Another Guatemala Hope Fundraiser!

It seems like I'm posting almost everyday lately! But there is lots to update about!
I'm taking part in a collaborative RTS over on the Petite Tuques Facebook page. I have quite a few of my items up for sale there, with the proceeds going towards funding my trip to Guatemala.

If you go and "Like" the Petite Tuques page, you can check out all the items for sale, and purchase one if you are so inclined!
Thank you so much for your support!

A Repost from Tuesday: Guatemala Hope Update

This post is very important. Something life changing is going to happen, and I would love for you to help in my journey.
A few days ago, Tracy from LeeLee Hats called me, and asked if I would be interested in going to Guatemala for a week and a half to teach the midwives in a small village how to knit hats for the babies born there, as well as teach a marketable skill to help the villagers become more self sufficient. I was hesitant at first, but now that I've looked into this further I am ready to go!

I need to raise roughly $1200 to get me and the knitting supplies there, as well as cover other expenses like getting to and from the airport, travellers insurance and vaccinations. Yes, this number has increased, but things are turning out to be a little pricier than I initially thought.

There are a couple ways to donate. The first is to donate directly to Guatemala Hope. The easiest way is to mail them a cheque. Their address is
Guatemala Hope
Box 68 County Road 46
Woodslee, ON, N0R1V0
If you go this route, please put "Nicole D. Flight to Knit" on the Memo line. All donations over $20 will receive a tax receipt.

The second way is to purchase something from my Etsy shop. I will use 80% (or more) of the proceeds to purchase supplies and necessities for this trip. The other 20% will cover PayPal and Etsy fees, as well as the supplies. There will not be a tax receipt for this donation, but you will get an awesome Knit, Nicole, Knit! item, and know that your money is helping a small Central American community give their babies a healthy start on life.

The trip is in the middle of February, so I have just a little over a month to collect this money and put all my ducks in a row. If you can help, I would be eternally grateful. I will update with any important news as necessary.

My Week in Instagrams: January 11, 2013

Pardon my mediocre mood today. I just got some crummy news regarding my job, so that's weighing heavily on my mind. I am still employed, barely, and there is nothing I did wrong; our workplace is just screwing us over big time.

