One Month of the gym
05 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in Hooping, Weight Loss Tags: excercising, Health, Hooping, hula hooping, Weight loss, working out, workout, YMCA
Today is the day that I have been working out at the gym for one full month. I have notice I have a bit more energy than usual and I do not feel quite as tired after class as when I first started. I have only missed two days of going to the gym from being sick and on one of the days our class was cancelled anyway from the instructors being sick.
I have been paying more attention to what I am eating and cut back on some of the things I eat that are high in calorie. Yesterday I was craving sweets so bad but to distract myself I ended up cleaning the house a bit. It helped that there was no sweet stuff at the ready so I would have either had to cooks something (I kept eying the box of brownie mix in the pantry) or drive to the store. I did neither.
In hoop class on Thursday I took a piece of my hoop out to make it a bit smaller, which makes it harder. I did it for a few minutes before I put it back in. I’m not quite ready for that yet, but I’m getting closer. I’ll be doing some hooping at home today as soon as I make room to do it.
With all that said, today on my one month mark, I weighed myself like I do every Sunday. I am now down a total of 13lbs! If I stay at this same pace then I should hit my goal weight by October or so. I’m going to work hard at getting myself in shape so maybe I won’t be afraid to put on a swimsuit this summer.
Thank you to all who have been supporting me. It has really made a difference and makes me feel like I am fighting a losing battle. I know I can do this now and refuse to give up.
Sick weekend = Crafty time!
30 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Crafts, crochet, Destashing, Handmade, knitting Tags: craft, hairpin lace, knit bag, knit hat, knit scarf, knitting, Knitting and Crochet, loom, scarf, stash busting, stashbusting, yarn
So I wound up with a cold on Thursday and because my breathing became a pain, I did not go to the gym for a few days. Instead, I stayed home bundled up under the covers and worked on some projects.
I had been planning on making a shawl in hairpin lace, but I was not paying too much attention to what I was doing since I was teaching myself. Instead, I attached all the pieces I had together and made it into a long scarf.
This is a washcloth that I started knitting last year but got distracted by something else and never finished. Now it is all done. It is using Sugar n’ Cream cotton yarn.
I used up two skeins of Caron Simply Soft (Eco) yarn to make this bag. It is good-sized, could hold a pair of shoes and other stuff since it will stretch. I have no idea what I’ll use it for though.
I then made myself a hat to match the scarf I made a couple of months ago and with the remaining yarn I was able to make a skinny scarf. I love this yarn it is so soft! It is Merino 50 by Lang Yarn.
I have a few other projects in progress but that is nothing new here. I’m back to going to the gym since I can breathe a bit better now so my crafting time is down a bit. I am going to work hard on using as much stuff from my stash as possible and only buy things if I need them to finish a current project.
….famous last words? Probably.
End of week three at the gym
29 Jan 2012 1 Comment
in Weight Loss Tags: Active, circut, Gym, Health, Hooping, Weight loss, wights, YMCA
Just a little update of non-craftiness.
I have been at the gym now for three weeks and a down seven pounds. It is not a lot but it is much better than gaining weight. I am going to continue working hard to lose this weight and get into shape and be healthy again. I have had a cold since Thursday so I have not been to the gym since Wed. but hopefully I’ll be able to breathe tomorrow and can go after work.
I am still loving the hooping class and am getting better at Active. My mother and I had one of the trainers show us how to use the circuit equipment and now we do that on days we don’t have a class. I hate the last machine so much. It really really hurts me just sitting in it since it is not designed for womens bodies at all and can only have the seat moved higher or lower which does not fix the problem. By the time I get off of that, I am in lots of pain that lasts a couple days. I am not going to use that one until I get into shape a bit more. I get my crunches in in the Active class.
Let us see how week four goes. It does not feel like it has been that long already, almost a month!
The Weight Loss Challenge
13 Jan 2012 2 Comments
in Hooping, Weight Loss Tags: aerobics, Health, hoop dancing, Hooping, losing weight, step aerobics, step class, weight challenge, Weight loss, work out, workout, YMCA, Zumba
On Saturday January 7th my mother and I signed up at the YMCA. I have been slowly gaining weight since I have been out of school (back in ’03!) and I am to the point where I am disgusted with my body. I decided I was ready to start doing something before my weight got out of hand and I started getting bad heath problems.
My stats:
Age: 26
Height: 5’5
Weight: 245lbs *cringe*
Goal weight: 150/160. I need to lose 85-95lbs eek.
I will be weighing myself every Sunday and taking progress pictures at the start of each month.
I have signed up on a site called Lose It and it helps you keep track of what you eat and your weight. There is a form as well to get help, ideas and motivation from other people who are also trying to lose weight. It is all free.
