Back to Work

I've been working hard on a mask that was ordered during my sale. It was the only piece that needed to be made before shipping. I just finished working it up despite the best efforts of the cat to distract me, so I should have it in the post to its new owner tomorrow morning.

I have a few cuff bracelets that also sold that I should get tatted up so I can put them back up my shop. I was just waiting for new hook closures to come in the mail before I could start on them and they've just arrived in the mail. I'm going to take a little break this afternoon and then get to work on them as well. Hopefully those will keep me busy and give me some tatting to share here and elsewhere over the next couple of weeks.

I'm Back

Hello everyone, which is probably just a small handful of people at this point I'm guessing. Clearly I've been taking a bit of a break on the blogging. I've also been taking a bit of a break with basically everything craft related. Sales in my etsy shop have had me wondering lately if I ought to just throw in the towel with the whole endeavor. I'm not quite ready to let go yet though. I do still quite enjoy creating and that's still the best outlet for it.





Over the past couple of weeks, I've spent a lot of time on family stuff, birthdays, moving, divorces, none of those things are mine by the way. I spent a weekend cross stitching a clearance sampler kit while watching Netflix with the family. I've also spent some time with the slowly growing Armenian lace doily/tablecloth, though I haven't taken a picture of it in a while. I probably spent the most time reading actually. Well that and contemplating the idea of writing something myself. I'm not certain I have the skill set for that though.

It's also the home stretch of the homeschooling year. We have just a few weeks left and that means a lot of projects and state testing to deal with. So I guess that I just took the time off from being an artisan to focus on all these other things for a while. I did just finally get an order in my etsy shop yesterday that got me tatting again and that is likely what brought me back here as well. I finally have something tatting related to share, though to be honest it's just a pair of barefoot sandals you've seen countless times before.

So I'm hoping that I can get back into the habit of creating and blogging again soon, though I somehow doubt I'll be as consistent as I used to be. I just need to find a bit more motivation somewhere to really get back into everything. Here's hoping that it actually exists. Regardless, life is fine and I'm still making things, always making things.

Fit For A Cat

If anything, my stress levels went up yesterday as the oldest child's teacher attempted and failed to resolve some of our issues. It's not really her fault, it's just time is short and I'm losing my ability to be patient with things like busy help lines. So instead I focused on knotting. I got the shawl experiment to about 14 inches. It's now big enough to be a cat shawl. No, the cat did not enjoy the modeling gig. I was starting to lose patience with the yarn about this point as well, so I switched back to the doily.

I cannot begin to explain how much nicer the thin thread is to work with especially after the stretchy yarn that snags on itself. The smaller piece also has the advantage of perfect density which allows no sliding of the knots. It was actually relaxing to go back to the doily for awhile, so I think switching back and forth between them is definitely the way to get them both done faster.

Today will likely bring more school stresses and hopefully more knots will be tied. I'm just hoping that I survive the next couple of weeks without day drinking, because it feels like that's a distinct possibility right now.

Nothing Much

I did nothing but read and clean yesterday, so I don't know why I'm bothering to write this morning, aside from habit that is. I will be starting the laborious task of deactivating everything in my shop that isn't a pattern today, because the last thing I need right before a family adventure is to stop preparing and work on a custom order. The shop will be empty until probably next Thursday or Friday and then all the new Armenian lace necklace will go up and I can start crossing my fingers for sales again. I'm also not sure how much blogging I'll be able to get up in the next week or so, so sorry in advance for being flaky. For now here a cat playing with the end of a ball of thread.

Ouch

Well I overdid exercise on Monday, so yesterday I suffered. My legs were ridiculously sore, so I
whined and did little all day. I did complete my sewing project for my sister and it turned out perfectly even with my limited skill set. Then I grabbed a pile of comics and spent the rest of the day reading them.

So since I don't have any lace to share, here's a picture of one of my in-law's cats. This is Patty and she doesn't normally have a tan nose, I don't know what she got into. I think she has the prettiest eyes of any cat I've ever known, almost all white save for a light blue at the centers that makes them seem glue gray from a distance.

I've got no really plan for today either, though I suppose I should make an effort to get things photographed and in my shop. My legs are feeling better this morning, so maybe I'll be more inclined to move about and actually do things. We'll see.

Sad

Well, I had a bit of an emotional weekend. Not most of it, most of the weekend was lovely really. I managed to get most of my custom order made up. It's a pair of barefoot sandals in pink and black. They do take a while to make not only because there are two of them, but also because there are just so many small bits to create and then tat together. This is why I generally prefer a piece that can be made in one or two passes with little cutting and tying.

Then there was a nice family Valentine's day on Saturday complete with adventuring, a nice walk, and ending with pizza and a movie. Then came Sunday and it's emotional ending.

Our oldest cat has been getting sickly for some time. He was once a fluffy, yet scrawny little cat named Shade, but as the years wore on he'd become just scrawny and a little sad looking. The picture is him at about 4 years old. We knew it was time to take him to the vet as he'd been getting worse the last few weeks spending much of his time on my lap. We made plans to do so this morning, but we were too late and he passed away in evening. He was 17, it was a long cat life and we knew it was coming, but it was the first time I'd had a large pet die at home. So I had a hard time sleeping and I'm still a little out of it this morning feeling sad and guilty.

The husband has today off and I'm still bummed, so I'm not sure that I'll get up to anything useful, though it might be good to distract myself with lace a bit. There are still 5 cats around here, so that helps too. Well, here's to making it though.