NaBloPoMo Day Twelve: Running Out Of Steam

This month, I am participating in the CEO Of Me Shop From Your Seat Showcase. You can take a look at the other vendors, and find an exclusive coupon code for my Etsy shop Here. There are a lot of cool small businesses represented, check it out! You can also enter to win $400 worth of prizes Here. It's an awesome event, and I am so happy to be taking part.
I slept in today. I could have been up earlier than 11:00, which is when I finally rolled out of bed, but I didn't have anything pressing to do. Some days I feel guilty sleeping in, but today wasn't one of those days. Rick had an appointment to go to, so he kissed me goodbye, and I snuggled under the blankets for another half hour or so. I finally woke up and had some nachos with dip for breakfast. Sounds unhealthy, but there were lots of veggies on the dip, so I'm counting it as a win.

I continued knitting a bracelet while reading some of my blogs. My new goal is 20 finished bracelets. I have thirteen almost done so far. They're all off the needles, they just need to have the ends wrapped, and tied. I graft the two ends together as seamlessly as possible, but I like to wrap the yarn and make them look a little more polished. I'm going to search through my stash for more fine yarn to make some different colours. I have a pretty good variety so far, which makes me super happy.
Most of my craft show stuff is ready for the Made in Windsor shows this weekend. Everything is priced, and the ends are all tied in, except for the bracelets. The only thing I have left to do is assemble a few more pairs of earrings, as well as package and price them. I might wait to do this, as I already have quite a few pairs made. We'll have to see how much free time I have this week. I don't work Wednesdays, so I might do all the rest of my prep then.

I worked a five hour shift tonight. It was incredibly quiet. It is nice at times to not have to do much work, but after a while, it really starts to drag. I played a couple games of Plague Inc to pass the time. I wish I'd brought knitting with me, but I somehow forgot it. I am happy that there weren't any problems tonight. I was a bit grumpy at the start of my shift, and I knew I wouldn't put up with the drama that happens there at times.

Rick and I watched Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter this morning. I'd seen the trailer, and a few people have mentioned it, but it wasn't really on my list of "must see" movies. I really enjoyed it. The vampires were really awesome, following what most folklore tells you about them, none of that sparkly bullshit.
We are watching The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, as I write this. I wasn't too into it when Rick told me the title, but I figured I would give it a chance. I'm actually liking it. Normally, I don't really care for movies with too many story lines running concurrently, but this one works well. There are no jumps in time, which helps me keep track of what is actually going on. Multiple stories with multiple time frames makes for a confused Nicole. In the end, everyone found their happily ever after. Everything is okay in the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end.

Onto some fun facts.
40. If I am unable to open my own business, I want to work for an independent brewery. I love the culture that surrounds micro brews, and I would love to be a major part of that. There are so many awesome things that happen at all these breweries. I have no idea if I would ever be able to actually do this, but it would be awesome.
41. I am a terrible procrastinator. I always put things off until the deadline is breathing down my neck. Most craft shows, I am still adding price tags, and making earrings until midnight. I always tell myself I will do better next time, and not put it off, but it always happens.
Another great example of procrastination on my part is this post. It's 11:45 pm as I write this, and I am still several hundred words away from my goal. I am over a day behind in words, and I worry that I will never catch up. I can try and put the blame on things around me. Like having to work today, or the internet being unreliable, but really, it's my fault. I didn't do any planning yesterday, so I didn't have anything to write about. I spent more time checking my word count than actually contributing to it.
42. This one ties in with the last one. I am incredibly easily distracted. Not enough to warrant a title that starts with a capital A, but enough to be annoyed. I often start fiddling around with unimportant things, and I lose focus of the end goal. When I was in school, this was a terrible curse. Procrastination and a short attention span meant most of my projects were dragged together in the two days before the due date. I did well most of the time, so that didn't encourage me to change my ways. I know that if I go back to school, I will have to learn to change my ways.

