Ten Days Later

Clearly I've still got a way to go if I'm going for any sort of consistency writing here, but I'll take once a week as a start. I've gotten a couple of orders since I wrote last so I've been keeping busy with making those as well as remaking a few more pieces for my shop. I'm practically forcing myself to make something everyday to get back into the habit. It's a work in progress that involves much stalling, cleaning and occasionally playing video games that serve no purpose.

I sold a immortal corsage bracelet and remade that piece for the first time in a rather long time. Then as I was working on that I recalled that I had made a choker version of it. Of course that was a decade ago so I had so go back through my sold items to figure out how it was that I had done so. Once I found it, I promptly decided to make some changes. The original had flowers with just a single petal round, I added a second. Then I worked on making the structure better between the elements, adding additional joins. I should get it listed in my shop next week, whether permitting, because I'll need new photos to go with the changes.



Other than the tatting, I also did some crochet cording so I could remake an Armenian knotted lace necklace. I had spent much of the last few months crocheting large projects like blanket gifts, so the return to small thread knotting definitely took my fingers some time to get used to again. Thankfully muscle memory is strong and I've been enjoying my return to thread.

Speaking of thread, I had a bit of a panic when I heard that DMC was not going to be importing cébélia thread any longer. I almost exclusively use that thread in size 10 black, so I spent quite some time looking for and then buying boxes of it just in case it becomes too difficult to acquire in the future. I also bought up the entire supply in the only yarn store that carries it near me and they had very little. I'm hoping I'm worried for no reason, but I'll probably buy even more should I run across it. It's not like it goes bad.

Holiday Sale

My how I have abandoned this space. I have been feeling less that creative with my needlework lately and that means I have little, it anything worth sharing. I have had a few small orders in my etsy shop, so I've remade a few things, and work on the Armenian lace piece is ongoing as ever. I've done a little crocheting and some knitting and I'm still hard at work writing. I'm still muddling through the editing of my first novel and my hope is that I'll have something to share before the year is out. I'm also writing daily on at least three different projects, though there is currently much doubt as to which ones will survive to completion. I may have bit off more than I can chew on that front.

‪Knotting up an Armenian lace pineapple tassel pendant today.‬

A post shared by Pamela Quevedo (@totusmel) on Nov 19, 2017 at 12:53pm PST

Last bit of news to share is the SALE in my etsy shop. No coupon code is needed, but you do need to spend at least $20 to activate the 20% off. It will likely be up through the holidays, but sooner is always better, especially if you want anything custom.

Still Alive

I'm getting awful neglectful here again. In my defense I have been hard at work on several different projects. I've finished the third draft of my novel and it's currently being copy-edited by my 10 year old. I know that might sound like a daft idea, but if you could see the skill this child has at finding typos, missing commas, and the like, you would be seriously impressed. Anyway, once she's done with that and I've tackled a few more details, I plan on self publishing it on Amazon. Regardless of how that goes I'm already at work on two other stories that may or may not become novels. The point is to keep writing, right?

Other than the writing, I did tackle an interesting tatted art project though I'm not at liberty to discuss the particulars of that. My part in the task is complete and now and it's up to the real artist to do the hard parts. I'm crossing my fingers that the idea works out because I think it's genuinely interesting and I really want to see it finished. I will of course share if and when I can.

The Armenian lace piece is really my fall back project. I work on this when I'm catching up on the scads of television I try to consume and while I read. This is the last image of it that I posted on all my social media places. I'm much better about updating those while the blog languishes untended. Of course that's mostly because I can post a picture across everything in a minute and here, well it's a much larger time commitment. So if you're actually missing what I'm working on and I know that's a big if, you might want to pop by my facebook page, twitter or instagram. It's generally the same things on all of them, so dealers choice.

I'm also been lucky at least the last week or so to have some orders in my etsy shop. A couple of them have included custom pieces, so I'm alternating the tatting of those with all my other projects and homeschooling the kids. I guess I really am pretty busy. I'm also pretty happy that the summer and it's subsequent expensive air conditioning bills is past us for now and crossing my fingers that these orders represent a trend for the fall. Here's hoping.

A post shared by Pamela Quevedo (@totusmel) on Sep 29, 2017 at 3:07pm PDT

Back Again

Well, I am certainly getting lazy when it comes to writing here, sorry. Things around here have gotten into a nice routine as of late. Schooling has reached a comfortable rhythm and I'm working on all sorts of random things like I picked up some large day of the dead skulls to paint for our walls. It's been slow going on those, but it's something different to do and that's what I wanted them for.

