1Mile Stats

I've got this almost under control. In 5 days my time has greatly improved. I'm working my way up. I am now at 1 mile on the eliptical in just over 13 minutes. my goal this week is to make it in 10 minutes.

A TuTu For Your Valentine

TuTu's are all the craze! I made some tutu's for a little valentine. They were made for the baby shower honoring the little valentine to be.

Tutu's made for decorations and Tutu's made to wear.

One tutu made of the mint green, pink, and white decorated the cake stand for the shower cake.

Here's a tutu-torial that I'm sharing. I had to make a quick tutorial to send to my shower hostesses so they could get the cake tutu and  made for the shower. Thank you sistas for doing a great job. Sorry but blogger only loaded a portion of the total tutorial video. Hope it is enough to get your started.

The video should show 12 inch strips of netting cut, then the strip folded in half and looped on the elastic all the way around, being sure to pull each loop taught and close together all around the circle of elastic. It took about 50 strips of netting to make each of these tutus shown in this post.

After the netting is looped around the elastic, I machine sewed a pink ribbon on the elastic, leaving hanging ribbon ends on each end to tie into a bow. Then I marked with pins the waist on the onezie and  hand blind stitched the tutu around the onezie.  I had already prepared the onezie with iron ons with the little valentine's name on one and the the other onezie was a store bought onezie with the pre-printed design on it. These were newborn size onezies.

A really cute popular project to make for your little valentine.

I am linked to A Crafty Soiree @  Yesterday on Tuesday,



gin

A TuTu for Your Valentine

TuTu's are all the craze! I made some tutu's for a little valentine. They were made for the baby shower honoring the little valentine to be.

Tutu's made for decorations and Tutu's made to wear.

One tutu made of the mint green, pink, and white decorated the cake stand for the shower cake.

Here's a tutu-torial that I'm sharing. I had to make a quick tutorial to send to my shower hostesses so they could get the cake tutu and  made for the shower. Thank you sistas for doing a great job. Sorry but blogger only loaded a portion of the total tutorial video. Hope it is enough to get your started.

The video should show 12 inch strips of netting cut, then the strip folded in half and looped on the elastic all the way around, being sure to pull each loop taught and close together all around the circle of elastic. It took about 50 strips of netting to make each of these tutus shown in this post.

After the netting is looped around the elastic, I machine sewed a pink ribbon on the elastic, leaving hanging ribbon ends on each end to tie into a bow. Then I marked with pins the waist on the onezie and  hand blind stitched the tutu around the onezie.  I had already prepared the onezie with iron ons with the little valentine's name on one and the the other onezie was a store bought onezie with the pre-printed design on it. These were newborn size onezies.

A really cute popular project to make for your little valentine.

I am linked to A Crafty Soiree @  Yesterday on Tuesday,



gin

January Honors

I've been waiting all month for the January family birthday party. It's getting pretty close to the last day of the month. Birthday honorees for the month of January took a little seafood hit. Seafood always hits the spot.

 Birthday honorees this month were Larry (husband) and Chris (son-in-law) with a stop at the restaurant and then back to the house for Gambino's cake. Can I say full, ate too much, oh I am stuffed.

Then a girl's walk around the block. It was mainly to look at the new houses being built. Some were just about finished and they were left unlocked. So a nosey tour inside to see the new builds and a walk and talk and ended back for some baby time.

Elipticaling

Is that a word?  It's similar to bicycling. See, elipticaling / bicycling.
.
I started a few days ago. It's an older model elipical.  But it works, and a new one wouldn't get used any better or any more than this one. So I am happy with it.

This is me starting out this week.

I made .50 miles in 10.48 minutes.

That is a half mile in almost 11 minutes. That's good for my first day this year. Last summer I was walking the street at a fast pace and did 1 mile in 20 minutes. So my goal for this summer is a 3K somewhere. I know there is some smiling family members out there who wants to participate with me.

I will be up to 1 mile in 20 minutes in 1 week. Stay tuned.

