Gobble Gobble

I hope everyone (in the USA anyway) had a great Turkey Day...free of drama and full of goodies! I know I did. I did the usual - the dessert. But I took the easy way out this year...mostly thanks to a migraine the day before. I did make a couple apple pies, but I bought some cheesecakes. they were SOOOO good! Our neighbors across the street recently opened a new cheesecake shop. Everything is made there by them...so many flavors to choose from! I went with pumpkin (of course), almond and plain. If you are ever in the Metro Detroit area, I strongly recommend stopping by Peteet's and grabbing some of these delicious treats for yourself.

And as for the turkey, well, I am 95% vegetarian, but I did try a nibble. Now these turkeys...these I can see having...

One Dozen Thanksgiving Turkey Cookies by The Sweet Shop Cookie Co

Shades of Brown, Thanksgiving Card by Paper Creations by Laura

Autumn Turkey Fabric Wreath by Soo Boo Designs

Custom Boys Turkey Tee by Pirate and Princess Couture

Turkey Pig Greeting Cards by Pigatopia

Been Busy

My busy has been a hodge-podge. Not enough of any one thing and too much of everything else.

Creative-wise, not enough. I did manage a photo shoot. I lost my light halfway through though. No big surprise in Michigan this time of year. I was lucky to get any at all. I still need to edit them though. The majority of the pics were of these fabric baskets. I hope to get them in the shop before the end of the week.

I did get some actual sewing done as well. The paler pink pillow actually has 2, with different applique and backside strip placements. The darker pink pillow was a single. I hope this find their way to the shop soon also.

Exercise. Remember my post last week? Well, I have been doing pretty good. I had 2 sessions with a personal trainer at our gym. He worked me out perfectly. Muscles burned and stretched and built. Not so much as to cause pain, but just toasty enough to know the job was getting done. I am thinking of taking this bag out of my shop & keeping it for myself. It's the perfect size for the gym. A pair of shoes, small sweat towel, book & iPod fit just right. It's all I need. Or I may make a whole new one just for the heck of it. Hmm....I just can't decide.

I did not get to the gym for a 3rd strength session...the weekend was packed. And it was all the big guy. Friday night my son's band No Alternative, had their first gig. It was awesome! They totally rocked. The owner of the cafe forewarned them not to expect too many people, maybe 50 tops. There were about 120. They also played longer than they thought. I was such a proud mama. He had a bass solo in Welcome to Paradise...I teared up. The pic below can take you to a video of it. You don't see much of him during the solo, but it is audible :)

And then the next day was the parade. The marching band...the State Champs by the way...marched in the Royal Oak parade the next morning. They sounded great rocking out Rudolph.

There was still more to come. In the afternoon I took him to Harry Potter. He & his friends kept making plans to see it, but with everything going on it kept getting put on the back burner. So I took him. With just enough to spare for the Choir/Orchestra concert that night. The men's ensemble which he is a part of did a great job with In the Still of the Night. Again, click the pic to get to the video :)

So to sum up...great exercise sessions, fantastically proud mama moments for her awesomely talented young man, decent photo session...just not enough sewing. Maybe next week.

And so the journey begins...

cross stitch by Sew Crossed

Actually, it has already begun. But the sharing part has only just begun. Yes, I am going to be one of 'those' people that drag you along on their weight loss journey. I hope it will be more than just that. While weight loss is at the top of the list, getting healthy & strong are very close seconds. Not to mention the wonderful emotional side effects. Looking forward to those too.

I even made an Etsy treasury and an Artfire Collection in honor of it. And a post on my treasury blog. All of which have also given me some sewing ideas :)

It is hard to pinpoint the actual start for this journey. I could go back as far as 6 months when I decided I need to do this. Or 5 years ago after I had my son and knew it would have to be done. And truthfully, I already made it halfway down this road a couple years back. That's a story for another time.

