Thank You

Good Friday morning all. I meant to write yesterday morning and then got distracted with preparation for the holiday dinner, not that I had much to share. I had spent Wednesday cleaning the house including my most favorite tasks like the bathrooms. Yep, I know you missed that information.

Anyway, yesterday was lovely and exhausting. I still have a sink full of dishes, because I couldn't be bothered to wash them all last night. That means that I will be washing them all today, and cleaning the house up a bit, and probably pulling out the Christmas stuff to start to get that all up.

I know I haven't done a sale in my shop in a while and it's too late to start one that would be effective at all, but here's what I will do, get free domestic shipping throughout the holiday season with the code HOLIDAYFREESHIP at my etsy shop. I know it's not much, but thank you all out there for reading my ramblings and supporting my work!

Thank You

So the drought killed our lawn and then El Niño came and watered the barren land creating a weed covered wasteland in our backyard. Somehow we managed to keep the front yard grass, but the backyard didn't have a prayer. While the yard itself will require some kind of chemical intervention to restore, I took it upon myself to use the last sunny day before more rain to pull weeds in the borders so the poor plants there could thrive in peace. I only managed to get about halfway around the perimeter before I was completely physically spent. This morning I am a mess of sore muscles. Luckily my current regimen of too much allergy medication mostly held up under the pollen onslaught. Too bad I have much more work after this next bout of rainstorms passes.

While inside, after the weed pulling nonsense, I did just barely finish that third round of  fancy side stitches. This brought me to 19 inches or 48 centimeters across. That's over 59 inches or 301 centimeters per round. I knew I would feel better about my progress when I switched to the metric system. I'm going to try another small loop pattern section next, but there will be more math before I can proceed.

Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to comment yesterday. I guess I really needed to hear a few voices out there to remind me that I wasn't just talking into the void. The plan I've decided on is that I will write up the pattern for the Black Star pendant as the sale pattern released that day. Sometime between now and then I will either come up with a new small pendant design to sell that day or pick one in the shop to reduce the price on. If I do design a new one, I might also release that pattern free either here or on Instructables. That last bit is very contingent on me getting a burst of inspiration or at the very least, a workable idea. It might not be the most solid of plans, but at least I have one now. Here's hoping it all comes together.

Thank You

Well, I had a lovely birthday weekend. There were friends, family, and good food. We got out a little, stayed in a little and I even got a few sales in my etsy shop, so I have some tatting to do. I got some wonderful, thoughtful gifts including handmade ones from my daughters. Thanks to all of you as well for the birthday wishes here and elsewhere. Despite no longer wanting to mention the number my birthday is attached to, it was one of the better ones.

I also did get some work done on the knotted lace doily. The medallions are pretty small and easy to work on their own. Unfortunately the book I'm using never actually expands on what it means to 'join' pieces with Armenian lace. It just says join and none of the pictures of joined pieces are close up enough for me to be certain what they did for that. I went ahead and guessed that I just knot them together at those points. It is also much harder to do that evenly and effectively than I hoped. It seems to be working though and I've gotten about a quarter of the way around the piece, if my math holds out.

Other than the doily I have some surprise gifts with purchases to put together today and then some tatting to remake a couple of things. So for the first time in quite a while I will have to put the doily down for a while and get some work done. So here's to the whole week being busy like this!

Staying Busy

If there's one thing that keeps my mind occupied, it's doing all the things. Yesterday morning started with cleaning. I vacuumed, mopped floors, and did the laundry. This was quickly followed by the whole family running errands until lunch. That was immediately followed by all of us heading out to the front yard to pull all the winter weeds up and cut back unruly plants. There was a bit of a break after that as we all kind of collapsed from the effort for a bit. Then we got up and went on a nice long walk. All of this kept me off the internet most of the day and kept me from wallowing as well.

