A fresh new year start, and soothing winter crochet -alongs...

Happy New Year everyone, I hope that you had a wonderful holiday season.

*hugs*

I did, it was very relaxing. I pretty much spent nearly 2 weeks in my pj's, knitting, drinking tea, and watching a Little House on the Prairie marathon. 😂 I really needed the down time, and I loved it. The fall was unexpectedly quite stressful, as I've written about before, and spending the time at home unwinding with Mike and the kids was just awesome. We also got to spend a lot of time with my parents, which was absolutely delightful. Now that it's the new year, I'm feeling all refreshed and excited to go on my goals for dance, faith and family! I'm starting off by taking a workshop next weekend that focuses on acting and stage presence for dancers - should be interesting, eeks! :-0

In other news, I'm terribly excited to be participating in another crochet -along (abbreviated as CAL in craft land ;-)) with the Attic 24 blog. She does one each January - March, and releases the color sequences a week at a time. This year's edition is called the Dahlia blanket:

I've participated in these CAL's the past two years, and the experiences have been so fun and soothing. I love being a part of a larger community, and there is a group on Facebook called "Hooked on Attic 24" dedicated to these CAL's and it's so lovely to be joined in there. The winter is a perfect time to have a giant blanket project going, and I love the challenge of finishing up the stripe sequence each week. She does offer options wherein you can pick either the varied color sequence that she favors, or a colorwash version wherein the colors fade into each more, or a mirroring stripes option. She puts together yarn packs each late fall through Wool Warehouse, but obviously you could use any yarn you like and either try to match up the colors, or come up with your own color scheme. It's such fun! The first sequence came out today, and I have to admit that I got up with an excited feeling in my stomach to go print it out. :-)

Do you enjoy having a community that goes along with your hobbies? Anybody tempted to crochet a blanket with me this winter? ;-)

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!

Of summer crafts, freezing fireworks, and super sassiness - 4th of July weekend 2014

Morning everyone! It's the Monday following 4th of July weekend and I'm back at work, sigh. It's raining pretty heavily here, which feels appropriate. But I had a lovely weekend interspersed with the usual bumps in the road of toting small children along for the ride. I'm sipping tea, do you have yours? Let's chronicle!

I took the day off from work on Thursday July 3rd, and we really spent it just puttering around the house. The weather was just beautiful - sunny, but not humid and hot, so I took advantage of it and snuck walks in each day while Anne napped in the afternoons. I did also work on crafting, like I had hoped. Not exactly related specifically to the holiday at hand, but that's never stopped me before. :)

I'm working on a rosary for my nephew Will for his birthday, similar to this one that I made for Andrew, which is this one:

St. Kateri center, with "burnt sugar" pearls for the Aves, and Turquoise Paters

Will's will have a Guardian Angel centerpiece, and teal crystal Paters, but will otherwise be identical. I got the first decade of that assembled this weekend, glory. I also made myself a pair of pink earrings to match my troupe dance costume for all the festivals we have coming up:

I struggled a bit with turning the loops. I had to go back and redo them a few times since the second earring originally turned out WAY longer than the first one. Not exactly a good look. And I'm familiar with this phenomena based upon knitting sweater sleeves that are different lengths from each other. Let's continue to repress those memories, shall we?

I also made these fun additions to my jewelry drawer:

What am I?

The first one I made turned out like yucky poo, so I had to start again. When I finished, I brought it over to Mike and asked him what he thought it looked like, with zero foundational information.

"Um. A bird's next with eggs in it?"

#victoryismine

Easter egg earrings for the 4th of July. I'm nuts.

So that was my beading work this weekend. I also was knitting, and trying to finish this summer dress scarf I'm making for myself:

I'm thinking about stitching the ends together when it's done and having it be a cowl. Thoughts?

I've also been commissioned by a troupemate to crochet her a modesty panel for one of her costume tops, so I got that done too. I just need to sew a crystal onto it and stitch it into her costume. Niche business getting started up right here. ;) I'd like to get that and the turquoise scarf done in the next few days.

Ok, so back to July 3rd. I did happen to be wearing the patriotic rosary bracelet that I made for myself:

Love.

Anyway, we decided to go to the fireworks that our town was hosting on the night of the 3rd. We haven't been to fireworks in years and years, and every year I regret not going. We thought the ones on the 3rd would be a bit less crowded (because the number of people that we have to encounter seems to always be the most important factor in the decisions we make about where we go #introvertfamily). I decided to leave Anne sleeping, my mother-in-law came over to listen for her, and Mike, Henry and I departed.

