Where have they gone???

The pictures of tatting I took while on vacation??  I can only find the one of green thread on a red button that I already posted about, all of the other ones are gone! What a bummer!

Taking a suggestion from Kathy I've been making zipper pulls instead of hair clips.  Each one of of these blue ones has some form of mistake so they are mine, but I've been trying out different ideas to see what works, what doesn't work and if I like the results or not. I had a pink one that I gave away to a friend and a green one that I put on my coat zipper.   I had taken pictures of them while on vacation with my phone so didn't worry about taking one with my camera.  They should still be on my phone but I can't find them anywhere:(

 I also forgot to take a picture of these at home before I came to work.  It's been interesting trying to find a way to get a good picture that doesn't have my shadow in it.   You can see how they don't hang very well.  I'm still trying to figure out what I need to do to fix that.

We are slowly getting back into the swing of normal days since returning from our vacation, but it is hard.  We had such a great time it was very hard coming back. I'm still going through the pictures trying to label a few and pick out some to print.  

On Wednesday, September 12, we decided to go over Weston Pass because it is an easy pass and it was misting and raining that day.  We aren't that skilled at driving in the mountains on rough roads so thought we should do something that wasn't too challenging.  In trail books this pass is rated about a 1 or 2 for difficulty but a 10 for the scenery.  

We saw a lot of color on our drive up through the mountains. 

The rain turned to snow as we got to the top. It was great!

As we came down the other side it turned back to a light rain. It was a wonderful drive. Here's some information on Weston Pass if you are interested. 

We went over starting on the Fairplay side so ended up close to Leadville.  We went on in and had lunch there, at Callaways Restaurant in the Delaware Hotel. We enjoyed a great lunch then did a little shopping.  We also drove a little ways out of town to see some of the mines.  We could see it had snowed enough in the higher elevations that the mountains tops now had a covering of snow. 

I have no idea which mountain this is, but it was beautiful.

Today for Tatting Tea Tuesday I sipped hot tea and looked through pictures instead of tatting.  I'm still hoping to get a few minutes of tatting in but it may have to wait until tomorrow. 

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather."

John Ruskin

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Home again

We are home again after spending a week vacationing in Colorado.  I now have a better Internet connection.  Oh, happy day!

We spent the week in the same area we did last year, close to Buena Vista.  There is still a lot of things we haven't done there, but we had a lot of fun checking a few things off our list of things to do.  

We went back through St. Elmo and this time went all the way over Tin Cup pass (we didn't make it last time). We stopped in St. Elmo for a few minutes to see what had changed since last year and to take a few pictures. The post office in this picture is a good example of the state of most of the buildings in the town.

Me tatting in front of the St. Elmo post office, elevation 10,006 feet (3050 m)

Jay seen flitting around St. Elmo.

Can you believe I actually caught this guy sitting still long enough to get his picture?  I just got lucky.

Flying chipmunk

The chipmunks were unhappy with us that we didn't give them any seeds.  They would come right up to you in search of them.  One even climbed part way up my leg (it's an odd feeling!) I was snap-happy with my camera and was able to catch this guy jumping from one rock to another. 

Aspens at St. Elmo

We came up a week earlier this year than last and weren't sure we'd see any of the Aspens in their fall colors, but they were just starting to change while we were there.  Here you can see that some have changed while others are still completely green.  You can see some of the color change on the mountain side in the distance, too. 

We spent a lot of our vacation in a jeep going up and down mountains.  The roads are not conducive to tatting while in the car!  I was able to get some tatting done but very little.  I'll share some of what I worked on later.

Deer in someones yard in Buena Vista.

We saw more wildlife out in the mountains this time than we did last year but, like last year, most of the deer were seen in Buena Vista.  They have become quite the pests.  This lovely buck was seen in the front yard of a house, along with four other bucks and three does.  You have to be at least as careful driving through town as you do out of town so as not to hit them. 

I had a cup of Refresh tea yesterday for Tatting Tea Tuesday, but due to life's twists and turns was not able to post.  I'm hoping that next week I'll actually get to post on Tuesday!

We had a wonderful vacation and are sad it's over and we have to return to our normal life, which includes working, though I am glad to have a normal Internet connection.  It is (very) likely that I will be sharing more vacation pictures next time :-)

"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.  I travel for travel's sake.  The great affair is to move."

Robert Louis Stevenson 

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Blogger Mobile hates me

I've been trying to post for two days now on Blogger Mobile and it stops during the upload every time!!!  I finally got to a hot spot (though it's very, very, slow) so I can let you know that I'm still here.

Just a little something I made trying to empty a couple of shuttles.  I've been so busy doing other things I haven't gotten much else done except a few doodles emptying other shuttles. 

I'll try again later this week to get a longer post in.  I have some really cool pictures of where I've been the last week I'd like to share.  But that will have to wait for a better Internet connection. 

Happy Tatting everyone!

Diane's Double Dare

 Diane dared us to! 

She double-dared us! 

Then she enabled us by sending us doodads!

Isn't she a special lady?

She sent me two 1/2 inch doodads with eight petals.  I thought about it a little bit, then found some thread and beads that worked well together and gave it a try. 

My first try is made in Lizbeth #662, Turquoise Lt in size 20 with matching seed beads. 

You can't see it in this picture but it didn't want to lay flat, it was three dimensional.  Because of the length of the chains on the outside round every other leg was raised.  It looked pretty cool but made it a real bear to photograph.   

I liked the result well enough that I thought I'd try it again but shorten up the chains a bit. 

My second try is made in Lizbeth #638, Christmas Green and silver seed beads.

The reflection off the silver beads and the doodad really made this hard to capture with a picture.  And the darker thread made finding a good background hard, too.  The picture doesn't show just how striking the green thread set off the silver beads and center.  In person this looks much, much better!

Thank you, Diane, for sending me the doodads, and for daring me to use them!  These are #5 in my current 25 Motif Challenge. 

p.s I have posted the pattern on the Pattern Page if you're interested.

"Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare."

Dale Carnegie

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