Action 32 - Do something you think you can't do and Action 124 - Don't worry if you make a mistake!

We’ve been feeling all crafty at We Are What We Do the last few months and decided that this Christmas we would get creative with our gifts… why buy rubbish when you can make it?!

So, with only 7 months to perfect our presents and with needles in hand, we trooped off to Golders Green to join a group who meet every Wednesday night in Starbucks to compare patterns, projects and generally have a nice time.


After a confusing conflab about casting on techniques, a short discussion about whether needles are left-handed… and an even briefer one about leopard print wool, we were off!

[Note Katie's concentration and the utter disgust from Jyoti!]

A quick refresher course, and Nicole’s childhood lessons came flooding back. Before you could say knit one pearl one, Katie joined in and the competition was on, waving our knitting under any nose in a needles length.


As confidence gained, Nicole’s technique took a turn for the extreme as she moved into an upstanding position!

Meanwhile, Katie made friends with an obliging expert and quickly caught up… though we could see the cheating a mile off…

All in all a very productive and enjoyable evening… stay tuned to see our progress!

Washington backs Change the World for Ten Bucks

Thanks to Village Books in Bellingham, WA for this fabulous display Robert Gruen created for Change The World for Ten Bucks. We just love it! If you live in Bellingham, please pop in and say thanks from us. (Oh, and you could pick up a copy of the book too!)

http://www.villagebooks.com/

Today is Change the World Day

Today's a big day for our wonderful friends at Chronicle Books www.chroniclebooks.com in San Francisco who as you know are publishing Change the World for Ten Bucks. To mark the launch of the book and to demonstrate their commitment to it and to WAWWD, they've declared today Change the World Day and the whole organisation (a couple of hundred people) has been given the day off to volunteer in local projects. Some of the organisations they'll be supporting include Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, City Slicker Farms, Habitat for Humanity, Beach Clean-up in the Presidio, Alemany Farms, 826 Valencia, the San Francisco Zoo, Opportunity Impact, and The Lighthouse. And AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) is sending 30 members from its Pacific Region campus in Sacramento to serve alongside the Chronicle volunteers. This is a fantastic gesture of support and we're so excited to think about the combined impact of all these individual volunteering days and of course it's amazing that they have taken the project on in such a wholehearted way.

Here's hoping this becomes an annual national event and that loads of other organisations sign up to it - you never know what might happen. Hope you have a great day guys and look forward to sharing some of your stories on the blog.

And speaking of blogs, there's been some really lovely coverage from the States - here's a sample. Please let us know if you spot anything else! Thanks.

http://news.bookweb.org/6779.html
http://thegreenapplecore.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt3PE4SJw5k.

Revealed - WAWWD's Black Belt

Here she is! WAWWD's very own Kung Fu Black Belt. Who would have thought that such a sweet smiley Dutch lass could achieve such a thing? But she did last month and we're darned proud of her. Congratulations to Tom & Susan Beechy in North Vancouver, Helga Schreiber in Cologne and Caroline Esterson in Kent on guessing the correct answer.

(Katie and Ella will be receiving counselling to help them understand just why so many people thought it was them!!!)

Nicole joined us nearly 2 years ago and runs our Young Speakers Programme with Katie. We thought you might like to know a bit more about her.

What and where did you study?
I studied ‘Modern Languages and European Studies’ at the University of West England in Bristol

What did you do before you joined WAWWD?
I spent 2 years in Latin America working on community development projects, then came to London and did an MA in ‘Education and International Development’, worked for a charity (Changemakers) helping young people set up their own community projects, had to get out of London a bit and spent a few months working on farms in New Zealand, came back to London and was lucky enough to find a job at WAWWD!

What are you passionate about in life?
About making the world a more just and fairer place, about making cities greener, keeping fit, my friends and family.

What inspires / excites you about WAWWD?
Working with a great group of people. Getting important social and environmental messages across in a non-patronising and creative way. Reaching out to lots and lots of people that might otherwise not engage in these issues. The fact that we can all do something, no matter how small.
How many and which languages do you speak?
I speak 4 – Dutch, English, French and Spanish

When was the last time you cried?

3 weeks ago when I slipped my disk, couldn’t move and did not know what to do

If you could ask one million people to do one thing, what would it be?
To be positive … or if that’s not simple enough … then to cycle to work!

WAWWD meets Spanish hotty!

One of the nicest things that happened on Sant Jordi day was meeting Risto Mejide who my Spanish friends described as the Spanish Simon Cowell - which I took to mean he was hugely successful on TV but not known for his sweet, humble nature. He certainly has a sizable fan base and they turned out in force to get signed copies of his book - El Pensamiento Negativo - at the El Cortes Ingles stand where I was signing copies of our Spanish book (and thank you very much to the aptly named "Angel" who bought a copy and the lovely lady from Belgium who came up to say hello and well done). Risto sure had all the trappings of celebrity - sunglasses fused to his face, immaculate skin tight white jeans, 4 massive security guards, hysterical teenage fans and the odd crazed middle aged woman. Undaunted by all this, I thought it would be nice to meet him and so I asked if it would be possible to have my photo taken with him as a souvenir of my visit. His "people" explained my request and he agreed at the end of his signing (as evidenced by this photo - I'll be the one looking starstruck) and here's the point... it turns out he's an absolute sweetheart; wanted to know all about We Are What We Do, congratulated us on what we've achieved, asked me to sign a book for him and offered us his help! None of which should have been a surprise, but somehow it was. And I'm not proud of that - reminds me of that saying about books and covers... anyway you heard it here, Risto's lovely and yes, he's a hotty (speaking of crazed middle aged women...).

http://www.leqtor.com/blog/

(Oh and I promise that not every new post will include a photo of me in an exotic location, on the TV or with a famous person...)