Awesome Thursday: November 15, 2012

And once again, it's Thursday! This past week hasn't been too eventful, but I did do some fun stuff.

• I got an awesome email saying I was accepted to take part in the Sprucewood Shores Winery Holiday Fair this upcoming Sunday. This means a three day weekend of craft shows! It's every Sunday between now and the end of December, and I'm going to do as many as I possibly can.
• Rick and I went to Arby's to download some TV shows and what not. We used to do this pretty regularly, but since I've been working a bunch, we don't go together that often.
• The CEO Of Me Shop From Your Seat Showcase started! I've been getting some pretty good traffic from that. Still no sales, but there is still a lot of time for that.
• Rick and I watched Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and Safety Not Guaranteed. I liked all three of them. He rented another movie, that I didn't care for, and the first season of Homeland, which I didn't watch either.
• I finally was able to put my foot up and ice my ankle. I twisted it last Wednesday, and yesterday I had it up and rested it for a while. It still hurts, but it does feel a bit better.
• I got caught up on my TV shows that I watch. I really like 2 Broke Girls, and I was a bit behind in watching them.
• I decided to quit my NaBloPoMo project. It was fun, and did force me to write more, but I felt like I was trying too hard. And blogging is supposed to be fun!

Nothing too exciting this week. How are all of you doing?

Day Number Nine of NaBloPoMo

It's Friday! That doesn't mean much for me, because I work today and tomorrow. I do have Sunday off work, though. I wasn't really feeling writing this post when I first started it this morning. My idea well is starting to run dry, and I don't want these posts to be contrived, as I mentioned before. I haven't really had a whole lot of knitting time, so there isn't much to update about in that department. And with work, I don't have time to gallivant around and do fun stuff everyday.

Onto today's fun facts!
28. I very rarely get sick. When I was young (like under 4 years old) I used to be sick all.the.time. I obviously don't remember this, but my mom does. Since then, I don't get sick all that often. I can't even remember the last time I had so much as a cold. I don't have any secrets to how I don't catch things that are going around. It's not like I wash my hands obsessively, seclude myself from people who are sick, or anything like that. I'm just lucky, I guess.
29. I've been on a plane exactly three times. When I was about 12, I went to the local hobby airplane hangar with my Pathfinder group for an open house they were having. (Pathfinders are an older group of Girl Guides: the Canadian version of Girl Scouts) With this event, all of the attendees could go up in a plane with one of the pilots. When my turn came up, I was matched with a really nice guy and his yellow, two seater Cessna. It was small. So small that he had to take his shoes off to be able to reach the foot controls. We flew around the county, and were up in the air for about 30 minutes, maybe a little longer. In that time, I flew the plane for about 5 minutes, and it was amazing!
The second and third times I was on a plane was going to and from Iceland. These flights were mostly uneventful. On the way there, we flew overnight, so most people slept. The way back, we flew over Greenland, which was pretty awesome.
30. The farthest I've ever been from home is Iceland. I've never been farther south than the middle of Ohio. So that means unlike a lot of people, I've never been to Florida, Mexico or elsewhere around the Gulf of Mexico. And honestly? I really don't think I'm missing out on much. I don't care what your opinion on that area is, it's not for me. I don't do well with heat, I don't like having sand all over me, and I don't like being surrounded by a million tourists.
31. I used to go camping all the time with my family. We'd pack up our truck and trailer, and head out on the open road. We've been all around Ontario, through Quebec, and across the maritimes (except for Newfoundland, unfortunately) And those camping trips were some of the greatest trips I'd ever had. I'm much happier to have seen that much of Canada, than any other country where I have to stay on the resort or risk being attacked.

Work wasn't too bad tonight. I had an eight hour, which hasn't happened in a little while. I wasn't working on empties, which was a nice change. Being that I'm the lowest in seniority, I'm nearly always doing returns. Nothing too eventful happened tonight. There were a lot of young people coming in, so I had to ID a whole bunch of them. Only one girl gave me a problem. All I could say was "Take it as a compliment, and give me your ID, or get out of my store." She had only turned 19 a couple months ago. Sorry, but you don't magically look old enough as soon as your birthday passes. We ID anyone that looks under 25, and most people, females especially, take it as a compliment. I'm working six hours tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. Nearly the whole crew is in, so it should be a good time.

I am so happy with today's 365 photo. I told myself I wanted to have at least 10 bracelets made for the Made in Windsor show, and I am almost there, with nearly a week to go! My new quota is going to be two of each colour: one of each size. The filter on this photo makes the colours look a lot more saturated than they are really, but it's pretty close. The top row all wrap four times, and are $12. The bottom row wrap thrice, and are $10. My pricing is basically going to be $6 for the first wrap, and $2 for every wrap after that. So if there is a colour you want, in a specific number of wraps, let me know, and I can get making that for you!

