4th Week of Advent: Baking and dancing towards Christmas...

Hello everyone, and I hope that your Advent is wrapping up beautifully, just as mine is. 😊 I have allllll of my wrapping still to do, but otherwise am in good shape. I made cookies this week, I should have taken pictures for photographic evidence, ha! Because I am not the best baker, but these turned out well. Most of them have already been consumed by children living in my house. ;-) We made Peanut Butter Blossoms and Italian Chocolate Balls (we put chocolate chips in instead of walnuts, though!).

We were also excited to light the final candle in our Advent wreath:

I wasn't feeling well on Sunday morning after a terrible night of sleep, so we watched the 8 am mass that my parish had streamed for the 4th Sunday of Advent. I have us reserved for the 10 am mass on Christmas day, so hopefully that all goes without a hitch!

Prior to the bad night of sleep though, I had my online Christmas themed dance show, and that went great! Picture me dancing in a bright red gown in the middle of our living room, which was cleared of all easily movable furniture, a camera mounted on a ladder, and my family marooned in their bedrooms. 😂 As the organizer wrote to us later, she appreciated our hard work, especially because she knows it isn't easy prepping a piece, setting up your own "stage," and being your own grip and director. There's certainly an unnatural element to performing solely online, with the lack of dedicated performance space and audience/performer energy exchange, but we're all getting a bit more used to it in the dance community, and making the best of it for the time being. I've finally gotten to a place wherein I've accepted that this is the way it is for the time being, and I might as well find the joy and new opportunities that these online shows present until we can go back to in-person shows. I'm lining up some opportunities for the first part of the new year, and really looking forward to working on some new pieces. I will say that performing online means that I have become more choreographed and artistic in my approach to what I present in dance, since there is no crowd energy to feed off of for improvising. It's different for me, and challenging in the best way possible, so I'm seeing that as a positive!

In terms of holiday/wintertime crafting, I've been a busy bee. I promised an update on the Advent gnome, and so here is my in-progress Gnutmeg!

The stitch marker is holding the spot for a belt buckle. The final clue is out today, and I can see that we will be assembling some of the other pieces we knit (nose and beard, various icords for limbs, I'm assuming) onto the gnome, and also adding some final surprises! I'll post a photo after the holidays when I have him all finished. 

I also worked a bit more on Frog:

Creepy, I know, with the disembodied eyeballs. 😂 Terrifyingly, the pattern calls for you to *cut out holes for the eyes* and then stitch them on in a way to create eyelids. I have the spot marked out with stitch markers, but have been too chicken so far to proceed. I'm picturing unraveled green yarn all over my couch, and me in tears guzzling wine off to the side. Someone may have to come hold me afterward. 🤣 I'll post an update after the new year!

Speaking of, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and happy New Year! I'll be posting again the week following New Years Day, and using the time to recharge and think of creative new things we can chat and pray about in 2021! 

*virtual group hug*

Second Week of Advent: Re-developing a winter routine, and settling into serenity

Hello all, and I hope that your Second Week of Advent is going well! We're hanging in over here, and looking forward to some cozy hygge time coming up as we move into the coldest part of winter. This week, we lit the second candle on our Advent wreath:

...AND we were able to go to mass in-person, which was delightful! Our parish is doing some fundraising for repairs to the stained glass windows, so I purchased a CD of our magnificent music minister singing hymns that we enjoyed on the drive home. The kids have also been keeping up with our variety of Advent calendars, and everyone is quietly having a good time with those. 

That morning also heralded the feast of St. Nicholas, and as always my kids left their shoes by the hearth, and were rewarded were some chocolate gold coins and boos. 😎

We did not practice this tradition when I was growing up, but as a parent I have always been on the lookout for ways to draw Church traditions into our home life in ways that would capture my kids' imagination and help them to carry their own faith into adulthood. I have really enjoyed this one, and I know that they do, too.

Sunday was a busy day, as it was also pickup day for the poinsettia and wreath fundraiser at Anne's school. The red ones this year are particularly spectacular!

We seem to have settled into a happy Advent routine, and I'm pleased about that. In terms of other  winter things, we're trying to make things as joyful as we can. The kids are both back in school after being on remote learning for a week, and things are going great. They both are content and happy. 

I've also been crafting, and finished a Christmas doily for a gift this week!

Pattern is Eversong

I just love the color. And...

*drum roll*

I FINALLY finished Mike's cabled cardigan that I've been working on for like 10 years. 😂

Isn't he so cute?!

It's a success! He loves it, and I'm SO GLAD to have that out of my work-in-progress basket!

I'm also working on a few dance projects, including preparing for an online show next weekend, and that all has given me a much needed sense of purpose and nervous excitement! These are all good things, and right now, we need to focus on the good, for sure.

