Trial by Fire and Long Lost Friends Reunited - Thanks Maxwell!

I haven't written as much in the last year as I would have liked to - well, at least not as much fiction as I would have liked.  It's been almost a year since a pretty life shattering event happened and I think I've finally come to terms with it.  I won't be going into details about the "Event" here, because this is my happy place and I'd rather not see it marred.  Besides, that is not the purpose of this post.  This post is about finding joy in writing again.  I pretty much shut down the creative portion of my brain last March.  I was wounded and dealing with the fallout and I just didn't feel creative.

I ended up in a rut.  My energy felt zapped and I didn't want to do much.  I wish I could say I held my head up high and rode out the aftermath of the "Event" unscathed, but I did not.  I went through my own journey and learned a lot about myself in the process.  Many of my priorities shifted and now that some wounds have started to heal, I'm okay with it.  Would I willingly go through the "Event" again - not for a million dollars, but I also wouldn't give up what I've learned through this journey.

I didn't really allow my creativity to resurface until late August when a friend asked if I wanted to learn how to tat.  If you've read any of my recent posts, you can see that I quickly picked up the craft and I am loving it. 

In November, I won another NaNoWriMo, but a lot of what I wrote needs a severe edit.  Last November was more of a prove to myself that I can still write even when I feel like my muse is gone or that my brain is overloaded with real life drama instead of fun plot twists.  So I powered through it.  Sadly, since November, I've only jotted a few ideas down and haven't really sat and focused on my writing.

But now, now I am feeling like I've come back to myself.  Now I'm ready to go back on adventures with my friends who have been waiting for me.  I owe a thanks to my fantastic friend, Maxwell, who has reminded me why I love to write in sharing her own journey.  Check out her blog: http://thewanderingquille.blogspot.com 

As for now, I'm off to write about adventures in a land that eventually will have a name.  Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Birthdays and Tatting

I had a lot of fun making birthday gifts for my Mum-In-Law and my Sis-In-Law who both share the birth month of February.  As you may recall, I was introduced to the wonderful art of tatting last August.  So they both received two sets of earrings and complimentary necklaces.  Since they have both been able to open their gifts, I can now post this.  Enjoy the pictures!

I keep seeing cute jewelry photos with earrings hanging off of coffee mugs or tea cups.  I think the earring placement made my mug look like a fancy owl face.  The mug was a bit distracting to me - so my clock won out as the place to hang the jewelry for photos.

I love the simple little butterfly.

This was the first time I used seed beads with my tatting.  I really like how they turned out.

Jewelry waiting on the clock (and out of reach of my kitty) to be packaged and shipped to my family.

The small butterflies are from Barbara Foster's Butterfly pattern which can be found in the Handy Hands (http://www.hhtatting.com/) catalog. 

The larger butterfly is from the diagram found here: http://puntoypunto.myblog.it/archive/2012/04/25/schemi-a-chiacchierino.html  It is the second butterfly I have made from this pattern.

The hearts are from my Accidental Heart pattern.  You can see the pattern and story behind it here.

Those are the ones I used patterns to make.  Now onto the pieces that I did not have patterns for.  I've been challenging my understanding of how tatted pieces are put together by tatting from pictures.  When tatting from pictures I tend to leave off or add bits at whim.

So the blue pendant was tatted from a picture of Gosia's Little Black Lace Earrings (http://littleblacklace.com/2012/05/14/black-royal-lace-earrings/).  This was my first time using seed beads in a tatted piece (I had used a few larger beads prior).  The blue earrings were a simplified version of the pendant.

The pink swirl earrings were tatted from a picture of Swirl Earrings by Julie Strier (http://www.etsy.com/listing/114008536/pink-green-purple-variegated-tatted).

Lastly, the butterfly pendant earrings were a simple design involving split rings and a clover that I arrived at playing with the leftover thread in one of my shuttles.

That about sums up my most recent tatting adventures.  Thanks for reading this post and following my blog!  I always get super excited when I find out my blog has more followers!

