Hi everybody...It is as Garfield said in an old Halloween special I taped years ago...it is

Candy, Candy Candy Day....LOL. I hope there will not be too many upset stomachs tomorrow from over indulging in the sweets.

In the picture you see right off is one of the pumpkins that I carved. This one is Peyton's my 22month old grandson. I tried to give the pumpkin starry eyes and nose and a great big huge smile on his face. I carved this one up this afternoon. Next to the pumpkin is something I think my husband picked up from the dollar store last year. When you walk in front of it, it senses you and starts to make this aweful racket and the eyes go from side to side...it can take 10 years off your life when the racket starts if you don't know it is coming...it is a shocker.

In this picture is the pumpkin that I carved from Timmy Guy...he wanted his scary and I carved this last night at his house while I was babysitting the boys.

In the next picture is the display to great the trick or treaters...which to be honest we didn't get to many this year and we didn't get many last year either..guess there aren't too many children living around here anymore. Our very first trick or treaters were Timothy and Peyton...my two grandsons. Here they are decked out to be who they are not...LOL
Now for Decking the Halls for Halloween...which in case alot of you don't know is one of my favorite holidays...someday I am going to dress up again...and go trick or treating again and be a kid again...LOL. In the first picture is a ghost that I did in ceramics years and years ago. I always liked this figure and it actually sits on my dresser in my bedroom after Halloween is over. I think I like the fact that it is a kid dressed as a ghost wearing a patched up sheet. I did all the patches different when I painted him. I am showing you the front and the back of him...so you can see all the patches on him. One of the patches I made it special for I have all four of my children's names there. Obviously...I painted way long ago... I also loved the sneakers on my ghost and I love the spider that sits on his hat and the fact the spider is also wearing sneakers on all six of his feet and wearing gloves on his two front feet. When you depress the spider's body it plays Ha!! I guess I don't know what it plays anymore for the battery must be dead...well...it is still cute anyways.

In the next picture is my Trick or Treating Witch that I made last year. I made two of these and gave one to Carol Amich last year for a Halloweenie Exchange.Then you can see my castle and my goonies and my Headless Horseman riding away...I just love Halloween truly I do...

In the above picture is a ceramic piece that I painted. The pumpkins,the fire under her caldron and the tree lights up. I love witches...and that could be why I have made and painted a few in my life time. I also have another tatted witches dress made already...just need to figure out how I want to do the body for it... I also painted the two little girls that are dress in witches costumes. The ghost is a candle and the other witch is a witch I bought years ago somewhere. How do you like the fabric background? It looks like a bunch of flowers doesn't it...but it is actually spiders inside their webs...kinda cool huh??

Here is another painted ceramic I did. I like this one too...it makes me think of a real spooky place. Maybe this is what inside the witches' house looked like in the story of Henzel and Gretal.

But I love the spell books...the skeleton, the black cat in front of the fireplace, her jars of bugs and other ingredients for her spelling brews...and the is even a ghost in the mirror...and look at all the bats hanging around...This piece also lights up.

In this next picture is a pumpkin I painted that has little mice trick or treaters. Then of coarse I have a few Witches flying around my house...mind you this isn't all of them...but a couple of them...I have managed to find a use for my husband's caribou rack Wheeeeee she is just a flying around there...you should have seen Peyton's face when he first saw her there....

Both of these witches are paper mache'd. One store bought I think from the giftshop of the hospital that I use to work at and the other I made...her name is Rhiannon whom is pictured on my website and her story is also there. http://celticdreamweaver.com/ Actually this website should be listed on my blog permanently shouldn't it...???

Now I have saved the best for last...I hope you are all still with me here....this is the BEST...it doesn't get any better ....

This year I am doing a Halloween exchange with Carol Amich again. She loves Halloween just like I do...and take a look at what I got this year...YOU ALL WON'T BELIEVE IT!!!

It is my very own tatted Scooby Do figure...Can you believe that...he comes with a purple hat, a cape that I can take off if I want to lets say dress him in a Santa Suit come Christmas time. He is holding a bat staff in his one paw...I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Here are some pictures of Tatted Scooby Doo. Thank you so muchly Carol my ghoul friend. Enjoy!!!

Can you see Scooby's tail..it really is curly Qing...and his joints are actually there and his legs are bent just so ...and he has his black spots and woow....He really is too much and the pictures really do him no justice at all. He is precious!

In the last picture that I am sharing with you is the other things that Carol (Battatter) sent to me...a Scooby Doo bag to put my Candy, Candy, Candy in ( as Garfield would say) or maybe a tatting project or whatever...but what is cool is...it is Scooby on the bag...in the bag was some candy...and guess what guys it is still in the bag...and she sent me some cool Halloween stickers too.

