It's Getting Easier

to keep my head in the weight management game. That is. Yesterday I was tired. I had sorta overdone it with the working out on Tuesday. I went to bed late on Tuesday night due to a series of unfortunate events - anyway, I slept late. so I didn't get a morning workout in. But I didn't add cream to my coffee and I had a yogurt and grapefruit (peeled and eaten like an orange) for breakfast. The Princess showed up at the office around noon and we took a 20 minute walk. Lunch was baby carrots and leftover Tamale casserole. By the time I finally left the office at 6 (I get off work at 4:30) I was almost in tears. The nice relaxing effect of the vacation is gone already. However - I did not sit down with JB and help him finish off the bag of chips with salsa. Instead I had a 2pt bar and big class of water. Dinner was baked fish, grilled butternut squash and a salad. I made sf/ff white chocolate pudding with frozen raspberries for dessert and got JB out to walk the big houndies. This morning saw me up on time, worked out and I took a nice, long (35 minutes or so) walk at lunchtime. Dinner tonight will be left over spaghetti with spinach & strawberries and hopefully an after dinner dog walk. Tomorrow is weigh in, our new roof is being delivered, my brother will be arriving sometime in the middle of the night, I will be working in the yard (on office work, not yard work) and sometime after that - this will return to a sewing blog. Speaking of which - I took the top for the pink dress upstairs with me last night. I left the right side open for the zipper, instead of the left. Anyway - I tried it on, the fit will be a little loose, but fine. The issue I was seeing is with a really, really crappy pressing job. So - literally - back to the ironing board I go!!!

Wanna Play?

So, yesterday I challenged Claire to walk 10,000 steps a day. Truly that is quite a bit. I'm not sure I'll be able to make it right off the bat! But then I remember the comments from last week and the support and others that are in the same boat - struggling with stay on track, forgetting to put themselves first - and I thought why not have a bunch of people play? So, who wants to join us? Randi had some blog posts on her lets get real monday topic that would let you add links of all the people playing. I would be willing to figure that out and have a weekly check-in. On the sewing related front - have you seen what the 3 bloggers on sewing vacation have been churning out? Go check them out - Carolyn is one of those on vacation and she's managed to produce 2 dresses and a jacket. That Jacket by the way is the one I have planned for the Jacket that Carolyn challenged me to make - it's been put aside until end of Summer/Fall sewing as I found a beautiful pink home dec fabric to make it out of. I will meet this challenge - just not before she gets it made. Of course, the other side of the challenge was that Carolyn make a Marfy! Linda (Danvillegirl) is also on vacation. She is in search of the perfect empire waist dress. She may have found it. Go check! Now! Finally, Sharon is on vacation. On top of helping her hubby with a honey-do list a mile long - she's managing to get a lot of sewing done! Personally - I got the polka-dot skirt attached to the top. I also managed to get the white ironed. This morning's 10-20-30 minutes of sewing will hopefully see the white skirt pieces cut and serged. Then tonight - assemble, insert zipper, and finish the last of the hand stitching. I'm starting to get tired of this dress and I'm second guessing my fabric choice. It was a very inexpensive piece of fabric from JoAnn's. Guess I'll have to wait to see once it's finished if it's going to work. If not, I learned some new things and tried a few new things too! Last weekend at the Memorial Day Sales I picked up the following patterns - all for .99 each! I made JoAnn's match the Hancocks .99 price and saved myself a trip :) First I got S4076 - I have seen this top on Claire in person and I love it! I really like the cross over version as well as the scoop neck top. I also picked up the Thread S3744, but no pictures anywhere. I saw this cute little pattern, and while the top is extremely similar to the pattern above, I like the raglan sleeve option as well as the knit dress. It may be time to finally break down and order some fabrics from Gorgeous Things or Marsha. Finally - 2 from McCalls. First up - M5430. I have wanted a true wrap skirt for years. I love the cascading ruffle where the front overlaps. The second pattern - M5434 - I'm loving option B, D, E the wrap jacket, skirt & top. Again - need to shop for high quality knits with great recovery.

What a Difference a Day Makes

So, last night I fixed a Weight Watchers Tamale Casserole for dinner - I loaded up on the veggies. Yummy. While that was in the oven baking - I did a 25 minute weight workout. This morning - After having cottage cheese and cantaloupe for breakfast, I worked on the pink dress. Most of the godets are now successfully installed in their seams! But before that - I plugged in a 20 minute ab routine. Killer! For lunch - salad with ff feta, avocado, & artichokes. Plus a banana. Dinner tonight will either be spaghetti (if JB feels up to cooking) or fish, baked butternut squash & spinach salad. I also plan on logging some miles on the treadmill with a good book - slow and steady. I found out I can walk at a steady pace of 3.4MPH and read at the same time. I keep the incline up around 4.5. Also - if there's time before sewing with House, I might to try to get a little dog walk in. Claire - do you have a pedometer? I would like to issue a daily challenge to get 10,000 steps in, beginning June 1 - you game? Oh, and I know this is a sewing blog - I just need to post weight management issue for a bit and get back on track. Unfortunately - as is the way of life, the current weight management issues affect my ability to sew or even want to. I'll try not to let it take over, though.