No official Tea Time this week on account of my voice. But let's kibitz in writing!

Hi all! Whatever upper respiratory thing I have going on has weakened my voice to a hoarse whisper, so no audio/video Tea Time this week. I figured I'd spare your poor ears the raspiness that is my current lot in life. I should be back in good vocal form next week!

So for the time being, we can just converse in the written form. Grab your beverage:

I was still a bit hopeful last night that when I woke up my voice may be somewhat better. When I woke this morning, I still felt completely exhausted and run down, and I could hear Mike go into Anne's room to get her up and ready for school:

"NO! I WANT TO SLEEP LONGER!"

Isn't that what every living being thinks upon wake up, adult and child alike? Unless you're a baby. Babies never want to sleep. :0

So I got up as well, and as soon as I tried to talk I knew it was no use. Thank goodness this is a non-teaching week.

All things considered though, I'm in really good spirits, and not feeling terrible physically, it's just this pesky voice issue. And here's a highlight: as Mike was taking the kids to school, I blearily perused my email. I am on the hunt for holiday gifts right now, I always start early in the fall and gradually pick things up so that it isn't a shock to the budget come December. And I had an email from a company I've been hankering to order from for some time, which is Tiny Hands Food Jewelry.

She makes the most adorable, scented (you know I have a weakness for scented things :0) food charms that you wear as a necklace. I've been wanting to get Anne one for months, and have also eyed several for myself. The email this morning let me know that she started a Necklace of the Month Club, and you can participate for however long you like, simply canceling when you want. It's perfect timing for Christmas gifts, so I signed up. :0

And you can too, if you like, right here. Right now it's $15 for the first 50 people to sign up (plus $4 shipping) each month, until you cancel. After the first 50 spaces are used up, it'll go to $19.99, still very reasonable as the necklaces retail singly for $23-$28 apiece. They are handmade, tiny and absolutely precious. The first month's necklace should ship within the next 2 weeks, and will be a cupcake necklace. Perfect for Anne! It will be one of four possible color schemes. The second month will be a cookie, one of four possible flavors. :0 She has the entire year laid out at the link, if you want to check it out. I am STOKED. The cupcake will definitely be one of Anne's Christmas gifts!

So that brightened my morning. Along with the new fox warmer I have warming Coconut Lemon Chiffon scented wax in my office:

Check out those perky ears!

Isn't he the cutest?!

*squeals*

He's my new officemate. ;-) He's my friend and I LOVE HIM.

So I'm in a great mood. How are you doing this rainy October day, dear reader?

Spring concerts and a Mother's Day rosary giveaway!

That's me and my Henry, at our mother/son bowling gig last weekend. Terrible photo quality, I know, but we only got a print, so I didn't have a lot to work with. ;-) And Henry's body language is just priceless, is it not?

"I'm only posing for this picture because they are making me."

"They" being the Organizer Lady taking all of the photos, and Me squeezing him to my side. He genuinely seemed to enjoy bowling with me, he's just so shy about being photographed or generally doing anything in front of other people. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...although I *have* gotten better about this as an adult, I suppose, given that I belly dance in public on a regular basis. But as a kid? Just like Henry. He reminds me a lot of myself as a child.

That certainly applied yesterday evening too as we headed out to the spring concert at his school. It was held in the church, I love that, as the school doesn't have an auditorium, and Henry looked all nervous and cute in his dress clothes. When his class passed by on their way to perform, he squirted past as fast as his legs could carry him, God forbid he should make eye contact. :0 He's very precious.

And I have to say, his class sounded GREAT. They played their recorders, and I was seriously impressed with the new music teacher. He was very warm and friendly with the kids, but had an excellent command of their attention with his direction. And there was NO squeaking of the recorders. In past concerts, that has not been the case. ;-) They did a fantastic job.

When we left the church, a spring rain was falling, and it felt rather idyllic. In just over a year, we'll have two concerts to attend each year, since Anne will be in school, and she will perform in a separate concert from Henry given that they're grouped by age. So we'll attend both the Christmas and the spring concerts. Sweet!

