what a charity case

I couldn’t successfully complete a resolution if my life depended on it. Needless to say – I didn’t bother making any this year. I’ve tried the weight loss ones, but pizza always wins. I’ve tried giving up alcohol but, let’s be honest here… I’d do some pretty embarrassing things just for a glass of wine. So, I decided it would be easiest to just expand on something I already successfully do. (Then I won’t feel like an ass when I don’t completely fail at a new goal.)

With that being said, I added a new page to my blog. I told a few people this would be completed in December, but the holidays had me pretty damn side-tracked so I’m a bit late on that. Sorry, folks. I’ve been in a cheesecake-induced coma. Some of you know I crochet and sell cat toys to help raise money for the SPCA. (If you didn’t know – now you do! Ha) After a bunch of people contacted me about them online, I thought I’d take it to the internet to try and raise money as well. (Why not, right?) On top of doing cat toys for the SPCA, I’m also crocheting baby blankets & stuffed toys to raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. A few cat toys and blankets are on my new Etsy site already, but I will definitely be adding more as I complete them. Keep an eye out 🙂

Here are some catnip Valentine’s Day puffy hearts:

valentinesday (2)

I hope everyone’s New Years started off on the right foot. Did you make resolutions? Have you ever actually completed one? Good luck, y’all.

yellowbunny

 

 

66 thoughts on “what a charity case”

  1. Melissa says:
    Reply

    I don’t do well with the term Resolutions so I call them Priorities. For whatever reason, Priorities sounds more personal, like I’m the one in control. So, my top Priorities for 2016 are health and weight, which go hand in hand for me.

  8. juniperberry27 says:
    Reply

    Love your charity crochet work….I am a crocheter too, although since summer have not been near a hook. Crochet is zen for me and there is too much STUFF going on presently so I cannot get into the mode. It will come. Great blog!

  10. Healthy Not Nuts says:
    Reply

    I like your ideas to raise money for SPCA and St. Judes. I also crochet but only blankets. Your things look beautiful. I don’t really make New Year’s Resolutions because I just keep trying to make improvements to myself all year. Not that I actually get that much ahead, but, I do good for awhile, then not so good and then back to good again. Like a viscious circle. 🙂

  11. carolynswriting says:
    Reply

    No resolutions here except to keep writing and keep sane! Your stuff looks so well made, they are simple but gorgeous and I love that you’re donating money. Yay to supporting adopted pets! I love my furry second-hand dogs & cats and they return the love in spades (I could joke about using that spade to pick up after them, but…)

  12. Jessica Adam says:
    Reply

    Bravo! I’m excited for you! P.S. I’ll try to order some to put in with my contest prize for February 3. The hearts would be fun.

    Also, dang girl, I saw you have over 2,000! Woo hoo! Go girl!!!! “Liked” you on Facebook. 🙂

  18. nectar1269 says:
    Reply

    I’m not sure ‘resolution’ is the right word – it’s more like a goal – I want to run a 10k in November (I can only run for 3 minutes right now before having to take a walking break!) so this should be interesting! I unintentionally stopped social smoking last year on the 2nd of January and I’m not ready to stop drinking yet! Love the crocheted animals 🙂

  23. Lulu says:
    Reply

    I love the idea of expanding on something you already do successfully! I will check out your Etsy site as I have three GrandKitties and am patiently waiting for the Grandchildren! Good luck!

  24. Warrior Freya says:
    Reply

    I didn’t intend for this response to be a novel, but it sort of turned into one… hopefully that’s alright. : D

    Like some of the other posts mention, the term resolution doesn’t sit well with me, and even though it’s only semantics and connotation, the way a word feels to me really impacts my psyche. So I call my resolutions goals instead. They’re the achievements, the mountains in my life, that I intend to conquer.

    Normally my goals overlap, or I’m able to do several at a time. Personal, work, financial, health, my goals can fit into all sorts of categories, but most of the time they are interconnect and by working on one I’m actually working on several.

    Not this year though. My goals right now are pretty linear and almost set up like dominos. I can’t work on the next one until the first one is finished.

