Thanksgiving on Christmas Eve?!

So I was just getting ready to post my Christmas motifs when I realized I forgot to post my Thanksgiving motifs. This having a full time, big girl job is really cutting into crafting time! I am not loving it but I guess it is paying the bills.
It might be kind of silly to be posting a Happy Thanksgiving  post  on Christmas eve but here it goes! I am going to call these #15 in the 25 motif challenge.

Happy Thanksgiving

I ended up making 14 of these cards which means 28 of the leaves. This was the first project I used a more expensive thread on.  Making half of the leaves with Lizbeth thread and half with the cheaper Artiste thread let me compare them side by side.The Lizbeth color is the variegated one and it is size 10 and its called falling leaves, the solid orange is size 10 and its called Papaya. I found good and bad in both threads. While doing this pattern, which is a pattern from J Paulson I actually tried 2 new techniques I have never tried before.  This pattern called  for Josephine knots and I struggled massively with doing them with the Lizbeth thread . The knot would twist and then I couldn't get them to close but they went just fine with the Artise thread. I also got to try doing a zig-zag stitch when making the stem. I had a bit of trouble keeping the counts on doing that stitch but its not super noticeable so I think they turned out ok.
 I liked the way the leaves done with the Lizbeth thread turned out  a bit better but I was also more concerned with wasting thread while doing them. I am not sure where my extreme frugal-ness has come from but I sure hate waste so trying to convince myself that wasting a bit of thread would not be the end of the world was a constant battle cry. I used almost a full roll of the Lizbeth thread and it doesn't even look like I made a dent in the artiste thread. I may try using Lizbeth thread again but I don't think I enjoy using it as much as my cheaper thread.
Sorry about the Thanksgiving post on christmas eve but I guess its better late than never. I guess if its too bad Santa wont stop at my house tonight. I

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween!! I seriously cant believe it has been so long since I have posted anything. I knew it had been a while but I had no idea how long till I looked back at older posts. Part of the reason is because of the lull in the months that dont have any holidays in them.  The other part of the reason is because I finally had to break down and find a big girl job! Boy having a full time job really cuts into the crafting time!

I had every intention of getting my holiday cards in the mail in plenty of time for Halloween but time absolutely just flew by while trying to get into the groove of the new job so I didn't get them in the mail as early as I had hoped. I actually had them almost completely done several weeks ago but me running true to form hesitated to put the finishing touches on them and then I blinked and it was just a few days before the holiday.

I ended up making 16 of these little ornaments. I am going to call them #14 in the 25 motif challenge I found the pattern on tat-man.net and had downloaded it onto my computer and I am very thankful that I did because I went back to find it on the internet again and it keeps telling me that the server can't be found. I am super bummed because he had tons of super cute patterns and now it is gone. He had a pattern that I was going to use for my thanksgiving pattern so I ended up having to find another pattern. If anyone has any info on what happened to his site I would greatly appreciate it.
Each little cat ended up having its own little personality by the time I was done starching them.  I sometime changed the counts and sometimes I tatted a bit tighter than others so each one looks a bit different. I didn't block them when I starched them so that made each one unique.



              I hope everyone stays safe on Halloween
                    but have a spooky amount of fun!

Special thanks to Tio for helping me photograph the ornaments.

Happy Independence Day!!

Happy 4th of July! It has been quite a while since I have posted anything but I haven't really been doing tons of tatting. I had most of my 4th holiday motifs done by he first part of June but of course, running true to my MO I didn't completely finish them until July. Some of them made it in the mail in time to make it to my family but some of them got mailed a bit late and may not have made it on time. I really have no excuses since I had plenty of time in between holidays other than I am just lame and hate to finish my craft project in case they fail at the last minute.

I made 14 of these cards to send out to family and I am going to call them # in the 25 motif challenge. I found the picture for the star on pintrest and the blogger said she took the pattern from Ann Orrs classic tatting patterns and it was actually an edging pattern that she turned into a star.
The bead pattern is one that I did several years ago and I am not sure where I found the original pattern.  The thread I used was some I had found in a thrift store so I am not sure what it is but when I finished the stars they seemed to be done with 2 different colors of red so I decided to try adding glitter glue to my stiffening mixture to try covering it. Low and behold it seemed to work out great. Not sure if they will stand the test of time but they look pretty spiffy now!

I have also been working on another doily. Due to my inability to make decisions very easily I decided just to do another Wiosna doily. This is the same pattern I did last time but this one I am using Artiste thread in Coal black and dawn rose. 

