This scarf has been on the needles for ummm.......yeah....over a year. It's not that it takes me that long to knit a scarf but.....I guess I wasn't in the mood for it. I forced myself to finish it since we've been having cold spells lately.
Unfortunately while this was on the needles I lost an entire skein of the grey wool. How? I have no clue. I tore this place apart looking for it and I know one day I will find it in the most bizarre place. So it's not quite as long as he wanted but it will do the trick. He likes to pick out yarn for the stuff I make him, and it's easy since there are great yarn shops in Victoria.
Actually I think I've moved beyond knitting scarves now and want more challenging projects. Next up - perhaps a hoodie or something cute for my nephew. He seems like good target practise for future knitting projects.
When you guys get home from work, do you open your mail? Do you even stop at the mailbox?
I bring the mail up every day, I'm kind of anal about it actually. I don't like the thought of my banking information sitting in a little flimsy metal box just asking to be stolen. But this is as far as the mail gets - thrown on the table next to the door.
And I'm not talking junk mail - I put a stop to that at the mail box with a big friendly note to the mailman asking him not to leave me any. I'm talking about legitimate mail - addressed to me, from real institutions. We have also turned off all our paper bills.
Seriously though - how much of your mail is important enough to open right away? If it's something that looks like a cheque or a letter from a friend - don't get me wrong - those envelopes are opened right away. As for the rest - 99% of my mail sits on the table for weeks before I open it. Then 99.9% of it goes straight in the shredder.
The worst offenders are the banks - they like to let me know that I've deposited money into my RRSP. Thanks. And there is no way to turn this off. Is this really necessary? Then there is the junk-mail-that-is-addressed-to-me-personally - Victoria Symphony, random charities, Camosun College....
This has never come back to haunt me either. After sitting on the table for six weeks, I have yet to open a letter from the bank that says "Oh Crap! Your bank account has been hacked and you now owe us 10,000!!"
I wish there was a way we could opt out of all this crap. Kind of like the "Do Not Call List" but we all know how well that worked.
So, after hearing lots of rumours that Jacob might be going out of business I decided to go back. I took Brad with me. Remember the last time he came on a big shopping trip with me? Well, I forgot to mention how he is when we shop together, here is a sample:
"Get it."
"Do it."
"Buy it."
Not just to get out of there either! He's a fairly typical guy when it comes to shopping: he shops once a year (maybe) for tops and once a year (maybe) for pants. Usually even years for tops, odd years for pants. He buys tons in one stop, at one store (The Bay) and then he won't go back forever.
So he's a bad influence on me, especially in Jacob during a big sale. This photo will probably cause deja vu for you guys.
Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that I was thinking about why I totally fell in love with those stripey sweaters from my last post.....and realized why. This sweater is officially know as my 'Ziggy Sweater'. Notice any resemblance?
Okay, I promise to have better posts soon.
There are some big sales going on so my buddy D. and I went out shopping today. Well, I knew I was in trouble when we walked into Jacob and everything was 50% off.
They have the best sweaters. I have three of the long ones with pockets in the front - I would wear them every day if I could. I have a few of the shorter cardigans too.
I actually needed more shirts to go underneath these sweaters....and I bought two t-shirts ($9 each) and one button up shirt.....but I ended up buying 8 more sweaters. Can you handle the stripey ones?!
The most intense moment of insanity was when I was next in line to pay and I noticed how cute the peach sweater was in the poster above the till. It happened to be on a table right behind me. I thought to myself "If the one on top is in my size I'm going to buy it." It was and I snatched it up. D. couldn't believe it.
Oh yeah.
I forgot to update you guys on that craft market I did in November...remember this post?
I ended up making 8 stroller bags, 18 Buttercup Bags and 20 coffee cozies. Here is a photo of my table.
I had business cards, clear legible prices, even a big photo of everything you can do with the stroller bags. I had it all baby.
So you know when you are browsing at one of these things and you see a table you aren't interested in....and how you walk breezily past without much of a glance.....well, that is how it went for me - for 6 hours. 85% of the people weren't even coming over to my table. So after the first hour I knew how it would be for the rest of the day.....
