Visions of double stitches dancing in my head.....

Whelp, here I am again..... it's crunch time! (It always seems to be crunch time around here. Hmmm.) Anyway, My first holiday show is in less than a week, so I've been tatting as much as I can manage, taking time out only to do school with my eldest, practice songs for church on Sunday, practice songs for my FIRST EVER LIVE GIG OF MY VERY OWN tomorrow....(I'll tell you guys more about that later)....and also catch up on the three days of laundry and dishes we were left buried under after the septic line was repaired. Darling husband has been an angel, keeping up around the house while also dealing with this hot mess of the line being backed up. The problem started with the washer line overflowing all over, and coming up into the tub and toilets..... and of course what does one do in such a situation? Well, I don't know what everyone else does, but I called a company to come snake the main line (which meant pulling up a toilet). Everything was just fine and dandy until the next day when it happened again. Gee, that must mean the septic must be full, or the drain field isn't working. Whatev. So we just spaced out showers and laundry loads throughout the day to try and bide our time until another paycheck. But then it got worse. So the dear one I am married to dug up the septic cap and peeked inside. Never having seen inside a septic tank before, neither of us knew if what we were seeing was good or bad or worse lol. Thank high heaven, our behind the fence neighbor knows all sorts of stuff about these things, and his comment was...."Gee, that's a lot of dirt in there!" Dirt? DIRT??? What is DIRT doing in there! I knew that the tank had been pumped and repaired when we bought the house.....this was not looking good at all. So, a little more digging, and the guys found some nice squishy soil, and underneath that they found a crushed plastic pipe that once was the line from the house to the tank, and under that they found a bunch of rotten wood. So our best guess is the wood rotted out, and the pipe sank and failed. There was about a foot of pipe that was completely closed off with dirt. Wham bam, a new pipe, and some quick set cement, and we are back in business! (after 24 hrs of shower at the neighbors and mad dashes thru the fence to use their potty of course). And only after we used every single dish in the house....did it occur to me that we could have gotten paper plates for the few days we were having issues. Hindsight being 20/20 and all.... anyway, what's a good story without pictures?!?!

At least the sun came out for my intrepid digger.... that is him standing in the hole he had to dig to get all of the rotten wood some moron put under the pipe.

This is the culprit after being cut away.

And this is how the front yard looked for a couple days while the cement dried and we double checked for leaks. We lost a lovely old rhododendron bush to the process, poor thing had wrapped itself around the damaged pipe.

I'd post tatting pictures, but really, it's mostly stuff you guys have seen before. I have a few new necklaces, but nothing world changing. I will take some pictures at the sale next week.

And I'll tell you all about my musical adventures as well. Another time of course, it's back to the tatting sweatshop for me right now :-)

The winners are .....

In the end, after much fisticuffs, the Dr. and I came to our decision. And lemme tell you, it was anything but easy. In the end, there were 32 entries from around 20 entrants. The sights were so inspiring, and the contest did indeed to what I had hoped.... it has spurred me onward toward the arduous task of winding off all that thread for the Dr. to Dye! I am three weeks out from my major holiday shows at this point, so our dye season will start in mid november. I know it's been a long contest, but I promise- the rewards will be worth the wait!

On to the winning entries....

(did I mention how hard it was to choose? Every entry had something inspiring, and many factors were a part of our decision making process. I'm sure there are more than a few that come forth as future dye batches, however, these two are the prize winners)

Congrats to Beelizabeth on her entry of the Grand prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park. The orange in this just grabbed me, and the transition to the deep blue should be fun to maneuver in dye.

Also, this entry by Cindy from Alaska. (Cindy, would you please email me? You didn't write your email on the back of your postcards...and as promised I am too disorganized to pair it up with the original email.) My photography of this card did not quite capture the subtleties in the pastels, and we are very excited about working in the deep deep blue/black with a graceful blend.

Again, thank you all so much for delighting me this summer with your participation! I will offer a cupon code for a discount on thread to everyone who entered. Details on that will come when the batches are ready to load in the shop. I hope you all enjoyed the contest as much as I did, The Dr. and I have high hopes for repeating it next year. Thank you again for being a part of this wonderful online community of tatters and for keeping me inspired!

The Last of the postcards :-)

After reviewing the entries, I realized that I missed posting a few.

These are a few of what was sent when the DR. was in Argentina!

Monica was kind enough to follow a bustling Dr. Vonthreadmore around town to capture some of these lovely images for her, and send them with loving care. This particular sunset was seen from her front door. There is a particular luminosity that captured Dr. V.

These are Amancay flowers that grow in the woods of the southern Andes.

Again thanks to all, and winners will be announced tomorrow!

Rounding out her travels.

Here is Dr. Vonthreadmore's commentary on the final entries in her Globetrotter Giveaway:

"These postcards are from my time in West Valley City, Utah. There were many sights to see, and Beelizabeth kindly let me travel with her family to Yellowstone. Satisfactory postcards that properly showed the true nature of the inspirational sights were not to be found, and Dear Beelizabeth kindly helped me create these. She appreciates my work. See the tatted heart we added? That thread is from one of my first batches of thread!"

"This card below was sent upon my visit with Tattin Kat, and more of our adventures can be found on her blog"

"Transportation was a nightmare in the more remote locations I visited. I found such wonderful natural things to use in my dyes, but had such a hard time in getting them properly shipped."

"in India, I met several wonderful creatures. This Elephant agreed to help by carrying several of my baskets to the border. He was very polite, and he worked for peanuts!"

"I had a splendid time in Singapore with Umintsuru. The architecture was delightful with colors abounding."

"One of my final stops on the return trip was again at Fox's. The evening lighted sky was so enchanting, I had to go back for another look!"

"So many of you have been so good to me in my journeys this summer, and I am eternally grateful. The world will be a better place because of the kindness you have shown.... there will be beautiful thread to come! (many of you sent packets of many cards, I have chosen my favorites from those selections to post, but all cards are valid as entries. Deliberations are in the works!)"

Currently, the Dr. and I are hemming and hawing over which to choose as the winners. So many inspiring things made it into my mailbox, that they all will live in a wonderful inspiration file (something that I have been meaning to start for a long time anyway!) to keep us dreaming up new colors of hand dyed thread. Final selections of the winners will be posted Friday, with the threads to be dyed this fall.

Here are the some of the final entries from the Globetrotter giveaway contest!

Well....

Please pardon my technical difficulties.... but I seem to have misplaced my camera.

I was going to post the last of the postcards, as well as the contest results, and I assure you I will do so as soon as I locate said digital aparatus.

I now return you to your regular scheduled broadcast.