Get Healthy: Reaching My First Goal

My first goal since starting my new get healthy goals in January was to lose one entire pants size by summer and I did it!  For weeks I kept losing weight but I was stuck in between sizes for what felt like foreeeeever!  I'm rather proud of myself for reaching this goal since there have been ups and downs and plenty of frustration along the way, not to mention I reached it early! 

Heeeeello smaller jeans :D

So far I've lost a total of 15 pounds and I've been keeping up with exercising diligently and eating lower carb healthier meals has become part of my daily life without much of a hitch.  I still have the occasional indulgence now and again, but I hardly even crave sweets and heavy carb loaded foods.  Of course that makes it easier to keep in check!

My new best friend, two of these babies is 64 oz, sometimes I drink three!

I've increased the amount of water I drink daily to a minimum of 64oz (one of my "need to improve" areas) and after almost two weeks I no longer feel like I'm visiting the bathroom 400 times a day.  That could not have come fast enough!  I know drinking plenty of fluids helps flush toxins out and aids greatly in healthy weight loss. 

My ultimate goal is to lose two sizes to get back to where I was before I got pregnant with my daughter.  I never gave myself a deadline to reach it but I bet I can do it by the end of summer.  My weight and inch loss isn't as fast as it was when I first started, so I know my body is getting used to my daily regimen.  Time to step it up!  Then, even after reaching this goal, I will not quit.  I've worked hard to make it this far and I want to continue to trim and tone myself.  I want to be fit, not thin.  I don't ever want to go back to feeling tired and uncomfortable in my own skin!

Get Healthy: The First Months

If you've ready my previous getting healthy posts, you know I've promised to share my progress along the way so here goes!  Since setting my goals back in January, there's been ups and downs but overall I'm proud of my progress thus far.  I've lost a total of 12 pounds and 2.5 inches off my waist!  I've had more energy and I feel better than I have in years, I really do wonder why I ignored my bad habits for so long.

At the beginning, the loss seemed to slip right off and I was dropping two pounds a week fairly consistently.  Eventually things slowed down, but I know I've been adding muscle mass through my five day a week workout regimen and of course muscle weighs more than fat.  Despite that fact, I initially felt slightly discouraged and there were days that I had to force myself to do my workout.  Discouragement met flat out frustration when I went nearly two weeks without a single measurable change earlier in February.  I was sure my body was hanging onto fat for nostalgic reasons.  Now I'm currently losing about a pound a week, which is still respectable and healthy.

When I first started, I was a little worried that the initial enthusiasm over my new healthier lifestyle would crash and burn like what happens to so many weight loss goals.  Thankfully I was wrong!  I no longer crave sweet and other carb loaded foods such as pizza nearly as much as I thought I would.  Also, since I know how great I feel from keeping active, I feel plenty of motivation to keep working out, even if I'm not dropping pounds left and right.  I've even found that many healthier alternatives to my favorite "bad" foods are actually tastier (mind=blown).  One website that I strongly suggest you check out is skinnytaste.com.  There are soooooo many yummy and healthy meal ideas on there and I've pinned oodles of them onto my Pinterest food board.  I still eat the occasional "bad" food, but I've found that I'm quite content with eating one or two cookies instead of half a dozen.  I never thought I'd see that day!

Spinach Crust Pizza, actually super yummy

With seeing my progress so far, I'm quite sure I'll meet my first goal of dropping on pant size by summer.  Technically I can already get into a size smaller but I also need to breathe on occasion.  However, all of my current jeans and several sweaters (some that two months ago had been almost too tight) had to be shrunk in the dryer because they were getting rather baggy and I'm pretty thrilled about that!

One thing that I still need to work on is consistently drinking more water each day.  I should be drinking eight glasses at least and I know it really helps with weight loss and flushing toxins and yadda yadda.  So, that's my next goal!

How's everyone else doing for their goals whatever they may be?