Here is what I've been up to over the past week
1) Rick's mom got me a birthday cake. We had it after the sausage soup she made. Both were quite good.
2) Work has been very quiet lately. Rather than stand around doing nothing after all the cleaning/stocking is done, I bring knitting with me and work on that. My current purse project is a dish cloth. Nothing too exciting, but it doesn't take up too much room, and it's pretty mindless. Plus, I can pick it up and put it down at any point, and not get lost in any kind of patterning. I'm almost done this cloth, and I think I'm going to put a neck warmer in there next. It's a bit bigger, but I prefer knitting those over cloths. Something about the soft yarn just calls to me.
3) I worked on Christine's baby gift while watching the Yarngasm podcast. I have ball three and four of 4 started, so I'm just past halfway. It's still dragging along. I'm trying to force myself to do a few rows everyday, but it's hard. I love the yarn and the pattern, its just that I have to pay attention and count while knitting every other row, and I usually like to just knit mindless things. I have to get it done!! The baby is due to arrive a bit before I go to Guatemala, so amongst all the preparations, I have to knit on it. Not to mention, it has to be washed and blocked. And since it's a thicker wool, I feel like it might take a little while to dry. Gotta think positive. I CAN get it done and I WILL get it done!
4) I made gnocchi with mushrooms and egg for breakfast one day. We had half a package of gnocchi that had been sitting open in the fridge for a while, and a container of mushrooms that were on their way out. I had to use them both up before they went bad. Added an egg, and that tied it all together. I'm definitely going to be making this again. I love gnocchi!
5) These are a few of the bows I've been making. I have a lot of ideas for these. I'm making them pretty much assembly line style. I knit and cast off a whole bunch, then sew them all up in another sitting. I haven't cut all the ends, but that will be the next step. Then adding all the findings. They are going to become a few different things. I don't want to spoil what that's going to be until I have some made. I think they're going to be super cute!
6) This is a dumb thing that happened this week that I wasn't going to share initially. That's the baby toe on my left foot. I stubbed it on the corner of the stairs before work the other day, and I'm pretty sure I broke it. It's been hurting since then, and the bruising spread to the top of my foot. I'm not too concerned, as I've broken toes before, it's just a minor inconvenience. I hope it stops hurting before the trip!
7) The photo of this doesn't do it justice, so you'll just have to trust me on this. I made lentil soup a couple days ago. I took a photo of a 4 ingredient recipe that was in one of my moms magazines a while back, and finally got around to making it. Lentils, carrots, onions and chicken brother are the only ingredients, so I knew it would be healthy, but a little bland. Instead of just boiling all the ingredients, Rick suggested I sautee the onions in a little bit of oil before and getting a little more depth of flavour. Definitely a good idea. After cooking, I added some curry powder, chilli powder, turmeric, and coriander. And then salt and pepper when we served it. It turned out really good! I blended it last night, and it tasted even better.
8) On Wednesday, I had a dentist appointment to get my teeth checked and cleaned. I have a couple minor cavities, as well as the tooth I broke recently, so I have to head back there in a couple weeks. After the visit, Rick and I went to Bubi's for lunch. I've heard loads of good things about this place, and to be honest, Rick and I were both a little disappointed. My chicken quesadilla had very little chicken in it. His gyro was nothing but "Bubi's sauce" as far as taste goes. I don't think he and I will be going back.
9) I posted a photo of my quesadilla on Facebook, and my friend Katie from Blab! commented saying that we should go visit her and her business partner at the office. Rick had mentioned wanting to check out the building their new office is in, so we decided to go. The new digs are way better than the old place. Larger, airier, brighter, it's great! We stayed for a little while, chatting and catching up with Katie and Jessica, and it made me miss living in Windsor quite a bit.
10) Today I had my interview with two of the lovely ladies from Guatemala Hope. There was a lot to absorb, lots of questions to answer, and lots of homework. But, I am incredibly excited. Unfortunately, I'm missing out on one of the events tomorrow because of work, but there's going to be a make up session at some point next week. If you would like to help me out, you can purchase something from my Etsy shop, and 80% of that money is going to my trip.

Overall, this week was pretty alright. Minus the crappy news about work today. I'll probably post more about this another time. This post is already huge.

Wednesdays Are For Gratitude: January 9, 2013

I just can't seem to wake up this morning. I went to bed early, and that always seems to make me sleep in later. I don't get it. Here are some things I am grateful for:

Richard / My yarn stash / My job / The chance to travel to Guatemala next month / You! My blog readers / My iPad mini / Podcasts / Tracy from LeeLee Hats / Delicious soup that I made last night / My family.

What are you fine folks grateful for?

Terrific Tuesday Report

This post is very important. Something life changing is going to happen, and I would love for you to help in my journey.

A couple days ago, Tracy from LeeLee Hats called me, and asked if I would be interested in going to Guatemala for a week and a half to teach the midwives in a small village how to knit hats for the babies born there. I was hesitant at first, but now that I've looked into this further I am ready to go!
I need to raise roughly $1000 to get me and the knitting supplies there, as well as cover other expenses like getting to and from the airport, travellers insurance and vaccinations.
There are a couple ways to donate. The first is to donate directly to Guatemala Hope. You can do this through their website. They use PayPal to collect donations. If you go this route, please put "Nicole D. Flight to Knit" in the special instructions box. You can also send them a cheque, putting the same message on the Memo line. All donations over $20 will receive a tax receipt.
The second way is to purchase something from my Etsy shop. I will use 80% (or more) of the proceeds to purchase supplies and necessities for this trip. The other 20% will cover PayPal and Etsy fees, as well as the supplies. There will not be a tax receipt for this donation, but you will get an awesome Knit, Nicole, Knit! item, and know that your money is helping a small Central American community give their babies a healthy start on life.

