A short post here. First of all here is a picture of Iris's TIAS doily. This is the second one I made. Same colors and everything. I tell you I so hate it when I finish something and I see mistakes after I have cut the threads and there isn't anything I can do about it. ....I bet you all have been there and done it...anyhow...here is a picture of the second one I made without the mistakes. I love the color play in this. Threads info and link to Iris's blog on the post before this one.

I also got an email from Marion Amber from the tatting list. She is from eastern Ma. Come to find out she was at Herkimer Diamone Mine the same day I was. I emailed her back and told her I remembered an older woman with a wheel chair with a big dog in the quarry and she told me it was her cousin. If she had taken a good look at my shirt she might have guess I was a tatter too and who knows...a conversation could have started on tatting. She had a three year old with her and I understand perfectly that she had her mind on him. Who knows...we might meet up again next year...planned this time. What a small world huh?

Can you say Bling...bling...I think Fergus Og and Connor Macleod can. They both got to go on a treasure hunt today with Celtic and Gary today.
We visited Herkimer Diamond Mine today. What fun!!! What work!!! boy is Celtic's arms burned...stupid person...she forgot the sunblock and here she has red naturally under her hair dye. And she wore a black tee shirt... even if it had the word tatting with a tatted heart on front of it...it was too hot to be out in the sun wearing black. Celtic almost swooned from the heat. For shame...but we are now home showered,(boy were we filty and Celtic kept saying she couldn't stand to even touch her hair doo). But we did find some treasures there. In these pictures you can see Celtic,Fergus Og and Connor Macleod and Gary having a dirty fun time working.

You can see in some of the pictures the people working on the mine...chiseling way, or sleg hammering away ...any way to get the diamond out that was all that mattered. The guy wearing the black tee shirt is Gary my husband.

In one of the pictures you can see the street named like Diamond Drive for instance. You can also see Fergus and Connor watching Celtic smashing the rocks...and guess what ...any diamonds you find...you get to bring home...and we did and here is a picture of us showing off the bling. In the first picture you see Fergus sitting on a rock...but guess what is inside of that rock> A crystal. We can see it but we haven't figured out how to remove it yet without breaking the crystal. So for now it is a crystal in the rough.

Now Celtic needs to find someway to make some kinds of jewerly out of the stones where they will be nice and secured and won't be easily lost. Celtic is thinking of some kind of cage setting. There are two crystals that are amost perfectly matched for a pair of earrings. Those are the two big crystals you see at the bottom of the picture. We had all our crystal appraised and I believe our treasure is worth $80.00.

Anyhow...have fun enjoying the pictures.

We are thinking of going back again. Herkimer Diamond Mine is a couple hours drive from us in the Adirondack Mountains. Here is a link that you can read about Herkimer Diamond Mine. There is also a place called The Ace of Diamonds. It is located on the same road and is close to Herkimer Diamond Mine. We might go there next.

Http://www.herkimerdiamond.com/

Herkimer Diamonds are not really diamonds but crystal. Their hardness as far as a gem goes is 7 whereas I believe real diamonds are a 10 on the hardness scale. The thing about Herkimer Diamonds is when you find them...they are already faceted. How cool is that.

This was something we wanted to do last year but it didn't happen. Have you all ever seen the show "Digging for Treasure" on the Travel Channel? This place was on the show once. It was also a topic among some serious minners.

Anyhow...I thought I would share with you all the adventure Celtic, Gary, Fergus Og, and Connor had today.

First I am going to start you off with a tease. Take a look at these two pictures...lol...what are you seeing ....? More later on here...

I am now a real worried Mom. My son Ryan has bought himself a new motorcycle. This really scares me after what happened to my Dad on his motorcycle. Here is a picture of my youngest Ryan on his new bike. Here also is Peyton my Grandson on the bike with Ryan...

I know alot of you saw the message that Iris sent to the tatting lists about some of the economic troubles she is going through. I know she mentioned she was going to give up on the tatting. I hope she doesn't. For me tatting is therapy from my troubles. As long as I am trying to figure something out...I am not thinking about all the stresses of my life. The only stress I find when I am tatting is...I want to see what I am tatting on finally finished....LOL. Hence, I have been tatting Iris's TIAS doily. You can read more about her TIAS doily on her blog here

http://irisniebach.blogspot.com/

and you can see some of hers and other TIAS here

http://tatitandsee.blogspot.com/

Here is a picture of mine that I have been working on. It isn't done yet...but I am working on it. I have been tatting it in Sherry Pence Hand Dyed thread called Marina. It is a very pretty colorway the other thread I am using is Handy Hands new Lizbeth thread lt. Turquoise 662. It is taking me some time to make it...but that is okay...I am loving it so far.

Next is a couple pictures of my front flowerbed. It now has some color but wait...everything hasn't popped open yet...but it is a begining. I love playing with my flowers and breathing in the fresh air.Oh and those pictures of the threads I showed you earlier...well...these are just a few of the new threads that are coming out from Handy Hands

http://www.handyhandstatting.com/index.html

and their new Lizbeth thread. There will be more but...I was the first to see these new colors and you are now the second to see these new colors. Also...size 40 in Lizbeth thread will be coming out soon too. Can y'all say YEAH!!!! new colors...new threads...I betcha you can...