Journal Challenge

Not too long ago I found this neat journal challenge and I thought it would be a fun way to get myself to keep a journal again.  The challenge is to write once a week in your journal using a prompt you pull out of a jar.  I probably won't get to all of them and I'm not looking to get a gold star for doing one each week either but some is better than none right?  To encourage myself to keep up with it, I thought I'd share with you a post every now again.  It's no fun to keep everything to myself now is it?

This week's prompt: What is something you've dreamed of doing? Why haven't you done it?

I have always wanted to travel abroad.  I'm not talking some sunny sub-tropical beach drinking mojitos in 100% humidity with spiders the size of your face that they fail to mention in the travel brochure.  (I once lived in Miami, I know what they fail to tell you in those brochures).  I'd love to travel to Italy or Greece if given the chance.  I'd love to visit the little village in northern Italy that my family came from as well.  I'd be in heaven with all the old architecture and don't even get me started on all the rich art history, and tiramisu, can't forget the tiramisu.  Of course one reason I've never traveled there is money.  It seems like a lame excuse since I know if I really wanted to go I would find a way to scrape up the extra cash but life is more complicated than that.  I want to take my time and really explore if I was to go, which of course requires more than a long weekend and that equals more money.  However, it's for sure on my bucket list and after hubby and I save up and buy our new home in a few years we can start planning for a trip down the road.

Is there anything you've always wanted to do and haven't yet?

Get Healthy: The First Weeks

I recently shared with you my "get healthy" goals for this year and I wanted to share my progress along the way!

Yum!

I'm happy to report that about three weeks into eating better and working out five days a week is paying off and I've lost six pounds and two inches off my waist!  I know it doesn't sound like much but healthy and real weight loss isn't extravagant, it should be around one or two pounds a week.  Most of those fad diets claim you can lose more but it's mostly water weight or muscle loss (especially with those fasting diets) and guess what happens when the diet is over?  Hence why I don't diet.  I've been eating healthier snacks like fruit and veggies and making more carb free or low carb meals such as oven roasted chicken and veggies instead of a chicken pasta dish.  I even dined out with friends and ate pizza (hello carbs!) last night without gaining it all back overnight (my irrational fear).  I've actually found that the healthier meals I've been making are actually tastier than my old carb heavy favorites.  I find that I don't even miss pasta and pizza all that much!

If you're looking for some healthier food options and meals feel free to follow my food board on Pinterest.  I admit there's some not healthy things on there too but indulgences are perfectly fine so long as they are in moderation.  If never allowed to eat a brownie or chocolate again wouldn't we all go insane?

I'm not looking to be any certain weight, since it's entirely possible to be 125 and flabby.  Instead I'd like to become more toned and to drop two pant sizes so I'm the same size I was before having my daughter.  If I lose more, I won't complain!  So far it's beginning to pay off since I can see more definition where the was none previously.  I am looking forward to buying some new, smaller clothes!

If anyone else is working on becoming healthier how has your progress been?

A Pledge to Myself

I'm feeling really good about my "get healthier" goals to start this year.  Before you start thinking how cliche it sounds to make a resolution to eat healthy and workout (we all know it flops come February) let me break it down. It's not a resolution, I detest the word.  Each year I've been making small changes to my lifestyle in order to be healthier overall and I've stuck with each one.  It may seem more effective to just dive headfirst into a major lifestyle change, but I know myself all to well and if I do anything drastic I will resent it and ultimately fail (and the reason most others fall off the wagon too).  Last year was simply to incorporate more veggies in my nearly veggie-less meat fueled diet and the year before that was to cut out fast food.  I love veggies now and the thought of chowing a greasy fast food burger makes me cringe (fries and onion rings are still yummy but I stay away).  However, I still won't eat a salad, or at least not happily.  For some reason I still view salads as something to tide you over till actual tastier food comes and I can't break myself of that.  Salad, we will never be friends.

