Meeting The President!

Yesterday our President came to town for a very special event.

 I have told you about...and shown you photos from our dearly beloved wildlife park lots of times.

We are one of the top 5 tourist attractions in the country...and we are SUPER.

The conservation elf is on the Board of Governers so we got to be invited guests.

It was very much a whistle stop tour for a very busy lady...we were lucky to have her.

She came,met everyone, toured the park...

on one of out tourist trains.....this is the other one,especially loved by the children....like me!

She gave a superb speech....it was touch and go if the rain would hold off..

she couldn't believe how much freedom and space the animals have.

The park does a wonderful job. liitle Rua the baby red panda is going off to start a new life soon and hopefully help to make more red pandas!

Next she unveiled a commemorative plaque alongside beautiful bronze cheetah sculptures.

This is just in front of the new entrance/extension...on the park side. cant you see the curtains in the first photo? the people who work in the offices have cheetahs just outside their windows...real cheetahs!

The extension also includes a new gift shop/cafe complex with outdoor seating. Just opposite is a new enclosure with Meerkats and Mangabey monkeys, which can be enjoyed along with a cup of coffee.

Look at the stunning natural woven fencing.

She shook hands with so many people and posed with little children who had had their faces painted and their mums.....and me too(shook hands that is!)

Sorry that I can't show you lots of photos.....

but here she is elf chatting with the conservation elf.

She was so genuine....we are so lucky to have her as our President.

Sadly she had to leave after only a short visit and we all had to continue the celebrations without her.

A ride on my favourite train and a yummy buffet and a walk back past the animals....

can you see the Ring Tailed lemurs who enjoyed the day too?

Super, super day.....we will be back to the estate on sunday for the annual Rare and Unusual Plant Sale...and on Easter Sunday with the grandson now two and a half who adores all things train!

Goodies Galore 2!

Next to show is a box of goodies from Ridgewoman in New Mexico.

A while ago I won a give-away on her blog for guessing the origin of the name of the gorgeous pussy, Pippa who is the star of her blog heading.

The box itself is a gift....

.....before the excitement of wondering what it contained....

I couldn't even remember what the prize was...but I think it was some HDT and a shuttle.

That HDT sure looks nice.

It is Yarnplayer's Sugar Maple dyed on Cotton Floss, that's a new experience for me.

There was also Yarnplayer's Forest in size 50. One of the very first colours that I got from her to tat geckos. That's a while ago!

OK I will open the box and show you the contents...

....drool over all those goodies...I did!

The shuttle is one of the new Boyle plastic post shuttles with a pick....going into my collection (and to use sometimes for pleasure of course).

Two lots of ribbon, great for mounting tatting on to make bookmarks.

3 eazy bobs...is that how it's spelt..it doesn't have the name on the bobbin....another new novelty to try.

2 lengths of very unusual beads...for jewellery and a bag with more beads in..little hearts and some findings.....a ball of Valdani dark green floss...will go with the Sugar Maple.

Oh and a ball of Lizbeth 40 in lemon yellow....that's already been used for one of my latest projects.

Almost at the end.....for Feargal there was a Serape for cold nights round the camp fire. Donnacha gave this up without much of a fight!

Tadgh says wherever you are Feargal...eat you heart out 'cos he saw it first!

Did you see the gorgeous tatting at the front, a snowflake and a medallion for the Serape...how how we loves to get our hands on someone elses tatting.

Oh so pretty.

Finally there sitting on top of the box on the Serape is the cutest little bear.

It's turquoise from a mine in Arizona and is a fetish 'mmm maybe with mystical qualities' common in Indian decoration. Can't read where from it looks like S.W.Arnes  but couldn't find that on Google.

She said that she had fun stuffing the box and she sure did stuff a lot in there..it was like Christmas again.

Thank you so much.

Goodies galore!

I haven't showed you the other lovely piece of tatting that I received at Christmas....

....from my good friend Sally (from Tat's Heaven).

It's sister Jane's Flurry Snowflake that she designed for her Christmas Give-aways.

very Christmasy in these colours.

Thanks Sally  for thinking of me.

More goodies to show next time.

Happy Tat Day!

International Tatting Day 2011

A Red Letter Day

the Rules are...

Tat only for yourself,

Wear something tatted

Eat Chocolate!

Well my Tat Lassies

CAME, brought CHOCOLATE,WORE, TATTED....and ATE.....

mostly we ate and talked!!

This was the table before we started work....

