Dealing with imperfection

Christmas may be over, but I'm not finished with snowflakes yet. I may have to tat snowflakes all year long! However, I need to get back into the tatting groove. I took a much needed week off from tatting. My wrists and elbows were really bothering me from working so hard on finishing my sister-in-law's doily. I think I must have tensed up with the deadline looming, because I really didn't tat for long periods of time each day. 

The day after Christmas, we headed off for Alabama to visit Mom. It was 50 degrees warmer in Alabama, and it was nice to have some down time. We drove down to the Gulf so that Carol could dip her toes in the water. Then we drove to Pensacola to visit Dad's gravesite. We had a wonderful lunch at Molly McGuire's, inspiring me to buy a cookbook so that I can make Senate Bean Soup, bread pudding, and maybe even boxty! We visited some of our favorite shops and even purchased a few things... surprise! Isn't retail therapy grand?

Anyway, back to snowflakes...

I was tempted to tat some more doodad snowflakes with different beads, but there were so many beautiful snowflakes tatted before Christmas, that I decided I should open up some of my snowflake pattern books and try something different!

This is Snowflake #1 from Snowflake Roses by Denise Munoz. I made multiple mistakes while tatting this snowflake, so I didn't finish it in one day as I had anticipated. Then, when I went to give it a shot of steam this morning, I noticed that two of my small rings have an extra picot and three ds. I guess I'll just have to tat this one again.

Still, it looks pretty on the tree!