giveaway time: a scarf to snuggle with

Today was a random weekend of sledding like I was a 12-year old with The Boy, spending some quality time with my close friend (grabbing a bite to eat and then watching a gazillion awesome YouTube videos) and today I'm all geared up for the Canada VS U.S.A. hockey game ... although I most likely won't be watching it since I'm going to Starbucks to catch-up with a friend and then ... doing homework. Wah wah ... 

But on the bright side, I'm holding another giveaway! It's a bit of a smaller one, but it's still exciting on my part. The reason? Well, this piece of lovely fuzziness is going to be part of a little company that my mother and I are making together: Misiu Knits. The Etsy shop will probably be opening probably within a couple of months.The word misiu is literally translated from Polish into teddy bear which is hopefully how these knits (scarves, bags, perhaps hats and sweaters) will make you feel ... cuddly and snuggly like a teddy bear. What could you win?

 

{yes, I use a teddy bear to model it with ... I am cool (:}
DISCLAIMER: Bear is like 3 years old and I've been sleeping with it... not a prize LOL.

This scarf! I know what you might be thinking -- spring is a mere few weeks away! And in a lot of others places, it's summer. But knowing how some climates are, it'll likely be chilly for the next couple of months. Plus, if there's just a cold day or you're feeling sick and chilly, just wrap this lovely light gray scarf, with blue-ish undertones, around your  neck and feel ... warm :) It's truly an adorable scarf that I love wearing, and hopefully one of you will, too!

The scarf in the pictures is actually my own; the one sent to you will be similar with the same wool and pattern, just slightly shorter (I'll have the full dimensions listed by Tuesday).

So how could you win? 

1) Be a follower of this blog and leave a comment!

2) For a second entry, blog or tweet about it and let me know in a separate comment!

3) For another entry, either comment with what outfit you'd wear this scarf with or what your favourite types of knits are (it'll influence what will be in our 'shop').

 
Good luck!  
Open internationally until March 10th!

 And the rest of this week-and-a-half will be full of lovely ladies guest blogging for me while I try to finish essays early to enjoy MUSE next week. So make sure to give 'em all a warm welcome :) 

Hope you've had a great weekend!
(Are you sad or relieved that the Olympics are over?)

therapeutic thursdays: ask nikolett #2

It's time for another:

 

This time, it's just a few random questions which is good since I really want to watch the women's figure skating, with only a couple of advice-related questions but I hope you enjoy 'em nevertheless. I'll probably make a permanent Ask Nikolett post so you can continuously ask questions and about once a month I'll pluck 'em out and answer them! Yahoos! And I'm going to have a small giveaway soon before all the lovely guest blogs, so stay tuned for that, too!

 

What is love? - Little Miss Tiara

Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me ... no more~ I remember in high school when I was a part of video club and we had this whole segment in our end-of-the-year video where we got people to sing that song and ... anyhoos, off-topic! I think love is probably one of the most complicated topics of our world ... so much poetry, songs, books written about love. 

To me, personally, love is something that can often get blown out of proportion, or can be severely underrated. With my relationship with The Boy, love doesn't mean being in that 'honeymoon stage', but rather finding something new to care about every day. It's about making those feelings last, getting through the hardships together because you love each other. Love is holding on even when the ship starts to sink a little, because you know it will sail again. Enough cheesy analogies, hehe. It's comfortable with just the right amount of daily excitement. And from personal experience, love is having a relationship with more happy times than sad (or as I like to put, more happy tears than sad tears). Love is a many-splendoured thing, love lifts us up where we belong, all we need is love ;)

 How do you get yourself studying when the fear of failure is too much because there are too many expectations attached to it? - Nahl

Story of my life, right now. I've felt like giving up on studying on so many occasions lately because of fear of failure but there are certain things I try to keep in mind to motivate myself, which hopefully work for you:  

1) Do it for yourself ... not doing the studying at all is guaranteed to make you fail anyway, so do it for yourself to satisfy yourself and say, yes, I got through this ... make that a reward rather than all the other expectations;  

2) Remind yourself why you're doing it ... getting through the studying/assignments/tasks ahead of you is a choice only you can make. I've found myself crying because I felt I would disappoint my parents with my results ... but again, you have to do it for yourself; 

3) Try to find fun in it. I know that might seem impossible with so many due dates and the like. Most of the time though, we're able to choose what subject we're studying, so try to remember why you like that subject so much and try to find the fun in it, rather than automatically thinking about the end result. Hope this helps!