Anyway this year I want to step it up and do two things to get healthier.  Que dramatic music.  I figure since I've been doing well with past lifestyle choices I can handle two, I'm not a wussie.  I want to end my love affair with bad carbs.  Over the past years, when life got busy, I often resorted to stuffing my face with carb loaded quick foods or skipping altogether and then overeating later (totally negating all the good veggies I was eating and making me pack on pounds anyway).  It is possible to eat healthier when in a hurry (cucumber turkey wrap anyone?) and teaches me to better manage my time and plan ahead.  Of course this doesn't mean I will never eat a bad carb again.  Let's face it, if I can't ever eat another piece of pizza or buffalo chicken wings again, I may as well halt this now.  It just means coming up with healthier options and over time I'll think twice before giving into my junk food desires just like I did with eating fast food.  Thank God I cut the fast food two years back or I'd be even heavier!

A candid shot from our wedding day, I was 21

My other get healthy goal is to workout again.  I jumped right in and was very good about losing all the baby weight after having Kaylie...four years ago.  I stopped after I had gotten a real bad bout of the flu that hung on for super long and I never really started again and then gained all the weight back.  I made excuses that I was too tired from the demands of motherhood and then thought I could get by with calling my daily chores "exercising".  Well the excuses end now.  I'm getting too flabby and I don't have the energy I feel a 26 (soon to be 27 next week) year old should.  I used to wish I was thinner when I was 21, but now I wish I was as thin as when I was 21.  This will be the hardest for me because I haaaaaate exercising.  However, if I keep it quick and make it as integral to my day as brushing my teeth, I'll do it.  So with that in mind, I've been spending 15 minutes each day, excluding weekends, upon waking doing a quick workout.  I alternate what I work on, today was arms, and guess what, I feel better!  I'm not as tired throughout the day and it helps having Kaylie workout and do Pilates with me, she loves it!  Why did I wait so long?

Me with Kaylie, age 26 and 40 lbs heavier, eep!  Did I just admit that?

Why am I sharing this with you?  I'm hoping with the fact that I'm making my intentions public I'll be even more inclined to keep with it.  I wouldn't want to be a bad example to you!  I'll share with you along the way as I progress and it will help me too seeing that my choices are making a difference.  I don't have any set weight goals or desire to even be "skinny".  I simply want to feel more comfortable in my own skin and be more healthy overall.  Do you have any goals to make yourself healthier?  What are you doing to ensure that it lasts?

A New Year with New Goals

Key to My Heart

It's 2013 and time for setting new goals!  I did very well last year with checking off all my 2012 goals, well my shop goals at least.  Hopefully I can continue that trend and check off everything on my list this year too!

Shop Goals 2013:

I love you beads, but I need to buy less!

• Expand my wire wrapping skills.  Get some tutorials and learn some more elaborate wrapping techniques.
• Better utilize social media.  Marketing is one of things I just don't like to do.  I need to make better use of the ones that work best for me and focus on them to save myself time and make it easier.
• Enter a larger craft show.  I have one big show I do every year and I'd like to make it two big shows since I'm done with entering little shows that aren't really worth my time.  This depends on how much time I have available.
• Lower my expenses.  I have a bad habit of spending waaaay too much on new supplies instead of using up what I already have.  I could seriously open up a bead shop.  It needs to stop!
• Become more organized.  This should be easy but the messy artist and the anal organizing side of me fight all the time and unfortunately the mess usually wins and causes me stress.  I need to force myself to keep up with my accounting (doing it quarterly is insane) and actually put things where they belong so I stop wasting time hunting for lost things.
• This sounds counter productive, but I want to scale back my business at least for this year.  My little girl is starting school this fall and she's growing up too fast!  I feel I missed out on too much last year and family is way more important than any of my above goals.  She'll only be little once!  This just means no more full time weeks, saying no more often, and listing less frequently as in one item a week instead of three.  If it means less sales, then so be it.

Personal Goals 2013:

Veggies, yum!

• Cut down on bad carbs (not eliminate) and eat more veggies.  Hi my name is Heather and I'm a carbaholic.
• Start saving for a down payment on a bigger house.  We are so close to being totally debt free that I can taste it!  Hubby's pay is better and we've been really good about our past savings goals so this should be no different.
• I got a brand new Canon Rebel T3 dSLR and I know almost nothing about dSLR's in general.  I want to know all about how to take beautiful photos.  After all if I paid that much for it, I may as well master it right?
• Enjoy life more.  I spend too much time obsessing over "what ifs" and I need to stop and enjoy my life more instead of worrying about some mundane thing that may go wrong.
• Spend more time on me.  This goes hand in hand with the above but I also need to make more time in my schedule for myself.  Spend more time with friends, drain my Kindle battery more often, buy myself a little something now and again instead of squirreling away every spare penny we have (what's the point of having money if you can't enjoy it right?), and relax more.  I need to stop torturing myself with making sure everyone else has what they want and completely ignoring my own well being.

