A pleasant weekend, as Ordinary Time settles in

Isn't he precious? I made him over the long weekend for Hank. He's a snail, and his name is Milton. If you can think of anything cuter than a snail named Milton let me know, because I don't think it exists.

"Mommy, can I sleep with my new snail?"

"NO!! He's needed for photography, and for knitting group show-and-tell on Tuesday. I don't want him to get all squished up before then."

Because stuffed snails have such pressing media obligations...

Anyway, we had a glorious weekend. I brought both kids to Mass with me on Sunday and despite Anne being at a *really* tough age for such activities, I've been able to manage it (not always well, mind you, but I do what I can). Our garbage disposal gave out over the weekend and I wanted to leave Mike the time (and ability to hear the thoughts running through his own head, you parents know what I'm talking about :)) to work on that while all 3 of us were at Mass. I was chancing it a bit with Anne's nap, but I packed up a sippy cup, some crackers, her St. Joseph board books, and my resolve. I also put on a headcovering, which I haven't worn in a while to Mass due to sheer laziness, since wearing one always provides that physical reminder that I should strive to be prayerful. And not in a panic-stricken frenzy. We set off.

It went really well. I've already thinking about Lent, as I always do at this time of year. I love this little stretch of Ordinary Time between Advent and Ash Wednesday. Anne behaved very well. She always loses it a bit right around the consecration, but I can always distract her by taking her to examine the nearest stained glass window more closely. While we were over there, following communion, one of the ushers came over to praise Anne for her good behavior. Our parish has the best ushers. There is this flotilla of older men that wear suits and ties and just look so dapper.

After Mass, Henry wanted to attend the open house the parish was hosting at the old school building. The building has been converted into a parish center, hosting religious education classes, a food pantry, parish offices, and a daily Mass and Eucharistic Adoration chapel. I was very interested in the chapel, as daily Mass is one of my favorite things in the world. The chapel is adorable and cozy, and for Lent I'd like to attend daily Mass at least once per week. More on that in a future post.

The kids and I enjoyed refreshments in the old gym before heading home to find a new (and working) garbage disposal, hurray! I also realized that Anne had snatched a little prayer card from the chapel with the name of an upcoming first communicant on it for us to pray for. She ultimately destroyed the card, but let's all pray for little Louis C. :)

Good news

My eyes and noses have shipped. :)

Anyway, it's a good day. Henry is starting ice skating lessons this coming weekend, so we're going out to buy him skates tonight. I'm hoping that he'll really like it. I also cast on for his Finding Nemo  socks and they're absolutely adorable.This is the picture from Abi's store:

Henry's socks will be custom made to fit his foot, of course. I love knitting socks. Especially when the yarn does most of the work of making them look good.

In other exciting crafting news, the wolf pattern is now mine. I absolutely cannot wait to be united with him in the flesh. I have some gray wool in my stash that is perfect for him. And yes, I do find it amusing that my wolf will be made from sheep's wool.

I also brought down my Crocheted Softies book last night that I got for Christmas. Henry spent a solid 5 minutes looking through all the patterns before declaring that he would really like a crocheted crab and snail.

"Let me see the snail. OOhhhhh, his name is Milton?! Yes, we must make him."

Upon looking through my stash, I discovered plenty of green and cream cotton in order to make Milton come to life. Excited.

Be still my heart...

I've been really into my knitting and crocheting of late. Besides my dancing, it's my hobby of choice. I've also been very good about finishing up projects that I've already started. I mean, I've always got more than one project going. Different projects for different settings for different needs. Currently, I have a shawl and a sweater on the needles, plus the Downton Abbey mystery gauntlets for the knit-along, plus the gift I'm making for Karen which will soon be done. To me, that sounds very reasonable. :)

Since I'm about to finish something, today while I was eating lunch I was playing around on Etsy looking at crochet toy patterns. I love to make toys. So along with some socks for the kids (with Finding Nemo self-striping clown fish yarn courtesy of the talented Abi Grasso), I was thinking one of my new projects would be some toys. Henry loves the hippo I made him, and I have a few things in mind for Anne and my nephews. I search for "Crochet Toy Pattern."

Cute results occur. On the second page or so I spot a crocheted wolf that I fall in love with on the spot. I admire him. I look through the other patterns in the store (all very nice, but none grab me the way the wolf does. Well, there is a reindeer that I ogled, but he's not in season right now). I send the link to my knitting group. Next thing you know, I can't imagine my life without the wolf. I have him queued up for purchase and soon he will be MINE.

As I'm searching, I come across a link to another Etsy store that sells safety eyes. I own many safety eyes, I use them on nearly every toy that I make. I don't embroider eyes (because I'm not that good at it) unless the toy is going to an infant. You have to be careful, even with safety eyes, for choking hazards. I usually buy them from Knit Picks when I'm ordering yarn. Although their selection of eyes (*snorts*) is small, they have the basic sizes and colors and I haven't needed anything other than that. Or so I thought.

That is until I discovered this store. Safety eyes in every conceivable color and size, and what immediately caught my eye were the larger eyes. I favor larger eyes, and the biggest that Knit Picks carries is 12mm, which work just great for most faces, don't get me wrong. But this place has gigantic safety eyes, and sometimes you just want big eyes, kwim? But then, BUT THEN, gentle reader, I discovered something that was heretofore unknown to me. What is that, you ask?

SAFETY NOSES.

Safety noses!! I about fell out of my chair. Visions of cute nosed animals filled my head. Heart-shaped noses, pug dog noses, TRIANGLE NOSES! I also found googly eyes, eyes with eyelashes, and slitted cat eyes. My life flashed before me. Next thing you knew, my cart was full of pink noses and big brown eyes.

I LOVE ETSY.

My package of eyes and noses is due to arrive next week.

*halo*