Today's 365 photo is similar to one from a few days ago. In fact, many of my pictures have been similar so far. I will be doing more interesting things in the future, I promise. My life isn't all work and knitting. Wait... It actually kind of is, currently. Oh well! Anyway, more bracelets! I really like the way this one turned out. The colours are pretty accurate, and it shows just how many I have on the go. I'm almost to my goal! After I finish 20, I think I will make a few more that have beads throughout. I've seen some really pretty textile bracelets with beads and charms, and they are really pretty. I hope I can recreate something as good as them.

Overall, life is still pretty awesome. I talked with Christine, the organizer of the Made in Windsor show, today. We both have very high hopes for the show this weekend. That is what I am looking forward to most right now. I can't wait for the weekend!

I'm having a hell of a time finishing this post! Our internet is shaky, and I can't get to the site I usually use to count my words.

This post has 1149 words.

I am at 17 792 total words for this month.

NaBloPoMo Day Six

I woke up this morning with a healthy feeling of anxiety. And by healthy feeling, I mean a terrible, horrible feeling. I wanted to just curl up and go back to bed, but I knew I had to get up so I could get stuff done before going in to work this afternoon, the main thing being this blog post. These posts do take quite a lot of time, which isn't surprising. I often start jotting down ideas in a draft post the night before, which I didn't do for today.

Rick and I watched Turn Me On, Goddammit! last night. A little while back, he watched a whole boat load of movie trailers online in a couple days, and downloaded all the movies he could find that seemed interesting. This was one of them. It's based in a small town in Norway, and revolves around a teenaged girl named Alma. There's a lot of sexual frustration on her part, which leads to some situations that turn her into an outcast amongst her classmates. If you don't mind subtitles, and are okay with some nudity, you should definitely give it a watch. I enjoyed it.

Not long after waking up, I watched the most recent YarnGasm podcast, by Voolenvine, aka Kristin. (I hope she spells it Kristin, I'm not 100% sure, sorry!) Her podcast is one of my favourites. It's actually the one that got me back into watching/listening to them after a long hiatus without any new ones. I really like how she does videos now, because it captivates my attention a little more. Sometimes when I'm listening to a podcast, I get distracted and start reading something, and then nothing gets absorbed. I have to go back and re-listen and re-read. Anyway, in addition to all the wonderful knitting content, she mentioned that when you get married, you often become "that couple" that wears the same thing, referring to her Pomme de Pin cardigan, and her husband's soon to be Cambridge cardigan, both in grey. Rick and I aren't married, and we often end up wearing the exact same outfit. A common one was Toms shoes or moccasins, dark jeans from the gap, a plain tee shirt in grey or black, and the same American Apparel cardigan in different colours. It has happened way too many times, and one of us always has to get changed.

I finished knitting another wrap bracelet. The blue one I mentioned yesterday is done, minus having the ends tied in. I also made a red one out of some red worsted weight acrylic, the same as the shawls I made last week. I'm starting on a bright blue one now, and I will hopefully get it done today, as well. I want to have 10 made for the Made inWindsor show. Anything over that number will just be gravy. And I like gravy. I'm trying to figure out the pricing for them currently. The cost of materials is next to nil, because I'm using a lot of yarns that are remnants from other projects that are too small for anything else. I have them for $12 each right now, but that might change. So if you happen to want one, let me know before I increase the price.

Now, onto some cool strange things about me! I'm only doing four today, because I got a little verbose in one of them, and I don't want to bore you too much.

16. I used to be vegetarian, but now I eat meat on occasion. I stopped eating meat altogether in 2004, just after the end of my grade 9 year. I stopped because of animal rights, primarily, followed by the environmental impact and because I really just didn't like meat, and it didn't like me.
First: animal rights. I still believe that factory farms, growth hormones, and the cruel way that most animals are killed are all bad things, there is no arguing that. Secondly, the amount of waste and pollution from this industry is huge. Overall, the energy needed for raising animals for meat is much, much larger than what growing food crops that would use. Third, I didn't care for eating meat. I had terrible allergies growing up, and red meat was one of my trigger foods. I couldn't eat beef without feeling incredibly sick after doing so. I stopped eating that first, followed by pork and poultry, and then I cut out fish and every other animal. I also made an effort to eat vegan options when possible.

