It all started out a little while ago when I found myself wanting to keep my hands busy while breastfeeding Locutus. I’d finished sewing up his stuffed D12 and had really enjoyed it, but then I was without another project. I just wanted to keep my hands busy, I did not want to start ANOTHER hobby to compete for my time and money.

Then I realized that I did have a little bit of spare yarn leftover from past projects that I could use for something. But I didn’t want to make just anything. You see, my personal sense of style doesn’t involve a lot of crocheted items. And then it struck me that I could make myself some fingerless gloves or a hat for Locutus. Those would work. So I put out the call for fingerless glove patterns on twitter. I was referred to ravelry (of which I was already a member, but I’d forgotten about it) but ultimately started on a project sent to me by @sapphirewitche (check out her Facebook page for Sapphire Stitches too).

I got going but only had enough yarn for one glove. So I unravelled it. Because I didn’t want to buy more yarn for this. It was just a busy project. Something to keep my hands occupied while I breastfed my son. I didn’t want to start sinking money into it.

Then I saw a really cute crocheted hat on pinterest. So I checked ravelry again and found a free pattern for a cloche hat with a simple bow that I loved. So I started crocheting it up. But, once again I realized I wouldn’t have enough yarn to finish it. When I made a few comments to people they kept suggesting ideas about how I could work a second colour in so I could get the project finished. But I kept rejecting their ideas because I DIDN’T WANT TO START A NEW HOBBY OR SPEND MONEY ON THIS. But my resolve was weakening. It was a really cute hat!

Then I saw something on pinterest that was the final straw: a babywearing coat extender. It was practical and would help me retain a bit of my current style. Plus it is an affordable solution to a problem I am having. And I don’t really even need that pattern, I can just kind of fudge through on my own. So I caved and went and bought 3 balls of yarn. Two of the chunkiest black/grey I could find (in the limited selection at Zellers) for the extender and one regular black so I can try that cute hat again.

Don’t forget to go vote for the next featured sumo wrestler!

Things are going to be slowing down here for a while. You see, I did a lot of blogging from my iPod. And my iPod sacrificed itself to the porcelain goddess (fell in the toilet) and is pretty dead. I’m going to have to switch to using computers, but I only have access during the daytime and I’m a slow one-handed typist.

• 10 Ways to Never Get Sick Again (from Fitsugar)
• EyeDefender Combats Eyestrain, Repetitive Stress Injury (from Lifehacker)
• Eating Our Way to Death, Literally (From Think Simple Now)
• In Case You Missed It: FitSugar Printables (from Fitsugar)
• In Case You Missed It: 7 Dynamic Yoga Sequences (from Fitsugar)

Don’t forget to vote for the next featured sumo wrestler!

Image via Wikipedia

Each month that has a sumo tournament, I’ll be writing an article that features a different sumo wrestler. To start off this series, I picked Hakuho, who happens to be my favourite. Help me pick the next wrestler I feature by leaving a comment below!

Some facts:
Rank: Yokozuna
Debuted: March 2001
Date of birth: March 11, 1985
Place of birth: Ulan Bator, Mongolia
Most consecutive wins: 63

Even though his father was a famous Mongolian wrestler, he wasn’t pressured into wrestling because his father wanted him to try other sports, like basketball. However, even from a very early age, he wanted to be a sumo wrestler. Another famous Mongolian sumo wrestler invited him to Japan in 2000 and had to intercede so that a stable would accept him because he was so light (140 lbs).

Source Japan Probe

Some if his career highlights include being one of the few non-Japanese to reach the rank of Yokozuna and winning a kinboshi award for defeating one of the previous Yokozuna while still being in the lowest Makuuchi division.

He has wrestled as the sole Yokozuna since March 2010 when Asashoryu retired from sumo. He was also involved in a scandal involving gambling over card games in 2010.

He is married and has three children.

His records:

• second longest consecutive winning streak
• most wins in a calendar year

This is a scan of a folder they were giving away at the 2008 Tokyo Tournament we attended in 2008. It features Asashoryu & Hakuho.

Here are a couple of videos showing Hakuho wrestling. The first is when he won his kinboshi in 2004 for defeating the Yokozuna Asashoryu.

This one is longer and has some commentary from Jason in Japan. It is his 63rd consecutive victory, which ties him with Tanikaze for second most consecutive victories. This also shows the television feed since he’s watching in Japan. Kisenosato would defeat him the next day ending his winning streak.

Who should be the next feature wrestler?

Before I became a mother I had read very few ebooks. But they have several distinct advantages (most of which relate to reading during the wee hours of the night) for new moms which quickly overcame my reluctance to read in that format.

• Because I use my iPod to read them, I don’t need to turn on a light.
• So long as I have my ereading device handy, the books are there. When I finish one I can start on the next without having to physically get up to get the book.
• It’s impossible to randomly misplace the digital version of a book somewhere in your house.
• You can download ebooks free from the library without having to leave your house.
• Even the lengthiest book weighs the same and can easily be held in one hand.
• Turning pages only requires the tap of a thumb.
• Most ereader programs automatically start you where you stopped. So even if you fall asleep reading, you’ll still know exactly how far you got.
• They tend to be at least a little cheaper than their traditional counterparts.