One would think after doing this doily 3 times I would finally figure out why the second row keeps puckering but I'm still not sure what to do to fix it. I would imagine using better thread may help but I just cant afford more expensive stuff. I forgot I was going to try to decrease the stitch count until it was too late so this one will just have a bit of a puff look.

I hope you all have a safe and fun 4th of July!

Finished Doily and motifs 11 and 12

It has been a crazy busy last couple of weeks.  I was actually working away from home and staying in a motel and working 16 hour days for part of that so I didn't even get to pick up my tatting. It took me several days to recuperate so during those days I tatted a bit but mostly just sat in a state of stupor. We have had several days of almost summer like weather so I have spent quite a bit of time outside doing yard work. In between time I did finish my 4th doily.  This one is another Renulek which she calls Wiosna 2015, I used Artiste thread in #10 Wild Berry and black.  I am hoping that pressing the doily will help it to lay out flatter as it has a tendency to bunch.

We were asked to write a letter of encouragement to my mother-in law who was going to attend a women's retreat so I thought I would try to find a pattern for a cross bookmark that I could make in a couple hours as the letter had to go in the mail the next day.  I found a pattern by Mary Konior and I just used some left over thread that I had loaded on a couple of shuttles.

 I didn't like the way this one turned out and in my haste to try to hurry I dropped 4 chain stitches right at the top of the cross so I decided to try another pattern that I had found on pintrest.  I used another couple of shuttle that I already had loaded with thread to try it.  At this point I was out of time so I just ended up sending the little white one.  Its not perfect and it is quite tiny, I don't love it but I am hoping in this case "its the thought that counts".  I am going to call these crosses number 11 and 12 in the 25 motif challenge.

 I am probably not going to get much of a chance to tat this weekend because we are working another production show at a Seattle hotel.  It is going to be tons of extremely hard phyical labor but the money will be nice.

Have a nice weekend!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter...and yes it is actually Easter today! That makes 2 holidays in a row that I have posted my holiday project right on time! Craziness I know.

These were actually pretty fun to make.  It is a super simple pattern that comes from the book Tatted Easter Eggs by Kirsten Wind Hansen.  I used Artiste #10 thread and its called "spring".  The thread was a joy to work with and it may be one of my favorite colors as well. I made 17 of these to give to family and friends and I am going to call them #10 in the motif challenge.  These were actually pretty time consuming to make for as simple as they look. The little beaded chicks took quite a bit of time to make and I ended up having to starch the tatting so by the time I was done making 17 complete ornaments I never wanted to make another one but low and behold I remembered that I forgot to add someone to my list so I am going to have to buckle down and make one more which will bring the total up to 18 (Yes I did that math in my head)

Easter plastic canvas and doily

Happy Friday! Here we are at another weekend and another week in the memory bank. Ok, probably not so much in the memory, more like gone to the annals of the lost and gone. The week has gone by in somewhat of a blur but from what I remember I didn't get a much tatting done.  I did however finish an Easter project in plastic canvas.  The pattern was on sale so I splurged and bought it. You can find it here.

Thinking back I guess I did finish another row on my doily. I did employ the same method of adding a tiny picot between a couple of rings in this row that looking back on the last doily has a tendency to flip and be a bit wobbly.  The little picots seems to have helped with this problem.  As you can see my kitty was lots of help while taking pictures.

 I don't expect I will get too much tatting done this weekend as I am working a show at a casino and I will be holding odd hours but hopefully it will be a good weekend none the less.

Thanks Muskaan and magic loops

I had been been working on row 5 of my doily which are the little flower motifs when I happened to read a post from Muskaan on my previous post. WOW and past WOW!! I have literally spent hours being lost in her blog. The information on her site is invaluable and it literally shouts out her love and dedication to tatting! A huge giant shout out from the roof tops at the top of my lungs goes out to her for the amazingness of her site and willingness to share her talents and learning's!
She has shared lots of info about this exact doily. I wish I would have read the info before I started row 4 because she make the flowers before and then joins them during the construction of row 4. Way too late for that but I will be making use of that tip the next time I make this pattern.  I was however able to make use of the tiny joining picots she does when making the flowers unfortunately I had already gotten through the majority of doing them. So now I am at a dilemma as to whether or not to cut off the wiltey, tweaked looking flowers and re-due them.

