Saturday, September 13, 2008
Thing 14 -- Do Over!
OK, I started out strong. Then I was weak. Then I was super-human for a few days to make up for the weakness and well.... then I just stopped. So, I'm going to start this one over again and this time, I'm going to keep track on paper of what I've done (or not done!). Thing 14 starts over today. Or maybe tomorrow....
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Thing 14 -- Day 2
Day 1 -- 20 crunches (+ 5 peanut butter cookies)
Day 2 -- 30 crunches (+ 1 banana)
Average to date = 25 crunches/day -- ahead of plan!
Still no pain... maybe I'm doing them wrong?
Quite possible.
Maybe I should do more of them?
Not likely.
Two days done... so far, so good....
Day 2 -- 30 crunches (+ 1 banana)
Average to date = 25 crunches/day -- ahead of plan!
Still no pain... maybe I'm doing them wrong?
Quite possible.
Maybe I should do more of them?
Not likely.
Two days done... so far, so good....
Monday, August 25, 2008
Finally, a Thing!
At (very) long last, I have started on Thing 14 -- Average 20 crunches/day for 30 days.
Last night, I did my first set of 20... 10 in the middle and 5 on each side. I'm feeling OK today, no pain. I'm happy about that but of course, also wondering if 20 crunches is enough, if I'm not feeling it at all today?
My husband tells me that the 5 peanut butter cookies I ate right after doing the 20 crunches (yes, I really ate 5 of them!) pretty much negates the value of the crunches. Party pooper!! I told him, though, that crunches or not, I was going to eat the 5 peanut butter cookies anyway so 4 crunches per cookie was still better than NO crunches per cookie, right??? He also tells me that you're not supposed to work the same muscle(s) on consecutive days... but I think that skipping a day and doing 40 every other day would throw me right off the track... remembering which day it is AND doing 40? Me thinks not....
So, I'll try to keep up with my 20, maybe even work up to 25 or 30, we'll see how it goes. At this point, I'm happy to have come within sight of one of my Things, so today, 20 is good enough for me!
Wish me (and my abs!) luck!
Last night, I did my first set of 20... 10 in the middle and 5 on each side. I'm feeling OK today, no pain. I'm happy about that but of course, also wondering if 20 crunches is enough, if I'm not feeling it at all today?
My husband tells me that the 5 peanut butter cookies I ate right after doing the 20 crunches (yes, I really ate 5 of them!) pretty much negates the value of the crunches. Party pooper!! I told him, though, that crunches or not, I was going to eat the 5 peanut butter cookies anyway so 4 crunches per cookie was still better than NO crunches per cookie, right??? He also tells me that you're not supposed to work the same muscle(s) on consecutive days... but I think that skipping a day and doing 40 every other day would throw me right off the track... remembering which day it is AND doing 40? Me thinks not....
So, I'll try to keep up with my 20, maybe even work up to 25 or 30, we'll see how it goes. At this point, I'm happy to have come within sight of one of my Things, so today, 20 is good enough for me!
Wish me (and my abs!) luck!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
June & July Projects
No, nothing from the list... but I wanted to show y'all that I'm still alive and kicking, and at least doing something while ignoring everything on my list. (**sigh**)
.
Rachel got a butterfly quilt a little while back, so this one is for Jessica. I purchased the fabric months ago with no plan in mind, and sort of made up the pattern as I went along.
Those green blobs are froggies!
This one was for a friend's new baby girl. The pattern is called "Posy" something or other, and it's from my favorite pattern book, "Creative Scraps: Quilting with Bits and Pieces." Of course, as is typical, I modified the pattern a little bit, but it still turned out OK. The colors look much nicer in person! 
Not sure if you can tell from this picture, but the edge of the flower petals are "ragged" looking. That's intentional, it's supposed to look loved and worn. 
This one was for my neighbor's new baby boy. I call it "A Star is Born" but it's really my own twist on a pattern called "Bundle Up Baby Girl," which is made with girly colors and flowers instead of stars. No, I don't usually follow the pattern. Ever. 
Not sure why the "ragged" looking ones are appealing to me so much lately, maybe because I'm feeling ragged most days?!? Anyway, this one is also intentionally "worn" looking, both on the stripes and the stars. Easiest quilt I've ever made, though, will be making lots more of these in the future, the possibilites are endless when you have a shape you like! 
So, there's my "non-update," really. Maybe I'll surprise everyone someday and actually get back to the list! ;-)
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Still not Thing 12
OK, this is STILL not Thing 12 (or Thing 11, Thing 14, Thing 15 or Thing 16). Oh well....
I just finished this quilt for my mom, a (belated) Mother's Day gift. I told her in advance her gift would be late, just wasn't expecting it to be quite this late. But, who better than your own mom to understand how kids + job don't always = time to quilt...
The pattern is a log cabin, and it's from my favorite quilting book, "Creative Scraps: Quilting with Bits and Pieces." The sample in the book is done in Christmas prints (reds, whites, greens and it's gorgeous), but I decided to give it a shot in non-holiday colors.
Mom's favorite colors are blue and yellow and of course, she loves flowers.
Close-up of one of the blocks. The quilt is 4 blocks wide & 5 blocks long, plus borders:
Close-up of the quilt tag, which I hand embroidered. Starting this year (2008), every quilt I make has an embroidered tag (for posterity -- ha!) and someplace on it, a ladybug. For this quilt, it's a little more obvious than on some of the other ones I've made. Yes, I blocked out Mom's last name and mine. (You can never be too safe, you know!)
