No more holes

Well, Tom was able to charge up the air conditioner since the weather warmed up a week or so ago. so it was my job to repair the hole in the wall. I passed final inspection from the boss too! Whew!

Spring blooms

Well, I have to share my amarylis bulb. It has four large blooms and is such a beautiful red. I have had it for many years, but it has never looked so good, I guess it likes living in Arkansas. I almost forgot to plant it last year after our move, but came across it late spring and planted it our in the bed behind the house. It must have liked it! Hope everyone's spring weather isn't too bad, we are very chilly today and it is very windy. It has been raining a lot this week. We are scheduled for more rain on Monday and Tuesday, which is typical for this part of the country this time of the year. I pray that all those near the flooding rivers up north stay warm and dry.

I have been good

Ok, I missed posting last week about my treadmill visits. I was good, could have done better, but I did do 3 -50 minute workouts. This week I came in at three also, but one of them was an hour. I need to reprogram because my hard program is becoming easier. Since Tom doesn't like to watch american idol or the biggest loser, I have been catching up on them and getting my workout in.

Cabbage

We have harvested our first vegetable of the year from our kitchen garden. I guess this is why the irish eat cabbage with their potatoes on St Patrick's Day. I planted 5 cabbages last October and today we have harvested the first.

We are planning on cabbage rolls for dinner. I guess I need to go online and check for a great recipe.

We are planning a trip to Little Rock today to do alittle shopping. The shoes I ordered for Tom which are the exact same brand and size I ordered before were too small. I guess with the bad economy even the chinese are getting skimmpy.

I was talking to Laura and Chris and they are interested in starting a Therrien family blog. What I mean is a blog that we could add everyone to as an author and we could post things that our happening with our families. Laura was looking for a place to post family photos and I think it would work for that also. So Amy and Margie are you up to that. I figure we could invite Jean and Carl, Sam and Joni, Dan and Stacey and we could keep in touch a little better. I know I have really enjoyed Xander's blog, and would continue to go there, but with a family blog you could post only when you had something special to share, as an example Margie you and Cal are going to Dollywood. Let me know what you think?

workout update

This week I got off to a slow start. I took off Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Well, I guess that isn't totally true because I worked for four hours weeding the front landscaping and raking up some leaves. I was back on track Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and actually added 10 more minutes each day to my treadmill workout. I think your advice was the best Dolphin, so I watched some tv, read some, and listened to music. Now, I am going to close this posting and get on to my workout!

This is my first completely hand pieced hand quilted mini. The block pattern is called tumbling blocks. It is an old quilt pattern that was often used on baby quilts. It is made by using one shape a 60 degree diamond. I used a technique called english paper piecing. I found a web site that allows you make graph paper in any size of shape and then I just printed it out and cut up each diamond. I then cut a piece of fabric 1/4 inch larger then the paper and then basted the seam allowance to the back. After making all those pieces, I had to sew them together and then remove the basting and paper. I added a border to each side and then quilted it. Each 60 degree diamond is quilted 1/4 of an inch away from the seam and the border also has a design quilted into it. It was a very fun project to do. I started it about 2 weeks ago. I love doing minis. because they allow you to enjoy all the aspects of making a large quilt, but they are done in a whole lot less time. The 3 D effect really turned out well, although my photography doesn't do it much justice, but I am a quilter not a photographer.

Reading versus Music

Well, I was reading my prevention magazine and they had an article on reading versus listening to music while on the treadmill. When you read while on the treadmill you are distracting yourself so you are not working out with the intensity that you should to burn calories. Music on the other hand encourages your body to move and listening to Queen or Madonna on average made made the average workout last 15 percent longer thus burning more calories. I guess I need to add some new tunes to my mp3 player and start using it again since I finished my book Friday. The article also mentioned that people are texting and reading emails while they working out, I don't think I could text and walk or jog at the same time.

workout update

Well, it has been a week since I started my get on the treadmill at least three times a week. I worked out Friday, Sunday, Monday Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Another break tomorrow, although if it doesn't rain I will be working out in the yard. It was gorgeous today. I sprayed some weeds and rode on the lawn mover, I did pick up some leaves that have been blowing around. Max is loving the weather also, but today he was panting after running around I guess he was a bit warm, not used to the 80 degree weather. I gave him a haircut that should help.

Pineapple Plant

I am very happy that my pineapple plant has survived living indoors all winter. I started it last summer, I have always loved to grow plants, and growing a pineapple plant was always on my list, but living in northern areas has never made it easy. Down here in Arkansas, everything seems to grow really well. I have some big windows that really let the light in when the winter gets gloomy.

I have seen pineapple plants that actually produce little baby pineapples, so I guess I will have to do some research to see if that is possible in a home setting. I know that the plant has to become quite large to get anything that would be large enough to be edible, but I would be quite happy with a little baby pineapple.

I am so glad we have entered the month of March, and with daylight saving coming up next weekend the days will soon become longer and the chances to get out and weed the garden and the landscape around the house will soon begin. We have bed of azaleas along the north side of the house, that look really great after a year of composting and fertilizing them. They were scraggly covered in oak leaves and had a lot of dead branches when we moved in to this home. This spring their leaves are shiny and they look very healthy. I am amazed what little attention that I have given them, has done so much. They bloom in the most gorgeous salmon color, and I can't wait to see if the care they received will affect the amount of blooms we get this year.