Really Big Game Snack-a-thon

In the run up to the Really Big game, my sister and I prowled blogland and Pinterest in search of snacks and yummie things to cook up.  We had made our selections, had gone out shopping for the bits we needed, and were all ready to eat ourselves silly last week.  Then a neighbor and really good friend of the family called up and invited us over to dinner on game day.  Well that put a bit of a kink in our plans.  We of course accepted the invite to dinner and put on hold our snack-a-thon.

After the running around on Saturday, we decided it was time to eat.  And here is what we made:

From back to front we have Bacon wrapped Chicken with a Spicy Sweet glaze, Onion dip with Potato chips and Triscuts for dipping, Pretzel bites, and Pizza Wheels made up our selection of savory selection.

For sweets we made up a big batch of Muddy Buddies, and purchased some Loft House sugar cookies.  Oh yummy.

Since the Really Big Game was over with, we settled in and created a mini marathon of watching Top Gear off of Netflix.  The Chicken-Bacon was really, really good and really quite easy to put together.  I'm looking forward to eating some of the leftovers for lunches this week.  This is something we will make again.  Oh, and those British car guys are hilarious.

I'm really glad it's the end of the season of excuse eating.  Time to really focus in on the weight loss thing.  Since I haven't reported in on the 1000 mile cardio challenge in a couple of weeks, right now is a good time to do it.  Thus far I have covered 187.13 miles and have a mere 812.87 left to go.  Fun fun fun.

Hugs and Snackies,
Kay

Stitching Week

How was your stitching week?  Mine was a bit productive but as usual I didn't get as much time in to stitch as I would have liked. Isn't that just how it always is?

Santa's Village is coming along nicely.  I like having it at work and it's just so relaxing to get a few minutes of stitching in when the rest of the day has been crazy.  The house building is coming along quite nicely.  I'm stitching it over two on 32 count Heaven by Colorscapes.

I'm making good progress on the heart freebie from Tempting Tangles that is posted on the Welchet site.  I'm stitching it on a 32 count opalescent white linen with WDW's love floss.  It's pretty much what I stitch on on Satudays when I'm done doing my running around for the day.  I don't think I'll get it done by Valentines day, but that's okay.

And lastly, I'm plugging right along with the Heirloom Nativity Sampler.  I've nearly got two of the three angels done at the very top row.  I just need to finish them off and then it will be down to the bottom half of the project.  I keep thinking that I'm mostly done with it, but the truth is I'm just barely halfway done.  I'm such an optimist. This is on delft blue 32 count linen and I'm working over 2 with the called for flosses.

Now, here's a bit of a confession... These are all the pictures I should have shared with you last week when I didn't do a post.  But since the Turtle Trot report is due on Wednesday, I figured I'd show last weeks progress now, and you'll see this weeks progress then.  Tee hee hee.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

TUSAL, February 2013

Happy TUSAL everyone!  What's a TUSAL you ask?  It stands for the Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long, and consists of stitchers, knitters, quilters, crocheters, and tatters saving up their random ends and taking a picture of them each month.  Why do we do it? Because we're all a touch crazy.  Want to join?  Just click on the little TUSAL button there to the left.

Here's my vase surrounded by the collection of glass things on the window ledge.  I'm learning that it's hard to get a good picture of the vase with the sun shinning in from the back.  It's also a bit hard to tell what's new in the jar.  There are pink bits from the valentines heart I'm working on, Christmas colors from Santas Village, and more Christmas colors from the Heirloom Nativity Sampler.

Hope you've had an equally productive stitchy month!

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

WIPocalypse, January 2013

How is winter going for you? We had a rare (for here) ice storm on Thursday and while we do pretty well driving around in the snow, driving on ice slicked roads was a whole new story. When I got into my car to commute to work the traffic reports were saying that the roads were icey, drive slow, but passable. 40 minutes into my commute (and the usual time it take me to get to work) I'd barely passed the halfway point and the traffic reports had changed their tune. Stay home if you can! Delay your drive for at least 2 hours!  It was too late for me and traffic had come to a full and complete stop.  It was stop and creep the rest of the way into work. All total it took 2 hours and 20 minutes to go 36 miles.

Since I finished up the Owls Birth Record last week, it was time for a return of an old friend.  I put a couple of hours of work on Heirloom Nativity Sampler by The Victoria Sampler.  As a reminder, I'm stitching it with the specified flosses, over 2 on 28 count Delft Blue linen.

