Saturday! Yay for Weekend!

Its Saturday and that means so many things to me. Saturday is the one day a week I sleep in without worry. If I sleep in on Sunday too late (which I often do!) I have a really hard time going to sleep Sunday night and Monday morning is pretty yucky. Monday already sucks without being exhausted to boot! It's also weight in day. I love that too as any sins I committed the week before (Like that donut that accidentally fell in my mouth last Thursday, eh hem) are washed away and I am reborn with shiny new points to start the week off with. I am still bouncing with the weight. Lost two pounds two weigh-in's ago, last week I gained almost as much back, this week I lost almost a pound despite the donut incident.

I had another really busy week, with much garden work and much knitting. Managed three Zumba work-outs this week. I had to skip my Thursday night Zumba as I finally went in and got my hair did! I am kind of blond now. Not true blond - but we really went light for me with the foil work this time. It's taking a little to get used to it, but I think it looks like summer fun. Makes me want to be tan - which is pretty much a no-no, so maybe it's time for some of that fake tan lotion.

I also made some really good progress on my KAL shawl. I know it was supposed to be done in a week (insert derisive snort here) but two months is apparently more my speed. I finished all the knit portion and am now up to the crochet portion. I am really happy with how it's looking. Here is a shot just after I did a Russian Join (which I LOVE!) and bound off all the stitches. It's 22 inches along the center spine and the top is 50 inches across.

Naturally anything I lay out is just a place for Emma to place her furry little butt, so right after I snapped that picture I snapped this one.

She is so helpful with the holding projects down so they don't run off. That's always a bummer when you spend two months knitting something and then it escapes out the fence. Her services are invaluable.

And then there is this. I am still not sure if I am going to make this into a felted pillow or a large bag? When I told Tom I was thinking about making it into a pillow he stared at me and said why? That center bit is scratchy as hell since it's mohair - so I guess a bag would make more sense. This is one of those projects that is sort of getting away from me and I still work on it but I can't see it's final outcome. Huh. We shall see what it turns into.

This morning will be spent watering my plants, then an hour of Zumba. Not sure yet what this weekend will bring, but hopefully some good stuff. I really want to finish my shawl this weekend - so hopefully I will have some pictures of it all finished in the very near future.

Have a wonderful weekend all!

Monday in your face

Good Morning World. It's time for Insomniac Theater! Woke up at 1:00 this morning and could NOT get back to sleep. This always makes me so very happy. Nothing like starting out the week exhausted and crabby. **sigh**

I am pretty sure my neighbors don't appreciate my sleepless nights either. I put Emma out when I got out of bed at 2:12 this morning and she immediately ran to the very back of our yard and started barking like a mad dog. Nothing carries on a cold winter night like the sound of a dog barking. Then the sound of a tired woman in owl pajamas shivering in the doorway making kissing noises and whisper yelling "Emma!" and shaking the treat container. Yup. People know when I am up.

Then Emma curls up on her bed in the den while I amuse myself with the Internet, sighing a lot and getting excited for food every time I get up and go to the kitchen for more coffee. On a normal day when I wake up, it means the food will happen for the cat and the dog very soon. So when I wake up hours early - it's chaos. The cat has a timed feeder because she used to wake me up when she thought it was time to eat by standing on my sleeping form. Then the claws would come out when just walking on me didn't work. (ouch.) Then she figured out that I put my glasses on when I would get up, so she took to walking to my night stand and batting my glasses on the floor. That's when we decided to get a battery operated feeder.

 Here she is at 2:40 in the morning licking the empty bowl. She pretty much walks around glaring at me all morning because the food is not happening. Add to that I took her out of the bedroom where my husband is sleeping - so she can't go into that room. She will make the occasional walk to the bedroom door and claw frantically at it hoping she can get in. That makes for a fun game too. I will go and shush her away and when she hears me retreat and start typing again she will start back up.

Good times.

So that is what my Insomnia mornings look like. Add to that me wondering how early I can go into work for the day so I can leave early as I know I will be a wreck by around noon when I am up at this hour. I generally don't go in early on insomnia mornings - but I think I will today.

