Friday, May 9, 2014

7 Quick Takes {Take 40} Spring has sprung edition...

-1- Spring has sprung

The weather is finally turning here in western New York, and the days have been lovely. Our tulips and daffodils have come up, and the air has that sense of moisture in it that speaks of spring and fresh growth. We can walk outside again, and we're loving it. I also love May for all of the Catholic sacrament ceremonies that go on, and this May was really special because of Henry's First Communion. Precious! Anne's birthday is coming up next weekend, and then on to Memorial Day!

On the other hand...this is all making me realize how much quicker time seems to pass as I get older.

#depressing

Mew.

-2- My calf is healed, I can sear more retinas!

But turning back to the happy, lots of fun dance events coming up for my troupe. I'm pleased to report that I rested my sore calf all week after it got quite a workout at our spring hafla, and it's feeling just about back to normal. I'm really very thrilled about this, because: Tiffany Can't Dance = Very Grouchy Catholic Librarian. We have rehearsal tonight, and then tomorrow evening we're dancing at a dinner to benefit a local Lebanese cultural association. Claire messaged us on Facebook that the organizers are very excited about us performing, and have given us an impressive allotment of time. Not surprising I suppose, given the audience. They want this to be very interactive and for us to go out into the audience and get people up to dance. Um...

I don't know how good I'll be at this. :0 You see, I don't even like to *talk* to people I don't know, let alone dance with them. This should be interesting. Reporting in on Monday!

-3- Pastel cotton blends, here I come...

Now that the weather is officially warming up, I have turned my attention to summer knitting. I'm currently knitting a seafoam pattern shrug for myself in a self-striping southwest colorway, and it's quite lovely. I'm moving on to a cotton hip scarf for a troupemate's graduation gift next (pink and orange, is there any color combination more fabulous?), and I have a sleeveless shell planned as well. It's sublime. I love the airy patterns, soft cottons, and pretty light colors of summer knitting. I'm just such a seasonally oriented person.

*happy*

-4- A new craft that I can obsess over and fastidiously plot supply purchases for...

And so, lately I have found myself pulled to learn something new in terms of crafts. Interestingly, I found a pattern for a crocheted rosary using real beads. In the past, I've seen patterns for crocheted rosaries with all of the elements crocheted, if that makes any sense. I really wanted to make a rosary with beads, but I have no idea how to work with wire. And so I found this pattern which was much more of what I was looking for. I purchased the pattern and within hours had ordered beads. :0 Looking at the pattern, I can see how this works now. It calls for DK weight yarn, which I'm not planning to use, I want to use crochet thread, so we'll see how this turns out (read: could be a disaster). But I'm going to experiment with making some rosaries for my nephews using this method.

Also, being on the bead store website got me to thinking about how I'd like to learn how to make an actual wire wrapped rosary and to how to make my own jewelery. I'm always looking for jewelery in wacky color combinations to go with my very bright dance costumes, and this would be the perfect solution. Sooooo... I ordered some supplies to experiment with that as well. :0 I'll keep you apprised of my progress on this adventure.

-5- Mother's Day *scrunchy face*

 This Sunday is Mother's Day, as I'm sure you're all aware. And to be honest, I don't really love Mother's Day in its current manifestation. It feels a bit like a "Hallmark holiday" to me, a bit, you know...manufactured. We should show appreciation to our mothers regularly and for other more natural occasions, in my opinion. And Mother's Day since I became a mother hasn't exactly been a day of rest and relaxation for me. The first year, when Henry was a baby, I broke down and sobbed in a restaurant, that wasn't awkward or anything. :-0 Henry was about 6 months old and the sleep deprivation just caught up with me at a really inopportune time. Since then, it has been a rushed and harried day as we hurry to and fro to visit each of our mothers and my grandmother, since all live locally. That's a wonderful thing, but it makes for a very LONG Mother's Day. I'm thinking lots of mimosas will be consumed at Sunday brunch, no?

-6- I love my Amish fiction, but...

I've been reading a four book series about an Amish community set around the seasons that I'm absolutely loving. But one pet peeve that I have as a reader keeps coming to the surface: the use of colloquialisms in speech written phonetically to denote a character's accent. I'm not saying I always find it unworkable, I understand what the author is trying to do, but more often than not I find it incredibly distracting. And in this Amish series, the characters keep using the word "perty" instead of "pretty." I don't know exactly why, but this particular instance makes me want to crawl out of my own skin every time they say it, which for whatever reason is A LOT.

"That sunshine sure looks perty this morning, ain't so?"

"How about you go outside with me, perty girl?"

"Lookin' mighty perty this morning, Sarah!"

*collapses*

I otherwise LOVE these books, but this is making me flare my nostrils every time I see the word. Which is, again A LOT. Have I mentioned that? They say "perty" A LOT.

#sigh

-7- Book club book switch, is anyone surprised?

I get in over my head a lot, sigh. Ok, so my sense is that my readers use my Catholic Book Club as a way to learn about new books via my reviews, which is great. I haven't gotten the notion that others are reading the books along with me, although I would love it if you did! But at any rate, I'm using this as a justification to switch the book for May at the last minute, because I simply know that I'm not going to get to read it this month. I haven't had as much time to read lately, and I always have a fiction title going. Then I need to fit in the spiritual reading for the book club, which is fine. But I promised my friend Irena that I would read Vocation in Black and White: Dominican Contemplative Nuns Tell How God Called Them along with her, which is to say NOW, plus I have a spiritual memoir to read and review for Image Books, so... The book club book for May 26th is now Vocation in Black and White. :0 If you enjoy vocations stories, you will love this one, and it's a mere $3.99 for Kindle! I do get lots of nice feedback on my book reviews, and that seems to be how people use those posts, so I truly hope no one is inconvenienced by the switch. I do so appreciate when readers comment on how my reviews helped them to select new reading material, this makes my day!

Ok everyone, that's it for this week! And what a lovely one it was. Head over to Conversion Diary for more 7 Quick Takes! See you all on Monday. :)

3 comments:

  1. Hooray for dancing again and new crafts! Happy Friday!

    (I'm used to seeing "purty" not "perty"--that's really weird.)

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  2. 1) I hear you on the age thing. I recently made friends with a lady who is 11 years younger than me but her child is the same age as mine. :O I'm a bit concerned for her because she doesn't seem like she's got her stuff together. I'm hoping that I can be the "mature" *snort* friend and help her a bit but not so much so that I get sucked into a one-sided friendship. That's the downside of the "matronly" been-there-and-learned-my-lesson sort.

    2) Glad your feeling better.

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  3. I found your blog today--via Conversion Diary--and just love it. I lead two Catholic book clubs, following the format of The Well-Read Mom, wondering whether you have heard of it. http://www.wellreadmom.com/

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