"I Made It" Monday!

There has not been massive amounts of work getting completed.  I blame it on the fact that I am hungry!  Ever since I started cutting calories I am always hungry, and even if I am not hungry, I am still thinking about food....I AM ALWAYS HUNGRY! 

Back to something better than my whining...

Crochet earrings are definitely on my inventory for the bazaars this coming holiday season.  I may even start putting them on my Etsy for sale or do a giveaway on this blog.  I am absolutely in love with the way they look and feel.  I may have to invest in a magnifying glass after making too many pairs, but for now my glasses are doing their job.

Pigging Out

There are two things everyone here looks forward to when they leave the island....Food and Shopping.  With only a handful of restaurants to choose from, (same goes for shopping) we tend to go crazy when we enter a big city with so many choices.  Even my 34 year old husband drooled like a toddler that was just sat in front of a huge pile of lolly pops.  "I want to go here...and there....oooo and over there".  "You will only be here for three days, pick wisely", I kept telling him.  "You can't eat everything."  (Maybe he could of if I would of let him)

Needless to say, when you live where I do you don't even try to stick to diets on vacation, and I did not.

Belly Fat

Losing weight.  I am sure most women have a story.  Its hard to maintain a healthy weight, when it is so easy to pack on the pounds, right?  If you knew me in High School, and saw me now you would probably want to ask, "what happened?"  Starting in junior high and all through High School I was between 100 and 105 pounds.  Skinny!  Now I am...well numbers don't matter...we'll just say I am far from 105.

So the journey begins...or continues...

With the inspiration a good friend, a month ago, after swearing off diets I decided to try counting my calories.  Research on the Internet informed me to lose weight I needed to eat only 1200 calories a day.  So I tried it....the first week, with only counting calories I lost 2.9 pounds. Yippee!

The second week, nothing.  Nothing gained and nothing lost.  A little discouraged, but not defeated (yet), the third week, I decided to start walking while still counting my calories.  4.2 pounds lost.  This last week, 3 pounds.  I think I am on a roll now.

The goal right now is to lose a total of 27 pounds.  Each day is till a fight to stick to the plan.  Write down all calories, walk everyday, and drink lots of water.  One day at a time, but hopefully I will get there.

Must.....finish.....something!

The weekend was very productive.  Saturday was filled with sunshine so I spent a good part of the day, walking around the trails of one of the islands famous WWII Parks.  It was just a good friend of mine, my red nose Pitt bull, Kane and I.  We just walked around exploring new trails and bunkers I haven't see before, chatting about life and it was wonderful.

Sunday was not filled with sunshine but rain and lots and lots of rain.  For some reason I woke up at 8:30am and couldn't get back to sleep, so on the coffee went and after about an hour of waking up, I dug through my yarn stash and found some tweed yarn.  I only had 2 balls of this tweed yarn, because it was given to me by a friend, who bought them for me while on vacation in Florida.  So the mission was to make something that only called for these 2 balls.  This is what I came up with.....

I did have to go to the store and purchase the yarn for the border, but I was ok with that.  I am very happy with the way it turned out.

As promised here....."Did I Actually Finish Something", a picture of the Cullotes.

Put Some Sunscreen On

The weather has been fantastic lately.  Full sun, slight breeze and between 50-60 degrees.  Summer is on it's way, which means time to get the some projects done outside.  Last Saturday, it took me all day, but I managed to prune, and clean up the raspberries bushes, and the entire side yard where they live.  In their lifetime, they have probably never been looked after. 

Do you have raspberry bushes on your property?  Do you know what you need to do to produce great bushes each year?  I didn't till a week ago, now that I do, I feel I need to share with the whole world!  A raspberry "cane" (basically a stick growing out of the ground), produces fruit the second year of it's life.  Meaning one raspberry bush, or whatever you want to call it, will grow two canes...the first year cane #1 will produce fruit and it will grow a second cane that will not.  The following year, cane #1 dies and cane #2 will produce fruit and so on and so on.  All you have to do, each year around this time, is break off the "dead" cane.  You will be able to spot these as they will not have any buds on them and they should break off fairly easy.  If you live in a place that gets cold winters, I suggest clipping off the tops of the canes that will produce fruit (about 5 to 6 inches), as the tips are probably burned by frost.

That's it really simple.  Now what to make with your raspberries when they come in??

• Raspberry Muffins
• Raspberry Jelly
• Raspberry Butter
• Raspberry Pancakes
• Throw them in your salads
• Raspberry Cheeses Cake

There's really so much you can do with them...it's endless!

Daily Movements

Each day could very well blend into one great big long day sometimes.  Monday thru Friday, wake up...make coffee, take dogs outside, get ready for work...work...lunch...work...go home...make dinner, watch a little TV...go to bed....do it all over again.  It can be so hard to break up the monotony of daily life.  But trust me you have to find some way to break that.

Crafts:
It only took me 2 months to finish a hat for a co-worker of mine, but I finally finished it.  It was a simple crochet hat with a brim.  I had to re-do the brim 5 times before I could get it the right shape...talk about frustrating!  The hat turned out great and she loves it.  I was so glad to finish it and get it out of my house that I didn't even take a photo of it.  Now on to the numerous other unfinished projects.