Insomnia days are just so hard. My brain is moosh. I can't generally knit much because I do bad things to patterns when I try. Any form of exercise is out. My diet takes a hit because I don't know when to eat and get confused about hunger and tired. (If I get up at 1:00 and eat breakfast at 4:00 do I eat lunch at 10:00 and and dinner at 3:00 and then second dinner at 7:00????) And if I go into work early THAT will throw everything off too. And if I go in early and come home early can I or should I take a nap or am I better off just going to bed early and trying to get a long sleep so I don't end up not being able to sleep a second night in a row? Meh. I know when I can't sleep it's going to be a long long day.

Wish me luck!

Wednesday night pig out

I have been hungry lately. I mean HUNGRY. Hard to stop eating - pacing around like a tiger in a cage hungry. It sucks. I think it's holiday hangover - but regardless of the reason its my current reality. So in an effort to slap the hungry girl down a bit, I have been trying to branch out in my veggie eating. I have seen a lot on spaghetti squash lately - so I picked one up this weekend.

I had very little clue about how to eat this thing or cook it for that matter. Yay for Google! I found this wonderful tutorial on Food.com and decided to try the boil in a pot method. (Mostly because I didn't have a nice poking device for ... well.... poking it with. I know I have a metal skewer somewhere....)



So I filled a pot with water. The pot had to be big enough to cover the squash. Being inexperienced in this I had concerns. Is it supposed to float? How will it cook evenly? Turns out the squash sort of rolled in the boiling water - which was really neat! The downside to boiling a squash is you kind of have to hang out in the kitchen while it cooks. They said up to a half hour (I gave it 45 minutes) to get your squash cooked, so I grabbed a magazine and a glass of wine!

I have to say I didn't have high hopes for the February Knit 'n Style based on the cover sweater. (Didn't I wear this in 1993?) But I actually found quite a few things of interest in this magazine. If you click here you can see the Gallery of the items featured in the magazine. I really love the knit Bulky Cabled Vest by Melissa Leapman. I have been aching to knit myself a vest for about a year now - and this one is so interesting. A bit of peek-a-boo with the cables so your shirt under the vest shows. Really like this! (Wonder how it would look on my size rather than a model though?)

I also really liked the shaping of the Kaleidoscope sweater. Not thrilled with the pattern of the yarn - but the shaping of the sweater itself is nice. I think this would be nice in a solid or ombre yarn. Maybe even kettle dyed.

The Lattice Pullover with Peplum was neat too. Reminds me of the Jane Austin Knits magazine that was all the rage in the last few months.

I also really liked the Nordic Ice sweater. Pretty basic Nordic design - but I am really geeking out on Nordic Sweaters right now. I kind of want to knit a giant Lopi Sweater.

So I enjoyed my flip through the magazine and the wine was pretty nice too. :) Before I knew it my squash was done. (I stuck a fork in it and it went in easy - that's how you know it's cooked.) So I dumped it out in the sink and let it cool for a minute while I washed the pan. Then I cut it in half.

It was still quite hot at this point. You can see the seeds in there a little bit. I had to get those out - so I grabbed a spoon and started scooping away the seeds and attached squash. (This was kind of like scooping seeds out of a pumpkin - but a lot warmer. Boiling a squash for 45 minutes REALLY makes it warm. Just saying.)

Once the seeds were out I grabbed a fork and started pulling the squash out. Wow. You get a LOT Of squash! The outer skin sort of peels off and a half squash filled this plate up and then some. I ended up taking one cup of Wee Willy's Pasta Sauce and just a shake of reduced fat Parmesan cheese on top. It was really good and SO filling! I could have halved the amount I ate easily. As it was, I pigged out and got really full and did it guilt free. A very healthy dinner and I am quite pleased.

AND I have a nice bunch of leftovers for lunch tomorrow too! Yay!

Saturday Morning: Weight in - Check in

It's been a busy busy week around here! This week was filled with: Insomnia, projects galore, work (but not much of that...), Thanksgiving Holiday, and (joy of joys) my period.

So after last weeks OUTSTANDING weight loss I was a little concerned about this week. I knew I was due for my period. I knew it was Thanksgiving and that it would be really hard to face that meal. I haven't had to handle too many celebrations since going on Weight Watchers and I admit - I was scared! I heard statistics all week about how that average American eats 4500 calories on Thanksgiving day. And I love our Thanksgiving meals. Turkey, Mashed potato's with thick brown gravy. Rolls. Cranberries. Stuffing. Green bean casserole. Pumpkin pie..... The list goes on and on! So I was trying to gird my loins for going into celebration mode. My motto was: "Eat with intent. Enjoy what you eat." Oh - and the period hit the night before Thanksgiving, so I went into the day with cramps, feeling fat, and wanting to eat the house down. (Yeah - thanks for THAT body!)

