It was really hot

outside on Saturday, but five ladies were in attendance at the Dye Workshop I taught here in Columbia that was organized by Catherine. She's the one who's hands you see zip locking her dye bag. On average they dyes about 8 yards each.
My daughter Lyn once again came through with a healthy lunch of chicken salad on a bed of lettuce with wedges of cantaloupe, Low fat chips and croissants and a choice of either a lemon or orange flavored cup cake for those who can indulge in both sugar and flour. Of course I passed on these but enjoyed the fresh brewed tea she had for us.
After the class I went to a park were Lyn was helping out at a picnic organized to boost awareness and support for National Health care Reform. She has turned into a really enthusiastic political activist. I'm very proud of her. She has worked with organizations in the community to help those in need (weatherizing homes, feeding the hungry,etc) and is quietly adding to and making a differs here in Columbia. Even though she has been out of work for over a year now, she has not sat on her butt and felt sorry for herself. And now, things are looking up on the job front for her.
She is flying to Virginia on Tuesday morning for an interview.
For the next three day will be gathering and packing all the stuff I need for my seven days of teaching in Louisville and my travels from there to Fayetteville, NC to see my sister-n-law and for a meeting of the Yeager clan, which is shrinking in numbers. Them on from there to spend some time in the sweltering heat that I know will be waiting for me in Orlando. Thankfully my youngest daughter Rene' lives in an air-conditioned apartment. I am taking my youngest grand daughter Olivia along with me so I will get to be grand ma for at least two weeks before I return to Louisville to drop her off home. I should be back in Columbia near the end of July.
I won't be home long before I will be flying off to Rhode Island on August 4th to crash at my son Myke and his wife Mel's house while I take a five day class with Kerr Grabowski at Pro Chemical in Fall River, MA. For those not familiar with New England, believe the daily drive from Providence/Cranston, RI to Fall River,MA is not much of a commute. I've done it before and I could barely get a cup of coffee from Dunkin' Donuts drank in the time it took.

I will blog next from Louisville unless something really exciting happens in my quilt making world in the next three days.

I have several dye and fabric kits left from the dye class. Visit my Quilt stash and stuff blog and if purchased I will get them out by Priority Mail before I leave,

"Thinking

won't move a mountain, but one shovel full of dirt and rock at a time will.

I got out of bed this morning thinking that I really needed to cleared away all of the residual stuff left from the garage sale that had taken up residence on my side of the garage; but mainly I needed to clear away the stuff that had found its way on top of my print table. That more so than just the clutter in general was interfering with my creative though processes .
I was thinking this way because telling myself that if I got it done I could do something creative maybe today or at least on a few days this week.

Art is its own reward, but the promise of time and space to make it is mine.

I got up this morning with the intention of making some progress toward that goal and now it is done. But being out there in the garage was miserable. I am as wet as I would be if I had done my morning walk at the gym. I don't think ...... I know there will be nothing creative happening in the garage today.

Therefore, I think my next project is to finish clearing my stash closet of fabrics I no longer want. That shouldn't take very long if I stay with it . But NO ... I have decided to go see "The Proposal" My daughter Lyn who saw it yesterday thought it was worth seeing. And as she said, "We could use a little light comedy in our lives."

I will not linger on the point that I am a little sad today with only one of the reasons being that there are no DADS in our immediate family to celebrate the day with. That said, I think a little comedy might just do me some good.

I think the first showing is at 11:00 at Forum 8, but I think making the 1:20 at Hollywood is more doable. Since I will be out I think I'll treat myself to lunch at Panera Bread, get a "two for"; a cup of black bean soup and a Greek salad with grilled chicken added, either before or after, depending on how much progress I make in the closet. Then when I come back I'll continue with the task of clearing the closet, and maybe, I think I should start cutting lengths of PFD fabric for the dye workshop I am doing this coming Saturday.



The first day of Summer in Central Missouri feels like SUMMER, hot & humid with thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon. Here is a look at what is blooming in my back garden. And to think I was wondering when it was going to get warm enough to work in the garage. HAH!!!!

New Blog for stuff I am riding myself of

Instead of putting my stash and stuff on this blog I created another one especially for that purpose so if you have been checking here to see what I am riding myself of go here instead.
I will keep adding stuff as I make my way through it.

The Facts, just the facts....