It was ridiculous and I felt like a total dork. I still can't figure it out. Does my table look too cluttered or unorganized? Maybe it was the wrong demographic? Does my stuff suck? Don't get me wrong - I wasn't expecting to sell everything but I didn't even have any interest! I just don't get it.*
After I brought everything back home Brad had to talk me out of just dropping it all off at the Sally Ann and talk me into putting it all into my Etsy shop.
The weirdest thing about all of this was once I started listing everything in my shop - stuff started selling. I made 5 sales in one week which is epic for my little shop. I realize it was Christmas season but still, it was crazy.
Bottom line: I don't know if I'll ever do another craft market. I think I'd rather take my rejection over the internet - where I don't even know it's happening.*I actually did make a few sales - 5 coffee cozies. They were $5.
Apparently January is a big month for football so I have this afternoon to myself. I'm waiting for some fabric to go on sale on line for a new quilt project.......and I can't find an entire skein of yarn that I need to finish a long awaited scarf for Brad. I'm feeling a little disjointed so naturally I gravitate towards one of my random book reviews.
(A bit of fluff in this review since I spent a week on the beach last month. )
1. The Affair of the Mutilated Mink - James Anderson
I read my first James Anderson book about two months ago and loved it. I took this one to Cuba with me because it's a perfect read for the beach. I was dismayed when I got into it to realize the murder takes places in the same house with the same characters as the other book. Still, it's a great 'classic' mystery but I wish he had switched up his settings from book to book!
2. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley
Another book recommendation from my boss - this one is great. The 'sleuth' is an 11 year old girl who digs chemistry - love it! The plot is great, it's actually really well written with interesting characters all around. I would read another of his books for sure....my boss tells me there is another coming out soon.
3. Europe 101 - Rick Steves & Gene Openshaw
Brad has been begging me to read this book for years and now that we're going to Italy this summer, I thought the time was right to dig in. It's a great introductory book for the history, art and architecture of Europe. I wish the graphics were better quality but the content was there for what I was looking for.
4. Five Quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris
I prefer this book to Chocolat - it has a much darker story line but still has the lovely writing about food that makes me crave French pastries. It was a great story and kept me turning pages. The one thing that stuck out for me the most was the massive parallels with the oranges/migraines/daughters that happen in A Cure for Death by Lightning.....??
5. Mara and Dann - Doris Lessing
Ummm - Novel Prize for Literature? Really? This book has a really interesting Dystopian feel to it (the world in thousands of years when the ice caps descend and there isn't enough water) but the writing is awful. Maybe she was intending for it to be read as being written by a 9 year old, but it's not just that.
It's disconcerting to be reading about traipsing across the barren landscape in one paragraph and the next paragraph describes a kidnapping - with nothing in between. I'm about 70 pages from the end......it's a big question whether I'll finish this one or not.I have to also mention that we had a Secret Santa at work at Christmas and my work buddy D. drew my name. Which was a great thing - since she has access to my Favourites list on Etsy. I got these fabulous bookmarks - 6 of them.
Aren't they great?! It's one of the most honest statements ever. Plus, when I use them as bookmarks (as with Mara and Dann for example) I can think "I'd rather be reading about Pemberley" too.
Aawwwhhhhhh! My little buddy....my loyal iPod - Oliver....who has been at my side for more than 4 years is being retired tonight.
I'm actually really sad about this - I rarely left the house without him, he saved me from many an annoying situation on the bus, helped me put my head down and finish lots of projects at work, made it on to this blog lots and lots and lots of times, made walks to work more enjoyable, I even used him to play all the music at my wedding.
About 3 weeks ago I charged him at work - all morning. When I picked him up for the walk home, he was dead.
So I decided to take the plunge and buy a new one. I ordered one online and he showed up today! He's red!! And he's really small and totally different from Oliver. (What should I name him?!)
There is practically a ceremony and obviously an order that music is copied onto a new iPod - well, at least for me there is. First were David Bowie's Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust albums, then my entire Tom Waits collection (because now I can, the new one is 16GB!!)......then everything else.
I still have almost 4GB left - the size of Oliver.
R.I.P. Oliver, you've been a great companion.
Unfortunately while this was on the needles I lost an entire skein of the grey wool. How? I have no clue. I tore this place apart looking for it and I know one day I will find it in the most bizarre place. So it's not quite as long as he wanted but it will do the trick. He likes to pick out yarn for the stuff I make him, and it's easy since there are great yarn shops in Victoria.
