Anyone want to send me some silver??

I'm working on the "Wedding doily"

And I'm about to run out of the silver on my shuttle and I can't find the ball anywhere.  

Does anyone out there have some Lizbeth size 40 silver that they wouldn't mind trading some yardage for an equal amount yardage of one of my other solids?  Or even one of my HDTs?

I really only need a few yards.  At least 5 yards just to be safe. 

I would prefer to trade with someone domestically since I'm getting anxious to get this thing done.  Of course, I could search the house for my silver ball, but I don't want this doily turn in to one of those doilies that lies around unfinished for whatever reason. You know what I mean?

Thanks!  I'll take the first offer I get!

Back from Myrtle Beach!

 Whew!  Myrtle Beach was a blast!  I really did not want to leave!  But, I am glad to be back!

I didn't get any tatting done on the beach, but I did take quite a few pictures!

Livi's first view of the ocean and she loved it!

We made a squirrel friend at Barefoot Landing!

We went out for seafood.... and this series of pictures came about:

Chris went for a classy shot beside a lobster topped truck.

I followed with getting my head stuck in said lobster truck.

And, my "baby brother" got a good butt pinching!

My "little brother" (he's older than baby brother) found this cool crab!

This is Livi with her cousin Dylan.  This trip was their first time to meet and I haven't seen Dylan since he was just a baby.  Dylan has autism so, we weren't sure how he and Livi would get along.  But, they ended up being best buddies and Dylan keeps asking when he'll get to play with Livi again!  Isn't that sweet?  Too bad he lives too far away for us to be to see them often. :o(

But, on ward with the pictures!

My goofy girl with my big (half) brother in the background!

Me! Enjoying the beach!

We also visited Ripley's Aquarium which was so much fun!

They have this one tank with a tunnel going through it so that the fish can swim all around you.

This is a shark swimming over my head.... AWESOME!!

Livi and Dylan held hands for most of the visit!  

Livi liked looking at the horseshoe crabs, but she wasn't too keen to actually touching them.

She did almost get head bit off by a shark though!  That was a close call!

Her favorite may have been that she got to see a real live mermaid!  She LOVED the mermaids!  In fact, she collected a bunch of shells that she intends to make them a hair barrette with since they are stuck at the aquarium!

Livi and Dylan show off their toys and take one last photo before Dylan had to go back home.  They were only able to stay for a couple of days. 

Livi loves her "Uncle Me", my little brother.  She loves "Uncle Wa" as well, but he lives with us so she sees him all the time. But here I think Uncle Me was teaching her how to play Plants vs Zombies.  (GREAT! lol) 

Livi REALLY loved the pool!

She really didn't loved waiting on someone to take her to the pool!

We did a little miniature golf as well.  

AND we made it to the Skywheel!  It was so much fun!

Chris and Livi, ready for take off!

The view was wondeful!

Then, at Ripley's Believe it or Not:

Livi took a photo with Optimus Prime, who is made completely out of car parts.  Chris liked him particularly.

Livi really misses Toodles! She's been complaining for quite some time now about needing a dog.  So, she was quite taken with this dog that made out of nuts and bolts.

On the way back home, we made a little detour to visit my brother and Dylan.  Dylan had been wanting to see more of Livi!

My Mom, Livi, my dad and Dylan

Dylan said Livi had soft warm hair.  He kept petting her for about the entire we were there!

Chris got to fire this old gun of my brothers.  It takes forever to load or he probably would have taken more shots.  This was a very heavy gun, which meant there was virtually no kick back.  Chris was impressed!

It left quite a hole!

So, now that we are back, I finally finished the raspberry round of the doily I'm working on and another round.  This one is cream and daffodil.  

Well, I hope you enjoyed that synopsis of my little trip!

To kick things back off in the shop I've reactivated the "freeshipping" coupon.  I plan to leave it up for a few days!  Like before, all I ask is if you are international, that you spend at least $14 to use the coupon.  :o)

Going on Vacation!!

Thank you so much to everyone that made purchases through my etsy shop to help me raise money for Livi's birthday and for our trip!  (We are going to Myrtle Beach if I hadn't already specified.)
Between my garage sales and the Etsy shops, we should have enough to have a pretty good time.  We are all really excited!
If you haven't noticed, I've come up with some really great colorways here lately!  I would love to be able to ship some more out before I leave tomorrow.  I'll be gone for over a week, so if you don't pick them up now, you'll have to wait to get them when I get back. ;o)

One of the colorways, which I think is really lovely is this one: Under the Sea
This is Jane Eborall's Ferris Wheel.  I may make some more of these while on the beach next week :o)

And I've been working on the wedding doily.  I'm getting excited about how this is coming along!

I dyed this tread up just for this project and I actually have more in this color that I'm thinkng of calling raspberries.  It is a MJ! if you can't tell. I may wait until I get back into town to list it though unless someone just expresses specifically that they would like some. :o)

This is actually the third attempt at color picking that I've done for this row.  I didn't photograph the first attempt but here is what the second looked like (after I cut it):

I think I may use the Olive Warbler at some point in this doily, but just as a chain I think though.  We'll see though.  I really love the Olive Warbler, but it may not be "classy" enough for this particular piece.

