I'm Sorry. I owe you a post.

Yesterday was crazy. Meetings all morning, work in between and all afternoon. Then my husband and I went out last night to the furniture store and bought a new couch and club chair recliner. VERY excited! Both pieces are in stock so Chris will be picking them up next Monday. So I totally forgot to post my update AND the winner of my little giveaway.

Here I go...

108 days smoke free
1613 cigarettes NOT smoked
12 days added to my life
$445.00 saved.
No thread purchased

And now the winner of my giveaway... I did that random number generator do-dad and it gave me #12 back. #12 is... RACHEL! Congratulations Rachel! Please email me your address and I will get your little goodies out to you. Thank you to all who commented. I will do another giveaway soon. They are fun!

Update on the Wii Active 30 day Challenge. I like it. I went strong until the weekend hit because I just wasn't home all weekend. Nor did I do any exercising yesterday because we got home late from furniture shopping. So I will be starting up again today. But I like it. I work up a nice sweat for the 20 minutes I do the routines. I'm going to forge on.

Punkie is in New Hampshire with my in-laws for the week. They left yesterday and will be home on Saturday. I slept in this morning until 7:00; it was very nice. I have a few evenings of Mama-Free duties so I plan on doing some sewing.

End of last week and over the weekend, I finished quilting the pinwheel wall hanging and I sewed the binding on - I just need hand sew the back. I did a practice run with the machine embroidery with a shirt that I bought Punkie. The design is a bit off-center and a little too low on the shirt but I don't care. She'll wear it anyway. So now I feel a little bit better about embroidering a shirt as a gift. I think with the gift, I'm going to mark the area on the shirt where I want the embroidery in pencil to be BEFORE doing anything. I have a hard time visualizing, even when the machine shows me where the design is going to go. Why do I have these ideas AFTER the fact? I guess that's why we practice.

I will post pictures soon of everything. I would just like to have them all done.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Another Monday is here.

Wow. Another Monday, huh? Well, here's my post.

99 days smoke free - come back sometime this week for my 100 smoke free days giveaway.
1494 cigarettes NOT smoked
$412.00 saved. I wish. I've been slacking there. I need to start paying myself again but I'm too lazy to go to the ATM to take out the money. I have a secret stash of cash at home but I haven't been adding to it
11 days to my lifetime have been added

No thread purchased.

I bought this over the weekend. I haven't used it yet. Well, I checked out my neighbor's before I bought mine.

I'm getting bored at the gym AND I would rather do something in the morning for 20 minutes or so before getting ready for work instead of going to the gym after work. But I think I can't get rid of the gym all together. SO, my plan is to do the Wii Active 3 to 4 times a week and get to the gym as much as I can. Work schedules between myself and my husband are kinda crazy these days. Makes doing anything after work hard because of Punkie. I like to have her home as soon as I can so that she has time to decompress from her own day. I hate when I pick her up late, throw her in the tub for her bath and then put her to bed. I don't get to spend much time with her and she doesn't get to relax.

I'm hoping this will get me motivated to get off my @$$ and get this weight off. My cousins are on a diet together (helps when they live in the same house) and one has lost 13 pounds, the other 6. I'm jealous. I don't want to be the "fat" cousin at family reunions. LOL.

I've also been busy, busy, busy on the sewing front. I will post pictures soon. I think today will be a double post day as I have pictures of the teacher gifts that I made.

That is all. Wish me luck on the exercise. I'm going to need it!

Jen

Monday, Monday

I'm slacking in blogland. I have a bunch of things to update - things that we did, things that I've worked on in the last week or so but I haven't had time to organize my pictures off my camera. So hopefully more posts will be coming in a couple of days.

93 days smoke free.
1389 cigarettes NOT smoked
$383.00 saved
10 days added to my lifetime

No thread purchased.

I think my husband is going to do a "lifestyle change" with me. Maybe that will help me get motivated and back on track with the whole weight scene. We'll see.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

My Monday Post

I usually post in the morning but I forgot today. I have the start of a cold coming on so I'm just not with it.

86 days smoke free - I have decided to have a giveaway celebrating my 100 smoke free day. So you only have 14 more days to wait. LOL.
1288 cigarettes NOT smoked
$350.00 saved - not even close in my wallet but that's okay.

No thread last week.

So. There's my "Loser Monday" post. Can you tell what I'm in denial about?! LOL.

