The Week Is Ended

T'was another mostly tatting free day. I did manage to get schooling done and then there were countless errands to run and odd little yard tasks. I do have to say that the weather here was so lovely that despite allergies I was quite happy to be outside much of the day.

Let's see what I have to share...not much I'm afraid. My large order package is moving speedily across the world and seems to have gotten very close to its destination. No, I will not stop worrying about it until it's delivered and no longer my responsibility. I still haven't heard from the customer who sent back a necklace without any note. Part of me wants to just ask, the other part, who has a stated return policy that was clearly not followed, wants to just do nothing because the rules are there for a reason. However, I am not a particularly patient person, so we'll see how long I last.

The family is headed off on some more adventures today, nothing huge, just shopping really. Again, this likely means little tatting time for me, but before I go, I do have one picture to share with you. The husband was doing the front lawn when he heard the familiar cries of baby birds on our roof. He discovered these two chicks, one precariously perched on the roof and the other already in the rain gutter. We moved the roof one in as well to prevent disaster as we'd found a dead chick the other day on the sidewalk, but didn't know where it had come from. The nest looks like it's actually up in the second story eaves, so the birds must have fallen and rolled. Mama bird is still about, so hopefully, they'll be safe where they are until they are ready to fledge.

That's it for me this week. There have been some interesting tatting ideas brewing in my brain that I haven't gotten to try out so maybe next week they will emerge and I'll have some precious tatting to share.

On Zoos And Regret

Another lovely, but exhausting day. It was sunny and breezy and really a perfect day to be outside at the zoo all day. I know I've been to the San Diego zoo, but it was so long ago I barely remember a thing, so this is by far the nicest zoo I have in memory. It's full of large overgrown plants and most of the enclosures are open, large and full of native plants as well. It is a good thing we all took an allergy pill before leaving though. There is also nothing like being in the audience of a bird show with at least three different elementary or preschool groups to make me truly appreciate how well behaved my own are. I mean, they are still kids and thus slightly insane, but they listen to directions, sit quietly and watch the show.

Anyway, we did get back fairly early in the day, even a good zoo can only occupy the kids for so many hours at a time. I finished remaking a couple of things and obsessively tracked my large order package. It did get stalled because of weather in the mid-west yesterday, but it appears to be moving again.

Oh, man I almost forgot to tell you. So yesterday morning after I wrote the blog post, I was looking through my shop traffic numbers and there was a big spike on Tuesday. I look to see where it's coming from and it's...regresty...crap. It was a direct link so I go there and it was a feature on another tatter's 'bridal' mask. The listing was likely chosen for a couple of reasons, a badly spelled name and description and for the mere idea of wearing a mask to ones wedding. The normal ha, ha mocking started and there were also several defenders of her spelling noting that English is not her first language as well as defense of tatting itself. Apparently there was also a troll battle in the comment thread as well. None of that is my point however as someone linked to my shop in the comments to mock mostly my 'cheesy masks' and my barefoot sandals. Again there was some mocking and some defending. It can get downright cruel over there sometimes though generally the things posted mock themselves. This was the closest I'd ever come to being featured and it really wasn't all that bad. We all have different tastes and sometimes we don't get who would wear or use something we wouldn't. I mean, I don't wear barefoot sandals, but they sell well to belly dancers and for beach weddings, so why not. Here's hoping that this remains the closet I ever come to regretsy fame though.

I'm not sure what today has in store, we've no big plans. Probably schooling, errand running and maybe some cleaning, though honestly I am just ridiculously sore and tired after all that walking about and then sitting in a car for hours Monday and yesterday, so I might fight the cleaning bit and curl up like this porcupine fellow. We'll just see how it goes and roll with it I guess.

I Am Less Whiny Today

Wow, I just read back yesterdays post and I really ought not write when I have a headache. I was terribly whiny and I apologize for that. In the future I will take something for the headache prior to subjecting anyone to my thoughts. We were back to schooling yesterday and I'm glad to say there was little complaint from the child. Husband is home all week, so she knew she had to get it done quickly and quietly if she wanted to go adventuring. After school I took that planned trip to UPS and I'll tell you, it's actually scarier when everything seems to go well and quickly. I fear I will be on pins and needles until that thing arrives at its destination and with the back weather back east, that will take slightly longer than anticipated.

