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.

Mothers Day Fun!

Dear Hubby is a sweetie pie, and indulged my love of tatting for mothers day. Here is my latest sampling of hand dyed from Yarnplayer:

From the top down we have "scarlet", which perpetuated this order in the first place. I ran out on the last round of a doily and had to be able to finish it of course!

second is more "roses" sz20. If I'm going to have all this scarlet left over I'd better have some more roses to pair with it, right?

Third is "Leafy" sz20. Gorgeous! I'm designing some flowers that will now have some lovely leaves :-)

And last but not least, "brilliant Sunset" sz 30. I missed out on all the size 20, so I might as well take this off her hands to convince her to do another batch.

Don't you love all of my justifications :-) Marilee's marketing worked on me, becuase the original bit of scarlet threaed that started this ordeal was a freebie!

He also let me wander on ebay, and I found some vintage thread that came in a lovely box. It's all size 80 I think, I don't know much about the old Star or Coats threads. Some are unlabled. This thread is for pure fun though, I can justify buying more Lizbeth and HDT for making Jewelry, but this stuff is just for kicks I think. There is also one other batch of vintage on the way to the house here for mothers day. Hubby is totally ok with this plan, it gets him off the hook as far as shopping goes. Now I'll just order breakfast in bed and we'll be square :-P

So I've had several tatting related packages this week, soem sworovski crystals and beads, and my Handy Hands order, containing more Lizbeth, some DMC cordonnet that I'm saving for a dying project this summer, some DMC 80 to try because I'm fed up with the Majestic, and the Myra Piper book that Diane has been messing around with lately.

Can one really ever have too much thread? Honestly, I'm not going to take mine out of the thread box and freak myself out with how much I have. Denial. It's a river in Egypt, right?

(insert interesting title here)

So, I've decided not to subject you to any more repeats of earrings, only in-the-works designs. I need to save some surprises for when I open my etsy shop! This yellow fella is a doodle I suppose, won't work for an earring, the spokes are too wide, but I'll develop it further I think.

The other projects in the works are my split ring doily from the TAT program. I started it with Cebelia and I don't think I'm happy with it. The thread is too soft and doesn't hold shape like I want it to. So, I might scrap it and start over.

Also working on a doily from "tatter's treasure chest". You know, I can't figure out why I bother making doilies at all....they are useless around here, but something about certain patterns makes me happy. Certain threads too. I suppose it's more about the pleasure of the process than the product. I did break down and start using the "Roses" thread that I got from Yarnplayer, I used almost all of it in the first five rounds, and decided to use the smaller skein of co-ordinating red that she sent for the last round. Big oops though, I ran out with maybe 5 inches to go! AAaaaah! So, after much bad star-wars references, (inside joke :-) I ordered some more of the red thread, (and some other colors.......so getting myself in trouble!) And told Hubby that he bought me some more thread for mothers day. Thanks Hubby! He also got me a batch of vintage thread from ebay, I think he knows about that.....

And finally, in baby news, there is no news. Midwife says I'm dilated to 1cm, and 50% effaced. She thinks it will be another week, which is still before my actual due date. I was getting my hopes up though that I'd deliver two weeks early like my last one. I just have to put up with these whacky contractions I have each night.

By request...

The darling Diane had suggested that I do some pendants or pins for the non-earring types, and this is the first design I'm ok with. I've tried several on the larger plastic rings, but I can't get to anything I like yet. The pink one here is not up to par quality wise, I ended up having to finger tat because I didn't have enough thread loaded so it almost didn't make it! But it's a start :-)

::sigh:: not again!

Well, three nights in a row now I've had an hour or more of moderatly strong contractions, but if I sit or lay down they go away. As soon as I get up again I get a real strong one of course.


I'd rather have real labor or nothing at all. I'm tired of the pre-labor head games. Tomorrw I'll have the midwife check me and see if there is anything going on down there. Until then, I guess I have no choice but to sit and tat. Darn.

This might be the last post for awhile...

I'm having contractions on and off all day today, but that's not going to stop me from showing some more tatting pics!

The first two pair are repeats, just much better pictures. I took advantage of the daylight! The others below I did last night and this morning. Tell me what you all think of the green thread with purple coin pearls. You all are my design testers :-)

The pink ones are a repeat of an orange pair, this time with beads.

All but the last pink ones are done in Lizbeth, the pink is Oren Bayan.

More new ones!