Project Done

I spent the day all by myself. My day off. Husband gone hunting. Sometimes I like and/or need a day to myself. So do you want to know what I did?After lounging around doing absolutely nothing after I got up (I may have fallen asleep on the couch about 9ish. Can't say for sure, cause I don't remember. I just remember the dog barking feriously and me thinking "who could that be, I'm not dressed." Thankfully, it was a false bark. I managed to get dressed, eat cereal, brush my teeth all in a matter of minutes. I had a few projects on my mind's list of things I wanted to accomplish or at least finish some unfinished projects.My chosen project of the day was to sort all my photos from 2012 and get them in the photo album. I have a physical photo album of every year from the beginning of time. Even though pictures are now digital and I have them on a SD card, on a CD disk, on my PC and or laptop, on my CELL phone, and plastered all over FB and even Walgreens and Shutterfly keep a group of my albums for me. Plus I make a blog book on line from my other blog mominthewilderness with all the photos. But, I have to have a physical photo album of the pictures for one reason. I have to have an in the hand, go-to physical photo. I guess i am old like that. Even since my kids have been grown, they enjoy looking thru the photo albums of themselves and comparing themselves to their siblings at the same age. Or comparing what one got for their 8th birthday was better than what their siblings got at the same age. My photo albums do end up giving me a bad rap and comes back to bite me. Yes, we do enjoy looking at old home movies of ourselves, too. We still do that.

Alas, I completed my 2012 photo album.

Baby Time Again

Coldest Day of the Winter Season Vlog

Nutritional Health Colors

I came across this chart on my 2nd week of "clean" eating during my diet and exercise regime. I may have already known this, but it's good to refresh my memory.

The chart I can follow. My exercise regime is kinda side tracked because of all the rain, because I tend to walk/run as my exercise.

So pile on these foods to better eating and health.

Before and After

Poochie Dog went to the Poochie Parlor today.

But first, this story: About a year ago I contemplated, in visioned, planned, and actually researched on line to become a dog groomer. There is an on line course with accreditation and certification. It takes up to 9 months to complete at your own pace. Long story short, I was going to open a doggie shoppe and name it Poochie Parlor. It never came to fruition. Dream washed down the drain.

So, as we riding along back from the city to the wilderness, there is a nice advertisement sign "Lauren's Poochie Parlor". The girl stole my idea and stole my business name!!, I exclaimed. We got her number and called her up and made an appointment for Poochie Dog.

So here she is before and after.

I like the long fluffy curly look she had.

But now she is true to form of a schnauzer, for a while anyway.





I am linked to You like me Friday Blog Hop. Check  it out. And Anything Goes here.
gin

Nine Things

January 9, 9pm, 9 things: * 4 birthdays this month (husband, son-in-law, brother, aunt) * clearance sale items included a batman tee and pair of Danskin workout shorts (total for both $5) * tonight house will get thorough cleaning and pick up, including (but not limited to) dust,sweep, mop, bed linens changed, bathrooms cleaned. This will result in zero time being spent on computer reading blogs and facebook. * rain everywhere. Suppose to be raining all day through Thursday. Seems like a long time for no change in weather. I see reports of flooded roads already. * day 3 of a 14 day GNC meal supplement, diet and exercise regime. So far. So good. * yum! it's king cake time. one a week is no problem here. this may alter my previous point. * dinner menu is one big pot of chili. meat, beans, tomatoes, rotel, spices served over fritos topped with shredded cheese. * can't wait for my next down home trip. Birthdays and babies will be on the agenda. * getting my plans in gear for the next holiday occasion. Well, technically it's not a holiday, but it is an occasion. Everyday should be Valentine's Day to show or tell your loved ones what they mean to you. I think I might just create a little valentine day act of love to a perfect stranger and share God's love. gin

Favorite Thing This Week

I'm in love with canvas wall art. The art of your snapshots blown up to any size on canvas and stretched across a frame . Doesn't take much to make me happy.

The love affair started in 2011. I ordered 5 wedding pictures in different sizes for a wall grouping for Jennifer. They came out beautifully. With the wedding at Destin on the beach, it probably had a lot to do with me falling in love with canvas wall art . "Canvas People" was my choice of retailer for these.

