I was delighted to find out that my youngest son had made it to the snare drum line for the percussion ensemble this season. He is a freshman in high school so this is quite an honor. Anyway they do a lot of traveling with this group and are always looking for ways to earn money. This year they are having a few craft sales at the various holiday concerts they are giving. They asked the kids and the parents to all make things to sell. So I started racking my brain for something interesting to make for the sales.
While I was visiting my sister in Maine we hit a few craft shows and I found my project! Woolen Mittens made from repurposed wool sweaters. After the craft show we hit up the Goodwill for the materials. I only got a few to start because I needed to get them home in my tiny suitcase but I will get more as soon as I get home. I bought 4 wool sweaters of different colors and styles of knitted patterns and my sister donated an old fleece jacket of hers for the lining and for the price of $14 we were off and running.
We started out by washing all the sweaters in hot water and on the highest agitation cycle and dried them on high to felt the wool.
Next I began by cutting off all the bands from the arms and bottoms, and cut out the pattern pieces; one each for left and right out of sweater pieces and lining.
Now it was time to sew!! First I sewed the lining for both then the woolen parts of the mittens:
After attaching the cuffs to the lining parts I inserted the lining into the finished outer wool part of the mittens:
Then I hand tacked the cuff to the wool mitten and they were finished!!
My sister and I worked for about 2 1/2 hours and finished 3 pair of mittens and that includes the felting and cutting process. At the craft fair these babies sold for about $30 each. I think that was a little steep for the adult size so I think $20 each for adult sizes and $12 each for the kids sizes. They really are super cute and I hope they sell well so the percussion ensemble can travel this year!!
Greetings From Maine! I am in Maine visiting my beautiful new niece Olivia!! She arrived about 8 weeks ago and I could not bee happier to visit her (and my baby sis and brother in law too of course!)
I had told you about a project that I was working on for her. It was a baby quilt. I have been making quilts for years and I have made one for each of my nieces. But my other nieces are preteens so it has been many years since I have made a baby quilt.
I asked my sister what colors she thought she would have for the babies room and she thought a coral, tan and cream which I thought sounded beautiful and I picked out a quilt pattern out of the many quilt books I own. It was a rose applique quilt. You see my newest niece’s middle name is rose so I thought it would be really sweet. I went to the fabric store months ago with the exact idea of what I wanted and I thought I would just look really quickly at the new quilt books just in case. Well of course I found a new pattern I just fell in love with. It was not subtle and quiet it was bright and filled with cute little applique bugs and critters. I don’t know what came over me because I always like to follow what the parents say as far as colors go because I want them to use the quilts I make. But I had to make this one. So I scrapped all plans and bought this new book and multiple yards of bright and fun colorful materials.
I like to try to learn a new technique with every quilt I make and this one had MANY new things to try: applique, hand embroidery, hand quilting and prairie points. Oh boy… I hand quilted around each critter and hand embroidered all the details on them. Aren’t the faces cute? I machine quilted each of the colorful squares a different pattern and the prairie points well lets just be happy they are on the quilt. I was finishing them up on the plane ride over here!! Luckily I made it through security with the needle and tiny scissors.
I had a lot of fun making this. I invited my neighbor over several afternoons for crafting days and we sat working on our individual projects and catching up and well let’s just be honest~gossiping. It is such fun to do craft projects with a friend even if we are all working on different things.
My sister and brother in law loved the quilt and I am so glad I made it but I am equally glad it is finished and I get to visit with my family. I hope you like it too!! Here are the pictures:
On our last full day in Vegas we decided to take a day trip to Zion National Park. It was a 2.5 hour drive from Vegas so we started out right after our workout. Zion is an amazing park with huge canyons and cliffs that are pink, yellow and red. We took a hike that combined 3 trails. It was about a 5 mile hike but it took us several hours because it was up and down rocks and climbing up to the Emerald pools. We saw Elk and turkeys and so many birds. It was so beautiful. I think this was my favorite thing from our Vegas trip and that is saying something because there are so many amazing things in Vegas!! Hard to describe in words but here are some pictures:
Dr. D and I ended up having some leftover timeshare points this year so we decided to use them on a rare trip away together without the kids. Where did we go? VEGAS BABY!
I had never been before and Dr. D had only been there for conferences. Neither of us are huge gamblers but the deal was so incredible we could not pass it up.
While I was booking out airfare, I was offered a thing called a Las Vegas Power Pass which gives you admission to tons of non gambling activities. I bought two passes for 3 days and honestly it paid for itself on the first day. We had lots of fun. Here is a taste of what we did in pictures! Enjoy!
