Feeling very blessed indeed, in this new year...

Another new year? I feel old. :0 But I also feel SO HAPPY. Welcome back everyone!

*streamers!*

I often find this post (the after-Christmas-staycation, what the heck day is it?! Oh yeah, the day I have to go back to being an adult and stop lounging around the house knitting in my pajamas, post) the most difficult to write of the year. And I think it's because I'm such a spontaneous writer - I like to write stream of consciousness, about whatever is going on with me right at that moment. And now, after not blogging for nearly 2 weeks, too much has happened that I want to tell you all about, and I feel overwhelmed and do not know where to begin. I am easily overwhelmed, have you noticed that about me yet? ;-)

So here I am, looking a little sour faced in my office, because I'd rather be home brewing tea and contemplating which craft project I should pick up next, or maybe I should take a walk with Anne in her wagon? And do I *really* need to get dressed to do either of those activities?! But sadly, here I am in my work clothes trying to look alive. Because my break was AWESOME. Really, really great, I can't remember feeling so content in quite some time.

*blissful sigh*

I was dreading the time coming to an end. And last night, trying to go to sleep before The Wake Up That We All Fear? It wasn't good. The whole family has been sick (except for me, who paid her dues back in November with The Cough That Would Never End, and The Fever Rash That Sent People Fleeing In Terror) and last night poor Mike's cough worsened.

He was being so sweet, doing little things to cheer me up because he knew I was dreading going back to work, but he was COUGHING. I felt bad for him, but every time he erupted in a fit of super loud coughing I couldn't help inwardly cringing. Mike and I are real marital nerds in that we don't like to sleep apart.  The only exceptions are if one of us is traveling without the other, or if one of us is sick and coughing to the degree of potentially disturbing the others' sleep. I was thinking last night was going to qualify for exception #2, but Mike didn't seem to think so, settling into bed beside me sweetly and happily to read. And cough. He didn't seem to pick up on my discreet side eyes every time the noise barrier was breached, and I didn't want to hurt his feelings.

He fell asleep before I did. I was reading on my Kindle and trying grumpily to get sleepy when he started to snore. And Mike doesn't usually snore. But the congestion had obviously gotten the better of him, because he was snoring LOUD. Obviously, this is not his fault. But thus began a cycle of: (1) Snore. (2) Wake self up by snoring. (3) Get annoyed with self and angrily rustle around in the bed, elbowing pillows every which way. Repeat.

Didn't exactly make for easy sleeping for either of us. ;-) Oh, and did I mention that Anne woke sometime in the middle of the night, inexplicably demanding that a book be read to her? That happened too.

Sooooo, we were all tired this morning. And it's finally cold here, in the teens temperature-wise this morning when we left. Sadness, so much sadness. Have you seen Inside Out? I did, several times over the break. ;-) If you have too, you know what I'm talking about.

All right, so let's do as thorough a review of the holidays as I can remember, which doesn't bode well right from the outset, but we'll do what we can.

We hosted lots of fetes and family over both Christmas and New Years. It was LOVELY. True, I did a bit of tornadoing, but on the whole I kept it to a minimum. It helps that I have a wonderful husband who works so well with me to get things ready and make everyone feel welcome when they're over. It was also nice to not have to go anywhere besides Mass over the course of Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Since everything was at our house, we stayed put for the most part.

And Christmas day was BEAUTIFUL. We opened gifts in the morning prior to heading to 11 am Mass. I received many fabulous gifts (I am spoiled, truly) but one of my very favorites is my new orange Fitbit:

Isn't he fabulous?!