How has your Second Week of Advent been going? I would love to hear about it in the comments!

It's yarn sale season! And upcoming holiday mystery craft -alongs...

 Happy Friday everybody! I have deemed November to be a Fun Friday month, and each week will post some frivolity about upcoming opportunities in hobbies and enjoyable online classes. I think we could all use more frivolity in our lives of late, yes? This week our topic is CRAFTS! 

🥳

We do chat about crafts a good deal on this blog, but we don't always focus specifically on mystery -alongs that are tailored to a holiday season, do we? Yes indeed, we need mystery gnomes. And we also need mystery dolls!

If you're a knitter, I think we can agree that you need an Advent Gnome in your life: 

And his name will be Gnutmeg, what more detail could you possibly need?! This Mystery Gnome -Along starts December 1st, and the pattern is available for 50% off through tomorrow (11/7), so do rush over to purchase if you'd like to participate! I chose wintry colors for my Gnutmeg, and I can't wait to get started! He will be knit with fingering weight yarn, for planning purposes.

If you're a crocheter, then you need a Christmas doll to brighten your home this holiday season, I do think this is mandatory. ;-)

I've never made a doll before, so I'm excited to try this one! This pattern is also on sale, in this case until 11/20. It's 50% off until then, which is the day before the MCAL begins! So this one begins in just over 2 weeks, the weekend before American Thanksgiving. The doll's name is Sally, and she will have a holiday theme and outfit!

Since I don't have all of the needed colors in my yarn stash, it is fortuitous timing that Knit Picks is having their annual Big Sale this coming Monday, November 16th. Despite having enough yarn to survive the fallout of the apocalypse (the zombies will all have handknit socks and sweaters ;-)) I look forward to this *every year*. I log onto Ravelry that morning, and sip coffee while participating in the excited chatter in the Knit Picks Lovers group leading up to the sale prices dropping at 9 am EST. Then I partake in the stampede to the best deals on the yarns that I had on my wist list, and in the inevitable impulse buys of new limited edition colors and other goodies. On my list is a nice acrylic in a bunch of colors to make the Christmas doll, plus a scene of Nutcracker figurines, because OF COURSE TIFFANY IS MAKING THAT. 

Oh my gosh, y'all, I am so excited about all of this! 😎🎅 Is anybody joining me in a holiday craft -along? Getting your fast fingers ready for the Knit Picks sale on Monday? I want to hear all about it in the comments!

The happy distraction of summer crafting...

My crafting has been occupying my busy mind this summer, and believe me, the distraction is quite welcome and needed. This is also the time of year I get all into Christmas in July mode (even if it's not quite yet July; apparently I'm just as bad as the Hallmark Channel ;-)), and start planning items I want to make for holiday gifts. Want to see? :-0

Soooo, I may or may not have been promising Mike a cabled cardigan for approximately the past 5 years.

😬

I know, I know. Time just kinda got away from me! And I kept putting it off because a men's cabled cardigan is going to take some serious time to complete. But after I wrapped up a few longer term projects this spring I was itching for a new challenge. And look who finally got cast on?

Pattern is Rambling Man by Drops Design, and is free!

This is the back piece, and I have to say that I am IN LOVE. It is SO fun to watch the magic of cabling come alive, and the moss stitch texture in-between is just to die for. Currently, I'm working my way towards where I'll accommodate for the arm holes. I'd say I have about 2 more repeats of the chart before I'm there. After I finish this piece, I'll have 2 front pieces to knit, plus the sleeves, and a large ribbed collar and button band. Relatively speaking, I'm making quick and excellent progress! My goal is to have this completed by Christmas.

*virtual fist bump*

So that's officially gift #1. Anne has asked for an alpaca hat. I have yarn from an alpaca, but I think she also wants it to look like an alpaca? :-0 More research needed on this one. She's also asked for a snowman mug cosy, and I have yarn and buttons to make the most adorable one:

Pattern is Chill Chaser Cup Cosy, and is available for free!

I'm planning to make some stuffed animals this summer, many of which can be gifts, and I know that Anne wants a robin. I haven't told you all about the robin family that has been in and out of our back yard this summer, but it's absolutely precious, and we can commemorate this particular summer in this way. I need to look at patterns for this still!

For Henry, he always loves handknit socks, and the poor child, the last pair I knit him, I didn't remember to accommodate for how much his feet had been growing as he starts to go through puberty, and his toes burst through them within a few weeks. 😬 So I need to measure and make him a new pair for Christmas.