Vegas has amazing Architecture, Art, Food, Entertainment, Shopping, and people. I would love to go back someday.
Last weekend Dr. D and I decided to head up to the mountains of North Carolina to see if we could get in a little apple picking. Despite growing up in Western New York, where apples grow everywhere, I have never been to an orchard to pick my own. Working on a tip from someone in his office we headed off to a place about 3 hours from home.
It was a beautiful day for driving and the even though I thought the leaves would be a bit past their peak the hills were beautiful with their red, yellows and orange leaves!
Driving into town there were signs for orchards down every side road. We picked one and turned down a country road. When we got closer there was a sign that said it was closed for the season. This was not looking good but we continued down the road to the market barn. When we got there there was a nice farmer there. He told us we had just made it and he was going to close in a few hours for the season. He had several bags of beautiful apples at the Barn but we wanted to pick our own. He said there was some Golden Delicious Apples still on the trees and gave us 2 baskets and directions to get to the trees. Since it was so late in the season the apples were $5.00 a bushel. What a bargain! After a short drive into the orchard we found the Golden trees and grabbed our baskets and headed out. The trees were loaded with apples. Some were beginning to fall but there were tons in great shape. We ended up picking 2 bushels, and I could have picked more. It was really fun!
After picking we paid the farmer and sat out at the picnic tables behind the barn for a picnic lunch we packed. The picnic area was surrounded by little cut outs for kids to take pictures and of course me being a big kid had Doug take my picture in every single one… Here are the cutest ones.
After our picnic we decided to check out a few of the farm stands on the road on the way home. There were several up and down each side of the road. We stopped at a few and bought some turnips and local honey. I wanted to buy some sweet potatoes but they were sold in bushel boxes and that is a lot of potatoes!! I took a short rest on the porch of the last stop before we headed home to process our haul!
Once we got home we had quite a bit of work ahead of us. We decided to peel, core and slice most of the apples for the freezer, make a few quarts of apple sauce and I had to make an apple cake for dessert for the next day to take to my Mother in laws for dinner. We started out washing the apples in the sink then we broke out the apple peeler and got spinning. After they were peeled I cored and chopped them by hand. The peeler will slice them for you but I like my sliced thicker so I did them by hand.
I weighed the slices in 2 1/5 pounds per bag and we ended up with about 18 bags in the freezer. I can almost smell the pies now! We saved all the peels and cores and cooked them down the next day for some apple jam but the flavor was a little bland so we made that into pepper jelly with the remainder of our Chilies from the garden. I canned 16 pints. Also our sweet pup is an apple lover so she got some too.
I was feeling very frugal so I after I strained the juice I used the apple cores and peels to make some homemade dog food for our pup as well. I just used the cooked apples instead of the sweet potatoes. I think this is her favorite flavor so far. She begs for it!
It was a super fun day. I think Dr. D and I will make this into an annual event. But next time I think we will wait until the next day to process all the apples. I was whooped!
Filed under: Fashion
This morning while I was working out (P90X Plyometrics, with a little modifications for my shoulder injury) my husband texted me with an invitation to meet him for lunch. Of course I could not refuse!! I even arrived at the restaurant early. Instead of waiting at the table for him I decided to head into the new consignment shop that opened up next door. Dr. D and I are planning a trip to Las Vegas later this month so I decided to look at some dresses.
They were just putting out a few dresses so I grabbed one and a pair of jeans and a few jackets and headed into the fitting room. As usual for people who are losing weight I really did not know what size I was. Also this was kind of an upscale consignment shop so I really do not know how these designer styles run, meaning I don’t know if they are true to size or if the previous owners washed and shrunk these clothes. I have been wearing 14 jeans that were getting a little big so I tried on size 32 (12) jeans and I picked the jackets off the large rack and the dress said it was a 12.
First I tried on the dress. It was a pretty black lace nude illusion tank style. I could barely pull it over my head. This was not starting out well. Then I moved onto the jeans. They 
actually fit and looked great. $25.00 for a pair of Citizens of Humanity jeans with the original tag still attached! SOLD! Then I tried on 2 jackets. The first was a pink wool Chanel Jacket with black trim. It was a little snug and for $125 a little out of my price range. The second was a more casual cream colored jacket by Michael Kors similar to the one in the picture. It fit and looked great, now to look at the price tag…$27.00 I thought it must be a mistake! SOLD!
While I was waiting for the checkout I tried on a sexy pair of high red leather boots. They also fit but the heels were just a bit too high and pointy for me to pull off so back they went. But it was fun trying them on!
I went off to lunch with my husband with a little shopping high.
I love that!