Well...it is about 9PM here and I think I am now just going to go and sit back...it has been a good, busy but fun day today.

I am suppose to be having four days off from babysitting...I wonder how much I can get done in that time...I hope lots and lots...may even start on working on my Christmas exchanges. But sometime tomorrow...the Halloweenie stuff will get packed away except for my Scooby Doos...they stay out all year around and my ghost that will go back into my bedroom. Then out comes the Thanksgiving stuff...but I do have to say since Thanksgiving is usually not one of my favorite holidays since I usually do alot of cooking and baking and washing dishes...UGH. (Love the food though) I don't have alot of stuff to decorate the house for Thanksgiving with, so what I got...won't take me long to get down from the loft and put out. And then it will be all fun time and a bit of relaxing time too.

Hi everybody....I guess it is time to put more pictures that I took at the Finger Lakes Lacing Guild public day that I went to. This time I couldn't stay and take a class...but at least I got to see beautiful laces and to see some of my lacing friends....please enjoy...oh there will be even more picture to come eventually.

WWWwwwaaaaaa!!!!!


I have a UFO that landed right into my tatting bag. The tatted piece is designed by Jane Eborall and it is her tatted mat. As you can see on the outer edge I was using a bluish teal looking color inside the pink varigated thread. I think in looking at the picture you can see what I was doing with it. I want to be able to finish going around like I started it but I ran out of the bluish teal thread. The thread is made by J&P Coats in size tatting thread 70/80. The color number is 73 on the back of the label. I am hoping that someone has this particular color and brand so I can continue going around and then move on with the tatted mat. I am willing to pay for the thread if any body has it...otherwise...I will get rid of all of those ends you see...and it will be labeled "My UFO"for now.

I have been tagged by http://yarnplayertats.blogspot.com/

Here are the rules which you must abide by if you are tagged.1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.3. Tag 3 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

So seven things about me.......... hmmm let's see here
1. My birthstone is Aquamarine
2. My favorite rock groups are U2, Fleetwood Mac and a whole bunch more....
3. My worst subject when I was in school was Math...yeck!!!
4.Love watching the "Law and Orders" and "CSI" shows
5. My favorite tatting chair is my Grandmother's swivel rocker which is orange ( soo 70ish looking and so not me, so I keep it covered at all times, but it is comfortable)
6.I pray each night for bionic hands and fingers so I can beat Tatman in a tatting speed contest...LOL
7. And for number 7...I always ask myself...is Mark Myers real or is he a figment of my imagination...I feel he can't be real....he is like superman...oh wait...I think he already has an action figure named Tatman on the market....

The people I am going to tag are Gina, http://threadsofatattinggoddess.blogspot.com/
Erin Halloway http://thebuhlawg.blogspot.com/
and
Carol Amichhttp://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-obWo3E0wdq.i5MdQV3Vkdls-?cq=1

Today's subject is TENERIFFE LACE which is made with thread and a flattened wheel of some sort and a needle. Teneriffe can be made into circles, squares, flowered shaped and so on. It is made with thread and a needle...and the form onto which you stitch around threads in such a way that a design is made. All the first stitches formed are held in place with pins that come into the side of the wheel. In the pictures I am going to show you, you will see what I mean. Once the lace is finished on the wheel you remove the pins and your lace will come off. Sometimes this lace is done on a tiny pillow too...I have never used a pillow myself...but who knows...if I ever decided to really get into it again someday...I might...just to see how elaborate I can get.

Anyhoo...here is a picture of some teneriffe circles I have done and also one that is shaped differently looking like a flower sorta. At one time I was planning on making a collar using black thread. That is why so many of them are in black...It is a UFO that hasn't been realized to the finish yet.

In the next set of pictures is A set of Teneriffe Wheels that I actually bought in Plymouth, England from an Antique store that I went into while I was there. Even then I was on the look out for anything that might satisfy my lacing hunger. I also bought a lace bobbin in York too...but that is another story....

You can see there is three different sizes. This was marked circa 1901. They are in pretty good shape. I am showing you the front side and the other side of the wheels. As you can see one of the wheels actually has the finished lace on it...it was this way and I never did take the lace off the wheel. The price sticker is still on the package so I paid 15 sterling pounds for these lace making tools. Nowadays I think that comes to about $30.00 of American money but back then it was about $23.00 of American Money.

Also with the wheels was the original instructions. The paper has yellowed...but still very much intact. Since this is over a hundred years old I scanned it and here it is... It tells and shows you how the lace is made. Note the same wheels in the instructions as I have. In the third picture you can see the pins and how the threads are wrapped around the pins going from side to side around the wheel. The stitches are then made around the thread spokes.