What should I name him?! It's very easy to anthropomorphize this thing since it says good morning to me, and congratulates me on achieving my daily step goal by lighting up and vibrating happily. I love it so much that I have become quite obsessed with it. Mike has teasingly threatened to hide it. :0 I'm doing all of these fun daily and weekly challenges with my friends who are on Fitbit and I have become consumed with getting to or near 10,000 steps per day. The kids don't even question it anymore when they see me walking randomly in circles around the kitchen table, trying to get in extra steps. I have to say, I LOVE IT, I really do. Are you on Fitbit and want to connect with me for walking challenges? Leave me a comment and we'll find each other. :)

As for the kids, we focused on crafty things this year, or generally creative things that they can work on for some time. I really tried to get away from the big plastic toy phenomenon (which inevitably, after taking 20 full minutes to extract from the package, drawing blood in the process, break before the end of January) with the exception of Anne's new play kitchen, which she loves:

Notice, also, her new apron. It matches mine. *beams*

My nephews also had a grand time in there playing over the holidays. Henry even had lunch in there with her one day:

Aren't they darling?

And so everybody loved their gifts. We went to Christmas morning Mass which was so spectacular I can't even describe it. The pianist and cantor sang a rendition of "What Child is This" that brought tears to my eyes. I feel especially blessed this Christmas.

The rest of the week we just enjoyed being together and eating leftovers. SO MANY LEFTOVERS. My family is part Italian, we can't help it. We overfeed. It's how we show love. :) I went on lots of walks (Fitbit!), we brewed lots of tea (even the children, I've indoctrinated them well) and the time was generally quite restful and invigorating.

New Years Eve found me knitting and crocheting like a mad woman to finish up the kids' handcrafted gifts prior to the Epiphany, and indeed, I finished that night as we all watched E.T. together. Here are Henry's gingerbread socks:

He's already worn them, he's such a good child.

And Anne's amigurumi cat:

A cat. Right?!

Well...she's cute, but she doesn't *exactly* look like a cat. Both children asked, separately of each other:

"Is that a mouse?!"

She's mouse-like, I suppose. But the important thing is that she is DONE, and Anne loves her, and has named her Mary. Quite fitting that she was born on the vigil of the Feast of Mary, Mother of God. ;-)

Towards the end of my time off, on Epiphany weekend, we took a short pilgrimage to a shrine to Our Lady of Fatima that is about a half hour from our house:

They have a festival of lights each year, which of course, is kept up through the Epiphany. :-) It was beautiful, and I asked for the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima as we move into this new year. Life can be challenging, but above all, it is GOOD.

We have lots of fun stuff coming up, my friends! I have a bunch of ruminating thoughts that I'm hankering to write about (prayer routines for the new year! dance and fitness news!), including the fact that I started reading Raising the Barre over the break, and I can't wait to review it on here! I'll set a date for the discussion likely within the week. My Kindle tells me that I'm about 35% of the way through. I'll also start recording short Tea Time videos again beginning this week. Oh, and amusing crafty news with the Downton Abbey knit- and crochet-alongs starting this week. Let's just say that last night involved a cast-on experience that has left me scarred for life. Details to come!

How is YOUR new year starting out, dear reader? And don't forget to write to me if you have a Fitbit! I demand this. ;-)

A final holiday knitting update, & book club plans!

Well, it's officially three days before Christmas. I have been knitting and crocheting myself ragged, and yet I realized weeks ago that there was no way in tarnation I was going to finish all of the holiday crafting I had originally planned. Such is the way of things in the life of overambitious knitters. I DID finish 2 pairs of socks, plus a boatload of dishcloths for various aunts. I also finished a commissioned colorwork hat for Allison:

Free pattern is Sanpo

In these final days, I currently have various and sundry cat body parts stuffed into my knitting bag as I frantically crochet them in preparation for assembly tomorrow (hopefully). I *think* I'll have her finished for Anne on Christmas morning. I also have a sock for Henry that I'm about to start the gusset for for. Yes, you noticed correctly that I used a singular there :0, so there is no way I'll have the pair finished for him by Christmas, but I'm aiming to complete them well before the new year.

After that, I have another of socks and two infinity cowls to knit for gifts. And poor long suffering Mike's cable tweed sweater. Oh, oh! And in January comes the Downton Abbey Mystery Knit-along! And Crochet-along! I am doing both, because I am stupid and always like to take on more than I can handle, you know this about me by now. So my goal is to finish as many of these gifts as I can by early January, and then allow myself a reprieve to work on mystery shawls. Are any of you crafters out there going to be participating in any of the Downton Abbey mystery alongs? Do let me know!

