updates.

I don't get to brag about how beautiful my niece is but here is a picture i snapped sunday. She is weird...i mean that in a good way and a bad way. Good as dramatic but also bad...overly dramatic...sometimes it hurts how she over reacts to something. but i love her and i can't wait to see how she grows up. She is sometimes really stubborn and temperamental (like her mommy) but i have also seen her love, and how much she loves her cousins. And now me. A long time i have worn glasses and have suffered from the sun. I know that there are prescription sunglasses but...too expensive for me. Back in 2006 I wore contacts and i was able to wear sunglasses..but contacts just weren't for me. Deal extreme was doing a promotion for their website. I wound up getting these snap on sunglasses... As you get older, you really don't care how you look, as long as you aren't hurting. today i had a migraine...these couldn't have come at a better time.
This was this last sunday. I was dropping krystal off at home, and i thought it would be a great time for them to visit my mom. So we went swimming... I feel so badly for my babies.. they can only swim for like 15 minutes at a time...before they are shivering uncontrollably...and i have to force them out of the pool. they don't like that.And since I have been running for almost 5 weeks straight, I haven't done much tatting...but I won a thread giveaway. Thus the next set of pictures....beautiful!


its all the same thread...just taken differently. sea of thread...I LOVE IT!

Faux tatting???

Tell me. does this look familiar? I found it at a thrift store yesterday. I was like OMG I FOUND SOMEONES TATTING... I pick it up and it was like plastic... or something...flexible, white. I don't usually bother Anthony with tatting stuffs but i really had to show him this one...The thing was...it was made to resemble tatting...even more so proven, there were little lines to seem like they were stitches....

I thought that this was so funny that someone went through the trouble to make something look like tatting, but didn't actually tat it...strange? they even went as far as having little plastic piece sticking out like little picots. sorry i couldn't get a better picture... but i thought i would share with you guys!

Fate or what not.

So to start i realized something... I am meant to have friends named Melanie and Michelle. Why i was thinking this is because a couple years ago, i had a couple of friends...Melanie and Michelle. Some drama went on and we are no longer friends. I was reading a nice blog...from someone nicknamed smellyann. I spent an entire 2 days reading it... i didn't even finish. But i went and friended her, probably everywhere. Her name i came to find out was Melanie. I would laugh, because every time i would talk about her, I would have to clarify with who ever it was i was talking to, that it was my Internet friend, not Melanie Melanie. Then someone messaged me on youtube about my videos, asking for help. After a couple messages it clicked in my head that her name was Michelle. So then having to talk to Anthony about what i am doing, i started the whole not Michelle Michelle thing again...fun. But awhile later i was thinking...i have my friends Melanie and Michelle. AM i just meant to have friends by these names...and even funner... i was talking to Jessie about my long time ago friend shannon...yes...shannon. and she was all like but your Shannon...you were friends with yourself...i then went on to explain about Shannon and Shannon.

Its a small joke that i laugh at every time someone asks...because i think in my head about the joke i use to tell to myself...Our street was awfully quiet because of all the shh's... there was Shannon, Shannon, Sharon, Charlene, Shawna...all on the same block. that was fun.


Any way I think i ought to get down to the actual post...First up. We have Azriel trying EXTREMELY hard to be iron man. those are pillows in his shirt, and no its not the 90's (shoulder pad joke)

And here we have Anavay dressing up her dog... isn't he perty?

And because i didn't have a silly picture of Atreyu...I threw this one in, so he didn't feel left out.

On to tatting. I have been tatting but more tiny, trying new things tatting, I really haven't gotten any further on my hanky edge but I'll get around to it. This is the thread that I got from Fox... It is so pretty and i tried breaking some with my hands...my hands got hurt...so hopefully it will tat up beautifully...See I thought that it had gotten lost in the mail but it was just because of the mail strike...But see this is a great example of something to do in my next photo...


A lot of needle tatters have the question "where do you keep your needles" Well. Last year or earlier this year I won a drawing over on intatters. Kersti sent me a test tube looking thing for holding your needles.. and then she also sent a needle. So needless to say I have been using that...until yesterday. Yesterday I was getting up from my recliner and for some reason my tatting bag was under there. I SMOOSHED it! I heard cracking and breaking but when I looked and investigated my bag, I saw that nothing had broken..this morning i took out my needle tubey and IT WAS WHAT BROKEN. I was heartbroken. So my plans are to super glue it together. BUT in the meantime....my m&m minis container will do...And its portable...I could just pop my thread that fox gave me into it (cause it fits) And then i would have everything I would need to do needle tatting. Anyway I hear a whole bunch of loud pops... so either fireworks are going off or someone is getting shot...maybe both!

