Happy New Year's Eve!

This week is another somewhat lame Monday post, and I apologize. I worked a long, busy shift at The Beer Store today, and I'm tuckered out.
Here are a few things that happened this year:

• Rick and I moved to the county
• I got my job at The Beer Store
• I've done some incredible craft shows
• I've made some sales in the Etsy shop, for which I am grateful
• I've made some plans and set some goals for the new year, which I will share in the next couple days

I hope you have a happy and safe night, and I will see you again next year!

My Week In Instagrams: December 28, 2012

Happy Friday! This week is almost through, and I for one, couldn't be happier. I have my final day of Christmas festivities with my mom's extended family. Hopefully that goes well. I can't wait to give the gifts to my recipients. I really think they'll love them.
This is some of what happened in my life this week. These photos aren't in any particular order. I really have to start putting them chronologically. I'll talk about them clockwise, starting from the top left corner.

I've been watching loads of Round the Twist podcast episodes. Carin knits lots of lovely stuff, and is really fun to watch.

This is one of the sweaters I received for Christmas. My mom got it for me when we were out shopping together a few weeks ago. I had completely forgotten about it.

My new knitting needles! My parents got me a set of KnitPicks Sunstruck needles, and I am in love! I have the Harmony wood, and now I have these, I couldn't be happier. Yes, they're fundamentally the same needles, but having the two colour options is a huge bonus.

My brother and his girlfriend bought me this fantastic light up flamingo. you might remember it from a couple weeks back. I think I jumped up and down when I saw him. He still needs a name, any suggestions?

My parents decided to change things up for Christmas this year, and do dinner at their place on the 25th. We're going to do it this way from now on. I am excited. The food was really good, and it was nice just being with my immediate family.

When Rick and I got groceries a few days before Christmas, I picked up some Pom Tea. I really like this stuff. I used to drink it a lot in high school, and got out of the habit. It's tasty, and good for you, two awesome things.

Work was nuts this week, and will continue for a little while longer. When I get home from work, I usually put my moccasins on, and put my feet up.

Last but not least, My parents got me some gorgeous yarn from KnitPicks when they got me my needles. This is all stuff for my Beekeepers Quilt, which I will probably start January 1st.

How were your holidays?

Wednesdays Are For Gratitude: December 26, 2012

Every Wednesday, I post about things I am grateful for. They can be large or small, but they are all things that have somehow positively affected my life the week prior. Here is my list for this week.
KnitPicks / Having a couple days off work after some super busy days / My boss / Crown Royal / Beer / Richard / Winston / Polysporin / My cell phone provider being very helpful when I called / My parents / My brother and his girlfriend / Being able to enjoy the holidays with my family / The Walking Dead on Blu Ray (borrowed from a friend) / Everything I have received for Christmas

What are you grateful for this week?

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve to all those who celebrate, and a very happy Monday to everyone else! I worked a pretty awesome eight hour shift today. My coworkers brought in food and pop and we all had an awesome day. It was busy in bursts, which allowed a lot of time to eat and drink and generally relax.
I'm just about to wrap my final gift which is for my brother and his girlfriend. After they get their gifts tomorrow, which I knit, I will post some photos of them wearing their goodies. I really hope they like them.
I'm going to cut this short so Rick and I can hang out for a bit. Be safe and have fun!

My Week In Instagrams: December 21, 2012

Happy first day of winter everyone!
It's almost the weekend! To be honest, I would rather it be midweek right now. Work is bonkers with people trying to stock up on beer for the holidays. Last night, on my till alone, I served over double what I normally do on a Thursday. We couldn't keep up! I had a couple jerk customers that practically threw fits when the debit/credit machine was slow. One guy was incredibly impatient and kept putting his card in before the machine was ready, which slows it down even more. So he yelled at me, and wagged his finger at me, and the next guy in line told him to calm the hell down or else. I don't know what "or else" meant, but I'm not sure I wanted to.
In any case, my week overall wasn't too bad. Here is my Instagram recap.