So that's:

(1) Mike's Cabled Cardigan
(2) Anne's alpaca hat
(3) mug cosy
(4) stuffed things, including robins
(5) socks for Henry

No problem. If anybody has any requests, you must tell me know now. ;-)

I'm also planning some treats for myself, one of which is a Hogwarts Express shawl with this lovely yarn I bought in Rhinebeck last fall:

Yarn is Dragonfly Fibers Birch Pixie

*blissful sigh*

I'm not planning to go to Rhinebeck this fall (*sobs!* But we have Catholic high school tuition, so you do what you gotta do) and so I'm planning to revel in the beautiful yarn that I bought last year. And my friend Nancy is attending and will bring back some yarn and alpaca socks for me and the kids.

*halo*

Do you have any crafting plans this summer? Gardening? Any "Christmas in July" plans of your own? Let me know in the comments!

A 15 year milestone this Thanksgiving week...

Happy Thanksgiving week to all of my American readers! This is one of my favorite weeks of the entire year - I rarely take vacation days in the summer, and instead use them at Thanksgiving and Christmas to take an entire week off. So I'm home this week, watching Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel, crocheting in my jammies, drinking tea, creating a dance choreography in the middle of my kitchen...and all while having the house blissfully to myself.

💃

The kids still have school until Thursday, and as much as I love them, I also love being able to hear the thoughts running through my own head, and being uninterrupted as I do...well, *anything*. GLORY.

I've also been reading, and I'm preparing for our first Advent Book Club post late next week, horray! I own the book in print, but sadly I may need to buy it for Kindle due to my eyes' inability to enjoy print books anymore, ugh. FYI for those of you not in the Facebook group where I already posted this, but Kindle Paperwhites are $30 off this week for Black Friday! I snagged one for Henry. 😎

So, I'm reading, but finishing up another book before I start The Christmas Quilt. I'm also coming up against the Christmas crafting deadline, and crocheting and knitting my little heart out. I need to finish a shawl and a scarf, and start on (yikes!) a pair of mittens and 2 coffee cup cozies. And maybe some dish cloths. It's doable, but I must stay focused. 😳

We're hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house, so Mike and I are also busy with food planning and preparation. It's a lot going on, but in the best way possible. I love it.

In the midst of all this, Mike and I are celebrating a personal milestone - November 22nd marks the 15th anniversary of our first date. Back in 2002, we met the weekend prior at a gathering hosted by mutual friends. He set up the double date that week, and we went out on what was a Friday that year. It's also the feast of St. Cecilia, my confirmation patron!

*virtual fist bump to the communion of saints*

We became engaged in the autumn of the following year, and were married just over a year after that, in January 2005. Even though this dating anniversary is a much more informal event to commemorate, we still look back on that time very fondly because of the loving involvement of our friends, who are now also married. I almost didn't make the party that weekend because I was scheduled to visit my sister, brother-in-law and nephew for his birthday on November 15th, but a storm on the east coast prevented the trip. And so I met Mike instead.

Our first date was at a restaurant called Cecelia's (I'm not making this up, she's clearly a busy woman up there in heaven), and we go to dinner there often for date nights. Ever since our 10th wedding anniversary, we've started going to Cecelia's every November, on the Tuesday evening prior to Thanksgiving, to mark our dating anniversary. The restaurant sends us a coupon for it and everything. :0 This year is 15 years, and that feels really special!

I remember being in my 20's and wondering if I'd ever meet anyone. Mousy wallflowers who like to read and crochet don't exactly attract the star of the football team, if you know what I mean. I dated a few guys, but not many, before I met Mike, and none of the relationships were long-term or very serious. I feared that my reserved, introverted nature meant that I would never find a companion with whom to share my life.

And then I met another reserved introvert, and the rest is history. :) 15 years later, I'm more in love with my husband than ever, and very glad that God brought us together. *heart*

What are you up to this week, dear readers? How are your Thanksgiving plans shaping up? I'd love to hear from you!

Tea Time with Tiffany #56 - Summer novenas, holiday knitting, birds & blogging: What do all these things have in common?!

Hello all, and welcome to a jam packed edition of:

Today I talk about July novenas, my summer knit-along progress and holiday crafting list, some drama at our backyard bird feeder, and why I started (and keep on) blogging. Join me!




**To subscribe to the audio version of Tea Time with Tiffany, just search for it in iTunes or use this link to subscribe via Feedburner in your podcatcher of choice. Intro music is "Tea Ceremony" from PlayonLoop.com

Items mentioned in this episode:

July novena page.
Pray More Novenas, for monthly novena emails.
Busy, crafty plans - The 0fficial Christmas in July 2016 post!
The Sibley Guide to Birds

Are you praying any summer novenas? Planning your Christmas crafting list, or otherwise crafting anything new this summer? Do you have bird feeder advice, please, I beg you. :0 And do you enjoy writing? What is your motivation in doing so? I'd love to hear from you!