I think that about covers it.  I'm not really into making the typical resolutions that I know I won't keep or even referring to them as "resolutions".  It's almost a dirty word and sets you up to fall on your face come February.  I prefer to focus on things I'd like to accomplish and flaws I'd like to fix that are actually achievable.  No point in wasting time over things I know I won't do, such as look like a bikini model (although I wouldn't complain if I did look like one).

I do feel a little guilty over my last shop goal of scaling back since it sounds like I'm intentionally moving backwards.  However, with all that I've learned over the time since I've opened shop, such as using better keywords and better pricing, I should be able to work less and not lose out too much.  I originally quit my previous job to spend more time at home with Kaylie and instead of doing just that I opened a business and thought I could be successful, be a full time stay at home mom, keep the house sparkling clean, and preschool at home, all without feeling burned out.  Oh boy, that's laughable!  So computer, you and I will be seeing less of each other but don't worry, I will still keep up my shop and keep creating new things, just not as many :)

My little girl is growing too fast!

What are your goals for this wonderful new year?

What have YOU Accomplished?

Teal and Creme Rosette Bib

The new year is just around the corner, so it's time to reflect on what's been accomplished over the past 12 months.  I'm not talking about a list of boring stats or sales figures to chart my business's growth because, frankly, that stuff isn't the most important to me (of course it has its importance, it's just not the most important).  What matters to me is that I've been moving forward.  I've learned quite a bit over this year about running my business and I will learn more over the next year and so on. 

Better keywords have led to more items being sold the day they're listed!

I've learned how to better utilize keyword phrases and that lead to more sales and better rankings in search engines and better analytic stats (those stats I do care about) for my shop.  I made my packaging more cohesive and personal thus improving my brand and getting more repeat customers.  I added new elements to my jewelry (sari silk) to expand my skills and my customer audience.  I shoved my shyness aside and was more engaging at craft shows thus improving my local ties and getting more sales.

New hand stamped muslin pouches helps with branding

New packaging for wire designs, so much better than a boring old organza bag

Learning things that help you move forward are much more important than racing to hit high sales numbers.  Once you learn from past mistakes and also discover things that work for you then you'll get more sales anyway so why waste energy staring at numbers or wondering why so and so is making more sales than you?  Set goals that are obtainable and realistic to give yourself something to work towards , challenge yourself to leave your comfort zone and don't forget to reward yourself along the way.  There is no cut and dry success formula that works for everyone so you simply have to figure out your own through experience.  This applies, of course, to more than just business as well.

So what have you accomplished or learned over the past year?

Found it on Pinterest and Actually Did it: Mason Jar Terraruim

I used two jars I already had on hand and moss from the yard

I'm sure many of you are Pinterest fanatics just like me.  Or perhaps my obsession is just plain unhealthy.... nah.  Anyway, my absolute favoritest (yeah it's not a word, what of it) thing on earth is easy to handle DIY projects that don't require me to take a class in carpentry or whatever to do.  I've been doing this since I was a kid and now thanks to Pinterest, these fun crafts are only a pin away :)

We found two different kinds of moss, maybe three?

Today, my daughter and I decided on making a pair of cute closed jar terrarium using two of the million antique glass jars I possess (another one of my obsessions, I mean hobbies).  I followed the directions in the tutorial and we went exploring for moss in the yard which grows somewhat plentiful where I am.  We found two kinds, don't ask me what kind they are.  Kaylie calls it a "fuzzy growing carpet", close enough for me.  I let her pick out some decorative glass stones I had on hand to cover the bottom of the jars for drainage and then scoop a few inches of dirt over it.  We divided the fuzzy growing carpets to fit in the jars and filled in the bare spots with pretty rocks which were from my planters inside to keep the cat from digging up my plant.  I asked if she wanted to put one of her little plastic jungle animals inside for decoration but she was really concerned that they would be scared about being trapped inside.  Four year olds are too cute!