I do want to thank everyone for their kind and supportive comments though, I did read those as I finally sat down in the evening. I also pulled out my thread because I needed to continue to be busy. I'm about halfway through remaking a choker necklace that matches the last bracelet I remade. I still have the top row left to complete on it which will give me something to do once schooling is over today. I'm also sorely tempted to continue cleaning the house as I only managed to get the first floor done yesterday. Of course my mood could shift quickly since I am certainly sore from yesterday's efforts. Either way, I'll try to stay busy.

Thank You!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of those out there that celebrate. To the rest of the world, happy Thursday! I am, as usual, hosting the family meal today. This means that yesterday was devoted to cleaning and then worrying every time the kids walked by that they undid some part of my cleaning.

When I wasn't cleaning, I was working on the crochet blanket. When I stopped to measure it, I got an unpleasant surprise. It seems it is not growing at the rate I thought it was. Good news though, my blind crochet on the car trip yielded no major mistakes. I'm afraid I'm going to be at it longer than I had hoped. I'll still get it done by the time it's needed...I think, but with not much time to spare.

Since it is Thanksgiving, I wanted to take a minute to thank all of those out there that read my nonsense and ever so occasionally comment on it. Thank you to all of you who have ever bought a piece from me or a pattern, your support is appreciated more than you know. Thank you to all of you who have helped or encouraged me in my tatting journey. I have definitely been going through a rough patch, both creatively and sales wise lately, so thank you too for letting me vent here. I wish the best for all of you and I hope your holiday seasons are stress free and enjoyable!

(p.s.  If you're interested, you can get free shipping this season in my etsy shop with the code THANKYOU and do feel free to share the code)

Argh

Well the pattern release yesterday could have gone better, but it could have gone worse as well. I assumed it wouldn't sell quite as quickly since I charged more for it, but I guess that I hoped I was wrong. What I didn't assume was that someone else had already copied the earring design that I made four years ago, likely counting stitches, wrote it up and posted it online. So now it kind of looks like I'm selling something you can get for free even though it was my design in the first place. I tired to convince myself that since it was adapted from an antique pattern, that the same idea could have come to someone else as well. but it really is far too similar and it's already happened too many times.

I'm glad I only got the blog comment regarding it late last night, because then it only made it hard to get to sleep. Plus, I got to calm down a bit before writing about it. My thoughts last night were in the, 'why bother', and ' that's it, I'm not doing this anymore' vein. Sure I'm sick of it, and places like pintrest, while a beautiful collection of inspiration, are also a haven for copyright infringement. I'm just going to take a deep breath and move on now.

Okay, I have to admit now that part of my reaction to that discovery was based on the failure of a day I had overall. I attempted, at least a half dozen times, to design a new piece. Each attempt ended in abject failure. I had an idea, but it wouldn't coalesce. The thread seemed to be rejecting every stitch. So that by the time I got the comment notification on yesterday's post I was honestly quite ready to hang up my hat and get out of the tatting game. Now, don't worry I couldn't stop even if I really wanted to. I love tatting and it's my real job, but a few more days like yesterday and I might be singing a different tune.

So I guess I'm just going to have to work harder today and hope that I have some sort of creative breakthrough to cure the malaise. Before I leave, a big thanks to all of you who already did pick up the pattern. You've no idea how much I appreciate your support! It's part of what keeps me working. Here's hoping for a better day ahead.

Whew

Well it wasn't as busy a sale day as it had been in the past as far as the sale motif goes anyway. Maybe I didn't try hard enough to come up with a motif that people just "had" to own. The saddest part though is that everyone who bought a motif had already shopped with me before meaning I didn't get any converts that way. On the plus side the pattern sales were okay and I sold quite a few of those to new customers. So I guess I convinced more people to create and changed fewer into consumers. Either way I do still have a lot of work to do today. I still have a handful of motifs left to make as well as a few other pieces that sold as well.

I got the strangest disconnected feeling as I sold patterns yesterday though. It was the first time I sold any under the new instant download method which meant I didn't have to do a thing. On one hand that's great, I get the sale notification and my job is over, but I am so used to fulfilling orders and messaging customers which makes me connect to them at least a little bit. This is much less personal. I suppose it's a good thing I don't have too many patterns to sell then. I really do like to get a sense of my customers and that's a bit difficult with no contact.