Oh goodness, I am a Dum Dum, I did the photos backwards! Just pretend the order of these is reversed. Sorry guys!

1. Dum Dums. Lots and lots of them. My boss brought some delicious suckers into work for us. It keeps us happy, hyped up on sugar, and probably more productive. Seriously, Dum Dums have the best flavours: root beer, butterscotch, cream soda, mango, green apple and many more. Those are my favourites though. I'm not sure if his goal was to tell us how he really feels about us, or to keep us happy.
2. My current mass production knitting. I'm making lots and lots of these little rectangles to be made into something awesome in the new year. I have about 10 of them made, and I want to have 50. I signed up for a craft show the first weekend of March, and I need to have more spring and summer friendly items available.
3. A bottle of Walker's Blueberry Wheat Ale from Mill St. This is from their Summer Sampler. I still have most of that in my fridge. I really enjoyed this beer. Seriously, when I first took a sip, I put it down and said "Damn, that's good" out loud! I love Mill St products, and this one didn't disappoint.
4. More beer! Only this is empty, and not mine. Part of my job is to buy back the empty alcohol bottles and cans that people bring back. When people put their cans back into the rings, I can't help but laugh at them. Number one, it's a hard thing to do. Number two, it's annoying as all get out because we have to remove them from the rings before putting them into our giant recycling bin. It's just a silly thing that lightens the mood at work.
5. Tim Horton's dinner. I like their chicken wraps, and I got one this night. It's dangerous having a Tim's right across the street from work.
6. Knitting! This is for the female family member. I will post a better photo, with details of what it is, after she receives it!
7. Another beer! This one is Steam Whistle, which has been my favourite beer for a while. I had this before going out to a Christmas party with a friend.
8. Winston has been a trouble maker lately. He's been banished to his bed. He tries to inch across the floor and come be close to Rick or it. I would hear his nails scuffle on the cement floor, and turn around and see him laying like this. This is his guilty look.
9. I made gnocchi with mushrooms and sauce for dinner one night when Rick and his parents were gone. I love gnocchi.

Overall, this past week wasn't too bad. I got most of the rest of my holiday shopping done. I just need to wrap a couple things, and pick up one last gift and I'll be set!

Wednesdays are for Gratitude

On Friday, I mentioned I was going to change things up around here. Having an Awesome Wednesday and an Instagram Friday post were somewhat redundant, so I am switch what Wednesdays are for. This is what my week will look like:
Monday: A general update, about my knitting, Etsy shop, craft shows, giveaways etc.
Wednesday: Gratitude. I will post about things I am thankful for. It's keeping in line with the Awesome Wednesday post, but a wee bit different.
Friday: Instagram week in review. I will probably post an Instagram collage with a review of what everything is.
This is what I think everything will look like for now, but this might change, as one does. I don't want this blog to get stagnant; I don't want to get bored.
Anyway, on with the show! These are some of the things I am thankful for this week.
Richard being awesome and patient / Winston being much better behaved than he has in the past couple weeks / My job / My coworkers / Having the time to knit things I want to knit / Yummy food in our fridge / Songza / SwagBucks / Granola bars / Tim Horton's / Silly games on Facebook that give me something to do while knitting / The Round the Twist podcast / My yarn stash.

What are you thankful for this week?

This Space Intentionally Left Blank

In light of the events at Sandy Hook Elementary, the blog is going to remain quiet today.
You can donate squares to be made into memory blankets for the victims families Here.

My Week In Instagrams: December 14, 2012

This past week has been full of yummy food. I looked through my Instagram photos, and that's pretty much the only thing I took photos of. Fitting, though, as we ate some pretty good food.