So on Thanksgiving day I ate my normal breakfast and then went to my parents for Brunch. My mom really tried to cut back on the amount of food and tried to go leaner on things which was really nice. I ate a little bit of everything I wanted. The taste of these foods was just amazing and so rich. I wanted to gobble it up just because it smelled and tasted so good! I ate a minimum of snacks and then when we sat for dinner I had a small serving of everything I HAD to have. I was shocked at how full I got so fast and I actually never made it to eating my Turkey! I had to stop before I got to it and ended up taking it home in a doggy bag. So I was really pleased with how I handled myself and now I feel just a little more confident about handling food situations like this in the future. (Which is good because we are in full holiday mode!)

So this morning was weight in and I was trying to be prepared for what could be a bummer with the factors working against me. (Period, Thanksgiving eating, insomnia at the beginning of the week, and a really good loss the week before.) I did my usual pep talk (You are on the right path, have faith in the process, one week is not the whole picture of your journey......) and then did my weight in. Yay! I LOST weight this week! I did a snoopy dance and celebrated losing my 1.1 lbs! YAY! Every success just strengthens my faith in myself and my belief that I can really get myself to a healthy weight and feel healthy. It's just such a wonderful thing to feel in control of your body and to know you can handle situations that come up. Crazy to be 40 years old and just getting my feet under my body in this area, but I am happy to FINALLY be getting there.

So I had insomnia this week which generally means less knitting. I had to rip out a few things I attempted because I just can't focus when I am exhausted and I make mistakes. But I did make a little headway on two projects.

I started the Pocketbook Slipper pattern that had been in my Que on Ravelry forever. I wanted something very simple that I could work on over Thanksgiving and it is a very simple pattern. I am anxious to get the other one done and to seem them up so they are done. I think they will be perfect for taking with when I go to friends/family homes this winter. You can't really tromp around in snow covered boots at other people's houses so having a little pair of throw on slippers that I can just have in my purse is pretty ideal. I chose a lighter color so that dog and cat hair doesn't show us badly. (I have learned that lesson well in my own home!) The yarn is a stash bust, Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in the color Green Tea Heather. The first one weighted in at 25 grams - and the skein is 50 grams, so I might just make it in 1 skein. (I have a second one standing by just in case.) I love the construction of these and think they would make great X-mas gifts too. (Free pattern on Ravelry!)

My other project I made progress on this week was a pair of gloves to go with my

Hood and Shoulders above the Rest hat I made a couple weeks ago. I had most of one skein of yarn left over from the hat, so I thought a nice set of mittens to go with it would be wonderful. (My hands are already cracking and bleeding this winter and we have only had one snow so far!) I have a pattern I really like for using the Lion Brand Thick & Quick yarn, the Wool-Ease Mitten pattern by Stephanie Taylor on Ravelry. (Also a free pattern.) I need to weave in the ends on mitten 1 (Pictured above - inside out so I can just grab a needle and get to it!) and then move on to mitten 2. It makes me twitch to be EXACTLY half done on two projects. I do not want to come down with half-done idis!

 

The other project we have been working on this week was to get my basement craft/treadmill room updated a little. I did not take a before picture (Argh!) but what I wanted was more storage and a place to have my sewing machine out and ready to use at all times. Previously I would take my sewing machine upstairs and set it up in my dining room everytime I needed to make something. This resulted in me sewing almost never because it was a giant pain in the toosh to set up! So now I have two new bookcases on either side of the tv that are housing craft books, which really opened the space up a lot. I am so happy to be able to see all my craft books! They were stacked previously in a way that I could not see what I had - so I am very excited to see all my books! The Tv is set up better for tread milling. AND I have the ability to listen to my Ipod as well! It's very exciting!

I am still organizing and tweaking the space. I want a rolling chair for my sewing table and I still have stacks of stuff laying all over. My Yarn Balling station fit perfectly next to my sewing table and that made me really happy. I used to keep my swift and baller in a drawer and then set it up every time I needed to ball my yarn up. It's awesome to just have stuff in the ready position!

