...feet and toes

Woo hoo!

Speediest replies ever to one of my quickee surveys!

Here are my friends and family shoe sizes! LOL

• 5 or 6
• 7.5 (x 2)
• 9 (x 3)
• 8.5
• 8 or 8.5

I wonder if any of these mini r-anne-dom surveys have any meaning at all? I guess everyone will simply have to wait for Christmas to see what I've made them and then figure out which survey was the one for their gift! I hope I get all the gifts done...

Wednesday Wonder - jazminjules

A friend of mine has opened an Etsy shop!

You can visit at jazminjules - she has great jewellery and will be adding more. She's quite creative and I can't wait to see what she'll come up with next.

This is a favourite - I even love the name!

Bluejean Blues Bracelet

because, really, doesn't everyone love to be in jeans?!?!!

Teams on Tuesday - EtsyKnitters

The first team I joined after opening my Etsy shop, ennadoolf, was the EtsyKnitters team. The team members are welcoming and freely share knitting advice, Etsy shop tips, and lots more.

Members of the EtsyKnitters are from around the globe including the US, Canada, Italy, UK, Australia and more. Our team leaders are Marie from KnittedGems, Mette from knittingmette and Sherri from SherriCrochets.

As a team, we've held challenges to help members creatively try new knitting colours, yarns, techniques, patterns, stitches and textures. This helps everyone increase their skills at their own pace and comfort level.

We are the first virtual team to take part in World Wide Knit in Public Day! (WWKiPD) It takes place annually on or about June 14.

In 2008, as a virtual team, all team members were encouraged to knit in public on that date and then take a photo to document our public knitting. Hm, come to think of it, I'm not sure I ever did show anyone that photo! oops.

It's a great team with some wonderful members - and gives the online experience of having a shop on Etsy a more humane touch.

quoting the phrase Mette uses to end her emails...
Have a Knitty day!

Thinking Day - 2009

Thinking Day 2009

February 22 is Thinking Day for all member countries in the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). It commemorates the birthdays of both Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, the founders of Scouting and Guiding, who were born on the same day (though different years).

The World Thinking Day theme for 2009 is girls worldwide say “stop the spread of AIDS, malaria and other diseases”

This theme is part of WAGGGS’ new Global Action Theme. At the 33rd WAGGGS World Conference in 2008, WAGGGS announced its new Global Action Theme:
girls worldwide say “together we can change our world”
which focuses on the Millennium Development Goals.

The theme encourages girls, young women and members of all ages to make a personal commitment to change the world around them.

I am sending Thinking Day wishes to all my Guiding sisters 'round the world.

Wednesday Wonder - crocuses

I wonder when my crocuses will appear this year?

Its such a nice first sign of spring to see that splash of colour in the garden.

Not that I'm a great gardener, far from it.

I am so glad to have perennials and bulbs because they don't need a lot of help from me to grow and bloom.

Sometimes they are joined by other greenery that apparently can be identified as something called a weed - I even have a book about Weeds so that I can properly identify what grows in my gardens.

Alas, I am often encouraged to remove them from the gardens ... not something I enjoy doing.

Teams on Tuesday - e-Guiding

I am a member of Girl Guides of Canada - Guides du Canada (GGC). I am the treasurer for a Girl Guide unit and I'm also a Guider for Rangers registered in Lones. Those are my two official volunteer roles.

In addition to that, I am a member of e-Guiding.com - we are a group of volunteers, mostly members of Girl Guides of Canada, plus one fantastic web guru who is male and takes care of our websites. We maintain the website e-Guiding.com that includes The GuideZone and TuneGuide

As volunteers with many other things going on in our lives, we would love to be able to spend more time on our e-Guiding roles, so we do what we can. :) I know I'd love to be able to have an extra day this year to spend just adding resources to GuideZone!

Hm, one of the things we've discussed in the past is to have a November 31st - maybe that could be the elusive extra day I need to work on this! :) We came up with that when the GGC calendar one year had a November 31st printed. Granted, the same day was December 1st on the next page, but for one fleeting moment, we thought GGC had given us a whole extra day! If only...

If you're looking for GGC memorabilia, check out the scarves I've added to my Etsy shop, Patterns And Such.

Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's day.

Did you know there is a website just for this day? stvalentinesday.org I had no idea. I do now! It has the history of St. Valentine's Day, legends of St. Valentine's Day, and more. And do you notice that they call it St. Valentine's Day? I am not sure if I knew that or not. It almost sounds like something I should have known.

Check out the Valentine's Day games link - cute!

Whatever you are doing today, enjoy the day.

R A O K

RAOK - Random Act of Kindness

Do you do them? I do. It started in Brownies. I read my Brownie manual because I love to read, and it had stories in it about the two little girls who were joining Brownies. They learned about Good Deeds and basically they were random acts of kindness. They also learned that a Good Deed didn't really count if you told everyone about it. I guess if they find out on their own, it's okay.

What was that movie that got the everyone talking about them? oh yeah - Pay It Forward. Not a bad movie. I watched August Rush the other night - I know, totally off topic from random acts of kindness, but I thought it was a good movie just the same. Many thanks to the person that recommended I watch it.

