Eggs, blooms, smoke and snow

I had a chance to decorate Easter eggs this week.  Nothing elaborate, but fun.

We didn't cook any eggs to color this year.  They have eggs at the store that look almost real, and all you have to do is decorate.  My daughter bought two dozen white ones for the kids to decorate.  I thought I was picking up the same thing except colored, ready for stickers or coloring. 

They were chalkboard eggs.  They even came with a package of chalk.

I used colored pencils instead.  Along with a bit of tatting, of course.

I had a lot of fun with these though I only finished three eggs.  I guess I have some to work on for next year.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned how many of the ornamental pear trees were blooming.  There are a few of those still pretty though most have greened to leaves now.  But the Flowering Crab Apple and Redbud trees are now in full bloom.

In the last week or so there was a hard freeze but it doesn't look like it did a lot of damage.  Well, I don't have a garden or fruit trees so I could be wrong, but there are a lot of trees and flowers still blooming.

This is a Flowering Crab Apple tree in my daughter's yard and it is beautiful!

The sky has been other than blue over the last week.  There have been several large wild fires in the state that created a lot of smokey skies and caused ash to fall miles from the fires.  The fires are very hard to contain when the wind is blowing 40+ miles an hour.

A smokey sunset seen from where I work in Wichita.  I missed being outside when all the ash was falling.

We finally got a little moisture Easter Sunday.  In the form of a beautiful snow fall.

The view from the bedroom window about 8:00 a.m. Easter morning.

This was about an hour later.  Check out that blue, blue sky!

It was a perfect snow.  The roads were clear, the snow only lasted for the day and it was perfect for making snow balls. It did mean that the grandchildren had their egg hunt in the house, but they didn't seem to mind too much.

This Friday, April 1st, is International Tatting Day.  The two ladies I get together to tat with, my sister, and I are planning to be at the Montana Mike's Steak House in McPherson for lunch.  We'll have our tatting and chocolate out and I know we'll be having a great time.  If there is anyone in the neighborhood that would like to join us there you would be quite welcome!  We plan on getting there about 11:30 a.m. and taking a long lunch.

What are your plans for ITD?

"If an egg is broken by an outside source, life ends.

If an egg is broken by an inside force, then life begins.

Great things happen from the inside."

More buttons for ITD

With all the dust and disruptions at the house due to the remodel I've not gotten much tatting done. I can still do a bit in the car so I've continued to decorate buttons for International Tatting Day.

I did give away a few green ones last week to be worn for St. Patrick's Day. 

And one to an aunt who thought it was pretty.

And one to a co-working who really liked it.

The grandchildren like them, too. And their mothers.

I guess if I don't give them all away on ITD I'll still be able to do something with them eventually.

"Who gives from the mind is great

Who gives from the heart is truly blessed."

Marinela Reka

Shortly after I posted this we went out for lunch.  We met a nice lady in another booth that recognized that I was tatting and had a nice visit.  Before she left I gave her a button and my card.
Do you think I'll have any left for ITD?

An early spring

It's only the middle of March and many of the trees are in bloom or finished blooming.  Every where you look there are beautiful flowering trees and plants.  

This ornamental pear tree is just down the road from our bank, one of many in the area. You would almost think there was snow on a lot of trees by all the white every where.

With the weather being warmer than normal it is tempting to stop and admire all the lovely blooms. So on the way to the bank I did.

Now we worry that we'll get cold weather again and loose all the fruit and flowers that have bloomed. People with ornamental trees like this pear don't have to worry about loosing fruit. People with actual fruit-bearing trees do.

The early spring has helped our contractor out a lot.  He can leave the doors and windows open while he works on our kitchen remodel.  I am looking forward to getting this completed.  Our kitchen is a bit of a mess right now.

We've been eating out a lot lately :-)

The only tatting I've accomplished lately is a few buttons.  This is a good thing as I want to have as many as possible for International Tatting Day.  My problem now is that I keep giving them away.

"Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better."
Sydney J. Harris

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Tatting for ITD

 There are so many things going on lately I've not really gotten into any projects even though I have several in mind.  Instead I've been working on little things to give away (I hope) on International Tatting Day April 1st.

Tatting around buttons is easy and quick and people really like them when they see them, making them ideal as small give-a-ways.  I've done a few in green because, hey, St. Patrick's day is coming up - never hurts to have a little green on you.

 Instead of sewing in the ends on these I've used them to sew on a small safety pin.  I have a whole jar of safety pins of different sizes, thought this would be a good place to use the smaller ones.

I think I'll move on to other colors now and maybe make a few into Easter eggs like I have the last couple of years; a few on paperclips and a few on safety pins.

I really need to keep a few of these handy all the time, not just for ITD.  I've had several opportunities to give something like this away to an interested by-stander but didn't have any with me that were finished.  Okay, I'd already given the finished ones away...  So I need to keep more on hand.

Still haven't gotten my drawing program fixed.  Now that I can't I really want to work on some patterns.  I hope I keep up the enthusiasm for when I have a working program again.

While I wait I might as well do another button.

"You gotta try your luck at least once a day, because you could be going around lucky all day and not even know it."

Jimmy Dean

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Hanging Basket Edging Winter Runner

I made this edging for a table runner back in August.  I hadn't been sure I was going to be happy with it, but it turned out looking good.

Hanging Basket Edging © Wanda Salmans

I was in a hurry when I took this picture and I didn't notice how crooked it looks.  It didn't look like that when it was hanging up.  This just shows that I'm better at tatting than I am at sewing :-)  This runner was given as a gift for Christmas. 

Medallion Cross Bookmark © Wanda Salmans

I noticed a bookmark in my Bible that I made several years ago and thought I would make it again.  I couldn't find anywhere that I had written down the pattern so thought I would.  Jotted it down on paper and lost it.  Re-wrote it.  Then tried to diagram it and found my vector program has a problem just after I upgraded to Windows 10.  Serif Draw X8 is supposed to be compatible with Windows 10 so maybe it got corrupted during the upgrade.  I uninstalled SDX8 and re-installed and still get an error.  I tried installing an update but still no luck.  I have put my problem on their forum and hope to get an answer.  If not it will be direct contact with Serif.  I'm used to this program and like it, it's a real problem to not have it work.

It has been quite a week.  Besides the program issue we've had some trouble with the Internet so I had trouble posting.  We've also had a lot of things happening at the house getting ready for a bit of remodeling.

There has been some other distractions as well.  You may have heard about the shooting at Excel Industries in Hesston, Kansas.  Hesston is just down the road from us.  It was quite a shock to have something like this hit so close to home.  I don't personally know any of the people that were shot but people I know do.  In such a small community, something like this effects everyone.
It's wonderful how the entire county has joined together to get through this ordeal and help those who need it.