Here is what's going on in each of the photos:

1. Where I am currently in the gift knitting progress. Over halfway through the first two balls. I'm taking a bit of time off of knitting it, as I have some things that need to be finished before this one is due. I might push this gift back to give it to Christine when she has the baby. Much less stressful this way.
2. We picked up a queen sized pizza. It wasn't bad, but not great.
3. The pattern for the "secret" gift knitting. I'm sure Christine has figured out what it is by now, if she's been checking my blog. I hope she likes it!
4. I made a couple corned beef and swiss sandwiches after work one night. Rick and I love swiss cheese.
5. Winston has been really odd lately. Growling at Rick and I, and we can't figure out why. This cute photo was taking between a few bouts of him arguing with me. We took him to the vet, and he gave us some instructions to help get Winston back to being his calm self.
6. Snack plate night! A Ritz cracker, some yummy salami, marble cheese and a piece of pickled garlic. Rick and I do this pretty regularly.
7. We went to Windsor so I could drop off more earrings to Poppy. Rick requested that we go to Malic's Delicatessen, and get corned beef sandwiches. I got pastrami this time around, and it was damn good.
8. Yesterday at work, I had crappy microwave macaroni and cheese. It's pretty gross, the pasta feels over cooked, but it is filling enough for me to eat at work.
9. Today Rick and I went to the Chuck Wagon, around the corner from the chiropractors office. I wanted to get my brows waxed at the salon near there, but had to wait about an hour so she could squeeze me in. We ate in the mean time. I had a Monte Cristo, Rick had a clubhouse, bowl of Navy bean soup, and we split a plate of onion rings. I was really happy with my choice. My brows also look great!

I think doing an Iinstagram post, and an Awesome Wednesday post are kind of redundant. I am going to change the way I do things again next week.

In knitting news, I have a couple knitting projects to do for some family members. Neither of them read my blog, but I am going to wait to post about them until after they are received. I'm going to get to work right now on the one for the young lady!

Are you folks ready for the holidays?

Awesome Wednesday: 12-12-12

As you probably know, today is 12-12-12. Nothing super special about it, but it's kind of a neat thing to see. I have a busy day ahead, going into Windsor to drop stock off at Poppy, and going for lunch with Rick, so I'm going to cut to the chase! These are the awesome things that have gone on this past week.

• I restarted the baby shower gift. I lost a couple inches of progress, but I like the way it looks now even more than before. The only downside is, I think I might have to push this gift back to be what I give her at the hospital when she has the baby. It takes a lot of time!
• Rick and I got pizza for dinner on Friday. The place we get it from is nowhere near as good as where we used to get it, but it's alright.
• We watched Peace, Love & Misunderstanding. I really enjoyed it, Rick not so much. I like comedies, and he likes boring stuff.
• I got new needles to use for the Beekeepers Quilt. I think they might still be too big. I'm going to swatch with straight needles of the same size to see if the fabric is tight enough. If not, I'll be back looking for smaller needles.
• I posted a passive aggressive note on my Tumblr. There are certain people who have a problem with what I choose to do with my life, and who I've chosen to spend it with, and I finally said enough is enough. Posting it lifted a weight off my chest.
• I posted about a sale in my Etsy shop!
• I paid off a little more of my credit card. I'm just under 15% paid off! I'm hoping to pay it off in full by the end of 2013. It's on my list of goals.
• Rick wanted McDonalds at 10pm one night. We ate a feast of crappy food, I was reminded that McNuggets are fucking gross, and had absolutely ridiculous dreams. I think the two are connected.
• I picked up the supplies for snack plates at the grocery store. Every now and then, Rick and I make a bastardized version of an antipasto platter. Pickled garlic, peppers, sausage and regular pickles, some kind of salami, cheese and sometimes crackers. We snack on it usually while watching something on TV. It's one of my favourite kinds of meals. I love finger food!

What kind of awesome things have been going on in your lives?

A Sale In My Etsy Shop!

It's getting ever closer to the holidays, and money is getting tighter for just about everyone. For this reason, I have a discount in my Etsy shop for all of you fine people! Buy something for yourself, you deserve it.
Please note that I do not guarantee delivery in time for the holidays. If this is for a gift, you can pay extra for rush shipping. Convo me before ordering, and I can get you a price for that.
Use the code Blog25 to save a whopping 25% on everything in my shop!