Last summer, when working at the restaurant, my boss cooked a lot of meat from locally, and sustainably raised animals. This was something I could get behind. It wasn't organic, because that meant that if an animal got sick, they couldn't be treated, which could mean more suffering for said animal. But, they weren't pumped full of growth hormones and antibiotics, squeezed shoulder to shoulder on feedlots, or killed in a cruel way that caused a lot of suffering. I caved after a while, and had half a meatball from Rick's meatball sandwich I brought home for him one day. Unlike what I remembered meatballs to be (dry, and bland) this one was god. Juicy, well seasoned, and the sauce on it was wonderful. I started adding a little meat here and there into my diet; I didn't want to shock my system and end up sick. After a while, I was eating meat a few times a week, and then we went to Iceland. While there, I gorged myself on meat. It was raised locally, out in the open. The lamb we ate grew up gallivanting around the countryside, munching on green plants, and generally being free. I felt great eating this meat. Then I came home, and continued the trend of gorging. I felt like complete garbage. My system couldn't take the huge amounts of meat, and I felt sick. Now, over a year later, I still can't eat a lot of meat. I avoid meat from fast food restaurants, and any ground meats. I still eat a lot of vegetarian meals, because I prefer them, but there is definitely meat in my diet.

17. I want to open my own brick and mortar store selling handmade goods from around the world, along with well designed furniture from a few companies I already have picked out. I've wanted to open a consignment store for a while. Rick and I have actually looked into a few store fronts, to get an idea for the costs we would incur. We've talked a bit about names, what we'd both like to have in the store, and a bunch of other, more important things. Nothing is concrete yet, but it is definitely one of the biggest of my life goals.

18. I drink water. A lot of water. Since I was about 10, I've drank nearly exclusively water when eating meals. When I go out to restaurants, I sometimes ask for two glasses of water, or a pitcher left on the table. Some servers have ignored the request, and then scoff when I ask for glass after glass. I know I drink a lot of water, don't hate! Part of the reason I drink so much is another odd quirk about the way I eat (which is the next fun fact about me). Even at home, when I'm not eating, I drink a lot of water. I used to drink about 12-16 rather big glasses of water a day, now I know it's not quite that much.

19. This one is super weird. It kind of relates to number 5 from a couple days ago. I'm very particular about the way I eat. My food and drinks absolutely cannot be too hot, and they cannot be too cold. I have sensitive teeth, and this causes problems. Also, I'm way more about the texture of food than the taste. Stuff that is completely homogenous weirds me out. My mashed potatoes need to have lumps, I can't stomach so much as the idea of cream of wheat, and milkshakes are kind of gross. The only exception to this is soups, and only sometimes. Rick likes to blend the soups he makes, and this is completely okay with me if it's all root vegetables. Add anything else, and I need texture! I absolutely love Campbell's tomato soup, as long as I put a crap load of crackers, and some shredded cheese in it. As for the water, this is another strange thing. I need to take a drink of water pretty much every time I switch between foods. I take a bite of vegetables, drink, mashed potatoes, drink, meat, drink. I don't know what it is, but I've almost always done this. It doesn't usually cause a problem, unless I'm at a buffet. Then I know I'm filling up with water, but I can't help it!

My night at work was pretty uneventful. It's been pretty quiet the last couple days, so we knew some busy time was coming. Tonight was the start of it. It wasn't overly busy, but quite steady. The only remarkable situation was onion breath man. I always greet customers as they come in, asking them how they are and that sort of thing. One guy came up to my till, and after asking how he was, exhaled the BIGGEST breath possible, and it stunk like fresh onions. His breath seriously smelled like he'd eaten a ten pound bag of white onions, raw. It was disgusting, my eyes started watering, and I almost gagged in front of him. I couldn't believe it. Gross!