The trip is in the middle of February, so I have just a little over a month to collect this money and put all my ducks in a row. If you can help, I would be eternally grateful.
I will update with any important news as necessary.

What I've been Up To

Thank you for the input on my last post where I laid my cards out on the table as far as my debt goes. I didn't publish all the comments, but I did reply to all of them. I will update now and then about my progress, and what I am doing to have more money available for paying off my credit card.

This is what I've been up to lately as far as knitting goes. The first and fourth picture, I've already shared. I'm going to try to do weekly recaps of what I've knit every Monday. Some stuff might be repeated, but I'll try to keep that to a minimum.
The second picture is a small pile of the bows I sewed up last night. I have 15 bows total in those five colours. I want to have 100 made for the craft show I'm doing at the beginning of March. The third photo is of yet another neck warmer. My mom got me this gorgeous Homespun colourway for Christmas. Two skeins of it! I love it! It's so autumnal and warm looking.
I've been knitting loads, but I haven't finished any skeins of yarn yet! This is hopefully going to be remedied with some projects I have on the back burner right now. I need to work on stock for the aforementioned March show before I work on more wintery things for next craft show season.

I'm going to watch some podcasts and knit some more bows! I can't want to show you what these turn into! I think you'll love them!

Airing my Debt Grievances

So far this year, I haven't paid off any debt. This first pay cheque (I get paid every Thursday) was spent nearly as soon as I had it in my bank account. I had some bills to pay, mouths to feed (ain't nothin in this world for free) and what not.
My debt is currently at about $1400. This is divided between a credit card, and money owed to my parents. Not accounting for interest on the credit card debt, I would need to pay $27 a week to pay it off. So let's round it up and say $30 a week. I know I wouldn't be able to do this. My hours at work have all but disappeared. I went from an average of 40 hours a week in the summer, down to 14 this week. That leaves pretty much no extra cash for paying off debts. In fact, it's almost not enough to cover my basic expenses. (Contrary to what most think, I'm not making $15 an hour at The Beer Store. That won't happen for years, if at all.)
Anyway, I'm hoping at the very least to get my credit card paid off this year. That will take less than $20 a week, once again not accounting for interest. That's maybe a little more doable. I'm going to call them soon and see if I can get my interest rate lowered. It's REALLY high, and that's not conducive to paying off debts quickly.
Having this debt hanging over my head stresses me out immensely.

I'm hoping that by starting to open up about my money troubles, I can start fixing them. I used to have several thousand dollars in savings, and that has disappeared through a combination of events.
I won't turn this blog into a money related blog, don't worry. I am just trying to keep myself accountable.

Happy Birthday To Me, and My Week In Instagrams: January 4, 2013

Today is my birthday! It's been a pretty good day so far, but more on this later on in the post! Here is what I've been up to this week, in Instagrams. If you want to see the photos larger, check them out Here. These are in chronological order for once, instead of being backwards.