It's now almost midnight, and I'm eating a bowl of sausage soup, that has no sausage in it. Dinner was at around 4, so I was a bit on the hungry side. This isn't really hitting the spot.

Short post tonight, but I didn't have much to say. I'll be back tomorrow!

This post has 866 words.

I am at 13 866 total words for this month.

NaBloPoMo Day Eight: Awesome Thursday: November 8, 2012

For the first time in this NaNo series, I have writers block. I'm having a rough time focusing on this post, because I would rather be knitting. I have a whole pile of projects around me in various states of being finished that keep grabbing my attention. If it's not those, I start reading blogs in my RSS reader. Or I start browsing Etsy or TopHatter. I can't concentrate! Too many distractions! Oooh shiny things!

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that I was ready to cast off the teal shawl. Well, I did that not too long after finishing the blog post, and I really like how it turned out! It's a bit smaller than the other shawls, but still a great size for wrapping around your neck. You can't really see the yarn overs on the edge, but you can kind of see the open bits on the centre spine. I did the increases for this one a little differently than I usually do, which made them a little more visible. It made the knitting a little easier, and quicker, but I don't really like the way it looks. I will probably go back to the way I usually do the increases. I think I still have a couple skeins of this yarn left, and I will likely make another neck warmer out of it. I made two, and you can see one here. The other is nearly identical, and I brought it into Trinkets and Treasures yesterday.


Today is Thursday, so that means an Awesome Thursday is in order! Like I mentioned last week, there have also been studies done that have concluded that people showing gratitude can lead healthier lives with less depression and anxiety, sounder sleep and a better attitude towards others. I'm not one to argue with science, so on with the gratitude!

• I started this fun NaBlo project! I'm a week in, and doing very well, I think. I still have a few ideas of fun things to write about, so hopefully the posts won't get boring.
• On Friday, we went to the casino for the buffet. I posted about that whole day on Day 2 of NaBloPoMo, here. I had a lot of fun there, even without gambling.
• I worked like crazy on YarnYarnYarnYarn, and got nearly ONE THOUSAND posts ready to go. That number absolutely boggles my mind. I'm going to be adding a whole bunch more this upcoming weekend, when I have a day off.
• I knit a whole pile of bracelets. They come off the needles so quickly, I love them! Tomorrow, I'll post a picture of all the ones I have made so far. They look pretty awesome!
• Obama won! I followed the results online, and it was pretty nerve wracking. I am quite happy with this, as well as some of the propositions passed, and voted down, in various states.
• Rick and I went to Amherstburg to drop off stock to Trinkets and Treasures. The new store is nice, as I mentioned before.
• I got paid from Trinkets! Not a whole lot of money, but considering I didn't have a whole heck of a lot in the store, I'm pretty darn happy.
• Work today was pretty nice. We had some awesome customers come in early on, which made the slow day go by a little quicker.
• When I got home from work, dinner was almost ready. Cindy made sausage soup again, and it was fantastic! I think I'm going to bring a bowl of it to work tomorrow.

Here are today's fun facts! I'm starting to have a really hard time figuring out what to put here. I would appreciate any suggestions/questions you have for me!

25. I have a hard time choosing my favourite anything, especially anything music related. For a couple years now, I've used a service called Last.fm to track my music metrics. This has given me a pretty good idea of the bands I listen to the most often. With that, I give you my top 10 favourite bands:

1. Fall Out Boy
2. Taking Back Sunday
3. Blink 182
4. Rise Against
5. Tegan and Sara
6. Nirvana
7. The Used
8. Metric
9. Say Anything
10. Paramore

This is pretty accurate. I listen to all these bands quite often, and have multiple albums by each of them. Also, I'm not ashamed that I like these bands as much as I do. I don't believe in having "guilty pleasure" music. If you like something, own it.

26.I don't drink coffee! Until a year ago, I absolutely abhorred coffee, and anything coffee flavoured. I made it a goal of my 101 in 1001 list to learn to like coffee. I forced myself to drink it with a lot of milk and sugar a few times. I didn't mind it, but I definitely didn't like it either. Rick and I would share a French press of coffee a few times a week, in hopes of me learning to like it. It never worked. I don't hate it anymore, but I never actually buy it or anything like that. The only time I do consume it is from Starbucks, when I get a frappucino. But I don't think that even counts because of all the other stuff in with it. And, my favourite beverage at Tim Horton's is a white hot chocolate.
27. This ties in with the last one. If the idea of a certain type of food appeals to me, I will do everything in my power to learn to like it. I used to hate avocados and guacamole, for example. But I liked the idea of everything that is in guacamole, and the health benefits of eating avocados, so I kept eating it over and over again, to force myself to like it. I did the same with raw fish. And beer, actually. One of the other foods that I want to teach myself to like is hummus. I love the idea of it, and I just want to learn to enjoy it. People don't believe me when I say it's possible to learn to enjoy certain foods. It worked for me!