I just finished this quilt for my mom, a (belated) Mother's Day gift. I told her in advance her gift would be late, just wasn't expecting it to be quite this late. But, who better than your own mom to understand how kids + job don't always = time to quilt...
The pattern is a log cabin, and it's from my favorite quilting book, "Creative Scraps: Quilting with Bits and Pieces." The sample in the book is done in Christmas prints (reds, whites, greens and it's gorgeous), but I decided to give it a shot in non-holiday colors.
Mom's favorite colors are blue and yellow and of course, she loves flowers.
Close-up of one of the blocks. The quilt is 4 blocks wide & 5 blocks long, plus borders:
Close-up of the quilt tag, which I hand embroidered. Starting this year (2008), every quilt I make has an embroidered tag (for posterity -- ha!) and someplace on it, a ladybug. For this quilt, it's a little more obvious than on some of the other ones I've made. Yes, I blocked out Mom's last name and mine. (You can never be too safe, you know!)
Friday, June 6, 2008
Not Quite Thing 12
OK, so I've made very little progress on "the list." I'm a bit disappointed since some of them are just SO easy, what's my problem?!?!? Oh well... there's always tomorrow....
In the meantime, these aren't quite Thing 12: Make a Kat Quilt, but I've sure had a lot of fun with them and I wanted to share. In trying to figure out what Kat Quilt I wanted to make, I decided to try my hand at a few new patterns. I think they both came out great (if I do say so myself!) and they've helped build my confidence that I can make any Kat Quilt I choose, once I finally get around to choosing one from the gazillion "must have" patterns I've been looking at!
This first one, called "Mousekethanks," was for Luanne, who gave my family a very generous gift. Though this can't begin to show our full appreciation, it was my best attempt at combining my favorite hobby (quilting) with hers (Disney!). The pattern is a Double Irish Chain and it's available for free (along with tons of other great patterns) on the Quilter's Cache website.
Red, black and pink would not usually be my first choice quilt colors, but Mickey fabric isn't as easy to find as you might think and as it turns out, Luanne's home office is pink, so the quilt fits right in!
Might be hard to tell, but those are Mickey heads on the red fabric.
This next one was for my daughter, Rachel, who gets a bit frustrated at me when I spend so much time sewing and then ship all the quilts to other people. I found a set of 5 coordinating butterfly fabrics a while back and couldn't walk away from them. I had no specific intent in mind when I bought them, but when I came across this pattern, I knew the butterfly fabric would be perfect! I call this quilt "Butterfly Kisses" and the pattern is available in an amazing book called "Creative Scraps: Quilting with Bits and Pieces." If you quilt, you MUST own this book, it's awesome!
In the meantime, these aren't quite Thing 12: Make a Kat Quilt, but I've sure had a lot of fun with them and I wanted to share. In trying to figure out what Kat Quilt I wanted to make, I decided to try my hand at a few new patterns. I think they both came out great (if I do say so myself!) and they've helped build my confidence that I can make any Kat Quilt I choose, once I finally get around to choosing one from the gazillion "must have" patterns I've been looking at!
This first one, called "Mousekethanks," was for Luanne, who gave my family a very generous gift. Though this can't begin to show our full appreciation, it was my best attempt at combining my favorite hobby (quilting) with hers (Disney!). The pattern is a Double Irish Chain and it's available for free (along with tons of other great patterns) on the Quilter's Cache website.
Red, black and pink would not usually be my first choice quilt colors, but Mickey fabric isn't as easy to find as you might think and as it turns out, Luanne's home office is pink, so the quilt fits right in!
Might be hard to tell, but those are Mickey heads on the red fabric. 
This next one was for my daughter, Rachel, who gets a bit frustrated at me when I spend so much time sewing and then ship all the quilts to other people. I found a set of 5 coordinating butterfly fabrics a while back and couldn't walk away from them. I had no specific intent in mind when I bought them, but when I came across this pattern, I knew the butterfly fabric would be perfect! I call this quilt "Butterfly Kisses" and the pattern is available in an amazing book called "Creative Scraps: Quilting with Bits and Pieces." If you quilt, you MUST own this book, it's awesome!
Hoping to have more "list-relevant" updates soon but hey, so long as I'm having fun doing something, that's all that matters, right?
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
New Thing 16
I was hoping to post about my progress on a bunch of Things, but alas, there has been none...
The good news, however, is that I finally have a new Thing to take the place of "TBD" as #16 on my list: Update Jessica's baby book
In reality, this should probably be start Jessica's baby book.... the one I had to have 6 weeks before her due date, the one I lost sleep over, the one I searched high and low for and could not stop obsessing about. The beautiful pink one that's still wrapped in plastic in the closet in the nursery. Yes, Jessica will be two in June....
Good news, though! Somewhere around here is a stack (OK, many stacks) of papers from the doctor with all her stats, her bracelet from the hospital and a bunch of other "stuff" to go in the book. The key will be to find it all and transfer it from the papers to the book. My goal is to do it before her birthday, but that's only a month away.... wish me luck!
The good news, however, is that I finally have a new Thing to take the place of "TBD" as #16 on my list: Update Jessica's baby book
In reality, this should probably be start Jessica's baby book.... the one I had to have 6 weeks before her due date, the one I lost sleep over, the one I searched high and low for and could not stop obsessing about. The beautiful pink one that's still wrapped in plastic in the closet in the nursery. Yes, Jessica will be two in June....
Good news, though! Somewhere around here is a stack (OK, many stacks) of papers from the doctor with all her stats, her bracelet from the hospital and a bunch of other "stuff" to go in the book. The key will be to find it all and transfer it from the papers to the book. My goal is to do it before her birthday, but that's only a month away.... wish me luck!
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