Back To It

We had one last day of Spring Break with the kids yesterday and it was my youngest daughter's birthday. We spent the day adventuring on her direction and mostly ate too much. We're back to schooling today and back to work as well. I got an earring order yesterday, so I have at least those to make today. Not much else so I'll leave you with a photo of me and the birthday girl during our recent trip to Red Rock.

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.

Rocks

First full day of our vacation took us to Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas. It looked to be a lovely day and it was save for the shading clouds above and the cold wind that we were not expecting and thus did not really dress for. We only took a short walk off the driving trail to see the petroglyphs on one on the the rock faces. Then there was a bit of food adventure followed by a quiet evening in when I even managed to get a little knotting in. Day two starts in a few hours so now it's time for coffee.

Vacation

Good Monday morning all. I'm actually off on a family adventure right now visiting friends. I know it's hard to tell since it's still ridiculously early, but I slept in for a couple of hours even. I had to put my etsy shop in vacation mode since I won't be close enough to home to ship anything and there is no convenient way to just leave the patterns up for sale. I'll try to keep dropping notes here all week, but I may have little of interest to say. This is just a photo of part of the drive, which was long, but lovely...in parts.

Home Again

I'm back. We went with family to stay in a cabin up in Stanislaus National Forest in a town called Long Barn. Needless to say, internet access was incredible spotty and insufficient to post anything longer than a Facebook status update. We had a good time, mostly. I'm not overly fond of the cold nor the snow, but I think that the kids really enjoyed it. The cabin was nice, but the sleeping arrangements for the 10 of us were crowded, so I am not well rested.

Also there were three of these deer heads to give us nightmares. This smaller one moved back and forth on a beam, oh and did I mention the earthquakes? Yes, there was several sizable ones in the middle of the night for us to enjoy. Really though, we had a good time, but I've little else to share. The only things I made were sad snowmen while the children sledded. Now I'm warm again and after today I should be rested enough to finish cleaning the house up from the holiday guests...maybe.

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.

Disney Adventure

I'm back! Though I'm not sure I was really all that missed, except perhaps by our cats. Our in-laws spearheaded a trip to Disneyland years ago. We've all been recycling to save money for it for years and that's where we went over the long weekend. We hit up Medieval Times, Disneyland and California Adventures.  It was an average of 9 miles of walking a day while we were there, in the parks at 7 and up much later than usual at night. I am completely wiped out this morning as we drove most of the day yesterday.

This picture above was probably the husband's highlight of the weekend. We only split off from our larger family group for a couple of hours and we had to meet Spider-Man. This other one is a few more members of the family, but still not everyone. As you can imagine there are tons of photos, but I don't even have half of them on my computer yet.

We're back to schooling this morning and real life. I got an order for a pair of slave bracelets on the way home yesterday so I can get straight back to tatting as well. Of course what I really need is another couple of days of vacation to recover from our vacation. Oh, well. It was a wonderful time and I'm glad that the kids are old enough that they will always remember it. I guess it's back to it now.

Time Off

I wasn't exactly lazy yesterday, but I certainly did no tatting. It was laundry and packing day here. I miss when packing meant I only had to worry about myself. Now it's a whole family I have to check on. Though luckily, the kids are old enough to at least get some of it done without any intervention, just double checking after they're done.

My shop is on vacation now though Saturday and I had already finished remaking everything I needed to from the most recent bout of orders, so I'm not even sure what I might do during my adventures down time. I have no tatting projects, no knitting or crochet ones either. I hate having idle hands, but I might have to just deal with it. I am almost out of time to come up with something to do. Oh, well, here's to coming up with an idea quickly and trying to enjoy my time off regardless.

Out

We had quite the whirlwind weekend. We were gifted tickets to the see the Zelda Symphony in San Francisco earlier in the year when they went on sale. We've been saving money and getting a little family help to afford to stay in the city for the night since then, so we were able to not only see the Symphony which was wonderful, but we weer also able to go to the California Academy of Sciences the next day. This is the family in the theater right before the show began. The kids loved it as well and it was quite the people watching event. There were folks decked out in full symphony attire, folks cos-playing as charters from the games as well as people who looked like they just walked in from the street. The music of course was wonderful and well worth the trip.

