I'm thrilled to bits

My tatting web page is an off shoot of our company web site which is maintained by my wonderful sweetheart. Consequently he prefers that he does all of the maintenance on the pages. That's OK, he's the programmer, I'm not. At this stage, he's probably forgotten more programming than I'll ever learn. Unfortunately Meniere's makes him periodically deaf in one ear and gives him sudden violent dizziness of the kind that drops him to the floor. I guess that's why they call them drop attacks. One minute he's whistling and working happily away and the next he's on the floor. Really not fun if you happen to be up a ladder! At the same time he gets violent eye rotation of the kind observed in REM sleep, except that his eyes are wide open.

Have you ever seen a lizard rotate it's eyes in opposite directions? Ever wondered what things would look like if people saw 2 different images simultaneously? Don't bother trying to imagine it. We have 2 eyes focuses forward because our brains are equipped to process a single panoramic view. It's very disorienting to have multiple images flashed on our brains. Sadly, that's what my hubby has to deal with when he gets a Meniere's attack. Sounds and images are suddenly distorted, there is internal pressure from the swelling in his inner ear, his eyes won't focus on anything with each one doing an independent jig, all attended with violent dizziness and nausea.

So for a long time now he has worked on modifications to my web page, but since it wasn't urgent progress has been very slow, just because it was't a priority. Of principle interest to me, was a simple way to add a new book onto the web site without having to re-design the home page. When there was only one or two items he had blended graphics into the home page image and that worked out quite well, but then as new books were done there was no space to add them in. So he started developing a secondary page that could be added to easily. He not only created the page to display current books, but he programmed in functions so that new books could be added with multiple mouse over images and the page automatically handles the input for PayPal transactions. The web site calculates the pricing including shipping and handling, by picking up the data from the location information input from the order form and then passes it through to PayPal when the form is submitted. He built in a printing function so that people can  print a copy of the order before submitting it, so they know what they ordered.

Everything was working perfectly in Internet Explorer, but then we tested it in Chrome and FireFox and some of the functions didn't work properly, so he re wrote it to cover those little oddities as well. Finally, after years of working on it, in fits and starts it's done. YAYYYYY!!!!!

Busier than a one armed paper hanger

That's how I've been feeling. I'm trying to tat all of the designs from the Design-Tat course and I don't have a lot of time for it right now. I've just returned from the tatting class I teach at the senior's centre. The ladies are all enthusiastic, although some of them are telling me that I'm giving them headaches. We're only working with simple ring and chain designs so it's hard to imagine that they'd find it difficult. They seem flummoxed when I tell them they CAN do it. I think they're used to people who dumb things down for seniors and I just refuse to let them quit.

We started with the Flower Bookmark, it's the Beginner pattern in the sidebar 3 of the ladies completed a bookmark and the next week we went on to working with beads. That seemed to be challenging, so the next week I went back to simple ring and chain edging, but that seemed to confuse them again. This week I did a simple ring and chain snowflake with beads and we got about a third of the way through it in class, so I'm hopeful that by next week they will have made progress.

I took my Marvellous Motifs in for them to look at, but honestly most of the designs are probably beyond them at this point. Still they all seem to want to buy it. There are 6 more weeks of class and they should have a good grasp of it by then, at least everything except clunies, but I'm hoping we get to them as well.

Speaking of Marvellous Motifs I was able to get to the post office and get the shipping costs so here's the price in Canadian funds including shipping.

Canada $20
USA $21
International $23

Hubby is working on a project for a client and so it's not up on the web site yet, but if you email me I can send you a PayPal invoice for it. My email address:
tatdlace at gagechek dot com.

Marvellous Motifs

After what has seemed like an interminable amount of time I can finally show you my latest project. I started about a year ago working on square motifs that could be used for a larger project like a shawl. I wanted something that was not too open so that it could be made in a thicker thread which would work up faster and still be lacy. Then I got side tracked and started working on hearts and one thing led to another.

I've been trying to keep up with work and the 25 Motif Challenge and the Round Robins and the Design-Tat course and more recently I've been teaching the seniors to tat at the local rec centre, in between which we've had some fun going on with car repairs and the launch of new software and... Well, you get the idea.

Today I finally managed to get the first few copies of my newest book done. Marvellous Motifs containing 19 versatile patterns. Here's a sneak peek of the front cover. Ordering information will be posted as soon as I know what the shipping costs will be.

I was able to get to the post office and get the shipping costs so here's the price in Canadian funds including shipping.

Canada $20
USA $21
International $23

Hubby is working on a project for a client and so it's not up on the web site yet, but if you email me I can send you a PayPal invoice for it. My email address:

tatdlace at gagechek dot com.