Today's Thoughts

I recently had a birthday and it was a milestone. Why? Because, this year I get to collect Social Security!! Yes, I will still continue to work my part-time job and teach voice and piano, and now I will get an additional little income each month. That is a really good feeling, looking at today's economy. You know, we put in all these years of working for others and it does eventually pay off. It seems that at this time of my life, I can pick and choose more freely what I enjoy doing. I have a wonderful grandson that I love to be with and I have my arts and crafts that I love doing. What could be more perfect? Are any of you at this point in your lives? Are you enjoying it more? It's fun to share our feelings at different stages of our lives. I know, I have all the aches and pains of getting older. In fact, my husband is really sick right now and he's never been sick in all our 40 years of marriage. We are praying that the doctors will figure out what is wrong and that God will heal him. So, life has it's good and bad. But we'll get through this. I think our attitudes have a lot to do with how we cope with what goes on in our lives. I just wanted to share some of my feelings with you today and feel free to share your's with me. Have a great day!

Tatted Flowers

It's a beautiful day here in Tennessee today! In the '70's. I'm so glad that the warm weather is right around the corner. And with the time changing this weekend, we will have more daylight in the evening. I really don't like coming home after teaching my piano and voice lessons and driving in the dark. And I want to start walking more and losing weight. But in the meantime, I'm still tatting away. Now, I'm into making flowers. I want to come up with more flower patterns. This is one I came up with after I experimented for awhile. They are simple but I like the different colors. I just need to come up with something to attach them to. Does anyone have any ideas? I would love to see some other flower designs from my tatting friends. Let me know if you have any.

Antique Heart

I found this antique heart at a local antique mall this week. I decided to add my tatting to it and then also add some pink silk ribbon and a pearl.

Tatted Ornaments

I have been having fun creating these little 3" ornaments. First, I make a round paper clay ornament, let it dry, then add my tatting to the ornament. I write on the back "From my hand to your's"--I got that out of a magazine and really loved the little quote.

Closeup of My Tatted Lace Heart

Here is a closeup of the tatting on my lace heart. I love all these pastel colors combined with the tatting. I was fortunate to find some beautiful pastel tatting thread at a local knitting store. It is owned by a man who loves to knit and he teaches everyone to knit when they buy his yarn. At no charge! Anyway, he had two big boxes of this thread, so I have a great source now.

My Tatted Lace Heart

I saw another wonderful blog this weekend that showed how to make these hearts out of lace and I made one today. I have so much lace, I could make hundreds of these. I loved making them and want to make more. I used silk ribbon in the bow and added my tatting in the middle. A wide piece of satin ribbon trimmed in pearls was also added around the middle of the heart just to add some sheen to the piece. The heart measures about 7 inches by 6 inches, so it is a good size. I am getting ready to go into a consignment shop and, hopefully, these will sell. I used a sewing machine to make this, but you could probably use hot glue, also. If you are interested in knowing where I found this blog with the instructions, just let me know.

My Almost Finished Altered Tatting Book

I am 95% done with this book now. I was in my creativity mode for most of the weekend and finished just about every page. There are a couple of pages that need a little more embellishment. I need to start working on another book while I am feeling creative. On the cover of the book, I added a little hand crocheted heart that was done by my friend, Mary. I tucked a little "Love Note" inside to be filled out when it is given as a gift. I have more pictures of other pages that I will post tomorrow.