Trying Another Tatting Pin - Butterfly

I had so much fun with my last pattern off of Pinterest - that I decided to do another.  This pattern comes from an Italian blog - so I have no idea what the blog post says.  Luckily for me, the tatting pattern was a diagram.  It is the forth image down on this blog post: http://puntoypunto.myblog.it/archive/2012/04/25/schemi-a-chiacchierino.html

 

I was curious as to how long a tatted piece of this size (it's roughly two inches wide by an inch and a half tall) would takes me.  This pattern was new to me and it took about 2.5 hours (this included having the thread break halfway through round one which meant starting over, having to pull out a hand full of stitches when I missed a join, and tucking tails).  Probably not fast by an experienced tatter's standards, but I felt like I had a pretty good pace.  The butterfly turned out cute.  I think I may consider tatting the antennae around wires next time to prevent the drooping caused by the beads.  This is a pattern I will do again.

Accidental Hearts

 

      I was attempting the pattern for “Priscilla Yoke Ear Rings” provided by Elain Gan on her blog: http://tattingpatterns.blogspot.com (which I was linked to via a pin on Pinterest) when I was distracted by conversation and accidentally connected a ring into the wrong location.  Since I didn’t realize my mistake until I was ready to connect the next ring, I decided to keep it and mirror it on the other side.  The result was a heart shape I like quite a bit.  The pattern for the original medallion can be found in Priscilla Yoke Book by Georgette Batt (for a pdf copy visit: http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org ) on pages 32 and 33.

Ring 1: 7 – 3 – 4
Ring 2: 4 + 6 – 6 – 4
Ring 3: 4 + 3 – 7

Chain: 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 (5 picots)
Ring: 6 + (to 1st picot of Ring 1) 6
Chain: 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 (5 picots)
Ring: 6 + (to 1st picot of Ring 1 - same as the last join) 6
Chain: 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 (5 picots)
Ring: 6 + (to joined picot of Ring 1 & 2) 6
Chain: 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 (5 picots)
Ring: 6 + (to middle picot of Ring 2) 6
Chain: 3 – 2 – 3

Shoelace trick
Ring: 3 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 3 (5 picots)
Shoelace trick

Chain 3 – 2 – 3
Ring 6 + (to middle picot of Ring 2) 6
Chain 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 (5 picots)
Ring 6 + (to joined picot of Ring 2 & 3) 6
Chain 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 (5 picots)
Ring 6 + (to 2nd picot of Ring 3 ) 6
Chain 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 (5 picots)
Ring 6 + (to 2nd picot of Ring 3 - same as the last join) 6
Chain 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 – 2 (5 picots)

My Adventures in Tatting

Tatting is my newest hobby.  I first took up a shuttle in late August of 2012.  Since then, I have had a blast making all sorts of things.  Some of them I have followed patterns to complete (like the heart from Patti Duff's Minitats 69 Petite Motifs and Anne Bruvold's Minor Norwegian Dragon), some of them I have looked at images and done my best to imitate (like yarnplayer's "Belle" pendant), some of them have resulted from improperly following patterns (Mistakes can be pretty!), and some of them have just resulted from me playing around with thread and shuttles.

Making jewelry is my latest enjoyment with tatting.  It is fun to see family member's eyes light up when I give them a new necklace or a new pair of earrings.  I love telling people that I made something I'm wearing.

Tatting is great because it is a highly portable craft.  There is rarely a time when my purse doesn't have a work-in-progess in it.  I have taken my tatting on planes, in cars, to church, to waiting rooms, and much more.  I've enjoyed tatting during ladies thread art nights.  I am so glad that my mom's neighbor taught me how to do this.  I have also begun teaching five others how to tat as well.  Between my tatting mentor and youtube videos, I have progressed rather quickly in the tatting art, though I would not delude myself into thinking that I am done learning.  There are so many more skills that I want to learn.  I hope to end 2013 being able to say that I have learned even more tatting skills to increase my ability.  I also hope to show off the items completed by the people I am teaching.

I plan on showing off some of these pieces in further detail in later blog posts and I plan on trying my hand at some new projects.

