What I've been up to...

I haven't had much tatting time the last few days. I've been outside - it's been less than 90 degrees here for the last 3 days!!! Much as I love it, I'm afraid it means fall is coming, which is followed by.... oh.... winter... ohhh the pain... :( But. I did get a few little things done, & I'm about to start on something pretty big I think. For me anyway.

 This is the start of my Christmas stuff.... Ornaments & so on. Last year I waited until October to get started & almost didn't. I finished my last ornament on the 24th of December! So this year I thought I'd move it up a notch. None of these are blocked or starched... They're actually how I layed them as I finished them the other night when I was tatting. The star is from a scan of an old Workbasket Magazine that I don't have. See how that top angel looks a little wonky? I wonder if I can fix that with starch & pinning??

 This... Well I'm not sure what to call it, but it started out because I saw... I believe it was Gina's post about rings off of picots on another ring. I didn't do mine exactly like the video (I kind of did a lock join on both sides of the ring...), but I kind of like it. I did it in white thread because that's what I had on the shuttle in my bag at the moment, & it kind of looks like a random snowflake... I don't know that I'll make a bunch of them for CHristmas, but I'm pretty sure I'll use it for something, someday...

This... OH.... I'm not sure why, but I just absolutely adore this angel! Both of my angels in this post are from the book "15 Tiny Tatted Angels". Funny to me how mine look so different than the book. But I just love this one particular angel. I plan on tatting them all, between now & Christmas, as each one only takes me about 20 minutes to make. But isn't she just darling?
In other news - after all these years of searching for those plastic pins to use as stitch keepers, I found them. I was so excited I posted about them. And yet, the FIRST time I go to actually USE one, the stupid thing BROKE! Went to clasp it and it BROKE. As you can imagine, I am disappointed. Very. I grabbed another one from the pack & it didn't break, but at this point, I'm sure glad I didn't get rid of all my coil-less safety pins! At the rate I'm going there won't be any left. That one was broken when I went to the living room to clear up my tatting mess before Untatter got up this morning. *sigh* Live & learn...
I'm also planning on taking the Horse to a jackpot race this weekend. Finally, I know!!! I'm very excited. We may not actually run in the jackpot, but we're going down early & paying so I can ride & practice in the arena beforehand. Depending on how well he behaves, we may run, may not. For those of you that don't know, he's only left home once since he came to live at my Daddy's when he was 6 months old. He's now 4 years, 5 months old. In my defense, a horse has to be 2 before you can ride them without causing some kind of damage to their joints, ligaments, tendons, & bones. After that is another solid month of riding, then (at my house) back out to pasture to grow & mature until they're 3. Now, in Chico's case, he belonged to Daddy when he came here. Daddy rode him about 5 times & turned him back out. He's alot better than I am with horses. On his 3rd Birthday, Daddy got him out & rode him twice over the span of a month. Then one night he says "why don't you ride him, Randa?".... Being dumb & forgetting he'd only been ridden 7 times, I did it. I like "broke" horses, folks, I'm not ashamed to say it. But it was magic.... He couldn't neck rein or back or sidepass, but it was pure magic. I was in love and haven't looked back since. Yes, he's the same horse that gave me the (still somewhat) numb hand, but it was an accident & that kind of crap happens when you ride any horse... But now... Now he's a product of my abilities & I'm VERY proud of him. Barrel racing is a hard thing to learn correctly, if you don't want a horse that "blows up"... Or looses his ever lovin' mind in lamen's terms. I like to think I've done a good enough job on his foundation. Not to mention he's just a great little horse. Anyway, I know you're bored to tears at this point, so I'll just say WOOHOOO GO ME! There, I tooted my own horn :)
Enjoy your day!