Tomorrow is the youngest child's birthday so basically I have today to wrap up the motif sale pieces to get everything in the mail by Wednesday morning. After that's done I have a custom order I'm working on followed by remaking the other pieces that sold yesterday since I think I got a few payday orders. Those will probably have to wait until Thursday and beyond. Then there's all the house cleaning I'll need to do in anticipation of having family over for the birthday party this weekend. I really should stop writing all this out in the morning. Just reading it makes me tired.

Before I forget though, Thanks to everyone that bought a pattern or motif or shared the deal yesterday. It may not have been my most successful Tatting Day event eve , but I certainly appreciate every little bit! Now that this is out of the way I can start to think about designing again soon...not sure when of course, but soon.

Busy & Thanks

So with a task of remaking ankle corsets, I managed to do nothing else the entire day. Well, that's not entirely true. There was an unfortunate bout of cleaning first thing in the morning when one of the cats could not be bothered to 'go' in the litter box and someone stepped on it and tracked it throughout the house. I know, fun, right? Then there was a lovely walk after schooling the kids. Aside from those two events and the occasional break browsing the Internet, all I did was work on ankle corsets.

There are pieces I sell just often enough that I have their patterns and constructions committed to memory, but many of the things I've made over the years have been made just once or twice so every time I have to do one of those pieces, it's a much longer task. I try to have the existing piece in hand if possible so I can clearly see all my joins and stitch counts since they're not always the most logical choices. Yesterday's pair was once of those. So I'm not even close to done with the pair.

After I do finish them, I have another pair in a different style to make as well. Though the next pair I am more familiar will so it should be less of a hassle. The rest of the weekend will probably be dedicated to more family adventures so don't expect much om Monday unless something terribly interesting and unexpected happens. Oh, and before I go thanks to everyone who took the time to watch the new video and comment. I really appreciate it, you make me feel like I put something at least a little bit useful into the world, thanks!

Pattern For Sale

Happy Monday morning all. I had another busy, busy weekend, only this time it was also raining the entire time making all our adventures extra adventurous and all our returns home extra cozy. Let me start at Friday though because I actually did something I've never done.

After much thought and yammering on here and elsewhere online I finally made the decision to release a pattern for sale. So I carefully wrote up the pattern and took a few more pictures to flesh it out a bit. I haven't a clue how to do a proper diagram so I figured good pictures are the next best thing, then I listed it. Well, that's a bit out of order, before I listed it I read a dozen pattern listings on etsy to make sure I knew what information to include to avoid any issues. A big Thanks You to Marilee for such well written listings which I studied closely to write my own as i found them to be the best written there is. Anyway, the pattern is available for the Christmas Rose motif now. A few wonderful people have already picked it up and no one has told me I screwed up...yet, so I'm going to count this as a success so far. In fact I was thinking that I would add the instructions for the small version of the earrings to the pattern I gave out with the Special Occasion pendant and list that soon as well. I don't think I'll get in the habit of doing a lot of these, but a few can't hurt. And don't go thinking a book is coming anytime soon. I still don't have the time or skill set for that project. That's a 'when the kids are older' project.

The rest of the weekend was all that family adventuring I mentioned. We decorated the tree and put up lights inside. I like to say we don't decorate outside because we don't like to share and all our decorations are for us, really it's more cost and effort, plus it's not like it's a centuries old custom or anything, but I digress. We also left most of the ornaments in the the box this year because the cats were too aggressive with them last year and we have too many 'collectible' Hallmark ornaments that we'd prefer stand the test of time. I suppose if the cats behave this year, they may go out again. We also managed to knock out the bulk of our admittingly scaled back holiday shopping. Just a few more grown up gifts to get and some things to make and we're done.

I also had a wonderfully busy weekend in the shop. People clearly got paid and started buying gifts. In fact I woke up to a couple more small orders this morning and I'm really happy to get to work today. I have orders that need making and pieces that will need remaking. If I have time I should get that pattern I mentioned ready to list as well. I'm crossing my fingers that this is the beginning of a trend and I will be happily busy from now until Christmas. Here's to a busy day, week and month!