Two of my knitted items were featured in treasuries today! Being included in a treasury is always a nice treat, and two in one day is absolutely fantastic! The pictures are obviously very very small, so you can click them and see the treasury on Etsy, in all its glory. If you're feeling nice, you can Heart them!

Today's 365 photo is the Steam Whistle truck doing its delivery at work today. I wanted to get closer to get a better shot, but I was the only one on the tills at the time, and I didn't want to make people wait. I spent most of the day at work, so I figured something work related was in order. There will probably be a lot of work related 365 photos, so I will try to mix it up as much as possible.

The internet has been acting really goofy for me all afternoon today. Things aren't loading quickly, if at all, or the router suddenly decides I need to log into it, all sorts of shenanigans. I'm hoping this post goes through without issues. It's a little on the short side, but like I said before, the short attention span was kicking in.

This post has 1215 words.

I am at 13 000 total words for this month.

Day Four of NaBloPoMo

Yesterday after posting, I decided to work out for a little while. Nothing too crazy, just jumping jacks, sit ups, lunges and planks. I ate about three quarters of a pizza to myself just before, as well as over ate at the casino buffet the day prior, and I didn't want my pants getting any tighter. I used to work out everyday, and then I started working at The Beer Store, and I just don't do it anymore. I need to get back into that habit. I think I have enough daily "challenges" going on this month to add working out to the list. I will try to do at least a little something everyday so that I can ease myself back into it come December.

I decided one of the "features" (if you want to call it that) for NaBloPoMo will be 100 things about me. I won't do it all in one day, because that would just be overwhelming, so I am going to split it into 10 things a day for the next 10 days. I might decide to do less things per dar, if I end up with a lot of words. Part of the reason for this is to boost my word count, haha. I'm probably going to fly by the seat of my pants for this, and not over plan. I'm also going to try to choose things that not a lot of people know about me, or things that aren't obvious. It's going to have things I like, things I do, and possibly a few things I dislike. Here goes!

1. I love my little family. Rick and I have been together for a little over three years. We've had our ups and downs (lots of them, to be quite honest) but we always seem to make it through. I've never been in a relationship that's as wonderful as this one. We have a lot of plans and hopes and dreams together. I've never been in a relationship this strong before, so it scared me a little at first, but now, talking about "our future" is a common thing, and not so intimidating.
We've had Winston for almost two and a half years, and I don't think I could ever love another dog as much as I love him. We talk pretty regularly about adding another dog to our family, but I'm not sure if/when that will happen. Winston is a strange little man, and I think that another dog might upset him more than benefit him.

2. I love my job. I work at The Beer Store not far from home, and it's one of the best jobs I've ever had. There are 10 of us that work at my store, and I get along fairly well with everyone, which doesn't always happen in groups of that size. I was working around 40 hours a week, every week, during the summer, and I was incredibly happy. I'm not working as much now, but I still love my job!

3. I like living in the county (most of the time). Rick and I moved here back in March, and I really wasn't a fan of it for a while. I missed being a twenty minute walk from nearly everything I needed. I missed my friends. I missed our apartment, which, despite its flaws, I'd grown to really like. I missed the privacy living on our own gave us. I was still working on the whole "being self employed" thing when we moved here (which was one of the reasons we moved) so I rarely, if ever, left the house. Now that I get out and work and what not, I don't mind it nearly as much. We don't go into Windsor that often, but when we do, we try to do as much as we can.

4. I love reading blogs. I follow several hundred blogs that I read while knitting. I spend large chunks of most days on the computer reading the newest updates from my favourites. This and knitting are my two hobbies that I could never ever give up. In addition to reading blogs, I also love writing my own. I have this blog, as well as three Tumblrs that I update regularly, plus another couple Tumblrs that I only update every now and then.

5. I really like eating food. This sounds gluttonous, but it's true. I love going to restaurants with Rick and trying new things. I also love the food he makes for us. I'm not much of a cook, but he's pretty darn good, and we end up with some pretty delicious stuff. He has also introduced me to a lot of new foods and restaurants, with my favourite being Vietnamese. Together, we also annihilate all you can eat sushi, gobble down delicious authentic Mexican food at the local taqueria, and occasionally treat ourselves to Arby's.

6. I really, really like beer. I started drinking beer only a couple years ago, but I've grown to really appreciate it. Before then, I would never even think of trying it, because the few kinds I had tried were terrible. I have 14 different types of beer in my fridge currently, and that number might go up over the next couple months, considering the holidays are coming. My preferred types are traditional pilsners, and Belgian wheat, with the former being what I usually drink in social settings, and the latter something I often enjoy at home. The entire vegetable crisper is our fridge is completely full of my beer. And yes, it is MY beer; Rick doesn't like beer at all. I do buy variety packs of beer on occasion, so that is part of the reason I have so many. Most of what I get is from smaller breweries.