This past Sunday (Jan 8th) was the first day my mother and I went and worked out. We did a step aerobic class but it was very fast and difficult for beginners. Unfortunantly, there are no beginner level things. There is a different step aerobic that we are going to try out instead that is part step, part cardio and part weights. This should be a bit easier, or so we have been told by people who do both classes.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays we are doing Hooping class. We have only gone twice since we first signed up at the beginning of the week, but I am already in love with it. Next week I will be buying my own hoop so I can practice at home. I have been researching hooping since Tuesday and have signed up on two sites to learn more things and hopefully meet more people. Hooping.org and Hoop City. I have also started looking for upbeat music to hoop to.
As I get more used to becoming active, I will be trying out Zumba as well as two different water aerobic classes. In the future I will be looking into learning Poi but that is not offered at the Y. I have a friend who apparently has done it before so at least I’ll have someone to talk to about that.
On Monday an instructor will be showing us how to use the different types of equipment since neither myself or my mother know how to use all of them.
I really hope that I can keep at this and get down to the weight I should be. I will be thrilled if I can fit into size 12 pants again! It helps having someone else go with you, and helps even more when you have classes with such friendly people. I feel really welcome at the Y and hope it stays that way.
Trying something new – Hairpin Lace
04 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Crafts, crochet, Destashing Tags: crochet, crochet loom, hairpin, hairpin lace, handmade, lace, loom, shawl, yarn
A few months ago at a fall festival I stopped by a church that was having a huge tag sale. I found a tin full of thread and some odd-looking pins and I thought it might be for tatting, since it was tatting thread with it. After doing some poking around, I found out that it was not tatting but something called Hairpin Lace which is a type of crocheting. What I had in the tin was small, black U-shaped pins and one of which had something in progress. After finding out what it was, I went to YouTube to look up videos on it. I found that in most of the videos the people were using larger looms that looked different but it was for the same purpose. This is the video I used to get myself going.
Wanting to try it out, I went to Michael’s and purchased a Hairpin Loom for around $4 or so and headed home. I had plenty of yarn to work with, all mostly worsted weight, so I tried it out. I thought it would be best to learn with bigger yarn that to try it with the thread.
It turns out that this is something that is very easy to do because you only need to know how to single crochet! I only know two stitches in crochet and even I had no trouble with this at all. I should have taken a picture of the work on the loom but did not think of it then. I’ll be sure to do so tonight if I remember.
With this, I am making a bunch of strips which I will then join together to make a shawl. This is part of my project to get rid of more of my stash, or ‘destashing’ as those of us in the crafty world call it. It also goes towards my 50 Projects for 2012. One down, 49 to go!
Busy Weekend
13 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment
in Crafts, Destashing, Handmade, Jewelry, Resin, Sculpey Tags: christmas, gifts, glossy accents, handmade, pendants, resin, Sculpey
Now that November has come and gone and I am no longer writing frantically for NaNoWriMo, I am able to get to other things. I finally got to crafting up some things I had thought of while writing and was happy I could get to it. I had ordered some molds for resin casting on cyber Monday through Joanns and they arrived on Saturday. Saturday night I threw some things together and waited for the resin to set. The pieces are still very flexible but they turned out better than I thought.
Waiting for resin to set. The green piece is something I made a few months ago for my first attempt at resin. I coated the sticky part with some glaze. The resin I am using is Easy Cast by Castin’ Craft that you can find in most craft stores. I got mine from Michaels. It is very easy to use as long as you measure correctly. It is 1:1 but I did not measure quite right this time.
The finished pieces are clear and very smooth, the opposite of attempt number one. They are very very flexible though so I don’t think I added in quite enough of the hardener. I added in a small amount of embossing powder to give the pieces some color as well as some seed beads.
While waiting for the resin to cure (which took two days) I pulled out some clay and made up some bases for pendants. I stuck some fancy stickers on them and coated with a product called Glossy Accents that I really like.
I need to coat the backs and add a loop so I can use them. I may add a second coating to the top but have not decided yet. I have a few ideas with these pendants for Christmas gifts, maybe use them as tags and have them be key chains. I realized after I used the gloss that I should have made holes in the clay first. If I tried now, the gloss would crack and ruin the piece. I already cracked one (one of the ones with the paper on it), but I’ll find something to use it with.
Once the holiday is over, I plan on trying out a lot more ideas that I have with the resin. There is one thing I have had in mind for ages so I hope I can get around to trying it.
The NaNoWriMo word count post – WINNER!
28 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Writing Tags: Book Writing, fiction, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, never give up, novel, winner, Word count, writing
I will be updating this post as NaNo progresses. This way I can keep track of how I’m doing in more than one place.
Day 1: 3, 400 (If I can keep this pace up, I’ll be thrilled!)
