Paper is a Fiber!

I can promise you that paper is indeed a fiber. Therefore, my discussion of scrapbooking fits in nicely with my fiber art addiction. Just go with me on this, OK??

I'm starting to build a nice little collection of scrapbook papers, embellishments, and tools. It's not quite as big as my yarn and knitting collection, but give me time. Of course, all these goodies must be carefully stored away, and since Daughter is a sticker fanatic, I must of course secret away some of my best stickers to keep her hands off them. I went to Michaels last night armed with a 40% coupon and every intention of buying this. Instead, I came home with this....and some more stickers, and some paper, and some corner edger scissors.

I didn't get any actual scrapbooking time in last night, but I certainly managed to get my things organized. Daughter even organized her things and stashed her stickers with mine. I'm not sure that is a good idea. I must guard my stickers from this little fiend! :-)

I knit a couple of rounds on Picovoli. She's coming along slowly but surely. I better get my rear in gear and get finished before summer is over!

The Curves diet and exercies plan are still going very well. I've lost a total of 22 pounds since January. I am not sure what I've lost since starting the diet, but at least half that was from diet. As I've said before, I don't have the luxury of working out every day. This working a full time job thing cuts into my leisure time. I think I've done darn well taking this thing slowly and hopefully in a manner where I will not gain the weight back. Husband is looking rather slim and trim himself! He's dieting with me and walking every day for exercise.

Theresa commented on our riding 6.6 miles uphill. The round trip bike ride was 6.6 miles. We only did half that up hill. We're not totally nuts! :-) You also asked about the wood turning class. I think it was in Greenville.

Li, I don't see the attraction for wood turning either--the noise, the mess--but I sure like the end results. We have a friend here who turns the most beautiful wood bowls you've ever seen. They are very popular items at local art sales and the farmers market.

My dad turned wood, and one of my most prized possessions is a child size rocking chair he and my grandpa (dad's dad) made for Daddy's first grandchild. At the time, I wasn't married and certainly had no idea of having a child. Daddy and Pappy have both passed away now, and that makes the chair even more special to me.

Gotta Love a Long Weekend

We had a great 4 day weekend here. It was nice to get up and not have a schedule for so many days in a row. Friday, of course, we spent a lot of time at school for the awards day.

Sunday found Husband in the upstate of SC for a wood turning class. I think he had a good time, as he's already talking about the next time he goes!

Daughter and I spent Sunday surrounded by pretty paper, photos, stickers, etc. We scrap booked! We did take a quick break to run out to Michaels for more supplies and to use our 50% off coupon! I finished 9 new pages and am almost caught up with my scrap booking. I still need to do the Ren Fest, soccer, and awards day.

Yesterday, we went for a family bike ride on the trail near our house. It is a lovely paved trail that runs through shady woods. It goes to the local recreation center then continues on through woods down to the river. We rode 6.6 miles yesterday. It was a nice ride, but it was all uphill on the return trip! Isn't that always the way?

In the afternoon, we ended up at Hobby Lobby for what else? Scrap book supplies! They have a huge selection of paper, stickers, and other adornments. I snagged a pair of Fiskars corner rounder scissors for half price and also got a template for different shapes on clearance. We got a nice selection of paper and stickers, too. What we need now is an organizational storage system (portable) for our goodies.

In knitting news, I'm in the boring part of Picovoli now. I've finished off the raglan top, cast off for the sleeve caps and cast back on for the underarms. If you work this pattern, be sure to read and follow the advice on casting on extra stitches in the under arms. I did not do that the first time around and ended up with big holes where I was re-connecting the sweater body and underarm portion. I ripped that out and now have lovely joins. I have quite a ways of boring stockinette to knit before starting the waist shaping, but at least it is mindless TV knitting! I want to finish this off soon so I can enjoy wearing it.

School's Out for Summer

Yesterday was the end of exams, last day of 7th grade, and Academic Awards Day for Daughter. Whew. I think she's glad it is all over. She collected a couple of awards yesterday--honor roll and special honors in science. We were all very surprised by that science award! Daughter has done a lot of work on projects for science this year (OK, so I did have to stand over her with a stick to get her to finish them) and I think the teacher recognized how much interest Daughter has in the subject. It could be genetics or just socialization, that interest in science. After all, both Husband and I have degrees in biology.