I needed a big shuttle to start the next row on my doily and I couldn't find one that didn't have thread on it already.  The hoarder in me took over and wouldn't let me just unwind the thread and throw it away (even though I normally use cheaper thread) so I decided to tat a little motif to use the thread.  I decided to return to where it all began...my first tatting project.  My first project was a little heart done with a needle that I had found the tutorial on youtube. The tutorial and pattern can be found here.
Can I just say I am very thankful for magic loops! I am fairly certain I wouldn't have been able to complete this motif without them. I am going to call this motif #9 because the last time I did this pattern I used a needle and this time I used a shuttle.

Heres to hoping its a good weekend! I know it is going to be an extremely busy one for us...more on that later because I need to buckle in and get it started!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! I am very happy to announce that I actually got all my holiday projects in the mail and they were actually all received on time. I made 12 of these little celtic-knot shamrock clovers.  The pattern is from Merilee Rockley and can be found here.

I am quite obsessed with celtic knots so I was very excited to try this pattern out. Thankfully I had purchased the book "Celtic Tatting by Rozella F Linden" that had the instructions on how to weave the knot as those instructions aren't included in Marilee's pattern.  The only draw back to this pattern is that it is done in 2 passes so that means weaving lots of ends. I didn't love the little stem so I changed it up a bit by employing the same concept I used in making my pumpkin stems.  I still had a shuttle loaded from doing the Christmas trees so I used that shuttle to do the first one and I had every intention to change the color to a different green but I got a bit obsessed with making these and completely forgot to. So by the time I goth through making these I was more than ready to move on from this Artiste #10 thread in Emerald Green. I am going to consider these #8 in the 25 motif challenge.

St Patrick's has always been a fun and crafty holiday to me.  This year I made 3 little Leprechaun seeker kits to send to my kids and parents. They are kind of cheezy but I believe it lets my family know that I think about them.

I hope you all have a fun St. Patrick's day. 

Don't Forget to wear your Green!!

Rain, Doily and Garter

It has been a super rainy dreary week so far, thankfully its been a bit warmer than it has been but that is probably due to the fact that it is so overcast. The warmer has been much nicer but the dreary has done nothing to improve the depressed, more than sad mood I have been in. I have pretty much just sat on the couch either just in a state of stupor or trying to tat.
I have made it through the next row of my doily without too many issues.  I believe I have only had to un-tat one ring and one chain so that is the good news.  The next row is proving to be a bit of a challenge.  I cant, for love or money remember how I did the little 5 petal flowers that this involves.  I still have the last doily I did, yes I know I still haven't posted a final picture of it yet but I am glad I haven't trimmed the thread ends off yet. I have tried to study the last doily to see if I could figure out how I did them but that is not working so well.  I then turned to my blog to see if I could find any tips.  I am very glad I didn't read back through old posts before I started this doily again because I must have blocked out of my memory how much this doily fought me. Now I am kind of remembering the last one fought me so badly because I wasn't paying close attention to joins so moving forward I will just take this one slow and pay more attention.  I didn't find any tips about the flowers so I am hoping it will just come to me.

Laying this out flat I just found out that the second row is bunching up quite badly. I am trying to figure out why and if I do this pattern again what I can do to avoid it the next time.  I am almost wondering if I tatted row 3 too tight and made the joining picots too short.  Row 4 seems to be ok.  I have actually pulled the chains in this doily fairly tight so  maybe I didn't pull the chains as tightly in row 3.  Its sure times like these I wish there was a tatting group in my area or tatting classes that I could attend that I could learn more tips and tricks.
I have also spent a bit of time on the internet trying to come up with a pattern that will work to do a garter for my sister.  She is getting married in a couple weeks so I was hoping to be able to make her something.  I have been trying to come up with a pattern that I can run a blue ribbon through to give her the "something blue".  I found this bookmark pattern on pinterest that I added picots to but so far I am not loving the way it is turning out.

 I am not sure if the garter will even stay in place with just the tie so this project may be a bit more than I can accomplish in the time allotted but I guess I wont know that till I try. I am at the point right now that I need to make a decision whether to finish this one off or move on to another pattern. Almost all of my shuttles are being used on other projects so I am not sure what to choose.  I like the Aerlit shuttle I am using right now on this one but it doesn't hold much thread so that means lots of hiding ends which is annoying because I am not so good at it. Decision, decisions, decisions!!  AGGHHH!!!

