Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Weight loss Wednesday


I didn't do well at ALL this week!!! I had a very junkfood weekend filled with ice-cream and Doritos! But I did buy a food diary at Borders for $3.99 that I fully intend to use! Also, my friend Jan is checking to see if I can start using the treadmill at her office during lunch and after work. I know that will help a lot. So, I gained 1 lbs - at least is wasn't like 5!!!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

change of seasons

Here's the shelves above the stove, not sure it will stay this way for long - I kind of move things around a lot based on my mood. The middle pumpkin is the one that I glittered. The saying will most definitely change as the sky is starting to clear of smoke. There has been a few fires in the area and so last week and through the weekend the air quality was terrible!


Here's the dealio, I keep rearranging the quilt. And so I asked for opinions from the ladies at work and based on that I have started changing again. I've also gotten great advice from Jennifer about just letting go and being a little random, boy that's tough! Last night I mixed up light and dark, and turned some of the middle layers on point. I like the diamond look so will finish turning every other middle one on point just didn't do it last night due to being ready to go to sleep :)What do you think???

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Quilt and glitter pumpkin


I had the quilt laid out, but it just wasn't looking right. So, I have been arranging and rearranging again and again. Is this normal??? I hope so. Right now, I have it so that the colors go from light at the top to dark at the bottom, based on the bottom layer of square. Not sure if I fully love it right now, but it's getting closer than at first. BTW June thinks that just because there is fabric on the floor, it is a bed so I am constantly shooing her off!!! Silly girl :)
I finally glittered the pumpkin last night. I had bought the ugliest ever foam pumpkin at a thrift store for 50cents, with the intent of covering it in glitter! Believe it or not, orange glitter is somewhat of a rare commodity around here. Unless, of course I want to spend $10 on Martha Stewart glitter, which I did not. I finally found a card kit at Big Lots that was actually Martha Stewart with 4 different colors for $2 - that's more my budget. So, last night transformed the ugly to beautiful :)

I found that putting a pin in the stem was helpful when I had more gluey-glittery sides so that I could hold on to that and not smudge as much as possible.


I put 4 pins in the bottom of the pumpkin to elevate it so that it would dry without sticking to the surface of the table. I might make another one alternating orange and black glitter, I think that would be fun :)
Et voila! C'est finis!!!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Friday stuff

Okay, so I have a little quilty confession. Yes, I meant "quilty". My quilt is currently stressing me out! I have to admit that I'm a little ocd about color and pattern. So, rather than put some squares together that just look pretty, I started to count how many squares I'd need, how many colors, then divided up how many of each color square I'll need. Then, I had to make a chart of how I will want the colors to go, and then the colors had to go in alphabetical order. I labeled each box - blue, brown, green, pink. Then I got out my crayons and colored in the borders of each. Frankly I think it really did help ease my stress. That was last night......then this morning I started putting together the layers and my theories just went out the window!!!! See, there are three squares that are layered and I'm doing a different color for each layer. Maybe my basic bottom square will go by the graph I made? I'm thinking for the backing I might get a pretty sheet or if I can find a nice vintage one? I also thought flannel might be cozy. It's actually going a lot faster than I was expecting, though, so that's been cool!Here's a really blurry pic of one of the squares, this is classified in my pink catagory based on the bottom square.




In any case I LOVE all the fabric my Mom gave me, and have a TON, an absolute ton left and so many that didn't even make it into this quilt b/c of my number thing. I wanted it to feel a little cohesive so I have at least 2 squares in each print. Now I will be set up to start another once this one is done! Something to look forward to!

