I'm a Spinner, Not a Spinster.

I can't believe it's been a over a fortnight since I last posted in my blog. I've been so busy these last few weeks with uni work and personal dramas that I haven't had the time to think of anything but New Wave French cinema and Gaelic bilingualism in Highland schools... 

So where to start? 

I guess the first big news is that my labels and business cards have finally arrived! I feel like a real grown up now! As I am fundraising for charity they are the cheapest that Vistaprint have to offer - free design and three weeks to ship - but I'm hoping that they shall help advertise the cause over the next few months... 

Purple? With Butterflies? GIMME!!! 

I couldn't resist when I saw the wee spinning wheel! 

The only problem with the labels is my hatred for sewing but I figure that they give a more professional edge to anything that I sell and again, publicity is key! 

I went to my Childreach Inaugural meeting last Tuesday where I was introduced to the rest of my team for Machu Picchu and we received our fundraising buckets and t-shirts etc. They all seem really friendly and it made everything seem really real again, only seven months to go so I have a lot of fundraising to do in the meantime! 

I've managed to complete several of my projects over the last wee while, despite various deadlines, and I now have half a dozen pairs of earrings to put on the stall after a trip to the bead shop in town. I had a brain wave this morning and if anyone has an earring stand that I can borrow for my craft stall please get in contact with me as it'd come in really useful for presenting them!

Thankfully I have finally finished the Under the Sea scarf for Jamie and I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty impressed with it. In total - from blending the wool to sewing on the label - I worked out that it took me roughly twelve hours to complete, I just hope that Jamie's mum likes it and appreciates the hard work that I put into it. 

It's very difficult to show the true blend colours on a photo
but here is the best of many attempts! 

I want to thank my friend Milos for helping me to take a few photos of the scarf at the beach on Friday evening. We were lucky enough to get a couple of nice photos with the beautiful pink sunset as a background before the light started to disappear just after three o'clock in the afternoon, what is wrong with you, Aberdeen?!? Milos, I owe you a pint as thanks, I really appreciate it! 

The beautiful sunset over Aberdeen Beach on Friday evening.

I was actually surprised at how warm the scarf was 

Cutest puppy in Scotland came to give me a hand

You're sooo vain... 

Later that evening the Celtic Society hosted our second event of the semester, our first of many Celtic Themed Nights, this one focussing on our beloved Scotland. I would like to say a MASSIVE thank you on behalf of the Society to Marsaili for her brilliant speech and to everyone who came along, also thanks again to Nat for organising the fantastic music. Our fridge is still full of the haggis that we liberated at the end of the night, it will probably take us till Burns Night to finish it all! 

And on to a brief summary of my latest fundraising venture! I am very glad to say that my first charity collecting pub crawl was a success, we haven't counted the money yet as we're a little unsure of the regulations but Leonie and I worked well as a team and will be sharing our gains between us. 

There were just four of us on the crawl, Leonie and myself going to Machu Picchu and a couple of girls climbing to Everest base camp, we were all pretty nervous when we met up outside Paramount so we decided to go around in pairs taking half of the bar each. I was a little bit sceptical about shaking my bucket around and thoroughly expected to be told where to stick it but I was genuinely impressed by the generosity of the people of Aberdeen. The first donation I received was a five pound note from a gentleman who didn't even ask what I was collecting for! 

Ceitidh Seal: Licence to Chug...

A few donations and donators stick out in my memory, the first being an unsober oil rig worker who shoved a £20 note into my bucket when he couldn't find any change... 

The next nearly broke my heart: just as we were passing the corner of Union Street and Belmont a homeless man shouted after us to wait. We were all a little confused and explained that we don't have any cash on us other than the charity buckets, he then took out a handful of change from his pocket and thrust his hand towards us. Naturally we said that we couldn't accept it as it's all that he had but his response was 'No, love, they need it more than I do'. Leonie and I nearly wept. 

It was a really fun way to fundraise and you meet a lot of people in the process - I will definitely consider organising another crawl in the future to help boost my MyDonate page! My boyfriend has already promised to help me organise a wee pub crawl around Edinburgh when I'm up for Hogmanay. 

And lastly I'd like to wish Carleigh good luck with her presentation on knitting and spinning for which I was interviewed yesterday prevening. I hope that my ramblings came in useful and that you enjoyed playing with my spinning wheel! 

And so onto another long week of uni and knitting... 


Current Total: £153.55 + Bucket of Uncounted Change