Anne, by the way, acquired an admirer during the course of the concert. A 2-year old little boy in our pew really took a shine to her, and kept coming over and handing her hymnals with a very serious and devoted expression on his face. Adorable.

In other news, with Mother's Day approaching, a quick and applicable giveaway to bring to your attention! Allison, one of my very favorite rosary artisans, is hosting a giveaway at her blog of a custom Swarovski pocket rosary. Head over to enter for yourself or your mom!

Need a quick gift for someone receiving a sacrament in May?

I just love this time of year, don't you? Springtime, new beginnings, Easter...and sacraments of initiation coming up in May. Last year, I just reveled in Henry making his First Communion, I enjoyed that so thoroughly. This year, we don't know anyone receiving a sacrament, and it'll be quite a while until Henry reaches Confirmation age (at least the way they do it in our diocese) or for Anne to receive First Reconciliation, so I'm living vicariously through others. :) I *am* however, on the prowl for birthday gifts for Anne, whose birthday is May 18th, so I was looking and had a few ideas that will work for those needing a gift for First Communion or Confirmation.

Saintly Silver on Etsy, whom I've mentioned before *heart* has a section of Quick Ships of already assembled dolls, ideal for anyone needing one in early May.

She's got 32 dolls listed in the Quick Ship section right now, which is pretty awesome. They usually are on a 6 week schedule to ship, since her order queue is so long and her shop so popular. But she prepares ahead for her rush periods, of which the May sacraments are one. She has boy and girl First Communion dolls (like the one pictured above), with the Anima Christi prayer on the back and a "In Honor of your First Holy Communion" notation. She also has angels, St. Patrick, Mary, and the Holy Family ready for immediate shipment.

Allison also has her rosary shop stocked with rosaries, most of which are ready to ship (just make sure to check for the "Made to Order" indication and avoid those if your deadline is pretty tight). This one in particular is ideal for First Communion, no?

I love the chalice center. But she has a ton of in-stock selection, all beautiful! I like the availability and selection given that First Communions are a mere 4 weeks away.

Do you know anyone receiving First Communion or Confirmation this year?

Favorite Christmas gift ideas?

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I hope that you are all doing well. I'm a busy bee today cocooned happily in my office working on some projects, totally uninterrupted by meetings.

#Amen

Aside from Blackboard giving me a few troubles (which I solved by changing browsers, take that!) it's been a pleasant day. I have lots of interesting blog fodder swirling around in my little head (fascinating developments with my current read, fun dance events coming together) but I'm saving those for later in the week.

I was listening to Catholic Weekend this morning on my commute to work, and one of the panelists mentioned Mystic Monk coffee as their Pick of the Week. I was instantly intrigued, and thought their store would be a great place to shop for a few family gifts.

Well. :) Yes, I shopped, order placed! I loved being able to procure a few Christmas gifts while also supporting a religious community, and thought I'd give them a little plug here. They have a great selection of specialty coffee and tea, and also have a bunch of other gifts for sale: religious items, coffee mugs, a chant CD, chocolates, you name it. Go check it out.

I'm awaiting the last of the saint dolls I ordered for the kids' stockings (John Paul II for Henry, and St. Therese for Anne, and both shops are officially no longer taking orders for Christmas, saints are popular gifts apparently :)), and I have several beautiful rosaries from Rosaries by Allison that I'll giving as gifts this year as well. I'm also making some things, as you all know, because I like to solidify my place as a Crafty Overachiever. ;-)

I need to settle on some other gifts for the kids and Mike, mostly consisting of books and a few movies. We're a book nerd kind of a household. I have some puzzles and baby doll supplies in mind for Anne, and a Kindle Fire for Henry. I'm very excited to see everyone open everything on Christmas morning.

So, dear reader, what are your favorite and/or new gift supply stores and general ideas for Christmas 2014. Big bonus for you if it's an online store that you provide to the introverted Catholic Librarian. :0 Chime in in the comments!