I did it! I have lost 61 lbs.! Saturday after my workout I jumped on the scale. Normally I never weigh in between Thursdays but It has been a hell of a week and I just wanted to check in. I was shocked to see that illusive 189!!! I could not have been more pleased or more surprised. I am now 14 lbs. away from that arbitrary number I picked out of the air in April when the nice lady on the other end of the phone asked me what I wanted my goal weight to be. At the time I chose 175. It sounded like a nice number one I thought a year ago I would never ever see again in my life, and yet here it is just a few weeks away. When I look in the mirror or see pictures of myself (yes I am allowing pictures to be taken of me again….And I am not hiding behind anyone or holding giant things in front of myself) I don’t think I will stop at 175 but for now that is still my goal weight and it is also my next goal. I thought about picking something in between for another mini goal but it is just too close and I am excited to get there.
How do I plan to do it? Exercise, clean eating and journaling my food. I really think that the journaling part is the key. I have been using My Fitness Pal to track my food and my exercise since giving up my subscription to the Metabolic Max armband. I really did learn from wearing my arm band what kinds of exercise and how much I need to keep myself in that 1000 calorie deficit area. It was a great tool for me.
I really like My fitness Pal too. I am in love with the bar code scanner on the iPhone app for My Fitness Pal. When I eat something all I need to do is scan the bar code from the product and it adds one serving to my food journal for the day! It is also fun to see how Dr. D is doing because he tracks his food and exercise on the same program and we are friends so his updates show up on my wall and vise versa, sort of like Facebook. It helps me to know that if I do well he will see it! I love getting little notes from him during the day encouraging me or even getting a little competitive. My exercise routine has been shaken up a bit by my shoulder injury. I am doing strictly cardio right now along with my Physical Therapy which is going well. I go 2x/week and do the exercises 3-5x/day. I have gained about 15-20 degrees of movement back which may not sound like a lot but it is!
I have been so motivated by meeting this last goal that I have been exercising the last few days even though they have been crazy busy and I have a bad cold. I have never worked out when sick before in my life. It was always a great excuse to skip but not this time. I want to make my final goal weight before my birthday which is coming up at the end of December. That is about 7 weeks away. 2 pounds per week. That sounds a little ambitious but I have done it before and I want this so badly! What better birthday present could I give myself than that? I really can not think of one!
As a few of you had noticed and emailed me about I had not been blogging about my weight loss lately. I guess that would be because since I came home from Portland I had been in a stall. That’s right, same exact weight for 2+ weeks. I was trying to take it in stride and not let it get me too upset but the truth is my brain was really trying to play some serious games with me. My JCC helped me through it, telling me not to worry, I was not gaining and it would straighten itself out. I kept up my exercise, was eating my Jenny foods and increased my water intake and this morning I was thankfully down a pound. {HAPPY DANCE} During this past week my JCC had me doing the exact same breakfast every single day, which I normally like. It was 1 cup blueberries, 1 cup Kashi Go Lean and 1 cup Silk Almond milk. It is similar to this breakfast only it is too cold to do it frozen so I defrost the berries in the microwave for 30 seconds first. Still turns the milk bright purple but it is really filling with all that fiber and protein and it tastes really good. That is if you are not eating it every single day! I got sick of it but stuck with it for the week. This morning however I ate scrambled egg beaters with sautéed spinach and a light English muffin, YUM! There is something to say for variety.
So now that the scale is moving again I am looking forward to my next mini goal…189. I remember with clarity the last time I weighed 189. It was during my freshmen year of college. I was home during spring break and was at a doctor’s appointment and when I got on the scale I was quite shocked to see that I had gained so much weight (30+ pounds since leaving high school) and I had not even noticed. The doctor’s scale said 189. After that I quite honestly stopped weighing myself until I became pregnant with my oldest son. So to think that that weight is just around the bend is really exciting. I have not even thought about the mini goal following that yet because this one seemed so far away. I guess I better get thinking.
As I said during my stall I was working out like normal. I have made it part of my normal routine now. Who would have thunk? Anyway Sunday Dr. D and I did P90X Chest Shoulders and Triceps. Nothing new I have done it many times before. I was feeling a little bit tired though so I back off on my weights by one step down in most cases. So when I woke up in the middle of the night and could not move my shoulder I was really surprised and quite honestly dumbfounded. It has been quite painful especially at night. I have had to sleep sitting in a chair to keep my shoulder stabilized. Well today I went to see the Orthopedist and I have Pectoral Tendinitis and Adhesive Capsulitis of my shoulder or Frozen shoulder. 