All that being said, I’m still not quite ready to buy an actual ereader device yet. For now my iPod is more than adequate. I’ve enjoyed the ebook experience so much these past few months that I think I’m more likely to purchase and read ebooks than I am paperbacks or hardcovers.

What are your thoughts, opinions, or counterpoints on ebooks? Do you still prefer physical media?

Now that you’ve gone ahead and signed up for Flickr & added me as a contact, you should be getting emails every time I upload photos. Not everyone wants to go online to see photos though, so this tutorial will teach you how to download the photos you like to your own computer. From there you can set them as your screensaver or desktop, or get them printed out from your favourite photo printing service. This will work if you have a Flickr account or if you’re viewing the pictures with an emailed guest pass.

1. Step 1: Select the picture you’d like a copy of.
   

It’s really just as simple as that!

The challenge I gave to the other members of my money club last year was to come up with some goals for 2012. More specifically, the assignment was to come up with: a guiding word, smart annual goals, and a bucket list. Here are my own answers to the assignment:

• Guiding Word:Foundations. This year is going to be about building strong foundations for the future. I’d like to broaden my personal knowledge of financial matters and continue aggressively paying down our mortgage. I’d also like to start looking at multiple income streams so that our future income is more diversified and stable.
• 2012 Goals
  • Do a quarterly reading challenge of finance books.
  • Put another $2,500 into an RESP for Locutus.
  • Earn an extra $600.
  • Save an extra $33,000 to pay down on our mortgage by October 26th.
  • Write our wills.
• Financial Bucket List
  • Own rental property by the time I am 40.
  • Have a fully funded RESP for each of my kids when they graduate high school.
  • Own vacation property.
  • Take annual vacations at least 3 weeks long.
  • Have a high enough income to own couture clothing & accessories.
  • Have a high enough income to be able to afford personal staff.
  • Start an endowment fund.
  • Have a high enough income to be able to afford a full day at the spa, once per month (added Jan 16th)

Did you take my goal setting challenge? Do you have financial goals for 2012? Share in the comments or leave a link to your own blog!

Full disclosure right from the start… this post is selfishly motivated. The more people who follow these steps, the less work it is for me to manually email everyone once a batch of Locutus photos have gone up. This is exactly the kind of thing that technology makes easier for us. If you already have a Yahoo! account just sign in with that and follow the rest of the instructions. BEFORE YOU COMPLAIN ABOUT HAVING YET ANOTHER ACCOUNT TO CHECK … after setting this up, you would never need to remember to come back to your Flickr account as everything will be emailed to your preferred email address.¹ This will generate some email for you, but you can limit the frequency to weekly if you want.

• Go to Flickr.com
• Create an account/sign up
• List your preferred email address when it prompts you for an alternate email address
• Search for my name & add me as a contact. This will automatically notify me & then I will list you as a friend or family member
• Edit your account notification settings and make these 2 changes:

• set your preferred email address as your default address
• select your update frequency according to your preference

See how easy that was? Now every time I upload photos, Flickr will automatically let you know. The emails even have little picture previews so you can decide if you want to click-through to see more or not. Plus, if you ever are signed in to your Flickr account, you will be able to come over to my photostream and look through all of the photos I’ve marked as private for family & friends.

If you’ve got questions about the process please leave a comment! Or if you’ve tried to set it up but something went wrong I’d be happy to try to help you fix it!

1. Though you should still try to pick a password you can remember just in case you need to enter it again [↩]

Image via Wikipedia

I know this post is coming a bit late, but being at all the holiday parties and relatives houses has gotten me thinking about Christmas decorations. Benevolance and I have never really decorated for Christmas. And we don’t do Christmas cards either. In fact, aside from attending the parties and eating the free food, I’m pretty Grinch-y when it comes to the holidays. However, now that we’ve gone and started a family, I know my days of not decorating are slowly coming to an end.

While it’s easy enough to tell Benevolance that if he wants a real Christmas tree he can have one so long as he does all the set up, care, and clean up of it, I know that things will not be so easy once my firstborn has learned to harness the full power of his cuteness. I know that there will come a time when he will look up at me and ask if we can have a Christmas tree. And with the combined puppy-dog eyes of the men in my family I will not be able to resist. And with that tree will come the necessity of decorating it.

Which brings me to my dilemma of how I want to decorate for Christmas. I’ve never really had to decide that for my own household and Benevolance has already said that he doesn’t really care¹. Since we’ll be a household with little kids, the sparkling glass decorations will be automatically taken off the list as possibilities. I also know that there will be an abundance of handmade ornaments that will be hung on the tree and displayed around the house. But I’d like to pick some overall guidelines just to make it a little bit easier to narrow down our choices for some basic ornaments when it comes time to go shopping for them. My only saving grace is that I do have some time before I’ll need to really decide and take the plunge.²

So readers, give me some inspiration here. What were some of your favourite Christmas decor styles this season?

1. which is odd since usually home decor things are his territory [↩]
2. Though the frugalist in me is also thinking that if I have my theme now, I can start hitting the after-Christmas sales and get some stuff really cheap, or slowly start making some of them myself. [↩]

Entwined by Heather Dixon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wonderful fairy story! The plot was compelling and I liked all of the various character arcs. The romances were good but didn’t steal center stage. I especially liked the father character and the balance between king and father that was there. Definitely one I’d recommend to others. Also one I’d love to see done right with a film adaptation!

View all my reviews