So I have continued my obsessive love affair.

This time with my 2 babies Christmas snapshot of them together. (FYI they are not "my" babies, but are "my" grandbabies). So with a coupon on line, plus 50%off coupon, and a coupon I already had from ordering a lot of prints, I got a mega discount when I ordered 3 canvas wall art this week of 3 different snapshots. One for me. One portrait of each baby by their self for each of the babies parents. All in 16x20.

These are the snapshots I used for them. Couldn't resist.

I ordered these from Walgreens. Because (a) I wanted them pronto; (b) I had 3 coupons from when I ordered a lot of prints recently and there were on line coupons for their canvas wall art, which resulted in mega discount on my order;  and (c) I could choose any location to pick them up and since I was down home, that's where I needed to get them and it would be ready the next day.

Both retailers, Canvas People and Walgreens, products were great.  Even with different lighting, one group with sunlight on the beach and the other group with inside amateur lighting, I love the outcome of both sets.   Walgreens did have a nicer backing. Which was a black velvet like backing, like what's on back of picture frames.

Try one. You will love it. There are plenty of coupons out there to get a great deal.

Disclaimer:  these are strictly my personal opinions on products I buy and try for my personal use. I was not compensated in any way for this review.

gin

My babysitting during December turned into doggie sitting, too. Molly bringing her toys to the baby.

P.S. Molly's bark is LOUD. Barked at everything --- birds in the yard she saw thru the back door, a white paper flying
thru the back yard, and any and every noise she heard. But, the baby didn't mind. It never phased her.

Randomness

Weeks can be very random. Sometimes things happen. Sometimes they don't.
This is where random pictures come in.

Thirteen days ago a sister celebrated her birthday. She had 3 different birthday parties given by her friends. Her family has yet to give her a party. I took this picture of her. Can you guess her birthday age?  (Hint: read her eyes)




Trent went fishing and sent me this pic. And said to ask his dad what kind of fish was it. No body knows. We just know it is big. (Again, blogger acting up, see fish pic below )

I made a quick visit here last nite.

Need a quick stop at the grocery. But don't remember all the ingredients. Or need an idea of what to fix for dinner. Get a quick text from someone and immediately have it all under control.

And I will spare you from looking at baby pictures today!

Gin

Christmas Takes

After each family had their own Christmas morning together, we gathered together for the Christmas Story, the Christmas Meal, and The Christmas gift exchange.

Christmas pictures come alive. Some with heads cut off.
Some with eyes all on one person with a gift. 

Babies looking face to face

and several tries for a group picture. Of which several people will be mad at me if they see this post with them included. But, hey, all you have to do is co-operate for a few seconds of self-timer camera clicks, and it will all be over. Right? 

Great Expectations for 2013

I expect more out of 2013. Not that 2012 wasn't great, because it was with the 2 new babies enlightening our lives. Though the first half of 2012 was spent making baby stuff. Then enjoying and spending time with babies. The end of the year was a time of sorrow in the loss of my father. But it was about celebrating his life, not mourning death.

 But I expect more out of myself in 2013. To be a servant to others. And put myself last.
 I am expecting more out of you 2013.
 * more good news than bad
 * more happiness and peace to family and friends
 * more fun and laughter at the littlest things
 * more time with God and in God's word

 January will be starting off a Bible study "Experiencing God". I've linked up with women's Bible cafe for it. Check it out.
 February will celebrate my bday. I always look forward to it. But I have to remember, I don't want it to be about me. So I must come up with a way for my bday to be about others. I want to make that happen.
 In the spring I have great expections that a plan made over a year ago will come to flourish. More on that later. Keeping my fingers crossed. And hoping for answered prayer.
 Summer is always great. Because it's my favorite season. Hot, Hot, and more Hot weather.

 I will leave the other half of the year till later. I want to enjoy the beginning of 2013 first. What are your great expections for 2013?

Check out Blog -O-Lutions, I have linked with her. 

Gin