If only my hair was longer…

The other day while searching for a box of craft items I found a whole lot more than I expected. 
 I came upon a box that has been in a cabinet for quite a while, so long ago I forgot what I put in it.  I had to laugh when I opened it.
 It was full of hair accessories that I had made (mostly tatted) back when my kids were much younger and I had long hair.   
There are a couple of head bands and a snood as well as a lot of decorated barrettes.  For some reason there were also several tatted pieces that have nothing to do with hair or even clothing accessories.  I have no idea why they were in this box.
All of these barrettes are made of a metallic thread, I think the brand name was Kreinik, or something like that. I remember these threads were a real pain to tat with but they were so pretty.  A lot of these are tatted over wire to give them their shapes.  I know that I was trying a lot of different ideas at the time, some working out better than others.  I think I wore more of these than the girls did 🙂
I guess I’ll put all of these back in the box for now.  Maybe my granddaughter will want to play dress-up or something with these some day.  
“I’m undaunted in my quest to amuse myself by constantly changing my hair.”
Hillary Clinton
brainyquotes.com

Center Bead Success

I have gotten a bit of tatting done this week, though not a lot.  I was successful in putting a bead in the center of a ring using split rings to make this hair decoration to put on these little gripper clips.  I had bought a package of these on the way to the wedding last month and now I’m looking for things to do with them. I’ve given this one to my daughter to try out and see what she thinks of it.  I haven’t heard back from her but I’m working on another one, whether to put on this type of clip or something else, but I like the look.  It looks better than the picture shows it.

I started this one thinking I had all the right colored beads but when I went to get the seed beads the colors didn’t match the thread at all!  So I’m using clear ones instead but I think they’ll work fine.
We’ll see if this goes anywhere.

Something I’ve been thinking of trying for quite awhile now I finally tried.  I have a lot of little doodles – butterflies, flowers, birds, etc – from emptying shuttles.  I do use them on cards and letters but I don’t send many of those.  So what else to do these doodles?  How about wine glass charms?

These are very quick to make up.  20 gauge wire, wood craft pieces, a little glue and a doodle.
I like to drink wine (I’m not a connoisseur by any means!) but we don’t have parties and I don’t know that many people that drink it.  So I don’t know what I’ll do with these, but I thought they came out well. 
I had a good laugh after I did these a couple of days ago. I’d been thinking about doing these charms for months but never had and finally got around to doing them.  Then I opened my email and read Nancy Tracy’s Be-Stitched newsletter. And what did I find?  Her tatting pattern of the month is a tatted “Goblet Charm”!  It’s quite different and much more elaborate than mine, but still!  Dare I say “great minds think alike?”

It’s hard to believe that it’s almost September, but I look around and see that the sunflowers are in full bloom, some even past their prime. This is a small patch of garden variety sunflowers that I drive by every day (wild sunflowers are much smaller and branch out a lot).  I had wanted to get a picture of these earlier but never thought about it when I had time and my camera.  I finally had both time and camera, but you can see that some of the heads are already finished blooming.  Time is getting away  from me!

Things have not gotten done this week like I had hoped.  I was planning to have the barefoot sandal pattern done by today but it’s not.  There are several things that I haven’t figured out how to diagram yet, and it’s taking more time than I estimated it would. And I’ve had a hard time making myself sit down and do it!


Tatting Tea Tuesday
I’m drinking green tea today, iced as the weather has decided to be hot again. Not has hot as we had it earlier this summer but still in the 90’s.  My tatting was done earlier today when I got together with my sister and my mother for a visit and all of us were working on projects.  My mom and sister were knitting some pretty cool looking scarves and I was working on my hair piece.  It was a very pleasant way to spend the morning.  We’re hoping to do it more often.
“How to Have A Lovely Day”

Smile at strangers
Slow down
Say thank you
Give lots of compliments
Dress nicely
Wear perfume
Observe and listen
Be charming
Laugh
Wish people a lovely day