Tatted Snowflake, Crocheted Bookmarks, and an Orchid Photo

Before I begin, I hope everyone had a good New Year's. Mine was alright; I had to work New Year's Day, but it wasn't that bad. The store was fairly quiet, and I'm not complaining about getting double time pay for several hours of the day. I'm not one to make resolutions for New Year's. I mean, if I don't make them, I can't break them, right? However, I will try to get the patterns I designed (Male Betta, and the Venus Fly Tat) written out and diagrammed. Actually, the Betta is partially written, and the VFTat is diagrammed. I also would like to design more patterns. I have many ideas I'd like to see come into reality; some flora in nature, some piscine (the Betta needs more friends) and a special project. I would also like to mention that January 1 was the first anniversary of my blog. I really appreciate having all of you reading my blog, and especially everyone who leaves comments. Thank you so much for visiting.

Here is another snowflake made for the Snowflake Round Robin.

This is Lenore English's "January Reflections" snowflake. I love this pattern. It is probably my favourite snowflake of Lenore's, though the others are close behind. For this flake, I used DMC Cebelia size 30 thread in colour # 797. This is motif # 17 of my Second 25 Motif Challenge. Jon's snowflake from a few posts ago was # 16.

I didn't get any tatting done over Christmas. For several days before I was crocheting bookmarks like crazy. I wanted to make some different looking bookmarks and they had to clearly masculine for the guys and feminine for the ladies. For the guys I chose crocodiles:


And for the ladies, turtles:


I know, turtles can be masculine as well, but not as much as crocodiles. They are all made with size 10 crochet cotton in a variety of colours, brands, and ages. They are all lightly starched so they hold their shape. I'm sure you're wondering, "Where can I get these awesome patterns? I really need to know!". Well, they are from a talented crocheter from Australia called Crochetroo. You can buy the patterns from her Etsy shop. She has a number of patterns available, as well as some finished items. I highly recommend the patterns to all you crocheters out there.

Finally, I have an orchid photo for all you plant and orchid lovers out there.


This is Paphiopedilum spicerianum 'St. Albans' x self, HCC/AOS, a tropical Lady Slipper orchid. This is my first Paphiopedilum to flower. I was so excited to see the bud forming early in December. I can't wait for the other four Paphs to flower, whenever they decide to. Before a Paphiopedilum can flower, it must first grow an offset, since once a plant flowers it cannot grow anymore (the flower stalk comes out where the leaves usually grows). This plant grew two offsets within a couple months of me getting it. As long as each of these offsets grow their own offsets and so on, I could end up with a large plant sending up multiple flowers each year. I can't wait for that day to come.

That's about it for now. Oh, before I forget, I have a request from all of you who live in a warm climate. Could you send some of the heat up here? We are currently -40°C, -52 with the wind chill (that is, how cold it feels when the temperature is combined with the wind; a wind chill temperature doesn't have a C or an F behind it because it is calculated and not an actual measured temperature). I have more stuff to post, so it shouldn't be too long before I post again. Until next time.