On the brink of September…I realize that I never posted my TY Saint Dolls for August.  I thought I’d give you a sneak peek of these two Saints, made by my friend Lucia. 

Guess Who these Saints are??!?

Unfortunately, the TY dolls may be a little hard to find these days.  I have been looking for alternatives, but check out these adorable felt saint dolls!  They make me want to work with felt again!

These look meticulously sewn and PERFECT!. …check out the Saintly Silver Etsy shop here for great gifts for Christmas. 

(No, I’m not getting a commission.=)

I have been eyeing those fruity letter games…the ones with the scrabble-like tiles, packaged in the cute little soft banana, pear or apple pouch.  I just didn’t want to spend the money and to tell you the truth, it kind of bugged me to pay for something that would be pretty simple to make. After all, I know my letters too.

I found a package of glass mosaic tiles:  cute little ones that are just under a 1/2″ square. 

Please note:  these are perfect size for a little guy like our 16 month old Adam to put in his mouth…and quite appealing in color and texture.  We are keeping these tiles well out of reach of Adam, until he can discern between food and the non-edibles.

I did a little research about scrabble and found that these are the quantities of letters for a scrabble set:

1x : J, K, Q, X, Z
2x: B, C, F, H, M, P, V, W, Y
3x: G
4x: D, L, S, U
6x: N, R, T
8x: O
9x: A, I
12x: E

This was good news, because if my math is right, this adds up to 98 tiles (plus 2 blank tiles).  My little bag of tiles from the craft store came with 180 tiles, plus about 20 black tiles (which I could use as blank tiles because they are too difficult to write on). 

I recreated the 98 tile set, and then I continued to create another few full-alphabets-worth of tile.  I may have added a couple extra “S” tiles, because “S” is so darn handy.

Using just a sharpie marker, I tried to neatly print the letters on the tiles.  It worked pretty well.  I was surprised at how well the ink adhered.  I decided to be extra safe and I sprayed the letter-marked tiles with hairspray.  I probably should have waited a few more minutes to make sure the ink was completely dry, because a few of the tiles turned a little ugly as the ink blurred a bit.

I made a cute little drawstring bag to carry the travel tiles in. 

I just happened to have the rainbow material which seemed appropriate.

We have already been playing with the rainbow tiles…either making anagrams, connecting words like dominoes or making crosswords. 

Even my five year old is spelling words…although some of her words aren’t in the dictionary!

It is with a heavy heart

that I pray for the soul of Fr Dan Homan, OSB.

He was my friend, my mentor and my favorite uncle…and superhero to my kids.

As one of the 140 000 ‘kids’ who walked through the doors of St Benedict’s Subiaco Retreat House in Oxford, Michigan,

I felt the love of Jesus through Fr Dan. 

He inspired, he taught by example and he loved me.

I love you, Fr Dan and I miss you.

I created this drawing of the St Benedict medal

after I learned of Fr Dan’s heart attack

and I was praying and expecting a full recovery for this superpriest and can’t-live-without-him family friend.

I pray that he is in the Arms of Jesus right now, experiencing the peace and happiness due to this good and faithful servant and realizing the extent of the love of all his family and friends who will miss him so much.

Happy 17th Wedding Anniversary                   Monica and Bill!                             Love Dad, Mom and Stephen

I have started doodling while I listen to homilies of my favorite priests: Fr Roger and Fr Larry.

Check out a few of the Companions of the Cross awesome priest’s homilies at the St Mary’s Website.

or Fr Larry’s website the The Reason for our Hope.

Both are available as podcasts on itunes.

I have also recently joined pinterest.

As much as I have enjoyed my Converted 2 Catholic linky…

I realize that Pinterest is a better way to collect ideas! Check out Cool 2B Catholic on Pinterest!