7. Another hobby of mine, if you want to call it that, is listening to music. When we lived in Windsor, I would head to my favourite bar, Phog, and check out indie bands from across the country on tour several times a month. I've made some great friends through independent bands that came through our city. I've expanded my music library greatly with these bands, and discovered many styles of music that I otherwise would not have really thought about. The last show I went to was an all day festival in the middle of September. I saw a couple bands that I really love, and found some new ones to appreciate, too.

8. I love the changing of the seasons. Going from summer to fall and then fall to winter is something I look forward to every year. I'm not a fan of hot weather, so coming into the cooler days and nights is something I really enjoy. My favourite outfit involves jeans and a sweater of some sort, and wearing that in the summer just isn't that comfortable. Also, when September rolls around, that means craft show season is coming, and I am always excited for that!

9. I am a huge supporter of local businesses. I try to do as much of my shopping at independent stores as I possibly can. It obviously isn't always an option, but I do my best. There are so many hidden gems in every city and neighbourhood, that you can find nearly everything you need and never have to set foot in a chain store. I think part of this is that I am a small (very small) business owner, and I appreciate when people support me. I also want to eventually open my own brick and mortar store and I will need people to support me.

10. I suffer from depression and anxiety. I don't think I've ever said this on a public forum, so I am saying it now. I've been on anti-depressants since May 2011, and anti-anxiety medication since almost exactly a year ago. The latter is what causes me to sleep so much. I mentioned yesterday that most days I am in bed until 10:30, and this is the reason. They have helped me tremendously, despite the side effects, and I am incredibly thankful for that. I should have started on them quite a few years ago, but it took a lot of courage admitting that I was having problems. I definitely don't want to have to be on these forever, but for now, they're doing what they need to be doing. There are only two things I would change: I wish I didn't sleep as much, and I wish they didn't make me hungry CONSTANTLY. Seriously, I can power back a lot of food. I think I've gained 30 lbs in the past year.

Hopefully these ten things have helped you get to know me a little better! If you have anything you want to learn about me, please let me know!

In knitting news, I'm still working away on the two shawls I shared over the last couple days. There hasn't been a whole ton of progress, but they are definitely moving forward. I'm thinking of starting to work on some dish cloths, because my stock for my craft shows is pretty low. I don't have a whole lot of dish cloth cotton left, but there is probably still enough to make at least 20 more cloths. We'll see if I get motivated enough to do those. They're a little monotonous, and the cotton ends up hurting my hands after I knit a couple of them, but they sell! I'm trying to figure out what yarns to use to make some more shawls, also. I love making them, and I think they will sell quite well. I only have a few made so far, but they have been getting a lot of views in my shop, and people seem to like them at my shows, too. I want to try and do different things than everyone else knits. Most knitters are craft shows have scarves and hats. I want to keep doing those, but also have my cowls, neck warmers and shawls be the bulk of what I do.

Today's 365 photo is what I've been eating a lot of today. I figured that I've over eaten the last two days, and my body could use some healthy fruit in it. I love melons and pineapple. The only reason I don't eat them as much as I could or should is because I am lazy and I hate cutting them up, and I am also cheap (or frugal if you really want to be polite) and I can't imagine paying for a pre-made fruit tray. These yummy bite sized pieces were from a wedding Rick's parents went to last night. They also brought home grapes and strawberries, both of which I am really particular about eating. I don't like my fruit really cold, or tart. They have to be near room temperature, and pretty sweet. I find most strawberries too bland for my liking, and I will only eat red grapes. I swear I'm not a picky eater! Just particular about fruit.

Don't forget, if you've been eyeing something in my Etsy shop, now is the time to buy! You can get 25% off your entire purchase with the code Blog25. I'll be keeping this sale up for at least a couple weeks, and let you all know a few days before I am going to end it so you can make any last minute purchases.

This post has 1892 words.

I am at 6578 total words for this month.

NaBloPoMo Day 3

Writing 1667 words a day is pretty tough. I only managed to surpass that number yesterday, and just by about 70 words, and the day before I was over 400 words shy of the daily goal. Like I said before, I don't want these posts to be all fluff and filler, I want them to actually be worth reading. I want at least part of each post to be about knitting. That desire is making it harder to write enough words to hit the quota. I check my word count obsessively. After every few sentences, I copy and paste the entire post into an online word count tool, and cross my fingers that I have made a significant dent. I try to keep myself from doing it so often, but I am just impatient, I guess. I think I might also feel like the words will somehow reproduce between the two pages, and add to my total. I don't know, I could just be crazy.

