Friday, October 26, 2012

Getting to Know You!

Andrew
Today's post is a derailment from the norm here at That Yarn Girl.  Today I want to talk to you about my wonderful husband, Andrew.  About 10 months ago, he lost his job.  He has been working tirelessly since then to start his own business.  For those of you who are currently running your own business, or trying to, you know how hard the start up can be.  Another roadblock you may be very familiar with is funding.  Funding is difficult at best to come up with for starting a business.  Luckily my husband is an internet hound and found a wonderful little site called Kickstarter.com.  Andrew, being the tech savvy guy that he is started his own project on Kickstarter and he is now in the process of fund raising for his business.

A man in uniform, am I right ladies?
Let me explain what he wants to do.  Andrew was lucky enough to serve two years in Thailand as a volunteer for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and while he was there he developed a great love for the country and the people.  Upon returning to the States, he enlisted in the Utah National Guard in August 2001.  Only one short month later 9/11/01 happened and his world changed.  Andrew was deployed to Iraq in 2003. He served his country for six years in the National Guard and two years in the Inactive Ready Reserve.  Besides a deployment, Andrew had the opportunity to return to Thailand a couple of times with the military, which only solidified his love of the country, culture, and people.  With his service in the military, Andrew was able to attend Utah State University and graduate with his Bachelor of Arts degree in Interior Design.

What did all of that explanation have to do with Andrew's current endeavor of starting a business?  Simply this: Andrew is working to import home decor goods from Thailand.  In doing that he is working to create his own business, yes, but he is also working to improve the lives of the people he loves in Thailand.  Most of the business and factories he works with in Thailand are not wealthy folks running a business for pleasure.  For the most part the factories are run by exceptionally poor people who are trying to earn a living.  Some of the goods Andrew is hoping to import are hand made by the local Thai people.  I realize the big push right now is to have everything "Made in America," and I agree.  There is something that always enters my mind when I think of that, every person on this earth is a human being and with that comes the right to live comfortably.  I am not saying everyone in the world needs to become filthy rich, I am saying we have the ability to make someone else's life better.

Now for the good part!  You have taken the time to read this blog post, so please take the time to check out Andrew's Kickstarter project.  You can find it by clicking here.  If you have questions about what Kickstarter is or how it works, please check out Andrew's blog www.blueorchidimports.blogspot.com.

Thank you for your time and stay tuned for a wonderful little newborn project.  You will love it!

Monday, October 1, 2012

Little Monster

Fall is hat season for That Yarn Girl! For my loyal readers, do you remember the post about cute little Q?  He needed a "fuzzy" blanket because he had outgrown the one he already had.  Well, Q is back.  His awesome mom is doing something hat related for Christmas and needed four hats for Christmas.  Trust me, you will have an opportunity to see the hats for all four kids, but tonight is about Q and his monster hat.  So I started looking around for inspiration.  Here is the great thing about crocheting in this day and age: the internet!  Hooray for Google!  I have had so much luck finding almost any pattern I need.  So, thank you to those of you who have created patterns for almost everything.  I am working my way into pattern creation, but it is a slow move.  Stay tuned for a great hat pattern I have created.

For those of you who are interested in the pattern, you can find it here.  You will notice I changed it up, but only a little.
Monster Hat