Crafty Christmas plans & saint stories on 4th of July weekend...

I'm back at work after a perfectly *glorious* three day holiday weekend. Can we all have a moment of silence while we emit a collective groan?

Mew.

I am, however, hanging in there. I have more search committee obligations tomorrow which will keep me from blogging, so we'll be on a Tuesday/Thursday/Friday schedule this week, just so you know. And my thoughts are awhirl with all kinds of stuff. So...highlights!

Fireworks. Every year, prior to the big event, I regret having the kids stay up until 10 pm just to be able to watch them ("HENRY, stop touching my hair!!), but then I am glad that I did. We had a wonderful time, and built some lovely memories.

As well, my daughter is at a very adorable age. :-) For whatever reason, she has adopted St. Bernadette as her very favorite saint of all time, and so I ordered her a felt St. Bernadette doll from one of our favorite saint Etsy shops. St. Bernadette made her big arrival this weekend, and immediately began hanging out with her fellow saints:

Anne and the saint dolls. Sounds a bit like a budding rock band. ;-)

Our Lady of Czestochowa and Guadalupe, respectively, are quite tired over there on the left. But that is St. Bernadette in the center, and Anne LOVES her. She carries her around with her everywhere and it is absolutely precious. I'm already getting excited thinking about which saints I'll order for both her and Henry for the coming winter holidays

#ALLTheCatholicNerdExcitement

I also spent quite a bit of time knitting. This is that time, every year, wherein I get Christmas in July fever and go wild making lists of what I want to make this upcoming fall and holiday season. I'm currently working on a knit-along shawl that is due by the end of the month, so I devoted all of my crafting time this weekend to that:

Those are going to be leaves, which will become visible once blocked. Hopefully.

I made good progress (now on repeat 7 of 11!) and it inspired me to start my annual Christmas in July panic session: should I create my holiday crafting list?! This will cause me to panic even more, so OF COURSE I should!!

:0

This is what I came up with:

• Projects currently in the works that I'd like to finish by early fall. This includes the knit-along, 1 baby gift, a random lace scarf, and 1 in-progress poncho that I'd like to wear for the New York Sheep and Wool festival in October: Total of 4.

BOOYAH. I can totally finish all that by early October.

Christmas gifts 2016:

• Secret Santa gift for my knitting group exchange.
• A dress and amigurumi Cardinal for Anne.
• New socks for Henry.
• 2 surprises for Mike.
• Requested shawl for my good friend Irena.

Total of 8 gifts. This is slightly less BOOYAH'ish, but I still think it's manageable. The operative word here is *think*.

What I worry about is that this list usually, ahem, EXPANDS as time flows into the fall. I get all ambitious, and decide to cast on additional gifts, plus random sweaters and accessories (I have my eye on a gigantic entrelac wrap kit, SOMEBODY STOP ME!), and all yarn hell breaks loose. We'll see what happens. I may need an accountability partner in this endeavor, I'll keep you posted. ;-)

Does anyone else have their fall and winter crafting list set up? If you do, CONGRATULATIONS, you're as anal as I am, and that means that I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. :0 Do share your list with us!

How was your 4th of July weekend, dear ones?!

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. ;-)

Tea Time with Tiffany #29 - Merry Christmas! Looking forward to fun new adventures in the new year...

Hi all! This is a very special Merry Christmas episode of:

Yay! Today I talk about Christmas staycation plans, a holiday craft update with show and tell, the Downton Abbey knit-along, and excitement about the coming new year. Oh, and my Thomas Kinkade chiming clock started playing a Christmas carol right in the middle of the video, AND this was already a re-shoot because my webcam was doing that weird, annoying color flickering thing on the first take. Such is the way of things when you don't know what you are doing.


Items mentioned in this episode:

• 2015 was a great year, and I look forward to only more goodness in 2016!
• My troupe has new dance costumes. :0 Expect lots of excited squealing and frantic bead repair in the new year!
• Downton Abbey Mystery knit-along and crochet-along.
• Holiday crafting update.

What are your Christmas and New Years plans, dear reader? Tell me all about it in the comments. I'll be on blogging hiatus through the holidays, but rest assured that I will be with you again on the afternoon of January 4th. Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

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!

A weekend of puppy love, Christmas video shenanigans & birthday plans...

Hello all! It's Christmas week, isn't it exciting?! The kids and I enjoyed a lovely (if a bit cramped) 11 am Mass yesterday for the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Our parish combined the 10 am and noon Mass, and so the new 11 o'clock Mass has more people squeezed in. It's totally understandable, but with a 4 year old in tow, when people sit on either side of us in a pew, there are inevitably multiple times during which one set of them has to move for Anne to break through to and from Children's Liturgy of the Word. And a loudly demanded bathroom break.

