PIF and other FOs

Two of my three Pay It Forward gifts have been successfully delivered and received so I can now post some photos of some of the small projects I've been working on. Life has been really busy lately with work (I'm now working with teachers in 5 schools and still trying to budget my time so that everyone feels like they get what they need), school (one more class for UVA underway), life with Honey (I actually went down to help build again this past weekend but more on that in a bit), and life in general that I've been happily working on smaller projects that can provide some satisfaction for completion. So what did my lovely on-line knitting friends receive????

More (better) photos can be found on the recipients' blogs. Stacey received a kitchen set showing off her sorority mascot and hopefully some luck and wisdom of the elephant will also be sent her way. (Not that Stacey is in need of additional extra wisdom or anything. In fact I feel like the lucky one to have had her stumble upon my ramblings and offer up her friendship.) The pattern is a combination of Piece of My Heart and an Elephant Dishcloth made with a deep purple cotton yarn. It was fun to add little beads for elephant eyes!

Becka received the Flora Scarf from Knitty.com in microspun softness. I'm hoping that it will add a splash of warm comfort during the approaching winter months. The flower was interesting to make with all those twisted thingies!

Both ladies appear to be pleased with their gifts. Don't be afraid to head on over to their sites and leave them a message about how lucky they are to know me!

Another small gifted item is for my WW friend Ora. She has reached her goal weight and is on her way to being a Lifetime member!!! As sort of an additional incentive, I promised her I would make her a tea cozy for when she got her Lifetime. Here it is all ready and waiting for her!

It has an interesting little pocket thing right under where the teapot sits where you can put a little sachet of cinnamon or lavender or something and when it gets all heated up from the pot will send aroma therapy all throughout the house. I used the Kueryon Kozy done up in Lambs Pride. It only used about 1/2 a skein so I gave the rest of it to Sarah who is going to use it to make felted coasters (Sarah, check out this link) or something for Ora so she'll have a matching set.

Lacey also received a special handmade gift from me in her Fall Swap package.
This lovely felted fall Booga Bag was made with SWS in a Santa Fe colorway (I think that was the name of the colorway). Hopefully she'll fill it with knitting goodness throughout this beautiful fall weather we're having.

So as I mentioned earlier, I actually went with Honey again this weekend to help build his parent's house down in Orange. Boy was that so not fun. I spent the weekend caulking the seams of the siding that Honey and his dad were putting up. Caulking is the messiest, yuckiest stuff I've ever had to work with. Not fun at all. In fact it got to be so messy that no matter what I did to try to make it neater just made it messier. I ended up giving up part way through Sunday and retired to a corner of the porch where the sun was shining and keeping me warm and knit for the rest of the afternoon. Between knitting on the drive down, knitting at his sister's house Saturday night, and knitting Sunday afternoon (instead of helping) I finished a pair of slippers that I just need to felt now. Before and after pics will follow at a later post. Hopefully tonight I'll wash them and see how they turn out.

This coming weekend is approaching with much anticipated excitement.... my nephew turns 1!!! I'll be heading home to the back hills of PA for a large family gathering to celebrate. I'll have to spend some time tonight or tomorrow planning for what I'm taking with me to knit. However, I'm so in love with that little one that you'll have to forgive me if the needles don't get much of my attention while I'm there.

In other knitting news, I have started Mr. Greenjeans. I'm really excited about it and it's come along nicely. I just need to learn how to cast on with a backward loop method and I'll be all set to divide for the sleeves. It's on the list of things to do this week, but we'll see how far I get with the preparations for this weekends road trip. Here it is so far:

And I'll leave you all with a photo of some of the peeps who were on the Alexandria Breast Cancer Walk two weekends ago. What fun we had! What exercise we got! And all for a good cause - mammograms for everyone!!

Gesundheit!

Being sick sucks!

I've taught in the classroom for 8 years and very rarely was I ever sick. Usually just bothered by my own personal allergies (ya know from the bad ventilation systems in the schools) and sinus infections. But this year I'm not even in the classroom and I've had one head cold after another ever since school started! I wake up every morning not being able to breathe, a bucket and a half of snot coming out of every hole in my head, my eyes watering to the point of dehydration and I'm lucky if I catch all of this before sneezing it all over the bed and floor. (Watch where you sit and step just in case.)

