I Survived!

Hello all!
I hope everyone enjoyed a nice and peaceful Thanksgiving! Mine was quiet and relatively uneventful. I managed to get my Christmas tree up and decorated, the bathroom shower curtain hung,  and all the other holiday decorations put up in the house. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, this is almost the end of day 31. The countdown continues to day 45 when I hope to have gotten to my weight loss goal. I weighed in on Friday and lost 2 pounds over the Thanksgiving holiday. I was happy! I have 6.4 pounds to go! I'm going to do my best to lose as much of those 6.4 pounds as possible.

Not too much time to post these days but wanted to keep you updated, if you're interested! : )

Until next time.

Seven Days Under My Belt!

Hello to all my family and friends!
Well, I've finished 7 days of my 45 day challenge! Today is day 38 and I get to cross the day off on my calendar at work tomorrow! I am very pleased with the success of my challenge. I have to admit that Saturday night was not my best night but sometimes it just creeps up on you! Once the day is over, you just pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again!

I didn't blog over the weekend but I'm picking up again today! Since this week is Thanksgiving week, I won't have my usual weigh-in on Thursday. They don't hold it against you if you don't weight in, however, I plan to weigh in on Friday at my neighborhood WW store! I need to weigh in just to keep myself honest!

Off to work on some of my many crafts and see if I can at least one done soon! I hope to post some pictures soon of completed projects!

Another Day Under My Belt

Just a short post to let you know I lost 1.6 lbs this week! I guess it really helps when you track and stay on program! Yeah!! 8.4 more lbs to lose! I know I can do it!!!! My WW leaders thinks it's very ambitious of me to try to lose that much weight during the holidays but I think it's the best time to try to lose weight! Time will tell!

Until tomorrow....

Day Two and Counting!

Hi friends,
Yes, another successful day and another day crossed off the calendar! It hasn't been too bad so far but it's only two days! I will succeed! Tomorrow is weigh in day and I'm hoping I stay the same weight as last week, at least! I'm being optimistic but after the weekend I had, it will be a miracle! I was walking around the office today collecting money for a charity the firm sponsors and met with people I haven't seen for almost a year. So many of them were surprised and couldn't believe how much weight I lost. They were all so happy for me and supportive of my efforts! Makes me feel so good. I thank all my family and friends, once again, for their support and encouragement!

Well, I finished the book, The Silent Wife. It was a great book! I really enjoyed it and couldn't put it down. Very good ending! I highly recommend this one. Now I'm reading one of my Katie Fforde books, Wild Designs. I can recommend any of her books if you want a funny, light hearted and lovey dovey book! She never disappoints!

I didn't see my cousin in Chicago Fire last night but really did enjoy it. She said you had to know exactly where she was to notice her. I'm sure it was exciting for her to be involved in that show and see those hot (no pun intended) guys! I also enjoyed seeing my man, Adam Levin, become People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive! I could have told them that a long time ago! : )

Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week? Then the following Sunday is December 1! Have you gotten your Christmas shopping done yet? I try to get mine done before Thanksgiving but I'm still waiting on Christmas lists from David and Joanne!

Well, off to my knitting! Hope you have a nice evening.

Day 1 of 45!

Hi friends!
Yesterday was a success! I stayed on plan and felt so much better. I walked to the L in the morning and felt wonderful afterwards! Not too cold because my new down coat and boots were VERY warm! Yeah for me!

I picked up the Stephen West scarf I started knitting for my son David. It's Meadowbrook from Stephens'  Book One (given to me by Ro for Christmas last year!) I'm doing it in Stephens' colors; burgundy, dark gray and light gray. I really want to finish it for him for Christmas as well as make a matching hat. I also want to make a couple neck ties for Gregory - his request! I know I'll get them done because when I knit, I don't think about eating! I'll be doing a lot of knitting!

I really enjoy reviewing books so I'm going to tell you about the latest book I'm reading - The Silent Wife by S.A. Harrison. The is a great book set in Chicago. The author starts with "her" story and then "his" story follows detailing their lives. I'm about halfway done and can't put it down! I recommend it just with 1/2 the book done!

Well, I need to get going now so I can watch Chicago Fire. My cousin Tina was an extra in this weeks episode so I'm hoping I can see her. She's the one with blood on her face. Ha-ha!! I think there's a lot of people with blood on their faces tonight. No knitting tonight - can't watch Chicago Fire and concentrate on knitting too!

Thank you for indulging me with my challenge and for your very supportive comments!

Once Again....

Hello to all my friends out there! (I hope there are many!)
I know you haven't heard from me for a long time. No excuses, just plain laziness. Please forgive me! Sometimes I'm just overwhelmed by everything I have to do, want to do, and wish I could do that I don't do anything! Now that Christmas is coming, I'm realizing I need to get some gifts done for my family and am trying to concentrate on those things and get back on track! That thought also makes me realize I've neglected some things I really enjoy doing - like blogging! So here we go again!

As most of you know, since October of last year, I have been following Weight Watchers. I'm happy to say I've lost 60.8 pounds! I feel so much better, really enjoy exercising and have had a great time buying and modeling all my new clothes!!! I know I've lost weight when I realize the smaller size clothing I buy now. However, I still see myself as the fat girl when I look in the mirror and hope to change that when I finally lose all the weight I want to lose.