Monday, Monday

Happy Monday morning my friends. It was, as I expected, another whirlwind weekend full of cleaning, preparing and most thankfully tatting. It may have taken a while for the pendant sale to get rolling, but in the end over 20 were sold. In fact this morning I still have two of those to make and then the whole lot gets shipped out. There were also a few other pieces that went as well giving me a few more things to make. So, thank you to all of my lovely customers for getting me back to busy and many thanks to anyone who shared the deal as well. I really appreciate it. Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that the momentum continues through the holidays.

The rest of the weekend was all the last minute cleaning and shopping that goes with house guests. Well that and waiting in line with the family to pick up the new Wii U system Sunday morning. We'd been saving money for it since it was announced and really that's the way to go with these things as they are not cheap. It's much easier to buy something like this when the money for it was squirreled away over the course of a year or more I think. I tried to convince the husband to buy it secretly to use it as a family holiday gift, but he has no patience to wait for something like this. So instead the children have been told that this was an early Christmas gift and to lower their gift expectations for the actual day. Sure hope that works.

So I really have no idea what I'll manage to accomplish today. Between our guests, their two cats, the fact that there is no school today and our new a new video game system, there are too many distractions to count. I know I should just go with it, but I'm still stressing on keeping up the sales momentum in the shop, getting prepped for the Thanksgiving meal and making sure that the house doesn't fall apart after all the cleaning I did. I think this might be an extra coffee sort of day. Oh and I'll try to snap some pictures of the guest cats for your viewing pleasure tomorrow, they really are beautiful and none of the cats have actually battled...yet. Wish me luck!

Wow!

I don't even know how to start all the thank you's this morning. Seriously, what a day! The sales began straight away and continued all day long. I was in complete shock by the sheer number of them particularly because usually my coupon codes are universally ignored. Also all the fabulously supportive comments on the blog made my day. I really was just venting and know not to take these things seriously, but having the support makes everything so much better. Sometimes I think we take our support systems for granted, but days like yesterday remind me how lucky I am. I have a wonderful husband, a loving family, friends that surprise me for dinner, with flowers no less, even though I know that they are beyond busy and a network of people online that support, critique, comment  and occasionally buy my wares boosting my self esteem and keeping me grounded. It was a wonderful birthday. Thank you all so very much!

As you might have guessed the sale was a rousing success. So much so that I will be ridiculously busy for weeks remaking pieces and I find myself a bit overwhelmed this morning. I kept up with them all day, but overnight the number of orders grew again. I've also got the first day of school to knock out today with the kids and since they didn't release any of the lessons early for me to prep for it's going to be a heck of a day there as well. I'm glad I have a fridge stocked with caffeinated beverages, because I'm going to need them. Thanks again everyone, really.

Really?

Man, I cannot catch a break this week. I was all ready to be slightly productive yesterday when I read through my emails to discover material reclamation messages regarding the kids school stuff that we only recently received. I was further confused when attempting to log into the school site and got the message that my account was no longer active. This led to an early morning phone call to one place where I was informed that their records show the kids as withdrawn and I'd need to call the school to find out what happened when they opened in two hours. What the what? So I had to wait those hours to call the school enrollment people and when I did and they said they'd fix it, I still had to wait hours to find out it was in fact fixed.

So even if I had been able to be productive despite the recent cat events, it was thwarted. Instead I cleaned as I'm wont to do when I'm stressed, annoyed or angry. I'm told this could be a healthy way to deal with those emotions with the side effect of getting the cleaning done fast. Of course those people have never been in my way when I was cleaning.

Once that drama was fixed up I was able to relax and work on doing a little remaking for the shop and I actually felt fairly productive the rest of the day even if it wasn't anything significant to share. I was also quite touched that so many of you left comments about yesterday's sad news and so many more of you sent emails. It's crazy how many people have a Boo in their lives and I appreciate all the support.