Now Honey is also sick and between the two of us we've gone through two whole economy sized Kleenex boxes already this weekend. I'm all into reusing things so the empty boxes are now making great little havens for all the used germy snotty Kleenexs so they can all live happily together instead of all over the floor and coffee table. I've taken stock in Lysol for how much I keep spraying around the house to try to kill any germs hanging around. I've washed my hands so much that the soap is drying up my hands and making my fingers raw as I knit. Everything I touch needs to be disinfected. It's a good thing that I'm knitting felting projects and will be washed shortly. It's also a good thing that the weather is beautiful this weekend so I can open the doors and windows to try to air out the house a little.

For those of you from WW reading this, I'm totally off plan again this weekend. My body needs additional carbs at the moment to help soak up the snot in my belly.

On a good note, I did get out of the house for a little while yesterday to do a little shopping. I promise that I tried not to breathe on anyone. Picked up some nice felting yarn to begin working on my House Along project this week. (I missed last week because Honey had family visiting from New Zealand.) And Borders was having their teacher week so I picked up a few books for Christmas gifts as well as a few freebes they were giving to teachers and three great reads for myself.

No pics for today. The house looks like an Army-Navy store exploded in it. Honey is planning on taking a four day bike trip down the C & O Canal or something or other. I'm up to my ears in all his camping and biking gear everywhere. At least the snot rags are not living amongst the gear anymore.

Take a look at that ticker!!!

Did ya notice? Did ya notice? Go ahead, take another look at it. Do you see what happened there tonight? I went down 3.6 lbs this week!!! Can you believe it?! I am so beside myself right now. I had them triple check it because I didn't believe them.

Actually I'm really surprised because it's been quite a stressful week at work and I feel like I've eaten like crap all week. In fact yesterday's dinner consisted of an entire box (16 cookies) of Sugar Free Oreos and a large glass of Skim Milk, oh and a bowl of steamed veggies. I still haven't completely kicked the shadow of the headache that had me begging for mercy over the weekend. My body doesn't feel like it lost 3.6 pounds. In fact I dragged myself to the meeting tonight intending to assess the damage I've done because I feel like such crap.

Some things I did do right this week was my water to Diet Coke ratio. So I'm celebrating tonight with a Diet Barq's with dinner. And even though I haven't done my walking after work (the knee is no longer swollen, but still slightly sore and stiff but definitely working itself out), I've been walking like crazy all over the schools during the day. They sure have kept me busy this week!

So I have officially broke the 150 barrier I've been stuck at since Thanksgiving. It feels so good to be in the 140's even if it's just barely there. Only 4.8 to go! Maybe by Christmas?

There's still room in my Pay It Forward if anyone is interested. It's just a few posts down if you want to check it out.

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

Excuses for why I gained two pounds this week at the weigh-in:
(Be fair warned. This is not a pretty list. But it is honest.)

1. I gave in and splurged all weekend to celebrate Mom's birthday.
(Not that I'm blaming Mom or anything. I take total responsibility for my eating behavior over the weekend.)

2. My knee is still swollen and stiff from the fall last Friday night, which makes exercise just about impossible. I was walking 3 1/2 miles every morning. This week I'm lucky that I'm walking through the halls of the schools.

3. Work has been busy busy busy. I've not had much energy left at the end of the day to do all the things I should be doing to stay healthy. Besides, I've worked hard all day, I deserve a big plate of pasta, and wings, and a 1/2 of a pizza.

4. No fresh groceries in the house. I haven't gone grocery shopping for about 3 weeks so there's not much in terms of appetizing healthy foods in the house.

5. No fresh groceries and no energy leads to a LOT of eating out and ordering in. BAD! BAD! BAD! Of course, I could have made better choices as to what I ordered, but.... (see any number of other excuses.)

6. This head cold is making everything taste bland and so I'm not getting satisfaction from eating, which makes me want to eat more to get the satisfaction - the never ending slide down hill.

7. However, I did find that sugary items still taste good when you're all stuffed up.

8. Giving in to the idea that since the week is already a bust, why not just go full force. (Yesterday morning I added a Boston Creame doughnut to breakfast and a cranberry orange muffin in the afternoon and then went for a delicious cheese burger late last night after the WW meeting.)

9. I've turned to Diet Coke all day, rather than water. The bubbles help disintegrate the phlegm in the back of my throat. But my lips are getting chapped from dehydration. I'm using way too much chap stick for this time of year.

