Fumble fingers

I had fumble fingers last night. I was trying to finish Stephanie's beaded bridal bag, and it took me forever to string the beads for the drawstrings! I gave up and went to bed at 9, but I was back at it early this morning.

Luckily, my fingers worked this morning! I was able to finish the bag and give it to Stephanie. She was very pleased with it, and that makes me happy!

I've managed to reach the 2/3 mark on my Spinning Wheel glass mat. With a little more tatting tonight and some tatting time tomorrow, I should be able to finish. 

Nearly done

At school, that is... I only have two shelves left to inventory. I know I could have stayed late today and finished up, but I'm enjoying taking my time. After all, it is the last time!

I did manage to spend some time on my Spinning Wheel glass mat today. I think I will easily finish this one by Friday!

For some strange reason, I haven't been able to add pictures to Blogger the past two days. There didn't seem to be much point to blogging without pictures. This morning I went through my settings and found a couple of draft posts, so I deleted them and now Blogger seems to be working fine.

One of the third grade girls wanted to make a necklace out of the neckband of her t-shirt for the play. So, Sunday afternoon, I made the necklace she wanted. After looking at the picture, I can see that it needs a little cleaning up, which can be done fairly easily. Maybe I'll surprise her and crochet a little edging around it to clean it up!

My latest Spinning Wheel glass mat in Fiore from Slovakia is coming along nicely.

I love the way the newest mermaid tail afghan is working up. It really looks like it belongs under the sea!

Last night the four retirees (two teachers, one guidance counselor, and one secretary) were invited to the school board meeting.

We were recognized for our years of service... 91 years of combined service!

...and we were given a gift certificate to a very nice restaurant. I will miss the daily routine, but since I plan to sign up as a substitute teacher, I know I will be able to keep in touch with the students and staff for as long as I like. Will I sleep in? Probably not. I'm an early morning person, and I think I'll be much happier if I stick to my morning routine!

Costume and set day

Daughter Carol called on Drama Club and community members to help make costumes and paint sets for The Little Mermaid today. So with sewing machine in hand, I headed off to school today.

Cast members who were able to come today had the opportunity to create their own costumes.

T shirts were slit, painted, beaded, and ruffled in a variety of ways.

The set pieces were all built a couple of weeks ago, and today a great deal of the set was painted.

There are 55 cast members, and it's great fun to see moms and dads participating along with their children!

I'm making progress on the medium sized Mermaid Tail afghan. I found out today that one of the moms is making mermaid themed quilts to be raffled off. I think this is going to be an amazing fund raiser!

As Eliz guessed, I started my newest Spinning Wheel is in the pink Fiore thread. So far, I'm really liking this thread! I wonder where I can get more colors?

I forgot to post!

When I finished reading blog posts last night, I closed my computer and went to bed. I totally forgot to post! Oh, well... I guess that means I have more to write about tonight. ;-)

Jane and Eliz asked to see some of the decorated shuttles, so here they are! I told the kids that if they brought in their undecorated shuttles, I would put the mermaid scale tape on one side. This is the only picture I've taken, but I've probably decorated nine shuttles in the past few days. I don't know how well the tape will stick, but the kids know that this is an experiment and they're excited to help out!

I managed to finish my red Manuela Spinning Wheel glass mat by Friday... whew!

Surfing the Internet is incredibly dangerous, but someone has to do it. I received an email from Handy Hands showing their newest items, and to make sure I qualified for free shipping, I ordered two thread packs. These were a necessary purchase, right?

The main reason for placing the order was to get Nina Libin's newest book. I love Nina's patterns, and come summer I plan on actually tatting some of them!

My friend Denise has been singing the praises of the Shuttle Brothers' newest book, so I went to their web site to find out about it. They indicated that they had an arrangement with DS-9 Designs, so I scooted on over to their web site to see if the book was available... and it was!

I didn't want to order just one item, so I looked at their Catchpin threads. I noticed the name Fiore and thought I'd found some Italian thread. There are only two colors available, and I was intrigued... so I ordered one of each!

Looking at the label, I thought that this might be German thread rather than Italian.

 

Upon further inspection, I found that the thread is actually from Slovakia. This thread purchase was meant to be. My son-in-law Jan is from Slovakia. I can't wait to try it out!

Shuttle fun

I was very happy to have a little time to tat today. I'm hoping to finish this Spinning Wheel glass mat by Friday, so that I keep on track with my goal of finishing one per week.

I'm very much in mermaid mode! I found this hoop tape on Etsy. I'd never heard of hoop tape, and I haven't taken the time to find out what it's for, but I know what I'm using it for. I took it to school today, and I'm using it to decorate the kids' tatting shuttles! Yes, indeed... I am shamelessly promoting the Drama Club's summer production of The Little Mermaid. As I'd hoped, the kids were excited about the tape. There will soon be mermaid scale tatting shuttles all over our little town!

My fascination with the shuttles from ShuttleByDesign.com continues. Aren't these beautiful?

Or maybe you prefer these? I obviously couldn't choose, so now I own them all! 

No-tatting Tuesday

I can't believe I've had another tat-less day! Until the last few weeks of school, getting to school early has always meant time to get ready for the school day and then spend about a half hour unwinding, usually through tatting. However, I'm in inventory mode, so every spare minute is spent working on book shelves.

The good news is the fiction and easy reader sections are in perfect order, and I'm ready to start the Dewey section tomorrow. The Dewey section is always the hardest to keep straight. Kids just love reading about real things, especially space, dinosaurs, animals, and sports. The kids tend to get distracted as they're looking, and books often end up on the wrong shelf. Luckily, I enjoy reading book shelves!

I did manage to crochet a couple of rows on the medium sized Mermaid Tail afghan. The pattern I'm using is YARNutopia by Nadia Fuad. I'm using Red Heart Super Saver Macaw and Jade. The dark blue is Red Heart with Love Peacock. I really like this color combo!