Sun aversion, and crafting for others...

Happy Monday everyone. :) Just a quick post today on something I was dwelling on as I was sweating my buns off at Henry's soccer game yesterday. Which could be a post in and of itself...

(Begin tangent...)

I am so not cut out for hot weather, thank God I live in the snow belt. The sun and I are not exactly best friends, let's put it that way. I'm so fair skinned, and the older I get, the more that situation keeps coming to the forefront. Picture everyone from the dermatologist to the DENTIST telling me:

"Oh wow, you have really sensitive skin."

So, several tubs of SPF 250 later, I'm ready to brave the soccer game, and I totally overdress to try and keep the sun off my tender flesh, and then I'm SWEATING. People, I hate to sweat. I absolutely loathe that sensation of actually roasting out there in the sun, and you can feel things getting wet, and then your clothes stick to you (or God forbid, some other surface), and just GROSS!! Ugh. Ok, anyway, I was sitting there praying for God to be merciful and send some cloud cover, and to get my mind off things, I started thinking about all of the craft projects I have going on right now...

(End tangent...)

For those of you out there who enjoy handcrafts of any kind (and I'm pretty inclusive in my definition here - sewing, knitting, crocheting, beading, painting, embroidery, plastic canvas, all of that good stuff and more), isn't is so pleasing to make things for other people? I just love doing that. I do make things for myself too, but I would say the majority of what I make is for gifts. And the reason is simply that I enjoy that. I think about the other person as I work on it (or their unborn baby ;)) and I find creating the item with those thoughts in mind to be very pleasing indeed.

Gifts I'm working on right now:

(1) A crocheted hip scarf for my troupemate, who recently graduated from college. I wish I had pictures of all of this stuff, stay tuned later this week! I've never made anything like this before, so I'm having fun with it. I just finished crocheting a mesh fabric in bright pink cotton that forms the body of the scarf. This week, I have to crochet the orange flower border and attach it. I'm really excited about this. The mesh turned out great, I can't wait to see what it looks like with the border.

(2) Dun dun DUNNNNN.... rosaries. :) This is like a Tiffany dream come true, right here folks. These are not exactly professional quality or anything like that, but I can now wire wrap rosaries, and let me tell, this is DANGEROUS.  It's like when Jesse Pinkman on Breaking Bad was both making AND smoking the blue crystal meth. Addicts should not be dealers. ;) But here I am, Rosary Fetish Girl, making rosaries, and this could quickly get out of control, but I LOVE making them. Each one is different. Different beads, different colors, different centerpieces or medals attached, different crucifixes to coordinate with the designated Rosarian Theme (I just made this up, but doesn't it sound good?) I'm loving this. If I know you, and you're Catholic, expect a rosary in your mailbox sometime soon. ;)

(3) I'm about to start a baby cardigan and hat set for Shelia, and I'm super pleased about this. :) I'm picking out pattern and yarn right now, one of my favorite parts of knitted projects! As soon as the hip scarf is done, this is going into my in-progress knitting basket.

So, of you crafty souls out there. What are you working on? What are your favorite crafts? 

Blessings abound as we prepare for the holy season...

Afternoon all, and welcome to all new readers! I've been doing a lot of linkups lately, which I hope you all don't mind (*blows kiss*) because that is a fabulous way for me to gain readership. The proof is in the statistics, that's for sure. But I never want this blog to lose what it's original intent was: as a "life blog," full of humor and real life anecdotes. I always craft that into my linkup posts as well.

But I have had a good number of new people sign up as official "followers" of the blog, and I'm just so thrilled! I'm very excited to write about all of the upcoming Advent and Christmas goodness and I'm delighted to have you all along for the ride.