2013 To Do List

This list is long and I know I won't be able to complete everything on it and I am okay with that.  I did a list last year and I did accomplish a lot of things on it.  Making a list of the goals I want to accomplish does help me get more done.  So this is the list for this year.  I'm sure I will add somethings to the list and take somethings off the list, but here is my starting point for this year's goals.
        

         January:

Tat at least 2 new items

Finish at least 3 more rows on Bevan’s Roxas blanket

Paint the second coat in the office

Start on the Tetris bookshelves for the office

Make five things to sell on the website

Get the website up and running again

Complete one Amigurumi

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story

Finish carving the Tauntaun horns and skull
Pack up Christmas decorations [Done]

Unpack Trail of Painted Horses [Done]

February:

Finish up the Tetris bookshelves

Finish at least 3 more rows on Bevan’s Roxas blanket

Complete one Amigurumi

Make 5 things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn a new song on one of my instruments

Finish Tauntaun frame

Tat at least 2 things

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck”

March:

Start sewing Tauntaun musculature

Finish at least 3 more rows on Bevan’s Roxas blanket

Complete one Amigurumi

Tat at least 2 things

Make five things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn a new song on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck”

April:

Finish sewing Tauntaun musculature

Finish at least 3 more rows on Bevan’s Roxas blanket

Complete one Amigurumi

Tat at least two things

Make five things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn a new song on one of my instruments

Start t-shirt quilt

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story

Start working on my garden

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck”

May:

Start adding fur to the Tauntaun

Finish at least 3 more rows on Bevan’s Roxas blanket

Complete one Amigurumi

Tat at least two things

Make five things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn a new song on one of my instruments

Continue working on t-shirt quilt

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck”

June:

Finish adding fur to the Tauntaun

Finish at least 3 more rows on Bevan’s Roxas blanket

Complete one Amigurumi

Tat at least two things

Make five things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn a new song on one of my instruments

Continue working on t-shirt quilt

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story

Fix garage roof

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck”

July:

Put the finishing touches on the Tauntaun

Finish Bevan’s Roxas blanket

Complete one Amigurumi

Tat at least two things

Make five things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn a new song on one of my instruments

Continue working on t-shirt quilt

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck”

August:

Debut the Tauntaun

Complete one Amigurumi

Tat at least two things

Make five things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn a new song on one of my instruments

Finish t-shirt quilt

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck”

September:

Complete one Amigurumi

Tat at least two things

Make five things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn a new song on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck”

October:

Complete one Amigurumi

Tat at least two things

Make five things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn a new song on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story

Complete half-marathon number 4

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck”

November:

Complete one Amigurumi

Tat at least two things

Make five things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn a new song on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write 50,000 words in a novel (aka NaNoWriMo) - going for win # 4

Help siblings with NaNoWriMo

Decorate for Christmas after Thanksgiving

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck”

December:

Complete one Amigurumi

Tat at least two things

Make five things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn a new song on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story

Attend NaNoWriMo TGIO Party

Host a “Try a New Recipe Potluck”

2012 To Do List Updated - Happy New Year Everyone!

January

Bevan's Roxas blanket [In Progress]

Millennium Falcon coffee table [Hubby Completed]

back room shelves [Eventually Completed]

back room sorting and organizing [Eventually Completed]

Five things to sell on the website [Done]

Website up and functioning completely [Completed - then Hacked - In Progress Again]

Find another part time job

One Star Wars Amigurumi

One Bomb Omb Amigurumi

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week [Done]

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story [Done]

Print out Filk song book [Done]
Rapunzel yarn hair hat [Done]
Kandra's Doll (she named her Kendra) [Done]

February

2 Amigurumi [Done]

5 things to list on Crafty Cranes [Done]

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Special t-shirts quilt

Dance workout three times a week every week [Done]

Strength training workout three times a week every week [Done]

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story [Done]

March

2 Amigurumi [Done]

5 things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week [Done]

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story [Done]

April

Tauntaun

2 Amigurumi [Done]

5 things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story [Done]