I woke up fairly early, for me anyway, this morning. Most days I'm in bed until 10:30, and today I was up just after 9:00. It's strange, how I sleep. It seems the later I stay up (I was up till about 2:00 when I'm usually in bed by 12:30) the earlier I can wake up. I don't understand at all. I'm going to try going to bed late again tonight to see if I can wake up at a reasonable hour. If that works, I'll be staying up late every night! I started my day off right with some scrambled eggs with mushrooms and shredded cheese on small tortillas. A nice filling breakfast that got me going. I don't often make a real breakfast, especially the past few weeks. I usually just settle for cereal and almond/soy/rice/hemp milk, if anything at all. I used to be so good at eating breakfast every day. I would make oatmeal or quinoa or toast with peanut butter, and honey or bananas.

I've been plugging away at the YarnYarnYarnYarn blog for a while today. It's easy work, just repetitive. Because I use Tumblr as a blogging platform, I can add tons of items to a queue, and have them post as frequently as I choose. I have it set so there are 11 new posts a day, which I think is a good amount. Lots of new stuff, but not so many that followers miss out on some of them. I have about two weeks worth of posts ready to go, and another month and a half worth that are saved as drafts to be posted at much later dates. It's going really well overall, I just want to find more yarn related Etsy shops to share, as well as cool patterns on Ravelry. Those seem to be the most popular posts so far. That's most of what I have been posting, but I have shared photos from Instagram, blogs, and Facebook pages. I went through some tumblrs that follow Y4, and reblogged a few photos from some of them. I also have some ad space through PassionFruit Ads available. It would be awesome if I could fill some of those, but I'm not holding my breath for it. I need to build up the audience before the sponsors come, that I already know. Once I've been posting for a month or more, I will be able to improve the ad description with the number of visitors and followers and what not.

I spent most of the time working on the Y4 blog knitting as well. I continued the teal shawl I posted yesterday, and got almost to the end of the first skein. I kind of got tired of the plain worsted weight, so I switched it up. I put in quite a few rows on a purple and white vertically striped shawl. Both yarns are from the huge stash I purchased from the older lady last winter. They're a sport weight 70/15/15 blend of acrylic, wool and mohair. Super soft, and slightly fuzzy. I really like the way this one is turning out. It's a looser knit than the other shawls I've done like this, but I'm sure it will still be cozy and warm due to the wool/mohair content.

If you've been eyeing something in my Etsy shop, now is the time to buy! You can get 25% off your entire purchase with the code Blog25. I want to get some older stock cleared out this season, so that in the spring and summer, I can really go at it, and knit lots of new things. Some of my stock has been floating around for a couple years, and that's what I really want to sell. Of course, selling anything would be great, but the older stuff is definitely higher on the priority list.
I'm going to be honest, and say that I haven't had any sales in a while. I don't want to complain on here, but it's getting discouraging that I can't seem to sell anything. I promote quite a bit, I have a mailing list, I do giveaways, I have a Facebook page, I comment on other blogs with a link to my shop, I have lots of "hearts" on Etsy, I just can't seem to get people to put stuff in their shopping cart! Do you have any suggestions for what else to do? I'll do just about anything!

Yesterday, I mentioned the Made In Windsor Show. It's coming up in just two short weeks, and I wish it could come sooner! There are going to be over 30 amazing vendors, some of whom have dome a MiW event before, and some that have not. It is a show that is 100% handmade, there is not ONE vendor who is a "consultant" or whatever for a big national company. I love this about these shows. It's a true craft show, and not a vendor market, which is often, in my experience anyway, synonymous with yard sale. If Facebook is any indication on how good this show will be, it's going to be great. There are already about 250 confirmed as going, and another 100 saying maybe. I know this won't necessarily be accurate, but it will hopefully be close. There will certainly be other people who haven't confirmed on Facebook who are out and about for the Walkerville Holiday Walk. This is an annual event where most of the businesses in the Walkerville BIA team together and have fun things going on for all the customers/visitors to the area. The craft show itself is going to be in Walkerville Brewery, and I can't wait to check out that place. It's going to be awesome! I've had a sample of one of their beers recently, and I liked it. I have a feeling I'll be spending some of my profit there! You can see a quick recap of last years show Here. I'll try to get more, and better, pictures this year.

My 365 photo for the day is just a simple close up of a Ferrero Rocher chocolate. These have always been one of my favourite types of chocolate, or really any sweet in general. I got quite a few a little while back, so I've been stashing them away and having one every now and again. I had a couple this afternoon when I was writing this post.

I haven't done much of anything today, other than knit, read blogs, chat on Facebook, and work on this. I'm worried that on the days I have to work eight hours, I'll come up short for words. I'll just have to get into a rhythm for writing, and then  hopefully the words will come more easily. I was also thinking about trying some of the word/theme prompts every few days, and write some sort of anecdote relating to it. Maybe I'll take suggestions for themes or answer questions you guys have. There are lots of options for stuff to write about, just nothing that can help me in the present moment.

