I came up with several ideas for the hearts. I asked on facebook to see what people thought of the hairpin idea or maybe making a bracelet. Some didn't think the size eliminated the possiblity of earrings. I also played around with more thread sizes to see how they turned out. The simplest option was the largest size thread I had (size 3 crochet cotton) as a pendant and the 20 crochet cotton ones as earrings:
Simple but effective, I think. I like the set, but if I can do simple, the next step is always going overboard. I used a couple more of the size 20 crochet cotton hearts and one made out of size 10 together with swarovski crystals, chain, and some eyepins to make a necklace.

I really like this. I think tomorrow I'm going to make a bunch of the size 20 hearts and try a bracelet and see what the pattern looks like in size 80 tatting thread. I also need to take some better pictures if the sun decides to peek out so I can get these babies listed on etsy! I'm feeling amazingly motivated lately. Let's see how long it lasts.

Best Laid Plans

I was thinking about making some jewelry for Valentine's Day to add to my shop and I remembered that I had created a small heart pattern several years ago. I've previously made the pattern with fairly small thread and used the little motifs on cards and scrapbook pages. The pattern is in my journal but I never attatched a sample and I hadn't worked it up in years. I thought I would be smart and make the hearts with size 20 crochet cotton so they would be a little bigger and dangle them either directly from earwires or attatch a headpin with some beads in between. Seems like a great plan, right?

Then I worked two little hearts up. I discovered that in that size thread, they're roughly the size of a quarter. Drat! My brain couldn't really work out how to make plan A work, so it's back to the drawing board. I'm not sure whether to tack them to some felt and make hairpins or clips or just work up a whole bunch and figure out an edging to connect them and make a bracelet. I guess we'll just see how motivated I am in the end. Here's a sneak peek of the "little" guys with the threads still trailing and terrible lighting.

Busy Little Listing Bee

Back at the end of November, I spent a good three weeks tatting my fingers to the bone and acquiring endless paper cuts working on cards to get ready to a craft fair I wanted to attend. Most of the work I wanted to accomplish done, I went to turn in my application and pay my fee, only to be told they'd been full for two weeks. Frailty, thy name is procrastination. The end result of this, is that I now have lots of work to photograph and list. Procrastination got in the way again. But I finally wrestled that evil little devil to the ground and pinned him down long enough to get a little etsy work done. One pair of earrings sold within twenty-four hours! Here are a few of the other little items I've listed this week:

White Filligree Drop Earrings

Live Charmed Earrings

Ring Around the Daisy Pendant

Peachy Keen Pendant

There are a few more items in my shop that aren't listed here, so take a sec and go check it out! More to come soon.

Keeping Track

I know what you're all thinking: How can someone so scatterbrained that she can't keep up with a simple blog manage to keep track of all her tatting patterns and ideas?

Well, I'd love to say that it's because my outward disorganization is just a mask to hide my inner-genius, but I can't. The truth is, it's all about the tatting journal. Whatever craft you do, particularly if it's something you as a business, it's important to find a way to stay organized. Here's a quick look into my tatting journal.

I chose this journal in the bookstore because the circular design on the front made me thing of a doily for some strange reason. It's easily identifiable from all the other journals I have.

I try to work up a sample of most patterns I like and want to be able to repeat and glue them into my journal. I make notes about the pattern on the same page. Sometimes I'll take a day and just make some rough sketches of ideas that popped into my head.

I also glue in pictures that inspire me whether it's ideas for packaging or pattern inspiration. I loved the idea of the hairpins all little leaf cutouts so I pasted it in here for future reference.

As you can see from these pages, sometimes I don't work up a sample to glue in but simply make a rough sketch of the pattern. I've found that just writing a pattern isn't enough. I like to have a visual for reference. I need to be able to remember details like the length needed for picots, etc. Most of my samples are worked in pearl cotton or crochet cotton to increase the size of the pattern.

