Saturday on the town...

We have been entertaining guests this week. Two friends of the Mister came to town, to go to the SEMA show with him. The SEMA show ended Friday and our last guest left this morning, so Saturday was filled with our version of Las Vegas 'amusements'.

We went to two car shows and a car parts swap meet, then we went to Hoover Dam to see the progress of the bridge over Black Canyon (a bypass alternate to driving over the dam).


The bridge is 'below' the dam ( down river), but very high up in the air. I don't really like bridges and I cannot imagine driving across this one when it is complete.

It will be a short-cut compared to going the current alternate route, which goes through Needles, Searchlight and miles and miles of nothing, on the way to Arizona. That route avoids the tourist traffic across the dam and the security search that is inevitable, if you are pulling a trailer or camper, (which we often are) but it is longer.

The water level at Lake Mead just keeps getting lower and lower! The 'bathtub ring' is about twice as high as it was when we came here, three years ago.

This marina was moved about a year ago. It would have been high and dry by now, if it hadn't been moved.

We saw a big horned sheep, grazing by the side of the rode as we drove through Boulder City, but did not get a photo. (Dearest Sister and I always track our 'fauna' sightings. She was visiting Alpacas, yesterday, but they are not 'free range' so I don't think they really count... She might disagree...)

After our tour of the "Wonders of the Modern World, Nevada Edition", we grilled hamburgers and hot dogs.

Afterwards, I caught The Mister and his buddies watching Lawrence Welk!

That is how much excitement you can find at our house, on a Saturday night!

From Small Town, to Uptown!

It is Automotive Industry Week in the city! Last year, my car was an 'attention getter' at AAPEX, the 'Automotive Aftermarket Parts Exhibit'. That is where repair shops find replacement parts. like windshield wipers, air conditioners, etc. Not exciting, but necessary.

The Isetta sat prettily in the Clean Tools booth and we received what is surely a lifetime supply of their products. Most of the family (except the babies) got some form of car cleaning supplies for Christmas, and we still have a lifetime supply!

Several months ago, the agency that handled the arrangement said that they would not need the car. They had decided to bring one of their own. A couple of weeks ago, though, they emailed to ask if it would be available again, and apologised for the last minute request.


The Mister in his usual photo mode -not smiling!

This year, the Isetta is at SEMA! The Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association exhibit! SEMA is the Big Show!

It is where you find all the 'stuff' that they use to make custom cars, fast cars and showy cars.

It is where you find the big stars, the race car drivers and the legends! And this week, my Isetta!

Five days ago, my cutie car was in a small town parade. This week, she is under the bright lights!

I am so proud of her shiny cuteness!

(Dearest Sister shared a video here, last week. I think it was the most fun that I have ever had in the Isetta!)

A Taste of Bullion

Remember the bullion snail that I found in the Inspirations magazine? Well look what else I found, in a different issue!

I whole little sampler of the cutest bullion knot designs! I am envisioning them on all kinds of things, but first I have to master the process.

This is my first attempt. It is a lopsided kitty. (It wasn't designed lopsided, it just turned out that way...)

The instructions called for 8 knots (or grubs as they are affectionately known) for the body, but I did five, since I saw that they were going to turn out lopsided. And, I did not allow enough distance between the top of the stitch and the bottom, for the number of 'wraps' in each one. If there was a little more room, the knots would lay flatter.

But, I kind of got the hang of it!

The pattern suggests putting the designs in a sampler format, but I had this set of four napkins from an auction lot, so I decided to use them for my practice 'canvas'. I think the trick is in the tension of the wraps around the needle. I poked my fingers about twenty times, trying to pull the needle through, until I loosened the thread a bit. I didn't bleed on my work, though!

Its a good thing no one is running a tally on the number of things I start before any one of them gets finished.

At least I hope no one is!

My Adventures in Tatting

My goodness, after a month of build up and our shop opening yesterday, I was wishing that I had asked Dearest Sister to switch and take the even days in November! Even with an extra hour, yesterday was not long enough!

But since I had already called dibs on even days, I decided I would show you my latest work in progress!