*long suffering sigh*

At any rate, I had a perfectly fabulous weekend. And I want to hear about yours! Let's settle in with our tea and coffee.

I took the day off on Friday to attend the annual Christmas party of my crafting group. I look forward to this every year, and it always a joyous day. I absolutely LOVE the women in my crafting group. We all work in the same place, and get together on many of our lunch hours to knit and crochet. And solicit advice or comfort, or whatever the case may be. Think of us as a knitting support group. :)

And each year we do a Secret Santa gift exchange. It's always exciting for the big reveal of who had who to craft for, and what they made! This year, my recipient was my dear friend Bridget, who is an avid cook and baker. Thus, I crocheted her this adorable apron:

Don't you just love the cherry pocket?

It turned out so cute I wanted to keep it for myself. ;-) In turn, my Secret Santa, Alix, knitted me these lace socks:

I put them on my feet the instant they came out of the package...

I have never had a pair of socks knitted by anyone other than myself. These are a TREAT for my feet! I adore them! They look red in the photo, but the color is actually a burnished orange. I mean... :0 I love them!

While we were there exchanging our gifts and having an absolutely fantastic lunch, I fell in love with a dog. ;-) We were are Bridget's, and she has two adorable dogs, both of whom I enjoyed petting and playing with throughout the afternoon. But the one little guy, Logan, just absolutely stole my heart. I texted Mike this picture with the message "Look at my adorable Secret Santa gift, Sweetie! Can I bring him home?!"

:0

I mean, did you ever?! I LOVE HIM. I may dognap him in the night. I WANT HIM.

Mike handled my Logan love well this weekend. ;-) He reminded me that Henry is allergic to dogs, so it's really not a good idea for us to get one right now. But Henry is 10, I responded, in eight years he'll be a legal adult, so I'm just thinking ahead to our future. Which so obviously includes a dog.

*sniffs innocently*

After the party, I had some family time before heading to my troupe rehearsal wherein we filmed this now infamous Christmas video. It went pretty much like this:

(1) We warmed up.
(2) We practiced in our regular clothes since none of us could remember the ever evolving and loosey goosey choreography.
(3) We got it to where we were all mostly doing the same thing, stuck a free style segment at the end, and called it done.
(4) We threw on red and green costumes.
(5) One of our troupe members' boyfriend filmed us dancing this thing no less than a half dozen times, including multiple angles of our ridiculously silly choo choo train while tray balancing segment, and a circle tray spinning segment.
(6) We all got very tired.
(7) We changed and went home. :0

It was fun, and the word on the street is that the video turned out very well. I'm very curious to see it when it debuts on our website!

Saturday began our two day Mike birthday extravaganza. He had a milestone birthday this year, and so I wanted to make it really special for him. We had dinner plans Saturday night just the two of us, then a whole Mike day planned for Sunday. Prior to our dinner, the kids were getting restless, so Mike and Henry had a father/son movie watching afternoon, and I took Anne out for a girls afternoon to a Lularoe open house nearby. Here is Anne in the new leggings she procured at the event:

Isn't she adorable? She also has very loud taste :0

We had SUCH a fun time. I got her another pair of polka dot leggings she was eyeing up for her Christmas stocking, and we generally browsed the skirts and dresses with abandon. The boys would have considered it torture to have endured such a thing, so we reveled in our leisurely girl time.

In the evening, Mike and I had our dinner, and then Sunday the kids and I woke up early to make him chocolate chip pancakes. Well, the chocolate chips were mostly for us, I think Mike would have been fine with just plain pancakes. ;-) But we had a delicious breakfast, gave him his gifts, and later we had his parents over to watch football and order pizza (his requested birthday take out). It was a really, really nice day.

And so now here I am back at work. I am so long suffering. But it's only a three day work week, so I can't exactly complain. How was your weekend and Fourth Sunday of Advent, dear reader? Do tell me all about it in the comments!

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!

Of wacky holiday crafts & open mic nights on the 3rd Sunday of Advent...

Hi all, and happy third week of Advent! How are things going for you? My Advent has been lovely, I've been feeling calm and happy. And yesterday, Gaudete Sunday, is one of my favorite Sundays of the year! I wore a pink top to Mass to commemorate this occasion. :-)

Our Advent wreath all lit for week 3, oohhhhh...

The kids were very well behaved at Mass, and things generally went well over the weekend. Lots of activity to report in, so settle in with your beverage of choice...

The weekend found me doing LOTS of last minute gift crafting. I finished the socks:

Can you hear the angels singing?