I didn't really think this NaBloPoMo thing through very well. Normally, I try to at least plan out a little bit in advance. I'm not the most organized person, but I don't usually jump without a safety net. I am absolutely determined to make it to at least 25k words by the 15th. I will count that as a personal victory if I do. If I can actually make the full month, and 50k words I'll probably faint. I can yammer on about just about anything, but to have it be all coherent and organized is a whole other matter. Hopefully, I can make it!

I have a few ideas for the next couple days, but I doubt any of them will translate to 1667 words or more, no matter how overly flowery I get with my adjectives and adverbs. Some of the ideas are: 100 things I like, which would be split into groupings of 10 things posted every day for 10 days, 50 things I dislike (I don't want to do 100, because I don't want to get too negative and complain-y!) 100 facts about me, which would also be split up into groupings of 10 or 20, why I started eating meat again after 8 years of being vegetarian, simple knitting pseudo patterns I have in my head, and of course, more about the knitting projects I currently have on the go.

Now, this is where you folks come in! I want questions, word prompts or topic suggestions, or anything else you would really like to see. Want me to do a tutorial? Post pictures of specific things? Talk about Winston? Knit using a particular colour? Pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time, while whistling twinkle twinkle little star? Okay, I've run out of crazy suggestions. I hope you get the idea. I want YOU to tell ME what you want to see! Just leave a comment on here, send me a message on Facebook, or send me an email with anything you would like to see. If you want to be anonymous, you can send me a message on Tumblr here.

I hope you found something of interest in this post! Please come back tomorrow to see what else I have to say in an overly verbose fashion.

This post has 1716 words.

I am at 4686 total words for this month.

Day Two of NaBloPoMo

Well, here we are on the second day of this NoBloPoMo challenge. I finished yesterday's post pretty late, so not much has happened since then, as of this writing at 11am. I am going to try a pseudo live blogging format today, to see how I like it. I won't actually post this until the end of the day, though. So not really live, I guess just an hour by hour post? I don't know, I'm still sleepy.

11:00 am: I've been up for a couple hours. I had an important phone call just after 9 that I had to deal with. She's going to be calling me back later today to give me all the information. Sorry to be vague about this, but it's concerning some legal matters that I'm just not comfortable sharing here right now. I'm not in trouble or anything, so there's no need to worry about that.

I've knit quite a bit on the one shawl I have on the needles. This is another arrowhead shaped shawl. I had to undo a few rows because I'd dropped a stitch, but I've made it past that point. I'm trying to decide if I want to add yarn overs every few rows to give it some lacy detail, or just live it solid garter stitch. The yarn is slightly thicker than worsted weight, and sort of fuzzy, so I'm not sure if it will look strange being lacy.

12:00 pm: I decided to go without the lace. The other shawls similar to this one don't have the lace, and I want to be able to keep things consistent as far as pattern and price. I'm trying to have a few standard items so I can have prices that make sense. I want to get away from the completely one of a kind items. Those make pricing difficult.

2:00 pm: I got all dressed up, and had somewhere to go! I seriously woke up in the middle of the night last night with my outfit planned in my head. There was only one change, which Rick suggested, and the outfit was pretty much perfect. I loved the way this outfit turned out, and I asked Rick to take a quick picture so I could share it here, and this is the only one where I don't look like a complete ding dong.
Head to toe:
Glasses: Emporio Armani (from a couple years old)
Lips: essence stay with me in 04 trendsetter
Short Sleeved Sweater: Hand knit in Iceland, purchased at Handknitting Association of Iceland (also seen here)
Long Sleeved Shirt: Mark's Work Warehouse (glamorous, I know!) I initially bought this to wear under my fleece vest at work, which I do regularly, but it was perfect for under the sweater. This is the one change made. I was going to wear a grey striped long sleeved shirt. Rick said there was too much going on in the outfit, so I changed to a plain shirt, and this is what came of it!
Shorts: Gap I bought these when we went to the mall the other day, and paid about $15 for two pairs. Love them!
Tights: Zellers, I think. For like $1. I picked up a few pairs when I saw them. I got this same pattern in grey, and a solid grey. I thought I'd grabbed a pair of this pretty eggplant colour in the solid tights, but I guess not. I was a little bummed out when I looked through my drawers and couldn't find them.
Shoes and Purse: Payless. The shoes are sparkly silver, and I LOVE them.
I'm not sure if I will make outfit posts a regular occurrence here. I felt awkward as hell taking the photo in the mall. Maybe we'll just have to find somewhere less public to take photos. And maybe use a real camera, instead of a phone.
We went to H&M so Rick could exchange his coat that he got when we were at the mall on Wednesday. It was a smidgen on the small side, so he got one size larger, and it fits him perfectly. I'll have to get pictures of us in our winter gear, or at least of him, so you can see how handsome he is.
We made a quick pit stop at Mrs Fields/The Pretzelmaker for a yummy pretzel each. We were both super super hungry, and needed something to hold us over until dinner time. I never liked pretzels of any kind growing up, and now I really appreciate soft ones.