If you see an opportunity for a Random Act of Kindness, will you seize that opportunity? will you do it? I hope so.

Teams on Tuesday - WWWG Team

WWWG. This is a team I joined on Etsy.com where I have 2 shops: ennadoolf and PatternsAndSuch. Joining teams really helps give the feeling of community to Etsy.

What is the WWWG Team?
WWWG is the Wild Wise and Witty Grandmamas of Etsy. Since I'm a grandma, I joined. I will not confirm or deny having any of the other attributes.

For the month of February 2009, the WWWG team decided to have a ♥Heart♥ theme!

When someone marks your Etsy shop, or one of your Etsy shop items as a favourite, you get a ♥heart♥. And people on Etsy love to receive ♥hearts♥! Its a sign that others have visited your shop and like what you have.

Also, February is ♥Heart♥ Month. As grannies, we know it's important to keep your ♥heart♥ healthy. So we thought that would be a good theme for the month.

Oh, and let's not forget that Valentine's Day is in February! More ♥hearts♥!

Want to learn more about this great team? Click here!

And if you'd like to see a sampling of some of the items in the shops of the WWWG Team members, just check out the Flickr box over there on the right. See the one with the photos that keep changing? Those are our WWWG Team members' items.

Of course, I have a heart too - and so do my shops. [smile]

...and the survey says!

No, this isn't Family Feud, but it is family!

I have more survey results from my family and friends who are being asked random questions so that I can gather information for gifts I am going to make them. I've started one gift and still need questions answered before I can finish it, so I think I'll put it aside and start something else until I can cleverly fit those questions in! LOL

The question was: Do you wear a winter hat? yes? or no? And here are the results!

Yes: 2
No: 3
Yes AND No (depends on the circumstance): 2

How is that?

Well, if YOU wear a hat or would like a nice anc cozy warm winter knitted hat, look no further than my Etsy shop and keep in mind that if you don't see exactly what you are looking for, you can always contact me for a custom order! I recently made this hat for a fan of the London Knights in their team colours, though others have told me that these are John Deere colours as well!

BOGO Sale at Patterns And Such

Thursday Feb.5th to Sunday Feb.8th

B O G O Sale

Buy One Get One Half Off

Buy any item in my shop - Patterns And Such - and get the 2nd item of equal or lesser value at half price.

No need for codes - I'll refund the difference via Paypal. Of course, if you'd prefer to wait for a revised invoice, please let me know.

Wednesday Wonder - Weezi

I forget what I was looking for on Etsy today, and I found this shop: Weezi.etsy.com and the studio is right here in London.

So I think I'll have to pop in there sometime and check it out!

editted Thurs.Feb.5 to add: I visited Weezi's shop in downtown London today! Great shop! And had a lovely chat with the proprietor and had a look 'round at the great variety of items there! What caught my eye? the lampshade made of cassette cases, the vintage china pieces, laptop covers - oh, too much to mention here! click on the link - visit her Etsy shop and her website.

Teams on Tuesday - Team ESST

Hm, I talked about Team ESST last week, and now find myself talking about them again. :) No disservice to the other teams I am a member of ... I'll get to you!

Team ESST is hosting a "First Weekend Monthly Shopping Extravaganza" this weekend from Thursday - Sunday February 5-8th.
Our team decided that "there will not be an "Overall theme" because we are a Global Marketplace and the seasons, cultures, holidays, etc can vary quite a bit. Although not required, we do strongly encourage shops to have a feature, theme or sale as this can pique interest and help you to draw people to your shop."

So, after giving it some thought, I'm going to have a BOGO sale this weekend - Buy One Get One Half Off in my Patterns And Such shop. Of course the "half off" item will be of equal or lesser value.

The thing on Etsy is, there is no easy way to input this to automatically calculate for us. So, we do one of 2 things: we either ask our customers not to pay right away (ack!) and then we send them an invoice via PayPal, or we refund them the excess they pay after they pay.

Personally, I prefer the 2nd one. I think I will allow my customers to choose though.

Now, back to the topic of Team ESST - our team blog includes my shop as one of the shops featured in today's blog post! Click here to see it!

GGC International Tie

In mid-January, we were trying to tie our Girl Guides of Canada (GGC) international ties so that the trefoil is tied in a knot in the centre of the scarf facing the correct direction and then tied around your neck.

It wasn't easy because we were trying to do this via email! and not in person. I think we all figured it out, but I have located a photo from an old issue of the Canadian Guider and I thought I'd post it for those who need a visual. Our biggest obstacle was trying to determine just how upright the trefoil could be when it was at the centre. As you can see by the photo, its not perfectly upright and looks great!

The general consensus was:
Fold the scarf in half, so the 2 trefoils come together.
Fold under the point below a trefoil corner.
This will be the trefoil youwill see.
Continue to fold the scarf making it a long skinny folded one...being sure the trefoil is always visible.
Tie a half knot in the middle so the trefoil shows and tie it under the collar in the back with a reef knot.
Thanks to everyone at e-guiding.com for your help in solving this!

As a side note, I have listed one of my vintage Guiding scarves in my Etsy shop, Patterns And Such, and will be adding more in the days/weeks to come.