I did some more mindless stitching on Poinsettia House by Country Cottage Needleworks of the Santa's Village Collection.  I filled in the red stripes and then did a few snowflakes.  This is being promoted to the at work project.  I might be able to keep up with the houses if I can work on this for 30 minutes everyday at lunch.

And since I'm crazy, I've got a new start.  Valentines day is one of my least favorite holidays and yet every year I manage to stitch something heart related for it.  This year I'm stitching up a freebie that's on the Welchet site.  It's by Tempting Tangles and called 2013 Valentine.  I'm stitching it over 2 on 32 count White Opalecent linen with two strands of WDW's Love.  I picked up the thread a while ago because it was pretty.  I'm glad to be using it on a project.

I've knocked off another 27.93 miles from the 1000 mile challenge.  That means I've walked 115.38 thus far this year and have 884.62 more miles to go. Keen!  I've also seen the lowest reading on the scale in forever.  163.8.  Yes, it's still overweight, but much better than where I started out a couple of years ago.

Here's hoping that this upcoming week is better in the stitching and commuting department.  The forecast has many days of snow.  So long as the freeways are kept clear and everyone keeps their head while driving, it shouldn't be too bad.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

A weeks worth of stitching

Well... it was really a weeks worth of thinking about stitching.  With all the errands that needed to be run on Saturday and Church and family things on Sunday I was barely able to put any stitching in.  Quite depressing really.

Wednesday night was Crafty-Stitchy night with the girls and I took along Lavender Pansies to work on.  We had a good time chatting about this and that, eatting too many chocolate muffins, and I worked along on my cross stitch, LMS worked on her hardanger angel, and LBH put together a couple of scrapbook pages. Pure girly bliss.  While the pansies aren't looking like much of anything yet, I'm really pleased with the progress that 2 hours of stitching was able to accomplish.

One evening I came home from the gym and all that and put an hour into Poinsettia House for Santa's Village.  It felt good to sit in the rocking recliner and stitch away on the red and white stripe at the top.  So simple, so easy, not a lot of brain power required.  It looks like the Post Office will be released here in the next week or so, and onto my list of things to order from 123 Stitch it goes.

Little baby girl arrived on Tuesday this past week.  Brother-B and SIL-A chose the name we liked best for her.  I finished up the stitching on her birth record Sunday afternoon.  All I have left to do is add her name, birthdate, and stats.  Then I will be done with these silly owls.  This is the last picture you will see of it since I don't want to do another and color out her name.

Niece-L has been a good baby, as far as I can tell.  I'm told she eats pretty well, sleeps soundly, and when she's awake and not hungry is a happy and content little thing.  I got to hold her for a little bit on Saturday while her parents had a quick dinner.  I figured it'd be easier for them to eat if some one else held the baby for a while.  She's just a cute little thing.

As I have been reading blogs and shop newsletters two new items have come up that I'm excited to stitch, but at the same time I'm thinking "No! Oh no!"  If you're like me and have more stash then time you know what I'm talking about.

First up is Lizzie*Kate's Jingles series of flip its.  All Christmasy and they all fit together into one bit banner.  I love L*K designs and so I want to stitch these up really really badly.

And the second item is a Spring Mystery Sampler that Blue Ribbon Designs is putting out.  I don't normally stitch their designs, but the sneak peek is so springy and pretty.  I really want to stitch it up this year too!

Too many patterns, not enough time!  But hey, remember what I often say:  Buy the pattern, buy the dream!

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Purple Nails

Yes, yes, yes.  I haven't done a nail post in awhile... not that they were/are a major part of this blog so that's okay.  I'm still cheerfully on about my new little obsession.  I haven't had any brilliant ideas so I haven't been taking many photos, but I did a series over the past week that I really liked.  I found a purple that I really like.  It looks good with my complexion and I'm tempted to just wear it all the time!

First off I paired it with a purple/purple glitter on my tips.  The contrast wasn't too much and I really enjoyed it.  Mr. Trainer teased me about being all purple so he did notice.

Since my nailes are really bendy I can only get a two days wear in before the polish (which isn't bendy) starts to chip and flake off.  So Friday evening I took the polish off of all the nails that were too chipped (all but pinkie fingers) and simply threw on a plain coat of Amatyst Ablaze.

