Are you ready

For Christmas? 
A farmer in his trusty tractor bringing home the Christmas tree
Nutcrackers guarding the door
 I am, mostly.  I still have a few things I want to tat (of course!) but I’m not going to stress if they don’t get done.  I’ve got some of the cards sent and hopefully I’ll finish them tomorrow.   That’s what I was doing today instead of posting here.  In fact, I forgot to take pictures of what I have been working on so I’m sharing a couple of pictures of some of the Christmas lights we saw a couple of weeks ago.
As I don’t have any tatting to share today I’ll share the poem I wrote instead.
A Christmas Poem
Twas the week before
Christmas, and all through the house
I decked the halls for
the season (with help from my spouse.)
Ornaments were hung on
the tree with great care
Even out on the lawn
decorations were there
With gift-giving in mind
and a list in my hand
We headed to town the
crowds to withstand
To buy just the right
present, for each person we knew
Just the right gift – I
hadn’t a clue!
As we walked down the
street, as we shopped in the mall
There were toys of all
sizes, for kids large and small.
Through every speaker
there was many a shout
“Be the first to
have this!” “You can’t live without!”
For every age, and for
every type
Were gadgets and widgets
and a whole lot of hype
To convince you to spend
every bit your dough
In this place and that
place and hard to say “No!’
After suffering the
crowds as we traversed the aisles
(Of which there many,
each one seeming like miles!)
We turned to each other
with strain on our faces
And agreed with a glance
to get out of these places!
We returned home from
the stores with sighs of relief.
But relief was
short-lived, reprieve very brief.
No gifts did we have and
time was now short.
What gifts could be given
as a last resort?
We glanced at our tree,
at the star there on top,
That symbol of the
season made us just stop.
It glittered there
brightly, shining down from above
Reminding us of the gift
that had been given with love.
One night long ago, in a
faraway place
A boy-child was born,
one filled with God’s grace.
He was born to save us,
a gift to us all
A gift we should share,
and it’s not found in a mall.
We realized that it
wasn’t how much that was spent
Or how new or how snazzy
or what the content.
To celebrate this birth
we give gifts to each other
A small token of the
gift once given by Another.
So, in this season of
gift-giving and fun
Remember that God gave
us His Son
To save us from sin and
make all things right.
Blessed Christmas to all
and to all a good night.
                                                          Wanda Salmans 2012

Finally, Snowflakes!

Happy Tatting Tea Tuesday! Have you taken time out for tea and tatting today?
My tatting today was finishing off several snowflakes. Yes, I finally made a few! This pink one is my pattern for this years Christmas card snowflake.  It looks suspiciously like ones I’ve done before, though I’m not finding a picture of any exactly like it. The beads do give it a different look than it would have without them.  It measures just shy of two inches across when made with size 20 thread and a 1/2 inch center, so it’s not very big.  This pink snowflake is for one of my daughters, who happens to like pink.  I’m not sure of the Lizbeth color number though it looks pretty close to the actual color, at least on my screen.

I’ve made several of these snowflakes so far, none in white.   I’m trying to be daring this year.  The first two I made I did a little differently than I made this one.  This one is done strictly with one shuttle and ball and no fancy techniques.  The ‘rings’ on the outside are chains that are joined in the same place they started.  On the first two I did I made them as self closing mock rings.  I had to work a little harder to have the SCMRs close prettily, and I didn’t like the look of the back of the ‘flake.  I had pictures I was going to post of the backs done both ways but I forgot to upload it and it’s too late now (I don’t have access to them at the moment.)

I have done a couple of other snowflakes, too.  This pattern is from several years ago (as seen here and here – it’s hard to believe it’s been that long!) but this time I added beads. It’s a little hard to tell from the picture but the beads are a clear crystal. They really sparkle pretty on the Christmas tree.  I tried (and tried!) to get pictures of them on the tree, but none of those came out.  I had a hard time finding a good background that didn’t make the red look washed out or orange.  

We’re keeping Christmas simple this year, so other than getting several tatted things done I’m pretty much ready.  Okay, I haven’t gotten out the Christmas cards yet.   There’s still time, really!
“For disappearing acts, it’s hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work.”
Doug Larson
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A funny thing happened

On the way to the yarn shop.
Three things, actually.  They say that things happen in threes, and they did!
The owner of  Odd Balls Yarn Shop, a local store, asked if I would be interested in selling some of my tatting at the store on consignment.  I thought this could be fun.  For the last week or so, between doing a few other things, I’ve been getting ready earrings, stitch markers and wine glass charms to take over, as well as some way to display them.  Tracie Anderson, the owner, suggested the small Christmas tree I used at the craft show and she would have it on the counter by the register.  Great!

