"Christmas comes but once a year......!!!!" Choccie box entry

Finally..............

managed to get out of the house to get the camera fixed - been very difficult as we have over 1m of snow (for those across the pond 3+ ft)and the schools have been closed. Combine this with an expected low of -14C tonight (or 6.8 F apparently) and -25C (-13 F) forecast 20 miles up the road it has been an akward few days as you can imagine.

Anyway enough of that - on to my choccie box entry for Ambitatterous' contest here ..............................................................................



VIOLA!!!!!!!! I present to you

"Christmas comes but once a year!"



He's got such a fat tummy (partly hidden by the last After Eight chocolate) because he has just gorged himself on the entire box LOL.


He is made entirely of chains and whilst making him I happened upon an interesting discovery - if you tat a single double stitch then do a shuttle join to chain below & over and over again it ends up looking nothing like tatting but is very dense, holds it shape and almost looks a wee bit like crochet but not quite. I called it "brick stitch" as each shuttle join is in the slight gap made by the shuttle join on row below so you end up with a slightly staggered effect a bit like a wall. His paws are made of Sculpey but the rest of him really is tatting!!

This is his first head which I lost.........much to my annoyance


his tummy............

and his paws............




The 2nd head



& then various other shots











Hope you like him

PS He's got a furry tail cos he's a dormouse lol.

THANK YOU ALL & Swap anyone?

THANK YOU ALL who commented on my previous post - it is VERY greatly appreciated - I am not going to publish your comments but have taken the responses to heart - THANKS.

Anyone want to do a very quick Christmas swap? What with everything going on with my eye I never signed up for any of the Secret Santa's & christmas swaps with the various groups and I'm really missing it.
It would need to be done quickly as we are rapidly approaching the cut-off dates for overseas mail.
I had an idea for a shuttle, thread, few beads, maybe a pattern & a small tatted item but anything goes would be fine too.
Please let me know ASAP

PS My choccie box entry should be up and running tomorrow once I get hold of a camera that works LOL.

UPDATE: Thank you for responding to my request - I have 3 swap partners so that probably will be enough unless someone is really desperate





My signature doesn't appear to be working :(

Rant

WELL - some people!


I had planned on showing you AnneB's dragonwing doily & my adaptation of AnneB & Debi's seahorse dragon but instead I find myself fuming!

A couple of things- I had put out some facebook friend requests to our tatting community & a number of people replied positively but one woman had the sheer nerve to actually send a message saying that not only was she was going to ignore my request but even though we had 13 tatting friends in common (including Georgia, Mark, Debbie, Dianna to name a few) that basically I wasn't good enough to be one of her friends but she hoped I wasn't offended!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not offended - WHAT?! Surely if a friend request is made that you don't want to accept you just ignore it not tell the person why "their face doesn't fit"?

This is not the first time I have come across this kind of elitism in our community & it saddens me so much (& gets me wound up too lol) because I thought the whole point of a community like ours was to help & share a skill we all have in common? But maybe I was wrong? Maybe you are only allowed to be properly part of that community if you are the RIGHT kind of person? Am I deluding myself into thinking I was actually part of a wider global family?

That leads me into my second point - only the stalwarts of my blog (you know who you are & I love you for it as I will delete the comments from the previous post) have left any feedback. My concept of feedback is both positive & negative - if you aren't interested please say so too - I don't have to publish the comment if you don't want or even send me an email. So unless only 5 people read my blog it would appear I obviously was barking up the wrong tree!


Rant over

Normal transmission will resume soon :)

What a coup!

Anybody else with eagle eyes spot the item below on eBayUK earlier on in the week?







Well I am very proud to announce that it now resides with ME!
YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


According to Virginia Mescher in "Flitting Fingers" (2002) & I quote.......

".........[A copy of this book was unavailable as a primary reference, but was mentioned in several secondary sources (an aside: just wish she had said which secondary sources!). The only known copy that was located had been housed in the British Library, but was destroyed in World War II during the London Blitz.]......."

That would by definition, if she is right, mean that I now own the ONLY known copy!!!!!! Sorry but I can't stop crowing - I am just SO EXCITED!

I have a question for all out there in tatland - if I reissued it, would there be any interest in buying it? I am planning on it being an actual hardcopy not in pdf form and it wouldn't be an exact reproduction (too easy to rip off) but a true facsmilie. As I have not been at work for 7 weeks with the problems with my eye (& won't be back for at least another week) I am not being paid so need to try & earn some money somehow to tide us over, particularly with Xmas fast approaching (& a 9yr old that has a hard time understanding cost-cutting LOL) so there would need to be a charge & to cover printing costs etc as well.

Am I barking up the wrong tree? Or would there be some interest? Please give me your feedback!

It's going to take a bit longer yet.....:(

Hi all
Another quick update on "the situation"..........in 2 words........NOT GOOD in fact you could even say BAD!

Original hole is still sealed but the remaining fluid has not been resorbed - it also hasn't got any bigger so may still not be another hole. Either way the consultant is not happy to leave it any longer so I'm off to theatre again tomorrow. This will apparently involve a larger band being placed in my eye - not a major problem in itself but it will be located under the muscle at the outer corner of the eye so will affect the ability of the eye to move side to side at least until it gets used to the band being there. Apparently this can take up to 3 months! So as you can imagine I am NOT in a happy state.
I think what is making it worse is that the vision in that eye has been getting better with each passing day and the thought of going back to square one again (and for longer this time too) is just so annoying & depressing.

I suppose I must look at the long term & if this is what is needed to regain my sight properly I just have to live with it in the short term - It's just SO flaming hard to look at it in a positive manner.

Anyway, I'm just down in the dumps so will stop boring you all with my woes..hopefully the next update will be a good one LOL!

Eye update

THANK YOU all SO much for your kind wishes - it's like a great BIG hug LOL.
Thought I'd do a short update for you - good news & bad news still...........
Good news - original hole is sealed & all good but
Bad news - is still a small amount of fluid present which may still relate to original hole but may also be another so minute hole that it can't be visualised even with their super-magnification lenses. Consultant is prepared to wait till next Tues to see if the remaining fluid is resorbed or not - if not I'll be back in theatre on Friday of next week for another operation :(
At least the "stay at a 45-degree angle with head tilted to right" position at ALL times except bathroom breaks & food has been relaxed but eyesight is still crap so excuse the mistakes lol.

Now I have a real reason for not being in tatting mode....

........really annoying too as I had just started AnneB's dragon wing doily as well. Anyway am breaking doctors orders doing this as it is so this'll be very short.

Emergency admission to hospital on Sun with detached retina - operated on on Tues - seen consultant today - original hole sealed but still fluid present so not entirely happy - just got to wait & see now but will be long time till tatting :(

What it most annoying is can't even read the other blogs either now. Not a happy chappy.