Team building

I really wasn't looking forward to going to school today. It was an early dismissal day for monthly staff meetings, and the kids are usually wild on shortened schedule days.

Rather than focusing on things that could go wrong today, I spent the morning tatting! I finished another Curds & Whey bookmark. This one is in size 20 Lizbeth Peacock Blues. I used my new Dreamlit shuttle. Now that I've found a way to attach the thread, thanks to Tim, I like this shuttle very much!

I also tatted up the last of my hand-dyed thread skein from Karey Solomon. After looking back through my blog posts, I'm pretty sure this thread color is Distant Mountains. I'm kind of sad that I don't have any more of this color, but I'm very happy that I was able to tat so many Ice Drops with it!

The school day really went pretty well. Yes, some of the kids were a bit unruly, but nothing horrible. The staff meeting after school was a team building activity. These meetings are usually just for teachers, but this time everyone was invited. We were randomly divided into 13 teams, and our task was to decorate pumpkins.

I've never been a big fan of Halloween, and I don't think I've ever decorated a pumpkin. Yes, my kids had carved pumpkins, but I left that task up to Dave and the kids! So, I had pretty low expectations for a pumpkin decorating contest.

Boy, was I wrong! We all had a lot of fun! Can you guess which one is my team's? Which one is your favorite? I will reveal which one is my team's tomorrow!

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Happy new year!

My new year is off to a great start! How about yours?

First, I found an Ice Drop that I finished Christmas day.

Next, I practiced oya, following a YouTube video. It looked so simple! My results are horrible, but I will try again. I have a feeling this pattern was a little too advanced for me.

In order to make myself feel better about my skills with thread, I tatted a basic Ice Drop. This one is in Karey Solomon's Distant Mountains hand-dyed thread. I do love this color, and I feel much better knowing that I have a little bit of skill when using a shuttle and thread!

Cleaning

I'm in cleaning and reorganizing mode, not a usual state of mind for me. I've been working on our bedroom yesterday and today. It seems I'm not content to clean, I feel the need to reorganize everything, so it takes much longer than it needs to. I guess that really doesn't matter, does it?

 I have been pacing myself, allowing time for tatting of course! I finished the pendant I started yesterday in Karey Solomon's Distant Mountains.

Then, I decided to tat my Minty Fudge pattern in Karey's thread. It sure is pretty!

I received another anniversary shuttle from Emiko Suenaga today. Receiving a new shuttle always makes my day!

HDT

I love hand-dyed thread!

Today I started and Ice Drop using Karey Solomon's Distant Mountains. Isn't it gorgeous?

I didn't finish, because I wasn't home much today. Denise and I went out to lunch at the Chatterbox Cafe. This is the third cafe we've tried in Kankakee County. We've kind of set a goal to visit as many area cafes as possible. We haven't been disappointed so far!

After lunch we went shopping at JoAnn Fabrics and Hobby Lobby. We each found some threads to experiment with, and we also found glass gems for Ice Drops. We both have plenty of thread and glass gems, but it's so easy to get inspired by new colors!