5:00 pm: We met up with Rick's parents, two brothers and the one brothers girlfriend to go to the buffet. We have a Caesar's casino in Windsor, and their Market Buffet is pretty stellar. The food, for the most part, was really good. I had breaded shrimp, macaroni carbonara, mac and cheese, Brussels sprouts, mashed sweet and regular potatoes, smoked trout and a bunch of other stuff. I was only disappointed by a couple things. The dessert was great. By that time, I was stuffed, but I needed to get something sweet in me. I had a mini cheese cake, topped with bananas, a tiny vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting, and a vanilla eclair, which I only finished half of. I was really looking forward to getting a dessert crepe, but I was so full, I just couldn't do it. I hit that uncomfortably full spot that is never fun. As soon as the meal was finished, I was so sleepy.

7:00 pm: We finished dinner and sat for a little while. Afterwards, we went up to the gaming floor where a couple members of our party tried their luck on the slots. I'm not much of a gambler, and money is tight right now, so I just watched. Rick's one brother has awesome luck at the casino, so he pulled the lever and pushed the buttons quite a few times. His parents both played for a little while as well. We ended up leaving around 8:00, so I'm not sure if anyone won anything worth writing home about. I made Rick take a picture with me in the mirror in the elevator. He made his grumpy face, I was looking at the screen on my phone, it's grainy, and we're not even centred, so it's a pretty terrible picture. But, we have very very few together, so I appreciate what I can get. He's also wearing one of his Icelandic sweaters. I love all three of the ones he got, but I think this one is my favourite.

8:00: We made a quick stop on the way home to drop off some coupons for the goody bags that are going to be given out at the craft show I am doing at the beginning of December.  I'm getting really excited for the two shows I have coming up. The Made In Windsor show is in just a couple weeks, and I can't wait for it. I did incredibly well at it last year, and I'm hoping to do just as good, or even better, this year!

9:30: Home sweet home! The drive home was uneventful. When we got back, it was pyjama time. Those cute shorts I wore weren't very comfortable with all the food I had packed inside my belly, so I needed an elastic waistband as quickly as possible. After that, I watched Rick and Winston play for a while. The poor little pup had been cooped up in "his bedroom" (which is the office on the main floor of the house) since we left for Windsor. He had lots of pent up energy that needed to be released before he would be able to settle down for the night. The two of them playing together is hilarious. Rick can get Winston all wound up pretty easily. I'll have to post a video of them playing at some point.

11:30: I've been working on this post off and on since we got home. Writing 1667 words a day is going to be tough. I'm hoping that I can make it through this month and reach my goal. There are definitely going to be posts that are a lot of filler, and for that, I'm going to apologize now. I'm going to really try to have quality posts for as many days out of the month as possible. And by quality, I mean with knitting content, in addition to the day to day stuff that I will also be posting about. This is a knitting blog, after all.

My 365 photo for today is of some of the carpet at the Casino. We had to wait a little while for the rest of our group to join us, so Rick and I sat and people watched for a while. There were some interesting characters coming and going. Most of the crowd was in the over 50 age category, but there were some younger people as well. It was neat to see how some people got all dressed up to go out, others were still in their work uniforms, and others just treated it like any old day. I also watched one of the cleaning ladies dust all the ledges around where we were sitting. She came over by us, and cleaned the window ledge, and told us we should move over, because that part was clean now. She seemed to love her job, and really appeared to be genuinely happy to be there. I said to Rick that I love when people who aren't necessarily working directly with the customers are still so customer service oriented. She was smiling while dusting, and greeting every person that came near her. Now, I'm not sure if this is a job requirement or something, but she was super nice regardless. Every person we encountered while there seemed happy. The servers at the buffet were all really upbeat, and chatted with us while they changed our table arrangement around when we showed up with a much smaller group than what we reserved. Overall, the night was a really great experience, and that's why I chose this photo for the 365 project.

Once again, I really hope you've stuck around this long! If you have any criticism, constructive or not, I would love to hear it! Any and all comments on this or other posts are greatly appreciated. If there is something you would like me to post about, feel free to share!

This post has 1736 words.

I am at 2970 total words for this month.

Awesome Thursday: November 1, 2012, And Some Lofty Goals

It's November! I hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween. Didn't do much of anything here to celebrate, we just relaxed at home, and ate some candy.
Every Thursday, I post about the awesome things that have been happening in my life. It's nice to look back when I'm having a bad day and see that life isn't always so rough. There have also been studies done that have concluded that people showing gratitude can lead healthier lives with less depression and anxiety, sounder sleep and a better attitude towards others. I'm not one to argue with science, so on with the gratitude! Here is just a few of the awesome things that have gone on in the past week.

