Trying this again

Okay, so per usual my blogging skills were seriously lacking there for quite a while. I'm such a fickle person I guess. I am really going to try to do two posts per week, but at least one per week. It isn't that I feel I have anything that people are exactly vying over to read but sometimes I guess I may have something interesting or hopefully inspiring to post.

Speaking of inspiring.. I have totally flopped in that department! September through December is apparently just my traditionally bad stretch of the year for putting some weight back on. Luckily I get disgusted enough that I snap out of my funk and kick it into gear at the start of the year. Call it a resolution if you want, but really it is just a nice rounded out time to start fresh. So I haven't even gotten an official weight because I don't want to depress myself into some bad  habits of binging to make myself feel better. Irony? Counter productive? yes, still this is sadly what happens in my world. Anyway, I am guessing around 5-6 pounds. My goal: only semi-lofty at about 7 pounds down by my birthday on Feb. 7th. Then I'll have another 10-15 to go and I can work on some semblance of maintenance until I decide my body has settled enough that it would actually lose weight again if I tried. You know, that whole plateau thing that prevents it if the body gets comfortable in the losing stage. I also really want to sign up for a "real" 5k or even farther. Luckily I have some awesome friends who are also runners that are either at or better than my stage that will probably sign up with me!

Christmas came and went much too quickly, but I am happy to be back in a mostly normal routine. I got all of my sewing projects done for gifts and am happy with how they all turned out and were received. It seemed to be the year of the bags for me though. I don't know what I was thinking being so uncreative that I gave so many bags. Next year I am going to get a lot more inspired and do some great unique things. Hopefully.

Tote bag and tea wallet for my Husker fan mother in law

tea wallet

cinch bags for Lilly's little things- used this tutorial

crinkle cat bag for Peach, my in-laws new cat. Again Huskers fabric

LARGE tote bag for my mom. there is no good way to photograph this bag. It ended up being way bigger than I thought. I think Lilly could fit in it!

Rocket cushion for Edison! Used this tutorial

This is what we made Lilly teacher for a gift. She said it was more than she could have hoped for and plans to use it for the ipad so I'm glad we could give something personal from Lilly AND useful for years to come!

I made some luggage tags for both my dad and step mom and then brother-in-law and his wife. I have photos of those but they are still on the memory card with the rest of the Christmas parts 3 and 4 that need to be edited. It can be a pain to convert from RAW but I just cant shoot any other way anymore.

The only bummer about Christmas was that I managed to get sick (NO idea how) a few days before and just got progressively worse as the days passed. I infected not only Lilly in my own household but my mom, brother, husband, son, and mother AND father in law. I am a force to be reckoned with! In all seriousness it was AWFUL. I was going to take Lilly and I to the doctor while visiting the family in Nebraska but our insurance coverage is only good in the state of Iowa. Ouch. Once we got home I went in right away but by then Lilly seemed well enough to be getting over it but Edison had an ear infection and croup. Mine was a sinus, ear, and respiratory infection. Ick.

I am slowly but surely getting the house back together. All of the decorations are down and I am trying to sort out where everything will now reside in our very storage-lacking house. Besides losing the weight I am going to really organize my sewing tasks and PLAN some projects out. I need to get some prep plans made for the yard and garden. I will be damned if I have the cicada wasps in our backyard again so we need to get some serious care out there to thicken up the grass. I would love one more good dump of snow, but I am also getting to my "ready for Spring: point too.

excuse the not so good shot of the husband.. there are at least 6 others and this was the best one of MOST of us. Note to self: learn how to switch heads on people seamlessly for best picture outcomes ;-)

UPDATE: HA! I used the Windows Live 7 photo gallery thing to fuse the pictures together. I can really only see that working in cases such as this photo where everything is in nearly the exact same pose and spot except for eyes diverted or something. Anyway.. After a quick fuse I got this!:

that's better :)