I made these towels a week or two ago? Joann's had the Halloween fabric on clearance so I bought like a half yard I think? I just hemmed up the edges and then added the black fabric and embroidered, and some rick rack. The color in the pic is just awful, it's actually a true orange and true black in person. I definitely need to work on my embroidery!!!!
The star is inspired by one of the links on my "projects I want to make", I liked the idea and so I made up this star with some of my scrapbooking paper, glitter, and some crepe paper. Right now it is hanging in the kitchen but not sure it will stay there.
This cute little ceramic candy holder I found at the thrift store, I thought it was fun for Halloween. This year since I'm living in town I'm sure I will have trick-or-treaters so I will have to prepare!!!! Out at our other house we have never had any so hubby gets to eat all the candy :)

I had lunch today with my friend Charese at the Mermaid Cafe! It's such a fun little place, very bright, colorful interior. It was so nice to sit and chat and the spinach salad I had was absolutely wonderful! Then we each picked a cookie and split it so we could try two different kinds, chocolate chip toffee and ranger....both scrumptious! I had never heard of a ranger cookie before, but it seemed to have a ton of stuff in it! Like oatmeal, coconut, nuts, and chocolate chips. I will have to round up a recipe :)I borrowed the first 5 in the Nancy Drew series from the library, for some reason that's the mood I'm in - and this hammock will be part of my weekend plans to read and chillllll out. This is the hammock that Mom gave me while I was down visiting and I even put it together by myself! Ya!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Weight Loss Wednesday

So, if I had done this post on Monday then it would have been extremely triumphant! On Monday I had lost 3 lbs from last week :) But today when I consulted the scale I gained back 2 of those pounds. I hold onto water like nobody's business so I'm sure that's what it is, but STILL! I have mostly still just been watching what I eat and have started drinking way more water - hence the water weight. One of the ladies that I work with told me that you should take your weight in pounds and divide it by two and that number is the amount in ounces that you should drink daily of regular plain water. So, let's say you weight 100lbs - you would drink 50 oz of water a day! Not sure if that is completely true or medically safe for everyone.

I think this weekend I am going to walk to my office to see how long it will take and then possibly start walking to work. I'm not sure why but this makes me nervous. And if takes me a long time then it might not work so well since I am not an early riser!!!!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Impatient

Here's a news flash, I am NOT a patient person!!!! So I started reading the new Beverly Lewis series, Seasons of Grace I think is what's it's called. The first book was really good and I read it really quick. Luckily the 2nd book was only a month away from being released and our library got it as soon as it was. I was the first one on the waiting list to borrow it, picked it up on Friday and I've already finished reading it!!!! Bah! Now, the next book doesn't come out until April 10, 2010!!!!! I should've read the book more slooooooowwwwwlllllyyyy. Hmph.

You know what will happen now, right??? I'll get the book and the first thing I will have to do is read the ending. It's what I always do, and especially when I have to wait for a book to come out. BTW, I've really enjoyed each of the books so far, I think this last one was called "The Missing". I've read almost all of the Beverly Lewis books and have liked all of them so far.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Weight Loss Wednesday

Well, I didn't do great this week, but didn't do bad either :) I think I lost 1 lb, which is pretty good! I was worried since I was visiting my Mom that maybe we would eat out a lot and possibly over-indulge. But, she actually really doesn't eat much so it was good :)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Owl Banner



I saw this super duper cute owl banner as a link on Jennifer's blog and was like - ooooooh I have to try that! I used courderoy instead of tweed, and while I was looking through my button stash decided to add some colorful ones for the eyes on a couple of them. I LOVE the way it turned out! I cut out enough cord to make two since my good friend Jan is loving owls at the moment! So, today I took the day off work since the doctors are out of town and I visited my mom this past weekend. After updating my blog-a-roo I am going to be sewing, sewing, sewing! Okay, I realize this nut chopper pic is totally random! I bought it a few months ago and finally had the chance to use it last weekend! My Mom always had a nut chopper similar to this one while I was growing up and I remember that was my job when I was helping her bake :)





The visit with my mom was totally great, very relaxing. We went through some fabric stashes since I am working on my first quilt and she could barely stand her excitement!!!! And frankly I lucked out, because she has an amazing stash! tons of vintage fabric, lots of beautiful prints, every kind of fabric imaginable really. So, my car is still packed up with boxes and bags of FABRIC! I also got to look through her super secret stash of vintage buttons!