It *was* crowded, but nothing too terrible. We even got a seat on our own bench. And it was kind of nice to feel a part of the crowd, like we were sharing in a community experience, which of course we were. The only problem was that it was FREEZING. Fireworks don't generally start around here until 10 pm (I'm certain it's similar in other areas) because of how late the sun sets at this latitude in the summer. So the time combined with the fact that the weather in Western New York is just generally unpredictable, plus the fact that we have little fireworks experience, meant that we really weren't dressed warmly enough to be comfortable. We shivered for about 20 minutes before the display started, and I started to lost my fireworks enthusiasm. However, we stuck it out, and I'm glad we did. Once the show started, the distraction made me forget how much my teeth were chattering. And then I regretted leaving Anne behind. She was sound asleep, but next year I'll have her stay up. She would have loved it.

On the 4th itself we didn't do much except take the kids out to lunch at our new Firehouse Subs:

Somebody had a really good time...

We had fun, and both children were really well behaved. Little wolves in lambs' clothing. The rest of the weekend they fought like cats and dogs and made me contemplate listing them on ebay. Anne, in particular, is SO, SO SASSY these days. And she SHOUTS. At her brother. All.the.time.

"Anne! Stop..."

*eardrum piercing scream* "NO!"

"Anne!"

"Stop it, HENRY!"

It's miserable. And if you ask her to stop screaming, she says that she is in fact NOT screaming. She is just "yelling at Henry."

Kill me.

So, we were fielding that for a large portion of the weekend. She's very much in the age 3 end of the Terrible 2's and we're just weathering it as best we can.

How was your weekend? Leave me a comment! :)

Gearing up for the 4th of July...

...and feeling very patriotic about the whole thing. *beams* Traditionally, summer isn't my favorite time of year, because I just don't enjoy the heat. However, this year I have resolved to see summer for the good qualities that it has, which are many, and appreciate it more. Fusion Beads was having a big 4th of July promotion, with lovely red, white & blue jewelery, and I bought beads to make a patriotic rosary bracelet. My goal was to finish it prior to the 4th, and I did! Unfortunately, I left it at home and forgot to take a photo, lame! But it turned out very pretty. :) Planning to wear it this weekend.

We're also planning to attend a fireworks display for the first time in pretty much our entire married life. :0 When Henry was little, we never wanted to keep him up that late to bring him, since it gets so late before it is fully dark at this time of year. Now, we have that same concern with Anne, but my in-laws now live close enough to us that babysitting isn't an issue. So we're going to bring Henry and enjoy our town fireworks display.

We're also planning a cook out with my parents, and swimming will be involved, which of course the kids love. Me? I'm not much of a pool person these days, but the kids love it. The weather is supposed to cool down a bit, which will actually make it easier (in my opinion ;)) to be outside. Wine by the pool for everybody!

I'm hoping to get in lots of reading and crafting when Anne is sleeping. I have a few more gift rosaries in the wings to make, as well as a St. Dominic Savio chaplet for Henry and some earrings for myself. I'm currently knitting a summer scarf and a baby cardigan, I will post in-progress photos of those next week. :) I'm currently reading on my Kindle:

Book 1 in the Big Sky Centennial series, which focuses on the 4th of July weekend kickoff to the town centennial celebrations. I love it when I read seasonal books that synch up perfectly to the current season, it's the book nerd in me. There will be a book in this series published each month through a Christmas story in December, so excited! For whatever reason, I love books centered around farms and ranches. I don't know that I would actually like to live on a farm or a ranch, but reading about them thrills me. I also love cowboy heroes, despite the fact that I've never actually *seen* a cowboy in real life, and this whole "Western" thing is a bit of a mystery to me. Hey, reading is escapism, right? :)


So, it should be a fun one. Do you have any 4th of July plans? Leave me a comment!

I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend! I won't be blogging again until Monday the 7th, since I'll be very busy wrangling my children at home. :) But I will update you all on the weekend revelries then!

Car rosaries, and reflecting on my happy Catholic community...

Hello all! Very happy to be back with you. I had an absolutely smashing Memorial Day weekend, and as ever, despite my love of routine, it was difficult to come back to work today. But we persevere, no?

As I spent time with Mike and the kids this weekend, I got to thinking other happy thoughts. This is always dangerous, when I think too much. ;-) But I was thinking about how much it means to me that I have not only my parish community, but my Catholic online community whose support is so, so valuable to my day-to-day spiritual life. I have written about this before, shortly after I returned from the 2013 Catholic New Media Conference, wherein I met people whom I had only ever heard on a podcast or "seen" on Twitter. Knowing that all of these people are out there with whom I share such a pivotal common interest, that we can encourage each other via our blogs, Tweets or Facebook posts...this just truly picks me up when I am down. To know that all of these friends are out there, who care about what is going on in my life and I in theirs, who pray for me and make jokes on Twitter to make me laugh...it just means the world to me.