I did do some sewing over the weekend. I made a cute denim jumper for Punkie and a pair of pajama/lounging capris for myself. I had an all day pattern reading lesson on Saturday. I'll have to take some pictures.

That's about it.
Jen

I'm a bad blogger

Seems like the only thing interesting or news-worthy to report on lately is "loser Monday" and I'm not even losing! I had hope on Friday, things were looking really good. Then the weekend came AND I'm PMS'ing really bad. So, that's all I have to say about that.

In other news...
79 days smoke-free
1179 cigarettes NOT smoked
$325.00 saved - not in my current stash. I've been a slacker there too.

6 new spools of embroidery thread purchased. I need to order a little girl's plain white t-shirt and then I will be in business.

In sewing news:
I have all 4 fabric baskets standing with their handles attached. I'm working on getting the liners done. I would like to have them done for this Thursday so that I can bring them to my ceramics class to show them off. Chris goes back to working Thursday nights after this week so I won't be able to go to ceramics. By the time I'm back there, Amelia will be out of school. I'll see how much time I'll get to sew in the next couple of days.

I'm also getting ready to quilt the pinwheel wallhanging and I want to make a cute little tote bag for the birthday girl. Every little girl likes purses. But why can't I find what I want!?! I have in my mind either a black/white/pink OR a black/white/aqua fabric trio for the tote. I can't find any cute black/aqua or pink fabric anywhere. Why is this so difficult? I guess I'll have to change the color scheme and just go the fabric store and see what fabric "speaks" to me.

Have you tried Ocean Spray Cranberry Pomegranate juice? YUM!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Wow. Today really IS Tuesday!

I'm all out of sorts with the holiday weekend. All day yesterday, I thought it was Sunday and today Monday. Not true. I missed my Loser Monday post. Well, I have nothing to report on the Loser Monday front.

BUT...

73 days smoke free
1091 cigarettes NOT smoked
$300.00 saved - I need to start putting my money aside again now that my fabric shopping is done for a while.
No thread purchased. I need to get to the store though and start working on my project. July will here sooner than I want it to be!

On the sewing side of things... I started working on the End of Year Thank You gifts for Punkie's teachers. I've decided on the pedicure/pamper yourself fabric baskets. And what makes me happy is that 3 out of the 4 baskets are completely out of my fabric stash! I didn't know I had a stash big enough to accommodate. I'm putting some of my fabric to good use. :)

I'm also going to create a lap quilt for my new "sister"... sister in law to be exact. She has another SIL on her side of the family (her brother's wife) but they don't get along so I'm #1. LOL. And she got me a keychain from Las Vegas saying "#1 Sister" on it to prove it. She loved Amelia's quilt so much that I thought I would make her one for her upcoming 30th birthday. It probably won't be done for her birthday but that's what it will be for. I found the perfect fabric for her since her color request was orange and blue; orange being her favorite color. I just need to order it.

My "to do" list is growing by the second. I really need to get laid off so that I can work on my sewing projects. LOL!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

It's That Time Already...?

I think Jenessa summed it up REALLY well. LOL!

In other news...

65 days smoke free
969 cigarettes NOT smoked
$268.00 saved (according to the computer) - I've been on a few shopping sprees so I didn't put any money aside for myself. I already spent it on fabric and Longaberger baskets!

Thread purchased - zero spools this past week

Buh-bye!
Jen

Loser Monday...

I am not. This is pretty bad. Lots of people are telling me not to worry about my weight and just focus on not smoking. I just can't do that. I'm out of control. Every week I'm up another pound. Every week I'm more discouraged and think it's not worth it and just start smoking again. At least when I was smoking, the weight didn't come on this fast. I had something else to do when I got bored/stressed/sad/angry... now I eat. And eat and eat and eat. When I smoked and was hungry or wanted a snack, I would have a cigarette. Now I eat. And eat and eat and eat.

I thought posting once a week would make me more accountable. I guess not.

I won't go back to smoking. I just needed to get my thoughts out of my head and onto "paper". I will re-think my Loser Monday strategy. Maybe I'll get my mouth wired shut for 6 months. Maybe I will re-join Weight Watchers and physically go to meetings (I was doing it online). I know I can lose the weight. I did it before. Took me 2 years but I did it.

Anyway...

