It is finished. My "Necklace for Laurie". Here is a picture of it. What do you all think that might be veiwing this blog...do you think my girlfriend Laurie will like it?

The continuing saga of...."Necklace for Laurie". Here is a picture of the necklace I am making for my girlfriend. You can see I have added another part to the necklace. Stay tune for this necklace isn't finished yet.

I see there is a new list forming for "Tatting Designers". I don't think I fit that catagory. I have only published one tatting pattern in IOLI magazine. I know I have graced a couple covers with my designs of same said magazine and I think I did a write up that was also published. But I do not have a book of tatting patterns. So I do not think I fit the catagory of designer. There is so much talent out there. IT is MIND BOGGLING!!

A couple weeks ago you might have remembered seeing a picture here on my blog of a necklace my girlfriend of about 30 years made for me. Well...here is the begining of the necklace I am making her. This was something we decided to do for one another during a craft festival that was at Canandaigua Lake in Kershaw Park. We each had a pendant and we were to make a necklace for each other using the pendant as a focal point. Hers is what is known as dichroic glass.

You can see a close up of the pendant here...and the very begining of the necklace here. I think so far the necklace is matching up pretty good with the pendant. This is only the begining of the necklace. I have a feeling by the time I am done with it...My girlfriend Laurie will be able to use it as a lethal weapon if she needs to....More to go for now though....stay tune for updated pictures of the necklace's progress....and no this is not a one way pattern...but a group of different elements to get the effect that I want when it is finished.

Last week I went to Florida to visit my brother and sister inlaw. They live in Orlando area. Anyhow...my brother was concerned about me when I was sick there earlier this year so he paid my airfare and had me come to him for a visit. It was a nice relaxing weekend. We sat on their porch( which they have bought a house now in Florida) and watched the different birds on the greens near the miniture lake which I was told there was an alligator or two...I didn't see any though. On Saturday morning I hope in the fold and went outside to do a bit of yard work...my job was the weeding of the front flowerbeds. Fun!!! NOT! but that is okay. I am glad they didn't have me sitting around looking like a wallflower anyways. The one thing that struck me as odd is the Florida people have a tendency to have their airconditioning on so high that poor me from New York was freezing. What is wrong with that picture I wonder??
But I had a good time...on Saturday My brother and my sister inlaw took me to see "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls" which I enjoyed and then afterwards we went to one of my favorite resteraunts. MacRoni And Grill. Yum ...yum...I didn't eat all my food so I had it boxed and it became lunch for me the next day. The time flew so fast...and before you know it I was back on the plane for Rochester, New York.
The one doily I showed on an earlier blog I gave to Jill because I wanted to give her something nice. It was the one in purple, varigated purple and blues and pastel purple, yellow and blue...all the threads were Manuela size 20. She liked the doily.
Oh and one more thing....I actually saw the Space Shuttle go up from the parking lot in Orlando. That was pretty exciting ...I was just think then, how much more the excitement to be right near the launch pad.
Another reason for this post is drum rolllllling please......
Handy Hands
http://www.handyhandstatting.com/index.html
has two new books out. I know because my copies came in the mail today. Kinda funny I almost forgot about them with everything that went on this year. But......One of the books is by Christel Weidmann. It has all kinds of farm animals in the book. I proof tatted some of the critters that are in the book...but I didn't see all the he hawers so now I want to do the rooster, hen and the calf and so on...But here is a picture of the ones I did do...I thought I did the bull too...but I can't seem to find him right now. The patterns for the goose and gosling...I did a bit differently. I shoe laced and encapsulated my threads when I had to so I could get the orange where I wanted it to be...that is just me playing around....

Here is a picture of the front and back of the book. You can see from the cover some of the other farm animals that are in this book.

Handy Hands also has another new book entitled..."Tatting ABC's & 123's"

Here is a picture of the cover (front and back) so you can get an idea what is in this book.

You can order either one of these books from Handy Hands....

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

I think for the next few days I do not have to baby sit my grandchildren so ....I am going to work on my Black Thistle Bobbinlace Bookmark that I started months ago. This morning I have so far worked on my Tatted varigated blue and off white beaded purse. It is going to be a real long time before this gets finished. This morning I am going with my daughter Chrystal to see Timmy Guy graduate from the D.A.R.E program in school. The D.A.R.E program teaches kids about not using drugs or alcohol.