I am pretty excited to treadmill this morning in my new and improved space!

Have a wonderful weekend all!

Reach up for the Sunrise!

Reach up for the sunrise
Put your hands into the big sky
You can touch the sunrise
Feel the new day enter your life~(Reach up for the) Sunrise by Duran Duran

 Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Saturday morning! Waking up after a solid 8 hours sleep to a quiet house. It's dark now until about 7:00 in the morning or so - so I had a little over an hour of quiet darkness. Well, quiet except for Emma barking at the deer in our backyard and breaking the silence of our sleepy neighborhood. But that is pretty normal.

Today I had my weight in and I was down 2.2 lbs this week! I was surprised I did so well as I had terrible insomnia this week, lots of stress at work and I only did two work-outs this week rather than the four. So I was trying to prepare myself for a less than stellar weight in this morning, but I guess I didn't need to! :) Yay! So my totals are: On weight watchers I am down just over 15 lbs in 8 weeks, and since my heaviest weight I am down just over 30 lbs! YAY!

I try to notice the little things, so here are some "YAY!" moments with my Health Quest this week.

1. Last weekend we were at a busy grocery store trying to shop. I turned around to grab something and my hubby and I got separated. When he turned around to see where I went to he spotted me and then was like "Wait, is that Jen's butt I am staring at?" (I was bent over some produce.) When I plopped the pear into our cart he looked at me and told me "You have lost enough weight and changed your shape enough that I wasn't sure if that was your butt I was looking at or not!" Um....YAY! Probably one of the best compliments EVER on my weight loss and really the only person who can tell you how your butt is looking is your Significant Other - so ....yeah! NICE!

2. I have been wearing the same belt for quite some time. (I refuse to show crack thank you very much!) Last winter I remember going out and looking for a bigger belt because I was kind of feeling tight on the last hole of my belt. (Not a happy shopping day. I did not end up buying a belt - I decided to just work harder and drop the weight.) Yesterday I went to put my belt on and realized I was on the last loop on the other side of the belt! I have lost inches off my waist and will soon have to switch to a smaller belt so I can still be a crack free vixen. YAY!

3. I have hit the point where I need to stop wearing some clothes because they are starting to look crazy big on my. Yesterday I put on one of my favorite winter long sleep shirts - and it was huge on me. So the pairing down of the closet and the letting go of my old wardrobe has begun!

So, even though this week has been tough, I am pretty pleased with all the positive things that I see in my body. Just need to work on this insomnia stuff.

The tree in my neighbors yard is quickly going bare. I posted a photo of this same tree two weeks ago in my Sunday Snippets and it sure has dropped a lot of leaves since then!

 The seasons are flying along and I even heard the dreaded "S" word in the forecast this week. (S=snow) It's been in the 30's in the mornings this week and I have had to break out my knitwear this week. YAY! I get to wear all the hats and scarves and accessories I have been knitting all year! As much as I loath winter - I do love rocking out my knitting. Wahooo!

Speaking of knitting, here are some pictures of my KAL Cowl I am working on.

Last night I did my first cable repeat on my cowl. It was a bit of a challenge to sit on the love seat with my husband, dog, cat and me trying to knit cables while watching Ghost Adventures too. I decided I would quit after only one repeat because I was getting crabby! This is the front view of the first cable repeat.

And this is the back view of the cable repeat.

I am really enjoying this project, but I have to say I prefer doing a cable when I have less distractions. I have to say I am really not fond of how the pattern is written out. I am happy that it's not just a chart I have to follow, but the directions are abbreviated quite a bit - so I am having to think them out a lot. For example: it states"Row 2 and all (WS) rows...." and then it gives directions for all the (RS) rows so your 10 row cable repeat only ends up having 5 lines of directions. You have to know what row you are on and then find the row it tells you to do instead of spelling out the row you are on. So on row 6 I have to look at the directions for row 2, and then remember I am on row 6 not row 2 when I complete the row and move on to row 7. Add to that the directions for the cable rows refer you to another set of directions - and it gets confusing.  I normally rewrite patterns so that I have the exact directions for each row and can check them off as I go, and I think it was a mistake not to do that with this pattern from the get go. I just always try and work the pattern the first time through as the designer wrote it - so I can really get the feel of what the designer did.

