Choose Your Fighter

The school is holding a door decorating contest for the holiday season. Winter Wonderland is the theme. I asked the class, and they wanted to participate. 

Rather than try to figure out a design, I opened it up to the class. What did they want our door to look like? We brainstormed, and they decided to have a couple snowball fighters. 

Of course, our snowball fighters would have to be the students. Eddy, who is an artist, drew bodies and hats. One of the IAs took pictures of the students. (The non-fighters got their pictures on snowflakes.) And we could easily print those pictures out. 

Which two students would be our fighters? I figured we would draw names for it. But Sydney said she didn't want to be one of the snowball fighters. So, I asked the class: who wanted to be a snowball fighter?

Leanna and Antoine raised their hands. No one else. 

That was way too easy. I repeated the question. 

Flash's hand went up. Then Logan's. Then both Sushi and Brittany wanted to be included. (Pizza was not at school that day. He had gone to Disneyland.) 

That was more like what I expected. So, we wrote down names, but them in a convenient paper bag, and we had Sydney draw two. (She had no stake in the outcome, so I figured she'd be the fairest person to pick.) 

Who did she pick? Leanna and Antoine. 

Well, okay then. 

Their pictures were printed bigger. Their heads got attached to Eddy's snowball fighter drawings. And it turned out way cuter than I expected. 

This post was written on Sunday. Edit on Wednesday night: WE WON SECOND PLACE!

Gift Card Holder Giveaway

The first time I did A to Z, I noticed some participants had pretty letters decorating their posts. I was impressed. I knew I needed my own set. And I knew that I'd knit them.

What form they'd take varied. At one point I thought I'd make the letter blocks into an afghan.

Last year for my sister-in-law's birthday, I wimped out and got her a gift card. As a flourish, I made her a little something to put them in. And the knitted gift card holders were born...

It has a little clip so it can hook onto a zipper pull or strap or something.

And I decided it had to have a monogram, which is how it became my A to Z project. Because I could make one for every letter.

(I also listed them in my Etsy shop, Zizi Rho Designs. You can find the gift card holders here.)

I started making them in earnest in January. (I made a few for gifts for Christmas.) I finished them mid-March. I took pictures of each.

And now those little pouches are taking up space. Collecting dust.

If you want to purchase one, I would be ever so grateful. But I'm sure you'd rather win one.

Yep, you can win one of the letters you've seen at the end of each post. Or you can win one of the letters still to come. I'll let you decide which one you want.

This giveaway will last throughout the rest of the A to Z Challenge. Winners will be announced in the A to Z Reflections post. Number of winners will be determined by number of entries--up to five winners (although I might give away more, depending on my mood when I do the drawing).

Not every letter is available. At some point this week, I'll put up a tab at the top with pictures of the available letters and another link to the Rafflecopter. (The currently available letters are: A, B, D, E, F, G, I, J, K, L, N, P, Q, R, S, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z.) I might be persuaded to make the missing letters...

Make sure to enter...

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Are you going to enter? Which letter would you like to win? What do you think of my little project? 

Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...

The Winner(s)

So, the pillow prop giveaway ended last week... I never did officially announce my winner, did I?

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Yeah, I decided to give more than one away. Because I can change the rules like that. Can't I? (I mean, I said I'd give away one. As long as I give away at least one, I'm still doing what I said I'd do. Right?)

To the winners, yes, you'll get your prizes. Soon. I'm busily knitting away...

...and they'll be in the mail by the end of the week. I promise.

(If you would like to purchase one of these, you can find them here.)

And I'll probably do another giveaway when things settle down for me a bit. September. What should I offer as the next prize?

Two More Days!

I'm still giving away one of these...

The deadline to enter is Wednesday. So, you'd best get on it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Ongoing

It's gotten a little too warm to knit lately. So, I've been crocheting. Mostly for my shop.

Blue Water Bottle Mesh Carrier
...other colors available

A while back I said I was going to make a creature water bottle carrier, and I still intend to do it, but my designing brain has been hibernating. For the summer. So far.

I had wanted to make something like these EOS lip balm holders for a while. My niece gave me the perfect opportunity (plus the nudge to do it) when I made them for the guests for her birthday party a few weeks ago. I like the way they turned out...

EOS Lip Balm Clip

And, of course, the pillows...

Gray Pillow Prop
...other colors available

The contest is still going (deadline to enter is July 16th). Make sure to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Win a Pillow Prop

I've been knitting...

I finally got around to making some of these for my shop...

Well, the cell phone sized ones, anyway. Finally. (I mentioned that I was thinking about doing this a while ago...)

And I just wanted to tell you all that if you want one, you can buy one here. (I don't have them made in the larger sizes, but if you want one, I can make a custom one for you.)

But what fun is it just posting that you can buy one? Why not give one away?

So... I've created a Rafflecopter giveaway. One lucky winner will receive a cell phone sized pillow prop in the color of his or her choice (yarn availability permitting). The contest will close on July 16th at midnight EDT.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In Case You Missed These...