A sunday stealing to fill time... sorry, but it was effective!

The Faceless 4th of July Meme

Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we also have our rules. First, we always credit the blog that we stole it from and we will “fess up” to the blog owner where we stole the meme. We also provide a link to the victim's post. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") We do sometimes edit the original meme, usually to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, sometimes to select that meme's best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from either this new meme or recently asked questions from a prior featured meme. Let's go!!!

Today we ripped off a blogger known as Jana at the blog That's Me, Jana!. She states that she was tagged by Lallopallo. But, it was probably stolen there as well. So, of course, that will be as far as we go. Tracing back our theft's thieves might take some time. Link back to us at Sunday Stealing!

Sunday Stealing: The Faceless 4th of July Meme

Cheers to all of us thieves!

1. Last movie you saw in a theater?

Harry potter and the deathly Hallows...my next movie...actually its going to be cars 2 but i wish it could have been Harry potter and the deathly hallows pt 2! that will come AFTER THE CARS 2!!! wouldn't miss it for the whole world

2. What book are you reading?

I read every night to my kids...

3. Favorite board game?

i don't think i have one...

4. Favorite magazine?

I don't do magazines either...

5. Favorite smells?

Nautica or vanilla musk. the smell is my mom.

6. Favorite sounds?

the clicking of shuttles

7. Worst feeling in the world?

i imagine, loosing your kid, because the point where i felt the worst was a dream that my kids had been killed, and there was nothing i could do.

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?

right now, I think "ugg again. wake up wake up!"

9. Favorite fast food place?

used to be chico's taco... but i love some taco bell, jack in the box, mc donalds(yes sometimes...rarely...don't judge)i really like fast food...leave me alone :)

10. What’s under your bed?

i imagine thread scraps, i know a soda, my box of tatting patterns :)

11. Finish this statement. “If I had lot of money I’d….?

shop a whole bunch! Oh yes I would...i love shopping!

12. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?

no, i never really slept with stuffed animals. i had a cat thing that i kept under my bed to protect me from bad dreams, it worked (in my head) and now he resides in my kids room.

13. Storms – cool or scary?

cool...and educational!

14. Favorite drink?

water...cold water
soda
alcoholic - tequila sunrise
orange juice

15. Finish this statement, “If I had the time I would….”?

sleep or tat... right now in my current state...sleep.

16. If you had to dye your hair another color, what would be your choice?

pink, burgundy...i don't like blond or black on me.

17. Favorite place to relax?

my childhood room. it was the best. but right now. i wish i could sit in my car more. while in the apartment...my blue chair.

18. Name all the different cities/towns you’ve lived in?

I was born in San Antonio, Lived in... Eureka, Blue Lake and Sacramento

19. Favorite sports to watch?

Gymnastics from the 90's..late 90's...or Figure Skating..

20. Would you like to be born as yourself again?

maybe... what are the conditions? do i get another mom, biological if i get pregnant is there a chance of my kids being born as they are?

A tiny bit...

MMM. So tired. To understand this you should know i am not a morning person, never have. I have always enjoyed staying up late and getting up late. Night owl...But now Anthony has a day shift...8 to 430... and the kids have pre-kindergarten summer camp...at 8 to 12. And Ana has been bugging me all week to go to school..like her brothers. So! I have been running around collecting everything that i need to enroll her into preschool for the fall, and hopefully get her into the same school that the boys will be going to...Which would already somewhat work out...preschool would start at 8...so we go there, drop Ana off then theres an hour before the boys go to class...an hour of play time.

The weird thing about this all is...by the time i drop the boys off (summer camp or school.) I have been running and have to turn right around and pick them up again...or Ana. So needless to say...I am so tired. And the worst but best part of all this is, this last weekend grama picked everyone up...all 3 kids and Anthony! (so he could help put up a fence) so best because i didn't have to run somewhere (which i wound up having to do anyway) but worst because i feel as if i haven't hugged my boys in ages! and next weekend there is talk of the kids going over...which means a teeny tiny bit of time to tat...which brings me to my next topic...