He said this can take 6-8 months of Physical Therapy. I was sure I heard him wrong but that is what he said. I can hardly believe it. So now I am typing with my left had only and waiting for the pain meds to kick in and waiting for a call from the Physical therapist, sigh. This will not stop my exercising I’ll just have to change it up a bit. Dr. D told me this will be a painful process but it really can’t be worse than waking every single hour from pain, or can it? I’m worried.
As I mentioned in my last post I have a very old and very broken Blackberry Pearl. I loved her for most of her life but for the last few months she has been getting sick with very strange symptoms. She no longer makes any phone noises and will only play music when she feels well enough. Thankfully she still can vibrate so she has been useable but only if I can hear the vibrations from the depths of my massive purse. I try not to keep her in my pocket because she has a habit of calling random people from in there. It can be so embarrassing to see I called my son’s guitar teacher while being fitted for a bra.
I can only imagine what that voicemail sounded like!
The last straw for her came a few weeks ago when her rollerball kept falling out. My son’s girlfriend said that she had the same problem with her BB and she successfully superglued it back in. So of course I tried that, only it was not so successful. After the procedure my rollerball only rolled down and left. It has not been fun only going left and down but I have figured out how to live with it temporarily. Then came the new iPhone 4S announcement.
I jumped at the chance and I ordered my new phone last week. It will be delivered tomorrow! I am so excited. As soon as I ordered mine of course Dr. D had to order one too and he got the same color as mine. But I really don’t care that he copied me because now we can use that cool feature of video calling together. Anyway this weekend I will be playing with studying the awesome features of my new iPhone.
My Jenny Craig Direct order was delivered today and my youngest son was home while I was unpacking it. We were lucky enough to have a nice size piece of Dry Ice left in the cooler. In this house when you put those two things together, you get MADD SCIENE!
Whaaaa Haaaa Haaaa Haaaa Haaaa! (vampire laugh). Enjoy!
I am a huge fan of Rosie O’donnell and was so happy to see her back on TV today. The Rosie Show is a variety show on the OWN network at 7pm EST. It was really good and I was happy to see that it was live! It was a little bit of everything I love about her, stand up, Q&A, a musical number or 2, a fantastic interview and a game with prizes! I will be a regular watcher!
It was a great day. We started out at the gym. My brother in law had the day off from work so he and I hit the gym early. I had been taking him to work and then heading to the gym by myself so it was a nice change to have a workout buddy. We split up and I hit the elliptical machines. They have about 6 different kinds and it was my goal to try them all or most of them at least. I did about 30 minutes and a 10 min cool down and I was whooped. No strength training for me. I did hit the scales that day as it was my normal weigh in day. I normally workout before my weigh in but I also usually take a shower and weigh in the nude. Today I weighed in my workout clothes and sweaty hair. I was down a pound so I was happy!!
Next we went home to get the little Momma. She had an ultrasound and I was lucky enough to go with her. It was great to see my little niece. She was a little squished against my baby sister’s belly but they did get a nice shot of her lovely face on the 4D. It was the first time I had seen a 4D and it was really amazing. I got a little teary. It was great. I feel so honored I got to share that experience.
After the ultrasound we went home to get ready for another day out on the town. We did a little bit of shopping and got a few gifts for my family. Then it was off for our most exciting adventure of my trip… Soakology! Ahhhhhh…..
We started off with a tiny welcome mint tea and a lovely menu for our foot soaks. I chose the Maine Woodsman soak. It was cedar and rosemary and sage in a deep hot water tub. The aromas were so relaxing and they put a warm shoulder wrap on us and we sunk into our fluffy chairs and relaxed. It was lovely. I put my head back and closed my eyes and enjoyed the warmth radiating through my body. Did I mention it was freezing in Maine?? Just when I thought everything was perfect a little angel swept into our area and whispered “ Can I add warm water to your soaks?” We of coarse said yes… Then it was time for our shoulder and neck massages. Ahhhh. My masseuse was Johanna and she had angelic fingers. I do not pamper myself like this, ever and to have a reflexology treatment on Saturday and a massage on Wednesday…A girl can get used to this. We asked for a 20 minute massage but I swear it felt like an hour. It was amazing. 
After the massage she rewarmed our tubs and my shoulder wrap and we relaxed. I was warm and so deeply relaxed. I should have taken my blood pressure! I’m sure it would have been so low!
Baby sis and I agreed to go back every time I visit. I have already booked a second trip!
Last week while talking to my JCC, she informed me that my membership was up for renewal. I have been on Jenny Craig for 6 months and lost over 50 pounds! I am only 19 pounds from my goal. When I started I signed up with the Metabolic Max arm band by Body Media.