...and moved onto to frantically knitting dishcloths. I knitted watermelon dishcloths earlier in the fall, and I wanted to supplement those gifts, so I embarked on a fruit-themed endeavor. Here is Anne posing with her penguin in front of an in-progress strawberry dishcloth:

I also finished an apple cloth, and a different, solid green watermelon cloth. That was a win. Then I started on a colorwork hat that I've been commissioned to knit, and I seriously LOVE IT. I will post photos later this week. Oh, and I also have to squeeze in a crocheted cat before Christmas. We're getting there!

In other crafting news, I spent some time on Friday readying my tray for my dance troupe's Christmas video shoot. I gathered garland, ornaments, and a gift box to adorn my tray:

Kinda sorta?

It's not terrible, right? I don't have a hot glue gun or any fancy supplies, but I did what I could with materials found around the home. And it balances well.

This is what totally normal people do on Friday nights, yes?

We rehearsed this past Friday, and will record this week. I'm certain that will provide much amusing fodder.

Speaking of amusing dance anecdotes, we had a performance Saturday night. There is a new organization in our area called Dance Days, and they hosted a 12 Days of Dance event at the beginning of December. There is going to be a big festival this summer surrounding it, which is super exciting, but in the meantime, Saturday night was a fundraiser toward paying for all of this dance goodness. Our troupe was asked to perform.

It was a bit different than what I was expecting in that it was an open mic night. So, any performer could show up and perform, it wouldn't all be dance. We were given an approximate time slot, just given that we are a full group and there are more logistics to getting us all there and ready on time, as opposed to solo performers. Our slot was 9 pm, which is all "late" for those of us in the over 30 crowd.

I have to admit, given the above, I wasn't as excited about it as I usually am. I was feeling tired, and was wanting to lay around in my pj's on my couch, knitting, drinking wine, and watching Downton Abbey, as opposed to dancing squashed onto a small stage with 7 other women, a piano, and two Christmas trees, while a sparse crowd sips hot cocoa. But such is the way of things.

We all crammed into two cars and drove together down to the venue and the aforementioned tiny stage. We sat around for a bit, beads uncomfortably digging into our skin, watching various stand-up comedians and singer/songwriters. The only other dancer there was a tap dancer, who was very fun.

When it was our turn, we all herded onto the stage in our bright pink troupe costumes, making it appear as if a case of Pepto Bismol had just exploded. The space was a little tough, some of us had to dance down on the floor level in order to accommodate everyone. Me, knowing myself, paid very close attention to how near I was to the drop off between levels throughout our performance. The last thing we need is a belly dancer in a pink heap on the floor with a sprained ankle.

Thankfully, all went well, although I nearly accidentally kicked a floor light during a hip drop segment. The crowd was attentive, and although the event wasn't exactly bursting at the seams, there were a decent number of attendees. Afterward, we stayed for some more singing and one chanting/spoken word performance that I can only describe as surreal (and not in a good way :0) before slipping out. I was happy to get home to my wine.

Coming up I have lots of fun dance events that I'm looking forward to. I was asked to perform solo for a restaurant gig, but it was for New Years Eve, and I'm already booked that day with Mike and the kids. :) Alas, because I'm certain that would have been amusing fodder. After the new year though, there is MUCH more dance fun to be had, so I'll keep you all posted!

How was your third Sunday of Advent? I've got some book and other crafty stuff to post about this week, so make sure to check back! Looking forward to chatting with you then!

Holiday crafting: How is that going, Tiffany?

Well, it's funny that you should ask. :0 It's been on my mind a lot lately too, great minds think alike, right? ;-) Soooo, here's the scoop, settle in with your beverage...

There are traditionally many stages to the holiday crafting life. In my experience, they go like this:

(1) July. You excitedly make a list of handmade items for Christmas gifts. You get all giddy with creative energy and feel tremendously accomplished.

(2) Still July. You place a giant yarn order, feeling zero guilt whatsoever, because, seriously, THIS IS FOR GIFTS!! You can go *hog wild* and feel nothing but sanctimonious warm and fuzzies about your purchases.

(3) August. You cast on for a pair of gift mittens, feeling that if there were a Nobel Peace Prize for Knitting, you would clearly win it this year.

(4) September. You have finished one mitten, and are hip deep in the fall frenzy that is sweater knitting. None of these are gifts, but you fret not. It's only September. There's still PLENTY of time!

(5) October. You have finished the mittens, but you have finally re-looked at that list you created back in July. Oh dear. Better start focusing on those red and green colorwork dishcloths.

(6) November. You have finished multiple gifts, but you have come to the sinking realization that you are in deep trouble. You still have MANY gifts to go, of which socks somehow number about 57. You place another yarn order for sport weight yarn to replace the thinner fingering weight you originally bought. This will make them knit up faster!