MY HANKY. I now know what Fox was saying about having to power through...because you get so tired of doing the same repeat..over and over and over again. I hit that...then i found this website here, where you complete a goal a day...that particular goal was to do one small task that i had been putting off...THE EDGING... i was doing and doing and i FINALLY got to my second corner...but barely. So! I say this because i have a long road ahead of me...finishing the edging and sewing it on...which i am really rethinking that whole part...And these are some earring i made a couple days ago... THEY ARE MY FAVORITE TATTED EARRING. They are great. they have everything you could want in an earring...not too heavy but has weight, they dangle, they are blue and green (which compliments me a lot...), they are not overly big, did i mention they dangle?! I found the pattern here...
Another pattern i found was Elizabeth Zipay's Mini cross I love this little cross more than all the other crosses i have seen. I really suggest that you go discover it too.


Lastly but not at all unimportant... Ladyshuttlemaker is holding another giveaway! this time its for one of her hook pens... man i would like one of them! If you would also like to check it out her button is in the side over there ----> Mondo Monday Giveaway

Also a little piece of haha... anthony just called me saying he fell asleep on the bus... folks it was a 15 minute ride... i see i am not the only one tired! And now i have spent all my free time this morning blogging...time to put dinner in the crock-pot... tonight we are having Cream Cheese Chicken... my favorite meal....I would eat it every day if i could!

Challenge.

I have a goal. My goal is to prove that all shuttle tatting patterns can be tatted by needle. I blogged one awhile ago...I believe its called Gloria snowflake or something like that. Now in attempting these patterns it would be smarter to have a second needle. Unfortunately i am more attached to getting more shuttles than needles. So...i finger tat, or wrap the excess thread around a shuttle and just shuttle tat. But a second needle can be used, and you will get a more uniform result. So here we go.

A while back Fox, and snapdragon lace tackled a medallion that is difficult. I looked at it and saw the split chains... and for those newbie needle tatters...split chains and split rings are much easier with a needle than in shuttle tatting... PLUS PLUS PLUS! So when i see split chains I jump to needle tatting because it is much easier. I was doing a video to show it but something went wrong and the third part of the video got messed up. SO here is a picture of my failures...

I don't know why but i love white thread.... it just makes me happy. So from my knowledge i am going to contribute instructions for the needle tatting aspect of this... So here goes.

R 4(-4)x5

C 4 TOR (7 ds) 3 vsp 8 - 8

SPLIT CHAIN (pull needle out from prev chain. turn needle around and tat on the eye side of the needle with the needle thread NOT ball thread.)

SPCH 3 TOR 4 put needle from front to back through picot on ring. RE_ THREAD needle and tension.

C 8-8 and split chain again until you finish the last split chain (last picot on ring)

C8
SPCH 8 (join to vsp of 1st chain)

C 4 vsp 2(-2)x5

*SPCH 5 (to sp)

C 2(-2)x5*

REPEAT * to * all the way around. See picture for joins (the vertical bars are SPCH)

Hey i got a joke... There were two brothers on a boat. One was named Peet and the other was named Repeet. Peet fell in, who was left on the Boat?

(heres when you say Repeet)



Then i go...
There were two brothers on a boat. One was named Peet and the other was named Repeet. Peet fell in, who was left on the Boat?

And it goes on and on, while i am laughing my butt off...That is my favorite joke of all time...thank you third grade.

But i am going to do a video showing this pattern. TTYL!

Large project and frustration!

So, tatting...been doing a great deal of it. I started a large doily that is made up of many motifs...over a month ago...like two months ago. A week and a half ago I finished with all the motifs...and started the last round...the final round. While doing so, i found a rather large mistake. I had to cut...and cry...actually cry because i cut... heartbreaking! an entire point! that's 7 motifs, then i have to start the last round again.

Heartbreaking! And i was so careful. So. dealing with that. So I made myself promise myself that i would finish that before actually starting another tatting project. Which was horrible, because i got a hanky from Lace-lovin librarian! Thank you again Diane! absolutely beautiful! then i started looking at edgings...GOSH there are so many edgings that are so nice. Being an obsessive person, i searched my external hard drive, and websites, and books, and my GOSH...obsessive. I really could have done more edgings but i thought that 15 was enough to choose from...see....15! obsessive...so now i am indecisive...which means i need others opinions to make a choice...

BUT

my doily isn't finished, but i cant stand to work on it...but if i start my hanky then that means i break my promise to myself...and keeping my promises are important to me..especially to me! so i am frustrated, i , i , i, i really think that i should forget my promise... and Anthony brought up a good point... I can enter it in to the state fair next year (cause i missed the application period by 2 days and yes i have never done it before..so nervous!)

So I'll post pictures of the finished doily when i finish it.

five years and counting.