If you could compare the boy to a movie character, which one resembles his personality the most? - Jessica

Oh man, this was a toughie. When I asked him the question, he actually said Jim Carrey (no lie) and I have no clue why ... and then I re-asked the question and he realized what I meant, haha. Together we decided on a mix of Jonathan Trager from Serendipity and Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Jonathan Trager because of the serendipitous way that me and The Boy met ... it wasn't necessarily love at first sight (since I don't believe in that), but it was new and exciting. Jonathan seems to find delight in the little things (figure-skating, drawing constellations on arms), much like The Boy does. Aragorn, on the other hand, is a bad-ass who people take for granted. Half of the first movie is spent with people underestimating him until they found out he's the true King. I find it's the same way with The Boy ... people underestimate him because he's an immigrant, but he's accomplished so much. And, like Aragorn, he has a tough exterior but a lovey-dovey side, like with Arwen.

Oh, and I'm also throwing in a touch of Borat, because The Boy is a little crazy and has an accent, haha.

What's the stupidest thing you did done when you were drunk? - Andhari

In all honesty, I've only been drunk about twice in my life ... the most recent one was the charity ball earlier this month where I apparently snorted-while-laughing a lot plus kept saying, "Ja? JA!" repeatedly (I sound like a hyperactive mess haha). 

But the stupidest thing was probably going out either The Boy's birthday or his friend's at this restaurant-entertainment place and I was really heavily tipsy. There was a hanging light from the ceiling, so I kept touching and poking it until it started swinging and went, "Whoooooa." Then, I saw another light coming into my eyes from somewhere else but I thought it was me and went, "Woooow so many liiiiights" but, it was actually the bouncer flashing his flashlight at me to get me to stop what I was doing ... ahh, so lame. A pretty tame story I know, but that's probably the stupidest thing!

What would your dream wedding be like? - Little Miss Tiara

Haha, my sister answered this perfectly in the comment below this question: "she has no idea, I'm planning it", which is pretty much true! In all honesty, I haven't given too much thought about it ... maybe because I've only attended one wedding ceremony in my life. Though I do watch a ton of wedding movies, don't get me wrong.

All I have is mind is -- hopefully an amazing groom, probably going to be at a Church, and I'd like it in the spring or summer because I just love those seasons. And, I already have a place in mind for that thingy that happens after the ceremony ... the reception? (I've never been to one LOL.) It's this beautiful garden in my city that has a quiant restaurant and outside of it is just gorgeous flowers, ponds, and the like. The Boy took me for my birthday there last year, and there's a set of steps that I told him I could see as steps that a newlywed couple would stand on for pictures (which freaked him out a little, hehe).

 

I could picture there being white and silky open tents (just in case it rains lightly, and if it rains heavily, most of it could be done inside the little restaurant). Since it would be spring/summer, the sun would set a little later and I could just picture watching the sunset while eating dinner, and having a first dance just as the sun starts to fade the stars start to shine ... and that's the extent of my imagination haha. As you can see, no real details haha. *comes back to reality*

Thanks for the questions, ladies! Now I'm off to watch some skating and massage my poor feet ... anyone want to send me some warm, durable winter boots so I don't have to walk in my heeled boots anymore? :( 

Hope you've all had a good week!

And share any wedding experiences you've had so I can feel like I've actually been to more than one! :)

 

simple smile + snowy goodness!