And that's how my poor little over-stuffed brain keeps up with all this stuff. It's the secret to being able to repeat earring patterns in multiple colors and sizes. If perchance you can read and understand my chicken scratch notes, please keep in mind that these are my personal patterns developed to be sold as finished products through my shop. If you wish to recreate them for your own use, you may but do not sell the finished products without my permission. Thank you for your consideration.

A New Year's Poem

I must admit that this poem started when I was thinking more about doing the church newsletter for this month rather than paying attention to church a few weeks ago. Yes, paying more attention in church is one of my resolutions this year. Anyway, I'm typing up the newsletter now and decided to share this with the couple people who might actually still be reading this sadly neglected blog.

Ready for my Resolutions:
by Keena Lindsay

I'm keeping to my resolutions
I'm brimming with hope for the year
So far, it's been really easy
And I'm sure I have nothing to fear

I haven't failed in my diet
Or fallen behind on my bills
I'm keeping on top of the housework
No dust on my window sills

I'm not saying anything nasty
Not one rumor has passed through my lips
I'm being kind to all children and animals
And leaving big whopping tips!

This year, I'm going to make it
I'm positive it will be so.
It's five whole minutes past midnight!
Just five hundred twenty-five thousand, five hundred and ninety-five to go!

And there you have it. The reason no one is paying me to be a writer lol. Sigh, back to the newsletter. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that I figure out why the computer has decided not to ready the memory card from my camera and fix it so that I can include pictures from the Christmas cantata ;)

A Little Something That's Been Bothering Me . . .

The hubby and I finally invested in a Netflix subscription and I'm happily rewatching my way through the first season of Glee. I was struck again by something that bothers me. I'm really glad to have a popular show aimed at teens with a disabled character. It gives a sense of empowerment. However, why does it seem that all the storylines revolving around Artie seem aimed at making us feel sorry for him? It feels like being given a pat on the back with one hand and smacked in the face with the other.

I have lived my life coping with a disability. I won't lie and say that I've totally come to terms with what I've lost physically and what I still have left to lose, but I don't spend all my time moping about it either. You can't. If you spend all your life handing out invitations to your pity party, you'll feel even more isolated than you need to. I've had my fair share of breakdowns and moments of self pity. I remember one time when my long-suffering college roommate walked it and found me staring at my books on the top shelf where she had placed them in a cleaning fit. I couldn't reach them and didn't know what I was going to do so I just stood there and cried about it. It's funny now, but it felt like a very low moment then.

If the entertainment industry is going to try and give disabled teens a role model, they need to work a little harder at it. Perhaps that wasn't the intention with the character, but if you think you can put someone on screen that fits into such an obvious niche, you're a fool to think they won't be looked to for inspiration. It's hard enough to accept the life and limitations that God has given you sometimes. Do I wish that I was born "normal"? Yes. If I were given a chance at a miracle cure tomorrow would I take it? Probably not. My road hasn't been easy or smooth and probably won't be as long as those around me, but it's made me who I am today.

So my advice to the writers of Glee: Artie needs to suck it up and stop whining so much. Oh, and please find him a wheelchair his legs aren't miles too long for. That is all.

New-ish Work

I've posted pictures of these on facebook and I'm finally ready to talk more in depth about these little guys.

I keep a notepad beside the bed for a good reason. Many nights, as I'm falling asleep, an image will pop into my mind. Something new to try and make when my brain and fingers are awake. I always try to jot these ideas down. Lots of times, I wake up in the morning and find that my notes make no sense to me or my brilliant idea isn't going to work for one reason or another, but sometimes it actually becomes something great.

My first attempts to make this butterfly pattern work resulted in the usual pile of twisted discarded thread. The basic idea was sound, though, and eventually I made a wing. I held a mirror up next to it to see just where to join the second half and finished the first one. I loved the way it looked, but it was turning on itself rather violently so I had to block it aggressively.

