Baby Sets

There has been an influx of babies/baby related knitting in my life of late. I made 2 baby sets a few months back, one for a lady I speak to on the train called Erica and one for my Dad's sister in law Hazel. Erica had a little girl and Hazel had a little boy. Here are the sets I made:



 

Hazel's set - A rainbow striped crochet ripple blanket, 2 knitted beanies, 1 knitted acorn hat, 1 puerperium cardigan and 3 cute little plushies.

 

 

Erica's set - A white eyelet panel blanket, 2 knitted beanies, 1 knitted acorn hat, a pair of knitted Mary Jane's, 1 puerperium cardigan.

 

I really love making these sets and I wrap all the items in colour specific tissue paper and put them in a gift bag. It looks so nice when its all wrapped and ready to go.

 

A lady from work asked me to make her a couple of cardigans for 2 friends who are due babies. I explained to her about the sets and that I could make them for her if she liked. She asked me how much and I (after a quick calculation in my head) said £30.

 

She knew one baby was going to be a boy and wasn't sure about the 2nd so I made her a boy set and a gender neutral set:

 

 

Boy set: This is a granny square crochet blanket, 1 x crochet hat, 1 x knitted beanie, 1 x knitted acorn hat, a puerperium cardigan and a plushie.

 

Gender Neutral set: Knitted lace eyelet panel blanket ( I really like this one ), 1 x crochet hat, 1 x knitted beanie, 1 x knitted acorn hat, 1 x puerperium cardigan and a plushie.

 

I have realised after making and packaging these 2 sets that I underestimated the cost of these sets. I will need to charge £40 to actually break even and make a couple of pounds profit.

 

I am hoping to be able to sell these a bit more frequently and am using social media to help promote them. I've posted on my Instagram and will also add them to my facebook soon.

 

Here is them all bagged and ready to go:

 

 

**I've just been told that both babies arrived last night and there are now 2 new little men in the world**

 

 

I wish I had more time

I seem to find myself with no time at all! I have this huge list of things that I want/need to do and I cant seem to get them done. Every moment is busy, but not with significant things. It feels like I am losing chunks of time and having nothing to show for them. Does anyone else ever get that feeling?

I need to call family members and have a catch up (sorry Nan!) but when I look at the clock its 9.30pm and far too late to be disturbing people. I need to write more blog posts, but when I try in my lunch break it feels rushed and unsatisfying. I need to finish started projects but then get asked to make baby pieces for someone who knows someone who is pregnant, or work up an anniversary cross stitch for someone who is celebrating a big mile stone so all my projects end up on the back burner and my crafting is starting to feel like a chore. I need to spend time with friends and family but look at the calendar and Ollie's work schedule and cant seem to find dates that work for everyone. I need to catch up with the washing and ironing but by the time I've got home and had dinner its 8.30pm - far too late to disturb the neighbours with the washing machine. I need to re-pot my plant but when its the weekend I find myself doing the washing and the house work and then realising its too late to start or that I've just cleaned the kitchen and don't want to make a mess. I need to make time for me and Ollie to spend together but his shifts are all over the place and I find that we get 30 minutes here and there and then I'm staying up super late to see him and wearing myself out and then needing to have long lie in's at the weekend to play catch up. I need to be cooking healthier food from scratch but find that I'm getting in late and by the time I've finished cooking its 8.30 - 9pm and then I'm going to bed on a full stomach and feeling crappy the next day so I grab something on the way home from work and that's unhealthy and I'm eating on the go so I don't feel great.  Its a vicious circle that I cant seem to break.

When I do find those rare moments to get things done I find myself doing nothing just to have a rest and then I feel guilty that I haven't done any of the things that I need to do. I'm not sure how to get out of this funk, any ideas?

A twist in the tail of my gripe!

Well, I'm sure you read my previous post about the "ice bucket challenge", well there has been a bit of a twist in the tail!

McMillan cancer support are now using the challenge to raise funds for themselves. I'm not sure how I feel about this! I like the idea of them making money but am really unhappy about them taking someone else's campaign!