The kids had never been to Golden Gate Park, so we walked around a little bit before the museum on Sunday. Of course that was only one teeny tiny section of the park anyway. The place is massive. We'd not been to the Academy of Sciences either so we were there until almost closing time trying to see everything from the Planetarium, to the earthquake shake house, an enclosed rain forest complete with free butterflies and their living roof. This picture is the family up on the roof.

So you might imagine I'm pretty wiped this morning. We have a park day for the kids school later this morning and then schooling proper starts tomorrow. Maybe some lace later today, if I have some energy left at all. I'm not certain that I will.

The Coast

I don't think I mentioned that we were going out of town for the weekend. We always head out to Monterey for our anniversary, this time it fell on a weekend which is good and bad. Good because I didn't have to worry about my shop as much, but bad because it's a bit more crowded everywhere we go. It was quite a bit more sunny than usual as well. In fact I got a bit burnt the first day out. I think it was the hiking at Point Lobos that did it, but the rest of the day was outside too, so it really doesn't matter what bot of sun got me.

I didn't take any tatting with me, but our hotel is right next to an antique mall, so there was plenty of lace. I can't help but identify every piece I see, though most of it was crochet there was some tatting, and a tiny bit of bobbin lace. I was on a bit of a hunt for the bobbins themselves though. I found a few in terrible condition and while I might have been able to rehabilitate them, they were also nine dollars a piece and that is far too much for a fixer upper.

Then I ran into this jar. It was chock full of bobbins in pretty good shape. They were still five dollar a piece so I couldn't justify getting more than a couple of them. I guess that puts me up to 13 pairs of bobbins so I might have a couple more patterns I can try out soon. These are the times that I wish I was one of those people who got left their grandmother's lace tools. No such luck. The closet thing I got was a handkerchief with a tatted edging from a great grandmother given to me by my grandmother when she passed.

I still have some tatting to get back to before I'm back to the bobbins though. I got a couple of small orders over the weekend, so I need to take care of those first. I also think I might just need to rest a bit after a weekend of so much walking. I do miss the cool coastal air already though.

I'm Back

I'm back and thoroughly exhausted. Also, I'm hot and I really do miss the weather at the coast which is currently 30º cooler than it is here. There's no use dwelling on it though, we all love the places we got to vacation or it wouldn't be worth all the effort. All the packing, unpacking, and laundry, not to mention all crazy the kids throw at us once they're home and instantly bored.Yes, it is a joy, but it's worth it.

I didn't put my shop in vacation mode, but I might as well have. There were no sales in it the entire time we were gone. On one hand that's great because I didn't have to get straight to work upon returning, on the other hand I do like getting back to routine. Luckily while we spent a last lazy Sunday yesterday a couple of orders came in. One gave me something to remake yesterday and will be in the mail this morning. The other has a custom sized piece in it, so that is today's task. Custom sizing slave bracelets can be tricky business. They usually require small adjustments to stitch counts rather than the addition of repeats like a regular bracelet would. This means I'll likely stare at it for quite some time before I work out what needs to be done. That's probably a good thing too, my brain has been on vacation as well and a solid problem to solve should shake it back into service.

I've got no tatting to show you, there wasn't even any at the Antique mall, so I shall leave you will a few more pictures from our trip.

 

Monterey

We spent yesterday in our usual Monterey spots and after accidentally running into my brother, we headed to Point Lobos for the first time. It was lovely, I'm sunburnt and we still have another day or so in the cool weather to enjoy. I hope your weekend is as lovely as ours promises to be.

I'm Back

I'm back. We had a lovely time down south. We were there with my in-laws for a Military reunion.
While that has made for some interestingly awkward moments for ourselves and the kids, it is mostly a good time in a nice place. I got to visit my brother and sister-in-law who live there in San Diego and we took in the Zoo and the Midway while we were there. It was positively exhausting. Of course we got home to cat messes, full out ant war, laundry, and 105º weather (108º today). I would very much like to go back to 70º's and the beautiful green foliage, but I'm back now.

