Friday, August 23, 2013

7 Quick Takes Friday {Take 9}

-1- I took the day off yesterday, and my mom and I took Anne to Build-a-Bear Workshop. I know it's a bit of a ripoff, but I do love taking the kids there for a special treat. Anne ran around chirpily and had a great time. She picked a brown bear with a cookie on her paw, and we named her "Cookie." She seemed to enjoy giving her new bear a scrub down at the bathing station the most. We never even approach the bear clothing boutique, because I think THAT is where your money really gets sucked into the nether world.

-2- Classes start here on Monday and I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about the craziness that this always brings. Not to mention the parking-related disasters. But the fall is generally my favorite semester. There's a freshness in the air and in the spirits of the students, it's nice to be a part of. It doesn't matter how old I get, I STILL love being on an academic calendar, it just feels so right to me.

-3- Speaking of fall, I finished Anne's rainbow/autumn cardigan:

And here is Anne modeling it, with what she considers a "good picture-taking smile":

-4- And speaking of knitting, I've been wanting to make Mike and I a coverlet/spread for our bed for years. And we've always wanted a quilt for our bed, so I was toying with knitting or crocheting a blanket that you create in blocks and them seam together to look like a quilt. Why am I thinking about this when I have holiday crafting to do? Because the spirit of the fall has swept over me and I have lost my mind, that's why. But I was looking at a pattern yesterday for one of these crocheted quilts, and Mike looks over my shoulder and says: "are you going to make that for our bed? I love it."

Well now, gentle reader, we can't let that go uncrocheted NOW!! I mean, I've pretty much been given permission to buy a ridiculous amount of new yarn and pick pretty colors!! The pattern lists the yarn requirements in ounces, which is odd I need to do some Ravelry research today, but via Mike's calculations this means that I will need *hold on to your hats* 40 SKEINS OF YARN to make this thing. When one contemplates waiting for a sale on Knit Picks *acrylic* we know that that is a LOT of yarn. I'm a little concerned. I'm hoping that our calculations were just wrong, otherwise this may be too much for me to take on. I don't want some horrible square-creating monster sitting in my knitting bag for the next 2 years while I want to gouge my own eyeballs out  with my crochet hook because I'm so sick of the thing. I'll keep you posted.

-5- I have dance tonight, and we're going to be discussing two upcoming performances, fun! Plus, the studio is hosing a "student for student hafla" meaning that only current students are invited to perform and come. It's an opportunity for dancers to try out new choreographies, techniques, or props that you find a bit challenging and don't want to debut at a public event. My dance nemesis is my veil, so she and I are going to be dancing together for this hafla. I found a piece of music that I'm terribly inspired by and is very veil-appropriate which is great. Unfortunately, I'm terrible at dancing with a veil,, lol. My barrel turns are abysmal and I just am so unused to being tied down by having a veil in my hands. I'll be working on this for the next few weeks and will report in. But challenges are good, and a veil is a very versatile, crowd-pleasing prop, and I want to get better at it.

-6-Chapter Sunday for my Third Order Dominican group is this Sunday and I'm toying with going for the first time in forever. It's been hard for me to get there since I had the kids since the only way they get to Mass is if I take them, and it's not the easiest church to take boisterous little ones to. Henry would be fine now, Anne is another story. I'm trying to coordinate it with my Dominican friend Rose that we either go this weekend or to the September Mass and meeting. So, we'll see. :)

-7- Speaking of Third Order Dominicans, today is the feast of St. Rose of Lima!

Rose wanted to be a nun, but her parents weren't so wild about that idea, so instead she took a vow of chastity and joined the Third Order of St. Dominic. What I remember about her story is that she was said to be very beautiful, and she didn't like the attention that little attribute meant, so she cut her hair off and rubbed pepper on her face so that she wouldn't attract any suitors. Saint stories are often, ah hem, *interesting* are they not? :)

Have a great weekend everybody! Check out other 7 Quick Takes over at Conversion Diary!

1 comment:

Thank you for commenting! I read and appreciate every single one, and I will respond to each one personally!