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Day 18.5: What not to wear marathon

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I’ve been still feeling like crap. Got some homeopathic drops today – we’ll see if they work. I had meds from my doc, but as I am travelling in a province where you have to pay first and I’m going home soon, I am not going to see a doc here, but rely on the internet instead. Dangerous stuff hey:) Note to self: Always purchase health-insurance when travelling to la belle province.

While feeling crummy, I have 3/4 completed the baby booties, and watched hours of What Not to Wear. Most of the women were quite young (22-23), and hovering between adolescence and adulthood, therefore can be forgiven their fashion sins, no? Moi, on the other hand, laughed out loud when I saw one of the victims wearing a pair of sneakers I only recently threw out, and various other faux-pas.

What I could relate to was their sense of their own unique identity being tied into what they wore, whether it was to stand or to to blend in. Either way, their clothes were providing them with shelter. I don’t think I’d would bawl if Stacy and Clinton came and threw everything in my closet out, particularly with the 5 grand to spend:), but I might shed a tear or two for a few trusted friends.

It does inspire me to go through another bout of de-cluttering when I get home. My wardrobe consists largely of t-shirts and jeans. Time to dress age-appropriate, as they say.

Cheers,

Day 17: Boxing Day sans box – k1, yf instead

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It is icy here. Really freaking icy. The city has put gravel on the sidewalks but that only provides about 5% improvement. Even though I grew up here, it’s been a while since I’ve had to walk on ice in winter. So I was being careful. Very careful. Mr. O was walking ahead of me, and slipped. That was super scary watching him fall, and being of the male species he tended to brush it off. I have been worrying every since.  So much I’m even annoyed by myself. I learned to worry from my aunt – both my parents are most nonchalant when it comes to their approach to life. My aunt used to rub her hands together worrying. One day I will make a great video that brings that image together. I will soften it with the image of her big arms kneading dough, making fluffy white bread.

It’s boxing day and all I bought was some vitamins on sale. This is partially due to the aforementioned ice, but also to a longing to stay away from the frenzy. Instead I am working on baby booties for a friend’s 9 month old. It is a Debbie Bliss pattern from the Cotton Knit for all seasons book. Only I am using cheapo cotton. Not super cheapo, it is some kind of enviro-friendly blend. But much less than the DB brand. Since the first pair of booties I knit turned out suitable for hooves, I’m keeping the investment small for the time being. Although you do pay a price  – the cotton has a tendency to unwind and you have to be more vigilant not to have the strands separate.
The Debbie Bliss site  is remarkably low-key compared to what I expected given the $$ of her yarns. It must be new, there’s only one newsletter under that category and only one free pattern under that section. The girl on the front is a doppleganger for my cousin’s daughter. Who knows, maybe M moonlights as a knitting model.

I’m off to decipher the bootie pattern, and look up how to say baby bootie in French.

Cheers,

Hope you had a Merry Merry if you celebrate!

Day 16: Christmas Eve – another time out

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Something is off with the date stamp on these posts, not sure if it’s because the server is in a different time zone, or what. Once I eventually get around to upgrading WP, this should resolve.
There is yet another snow warning in effect and I’m running out of  descriptions for the snow. I read once that the Inuit have hundreds of words to describe snow. Looking out right now I can see the snow appears to be

  • fluffy
  • crystallized
  • steady
  • light

In other words, still ok to head out and shop for a last minute gift. I’ve been sick, so I forgive myself for leaving things to last minute. I finished my hat, which was to have been a gift, but it’s too small. The instructor has a big head (her words) and I used bigger needles (5mm) but although  it’s cute, it’s just too short around the ear area, which in this delicate but persisent snow, is inadequate.

I’m taking a time out. No box activity tomorrow.

Joyeux Noël!  Happy Holidays!

Cheers,

xx
MzD

Day 15: Do you really need a website? [happy happy joy joy]

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[ Hmm. Probably not an appropriate post on the eve of Xmas Eve. But I had it already typed out long ago, and didn’t bother to publish said gems of wisdom. Now that I’m on this 30 days of free to post whatever I want, I can benefit from prior efforts.

Cheers & Happy Holidays. Joyeuses Fetes and all that jazz. (desolee, can’t find accents in the WP Wyswig). ]
Maybe not. What’s that? Heresy, you say, from a web designer – I should be pushing the benefits, the joys, the $$$ signs you’ll be seeing all over the map (the google one that is), not asking you if you really need a website.

But, sometimes, that is in fact, the genuine case.

1. Artist – with a limited budget and sufficiently established in their career (these two may statements may seem like a contradiction, but not if you’re an artist – check out these statistics from the Canada Council) . Artists with dealers may not  need a website for strict promotional purposes. Their gallery takes care of that already. So, reasons for a website?

  • Vanity
  • Degree of control over presentation of work
  • Exposure, provided you give good SEO

What to do instead?

  • Start the proverbial blog, but it’s hard work baby
  • Get good press
  • Sleep with the hot, young curator

2. Small business, as in solopreneur – equally limited budget, but probably eating organic vegetables. Might belong to local Board of Trade, or another organization with potential for networking opps excellent. So, reasons for a site?

  • Exposure
  • Follow up resource for networking, tracking tool
  • Feel good factor

What to do instead?

  • D-I-Y – some have tread with success up/down this tricky ladder of heroism. Faint of heart need not apply.
  • Blog, which is almost the same thing, but a good, enthuastic writer can probably achieve results. Yours truly can attest to time commitment required. Review time lapse between postings.
  • Hire a consultant.

3.  Business large enough to have employees, too small for an IT department.

  • Blog also essential, no doubt. Do not pursue if no one in your organization can write, or if you are already understaffed and overworked.
  • Website useful for “static” pages which offer information such as size of org, jobs available, contact/location info, privacy/return/other policy (ies), reason for being, mandate/mission and so on…
  • Hire a consultant.

The last two lines of the last two points were pitches masked as advice. And yet, it remains good advice. I hire consultants when I can. It makes a difference – they have done all the proverbial heavy listing.

Well, tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I am without our Futurama Xmas dvd, c’est la vie.
We do have the gorgeous GM (chatte) and the snow.

Cheers!

xx
MzD

Day 14: Winter Wonderland is chilly

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Just a quickie. These are allowed. No one is reading yet.

Went for a walk in parc Lafontaine. I re-learned what it means to freeze one’s ears off. At least my fingertips went numb. But what I also learned is that focus can come from all kinds of directions. In this case the specific north-east wind blowing snow and the -19 temperature (celsius), plus wearing glasses that fogged up, and being surrounded by a landscape of pure white snow meant that the persisent dizziness I’ve been having (inner ear imbalance/virus) was temporarily gone. How brilliant this was. My body had to focus on literally not freezing to death and so my brain focused solely on that and the pesky imbalance was vanquished.

I’ll have to find out other ways to focus that are a tad warmer.