(7) Thanksgiving. You are in denial. You are frantically knitting sock #6 and have convinced yourself that there is STILL TIME! to finish everything by Christmas. Is it possible to knit socks out of super bulky weight yarn? They'd be like pillows for your feet. Who wouldn't want that?!

(8) Early December. You are morose. You have come to the conclusion that you are an absolute IDIOT for making this clearly unattainable list and have set yourself up for failure. AGAIN. Also, you are sick to death of knitting socks.

This is the point I am at, my friends. I have indeed finished some gifts, but I am no where NEAR what I had hoped to complete. I'm not even going to go back and link to my originally posted list from this summer, because the whole thing would be just too demoralizing. :0 I recently finished this pair of socks:

But SO many more socks to go. I'm nearly done with another pair, I'm on the heel flap of the second sock, so that will get done this week, and I can mail those off. After that...more yarn winding, more sock knitting.

*sobs!*

To add insult to injury, I nearly *ran out of yarn* on that blue pair you see above. I was holding my breath knitting the foot of the second sock in the pair, praying to whoever is Patron Saint of Overambitious, Insane Knitters, that I would not run out. Because if I had to order another hank of yarn just to close up a toe, I would NOT have been a happy knitting camper, no sir. I finished with a few yards to spare and felt very thankful indeed.

That's sort of where I'm at. I'm not going to finish everything, but I'm doing what I can and have gotten substitute gifts where possible. Mike isn't going to get his promised sweater, but I have other ways of distracting him until I finish. ;-) You know, around the 4th of July. Perfect alpaca tweed sweater weather, right?!

In other news, the kids have harvested the saints they received on St. Nicholas's feast day from their shoes, and tucked them away with their friends in preparation for Christmas. Here is Henry's saint collection:

All nice and orderly.

That's St. Stephen, St. Isadore the Farmer, St. Blaise and St. Nicholas, from left to right. Lined up like soldiers. Anne's saints, on the other hand?

What is happening here?

Apparently, Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of Czestochowa are taking a nap in a plastic container she rescued from the garbage, and St. Nicholas is watching over them. She also has a collection of soft felt saint dolls who are all packed together into a baby crib. The saints like to sleep a lot, it seems.

Everybody is in high Advent mode with Christmas readying, it seems. ;-) How is your holiday crafting going, dear reader? General Christmas preparations? Do write in and tell me all about it!

It's officially Christmas in July, how does the Catholic Librarian celebrate?

Well, hello there to you all! It finally feels like July here in WNY, the temperatures and humidity have both been elevated. For my freakish part, I've been happily crafting away, and secretly wanting to watch the Hallmark Channel's Christmas in July movie marathon, but I don't, since I don't want Mike and Henry to move out. ;-) So what have I been doing with my Christmas in July energy?

(1) Knitting and crocheting Christmas gifts 

I mentioned this before, but I've been a busy bee with my Christmas crafting list. I've made a little bit of progress on projects from this list, as well as other items for the cooler weather that I'd like to make for myself. I did add to the list *groans* but that's typical. I do that every year, I just try not to let it get out of hand.

*ominous music plays over these famous last words*

I added a shawl for my sister and a stuffed cat for Anne. And possibly a pair of socks for Mike, we'll see. He's already getting a sweater, we can't get too carried away for love here.

For a fall birthday project, I'm crocheting hats for my twin nephews, and I finished the second one last night:

Soon to appear on a cute little head.

I was highly motivated to finish this because I became sick of the pattern after the first hat. This fickleness of my part makes it challenging to have four nephews, two of them twins. ;-)

Now it's back to socks. SO MANY SOCKS. And why does everyone need to have TWO OF THEM?! The nerve!

(2) Adding to Henry's nativity set

It has become an annual tradition to add to Henry's Fontanini nativity set and Bethlehem village, and the online Fontanini store has a Christmas in July sale every year. Nativity frenzy, everyone!!

Henry's set, sans the village

At this point, he has all of the main nativity pieces, including the 3 Kings and assorted animals and shepherds. So, each year he picks a new village piece (like the carpenter's shop, the well, etc.) and associated villager and we add on. It is true that the Fontanini store has this sale going all the time, they just change the name of it to coordinate with the month/season, so there's no rush to acquire pieces right now. But I like the Christmas in July symbolism and tend to order around this time of year, so that I have the pieces for Henry's birthday in early November. :)

(3) Ordering the Magnificat Advent Companion

I received my August edition of Magnificat magazine in yesterday's mail, and included with it was a lovely ad for the 2015 Advent Companion, and even the 2016 Lenten Companion. I always enjoy having these little booklets during those special liturgical seasons. You can get them for your Kindle for 99 cents, which I sometimes do, and often they run out of the print copies, so you have no choice but to use the digital copy if you wait too long to order. But I do enjoy the tangible print copies for these specific publications, so my pre-order is about to go in! We're a long way out from Advent, I will grant, but it's pleasant to contemplate.