The Teapot Tree has been transformed into an Easter Egg Tree. 

The chocolate is piled up,mmmm!

Chocolate and caramel pie,  and..and...and...and.. is your mouth watering?

Hope you all had a great day too.

We tatted Easter Eggs...

....watch this blog for an Easter Egg Eggstravaganza coming soon.

Two more Teapots made their debut appearance.

Shamrock teapot in beautiful soft spring colours

...and another lovely  Celtic Button teapot..

...as well as her finished Gingerbread man....remember from a previous post how cute he looked..

isn't he stunning?

Overflowing with teapots!

MORE

teapots fell off my shuttles.

This is another favourite, it's very pretty.

Lilac tiny buttons,pink sparkly...anoth lilac sparkly would have looks better!
It does look a bit sickly sweet in the scan , much nicer in reality.

Threads are Raspberry Ripple with Vanilla and matching Ripple Pink and Parma Violet.

This one I think looks extra pretty  because I added some bling....some silver lined pale pink beads.

I scanned it the wrong way round by mistake so you get to see the back view.

Raspberry Ripple with Vanilla has become one of my favourite threads...so I had to dye some more to keep up my stocks. I even dyed matching Vanilla solids and an even lighter version. I find that it is essential for me to have matching solids especially when I work in anything thinner than 20. In 20 I will usually find something to match in my huge stash of Flora.

Spurred on by my addiction to beads....my next Teapot has transparent beads colour lined with white.

This one is very striking too in Flora 20 poppy red and white with tiny white buttons and a goirgeous metal button.

Another metal button for my final teapot....for now!

Another very different colour change.....

...a seascape, rather a rough sea this one, with dark blue tiny buttons, pitted metal button. the threads are my HDT in Coral reef and Wedding Teal with silver lined teal beads to add sparkle. White thread show the tips of the waves.

Martha is always delighted when I make her designs with my tat lassies and I usually send her photos of what they make.

They had never tatted with buttons before so it was a challenge, only two of them finished the teapot so far.

Jackie made two....

This very pretty Delft one dedicated to her homeland.....

....and one using green tiny buttons, from the selection that I gave them.

Marjorie tatted this lovely one in Lizbeth 20 with cream buttons.

There are more still to come in.

Remember my showing you my silver and crystal jewellery stand that I bought recently.

Well it has been turned into a Teapot Tree. can you see 3 different teapot designs...all by Martha Ess...my Teapot Queen.

It usually stands in my hallway in front of a mirror so I see much more of the teapots all round....very hard to photograph.

One more different teapot to show you...but it isn't finished yet!

Teapots are topping!

This last bout of enthusiasm came about after I received a beautiful Christmas gift from my dear friend Martha Ess.....it was her brand spanking new design.....Celtic Button Teapot.

I had to have this pattern!

Fortunately is was to be published in Tatting Times the tatting periodical of Karey Solomon.

It was a good job that I am a subscriber. You should be too....this is a stunner.

My trial attempt was in Flora 20 in my special trial colour of burgundy with fawn, as the fawn matched some tiny buttons that I had in my stash. A super set of earthy toned buttons.

It's an easy pattern to tat once you get the hang of joining into the buttons.

the only problem that I had was where to join the last round to the inner sections.

Martha says the first join can be to any chain in round 1......but she wrote the pattern for a 4 hole center button and with a 2 hole one and  IT DID MATTER....well if you want the holes in the button to be horizontal...and I did....like Martha did for my gift.

So it was back to the drawing board to figure out exactly which chain I should join to. That done and I was away to buy more tiny buttons.....and even some really nice buttons for the center(s)!

I found that 4 hole buttons were hard to find.

Thought on this teapot were that I would prefer to get more definition with a dark outer round.

What do you think?

Baby pink tiny buttons(not my favourite...but I couldn't get buttons with umph...in a hurry!)

Center button is Mother of Pearl. Thread colours are from my ChocoRaspberry series....raspberry Sorbet and the darker Raspberry and Chocolate Mousse with a pale pink Flora 20 (I think)....oops no it's actually white!

This one has to be my favourite..it just sings!

Tiny matt chocolate buttons from my stash and a pretty red 4 hole button.

the threads used are my HDT's  Flame Lantana and Chocolate Sauce. 

My teapots are all in size 20 so far.

Just to show that I don't always get it right.....

this round had only 7 rings instead of 8!

 

This one was an alternative center...for another time!

Which do you prefer???

 

I think it fair to ask you not to try to work out the pattern for this teapot from my pictures. 