Pinned out you can see the butterfly starting to take shape. I left it on the blocking board until it dried and then added a layer of stiffener to make sure it maintained that shape and voila! A butterfly:

I made a two for a special order and they turned out beautifully. One had a body made of split rings stitched down the center and I attatched a cameo to the center of another.

This pattern is an excellent lesson in the importance of blocking. I don't have any pictures of the butterfly before I blocked it because it really did just look like a twisted mess. The first one is going to get pasted into my tatting journal so I won't forget this pattern. Hopefully, there will be a few in my shop soon :)

New Earring Designs

I know, I know, I've been neglecting my blog again. I can't help it. Writing patterns up in my tatting journal, filling orders, facebook, there are just too many distractions these days. But here I am to show off some new earring designs. So, while I've been off neglecting the handful of people actually interesting in reading about my life and projects, this is what I've been doing:

Shamrock Earrings

Bell Earrings

Captured Rain Earrings

Those are the new patterns I've added to my repertoire. Enjoy and take a moment to see some of the one of a kind items also in my shop.

Grumble, grumble, pattern, grumble

All right, I would just like to state for the record that the fact you can't copy from Word, Works, or Notepad and paste into Blogger is frickin stupid, annoying and useless!

Okay, got that off my chest. I'll feel a little better still after pouting and complaining about it for the next week and a half, but what can you do? So, because I love this pattern so much and want to share the love, I'm going to type this pattern out again. Now please go to my shop and buy something so I can tell that you all love me for doing this ;)

Old is New Again Shawl(ette)

I made my shawl with lace weight yarn and an F hook. Pretty sure it would work with other yarns/hook sizes and plan to experiment to that end myself. I'm not giving a gauge because, frankly, I'm too lazy to go measure it on the finished shawl or work up a swatch. Play around with it until you get something you like.

This pattern is an adapted version of shawl 7b in Beehive Knitting Booklets No. 9, A Practical Guide to Knitting and Crochet c. 1915. It has been tweaked to no longer be a full circle and written more simply.

Special Stitches:

Dc cluster: yo, pull up a loop in st indicated, yo, pull through first two loops, yo, draw up a loop in same st, yo, pull through first two loops, yo, and pull through all loops on hook. Counts as one st.

Beg dc cluster: ch 2, dc in same st. Counts as one st.


Ch 4, join with sl st to form ring.

Row 1: Ch 4 (counts as first dc and ch 1 now and throughout) (dc, ch 1) five times in ring, dc in ring. 7 dc with ch-1 spaces between.

Row 2: Ch 4, (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1) in each ch-1 space across, dc in last st.

Row 3: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, * dc in next ch-1 space, ch 1, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next ch-1 space, ch 1. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

Row 4: Beg dc cluster, ch 1 *(dc in next ch-1 space, ch 1) twice, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

Repeat in this manner with one additional dc being worked between clusters in each row until there are 22 dc between clusteres. Begin edging.

Row 1: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, *skip next ch-1 space, [(dc, ch 1) twice in next space, skip next ch-1 space] twice, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

Row 2: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, *skip next ch-1 space, (dc, ch 1) in next two spaces, (dc, ch 1) four times in next space, (dc, ch 1) in next two spaces, skip next space, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * acrooss, dc cluster in last st.

Row 3: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, * skip next two ch-1 spaces, (dc, ch 1) in next two spaces, (dc, ch 1) four times in next space, (dc, ch 1) in next two spaces, skip next two spaces, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

Row 4: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, *skip next two ch-1 spaces, (dc, ch 1) in next two spaces, (dc, ch 1) six times in next space, (dc, ch 1) in next two spaces, skip next two spaces, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

rows 5-7: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, *skip next two ch-1 spaces, (dc, ch 1) in next three spaces, (dc, ch 1) four times in next space, (dc, ch 1) in next three spaces, skip next two spaces, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * acrosss, dc cluster in last st.