I've had a couple of small orders in the past week that have gotten me tatting a bit and of course work on the Armenian lace is ongoing and very close to hitting the 4 foot across mark. I've also been hard at work editing my novel. It is a glacially slow process though and I'm barely a third of the way through it. I missed the pure writing process so I've already started writing another thing. I'm less certain about how long this one might end up though. It could be a short story or a novel or somewhere in between. Since I achieved my first goal of simply writing a book, everything else just feels like cream at this point.

I may actually have another art tatting project soon. It's a little early to say for certain, but if it does pan out, I should have more to write about in the near future. Otherwise it's now schooling, painting, editing, writing and knotting for now.

A post shared by Pamela Quevedo (@totusmel) on Sep 5, 2017 at 4:22pm PDT

Checking In

I've been pretty busy lately getting ready for the beginning of the homeschooling year that started yesterday. There were of course all sorts of issues that needed to be sorted out before we started. I'm sure we'll have a few more bumps before we really get into the groove of things, but so far so good.

I've done a lot of work on the Armenian lace piece. It's just a couple of inches shy of being 4 feet across now. No, I'm not stopping anytime soon even though it's now large enough to be a bit unwieldy on my lap. I'm going for ridiculously large now.

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to get a nice sized order that needed a few pieces made up before I could ship it. Since we're back to schooling that has to wait until after classes are wrapped which means I still have a bit more work to do on them before I can get them in the mail. There are also a couple of pieces that I will want to remake for the shop even though sales are coming maybe every other week or so at this point, save for pattern orders that are a bit more frequent.

Last bit of news is that I finished writing the first draft of the novel I've been working on much of the summer. It topped out at over 82,000 words. There's still a ton of work that I'll need to do before it sees the light of day. There's editing and proofreading and probably more editing. Since I'm back to work so to speak, it may be quite a while before I get these processes done, but for now I'm reveling in the fact that I did indeed write a book.

Birthday Sale

I've not got much to share this week. I've been working slowly on the Armenian lace, but most of my time has been spent reading and writing. I'm at 66,000 words now so if I keep working at the same speed I should be done with the first draft of the book by the end of the month. Of course I really have no idea where to go from that point. I made a point of not thinking beyond the actual writing of the thing, so I don't have a clue what might or might not happen with it after I edit and proofread it. I guess I'll have to do some research at that point.

That's not why I popped by though. It's my birthday, so I've set up a coupon code for a birthday sale. It looks like soon I'll be able to run a proper sale in my etsy shop as tools for that have just been released, but won't be live until next week. So for now get 25% off anything in my shop through Friday with this link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TotusMel?coupon=BIRTHDAY25 or you can use the code BIRTHDAY25 at checkout like usual.

Armenian lace piece is 42.5" across now.

A post shared by Pamela Quevedo (@totusmel) on Aug 8, 2017 at 1:26pm PDT

The Biggest?

I am going to try and write here more again. For years I felt compelled to write everyday whether I had anything to share or not. It was an unbreakable habit. Of course I did break it and once it was broken, I had a hell of a time wanting to blog at all. So the plan is to drop short notes at least twice a week at least until I have something thread based worth sharing.

A post shared by Pamela Quevedo (@totusmel) on Jul 20, 2017 at 7:33am PDT

Yesterday I posted this picture of my Armenian lace piece. I do work on it at least an hour or so a day when I need a break from writing. I was asked how big it was now, so I measured it and it comes to just over 3 and a half feet across. Which means I'm knotting well over 14 feet every round right now. That is incredibly crazy when you think about it particularly because  each knotted round only grows one or two centimeters at a time.

I still have no end size in mind really. I could already use it for a small round end table if I wanted, but for some reason I'm holding out for the largest Armenian lace doily ever. I haven't the foggiest clue what the largest existing one measures at. I've never even tried to look for that information. So in complete ignorance of my goal size, I'm just going to go ahead and say that one day it will be the biggest.

On Writing and Tatting

My sale has been over for a bit now and I did get a few orders out of it. Even nicer was the large one I got after it. I've got a few tatted bracelets I'm remaking for the shop as well as a couple of the crochet and Armenian lace ones. As always it is wonderful to send lace off to someone who will appreciate it.


I've also been writing pretty consistently for the last few weeks. I'm up to I think 27,000 words now. If you were curious about what it exactly that I'm attempting to write, it's trying to be a novel. If I had to attach a genre to it, it would be urban fantasy or horror, but it's really not scary.I guess really it's too soon to tell what it wants to be. There are moments that I swear it's like it's writing itself, pulling me in directions I had not initially meant to go. I am also starting to understand a few things about writing that I never thought I would, like how continuity errors are born as I frantically tried to make sure changes I make are consistent throughout the 80 some odd pages I've gotten written so far.