10. Self full filling prophecy: Right now I feel like crap, so why not eat like crap.

Enough of the excuses!!!
This week I am pledging to get back on track and give back those 2 pounds that have found their way into my love handles. After work today, I'm heading out to the grocery store for a stock up of fresh fruits and veggies and I'm hoping to get in a little exercise starting tomorrow. (Give me a break. My knee is still swollen and stiff and I'm not so sure that I should be doing anything on it.) I should have some time this weekend to do some shorter bursts of exercise and maybe still take care of the knee. Actually, just cleaning up the house while jamming to some funky music might be a good idea. Maybe I'll even look into getting an appointment to have an actual doctor take a look at the knee to see how much damage was actually done. And finally, NO MORE DIET COKE! Only water and hot tea this week.

Wish me luck!

Scale Victory

Got in a little late last night and didn't have time nor energy to post. But, I thought I would share that yesterday I gave in to eating 1/2 of a chicken quesadilla and two diet cokes while at S.A.M. Which usually I wouldn't do being that my WW weight in is also on Thursday evenings and the actual weight of what I consume (1 pint water = 1 pound) after work on Thursday gets calculated into my weight loss/gain for the week. It doesn't have time to be properly digested and transferred into actual body weight. So I was anticipating a slight gain if anything. To my surprise I weighed in at -.8 from last week! What a happy surprise! However, I lost the bet our little group had going. Christine lost 6 lbs before the rest of us. I'm so happy for her! We had to go out to celebrate and buy her a glass of wine. We had such a great time cheering each other on and deciding on how we would celebrate each of our next milestones. Sarah took a photo of us the week before and if she emails it to me I'll edit this post and include it.

Heat index = 105!!!

OK... So a blog about real life happenings. I know it's been a little while since I've actually wrote inspiring words of my own about how the world revolves around me and all... but hey, I'm trying to enjoy the last few precious moments of my summer vacation before heading back to work tomorrow. Can ya blame me for not wanting to take the time to drabble on and on about my life for a little while? But since I head back into the forefront tomorrow, I thought I might let you all in on how I've spent my last few days.

First off I must complain about how hot it is here. I've been so proud of myself for keeping to my promise to walk every morning. I'm now up to 3 1/2 miles in an hour, which I'm very proud of. But my God was it miserable to walk today. In fact at 8 in the morning the heat index was already in the upper 90's so I had to divide the walk into two sessions. It worked out for the better since I ended up walking more like 4 whole miles, but I was covered in sweat by the time I reached the end of the block... eewww! icky! But I'm sticking to my challenge in loosing those last few pounds, so I'm suffering through the heat and then stripping down to next to nothing to eat my breakfast while sitting in front of the AC. I'll be checking in tomorrow night for a weigh in since I'll be busy with work related stuff on Thursday. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Since it's so hot outside that even the devil would be uncomfortable being active outdoors, I've been spending most of my time in the house. (Even the thought of getting into the car and suffocating before the ac really kicks in doesn't appeal to me at the moment. And when have I ever turned down a chance for a shopping trip???) So I've been reading and knitting and watching some really bad TV. Who the hell is in charge of day time TV programming? They should be shot! I've decided the only daytime television that I can stomach is TNT Prime Time in the Daytime. Sad but true. But no one wants to hear about the crappy television I've been watching. You all want to see what's been happening with the knitting. Well, here it is. First up is a felted bowl that I attempted. It's not too bad but it didn't come out like I thought it would. Definitely something I will try again though. It was fast and easy and I can see it making part of a great gift for someone. Fill it with some goodies and you've got yourself a little piece of homemade goodness. The pattern is from Deborah Does Navel Gazing. I used the left over Paton Classic Wool from my French Market Bag.

Next up is a set of scarves I'm collecting to give to the local shelter this winter. (Please don't think poorly of me because I've gone back to making scarves!) In actually these came about while trying to procrastinate from seaming the baby sweater that I'll write about later in this post. I thought a few quick knits would help boost my self-esteem and make me feel like I've accomplished something. Besides, I found the yarn (Paton's Mosaic) at JoAnn's for $0.50 a skein and you can't beat that for a donation item! Both scarves are worked on size 17 needles (I told you they were fast knits). The blue one is with three strands together and it gives it a nice thick and heavy weight. The pink one has only two strands and lays looser. It's only 1/2 done at the moment. Both scarves are done in garter stitch, nothing fancy here.

Next up is two little items that I actually knit for my mom to use as part as a gift for her best friend, a true Kilpatrick! Every year she looks for cute Irish items to give her and I thought

these would make for a nice addition. I love the border stripe. I found the pattern here. I had enough Sugar and Cream yarn to make a smaller version as well.