My new car rosary in action...

And so, this is where my new car rosary comes into the story, pictured above. Allison, of Rosaries by Allison fame :) made it for me, as she had many other rosaries that I own or have gifted to others. The car rosary that had been currently residing in my car was looking old in the tooth, and to be frank, was a giant pain in the backside. It never sat right, and anytime I had to add a new parking tag or something to my review mirror the rosary got ticked off and hung all disjointed. Trying to adjust it was a nightmare since the fastener was up at the top, and there is no room up there to either manuever or see what I was doing. So I asked Allison to come to my rescue. Could she make me a new car rosary?

She did, exactly to my specifications. Pink and green please, and long enough so that I can actually see it when my parking tag is hanging up as well. I got to pick the centerpiece, and I chose a Guardian Angel. :)

*heart*

Allison used milky pink pressed glass beads, and a light green pearl for the Our Father. The fastener is down near the centerpiece, so I can ACTUALLY ADJUST THE ROSARY WITHOUT SWEARING. I would say this is a very good quality in a car rosary. :0.

I LOVE it, and every time I look at it, I think about Allison, and wing up a prayer for her. I have never met Allison in real life, but I feel like I know her very well on Twitter and Facebook. And thinking about Allison makes me think about all of the other Catholics that I know on Twitter and Facebook, most of whom I've never met in real life, and who all know each other on there as well (a very happy Catholic circle :)). I hope to meet more of them in coming years at conferences and such, but regardless, even if I never meet them in person, I have a relationship with them that is *meaningful*. They lift me up, and hopefully I do the same for them. I love thinking about that every time I get into my car now. I am part of a much larger community, one that I value immensely and the people therein see little old me as a meaningful contributor. And for that I am so grateful.

If you don't already follow me on Twitter, I'm @CatholicTiffany, and I'd love to meet you on there. :) It's my favorite of the social media sites. I check it every day and interact as much as I am able.

Anybody else find other Catholics on social media? Leave me a comment! And come back tomorrow for the Catholic Book Club. I'll be reviewing Vocation in Black and White: Dominican Contemplative Nuns Tell How God Called Them. See you then!

A 4th of July Smorgasbord (sp?) post!

Ok, a quick Google search has told me that I did spell that correctly. It's one of those words that you hear and say your whole life without spelling it, and when you go to do so, you become paranoid that people will think you daft. Admit it, how many other people thought "next door" (as in "The Wilsons live next door to us") was actually "next store" for the first 10 years of their life? Just me? All right, then.

Since it's a long holiday weekend, I won't be posting for a few days, missing a 7 Quick Takes Friday, so I thought I'd make this post a bit of an Independence Day Weekend Administrative Summary Including Humorous Highlights. Let us begin.

Tomorrow we will go and barbecue with my parents at their house and I'm certain that the children will want to go in their pool. When I was a child I used to love to swim, but now I have to admit that I avoid it unless absolutely necessary. I don't totally know why, but there you have it. I prefer to sit *beside* the pool and sip a drink while soaking up the gentle breeze. So, I suppose I enjoy a pool's ambiance if not the actual water.

And my mother, who I never saw drink nary a single glass of wine for my entire childhood, now creates inventive cocktails for us when we're at her house for dinner. Maybe it's only after age 30 that we're allowed into this Cocktail Club, but I have to say it's a lot of fun, if a bit surprising. She makes a sangria that could fell a super hero, I tell you.

"Mom, what's in this?"

"Oh, just some brandy and wine. And cognac. And vodka. And..."

Clearly, our mother wants us to become unconscious before the end of the evening. Pacing oneself is an absolute necessity in that house.

So it'll be stiff drinks and hot dogs and hamburgers. Join us anyone?

Friday I'm off from work and we'll be wrangling the children, and then likely having dinner with Mike's parents. I have belly dance class later, and we've been invited to dance at a festival the last weekend in July that will inevitably involve a flurry of choreography practicing and formation changes. It'll be fun, but we have a new member, so I'm not entirely sure how we'll figure out costumes and such, but we'll get there. We have a bunch of slots that we can use to dance, so we've all been invited to do solos if we desire to, which is profoundly terrifying if a bit exciting. I'm not sure if I will yet or not, but if I do, NO PROPS. I'll just dance. But it'll be a big crowd, so I don't know. I'm sure there will be a frenzied discussion of all of this on Friday.

