Miscellanous happenings

I decided to give you all one quick post about the last couple of weeks. While hubs stayed home with Sasha over the Thanksgiving weekend, I took the other 2 dogs and kids to my parents house. We thought the forced quiet would be best for that dog and so I sacrificed my and my children's very lives, to travel to see my mother again.
As you see, we made it home in one piece and I'm happy to say she didn't even attempt negligent homicide this year.  (You don't remember what happened? Go here.)

On the most awful shopping day of the year, and even the next Saturday, mom and I went Christmas shopping. We took a leisurely pace since neither of us needed to find door buster deals. We sat down and ate at Red Lobster one day, Olive Garden the next. Just the two of us and we hadn't done that in a long, long time. Usually my sisters are with us since they live in the area but they travelled to Las Vegas this year.

Anyway, Christmas presents almost completed, we went, of course, to JoAnn's.  Mom scored herself a Christmas present (new shears) from me but she will have to wait until Christmas to open them. I scored some fabric and thread on sale.

Guterman and my machine are fast friends. Other than that, I was in a polka dot mood, it seems!

   

Last weekend, I wathced my niece and nephew for a bit. They found one fun fabric in my stash, skulls that glowed in the dark and started looking at the shelves for other fun ones. What was supposed to be my daughter "watching" the kids (she's 15 & I bribed her with order in Italian the night before) so I could sew while they were here, turned into them wanting to "play" in the sewing room.  We all decided to make a game of it and played "Find the Fabric". K (daughter) or J (son) or I would ask them to find a type of fabric. I.e., find a fabric with blue and red butterflies.  Then off they'd go. It was tied 5 to 5 when we were all ready to call it quits. At the last second and with no help, the 4 year old nephew (W) took the victory over the 6 year old niece (S).  W won a nickle, S won a high-five but had a moment of self-pity and annoyance so left the "high five" hanging. We gave that to W, too and told her she could choose to remember the fun she had even if she didn't win or she could be mad about not winning and no one would pity her.  About 1 second later she realized she was going to get about as much attention in our house for that kind of behavior as she does in her own and decided to come get some milke and vanilla wafers. Go figure... :-)

Here are pictures of their explorations:

After snack, they both decided they wanted to sew something and I suggested mug rugs as a Christmas present. Immediately, they picked out fabrics for grandma and grandpa. S set about sewing squares for a Christmas mug rug for grandma and W chose patriotic prints (after I convinced him grandpa probably wasn't as in love with the skulls as he was) for grandpa.  We slowed speed down on the machine, I did ironing and cutting and the kids chose the pattern/layout and sewed the fabric together. Then they quilted the layers. I added the binding.

Here they are working on their projects:

And their finished products:

Aren't they the most adorable kids? I'm not biased or anything.

They went to grandma's  and granpa's house at Thanksgiving and did an early Christmas but I haven't heard how they were received. Knowing the grandparents on that side of the family, though, I suspect they are already properly being displayed and used!

That's it for now, I'll check in again soon.

Cheers!

Beck

I completed the QOV quilt

I just haven't shown you a picture of it yet. For this one, I decided to do a crazy nine patch pattern. It was the first time I've tried this pattern and I used this tutorial from 2 all sorts blog.
It came together pretty quickly but I did mess up one set of cuts which resulting in a strip set all being the same color instead of all three like it should.  I wasn't worried and figured it would work out in the end.

While the overall quilt looks good, I can't help but feel it would look much better if I didn't mess up that one set but that's okay.   It's a crazy nine patch, it doesn't have to be orderly.

I wrote a very personal message on the label so I won't be sharing it here but I would say that if you want to do a quick charity quilt, this is a good pattern.

Cheers!
Beck

Color of the Year 2012 - Do you know what it is?

Yes, ladies, the color of the year for 2012 has been announced by Pantone.  Last year was the first time I ever heard there was a color of the year and when I looked at it, I very much disliked it. hehe

2011 was Honeysuckle.  I'm sure it's very pretty to a lot but I had flashbacks of 80s decor with paisley and green accents.

This year, however, speaks to me and I may even do a quilt with this color since I have a girlfriend who loves it.

2012 is Tango Tangerine!

Ta-da!!! Go re-paint your walls now. :-)

Cheers, 
Beck 

Weigh-In Weds 12/7

Alright, so I disappeared for a bit. I've been a busy little beaver and I promise to provide you updates on that soon (like tomorrow) but for now, let me catch up on some of the mundane I last left you with.