The pictures are awful of course, because I didn't finish the earrings during daylight hours. But, I have two new earring designs, The littler purple ones only took maybe a little over an hour to make, and now that I know the bead count I can string them on in the beginning and save a little time. The pictures below are not as true to color as I'd like, the purple is a really deep violet. It's Lizbeth of course, I'm in love with Lizbeth! The colors are so juicy and clear. So of course I ordered some more!

Right now I'm looking into what it would take to open an etsy, and how to coordinate things such as packaging and shipping, and of course pricing is a big question too. Any suggestions are welcome from those of you that "etsy".

I did also break down and start using that hand dyed thread, I think I have enough to finish a doily and maybe a pair of earrings for myself. The fun thing has been that in an effort to conserve that thread, I successfully climbed out of three rounds for the first time ever! I'm so proud of myself :-) The funny thing is though, that I had to add thread like three times on the last round because I didn't want to over load the shuttle and waste the precious thread! Eventually I'll have to have some more of Yarnplayers Roses, it's my absolute favorite colored thread in the whole world. But that will have to wait. I spent all my spending money on thread and earring supplies. Today I went back to a website I've ordered beads from before, and realized that they offer free shipping and no minimum orders! So Fusion Beads got some business from me.....some more drop beads and some swarovski beads too. They are local, so hopefully the beads will arrive in time for me to play with them before the "big day"! I basically have contractions every evening when I'm on my feet at this point, so any minute now!

Ok I'll do it!

I've been tagged. Double tagged in fact!

Both Tattingchic and Vinnie got me this week, and I keep forgetting about it! Preggo brain at it's best. Anyway, this is my tagging initiation. I'm so pleased to be welcomed into the tatblog community!

The rules are:
1. go to your documents/pictures.
2. go to your 5th file.
3. go to your 5th picture.
4. blog about it.
5. tag 5 people …...
So here it goes.......

This was a self-pic taken with my phone, and I used it as an avatar on myspace for awhile I think. That was right after I was able to take home my new guitar, a Michael Kelly Patriot Glory. It's the loveliest thing you've ever seen, it has inlaid mother of pearl on the whole fretboard (slightly reminiscent of tatting actually :-) and it's a quilted maple translucent black finish. Sigh, and I haven't played it in months! It becomes increasingly more difficult as pregnancy progresses.......

I might get around to my tagging of five people, but I'm ready for bed right now. Happy tatting to all!

The fruit of my......ermmm......labor

Wow, I just realized how long it's been since I posted anything I've actually tatted! I swear I've been tatting away. Self imposed bed rest is over, we are home free to deliver any time now. In fact last night was a pretty good false alarm. I never had false labor with my first, so I'm glad to know now and be able to tell the difference and not be calling the midwife every ten minutes :-)

here is what I accomplished in my two days of sitting. (BTW hi-five to hubby for keeping things from exploding around here for me while I relaxed!)

Here is Iris Neibach's Nora done in Oren Bayan. I love the colors, but made mistakes so it's not my favorite piece in the world. It looks summery and was inspired by my desire to own this set of dishes:

I also finished the first four projects from the TAT program. I'm only posting tidbits, I don't want to spoil the fun for those of you wanting to start the program as well. These are just teasers :-)

Last of all, at some point in the tatting maddness I threw these earrings together just to take a break from all the other stuff. Not blocked yet, but you get the idea.

Now it's time to get my darling little 2 yr old all ready for bed. After that, some dishes, and then some American Idol and more Tatting! I'm savoring every stitch.

The challenge is official!

I've been tatting away all day (yeah!).

Hubby and I have put me on self-imposed bed rest for a few days.... I will be 37 weeks along on Wednesday this week, which is a reauirement to deliver at the birth center. I've been having a lot of braxton-hicks contaractions, especially when I'm on my feet, and I just barely made it to 38 weeks with my first. So, I'm sitting on my tooshie working on some of the TAT program projects.

After hearing so many comments from some who have yet to finish phase one, I posted the challenge on Intatters (the new incarnation of the etatters group) and several have joined in the fun and we are going to try to tackle phase one by the end of May. There are even a few who want to start the program and they are jumping in too! So. with that being said.....YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! Dear readers of my blog who have their TAT notebooks hiding in the bookshelf! Go pull it out and dust it off and get to work! And check out the posting on Intatters to get some encouragement along the way :-)


Anyway, I'm going back to my tatting nest. After a bowl of Icecream of course.....