And then this afternoon I dragged myself out into the sweltering heat to meet up with some good knitting friends at my favorite coffee shop, St. Elmo's. I decided that the only way that I could get myself to quit procrastinating on finishing the baby sweater (and the baby is due sometime this month so I really need to finish it even though the baby won't wear it until this winter) was to take it and only it along. Can I tell you that it took me 2 1/2 hours just to seam the collar on! Have I mentioned how much I hate seaming! Actually I thought it went along quite well. I didn't have to take it out a million times before getting it to line up correctly. Joining me in my 'I don't want to do it but I need to do it to get an FO out' was Jaz and Maddie. Jaz worked on a wrap sweater that's been looming at the back of her knitting basket for about a year due to it's 400+ pick up stitches for a tubular edging cast off thingy. I've not tried something like this but I can see why she's not happy about it. Can I just say, WOW! Then there's Maddie who is working on a cuddly blanket for her man and worked a special square adapted and altered from another pattern which had her changing purls to knits and knits to purls and somehow keeping it all straight. We were quite the little group today!

As you can see, I'm a very visual type person. Lots of photos for today's entry. Notice the almost empty iced chai latte - nothing like a little cold refreshment to get through the deadly heat and knitting frustrations! Hope you all are finding ways to keep cool.

WW reporting

A quick posting during commercials (watching CSI).

I'm happy to report that I lost another 1.4 lbs this week! That leaves me with just 6 more to go to hit my goal weight. The group that I chat with during the meeting has started up a little competition. Another member also only has 6 lbs to go for goal weight. Whoever gets there first gets treated to a glass of wine after the meeting. A few others have gotten in on the deal as well. Alas, additional motivation to keep moving through those last few stubborn inconviences!

A non-scale victory for today is that I'm now walking 6,300 steps in 50 minutes every morning. I'm hoping that by next week I'll be up to 7,000 in less than an hour.

Oops, it's back on...

"Be an after, stay and after."

So I thought that maybe I should post about some other effects in my life. Two years ago my almost 50 year old father had a little scare with his heart. He needed to have quadruple bi-pass surgery. Not an extreme emergency, but not a bowl of cherries either. It made us all really stop and think about our own personal health and the collective health of the family. Unfortunately I don't come from a particularly healthy family blood line. There are all sorts of cancers, heart issues, blood pressure, diabetes, and just random ailments sprinkled in various portions throughout the family tree. (I myself was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of 18. I'll spare everyone the whole cry-me-a-river story.) My family, as a lot of American families apparently do, revolves around food. We are not a small group of people. So it's no real shocker that we carry these health issues. But when the red flag began to whip around in the wind with Dad, I began to really look at my own health and decided it was about time I took what control I could take. There are some things that through family history will be difficult to avoid, but that's no reason I can't at least try to control my weight and increase my overall health. I took a look at my eating habits and made an overwhelming loud declaration about what bad food choices I make. Ya know, I'm not 19 any more and can eat whatever I want and it not effect my 120 lb. waistline. I thought I could change my habits... but soon found out I was a miserable failure at that on my own. So last summer I took the initiative to join Weight Watchers. Because the first step is admitting that I have an eating problem.... what can I say, I love food! I love trying new foods. I like comparing foods. I take joy out of what I eat. It's too bad that I'm not the fabulous cook that I wish I was. Thankfully I took quickly to the guidelines Weight Watchers offers and I've done quite well for myself. I've successfully lost about 25 pounds on the plan, although I haven't lost and kept off any additional weight since Thanksgiving. I though it would be OK to maintain and coast through the holidays, but I've found that I'm too content with the weight loss that I haven't been motivated to lose the last 10 pounds necessary to reach my goal weight. So, I'm declaring here and now that I'm going to work at losing those 10 pounds. This month I've started walking in the morning and during the break from the UVA class. Studies say that you should be walking 10,000 steps every day to maintain fit. So far I'm officially up to about 5,000 - but I'm only counting the time specifically dedicated to walking as excerise. I'm not calculating all the back and fourth everyday walking stuff like doing laundry, going to the grocery store and what not. I don't think I'm off to a bad start. We'll see what the scale says tomorrow. I guess what I'm mumbling about here is that I'm taking this moment to declare my commitment to those last 10 little inconveniences. Whether I like it or not, it's now on the web, so it must be true, right?