In book club news, I have come up with a plan. I don't want to assign dates in advance for books anymore, because I sometimes just cannot make my own deadlines. Big surprise, right? ;-) So, what I'm going to do is keep up on the sidebar the Catholic Book Club Reading List. They will be in some semblance of order in terms of when I'll review them. When I've started reading one, and thus can schedule a date for review, I will add it up there so that you'll know specifics if you'd like to be sure and finish with a certain title prior to my review, so that you can participate in the comments. A few readers mentioned that they use my book club list as a way of forming their own To Read list, and I think this system will still aid them. And it has the added benefit of not stressing me out if I have a slow month of reading.

I'm also going to have secular titles on there sometimes. Rest assured that these will be wholesome secular titles, most likely non-Catholic inspirational fiction, or non-fiction having to do with dancing, crafting, family life or another topic that I enjoy and frequently write about on this blog. We're Catholic, but we read all sorts of books, right? I'm a huge fan of biographies, so those may pop up from time to time. Sound good? I would love to hear your thoughts on this now that I'm fleshed it out a bit more.

I'll be back with a short video message tomorrow. Until then, enjoy these final days of Advent!

Holiday crafting wins and epic book club fails...

Happy Advent Wednesday, everyone. The third week of Advent? How did that happen? I had a dream about my birthday last night (which is coming up in February), and in it I was trying to put a brave face on about getting another year older, so I know that that particular life situation is very much in the back of my mind. :0 But let's not let that little factoid derail our Advent and crafting fun.

I have been a super busy bee, with my knitting needles flying. All gift dishcloths are done, and 2 pairs of gift socks. I still have 2 pairs of socks to go, but the news has been broken to those recipients that while their socks will not be ready for Christmas day, they will be a priority in January. In fact, they'll be ready for Candlemas, so I'm still all liturgically correct. ;-)

One will be a pair similar to these that I made for myself earlier in the fall:

I did also finish the 2nd sock. ;-) Pattern is Petty Harbor (free!)

This pair is for a friend, and will be knit in a slightly darker autumn-inspired tonal colorway called Foliage. And the other pair will be for Henry, a plain ribbed pair of socks knit with this awesome self striping yarn in a gingerbread house colorway. Fun, right?

Right now though, I'm working on a colorwork hat that someone asked me to knit on their behalf. Colorwork is always magical to knit, and I love how it's turning out:

Pattern is Sanpo (also free!)

Those little critters at the bottom are called totoros, I think they look like owls. :) In their chosen color, they have a frosty, wintry thing going on, right? I think they're so cute. The things above them look like spiders to me, though I don't know that that is what they actually are. If Anne were here, she'd name him Webster and call it a day. I'm hoping to have the knitting finished tonight, and then block it at the end of the week, so that I can ship it and get it to it's new home by Christmas!

After that, Anne has asked for a black cat. In the absence of a real feline, she likes this one. That should be quick to crochet up. So I'm getting there!

Speaking of not having enough time...

*insert chagrined face*

There is *no way* that I am getting the book club book read this month. Eek! Sorry about that. I just haven't been able to read much this month, and when I do, all I want is to sink into some escapist Christmas romance. Non-fiction just hasn't been appealing right now. So, what to do? I could just push the two books that I have listed back to January and February, but I'm wondering if should structure the book club entirely differently. Thoughts? Maybe a non-fiction title every 3-4 months, with fiction posts sprinkled in between? What do you think? Maybe we could add in non-religious titles too? Obviously, I still want to include spiritual reading, but the fact of the matter is that my taste in reading is quite varied. I enjoy Catholic non-fiction titles, but I also read secular non-fiction and lots of different types of fiction. Sometimes too my enthusiasm for a title is quite immediate and doesn't lend itself to being scheduled 3 months ahead of time. For example, right now I am totally jonesing to read this book that I discovered recently:

I mean, I REALLY want to read this book and would download it right now if I was finished with my current fiction title. Anybody want to read it over the Christmas/New Year break with me? We could have a dialogue post about it the first week of January. I am eagerly awaiting your responses. :)

Let me know what you think. I enjoy the Catholic Book Club posts, but I think it's time to re-examine how I approach those. I would absolutely TREASURE your input on this!