Day 3: 10,244 (total)
Day 5: 3,284 written (13,508 total)
Day 7: 3,548 written (17,056 total) It’s early but my mind is wandering too much to do anymore tonight.
I have been a bit bad at updating this! I have written a little bit every day except for two days were I was too busy and distracted.
Day 14: 25,065! I have now hit the halfway mark to the 50k goal!
Day 15: 27,336
Day 16: 29,060
Day 27: 47,301. Yikes, I missed updating a lot. The end is in sight and I would have finished tonight but it is already 11:30pm and I need to work in the morning. I will finish tomorrow!
Day 28: I have validated my novel and won with a total of 50,138! My novel is far from finished and then I get to edit, edit, edit!
As you can see from my graph, I started out strong and then slowed down. There were a few days where I did not write and a few where I wrote only a few hundred so it’s not very visible with the bars. All that matters is that I kept writing and that is what allowed me to win.
I worked on getting my ideas down and writing what I had floating around in my head without worrying over every little detail at the time. When I finish, I can go back and edit and add in the thinks I skipped over or was not sure about at the time. Either way I a enjoying writing this story and hope to finish it and maybe even take the next step and take it to a real editor!
Haha, I guess we’ll see on that last one. Sometimes I procrastinate a lot so I’ll work on finishing writing the story first and then the next steps when the time comes.
NaNoWriMo Day 14 25k!
14 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Writing Tags: Arts, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, Word count, writing
Today is the fourteenth day of NaNoWriMo and I have just hit the halfway mark. There have only been two days where I did not do any writing and a few days that were slow, but I am still going. I am still enjoying writing this particular story and I have confidence that I will be hitting that 50k by the end of the month. I was ahead by a lot with the word count, but those two days I did not write have put me at just a little bit ahead. As long as I don’t fall behind, or if I do by only a small amount, I will keep going.
How is everyone else doing that is participating? I know on the second and third day there were already some incredible people that hit the 5ok. I really don’t get how they could write so much in such a short amount of time! I think they have some kind of magical keyboard that helps keep their fingers moving. That or a brain that is overflowing with ideas!
Anyway, good luck to everyone else still writing, hang in there!
NaNoWriMo 2011
28 Oct 2011 10 Comments
in Writing Tags: Book Writing, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, November, Word count, writing
It’s that time of year again! Tuesday is November first and that marks the start of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. For those of you who don’t know what it is, the goal is to try and write 50,000 words in the month of November! Yes, that is a very big number but you’ll be surprised at how fast it goes by. If you write 1,667 a day, then you will hit your goal at the end of the month.
This will be my third year participating and while I did manage to win my first year (you ‘win’ if you hit the 50k and no, your story does not need to be finished to count!), last year I was too distracted and ended up forgetting about it. This year I plan to keep with it and WIN. Unlike my first year, this year I already know what I will be writing and have even started writing out my character bios and other information. Yes, this is allowed to be done before the Nov. 1st date! The only thing that will be considered ‘cheating’ is to start the actually story before that date.
Here are a few things I’ve learned from my first year and some tips from various other places.
1) The 1,667 a day count is just a suggestion for keeping yourself on track. If you can’t write that much then don’t freak out about it. Some days will be slow while others you’ll find you won’t be able to stop writing! You’ll make it up eventually.
*Always try to write something. Even if it’s just a paragraph and nothing more, write it! Keep yourself going and don’t worry if things don’t make sense, that is what editing is for.
*Don’t edit your story during the month of November! Just focus on writing and hitting your daily goals and the end word count. Save all the editing for the end or you will end up losing time and falling behind. You will not be writing perfect your first go through, and you wouldn’t be even with out a time limit.
*Sign up on NaNoWriMo! There is a wealth of information that can be found there. You can submit your writing and it will keep track of your word count for you and let you know if/when you win once you hit the 50k mark. You can also find your region and find people in your area who are also participating. Many groups hold meet ups call write-ins and they can be very helpful in keeping you motivated. You can also post on the forum if you need help with any part of your story, from naming your character to help with the plot! Check it out!
*Don’t forget your basic needs. Many of us end up skipping meals and sleep while writing like crazy to meet that 50k goal. If you skip meals and sleep, then you won’t be able to focus on your writing and that will slow you down or worse, you will run into writers block.
*Breathe! NaNoWriMo is here to help us get our creative juices flowing. Don’t panic if the end of the month is coming and you are no where near your goal of finishing. If you force yourself to write then you will start to hate it and that is not what is supposed to happen. Just keep writing and focus on your story. The goal is mostly for fun and there is no reason you have to stop writing once the last day passes.
*You don’t have to, but try to plan ahead. Unlike my first year, this year I have started a very basic outline. I have a list of main characters with short bios, as well as a list of some places I want to use in my story. I usually get an idea for something but when I go to write it, the idea has vanished. This time I am writing things down as they come to me so that won’t happen when I go to write it.