I also have a brass wheel where you turn the knob the spikes come out from the outside. Again the needle and thread goes around these pins and then you do the filling decorated stitches to the spokes of the threads. In looking at this contraption when the spikes are out...the tool looks down right sinister. LOL.

I also have a kit of Teneriffe Wheels that are made from Plastic Canvas. I got these from Lacis years ago. I must say that I like my home made wheels better that I made from heavy cardboard that I covered with vanilla folders better.

I do have some reference books for Teneriffe Lace. There is one thing about me...when I want to learn something or if I take a class in something I really do alot of research on my own after the class is over and I very steadily will work on whatever class I have taken. As with the Teneriffe Lace for instance. I did take a class on the fundamentals of making this kind of lace in Amhearst, New York years ago. My teacher was Joan Sulecki. Who was a great teacher and her mother has gotten awards from IOLI for her laces that she has entered in to competition. Love her Carrickmacross especially.

The books that I have are...hardcover "The techniques of Teneriffe Lace" by Alexandra Stillwell, "Teneriffe Lace" edited by Jules and Kaethe Kliot( paper) and a "Polka Spider Web Patterns", which is also in paper. In looking at these books this evening I had forgotten how truly beautiful Teneriffe Lace is.

In reading Jane Eborall's blog post http://janeeborall.blogspot.com/ I thought I would share with you too about Teneriffe Lace.

In the last picture I am showing you a hankie that I bought years ago. It has Teneriffe all around the outside....two rows of it actually and in the cloth portion is open work cut needled weaved docorations. I use to have this all pressed and on the center of my diningroom table as a center piece. That is how beautiful this piece is actually when pressed. Nowadays...I use my diningroom table mainly to put things that I don't want my grandson to get his hands on...like whatever I am working on at the moment...my candle holders and so on...so NO I don't eat at my table very often.

Anyhow...I hope you have enjoyed this posting and maybe have learned something from it.

I will eventually find the time to post more of the pictures that I took in Ithaca for their Lacing Weekend Event...but for right now I am showing you my finished Iris Niebach Doily that I started from a class that I took from her at Palmetto's Tat Weekend. I loved doing this doily for it had so many different tatting techniques in it and it was a great learning techniques doily.

Right now I am trying to figure out how to send it away for I am giving it away.

Thanks for the great class Iris!!!

This weekend is The Fingerlakes Lace Guild Lacing Event. I am not going for the weekend like I usually do. I have no money this year...but I did attend the public day which was today. I borrowed my daughter's car and drove for 1 hour and 15 minutes from my house to Ithaca. I took alot of pictures and I am going to share them with you. As you all know there are all kinds of laces....and you will see all kinds. I really loved the display of lace this year..and I so enjoyed seeing my lacing friends who I haven't seen since March when my car was totaled in an accident. I can't get another car at this time. I didn't have money to buy from the vendors...:( but I did take enough money out of the bank this morning for my large Cafe' Mocha and a breakfast sandwich from Tim Horton's to eat and drink along the way...and I had just enough money to buy my commemorative lace bobbin which this year had black and white checker flags on the bobbin. Since I have missed the meeting for months the event was planned without me. So I have no idea what the theme for this year was.

Come to find out I could have attended the banquet tonight for my one friend's husband wasn't planning on attending and she really wanted me to stay and use the ticket...but since I said I was going to have my daughter's car back this afternoon and she was working...so I had no way to call her and ask her if she had other plans for this evening.

Anyhoo...enjoy the pictures. Since there are so many....I will put just a few here at a wack.

Polychrome inside a torchon laced boarder.

Russian Lace






Chantilly lace I believe.

This is marked Carrickmacross but it really doesn't have the characteristics of it to me.

This piece of lace is also marked Carrickmacross

Lace. It is missing the circles that go all the way

around the outside edge. Pretty isn't it?? It is a

needle made lace that originates from Ireland.

Both of these two pieces the square here and the circle are interesting to look at. They both were made with heavier thread...I really like the way they turned out.

The title of this piece of lace is Kimono

Dreams. If you take your curse and click on

the picture hopefully you will see the stitches

better. I know that not always can you click and have the picture be bigger. I don't know why sometimes it doesn't work...but try that on all the

pictures. These laces are just so beautiful.

This piece of lace is called Logarithmiclace. I love the color play in this kind of lace.

This lace is called Point De Gaze. Which is a needlemade lace.

This is another piece I think of Chantilly Lace. Black lace is so shiek looking.

This I think is Polychrome lace in a point ground.

Doesn't this lace look X-masy??

This is an interesting use of Milanese Braids I think.

This is all the pictures I am going to upload today...I hope all the captions I wrote on the bottom of each picture stays with the picture it was intended for. You never know with these blogs where things are going to end up. More pics on another day when I can again find my computer.