• I knit a really nice red and grey shawl, which I blogged about earlier this week. I'm going to make many more of these shawls. They're super simple, and really pretty.
• I started my new blog YarnYarnYarnYarn. I've been getting pretty decent traffic, which is super great. I am also slowly gaining followers. I have loads of pictures ready to be posted. It's pretty crazy how excited I am about this project. I think I might like it more than my I Love Etsy tumblr.
• I got a head start on my holiday shopping. I picked up a couple gifts for family members, and they're stashed away in my closet right now. I don't have to buy too many gifts this year, which is nice. I know the recipients of these ones will really like what I've gotten them so far.
• I started playing the newest, most addictive iPhone game I have ever played. Letterpress is friggen awesome. If you haven't played it, you really need to download it and give it a try. It's kind of like Boggle, meets Risk and they both run into Scrabble. It's way too much fun.
• My boss brought mini Tootsie Pops into work. They're supposed to be for all the kids that come in, but my coworkers and I have been eating them like crazy. It's so nice having a boss that makes work as much fun as he does. I truly love my job.
• I tidied up our fridge and realized I have quite the beer collection. I was up to 15 different types of beer. I'm currently drinking a Mill Street Lemon Tea beer, so I'm down to just 14, but I'm sure I could fix that with a quick run to the LCBO. It's nice having all these options when I want to crack open a cold one.
• I learned that "snafu" was originally a military term. It made me feel smarter, haha. In case you were wondering, it stands for "situation normal, all effed up".
• I went to work the night that Sandy hit our area. It was super quiet, as expected, so I danced with the mop as I cleaned the floors. Like I said before, I love my job.
• Rick and I went to Windsor yesterday and got stuff done! We went for all you can eat sushi for lunch, which was great. We definitely ate all we could.
• Also in Windsor, I picked up some jeans and some shorts. I've been looking for shorts for a while, and I finally found them at the Gap for stupidly cheap. I ended up with two pairs. I was so excited.
• I brought stock into a store in Windsor. This one is called Poppy Paperie and Gifts, and is located in Walkerville. I have some triangle shawls, and some flower earrings available there. It's a super cute store, and if you're in the Windsor area, you should definitely check it out.
• I worked during the day today, which was a nice switch. I usually work afternoons. Anyway, it was super super quiet most of the day, that allowed us to kick back and relax after we got all our work done.
• I got my hair cut after work. It was the same girl that did it last time. I wasn't planning on doing this, but I'm glad I did. Choppy layers and a bang trim are just what I needed. I'm planning on growing my hair long again, and this will be a good cut to let grow for a while without too much up keep.

Overall, life is pretty grand. I have this whole weekend off, with nothing planned, and then a pretty solid work schedule next week. Our hours are going to diminish this month, and then pick back up in December, so I am loving the extra hours I'm getting right now.

In other news, I'm going to make a half-assed attempt at NaBloPoMo/NaBloWriMo/whatever you want to call it. This is the first post of what will hopefully (but probably not) be 30 days of posts that are an average of 1667 words. It's a spin off of NaNoWriMo, which I've always admired. In case you're out of the loop, it's National Novel Writing Month, where loads of people attempt to write a 50 000 word novel in the span of 30 days. It's absolutely incredible, and I applaud anyone making the attempt to write that much. I have a couple friends who are going for it this year, and I am pretty confident that at least one will make it to the minimum number of words required. We'll see how far I get with this. I'm having a rough time just writing out this post, never mind doing it every day for the next month. I'm going to have to plan out some post ideas. At least with the novel writing, you have a story line to follow. With the blog posts, it's like a new story happening everyday. At the end of every post this month, I will include a word count. There will be one with the total of words in that days post, and then the accumulated total.

In other, other news, I'm making yet another attempt at doing something daily. This one is for a year, though, which is a bit intimidating. I'm going to do an Instagram 365 project. I've wanted to do something like this for a while, and I'm just now getting around to it. This project is pretty cool. You basically take one photo a day to document a year of your life. Some people do self portraits, some do pictures of their kids or pets, and some just do a random photo to sum up the day. I'm going for the last one. I was going to wait until the new year, but I was all stoked about it today, so I bumped it up a couple months. (Hard to believe this year will end in just two short months!) You can find my flickr set here. I will likely post any relevant photos on the blog here. I'm new to flickr, do you have any tips for me?

Hopefully, I can make it through these two projects. The days I'm not working will definitely be easier. I might have to do some really wordy posts on those days to fill in for work days. These posts will be in addition to all the knitting I will be doing. Hopefully I'll make some progress there so I have something on topic to share.

I really hope you have stuck around this long! I would love any feedback on this and future overly verbose posts.

This post has 1234 words.

I am at 1234 total words for this month.