I've got gas!

NO - not that kind of gas - gas for the car.

I was teaching two classes yesterday (welcome to all the students if you're reading the blog!) and I didn't get a lot of chance to get any sewing done for myself. I'm an "early to bed" person and I had had two late nights (for me) the previous two nights so I was tired.

Anyway, on Friday night when I was coming home, I knew that I had to fill up the car with gas, but I was tired. The price of gas in my neighborhood was 115.7 a liter. That's a good price. I knew the price would be higher in the morning, but I was too tired to care. It makes me mad when the price of gas fluctuates on the hour - why is that? Higher in the morning when people are off to work, lower at night when people are tired and it's dark and you're not likely to stop for gas.

I was up bright and early yesterday morning and ready to get a few errands done before heading off to class. BUT a certain blond decided to make my life difficult. Sweet little Lexi popped into the car from the dog park, but little Miss Murphy wasn't having anything to do with going home. That set the mood for the next couple of hours.

I finally deposited the girls at home and off to fill up the car. I pull into the gas station (where I can get a discount) and wouldn't you know it - the pumps weren't working. Thankfully, I wasn't on an empty tank. So I headed off to the gym for my weekly weigh-in.

I thought the results were going to be bad but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I'd lost almost 2 pounds from the week before. Yahoo!!!  That's awesome news. I was pretty excited about that and that made up for the fact that Murphy had been a naughty girl. Since I started this 60-day challenge, I've lost 5.5 pounds and since I did the Detox in January, I've lost 10 pounds. I'm very excited about the whole thing. Has it been hard? Not really - the Dtox thing really, really helped because it got rid of the cravings for sugar. I've only eaten chocolate (90% cocoa) once or maybe twice, but I don't crave the sweets. I've even eaten some cookies, but I choose very wisely about what and how much goes in me. Portion size is HUGE!!! Well - not huge, but portion size is extremely important and I strongly suggest to anyone who is interested in losing weight - download one of those calorie counting apps on your Smartphone - you can scan your food items in to give you an idea of how much you're eating. Trust me - the first couple of days, you'll think you're going to starve, but once you get the hang of it, I'm not hungry at all.

Just a quick aside on calorie counting - imagine if your calorie intake is 1600 calories for the day. Mine is just slightly less than that. Let's say that you walk into Tim's for a snack - that Fruit Explosion muffin has 340 calories and 22 grams of fat. If you had a snack size helping of almonds (24 almonds - there are 160 calories in that snack and while the almonds are high in fat, you need to have fat every day in order to live. TWO servings of almonds are fewer calories than ONE muffin. I like to savor those almonds and eat them slowly. They're very chewy and you can get a lot more satisfaction from chewing the almonds than scarfing down a muffin. The almonds are a lot easier to eat, less messy and nutritionally, they're better for you. It's easy to carry them on the road or on a trip as they don't go bad easily and are easy to pack. Just make sure you count out the 24 for a serving. See how easy that was - a nice snack and a better choice for you!  There are lots of other healthy choices to make and easy to make or carry with you. I don't leave the house now without some kind of snack in the event I need something.

Then it was off to class. I had to stop for gas along the way and this time the gas pumps were working. I got my tea (no sugar) and managed to make it to the store just in time for the class to start. Thankfully the rest of the day went fine!

Today is going to be a crazy busy day and I have a few errands to do and a meeting later tonight. BUT I managed to get the next quilt loaded on the long arm.

Quilt loaded and ready to go later this morning

I also got one part of the binding on a quilt that needs to be delivered later this afternoon.

Binding is half on a quilt

 I have one more quilt that needs to be ready to leave tomorrow and so it's going to be a crazy busy day as I get all that done!

Here's a picture of my kid in costume for a show that just aired. Legends of Time?  I think that was it - she sent me the information, but with all the places that one can find information, I can't seem to find it. Was it Facebook? E-mail? or Messenger?  I don't know!!!

M as a wench!

And if you look closely on the left-hand side of the photo, there's my wench!!  She's just to the right of the candle.

Oh - so sweet!!

M as a wench!

Hopefully, there'll be a whole lot more about quilting tomorrow. Just depends on what is happening in my life! But things are moving along and there's another sit n sew day this week and I need to get that space cleaned up. Not cleaned up as in, let's put things away, but cleaned up as in - let's get these things finished and out the door! It's going to be nuts! Plus there are still a few patterns that need to be finished up! Once March 23rd hits, there's going to be a lovely lull in my life and I can't wait!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!

It's a start

My friends have no faith in me! OK - so I did say that I was only going to take a laundry basket of stuff to the retreat. Now I'm up to three totes (I'd like to suggest the the total volume is not much more than one heaping laundry basket - thanks Lynn!). But my roommate says she doesn't believe me that I'll bring only three totes.  Two of them are packed, leaving one completely empty tote for emergency packing!  I think there are 10 projects in those two totes - way more than I'll get done over the five days, but I'm an optimist!

I haven't done much tidying, but already knowing that I have a plan in place makes my space feel bigger. I know that the more you throw away or tidy up, the better you feel and hopefully the less I'll weigh (more on that in a second).

In my tidying yesterday, I came across this wise tip for spring cleaning. "The one year rule. Pick an area in your home  - your closet, cupboards, bookcase - and apply the one year rule. If you haven't worn it or used it in any way over the last twelve months, donate  or toss it. You make an exception for souvenirs or sentimental items."  WOW - that is blunt. But it's starting to be my motivator. I wish I could spend more time, but at least a bit a day is going to work.