I was hoping to say that today would be better, but I woke up to a message on etsy letting me know that a package I sent to Germany in May never arrived. Of course it didn't. To make matters worse it was a larger piece, one that I never remade either. So the options given to the customer were a refund, which is always painful or to wait until I order more beetle wing cases and remake the piece to send a replacement, probably more painful. On one hand it's always a bummer to send back money, on the other at least I wouldn't have to worry about another package going missing past the borders. Unfortunately to track packages overseas requires much costlier postage than most people are comfortable with. Luckily these occurances are fairly few. Too bad it didn't happen with a small pendant or something more easily replaceable or refunded.

So today I'll be not so patiently waiting to hear the customers preference thankful that they seem reasonable so far and hopefully they continue to be. Otherwise I will be again fairly useless while my brain is playing out worse case scenarios. It's only Wednesday and I think I want a do over on the whole week. Look Universe, I'd love a little reversal of fortune for the rest of the week. Nothing fancy, just a nice change of pace from sad, uncomfortable and disappointing if you will. That would be great, thanks.

Thank You

You guys are so sweet to respond so kindly to what was, I'll admit, quite a whiny call for attention. Not that I didn't need it as everything was just piling up and weighing me down all at once. I truly appreciate every comment and kind word, but please don't feel like you have to keep it up...I really do know you're out there. Sometimes I just need a little reassurance that I honestly haven't begun just talking to hear myself speak...metaphorically of course, I don't actually narrate the blog out loud.

Yesterday was more than just a turning point for comments. After I had to tell the Italian customer no, I had quite a back and forth with them and eventually a solution arose with a relative in Europe that could receive the package and then send it to them. I was terribly relieved not only because I didn't scare away the customer completely, but I also had no desire to ship to Italy regardless of the customs rules. Their postal system has a horrific reputation. This did put me in a better mood to start the day and though the customer won't be making the purchase for a few days, I began remaking the pieces I was putting on hold for them. Then I felt busy and productive.

I took a break from that to play with the motif I showed you yesterday. I had an idea in mind, but then I ran across this large copper bit from the grab bag stuff. It fit so well in the center that rather than work a new piece I added some rings to attach it to the already existing piece of tatting. There was a hole in the center of the copper bit that I also tatted a sort of flower into and then I added some chunky copper toned chain. I'm not quite done, I still need to add the clasp and make sure the whole piece hangs well. It seems to, but it needs wearing to make certain.

I still plan on playing with the motif some more, but it will have to wait because just as I finished this, I finally got a sale of substance. This gives me a few pieces that need to be remade and there is also still one more piece on hold that I can also get made again. So, this morning I feel busy and loved and generally ready to take on the world. Thanks again for the attention. It should hold me over for quite some time.

Starting Again

Well, that was quite the weekend. We spent a lot of time acquiring and then assembling storage things. Some people clean in the spring, we organize. Never mind that both the compulsion to do so and the energy required to maintain fall away by mid summer and the whole process will be repeated next Spring, it looks nice right now.

I would also like to publicly thank the Universe for listening to me on Friday. The shop immediately picked up almost to the point of 'be careful what you wish for', but I think it's under control. It is definitely not giving me any time to remake things, but I'm trying to make two of things that are bought as custom so I can list them again straight away. I was going to make this a cautionary tale about asking the Universe for attention, but I wonder if I shouldn't ask for a load of cash first? Yeah, that would likely end badly so I will just stick with, The Universe is Listening.

So, there is a week left before the potential secret project reveal. Interestingly that is also the 5th anniversary of my etsy shop and the day I have jury duty, so it might be a bit of a wash in the joy department. I'm still trying to decide if I should bother doing anything for the anniversary as I will likely be too busy to promote anything properly and with my luck if I plan something too big I'll get empaneled or be stuck there for days anyway.

So, this week its tatting, tatting and more tatting, you know, like most weeks. I hope yours is lovely and there's some backyard songbirds.

