Hey, I'm back! What is it about vacation that drives us to make really bad...BAD..purchases? Like this red alligator/brocade bag? I got it specifically to put my tatting in...and methinks me won't be leaving it behind anywhere, try as I might. LOL! It also had a neck pillow and some lotions that I gave to my cousin. I do like all the pockets and the long strap and the little container for my shuttles but wow! Seems kinda ....red...ya know?

And of course, I had to make the requisite tea-for-one purchase! I didn't take it out of the box yet, but it will go well with my winter collection of tea-for-ones.....not quite as pretty as some I have but it's whimsical. Okay? LOL! I have my whimsical moments.

My cousin and I went to a "thrift store" in Ocala and the proprietor wanted to sell me this big storage cube of yarn and thread for $10. Some lady died and this was her stuff...she was so irreverent. Anyway, I looked in it and found this shuttle. The thread was mostly Knit-Cro-Sheen and other stuff not good for tatting. The ends on the shuttle don't meet on one side. So I offered her $5 and told her the thread wasn't any good and the yarn wasn't much use either. And it wasn't....I really paid her too much for what I got. I gave most of the thread and yarn to my cousin, keeping a few skeins of this one cotton thread that I hope to play with in color-dying. The thread on the shuttle is rotten. Most of my rings broke on closing. But it was fun to play with for awhile. I'll test the skeins before I go to the trouble of dying them.

In yet another store, I found a bag of some thread (Sherry T - you got your wish) and some hankies with the perfect edges for tatting. They are kinda brown though...so hope a good soaking takes care of that. I bought a few other things from that lady and didn't pay even $2.00. She was just wanting to get rid of stuff and I forgot she had a sign saying 75% off.

I think this is the least I have ever tatted for years now. These are just some bits and pieces to empty shuttles or floss holders. The only time I had to tat was when I was in my hotel rooms and most of the time I was staying with someone and we were BUSY so I didn't tat.

These two motifs were tatted just last night. I stopped in Franklin, TN after driving through some really bad storms. As it turned out, there were tornado warnings in the area so it was a good thing I gave up. I still had 5 hours driving ahead of me and it was dark.

The shuttle shaped motif is from Vida Sunderman. This is thread I dyed several years ago...forgot I even had it in this bag, but it's much smaller than the thread Vida used in the pattern. It's meant to be framed. I just left it in a book since last night so it's not really blocked to shape, but you can see how it tends to an odd shape.

The other motif is a snowflake from Jan Stawasz' book, one of my favorites, but I made the picots too big for this size thread. I thought it was going to cup but they just kind of warp instead. Mostly, I wanted to see how the shape worked with this size thread.

I did get something accomplished! The curds & whey edging from Mary Konior is part of the T.A.T. course for attaching to hankies. I thought I had that part done but not attached. First of all, I hadn't tatted enough repeats and secondly, something was wrong...haven't figured it out yet, but something didn't look right, so I just made a new one. Also, the motif that goes in the hanky corner was wrong too. It's good to lay that stuff down and look at it again later. I'm anxious now to get this part done and send it off at the beginning of the year for evaluation.

While in Florida, besides visiting my cousin with her 10 Rottwielers and 1 white wolf pup, I also visited with some friends from another list who attended an Abe-Hicks workshop with me. We went to Fort DeSoto, Phillipe Park, Coney Island, and The Pier. Then I visited an aunt in Sarasota that I haven't seen for a few years and finally...another friend, Sheila, from yet another list, who lives in Tampa. I got to leave a day or so early - which is good....I really needed another day free before returning to work. Turns out I have a tree laying on the power lines to my house. Still have power, but not a good thing to be laying around like that.

Doing laundry now and putting stuff away. Catching up on email and blogs next!