Monday Update: March 11, 2013

Happy Monday! I just woke up, a little before 11, and I feel like my day is already half over. I need to work on sleeping less; this is annoying.
This past weekend was full of work. One of my coworkers passed away in the early hours of Sunday morning, in a car accident, so that put a downer on our day yesterday. I'm waiting to hear on funeral arrangements and that sort of thing. It's probably going to be a few days until that happens.
I haven't been knitting much the past few days. I don't know why, possibly because I've been sleeping 12 hours a day, but I can't be sure. I have eliminated another three skeins of yarn from my stash. One was larger than my head. I gave them to my mom for more baby hat making. She's been pretty productive in that department, which is awesome. It makes me feel a little better about slacking off. These bring my stash count to +14. I'm also working on clearing out some small skeins from my WIP basket. After I finish a project, I just throw the left over yarn in there, in hopes of using it for some smaller projects. This doesn't always happen, but I'm working on it.
I've also been listing new items in my Etsy shop. I added some old stock at ridiculously low prices, as well as some newer stuff on sale as well. I put up all the head bands/ear warmers I've made so far. I haven't sold any yet, but I really hope I do. I literally have NO MORE SPACE for finished knit items. My storage bin is beyond full. This causes a problem when I want to knit more, because there is nowhere for it to go! I have to figure something out to remedy this problem. The most obvious one was to get more stuff sold. The second is to slow down on my knitting, and make items that condense the yarn more. The third "good idea" was to add more storage space. I think I'm going to do a little of that. Knit smaller items, and store them in a reusable grocery bag with the rest of my knitted things. This one seems like a good idea.
Now, onto some other goals. Back in December, I shared some goals I had for this year. One of them was to get fit. I've been working on this the past couple weeks. Rick bought us, mostly me, an elliptical off of Kijiji a few days ago, and I love it. Unfortunately, a piece fell off the other day, so I haven't been able to use it. I just have to get an Allen key to tighten something, and but the nut back on, and everything will be right as rain. With watching what I eat, using MyFitnessPal, and adding some extra exercises in throughout the day I've lose 4 pounds. Yeah, I know, that's not much, but it's a start! I haven't done anything drastic as far as changing my eating habits. I still have hot chocolates, and sweets, and junk food. If I cut them out completely, I rebound and binge on them as soon as I have them available to me. I have to do things slowly in order to make progress. I'd rather take things one at a time and make slow progress, than go really quick, only to knock myself back.
I also set myself a goal of taking more photos. I've done alright in that area. I'm not photographing as much as I thought I would be, but I'm not really going anywhere or doing anything to justify taking them. I need to work on that too.
How are all of you fine folks doing? Are you still making progress on your new years resolutions?

A Bonus Tuesday Post!

Happy New Year everyone! I have today off, so I figured I would update you all with what I am up to. A few weeks ago, I mentioned my goals for 2013. In addition to what I normally blog about (Regular Monday post, Wednesdays are for Gratitude, Instagram Friday) I will include little snippets updating you about how my goals are progressing. I thought about returning to Tumblr to work on my goals, but having multiple places to update about similar things hasn't worked for me in the past, so I don't think it would work for me now. In any case, here is where I stand right now:

• Knit the stash All the yarn stores are closed today, so I can't buy any yarn yet! I do have a Michael's gift card that I received for Christmas, so I might pop in there tomorrow when we go up to Windsor. The other option is to wait to use the card until I have a custom order that I need to pick up yarn for. I will be doing a skeins in/skeins out tally throughout the year. If I can eliminate 100 balls/skeins of yarn this year, I would be ecstatic. This is totally doable if I knit a few times a week, which I definitely do.
• Blog more about what I am knitting Haven't knit much yet. Maybe half a neck warmer, that was a made to order sale on Etsy (which I am stoked about) and that's it. As soon as it's done, I will definitely post about it. I will probably also re-list the MTO item, because I still have another skein in this colour.
• Take more pictures I'm still working on my 365 project, and not doing bad with it at all. I do want to take more photos though, even if they're just on Instagram. More knitting, more food, more of what I am up to every day. I see all these bloggers with awesome photos of seemingly insignificant things, but the memories captured are priceless. I am also going to be posting more photos into my Flickr stream, not just my 365 photos. I'll likely start with my shop photos, and go form there.
• Get fit This one I'v already actively worked on today! I spent 30 minutes on the... Gazelle-like thing. You know those lame infomercials with Tony Little and his ponytail "running" on the elliptical-like thing? Yeah, this is similar to that, only less ponytail. Anyway, I played an upbeat album on my iPad, since my phone was dead, and got to "running". It's easier on my knee and ankle, but doesn't give me the same rush as running does. I'll keep this up for a while, and once the snow melts, I will get back outside with "Zombies, Run!" and Runkeeper.
• Take better care of myself This is the big one that I know will be hard for me. I'm lazy, and I don't take good care of myself anymore. I really need to work on this. I'll be back another time with the game plan for this one.
• Pay down my debts I'm on the fence about sharing too much about this one. My debts aren't huge, but I am not sure if I should share the exact amount on here. I don't really know why, but it doesn't seem like the greatest idea. I would love if you weighed in here, should I share how much my debt is, or keep that a secret and just use percentages?

What is your game plan for your resolutions/goals?

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?

A Baby Blanket, and Some Lofty Goals

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

I want to organize my yarn stash.

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

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