Row 8: Beg dc cluster, ch 1, * skip next two ch-1 spaces, (dc, ch 1) in next three spaces, (dc, ch 1) six times in next space, (dc, ch 1) in next three spaces, skip next two spaces, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

Rows 9-12: Beg dc cluster, ch 1 *skip next two ch-1 spaces, (dc, ch 1) in next four spaces, (dc, ch 1) four times in next space, (dc, ch 1) in next four spaces, skip next two spaces, (dc cluster, ch 1) twice in next space. Repeat from * across, dc cluster in last st.

Finish off, or continue in this manner for desired length. I did a row of beg dc clusters along the bottom to add little scallops before I finished off. Weave in ends and enjoy!

Happy stitching!

A better look

Ta-da! Finally good pictures! And it's even listed on etsy, I was productive today :) Rolling River Shawlette

I'll post the pattern as soon as I can figure out how to copy it from Works and post it here. It's not letting me for some reason and after taking half an hour to type it out in the first place, I really don't want to have to start all over again.

From the depths of time

I'm not scared of lace. Not at all. I mean, I tat, right?

Okay, I'm a little scared of lace. I can knit and crochet lace stitches like there's no tomorrow, as long as it's with nice safe worsted weight. My knitted lace never looks like the pictures and my thread crochet always buckles and ripples on me.

I've had some lovely lace weight yarn in my stash for ages. Every once in a while, I pull it out, fondle it, try a few stitches, cock my head from side to side, decide it looks like crap, pull it out and stuff it back in my stash again. Yeah, I'm a little scared of lace.

I finally decided to suck it up. It's time to work my way through my stash and put some new things in my shop. I just had to figure out what to do with the yarn. Lots and lots of false starts later, I landed on the perfect thing.

I knew from the start, I wanted it to be a shawl. Knitting seemed to be out of the question until I can learn more about patience and probably try blocking some of my swatches. (There, I admitted it, I don't tend to block things unless I absolutely have to.) I searched through all the books I've downloaded from antiquepatternlibrary.org and finally found something that looked simple enough to play with.

It was a circular shawl and I don't really like having to fold a great big circle over to drape it around my shoulders. I worked several rounds of the pattern as written until I figured out where to basically cut out a piece of the shawl pie. I did the foundation as written, and the edging as written, adding a few additional rows until it felt like the perfect length. And Ta-da!

I just love the way this turned out! The picture is awful, but I had to take it in my bathroom because it was raining all day yesterday. Better pictures coming soon and probably my version of the pattern. Stay tuned for that.

I'm working on another one in a solid color yarn that will be bigger. This first one is the perfect size for keeping the chill off your shoulders, but I want to see if I can make a larger one that will look as good. We shall see.

My Own Little Time Machine

I sent out a plea to everyone I know who knits or crochets for scrap yarn for my afghan project. How's that going, you ask? Well, I'm still working at it. NaNoWriMo is taking a lot of my focus away along with all sorts of various other tasks and distractions, but I'm still plodding along. The reason I bring it up is that my wonderful aunt sent me a box full of yarn and a few other surprises. The best surprise was one of my grandmother's cookbooks.

I'm not talking about my grandmother's copy of The Joy of Cooking or any other sort of published tome. This cookbook is essentially a scrapbook. It's full of scraps of paper, recipe cards, and even typing paper wedged, glued, and hole-punched in place. It's simply amazing. The book is more than just a collection of recipes, it is a scrapbook. It is a glimpse into my grandmother's life.

It helps that my grandmother was a librarian. Being a librarian, or in my case raised by librarians, gives one an overwhelming urge to cite every source, it seems. Noted with almost every recipe whether typed, handwritten, photocopied, or clipped from a newspaper is a little notation of where it came from. It's a time capsule.

There's one recipe hand-written by one my grandmother's students from her time teaching fourth grade. There's a basic bread recipe and numerous variations on it from when my grandmother learned to bake bread during "WWII (the big one)." A handful of recipes are from my great-grandmother, who I never got a chance to know. Just being able to look at all these scraps of paper covered in my grandmother's handwriting is rewarding.