    The #1 goal I have right now is to run my Warrior Dash in February. It’s funny you mentioned St. Jude in this post because I’m going to be running as a St. Jude Warrior, where I try to raise money for a child I’m sponsoring. It’s a good feeling and I hope I reach my goal with the fundraising. : )

    After that I’m supposed to go back to attending my dojo and focusing on aikido where my goal is to advance in my belts. I can’t reach the next belt until I get the one before it. So I have all of these small stepping-stones to get to my main goal “Become Dan 1 (black belt rank 1)”.

    I used to have issues reaching my goals as well. A lot of that had to do with not having clear goals, though. Way back in the day, I used to write down nebulous things like “lose weight”, but that doesn’t really give you an end point. It doesn’t give you something to work towards. Setting more solid, quantifiable guidelines really helped me.

    “I want to gain 10 pounds of muscle in two months.” Our brains are more ok with a goal like that because we have a time frame, which gives us an end, a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. It also gives us a way to know if we have reached our goal or not.

    On a personal, unprofessional note, if you are interested / wanting to “lose weight” I would recommend focusing on BMI or muscle mass instead of the scale. I’ve dropped two pant sizes and still weigh the same as I did three months ago before I started training for my race. It can be beyond discouraging to step on the scale and not have an amazing story of, “I lost 60 pounds in 1 month.” Especially when you feel like you’re putting in a ton of effort.

    It’s not about losing weight so much as building muscle. A fist size lump of muscle weighs as much as a gallon container worth of fat. That’s a huge mass difference, though. So even though you may be losing serious inches and dropping sizes like bad habits, your weight number can stay the same, or even go up, which is what actually happened to me during my first month. Talk about fucked up, right?

    So, just from personal experience I would stay away from goals with weight attached to them. The scale is a bastard and weight is really only a measure of your relationship with gravity anyway. Our weight would be way different on the moon even though our shape would still be same same… Damn you, Science!

    You don’t have to turn into a “Do you even lift bro” type of person to focus on muscle stuff, either. Body weight exercises are amazing, don’t require equipment, and can be done literally anywhere.

    “Do a 20 second plank every day for a month.” Super simple goal, clear guidelines, and realistic. That’s another issue I had. I would always try to set something super crazy that I wouldn’t actually be able to achieve, you know, basically setting myself up for failure, which I was surprising good at.

    That’s one of the reasons I don’t have a ton of goals this year. I’m going to be taking classes for my degree still, and that’s not going to leave me with much time for anything else. I’m thinking about putting, “do laundry each week” as one of my goals just so I feel like the life chore stuff I still have to take care of counts towards something. : )

    Hopefully all of that helps you out and doesn’t come off as lecturing. That wasn’t my intention. Just trying to share some tips that have really helped me out.

    I hope your New Year is off to a great start as well. : )

    • Blair (The Shameful Sheep) says:
      Reply

      I love novels, so I’m good with it 🙂 You’re 100% right on the ‘losing weight’ part. I’ve been a sucker to the scale when I was younger, and I would get so frustrated by it, it would throw me off track countless times. It was terrible. As I got older, I have done measuring rather than weighing. I don’t necessarily strive for a specific weight now. I just want to be healthy and feel good about myself, so measurements are MUCH better. I like your specific goals. Broken down like that, it makes it much easier to accomplish, and it’s straight to the point. I have running goals (they aren’t new year related, I’ve had them for a few months lol), and they are the ones I’m trying my hardest to complete 🙂 Your goal of becoming a black belt is pretty damn cool. Nothing better than a woman that can kick some ass!

      PS- I didn’t take it as lecturing. I appreciate you sharing your tips. You made great points.

  31. April says:
    Reply

    Hmmmm….you’ve given me an idea to do something with the hoard of socks I’ve knitted. Apparently, I can’t wear them all and most sit in a couple or so baskets. I would have to split the money among charities because my heart is with more than one. I love your idea of making a stuffed animal matching your blankets. What a wonderful gift!

Leave a reply to Melissa Cancel reply