Sunday evening I added tips of Sinful Colors Frenzy (I think) to my right hand.  I just free handed them in a sloppy whatever goes sort of fashion.  I was seeing a bit of tip wear, so it was more just to cover the tips since the rest of the polish was holding on pretty good.  And I can't take a good picture of my right hand with my left hand.  I tried and tried and tried and this fuzzy pic is the best one I managed!

Then on my left hand I did a single coat of Frenzy over the whole nail.  It doesn't really hide the tip wear, but I'm enjoying the little turquoise and pink glitters.  I'm probably the only one who does notice tip wear so for the next few days, and until the polish chips off full scale, I'm going with it.

Last week I also wore a white base with a blue crackle on top.  It was definately a fun one and scored points with Mr. Trainer for being Cowboys colors.  I bought a purple and mauve crackle top this weekend at Target and I'm looking forward to wearing them sometime in the up coming weeks.

Now, since the Cowboys really aren't my team and the 49ers are, I'm debating on whether I need to get me some red and gold polishes and do something for the superbowl.  My sister and I are planning our Superbowl party menu.  Which is kind of funny since 1) it's a party of her and I, and 2) we don't get TV so we can't watch the actual Superbowl!  Oh well, that won't stop us from eating unhealthy food, and lots of it.

Hugs and Polish,
Kay

1000 mile Cardio Challenge Report and other weight loss things

I still haven't managed to update my Lose to Cruise page for 2013... I guess I'm struggeling with "How many way are there to say I did okay, but not as well as I had hoped I would?"  I'm still making progress on the weight loss thing, a little bit at a time, so that's okay.

I'm having a good time tracking my distance with the help of my fitbit pedometer.  I bought that little guy last November and I love it.  The way they have the dashboard set up to track your progress really works for me.  They award little badges for different distances traveled in a day, stairs climed, pounds lost, and so on and so forth.  I am completely motivated by those dumb little badges.

Fitbit also has a scale the links up wirelessly to your account and I bought one of those things as well.  No more fudging my weight on weigh-day.  It's all put in automatically.  I like this less, but it keeps me more honest with myself.

So far, for the 1000 miles of cardio challenge I've covered 87.45 miles and have 912.55 more miles to walk before hitting the challenge goal.  It looks like I'm still on target to finish up in October... Provided my current habits don't change much in the next few months.

The other tool I use all the time on the journey is My Fitness Pal.  I use it to track my calories consumed.  I prefer to use the aps they have for my phone than to use the version on the web, but I use both pretty much equally.

There is some overlap in what the tools do, Fitbit has a calorie counter, My Fitness Pal has an exercise tracker, but I feel that Fitbit tracks exercise better than My Fitness Pal and My Fitness Pal does a better job of tracking calories than Fitbit does.  You can link up your accounts so you only have to enter items once.  Although since the Fitbit will wirelessly sync up to your account, I hardly ever type anythign into Fitbit at all.

I think I'm going to update the My Fitness Pal widget to reflect the total weight lost on my journey and the final goal.  Right now it's just looking at what I wanted to lose in 2012, or 40 lbs.  I didn't quite hit that goal, but a loss of 35 lbs in 2012 is nothing to be sneezed at.  Overall I'm down about 65 lbs, to a weight I don't ever recall being.  It feels good.  But there's another 35 lbs to go and then I can switch over to maitanence/vigilance mode.

This past weekend as I was working in the Temple, I looked at myself in the mirror and came to the conclusion that my dress was way too bit for me.  It does have ties, so I can pull it back and it looks okay from the front.  But there's about an extra foot of fabric around my waist.  So Saturday afternoon my sister and I went out and about looking for a new white dress. 

We started at the distribution center and I tried on a dress that I liked.  It fit pretty well except that it was much longer in the torso than I am.  Being a bit on the short side, I knew whatever I bought would have to be hemmed.  We fussed with the dress a bit and figured that it could be taken up at the waist, thus shortening the long torso issue, but that would also mean messing with the zipper and that earned the dress an instant no.

So we went next door to Dressed In White and started trying on a bunch of their dresses.  I found one right off that I liked.  It has the same empire/a-line shape as my current dress and it's not too long in the torso.  It will have to be hemmed before I can wear it and I just need to figure out a good bribe to get LMS to do it for me. We also found a nice cotton top that was on clearance.  I tried that top on with about 4 or 5 different skirts, but didn't like any of the skirts at all.  I bought the top anyway and next week my sister and I will try the White Elegance shop to see what they have on the way of skirts.

Hugs and Dresses,
Kay