New craft project

Another weekend bites the dust! This weekend was the first in a very long time that we didn't have to work. Most of it was spent just chillin but some of it was spent trying to finish the St Patricks gifts that I have been working on.  I don't want to post a picture of the kits until after they are received but I am happy to announce that I ended up starting and actually completing two new craft projects.
I had purchased a set of metal stamp punches some time ago but I had been afraid of trying them out...until now!

I made these to put in my St Patricks kits.  I used pennies with the birth year of everyone I sent them to except my parents, those I had to just use shiny ones. They were fairly simple to do so, YES I will be trying to do more metal stamping.

I also made a couple tshirts from an idea I found on pintrest.  These were super simple to make and I think they turned out pretty cute.  I made one for each of the grand kids. I got them in the mail a bit late so I hope they make it in time!

next project

Well it appears I have made it through the weekend and now we are well on our way through the week.  Its been one of those weeks where I am doing my best to keep my mind occupied otherwise I will end up rocking in the corner sucking my thumb (figuratively not literally).  I spent almost one whole day cruising the internet looking for my next craft project.  The problem is I have several new projects I would like to try my hand at but I really have a problem with starting something new because of my fear of failing so its easier to not even begin. The problem with that is I always end up beating myself up for not being able to start something new. Its quite the viscous circle and one that I cant seem to break. When I think about trying something new and then try to research it the anxiety rises and I let it get the better of me.  I literally have a huge craft room full of supplies just waiting to become something awesome but the anxiety gets the better of me so I end up just closing the door and running away. 
Since I desperately needed something to keep my mind occupied I finally settled on just starting another doily.  I decided on the same pattern as the one I just completed which is the Renulek wiosna 2015. 

I remember the doily being quite fun in some rows so this one is probably the easiest to do again.  I believe I am just going to use black and purple on this one.  The thread is artiste size 10 in black and wild berry.  Unfortunately right out of the gate in row 2 I missed doing a join so I ended up ripping out one large motif.  Of course I ended up breaking a thread on trying to loosen a ring that didn't have any picots in it.  Not such a good start so far but I am hoping I got the mistake out of the way early so I wont have to deal with any more! Fingers crossed!!

#6 and #7 motifs

Happy Friday! I am not really sure how it got to be Friday again, here lately it seems that I keep losing days out of my week.  Fridays always seem to sneak up and I am left wondering how I keep losing days of the week.  It is becoming quite scary so I hope I can figure it out soon.
I have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks working on my next family holiday motifs.  I have already gotten most of my Saint Patricks day motifs done so I am hoping I will actually get them in the mail way before March 17th.  Don't congratulate me just yet as I seem to always wait way too long to get them in the mail but I am going to try! As always I will post a picture of the project after I get them in the mail.

I have also been working on the Easter motifs and they are actually coming along quite nicely.  In my endeavor to come up with a pattern I first was thinking I would do little baskets.  I couldn't seem to find any patterns until I had an epiphany that I could just take a round pattern and shape it around a bowl and then starch it.  I then remembered that I hadn't finish my last doily and I remembered it had a fun round motif in the middle of that pattern so I actually found the doily and finally finished that project off. It is not completely finished as I still need to clip threads so I will photograph it later and post it soon. After all, that project has taken so stinkin long to complete that waiting for a few more days to post it only seems fitting!

I did try making a basket out of the center motif of the doily which is the Wiosna 2015 Renulek doily. I found that by using the same length picots instead of joining picots in the very center of the motif it actually formed a bowl all on its own but this pattern is just not suitable to adding a handle too. I then decided that going the basket route would not be the best idea because they would be a real pain to try to ship in the mail. Not sure what I will do with this little bowl but its kind of cute.

 After finishing the motif off I still had quite a bit of thread left on my shuttles. I used a thread that I found in goodwill so I am not sure what brand the thread is but it is not so fun to work with.  I hate to waste anything so I wanted to come up with a little motif that would use the remaining thread on the shuttles. As always I turned to the 25 motif challenge to draw inspiration. Well I decided to jump on the Ice Drop train! 

This pattern is pretty easy to follow so I am not sure how I ended up getting off on the counts but apparently it is pretty easy to do because I did it! When it came time to close up the motif and insert the drop I found that the small drop was too small and the big drop was way too big. It took me a bit to figure out what I did wrong because I was using a bigger thread than what is called for so I knew I would be off but I ended up only making 5 rings instead of the called for 6 rings.  I spent a little time looking around the yard to try to find a stone that would fit but I didn't have any luck.  I am fairly certain I should be able to come up with a stone to fit so a trip to the beach may be in order, a place where I know flat round stones to be plentiful.  This is a time where my hoarding tendencies will come in handy...I have enough shuttles hoarded that I can just leave those attached until I can find a stone to fit.  I will be trying the Ice Drop again and I highly recommended that if you haven't tried one yet, well jump on board! Thank you Diane for sharing your talents, her tutorial can be found here.