1) Rick bought us each an iPad for Christmas/our birthdays. I got a mini, and he got a retina, which he has since returned due to some dead pixels. He'll be getting a new one as soon as they get them back in stock. Mine is wonderful, I didn't expect to like it as much as I do! I need to download some more apps, mainly one to write my blog posts from.
2) Last week we had a couple pretty busy nights for empties. One guy brought back something like 30 cases of empty cans. It filled the whole upper section of the bin. We looked over the edge and couldn't see a single can of another brand. Crazy!
3) We picked up some movies from the new-ish local movie rental place. We've watched most of them, just a couple left to get to for me. Some of them were scratched or otherwise unplayable, which is a bummer, but they cleaned them and gave them back so hopefully we'll be able to watch them. Some of the movies we got were Crashing, A Lonely Place To Die, A Dominatrix Story, Albatross, And They're Off, Brotherhood, and I think there was one more, plus a TV show that Rick got. None of them were exceptional, but I enjoyed all but "And They're Off" that was terrible.
4) New Year's Day I watched some movies and had some snacks. It was a nice laid back kind of day. We don't usually do much for New Year's Eve/Day, so this was just my speed.
5) I knit another mustard lacy neck warmer, which was a made to order sale that I got on New Year's Eve. It took me a couple days to whip it up, but I love knitting with Lion Brand Homespun, so it's always a treat to knit with it. I used my KnitPicks Harmony Wood for this. I've used the Sunstruck a few times, for darker yarns, and I really, really like them. I have to figure out something to knit with the smaller sized needles so I can use them all! I have quite a bit of lace weight, so maybe another shawl or two is in order. This style of neck warmer is still my favourite thing to knit. In fact, I have two more on the needles right now! Not even kidding!
6) Rick and I stopped at Taco Bell when we went to Windsor to return his iPad. They have something called an XXL Burrito, which I decided to get. It was really tasty, but comically huge. I picked it up, and it must have weighed over a pound and a half. GIGANTIC. Next time I get it, I'll skip the fries and just eat it.
7) I started on the THIRD of four balls of yarn for Christine's daughter's gift. I was watching some YouTube videos while doing this (The one in the photo is This One, you MUST watch it) I haven't done much more than a few rows, and the baby shower has already passed (I missed out because of work), but I am okay with this. I will have it done before the baby gets here!
8) Yesterday before shipping the mustard neck warmer, I stamped my first fibre content and care tag. I bought the manilla tags at Staples, and got the stamp itself from TickledPinkPaperInk on Etsy. I am absolutely in LOVE with this stamp. High quality, crisp print, and the fact that it is see through is great. If you need a custom stamp made, I highly recommend TPPI. I might get another stamp from her with the same font and a similar layout and use it to stamp my business cards. And then possibly a third to make the earring cards. I want my branding to be consistent, and I don't want someone else to have the same type of cards as me (which is the problem with using Vista Print)
9) I told you I loved this neck warmer pattern! I finished this bright red one this week as well. For next fall/winter, I want to have sets made with neck warmers and one or two other wintery accessories, which I am still trying to figure out. I think matching sets are super cute.
10) And now we're up to today! I went and got a shellac manicure from the salon I get my brows waxed at. I bought a Groupon a while back, I think during the summer, actually, and finally got around to using it. I had a hard time deciding between colours, so I went with two: a really pretty reddish pink, and silver on the ring fingers to add some fanciness. Rick thinks multiple colour manicures are weird. What are your thoughts?
11) Rick brought me for Vietnamese today. We have a pretty sweet local place that makes some excellent food, and today was no exception. This first photo is of two of the three types of rolls we get: minced shrimp on sugar cane in the background, and fried spring roll type in the foreground. We also get the cold rolls in rice paper that are filled with vermicelli, shrimp and veggies. So much deliciousness!
12) This is my usual dish at this Vietnamese place. Vermicelli with spring roll and shrimp. I love it, I think I've gotten it there all but two of the many, many times we've been. It's almost like a deconstructed roll, as it has all the components, with the addition of a fried roll, and some bean sprouts. I add some hoisin, and it's prefect.

Thank ou so much for reading this far! I'm off to watch the last movie of the bunch we rented, as it's due back tomorrow, and then Rick's mom is making sausage soup for dinner! Have a good weekend!

Wednesdays Are For Gratitude: January 2, 2013

I hope you haven't already broken your New Year's resolutions! I'm working on mine!
Here are some things I am grateful for this week:
Having access to work out equipment, at no charge, and at any time of day / My yarn stash / New Etsy orders / Rick being patient / My job / My new iPad Mini / Ridiculously cheap movie rentals at the new movie place, so we can be entertained on a budget / Cheez Its / My new perfume / Crumpets

What are you grateful for this week?

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?