You know what makes a Monday morning even worse after knowing that you've just had a week off from school and you really don't feel like going back? Waking up to a crazy snowstorm and traveling in it!, with your eyes being blinded by crazy wind-snow. We've finally been hit by some overdue snow ... though I would have prefered it last week (toboganning time!). Now I just feel like giving it to Vancouver. 

I hope you all had great weekends, though! Mine consisted of Mission Cheer-Up on Friday, by going over to The Boy's place. Our recipe for cheering him up? Plenty of hugs and cuddles, a huge meal of pizza and honey garlic chicken wings (yum), and then 27 Dresses ... chick-flicks like that always cheer me up and it cheered him up, too. The Boy claims he has more than 27 dresses though ... I'd like to see that, haha.  We also watched 2012, which ... I wouldn't recommend. Oh, and I also dyed my hair a light reddish-brown, but the pictures I've taken so far are incredibly emo so I'll show that some other time. Then Saturday consisted of a random bubble tea outing with two close friends and then meeting up,  even morerandomly, with the drift-away friend I've mentioned before. It wasn't as awkward as I was expecting, but I could tell that our friendship wouldn't be as close as it was in the past. Overall, a good weekend to close off a week of relaxation.

 

   

A look at a snow-covered fire hydrant and me walking home :)

Don't lie ... you want a sip of that strawberry banana bubble tea, don't you? ;)

But yes, walking to a bus-stop while being blinded by snow isn't a fun way to spend your Monday morning, fo sho. Knowing that I'll be seeing MUSE in TWO WEEKS is my simple smile of the week, though! Another thing that makes smile are these two awards!

The cute Gingerella (who's celebrating her birthday tomorrow, give her a shout!) awarded me with the Beautiful Blogger award. Thanks so much! The rules are to give this to 15 other bloggers you deem fantastic or beautiful. I'd seriously give this to every one of you if I could, haha.

So here goes, I award this to: 1) Krissy at i am krissy; 2) Andhari at Insomniac Lolita; 3)  Amanda at Teasingly Diverse; 4) Juliana A Blonde Walks Into A Blog; 5) Tiara Little Miss Tiara; 6) Mayra at Life is Bananas; 7) Iva at Iva Messy; 8) Sarah at Sarah Does Japan; 9) Nahl at The Girl in the Blogging Department; 10) Kym at Bee Creative; 11) New England Girl; 12) Jessica at Alright, Still; 13) Nicole at My Teacups in Peony; 14) Aubrey at Made You Blush; 15) Adele at Poptart.

Then, KS from While We're Waiting awarded me with this adorable award (thank you!). There weren't any formal rules, so I'm just going to award three girls who are like the sprinkles on my cupcake: Margarita, my sis, the cupcake expert extraordinaire; Josie from Josiebean!, who has returned(!); and Steph from That Girl Is Hoisin' who has also returned to blogging! All three of you gals cheer me right up.

Whew, after all that I just have two requests:

1) If you have any Ask Nikolett questions (advice-related or find-out-more-about-me-related), ask in the comments or e-mail me!

2) Does anyone want to guest blog for me next week? The week of the aforementioned Muse concert is also the week I have 4 papers due in 4 days (GAH!), so next week I'm going to try to finish them all and I'd really appreciate your lovely voice on here while I'm sitting, highly caffeinated, in a dark room with a laptop at 4 in the morning haha.

Hope you've had a good start to your week! :)

therapeutic fridays: those awkward coversations

I'm a little bummed out today, which seems to heavily contrast to all the cheery entries I have to catch up on. A week off from school was desperately needed, but it turned into mixing up the days of the week, to the point where I thought I had two Wednesdays. And I burned my mouth so badly on Monday from incredibly hot coffee that I haven't drunk it since (I know, boo-hoo, I'll live, right?). I don't want to spend this entry complaining because I know I don't have it that bad. 

Instead, I wanted to focus on something that I'm sure everyone goes through at least once in their lifetime: having an uncomfortable conversation. The inspiration came from Kym, who unfortunately is going through one of those situations where an uncomfortable conversation might be necessary. It's a pain in the tush, and most of the times, we don't want to do it. 