It sorta does look like fuzzy carpet

According to the tutorial online, if you keep the jars closed, the plants inside will recycle their own water as it evaporates and then drips back to the soil.  I personally would recommend opening the jar from time to time to replenish it with fresh air.

Kaylie had a blast helping me make this!  If you have little ones, you may want to try it out too!  Here's my pin if you'd like to repin it for yourself!  Or you can pin this post by clicking the pin it button to the right!

Finders Keepers

After dropping my daughter off at her Nana's, I saw the most amazing thing at the end of a neighbor's driveway.  A milk can.  A "free" sign.  What a beautiful sight.  I slam on the breaks and toss it in the back like I'm stealing it for fear that some other person may have set eyes on the glorious thing and fight me for it.  I can land a good punch, be warned.  I never ever see things like this for free, I usually see them in some antique shop with a price tag on it that would make you think it was gilded with gold.   I got the hell out of there as fast as I could before the neighbor perhaps realized how utterly insane they were for getting rid of such a beautiful and wondrous treasure that is an antique milk can.  However, I think it's more likely that the neighbor thinks I'm the nut, but we won't go there. 

I took my treasure home and hid it from any curious onlookers and headed to the hardware store in search for a nifty color to spray it.  Most of my planters (by the way that's what I'm turning it into) on my porch are orange, green, cream, and various shades of coppery brown.  Purple seemed like a lovely pop of color, although I would have preferred an eggplant color which would have required a trip to the specialty paint store and my husband says I'm no longer allowed in there.


After much scraping with a wire brush to remove the old peeling paint, I sprayed a coat of rust colored primer and then two coats of high gloss purple enamel.  It was a little breezy and I'm pretty sure I got about as much on me as I did on the can.  Oh well, purple is fashionable.

It's coming up on fall soon, so while at the hardware store I also picked up a pretty orange mum to match even though I'm sure my hubby is tired of me buying more plants.  Too bad.

I think it turned out pretty darn snazzy!  I'm sure the other plants are jealous of the mum for having such a cool planter but I'm sure they'll get over it.  And no, you cannot have my milk can, I found it first :)

The 365 Project: Week Twelve

This week on Picaboo, the challenge and theme was about leading lines.  Leading lines use, well, lines to draw the viewer's attention to the subject and/or tell a story.  They're easy to use and find: a brick wall, a fence, stairs, boardwalk, beach, sunset, etc.  Basically anything with a line that "points" to your intended subject.  My photo above of Kaylie playing along the water's edge made it into Picaboo's blog :)

I have to say I'm really happy I decided to do this project.  It has challenged me and made into a much better photographer!  I've learned about settings I never knew existed on my Canon as well!  For this week, it was a little challenging to think in the terms of lines.  I tend to consider a potential photo as a whole, instead of breaking it up a into separate parts to create a composition.  Once I got a hang of it though, it was easy to find creative uses of lines!  It was also fun using my daughter as a subject, she sure loves her photo taken!

Ringing in 2012!

Another year has flown by already!  I'm not one of those "resolution" types since we all know how determined we are about that new diet or exercise plan until oh end of January or maybe even February if you're really good about it!  I'm not being cynical, really I'm not, I just don't believe in forcing myself to adhere to something I'm going to find to be preposterous a month later and end up gorging on chocolate anyway.  Does that make any sense or am I alone in my crazy maniacal mindset?

Instead I prefer to set goals that don't entail strictness and allow for some wiggle room (and maybe even some cheating now and again).  Now I haven't taken a look at my goals from last year so lets see how I did (gulp).