All that aside - I am really loving the product this is making and the KAL experience as a whole.

Time to get out of my jammies and into my work out clothes so I can get my weekend going. Happy weekend everyone!

Day 14 of Blogtoberfest

If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon, it's OK. But you've got to shoot for something. A lot of people don't even shoot.

Confucius

We had a full moon earlier this week. It was really pretty and I grabbed my camera and snapped a couple shots. Sort of looks like a single hole punch laying on a square of black velvet - but it's the moon, I promise.

I joined my first KAL on Ravelry this morning. Not sure why really. I have never done a KAL and I wasn't all that enamoured with the pattern when I first spotted it on the cover of KnitSimple this month. It's a Vickie Howell pattern and I have always liked her so much. And I have wanted to knit with her yarn - so I guess it was meant to be. I joined the stitchrocklove group on Ravelry and hopped on the KAL wagon for the Cover Cowl. We cast on Wednesday October 19th. I am a big fan of cowl's and I found a color that should go well with my new red wool coat. Now I just have to wait for next Wednesday to roll around..... If anyone wants to join up with me drop me a note.

Oh - and since I needed this yarn to knit the pattern with I ended up at JoAnn's Fabric and Crafts on my lunch hour BUYING MORE YARN. Are you kidding me?!?!? Ugh. My stash is SO going to explode. I might have to join yarnaholics anonymous if I don't knock it off. I laughed with my husband about this once, but when I am dieting and feel deprived I will often find my spending money on yarn increases quite a bit. This week has been a tough week - work outs feel hard, energy level is low, and I WANT food, so I guess it's not surprising I am going a little ballistic on the yarn shopping. Must knock that off though! ;)

Yippy Skippy it's Friday!

What a long crappy week. We have been having record warm weather all week - then today BAM! November is in your face! Weirdly the cold weather brought in one of my better days at work - and not just because it is the last day before the weekend.

My co-worker, my service desk support people and myself have all been working on getting a printer to work for us for about a month now. It's SOOOOO frustrating - and the behavior it's exhibiting makes no sense whatsoever. It's possessed by the devil I swear. So that has been fun fun fun. I also had a former co-worker send me a bitchy e-mail where she did a typical sandwich compliment. First she thanked me for something. Then she made a snotty slap in the face comment. Then she wished me a happy birthday. Jerk. She exhibits the behavior my mom used to call "Dry Drunk" behavior. Her moods and emotions turn on a dime and nine times out of ten - kitty got claws. I have been on the wrong side of her angry stick too often. Argh.

So the weather is gross and that means it's time to do some outdoor projects! YAY! Tomorrow Tom and my dad will be out working on installing the new garage doors. I thought I would be helper girl - but now it looks like I will be hanging with my mom and knitting or whatever. Should be interesting. Not sure how spending that much time with my mom will go. We will see. I better put more wine in the fridge in case. And maybe do a taste test tonight. **Sigh**

As the weather gets colder and colder I find I want to spend more and more time in my owl flannel pajamas on the couch knitting. Sadly that doesn't do a whole lot for reducing the size of my fairly ample butt nor does it advance me in life all that much - but it probably keeps me from choking the living daylights out of my co-workers and family.

I have been struggling with being motivated with my diet and "healthy lifestyle". Mostly I ping pong back and forth a lot between uber goodness and wallowing in a slop bucket. It's been a rough year that way. I can't seem to get up enough steam to stay on the track of righteous healthiness. Well, I am on my last year in my 30's. The countdown has begun to the big 40. I am better health wise on my 39th Birthday than I was on my 38th Birthday. So I would love to say that again (but maybe with exclamation points and a marked lack of fear of swimsuits) next year. I mean seriously - if Valerie Bertanelli can look that flipping fly after doing Eddie Van Halen and having a kid - then what the hell is my excuse? Ok - I didn't start off looking that hot - but come on! I know I can look (and feel!) better than THIS.

And that is another issue. Negative Nancy in my head. What an evil thing that is to have an inner child who does nothing but point out fault after fault. I would giver her a hug but I just know she would use that chance to knee me in the crotch. She is NOT nice. I have got to figure out a way to silence her. Problem is I believe in what she is saying just enough to not feel like I CAN silence her. Garg. How do you learn to love yourself?