Pardon the Dust...and a Blog Award!

What a surprise! Carol Lawecki honored me with this Bella Sinclair Award for Art Inspiration, Friendship Sisterhood, Sharing, and Caring. Carol is an uber- talented tatter with a very caring soul. Thanks for making me feel special.

Congratulations to Laura, Tatskool, and Aileen who ARE special and inspire us with their contributions every day!

Just re-arranging and tidying up a bit

I had a lovely note last week from Nancy in Dallas who asked if I could make the site larger. She could only see a small area and she said it was too hard for her to see.

Blogger controls the bandwidth and storage space for this blog, but I suspect Nancy didn't mean that. In the event that she is having trouble reading the print because it is small on her monitor I can do two things.

First, I can enlarge the font size to make the words easier to read. I have done this. I used to have the settings locked for a larger font, but somehow they reverted back to the template default. Please do let me know if the larger font makes it easier for you to read.

Second, I can attempt to instruct Nancy how to change the display resolution for her monitor. I do not know what operating system she is running or what the aspect ratio is for her monitor. But those thing may not be relevent if she just wants to see the full blog width. 1024 x 768 is a pretty good place to start.

According to Wikipedia, "As of July 2002^[update], 1024×768 Extended Graphics Array was the most common display resolution."

My display resolution is 1152 x 864. My hubby prefers 1280 x 1024. I can't read the tiny print on his laptop and bristle when he offers to "fix" my desktop. Does this happen at your house?

As a general rule of thumb, the larger the first number in the ratio, the smaller the words (font or type size) on your display. So Nancy should check her display resolution to see if lowering it might help.

You may notice some changes while I tweak settings in an effort to make the blog width viewable to the widest audience. I am no expert and am basically shooting arrows in the dark.

Please accept my apologies in advance for any inconvenience this may cause!

End of Summer Blues?

Image reprinted with permission
Copyright © 2009 Carol Gillott
We all hate to see the lazy days of summer come to an end, don't we? I'm no exception. As August heat gives way to cooler breezes and geese trek across the skies, it is getting harder to ignore the unavoidable truth - Autumn is around the corner.

But before Fall's dazzling foliage, pumpkins and hayrides take over the landscape, I want to bask in the illusion of Indian summer.

Tatting Tea Tuesday pays tribute to everyone who, like me, is in denial about the end of summer. All hail its glorious last days!

Basic Strawberry Heart © 2003 Birgit Phelps
(Celtic-style Top to come later)
As I settle in with a cup of strawberry herbal tea, I pull out some Coats & Clarks "boilfast" size 70 tatting cotton in a perfectly ripe, juicy red.

Another of my flea market finds, it came in a 12-inch metal tin that was filled with partial spools of vintage tatting thread. Apparently they had been stashed away for a rainy day, then sold at auction.

What better way to honor summer's last hurrah than with a symbol of its bounty? My freezer is filled with juicy strawberries fresh-picked in May so we can
enjoy mouthfuls of sunshine all winter long.

I'm making two of these strawberry hearts for a special Teapot Tuesday project I have been keeping mum about for awhile now. More on that later.

This bitty berry project would be done except that the only green cotton I have is either size 80 in a pale, mint green or size 20 Manuela in a dark, Hunter green.

So I await the arrival of a size 80 Christmas green from Handy Hands. It should arrive by parcel post later in the week.

Once the Celtic-style tops are done I will post again and share the surprise that Mothermark over at This is My Story has in store. I'm so excited about it and can't wait to share it with you!

But my part in this project has had to simmer on a back burner while I focus on the lessons for the Design-Tat class. Mothermark waits patiently, but I figured I had better send her something before summer was well and gone.

You, however, won't have to wait longer than Halloween (October 30th) for news of our awesome little collaborative tea project.

In the meantime, revel in the glorious pseudo-summer days that remain and prepare for Autumn's splendor.

Wishing you all blissful me time to create something beautiful.

See you next Tuesday for more communi-tea!

Win a Year of Lace

Re-Tweeting @yearoflace: As an aspiring tatting lace designer who dabbles in knitted lace, I would love to win a subscription to the 2010 Year of Lace! Sign me up!

Click on the "Sign me up" link above to go to the website.

If you Twitter, don't go sign up or you'll make it harder for me to win. Just kidding and good luck!

Source: @yearoflace: Have you entered the contest yet for a free 2010 subscription? Tweet why you love the Year of Lace and use the hashtag #yearoflace.