Some Goals on a Friday

Today is the third consecutive day off work for me, and I'm taking advantage of it. I have a lot of things to blog about today, so I'm going to jump right in!

I started listening to/watching podcasts again. I got rid of all the old episodes I had collecting virtual dust in iTunes, and downloaded some new ones. My newest favourite is the Subway Knits podcast. Maria has such a wonderful voice for podcasting, and she really holds my attention well. This has been my background soundtrack while knitting Christine's baby shower gift (more on that later). I've also got some episodes of CraftStash and Round the Twist downloading, which I will listen to soon.
In addition to podcasts, I've been listening to songs online on Songza. My friend Jess introduced me to this, and I am really enjoying it. You can select times of day/days of the week/activities to have a soundtrack for, and they will give you a few options. For example, last night I chose "Thursday Evening", "Working (With Lyrics)", "Upbeat Indie" and finally "Female Indie Pop Singers". The first songs were from Emily Haines (of Metric), followed by Feist, Regina Spektor, Kimbra and some other wonderful artists that I really like. I'm definitely going to be using this often. I will still use iTunes, but this is a nice way to discover new artists.

I'm working on Christine's baby shower gift pretty aggressively. Her shower is at the end of this month, and I barely have an inch done. This photo shows the colours, but I undid it all, because the general consensus was that it didn't look great. I modified things a bit, and restarted. So far, so good. This is probably going to be the first and last photo of this on the blog until she receives it. I don't want to ruin the surprise! I have a couple other gifts for her, too. I think she'll really like all of it.

Now, onto the goals. I have a lot of things I want to accomplish in 2013. I did the 101 project a few times, and failed miserably. I think by having fewer goals, in a shorter time frame will allow me to stick to them a bit better. Here is what I have so far:
-Knit the stash. I have tons of yarn, and I need to start using it all. I think I'm going to do the skein in/out count again. This worked really well for me in the past. I will knit exclusively from the stash except in the case of special orders, if the yarn is more than 70% off, it is hand dyed sock yarn with a discount, or it's "souvenir" yarn. I need to have some exceptions.
-Blog more about what I am knitting. This is a knitting blog, and it seems like there isn't a heck of a lot of knitting content at any given time. I want to post about what is on my needles, and recently finished projects. I feel this will help me knit the stash more effectively. I can see what I've made, what I used for it, and it will probably give me more ideas of stuff to knit with the random assortment of yarn I have. I'm hoping to post Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and stick with that schedule, but it all depends on how much and when I work.
-Take more pictures. I have an iPhone with a decent camera, I have no excuse for not taking photos. I'm getting a new iPhone at the end of January, with an even better camera, so hopefully that will help encourage me to document more of my life. I won't necessarily share everything on Facebook or Instagram, but I want to have the pictures for myself.
-Get fit. I've gained over 30 pounds in the past year, mostly because of the anxiety medication I started taking November 2011. It increases my appetite, decreases my motivation, and makes me sleep a lot. All things that add up to a terrible weight gain. I want to start running again, which will probably be what I start with. I also want to get a stationary bike so I can pedal and knit at the same time. I wish I could build a bike that generates electricity, so I'd have to pedal every time I want to use my computer. That would be awesome, I think. (If this exists, PLEASE let me know!)
-Take better care of myself. I want to feel better about myself, and that starts with better habits. I need to eat healthier, put some make up on, even if i'm not going anywhere, and use the good shampoo more often. Little things like that will hopefully make me love myself again.
-Pay down my debts. I owe money to the credit card company, and to my parents, to the tune of several hundred each. This year, I want to really make some headway on both of them. My heart says to pay my parents back first, but my head says to pay the credit card with the 19.45% interest first. I will try to find a nice balance.
These are my goals. I won't say resolutions, but they're pretty close to that.

What sorts of goals do you have for the new year?

Awesome Wednesday: December 5, 2012

Hello everyone! It's Wednesday, and that means it's my day off! Incidentally, I have tomorrow and Friday off, as well! That's pretty awesome, I'd say. These are the awesome things that have happened over the past 7 days.