This little baby is a great tool. It calculates your metabolism on an ongoing basis and allows for calorie input so you can calculate your calorie deficit for the day. I was aiming for a 1000 calorie deficit daily. To achieve this I had to follow my calorie burn and intake throughout the day and adjust my eating or exercise to achieve as close to 1000 calories as I could. It sounds much more difficult than it was. The band does all the calculating for you.
I guess I am just tired of wearing it. I pretty much know how much exercise I need daily to get to the 1000 calorie deficit and I eat a very specific diet each day so I feel ready to give it up. I think I will try the My Fitness Pal website for tracking my food and exercise. I have used Livestrong before and know how it works so I can compare the two.
If I were to continue with the band it would cost me $99 for the next year’s Jenny Craig Membership plus I would have to join and pay for the band on my own. If I renew my Jenny plan without the band it would cost $49 for the next year. I was reading on the Jenny Craig message boards that there are some upset members because of them terminating a certain plan but fortunately that does not effect me.
So on Tuesday my Armband will no longer function. I am grateful for the tool and if you are debating getting one or not I would say go for it. It really helps to be able to see your progress on paper the computer screen. I am going to go in tomorrow and print off my reports from day one. Just so I can see what I did that worked or what I did that did not work. Or maybe just for souvenir, or memory…I am sentimental like that and this is a huge life change that that little baby helped me to achieve!
The day after my mom and older sister went home, Baby Sis and I did a little shopping and ran some errands and then it was time for for lunch. She wanted to take me to this restaurant she described as Korean Mexican Fusion. I am normally an adventurous eater but this combination I had trouble wrapping my head around. My sister is 9 months pregnant and what she wants she gets right now and she insisted it was a healthy place to eat.
The restaurant is called Gogi and it is located on Congress Street in Portland, ME. The moment we walked in the smell was intoxicating. Korean all the way! They had a long list of salads, tacos and quesadillas with your choice of fillings and your choice of wraps, corn or flour tortilla, nori or lettuce. I chose the cucumber salad and a chicken taco on a lettuce wrap and a fish taco on a lettuce wrap. My sister chose a fish taco on a flour tortilla and a seaweed salad. I was also really tempted by the Shitake Mushroom filling but opted for only two.
The salads came out and were so fresh and tasty. The cucumbers were in a kimchee dressing and it was delicious and crispy. The seaweed salad was also really good with some sesame seeds sprinkled on top.
Then he brought out our tacos. The fish taco was fried but it was not heavily battered or breaded so I was okay with it and when I bit into it I was really okay! It came on the lettuce leaf with cabbage, cilantro, pickled cucumber, red onions and a creamy dill sauce. The chicken taco filling was a little bit 
spicy and had a cucumber ‘salsa’. I am loving spicy so I added a few drops of sriracha sauce. They were both healthy and filling. I think Jenny would approve.
We also had some coconut waters.
I had only ever had plain before so I tried the mango flavor. It was 60 calories per serving and the carton had 2 servings so I drank about half. It was okay but I think I will stick with plain water next time.
If you are ever in Portland and are looking for a quick, healthy and inexpensive lunch or dinner or even after bar snack try Gogi!
I am having a great time on my first visit to Maine. On Sunday my older sister had to go home early to teach her new Yoga class but she left my two adorable nieces to spend the day with my baby sister and my mother and I. 
We decided to be tourists and took the Trolley Tour of Portland. It was really great. I loved the dry Maine humor of our driver. He had an on going trivia contest with Maine trivia. The prizes were tiny cans of B&M Beans, which are made right here in Portland. The tour ended at the Portland Head Lighthouse. It was a beautiful spot for a snack and some picture taking. My mother, the shopper, headed straight for the gift shop and picked up a cute Christmas ornament.
After the Trolley Tour we were ready for some lunch so we headed to my sister’s favorite place for clam chowder, The Porthole.
I had a cup of clam chowder and the Beeten Goat salad which was delicious with sweet roasted beets, tangy goat cheese 
and fresh greens dressed in light Dijon dressing. After our late lunch it was time for my mom to head to Massachusetts with my nieces. They had school the next day and needed to get home.
For dinner my sister roasted some winter squash we got from the farmer’s market and then blended it with some low sodium chicken broth for the best soup I have had in a long time! Maine is having soup weather as far as this southern girl is concerned. We finished every bite slurping up the dregs with some Chabatini rolls from Trader Joe’s. We finished the meal with some roasted skinless chicken thighs roasted with cinnamon and chilies and a Rocket salad with balsamic and mustard dressing. We went to bed with full bellies and smiles on our faces!
