And the Winner is....!

Well, the winner has been drawn with a random number generator, and the winner is....IsDihara!!  Congratulations to you!  I will be in touch so I can ship these out to you - there's still lots of fall left to enjoy these little pumpkin earrings.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to comment and to spread the word.

And now, a little eye candy for your perusal - and to remind you of the next season that will soon be upon us.  These poinsettia earrings are an original pattern in a deep red DMC pearl cotton and have some very simple bead-weaving in the center to add some interest. 

Celebrate!

I'm still swamped by life.  Trying to find time to do everything - and not managing very well.  But today I had a little "yay!" moment when I made my 100th sale on etsy, and I thought I'd celebrate and share my  excitement by doing ... a giveaway!  So, for anyone interested, I am going to give away a pair of my Tatted Pumpkin Earrings.  They may look slightly different than this picture, as I use slightly different colors of threads and various ear-wires here and there, but this is a pretty close representation.

So, having never done a giveaway on my blog before, I'm just winging it here.  Ummmm - you'll have to comment to enter, and make sure, if you don't have a blog, that I have a way to contact you.(leave me your e-mail address in your comment). If you mention my giveaway on your blog to help get the word out, leave a comment here saying you did so, and that will get you entered a second time for another chance to win.  I will ship anywhere and everywhere, so please, all feel free to enter.  I'll be announcing the winner this coming weekend, probably on Sunday evening, so check back then.

Good luck to everyone!

A New Family Member

My husband was the first to see two little kittens in the front yard next door.  It turns out there were three all together - two gray ones and a black one.   Mom is a beautiful long-haired gray cat, but is a stray, very anti-social, and teaching the kitties to be the same.  She moved two of the kittens after we saw them, but after a night of pitiful meowing off and on, I finally went out and rescued the little black one who was very cold and hungry after a long night alone.  I'm not sure whether mom planned to come back for him, but I couldn't wait any longer to find out.  Here he is:

Oh yeah, he's a cutie.  He was very scared at first, hissing and meowing, but once he got some food in his tummy and a warm place to sleep and found out just how good petting can be, he is now purring and loving all the attention, playing like crazy and getting into everything.

My husband, who said I was only allowed to have two cats (we already have two we rescued from a shelter), seems to have gone all soft and mushy with this little guy and has said nothing about taking him to the shelter - he seems to be willing to take kitty in.

We are thinking of naming him Troy, after the Pittsburgh Steeler's safety, Troy Polamalu, who also has lovely long black hair. :-)  My family are pretty big Steelers fans and we think he looks like a Troy.  He certainly flies around jumping and getting into everything like Polamalu does.

Look What I Found

I had my first accounting exam this past Sunday - I got 100% on it! Yay! It helps to have worked in the industry for the past few years, but I did also study like crazy. I was so nervous as it was the first exam I had taken in about 20 years.

That isn't the most exciting part of the story, though.  After my exam I took a little trip over to JoAnn Fabrics in search of cabone rings.  Although I did find some of those, the real find was stitch markers (for knitting)  which come in even smaller sizes and are much thinner!  See the picture below - the top two ring sets are what I'm talking about, and the bottom rings are regular cabone rings (click on the picture to get a real close up view of the sizes).

OK, I know they are weird colors, but I'm hoping the tatting will cover that up.  I mean, in my taupe and brown pieces the rings are white, but the ring is well hidden by the thread so you don't notice the color difference. I haven't had a chance to try any of them yet, but will try to post some pics once I get to it.

New Pattern Available

Thanks everyone for the information about where to get cabone rings (see my last post and comments). It is so wonderful to have a community of tatters who jump in with help and advice. I will be near a JoAnn Fabrics this weekend and will check there to see what I can find. Also, have you seen Dawn Marie's tatting around a metal heart (click here!)...cool, huh? I know I've seen other shapes like that in some of my jewelry supply catalogs - squares, circles, ovals - I just have to find them again. Of course, I have lots of craft wire and could probably make my own if I was so inclined. Maybe I'll try that to start.

For those of you interested, I have a new pattern available on etsy - Tatted Heart Earrings. That makes four patterns I've managed to write down and make into .pdf files. If anyone is really interested in any of them (Cross, Hip to Be Square Earrings, Long Elegant Earrings, Heart Earrings) but don't want to become a member of etsy in order to purchase, shoot me an e-mail and we can work out something through PayPal or snail mail.


I want to add them to the ArtFire site as well, but haven't managed to get around to that yet. I still have other patterns I want to do as well. Someday!