Busy, busy, busy

I'm not sure where to begin, so I'll just jump in.

I couldn't wear my usual State Fair Village of Yesteryear clothes; the sleeves were too tight. So I started researching clothes >1815 CE for comfort and ease of use/wearing, plus ease of 'finding'. I found that women started wearing sweaters in the 1930s, plus knee highs (I wasn't even going to think about wearing nylon in NC when the weather might be sweltering, and I don' have access to silk stockings). I already have black, low-heeled Mary Jane shoes. I'd purchased a ~1930s burgundy cloche at the thrift shop this past summer. I didn't need it (at the time) but I thought 'what the heck' and 'if I need this, it will be hard to find.' I got lucky and found a mid-calf black skirt with pleats starting 2/3 the way down. It's almost straight from hip to the knees, then a grosgrain ribbon, then pleats the rest of the way.

One last thing; my hair. I was NOT getting a bob, or even cutting it. And my hair hits my waist. I got a brilliant idea; I looked at 1930s era college yearbooks. Those are real women, wearing their best hairstyles; not what Hollywood or New York or fashion magazines say women are wearing. That, plus a blog essay on 'how-to for long-haired women for 1930s hairstyles', lead to me wearing a low chignon. I had so many hairpins...I'd take down my hair and then find 3 more.

Look at that picture and go, 'Grandma?'

My dad's mom, when she was about 16

Alas, my edging tree fair entry did not win. And thanks to a migraine hitting Sunday afternoon (the day I was planning to submit my entries) I didn't get 2 of my entries in (bag/necklace and beanile necklace). But the tree wasn't due until Monday noon, so CD took it in for me.

my tree; too bad sliding it into the frame wrinkled the fabric

At the fair, we rode the sky tram for the first time. It was really nice and just a little high. And I'm not comfortable with heights. So I took pictures to distract myself. Lots and lots and lots of picture. 135 pictures riding in 1 direction and 198 in the other. Some pictures are so close together they look like I had the camera on sports shutter speed. The first ride was still daylight and the trip back was after dark.

Examples

I did teach at Palmetto Tat Days. Anitra and I handled the early bird class. Early bird starts at 6:30 am. There have been years I've been awake to take that class. And some years I showed up but wasn't really awake. The usual teacher couldn't make it this year, so they needed someone else to fill it.

I'm much more of an early bird than Anitra, so I was in slightly better shape. She was teaching her snowman earrings (so cute) and I taught TotusMel's Infinity Knot. As usual, it was lots of fun.

Martha Ess's broomstick teapot

Infinity knot earrings

Hurricane Florence sucked. No real surprise.

Trip to see Dad's family was good. We met a cousin we didn't know we had (the relationship is a bit distant) and I got lots of family photos. Aunt J has 2 photo albums, organized by sibling for my Grandma and her siblings. It started with some very old, old photos.

that's my great-great-great uncle, I think. Caroline, his sister was my grandmother's grandmother.
After that, each section had photos the sibling as early as the organizer (maybe Aunt J) could find, then spouses, children, and grandchildren. There's also some stuff like death certificate copies, etc.

Aunt J doesn't have internet, so dad took me to the library one day so I could check my email and stuff on my tablet. As we were leaving, I thought to ask about their genealogy collection. It was in the basement and Dad and I looked for his picture in his high school yearbooks.

We left by the basement door, which took us by the town museum. While I stopped to sign in, Dad talked to the two volunteers. Of course, they asked why we had stopped by and Dad told them he grew up there. After a bit of discussion, the woman figured out how we're related, biologically. There's a closer relationship by marriage involving her brother-in-law and a great-uncle by marriage, I think. I don't recall the details.

She offered to let me use the museum scanner to scan the photo albums. The 'cost' would be my time and the museum getting a copy of the pictures. Dad had planned to have breakfast with his oldest nephew the next day, so he could just drop me off at the museum and I could work on it. Except, they changed the plans to go earlier. I talked to our cousin and she agreed to meet me there before the museum opened to let me get started.

Except for a brief break for lunch, I scanned pictures from about 9 am to 3 pm. If you include the documents and the identifier pages, there's over 550 pictures. My grandma was one of seven kids. And all but one had grandkids.

Grandma and her siblings will be a different post, I think. In fact, I think the pictures and stories from the trip deserve their own post.

Another week, another post

Thursday was Deadlands again. We had another combat and my character, Alis got in some good shots, and got poisoned. It was fun to use her magic gun to shoot the bad woman's bow out of her hands (hey, she used it to shoot Alis with a snake arrow).

I'm still working on my Blue Rose character. I am reading the world background to fine tune her. I think I will end up changing a couple things, make them into goals instead of accomplishments. I do have most of her family plotted out and her immediate family have names.

my mom crocheted the dice bag, yes there's a metallic filament

 Saturday was Tri-Tatters. Leigh (of somethingunderthebed.com fame) had the second newsletter, with my article about the Bath Tatting Book. I hope someone who reads it finds it helpful. We had 12 people at the meeting, including two people who are learning to tat. One of them brought some of her grandmother's lace. She had some lovely hairpin lace, crochet lace, and a bit of tatting.

I finally figured out TotusMel's pattern she's letting me use. The problem isn't with her pattern; it's that it works really well with needle tatting and take some adjustment to make it work with a shuttle.

However, I cannot find my pink squares for Belgium. Argh! I know what container they're in but I can't find the container.

I haven't started on the 2018 TIAS yet. I've been distracted by my other projects (including CD's scarf, up to 20"+ now).

Sunday it was chilly and rainy so I didn't work on my car. I hope I'll get something done on it, soon.

CD and I watched a movie with Herman's Hermits. He likes the band. The movie was kind of 'meh' but it had some good music. However, quite nicely, it did not have a villain. It was very nice.

Today was part 1 of of a training, Mental Health First Aid. It was mostly what to look for and some of the risk factors for depression and/or anxiety. Tomorrow is part 2, practice and practical.

There were snow flurries this morning. And my neighbor's Bradford pear is blooming. And I think I saw a cherry tree blooming, too (it was pink blossoms and a tree).

TV, Gaming & Tatting

TV: I have now seen 2 episodes of the TV show Justified. For those who haven't seen it, or the ads for it, it's about a US Marshal who gets sent back to Kentucky, where he grew up. The reason he got sent there? He gave someone associated with a drug cartel 24 hours to get out of Miami. When the man showed no sign of doing so, he met the man at the restaurant where the 'gent' was eating. The man drew his gun and the Marshall, Raylin (sp) Gibbons shot him. “It was justified.”

After two episodes, I have to say, in my opinion, they have really captured the flavor of the south. The woman, tired of getting beat up by her husband who fixes his favorite meal and while he's eating, she pulls out his deer rifle and shot him. Maybe that happens in other part s of the country, but it seems really Southern to me.

Gaming: The Pathfinder GM screen that I ordered from Paizo arrived. Wow, that spud is sturdy. Pick up your average, glossy cover hardback book (you may have to go to a game store to find one). The GM screen is two hardback covers hinged, to make 4 pages of helpful charts and tables. The obverse side, the side facing the players, have the iconic character portraits from the core rulebook. I'm just trying to figure how geeky it is that I can name all but one of the character classes from sight alone.

Tatting and Reading: I tatted a single butterfly yesterday, because I was busy reading a mystery. I don't know if I like it yet. It's a PD James mystery. I like the tv movies made of her books, but I'm not certain that I like the book. Perhaps, I simply haven't read far enough.

I started another TotusMel cameo pendant. This time I'm using Red Heart size 20 in green. Considering my previous experience with this Red Heart thread, this might be an exercise in frustrations.

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: