There's a wonderful giveaway going on over at Brynwood Needleworks if you like embroidery and other needleworks. I actually got there from another site that I'd been sent to about an embroidery idea I have but can't post about just now. You know...secrets, santa, all that stuff!

My sister & I planned to go to the Bloomington Handmade Market in Bloomington, Indiana for weeks and made it there Saturday. It was held at the John Waldron Arts Center downtown and our handy dandy gps system took us right there. The first thing we noticed when we went in were the Christmas decorations! I saw on Facebook where some people were complaining about how soon decorations were going up. I wonder if they realize that Christmas is barely 4 weeks away???? This Santa was huge, probably 8 feet tall!

We loved this cozy spot too.

My sister next to this very creative tree.

I loved the teddy bear pulling down the tip of this tree! My sister liked the Santa mailbox.

I bought some organic healing salve and lip balm at the market. My sister got some adorable miniature handbound book pendants and a few other things. We both got lots of ideas! We then toured the art galleries in the building, had lunch and visited a few other stores. I'll post about one of them for Tatting Tea Tuesday.

I got to sew a bit this past week. The back on this chair had ripped to the point of no repair and I debated on whether to just get rid of it or redo it. I realized I had a piece of canvas that would work perfectly so I decided to keep it. This is the new back. I have the seat done now too but forgot to take photos! The fabric only cost me $1.00!!!

This was a crochet pattern I wanted to try out and needed to do something mindlessly the other night. It was the same pattern every row so it was easy. It still didn't turn out the way I expected and appears to be newborn or preemie size. I thought that was what the fine yarn was for. I thought this one would be bigger. Oh well...my son gave it to a friend with a 3 or 4 month old baby.

I couldn't believe that I got to the VERY END before I knew that I had started out with too many picots in the center! What can you do? it was that very first ring....

I wasn't about to pitch it, so I chained a loop and added a metal split ring. I can stiffen it for a pendant or ornament or even a gift tag. The pattern is from Denise Munoz, a book of snowflakes with rosette centers. It is tatted in Aida size 20 and I used size 11 seed beads.

If you have a chance, go see what Chris over at http://www.dantelezenn.com/ has done with one of the ricrac motifs in my pattern gallery. You can see it started HERE! Chris translated this one into French. She has added beads and used some gold, black and red so far. I love seeing how different people interpret a pattern differently!