Wednesday, September 14, 2011

13 Weeks of Autumn - Week 2

Hmm. I'm finding it very hard to start anything; I've been focused on "finishing" this week. Yes, that means I didn't try any new techniques - but I finished a lot of stuff!  I also had a lot of "accomplishments" (that vague word!) - mostly revolving around getting crap out of the garage.  Tomorrow is garbage day; I think the garbage dude is gonna hate me!  That's even after I freecycled a whole bunch of stuff (for the uninitiated - see freecycle.org).


The pounds continue to come off - hooray! The goal of only 1 pound a week has made the journey seem attainable rather than a struggle; I'll keep on this way for awhile.  The walks are much easier now that it's a tad bit cooler in the mornings. Walk on!


Not much to say this week, but wanted to do the check-in.


Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

13 Weeks of Fall - Week 1 Check-In

Labor Day has passed; the weekend that I usually spend thinking about Christmas. It's like the official start of the holiday season for me.  So what did I plan?  NOTHING! But I sure did find a lot of fun things on Pinterest!! (If you're not familiar with Pinterest, there's a button over on the right - just click it.)


The first week of my personal challenge for Fall was great! I lost another pound, tried a new technique, but I have to say I'm having a little difficulty trying to decide just which thing is the "accomplishment" for the week. Well ... I knew it was going to be vague, but I'll grow into the definition over the next few weeks. At any rate - I made a book this week; something I've been wanting to try for a long time.  Here's my very first attempt at bookmaking: 






It's small - just 4 1/2" x 5 1/2".  It was a fun experience and man did I ever learn a lot!  I know, I know ... I was going to do ATCs. I got distracted - what can I say?  I didn't meet all my commitments for the week, but still - having them out for all to see is a great motivator.  I'll make my first attempt at updating that page this evening.

I also tried a new recipe this week - something decadent to take to my guild meeting: Saltine Toffee (I made it healthy by using multi-grain Saltines.)  (Soooo "NOT"!!!).  There's a link to the recipe on my "Food, Glorious Food" Pinterest board.  Click away.)  Wow that stuff is deeeee-lish!  I couldn't get it out of my house fast enough!  If I had made it any earlier there wouldn't have been enough left for the guild members.  

So that was my week.  Great, with room for improvement, which is probably a good place to land.  The cooler morning today sure did make for a delightful walk!  I'll be grateful when we have consistent cooler mornings. :-)

Thanks for stopping by! 

Thursday, September 1, 2011

13 Weeks; An end and a beginning

Soooo .... my first 13-week personal challenge has ended! 3 more check marks this week (all goals accomplished). Here's a (lousy) pic of this week's quilt: 



(It was taken quickly, and with the phone, after I nearly forgot!!)  It's all feedsack repro fabrics and is really quite fun.  Maybe a better pic later...


Anyway .... here are the statistics:
13 quilts got made. Some are actually FINISHED(!!!), most are quilted.
17 pounds left my body. Hooray for that! (I should've also counted the miles I've walked! 5 miles, almost every day)
13 new recipes got tried. Some were big successes, others were big failures. I tried one 3 times before I finally just gave up. I will go in search of a different recipe for beer bread!


So that's the "end". The "beginning" is the start of the 13 Weeks of Autumn. Yes, I'm going to do another 13 week segment (because as I said in my very first 13-week post, I don't think I can commit to a year of anything!!) (OK I can commit, but would I follow through? Doubtful.)  Over the next 13 weeks/3 months I will try 13 new techniques, lose 13 more pounds, and accomplish 13 things.  Now I realize that's kinda vague ("accomplish"), but you know all those things on the to-do list (even if it's only a mental one) that never seem to get done? Well, I'm going to do one a week for the next 13 weeks.  Some may seem insignificant and small - and maybe some folks wouldn't even consider them an accomplishment .... but this is my personal challenge, and if I consider "it" an accomplishment, it is!! (insert your idea of a smiley face here)


I'm not giving up on quilting, though.  Oh, no indeed! (I have entirely too much stash for that!!)  What I  am going to do is work on some more complex quilts - the kind that can't be made in a week. I'm thinking one quilt a month, so I'm committing to 3 quilts during this Autumn "term".  I can even tell you that they will be my "premium aged" Tree of Life (that has been sitting around for YEARS), and two new ones - a "slashed" Christmas Tree quilt, and Midnight Garden (from the book Divide and Conquer).


Those are my commitments for the next 13 weeks. Who knows what else I may tackle during that time? I'd like to keep trying new recipes because I do enjoy cooking, especially now that I have time for it. I may make a few more simple quilts to keep adding to the donation pile, I'd like to blog more than once a week; maybe the "new technique" will spur me on toward that goal. I know this, though - the past 13 weeks have been fun, challenging, successful, and most importantly a huge learning experience for me!  I take all those lessons learned into this new 13-week challenge and hope these 13 will surpass the first.  I hope you'll stay with me, and I hope some of you will play along!!


Thanks for stopping by!