I didn't pull out my tatting at all during the trip. I guess I was really taking a vacation from my usual. I should have done some in the 7-8 hour car rides, but I was either watching the beautiful world go by or falling asleep after miles of nothing. So today, I do have a set of cat ears to tat up. It was the only thing I sold while I was gone. I had, of course, hoped I would sell lots of things while I was gone to make up for the money we had to spend, but no.

Today the husband is still off work, so I'll try to get some things tatted, but I don't have much faith that anything of consequence will get done. Then tomorrow it's to the business of getting back to normal and finding our new summer groove. Maybe I'll sell lots of things today and mek up for the money we spent. What, I can hope can't I?

Working

I definitely had a hard time getting back into the swing of things yesterday. It really is a good thing I had a custom order that needed immediate doing. There is nothing like a deadline to keep one on point. Of course it also makes for a pretty dull blog post. After taking the kids on a morning walk, all I did was work on that order followed by working on one of the necklaces that needed remaking. Well that and occasionally wandering aimlessly around the house. I think a vacation of walking all day confused my normally sedentary body. Now it wants exercise or something. I'm sure the effect is temporary.

Since I didn't do anything else worth noting I thought I'd just give you a couple more pictures form the vacation. The kids in front of a neat fountain at one of the beaches and who can go to the Aquarium without taking dozens of jellyfish pictures.

Today I still have a large necklace that needs remaking as well as a mask that sold overnight. So, yes it's going to be another boring work day around here. Though truth be told I absolutely need all the sales I can get right after vacation. Not literally, mostly psychologically. They are so bloody expensive that even though I budgeted for it, I feel poor afterwards. Having lots of work to do afterwards helps minimize the effect and reduce the self inflicted stress. So with a needle and thread, off to work I go.

I'm Back

Happy Monday all! I know, I know, I said I would write while I was on vacation. I said it would be easy and I had every intention of doing so and then I woke up in the hotel, pulled up the blogger app and realized that I was logged out and I couldn't remember my password. Yes, I am 'that' person. The one who allows the computer to remember all the passwords for me. It becomes such a long time between needing to remember them myself that I forget them. Of course I can just look them up on my computer, but I didn't bring my computer. Please don't scold me, the husband already did that for you.

We did have a lovely 15th anniversary at the coast. It was cool, not too busy and we managed some fresh adventures. We saw the Peacock Mantis Shrimp they just put on exhibit. If you are unfamiliar with this creature, I humbly suggest you watch this hilarious and true video, True Facts About the Mantis Shrimp. We had to crawl in a tunnel in the kids area to see him and it was so worth it...though I am sporting some great knee bruises.

We also finally got a look at the baby octopus that had been there for quite some time, but we'd never been able to see in it's tank. It had sneaked into the aquarium in some live rock and was discovered only after it had attempted to escape across the floor. We'd been trying to see it for maybe a year, but  he was always hiding. This time he was right there, in front, performing.

When we got home, I did in fact have the new chain I ordered in the mail, so I got the key necklace listed straight away. It didn't fly right off the shelf like I thought, but I still like it enough to make it a permanent part of the shop. That may not have sold, but I did have a few sales while I was off and when I was back home, pretending to be off. I got so little done over the weekend, I feel like a right lazy bum. This morning I have a custom order to get to as well as two large necklaces that need remaking. Those each take a day by themselves so I guess the first part of the week is all booked. Now I just need to get my rear out of vacation mode and get to work.

Out Of The Desert

Good morning Monday. While I'm fairly certain that I could have slept in another few hours, the cats had other plans, so here I am greeting the world exhausted and sore from car rides and revelry. The weekend recap goes something like this.

Friday morning we rose as early as usual and headed out on the road well before the sun rose. We luckily timed things very well and our first stop was the Insect Lore Bugsuem. It's one of their distributions centers and the Bugsuem is a company store as well as a museum of insects, live and otherwise. We all enjoyed the stop very much, but then it was back on the road. We stopped for lunch in Barstow and then kept right on going, arriving in Las Vegas in time for dinner and a trip to the Pinball Hall of Fame. Yes, that's a thing. We all played some pinball and killed an hour or so before crashing for the night in a comfortable, well priced, off the strip hotel.

