Friday

Hello Friday! No, I don't have anything good to show you today either. I did manage to stay on task much of the day. I got a pair of earrings and a couple of bracelets remade and listed, but much of the day was lost to schooling and the TV tech that was called out to fix our reception. I know there is much vile reserved for AT&T, but seriously their Uverse customer is top notch. I can schedule everything from my television for the next day without talking to a single human before they arrive and they robo call in advance to confirm everything. It's a beautiful thing, but the appointments always take forever. Yes, I realize that is probably a good thing, thorough and whatnot.

So to change the subject, later in the evening I was doing a tatting search on etsy. Yes, I'm little on edge after the last discovery. Yet again, I run across a piece made with another of my designs. The seller was politely contacted and without excuse removed the listing. The swiftness with which these recent incidents have been resolved does give me hope that they were merely done without thought and were not malicious in any way so I will continue to react in a calm, rational way. Though I did go ahead and post a short little rant on my facebook page. What is interesting about both these incidents is that the patterns used are not posted anywhere. That means that they were copied from pictures which does concern me. I've always liked to post big, clear pictures and I really need to in order to encourage buyers, but maybe I ought not... oh how I hate having to second guess myself. Onward and upward though, it was resolved pleasantly enough, I should not dwell.

I do still have a couple of pieces left on the to-do list that I will get to today. Then as soon as my thread order arrives, hopefully this weekend, it's a custom mask. Between those two events though I'm hoping to get to at least one of my reproduction ideas and see if it can work at all. And just because I have no tatting to share, here's another kitty picture for you. Have a great weekend all.

So Little

Such a long day and so little done. I finished exactly one pair of barefoot sandals yesterday and nothing else was tatted. Nothing. Of course there was schooling in the morning then a field trip to the bowling alley in the afternoon. We followed that up with a stop by the in-laws house that lasted longer than anticipated while the husband updated their wireless. At this point we decided that since we'd already been out too long to get a good nap out of the kids, we headed to the Costco. I put forth all of this as my excuse for getting so little done.

I did get an custom request that turned into an actual order in the morning. These are rare events so I like to dwell on them a bit. This one required me to order some golden yellow thread, so while I was at it, I grabbed quite a handful of other colors in Lizbeth and Flora. For someone who works primarily in black, I am getting quite the collection of colors. I have had a thought of getting fully stocked on all the available shades in cebelia, lizbeth and flora so I can just copy their color swatches and put those up as the custom available colors for the shop. I really ought to update that list in the shop anyway...maybe when I get some down time again.

In other news, since I don't have any tatting to show you, I took a picture of all but one of the cats feasting this morning. The seventh cat is our old man cat. He's sitting off to the side as I don't think he like sharing with the kittens. He waits until they've shoved off and goes at all three plates to get his fill. This image is preceded by all of them jumping upon me and mewing, scratching, fighting with each other and generally being obnoxious until I rise to feed them. Now you see why I'm so very awake in the morning.

I shall try to be more productive and on task today. I still have quite a list of small pieces that really ought to be made and in the shop and that list of new ideas isn't getting any closer to being done until I've tackled those. Yeah, I kind of want to go back to bed now...no, that's so not happening.

Circlet

I was horrifyingly bad at staying on task yesterday. Sure I got a few things remade, but the second I needed to fetch a piece so that I could double check the pattern, I got all lazy like and started playing on my phone instead. Since I received an order yesterday for a few pieces as well, I start today as far in the hole with the tatting pile as I did yesterday.

I did get photos of the new piece despite that rather unattractive cold sore exploding on my face. It is quite amazing what the simplest of photo editing tools can do. I got that listed and then stalled some more. Wait, I cleaned up my pile of finished tatting and got it sorted away into their proper bins too. Let's just say it was a quiet tatting day.

Today is the first field trip day for the homeschooling group...class...whatever. Point is, we're going out bowling this afternoon. I still have to get the full day of classes done and so it might be a quiet tatting day today as well. I have high hopes that I can get back on task once we're back though. That to-do list is getting pretty formidable and yesterdays sale added a few larger pieces to it that I really like to have listed at all times.

