50th birthday celebration

I am a blessed woman. Yesterday was my 50th birthday. We had a different kind of celebration. I came up with an idea that I thought was kind of unique for such a 'big' day. We had a 'drop over' party. We put the word out that anyone who wanted to could drop over to celebrate with me. My kids cooked most of the food and we had a LOT of food.

I expected about 14 or 15 people to come over. It ended up being 31 people over at various times during the day. I felt so blessed and humbled that so many people took time out of their day to come over to celebrate with me. I got some great gifts and lots of flowers.

Today I am exhausted. I didn't even make it to church. I actually went to bed before the party was completely over. Now I do have to say that the only ones left up were Nate, Jessica and Calvin, but they were still going strong talking and just being family.

There were a few hickups along the way yesterday, and we got thru them.

All in all, it was a fabulous day. I'm 50 and Fabulous.

idol hands

I  haven't tatted in almost a week. I've been so busy getting my house ready for my birthday that I am so exhausted in the evenings, I just sit here.

I believe that you should not go into a new birth year with a messy house. I have been neglecting my house the past months and really needed to do some things like shampoo my carpets and clean all the windows. I also organized my sewing desk and fabric shelves. It feels so good to walk through my house and know that everything is clean.

I just with that the home repairs were all completed. 2 years ago, my husband and son tore the front of my house down and replaced the doors and window. They did a great job and it looks great from the outside, but the inside is still insulation and raw wood. I still don't even have my house numbers back up yet. They both have been very busy and I understand the delay, but I hate that I have become used to the look of timbers at my front door.

Well, off to bed for the final clean of my kitchen and deep clean of the appliances.

Two more days until I'm 50.

Wedding Anniversary and 50th birthday

Tomorrow, September 26th, 2013, I will celebrate my 22nd wedding anniversary. I am so blessed to be married to the love of my life, my best friend, and an amazing man. He and I were told that because we only dated for 4 months before we got married and that some people didn't know me very well, that we would never last. I think they were wrong. I am not saying that our marriage has been all roses and rainbows, but we stuck together and hung on for dear life. Now that we are older, we really don't argue, fight or get mad at each other. We've done that and been there. We've moved on and are just happy to spend our time together. My husband is my hero. He is a hard working man who lets me have my craft obsessions. He knows that I will take care of our home and family.

OK, so now that I've spoken about our anniversary, my 50th birthday is two days later. On September 28th, I will turn 50. I'm excited to be turning 50. I know that I don't feel, look and definately don't act 50. It's just a number. Sure I have aches and pains, but who doesn't? I was a runner in high school and lifted weights for about 20 years. (a long time ago). One of my personal heros - NFL New York Giant's Wide Receiver's Stacy Robinson (deceased) told me that the more active and athletic you are as a young person, the more your bones will ache and creek when you get older. He sure wasn't lying.

We are having a celebration at our house. We are doing it a little different this year. We are having a drop over party - meaning, that after 11am on Saturday, anyone who wants to can come on over and stay for as long as they want - within reason. I don't expect a ton of guests, but I know that those who love me will be here. I told everyone that gifts are welcome and appreciated. Every year I always tell anyone who asks that I don't want gifts. Well, this year I'm going to be a little selfish. I think I deserve them once in a while.

I have been cleaning my house from top to bottom. Not because we are having guests, but it doesn't hurt, but because I don't believe that anyone should go into another year of life without having their house in order. Some think of that expression differently, as I do, but I also want my physical home in order. So it's off to bed. I have more cleaning to do tomorrow.

Fake Lydia Pinkham Shuttle

I won an auction on eBay for a Lydia Pinkham tatting shuttle. I was very happy to get another one for my collection. I received the shuttle the other day and was extremely disappointed when I opened the package and discovered that it was a fake. I compared it to my real Lydia Pinkham shuttle to make sure.
I contacted the seller and advised her that the shuttle was not real. She did not believe me. She said that the shuttle was real and that all Lydia Pinkham tatting shuttles were not made the same. WHAT???? Then she went on to tell me that she posted pictures of the shuttle and I should have looked at them before I bid on the auction.
I have never heard that there were more than one style of Lydia Pinkham shuttle before. I took some pictures of it and some of my real Pinkham shuttle and sent it to a few people that I trust to know the difference. Of course they confirmed what I thought to be true. It is a fake.
I haven't decided if I should send the shuttle back, or not. I think the seller will fight me on the return. If I persue the issue, I hope that either eBay or PayPal will help out.
Here are pictures of the two shuttles. You tell me what you think.

Fake Shuttle front picture

Fake Shuttle back picture

Real shuttle front picture that I have already owned

Real shuttle back picture

Designing bookmark pattern

UGH, I am getting frustrated. I have been trying to design a bookmark for 3 days. I have done the design in my drawing program 12 times so far. I have partially test tatted it 3 times.