I have 9.2 more pounds to lose to achieve my goal. With this goal in site, I am embarking on a new challenge and countdown for myself. One of my Facebook friends, Amanda Mueller, lost weight following Weight Watchers and is now a WW leader. Amanda posted something from her personal blog on Facebook "45 Days To A New Year - My Personal Challenge." I took this to heart since I had a very bad weekend and will probably suffer for it at the scale on Thursday. But, just like anything that doesn't go your way, just pick yourself up and start all over again! I needed something like this to challenge myself to get back on track and lose those pesky 9.2 (or so!) pounds. I hope Amanda doesn't mind me using her challenge in my own way.

I started my countdown today and will try to achieve my goal weight by January 1, 2014. Talk about starting the New Year off right! These next 45 days will definitely be a challenge for me as this is the "Eating Season" as my WW leader stated. I thought that if I put this challenge on my blog, I'll be more likely to try to stick with it as I must be accountable for it!

This picture was taken in mid March to celebrate my birthday. I post this picture because it was the first time I realized I had lost weight and looked different! Not sure what my weight was but it was an eye opener for me!

The picture below is the key chain Weight Watchers gives you when you lose 10% of your weight. For me, that meant 24 pounds!

So today, the challenge begins! Starting tomorrow morning from now until January 1, 2014, I will cross off the previous day and continue with my challenge counting down the days. I hope you don't mind me using this forum to help myself but I need the support and encouragement from my friends because I know how slippery that slope can be when you start to slide down! I've worked too hard to slide down that slope!

Let the "Un-Hunger Games" begin! : )

 

Welcome Fall!

Happy Halloween!
OK, I spent the day yesterday cleaning out my old Halloween decorations! I had a great time going through of a lot of stuff and getting it ready to donate it to the Thrift Shop! I  My goal was to get rid of at least two of the 5 containers I have full of stuff. I accomplished that goal and more! I did put up some older and dearer Halloween decorations around the house. Some of them haven't seen the light of day in at least 10 years!  I know it's only September 9 but I feel like it's Fall! Of course, I haven't put out any of my candy corn decorations yet!

I found these old pins in my decorations. They have to be at least 15 years old! I have to figure out some way of displaying these pins. Maybe on a piece of black ribbon or black fabric? Updates to follow!

Can't remember why I bought them all except for my usual; why buy one when 6 will do! : ) I honestly think they are from several years ago or I bought them for the kids. I used to buy these types of pins when I worked at Woolworth 35 years ago! I had one for every season, holiday, etc. Not sure what happened to them all!


I also found several little figurines that my dear Mother made for me. I'm sure all my sisters received these sets too. She took ceramics for several years and loved making things for us. I also have a lighted ghost she made! This is the little vignette I put together with them all.

Now I know you are all waiting for the Floral Arrangement of the week at the Firm. Here it is! As you can tell, this arrangement also has put me in the Fall spirit. Very much a Fall floral arrangement!

This has been a fun project for me - I've really enjoyed posting these pictures. It's fun to share these beautiful arrangements with my blog friends.











I also did some crafting yesterday. After trying to figure out how to do paper piecing without getting frustrated, I finally found a great method. I watched a YouTube post on how to do it and really thought it was a great method for basting the fabric onto the paper. After cutting several 1 1/4 octagons using a quilting die on my handy dandy Sizzix cutter (from my scrapbooking equipment!) I was ready. I did the basting as shown and it really worked. As you can see, I have one flower made already! I also have several basted and are ready to make another flower. Not sure what I'll do with these flowers but I'm sure I'll figure out something! The bag is full of the papers I use in the center of each petal.








This is one finished flower. Each petal is on a one inch paper. It sort of curves upwards because I still have the papers in each octagon. You need to keep the papers in until you sew each side to another. I could take the center paper out because all sides are sewn but I haven't done that yet. You can't tell but the outside fabric is a beautiful color with gold thread through it. My camera doesn't take great pictures as you can tell and the lighting doesn't help either. I bought these two fat quarters at the new Quilter's Heaven location. I may try to applique the flower onto fabric for a pillow? The possibilities are limitless! Unfortunately my time isn't! DARN!!! 

I am really enjoying this craft now since I figured out how to baste the fabric onto the papers!







You may remember a couple months ago I told you about a block of the month my knitting friends and I were going to begin. We got together several times recently and finished our square for October! How convenient for me? DO you think that had anything to do with my desire to put up Halloween? This is the finished project. We all bought stands for ourselves so we can display each one each month!

We are so crazy about these squares. The next time we get together, we'll finish our November square and begin cutting fabric to do the December one! Once we figured out how to do them, we're going like gangbusters! The one thing we want to do at some point is free form quilting on each one. That's a bit scary to me but maybe I'll check out YouTube!

Of course, I've been knitting my spa washcloths. I don't want to bore you with more pictures. Suffice it to say I have many and am enjoying knitting them. I'm also knitting lots of stuff but will update you on my next blog.

Until then, enjoy this heat we're experiencing because before you know it, we'll be complaining that it's too cold and snowy!