A couple weeks ago Michelle got a bonus check from Walmart so she wanted to go to the Mall. So I borrowed my daughter's car and off the mall we went. Michelle does not have a license so I had to take her. Anyhow Michelle took a few pictures using her cell phone and I got them in my email last night so I thought I would share a couple pictures with you. Mostly me and Peyton Love. I didn't have my camera so I was in front of the camera for a change. It is kinda funny but in my house I am the only one that doesn't have a cell phone but being I am so grounded because I don't have a car anymore, anybody that wants me knows they can call me on the landline. Enjoy the pictures and be safe over the Memorial Holiday Weekend and get some lace making done.

One more post for the day. As I mentioned earlier I was planning on going to the Gorham School for Timmy Guy's D.A.R.E.'s Graduation. I just got back and downloaded my pictures so I could send some of them to my daughter Chrystal. I thought I would share a couple of the pictures that I took with my camera. Gotta love digital cameras!! First picture is my grandson Peyton...in the second picture is Officer Steven Mumby with both of my Grandsons...Timmy and Peyton.

Now to take a bit and then work on my bobbinlace.

Gee whiz....it has been a short while since I posted. I haven't had much to post about lately. But this weekend was a busy weekend for me and nice. My baby Ryan who is 21 graduated from college officially. He is transferring to R.I.T in the fall. I am so proud of him and he paid his own way going to college too...but next year it will be different RIT is a more expensive college. He is majoring in Computer Science. I think he wants to evenutally get into animation with computers....maybe doing the software or whatever needs to be done to make games for the very expensive game players like PS2 and Xbox and so on.

Here he is graduating.

I also managed to get a family picture too. Here that is...don't pay attention to the Wicked Witch in the West Stunt double there.

And here is a picture of just my Handsome Sons....Shawn and Ryan.
We had a family cookout after the graduation. I should also tell you we all froze to death almost. We also had wind and the rain was coming into the shell ( which is a place where alot of concerts are in the Summertime. It was a good day for by the time we got home from the Graduation Ceremony the rain had stopped even though it was still cold outside. Today's high is suppose to be only 48....and I think it feels that cold.

Yesterday being Sunday I went to my Lace Guild meeting. I hadn't been there in about a year. But I borrowed my son's car and drove to Ithaca and had a nice time at the meeting. Someone had donated some linens to the Guild members and we were going around and going around the room. We each had a number. Mine was two so everytime it was two's turn I would go and pick something out. I did give some of the linens to my daughter Chrystal this morning.

Sorry I don't have any tatting to show at the moment. The only lacing I have done lately was to work on my pink edging on my Ms. Floozy's Pillow.

Till sometime in the future have fun and smell the roses.

Here is a picture of a doily I started a couple months ago. It has been on hold since I got sick. I picked it back up this week and have another round added on now. This pattern is from Jan Stawasz's book. He is a tatter from Poland. This pattern is pictured on page 27 of his book.

Nothing else is new to write about right

Another short post here. This is a heart that I tatted using Spring Poppies size 80 thread hand dyed by Sherry Pence Lady Shuttlemaker. Here is her url for her blog: http://ladyshuttlemaker.blogspot.com/


And her etsy selling page is: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5071147


She also makes beautiful hand dyed threads like Marilee Rockley but she also makes very pretty shuttles. I have a pair of purple ones. They do hold alot of thread even though it is stated it is a small shuttle.


Yes Sherry for the Dragon on an earlier post was made from your Fushia thread size 20 and my heart was tatted in Tuti Fruiti thread size 80.

The designer of this heart is Kristina Plaas and it was called "Hope in My Heart" in Memorium : September 11th,2001. The url on the bottom of my printed page incase you would like to make this heart too is:

http://members.aol.com/aktatter/homework/Krishrt.html

Here is an article that was in the local paper that is out of Rochester, New York. It mentions Chantix in the article and the findings that it is being linked to sucidal tendencies and depression along with some other medication. This is what the doctors feel happened to me. You just would not believe how depressed I was and sick...sick...sick...Anyhow...I thought I would share the link with you where you can go and read the article for yourself.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080424/NEWS01/804240383

One more time with showing this necklace....geezzzzz......sorry about this.....