May

2 Amigurumi

5 things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story [Done]

June

2 Amigurumi

5 things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story [Done]

July

2 Amigurumi [Done]

5 things to list on Crafty Cranes

Dragon footy pajamas

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story [Done]

August

2 Amigurumi

5 things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week [Done]

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story[Done]

Learn how to tat [Done]

Tat 2 items [Done]

September

2 Amigurumi

5 things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week [Done]

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story [Done]

Tat 2 items [Done]

Pack and move out [Done]

October

2 Amigurumi

5 things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week [Done]

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story [Done]

Half-Marathon [Done]

Tat 2 items [Done]

Finish tatting my dragon [Done]

Plan and run Mom’s 50th Birthday Party [Done - and I’d say it was a success with the 92 guests who celebrated with her]
Attend NaNoWriMo Kick Off Party [Done]

November

2 Amigurumi

5 things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write 50,000 words in a novel (aka NaNoWriMo) - going for win #3 [Done]

Buy a house [Done]

Pack and prep for move again [Done]

Remove popcorn from ceilings [Done]

Paint all ceilings on main floor [Done*]

Paint Bathroom [Done]

Replace Main Floor Lighting [Hubby Did]

Tat 2 items [Done]

Finish tatted dragon number 2 [Done]

Tat Mom’s necklace and earrings [Done]

Tat earrings for Kandra [Done]

Demo closet for office to expand bedroom closet [Done by hubby & brother with some demo help from my uncle]

Put dresser into closet [Done]

Help at a tatting demonstration [Done]

Help Siblings with NaNoWriMo [Done]

December

2 Amigurumi

5 things to list on Crafty Cranes

Learn 2 new songs on one of my instruments

Dance workout three times a week every week

Strength training workout three times a week every week

Write at least 5,000 words in Jakzi’s story [Done]

Attend NaNoWriMo TGIO Party and bring siblings [Done]

Paint Kitchen [Done]

Paint Living Room [Done]

Paint Fireplace [Done]

Paint Office [Started]

Paint Board Game Shelves [Done]

Paint Kitchen Shelves [Mostly Done - I still need to do one more coat of red on the back wall]

Finish patching outlet repair in living room [Started - I’m really glad hubby and my father-in-law found that out and started fixing it. It needs another layer of mud, sanding, texturing, then paint]

Organize cookbooks on shelf [Done]

Start moving things into the house [Started]

Move Kaylee (our cat) into the house [Done]

Set up Christmas tree and decorations [Done]

Update electrical [Hubby & father-in-law Did]

Tat pendant necklace for Linda [Done]

Tat pendant necklace for Lauree [Done]

Tat monkey charm anklet for Mom [Done]

Tat 2 additional items [Done]

Host Star Wars FanForce White Bantha Christmas party [Done]

Get house as ready as possible for In-Laws visiting after Christmas [Done]

Enjoy visit with In-Laws [Done and tons of fun]

Get clothing rod hung in newly enlarged closet [Done by hubby and Mum-in-law]

***

*Because it is easier to list here than it is to list everywhere. Most of the house improvements were made possible by all the help we have received from awesome family and friends.

***I’m sure there are other things that got done that I don’t remember as well. For the fact that I got hit with a large amount of family drama starting in March when my dad ran off and continuing throughout the year, I feel like I accomplished a ton of things this year. I would not wish to relive this year (due to the drama), but I also wouldn’t say the year was a total bust either. I still did a lot and I’ve grown through the trails. I am looking forward greatly to 2013. There are things that I will change about me, projects that I will complete, and most importantly the company of those I love and interact with that I will enjoy. *raises a glass in toast* Here is to the end of a roller coaster year and a healthy outlook for the adventures I will have in 2013. Also, 13 is my favorite number, so I look forward to being able to write it in the date all year long. May 2013 be full of many wonderful blessings for you and yours. Have a Happy New Year! I will be getting my list of things I hope to accomplish in 2013 together and should have it up within the next few days. Enjoy the rest of 2012 (unless it is already completed for you) and lets have a blast in the new year.