I spent a good chunk of the evening following the US election results, using a combination of a couple websites, Twitter, text messages, and chatting online. As of this writing, Obama is projected to win. I really hope this is the case. I'm keeping my fingers crossed until the official announcement is made.

Tomorrow, Rick and I are taking a nice drive to Trinkets & Treasures to drop off new stock and take care of some boring business matters. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to sort through my earrings and choose a few more pairs to bring, as well as some knitwear. I've sold a few things in the past months, so I need to get some new stuff in, and possibly remove the old stale items.

This post has 1725 words.

I am at 10 000 total words for this month.

NaBloPoMo Day 5: Some Knitting!

It's actually starting to get a little easier to write these. I know it's only day 5, and I don't want to jinx myself, but I'm feeling positive. I have a few ideas jotted down for future posts, and that should really help my word count along. I think I'm doing well at not being overly verbose in explaining things, which is very good. I'm also putting in a lot of knitting content, and that makes me feel good. Not to mention, I'm being super productive, as far as knitting goes, because I want to have stuff to write about!

Last night, I started a couple new knitting projects. I mentioned that I was going to work on some dish cloths, and that's exactly what I did. I started a pink and blue striped one that I really like. These two colours look pretty nice together, I think. It's all garter stitch, except a stockinette stitch band on the one end. I like adding a band of a different colour, stitch pattern, or stripes on one end for some interest. Some of the cloths I've done before have seed stitch, some have a few thin bands of stockinette, and I did one with 1x1 ribbing. After I finished this cloth, I started another one in a mix of browns. I'm probably not going to add anything to the end of this one, because the variegation adds enough interest. I don't have a whole lot of dish cloth cotton left, so I'm making the best of it. I kind of want to buy more once this runs out, just so I can have a small stash of it, but part of me says no because a) I have tons of yarn and b) I don't really make any money off them. Something to ponder, I guess.

The other project I started, and finished, was an i-cord wrap bracelet. I've made similar ones before, blogged here, but I think I like these new ones better. I used finer yarn, that is 100% mercerized cotton, so it has a nice sheen to it. I also made it slightly smaller by reducing the number of stitches. I think it turned out quite nice. I started a second bracelet out of a shiny, soft acrylic yarn in a pretty aqua blue colour. I finished everything but tying in the ends on that one, so I started a nice red one right after. The yarn is a little thicket, so the end product is a little sturdier. The pink one is kind of dainty looking. They're long enough to wear as necklaces, which is pretty cool. I think they would look nice with several layered around your neck, as well. I'm going to try to make a bunch of these in time for the Made in Windsor show in a couple weeks. I have some creepy hand displays that I could put them on, and I think they would look pretty neat. I still have quite a few of the cotton bracelets I mentioned earlier, so maybe I can put them together in sets of some sort.

Rick and I made a quick trip into Windsor to return a couple rented suits for his dad and brother. We also made a stop to pick up a few random groceries. It was a nice relaxing drive for the day. I knit a few rows on the teal shawl on the way there, and almost fell asleep on the way back. I'm still working on that getting up early thing. The whole time change thing threw a wrench in the gears. I'm hoping that I can start waking up earlier in the very near future.

I've decided to only do five things about me a day. I have honestly been having a hard time thinking of interesting things about me to post! Plus, I get double the days out of it, which will really help with my count. Once again, if there is something you want to know about me, please leave a comment and ask! I will answer pretty much everything! Here goes, today's five things about me!

11. I don't drive. I never have, and if I can, I never will. I've never taken the test or anything, so it's not like I kept failing and gave up. I have bad spatial relations, a short attention span and bad eyesight, so I feel like I am an accident waiting to happen. Rick doesn't like being my chauffeur, but it's an arrangement that works for now.

