Coming Back…

SO, I’ve started to feel the stir of creative ambition again! I’m really hoping I can get into my girl cave tomorrow and get some stuff made. I actually want to do this. Which is a total switch from the past several weeks!

We’re supposed to have cooler weather this week. I have the windows open right now with a lovely north breeze blowing through the house. I wonder if that has anything to do with it? I mean, who wants to make a quilt when it’s 95 degrees with a heat index of 106?

I got a new phone yesterday (Samsung Acclaim) that uses Android. I’m totally in love with it! I’m listening to Pandora on it right now. There are so many great apps! Does anyone have a recommendation for a Flickr app?

Today is house cleaning day (something else I’ve neglected in the past several weeks…). I’m slowly pulling myself together and I thank all of you for the encouraging comments and e-mails!

Changes

Hi all!

I have decided to give up Twitter. I felt that it was taking up too much of my time. So for all my Twitter friends, I've got nothing against you! This was a totally personal decision :)

I'll see you on Facebook and Flickr!

A Magical Weekend

This past weekend I was so lucky to be able to go home to New York for a visit! It was SO amazing to see everyone and we had such a good time!

On Saturday I went to the Rochester Red Wings baseball game. SO much fun! Our seats were behind home plate. They had lots of fun things happening and the game was good too :) We ate at Sticky Lips BBQ before and went to Mickey Finn’s for drinks afterwards. I really miss both those places. Nothing around here even comes close!

After the game we went and watched the High Falls laser show. It was so cool!! I wasn’t able to get any pictures of it, though, since I only had my cell phone camera with me.

On Monday a few of us went driving around the Finger Lakes. We just happened to stop at a winery or three along the way!! We also stopped at Finger Lakes Distilling. This place makes small batches of the best vodka, whiskey and gin I have ever been lucky enough to taste! It was a shame I didn’t have room to bring any home with me.

The still and aging barrels at Finger Lakes Distilling.

I got some great scenery pictures. They’ll help tide me over until I can get home again :)

Grapes at Prejean Winery in Penn Yan, NY…

The view from Hickory Hollow Winery in Dundee, NY…

Waterfall on the side of the road near Watkins Glen, NY…

View From Wagner Vineyards in Lodi, NY

I had such a lovely time with my dear friends! I cried for an hour after I was dropped off at the train station. It was so good to go home for a while. Someday I’m going to go home to stay :)

Thank You :)

Thank you all SO VERY MUCH for all the lovely words of congratulations and encouragement on my weight loss post! I just ♥ all my friends!

My Very First Tutorial!

Hey all! Head on over to the Fat Quarterly E-zine website for my very first tutorial!! It's for the "Breaking Out" flying geese block that I submitted for Fat Quarterly's issue #1 block challenge. I won the challenge (thank you!!) and wrote a tutorial on how to make the block!

Here's a direct link to the blog post!

Happy quilting!

I’m Losin’ It!!

I am very overweight. I could yammer on for hours about the whys and hows and whatevers, but let’s just leave it with that.

This is me (last Thursday):

6 weeks ago I started, with the encouragement of my Hubby and the help (in the form of showing up and expecting me to show up!) of my friend Michele, working out at the YMCA in DeKalb, IL. I started by going M-W-F. I’m now up to going 5 days a week. I’ve pretty much stuck to the fitness center, but I hope to add swimming to my routine soon!

I didn’t weight myself when I first started. I kinda didn’t want to know. But about 2 weeks in I decided that I should really know where I started, if only to measure how far I’ve come :) So I bought a scale (really nice Biggest Loser digital scale). I weighed myself on July 4.

I’m not going to tell you what it said. Maybe someday I can do that, but not right now. It’s enough to say that I cried the whole rest of the day. And became really, really determined that I would never see a scale say that about me again. I also decided that I would have “official” weigh-ins once a month.

Well, today is August 4. One month after that fateful “stepping on the scale” incident.

I’ve lost 9.8 pounds.

Go me!

YAY!

WOO HOO!

I’ve also noticed some other changes:

1. I sleep better

2. my heart recovers from physical activity a lot faster

3. my skin is clearing up

4. I don’t really want to eat junk food anymore. I mean, what’s the point of working out for an hour, then coming home to eat a bag of cheese puffs?

I’ll keep you posted. Next up- September 4!

Creativity Returns… Kind Of

I’ve been in a real slump lately when it comes to creating things. I just can’t get interested!! And it’s not just quilting- it’s knitting and cardmaking and cooking too. I really think it’s because of the hot humid weather we’ve had. It’s gone on for weeks now with no break. I feel more housebound now than I do in winter!

I’m going on a trip to New York next week (by myself, since Hubby can’t get away from work) and I wanted a nice sleeve for my new laptop, to protect it as I travel.

The summer 2009 Quilts and More magazine has a really nice pattern for a laptop sleeve. I’ve actually made one before…

This was made for my sister, with fabrics she picked out.

Well, I finally broke a little hole in my creativity block and got something done!

I made a variation on the same laptop sleeve using Joel Dewberry “Modern Meadow” fabrics with a dash of Essex linen thrown in! Both the outside and the lining have been quilted with batting, to make it extra soft. I also used velcro instead of a button. I didn’t want anything on the outside that could catch on something.

Hopefully I’ve fully broken out of the slump. I have a lot of projects I need to get done!