More Photos of Fair & some of my own crafts & contest alert
tatting & ~knitting & my HallooBoobies entry [cleavage alert]
Not my contest, someone else's
Fangs, Fur & Fey are having a belated 3rd anniversary contest

Go to their site for instructions. Grand prize is a Kindle. Whoot!

Now to Picture fun

Rebecca/Tatmom03's cross - burgundy DMC perle 8. I start with a chain at the top. I leave a picot (using a large safety pin), so that I can end on a split ring & used the ends in a tassel.

Here's my entry in last week's BoobieWed contest (for Breast Cancer Awareness).


Not tatting, but a gorgeous State Fair Entry. And look, there's a matching hat!

TotusMel complained that she never got to see her pieces 'in the wild'. So I spent some time finding wild places & taking photos. The 1st one is just of me, wearing the pendant.

Then, one of my wearing the pendant on a pin (it's on my c.1812 pinafore that I was wearing on Saturday).

I put it on a tree (the one that the rughooker used to show off her ornaments)

Mum's the word

Do you ever wonder is someone is out of her gourd?

Look, the pendant made a friend!

I loaned it to one of the trolls in the Village of Yesteryear & had the dickens of a time getting it back (those trolls are known pranksters).

Luckily, that's a very patient duck.
I'm keeping my eyes open for other 'wild' places to put the pendant.

Last year, I ordered a basket for my tatting. Janet made a lipped basket with a secure lid and, well, here's a couple pictures.

A tisket, a tasket, a custom tatting basket

As you can see, it has a bar across the handle, so I can put a ball of thread there to either load my shuttle or as the chain thread, without it rolling away or getting tangled. The bar is high enough that I can fit a ball of size 10 knit-cro sheen without it hitting the lid handle. She made three baskets, although with shorted handles and sold two of them by the 1st Saturday of the fair. She started another basket for me, with a longer handle, and the 3rd one sold. If she'd had a 4th one, she would have sold that one, too.

I did a little knitting (Operation Gratitude, care packages for our soldiers in Afghanistan & elsewhere). I made a couple scarves. The first one is about 3' long and 3" wide. The 2nd one is about 2.5' long & 5" wide.

I have a horrid cough and am quite tired (I went home Wednesday & immediately went to sleep, woke up long enough to eat supper & then back to sleep - after 2 nights of full sleep!). I stayed home yesterday & that's when I finished the 2nd scarf. I didn't go to gaming either; I needed the rest & why chance infecting the others.

If you're interested this is the yarn that I used:

Here's a shot of the Fair, not far off the midway. Can you see the oak tree? It's huge.

Another ride photo:

NC State Fair & Tatting goodies
Warning: this post is picture heavy

Actually this is a jacket that I did years ago. It's a man's jacket with calico roses appliques.

Stump of the tree that used to shade my bus stop.

Rides at the fair, reflected in the mill pond


State Fair tatted entries (or entries with tatting) I don't know who made any of these. But I like looking at them.
It's hard to see, but that cloth on the right (pillowcase maybe) has a row of tatting with ribbon running through it.

This one is pretty, but I wish that it was mounted on a darker color.


I think that it's a tatted lady


Sorry about the glare. I think the piece in the back is a skirt with tatting on the front of it. In front of the skirt is, I think, a tatted collar.

The category was 'Angels.' This one has tatted wings, stiffened with wire, with a matching halo & trim on the bottom of her dress.

I made some lace for my pocket; it's pearl size 5 made by the Star company. The thread is older than I am & might be my Mom's age. The pattern is from p 29 of A Tatter's Workbook. She didn't have it as a trim, but more as a single point, so I had to join the 'points'.

That's more than enough for now, right?

I'm Baaaaaack, Did Ya Miss Me?
Or yes, my home internet has gone wonky and unreliable. That means that I am only online while at or near work. Since my employers have expectations, that really cuts down on the amount of time that I can work on my blog or read the blogs of others. I feel dreadfully, dreadfully out of touch.

I have finished tatting two more of Rebecca/Tatmom03's crosses; one burgundy & one off-white. I think I will tat a blue one next. It's my version of having a casserole (it's a Southern thing) in the freezer.