Saturday we awoke early and started the day at Shark Reef, a small, but impressive aquarium at Mandalay Bay. Then we wandered beneath the casinos for a time before heading back to the hotel to get ready for our friend's Wedding renewal event, which was the reason for the trip. The wedding was at a fantastically decorated place called the Artisan. Paintings hung on the walls and ceilings and we're told the place is quite a hopping late night spot. Lucky for us we were there fairly early, so it was just lovely to look at. The event itself was wonderful, fun and even the children quite enjoyed themselves to the point of exhaustion. We met some wonderful, much more interesting people than ourselves and were humbled to be invited really. I fear there were people there that I should have met, but didn't as well, so I'm waiting for the good pictures and a post event, "who was that?" discussion. Obviously I got very few photos of the trip as I often fall into habit of experiencing rather than documenting. The husband usually takes care of that, so if I find some good photos he took to steal and share, I'll do that.

Sunday morning we again rose at the crack of dawn and headed back. We didn't stop anywhere good on the way back, we just drove. We did learn that if you want to avoid Sunday gridlock in the desert between Nevada and California, seven in the morning is an ideal departing time. We'd heard such horror stories which is why we left so early, but our drive was uneventful. After about eight hours we were home and it was unpacking, laundry and taking care of the orders I received while I was gone. I've got a healthy stack of those here ready to ship.

Today, it's a no school day for the kids and the husband took the day off to recuperate. I have a doctor's appointment in the afternoon, but then I really have to get back to tatting business. I have linen pieces I want to make, sold pieces that need remaking and all I did was crochet in the car. Three days off always means three days of working much harder to make up for lost time. Deep breath and begin.

I'm Off

Just in case you were wondering, yes yesterday was might bit better of a day. I still managed to be far too busy for much tatting, but I did thankfully get a couple of orders with the coupon code, one of which required a little making. So when I was given a little time, that's what I did. I honestly thought I'd have to wait until after the trip to make them, but everything is in the mail this morning. I'd also like to thank Fox for thanking me. I know that seems a bit silly and circular, but she called me 'the best' along with some other very complimentary words and after the day I had had it was the best thing ever, so many public thanks for that!

I'll be off to the coast in just a few hours and I'm still deciding whether or not to bring some tatting. In the past it was a no brainer to do so. The kids took afternoon naps at the hotel and I needed something to do, but they're getting bigger and even though the five year old still takes naps on normal days, she skips them whenever we adventure so I can't expect her to take one on the trip. So, will there even be any down time at all is the question. I suppose I'll bring a little anyway as there is the car ride and most of the view from here to there is nondescript.

I will of course still be checking in here during the trip, but I'm going to stop writing now so I can finish getting ready. I really want to miss all of the 106º-109º F temperatures that are predicted for the next three days here. Here we come Pacific Ocean.

Aargh

What a day, what a day. I do not mean that in a good way. I'm usually a fairly roll with it sort of person. I try to let things go and move on whenever possible for my own sanity and that of others, but sometimes the littlest things snowball into something that won't be let go. For example, while getting boxes of old kids clothes ready to go to Goodwill the husband lamented the missing piece of a sentimental outfit he wanted to keep. I don't begrudge him this, but the finding of it was proving impossible in our endless labyrinth of stuff and he wasn't letting go so neither could I. This brought me to a level of frustration I am not comfortable with and I decided to head to the nearby grocery store with a postal counter to mail an International package. This proved to be a fatal mistake for my sanity as I was informed that they no longer accept handwritten customs forms anywhere but the main post office. Now alone that little bomb would have annoyed me, with the clothes fiasco and the construction around the grocery store that sent me on a longer than desired trip in the first place, it was one step before getting into the fetal position and crying. If someone would have looked at me cross eyed I would have lost it right there.

Admittedly not the best way to start the husbands vacation week. A little lunch and then finally getting those boxes out of the house improved my mood, but not in time to get anything interesting done. I did finish remaking the mask that was in queue, but I didn't get back to the new pieces at all. I'm going to try to get to those today so I can feel like I accomplished some work this week before we're off to the coast tomorrow. Speaking of that, in an effort to get some extra money for the trip since sales have been anemic lately I offered up the code VACATION for 20% off anything in my etsy shop yesterday and today only. No one has bitten yet, but it was worth a shot. As it is, it's going to have to be a very frugal trip which is difficult with the costs there. Just going out there is a load off though and totally worth it for the temperature alone. It's at least 40º cooler out there.