Yesterday I made a list of what I had, put it in a box with my tatting and left for work early so I could stop at the shop on the way.  A few miles down the road I realized I didn’t have the tree and had to turn around and go back home to get it. (Funny #1)

I ran in the house for the tree, then on the way out I pulled the house door shut – and the door knob came off in my hand.  After some work I got it back on, kinda sorta, and left again. I called my husband to let him know that he had a little project when he got home from work. (Funny #2)

I live out in the country and take the Interstate to Wichita to work, passing through Newton on the way.  Odd Balls is in a mall just south of Newton. I drive this every day.  But yesterday, before I get to Newton, I hear and feel this “THUMP!” while I’m driving. No, it wasn’t a deer.  It was a tumble weed, a big one, that tumbled out in front of me as I was driving 75 miles an hour.  I slow down but the thing just hangs on.  I have to pull over, put my flashers on and get out to pull it our of the front grill of the car.  A highway patrolman just happened to see the attack and stopped over to make sure I was okay, which I was.  (Funny #3)

I was just glad that was the last “funny” for the day.  I had been a bit worried that my entire day at work would follow suit, but it didn’t. The evening passed quite uneventfully.

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I had a cup of – Hot apple cider.  It’s not that the weather is cold here, it just sounded good.  I found these cute mugs at Dillon’s and have decided that I’m going to use them for everyday instead of just special occasions. I’m bad about saving nice or pretty things for “special occasions” and they sit in the cabinet and never get used.  Not this year!

I’m trying out some new thread that Odd Balls carries.  It’s a rayon thread, which is very different than cotton, about a size 12.  It’s a very pretty purple shade that feels very nice to work with.  The biggest problem is that it’s soft and rayon.  If the stitches are tight rings do not close completely.  I’ve been working with it, practicing rings and I’m getting the hang of it.  I’m hoping it works out because I’ve seen some very pretty things made with this brand of thread.  Any body else tried it?

I haven’t gotten any snowflakes done yet, I keep getting side-tracked!  Okay, okay, Wanda,  stop procrastinating and get on with it!!!

“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand – and melting like a snowflake.”
Francis Bacon, Sr.

Birthday gift

I made this cross bookmark for one of my Sunday School students who’s birthday was this week.  I had planned on making it several weeks ago but that was while I was getting ready for the craft show, so it got put off.  Then there was the week before Thanksgiving trying to get some neglected cleaning done before our daughter’s family arrived for the weekend.  Then there was Thanksgiving and all the get-togethers and dinners.  Sunday morning arrived and it wasn’t done yet!
Luckily I woke early, even before the grandchildren, and was able to get started on it.  I kept making mistakes on stitch counts and joins, and then the kids got up.  Just a few more distractions while I hurried to finish it before church.  Amazingly, I did it.
This is made with Lizbeth size 20 in #641 Lilac Dark for the rings and #633 Dark Purple for the chains.  The pictures, at least on my computer, come out looking like shades of blue, but trust me, they’re purple! I’m pretty sure she’ll like it as purple is her favorite color.  
I say pretty sure because after all that hurrying to get it done, her family was out of town for the holidays so she hasn’t seen it yet. Oh, well, it’s done.  Much better to have it done and her not there that the other way around!
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with several dinners and lots of family. We don’t see much of some of the families that much anymore, which is sad.  Fortunately we still try to get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas and most are able to make one or the other, and if we are lucky, both.  Hopefully some that couldn’t make it for Thanksgiving will be able to come for Christmas.
Now things have settled down a bit, at least for a few days, and I can think what I still need to make and do for Christmas.  Unlike Diane I haven’t been getting any snowflakes made.  She has made some beautiful ones this year.  I need to get motivated and make some myself.
“A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
http://www.brainyquote.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! May we all take a few minutes out of our day of family, food and football to remember what we are thankful for.

“Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.”