I was hoping to join Anitra at a local park for their heritage day last week. Alas, I spent the time cleaning and making trips to the thrift shops, donating not buying this time.

Gaming has been going pretty well. Met a couple people new to RPGA last night. I hope that we provided a fun game for them. I got to play my very old drow again.

I'm supposed to go see Mom again tomorrow. That is in jeopardy because I really started coughing this morning. It's gotten worse & I feel like three kinds of um, [mild expletive deleted].

Maybe Monday I can post pictures of the crosses that I've made. I want to also take a picture of my cleavage (what there is of it) as part of Breast Cancer Awareness month. Don't worry, I'll put a warning in the header.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month
aka Save The Tatas! Check out this blog; loved today's story. Really made me tear up. I've lost family to cancer, but not to breast cancer. Nonetheless, I check ever month & my mammogram earlier this year came back clear.

Gaming: More jokes last night about my character's inability to use tech. She broke her communicator, hoping that would summon her teammates. In our Mutants & Masterminds game, the GM rarely gives us true villains. For example, the last villain (not last night's, the one from 2 weeks ago), was targeting the Mob for not paying him for the computer security that he installed in their casino. The non-payment was legal; there was a clause about no backdoors in the program, which he didn't catch. Hey, he's an electronics/robotics supergenius, not a lawyer.

Last night's thieves are from another dimension that has been conquered by superpowered folks from yet another dimension. Seeing the way that our characters' world reveres its heroes made them believe that they couldn't trust anyone so they were stealing what they need to throw off their oppressors. Not exactly the Bwahaha School of Evil, huh?

Sunday is R's game. More fighting drow and maybe some undead. We have a Lolth-worshipping ally, much to my character's dismay & disgust (the cleric/holy warrior of the anti-Lolth).

After the game, we take C out for his birthday. His natal anniversary is not until the 15th but I'll be working at the fair over the weekends, so that's out. Maybe I'll get him this book. It's not on his list, but I think that he might like it anyway.

Presents: I ordered this book in mid-September for J's birthday. It was due out in August. The publication date has now been moved to Nov 1st. Maybe I'll give J a card & an IOU.

I have wrapped two children's books for my namesake. I want to mail them to her as Wednesday presents. They are wrapped in a promotional world map. I have more books to wrap & I'll send them in one box if it's not too expensive.

ebooks & hardcopy: Pathfinder had a very good idea. The hardcopy of their core rulebook is about $50. But the PDF of the same is only about $10. What does that mean? That means that I'll buy both. I already bought the PDF and I have the hardcopy on order. Other game companies: take note.

Holidays: It's October & time to break out the decorations. I have a resin witch that someone gave me; she went on some shelves in the corner of the office. I have a little ceramic jack o'lantern with marbles in his eyes, that went on the counter. My Puss in Boots mug has some candy in it now.

Banned Book Week
What book that has been challenged, have you read?

I've read several of them; some because they were required in some class or other and some for pleasure. Some I've liked & re-read, several times. Some I couldn't stand (I still hate Lord of the Flies, partially because of my own expectations before I read it).

Family stuff:
I went to see my mom this past weekend. We had a nice visit & drove to the family reunion on Sunday. We were a little late, but everyone else was still eating. Aunt Lillian was happy to see us, she'd almost given up. This reunion is for my grandfather's family; he was one of 12. There were not as many kinfolk there this time but I did meet a cousin who's also working on genealogy. I need to send him what I've gathered so far.

Tatting:
We have doorprizes at the family reunion and I made one of tatmom03's crosses, in cream perle 8. It's one of my favorite patterns. My uncle Sherwood won it. I've made another one, so that I'll have it on hand when/should I need it.

I'm still making progress on my edging. I have 1 full side (or 2 half sides) & 1 corner yet to do.

Thanks to the state fair deadline moving up two weeks, I missed the deadline again this year. This time I missed it by 5 minutes, also known as the time spent to check that I had the right category. Not that I'm bitter, much.

Gaming:
I've been reading the Pathfinder rules. It's sort of D&D 3.7, sort of. 4th ed D&D is okay, but it just doesn't grab me the way that the 1st edition (aka AD&D) & 3rd edition did. As a result, I'm looking at other games to play for when I go to conventions; Shadowrun Missions, WitchHunter & now Pathfinder.