Saturday, Henry is invited to a pool party. He's excited, and I'm excited for him, but you know, this means that I have to *talk* to people that I don't know all that well, and you all know how social I am. :) That is to say, NOT VERY. I'll have to be all brave and everything.

Sunday, we'll have Mass and not much else, which will be lovely. I'm planning on doing lots of knitting, so that I can finish up the projects I'm working on to begin some fall and winter gifts. I'm also reading Mother Dolores Hart's The Ear of the Heart for our next Catholic Book Club installment, and at well over 400 pages, it's a bit imposing. I'm making steady progress, but it's slow going. So I'll work on that as well, but I can't guarantee there will be a book club post next week, may be the week after!

At any rate, Happy 4th of July everybody! I don't know that we'll do fireworks, since Anne can't stay awake late enough for them. We'll probably watch them on tv like we usually do and breathe a sigh of relief that we don't have to talk to strangers and battle traffic to do so. Because we're weird like that.

I'll post again on Monday, see you all then!

An Anne update, and looking forward to a long weekend

What was going on in my house at 3 am this morning?

I have absolutely no idea, because I WAS SLEEPING.

Oh, sweet, sweet bliss. Anne slept last night, and for that, I am so grateful. Unfortunately, this means that we'll be sticking with the one nap thing at least for the short term to see if it continues working, and well... You can't get a lot done around the house with an awake 15 month old running around. Especially one who knows how to scale furniture as efficiently as Anne does. But we had a good night, and I'm glad for that.

Let's see, what else... my allergies are in full force, sigh. They'll get better in September, but I'm a very stuffy camper for the time being.

And speaking of September, tomorrow is September 1st, and thus begins my absolute favorite 4 months of the whole year. It's a humbling thing the older one gets to realize just how quickly a single year passes. When I was a kid, a year seemed like an eternity. Those days are over, my friends. So many things seem "just like yesterday!" and let me tell you, when you realize that aforementioned event was actually 10-15 years ago, holy smokes do I feel old!

BUT, I'm not old, and my life is certainly much more enjoyable than it was 20 years ago. My glass is always half full, you see. And so, the bottom line is that I want to cherish each day of each fall for the rest of my life. I hope to have many years left on this earth, but one never knows when your time is up. I want to appreciate each fall and holiday season to its fullest. And tomorrow is the big opening day of my fall 2012. Excited.

On another note, I have dance tonight, and naturally, I'm still obsessing over which costume to get. Why take a day to decide when I can take 2 weeks?! I had it narrowed down to a handful of bra and skirt sets when I was hit by inspiration for a bra and belt set. With a belt, you can switch out your skirt and and make the costume look completely different. It's certainly more economical than a bra and skirt set (though I love those) and plus I already have 2 bra and skirt sets. You can get a couple trumpet skirts like these and enhance your costume wardrobe for a lot less money. I'm kind of excited. This would be something much different than what I already have. I'm still officially in decision-mode, but I do think I have a winner. I'll marinate on it for another week or so until we place the order. Glad I'll be seeing those ladies tonight, we always have a lot of fun on Friday nights.

I'll be back on Tuesday; happy Labor Day everyone!

Off for Memorial Day weekend...

I probably won't blog until next Tuesday since I'm of for a long holiday weekend. Mike and I have a fun morning of garden weeding planned for tomorrow while Anne naps (ha!) and plus we'll relax and generally spend time together. I'll be doing lots of knitting. I have some gifts I'm working on, plus my knitting group is about to start our summer knit-along. So fun! We're each going to be knitting the quite infamous Clapotis. Which is really just a shawl. But it's not just a shawl to knitters. :) I'm going to be making mine in a worsted weight harvest colored tonal yarn (the color is called "foliage" how fabulous is that?), and I'm really excited.

It's supposed to get really warm here this weekend and since Anne's room doesn't have standard sized windows, we're going to have to move her to our guest room in her pack 'n play so that she can be in a room with an a/c unit. I'm *really* praying that this doesn't interfere with her sleeping through the night, which she's been doing so well at. But if we leave her in her regular room, she'll only have a tabletop fan, and if it's uncomfortably warm, I can't imagine that would work well for her. Ugh. When the baby sleeps through the night NOBODY IS ALLOWED TO BREATHE lest it disturb the precious equilibrium. We'll see how this goes, sigh.

At any rate, have a great weekend, and talk to you all on Tuesday!