Catching up on listings

Today's productive tatting time was spent on the continuation of the custom bridal choker, as well as catching up on ETSY listings. I get crazy before a show and make a bunch of stuff, then it takes me a week or two to get it listed online. :-)

My precious little headband model held still just long enough for a winsome photo of her looking out the window sporting on of her headbands. I included this pic in the listings to show what the headbands look like when worn.

Poor Dr. Vonthreadmore has been on hold for two weeks as I keep not having time for a dye project. I have very little size 10 thread, so I will have to buckle down and let her get busy for the sake of more baby headbands.

OOpsie!

Sigh. I don't know if you can tell in this photo or not, but after whipping these up real quick this afternoon I realized that I used two different beads! One of the drops is oh so slightly more yellow. You wouldn't notice if someone was wearing them. Sigh. I could remake one earring I suppose, but I decided to offer them at a discount on etsy. Maybe they will make someone happy.

I suppose that's what I get for trying to tat with this little distraction laying around.Here is my chubby little smiler again!

Still tatting!

Mom has gone back home sadly, but I am happy to report that she left with shuttles in hand! (insert evil laugh here....) Maybe it's her competitive spirit, maybe she couldn't resist all the juicy colors of thread, either way it's one small step in my plan for world tatting domination!

We had a great time, and she was a great help. The first few weeks with the newborn were hairy, but she has made that transition from "newborn" to more of an infant now. I thought she might be more work than her sister was at this age, but she is growing and becoming just the sweetest baby ever. And she always smiles for mommy and saves me the best coooing sounds. And she lets me tat every once in awhile too! What a great kid.

I was in the mood for something different, so thus came the purple flower. It's a pattern that gained popularity on the blogs some time ago, Anyway, the purple was my first attempt at it, done in some size 50 HH. It was kind of hard to keep it even at that size, so further attempts shall be done in size 20. The other doodles came from my facination with this technique of the chains going around and around, messing with repeats and stitch counts. I haven't done it before, honestly I'm not sure I like how they look in a design all the time, (with the exception of Martha's teapots :-) but they sure are fun to tat. I was thinking of doing something to make a pendant of some sort, we shall see. Right now I'm back into my TAT projects. I got fed up with one of them and took some time off but now I think I'm ready to get moving again. I really want that cool little pin after all!

Baby Meirah smiling on her new quilt from Nana!

It can be done!

Tatting with a newborn!

It's possible!
Highly unlikely, but possible. It requires careful planning, strategic naptime for the two year old, and a camera-ready mother visiting for the month.

Who said miracles don't happen every day :-)

A little eye candy :-)

All the tatting pictures have gone straight to etsy lately, so I thought I'd treat you to a little lovely sleeping baby instead! It's been warm here lately, so we have been spending our days lounging in onesies.



I have had some lovely tatting surprises come my way this week though, my Gram's friend sent a little baby shirt with a tatted motif....

How cute is that! Thank you so much Barbara! Also crossing my doorstep was a copy of Ruth Perry's tatted butterfly book. Bev was kind enough to send it my way. It's so nice to have made friends through tatting :-) We'll make the world a nicer place one double stitch at a time :-)

A new way to induce labor!

I'm all about doing things the natural way, that's just me. So after having personally experienced the wonders of this new technique, I cannot help but spread the word about this all natural way to speed things along. You've probably heard about Castor Oil to bring on labor, but how about this:

Clunies!

Pregnant women everywhere should try doing clunies for the first time as they near their due dates. If you look at the picture above and count three clunies from the right, you will see the exact spot I was working on when my water broke :-) In the middle of Online Tatting Class of course, I had to tell Georgia and the others that I'd have to get back to them later. In fact, I came home from the birth center to find my notebook open with thread and shuttle on the desk in front of the computer, with that third leaf not yet pulled closed. Women everywhere, inform yourselves of the many benefits of tatting!

Hahahaa I think it's just hilarious! Anyway, as you can see I've been working on them here and there since baby was born. I think I've got the basic hang of it, just need to work on making them consistent in size. I've also been working on a little something from that Myra Piper book. I pulled out some of the vintage thread to work on my fine thread technique, it's a fun color that looks like pink lemonade. I don't know why, but thread colors remind me of fruit beverages all the time. Mmmmmmm.

So, life is good. Hubby is home til after Memorial day, then Mom comes the third of June to stay for a month. right now I'm on my way over to tatting corner hoping to start working on more jewelry, but really I should look at the clock because I'm sure that as soon as the thread hits the shuttle it will be time to nurse again. I don't mind though. I really love the newborn phase. I'll try to get a picture of her in a hanky bonnet soon!

Baby Birth Story.

Hi everyone! All is well here, I feel great and the family is adjusting so well.

Baby's name is Meirah Nicole (pronounced Meee-rah) It means Shining One.

If you are interested, I've done a post about the labor on our family blog.


http://pyettefamily.blogspot.com/



Thank you all!

Our baby!

She is here! Born on May 12, 8lbs and 20 inches. As you might expect I'll probably be absent from the blog here for a short time. I'll be back soon though. Thanks for all the great comments along the way, everything went so well, we couldn't be happier. Full birth story to come on our family blog.

I love the mailman!

Yet another day of tatting goodies in the mail!

Yahoooooooooooooo!

The first envelope contained something I have been wiping drool marks off my desk over for awhile now, and thanks to all you enablers showing off your lucious threads----

Yarnplayer's "roses" in size 20. The color is so amazing in person, I am finding it very difficult to unwind it and put it to use. Oh it's so beautiful you could just lick it! It looks like peaches and berries and so many yummy things!!!!!! (And as a special treat, Marilee also sent some co-ordinating red, which is so sweet of her!)

If anyone ever wants to get me a present they can buy me some hand dyed thread. I'm hooked!

The other envelope contained something even more special however:

My Great grandmother picked up her shuttles for me once more to make this beautiful hanky bonnet for baby on the way. She is a wonderful woman, she just celebrated her 90th birthday. They live in NY, so not much chance to see them, but they were out to visit earlier this year and were able to see my firstborn again (Ivria's middle name is Mae after her great-great grandma). How many kids can say that they at one point knew their great-great-grandparents? Both of them are still alive and I'm so grateful to know them in my adulthood. So now we have a true heirloom piece for Meirah when she is older. I've saved some other crochet doilies that I've received from her as well, and I've been given permission to raid the china cabinet at my Grandma's house for some more of her tatting, as long as I bring tatted earrings to trade I'm told :-)

So, I'm a tattingly happy girl this week! The chores are done and Thing one is sleeping, so I might find a peaceful hour to unwind my new thread and unwind myself as well.