This start was actually back in August. I came back from vacation and took the first step. No more pop. I only drank diet, but pop is pop is pop. Too much sodium and bunches of chemicals. So bye bye to that. Have not touched it since.

The other fist step was food. It was only a minor tweak, for me anyway. I spent years as a vegetarian. I fell off the wagon when I was preggo. Now I am back...and feeling so much better. I was never a huge fan of meat - grosses me out, so it was not too tough.

Add in walking every morning after I dropped off the little guy at school - w00ts for all day Kindergarten!!!! And bammo presto chango...I am down 15 pounds. I only now realized how much slipped off. It was gradual & I only just now fit into the next pant size down. They are on the tight side, but not seam splittingly tight, so I chalk it up as a size lower.

The other weekend I got a call from my gym...a Happy Birthday We Have a Free Personal Training Session For You call. Best gift. I went this past Monday. It felt great. I went to school for exercise science, so I know what to do. But doing still gets done better with some help. It was a great motivator. I plan to do a few more sessions to kick start things.

I track all my food and exercise on Livestrong's My Plate - awesome site for anyone looking for a great online tool during their fitness journey. It helps to have that keeping me honest. And so will this. I plan to update here weekly and fill in with some back stories. So if you see some time go by and it sounds like I have not hit the gym...feel free to give me a little kick in the pants.

I also have this nifty graph I made to help show any loss. Hopefully the next time you see it, the new updated colors will be lower.

And no, I did not crop the chart wrong...I am keeping the actual numbers to myself :)

Blogfire: Table Settings

Set My Table

Curated By: tiltcreations

ArtFire.com

Craft Supplies

Wheat Berry Waldorf Salad

I love this dish as a side or small meal...I do tend to add one more celery & use whatever juice I have on hand.

Ingredients:
1 cup Organic Wheat Berries
3 tbsp Safflower Oil
1/4 cup Apple Juice
2 tbsp Natural Rice Vinegar
3/4 tsp Sea Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper, Black
2 medium stalks Celery
1 medium Apples
1/4 cup Red Onion
1/2 cup Unsweetened Dried Cranberries
1/2 cup Pecans, broken up
1/2 cup fresh Italian Parsley
2 tbsp Agave Nectar

Directions:
Soak wheat berries overnight with just enough water to cover - in fridge
Drain & cook berries in 3c water for 1 hour - simmer covered
Whisk oil, juice, vinegar, salt, pepper & agave
Drain excess water (if any) from wheat berries
Stir in half of the dressing & let sit to get to room temp
Add the remaining ingredients & dressing

Nutrition (per cup, roughly):
Calories 283, Total Fat 17.39g, Saturated Fat 0.74g, Cholesterol 0mg, Sodium 321.15mg, Carbohydrate 29.04g, Fiber 5.01g, Sugars 10.67g, Protein 3.72g

Wordless Wednesday

Halloween Review

Halloween was good to my little devil this year. The costume was easy. Red sweatpants & waffle tee. Borrowed red cape & hat with horns. Pitchfork - cheapie from Target. The weather was dry, chilly, but dry. Chilly enough for a winter coat, but luckily, his jacket...red. Awesome.

This first picture was taken during their school parade around the block on Friday. It's a tad blurry. I am so used to stills that I did not set the camera for action shots. Oh well.
They moved inside and headed off to art class. I stayed on with another kiddo's mom to get the party started! *cue the Black Eyed Peas* We worked well together. We are both casual & went easy. Cider and doughnuts...perfectly crisp on the outside locally made cake ones. Yum! A Halloween banner & a couple garland pieces. Non-candy treats like mini playdough, pencils, erasers, cards packs, and eyeball bouncy ball.

We wanted to keep it simple. Each kid got a brown paper gift bag to decorate with foamie letters, pirate paraphernalia, googly eyes, wood figures and monster stickers. Baring a few glue mishaps, it went well.

They trick-or-treated for all the goodies and played a quick game. Using two wooden spoons they walk raced across the rug with the eyeball balls. Then they took some pictures.

And danced.