58 days smoke free
865 cigarettes NOT smoked
$239.00 saved

and at Anna's suggestion...
spools of thread purchased - (from 2 weeks ago) 41 spools! I didn't add to my spool collection last week. I'm working on building up my embroidery thread collection so I bought 6 spools for that. I also bought 35 spools of cotton thread from Connecting Threads. Can't beat the price and the size of the spool for the money.

I have more New Hampshire adventures to share with you and some pictures but that post will have to wait until I get home tonight.

Jen

Oh yeah...Loser Monday

The only thing I have to report for Loser Monday is that I'm still up but not as much. Seems like my weight is really going up and down with this no smoking. I am heading back to the gym tomorrow (FINALLY) as things in my personal life have slowed down. So I hope to really get back on track. I didn't do too bad this weekend with snacking but Saturday was killer as I attended a first communion and the reception after was at an Italian restaurant and I was starving and the bread was piping hot fresh and (fresh) bread is one of my many weakness... you see where I'm going with this??

On the other side of things:

51 days smoke free. FIFTY ONE
759 cigarettes NOT SMOKED
$210.38 saved so far. I think I have just under $200.00 put aside.

Pretty cool.

Jen

Loser Monday...

I've come to dread this day. How bad is that. But I'm back on track today. I've made up my mind. My crazy need to snack is coming to an end today. I have a nice salad for lunch with some grilled chicken, some pineapple and some other fruit out of my fridge. I haven't decided yet.

Other news...
44 days smoke free.
Cigarettes NOT smoked = 654
Money saved = $181.50 - I've been slacking about paying myself. But I DID buy some fabric so I think that counts.

But I do have a confession... I caved. The urge was way big. I snuck a cigarette from my mom on Saturday (SO high school!) and lit up on my way to my haircut appointment. Can I say, I'm not missing anything? I didn't enjoy it one bit. Even felt weird smoking. I didn't even smoke the whole thing. So, I'm done. My urge is gone and I'm over it. Moving along...

Had a very nice weekend. Saturday was spent running errands but Amelia had a great day at my mom's. We had summer-like temps here so she had a ball running around and playing with the garden hose. Yesterday, Chris and I spent the morning mulching the garden. That chore is done and I'm happy. Looks great! 4 1/2 yards of mulch later, it better!

So, that's it. I need to get my lunch together and think about getting ready for work. I love having a flexible job where I can work from home or go the office. Today, I'm doing a little bit of both.

Have a great day!
Jen

I'm Not Happy...

Loser Monday again. I'm not a loser. Since I've quit smoking, I have found 5 additional pounds. Not good! Not good at all! I'm not happy. I feel like a fat blob and I can see those 5 pounds in my face. SOOOOO tempted to start smoking again to stop eating but I know that's not the answer. I will not do it but in the back of my head, I'm very tempted.

I'm going to try very, very hard this week to get back on track. I need to start getting back to the gym. Being sick the last month between myself and Punkie, I haven't had the motivation to go. But I'm finding it again and I'll be going.

My other Loser Monday update:
Days smoke-free: 37!
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 549 - that is just INSANE!
Money saved: $152.00 - I think I have about $100.00 put aside right now.

Pretty cool!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Loser Monday...

I haven't weighed in yet today and I don't know if I'm going to. First, I ate like a pig yesterday and second, Punkie is sick this morning. Pushing a high fever and vomiting. I'm waiting for 8:00 a.m. so that I can call her doctor. I snuck in a quick shower in between everything and forgot to step on the scale. So, no weigh in for me today.

In other news...
30 days smoke free!
Cigarettes NOT smoked - 443
Money Saved - $123.75

SWEET!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

It was Too Good to Last...

My 2 pound loss has found its way home to me. I knew my happiness would not last. That is what happens when you start to feel better and start eating "real" food again versus eating chicken soup and drinking hot tea. Oh well. I will start all over again this week.

My other update:
23 days smoke free - but for some reason, I really want one today. The craving will pass...
Cigarettes I have NOT smoked in those 23 days = 339
Money saved = $94.88 - I have put aside $80.00 of that so far. I plan to "pay" myself the rest on Friday.

Pretty cool...