Crafty Tuesday: Of unexpectedly angry birds, and sock yarn obsessions...

Well, look at me go, two Crafty Tuesday posts in a row. I go in fits and spurts though, kwim? Whatever is bouncing around in my little head at any given point in time is what I write about here on this blog. Right now, that's crafty stuff. And so here we are!

Based upon my holiday crafting post from last Tuesday, I set up my Ravelry gallery with all the projects queued up, plus other fall/winter knits that I'd like to get to.

#overlyambitious

YEAH, there are a lot of projects in the queue. Plus I added a few more (my sister asked for a shawl for Christmas, I mean, all for love!). As I took stock of this wall of to-be-completed projects, I decided that I'd try to finish a few things quickly, to give me confidence. So that my spirit would not falter. ;-)

Thus, this weekend I worked quite a bit on my Abbey Pullover. I'm on the yoke, this girl is nearly finished. The yoke is lace, so it's slower going, but it's going. The precious little churches in the cloister lace are nearly all formed!

Smoke was nearly coming from my needles this weekend, I was working so studiously. Then I ran out of yarn.

*panics*

Don't panic! ;-) I have another skein, I just didn't have it with me, whew! It's in my, ah hem, *work stash*. That would be the drawer in my office filing cabinet that is filled with yarn rather than papers. Why are you looking at me like that, doesn't everybody do this?!

*adjusts glasses angelically*

ANYWAY, I had to pause until I could grab that last skein of yarn, but I'm near the top of the lace chart. A gold star goes on my assignment sheet.

So then I took a look at the projects in my queue. If I can whip a few small ones out quickly, that will decrease my incomplete number quickly (which is now hovering around 20, eeks!) and soothe me a bit. So I decided to crochet the baby bird Anne has been asking for.

I love crocheting animals, very enjoyable and cute. I don't love *knitting* animals as much. There are parlor cats who will not be named that are a direct result of this situation. But crochet is all good. So I found a free pattern from one of my favorite designers, Teri Crews, and set to work yesterday. 

I was finished in under two hours. Teri's bird is blue, but Anne wanted a red bird. And this is the result:

So, YEAH. He's cute, right? BUT decidedly more Angry Birds than I was going for. When I gave him to Anne, who has never seen an Angry Bird a day in her life, she took him, kissed his beak, named him Bugaboo, and then examined her new baby very carefully:

"Mommy. How come he looks so...mad?"

"He's just a very serious birdie, sweetie."

"Is he sad?"

"No, he's happy! He's just worried about things. It isn't easy being a bird. He has to worry about flying south come fall."

She seemed to accept this explanation and worked diligently to introduce him to her other animals so that he would feel included. ;-)

One project down!

Later Sunday evening, I was sitting beside Mike casting on for a new hat while we watched TV. I was getting gauge but not real happy with the fabric, and contemplating dropping down a needle size, when he asked me about sock yarn in fall colors.

Hark! My darling is asking not only about yarn, but sock yarn that is not plain black or navy blue?

*swoons*

"Yeah, just for around the house. Kind of like retro 70's colors? That would be kind of fun. Do you have any yarn like that?"

"No, but I SHOULD!!!"

*spends the next 30 minutes in frantic search on my phone "for research"*

"You don't have to worry about it if it's too..."

"WHAT?! No, no, I love this. I mean...I REALLY LOVE THIS."

He asks me about sock yarn and then says I don't have to actually do anything about it? Silly man!

I will conquer this particular self-striping quest, I know I will. I have found a few contenders and have a consult scheduled with Mike for tonight. ;-) The only problem is...

...this adds one more project to my queue.

Oh. Right. Sigh.

What are you working on this week, friends? Trying to finish some projects up before starting your holiday crafting for the year? Do tell me all about it in the comments. *beams*

A busy, crafty bee this happy Memorial Day weekend...