She also gave me a fold up hammock that I will be setting up! I've been looking forward to chilling out in that all summer. The thing is my car does not have air conditioning and so the drive down to Chico is absolutely miserable in 100+ degree weather, as it was last Friday when I drove down. Yuck. It was certainly worth it to see my Mom and also best friend Jeannette. I had a narrow window of time to deliver the scrapbook and knitted cloths to her, I made it just in time! I must have looked a fright unfortunately since I had just driven into town! The cloths I had actually started before Christmas, with the intention of mailing them for Christmas, but that didn't quite work the way I had planned it :)

Knitted flip flop cloth pattern



Okay I ventured out and learned something new! So, I love those dishcloths that you can see a pattern on, but it's not in a different color yarn or anything, just stitches. I made two dishcloths for my dear friend Jeannette with sharks on them! She loves sharks and so I KNEW I had to make them for her! While I was working on them, a lady I worked with, Chelise commented on how much she liked the color of the yarn. And Chelise loves flip flops, so I thought, hmmmm maybe I'll make her a flip flop cloth. I searched patterns and did not find even ONE! Therefore, I had to make my own pattern. It was a little bit of trial and error, and I'm not completely in love with the way it turned out, but it did turn out okay! I will for sure be trying other patterns, the charting is a little tricky to picture how it will turn out once knitted up.

Border is 5 knit stitches on either end.
Cast on 40 stitches
Rows 1-5 Knit
Row 6 Knit
Row 7 Purl
Row 8 Knit
Row 9 Purl
Row 10 Knit
Row 11 Purl
Row 12 Knit
Row 13 Purl
Row 14 Knit
Row 15 Purl
Row 16 Knit
Row 17 Purl
Row 18 B5, K7, P16, K7, B5
Row 19 B5, P6, K18, P6, B5
Row 20 B5, K5, P2, K16, P2, K5, B5
Row 21 B5, P5, K1, P10, K2, P6, K1, P5, B5
Row 22 B5, K4, P1, K6, P1, K2, P1, K10, P2, K3, B5
Row 23 B5, P3, K2, P14, K2, P4, K2, P3, B5
Row 24 B5, K3, P2, K3, P3, K14, P2, K3, B5
Row 25 B5, P3, K2, P16, K3, P1, K2, P3, B5
Row 26 B5, K3, P2, K3, P3, K14, P2, K3, B5
Row27 B5, P3, K3, P13, K2, P4, K1, P4, B5
Row 28 B5, K5, P1, K4, P2, K2, P1, K8, P2, K5, B5
Row 29 B5, P6, K8, P1, K4, P4, K2, P5, B5
Row 30 B5, K6, P4, K6, P7, K7, B5
Row 31 B5, P14, K9, P7, B5
Row 32 Knit
Row 33 Purl
Row 34 Knit
Row 35 Purl
Row 36 Knit
Row 37 Purl
Row 38 Knit
Row 39 Purl
Row 40-45 Knit
Bind of in Knit
Weave in ends
Here's my disclaimer: It's not perfect for sure! Basically each rown should have 40 stitches in it, so if it isn't adding up I may have made a typo :)


Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Weight Loss Wednesday

So, I am participating in Jennifer's "Weight Loss Wednesday", which is a good thing since I need to be held accountable to help with weight loss! I had a doctors appointment today and apparently I have gained 17lbs in the past year. Uggggggg. Now, I am not a good patient apparently (no surprise there) and have not been diligent about taking my thyroid meds. And it's been a stressful year, after that I have no excuse! Sunday night I rode my bike for about 1/2 hour. Part of the way ended up walking because I took a little trail off the bike path and it was gravelly. I have actually lost 2lbs, mostly just from watching what I've been eating.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

scripture memory verse

I have not been faithful with my memory verses! Argh! So, I'm jumping back in! I came across this verse yesterday in my morning devotion and the end part meant so much to me "return to me and I will return to you". What a great thing, He doesn't give up on us no matter what!

Malachi 3:6-7 NIV

6 "I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty