Giveaway Monday!

Happy Monday everyone! It's getting warm out there! To celebrate the month of June starting in two days, I am going to have a giveaway!
The prize a pair of earrings of your choice from my shop! There are 20 pairs in there right now, but I will hopefully be adding more in the coming days. It may take up to a week for that to happen, but there will certainly be more to choose from when the contest closes.
This contest is open for residents of Canada and the USA. Sorry everyone else, shipping costs are a bit prohibitive.

There are a few ways you can enter. Please leave a way for me to contact you.

1. Leave a comment on this post (1 entry) (This is the only required entry. Without it, no other entry will be counted)
2. "Heart" my Etsy shop. Tell me what your Etsy name is in a comment. (1 entry)
3. Go to my shop and find your favourite item, come back here and tell me what it is. (1 entry)
4. Tweet about this contest. Include @KnitNicoleKnit in your tweet. (please comment when you do! 1 entry per tweet, maximum of one tweet per day)
5. "Like" me on Facebook. Tell me that you did so (1 entry)
6. Buy something from my Etsy shop (10 entries per item. There will be more items posted soon!)

The contest closes on Sunday, June 12th at midnight. I will announce the winner on Monday, June 13th. The winner will have 24 hours from the time I contact them to respond. If I don't get a response, I will pick a new winner!

Good luck everyone!

Super Spur Of The Moment VIDEO BLOG!!!

Some time in April, I entered a contest held by Lanitium Ex Machina to win $50 worth of hand dyed yarn. Well, I won!!! It felt like a while since I entered the contest, but now that I look at the date of the draw, it's really only been about three weeks.
This is what happened when I opened it. I do sincerely apologize to Nea for butchering the name of this lovely company, and for the generally crappy quality of the video. I was so excited about the yarn that I had to share right away.

*The audio goes way out of sync at some point. I assure you I am not that technologically challenged, it is a youtube problem*

I encourage you to take a look at the Etsy Shop and order some gorgeous yarn. It's very well priced, and the colours are phenomenal.

Also, if I look like a total dork in the video, please let me know!

A Baby Blanket, and Some Lofty Goals

This is part of a baby blanket. I started it either two or three days ago, I honestly don't remember. The yarn is incredibly soft, and perfect for a tiny new baby boy. Plus, it comes out of a rather large skein, which brings me to the Lofty Goals the title of this blog post mentions.

I want to organize my yarn stash.

It is taking up way too much real estate in the office. Well, on the floor of the office. My goal is to make all of my yarn fit into the storage I have for it by December 31st 2011, except for the few cones of machine yarn I have. Those are too big to fit in the drawers, and can sit nicely on top of them, anyway.
There are a few ways I am going to go about this:
-Knit more. This is easy. I knit often. Quite often, some might say. I could be knitting more, though. At work, when there is downtime, after I clean and such. Or when I am watching TV shows and movies. I used to do that all the time, but lately, I haven't been doing it as much. Or in the car. We don't have a car right now, because of the accident, but I am still in a vehicle every few days. I need to get back in the habit of keeping a dishcloth or something in my bag all the time. The only problem with this part is that my bin for holding finished items is full to the top. I need to sell some stuff in order to fit more in there.
-Give some yarn away. This is getting more difficult to do. I have removed most of the yarn I don't use often/don't like form my stash over the past months. Most of it was donated to a group I knit baby hats with. I'm sure I could find more to get rid of, but I'm sure it won't be much.
-Actually organize the yarn. I said I was going to do this before, and I got frustrated half way through. That ended with me shoving skeins here and there, into whatever drawer was the closest. I want to have each drawer only hold one type of yarn, and in a fairly organized fashion. Keep all the same colours/dye lots together, partial balls in one part of the drawer, etc.
-Not buy any more yarn. This one will be difficult. If something that I use often is on crazy sale (Lion Brand Homespun for $3 a skein? Sure, I'll buy all of them) I will probably cave and buy it. And if someone asks me to knit something for them, I will buy the yarn for that, only if I don't have a reasonable substitute.