Life:
Walking.  I am finally into a routine!  It only took a couple months to get a schedule down to actually walk everyday, but I have finally done it.......till the next time I decide "I just don't want to walk today".

Peace

We're Going Global!

Every Friday night I am invaded by "Man Night".  My Hubby and his buddies get together in the man room and play cards till all hours of the night.  This Monday, the hubby comes to me and asks if I can make a Tee Shirt with his Poker Room Sign on it.  Hmmmm, I thought....been wanting to try a technique?!?!

 

Why?  Well, for the past several months, every Thursday night a local bar in town has been holding Texas Hold'em tournaments.  The winner each week won a seat at the final table...tonight.  The winner tonight wins round trip tickets to Vegas to play in a tournament.  If one of my hubby's buddies win, he is going to give them the "Bob's Poker Room" shirt to wear when they are down there.

What I did was very simple, and I plan to experiment with a few things, with a couple other projects.  How it was made.......

Materials:

• 
  
  Tee Shirt
• 
  
  Gel Bleach Pen
• 
  
  Cardboard
• 
  
  Chalk

1. Start by putting the cardboard inside the shirt to separate the back and front, so you don't get any bleed through.
2. Using the Chalk, draw the design you want.  I would make it fairly simple, too intricate would be hard to draw with a Gel Bleach Pen.
3. Next, with the Gel Bleach Pen, carefully "trace" over your chalk.
4. Let the Bleach do its job.  I left the bleach on till the gel was practically dried out. (About 45 min)
5. Rinse off the Gel.
6. Wash in washer.
7. Enjoy!

Loving the Great Outdoors

The best way to refresh and relax is to take advantage of a beautiful day.  It is one of the biggest reasons I love where I live...the "wilderness" is anywhere from an hour to only 5 minutes away and just look at that view.

 Last Saturday, the hubby hopped on his bike and I loaded the dogs in the van.  I packed burgers for my Hubby and a Garden Burger for myself, my mini charcoal grill, seats, trail mix, chips, toys for the dogs...you name it I probably packed it.  We started off without a destination, just out the road.  We found a quiet, sunny spot next to Kalsin River, a river usually packed full of fishermen. We all unloaded and just.........played and played and played.

Hard Working

Taxes Taxes and more Taxes!  That is what my life has looked like the last couple weeks.  Amazing enough, I have been working on lots of projects.  I made a pair of crochet earrings for my mother in law for easter, a pair for a friend for her birthday and since have had two orders for them.

They are fun to make and I plan to start making more of them to sell at the bazaars come holiday season.  Crochet is my focus, mainly because it is the craft that I most enjoy.

For The Ladies

For Easter this year, the hubby and I went to a family friends house for dinner. The plan is always to go to his parents house for holidays but we all decided to change things up and let someone else host. The food was good, at least that is what they told me, being a vegetarian I only ate side dishes, and three of them were potatoes. So it was mashed potatoes and carrots for me.

And now for the craft...you know there was going to be some kind of craft right?

All the ladies received a crochet flower brooch, made by yours truly. They are really simple to make and a great way to use up scraps of yarn.

Ta Da!

Here she is in all her glory.....

You Spin Me Right Round, Baby Right Round!

Today I am going to be blessed with a Spinning Wheel! Now I have never spun wool before and I have never used a spinning wheel...I don't even know what this wheel looks like. But I am very excited to try and hopefully succeed. How wonderful to be able to spin the yarn I use to crochet with.

This has been just an idea in my head since Christmas and I almost gave up on the idea.

Rewind to the beginning. My good friend calls me up and tells me she has a Christmas present for me, but there is a stipulation...this spinning wheel has been donated to the High School Drama Club for a stage prop. The Drama teacher is worried that the wheel will just be destroyed by the students and appears to be in very good shape. It can be mine as long as if they ever need it as a prop for a play, I would be willing to let them use it. Hmmmm a free spinning wheel and all I have to do is agree that IF they ever preform a play that needs a spinning wheel I have to let them borrow it. No, I can't do that!

Are you kidding me, of course!

Old

I am no longer a spring chicken.  I have stepped past the twenties and am now the big 30.  It is not really as scary as everyone makes it out to be...just a number. 

Did I actually finish something?

Yes!!! I actually finished a split skirt this weekend.


I am bringing the 80's back and going to wear with pride my "Culottes". They are much more fashionable than the one's I wore when I was eight years old and frankly, I can't believe I ever stopped wearing them. I hardly ever wear skirts anymore, the weather where I live is just too unpredictable. The wind will pick up without warning and so will your skirt....right over your head.

(Picture coming soon)

Job...Work...Career...?

Lately I feel as though all I do is work...work...work...work. As I type this I am working, scanning tax workpapers and daydreaming about crafting. When I was young that is what I thought you do...you finish school and "go get yourself a career!" Careers are very much overrated. I work to live, and support my family, nothing more.

Though this job requires so much of my time and attention sometimes. The balance between work and play can be so hard to find when you are exhausted from work to play. As things are going it is taking me a week to finish a split skirt. It is only 4 straight seams and two curved, a hem and casting for the elastic waist band. How do you balance your work and play?