*It is okay if things are not in order! The important thing is to keep writing. If you need to skip around in your story to keep going, then do it! Details can be added later and things can be sorted once the story is finished and you are getting ready for the editing phase.
*Most importantly HAVE FUN! If this starts to feel like work or a chore, then take a step away from your desk, drop what you are doing, and relax. Try to remember why you wanted to participate in NaNoWriMo in the first place. It’s because you like to write, correct? If you are enjoying yourself then you will find you are able to write more then when you feel forced.
On the NaNo website I have found a free online writing site that is already super helpful. It is called Yarny. Since it is online, you can access it anywhere there is an internet connection available. It is also very very basic and easy to use! I’m already loving how you can organize by snippets into people, places, or things. No more going between multiple documents, it’s all right in front of you and able to be seen all at once. It also keeps track of your word count! Check it out if you have been looking for a writing program to use. I did mention that it was free, right?
Well, these are just some things that have come to mind for me and thought I would share them. If there are any other WriMo’s out there I’d love to hear from you!
Three more scarves! Time to fill a box!
18 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Crafts, Weaving Tags: Cricket, donate, donation, handmade, scarf, scarves, Schacht Cricket loom, stash, stashbusting, weaving, yarn
I have finished three more scarves already. I have found that I can finish one in a few hours so I could get one done a night if I don’t get distracted by something else! I am hoping to fill a box to donate to one of the shelters around my area so people in need can be at least a little warmer.
I have four more skeins of that green yarn left. That first blue one was slow going because the yarn was thicker than was meant for the reed I was using but it’s the only one I have at the moment. The Black/blue/purple one I did last night and have enough yarn left to make two more like it.
After I get rid of this older yarn, I am going to spin more of my own up so I can weave with handspun to make an 100% made by me scarf! I’m really enjoying my Cricket loom and maybe I’ll get one a bit bigger (possibly the 25″ Flip).
Pinwheel Houndstooth scarf
09 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Crafts, Weaving Tags: Cricket, handmade, houndstooth, pinwheel houndstooth, plaid, scarf, Schacht, Schacht Cricket loom, Textile, weaving
Here is my third finished scarf on my Schacht Cricket loom! This time I tried something a bit different. I used yarn I had in my stash and the colors are a bit bright so it’s hard to see the pattern, but it is there!
And this is my cat Black Jack supervising me while I was warping for the previous scarf!
And number two is done
31 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Crafts, Handmade, Weaving Tags: Cricket loom, handwoven, Lionbrand, rigid heddle, scarf, Schacht Cricket loom, Textile, weaving, Wool-Ease yarn, woven
I just finished weaving my second scarf on my new loom. I’m having so much fun with this! For my next one I am planning on trying out a pattern. I think it’s pinwheel houndstooth but can’t remember for sure.
This one is a much better length than my first one. I also like it better with the same yarn as warp and weft than the first which had the white for the warp.
I love my Cricket loom!
Completion
30 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Crafts, Weaving Tags: Cricket loom, Lionbrand, Lionbrand yanr, loom, Plain weave, scarf, Textile, weaving
I completed the scarf I posted about the other day. It turned out shorter than I had thought it would, but that is my fault for measuring the warp wrong.
Scarf number two is already on the loom and half done. I’m finding that weaving goes very quickly for me, at least doing plain weave. I’ll be looking up patterns soon, I think !
My new Cricket loom!
28 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Crafts, Weaving Tags: Cricket loom, handmade, Lionbrand, loom, Schacht, Schacht Cricket loom, Textile, weaving, Wool-Ease yarn, yarn
On Wed I ordered a Schacht Cricket loom through Lionbrand yarn since it was cheaper than anywhere else. I got it on Saturday and actually was not expecting it since I never received a notice for it. I got it all warped up and started weaving on it last night. I have having a lot of fun with it and I can’t wait to learn more techniques with it!
For the warp (the yarn that goes front to back) I used some of the Wool-Ease in the Fisherman color that came with the loom. For the weft (the yarn you weave with) I bought with it and it is also Wool-Ease but in a color called Autumn. It is dark colors but the white lightens it up a bit. Since I am making a scarf I have a long way to go yet.
Here are some in progress shots!
Simple weaving
22 Aug 2011 Leave a Comment
in Crafts, Weaving Tags: handmade, handwoven, Lionbrand yarn, weaving
Yesterday I did another simple weaving using the frame loom that I made. This time I used Lionbrand’s Landscapes yarn in it. I have another ball of it and will make another square and maybe sew them together to make a pillow.
The only other crafty thing I did this weekend was to do a little more work on one of my walls in my room. I was hoping to get the sheetrock up but that did not end up happening.