I had a week that was nothing to blog about or take photo's of so here are the facts.
I read three more books and am almost done with the last one before I can start listening to three on CD's.
I saw three movies on Sunday, My Life in Ruin, eeh, Pelham 123, pretty good, and UP, smiling.
On Friday, I went through my stuff and gathered some items to put out in our first since living here garage/yard sale, Lyn at the last minute decided we should participate in our sub-divisions annual event and try to rid ourselves of some no longer being used stuff, like my Gazelle. (this is the only time yard/garage sales are permitted by the community by-laws). We priced it to sell and most of it and a lot of other stuff did. Yea!!!!
I went to ARC and walked daily.
I ate well.
Now for what's coming this week.
I've decided to sell my Janome Gem
I've decided to sell my Janome 7500
I've decided to sell a mechanical Kenmore sewing machine, all have resided in the closet for the time I have lived here. If any one is interested let me know and we will talk.
I've decided to really scale back and clear out a lot of stuff I've been holding onto.
Why now?
Mainly because I have narrowed my focus and for the next year I plan to work only with silk broadcloth and whole cloth compositions.
Even if that wasn't the case I now know I will never use some stuff I've collected like Angelina fibers. My Embellisher and silk roving.
So when I get all the stuff together that I plan to rid myself of, I'll take some pictures and post it on my blog, most will go for the cost of postage and some will be at a nominal cost plus postage.
Check back if you might be interested in seeing what is going.
If no takers, then all that is left will be donated to the Boys and Girls club, the Library or Goodwill.

I put down the book I was reading

on Sunday long enough, once the rain stopped, to go with Lyn to Stephens Park for the annual Art in the Park art fair sponsored by the Columbia Art League, an organization I keep telling myself I should join but haven't as yet.

I selected a few of my favorite sites to share with you of our outing.
Those who know me know I have a large elephant collection as a result of no effort on my part. The short of a long story is that I brought one to put on my coffee table back in the 70's when jungle themed wall paper was the rage and an elephant just seemed to go with the decor. Needless to say everyone assumed I liked elephants and from then on for what ever occasion that gifts were in order I got an elephant of some kind. Christmas, birthdays, souvenirs from trips, just because, you name, they arrived. Now I have more elephants, than are probably still in the wilds of Africa and India combined. (a slight exaggeration on my part, forgive me and of course they are not real.)
At any rate; it was good to do an art fair again. My friend Kathy K and I did several together in Louisville when I lived there, but this was the first time I attended one here in Columbia. I can't say that I was disappointed, nor can I say I was impressed. It seemed to be more craft than art and there was an awful lot of jewelry and pottery, few paintings, and only one fiber person. I succumbed and brought a pair of earrings. Not entirely sure why, since I wear the same 2 pair of earring everyday (2 holes in each ear lobe) until I loose one which doesn't happen often.

Of course with my love of flowers I was drawn to these made of stainless steel. WONDERFUL. And yes, I did ask the artist whose wares I took pictures of if it was okay for me to do so.
These trees made of wire and old pieces of drift wood were done by Wayne Trinklein of St. Peters, Missouri. They were so neat and soooo expensive. But tempted I was almost as much as I was with the flowers pictured above.

Lyn found this artist's work amusing and I did too. Notice I found something with flowers in this booth as well that brought a smile even though it had a HUGH bug attached.

Walking, eating healthy, now back to reading.

I know, I know

I wasn't going to blog for a few days, but when I read the comment and the inquiry made as a result of my blog entry of yesterday, I thought I should reply in blog form rather than to the comment section.
Here's my reply:
I have been on this journey since December 31, 2008. Why that date? Mainly because I didn't want to start on January 1, 2009 . In my head starting on New Years day would be like making a New Year's Resolution and I know most resolution are more likely than not to fall by the wayside before the end of January (ask me how I know). This time because I decided I was doing it for me and not because a Doctor said I should, and not because I wanted to look good to someone else or for someone else. I said to myself why not start in the morning and in the morning happened to be December 31.

At first I was trying to keep my caloric intake to 1200 calories (that's hard) and I measured everything that went in my mouth and I wrote it down and tallied it up. I was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. There were days when I felt like I wanted and could eat anything that didn't eat me first, and I struggled with that more in the first month more so than I have since and there were days when I did eat more but I never topped out at more than 1500.

I am not a real lover of meat so I would say my diet is more veggie based and contains a lot of fruit and nuts. Meat I have on average only once a day. When I do eat meat it is lean beef and pork and I try to keep it to four ounces a serving. I eat more chicken and fish. I eat a lot of beans and love every kind, black,white, pinto,kidney, you name it. I am not particularly fond of the taste of egg yolks but ever so often, about once every two week, I will have two egg whites scrambled with one egg yolk. Because I have a wheat allergy I am not tempted to eat anything with wheat in it. So there was no effort on my part to give up stuff like bread, pastries, cookies, cake and pasta. Me being sicker than a "Dog" is not something I want. I do about once a week have rice, corn or a small baked potato.
Dairy is a favorite and I have that in the form of low fat products like yogurt, and lower fat cheeses like provolone. I was a REAL LOVER OF ICE CREAM. (I still am) but since I started being more health conscious, I have had it only twice and then in a small amount.
ON the days when I am eating more calories it is generally due to the fact that I NEED a piece of dark chocolate or some hard candy. I escaped my annual yellow marshmallow PEEP binge but did succumb around Easter to some candy Easter eggs.
When I think back, I can not remember a time since I was 17 or 18 and newly married that I did not have a bowl of ice cream at night and I do mean a bowl and some times I had several bowls during the day. You know when you are grown and on your own you can eat what you want when you want and I wanted ice cream. Especially my favorite Black Walnut by Baskin Robbins which we brought by the 3 gallon tub and kept in the freezer. Ice Cream was what my late husband came bearing instead of diamonds and flowers as proof of love.
Now as a substitute, I have yogurt with frozen fruit and nuts almost every morning for breakfast and a cup of 1% milk with lots of ice at bedtime.Yeah, I know it's not the same, BUT!
When I reported that I had lost 51 pounds I did not say that I want to lose at least that many more. And WHEN I DO I will still be overweight by most ideal weight charts even the number they allow for people with BIG BONES.
But hey, I'm pushing 66 and what I want more than a number on the scale is to just be healthy and physically able to keep doing what I love and what I love is making quilts, dyeing my own fabric and teaching occasionally. For that it take being able to stand without your back and knees hurting and being physically fit enough to wrestle a large quilt through the harp of the sewing machine without your shoulders and neck hurting. For all of that I need muscles and stamina and that is what I am working toward as well as hopefully down the road, maybe for New Year's Eve (Dec. 31, 2009) getting into a size 12. A size I haven't seen my body in since I was 12 (Ha!!!)
So if I am inspiring anyone to get healthy come join me on my trip. As you have read, I still have a way to go and I am not so far along that I can not look back and see where I started. Sweating is a good thing. Just make sure you check in with your Doctor first. Especially if you have been as sedentary as I was or you are as old as I am.