I have some things to show you that I've worked on the last couple of weeks. I just need to get the pictures uploaded.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Surprise Surprise

I actually lost just over the 2 pounds that I gained when I started not smoking. That was nice to see this morning since I had a lousy weekend. Well, not entirely lousy. I've been battling a cold for the last two weeks and I thought I was getting better but it came back and it came back with force! I spent the weekend feeling like crap; body aches and chills, coughing like there's no tomorrow, a mouth that feels like sandpaper because I can't breathe from my nose and a throat so raw, it hurts to even think about it. And I'm not sleeping at night so I'm exhausted. My husband stayed home from work yesterday so that he can help with Amelia during the day. Not that I was helpless, just really tired and achy. So that's why my weekend wasn't entirely lousy. I actually took a genuine sick day today and as soon as I'm done with this post, I'm going back to bed for a little while. Punkie told me this morning that I needed to lay down on the couch because I didn't look so good.

And no, I am not counting my 2+ a little more pound loss as a "side effect" of being sick. I'm counting it totally legit. LOL.

Oh, I promise I will stop talking about this soon but I'm 16 days smoke free today! And at over $6.00 a pack for my brand here in CT, I'm glad I quit when I did!

That's all. I'm tired. I'm going to bed.
Jen

I May Not be Down...

But I'm not out. Another week gone. Another pound up. But I know the reason. I am starting day 9 of my non-smoking quest. You heard me right. It has been 9 days since my last cigarette. I'm pretty proud of myself and what willpower I had yesterday! Amelia spent the weekend at my mom's and my mom drove her home. My mom and I were chit-chatting and she says to me "Let's go outside and smoke a cigarette." I said "You are on your own. I QUIT!" She is really proud of me but sad that she lost her smoking buddy. Oh well. She's trying to quit as well but not being too successful at it. But I will tell you, I wanted that smoke. Not a lot, just a puff. But I worked through it. And today is a new day.

Fruit recipe... I forgot to mention mine. I really don't have one. I eat fruit everyday. Whatever I find in the grocery store and at a decent price. Right now I'm snacking on grapes. What I have issues with is veggies. I'm very picky with the vegetables. I don't like any veggies that are green in color. I find them tasteless. I need to get better at eat them.

My weight is slowly going in the wrong direction so I need to pay more attention to that department. I'll get it. It's all about balance I guess. I need to train myself that just because I'm not smoking doesn't mean I get to eat everything in sight. That whole "eating for 2" myth... yeah, I fell into that trap too!

And how was your weekend? Mine was nice, even though I am nursing a cold. Since I was free all weekend, I spent most of it sewing. Saturday, I went to my friend's house and she taught me a very cute tote bag pattern that she took a class for a while back. I was there for a while. I think about 6 hours. Yesterday - I slept in some, did a little light cleaning and spent the rest of my day in front of the sewing machine. I worked more on the tote bag (I think a couple more hours and I'll have it all put together) and I worked on the fabric Easter baskets. Those came out cute. One more to do and I'll take their picture.

That's about it.
Enjoy your day!
Jen

Loser Monday Update

Am I a loser this week? Nope, not in the weight category but I AM a loser in other areas. Around 7 p.m. tonight, I will be 48 hours smoke free. I was a non-smoker when I was pregnant but took it back up as soon as I was home from the hospital, unfortunately. This time, I'm doing this for me and I'm feeling pretty good.

I'm not craving the nicotine too much but I've been picking at everything else this last week so I'm showing a gain. Oh well. I'm going to the gym tonight and I'm going to try to keep the eating under control.

Okay, I need to stop talking about this topic for right now. The more I talk about it, the more I think about it. I need to get busy with something else.

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Loser Monday and Let's Pick a Winner!

Loser Monday... I got nothing. I stayed the same, yet again. Is that a good thing? I don't know. But I'm not going to stress over it. I think we had an assignment to provide a soup recipe? Am I remembering right? Well, I don't have any. I'm not a big soup maker. I'm a "Progresso Soup" girl. Unless it's my Mom or Grandmother's homemade chicken soup or tomato soup. MMMMM! I can't wait for summer so that I will get some homemade tomato soup with garden fresh tomatoes. MMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Anyway, I don't have those recipes. They aren't written down. I tried to make the chicken soup once. It was okay but didn't taste right. So, my recipe is to get a can of Progresso Light Chicken Noodle (my fave), open, put it pot or microwaveable bowl, heat and eat!

I do have a personal update on my New Year's resolution. If you remember, I posted back in late December that I planned on quitting smoking for my resolution. Well, I didn't start in January. I wasn't ready. I gave it much thought over the past three months and finally filled my prescription for Chantix this weekend. I'm on day 3. Not too bad since I can smoke during the first week but I found that I'm not really smoking that often. Don't really want it. So, wish me luck! I'm going to take my pill now. LOL.