Just last week, I dwelled on the future slipping out of my hands ... and it's because I had an uncomfortable conversation, and pretty much failed it. I have to prove to a teacher's college that what I've been studying in uni relates to computer studies, but when I asked the very unfriendly lady on the phone for help and asked multiple questions, she replied with the same things, "Well, if you take a look at our website you can see ..." (yes, I am looking at your website right now and it's not helping me) and things like "If you get a letter from your computer studies department..." (I've already told you, there is no computer studies department). Instead of being polite but assertive, I just admitted defeat, hung up the phone, and bawled for twenty minutes. Pointless, huh?

So now, let's focus on those things that will make the uncomfortable, comfortable. Whether it's personal, business, or needing-to-get-something-from-someone-and-you've-been-waiting-a-while-and-you-want-to-remind-them-without-sounding-like-you're-nagging, hopefully this will help!

1) WRITE IT OUT. 

Find a time where you're not thinking about the topic at hand emotionally but critically. Then write out what you want to say to this person. My sister always gave me this advice when it came to talking to people I didn't necessarily want to talk to: writing it out gets your thoughts in order, and it's a good reference for when you're actually talking to the person.

Just last week my friend had to have an uncomfortable conversation with someone, and wrote out a page of what she wanted to say. And writing it in an notepad like the one on the left might put a little fun into it?

2) FIND A FOCUS.

You don't want to just yell at the person -- you want to pinpoint how you can change what's going on. If you're waiting for something from someone, perhaps say, "I understand we all have busy schedules in our lives, but I was counting on having this by (insert date here) and would greatly appreciate it if you could get that to me." You might not phrase it that exact way, but the key is not to spew fire out at the person. You want to get your point across in a way that will make positive changes happen.

3) PICK A METHOD.

Try to pick a method that works best for both of you when having this conversation. If you're going to talk over the phone, make sure it's during a time where you're not rushed and have time to discuss everything.

If you have to meet in person, try to pick a place you both know, so you don't feel out of your element. Don't be afraid to bust out the notepad (even if it's on your lap), because it shows you're prepared and it's a good thing to reference to make sure you discuss everything.

Another method is definitely e-mail, and sometimes that's the only route you can go. On the down side, you don't really know when that person will respond and it  can make the conversation one-sided, but on the plus side, both parties get to reflect on what has been said and hopefully go for a good solution. Just be clear on what you're saying -- so try to avoid tons of sarcasm. 

4) DON'T BE AFRAID.

You know this conversation needs to happen. Think about why -- is it holding you back in your business/school, is it affecting your relationship with someone, etc -- and then, don't be afraid to bring it up. Chances are, either a) the other person feels some sort of tension and knows that something needs to change or b) the other person is totally unaware and therefore nothing will change unless you bring it up. If you're having second thoughts about making this conversation happen, just think what's the payoff for not having this conversation.

For the teacher's college situation (I will never think of this word the same way thanks to Jersey Shore), I eventually wrote out a 2-page statement clarifing my academic and field experience, and am crossing my fingers that it's enough. I could have given up right after that phone call, but sometimes you have to prove to them that you have what it takes to do what you want to do. Think You've Got Mail, or She's The Man. 

5) GET 'ER DONE ... AND REWARD YOURSELF.

While having this conversation, think resolve not create more tension. Think get it all out without patronizing the person. Think what can we do to change this? and not say it's all your fault (even if it is). And after getting through this conversation, reward yourself with something. Hopefully your confidence will already be boosted by having the courage to make this conversation happen.

I hope this has helped in some way, though I'm sure I've left something out. So I ask you:

Have you ever dealt with an uncomfortable conversation?

And what did you do to make it better?

I'll be answering the Ask Nikolett questions next week in case there's anymore (and I'll actually post it on a Thursday instead of being a total fail like this week, hehe). So ask away and have an amazing weekend!