This is not the aim of this blog.

Martha put a lot of effort into designing this and her rights should be respected. Do go to the source of the pattern yourself.

One last teapot for today then I really must go and drink some to revive myself!!

Something different with pretty lilac buttons  and a gorgeous sparkly lilac center button. You really can't see how pretty it is.

Threads are my HDT Sweetshop with matching Parma Violet from the Sweetshop collection and a toning Flora for the outer round.

I will be back soon with more colour variations in this pattern...yes I did rather get carried away.....and even more tatted by my tat lassies....who drool over and buy...everything design that Martha produces.

Happy St Patrick's Day and Time for Tea!

I can't believe that it's over a year ago that I test tatted Martha Ess's Shamrock Teapot for her Book 'Tatted teapots' and showed you here.

Spring is really in the air, the weather has been glorious for the last few days,the most beautiful pink skies at night, daffodils in bloom.

So I re tatted the teapot to give to a friend, had to be exactly the same as I couldn't bear to part with the original.

Well of course if you know me...you will realise that by this time I was thinking...

WHAT WOULD IT LOOK LIKE IN DIFFERENT COLOURS???

Maybe a different green..more real shamrocky and for the surrounding flowers...well  they had to be daffodils didn't they!

My Just Daffodils was just right!

I had lots of greens in Flora,Coats Mercer and Cebelia and even DMC in 20 to choose from...and picked one in Flora.

SO here is my

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY 

Greetings to you all.

I couldn't resist adding a few beads...I thought that the handle looked lovely...but the lid seemed a bit 'feeble'!

I am in 'Teapot' mode at the moment and decorated my new Art Deco silver and crystal tree with teapots.

These new ones are a little too big so methought to tat it again in a 40. Just Daffodils was there waiting for me in but darn I didn't have a solid green.

But I did have both in a Coats 30....so here goes...not quite finished yet but I added more beads to the lid...what do you think???

The two large Teapots...

....and the beaded teapots in 20 and 30.

My Daffodil Green is darker than the Flora that i chose and gives more definition..I think.

Yeah forgot to post this...and yo and behold I have finished my teapot.
It measures 5.5 in from handle to tip of spout in size 30 thread.

Mmm the beads on the lid give the lid a squarish look...is that good or not?

I am in Teapot mode, lots more to show you....next time.

have a happy day.

After the Zoo!

We continued up to the very North of Ireland to Derry, constant rain, freezing cold.

Stayed in a beautiful old Country House Hotel.....even President Clinton has stayed there!

It would have looked a whole lot prettier in the sunshine.

We were in a new annexe.....see the upper dormer room with the two windows open. A huge room with a six foot bed and sofas.

The first house was built in 1622,burned to the ground in 1638 during a rebellion, a second house built in 1661 was also burned to the ground by a retreating army.

Rebuilt again in 1739, this time they had more luck!

The house is packed full of history and character, round every turn there is something to enjoy including two splendid chess sets laid out to tempt you to move a piece.

The gardens must be lovely in the sunshine, It stopped raining just enough to get some photos.

There were Grey Squirrels running up and down the trees!

The funny thing about staying in these gorgeous Hotels in March is that we may be the only people staying there. Such is the recession.

We would have liked to have walked round the historic walled town of Derry but it was just too cold.

So it was a drive up into County Donegal (another first for us) to the most northerly point of Ireland to Malin Head.

As children we listened to the radio as we didn't have televisions. After the news came the shipping forecast, I can here the drone of the voice now as he reeled off the names of the most far flung coastal points of the British Isles. he would give the windspeed and direction and whether it was moderating in the near future.

The names were all so intriguing and now I have visited a few of the, Malin Head is one that I well remember.

The weather was atrocious, gales of sleet from the east sweeping across the road so that we could hardly see through the windscreen. Sleet piled up at the side of the road.

 The road up to the head was spectacular...

The weather changing every few minutes.

At the end of the road we drank a cup of coffee,it was too windy to even think of getting out of the car....no wonder this spot was picked for the shipping forecast!

WE didn't even get a peep at what the view was beyond these information boards.

See the sleet at the side of the road.

To one side of us was the watch tower..

Hope you can read some of these details.

 Good bye watch tower!

Goodbye County Donegal.

Brrrr!!!

Next day it was a long old drive from the almost the very top of Ireland to almost the very bottom.

The further south we went the warmer it got...but it was still raining.

I was glad to get home!

Now back to tatting!!