A HAUNTING TIME. . .

HAUNTING has a number of definitions. Mine has to do with those things which reoccur in the mind!

#1 on the list would be: learn how to use the MacBook to upload photos for blog! Since it is still haunting and not an actuality; watch this space for photos!

#2 was the edging, "Beauty Spots" by Mary K. which is for my granddaughter's wedding head covering. I practice tatted it a few times (okay, more than a few); As I wanted Josephine spots flat and consistent; it is ready to fly into the creative hands of Zena Herbert's "Sea of Dreams. I thought I had it finished but it was 2" too short! Rather than try to add on motif, I did it all over again and finished it in one afternoon ~ allowing no interruptions!

#3 haven't Ebayed for over a year, so in my book search I ended up buying 2 books and a lovely aluminum tray with a reverse embossed rose upon it (Christmas gift). Since both books are coming from England, and they're having postal strikes; I won't talk about those. Suffice it to say, EBay will have to wait for me; until next year this time! LOL Oh, and the HDT arrives steadily!

#4 trying to decide what to tat next. I've done my 1st design (design-Tat class), a butterfly in a thread I don't care to tat with any longer (An In Tatter's Challenge), and 2 test tats (Tatskool's and Dantatter's). Those would be my photos, if I knew how to get them on the MAC; haven't tried the printer or scanner as yet either!

#5 have been nattering over a drawing program and although I found one I did like for the MAC it didn't totally download; so is unusable. Thanks to Jane E. I found another which I downloaded today ~

#6 how to use the new program jumped right up as six!

I think that is more than plenty to have during a 'haunting time.'

Less haunting and more 'just get er done' was an envelope mailed off to Krystledawn (what happens when you post a wish list?), and a huge envelope stuffed with at least 3 books to Madhur in India, with other bits to entertain. Filling a box, for my dear friend Zena, that I've been working on for over a year (procrastination? who? moi?) Filled a very small box for a new friend in Phoenix who wanted to try a certain brand of thread that is "whiter than white." We even had a time of chatting on the phone! I always want to do little things for those I like, and that leaves DH to make it happen (find a box, padded envelope, tape it up, take it to the PO).

Oh ~ News Flash ~ Loyal is driving again and able to walk a block down the steep grade to our rural mail box; and, back up again. He said it was, "a little more tiring than my step-exercises." Loyal wants to thank all the tatters who sent him good thoughts and sent up prayers on his behalf. He really has been recuperating at an amazing rate; just working on endurance.

I'll go back to tatting my 'interim' piece, a doily called "Daisy Patch" by Rosemarie Peel, from her Tatting for Pleasure book. I'm using Lizbeth threads, size 20; yellow, cream, and brown. I know it sounds odd, not to use the green but I noticed these tiny, creamy-white flowers with yellow centers, poking up out of the brown rocks and dirt up here on the ridge as we drove down our driveway. The ground is a mixture of dirt, rocks, tiny snail fossils, pinion pods, and wildflowers that fight their way through the dry ground to bravely curtsey to the breeze.

I have to do something with my hands; you know what they say about idle minds (and hands by extension). I've given my daughter, Kristen, a choice between the Festival Elephant (Palmer), Sheep May Safely Graze (Solomon), and a choker (Conners). All are rather intricate ~ the Elephant and choker being the more difficult and time consuming. As she hasn't decided, I'm working on the Daisy Patch piece. I have 36 tiny, yellow centers and will begin the flowers tonight. She had best decide as she returns home in mid January and I'm not the fastest tatter in the land.

Hopefully, by the next blog, there will be photos of this past month's work.

October and November are haunting months because my eldest daughter's birthday would have been October 12; and, Mama passed away on November 3, 1991 ~ and while I don't dwell on those dates, I always get sort of blah and fidgety, so something obviously goes on in the old cranium. Flashes of Lori's first Halloween, how large her green eyes became in the candle light and barely able to say, "Twick or Tweet" the first year. Zella, my Mom loved Fall, the coloring of the leaves, the brisk air and the fading summer sun that brought her hair to its best coppery sheen with glints of red. We always went to Craft Festivals and an annual trip to the Apple Hill, above Grass Valley and Nevada City, CA. Good memories, but I get a bit nostalgic.