From Eskymo Craft Show

Shop Goals 2011:

• List more often and on a regular basis (eh I did "so so", I got lazy over the summer)
• Promote myself more (been doing decent on that and I'm more active on FB)
• Do a larger scale craft show (Check!)
• More jewelry parties (Did 2 and they bombed because attendance was poor, oh well)
• Sell more on Etsy (Yes!)
• Be more involved in my Etsy Teams (I've ditched some of the teams I'm not active in and joined some I love!  I also lead one and captain another)

Personal Goals 2011:

Someday....

• Don't stress so much over the little things (hmmm, no comment)
• Exercise more and eat better, not necessarily to lose weight but to just be healthier (Hit or miss)
• Get Kaylie potty trained (nope)
• Get Kaylie used to her big girl bed when she figures out how to escape her crib (she's still in her crib and she stays in it, why change?)
• Get out of debt (I've gotten 2 loans paid off, just have Tyler's student loan left)
• Fix our roof once and for all (the main leak is gone but the storage room needs re-roofing)
• Save $$$$ (Check)
• Convince the kitten that house plants are not for chewing (well she doesn't annihilate them anymore)
• Knock down the "hunny to do list" by half, at last (HAHAHAHAHA! no)

Ok I'm done laughing at that last goal, I think the list is even longer than it was last year when I wrote that blog post!  For this year I'll modify some of the goals that weren't reached and of course set a few new ones!

Shop Goals 2012:

Ok maybe not Lindstrom, lol!

• Reach 100 sales in my shop. I'm at 47 now, 53 to go!
• Grow my Etsy Hearts Beads Team into a larger and engaging team
• Try something new such as incorporating fiber, metal stamping or embossing
• Be more outgoing and charismatic at craft shows to help sell more
• Get a Square card reader now that I have a Droid (DONE, just ordered it!)
• Buy some really nice jewelry tools since mine basically suck
• Grow my Blog following

Personal Goals 2012:

• Continue to eat better, be more active yadda yadda
• Get Kaylie potty trained, seriously
• Read more and expand my horizons beyond Koontz, I paid good money for that Kindle Fire!
• Pay down hubby's student loan at least by half, totally do-able
• Save $$$ for a brand new shiny Subaru, I want it in 4 years and to pay most in CASH :D
• Start saving for a bigger house, even if just a little bit
• Cross off at least the major things on "Hunny to do" list, for real
• Stop racking up the Visa 
• Get out more this summer (without racking up the Visa)
• Preschool Kaylie at home (seriously preschool costs are outrageous!)

In a few years this pretty girl will be mine :)

So far I've been good.  I already ordered my new Square reader and I'm reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins on my Kindle.  I've only read a few chapters so far but I'm totally engrossed by it.  I will for sure be reading the entire series!  I've got some big goals ahead of me especially with my savings goals but with Tyler's new Job at Schwan's it should be much easier.  As far as doing Kaylie's preschooling, I need to learn to be more patient and I know my mom will help out.  She's been doing very well and knows all her letters, numbers, colors and so on.  I'm trying to get her to write so we can pave the way to reading!  Pretty good for her only being three!  The potty training is really up to her, she's not quite ready and there's no point in pushing the issue till she is.

As far as shop goals, I've got confidence in completing at least most of them since my shop has improved by leaps and bounds compared to last January.  heck I didn't even sell anything last year till February and this year I sold a kitty charm bracelet on New Year's Day!

Sold!!

Last of all here's a few recent and awesome treasuries!

Mommy and Me Arts and Crafts

Now that it's that yucky. rainy, cloudy, dreary and cold transition between fall and winter Kaylie has been spending more time inside which of course makes her a little antsy when she doesn't feel like playing with her cars or doll house.  My solution?  Arts and crafts time!

I'm a huge fan of either buying handmade or making your own cute Christmas gifts to give out to family and friends.  Besides leaving more money in your wallet it's more meaningful and of course unique!  This year I had Kaylie help me make some gifts to give out to her grandparents and great grandparents now that she's older and loves to help!  I bought this inexpensive kit and I had her help make these cute hand print stepping stones to give out!  She loved smashing her hand in the cold mushy plaster and then squish all the little tiles and gems in too!  After they dried I painted her hand prints and dated each one.  Grandmas love this kind of stuff :)  Sorry the photo is terrible, I took it on my phone and then forgot to take a better picture before wrapping them!