Each test tat has come up with some pretty interesting mistakes that may turn into earring patterns later, but for now I just want to get this bookmark done.

I also got an education on what constitutes a new design. Even if I change the stitch count, if it's been done before it's not my design. I am also getting an education on putting a design on paper - self imposed. I have been making rings and chains and split rings and joins and picots all on paper. It looks good on paper, but try and tat it out - doesn't work like I thought. Adjustments, adjustments, adjustments.

I have wound shuttles and wound shuttles and wound shuttles. So now I have a bunch of shuttles with too much thread to throw away and not enough for a good sized project. I guess I will have a lot of daisies of the same color for my tablecloth, or maybe I can make some coasters out of them. Good idea Monica.

new wood for shuttles

Today I went to the lumber shop because we were running low on Cherry wood for shuttle making. I took my nephew with me because we were hanging out together today.

I picked up some Cherry wood, but I also picked up some Aromatic Cedar, Zebra wood, Paduck, and some Yellow Heart.

When I got home, we started to organize the wood in the new storage are and found out that I also have Pango Pango, Honduras Rosewood, Quilted Maple, Marblewood, Walnut, Mahogany, Oak, Pine, Poplar, Leopard Wood, Purple Heart, and a few more. I think I have a good supply and variety of wood to make some shuttles.

I am waiting to talk to my son to make the final decision on which CNC machine I am going to get. Once I decide, I'm going to order it. There is a shop in Ohio that I would love to get it from because they are close to us, they are in the US, free shipping and I would have the machine within 5 days instead of 4-6 weeks. The prices are a little higher but the fact that I would have the machine within a week would surely make up for the difference in cost. The machine is not the original one that I wanted. It's about the same machine. I'm not sure which one I will choose. I want to talk it over with my son. I trust his opinion. I'm sending him the specs now.

Rough Day today

Today is a day that I really would not like to remember. It's the day that changed my country forever. 12 years ago today it also changed my husband. As a DC Police Officer, he volunteered to go to the Pentagon to help. He came home several days later a changed man. For 48 of the hours he was away from his family, he carried people out of the Pentagon. He told me later that he had to walk on dead bodies to carry people out. It's a rough day for him today, along with the rest of the country.

I am choosing to remember today as the day my dog was born. September 12, 2006 D'Artagnan was born. We picked him up from the breeder on Novermber 3rd. He is such a gentle sweet pit bull. He changes all of the stereotypes of the breed. My gentle boy is so sweet. I love him more than I could ever imagine loving a pet.

I will work on some tatting and move on to tomorrow.

I am turning 50 in 17 days and will celebrate my 22nd wedding anniversary in 15 days. That is what I am thinking about today.

Oh my goodness

My day has been so full. I picked up my bobbin lace beginner kit at the store today and am so excited that I will now be able to learn. I have wanted to know how to bobbin lace for so long.

Well, then my dogs were outside and ran away. We searched the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods and finally found them. D'Artagnan has injuries to both back legs. One back leg has a gash and one we aren't sure what is wrong but he won't put any weight on it. Zura seems to be ok, just some scratches.

Some nice lady found them in the middle of a busy street and rescued them for us.

OK, so I had to bathe them and check for ticks and fleas. Found none.

So we cooked dinner and the dishes are washed. Jessica and Calvin have finally agreed on a name for the baby. Her name will be Makaylee Marie Robinson. They also will settle on their house on the 30th of September. So happy for them.

Shawn and I are going on a motorcycle ride with some folks from our former CMA chapter tomorrow. We need a nice relaxing ride.

I haven't really had my head into tatting lately. I've tried and am still working on my heart pattern but I just have too much on my mind to really give anything my full attention.

Hopefully my life will quiet down soon and I can get some real creating done.

Beads and Tatting and so much more

So, I did get to go back to the bead store and the stock was still 80% off. I got more 24k gold Delicas. I got more seed beads and am happy with all of my purchases.

I am going to incorporate them into my tatting and crochet. I got a bunch of size 15 beads that I am going to tat with. Carol convinced me to get them. We'll see how it goes.

I'm a little overwhelmed with all the beads I have and getting them organized. My bead shelf is kind of blocked right now so I don't really have access to it. The room is housing household goods for someone. They should be cleared out within a month or so.

I'm sad that I can't go to Palmetto Tatting Days this year. It's this weekend. Maybe Shawn and I will go on a motorcycle ride. Who knows. Maybe it will be a nice relaxing lazy weekend. I might just work on tatting all weekend now that the AC is back up and running. I didn't want to tat anything while it was so hot in the house.

Off to craftworld I go right now.