Tatting is an art that I have long admired, but I have never seen it done. My mother didn't tat, although I think she knew how. I know that she preferred knitting over crochet and I think that was the case with tatting, as well.

When Ms. A went off to college, her roommate taught her to tat and there were some tatting elements in some of her artwork. She agreed to teach me, but we have never set aside the time when she has visited.

I have been reading my thrift store Inspiration magazines over the last week and I took a few with me this weekend. In the back of the magazines, there are step by step instructions for the techniques used in each of the projects.

In issue number 26 (2000) there were instructions for tatting. Two pages, twelve steps on each page - it looked pretty simple, really. So, I decided to teach myself.

I wound a shuttle, and set about following the instructions, exactly. After all, I can read and there was a photo illustration for each step. I might just have to re-read a few steps to be sure I got them right.

After awhile, I decided to search for a tutorial (I love the internet!) I watched a series of three videos about a hundred times each and finally got the hang of it!

This is the result:


See the loops? Those are called picots. Most people prefer them to be uniform, but I think wonky is kind of edgy and...you know...hip.

That's my story anyway. It sounds better than "it took me two hours to get this far and I am calling it good enough!"

A Winner! The Parade! And More!

First things first! The winner of (my half) of the 'End of Blogtober Giveaway' is.....

Martha! She wins the bundle of feedsack fabric that was offered here. Be sure to check with Dearest Sister if you entered her giveaway. She will be announcing soon, (or maybe she already has!)

Next - The Parade Update!

This is the last minute Halloween costume that I made for the Isetta. We did not win, in that category, or any other, but we had a good time!

Here is the Beatty High School marching band marching to their place at the head of the line-up. They won the best "Walker" award.

We were one of the first cars, lined up behind the quad-runners and later some three wheeled motor bikes joined the line just ahead of us.

We were one of the first ones at the registration table, but I told the lady that I did not want to be first, so she gave me number 28. It turned out that numbers 1-27 were the walkers, the motorcycles and the public service vehicles. So, we were the first car! The Mister wanted to get to the line up spot early, to be sure that we could make it and that traffic would be light.

The Isetta is a bit 'cold blooded' and it took quite awhile for it to warm up enough to run smoothly. He told the folks in the big mid-century muscle car behind us to just go around, if we stopped.

We made it 12 of the 14 blocks of the parade without incident. The Mister was having a great time throwing candy to all the kids from the sun roof. (I was leery of children running into the street, but everyone was throwing candy and we didn't want to look like Las Vegas cheapskates come to crash the parade, so the candy was thrown...)

When we went past the judges stand (the intersection of two state highways, which were closed for the occasion) they announced us and we did our 'parade wave'. We made it past most of the crowds lining the route and the engine died. And would not re-start. I was afraid that I had 'warmed up' the engine too much in the three hours before the parade started!

We hopped out and pushed it to the side and the rest of the parade went past. The Mister grabbed a stick to check the gas in the tank (we don't need no stinking gas gauge!) and there was plenty of gas, so we tried again and it started! We cut down a side street and cut back in the parade line just in time to pull into the car show!

I can now say I have driven in a parade!

Now, And More!

Dearest Sister and I have decided to continue our collaboration! We enjoyed the tag-team Blogtoberfest so much that we are marching forward into November with the same plan.

Also, we have another project reveal. The Super Secret Sister Project!

We have opened an Etsy shop! You can check it out here! We have dubbed ourselves 'AtomicSisters'. Why? Well, why not? We are both mid-century and thoroughly modern, in our own minds, at least!

About 15 years ago, Dearest Sister and I expected that we would probably spend our twilight years together. We envisioned ourselves as a later version of the Baldwin Sisters from 'The Walton's' television show. The Baldwin sisters lived together, supporting themselves by selling their grandfather's 'recipe'. Since we do not have a 'recipe' (our great-grandfather was nefarious in many ways, but moonshine has never been attributed to him!) we decided that perhaps we should cultivate some other way to provide income.

This may not be it, but it is in the spirit of the recipe!

And now you know the secret!