E.P. Powell

A little ingenuity

The craft show was last Saturday.  We didn’t do too bad, though not as good as we’d hoped.  but all in all it was a fun day.
I did run into a few issues.  I’ve done craft shows before but I wasn’t selling jewelry or anything attached to a card like I was this year.  There it was, Friday night, we’ve set up the tables and other displays in the show hall but not our sale items – we planned to put those out Saturday morning – when I realized I hadn’t planned on how to display the earrings and wine glass charms.  I had spent time attaching them to cards but hadn’t given a thought to what I was going to do with them after they were attached!
I start wandering around the house trying to think of what I had to hang them on, my mind a blank.  It was getting late and I was tired and getting a little frustrated.  I thought of putting several strands of wire in a picture frame but I would still have to prop or hold up the frame and that was the problem.  I figured I could lay out a few on the tables here and there but that wouldn’t do for all of them.  
Then I had an idea.  Do you see it?  Can you guess what it is? (I know, the picture is pretty blurry)
Does this help you see my wire cooling rack?  And an ankle weight.
I found a wire display stand, like you would use to display a book or plate on a table top, but putting anything on it tall enough to display the earrings made it topple over.  So an ankle weight around the legs and covered with a piece of cloth, then the rack wired to the front legs of the stand.  A little garland around the top, and I had an earring display stand. 
Then I had another idea. 
There on the left back – it’s a spool tree, to hold spools of thread.  I only used two sides but it did lift a few earrings up so they could be seen. 
My sister and I are talking about trying another show, maybe in the spring.  If/when we do, I’ll have taken the time to come up with a little better display idea.  But they worked for this time.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Albert Einstein

Variations on a charm

I have continued making charms for the craft show coming up this weekend, but I’ve also been making a few earrings.  These earrings are just a little more elaborate than the wine glass charms, but still just chains around a doodad.  With beads.  

The colors are not showing up true to life.  The four on the left are Christmas Red, Lizbeth # 671, the center two are Navy Blue, Lizbeth # 654 and the four on the right are Burgundy, Lizbeth # 672.  They are all in size 20. 
As most people seem to like silver jewelry instead of gold right now I’ve been doing most of the charms and  earrings in silver.  I have made a few things with gold centers and beads because they just look so good in them.
I’ve not been checking out too many blogs the last week or so.  I just get sucked in and go from one to another and totally loose track of time.  And I’m a bit short on time right now!  I’ve tatted a lot of the charms, now I need to put the rings on them.  And do some more earrings.  And a few other things I’m wanting to get done for the show.  Then there are a few things I can’t not do, like cook once in a while, do a little laundry, that type of thing.  The good news is I’ve taken this week off from work to get some crafting done.  I’m not sure just how much I’ll actually get done, but certainly more than if I was having to go to work. 
After the craft show is over I’ll be concentrating on getting things done for Christmas.  And  cleaning my house, which has been very much neglected.  I have thread, beads and other miscellaneous crafty things all over the place – imagine that!
“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” C.S. Lewis

Charmed

At least my wine glasses are.
I’ve been doing a lot of tatting lately but not everything has come out like I’d like.  The wine glass charms are one thing that I think has come out well.   I showed them to my sister the other day when her son, who was there as well, said he thought they were pretty cool.  This surprised both his mother and I as he doesn’t usually notice such things.  
He asked if he could take a picture of them to send to his girlfriend.  Hmmm, like I had to think very hard about that one. 
I’ve made sets of them in jewel tones and autumn colors, four colors in a set.  I’m thinking these will work very well for Christmas gifts this year.  A lot of the nieces and nephews are in college, or at least that age now, and wine glasses with wine glass charms would work well as gifts, don’t you think?
They also make cute, easy earrings.  I still had some thread on my shuttle from the blue ones so made two more and put them on earring wires instead of the rings.  When I wore them to work the other day one lady said she definitely would like a pair.  I asked her what color she wanted.  

I made two sets using two different centers and let her choose.  
My sister and I are going to do a local craft show in a few weeks where I hope to sell some of these, too, both wine glass charm sets and earrings.  We thought business cards would be a good idea, in case there were any special orders.  We used to do several craft shows a year but haven’t for quite a while now.  Lately we’ve been talking about trying to do a couple of local shows, just for fun.  We can’t use the same name as we had before because we had a third person with us which fit the name, but it doesn’t now.  Do you know how hard it can be to come up with a name we both like, fits what we do/may do and isn’t already taken??
I have to thank Sharon and her Design-Tat class for the designs on our business cards.  We plan to print our own as we don’t expect to need a lot, but they needed some graphics to be more than just words.  I looked online for free graphics that would fit our name/theme and couldn’t find any I liked.  There are a lot of sewing ones out there, and a few tatting ones, but, but – not quite right.   So I made the graphics myself utilising the knowledge I learned in the Design Tat class as well as the software program that I now use for my tatting patterns   I think they came out pretty well if I do say so myself. 
One bad thing about making these are that they are very quick to tat.  How can that be a problem?   It means I’m hiding a lot of ends frequently.  I’ve taken to making the charms/earrings in batches then sewing in all the ends.  My fingers have gotten a little sore.  I’ve taken to using my little jewelry pliers to pull the needle through – very carefully.  I’ve already broken one needle. The good news is my fingers are not as sore!
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”  Oscar Wilde