Just to tease you a bit. Here is a picture of a necklace I made while proofing Iris Niebach's new jewerly tatting book. I made it in size 30 thread of hand dyed thread from Marilee the Yarnplayers. What do you think of the colors is that me or what??!! This book or Iris's has alot of really nice patterns. I understand that you should be able to order it from Lacis. I have a feeling that Handy Hands will have it soon too. You will find my picture of this necklace actually in her book. Aren't I honored.

So here is the tease picture......click on it...I hope it enlarges for you. YOu never know with the blog. ;(

One of the two pictures I hope will enlarge after clicking on it with your cursor.

Iris Niebach's blog url is: http://irisniebach.blogspot.com/ Here website is: http://www.iristatting.com/

The Yarnplayer Marilee Rockley's blog url is:http://yarnplayertats.blogspot.com/

Her website is: http://www.geocities.com/yarnplayer/

Now to throw some Hector, New YOrk tatting weekend picture at you. Enjoy!!

We have Pam Freck from South Carolina. I was really surprised to see her. We also had Connie Angeline from New Jersey. She is the one I traded butterflies with. Some friends from upper New York. One being Kathy Byrant. We have Martha with her red hair. I did learn something else from her....hmmm I wonder what it was....I think it was suppose to be a secret.... And we have a beautiful doily whose pattern came out of an old Workbasket Magazine. And we have more pictures of people sitting around tatting. Oh and I am showing you another picture of List Mom for Here Be Tatters Sussie Q Hanson...sitting down and behaving herself....

Okay....now I have to do another post on this blog today. I got this really nice card in the mail from my Good friend Mark Myers. Girls...eat your hearts out because you can't have what I found inside the card. I am so honored to actually get a piece of Bobbinlace from Mark. He usually keeps all his bobbinlace so I am so honored. Isn't this piece of lace pretty. Thank you so much Mark!!!! :)) big smile.

Man...sometimes I hate this blogger ....how about anybody else? If you put your cursor over the first picture of my necklace it will work to enlarge it so you can see it up close and almost personal. Don't bother trying to get the other pictures of this necklace to enlarge. It won't work. Enjoy and I am sorry about the silliness of blog composes. I just wanted you all to see my necklace. Oh and look they don't even have the date right. This is Monday morning April 21,2008.

I am going to try and upload the necklace picture again. For some reason it doesn't want to become a bigger picture when you put the cursor over it and click...so I am going to try again. This necklace needs to be seen close up.

This is the second time I have typed this post. Just when I was ready to publish the blog entry I got windows must close box and I lost everything. I so hate when that happens.

So now it is the day before yesterday instead of yesterday my girlfriend of over 30 years called me out of the blue. Her name is Laurie DeGraw. Anyhow last year we went to a craft festable that was in Kershaw Park. We both like crafts...though she doesn't make lace she is very crafty in other things. I have been trying to get her to come over to the darkside of learning how to make lace but I guess her force is stronger than mine. Anyhow we were looking at some very pretty stones that could be used for jewerly and we decided to make each other a necklace. I am so sorry to say I haven't started hers yet but I will....Laurie did make my necklace and gave it to me on Saturday. Isn't the necklace pretty. I was so surprised. It was kinda funny....I had my eyes closed when she gave me the box...of coarse I knew what was in it...so while opening eyes were closed and when I opened the box....I opened my eyes and I gave a surprise OOHHH WOOWWW. So here is the picture of the necklace my friend made for me. I love the pink stone...what do you think Erin...isn't the necklace gorgeous....Look at all the pink in it.

Also I thought I would share with you a couple pictures of butterflies. Connie Angeline and I decided that we would both make butterflies and trade them when we saw each other in Hector, New York Tatting event that was earlier this month. She made hers out of pink thread and black beads. It reminds me of 1950s but I don't know why...Does anybody know why I would think that? And since I was born in 1955 I don't remember the fifties. Kinda wierd huh??

Also I will share the picture of the butterfly I made for her. My pattern came from an old "Old Crochet" magazine. So here are the pictures.

Later on this week I will show you more pictures that I took at Hector, New YOrk Tatting event.

