Here are the strivers I received from Mark today in our striver exchange. Mark used beads from "reclaimed" antique jewelry. These will come in handy on my rose garden doily. I've been using a tiny barrette to mark the direction I'm going in. It's gotten big enough and bulky enough that it's fairly easy to get confused.



And sweetie that he is, Mark also sent me 2 bobbins to start off my lace bobbin collection! Bette, my bobbinlace mentor, is designing a pattern from my teacup cookie cutter to do my first real BL project! I'll be sure to use Mark's and the ones I'm getting from Joy for that 1st project.

I get to sleep in tomorrow and I'm soooooooooooo glad! Not only have the last few weeks been busy and hectic, it's not going to change much before I go to Palmetto's. I've got my map and schedule printed out, but that's it. I hope to spend some time this weekend sorting out what I want to take. I wasn't planning to enter anything in the competitions. I have too many projects to work on as it is. However I will take pen and paper so I can write down all the great inspiration I'll get while there. I love seeing the work of other tatters.

The other night I tried to start a project from a Japanese book. It was a little bag..... only I realized I couldn't read how many repeats and the pic doesn't show. I can guess.....but I also can't see the bottom and I don't know what they've done there. I might take the book to my Chinese art teacher and see if she knows the what the characters mean. I only need a few translations. LOL!

I also mean to sew this weekend. I saw my pregnant niece today during lunch. I want to finish the storybook. Still need to frame my daughter's elephant. Still working on documenting the bonnet. I'd like to get those 3 projects done this weekend.

And plant my garden, if it dries out enough.






Another bonus.....Mark's card appeared to be his own artwork!