New Shuttles to be

I lost one of my tatted shuttles the last time I drove up to see Girl Far From Home.  I didn't just misplace it, I permanently and irrevocably lost it.  It was my favorite tatted shuttle because it was the blue one and I don't know why it was my favorite because they are both the same size, shape, weight, etc . . . but it was my favorite.  I'm going to miss that shuttle.

At least until some of these motifs are made into shuttles.  I'm getting three new tatted shuttles.  The shuttles I currently have are exactly the same as the red and white motifs.  I think I want the new ones bigger.  I like shuttles a little bigger so I can put more thread on them and not worry about trying to hide more ends than I absolutely have to hide.  I'm not very good at hiding ends - in fact, I'm really bad at it.

The top row of motif's is dry and the bottom wet because when these are made into shuttles, they will look like they look when wet.  I don't think I'm doing anything with the red and white.  The multi color thread -red, yellow, blue and green - came from Mom's house.  I'm not sure what she used it for, but I think it was quite old.  I had to remove the outside of the ball because it had smoke damage from when the house caught on fire but after winding off a bit, I found the inside was ok and it didn't even smell of smoke.  The purples are the Grape Punch thread that Lace-Lovin' Librarian sent me.  I love this thread and I think it's seriously cool that I will have a shuttle that a friend had a hand in - I used the shuttle she sent to tat those motifs too.  The blues on the end are some new thread I got from Handy Hands just the other day.  I love this color and it will replace the blue one that I loved and lost.

Lace-Lovin' Librarian just had to show off her Handy Hands goodies . . . and I didn't have the willpower to resist after I read her blog - barely had the will power after I read the Handy Hands Email and checked out the site the first time.  I didn't do as much damage as Diane did though.  I got one of the ball holders in pink and a matching pink shuttle and then a sea green shuttle because, well, you need at least two, don't you?  The ball holder came with a ball of Zebra (148) - size 20 and I bought two other size 20 balls one in Autumn Spice (136) and Blue River Glades (164).  I love both colors but I had to have a blue shuttle, so I used the Blue River Glades to make the motifs for the third tatted shuttle.

In other news, Girl Far From Home arrived home in one piece last night - drove herself this time so I didn't have to make the trek to pick her up.

We baked the annual family fruit cakes today - always fun when the Whole Family gets together to make them.

Girl Far From Home harvested two tomatoes from her plant today - there are about a dozen more on the plant in various stages of ripeness.  Her plant is in the greenhouse, but we still haven't had our first frost here - at least not in my yard.  The sweet potatoes are still growing - see the little potato sticking it's nose out of the ground?  There are still peppers growing on the pepper plants - think that one is a serano and can actually be picked now but it's still growing so I'll leave it until it really is going to freeze.  There are still galapagos tomatoes growing though I'm not sure they'll have enough time to finish growing and ripen before we do finally get a frost.  Everything slows down so much at this time of year that even without a frost, it's pretty much a given that we are done harvesting.

At some point this week, we are going to the beach house for Thanksgiving.  I do love going there for holidays, just wish Girl Far From Home had more time to spend with her friends.