Austin, TX

Greetings from Austin, Texas. My husband and I are here visiting family. My husband's family actually but since I've been a part of this family for 25+ years they are my family too :-) We arrived yesterday evening, Sunday, and will return home on Friday.

My family is currently on a tubing river adventure. I asked to stay behind so I could try to nap away the headache I acquired yesterday. It did not help and my eyes are "fuzzy" too, so I think I'm dehydrated. Now I'm trying to drink a bunch of water to see if that takes care of the problem.

Regardless this is the perfect opportunity for me to do a blog post.

In September 2008, Jon gifted us with one of her patterns, Rosette Motif and Doily. I fell in love with the pattern and searched for just the right thread to complete the project in. I used Yarnplayer's Roses and Leafy size 30 HDTs. The first one I made is on the left. It is the way the pattern was intended, with 6 flower petals. The one on the right was made while we were outside enjoying an evening with some of my husband's local family members. I was chatting and tatting and found that in the end I only put 5 pedals on it.

See how small they are in comparison to the quarter. Well that got me to thinking that I'll have to make "a million" of them to make a decent size table runner, so I'd need more Roses HDT. Because I know that HDT is different from batch to batch, I decided I would start over using Lizabeth threads.

Currently I have 4 roses made, 1 of them is completed with leaves, and the rest are waiting for leaves so they can be connected to one another. I am unable to show you any progress right now for a number of reasons which you won't care about, but since they are funny I will share them anyway.

First off our new cruise camera found itself in a fishing boat's live well, ruined - not so funny at the time. Then a few weeks later my husband's fishing camera got wet, it was old and again was a freak accident, so deal with it. A couple of days later our printer/scanner combo died. None of these things are funny, but together they have to be considered as such because the only other option isn't worth it :-) (see it really is *kinda* funny)

So began a mad scamble to get a new camera before our Texas trip. We couldn't figure out what to get so ended up getting the same camera we had for our cruise. Right now the new camera is with my husband ... tubing ..... on the water ............. :-)

Happy Labor Day!!!

Bonnie

Before I share my eye candy with you, I need to share this with you.

I work a 40 hr a week job for my local county Department of Social Services. I work an entry level position. I do not have a college degree.

I have worked in my department for 9 years and this job for more than 3 years, although I backed up the previous individual for 4 years before I took over. I am good at my job ...... blah blah blah. Here is my situation. About 5 years ago our department got a new director........ for some reason she took an instant dislike to me .... not sure why, I have never had to deal with this before in my working life. I have been passed over 4 different times for promotions. So much more to that my work story. But really here is what I need to say.......

Just because I am a front line person, doesn't mean that I don't deserve respect. And "because I am the director" isn't always a good reason. More to that story as well, but it is the reason why I am so upset this time.

I would really have to call her a bully.

I respect her as the director, and I am a person who works hard, and I deserve respect as well.

Here is why I bring this up.......... I know that some of my readers are in position where they hold power over the people who work for them. Please treat them with respect. We are people too.

I dread the thought of working tomorrow. But thank you for listening and allowing me to get some of that out. By the way, I like my job and I am lucky to be appreciated by my piers.

No need to comment on any of that. I am not looking for anyone to feel sorry for me. I asked our daughter, who is a manager, to please be good to her front line staff. And I ask those of you who are in a position of power to do the same.

Enough of that............ as promised and the real reason you are here...........

Here are some of Ellen's April paperclips that I made for my friends at work. The dark brown baskets were made using the new Lizbeth thread from Handy Hands, the off brown colored one was made using white which I tea dyed to give it a brownish effect (I had to make one right way and couldn't wait for my order to come from H.H. LOL) The multi colored flowers are Tatskool's rainbow bright HDT.

I have made a couple of them in the past but as usual gave them away so quickly that I forgot to take pictures. I'm really sorry that I couldn't figure out how to turn the flash off when I took the picture, because it really does distract from how cute they are. The more I made of them I realized that the less flowers I put on it the better it looked.

Thank you, everyone!

Bonnie

Maple Leaf

It's been 2 months since I've had anything to show. I had to take a leave of absence from tatting to work on a volunteer project. When I was able to return, sadly I found it was difficult to get my tatting flow back.

I started with a project that was clearly beyond my level of knowledge, so after 3 failed attempts, I put it aside until I can research the techniques a bit more. Next came Ellen's paperclips. Her designs are always fun for me and they are fast and easy. Which means I can make alot of them in a bit of time here and there so I usually have something tatted to gave away. I give them away so quickly that I forget to blog about them.

From the paperclips I went to the maple leaf pattern which was a big hit in our tatting community a few weeks ago. After a failed attempt (I made an error at the beginning and noticed it towards the middle, so there was no point to finishing it, LOL), I started over. This is the result.

It is made using a size 30 thread, variegated, DMC I think. Previously I had decided that I was going to get into the habit of front side/back side tatting. I am happy that it is now second nature for me and I was able to do it on this leaf without thinking about it twice.

That's all I've got for now.

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Great Uncle Francis

Back in March of '08 I introduced you to my Great Uncle Francis, better known here as GUF. I was saddened to learn of his passing on Thursday, July 11th, 2 days after his 96th Birthday.

Those who visit here know that I haven't tatted anything worth showing lately, I have just been to busy. But every other month or so I would send him and GAM (Great Aunt Myrtle) a piece of tatting or a picture of something I had made. Not to long ago, I was feeling sad that I had been to busy to tat lately and hadn't sent them a note in quite awhile. I quickly made up one of Ellen's Spring Baskets, paperclipless, and sewed it onto a notecard and mailed it to them. (I'm not sure when I mailed it to even know if it got to them before GUF became ill on Tuesday.)

My brother, Jack who lives in Ohio, recently went to OK to visit GUF & GAM. A few weeks later he was here to visit us. While he was here he shared with me some pictures that he'd taken of them. They both wore smiles and I could tell they were happy that he was there.

Until I started tatting I didn't communicate with them other than at Christmas, however we bonded over the last year or so because of tatting. You may remember that I showed you the 2 shuttles he made years ago and recently sent to me. I will forever hold them dear to me, as well as the hand written letters I received, that I'm sure were alot of work for him.

It has been more years than I could even begin to count to say when the last time I saw them in person was, probably some time before I got married, so more than 25 years. But the thing is if it wasn't for GUF and his work I wouldn't have known what tatting was. So ........

GUF, Thank You!

When I get to heaven I hope God allows me to remember some of my Earthly life, so I can spend time there with those who touched my life here on Earth.

As I wrote that it made me think of all of the HDT I have in my stash. When my time on Earth is done, it would mean nothing to my family laying there in it's beautiful skein form.
*** Note to self, what are you waiting for, Girl, life is short. :-)

Happy Tatting,

Bonnie

Blog Post Comments?

I have just spent 2 hours going thru my google reader posts (I actively read 141 blogs .... currently .... I enjoy adding new friends) and leaving comments. I still have 108 posts to go. But it brings up a question ........

I review your posts and comment when I can, but most I am unable to at the time, so I save the posts and do a marathon of comments. However, I usually can't come up with anything cleaver to say, especially that hasn't already been said, so it's something simple like "beautiful" or "nice work", etc. So my question is.... what are your feelings on comments? I for one enjoy knowing that you were here visiting so even if it's just a hello comment or something of that sort, I enjoy it. Do you?

Please comment with your thoughts on this ......... :-)