12. I have terrible road rage, despite not driving. I often shout things at other drivers and pedestrians, and, at times, cyclists. And yes, I know they're usually can't hear me. The most memorable rage filled thing I've said in recent memory was to a pedestrian who was just moseying across a fairly busy road, when he had a Don't Walk sign was "Move it or lose it, ponytail!" I was with my friend Tracy, and he laughed about it for several hours afterwards, and still mention it pretty regularly. Also, last night, I yelled at a cyclist for not having any reflectors on his bike. That was just dumb on his part. No street lights of any sort, because we were on a county road, and he was wearing all dark clothes. We were probably less than 20 feet from him before we could actually see him. Super dangerous, and I yelled at him (through closed windows) to let him know.

13. I have one tattoo, and I am hoping to get more in the near future. The only one I have is 519 on the inside of the fingers on my left hand. (You can kind of see part of the nine in the bracelet picture) I got this tattoo in the middle of the night, in the apartment of some people I had met that night. I was with a bunch of friends, and we almost all got some kind of tattoo. It was one of the most memorable nights of my life. Despite how terrible this tattoo looks now, I still love it. It looks fine in the photo, but it was taken just a couple hours after getting it done. Now, there are thin and thick parts, and part of the nine is completely missing. Whenever I get other tattoos done, I plan on getting it fixed.
Some of my other tattoo plans are a couple knitting related ones, a matryoshka, some various flowers including a forget-me-not, a calla lily and bleeding hearts, and I have a few other, not fully formed ideas floating around. I have a few tattoo artists in mind, and I will probably end up getting one or two from each of them. I know some people are completely dedicated to one artist, and I feel like that would be difficult for me.

14. This one is a strange one, for sure. I sleep wrapped around my blanket. I kick my legs like a line dancer when I sleep, so I can't stand having any sheets on the bed, just a comforter, and sometimes a blanket I knit. I lay on my side with my one arm and leg wrapped around the blanket. It's a weird arrangement, but it works for me. Rick and I each have our own blankets, because otherwise, I'd steal them all, and they'd end up on the floor on my side of the bed.

15. I used to dance. I did tap, ballet, and jazz for a few years when I was a youngin'. I loved doing it, and I was actually pretty good. The teachers at the dance school I went to kept bugging me to join the competition team, and I didn't want to. I danced because I enjoyed it, I didn't want to compete and take the fun out of it. My mom told them repeatedly that if they kept bugging me about it, I would end up quitting. They thought if they hyped it up enough, I would finally cave. They were wrong, and I stopped dancing completely. I now have no coordination, and can't even dance the Hustle. I rarely, if ever, go out to bars where dancing happens, and that's probably a good thing, because I'd likely embarrass myself. Part of me wishes I still danced, especially when I watch all those dance competition shows, like So You Think You Can Dance, and I think "Hey, I could have been on that show." A bit of a bummer, to be honest.

I just got home from a quiet night at work. It's getting to the off-season for drinking, which surprisingly exists, so things are really slowing down. I worked on empties all night, as I usually do since I'm the low one on the totem pole, and it was rather uneventful. No jerks brought in big smelly bags of cans, no broken bottles, really not much of anything. Since it was so quiet, my coworker and I cleaned the store from end to end. He cleaned stuff that hasn't been cleaned in ages, while I served the customers. And just before closing, I mopped the floor really well, and the store looked almost brand new. I'm going in tomorrow for the same shift, and I expect to be cleaning more then, as well.

Things are going really well for me lately. There are loads of things that I am looking forward to in the next couple months, and that always makes me happy. My good friend is expecting her first child, and she just told me tonight when the baby shower is. That means I can plan my knitting project(s?) for her accordingly. I already have one awesome one in mind, and I'm thinking about a couple more. I probably won't post too much about these on here, because I think she reads my blog. I might post little sneaks of it, but nothing too specific. If you have any tried and true baby knit patterns, please share them! She is the type of person that really appreciates hand made, and I know everything I make for her will be cared for correctly, loved, and admired.

This post has 1697 words.

I am at 8275 total words for this month.

Monday Magic: August 6, 2012

I took a little time away from doing my Monday Magic posts because of work, and a bit of a disinterest in it. I am going to replace it with the improved version! I will showcase three yarn or yarn related items, such as patterns, tools or clothing/jewelry, that I have come across. I will usually stick to a colour scheme, or theme, but who knows how these will go! This is what I found this week in a turquoise colour scheme.