Last night was the 7th grade end of year party, a dance at the club house of one of the new ritzy neighborhoods in town. The club house was awesome. It sits right on the river and is built like an old boathouse. The kids had a dance right there by the river. I think they had a great time.

Daughter gets one week off from school, then she starts camps which pretty much keep her busy through July. She's not one to just lie around, so staying busy with camps will suit her perfectly. It will suit me as well, because I won't hear the "I'm bored" whines that so many parents must endure in the summer time.

Handsome Knights and a Princess

Finally, here are some photos from Ren Fest! I didn't take many, and most of the shots seem to be of fencing!

Here's husband getting a hug from Mother Goose's goose!

Yes, the goose really hugs. She's very tame. Mother Goose and Father Goose had a couple of nice geese with them as well as a trained duck. They are all family pets. The geese were quite popular with the crowd.

The handsome prince and the princess did a bit of fencing. Here they are suiting up for their duel.


Here is an action shot.

Much to the prince's chagrin, the fair maiden beat him at fencing. Of course, he blamed it on her lack of skill! We won't mention the fact that he slaughtered here at Battle Ship several times during the drive to Atlanta. She owed him a whuppin'.

Poor handsome prince also fenced with husband, and this time, the prince prevailed.


We had such a good time together. I hope we can do it again soon. We were one tired bunch when we dragged ourselves out of that park on Saturday evening.

Still No Pictures

There are no pictures to post, because the frickin' frackin' card reader won't read. That means I also can't e-mail my pictures to Wal Mart for printing, can't scrabook our Ren Fest memories, can't share the pics with daughter's friend. This card reader of ours just seems to do things as it pleases. Darn it's electronic circuitry.

I goofed on Picovoli during the drive to Atlanta Saturday. It could possibly have been traffic related, I'm not sure. I ripped back last night and have almost completed the increase rounds for the tops of the sleeves. I'm pleased with how the pattern is turning out so far. I've found other tops that I'd like to make, but most of them require seaming. If I can knit something in the round and avoid the seaming, so much the better--and faster!

My new issue of Cast On came yesterday. It looks like it's been to war and back, it is so beat up! Just one more complaint against the USPS, I guess. There is an interesting article in the magazine about making two socks on two circulars. I'm not convinced that I want to try this method....

Daughter's exams start tomorrow, and school is out on Friday! It's hard to believe this year is almost over. Academic Awards Day is Friday, and daughter is hoping for an honor roll certificate.

Summer camps will start soon. Daughter is doing three athletic camps (volleyball and soccer), a counselor-in-training camp, and an enrichment camp in algebra. She has a full summer, but that's good! She's like her mom and tends to get into trouble when she's not busy!

Husband and I are looking forward to a long weekend. We both are taking off on Friday for the awards and then have a holiday on Monday. Yeah! I hope I can sleep in at least one or two days.

Festive Festival

We attended the Georgia Renaissance Festival yesterday and had a wonderful time. I'll upload pictures either later today or early next week. Daughter took along a friend, I got some nice shots of the two of them fencing. Her friend had been to the festival before, and he'd been talking about fencing from the day we invited him. Poor kid. Daughter beat him! That's OK, because later in the day, he fenced Husband and regained his pride be beating an adult. The kids are now talking about the possibility of taking fencing lessons. It sounds like fun to me, so I may even give it a hand. I didn't try yesterday and wish I had.

I was impressed with the rides at the festival, because they were not the typical carnival metal and electric rides. We only did one ride, the Crow's Nest. It was a very large wooden structure similar to the crow's nest on a ship. It was suspended from a pole by numerous stout ropes. The center of the pole was greased, and two men turned the crow's nest round and round to wind the ropes May Pole fashion around the greased pole. When they let go, it was a rocky, fast, and quite entertaining ride.

