San Diego

I'm off for a few days to lovely San Diego. The tatting needles have been put away, though I did pack them...just in case. Mostly we're just enjoying the weather while our own zip code swelters. Since typing a blog post on my phone is, well, less than fun, I'll leave you now and enjoy your own weekends. 

I'm Awake

Alright, I know I said I might not write today, but the husband rose at a super, crazy, early hour and I couldn't manage to stay in bed with the cats awake and the lights on. That gives me plenty of time to write a little nonsense for you.

Yesterday was as busy as I thought it would be. The kids schooling was finished and then I began the task of getting us all packed. I'm fairly certain that despite my epic efforts, something will be left behind that someone thinks is vital, but them's the breaks right?

The rest of my day was spent on getting a bracelet made in a custom color so the poor customer wouldn't have to wait until I got home for it. Of course it is in one of the blues, ocean teal, that my phone camera apparently does not see. It always looks like a regular blue, so I play with photo filters and still never find the right shade. Oh, well. It is done and in the mail now and so am I, not in the mail, but done. Here's to a relatively stress free trip and an un-destroyed house when we return.

Well That Worked

I'm not a huge fan of the Facebook. I'm there because it was sold as a good place to grow connections. I don't leave because despite how increasing useless it has become with them sending my posts to the smallest percentage of followers possible, there are great, supportive people there. It also occurred to me the my 'fan' page has many new tatters following it. So I used the platform to discuss the recent and not so recent 'copytatting' issues. The best part, besides the productive conversation, was the post was shared 13 times. Now, that might not seem like much, but my posts are rarely shared and this just means that more people I don't even know can understand how that behavior can hurt people. Plus I made a silly graphic for it and I was pretty proud of it. In fact it might end up as a permanent part of my sidebar. You are all free to use it as well...if you want.

While all that was going on I managed to finally get a Woven Rose motif/pendant listed in the shop and one of my very lovely return customers picked one up in Raspberry pink. As much as I personally prefer everything in black, you can really see the woven chains when the piece is in color and it looks so much more intricate.

I listed the pendant as a 'choose your color' listing, so you can get it in any color thread I have. I am also curious how the piece would look in multiple colors. Right now I'm doing the outer rows as one with a split chain, but technically it could be easily done in four rows and thus four colors. I'd try it out today, but I woke up to a custom order for a bracelet.

We're headed to San Diego for a few days starting tomorrow, so that mean no time for experimentation right now. I only have time to do the custom order, pack, set up everything for the cat sitter, my mother and/or brother, clean up, and finish the last day of schooling. It is going to be a long day and if you don't hear from in the next two, have a lovely few days yourselves.

Not Again

So I was going to start off by writing about what I tatted yesterday, but I woke up to an ant invasion in the pantry, now quelled, and a message on Facebook that put me in a bad mood. While I couldn't find the group through searching, I was informed of a tatting group where the owner posts pictures that don't belong to her and apparently recruits other tatters to make the pieces for her. Again, I've no direct knowledge, but I was shown a screen cap where at least one of my pieces was included. Honestly it's probably a good thing I was unable to find the group, or I'd be much more livid this morning. I really don't want to join the ranks of designers that stop working because of this sort of nonsense, but I completely understand where they're coming from. I truly don't understand why anyone thinks this is honest or good behavior. If you are reading this, just know that I don't find it flattering, nor ethical and if you're out there doing it, stop it. I'm fairly certain most of you aren't, but I needed to say it.

Back to my tatting then, while I suppress the desire to only post blurry pictures, I did work on a custom necklace yesterday. This back drop necklace needed to be shorter in front which meant I had to redesign the front motif here a bit. I thought I had it all worked out, but then the necklace was too short to fit over my head. You see usually, when you unhook the back there, the chain sections are long enough to slip over your head, but with the changes it wasn't. So I stared at it for a good half an hour trying to come up with an elegant solution. Well, it isn't the most elegant, but I added two clasps to the shoulder pieces. I only needed one, but symmetry demanded two. Now, I need to go back and remove the back clasp to reduce potential confusion, but otherwise it is done.

That's all I have on tap for today. Just finishing this and going back to the woven rose motif while I grumble, 'some people' under my breath. Here's to a better day than the morning has promised.

The Last Week

Back to Monday, huh? I just realized that on Friday I was certain that I would have done something worth sharing by today. I really didn't. I did get my custom order finished, and I did spend much of the weekend remaking a pair of ankle corsets. I did not get around to working on new pieces with the woven rose motif. I know, not a particularly cleaver name, but it was all I could come up with and it's fairly descriptive. Oh, one more thing, I did list the bracelet in the shop. So I suppose I got a few things done.

Anyway, I did get another custom order in yesterday morning. Of course it wasn't until late afternoon that the customer confirmed that the changes I suggested for their request would work for them. It is a little frustrating to get orders with requests to change things in the the notes to seller that are far more complex than color, or chain length. There have been more than one occasion where I've had to just cancel the order because the request was impossible, or at least something well beyond what I felt comfortable doing without further compensation. This wasn't one of those, but still frustrating to wait to start work, because the last thing I want to do is jump the gun and make something that turns out to be unneeded. The next last thing I hate to do is waste valuable working time.

So this is the last week of our home schooling year. Oh wait, I read somewhere that I'm suppose to call it 'home educated' now because 'home schooling' apparently conjures negative impressions. Yeah, I don't really care either. We have just three days left. Then I pack up all those books and supplies, clean the 'school space' and prepare to try to relax for a few days. Then I start panicking as I try to fill that extra free time with something to keep the kids occupied so that we don't all kill each other. Yep, looking forward to that. In the meantime I've got that custom order to work on and as soon as it's done, I swear I'll get back to the woven rose. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.