I knew it was going to happen

it always does when I find a good book or an author with a style and characters I like. When that happens I am lost to the world for all intent and purpose for I am deaf, dumb and blind to all that is happening around me.
So it has been since I opened the first book written by Lisa Scottoline. I am now into the fifth book so don't look for me to blog very much for a while,
Quilting will have to wait.
I am stopping long enough to finish a project I committed myself too about three weeks ago. All I have left to do is copy the data to a CD and get my samples in the mail. This I am planning to do tomorrow.
My health eating and exercise will NOT be put on hold. As a matter of fact I am getting up an hour earlier and getting to the gym to walk on the treadmill. I did not return to the "Silver Sneakers" group, they meet to late in the morning for me. But I will look into adding some weight training to my program, after I am done reading these books I have waiting for me.
I have officially lost 51 pounds and I wish I had taken my waist, bust, hip and tummy budge measurements before I started but I didn't. Although the weight loss slowed once I started walking, this I am attributing to muscle gain moreso than just fat loss. I have noticed that my cloth size is dropping faster than my weight loss can take credit for. I know this because the jeans I had that were comfortable are now too big and the ones that fit are now loose. And I had to buy smaller bras. This is a good sign. Speaking of measurable progress.
Today I felt like a kid who finally had enough courage to take the training wheels off his two wheeler. For all of the time I have been walking I have kept at least one hand on the rail of the treadmill, just in case I tripped or lost my balance. Today I let go ,bent my arms at the elbows. with arms moving in sync with my feet I felt like someone who knew what they were doing. I did this for the entire 3 miles and was able to walk the distance with an incline of 3 degrees for 20 minutes 2 degrees for 20 minutes and 1 degree for 20 ,minutes. No more flat walking for me. You know it is hard to grin and raise your arms in the air triumphantly when your are huffing and puffing and concentrating on making the next step.
When once I didn't care much for sweating. What southern lady would? Now I am fairly dripping when I am done and that's a good thing. So far as long as it takes me to get my old bones home and into the shower, I feel like dare I say, a jock.
So I will keep up my daily trips to the gym and then home to read. I will be back with you all in a week when I have finished reading this book and the next four. It's a good thing the three following books in the series are on CDs . Maybe I will be able to do something guilty while I listen. Possibly something like quilt the two tops that are waiting or I could do some screen printing or, or, or.. But then too, since I will be teaching next month, I guess I should spend some time getting class samples, and handouts done.

JOHN'S DAY

HE DID IT. HE'S OFFICIALLY OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL. The "walk" put a period behind the fact that John had earned enough credits to finish high school last December before Winter break, but last Saturday, he and 530+ students recieved their deplomas in a tradtional ceromony that saw the kids inflating and banting about several beach balls to the chagrin of the school principle. Leaving us in the audience to wonder how they managed to smuggle the inflatable balls in when they all had to relinquish their cell phone and other items that might cause a disturbance, The hat toss at the end was a great moment too. We didn't toss caps back in the 60's. I don't remember this happening at any of my childrens graduations either.

 

 

 

 

I think I missed out on something wonderful.

John was our #1 but I was amazed that nearly a third of the school graduated with honors, a GPA 3.5 or above with 7 students (all girls) who had a perfect 4.0 WOW!!!
If you saw the picture of John in his prom wear you know that his mother had to find a way to tame his hair in order to get it under his cap but they managed.
John marks the half way point for me in seeing grandchildren come of age, I have two to go, both girls and the next graduation will find me in Providence RI beaming as broadly at Joslyn's accompolishment as I did for John. And God willing, in 9 years, be in Louisville for Olivia.

This proud Grandma moment today is taking second place to my art.