Contests, contests, and contests. And blogfests. It's been busy in the blogosphere.

I'm a couple weeks late, but Michael Offutt has released his second book. Make sure to check it out.

Link to his blog. Links for the book.

Charity Bradford is having a contest to give away a necklace to go along with her book release.

Go here to enter.

And Briane P is holding a Traveling Blogathon of Doom for Christmas. You could win some books.

Link to his blog. Comments give you entries.

With all these contests and releases, I kind of want to do a contest. What should I give away?  

And if I've missed your contest, blogfest, or what-have-you, feel free to add it in the comments. 

Query Contest

Do you have a completed manuscript? If so, make sure to head on over to Unicorn Bell for the School's In Query Contest.

Week 1: Study Hall
It's a week devoted to getting you up to speed on how to write a query. If you have no idea what to do when it comes to querying, this is the week to learn. If you do know, you may still learn something.

Week 2: Workshop
It's time to show off what you've learned. Submit your query for feedback. Get it ready to submit to agents.

Week 3: Editor Judging
Time for final queries. Judging by guest judges.

Make sure to head on over starting August 13th.

Question for My Followers

It's the time of year when I transition into my "summer schedule", although calling it that is somewhat of a misnomer. I consider my blogging schedule a year round schedule, only the interesting subbing stories take priority over the specific daily topics. 

Today is the last day of school, and I've been working this week, but these are the sorts of days that don't lend themselves to good subbing stories. So, I find that I'm pondering something for a Wednesday post, and again I'm coming up empty. 

I have Wednesday set aside as the day I talk about my shop, Zizi Rho Designs. You may notice that I don't post on Wednesdays much. Occasionally I have a story about a new product, but much of the time I don't have much of anything to say. 

A few weeks ago, I held a contest. I didn't get very many entrants. But I like holding contests. It's fun to give away stuff. And now we get to the point of this post. 

If I were to hold some more contests over the summer (and I'd really like to), what sort of things should I give away?

I like to give away things from my shop. I'm willing to customize things that I make. I am even open to product suggestions. But my past contests have gone over like hot chocolate in July. So, I need to know--what would you like to win?

How Big Is Your Water Bottle?

I get these ideas. Sometimes they come to nothing, but other times I am able to take the idea and make something of it.  

Orange. My favorite.

It was about 15 years ago when I first stumbled across the water bottle carrier idea. I saw a pattern in a knitting magazine. I liked the idea, but I was not fond of the execution. I knew I could come up with something better.  

White goes with everything.

It took me a while (read: a couple years) to come up with a pattern that I liked. I decided that it had to be mesh-like. The best way to achieve this was to use crochet, but my crochet skills are nowhere near as well developed as my knitting ones. Eventually, I was able to make something that I liked.  

Kind of a bright green.

As you can see, I've been making a lot of them. So many that I've put them up for sale.  

Black goes with everything, too.

But I can't just do a blog post on the new merchandise in Zizi Rho Designs. That would be boring. There has to be something in it for you.  

CONTEST

Yeah, I'm going to give one of these carriers away. Well, not one of these, per se. I'm going to crochet one just for my winner, in the color and dimensions of the winner's choosing.  

To enter: All you need to do is to comment on this post, telling me the dimensions (either diameter or circumference of your water bottle and the bottle's height) in that comment. Oh, and your comment should link back to you in some way so I can contact you if you are my winner. 

(Make sure to specify which (diameter or circumference) you are measuring and tell me if you're measuring in inches or centimeters, please. I need to be able to make your carrier to fit your bottle.)  

It doesn't have to be a water bottle carrier. These carry home frozen yogurt quarts.

For bonus entries, help me promote the contest. Tweet it (make sure to include @ZiziRho so I know) or post it on Facebook (you can also like Zizi Rho Designs on Facebook if you are so inclined). If you wish to include it on your blog, I'll give you two bonus entries.  

The contest will be open until Wednesday, June 6th at 11:59 PM PDT (my time zone). Yes, I will ship internationally.

And tomorrow, more subbing stories! (Okay, who groaned?)  

New Year Magic

Heather at My Demon Spirits is hosting a little contest. We're to write a holiday story. I prefer New Year's Eve to Christmas. And I got it in just under the wire, with a day to spare...

The knock at the door was an unwelcome distraction. The woman carefully laid the blanket she’d been knitting in her chair as she got up to answer. She opened the door to find a young boy, and he looked worried.

“Can you come? Now?” he asked.

The woman sighed. She didn’t have time for this. She left things until the last moment, and if she didn’t finish, there was no telling what would happen. She looked back at her chair. The knitting would have to wait.

“I’m on my way.”

Several hours later, the woman returned to her cottage. She was tired and hungry. Helping children into the world was exhausting work. She looked back at her chair. If she had no more distractions…

Back at work, the woman wove the spell. Every stitch a thought. Every row a prayer. Wishes and dreams. The new year was coming fast, and if she didn’t get the blanket done, there was no telling what troubles would materialize.