Angel revisited

 Remember my angel from a couple of weeks ago?  I liked how it came out and thought I’d try making another, but hopefully learning from my experience.   It did come out slightly different than the original.

Second angel
Can you see the differences?
First angel
I hadn’t really measured the material when I made the first angel.  When I made the second angel I thought I had made it the same size, but it obviously wasn’t quite.  It made the body/gown a bit narrower.  I didn’t find that a bad thing, so I continued. 
The wings are the same, the halo the same, I used the same size beads.  I did make a few changes, though, other than the gown.  For the hem I used graduating picots to give it a more – frilly? – effect.  The neck rings have different stitch counts and the front is longer with a larger ring at the bottom. This time when I made the neck/front I attached it to the wings before attaching to the body (the front wasn’t an afterthought this time!). It worked much better and I didn’t have a twisted picot, either. 
I look at each one and like them both, sometimes one more than the other, then change my mind.  I plan on making several more but I’m not sure just which way to go on them.  Which one do you like better?  And why?  
I am working on the pattern for the angel, starting with the wings – which have stayed the same – but haven’t got it done yet.  If you’re interested. 
Speaking of angels…
My granddaughter is going to be an angel for Halloween this year.  She had to show off her costume to Grandma and Grandpa while we visited this weekend. I can’t make one that is as cute and sweet as she is! 🙂
“These things I warmly wish for you:
Someone to love, some work to do,
A bit o’ sun, a bit o’ cheer,
And a guardian angel always near.”
– Irish blessing

What to do with a bucket

A mini bucket, that is.
There is a restaurant in Wichita called “Logan’s Roadhouse” (it’s a chain restaurant) that has some of it’s desserts served in mini buckets.  I’ve collected a few but never done anything with them.  Then the other day my boss brought in a couple.  His wife didn’t think they should keep them but he thought something could be done with them.  He ended up giving them to me. 
That’s when I remembered that Boss’s Day was October 16 and I’d missed it.  So guess what I did?

Yep, I gave one of the buckets back to him.  It looked a little different than when I got it, though. 
These little buckets have the restaurant logo on them, which I had to take off.  It used to be a sticker but they paint it on now.  I took some sandpaper to it but didn’t get the whole logo off so I ended up painting over it.  I used what paint I had on hand and it needed to co-ordinate with the thread I was going to use.  Originally I had planned to use a red button in the center so I chose green paint instead of red.  After I had painted it I changed my mind.  Oh, well, it still came out looking okay. 
I used Lizbeth #638, Christmas Green in size 20.  There are two layers of tatting, the bottom/outside having silver beads.  I glued a flat-backed diamond gem in the center to brighten it up a bit.  The top looked kind of bare so I put a stand of silver ribbon around it.  I couldn’t get a bow to look good so I tatted a ring with lots of beads on it then glued it down with another, smaller, flat-backed gem in the center. 
I also added some candy to it.  It looked pretty cute and the boss liked it, so I would say it was a success. 
I have a couple other of these buckets I think I’ll do similarly.  I’m going to try to get the logo off better and use a more contrasting paint for whatever thread I use.  This didn’t take me very long to do so will make excellent small gifts with a little candy in the center.  
I met some alpacas at the store the other day….
Yes, alpacas in the store.  Odd Balls, a yarn shop in Newton, Kansas, had an event weekend and brought some alpaca into the store.  
 

Alpaca fiber is used to make yarn and is similar to wool.   They had a display set up showing some of the uses of the fiber. 
It was interesting to see the different natural colors the fiber comes in. 
I didn’t have time to stay long as I heard about it just before leaving for work.  The store does this every year, so I guess I’ll have a chance to go again next year.  I’ve done a bit of web surfing since then to learn move about them.  Here’s a link to ten fun facts about alpacas if you’d like to know more, too. 
Sounds Like a Spitting Good Time!