In other news I'd like to take a moment to thank Fox for her lovely compliments on her blog the other day even if it was wrapped up with a slightly depressing thought. I fear that I do agree that tatting seems to be at bit of a stalling point. I am humbled that I ever had an impact on the art at all and now I feel a bit guiltier about my own creators block with it. I wish I had a solution or that I just suddenly felt inspired to create, but I have to concede that my inspiration has more often that not been tied up with selling pieces and knowing that someone will one day own the things I make. Since my sales have slowed to nearly nonexistent most days, making more things just seems futile as they will likely just get thrown in a storage tub never to see the light of day again.

I do hope that this lull is temporary and maybe come fall and the routine of schooling, I'll feel the need to create again. In the meantime I'll just keep creating in the ways I am inspired to do so.

Update & SALE

Happy Monday morning world. So the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a slog. First there was our broken air conditioner. You might remember that it went down two Monday's ago at the beginning of a triple digit heatwave. It took nearly two weeks to have a new one installed after we found out that it was something that just couldn't be fixed. We finally got it last Thursday, unfortunately it also came with a rather sizable price tag. On top of that we also had my mother staying all last week while she transitioned to living at my sister's house. That wasn't really a big deal, but it definitely contributed to the demise of any sort of routine.

I did manage to spent some time working on the Armenian lace piece and I got one whole order in that time. I tatted up a replacement bracelet as soon as I got the order. Other than that I have been writing everyday for a week now. I'm up to about 7500 now, but it's just the beginning so no one has seen that yet. My plan is to keep writing everyday until I've managed something that could be called a novel, good or not. Only time will tell whether or not it will see the light of day.

In the meantime I'm going to offer a 25% off sale to try and get some sales and hopefully put a tiny dent in that air conditioner bill since it pretty much ate up all the savings we had. So for the next week use the code SUMMER25 in my shop to get 25% off everything and please do share. I can use all the sales I can handle right now.

Hello

Just a quick note this week to say that I am indeed still alive and kicking. It's been quite busy around here with end of the school year business, appointments, meetings, etc. I've not sat down nearly enough this week, in my opinion, but I have gotten some work in on my large Armenian lace piece. It's now at about a meter across. I also had to finally get some more thread for it as I've killed yet another ball. Of course I had to order it because no one carries size 20 thread anywhere in town.

Next week is the last one for homeschooling and should prove to be just as distracting as this one to my handicrafts. I'm personally quite looking forward to the week after and just a little bit of mindlessness. Fingers crossed.

Week Recap

I've been spending an inordinate amount of time playing the newest Zelda game, Breath of the Wild. That is my excuse for my current lack of focus. I haven't been playing all day long of course but so much of it that I've done little else worth documenting. It has been quite fun having the entire family playing the same game even if it has taken the place of any other activities.



During my downtime I've been baking more bread, working on the yard, and catching up on television shows. If it wasn't for that last thing I would have nothing to show you at all, but whenever my hands are free, I'm still knotting away on this enormous piece. It's still growing rather slowly since each round is just so long, but it's giving me something at least slightly interesting to do.

Oops

So guess what I completely forgot about yesterday? It was my 11th anniversary selling on Etsy. So to recap, this year I have already forgotten about International Tatting Day and now my Etsyversary. I had my vacation to blame for the first one, but I've got no reason to have forgotten the second. The only reason I even know that I forgot it was in my Facebook memory feed.

I'm not sure what my issue is here, but clearly I'm off kilter somehow. I'm sure I can find several things to blame, but right now I'm just hoping that this isn't the start of a downward memory spiral. So here's to paying a little more attention to the date.

Writing Less

So I think that I might start just writing if I actually did anything worth noting the day before. I've been getting up later in the morning and using the time I have to workout which is getting more necessary as I get older I think. You don't really want to hear about the days where I did nothing but schooling the kids and reading the afternoon away anyway.

Over the weekend I pulled my bread machine out of retirement, so I've been making bread. Nothing too interesting, just sourdough because it's my favorite. I also got some knotting time in yesterday. I think that I'm going to do several rounds of these points. I hadn't worked any of them in this piece and I'm not bored of them yet.

I'm also contemplating writing up more of my patterns to list in my etsy shop soon. Sales have been glacial and my creativity has been seriously lacking lately. I am always hesitant to list patterns as it can cannibalize my own work, but I've got to do something to make a little money. So if there are any designs that you've been hankering for, please do let me know.