Wear It On Your Hand

Thank you all so much for your pictures guesses. You were of course all correct and that was a great relief to me. I had been asked to create a bracelet that would contain the ribbon, but not be just about the ribbon so I thought the best was was to actually work the design more subtly into the lace rather than design a larger ribbon, but I feared that I could only see the ribbon because I already knew what it was. The design was also approved by its requester and it will go into the shop today for her. It will likely also go into the shop as a regular listing soon as well.

I was also busy yesterday with the new idea I mentioned yesterday. I wanted to blend two pieces into an entirely new product. Well almost entirely new...I had tried the glove before, but I lost my way. This one is sort of a glovelette or mitt or demi glove...yeah, I don't know what to call it. Anyway, I started with the Tenebrous motif because I will eventually embellish it and then I started by adding bits of the throat corset motif to the sides, then more of them.

This is the point where I began the making, cutting out, remaking and staring at it until it made sense phase. I had mentioned on twitter that I wondered what it was like to be a maker that prepared and sketched and planned before working, because I just jump in and cross my fingers. When that crossing doesn't work, I get out the scissors. I won't tell you how much clipping I did before I finally came up with something close enough to call a decent prototype.

I was trying to make a final piece, but as I closed the glove, I realized what more needed changing to make it fit right and since it was plenty obvious, I knew I could stop working on the prototype and just use what I have learned for the final piece. What was surprising is that using the fingers from the first glove attempt, I think I can use what I've learned here to finally make the full glove as well...one day. For now, I'm just going to try to finish up this little, purely decorative accessory. I plan on embroidering the center and adding crystals to make it an over the top piece, well likely a pair, but they should be swanky.

P.S. Thanks for the hardware store suggestion for rings...I can't believe I didn't think of that!

The Monster At The End Of The Year

Well here we are at the end of another year. I have been babbling on a blog long enough to be able to go back and shake my head at my past thoughts, long enough to be proven both right and wrong about the future in a permanently visible manner. Every year, at its close, it seems I say the same thing. I tell you that I don't make resolutions, then I proceed to list things that I would like to see happen. Then the year progresses, I forget what I said I wanted and my list becomes a parody of itself. For example, here is last years bit of babbling forgotten until I looked it up today:

"Speaking of the coming year, I have started to give some thought to my future plans. I hesitate to call them resolutions as I never keep those. Rather I can them goals, some more ridiculous than others of course, but I like a variety. The next few months should see me reach the magical sales number called 1000 barring any unforeseen circumstances. I'd love to hit 1500 by the end of 2010 because I like round numbers. The past year had me reaching 5000 hearts in my etsy shop and I hope to gain another 1000 in the new year. I want to see my tatting worn and photoed on someone much more famous than I. I also want to get at least one more instructional needle tatting video up and get the actual Instructables for the last two free patterns I offered up as well. I tried to think of something even more ridiculous than the famous person thing, but the only thing I could come up with is a major magazine or televisions feature of my work."

 So, let's dissect that shall we. I did indeed hit 1000 sales, but didn't quite make 1500, but the math really didn't bear that happening out anyway. Next, I shattered my shop heart goal by garnering 2400 more. I think that might have more to do with etsy growing than me specifically, but I'll take it. I also did manage two more youtube videos and on a related note the views on my first video broke 50,000 views and the updated version with speaking broke 11,000. That my friends is a lot of people watching my hands. My last goal points were regarding fame and sadly, though there were a few hopeful sales and photo shoots that direction, there have been no major sightings. I remain relatively undiscovered...oh, well, we can't win them all.

So where do I go for next year then? As much as I do still adore the round numbers, they are not really a true gauge of my success, they are just reminders that we live in a base 10 world. Sure, I could ask for the fame thing again, but that is a wild crap shoot. If I made half an effort to make it happen of course, but we all know I am too lazy and much too chicken to go out on many ledges. So I guess I'll stick with practical this year. I will try to make another Instructable and another video. I will continue to design, grow and learn. I will watch kittens and children grow, take care of my family, make a few new friends, babble in my blog and try to be better person.

