One Year Ago Today

One year ago today:

• I was a few days short of being 8 months pregnant
• I slept in, not knowing it was the last time to do so for a looooooong time
• I woke up slowly, and I read while still in bed
• I didn’t feel well
• I read a lot, did some knitting, and watched some TV, had a lot of “me” time
• I didn’t feel like eating
• I had plans to go Christmas shopping that night with my Mom
• I received my first order of cloth diapers
• I didn’t understand what it meant to completely give yourself to someone else
• I had plans to get a Christmas tree over the weekend
• My hands were so swollen I had dimples on my knuckles like a baby and I had to wear wrist guards to prevent carpal tunnel
• I tried to help my husband get our new bathroom sink installed and working
• I went to Don’s Photo to pick up some photos to give to my Dad the next day when he came to visit
• I have a wonderful Christmas season of being pregnant ahead of me
• I ate a yogurt for supper at 9:00 at night
• I went to bed early
• I had no clue that when I woke up the next morning my whole life would be forever changed for the better by the arrival of the sweetest little girl

Pay It Forward Friday: Knitting!

I love knitting. I love other people’s knitting. I love Etsy. Here’s some of my favourites!

Irene B

Can you believe that this gorgeous shop has less than 20 sales? I am in awe of the beauty of this shop. If you see something you like, I recommend that you buy it asap because everything in her shop is either a one of a kind piece or a limited edition! Irene is a fashion design student and if her shop is any indication, she has a great career ahead of her!

Abhaya Fibers

Here is another beautiful shop that, surprisingly, has less than 20 sales! This shop is very diverse and fun with its offerings. It also offers one of a kind, unique, and original designs so if you see something you love, you better buy it right away! The designer is also a knitting instructor at her LYS in Pennsylvania. Her designs are inspired by nature and are completely beautiful.

Sungheebang

The third shop I was going to feature is on vacation and then I remembered this beautiful shop! All of the lovely items in this shop are handknit by Sunhee Bang. She is an awesome fashion designer who has already embarked on a great career. You can learn more about her at her website. I absolutely love the chunkiness and warmth of her scarves and hats on Etsy.

Do you know of any awesome knitting shops you want to share with me?

Something Weird Happened Downtown

We can only speculate the whys of what happened but something doesn’t sit right…

I am a proud volunteer of the Manitoba Theatre Centre. I carpool with another volunteer and we parked in Impark lot on Market right next to Don Pedro’s. Not the big one at the end of the street but smaller one right next to the restaurant. There was another usher at the pay terminal (what is the name of this?) and her credit card was stuck. I ran back to the car where the other usher was waiting and told her to go ahead and tell them what was going on and that we’d be late because I was going to stay with the other usher until she got her card out. A guy came by and asked if we needed help and we said that her card was stuck in the machine. He tried to pull it out as well and couldn’t get it out.

And then the weirdness started. This guy starts talking about the “yellow coats” which are the foot police that patrol the area. He said that they don’t let him help people out at the machines. Then he asked us if we had money for shelter. The fellow usher was trying to call Impark and was having bad luck. We were both trying to get the card out while the guy stood back. Two more cars came into the lot and as they came up we told them that there was a card stuck in the machine and we were trying to get it out. The man who just arrived told us that he saw it happen 2 weeks ago. I tried calling Impark to see if I could get through because we were really late and I was really cold. Just as I was calling the man who had just arrived started to try to get it out. Right when I got through to someone he did something really fast and got the card out! He did something like turn the cancel button and pull the card at the same time?

When he did that, the guy who had stood back because of the “yellow” coats told my fellow usher that her card would work now because she had it in upside down. Really? Because I was standing right next to the machine and it looked like she had put it in the correct way. It was the standard way you put your credit card into everything. Well, the usher didn’t have enough change on her so she had to use her credit card again and it worked! Went in and out no problem. By this point the guy was long gone. I paid my way and we went off to the theatre.

The other usher talked to the House Manager while she was there and the House Manager was immediately suspicious and was going to report this to the police. She has heard of things happening like this before.

The only conclusion we could come to is that it is some sort of scam to get her credit card. This guy popped out of nowhere, wouldn’t do anything while the police were near, was very convinced that the card would not get stuck again, and disappeared pretty fast once the card was out.

What do you guys think?

My best advice to totally avoid this sort of situation is to always make sure you have a bunch of toonies and loonies when you are heading downtown just in case you can’t find parking on the street.

Pay It Forward Friday: Randomness

I wasn’t able to do a Pay It Forward Friday post last week. Here is this weeks randomness. I hope you enjoy!

First up we have ana at i made it so. What can I say about her? She is very creative and gives great ideas. She types in lower case. She made the cutest images for people with ravelry accounts to use when they don’t have pictures of their project yet, or are just plain embarrassed to show their project. It follows that she is also a knitter. She is a great writer and I love reading her posts. You should read them too – she explains herself a lot better than I ever could.

Do you live in Winnipeg? Are you looking for what is the BEST and most unique wool shopping experience in Winnipeg? Then go to Where The Wool Things Are at 61 1/2 Albert St. It is a wool store combined with a korean fusion café called Kimch’i on Albert. The wool is beyond gorgeous, my personal favourite is the Dream in Color Classy line, and the food is to die for. My best tip: go there early on the days that the mac and cheese is on the menu! It is a super filling plate full of deliciousness and I guarantee you that you’ve had anything close to it before! If you are a knitter in Winnipeg, you should drop by on Thursday nights where Mariver, the owner of Where the Wool Things Are has started knit night. It’s an awesome gathering of Winnpieg knitters. I haven’t been able to go for the past little while but the knitters I have met through her are awesome people  and I miss it so much. Knit Nights usually have a theme, check out the blog to see what the latest theme is before you head down there on a Thursday night. (p.s. come hungry because there are usually snacks AND the smells from the Kimch’i side will have you ordering food whether you are hungry or not!).

One of my favourite undiscovered shops on etsy is umbu. It sells the most gorgeous lamps crafted from recycled materials such as: sewing patterns, wrapping paper, newspapers, magazines, and maps. Each lamp description lists exactly what materials it was made with. This shop also have clever written magnets that are hand shaped out of clay! Please, please, please check this shop out because it is so incredibly lovely! And if you want, you can buy me the “clean me’ magnets! Or, if you’re feeling really generous, the sewing pattern lamp that is to the left! Thanks!

That’s it for this week, if you have any blogs, shops, or any random thing you think I’d like, please let me know! 😀