I did finally get the old needle and thread back out and finished up a custom awareness bracelet. This time in gray with a dark purple ribbon. I'm still pretty proud of that ribbon design idea, but I did fail to snap a picture and I already packed it up. I also sold a couple of things yesterday that will want to be remade and I got started on those. I didn't get much done though because we did adventure much of the day. There was a picnic and playing in the park. Then we went to a plant nursery to look for a tree. There is one in our neighbors yard, but we had no idea what it was, then it flowered and we wanted one even more and after much google searching, I finally ran across it yesterday and we went on the hunt to get one. Of course like all the trees we take to, people in the gardening forums had much horrible to say about it being invasive and whatnot. We bought it anyway. Oh, it's a purple robe locust tree. Apparently it's very fast growing, has gorgeous purple flower clusters in the Spring and despite the small thorns should provide excellent shade for the kids jungle gym thing in the backyard. There was more errand running and kids car washing after that as well.

Today's adventures include a trip to the Fresno Zoo which is about an hour from here. Our own local zoo is a small rescue zoo and though we do visit it often, the Fresno one is much nicer. So it's off to that then. I'd say that I would work in the car, but I didn't on the way to Monterey and it's doubtful I will today. Of course this will be a shorter trip so perhaps after we get home I will still have time to get some things made up. Oh, also one small cryptic update on the secret project. I should be able to share either way next Friday. So in a week and some change both you and I will know the outcome. You know what I hate? Not knowing whether I should be excited or not because I still have no idea if my contribution to the project was even actually used. Deep breath...and relax and on with the day.

Monterey

I think I have reached a point beyond tired this morning. The trip to the coast was lovely, but man, where do the kids get all that energy? We've been to the aquarium scads of times so we almost let them just take us where they want to go as we follow behind. Then there was the beach, the Dennis The Menace park trip and finally the running wild through Casa de Fruta on the way home. I figured at some point they'd choose rest, but no. Only in the car on the way home did either of them catch a nap and even then it was brief. There is a reason we make this a three day long trip in the summer, packing it all into one day is exhausting and no, I got no tatting done.

Today I've got a whole Monday worth of work to catch up on. I have the giveaway necklaces to mail, my large order to get posted which will require a trip to UPS to ask for help and a special order I received yesterday needs to be made. Also, it's back to the regular home school schedule again too. We're in the home stretch with about a month and a half left so I really can't lollygag on that either. Oh and of course I skipped one day on dishes, laundry and other miscellaneous household chores. You know what I miss? When vacation days were actually vacations and didn't create more work for me. Being the grown up is occasionally just a pain. Speaking of pain, I've got a headache already this morning, so I'm going to go takes something and get on with my day.

A Tat Free Weekend

Yep, I was right, it was an incredibly busy weekend. I didn't tat a single thing the last two days, not a thing. On Saturday the family headed to Lowe's to build birdhouses and we picked up free trees and planted those when we got home. There was a trip to the comic book shop and then because we were bad parents a stealth trip to acquire Easter goodies all by myself while the rest of the family napped. Remind me never to do that again...it was a mad house. When the kids got up it was egg decorating with a bug kit. Never mind that no one is going to eat those eggs. The day ended with video games and sweet sleep.

We decided to do Sunday with just the four of us instead of the whole big family thing. This had its up moments and its down ones...those are the ones I got blamed for. Still, there was candy and an egg hunt, much video game playing and some movie watching. The weather wasn't very good, so that's why we stayed in most of the day. I made my first ham and though it actually took longer in our convection oven than I anticipated, it turned out pretty good. Also, I swear this picture was not a posed shot. I walked into the room and the cat had apparently crawled right into the basket and made himself at home. How could I not share that?

So today, we're headed over to the ocean for a quick day trip. I might tat in the car, but just because I think I'm going through withdrawals. I also have a few odd situations going on that have kept me awfully distracted. First there's the large order that finally got paid for and will get shipped tomorrow that is inducing shipping based paranoia. Then there is the piece that got returned to me in the mail on Friday. It was placed into a second envelope and mailed back with no note or explanation. I've gotten no emails or convos asking for a refund or exchange and I do have a clearly posted return policy which does not include an automatic full refund and requests contact first. So, you can image that I'm a bit unsure how to proceed here. I think I'm just going to sit on my hands for a few days and see if I hear anything. I just don't understand why one would send something back without first inquiring as to whether that was okay. Anyway, off to the ocean then and I'll talk at you again tomorrow.