I am going to try my hardest to have everything organized by the end of this year. Once I get some stuff tidied up, I will take some photos of my current stash situation. I don't think I have ever photographed the entirety of my stash. This could get interesting.

Knit Bracelets are in the Shop!

I just listed three cotton bracelets in the shop! They have their own little section, even.
I am using a different, less fancy camera for my items now, and I wanted to test it out to see how well it would perform. I grabbed three bracelets and did whatever I could do. I was really surprised when I uploaded them for the edits. I didn't have to do too much to make them look good. I brightened up the pictures, and fixed up the background a bit, and called it a day.
I figured since I took the photos, I might as well add them to the shop.
We'll see how these do, and hopefully once the weather clears up, I'll take some more photos and add more!
Keep an eye out for a giveaway and some coupons!

Self Portrait Monday: May 23, 2011

Pardon the mess! We have rearranged the furniture again, and we need to get rid of my old mattress, so everything is right near the desks new location. It's also quite warm, so I am pretty red looking. More about my surroundings soon!!

I am getting a pair of earrings ready to ship. These ones are in a little box because I want to make sure they are extra safe. Why these ones? Because they have a loooong trip. By Google Maps directions, just over 25 000 kilometres, and 15 000 of those are kayaking across the Pacific, with a stopover in Hawaii and Japan. Where are these earrings going?

Australia.

Holy cow! I am so excited. I got the order when I was out and about on Saturday evening, and I wasn't really paying much attention. The following morning, I looked at my phone and saw notifications from my PayPal app, and some emails. I just about jumped for joy, but Rick was still sleeping. This weekend is a holiday weekend, so I don't think that the post office is open. I will head there bright and early tomorrow morning to ship them. The one girl that works there is starting to get used to my frequent visits. I think once I have gone a few more times, and I can see if she wears earrings, and what colours she likes, I will bring her a pair for being so awesome.

So, the room I am in... It is still the office, but we turned the desk 90 degrees to maximize floor space. But right now, there is a ton of crap piled up in a fairly unorganized way. Those drawers are FULL of yarn. There are some cones on the shortest drawer tower. There is some new yarn in a shopping bag. That shopping bag is sitting on the huge Rubbermaid bin that I keep my finished items in for shows. Basically, it's a mess. The biggest annoyance is that old mattress. As soon as it's out of the way, there will be so much more space.

I am getting some things ready for some awesome new stuff on the blog. It won't be for a little while, still, but it will be pretty awesome!

My First Heartsy Purchase! (An Item Review)

A little while back, a shop called PinkFlowerCube was on Heartsy. I had seen the shop in the past, and always liked the poly resin flower earrings she sold. I decided to purchase the deal, and I got to shopping right away. There were a lot of choices, but not so many that I felt overwhelmed. I finally settled on a pink pair, and a blue pair.
Right after I ordered, I sent Michelle a convo telling her how excited I was to be getting the earrings. She responded pretty quickly, considering the amount of orders she was getting through the Heartsy deal.
This all happened the last two days of April. I just received the earrings yesterday, which was really fast, considering there was an international border and what not between us. I opened the envelope, and I was so excited when I looked inside!! The earrings were wrapped carefully with bubble wrap to keep them from getting squished. (I will definitely have to do this with my earrings in the future)
Under the bubble wrap, this is what greeted me.
They are SO perfect! There isn't a bunch of adhesive slopped on the back of them (which I have encountered before) The earring post is perfectly centred. No ridiculous amount of packaging. And, her business cards are beautiful!!
I wore the blue roses yesterday, and I got a few compliments. Even my MALE doctor commented. You can sort of see my new nail colour in the photo (grey and blue) and the shades are similar enough that they will compliment each other.
I am so happy with these earrings! I really wish I had ordered more pairs! Hopefully, once the cash flow is a little more on the positive side***, I will get some more. I strongly recommend going to PinkFlowerCube for all your cute jewelry needs!

If you are interested in having one of your items reviewed, please let me know! I plan on doing this with all the items I purchase from now on.


***Getting in a car accident is rough. There are so many expenses we have to take care of until insurance reimburses us. Not to mention, there were issues with our taxes, my credit card bill is due, etc etc etc. It's all piling on at once, and it's just being a big pain in the butt.