I was amazed at how many people were in costume at the festival. Husband was amazed at the amount of cleavage on display!! I want to make costumes for us to wear next year. Daughter fell in love with a fairy costume, but I didn't love the price--$200. It was beautiful and extremely well made, but I just can't quite see spending that amount. I am leaning toward a wench costume myself. Wenches seem to have a lot of fun! I'm leaning toward the look on the right of the photo in this link.

We are already looking forward to going back to the festival next spring. Who knows? Maybe we'll take in this one in the fall.

I Hate Internet Explorer 7

I went to bed one night, everything fine and dandy with the computer. The next morning, there was a problem. SOMEBODY had updated the Internet Explorer. I don't know who did this. Maybe the computer, which is a bit whacked out anyway, had a sudden urge to update. All I know is that I don't like it. I don't like the look of it. I don't like the tab dealies instead of new windows opening. I don't like that my handy dandy "Links" folder no longer shows in the task bar. I kept that folder there because that's where all my blogs that I visit are linked. Now blog surfing is not as fun and easy as it once was. I don't like that there's no little spinning globe whatsy doodle to let me know the figging program is loading my web page. I just plain do not like Internet Explorer 7. I'm just sayin'..............

What's the Bzzzzz?

We are now the proud guardians of two hives of honey bees. My dad kept bees when I was a kid, so it's exciting to have some around again. We found out from one of the neighbors that the man who previously owned our house used to keep bees also. I guess it was just meant to be, no pun intended! Here's a photo of husband and daughter tending the bees. Right now, tending mainly includes feeding them sugar water. Husband just set up the hives on Sunday evening.


Our garden is growing nicely. Husband has rigged up a trellis for the cucumbers to run along and has staked the tomatoes. Everything is blooming, and we have baby squash already.


You've all been waiting patiently for finished project photos. Here's the crocheted flower I made out of some scrap yarn.
I think it's cute, and it was so much fun and so easy to make.

This is Tempting that I made for daughter. I like it a lot. I have no idea what the gauge is, because I like to live dangerously and didn't swatch in pattern. When I swatched in stockinette, I was getting 6 stitches to the inch using a size 6 needle. I made the smallest size of this pattern, and it fits daughter perfectly. She's a 34 bust. The yarn is Cotton Fleece.


I'm currently working on Picovoli for myself. I'm using Cotton Fleece for it in a blue color called Emperor's Robe. It's a nice royal blue.

Time Flies

I started the day with every intention of photographing the crocheted flower and the Tempting in progress for the blog. Time got away from me, and it is now after 10 PM with no photos. Patience is a virtue, and hopefully my dear readers are virtuous people. *big grin*

Tempting is in the home stretch. You're supposed to knit 5 inches after attaching the sleeves. I'm at 4 1/4 inches now. I'm going to take the project with me on a business trip this week and hope to finish it. I'm starting to lust after new projects, so it's high time Tempting was done.

My two week Curves weigh in was today. I've lost 4 pounds since starting the diet. Yay me! I even ate out today (had to do a lunch meeting for work) and managed to find something that was suitable--grilled salmon and steamed broccoli.

The three of us and a friend of daughter's are going to this in a couple of weeks. I've never been to a Renaissance Festival. Based on the web site, it looks like fun.

Curves Diet the Yarn-a-holic Way!

So...we've re-written a lot of the Curves diet! Don't take that to mean that we're not sticking to it or that it's hard as it is. We just like certain foods better than others. Husband and I spent a good portion of this afternoon re-working the meal plans for next week staying within the recommendations for carbs, fat, protein, and calories but plugging in healthy foods that we like. For example, I refuse to ever eat turkey bacon again. It's yucky. I also loathe celery, so I plug in different things in place of celery.

The diet plan as it is written is simple to follow, and we have not been hungry. We even managed to resist temptation when daughter and her girl friend ordered in a pizza last night. Someone (Sherrie, I think) asked about fiber. Without getting into the TMI zone, I think we're doing just fine with our fiber intake! :) I have lost 1.5 pounds this week, and husband has lost about 5 so far. Damned disgusting man! We all know men seem to lose weight easier and faster than women, right, ladies? He's walking 3 miles a day, so that probably is playing a big part in it.

