Sunday, March 29, 2009

Lace Day in Lafayette is LOVELY

Whew! Where to begin. I had such a great time, I guess I will start there.
I took Conor with me to his first Lace Day..(here he is held by his newest friend..Laura.)
I arrived around 10, and was met in the parking lot by Mary Harris, asking if I needed help. Such a nice lady. I didn't but it was sweet of her to ask. Then, I went inside, and was quickly greeted by Laura Bobay, Ladytatterly, and Gina Brummett, Tattinggoddess! They are great ladies, and always a lot of fun to be with. Laura intoduced me to her "newbie" tatters, or her Tatter Tots, as she calls them. Kaye, Chris, and Dee.(I think her name is Chris, if not, Laura, please correct me!). Laura gave me the coolest gourds she had brought, and had made the cutest hedgehog out of one. His name is Hector! Isn't he precious? Well, to make an incredibly long and lovely story short, we mingled, met new friends, and older ones. Diane, the Lace Lovin Librarian was there. She is such a sweet lady. I met her at the last Lace Day, two years ago. Great to see her again. She told me that she had made one of the raffle prizes that I won.
Did I say raffle PRIZES? Oh, yes. I won 5 of the raffle items! Wow! I couldn't believe it! Having brought Conor with me is the only reason I can think of that I got so lucky. My little Leprechaun brought his mommy the luck of the Irish! Here he is with Mary Harris, one of his new friends.
Here is also Gina, tatting away, in her oh- so- scarce spare time. Here is a photo of all the items I won. There is a stack of Sewing and Threads magazines, in the first set of raffles. I don't sew, but my Mom and Sister will have a lot of fun reading them.
Then came the second round of raffles... omg! I won the beautiful beaded amulet bag that Gina made. So pretty! I thought, cool, I can go home very happy to have won something so great. But then, I won the bag from Diane, too! A lovely bag, it was woven on her Weavette loom and the handle is Romanian point lace braid, a very pretty pattern on it, and it had the green snowflake like motif and bookmark she tatted inside! PLUS, a gorgeous hankie. I was feeling REALLY lucky now. A couple of other ladies won the next two raffles, and then, I won the Cattern Cakes and Lace book raffle and the Honiton Lace book, spool holder, and thread raffle. WOW, again, I was in shock at my luck. I know I had only put one ticket in for the Honiton book.. I had brought this for show and tell. I was showered with such compliments, I am STILL blushing! Everyone was asking how I made them, and how long it took and such, I felt like a celebrity! heehee.
Here are a few other photos I took. This is the showroom..I made a panoramic picture of it so you could see the whole thing at one glance! Another panorama of the meeting room.
The Lace display, Things to put things in...oh such lovely stuff here! Someone, I think it was Charlotte?, brought in this sweeter than sweet Greyhound. I HAD to pet him..Laura reminded me I couldn't have him.. thanks Laura.. But, being the dog lover I am, I was so happy to see him. This is Charlotte with him. Betty is behind him giving him a hug. I think I will stop here. I may have some other photos in my other camera, I will check later, but, you can tell by the LONG post, Conor and I had a fabulous time. I hope you enjoyed my blog about the day!

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Barefoot sandal rethink

Here is a photo of the back of the sandal. As you can see, I have glued felt to the back and overlapped just a little bit on the bees and leaf for stabilization. I have worn them a couple of times, and they have come untied, therefore, I think I will redo the bees tails and just attach some black elastic thread so that I can slip them on and off, and not worry about the tying. I love the ties, but they just won't stay tied. It is funny, I am not what you would call a girly-girl, I don't even own a dress, but I love to wear these!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Another Barefoot Sandal

I got mine done this morning, and I like mine better than the first ones I did for my sister! I am partial to bees, (sis, to butterflies) so I made mine with bees. I made them with my own little bee pattern,(very similar to the one by Martha Ess, but a little different) and purple felt behind my flower. Can't wait until it is warm enough (it is 40 here right now) outside to wear them!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Ok, back to Tatting

These are the barefoot sandals I just created. What do you think?
The back story...about 25 years ago or so, I had these 'barefoot sandals' that I bought at a dime store. They were just elastic and beads, but so cute. Well, about 5 years ago, I thought, 'I could tat myself some!'. Well, as many good ideas go, it was put on a back burner. Recently while checking out Totusmel's blog(see link on side), I saw that she had made some lovely ones from tatting. (She has some wonderful stuff there and on Etsy, too.) Well, I decided, I had better take my idea off the back burner and cook it up now. This is what I came up with. Pretty simple, a flower with little butterflies holding on, and leaves at the bottom. I made these for my sister who loves butterflies, and red, for her upcoming birthday. (Don't worry, she NEVER reads my blog so this won't ruin the surprise). I am going to make myself some with a purple flower and bees. And I have thought, too, that a nice heart in the center would do nicely. I did, however, put felt on the back of the flower to help it hold it's shape without stiffening it. I know these are meant to be barefoot sandals, but look how cute they look with shoes!


Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Happy St. Patrick's Day


Conor had fun on his first St Patrick's day as you can see, he found some clover to roll in! He thinks they are shamrocks, well, it is pretty close for him!
Check out the jigging pets on the right. The beagle is my best friend's dog, Rascal. The bird, is my dearly departed parakeet, Sydnee.
Have a safe and happy St. Patrick's Day!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

St. Patrick's Day is approaching

No tatting today, we took pictures for St. Patrick's Day. Oh that rhymed!
Here is Rebel and Conor having a great time singing... there are more photos on It's a Leprechauns Life page...(see link at side)

My 3 D Tatting