Tatman's Chatline

I just uploaded into my Etsy Shop two pairs of bobbin lace earrings that I made not long ago.  You can click on their pictures to go to their individual listings.

They are fairly quick and fun to make.

This past Sunday(11 July) I took my nephew with me to dig up some Queen Anne’s lace from a neighbor’s yard so I can transplant it into my butterfly garden.  If I can’t get hybrid flowers to grow, and only weeds, then might as well try growing pretty weeds!  Besides, we like Queen Anne’s Lace.

I have quite a bit planted in my garden, along with the perennials that decided to come up.

And with our little adventure into the weed patch, I brought back with me and unwanted present

POISON IVY!!!!

BEASTIE!!!!  Can’t remember the last time I had poison ivy.  But whenever I DO get it, it always is around the eyes.  I think it has to do with my allergies.

For prettier pictures than that, here are a couple of the lilies in my garden that are bloomed.

Here are some pics of our kitties just lying around the house

And here is some pics of flowers that are in full bloom in our garden right now.

Here is a slideshow of some more pictures that I developed of our visit to the Missouri Botonical Gardens about a month ago.

A couple of weeks ago was prom here at Greenville HS. Kim and I always have a few dresses to alter and we usually have one dress commissioned to make from scratch. This year was a nice challenge. The girl happened to be my acrogymnastics partner’s daughter. She wanted her dress to be similar to what Keira Knightley wore in a particular movie. Can’t think of the movie! Below is the pics of Keira Knightley in the inspirational 1920′s style dress. If you happen to know the movie, please tell me! Would love to watch it.

AND……..this is the result that Kim and I came up with that the girl is wearing at the prom. This girl is like a disgusting size 0 and tiny! But she was an excellent model to work with. Not an odd size or shape about her.

It would have been too expensive to make this out of silk which we think was used. So we found a very fine satin fabric that flowed nicely yet didn’t give too much bulk like a crepe satin would. We did find a very grass green color to match what was in the picture. Sorry, the pics I took of our creation just doesn’t portray the vibrant green or the overall look. We did make some modifications to the design. Because this isn’t Hollywood and this is a teenager, we raised up the neckline and the back waist a bit. Plus we stabilized the side seams with boning so that it wouldn’t gap out, so there wouldn’t be any embarrassing accidents in the chest area. It did turn out quite well we think. And her and her mom were very happy with it.

More garden pictures!

I finished the bracelet that matches the necklace. I just looped the pearl tatted chain around and joined as I went to the other side. I did a looping join technique to join the beads instead of threading them on the shuttle thread before hand. Don’t like beads on the shuttle thread, so I add them as I need them. To do this you make a loop withe the shuttle thread that is going to be joined and pass that loop through the bead, pull the loop through the picot to be joined, pass that loop back through the beadmake, pass the shuttle through the loop to make the PLJ(picot lock join) and tighten. Hope that makes sense. I am sure I have a diagram of it somewhere in my stash of graphics. Just can’t find it now. Now I wish I had more of those beads to do that same treatment to the necklace to give it more substance

I finally tatted something for ME that I can wear. I took a little break from making the wedding lace and early Saturday morning while drinking coffee and watching the birds, I worked on this easy pearl tatted necklace with a bone bead. Simple pattern. I used DMC pearl cotton size 8 in medium brown and dark brown. Pearl tatted chain that is 2 ds on each side of the core thread. Add the bone bead in the center part as you go. I made a braided loop with the starting tail ends and attached another bone bead at the end for a clasp. This is a great masculine(I think) gift for any young man you may have trouble thinking of what to make. I thought about turning the chain at the end and going back with another row of pearl tatted chain and connecting each of the picots as I go. But that will be another time. Currently I am making a matching bracelet

GARDEN PICTURES!!!!

Below are some pics I took of flowers and landscape of our garden. The lawn hasn’t been mowed yet, so ignore that! I just mowed it yesterday. It was hard finding a break in the big rainy season we have had when the ground is not soggy and it isn’t raining so I can get out there to mow. Almost needed a bushog!!

A morning dove has taken the opportune space in an empty pot that was hanging on our back lattice wall to nest her baby. Isn’t it cute?

I took this picture of Tammy with an unexpected, interesting effect to the mood of the subject. Basically my flash didn’t go off and my camera doesn’t do well indoors and no flash. But I still like how it looks

This is what Tammy was looking at from the front window.

Two weekends ago we went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens with Kim’s parents to take in the sights of all the tulips and flowering trees. Below is a slide show of some of the pictures I took at the Gardens. More will come later when I get them out of the camera and developed.

I can’t seem to get the slideshow to always show up in my blog. So if that happens, click on VIEW ALL IMAGES link above.

Just chillin’

The diva cat, Liza, looking at the birds out the window

Little Princess Tammy

Tammy looking at the birds out the window

Gold finches have arrived in our garden

The woodpecker that frequents our front tree

We survived the weekend!!!! There was so much going on Saturday it was not funny….haha. Got up at 5:30am to load up the car with Christmas decorations and take them to the theatre to get ready for the “Christmas At The Globe” event that FAPAC put on and starts at 9am. As you can see from the pic on the left, the outfit I made Mrs. Claus fit like a charm. She didn’t have a white puffy sleeved blouse to wear, so she borrowed mine from my outfit I wear at heritage demonstratinos. I was in charge of taking Santa Pictures. We had to take the first shift and leave at 10:30 because we still had to finish the surprise 80th birthday cake for a neighbor we started two nights before and the Bday was to be delivered at 4:30pm that day.
I barely got the cake all decorated in time and we slooooowly rushed it to the building the where the party was. Had to travel 5mph and Greenville streets are the worst! MAN this cake was a heavy one. Must have weighed 200 lbs! I am feeling the strain for the past two days. My right shoulder is out and in some serious pain from lifting and moving that cake. Having a hard time at work typing and keeping the proper position at the computer. Luckily it doesn’t hinder my tatting I will show the pics of the cake later in a post and then you will understand why it was so heavy.
After we delivered the cake we missed a friends wedding because we were decorating the bday cake, so we made it to the reception and ate there and had some fun. Then at 7:30pm we got out of there to make it back to the 80th bday celebration for our friend and neighbor. The cake was a hit!
There were a few other things going on Saturday that we wanted to get to but you can only do so much. Saturday was hectic and fun all at once. BUT I AM GLAD IT IS OVER! Now we get the joy of cleaning up the mess and decorating for Christmas before this next weekend for an early Christmas with some of Kim’s family. I put up the outside lights and decor just in time before a major freeze and storm hit on Monday.

Still gasping for breath until it is all over. Call me Mr. Grinch LOL!

Below are some pics of the Halloween decorations I made and we put together to spook up the house The first one is of our front porch with our stone walkway lighted with lanterns. The porch has the two dress manequins draped in sheets with comedy and tragedy faces carved in the pumpkins. And spider webbing strung all over with the handmade spiders waiting for the kiddies to come to gobble them up. MUHAHAHAHAHA
The other pictures show detail and our two scarecrows being engulfed in the webbing and spiders.

Been kinda busy to do much tatting on the wedding lace. Hope to settle down some evening!!!! Holidays get that way and I don’t find time to do what I want. Oh WAAA…;)

Finished this tudor style rose Weds night. Still a real small flower. I need to come up with some larger versions to have a good mixure. Right now I am working on a curled fern leaf that will be much larger than the other curly leaf.

Below are some pics of our fall decorations we made and have used for the past five years. While we were decorating for fall we let the cats roam free….keeping a watchful eye on them. They were intrigued by all the koi fish in the pond.