I think one of the absolute best things is that I can now share recipes with my husband that I grew up eating. There are tons of recipes I remember loving, and even more I can't wait to try. If I'm really lucky, going based on the ingredients underlined in the dozen or so spaghetti sauce recipes in the book, I may be able to cook up something close to the amazing spaghetti sauce that neither my mother nor grandmother got a chance to teach me to make.

A Cord, a Cord, My Kingdom for a Cord!

Over the past month and a half or so I have been having a standoff with my laptop about power issues. I have come to a simple conclusion. The laptop hates me. Laptop cords hate me even more.

Because I am a very impatient person, I wanted a fast laptop. Because I am dreadfully addicted to World of Warcraft, I wanted a gaming computer. I have a lovely ASUS laptop. It has a huge display to show me all the pretty little pixels WoW has to offer. It's almost fast enough to please me. I'm sure that the computer actually fast enough to please me has yet to be invented.

There is a very big downfall to having a laptop with a large display and powerful video card: it eats power. After about six months of having a wonderful relationship with this powerful machine, disaster struck. The light on the power pack of the cord gave a sad little flicker and went out. I was running on battery.

The little card that displays the information about the computer at the electronics store we purchased it from (let's call them Preeminent Purchase) said that the computer had 3 hours of battery power. After some tears and a few nasty words aimed at the cord, I took a deep breath and realized that I has three hours to use the computer and find a solution. The first thing I looked at when I turned the computer on was the battery power indicator. My dreams slipped away as it proclaimed I have 1 hour of battery life. 1/3 of the amount I was promised by smiling salespeople at Preeminent Purchase. A fresh wave of tears and I shoved the laptop at the confused hubby and sent him out to Preeminent Purchase to see what they have to say about it.

Guess what they said. "Your cord is dead." Thanks, guys. I feel so much better knowing that I'm not just stupid. "Well, we can give you this $100 'universal' cord if you can find your receipt." Back home the hubby races to find the receipt.

Guess what happens next. No receipt. This laptop is a replacement to one we bought about a year and a half ago. We paid the difference between the gift card they gave us to refund the purchase price of the other one that died while still under warranty. We have the receipt for the original laptop and the packaging for the gift card. Did we save the receipt for the amount paid for the price difference? No. Can't they just look it up? No. We paid with cash from Christmas. Great.

The hubby searches on line and finds a suitable replacement. It says it will work with our model of laptop and it's only $10! We laugh in the face of Preeminent Purchase and their $100 cord. Thank you, electronics gods for bestowing this bounty on us.

The cord arrives and there is much rejoicing! Yay!

After about two weeks, the cord begins to have issues. It will still slowly refill the battery, but cannot supply power to the laptop during operation. This displeases me as it brings an end to my ability to play WoW on this computer. The hubby does some research.

Of course the new cord died. It's only a 90 watt cord. This powerful, energy eating machine requires 150 watts to satiate it. So . . . another cord is ordered. Almost $40 this time. With the hubby out of work, waiting on a class action suit before he can even get unemployment benefits (long story and I thought this one was rather short when I began, so we'll save that for another time) and us therefore surviving on my disability payments and etsy sales, this is bad for our lack of budget.

That was about a month ago. The new new cord, just a few minutes ago decided it hates me too. It will not cooperate and run this beast of a machine. I am displeased to say the least. Oh, I should also mention that the $100 "universal" cord that Preeminent Purchase wanted to sell us, as it is the only cord they carry, is also only 90 watts. Very glad that at least we didn't waste our money on that.