Thank you to everyone out there who reads this blog, checks the Wunderkammer, buys my lace, follows me on facebook or twitter. Thank you for commenting, consoling, commiserating and for ignoring my nonsense...or pretending to anyway. Thank you for being part of my year and I hope to see you in the new one.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I Knocked This Time

My hand is poised above my desk ready to knock just as soon as the next sentence has escaped from the keyboard. What a great sales day yesterday was (Knock, knock, knock). I assure you that those knocks were the written representation of actual superstition filled knocks. I had one customer order a single slave bracelet and request another to match and one of my best return customers requested a custom size and embellished necklace. These tasks kept me quite busy all day. Well that and the kids have decided that they are both sick again which makes them an extra handful. It doesn't seem likes its going to get too bad right now (knock, knock, knock), but it means they were extra needy and the oldest thought doing school was medieval torture. We did school anyway and yet she lives, so she is clearly not dying.

Hopefully they wake in better shape as our day is a full one. The kitties are getting carted off to the vet for more shots and then later this afternoon we have a school field trip to a Fire Station which means no nap or at best a short one. Luckily I am all caught up with the orders that needed making and they will all be in the mail today. Of course I really need a week of orders like yesterday to make up for not only the holiday shopping, but things like replacing bad hard drives and other 'but I need it' moments that I have succumbed to during the most expensive time of the year.

Before I head off into the day I wanted to send a thank you out into the world. Thanks to miss Tatting Chic. Her concern for me over protecting my work was greatly appreciated as was the end of our conversation where I was privy to a most enjoyable rant. Seriously people I love when people let their opinions out regarding certain nutters. No, I'm not sharing...that would be mean, but trust me, it's clearly not you. The point I was trying to make is a personal thank you and a general one to all my other tatting and crafting friends who look out for me and each other in this crazy Internet place. I'm wishing you much returned karma for your kindness. Now I'm off into the real world and the weekend. Have a good one.

Here's To The Tatters

Well, I still woke up tired today, but I woke up from a dream. This is great news as I fear my lack of rest was really a lack of REM sleep. I have no idea why of course, but that snippet of a dream this morning was very welcome news and I hope it means I'm climbing out of the hole now.

Yesterday morning started with a message from one of my very first tatting friends. Now while the contents of our discussions surrounded a really bothersome subject, I was still glad to hear from her and it reminded me of the all the wonderful people I met when I first started blogging. I started this thing at the behest of etsy folk who cried that it would help business. What actually happened was after a few months of decidedly etsy-centric posts, the tatters found me and I shifted subjects a bit and have found my happy place. Things I have learned are, if you don't want to join the tatting community, don't talk about it. Tatters are crazy for finding their own and have alerts set up to do so. Joining said community is the best thing you can do for the art and for your own sanity. No one will ever understand your new found obsession with string like they will. Being adversarial, paranoid or selfish will get you nowhere, the opposite will earn you friends, allies and trust.

I guess the point of this diversion is to thank all of you out there who support each other and understand that this art we all share is just that, something to share. Sure some of us might be trying to earn a living and some of us might just want something to do with our hands and some might have the art in their blood. We come from different backgrounds and have different stories of what led us to the needle or shuttle and an enormous, unexplainable collection of thread, but for the most part the one thing tatters seem to have in common is kindness...even if it is draped in a cloak of sweet, sweet sarcasm. So I say to those of you that are brand new to the art, join the community and thrive. To those who would say they were tatting before I was born, thanks for all the groundwork. We would be nowhere today without you hanging onto that thread and giving us something to work from. We can not forget that we are not doing something that has never been done, we are merely adding to a foundation that has been held strong.

There are a few of you who might understand why I went on this diatribe today, but it's not important and I shall not give it another thought. I have tatting to attend to and that is far more important. I still have not heard back from the one eyed mask customer so I shall assume that she has decided against it. That means that I will get one made up for the store as soon as I can. I think I might adjust the design a bit as well, particularly over the eye just so the whole ribbon over the face is...well less. I was also given some advice to add attachment points for glue on the back side so as not to gum up the lace, so I will look into adding a couple of pads of fabric or oilcloth on the underside for potential gluing. Well, off to it then and thanks for reading.