I'll still be writing when we're over there since phone apps and free hotel wi-fi are awesome things and even though the cats won't be there to wake me up, I simply can longer sleep in. I've been trained too well. So, here's to having a better day, many sales and finally taking a load off.

I'm Back

Ah, back in the valley again. I was going to start off today with a nice vacation recap when I remembered what happened on Friday evening. I'm closing up the drapes in the front room. As I walk across the carpet, my foot strikes something hidden by it's pattern, a five pound weight that kids think is a toy. It did this to my toe. In case you were wondering, yes, it's the same exact toe I broke a month ago. The break was definitely worse this time so I spent all Saturday with it up hoping it wouldn't put a cramp in our trip. Luckily I'd already learned how to work around this particular break so aside from it being stepped on by children, it survived the trip. No, this does not mean I will start wearing shoes in the house regardless of the wisdom of that behavior.

While sitting on my rump on Saturday, I began a new mask too. This one stems from a comment I received about my most recent mask. I mentioned the idea a bit too here before, it will be a sugar skull mask. Honestly, I don't know what the proper name would be, calavera seems too broad, I suppose I could just call it a Day of the Dead mask, or the same thing in Spanish. Anyway, I've gotten a whole mess more than this done, but didn't take any more photographs. It follows a similar design as the fancy one, with white being the primary color accented by red with just a touch of black at the nose. I figure once the tatting is complete, I'll add black embroidery and perhaps some colored crystals and maybe even some silver filigree bits. I have to hold off on it for a bit because right before I left for vacation, I got a special order for a mask on a stick. Hopefully, I can document that one a little for you too.

Last up today, the vacation recap. We were in Monterey from Sunday through yesterday. It was a cool, crisp 60º with heavy morning mist. Sunday, we stopped at the Dennis The Menace Park and then headed to the Aquarium which was ridiculously crowded. We left after a while, but came back later in the evening when the crowds were gone and had a lovely time, the puffins are a treat. We went on a walk Monday morning and saw a pod of dolphins in the bay along with the usual gathering of sea lions. The we spent much of the day at the aquarium and shopping. I got shoes. More aquarium on Tuesday and then on the way home we stopped at Casa De Fruta to have lunch, feed the ducks and ride the train.

I did try to blog using my phone the days we were gone, but without pictures it seemed silly to bother, so I obviously didn't. Today, there will be mask making and more mask making and hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things before the weekend arrives. There is just one month left before school starts again and I want to make good use of it.

Back To Normal

The very worst thing about the husband being home for a week was I got to sleep in. It started with a few minutes, but quickly stretched to an hour and the cats just let it happen. I actually had to set an alarm to make sure I got up on time today as normality is restored...yawn. Anyway, the family finished up some more adventuring, gardening and random house related tasks. I tackled the closet and drawers in the kids room on Saturday. Everything that is officially outgrown has been bagged and clothes have been passed from one sister to the other and new clothes were bought to supplement the oldest daughter's shrinking wardrobe. That child is getting huge and it just won't be that long before she is bigger than me.

By Sunday I was back to tatting. I even got something new made, but I didn't get any pictures yet so you don't get to see it. It's just a simple necklace made with the metal rings. I needed something new to do and though I do have a custom order to attend to, I'm waiting for pearls for that one, so I really had nothing better to do with my time. Later in the evening I made another sale that gets to be remade today and just this morning it looks like a custom mask order rolled in, so I am officially busy again. I did enjoy the mostly off week for a little recharging. I love when the Universe listens well and lets the orders slow just when I need them to and brings them back when I'm ready. I know it doesn't always work out like that, but thanks for it this time, Universe.

So, today it is back to normality. There is schooling to do, the wunderkammer to schedule, tatting to tat and I must get back into my normal schedule of laundry and dishes and all those other tasks that keep us from living in man made squalor. I swear there will even be tatting pictures tomorrow. I hope my week off from tatting hasn't bored you too badly. I will try to be more entertaining this week...if I can just get enough sleep.