I have stumbled upon a few sources of inspiration lately that I've tried to note so I can get back to them when my plate is empty again. I've seen several necklaces that I would love to try to recreate the look of in lace and I've been collecting pictures of them. I almost started one just before the birthday orders starting rolling in, but it's on the back burner now. Hopefully next week will be one of creation. Yes, I know we're not even halfway through this week yet, but I'm pretty sure looking forward to next week on this point is a wise idea.

Thanks

Well, thank you! The happy birthday comments I received both here and all over my other internet haunts were numerous and very nice. It was a fairly uneventful birthday what with the schooling and not much else planned, but the wonderful thing is, it wasn't even remotely 'bad'. Nothing went horribly wrong and add that to the lovely Saturday I had in celebration of the birthday and I'd say we broke the bad birthday streak. I was also pleasantly surprised to have a really good day in the shop. Usually when I have a one day sale, I am soundly ignored save for one pity sale, but that was not the case and I have much packing to do this morning. So, thanks for that too.

Aside from birthday stuff, I did get some tatting completed as well. I finished the mask, the custom necklace and I got the hardware on the new circlet/necklace. I didn't get any real photos because I wasn't feeling pretty. I was going to do them this morning, but I feel a cold sore forming just below my lip at this very moment so I might not. There is always editing to get rid of it if it doesn't explode or anything I guess...we'll see.

Since I did make some sales yesterday, I have quite the list of tatting that needs remaking so that will be the task on tap for today and quite likely tomorrow as well. They were all smaller pieces, earrings, bracelets and the like, so it should go pretty quickly. The daughter's class schedule however is much denser this year meaning I will be spending a bit more time on that. On the flip side, she also has more work that she needs to do herself giving me more downtime in between, so perhaps it will just mean more tatting during those times. I don't know what I'll do once both kids are schooling. Oh, I'm sure I'll work it out just fine...I've got another year to figure it out. That's it for me I think. Again, thanks for the birthday love, you helped make this one loads better.

What Day Is It?

You know, most people inform others that it is their birthday for the sole purpose of receiving special attention or treatment. I thought about how it's really the same as saying 'hello, how are you?' to someone so that they will return the greeting so you can vent about your day or fishing for compliments by insulting yourself. I thought about how it's kind of manipulative and a very large percentage of that 'special' treatment is less than sincere, but then...you know, I don't care. Hey world, it's my birthday...so happy birthday to me!

I was thrown a lovely party by my husband on Saturday. He was trying to make up for a run of bad birthdays I've had that's lasted a few years now. He did. I received a few very lovely gifts from friends and spent the evening in great company that even the children enjoyed. So, here on my actual birthday I actually feel pretty good even though today is the first official day of school so I couldn't really plan anything good for today. Oh, just in case you're interested I did plan one thing, a coupon code, one day sale for the etsy shop. Use the code 'HappyBirthday25' to receive 25% off. No, I did not turn 25, you can add a decade to that number, but if I kept giving out discounts based on my age, things would get ugly pretty fast.

I have two custom orders in queue right now but before they came in I had started on an unexpected project. Well, not really unexpected, more unplanned. It started with this motif that made up what the antique pattern book called, a beading. I don't know what that is, but I liked the shape so I made one up. I initially thought I was going to continue the pattern as written, but instead I modified the stitch counts and started a new circlet design using this and a small flower tatted around a steel ring. I think that it's done at this point save for the hardware. It makes a lovely necklace as well, so I'm going to try and make it convertible with some chains, Obviously I failed to take any more pictures as that's the same time when I got a mask order in followed by one for a custom length choker. I've still got both of those to finish today before I can spend anymore time on this piece.

I also took a trip to Michael's yesterday and picked up some frames for some art prints I've been hoarding and some crystals and shirts for the kids to play with. That turned into our Sunday afternoon project. They designed shirts that I hot fixed together for them and yawned a lot. Yes, I stayed up too late on Saturday and no, I still haven't fully recovered, but it was worth it. So to recap, birthday, coupon code, custom orders and schooling...away I go.