Sasha's surgery went really well. So well, in fact, she came home and acted like she never even had surgery!  Pain meds had her feeling better than she did pre-surgery, I think, which is sad if you think about how much pain she must have been living wtih but good if you think about whether the surgery was worth it.  It was. We have a follow up on the 28th (my birthday) and if she's doing well, she will be allowed to take small walks and work on walking on "small hills".  We will slowly be able to introduce her to stairs sometime after that. Her (and our) big challenge is keeping her chilled out but man, baby girl is feeling good and wants to run. lol

Onto other items, I'm almost done Christmas shopping for all our kids and for the hubs. Next week I'm off work and will be baking Christmas goodies for the holidays and gifts and if I'm really good, I'll wrap everything.  I also plan to finish the small details (like hanging pictures) that are left from our move.  Kids put up the holiday decorations this past weekend so life is just plugging away.

As for the weightloss, I'm not doing bad but not great, either. Thanksgiving week was great in taht I did not over indulge at all. I was super conscious of what I ate and even though Mom and I enjoyed 2 wonderful lunches with nothing good for us but the appetizer salads, I managed to balance the other meals to account for it. As a result (and hours of Black Friday and Sat. shopping), I didn't gain a pound. The following week (last week) I didn't exercise at all but paid close attention to food. All remained status quo.

I decided to pay a little closer attention to the details so today, I'm going to post my weight as well as my measurements (ACK!).   While I normally weigh myself in the nude, today I weighed myself with jeans and sweatshirt on and I weighed in at 163.5 (my starting weight).  Now, I don't know how you look at things but normally I'd say I hadn't lost a thing.  Today, however, because I took my measurements, I'm telling myself it means I lost at least 1 pound because a sweatshirt and jeans add weight! -wink-

Ahh, let me live with it... I need to laugh at myself.

Okay so you have my weight, here's my measurements in inches:
Bust - 38 (band size 37)
Waist - 34
Hips - 43
Thigh - 27
28" inseam (meaning I'm short... 5'2")

Ladies and gents... when I start showing progress in my weight loss, I will start taking monthly measurements. We will watch these numbers decrease together. LOL

Lastly, we got a new elliptical machine which was delivered yesterday. Hubs and I will be putting it together soon and I can't wait to try it.

So, what's up with you? Are you checking the food choices you make? If you have an indulgent meal (think rich cream sauces, pasta, beef, etc.) are you balancing the remainder of the day's choices with lighter meals (salads or wraps, yogurt or fruit and veggies)?  Have you started exercising or how about stretching? Here's a big tip from me to you.  Before you go to bed, take the time to do some simple stretching. Stretch the arms, the neck, the back, the legs, all of you. Go slow, breath deep, think about the stretch and NOT the day you just had or the one you are going to have tomorrow. Think about the position you are in and what you are trying to stretch. Think about elongating your muscle into the stretch (like cats do) instead of stretching so there is pain.   You don't want that. Again, slow and calm breathing are key.

I promise that after a few times of this, you will find it's helped settle your body and your mind for the night.  For me, it also helped me to start feeling better and that lead to wanting to start working out more.  (I don't know if htat will work for you or not but hey, it's good to stretch no matter what.)

There you have it. Check in, tell me how you are doing.

Cheers!
Beck

Sasha's having a second surgery

Remember her?

and these posts? 
Sasha
She's Doing Fine

Well, she blew her other knee and while she hadn't fully torn it before and would limp a little then be fine, she came to the point where she was hobbling on three legs. We weren't going to have surgery done on the second leg, I mean, this is a few thousand bucks and frankly, while I was willing to do it, I steeled myself that she just wouldn't have the life her heart wanted (running free in the woods, hunting) because of it. However, we could not ignore that even as a house dog, her quality of life was now being affected.  She had a hard time with getting around. It would not be fair to address this.

We are putting a basement finish in our new home on hold and using our savings for surgery on her other hind leg.  It's a Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy.

I'd be appreciative if you would say a couple prayers for her today for her surgery to go well and maybe for me,  for me to relax (and you could tell me to switch to decaf tea instead of coffee, too). I seem to be more anxious about this one than the last. Less upset she has to go through it because I know how happy she'll be once she's fully healed but more anxious, for sure beacuse I know better what she has to go through.

Anyway, I'd appreciate any good thoughts. I do love Baby Girl. I've told her, she couldn't have found any other family who would have been suckered in by her love so much as to pay for 2 surgeries such as this. She certainly was a smart girl in sucking up to us.  Actually, now that I think about it, it hasn't been me she's sucked up to over the last couple of months or played up her limpness with, it's been the hubs. She's  acted tough for me and pathetic for him so he'd carry her down the stairs, etc.  She played him just right to get this second surgery... lol. :)

Have a good day... Beck