiders, but I really ought to wait until some more sell or I will be overrun with the things. Of course I could always give away the left overs on Halloween so maybe I will spend the day with my new growing arachnid family.

Halloween

As expected I got nothing tatted related done. Not a thing. My day revolved around the children and their Halloween based needs. After schooling it was into the costumes because they had to wear them all day and getting their nails done. After lunch it was a solid hour of getting them truly ready to leave the house, extra costume bits and make up. Then it was off to daddy's work to trick or treat amongst the buildings there. Honestly they get such a good haul there we don't even need to rick or treat for 'real', but they'll hear none of that.

I do have better pictures of them, but the pose here is so perfect that even though it's a bad camera photo, it's my favorite. Yes, I did dress up too though it was just in some of my black clothing and a fancy witch hat I picked up at the Target. In fact their costumes were just their regular clothing with some cheap accessories as well. They may not look fancy, but they were cute and happy and I didn't have to stress out on costume acquisition, but I digress.

After the first run out, we had my sister, her kids and my mom over for dinner as Halloween is my mother's birthday. Apparently this was awesome as a kid and not so much as an adult because everyone ditches you for free candy. Then we ditched her for free candy and trolled the neighborhood with our cousin menagerie. We tried to hand out candy when we got back, but few trick or treaters come over to our side of the neighborhood so as a result we now have what might be categorized as a ridiculous amount of candy in the house. I leave with one of the cats and her cat nip treated treats that they got for Halloween. She paused only briefly from rubbing her head on it for this picture. My entire household is spoiled.

Zombies, Curtains and Tatting, Oh My

Ever since homeschooling began, weekends have taken on a strange aura for me. As a stay at home mom, weekends are irrelevant, except that my husband is home. I still have tons of work and no break in sight, but with the addition of weekday teacher to my chores, the weekends bring an actual break. It's weird and really only a small break, but I like the way it separates things. This weekend, while I did get some tatting done, was more about the house...again. This time t was rewiring light switches and finishing up some curtain issues. Remember the kitchen ones giving me so much grief. Well, I just went and got some normal damn curtains with a valance and hung them higher to fit. I really would not have dealt well with the tiered curtains one is "supposed" to hang in there. I feel they might have driven me subtly mad over time.

Now here's my embarrassment for the weekend. I had a customer make an inquiry about whether on not something had crystals embellishing it. The piece had none, so I responded that it was "sans crystals". Yeah, I didn't think anything of it, until the customer responded that they didn't know what sans crystals were, but she wanted hers without any crystals. Oops. I've always had the problem of large vocabulary. I've used it as a social cushion, a way to deal with bullies as a child, and even to intentionally make customers feel stupid...when I worked in retail. Don't judge me, you try retail for nearly a decade and tell me how much you still 'love' people. Anyway, that wasn't my intent here and I felt really awful, but how do you even apologize for using a word someone doesn't know? I tried, of course, but I haven't heard back form them. I fear I may have doomed myself with a poor choice of words. Why couldn't I have just said 'without'? Oh, well...you can't go back right?

Also went to see the movie Zombieland, like much of the population. I do so enjoy a violent movie, particularly one with this amount of comedy mixed right in. There was one point in which the film threatened to get emotional, but rallied past it with a ridiculous joke. I enjoyed it so much that when I realized that I had yet to create the Wunderkammer post for today, I just used the movie as a platform. Though I do apologize that one of the pics is a bit of a spoiler.

Along with schooling today, I'm going to get those pendants I gave away to twitter friends ready to get into the mail. I also have at least one mask to tat and I think I shall stay on the mask track for a bit, just in case Halloween does actually bring the customers around even without an etsy feature. Yes, I'm still harping on that...they've got 25 days to throw one of my masks up somewhere, I'm just sayin'. Then of course there's the house work and hoping that the landscapers come around soon to fix the front yard grass and sprinklers and check on the back which they did actually finish though it took forever. So onto the week I suppose.