This sunday will be my boys fifth birthday. It is so hard to believe that they are turning five. Right now, of every year i recall what i was going through and every thing since. I am calling it this year, my happy depression. I am still very out of sorts with it being my child's birthday, but i am very happy this year. So much has happened.

They are talking much better. They write! they freaking write letters, truly an amazing thing to witness. They are fully potty trained with the exception that Az had an accident in bed. So sad but its all right. Its just once. They are thoughtful! so thoughtful. And amazingly loving.

they also have personality! crazy personality. They are mean too. so mean sometimes. They are much better than i was at that age. They are strong. Strong willed.

I am sad though. My mom doesn't see what wonderfulness there is. So we'll keep going. and hopefully she will see. But in the mean time they are turning five!

Honestly I never thought that they would make it to age five. you know the saying...you won't live to see your fifth birthday. well here that milestone is. Today was the day in 2006 that my doctor told me that i would HAVE to have a c-section. I had pre-eclampsia. The day after...the 12th is... was possibly the worst day in my entire life. Waiting all day to eat a single morsel for the fear that i would be in surgery that very next day. I remember calling my doctor that day at like 3:59 and begging them to say i can eat... They pushed it back to monday...their birthday... May 15th. I remember walking in. and how scared i was, and HUNGRY... mainly hungry. lol. Then the boys...imma stop now before i cry. more later. ttyl

my first bookmark

HA HA Happy mothers day! I love this picture. they were pretty upset about being up so early, but this is them still goofing around.This is my first bookmark. or should I say my first tatting project. I wanted to post it to show beginning tatters that everyone starts sometime, and a lot of the time your first tries come out crappy.

I wanted to touch on a few things i saw. First. I used straight glue. Its hard and rough and really curved. The picture below is the top of the bookmark. Have a gander at the trefoil, or clover in the center. TOTAL gaposis. the chains below, pretty messed up.
this is showing the ending. and again the chains... they still are my foe but less so now. The one thing that amazed me is, this was done without picot gauges! and they are all pretty similar. Which amazes me because now i rarely go without gauges and i can't eye picots to save my life.

this picture was just showing the stitches.
My point is.. keep with it, it gets better with practice.

All thats tatting.

Today is just about tatting. This is my latest large project. I think it is so pretty. Measures about 10 inches across in size 10 thread. The pattern is from here.... i cant read Russian so its in google translate. its a 6 round snowflake...or so google translate says



This is an edging i found on knots. I think its so pretty. Here's the link if you notice the first two look kinda sloppy. So i modified it. so that's the second one. I thought it still looked sloppy and weak. So i modified again. thus the last 4. I think they look awesome.

here's a close up of the first one. For some reason i couldn't get them to lay flat.
here's the finished one. See like i said...AWESOME


this was a doily i found online, in a Spanish pattern book

this is the first three rounds in size 80 thread. Its only the size of the first two rounds of the size 10 one, needless to say i gave up. so little size for the effort. It looks AWESOME though!!!


this is yarnplayers butterfly. It is my second favorite butterfly. My first favorite is here.

This snowflake was a mock up of motif #14 out of tatting for today. I was contemplating doing it in size 80 thread, but my tension is horrible and the snowflake came out lopsided...so i need to find a different pattern for the Christmas in July exchange... Although it really is stunning in real life.
This motif was a picture i saw looking online. It SCREAMED to me that i HAD to tat it. so i did and i am all the happier. it was a wonderful experience.

This motif I found in the wayback machine on domesticarts.com HERES THE PATTERN I used size 10 thread. The picots were 3/4 th inch picot VERTICALLY. I can't believe that i got it right in my first try. I love love love this pattern.
And the very coolest. this is the motif part of the LOCHNESS MONSTER FLOWER by Claudia Meza. I wish i knew her blog so i could go and tell her the magic that her pattern bestows. Because you look at the pattern and you want your head to explode. But its so pretty so you TOIL on. then you realize it is a simple pattern that you could do for hours. I have seen other peoples pictures of this pattern and i can't understand why mine wants to cup. i have the same amount of rings and chains, but mine wants to cup....PLEASE believe i will be doing this pattern again. So about the magic. You look at the pattern and you figure it out...then your confidence shoots up into the sky because it looked difficult but in real life it wasn't, it is magical because it teaches you to look at things differently, and that is hard to do, especially when you are too scared to do a pattern. Just to shoe you... I have had this pattern for months roughly 4, and i only just got the balls to do it! THANK YOU CLAUDIA FOR THE MAGIC!