The woman’s eyes started to blur. She made a mistake. Instead of knitting two stitches between the start of the pattern work, she knit three. How many rows? She slowly unknit the stitches she just knit, looking for where she made the mistake. Found it.

How much time had she lost? She could make it up.

Another knock at the door. The woman thought seriously about ignoring it. The village knew she had important work to do, so they would not disturb her if they could help it. She laid her work on her chair and got up to get it.

A girl, barely a woman, stood there. Crying. The woman sighed, but she let the girl in. She offered the girl some tea. She took up her knitting and listened to the girl’s story, a story the girl felt merited this interruption. The girl needed a love potion. The woman didn’t like weaving this girl’s fears into her work, but that couldn’t be helped. She patted the girl’s hand and promised her things would get better, knowing that she could work some of it out in the blanket. Then the woman was alone again.

She checked the time. She checked her progress. A couple more rows, and it would have to be good enough.

She started the bind off procedure. She concentrated on tying up loose ends. What problems that had started that could be fixed. She bound off the last stitch and looked at the clock. She still had time.

The woman ran out the door and into the yard. She laid the blanket out flat on the ground. As the clock struck midnight, the woman chanted her wishes for the new year. When the last gong from the church bells struck, the blanket evaporated in a shimmery glitter.

The woman fell back. It was done.

The woman picked herself up off the ground and headed back into the house. It was time to get some sleep.

Thread That Conducts Electricity?

I've been in freak out mode for the last couple days. Actually, I've been in freak out mode since last Friday, when my car failed its every-two-years smog check. (I know there's a word for that, but I'm not sure which one it is.) I took it in yesterday to get it looked at, and...

I don't want to go into it. Suffice it to say, it's taking longer and costing more than I had hoped.

I am going to focus on some nice things instead.

Currently, I am fascinated (obsessed) with a thing called conductive thread. I first heard of it while perusing the latest issue of Knitty. There's a pattern for a pair of gloves that will work with smartphone touchscreens. While the gloves are on.

I don't know why this fascinates me so. I don't even own a pair of gloves. (I do own a pair of fingerless gauntlets that I made several years ago, but I rarely if ever wear them.)

Conductive thread is thread that will conduct a small amount electricity. If you sew it into your gloves, you can use your smartphone while you're wearing your gloves. I so want to knit a pair of gloves using this. I don't know why. I'll never use them.

And finally, Heather at My Demon Spirits is having a little contest/blog hop. From her website:

I want to read your most original, scary or uplifting holiday story (I like both, so since this is my contest - I figure I'll make you write what I like to read!). Now, notice I didn't say "Christmas"; it can be ANY holiday you celebrate! It does NOT have to be a holiday that occurs in winter months. The entry can be no more than 500 words.

Full details here. You have until the end of the month/year to enter. Make sure to check it out.

Description Needed Winners

Remember my contest? It's time to announce winners.

I liked all of the keywords and descriptions, so rather than judge, I decided to let random.org pick a number. Congratulations, M.j.

For the second prize, I only had one entrant, so congratulations Theresa Milstein.

I wonder if I should do this again. I've been thinking. Perhaps next time I should think about giving away a eReader cozy. What do you think?

Description Needed

How would you describe these earrings?

I love these. I made myself a pair in the colorway Phoenix, and I wear them all the time.

(Yes, this is another post about my shop. Please bear with me. It's about time I held a contest. I need your help.)

You'd think I'd be able to come up with some descriptive keywords, being a writer and all, but the only word that comes to mind to describe the earrings is "fuzzy".

Any ideas? Seriously. I'm out.

I'm ready to resort to bribery, and not just $1 either.

Leave your best description or keyword in the comments of this post. The one I like the best will win a pair of earrings custom made by me. (Here's what I can do.)

For extra chances to win, or if you don't have a good keyword to contribute (I can relate), help spread the word via blog, Twitter, or Facebook. Tell me about it in my nifty little contest entry form. You'll be entered into a random drawing for a second prize, same as the first (that's a custom pair of earrings).

This contest will close Monday, June 6th at 11:59 PM PDT. I'll notify winners soon thereafter. Good luck.

Excuses, Excuses

I had planned on participating in the last Crusader Challenge. Really. But this week has gotten away from me.

I have been thinking about it, but I haven't had time to sit down and work on it. The last one took me something like three drafts. I expect this one will take a couple more. I'd like to think that I'll still get around to it, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen*.

(*I'm writing this Thursday night and scheduling the post to appear Friday. I'm anticipating a rather busy Friday.)

Now that that's out of the way, you should go and enter JEFritz's contest on her blog Still Writing... Tell her I sent you. (Actually, if you're not following her blog, you should be.)

I hope everybody's going to have a lovely holiday weekend!

Contest

I don't talk much about my writing, but today I'm going to make an exception.  My novels all end up being fantasy or sci fi (more fantasy than sci fi, but some sci fi all the same), so I'm going to enter one in this contest sponsored on the Guide to Literary Agents blog.  (One of the requirements is to link to the contest.)