I'd like to tell you the moral of the story, but I don't know what it is yet. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Listing Adjustments

I realized a few days ago that there are people in the etsy world who don't seem to understand that we're all just self-employed crafters. I had an order come in for one of my patterns around 8:00 at night. I saw it in my email box, but due to the hour, decided to sent it off in the morning as it was time for me to get off the computer and start winding down so I could get a decent amount of sleep for once. I awoke in the morning to an email from the customer with a timestamp of 1:30 am asking when she would recieve the pattern. It was not, by any meaning an angry or irritated email. Still, it annoyed me. Maybe because I'm not a pleasant person first thing in the morning, I don't know.

Don't get me wrong, I'm always glad for a sale. I love all my customers. It's just, I'm not a mindless computer. It isn't, click this button, I'll take your money and you can immediately download your file. I think I was also annoyed because this forced me to realize that I had to go into every listing for a pattern in my shop and add to the last line so it now reads "PDF will be emailed to you within 24 hours after payment is recieved." Thankfully, there are only nine pattern listings at the moment.

Enough of my complaining. It's a little thing, but it got under my skin, and now it's over. I've also gone into several other listings and changed them so that any piece I make when ordered will now say that.

Other than dealing with this, I've been working on orders and making cards, which I still have to photograph and list, if the sun will even peek out again. I've also been trying to tat some new ornaments, but nothing seems to be working out right. I have a large stack of twisted threads and nothing finished to show for it. If I really worked the amount of false-starts into the time it takes to create a piece when I price it, I'm underselling myself by a lot more than I already know I am.

I am also, of course, still working on creating a mountain of squares for afghans. There are lots of other little projects drifting around in the back of my brain begging to be started, but there's just not enough time to do any of them and no money to get supplies. On the horizon, I'm planning to get some fiber reactive dyes and start dying some of my own tatting threads. But that's probably a long way off. I'm dding my best to keep on top of things, but it looks like I won't be finished with everything I'm already working on until the new year. Sigh, by then I'm sure there will be a new mountain of projects to climb.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Good Karma and My Favorite Holiday

Last night, I got proof that good things come back to you in the end. This is what happened. While we were unpacking and organizing craft supplies among other things, we donated a lot of things to Goodwill. See, I'm not a hoarder, I can part with things. Many things that we donated were old inventory from the last time I was doing craft fairs several years ago. Rather than have to deal with taking new pictures and listing them in my shop, only to have them not sell because they were based on styles from several years ago, I donated them. I left the tags on because they had care instructions. I didn't even think about the fact that my old website address was on the tags. Last night I got a convo on etsy from a woman who bought two hats and, not finding my old defunct website, looked me up through google and found my etsy shop. She wanted to know if I would be interested in making something else for her. So, in giving away a lot of inventory, I got new business!

I feel I may be a little late to the game getting my Halloween stuff up on etsy, but yesterday, I made a dozen Halloween cards because I felt inspired. I wish I had more Halloween stamps, but the spiderweb edging punches I bought on clearance were definitely a good investment. In fact, I didn't even use the one Halloween stamp I had because I was having so much fun with the punches. I've now added a Holiday Kards section to the shop. It's all Halloween cards right now, but as soon as I get some made, Christmas cards will be keeping them company.

My Big Project

Yes, I have been a bad girl. I have neglected my shop. I have neglected my blog. However, it's all been for a good cause.

About two years ago, I started a shawl ministry at my church. It began as crochet lessons for most of the other ladies at church, but they all dropped out one by one. I continued on doing shawls, baby blankets, afghans, etc when they were asked for. Since that time, our church has joined with another to form a new church, and I'm still the one-woman shawl ministry. I'm not complaining about being alone in this effort. It doesn't really bother me. The shawl ministry project was something that God laid on my heart to do and I never really expected a big turn out.

Each Christmas, our church takes care packages to a local nursing home. The first year after starting the ministry, I found an easy slipper pattern to work up. It involved crocheting rectangles and then doing a little simple stitching to form the slippers. I crocheted rectangles for the required number of slippers and the ladies helped me stitch them together. Last year, they made knotted edge fleece blankets.