Good day all! I'm coming off of an absolutely lovely Memorial Day weekend. Usually, I don't do anything special on Memorial Day. Parades? Too many people, potentially too hot. And it means leaving the house. And you all know how I feel about THAT. :0 But this year I wanted to go because our parish was hosting a float (Fr. Joe claimed he was "going to be riding on the Popemobile" :0), and so we went. I have to say, I'm so glad that we did. We ended up having to leave prior to seeing Fr. Joe *sob!* because Mike and Henry had plans to see the new Avengers movie and we were cutting it close to the time, but we had been there for an hour and a half, so we got to see plenty. We socialized with our grass neighbors, and I felt all community-spirit-like. Anne befriended a dog, all was good.

I also did a lot of knitting and crocheting this weekend. Henry has been requesting an alien stuffed animal for some time, and I finally got around to it. I have a photo. Brace yourselves. :0

His name is Zork :0

He's very...bright. The yarn is actually neon green. I mean, it's perfect for an alien, right? It's just so...loud. And his eyeballs are just so...large. He keeps toppling over from the sheer weight of his own head. That ruffle at the bottom is supposed to be the same color at his body, but I ran out of green, so he got white:

*Tiffany crochets happily*

"Honey, do you think this white ruffle makes it look like the alien is wearing a skirt? Should I take it off?"

*Mike glances over dubiously*

"No I don't think so."

Meanwhile, the next morning, I come downstairs to find the finished alien in Henry's arms while he watches television.

"Do you like your alien, Sweetie?"

"Oh yes. But could you take off this white thing? It kind of looks like he's a ballerina."

I didn't want to say I TOLD YOU SO, but I thought in my head. ;-) So I took the ruffle off. But the head issue has gotten worse now that Henry has started tucking the thing under his arm to sleep. His neck is super wobbly. I need to come up with a solution for this. Suggestions?

I also started knitting a lamb for my desk, because I've wanted to do that for some time, and who doesn't need a desk lamb? I ask you. I have his body done, but his face is truly spectacular:

His name is Shaun ;-)

I mean, did you ever? I know he doesn't have any ears yet, and his body isn't attached, so the whole severed head thing is a bit creepy, but he's coming right along!

So that was my weekend. :) Lots of gardening, crafting and drinking of tea. It was wonderful. How was your weekend, dear reader?

A pleasant weekend, as Ordinary Time settles in

Isn't he precious? I made him over the long weekend for Hank. He's a snail, and his name is Milton. If you can think of anything cuter than a snail named Milton let me know, because I don't think it exists.

"Mommy, can I sleep with my new snail?"

"NO!! He's needed for photography, and for knitting group show-and-tell on Tuesday. I don't want him to get all squished up before then."

Because stuffed snails have such pressing media obligations...

Anyway, we had a glorious weekend. I brought both kids to Mass with me on Sunday and despite Anne being at a *really* tough age for such activities, I've been able to manage it (not always well, mind you, but I do what I can). Our garbage disposal gave out over the weekend and I wanted to leave Mike the time (and ability to hear the thoughts running through his own head, you parents know what I'm talking about :)) to work on that while all 3 of us were at Mass. I was chancing it a bit with Anne's nap, but I packed up a sippy cup, some crackers, her St. Joseph board books, and my resolve. I also put on a headcovering, which I haven't worn in a while to Mass due to sheer laziness, since wearing one always provides that physical reminder that I should strive to be prayerful. And not in a panic-stricken frenzy. We set off.

It went really well. I've already thinking about Lent, as I always do at this time of year. I love this little stretch of Ordinary Time between Advent and Ash Wednesday. Anne behaved very well. She always loses it a bit right around the consecration, but I can always distract her by taking her to examine the nearest stained glass window more closely. While we were over there, following communion, one of the ushers came over to praise Anne for her good behavior. Our parish has the best ushers. There is this flotilla of older men that wear suits and ties and just look so dapper.