I was thinking this morning about Christmas preparations. This is something that throws me into panic mode every year. I have reigned in my knitting/crocheting, you'll all be relieved to know. I have *most* gifts finished. Although I still haven't crocheted a single dishcloth, and those are my big ticket items for relatives on Christmas Eve *bites nails*. But everything else that I *really* wanted to get done, aside for a few things, is done. I will spare you dragging out The List yet again. Suffice it to say that the only things I really still want to get done are Mike's cardigan (I added an inch or so of stockinette stitch to the 1.25 inches of ribbing, GO ME!!) and my knitting group exchange gift, which is coming right along. It'll take me several more weeks to finish it (the final fabulousness will speak for itself) but I should finish it by mid-December. So we're good.

Oh wait. I promised Mike I'd crochet a Christmas tree skirt since our old one fell apart last year. To have it finished by the first Sunday of Advent, I'll need it done in (*large pause as I realize I haven't updated my permanent calendar for November yet, yikes*) just over 3 weeks.

Oh dear. And then there's the dishcloths. And the fact that Mike's cardigan won't even fit a newborn for several more weeks. This might be bad.

But I'm not going to worry about it. Whatever gets done, gets done, is what I've learned. I don't want stress to ruin my Advent.

Mike and I were talking about the kids' gifts this morning. We want them to have a wonderful Christmas, but Christmas isn't all about getting gifts, of course. It can be tough with the grandparents, because both sets spoil our children rotten. I'm not saying that that's totally a bad thing, but it makes it hard on Mike and I when what is under the tree Christmas morning pales in comparison to what is at their grandparent's houses waiting for them. I want our children to (a) show proper appreciation for each gift they get, and (b) not expect a huge show of gifts just because it's Christmas, and (c) understand that Christmas is about so much more than gifts. No easy feat, but we're going to try.

We need to start budgeting, so we came up with a small, but thoughtful, list of items for each child. I'm sure we'll add a few things to it, but we thought of 3 gifts each that I know they'll really love.

Henry is about at that age where he begins to get tough to buy for. We don't own a video game system (to his great consternation) so his choices are limited in that regard. He's 8 this year, Anne is 2. What are you getting for your children this year for Christmas? How do you impress upon the meaning of the season? Leave me some comments, I would love to hear from you!

Adventures in wrapping...

CL: "I really appreciate that you're helping me, Sweetie, but I have a *system* when I wrap."

Mike: "A system? Well, we want to get done before I have to go pick up Hank from school. I'll start with this one."

CL: "Ok, well, that's a Santa gift, so try to disguise your handwriting on the tag."

*A moment of silence while Mike digests this, and decides to humor me*

Mike: "Ok."

*sounds of wrapping*

Mike: "I'm done with this one. So I'm putting 'Santa' on the tag?"

CL: "Yes. Oh! You used that blue wrapping paper?"

Mike: "Yeah, why? It has Santas on it, I figured that was good for Santa gifts."

CL: "Well, but I've wrapped *other* gifts with that that weren't Santa gifts. He might notice."

Mike: "I really don't think he'll notice,Sweetie. Plus, the gig is up on Santa after this Christmas anyway, we agreed, so it doesn't matter."
CL: "I know, but..."

*CL desperately thinks of her usual, organized System, though realizes that it would take twice as long*

Mike: "All right, I"ll wrap this giant one next. Where's the extra long rolls of paper?"

CL: "Over there, but only use the polar bears, not the penguins. Wait! Remember, polar bears? That's the extra large Santa paper. Bears, only."

*Mike gives a long suffering sigh*

*CL huffily tries to tie ribbon around some crocheted dish cloths*

Mike: "What's wrong?"

CL: "This ribbon is *ridiculous*. In this entire roll, I could only fully wrap one set of dish cloths! Not to mention that this polar bear paper sucks. We're not getting Christmas supplies at Target again next year."

*CL porkily tries to tape the ribbon rather than tie it in order to conserve yardage*

CL: "Great, now I've got glitter all over my pants. Do we have time to vacuum before Hank gets home? Did I mention that I hate this chintzy ribbon?"

Nothing like getting into the Christmas spirit...