• I received my sock yarn minis! I love them, and I can't wait to be able to knit with them.
• I did the Christmas Craft Show. I did really well. Not as well as Made in Windsor, but not bad at all.
• I got FOUR custom orders at the show. I finished three of them, as well as another order I got a few days before. The fourth item, a shawl, is off the needles, I just need to weave in the ends. I also got another order for a head band, which needs to be sewn up and have the ends tied in.
• I received my yarn from Midwest Yarn! That means I can start on Christine's baby shower gift. I'm trying to be vague about this, in case she reads my blog. I have two rows done, now it's time to get into the actual pattern part.
• I went to my little brother's hockey game. They won, with a final score of 9-6 or something like that.
• Mom and I went out for lunch together. That was really nice.
• Rick and I are going for all you can eat sushi this afternoon. I can't wait!

Most of this stuff is from the weekend. I didn't do much else before or after. I do have some not so awesome news, though. Winston has a terrible ear infection, and it's completely changed his personality. Our normally loving dog has started growling at Rick and I. We're not too sure what to do, other than call the vet, and likely take him in. I hope he feels better soon.

A Weekend In Review

I meant to blog yesterday, but I had quite the busy day, and ended up going to bed quite early.
This past weekend was probably my last craft show for a good long while. I did the Christmas Craft Show, in Windsor, and it was great!

You can click the image to see a larger version of the photos.

-Rick and I stopped at the post office on the way out to my parents. I got my sock yarn in the mail! I ordered a bundle of sock yarn mini skeins from Evermore Studios on Etsy about a week and a half prior. The yarn is even prettier in person than the photos lead me to believe! So soft, and a great variety of colours. I have the next couple days off work, so I am going to wind them into centre pull balls. I can't wait! I should be getting my DPNs from Midwest Yarn any day now, so I might allow myself to knit one hexipuff before starting the gift for my friend, for which I will be receiving the yarn at the same time.
-Friday night, my brother and I went to the bar that's a couple blocks from my parents house and had a Caesar. He turned 19 over the summer, which is the drinking age in Ontario, so we decided to hang out over a drink. We had a great time.
-Saturday morning, I set up for the craft show. I had a great space, on a corner, not far from the entrance. I had fantastic neighbours, and had a great time overall.
-I got FOUR orders for custom items on the Saturday of the show. The first was a cream cabled scarf. My mom bought me to Michael's to pick up yarn after the show, and I got a huge shopping bag full.I stayed up super late (I think about 3:30 am) so I could get the knitting done. I woke at 6:30, so I could finish it. It worked out well in the end, as I got it done not long after arriving to the show. The woman who ordered it came to pick it up in the afternoon on Sunday, and loved it!
-The second order was a crimson red lace neck warmer, the same as the ones I have in my shop. The colour is absolutely beautiful. It knit up quite quickly. I am definitely going to make another in the same colour. The recipient was one of my neighbours at the show.
-The third, and final order I completed, was a head band. I've seen similar items on Etsy and other blogs, but had never made one myself. I love it! It worked out really well, and much faster than I had anticipated. This went to my other neighbours, for their daughter. I am going to make more of these, no doubt about it!
-After the show, I went back to my parents, and decompressed for a while. We all went to my brother's hockey game, which they won. It's been a while since I've seen one of his games, so it was nice being back in the arena. I worked on my final order, a navy blue shawl, during the game. It's almost done! Just a couple more rows, and it will be ready to go. I stayed the night at my parents again, and left early Monday morning.
-Mom drove me home, where I unloaded all my stuff, and then she and I went out for lunch. We had fish and chips. Mine was in sandwich form. Absolutely fantastic. I've had food from Joey's before, but never the sandwich. I loved it! I had left overs for dinner at work.
-The last pictured is a screen shot I took when I was face Time-ing with Rick, and he changed the camera so I could see Winston. Poor little guy looked so confused when he could hear my voice, but not see me!

Overall, the weekend was great. I did very well at the show, and I enjoyed spending time with my family. How was your weekend?