I have two challenges next week. I have to do a lunch time interview on Tuesday and am on a business trip Wednesday afternoon through Thursday. I am trying to plan my eating so that I can pack a small cooler bag to take with me. Husband found me a good on line calorie/nutrition counter, so I'll plan eat out things as well. The web site has a program that you can buy for your Palm Pilot, and there is a free trial. I'm downloading the free trial for next week. We've ordered the book associated with the web site, but I don't know that it will come in in time for my trip.

There hasn't been a whole lot of time for crafting this week. I have made both sleeves for Tempting and attached them. I'm now working on the yoke. Husband and daughter are doubting that the sweater will fit her, but we shall see. K2P2 ribbing has a lot of elasticity!

I know you want pictures, and I'll try to get some tomorrow. It's been a busy week! Thank you very much to everyone who's left a comment or sent a note of encouragement for our diet. It really is a help to have support of my family and friends.

Diet Day 1.5

I joined the Six Week Solution, Curves' diet class. We had our first meeting last week, but the guide books and diet plan didn't arrive until Monday. My whole family is doing the diet (daughter not so much since she's at her ideal weight, but she has to eat what I make for husband and me for family meals) and that will make it easier. We started the diet last night with dinner, because I'd not had a chance to buy the food for any other meals. The diet looks easy enough on paper. There is a test that you take in the book that tells you whether you are better suited to be on the higher protein diet or the higher carb diet. Husband and I tested to favor the higher protein diet.

This diet plan is more a learning to eat healthfully for life plan. We learned that when you don't eat enough, your body goes into survival mode and actually conserves calories making it more difficult to lose weight. Also, constant yo-yo dieting will actually screw up your metabolism. The plan is supposed to "jump start" your metabolism. We started out on 1200 calories with a certain break down of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. This is Phase I. Next week, we move on to Phase II which actually increases calories slightly while still maintaining the same ratios of protein, carbs, and fat. I'm learning a lot about portion sizes because foods need to be weighed and measured.

We did our grocery shopping last night for the diet. It really is costly to eat healthy foods. We spent almost $200 on lean meats, whole grains, and fresh veggies and fruits. The good thing about this plan vs. something like Nutrisystem is that the foods are all common items you can find at your grocery store. You don't have to order pre-packaged foods although you can opt to have Lean Cuisine for lunch once or twice a week.

Last night's dinner was a 6 ounce chicken breast (boneless and skinless) broiled with lemon pepper, a cup of fresh green beans, and a medium sized apple. It was yummy! Breakfast this morning was 3/4 cup of egg substitute scrambled, a slice of whole wheat toast, and 3 ounces of Candian bacon. That is a much larger breakfast than I usually eat, and I wasn't able to eat all my Canadian bacon. I'll probably have it for a snack when I get back from exercising this morning.

There are also requirements for drinking 64 ounces of water a day, taking a multi-vitamin, and drinking a "delicious" protein shake every day if you want to. The protein shake is anything but delicious, but it is filling. I had hardly eaten yesterday for breakfast and lunch, so I did indulge in a shake last night.

WAKE UP!

I'm really dragging today in spite of the coffee, the chocolate (shhhhh!), the workout and the attempts at staying alert. I don't know what my problem is. At this rate, I'll be lucky to make it through the evening news before falling asleep.

I haven't done any knitting the past couple of days, but I have crocheted another flower. I had some scraps of some sort of cheap Patons yarn in cream with a gold metallic thread running through. The flower turned out nicely, and I made it into a pin. Daughter, the fashion queen of the 21st century, liked the pin and almost wore it to school. I'm not sure what changed her mind at the last minute.

I stopped off at the post office this morning to pick up a package. There are several very LARGE signs in the lobby saying cell phone use is not allowed. I guess they want you to get on with your business and not clog up the line while you are chatting. I was in line with two people ahead of me, and when the lady just in front of me is up next, she starts a call with her cell phone provider wanting to change her service! Unbelievable. I guess she just could not wait 5 minutes to buy her book of stamps and then make that potentially life or death call? I'm all for cell phone users' rights, but this was just a classic example of cell phone stupidity. Kudos to the post office lady who informed her that cell phone use isn't allowed in the PO!