Those are my Christmas in July thoughts for the morning! Do any of you have any other pre-Advent/holidays planning that you do over the summer? If you don't, you can also write in to tell me how nuts I am. ;-) Do tell me all about it in the comments!

Crafty Tuesday: Is that holiday knitting I feel in the air?!

It happens every year. And it's always right around this time, late June/early July. I get drawn in by schmaltzy Hallmark Channel commercials for their Christmas in July movies. The temperatures are getting warmer, yet I start thinking about how I need to finish up my current projects so that I can start working on hats and mittens for the fall. Knit Picks has their summer yarn sale. All of this translates to me getting crafty fever for holiday knitting and crocheting. Big time.

I had been going through a bit of a crafting slump. I've been so enamored of other things lately: some writing projects, festival dance practices, summer activities with my family. And thus my craft projects seemed a bit...lackluster. I'm working on a sock that I started during the CNMC, and it's true, I do love it:

The colorway is called "Rustic Cabin" which I sort of adore. But it's pretty mindless knitting. I am looking forward to wearing these socks in the fall, but the project isn't exactly scintillating. I'm also finishing up a sweater that I've had on the needles for what feels like at least a decade, so also lacking a bit of excitement in Sweaterland. I'm on the yoke, and I have to say, that's the best part of this pattern. The section features cloister lace:

See the little churches forming? It's not possible for a pattern to be more perfect for me, yes?! The only issue was that the rest of the sweater is plain stockinette fabric and I nearly died of boredom slaving away to get to this point. I hope the sweater appreciates that. ;-) The sleeves nearly finished me, such was the nature of their monotony, and it may have been LAST summer that I was diligently hard at work on those.

*halo*

So, FINALLY, I am nearing the finish line, and the lace has been more interesting, definitely. But given the long term nature of the project, it just doesn't have that fresh, new feel anymore.

Cue the summer yarn sale and me sniffing the air:

"Hark. That's humidity. And consequently, my hair is an absolute disaster. Yes, that's right, I must order yarn right away and make a list!!"

If that statement makes sense to anybody else besides me, then you must be as delusional as I am.

But there is a method to my madness. June 25th (just a mere two days away, I might point out) marks exactly 6 months until Christmas Day. For knitters and crocheters out there, you know that this means that it is the perfect time to plan out and begin holiday gift crafting.

Suddenly, I am all inspired. :0 Yarn order over the weekend, check! Including some TO-DIE-FOR organic cotton hand dyed to stripe like a watermelon. I know that this all likely sounds like gibberish right now, but trust me, the resulting kitchen accessories are going to be *smashing*. I tried to keep the new yarn acquisition down (snort!) to things I needed for my gift list that weren't already in my stash. My husband likely isn't going to see my actions as anything resembling restraint, but he isn't a knitter, he doesn't understand our yarn hoarding ways. ;-)

And so, *drum roll* here is my list for 2015, and I think it's pretty darn reasonable:

Mike - Sweater. I procured the yarn for this during Knit Picks' big Thanksgiving week sale, which was an approved Mike color (translation: brown, gray, OR navy blue; God forbid anything should be multi-colored), and it was a fantastic deal. It's a gorgeous cabled pattern. If I start July 1st, I'm optimistic that I can finish this by Christmas. Hope, after all, does spring eternal.

Henry - Gingerbread socks. Fancy dancy, self-patterning sock yarn procured, these are easy. He's been asking for them and loves handknit socks. He is so obviously my offspring.

Anne - Yellow blanket. Naturally, she chose this particular occasion to want something to be only one color, and I only have one skein of yellow sport weight in my stash. Need more yellow, but otherwise this shouldn't be too bad. I will crochet it (so much faster), because the thought of knitting a whole blanket makes me twitchy.

Mother-in-law, grandmother, various aunts - Watermelon-themed dishcloths and potholders.

Of course, I have a bunch of other projects that I'd like to get done as well, such as some winter wear for myself, and hats for any nephew who asks. Oh, and some shawls. I love shawls, have I mentioned that. SO MANY SHAWLS. I made project pages for everything in my Ravelry gallery, and I now have...

*counts*

...18 projects in-progress or in the wings.

*gulps*

I can do this!!

*rallying cheer!*

If you're a friend or relation, and would like a handknit for the fall or winter, let me know now so that I can add you to the list! :0

Ok crafters: let me see your list! Leave it in the comments. ;-)