To Donate

I finished up the mask I was working on rather early in the morning as it was the only one that does not require the final and time consuming step of wrapping the wire with thread. Then I was off to do school for the day, which as the get harder gets a bit longer each day. When that was done I returned to my thread with the familiar, 'which direction now?' question. I had mostly caught up when one of the non paying buyers transformed themselves into a paying one. Ah, something else to remake.

This is when I overheard...read...someone on twitter asking for donations for a breast cancer fund to help women while they are going through it. That's when I made this. There was no ring on it at this point, but it is a pendant. I had made a similar one for the bride I just sent the veil to, only in her veil colors to match. I added a small swarovski to the center to make it a bit more special. I had initially intended to embroider the edges, but then I could not find my black metallic filament so I let it go. This one is off to be used in an auction or sold, I'm not certain the details, but it's proceeds will be donated. I did make another, so if anyone else out there is looking for donations for this pinkest of months, shoot me a message and I'd be glad to donate the other as well.

About the same time I was caught up with this little pink flower I received an email that I had actually won the third place price in a blog giveaway. I received a credit at Gloomth.com a very goth Lolita clothing shop which I have featured on the Wunderkammer before. I'm still on a spending moratorium, but I managed to find the perfect thing which left me only paying shipping. I got me a pair of short bloomers. Yes, I know it's a little odd, but I have always wanted a pair and they are adorable. I would have gotten a skirt, but the one I feel in love with would have cost more than I could justify even with the credit, but Yay, free bloomers! Thanks to Gloomth and the blog at LaCarmina.com for the giveaway. I am also aware that this might have been an instant karmic reward encouraging me to donate more...so I will.

I should get in my crystals and other supplies today and if the stars align this will be around lunch time so I can get started on the wedding mask while the kids are off with Grandma and then asleep at nap. If the stars don't, then it will likely arrive around bedtime leaving me grumbly, but then I'll get it done over the weekend. I do have plenty of time to work on this one, but the final stage may be to add feathers and I want plenty of time to work out the best way to do that. I get doubly nervous when I work on wedding pieces since they should be beyond perfection and since I have yet to work with a bridezilla, I still have the desire to make that happen. So, off to it then. Have a lovely weekend and all that!

Floored

I received my karmic reward for complaining about being too busy. As the day wore on I began feeling more and more off. Then right after the children went down for their naps, which is generally my most productive minutes of the day, I was floored by a mysterious illness. I mean this sucker wiped me out for hours. Every time I stood up I felt horrible, so I just laid there. I could only tat with the speed of a tortoise, so I stopped that too. Then when my youngest woke up, she attached herself to me at first worried about Mommy, then she started running a mystery fever too. I woke this morning feeling relatively well, so I hope my punishment is over and I hope too that the young one wakes with her fever gone as well. See, now I have lost time to make up for as well. So to the universe, I apologize for the complaints, I'd like to say it will never happen again, but that is a lie. Instead I shall attempt to keep my mouth shut and my fingers from dancing the words.

In other news, the lovely Kelly of Tatfully Yours just returned from her needle tatting teaching engagement and returned with a few pictures. I had requested them after she asked to use my Cameo pattern as a beginners project.

It is awfully surreal to see folks I don't know working with a pattern I wrote. I was assured that many of the students actually 'got' the pattern and even finished their pieces. So congrats to all the new needle tatters and to Kelly for making it though her substitute teacher gig with apparently flying colors.I also find that I want to try and teach in my area, but I fear there would be little demand, also where remains a mystery. Perhaps I should just sit on the idea for a few more years until the kids are older or somebody local actually asks me.

I hope that my health remains intact and I can get some real work finished up today. There are still many pieces that need to be remade. I also ordered up some supplies for the wedding mask and a couple of random things caught my eye whilst shopping, so if time ever slows down, I'll have some new things to play with as well.