My tree went up and down in less than a week! I put it away this morning. I really love having my tree up but I need the space for some cleaning I want to do before I go back to work .....I shoulda got it up sooner. There's always next year though.













And while I was taking my tree down, my youngest son was changing out my ceiling fan. The old one had been hanging by the wiring for ages. No bare wires or anything but I worried about it. Lowe's sent out an ad right before Christmas with $10 off any $25 purchase. The fan was more than that, but it was a good deal anyway. On sale, and then $10 more off. Plus it's bigger and more heavy duty than the last one. I leave it on all summer long.

Another SS exchange has gone down in history! I opened mine at midnight! Lots of Oren Bayan thread and some Altin Basak thread too! A musical card. Some wonderful smelling cleanser for fine washables, a glass angel ornament, 2 clover shuttles (my favorite), a red glass ball ornament with tatting covering it, and a twig wreath embellished with a tatted beaded wrap and a tatted trefoil in the middle with tiny jingle bells! A big THANK YOU!!! to Rita Cochrane of Ontario, Canada!




Part of the fun of the secret santa exchange is keeping your partner in the dark. Mine had me fooled and I helped a few others get fooled too. Just about got the tables turned on us though. Sue Hanson sent me her partner's goodies for me to send on. They barely got here....it was WEDNESDAY and I couldn't take them to post office for a resend until THURSDAY. To Washington State. It got there...on Saturday. Big sigh of relief all around! Sue also sent me these earrings she made. Wow - so beautifully packaged Sue! I didn't want to take them out but it's a good thing I did since you wrote to me on the back of the card! And these are the only hankies I have with any of my initials on them!

Now what I haven't mentioned yet is that I came down with the flu on Friday, missed the family get-together at my sister's on Saturday, and slept through most of Sunday. Monday I was doing okay but must of overdid it because Tuesday had me sleeping most of the day again. I finally got bored with sleeping and tried some tatting - one of bookmarks from Dianna Stevens' Tatted Zoo. I've come to the conclusion that I should never go more than 2 days without tatting. I could not get this fella right! I quit making his belly out of rings and switched to chains. I couldn't get his tail right. This is a size 40 Venus thread that I bought at Hector last spring. I bought Autumn colors and never got around to tatting with them. It's really too light for this, but I'm glad I used some anyway. I put it away in my samples album.



And here is what I've been struggling with the past few days. Remember the fairy baby of our Russian secretary that I knit the duck booties and cap for? I've been asked to the Godmother. (Big Big Head here!) So I was thinking of tatting a bonnet. Different from what I've done before. Again...I couldn't get it right. I started on 2 different ones. Several times. I won't tell you how many attempts .....and they are still not right. I'm using Cordonnet Special size 60 abd I absolutely hate it. It feels icky. This is supposed to be one of the best threads but I hate how it tats and I hate how it feels and I hate how it looks. I think I'll wet these and block them and see how it responds. Maybe I'll try yet a different pattern. This baby has such beautiful dark hair. She was born with a headful and never lost it. It thinned a little but not noticeably. I really want to make something to show her beautiful hair off.