Treasure!

Baskets of Posies for WickedTats

Adapted from a design by Karey Solomon from her book, Make Many Merrily; which was sent to me by Aileen of WickedTats. Presented here as a visual, tatted thank you from Bev to Aileen!

We've all had "those" days; you know, the kind where all the bad things happen in a 24 hour period and there's no Jack Bauer to take care of business. Well, mine was Thursday. It isn't important for the reader to know what the problems were ~ they came, as scripture says, "to pass."

Upon arriving home I had one of those blinding headaches at the back of my head. The kind I use to get every time I walked into a college math class! Especially during finals week. The difference is that I now TAT (having given up smoking years ago). BUT before I could tat I just had to actually open up the box that DH had removed the tape from just before we left to tilt at windmills. The box has printed on the side, Singapore Size 2. I had not wanted to leave the box unexamined in the first place! I was nearly expiring with curiosity that had built as I had oiled the wheels of communication between my spouse and a lovely woman at the bank.

It is a Chinese New Year thank you gift from Aileen (WickedTats). Should I attempt to list everything in the box (a puzzle to me how she packed so tidily); I would not know where to begin nor end. I sat here on my bed, back in my Jammie's...nursing the headache and waiting for the Tylenol to kick in. . .my smile just grew, grew, grew.grew, and grew.

For one thing, Eeyore (DH nickname for obvious reasons) observed, with his most dour, hopeless tone; "Well, something broke in transit." Such an optimist, that man! Ignoring him (53 years of experience), I removed the layer of bubble wrap. Neatly stacked in every nick and cranny were all sorts of items, many of which were in these delightful little red envelopes! Since I'd just come from a bank and crunching numbers ~ it was ironic to say the least. The 'broken" sound was actually 2 fairly large 1 1/2'" bells tinkling merrily! I'm definitely tatting a strip and having these hung on the entry door at the back/side of the house which leads into the utility room and is the door the family uses. I allowed a triumphant smile to emerge and refrained from telling Eeyore he was wrong (I'm rather pleased at my constraint).

Where to begin. First, this was a lesson for me in how to pack and label items that one sends in exchanges. I am the first to appreciate organization and the worst at actually doing it; when it comes to gifts and boxes. I tend to 'stuff' stuff....

If I list 'highlights,' I'll leave something important out. For instance, I've wanted some of those neat shaped pieces that one winds thread upon for ages; and, there are a number of different sizes in snowflake shapes. There's a lovely postcard from S'pore with a tatted butterfly as a stamp. Right on top was a pink bag that held decorations for Chinese New Year. A wonderful silk OX holding a fish (for the Year of the Ox) that hangs from a tassel. Another tassel with knotted red and gold silk with tiny bells. And a paper decoration with a friendly looking dragon. I've long wanted Chinese tassels for the hanging lamps in my master bath...yippee!

Aileen also sent an Inox shuttle (German) in a faux tortis pattern. I've already made two items with that! (the basket of posies) There is thread, beads and more beads, all sorts of findings, metal charms, ribbons, squares of colorful paper and larger squares of patterned papers (I already have ideas for the larger pieces, and the red head begged for the smaller squares ~ I relented). Cute little Chinese items like: coin purses, key chains. . .Cloisonne pill box, Precious Moments trinket box (with a redhead on the lid ~ pointed out by the g'daughter who happens to BE a redhead ~ (hint, hint, Oma? I just played like I didn't hear her). A plastic container/box holding holographic discs, tiny flowers, stars, to add to tatting. A deck of playing cards featuring S'pore Airlines (handy when DH and I are traveling!). Packet after packet, each with a card describing what the packet held! I really am not able to list everything because I am speechless!

Oh, I must tell you of the crochet hook that lights up (you know, in case in the middle of the night you get an urge to crochet a scarf or afghan. . . .) Did I tell you that I LOVE gadgets???

Well, I am a total sap for gadgets. So much so that when I married my Father's only advice to the new groom was, "The only thing about Beverly is, she likes gadgets . . ." (he, the one who would have ordered every info mercial article ever made ~ if there had been such during my childhood!). Of course I had no idea of how to crochet, not even the first stitch...(please note that is past tense). So the box led to another evening ~ learning to use the crochet hook! :>)

Granddaughter is a whiz at crochet, so she began teaching me about what she called "A Pretzel," on Friday night. NOW, that may have worked when her Mom taught her ~ but I could not relate to a pretzel; at least, not without a good German beer in my hand! I will say she showed a huge amount of patience (more than I would have suspected that she possessed). We quit at 11:30 PM because, well - Eeoyre was falling asleep in his chair! I awoke early Saturday and by the time 'sleeping beauty' awakened Oma had conquered that pretzel thingy (I cheated by going on line and finding photos of instructions) and had a string of stitches. They passed her 'test' and she proclaimed I knew the chain stitch. Which is really all I wanted because I wanted to be able to stitch over bare tatting threads. I even learned double crochet and a slip stitch! It is really all I need for the bookmark in the Learn to Tat book....(wicked grin here).

Aileen should have been a fly on the wall to see what her box wrought. I learned a new skill (sort of ~ at least as much as I need for tatting purposes) and am still oohing and ahhhing over the things in my box....oh and, just look at that cute litttle pin cushion. A plump little circular pillow of silk, encircled by little Chinese children holding hands around its sides....SEE there really is no end to my Chinese New Year box.. My inner child is clapping her hands, dancing and laughing all at the same time! What a perfect end to an otherwise unperfect day! A foretaste of great beginnings in the Year of the OX? hummmmmm Thank you Aileen ~ you are a treasure!