This doily is "A Special Gift from Scotty" *I think that's the name anyway!  It's from Mary Maynard's Tatting a 4 square.  

Well, I better get to packing!  

If any of you tatters, within traveling distance of the beach,  need a "reason"/ excuse to travel to Myrtle Beach this weekend and next week, shoot me an email or message through Etsy and maybe we can meet up for a "Tat and Chat"  on the beach!  That would be fun!:o)

More thread and a destashed shuttle

I've been busy dyeing again!  Two batches again!

One is a not messy Grackle!  Which is really pretty and I think will tat up very nice:

And a Messy Jess!y called Purple Streak!  It's a light blue, teal mix with a streak of purple. :o)

Also, I've got some upsetting news.  Chris lost his job this week.  So, while I've already been destashing a lot of my items to help pay for Livi's birthday and to give us some extra cash when we go to the beach next week.  Now the money that comes from my destashing (and thread sales) will be the only money available to fund my girl's birthday and our beach trip.  

So, I'm making some hard decisions, and the first one is to part with this lovely Gr8 brother's wooden double bobbin shuttle.  It's gorgeous, but the money from it will help a lot.

Well, that's all for now.  We had a yard sale today, which actually went pretty well considering that it's a holiday weekend.  But, it means that I haven't had any tatting time!

:o)

Heads up!

Even with all of my packing and in general... being busy.  I have managed to dye up two batches of thread.  They are both new colorways and I hope you will be impressed with them!

They are:

Under The Sea:

and Gloom:

I've even started Jane's ferris wheel with the Under The Sea:

Don't the colors play together so well??

More to come soon!

From one ordeal to the next...

Hello!  I've missed you all so much!!  I've been so horridly busy that I haven't been able to check the blogs like I would like, so if I've missed anything big, please give me a heads up!

Anyway!  I am now done with undergrad!  What next?  Well, any thought of grad school has been put on the back burner for right now.  My parents have been wanting to move for quite some time now and they  told me a couple of weeks ago that they want to move by the end of the summer so that we can get Livi into a new school come fall.

So, this summer, I am pretty much going to be packing moving.
AND, in fact, for the next few weeks, and maybe longer, I will be going through all the crafty supplies that I have acquired all the years and will be destashing them in my Etsy store.  (I have two listings up right now, so check them out!)  All of my destashes are going to be set cheaply because the whole point is get them out of here quickly so that they don't end up coming with us when we move.
I would just give it away, but shipping is expensive and I really do need to raise up some money for a trip to the beach that's coming up soon and which will be immediately followed by Livi's birthday!

I will probably have a lot of other things that I will try to sell rather than pack but since they won't be crafty, I may go though ebay or storenvy.



So, enough of that.... let's get down to the tatting!

I actually have managed to get some tatting done!

I'm finally working on the next round of the Debbie Arnold Square Doily.  This row has proven to be the hardest yet.  You really have to pay attention to the pattern.  For me, this is annoying, because I like to tat while I do other things.  It takes away from the experience if I have to keep referring to the pattern.  But, I am still really enjoying it.  I'm trying to think what my next color move will be.  Luckily, I've got enough different colors in here, that I think any color would look nice but I'm leaning towards a blue for the next round. 

This next one, is actually a secret project I'm working on.  I just really like it so much that I just have to show a bit of it.  :o) Plus, I'm fairly positive that the recipient does not read my blog, so I think I'm safe.  This is going to be a wedding present.  It's from Mary Maynard's Tatting a 4 Square Ring.  It's the only pattern in the book that actually has directions.  I love the oval shape!  I am going to start adding a little bit of color in the next round .  That will be fun!  Right now, the colors are Charcoal, Silver, and Cream (all Lizbeth size 40)

I am fairly certain that I have gotten other things done, but I can't think of anything else for now. :o)

String Beans

I asked Chris ( my man/ lover) if he would help me name this new colorway.  He said it looked like Green String.... which turned into "G-String"  {Sigh......} SMH Grrr :o/ lol
But upon further reflection... we decided upon String Beans. :o)

So, here it is:

It looks a bit like "Havana" except with out the gold.  I shot the first picture on a blue book because for some reason, my camera is wanting to turn this Spring Green/ Chartreuse into very yellow and then yield everything else looking very blue.  This is annoying since this colorway is actually quite green.

Go figs.

On a more personal note.  Miss Livi has been ill.  Yesterday she went to the doctor and come to find out she  has two ear infections and bronchitis. :o(  Poor Boo!

After a round a antibiotics, and lots of loving care she felt good enough to go to school this morning. In fact, she was quite eager to back.  I think, in part, it was due to the fact that I just finished sewing her a dress.  (with a lot of help from my Mom).  She was super excited to actually be able to wear the dress to school.... I have no doubt that when she gets home she will be ready for a nap. 

And would you believe it, I actually forgot to get a picture of the dress before she left!  I couldn't believe it.  Hopefully it didn't get too messed up on its first outing.  But, oh well :o)

UPDATE:  Livi is back from school, so we took a quick pic of the dress before she eats her veggie soup :o)