Now, on to the giveaway! Thank you to everyone who posted a comment! I didn't have hundreds like some people but I was pleased to have more than five! I got 26 comments! My biggest lot of comments yet. WOOHOO! I hope those new to reading and commenting on my blog will continue. It's nice to have readers. And there are lots of new blogs I need to check out now!

Okay - the winner! I used a very scientific way of picking a winner. I put everyone's name on a spreadsheet and had my good friend Andrea pick a number between 1 and 26. Her pick? 17!

Sandy from Sandy's In Stitches is the winner!

Congratulations Sandy! I will be in touch to get your mailing address!

This was fun! I need to do another giveaway soon!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Loser Monday...

Or should I say "Stay the Same" Monday. That's where I am. I stayed the same from last week. I guess it's a good thing since I snacked a lot during the week last week.

That's all I got. Nothing exciting. Weekend is done and over with. A snowstorm has hit our area and we've already gotten a foot of snow and it's still coming down. So needless to say, I'm working from home today and Punkie has no school. I'm tired of the snow. We had a tease of some springtime weather on Friday and now we're back to winter. I wish Mother Nature would just make up her mind!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Is It That Time Again?

Wow. Another week come and gone?? Where does it go? So, Loser Monday... I'm down another handful of ounces. At this rate, it will be year 2020 before I lose 10 pounds. Oh well, at least it's going in the right direction.

I do have something to share. Ready?

Dull, dirty and lifeless. BORING!

Bright, cheerful and EXCITING!! Isn't it FAB! I LOVE IT! Is it wrong that I want to hang my ironing board on the wall as art and not use it?! OR that I really want to iron something now?? Here are a couple more pics of my most beautiful ironing board cover... nope. I'm not going to be modest. I think it's gorgeous! LOL!

It was really easy to do. I mean REALLY easy. I found several tutorials online on what the process is. Everybody does it a little different from the other but the overall concept is the same. This is the tutorial I followed... kinda. I made it in shifts yesterday because I had things going on in between. Overall, I think it took me 45 minutes to do. I re-used the original batting because it was fine and the string from my old cover.

LOVE IT! I even went into my sewing room this morning before leaving for work to admire it some more. LOL.

My husband built Punkie's classroom an extra long, sturdy step to use at their sink so that 2 kids could wash hands. Currently, they are using 2 plastic step stools and more than once, someone slipped off... Amelia included. So Chris made a nice wooden one last night. Here's Punkie helping Daddy paint the steps. Please ignore the mess in my basement!

She loves to help. More so, she loves to paint!

Enjoy your day!

Jen

Loser Monday and Paper Piecing

Nothing lost, nothing gained. That's where I am. I had a sweet filled weekend - that could be part of my issue too. I ate a LOT of sugar cookies over the weekend. Amelia and I made "sprinkle" cookies on Friday night for Valentine's Day and I can't stay out of them. I finally put them away - they were on the counter. Out of sight, out of mind. Hopefully.

Now to paper piecing... I got together with my friend's mom and a friend of hers to do paper piecing. Mrs. D has taken a class on paper piecing with Carol Doak and has done a few quilts using the technique so I wanted to learn. Mary - follow quilter and blogger, wanted to learn too so the three of us got together yesterday afternoon and had a "class". It was fun. I got two paper pieced blocks done while I was there and did two more and put it all together when I got home. Here's my end result...

Cute, springy tulips. I had to piece together the bottom border because I was running low on the pink polka dot fabric. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I'm tempted just to frame it and hang it on my wall as art. OR I'll quilt it so that I can get more quilting practice in and figure out how to do binding before I bind my first quilt and then hang it on the wall as art. Undecided at this point. But my husband liked it so I'm going to enlarge the block and I'll make a table topper for our dining table.

The technique is really easy once you get started. I borrowed a book on the process and was totally confused which is why the "class" was needed. Now I got it. Now I'm going to do more! My plan is to make a pillow for Punkie with her name paper pieced in blocks. I saw a pillow in one of my many quilt magazine ages ago but it used a fabric panel with letters on it. Mrs. D. mentioned that paper piecing would be easy to do for that. I think she's right.

Add yet another project to my ever growing list in my head! I think I need to start writing these things down!

Enjoy your day!

Jen