We have a pretty busy weekend coming up.  We will be working shows at the casino both tonight and tomorrow night and we will probably spend some of Sunday recovering from both shows. It is supposed to rain all weekend so I guess its a good time to work.  I always try to remember to take my tatting with me to the shows because if the bands hurry and get set up early I get time to do a bit of tatting. Here's to hoping that the weekend goes well for everybody!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day....and today is even February 14th.  I know, I know that doesn't happen very often that I post my holiday pictures on the exact holiday but for some reason I was able to get the projects done and in the mail by the day.   I am afraid not all of them will be received by today but at least it will be close.

I actually made 18 of these ornaments and I am going to call these 5 in the motif challenge.  I found the pattern for these fun little hearts on pintrest but you can find the pattern directly on this bloggers site here.  The pattern is very repetitive and they work up fairly quickly.  I used a size 10 thread from Artiste and the color is tropical pink.  You can find the pattern for the little beaded do-dad at threadabead.

I actually tried 4 other hearts before I finally settled on the one I did.  Below are motifs 6,7 and 8. I used a skein of thread that I had gotten from Goodwill so I am not sure what it is.

The heart on the left is a pattern from Bergit Phelps called Sweetheart and it can be found here.  I really like the way this one turned out but the pattern wasn't super repetitive and I needed a patter that would be easy to remember in my head because I knew I would be taking this project with me to California. I would imagine I will be trying this one again.
The heart in the right is a pattern by Betsy Evans and she calls it small tatted heart.  I didn't love the way this one turned out and the pattern was quite difficult to remember so I took a pass on this one as well.

I knew before I started this heart that it was probably going to be quite large but I tried it anyway.  This pattern is very repetitive but it would require tons of stiffening and after the fiasco with the Christmas trees I did I decided to steer clear of this one as well. The name of this heart is Tat Chat heart and I found it in the web archive.  Its a pattern by LaRae Mikulecky and you can find it here.

I really like this little heart by Irene Woo called Butterfly Heart. I found the pattern in the web archives and it can be found here.  The rings in the butterfly are fairly large with lots of stitches making it very difficult to close so I knew I didn't want to fight it with every ornament so this wasn't it either.  I will probably be trying this one again with a better, stronger thread.
In case you were wondering why I didnt trim any of my ends off on these, well the answer is simple...I use the ends to attach a tag to the project listing the name of the pattern and where to find it.  My memory is not the best...old age is creeping in on lots of levels, and this seems to be the best method for me.

I hope you all had a really good day, at least surrounded by people you love!

Merry late christmas, NAMM, hubby turns 50

It has been a super crazy busy last couple of weeks! I was very blessed to be able to go to California with my hubby on his business trip to NAMM which is one of the worlds biggest music industry conventions.  It is basically a musicians/music lovers paradise dream come true. This was my 5th year in a row being able to go and each year I have met lots of my musician idols including some of the biggest names in 80s butt rock history.  It rained almost the whole week we were there included terrible flooding in some areas so we spent most of the time indoors.
The best part of the whole trip was being able to hang out with my step daughter and her hubby and her new baby.  Our new grand baby turned a year old on Christmas day.  What a complete joy he is and we are so very proud of his parents for being so awesome!!
We were gone a whole week and we came home to find our refrigerator and freezer had quit working and the moles outside had completely ruined our front yard. At this point there are more mole mounds than yard, it is very frustrating and makes me so sad. Thankfully the reason for the appliance fail was a tripped GFI in the kitchen, but unfortunately we lost at least $300 in food.
 Some of the other business included throwing a 50th birthday party for the hubby and then taking him to a fancy steak dinner once we got home, going to our companies annual get together and working several shows at the casino. I didn't get a lot of tatting done due to the craziness but I did finally get most of the Christmas cards shipped off so its time to post pictures.

I found this tree pattern at be-stitched.  This was actually a pretty fun pattern to stitch. It is a very repetitive pattern and I wanted the "needles to look like natures" so I was very sloppy with the picots.  This was the first project I did that required a stiff blocking because of the position I wanted to put the angel on the tree and the super large picots. I tried several different methods and finally settled on glue and water.  I tried using a corn starch pattern that I found online and as you can see by the tree on the right I either did something wrong or the starch pattern doesn't work with colored thread.

