Tag: photo album

A little repair work

A little over two years ago I made Jane E’s stork for my daughter’s baby shower gift, putting it on a photo album. My daughter was kind of mad at her husband soon after because he took the album to work to show off the pictures of his new daughter and got the cover dirty. 
Sometime after that her son got hold of it and did some modifications. I don’t think he was being malicious but scissors and string were too much for a two year-old to resist, especially when Momma was with the new sister.
She finally gave it back to me and I finally got around to doing some repairs.
As damage goes, this wasn’t that bad.  The sling and baby are done separately from the stork itself so the repair wasn’t too intensive. 
Pretty much as good as new!  Still has a few fingerprints on it, but that shows it was passed around a bit, right?
Didn’t get much tatting done this week as we did some house cleaning and then had family over for the weekend.  That, of course(!), was much more fun.
My two superheroes! 
No, I didn’t ask them to pose like that, that was all their idea. They had each got new PJ’s that came with capes and had to show us their hero stance.
Yes, that’s the little girl the baby shower was for two years ago and that’s the big brother. Oh, how time flies!
“I mean, first of all, let me say whichever superhero first came up with the idea of wearing a cape, he wasn’t really onto anything good.  The number of times I’m treading on that damn thing or I throw a punch and it ends up covering my whole head. It’s really not practical.”
Christian Bale
(Batman)
www.branyquote.com

Gifting ideas

I liked how the photo albums from last week came out so well that I did another one.  This time using ‘Joy’s Heart’ in Lizbeth #159 Easter Eggs size 20. With flowers and butterfly in random colors.

I think these albums are great gift ideas – inexpensive to buy the album and quick to decorate to match the person you are gifting or just to have on hand for “emergency” gifting. The hardest part was actually finding the background paper to match the thread colors. This one has a white background with dabs of green ink.

Remember the buttons I decorated a while back? These are something else that would make nice gifts, for certain people anyway. When Odd Balls Yarn Shop was closing they had quite the sale and I picked up a bunch of buttons before they were gone.  For some reason I really like the idea of adding tatting and pin backs to these.  Some of the buttons are in kind of odd colors, making them a bit harder to match threads to.  This one is black so not that hard. I don’t know if you can see the texture marks on the button in the photo or not.

The dragonfly is in Lizbeth #131 Vineyard Harvest size 20.  One of the photo albums that I used had a drawing of flowers and a dragonfly on it originally which inspired me to make a small dragonfly. I just looked at the picture and came up with the pattern but I’m sure I’ve seen it out there, or something very close.

Has anyone out there been doing any of the Shuttlebirds’ Weekly Challenges?  I’ve done a couple, including #11 which was “Morgan Mouse”.  #12 is Nancy Tracy’s “Clover Drop Heart” which is a cute little pattern and not very complicated.  I thought it would look good on a photo album.

And I goofed it.

I made one chain a little too short.
This is what happens when you don’t pay attention.
It’s done in Lizbeth #117 Country Side size 20.
I guess I’ll try it again – hopefully paying a little bit more attention the next time.

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.  Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Photo albums

Our stay at a cabin over the Independence Day weekend inspired me to tat Jane’s Norman Rooster pattern.   Why is that, you ask?   The cabin’s designation is the “Rooster”. 
Norman was Jane’s TIAS for 2010, which I started but didn’t finish (I don’t remember why now).  I’d always planned to complete Norman and now I have.  I thought he would make a cute photo album cover of pictures from our holiday. So today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I’m putting the finishing touches on it while drinking an iced glass of Crystal Light Raspberry Green Tea .
Jane Eborall’s Norman Rooster pattern
Tatted by Wanda Salmans
Other than Christmas Red for the comb and beard I can’t remember right now the colors I used to make him though they are all Lizbeth in size 20.  I know that I wasn’t too happy with the color I chose for the tail while I was making it but finished it anyway.  I’m glad I did, it looks okay.  I thought he looked a little lonely on the cover so I added a butterfly and some flowers made while finishing off thread from a couple of shuttles.  
I had a terrible time finding paper to put him on.  I don’t have a huge selection of scrapbook paper but I have some – and it is never what I want (they all looked great at the store, though).  So I had to doctor up what I had to make it work.  I don’t know that it’s great but it works. 
Morgan Mouse on a 6-point finding
Designed and tatted by Wanda Salmans
While I was at it I went ahead and did one with a pink Morgan Mouse. All threads used are Lizbeth size 20 in various colors – again emptying shuttles. (I have a bunch of butterflies and flowers from doing this. They come in handy sometimes.)
Speaking of mice…
Last night when I got home from work I took off my shoes and sat down in my chair to watch a little TV.  Our cat was under my chair and kept reaching a paw under my feet (they were kind of tented together, not flat on the floor) and tickling me.  Of course I told her to quit and she moved around to the other side of the footstool and kept looking at my feet.  I finally noticed there was something under my feet, moved them to see what it was
and
a 
mouse ran out.
Yes, a real, live, grey mouse.
It wasn’t moving too fast and stopped on the other side of the footstool – I don’t know if I squished it a bit or whether it was just stunned by the smell of my stocking feet.  The cat watched it intently but didn’t jump on it as it was just kind of laying there and not running.  My brave, thoughtful husband picked it up by the tail and took it outside to dispose of in some manner – far away from the house I assume.  The cat was somewhat disappointed.
We live in the country right beside a wheat field – excuse me, the wheat is cut and they have planted soybeans now – so we are not unfamiliar with mice, but this is not a normal experience. 
I would have preferred Morgan Mouse under my feet.
In any color.
“Never play cat and mouse games if you’re the mouse.”
Don Addis quotes