Just a bit of tatting to show you. The dragon is from Karey Solomon's new Dragon Book. I love dragons, but you didn't know that out there in Tattingland did you?? Anyhow when I was starting to get sick with the depression and before I ended up in the hospital Karey had sent me an email to proof this dragon. She didn't have to break my arm or shuttles. I love dragons, but I was starting to get sick...and I couldn't concentrate...and my dragon got started but I just couldn't see how I was going to get him done...I kept getting stuck and couldn't figure out how to make the dragon. This fustrated me...but as I got sicker ....I didn't want to do it anymore.

Well the past couple of days I worked on this dragon again. I got it finished but it isn't exactly how it was suppose to be made but pretty close. I think I will have to make another of this dragon pattern. Now that I did this one...maybe the second one will be easier. I still have concentration problems. Still can't sleep and still look tired now all the time. I don't feel rested at all and my energy level is all down. I have been told that it takes along time for the depression symptoms to go away. What I want to know is when I can go to sleep again ( who use to sleep like the dead) without taking sleepings like I have to now just to go to sleep. If I don't take them I can't sleep which leads me back to relasping which I did a couple weeks ago.

The other picture is Tatterly's Heart designed by Diana Stevens. I thought this heart would be simple to make and usually it would have been but like I said ...having problems concentrating and just missing things. I tried to make this heart three times and I finally got it made correctly. Here is the url for the heart pattern if you would like to get it and make it yourselves.

http://members.aol.com/domesticarts/Heartinst.html

I hope the link still works for you. I had this pattern printed off since 12/23/00 which is the date on my print out.

Next week I will put up more pictures from Hector, New York event.

My weekend tatting. I finished Iris Niebach's doily that I started while I was at Palmetto last year...and I finished tatting around this odd shaped cube. The odd shaped cube was something we were working on at Karey Solomon's house at one of the past tatting meetings. I don't think I had the right size thread to fit the cubes that I got from Karey so it is on this odd shape glass cube instead. Also in that same cube picture is a pair of Nina Libin's earrings design that I started at Hector last weekend. In the kit there is still a different color beads and metallic thread for another earring design. Love Nina's designs. Actually I love alot of people's designs...and will never live long enough to do them all. Enjoy the pictures. Later on in the week I will share some more Hector, New York pictures.

Here is a picture of my finished Hector Dragonet from a class I took of Karey Solomon. I just finished this dragon today. I like how it turned out. I hope Karey sees my finished dragon too.

Anyhow...there was a dragon pattern I was suppose to proof for Karey before the Hector event but I was having real problems with the pattern ...and I think now it was because of the depression that started to set in with me made it so I couldn't think and concentrate because I was so tired and sick. So I will get back to that dragon starting tomorrow and see if I can finish that one. It is also a pattern of Kareys' but a different dragon.

Tonight I think I will finish up a pair of Nina Libin's earrings that I also started at Hector. I have one of the earrings done...just got to make the other one. They will be pretty. Then there is also another style too of Nina's so I will make those too. I do feel sorry that Nina didn't make it to Hector this year but Rita Cochrane did a good job in being Nina's Substitute teacher.

Anyhow...I will share some of my Hector pictures with you. Enjoy! There will be more but I will just start with a few for now.

In these pictures you have Suzzie Q with her purple hair doo...and a close up of her special Tatbead Earrings that Jane Eborall made for her.

There is a picture of Kathy Bryant and her in progress purple shawl from a pattern of Mary Konior. I am making a shawl also using this same pattern. There is a picture of a Christmas tree with lots of cool tatted ornament on it that was raffled off in a silent auction and Suzzie Q of the UK was the winner of the tree. When I last looked at the silent auction sheet hers was the only name on it...I wonder how many more names were on the sheet or did Suzzie Q scare everyone away?? LOL We also at the beginings of a Chess Set that is being tatted by either Ginny Weathers or Dani the Geek. I don't know which one it belongs to. We also have a pretty picture of a doily which I remember seeing a couple years ago. The pattern was from a workbasket magazine. I do remember that and I have that pattern somewhere around here. Also this cool looking Adam and Eve picture. It kinda reminds me of Adam and Eves I have seen in old needle samplers. Anyhow I hope you all enjoy the pictures. There will be more shown in days to come.