December 26, 2009

The Catalyst.

The following definition hails from dictionary.com -"something that causes an important event to happen"

Enter the Catalyst:

Our story begins on a dark and stormy night. The weather had subsided to a minor rainy drizzle as the family arrived home from a long and harrowing thanksgiving visit. The small ones had skipped their naps, and many people were milling about the house they had visited, resulting in an entire container of Vicks Vaporub having been emptied onto the two year old's feet. The weary parental units were unloading the various baby happiness maintaining devices they had brought along, and as Mother was removing the screaming infant from her carseat in the house, they heard a much feared CRASH! Mother dared not look outside to see if her greatest fears had been realized, but it was true. Father had dumped Mother's entire tatting basket in the dark and muddy driveway. (gasp!) Holding back her tears, and the terror that she intended to rain down upon father, she dutifully tended to the small ones as Father chased numerous balls of Lizbeth thread, skeins of HDT, shuttles, bottles of beads, and every other bit of tatting paraphanelia that had inadvertently been strewn about.

He felt bad, poor fellow.

Mother tucked the little ones in bed before surveying the damage. Amazingly, all was not lost. In his fear of wrath-to-come, Father had quickly and nimbly collected the treasured goods resulting in only minor dampness and a general disorder of the tatting basket's contents. He would live to see another day! A great sense of relief came over both.

Three days later,

Mother was reaching into her re-sorted basket, when her hand touched something cold and wet. Hmmm. What could this be? Upon closer inspection she had found a soaking wet, and thoroughly squashed ball of Lizbeth size 20 thread in Western Sunset. Where did this come from? Wondering how she could have overlooked this precious comodity's absence in her initial inventory of the scattered stash, she raised the poor forlorn ball of thread in Father's direction to inquire as to the circumstances of it's appearance. Looking conspiciously unaware at first, Father broke like a cracker having seen the look in mother's eye. Yes, he had found it at the end of the driveway, soggy and run-over, squished almost beyond recognition. The thread was dried and re-wound on the misshapen ball, and Father again escaped unscathed as Mother pardoned the pitiful attempt at returning the thread unnoticed.


And what was the important event that followed the catalyst?


Enter "The Monstrosity".


I've included a picture with the almost-three-year-old for scale.
The finest Craft organizer box that Jo-ann has to offer, the Monstrosity now houses my tools and beads, and the pull out sorting sections hold most......ok some..... of my thread stash. Sorted by type and color thank you very much.
The open top diaper basket has been retired in favor of this latching case.

It is estimated that Father's lifespan has increased by several years following the purchase of this piece of organizational equipment.












December 24, 2009

Hello and Happy Christmas to all of you in tattingland!

Our celebrating has begun with reading the nativity story this morning, and opening presents of course. Dr. Von threadmore had her way and I received a lovely handmade skein winder from Dear Husband.

Anyway, I leave you this Christmas Greeting, and a link to a great idea I saw on ETSY. Check out this vintage needle case! It's a great old piece in and of itself, but I bet it would be fun to make one as well.


I wish you all the best this holiday season.


-Krystle

December 17, 2009

Of this I am truly fond.....

Ah the joy of a bit of vintage crystal chain. Add to it the joy of Yarnplayers hand dyed thread, and you have the following-
This method of adding to the chain has the particular charm of displaying the HDT (hand dyed thread) in it's finest glory :-) [this is Yarnplayers garden afternoon, not one of my hdts]
Here is the back of the chain when finished.
And a picture of the clasp to satisfy an earlier commenter. I use a small magnetic clasp on these bracelets. It holds well and makes it easy to put on. This is the way I have devised to attach it to sections of chain. I have done some that are bracelets with a clasp attached, but it's easier to find more unique chain in sections or pieces of yardage. This chain is salvaged from a long vintage necklace so it has that vintage charm and quality that I adore.

I think I adore it enough that I shall have to keep this one and make another for the ETSY shop instead.......



December 16, 2009

Busy busy busy!

Sigh, poor ol' Dr. Von Threadmore is getting restless. I told her that the dye could come out again after the move, but it looks like our closing date for the house will be bumped out to February. So I may have to indulge her before then.

Christmas is on the way apparently, however I'm still swimming in a certain river in Egypt if you know what I mean..... DENIAL! This time of year is so crazy. Our anniversary was at the beginning of the month. We took the kids to the Olive Garden restaurant and called it good. The bigtime Christmas production is this weekend, so we have set up and rehearsals on top of regularly scheduled events, and I think I'll even miss the Lace Guild's Christmas shindig. Pooh. I feel sorry for my little darling two year old. With all the fuss over the house and work and a funeral we did last week, Hubby and I are so unmotivated about the holiday. We didn't want to dig out all of the christmas decorations so we got a little houseplant type tree and put some lights on it, but I don't think the presents are even wrapped. I still have a week right lol?

Not very many posts lately because I haven't gotten much tatting done. I did finish the bracelet you see at the top of the post, and I'm doing some bookmarks that a friend requested. Other than that my little brain is fried :-)


December 9, 2009

I have but one thing to say....




Mwahahahaaaaaahahahaaaa!



I got my shipment of swarovski pretties today.


Here is the first of the magical creations:

And since I haven't posted a pic of the little darling baby of mine in awhile:


And one with big sis:

December 7, 2009

Houston, we have some bling.

I always thought that since I've never been involved in heavy drinking or drugs, I must not have an addictive personality type.
And then I met tatting. Lol!

After a weeks worth of scouring the local antique and thrift shops, I have yet to find more than a handful of material to harvest for more lacy rhinestone designs. So I succumbed to both Ebay and a sale at Joann to find some rhinestone chain to work with.
The first is a black rhinestone bracelet that I found for two bucks, the second is the last of the original vintage rhinestone necklace that got me started on this, and the third is some by the yard stuff from Joann.

Above is a small pair of earrings that I finished to pair with the necklace below (which finally got it's chain attached).

Most of the rhinestone jewelry available at the antique shops is too nice to cut apart, not to mention too expensive. I'd love to get some vintage necklaces in good shape to ad tatting to as they are, but not at thirty dollars a pop. So I'll just have to keep my eyes open for good deals on ebay-- Like the fuschia rhinestone chain you see in the scan below, I got ten feet (!) for like 8 bucks. It's new stock so it is missing that gorgeous vintage feeling that I adore though.


So now I leave you with a sentiment from Dr. VonThreadmore. We were discussing the need for storage containers for all of this rhinestone fun, when I mentioned that maybe I ordered too much rhinestone chain, to which she firmly replied

"there is no such thing as too much rhinestone darling!".



I think I agree :-)



December 4, 2009

"Lacy"

Admittedly, I have a love for vintage things. Especially jewelry and rinestones. So you can imagine my delight when on of the kids' Grandmas brought me a broken thinestone necklace wondering if I could do something with it.
Oh yes I can!



I cut it apart for the good bits, and I made a bracelet, and I repurposed the center of the necklace as well. It needs some silver chain to be complete.
So this of course sent me off on another tangent....scouring antique shops, ebay, and even etsy for rhinestone things I can use to make new jewelry for the shop. I'm too fond of these to let them go, but I found a great sale on etsy and bought a load of sworovski components to play with.
Anyway, to explain the post title, these pieces came out more "lacy" looking than most of my Jewelry designs. Sometimes I forget that tatting is actually making lace lol! I do tend to lean toward more modern shapes and colors, but this new direction is intriguing! I need some ecru thread now....(never thought I'd say that!).