Self Portrait Monday: May 16, 2011

It's Monday, and it's cold. My neck and back are still very sore. I spent a few hours in the emergency room on Saturday, several of them in a neck brace, some time in a wheel chair being transported to and from the x-ray clinic, and then released sans brace. The doctor said everything looked okay, all things considered. This meant nothing broken, nothing too severe. I am to ice my neck often, take ibuprofen as needed, and try to take it easy. If things do not improve, I am to head back to the hospital in an ambulance. The front and sides of my neck are still tender to the touch, but it doesn't hurt as much to just be sitting there, supporting the weight of my head.
The cold, damp weather isn't helping much when it comes to feeling better.
I haven't been doing much in the way of knitting or Etsy-ing lately. I need to photograph some things for the shop, which I have been meaning to do for a while now, but I have no batteries for my camera. I need to find some, and get some new items posted!!! No more excuses!!!
I am off to mail some dishcloths to my friend Paul in Ottawa.
Hope all is well with you!

I Wanted to Post Yesterday, But...

Blogger was down.
This week has been an eventful week. Mother's day, when I got my Mom and grandmother flowers. Monday was a doctor's appointment. I joined a gym on Wednesday. Awesome workout Thursday.
And here we are on Friday. The 13th no less. Rick and I went for a drive, heading to his parents, and we had to take a detour due to the infinite construction in Windsor. (There is so much construction here that some people call the season between spring and fall "construction season") We were at an intersection, waiting for the car ahead of us, and BOOM. We were rear ended. Hard.
Winston, our dog, was terrified. I freaked out because my glasses flew off my face. And Rick was trying to keep control of the situation.
We're all ok, and that's all that matters.
I am kind of upset that I am missing Power Yoga at the gym tonight, though.

Self Portrait Monday is Back! May 9, 2011

I know, I know, I've been a terrible blogger! But here is a sweet shawl to hopefully make up for it.

I got an awesome yarn cake in a bag of yarn that was given to me recently. It's pale pink, lavender and grey, with a sort of yellowy-green strand of something shimmery through it. It sounds totally gross, but looks awesome in person. I am doing a very simple stockinette stitch shawl, with yarn over eyelets at the edges to make the increases. If I had any idea of what the yardage of the ball could be, I would have probably attempted my first lace shawl. I'm about halfway through the ball right now, and I still love knitting it!
In other news, I've won quite a few contests recently. Earrings, yarn and address labels so far. I have entered a whole bunch of other contests that haven't been drawn yet, so I might win some more! I also ordered a few things on Etsy. The mail will finally be something more exciting than bills and junk!
I received my order of buttons from Wicked Wool Gathering that I ordered a little while ago, and I couldn't be happier. I ordered three different packs of buttons with which to make earrings. I haven't started making any yet, but I certainly will be soon!
If you need colourful buttons, roving, or other supplies, you should definitely check out Wicked Wool Gathering! Brenda is super funny, and great to deal with. She also sent me a sample of some other button packs she has in the shop! They're all unique, so not good for earrings, but I will probably use them on iPhone cozies, or to embellish a cowl or scarf.
I bought a Heartsy deal a little while ago, and I got two pairs of earrings from it. Once I get those, I will surely post about them! And I will do the same when I get the other prizes and purchases.
Well, I'm off to go attempt to photograph some new stock for the store!

Back open for business!

My Etsy shop has been reopened!

I will hopefully be listing new items in the coming days.

Sorry For the Missing Posts!!

I've been all over the place mentally lately, and I just spaced on the post yesterday. Sorry about that!
I also forgot to photograph my little table at the Made In Windsor show, so I can't show you that, either! I sold quite a few dishcloths, and a few pairs of earrings, so I am happy about that. I didn't sell any bracelets, so I am a bit bummed about that, but oh well.
Rick sold his camera last week, so I don't have anything to photograph with at the moment. I am going to try with my camera tomorrow after work, and see if I can get anything worth using out of it.

I'd like to thank everyone who left comments about the Friday Night Craft In! I am really looking forward to doing this again soon!