Day To Day

Yesterday after schooling was more reading, more knotting, and a little video game playing. Not much else occurred, I'm afraid. Oh wait, there was exciting loads of laundry as well. I think I've reached that waiting for inspiration to hit point. So I'm just waiting for a lightning bolt while I read and knot and take care of the day to day.

Hello Monday

Wow, I just cannot get back into a proper routine over here. There have been teacher meetings, vet appointments, and birthday parties conspiring to keep me off kilter. I should be getting back to even soon though. It's another month before the next family birthday and school testing when I should be thrown yet again. Until then though I will try to get my act together and at least blog like I'm suppose to.

As you might have guessed the weekend was busy and not really with any sort of creative endeavors. I have made a little more progress on the large Armenian lace piece. It's now officially 3 feet across. Of course that last inch took what, a week, longer. I don't even know. Here's hoping I can keep focused and get some work done this week or at least remember to write about the work I didn't get done.

Oops

I've been changing up my routine since getting back from our vacation and clearly I've hit a few bumps. The cats were forced to take their morning meal later and the result was that they let me sleep in quite a lot the first mornings we were back. I decided to roll back my wake-up time a bit and see if it would work. The plan was to work out early, but blog during or just before I started schooling for the day and guess what, yeah I forgot to do it yesterday.

So, I'm going to wrap the last two days worth into one here. I remade these tatted and knotted earrings on Tuesday. I also spent some time with the doily turned table cloth. Yesterday was a laundry and yard work kind of day. The yard work is why I'm writing early again. I pulled something in the my legs, as usual, so I'm not working out this morning. I'm letting my body heal a bit I think. I didn't even do all that much yard work, but apparently it was just enough to cause pain. I also spent quite a lot of time on the Armenian lace. Of course progress is stupid slow at this size, but I'm not quite sick of it yet. Someone asked how long I had worked on this so I went back to figure it out. It was about four months of work before I put it away from fatigue, but that was about a year ago. I'm still convinced that it will never be finished.

Week Recap

Happy Monday back all! I clearly lost track of time on my trip and blogging fell away quickly. We had a wonderful time with wonderful friends. We got to experience a sand storm worthy of an emergency alert at the same time as a chocolate tasting. We visited a butterfly habitat and a pinball museum. There was hiking, sort of, and shopping, just a bit. It was a busy week of adventuring.

That brings me to an apology and a confession. I'm sorry I completely forgot about International Tatting Day this year. Yep clean forgot it even existed until yesterday when someone asked if they missed my pattern this year...oops. I was so focused on prepping for this trip and the youngest daughter's birthday, that I just let it slip my mind completely. Of course I must also confess that it's been increasingly less popular every year for me. Both the patterns and the sale pendant barely sold last year, so I fear it was only a very few that missed it this time around. Yeah, I'm not sure right now whether I'll try again next year or not. Maybe I'll get to work on something soon and just release it at a randomly selected time. I guess only time will tell.

Now before I go, here's the progress I made on the Armenian lace doily while I was away. I might have been vacationing, but I still love keeping my hand busy while I relax. It's at about 35 inches across now which I prefer to think of as almost 3 feet because it sounds bigger somehow. No, there is no end in sight.

Fun

Another day, another round of knots. Also, lots of reading, catching up with TV shows and video game playing. Oh, and a half an hour on the phone with the credit card company because of some fraudulent charges that needed to be reported and cleared up. That was super fun. There's not much else I'm afraid though. So I'll just leave you with this pile of lace picture and get on with what is likely a repeat of yesterday, hopefully without the phone call part.

Almost A Round

Again, I didn't even finish a whole new round on the Armenian lace piece. It's just too big around now. Well, it's that and my newfound Zelda distraction that is seriously hampering my ability to do anything else. I swear to you that if I had pieces that needed making, I would put down the game and get to work, but since I don't, I'm clearly not. I'm still managing to carve out some reading and knotting time though so I guess I haven't completely lost reality.

Tornado

We certainly had an interesting weather day for central California. We had a tornado warning followed by a short, but aggressive thunderstorm. That was in turn quickly followed by a clear sky as if none of it had ever happened. We could see the swirling clouds nearby just before the thunderstorm hit, but it never got close enough to us to cause any real concern. It was definitely different though.

When we weren't wondering how to hide from a tornado when no one has a basement around here, I was reading and knotting. I still haven't even finished this large loop round yet. I think I'm going to go with another section of basket stitch, or maybe points. The end is nowhere in sight, so probably both.