The starch turned the green tree whitish and it wont come out. I didn't try using sugar because some of the people I sent them to have pets and I have heard that the sugar can be a temptation to the pets. The spray on starch that I usually use didn't stiffen it enough. It actually took some trial and error to get the glue starch figured out. To get them stiff enough I had to use quite a bit of glue and very little water and I had to remember to peel them off the plastic paper they were drying on and turn them over half way through the drying process to avoid the build up of glue that happened to the back of them. I found the best method was to first iron them so the picots laid flat and the painting the glue mixture on the trees with a paintbrush.  I ended up making 16 complete ornaments with a total of 19 tatted trees. The worst part of these was by far the stiffing, it seemed to take forever so I was very glad when they were all completed. It took a really long time to get them all out in the mail, in fact I still have 2 more that need to go out.  With any amount of luck they should go out within the week...Wish me luck!

25 Motif Challenge Complete!!!

I guess its safe to say I have officially made it physically through the holidays but I still have not accomplished all the holiday tasks I set out to do.  I cant even remember when it was the last time I actually enjoyed the season.  For the most part it is just stressful and full of anxiety.  This year seemed to be even worse.  We knew that we wouldn't be spending it with family and we knew there wouldn't be any money to be able to do any gifts.  I actually worked really hard to at least do a little tatting project to send to family and friends.  I had them all done by Christmas but low and behold I still haven't gotten them all put in the mail.  I got so frustrated that I didn't get them out in time that I just put them all aside and didn't finish sending any of them out.  So I have spent the last couple weeks kicking the crap out of myself to the extent that it has pretty much paralyzed me into not wanting to do anything.
Well before Christmas I went to try to finish my blue doily I was working on to give as  gift but I ended up finding that I missed joining a ring in the previous row. I found it after I had went past it by 3 big motifs.  I set it aside and let it just about drive me crazy trying to decide what to do with the mistake. I had seriously thought about just leaving the mistake alone and just finishing the doily so I could use it as  Christmas gift. I let it frustrate me so badly that I ended up not getting it done.

I don't want to post a picture of the little tree motifs I did for Christmas cards until I get them all sent out ( I know... I am super lame being so late with them!)  I will try to get them sent out tonight and post a picture later.  I had actually gotten all the Christmas ones done well before Christmas so I moved onto making snowflakes.  I needed something simple and repetitive to help keep my mind occupied and that would cause the least amount of stress.  Had I thought of snowflakes before I got halfway through making the trees I would have done snowflakes for the cards (another something to stress about and kick myself about).
I am only one motif away from completing the 25 motif challenge.  I was thinking that my blue doily could complete it but I am still working on the silly thing.  So I guess I will finish off the challenge with this  snowflake. I saw something like it on pintrest but the link was a dead one so I decided to just try one like it and make up my own counts.  The second one I tried I changed the counts a bit and wasn't paying too close attention and got way off on the counts while doing one of the arms so i decided instead of tearing it out I just kept going and made the next arms match the mistake. It is quite weird looking but after all...no two snowflakes look the same right?

Challenge completed.....and with weeks to spare!!

I had so much fun doing the challenge that I believe that I am going to go for another round. It has given me something to focus on when I cant seem to slow my head down from spinning. It has given me something to strive for when it has been difficult to look toward the future.  I have already got a good start on it. Below are motifs 1,2 and 3

I saw a picture of these little snowflakes on pintrest and it wasn't hard to figure out the pattern. I was using cheap Aunt Lydias crochet thread in size 10 so the ring with the bead on it was very difficult to close and very hard to keep tension on so I don't love how they turned out but they are kind of cute none the less. They work up super fast so I may have to try to find some Lizbeth thread and so some more of them.

 Here is another snowflake whose pattern that I referenced from a picture that I found on pintrest.The pin said it was found on the DMC site but I couldn't find it so I guessed at the counts. This one is fairly large measuring just over 5" and they are pretty floppy so they are going to have to be more heavily starched.

I only made one of these little snowflakes whose pattern can be found here at Tats all called Betsy snowflake.  I don't like how the middle bunched up so so I didn't try another one. 

I want to thank all those who help out to keep the 25 motif challenge going! I would imagine it is a pretty huge task but believe me when I say that I appreciate it more than words can say!