I even started (however small in the sewing room).  I have all my sewing machine needle accessories in one box. But the box wasn't shutting properly.

Box for sewing machine needles and accessories for needles

What to do with partially used needles?  I used to put them in this tomato pincushion. But the problem is that over time, some of the needles got embedded into the pincushion, never to be used again.

Pincushion for holding partially used needles

 A while back, I made this great little needle case.  You can find the tutorial here.

Sewing machine needle case

 And now all my sewing machine needle stuff fits nicely in the tin.

Tin full of sewing machine needles and accessories

 Oh, I forgot to mention - the tomato pincushion?  It's gone.  I replaced it with my needlecase which takes up less space, fits better and well - the pincushion is gone.  No regrets!!!!

I also have this giant bag of batting strips.  Most are in the 4 inch to 8 inch width by various lengths.  They would be great for someone making smaller projects. Bags, quilted squares or even to piece together for practice pieces for machine quilting.   Any takers????

Bag of batting strips - FREE to a good home

Now for that darn paperwork stuff. I looked at the first pile and well, there's no time like the present to start.

Paperwork stuff for yesterday

So I have the BOX for a charger for my GPS.  Why didn't it get thrown out before?  No idea.  It's gone.

Empty packaging - gone

Bull dog clip and membership card to the guild

 Both are filed in their appropriate places.

Packaging for an Easy Walk

And the bill for the Easy Walk

 Oh - there's a story behind this which Lexi will try to share with you later today. But both items are now GONE.

Some items that needed to be returned to the sewing room. Both have been put in the proper place there.

Ruler and fabric sample - filed!

 And here is a pad of "TO DO" lists.  Why I buy these things is beyond me. Yes - they are cute - yes they could be practical - to someone, but for me - they just don't work. Maybe I should use it at work where I have a slightly different style of work.

Pad of TO DO list paper

For the moment, the pad is filed in the storage cabinet along with the rest of the TO DO lists and journals that I've bought.

I didn't quite get through the stack of paperwork, but I made a good effort and I'm quite happy. There were a few things that got added to the pile and I tried as best I could to deal with them as well.  That is the trick - deal with anything new AND work with the old until the old is gone!

But I had a couple of things that are pending. What to do with those?  Then I remembered that I have this cute filing thing that was sitting in the office, NOT being used.  Well, not being used properly. It was full of other paperwork.  I've moved it to my desk now and the pending stuff and the stuff that is current that I am working on - they are nicely filed in this storage thing.   Oh - maybe I should remove everything from my desktop except the stuff I want?  Now I'm getting ahead of myself!  Slow down!

Nice storage unit for current and pending files

Just that little bit of clean up made a huge difference. I actually feel like there could be a light at the end of the tunnel.  I'm going to try and finish the stack from yesterday and all the paperwork that came in that storage unit. Then I can move onto the next stack of paper.   The big question is what am I going to do with all the empty space?  Leave it empty!!!!

On that note, a house in my neighbourhood recently came up for sale. It's had a sign "coming soon" for about 10 days. Then Friday, the sign changed to FOR SALE.  Of course, I checked it out on line. Oh boy - house prices are so out of whack  - it's totally scary.  But I looked at the pictures of the inside.  These people have obviously moved out as there wasn't a SINGLE scrap of anything personal in the house.  I don't care if they had staged it - there wasn't an extra piece of furniture, it was boringly bare.  That's what sells houses???

Anyway, I always said that if an agent knocked on my door and asked if my house was for sale, I was going to say "Yes for XXX price".  Well, I better up my price, because based on the price that this one is listed for (and most are going way over asking), I'd get my price in a heart beat.


OK so here is my food story of the day.  Since the calorie count has been made public for most items, it really makes me think about what I buy and what I eat. Although when I was buying a goodie at the bakery, the woman next to me said they should take the signs away as she didn't want to know. Each to their own!!!!

Here's an example of how we can make BETTER choices.  This is a cookie (oatmeal raisin) from Tim's.  I had to buy one so I could get a picture and yes - I ate it!!!!

If you care to know, there are 210 calories and 8 grams of fat in each cookie.  I think the oatmeal raisin is the one with the least amount of calories.

Oatmeal raisin cookie from Tim's

 BUT if you still want a snack (and who doesn't!), but don't want the calories - why not have FOUR of these cookies instead?

Four cookies

 These four cookies have a total of 130 calories and 4 grams of fat.  You get to eat MORE and have less calories.
I know - sounds boring as all heck, but seriously - I'd rather eat the four cookies. Why do I eat the oatmeal raisin ones?  Convenience!

Nutrtion Facts for the four cookies

Simple Pleasures by Dare

Can you believe, I used to have a medium hot chocolate AND a cookie. (sometimes more than once a day!) A medium hot chocolate has 300 calories. So when I had the hot chocolate and the cookie, that was about 500-600 calories JUST for that!!!  An average adult should have 2000 calories in ONE DAY!!!!

Sorry to spoil your day with those thoughts. Anyway I'm now down to steeped tea (with two sugar - can't help myself!) and my four Simple Pleasures cookies. I'm not denying myself a treat, just changed the treat!

On that note, I made good progress on the quilt yesterday and finished a novel (couldn't help myself!) and I need to get the quilt done today as I have a few more to get done this week.

Have a super day!!!!!


Ciao!!!!

PS - I'll update and add the calendar stuff later - I've run out of time today!