I have pushed the ALS message with this and when Ollie did his challenge yesterday I made sure to put the ALS info on the video and his written link on Facebook.

I have now been nominated and will be doing the challenge tonight! I know, I know, I said I wouldn't but I now feel its my duty to make people realise this challenge is for ALS!

Watch this space for the link to my Facebook video.

I need to get something off my chest.

I'm sure that most of you by now have come across the ALS Ice bucket Challenge, I know I have, my Facebook feed, my Instagram and my Twitter feed has been inundated with people carrying out the challenge and nominating other people. I've even seen a few mentions of it in the paper.

I don't want to be misunderstood with this post so I am going to be very clear from the beginning, I whole heartedly support the charities that come up with these awareness campaigns and I congratulate them in bringing their cause to the attention of the masses. I will more often than not participate and make a donation but my little rant here today is about the fickle nature of "A listers" and their exploitation of these causes.

There was a video posted by Steve O (of Jackass fame) on Instagram doing the Ice Bucket challenge and he made his donation and nominated others and made a point of asking the viewers about how much awareness this has actually raised? He received a huge backlash from voicing his opinion, so much so that he then Tweeted and Instagramed the following quote:

“TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO GOT MAD AT ME FOR THIS VIDEO: Since the ice bucket challenge began, over 15 million dollars has been raised for ALS research. I think that’s great, but when you consider the countless A-list celebrities who have actively gotten behind this cause by posting videos– the fact that not more than fifteen million dollars has been raised is a tragedy.
“It’s tragic because I don’t think many of those celebrities even bothered to mention how or where to donate money for ALS research. Most of them just poured water over their heads and named three random people, without including any “call to action” which actually benefits victims of ALS at all. Had all those celebrities given this cause any thought, hundreds of millions of dollars might have been raised, and a whole lot more awareness.
“Let’s start a new trend– by actually letting people know how to donate– visit this page: http://www.alsa.org/donate/ I’m nowhere near as rich or famous as many of the folks you’ve seen pour water on their heads, but I cared enough to get educated and donate one thousand dollars of my hard-earned money to http://www.alsa.org/donate/

I agree with this sentiment completely! The amount of Ice Bucket Challenge videos I have seen must be up in the triple figures already! Steve O was the first person I saw that actually made reference to the wedsite and the cause! Since his tweet a lot more people are linking to the website which is a great thing but why did it take 1 person to slam the rest of them for this to happen?

I saw an amazing video on Facebook yesterday about a guy who has made Steve O's point all the more poignant, please take a minute to check it out. I think that this man should be the face of the ALS charity movement. If this video and Anthony's story don't inspire you to make a donation (even £1 will help) I don't know what will.

The parts that affected me the most in this video was when Anthony talked about there being only (Only!!) 30,000 suffers of ALS in the US and therefore the pharmaceutical industry does not see the research and manufacture of any kind of drugs to help with their suffering as financially viable. It saddens me and makes me feel blessed that I am relatively healthy. Anthony's video has posed a deep deep though in me: How much is one persons life worth?

I have made a donation but I will not be carrying out the challenge. It should take a nomination from someone else to inspire you to donate, Anthony's video should be enough.

Happy Birthday Bubba!!

Today is Ollie's 26th Birthday! I want to wish him a very very happy birthday and let him know that I love him very very much! xxxxx

Overwhelming Grief

Anniversaries of deaths are always hard but this year I found it really tough. These words seem to express my feelings better than I ever could.

I Love Zumba!

On a Wednesday Anna and I go to Zumba! I wanted to find an exercise that was fun and saw the Zumba classes advertised and decided to try it out. I went a long and for the first 3 weeks had no clue what I was doing and I was totally un-coordinated but then it started to fall into place and now I love it! Our instructor is great and she tells you to work at your own level and doesn't push you too hard if you cant do it (some of our ladies are a little older) but if you can go hard, you should go hard.

Here are some pictures of me before and after last weeks class. I decided to push myself as hard as I could as you can see form the bottom picture I definitely worked up a good sweat! The added bonus of working so hard was that I felt great afterwards!

If there are classes near you I would defo have a go! Its great fun!