The first item this week is some Shadow Tonal Lace yarn from KnitPicks, in the Pacific colourway. I currently have nearly $200 worth of KnitPicks products in my cart, and this is one of the skeins I am coveting. I have a skein of this yarn in Summer Blooms that I received in my order a little while back, and I spent a while petting it when it came in the mail a little while back. This colour is gorgeous, and I really hope I can place my order soon!

Knitting needle bracelets are awesome! I definitely want to get myself a set. I've seen them all over Etsy, and I just think they are so neat. They would be an awesome way to show my knitterly pride, that's a little more subtle than, say, getting a knitting tattoo (which I plan on doing) or wearing a knitting t-shirt (which I wouldn't mind acquiring) I'm keeping my eyes open for these!

The last item for today is some yarn from Gynx yarns. This is called Oil Slick, and is so incredibly pretty. I've mentioned before how much I love Gynx yarns, and this one is definitely one of my favourites. I don't usually go for variegated yarns that aren't in the same colour family, I like a more blended, tonal look, but this one is super nice, and I would definitely make an exception for it. I want to knit myself a beret/slouch hat/whatever you want to call it, and I think this would look great knit up. The only problem is that it wouldn't match the other wintry knits I already have, which are mostly pinks and reds. Who knows what will happen, all I know for sure is that this yarn is damn pretty.

I Renewed Some Items in my Shop!

A few of my items were expiring soon, so I decided to renew them! I've done a few so far, and I will be doing more over the next couple days.

I still have quite a few of my cotton bangle bracelets available. I've sold a few offline, but still none in the store! There are always other colours available. Also, if you wanted to get a few of them to wear together, let me know in a convo, and I can bundle them together at a savings for you! I am planning on listing more colours once I have a chance to photograph them.
I am also renewing some earrings. This olive green pair has gotten some attention lately in the way of views and hearts. I love their colour, and the size is just big enough to be noticed, without being HUGE.

There are quite a few different ones being renewed, so be sure to check them out!

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!

Craft Show This Weekend!

This Sunday, Made In Windsor is having another craft show. I will be working that day, as I usually do on Sundays, but my stuff will be available for purchase, as my friend is going to sell it for me. I will have baby booties, earrings, bracelets, dishcloths, hair bows and gadget cozies available.
I'm still working on more bracelets. In my post about them, Joy asked:

Ah, fun! Are they i-cord? I love i-cord for its potential uses, but I haaaate making it. I once made a tank top with braided i-cord straps (so, three strands per strap), and I basically swore never to make i-cord again :P

They are in fact icord! I actually don't mind making it. The bracelets are fairly short, so it's just icord in really short bursts! I can do a bracelet in about 20 minutes, sew the ends together, and be done with it if I am too annoyed. This hasn't happened yet, so I think I am doing ok.

Don't forget, tonight is the craft in, hosted by Scootchidoo Too! I plan on making loads of bracelets, and doing some final craft show prep.

Saturday, I will be teaching some people how to make baby hats on knitting looms with LeeLee Hats! I am super excited for that, as well.

This weekend is going to be great!

Knitted Bracelets!

These are my new favourite thing to make, hands down.
I've been trying to figure out something small and quick to make that could be sold year-round. A bracelet was just the thing. I am using cotton so they are lightweight, and won't overheat your wrist if you wear a stack of them. And they have just enough stretch in them to fit over your hand, without being too loose when being worn.
I think I am going to have them all one price, and if you buy more than one, have them be cheaper. They look way better in groups.
These are the colours I have so far. I want to make at least two of each colour, and then have quite a few white ones.
I'm also trying to decide which colours to make for myself. Right now, the top three (dark and light pink, and white) are the winners.

Now for a little market research:
What colours would you like to see? How many would you like in a group? How much would you pay for 1? What about for 3?
If you could give me your thoughts, it would be much appreciated!!