After Mass, Henry wanted to attend the open house the parish was hosting at the old school building. The building has been converted into a parish center, hosting religious education classes, a food pantry, parish offices, and a daily Mass and Eucharistic Adoration chapel. I was very interested in the chapel, as daily Mass is one of my favorite things in the world. The chapel is adorable and cozy, and for Lent I'd like to attend daily Mass at least once per week. More on that in a future post.

The kids and I enjoyed refreshments in the old gym before heading home to find a new (and working) garbage disposal, hurray! I also realized that Anne had snatched a little prayer card from the chapel with the name of an upcoming first communicant on it for us to pray for. She ultimately destroyed the card, but let's all pray for little Louis C. :)

Good news

My eyes and noses have shipped. :)

Anyway, it's a good day. Henry is starting ice skating lessons this coming weekend, so we're going out to buy him skates tonight. I'm hoping that he'll really like it. I also cast on for his Finding Nemo  socks and they're absolutely adorable.This is the picture from Abi's store:

Henry's socks will be custom made to fit his foot, of course. I love knitting socks. Especially when the yarn does most of the work of making them look good.

In other exciting crafting news, the wolf pattern is now mine. I absolutely cannot wait to be united with him in the flesh. I have some gray wool in my stash that is perfect for him. And yes, I do find it amusing that my wolf will be made from sheep's wool.

I also brought down my Crocheted Softies book last night that I got for Christmas. Henry spent a solid 5 minutes looking through all the patterns before declaring that he would really like a crocheted crab and snail.

"Let me see the snail. OOhhhhh, his name is Milton?! Yes, we must make him."

Upon looking through my stash, I discovered plenty of green and cream cotton in order to make Milton come to life. Excited.

Be still my heart...

I've been really into my knitting and crocheting of late. Besides my dancing, it's my hobby of choice. I've also been very good about finishing up projects that I've already started. I mean, I've always got more than one project going. Different projects for different settings for different needs. Currently, I have a shawl and a sweater on the needles, plus the Downton Abbey mystery gauntlets for the knit-along, plus the gift I'm making for Karen which will soon be done. To me, that sounds very reasonable. :)

Since I'm about to finish something, today while I was eating lunch I was playing around on Etsy looking at crochet toy patterns. I love to make toys. So along with some socks for the kids (with Finding Nemo self-striping clown fish yarn courtesy of the talented Abi Grasso), I was thinking one of my new projects would be some toys. Henry loves the hippo I made him, and I have a few things in mind for Anne and my nephews. I search for "Crochet Toy Pattern."

Cute results occur. On the second page or so I spot a crocheted wolf that I fall in love with on the spot. I admire him. I look through the other patterns in the store (all very nice, but none grab me the way the wolf does. Well, there is a reindeer that I ogled, but he's not in season right now). I send the link to my knitting group. Next thing you know, I can't imagine my life without the wolf. I have him queued up for purchase and soon he will be MINE.

As I'm searching, I come across a link to another Etsy store that sells safety eyes. I own many safety eyes, I use them on nearly every toy that I make. I don't embroider eyes (because I'm not that good at it) unless the toy is going to an infant. You have to be careful, even with safety eyes, for choking hazards. I usually buy them from Knit Picks when I'm ordering yarn. Although their selection of eyes (*snorts*) is small, they have the basic sizes and colors and I haven't needed anything other than that. Or so I thought.

That is until I discovered this store. Safety eyes in every conceivable color and size, and what immediately caught my eye were the larger eyes. I favor larger eyes, and the biggest that Knit Picks carries is 12mm, which work just great for most faces, don't get me wrong. But this place has gigantic safety eyes, and sometimes you just want big eyes, kwim? But then, BUT THEN, gentle reader, I discovered something that was heretofore unknown to me. What is that, you ask?

SAFETY NOSES.

Safety noses!! I about fell out of my chair. Visions of cute nosed animals filled my head. Heart-shaped noses, pug dog noses, TRIANGLE NOSES! I also found googly eyes, eyes with eyelashes, and slitted cat eyes. My life flashed before me. Next thing you knew, my cart was full of pink noses and big brown eyes.

I LOVE ETSY.

My package of eyes and noses is due to arrive next week.

*halo*