I decided last Christmas that this year, I would make afghans for the residents. So in January, after unpacking some of my scrap yarn, I set to work. I started crocheting granny squares. I thought that the afghans needed something else though, so I started knitting mitered squares as well. I did this in my spare time with my scrap yarn for a while. Then it hit me. I haven't done the exact math, but I have a general idea that I will need over 2,000 squares to make the required number of blankets. Since figuring this out, I've taken the project into overdrive. I worked through all the scrap yarn I'd started with, I searched and unpacked more, I was given scraps from a woman in my needlepoint class and asked my etsy fiber team and my friends. Well, there's a bin full of yarn to be worked through and another bin full of squares, but lots more to do. I have finished the first afghan, all stitched together:

I like the way it turned out. I'm hoping and praying that some of the ladies at church will help me stitch squares together to make the rest of the afghans. I'm going to have to go out and get more black yarn soon to keep edging them as I've run through all the black I had and bought for the project already.

So that is why I have been so absent and neglectful. After Christmas, I should be back to being productive at other things.

Hopefully.

Different World Views

The hubby and I are sitting here watching tv when that stupid commercial comes on with the guy talking about how he loves all the best things in life but also likes saving money. What is that commercial for anyway? I never remember, therefore, it's completely ineffective. But I digress.

So my hubby watches it for the tenth or so time and starts going on about having a problem with the set-up. Hiss problem is that the slender gorgeous woman hands the guy a tray that has a remote balancing on a stack of gold bricks. He's not sure he could even pick up all those gold bricks, much less this skinny little woman balancing them in one hand.

While he's going on about this, I'm watching the commercial for the twentieth time or so and as it draws to a close, all I'm thinking is: "I want a tiny little giraffe!"

New and Exciting!

Finally took some pictures of the totes I made over the weekend and got them listed in my shop.

Rainbow Waves and Shells Tote

Shoreline Waves and Shells Tote

I also managed to list a crocheted business card pouch. I finally found a use for the little 1.5 oz hank of wool I dyed a few years ago as a demo at Michael's. They've discontinued two of the colors of Kool-Aid I used for it. I'd been saving it until I came up with thee perfect project since I loved it so much and could never recreate it. There was enough to make two business card pouches (one for me and one for the shop) and still enough left over for a felted flower or something else small. Want to know what it looks like? Well check out the one on my shop!

Also added a whole new section to my card shop! Friend Kards feature friendship quotes and some tatted flowers.

My hubby takes pretty good pictures. I might just have to get him to keep doing it from now on ;)

Happy Birthday ADA

I remember twenty years ago when my mother called me to come sit down so she could talk to me. She explained that something wonderful had happened. The Americans with Disabilities Act had passed. That meant that no one could deny me a job because I was disabled. It meant that public buildings would be accessible to me even when a few steps became a problem. It meant that I belonged to a group of people who would no longer be treated as second class citizens or a nuisance to the general public. It was more than just more handicapped parking spaces. It was change.

I'm not saying that the ADA is perfect. There is no way to mandate compassion. So while it may be illegal to discriminate against me because I can't walk up the stairs, it doesn't mean that people don't still roll their eyes at me for being slow. It doesn't mean that people stopped parking in handicapped spaces because they're "only going to be a minute" or even that fines for parking in such spaces are more readily enforced. It simply means that we are people and we deserve to be treated as such.

So today, I thank all the people who drafted the ADA, all the people who supported it. Everyone who made what my mother had always dreamed for me a reality.

Is It Fall Yet?

I am officially over summer. It's hot. It's sticky. It's buggy. I can't stand to go outside long enough to take pictures of new items to list in my shop. It would mean leaving my air conditioned sanctuary. Actually, the air conditioner is having some trouble battling the heat sneaking under the door.

I'm tired of heat. I'm tired of it being so bright I can barely open my eyes. I'm just tired. Heat makes me tired.

So really, can it be fall now? I'm ready to move on to a more hospitable season.