She's so focused!

Today it was especially dreary outside so I had Kaylie bundle up and go out with me to pick up pine cones under the tree by our house.  She's always collecting pine cones so she's pretty much a pro at this one!  We put them all in a paper bag and then picked out the best looking ones the squirrels hadn't ravaged and cleaned all the dirt out of them.  Now there's tons of fun things you can do with pine cones so I made sure to keep extras for later projects too.  I figure we can make peanut butter and bird seed pine pine cone feeders for the birds with the "ugly" pine cones later!  I told her that today we're going to paint pine cones and hang them on the Christmas tree!  Anything involving ridiculously messy projects are a gigantic favorite for my 3 year old!  She was so focused, making sure she got every nook and cranny slathered with red paint.  She picked the red paint and told me I could paint mine green.  By the time she was finished painting her three pine cones she looked like Dexter after a kill!  Everything set aside to dry and half a roll of paper towels later and LOTS of soap later, the little ornaments turned out super cute!  I just tied a bit of twine around the top for hanging and once she's had her nap she can hang her pine cones on the tree!  Perhaps next year we'll add to them and decorate them with glitter glue but cleaning paint out of her ears (how kids get messy in the weirdest of places is beyond me) was more than enough for me!


While she was napping I did another quick batch of pine cone ornaments using genuine copper paint on the tips and finishing them with a verdigris patina for an awesome look!  It's a bit time consuming but they turned out great!  I just need to clear coat them and add twine to hang.  We're having a "woodland" theme for our Christmas tree this year so these and the painted ones are a perfect fit!  Now if only we had an oak tree so I could make acorn garland...

Once I make it to the grocery store and buy more flour I'll have Kaylie help make some salt dough ornaments to give as gifts too.  They're super easy to make and very cheap as well!  I'll share the recipe with you :)

Salt Dough Ornaments
2c All Purpose Flour
1c Salt
1c Water

-Preheat your oven to 200 degrees
-Mix the flour and salt thoroughly and gradually add the water, mixing with your hands till soft
-Roll dough on floured surface and cut out shapes with cookie cutters.  Use a toothpick to make hanging holes on the tops for string.
-Bake approx 3 hours or till hardened, checking every so often to make sure they don't burn.
-Let cool and paint with acrylic craft paint.  Coat generously with a clear sealant like polyurethane to protect them from crumbling over time and to protect the paint.

Cutsie ornament made with salt dough

Of course you can also make your own shapes since the dough is much like play-doh and you can hot glue ribbon hangers instead of poking holes.  You can write on them with permanent markers to personalize them too.  I actually have a cute pea pod ornament made with salt dough that was given to me for Kaylie a year ago.  The possibilities are endless with this recipe!

So Far So Good!

A few mini canvases I made

Well I have successfully completed my first day of my new work schedule!  There was no running around, I didn't feel stressed, the house was cleaned, and I even got to go over the color and shape flash cards with Kaylie!  I do admit it is hard to not touch the computer till 11:30am instead of popping on first thing after waking up while I try to eat breakfast and peel hungry cats off me.

A series of thumbnails for paintings

Today's project is to make more mini canvases so I can get started on my mini paintings!  I prefer to make everything myself rather than buy my surfaces from a catalog or store.  Store made ones may look "perfect" but hand made frames have more pride!  I also need to get my handy hubby to zip up some boards so I can make plastered boards for my mixed media works.  I'm not particularly fond of the table saw, ha ha!  My mini canvases are made of solid poplar stretcher frames with 100% natural unbleached heavy duty cotton duck canvas.  Hopefully soon I'll be able to have the first few up and listed on Etsy!  I have lots of thumbnails worked out for ideas!  I've decided so far to have 4"x4" canvases and also some 4"x3" ones too.  Those sizes seem to be a good fit for mini canvases without being too small.  I may try to crank out a few paintings this weekend while Kaylie is napping since I don't think my husband and I are doing anything otherwise.  We pretty much hibernate all winter!