Day two

I have been thinking about why I haven't been wanting to get on the treadmill. It really isn't the workout it is how boring it gets. I decided to try reading while working out. I went to the library and checkout a book that my MIL recommended.

Great suggestion Margie! I am already on chapter 7. I was able to get two chapters in while working out, so this may help keep me from getting bored. I was concerned that I might fall off but so far so good. Kind of boring huh, but if posting my progress pushes me to do what I need to do, so bit it. I am watching the biggest loser, some of the contestants are losing ten pounds a week, those trainers must be beating them in the gym. This is my first season watching, I am impressed with the contestants, there has only been one who I felt kind of gave up, the rest have really worked their butts off. My hat is off to them! I would welcome any stories of what you do on the treadmill?

Back to working out!

Ok I will admit once again I was very lazy in January. I spent two weeks in February trying to talk myself back on the treadmill, only succeeded a couple of times. This week I decided I am going to post my results each day. I didn't catch the time as it blinks. I spent forty minutes yesterday which was suppose to be 252 calories. Not sure how accurate calories burned are.........................but it is all I have to go by.

Dichotomy

Well, it is done! After spending a week outlining the rectangles in this quilt with hand quilting, I decided that some circles and curved lines and designs might better suit it better. So I started over two weeks ago taking out the original quilting and starting over. I had fun exploring my new quilting method which is much better for my carpel tunnel. I also went out of the box on this by cutting the original blocks in half and rearranging them into a new design. So this test quilt served it's purpose.

Bet you never owned a bra like this!

http://www.quiltersofsc.org/artfullbras/artfullbras.htm

Some of these were pretty funny! Amy check out the nursing bra!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

Biggest Loser!

Ok, I have to start by saying I have been bad after Christmas about doing my yoga like I was before Christmas. I am feeling more confident now that the sun is shining again and I am able to get out and walk.
I have been watching the biggest loser. What a great show if any of you don't you should try it next year. My friend Christine asked me to watch it so we could discuss. It really is inspirational if you don't think you could lose weight and really shows the emotional struggles people who have weight problems go thru. My favorite team is the purple team!
Well, this week the trainer had them doing yoga and they were all very happy, most of the time when they are working out in the gym they are unhappy campers. They all said that yoga was very soothing even though they admitted it was hard and made them sweat.
Well, all is well until I saw obese people doing the tree pose. I have avoided the tree pose ever since I started doing yoga. If an obese person can do it , then I should be able too. So I will let you know how it goes, I will not be a loser when it comes to the tree pose.

Spring

Well, I am so happy that the weather has been nice for the past week. Max is happy to get out and walk everyday and chase the squirrels.

I planted some hyacinth bulbs last fall and they all came up. I can't wait for them to bloom that beautiful blue. They are already forming their flower head so it won't be long now.

My pansies are still kind oof sad looking from the cold winter. I know they will start perking up with the sun. They are ready all blooming again with the sun and rain we have had this week.

I have to say when it warms up in Arkansas we always seem to get the gulf moisture to fall on our heads. We get a lot more rain here than we did in St Peters, but I am not complaining since I never have to water anything. Tom turned a third of our front lawn into a mud pie by tilling it up last weekend. It isn't a bad thing but a good thing. We want to kill the nasty weeds which was the only thing growing there. We are going to plug it with the St Augustine that is growing in the other two thirds of the front lawn. Hopefully it will do well once we get the soil conditions right. The gardening show is this weekend so I hope to get some good info on what kind of grass we might be able to grow in the back yard. From all the research I have done on line I think Zoysia might be the answer. We have a test plot of Rebel fescue that I am not sure will survive the summer heat since we planted it last fall. The far south east corner of the backyard was tilled last fall and we have planted perrenial rye just to have something growing. It looks great but I know it will die off once the heat hits. It may turn into a test plot for Zoysia early this summer when the ground gets warm enough. Right now I laugh cause it looks like we are farming with all the different squares of green.

Today is very windy, but the wind brings spring so let it blow!

Spring must be around the corner

Well, a hint of spring has hit Arkansas. We are at 66 degrees! It will probably rain tomorrow that is what it seems to do here when it warms up! But, I am not complaining those spring rains will bring spring flowers. My pansies are looking kind of rough after the last few weeks of cold weather, but peaking out between them are some spring bulbs. YEAH!
Max has been happy this week because he has me out walking again. It does feel good to get out and stretch those legs.

Well, I have sewn all the blocks together. Everyone ended up voting for pattern A, so that is how it is assembled. I started hand quilting it Sunday, This photo is a close up of one block. I decided since it is so geometric that just outlining those geometric shapes was the best way to quilt this. It is going to take a while to finish, but I will post the completed project then. This pattern was really fun to piece since once you made the initial block you slice it half, a bit out of box for me, but I like the results.

Yesterday was our anniversary! We have another year under our belt. We had to think about how many years it has been. In some ways it feels like yesterday but then I think of all our experiences, I guess it has been awhile. We started the day heading to the Art museum in Little Rock. They actually had a couple of Monet's there, so Tom had to wonder what it would be like to be Thomas Crown!
Some of the art surprised me since they were sketches of jewelry designs. There also was a french watercolor artist that had a letter he had written to a fellow artist in the collection. He included a water color in his letter, wouldn't that be great to have a friend who did that! I wonder if that is done today, considering it seems none of us have time to do those types of things.

We then stopped for some coffee at a Starbucks! I don't care what anybody says Mc Donalds mccafe is not a white chocolate mocha at Starbucks. Tom picked up a large bag of coffee grinds for the azaleas. I guess with the weather warming up this weekend we will spread it on the azaleas so the spring rains will make them happy. Tom is such a green jean, he should have gotten that Nobel Peace prize instead of Al Gore. He trys to walk the walk instead of just doing the talk.


So as we were driving down Cantrell Road, in the prius with our coffee grounds he spied a Hancocks Fabric and of course he pulls in and lets me do some shopping. I have been trying to find some wool batting locally, but I should have know a chain store like that wouldn't carry anything that gorgeous. I guess that will have to be an internet purchase, when I decide I am good enough at hand quilting to actually make a quilt with a wool batt.

It was then time for lunch, we headed to a local italian restaurant. The sun was shining and we were fortunate enough to get a window table. Tom had chicken florentine and I had chicken alfredo casserole. We both enjoyed our salad and entree, but then decided we definitely needed to do dessert. Chocolate carmel turtle cake, mmmmmmmmmmmmmm good! We were good and shared a piece.

We finished the day, coming back to reality, stopping to pick up groceries. Doesn't sound too exciting I know, but spending the day with Tom is enough for me and him, quite a statement, considering we have been together so long.

Are you ready for some football!

Max is wondering if you are ready for some football! He is cheering for the Arizona Cardinals. He has been a fan of Kurt Warner for a while.
I know everyone says the big scary steelers will kill the cardinals, but we believe otherwise.

Tom and I are having our veggie tray with dip and then we are chowing down on some delicious pizza and of course a lager beer.

Max got a haircut and bath just for the occasion.