What have I been doing over Thanksgiving vacation?

Knitting.

And knitting.

And doing more knitting.

This week, I’ve worked on a shawl, candle cover, hat, afghan, and jacket.  All I did was sit and knit as I watched movies.  It was quite lovely, but I think it got to my head. If I’m not careful, I’ll dream I’m knitting!

It’s kind of nice to have yarn everywhere!

By the way, my husband and I hit Michael’s Arts & Crafts on Black Friday.  We found Lion Brand Chenille Thick and Quick Yarn for $2 each.  Needless to say, we stocked up!

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Sewing Saturday – Another Blouse

Here’s another blouse that I finished.  I’ve pretty much got the process down, it’s just sitting down to work on them.  After this, I’m in the finish lane with another blouse and then I switch the thread on my sewing machine from black to blue for two more blouses.

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Frugal Friday and Scrapbooking – The Real Deal

When I did scrapbooking in the past, it was using construction and printer paper.  It was making do with flourescent colors and pictures printed on printer paper on a color printer.  It was putting the pages in a 3-ring binder for my students to look at.

Recently, I decided to do the real deal.  I bought a scrapbook from a discount store.  I bought a pad of scrapbook paper for a fraction of the normal price.  It was normally $20 and I got it for $4, just because some sheets on the pad of paper had been removed.

I selected a few pictures from my iPhoto library and had them printed on a Kodak machine at the grocery store.  I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased alphabet letters, stickers, double-sided tape, and a storage case for the supplies.

I also purchased a paper cutter on clearance from Target, which later broke, so I had to go back and exchange it for a slightly more expensive paper cutter.

The supplies.

You can see that the papers coordinate.  That was a big help, because I have difficulty matching colors in an attractive way compared to my ultra-talented friends.  One of my friends will tell you that I once tried to color a pig purple, just because that was the nearest colored pencil at hand.

This is the original paper cutter.  It worked great until the blade guard fell off and the blade started shredding the edges of paper instead of cutting it.

I love the way that the papers coordinated.  In the stack of paper I bought, facing pages were meant to go together.  I also loved my double-sided tape!

I loved these alpha letter stickers.  They really made the scrapbook pages even prettier.

This is my new paper cutter.  Notice that it has an arm on the upper left. This allows you to cut full sheets of scrapbook paper.  The arm folds up when not in use.  The previous cutter I had was just a tad too short to cut full sheets.  The pages would fit under the cutter, but the blad would not reach the edge of the page.  You had to go back with scissors to finish the job.

I had a great time making scrapbook pages.  I was quite surprised.  I was also suprised to see that most of my iPhoto pictures were of clothing and food that I made.  I need to get out and do more hiking and trips so that I can take more pictures of people!!

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New Bible Study

I’ve begun to go through Step By Step Through the Old Testament, by Waylon Bailey and Tom Hudson.  I got it from the Lifeway store, but you can also get it from Amazon.com.

I picked it up, because I wanted to learn more about the Bible, and learn things in great depth.  I didn’t choose a Beth Moore study, because videos are involved and the lessons are extremely time consuming (hours of homework each week).  My church does Beth Moore classes, but the times conflict with my handbell practices.

I’ve done four lessons so far in the Old Testament book, and I’m very impressed.  I’ve learned things that I never knew before.  In fact, considering that I grew up in churches, I wonder why no one ever taught me these things!  The book starts out with a geography lesson about Palestine, including landforms and the cultural groups that lived there.  Then, you learn about the 5 divisions of the Old Testament.  I had no idea they were divided into books of law, history, wisdom, major prophets, and minor prophets.

Anyways, if anyone wants to do this study with me, get the book, do the lessons, and let’s get the comments going!!

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“Sewing Saturday” – Another Lazy Sunday

I finished another blouse today.  That makes 5 done and 3 to go.  I also need to make several pairs of long pants.  I think I have 5 to go.

Here’s a picture of one of the blouses I finished this weekend.

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After a few days off, back to jogging

Earlier this week, I went off of “bad sugar.”  That meant no more cookies, cake, brownies, ice cream, etc.  I had headaches, nausea, mood swings, fatigue, etc.  It’s been a week now, and I’m doing better.

Today, I haven’t been terribly hungry, and my cravings have been minimal.  Earlier this week, I thought that I would throw in the towel with the sugar thing, but I’m glad I stuck it out.  I still wonder how I’ll be 3 weeks, 4 weeks, 2 months, etc. from now.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

I discovered and purchased no-sugar-added hot cocoa, sugar-free dark chocolate pudding, and no-sugar-added light ice cream.  I’m surprised that I haven’t gone completely crazy and eaten them all.  Still, they’re available if I need them.

I took a few days off jogging and went out again today.  I actually felt a bit like a jogger.  I jogged 5 minutes, and then did 3 min jogs with 1 min walking rests, until I had 30 minutes of exercise completed.  Then, I walked 30 minutes.

In the kitchen: This morning, after jogging, I went to my garden, cut some green onions, and used them in my Egg Beaters omlette.  I made a loaf of bread and froze half of it for later in the week.  I also used leftover rotisserie chicken to make chicken noodle soup (which is almost gone, since we’re eating it for lunch and dinner).

Sewing:  In regards to sewing all of those blouses, I pressed the necklines, finished hems on 3 of the blouses, and have already pinned one blouse to it’s neckline.  After I serge that neckline, I’ll need to try on the blouse to get the elastic in the wrists the correct length before sewing the elastic ends together and closing the casing.  Then, that blouse will be finished.  I watched Journey to the Center of the Earth while working on the blouses.  The movie was okay, but I thought that Brendan Frasier yelled for most of it (in fear, yelling while running/being chased/falling, etc.).

On a happy note, my friends and I acquired tickets to my city’s premiere of Twilight!!  Woo-hoo!!

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More for the garden

This morning, I included some leftover chopped green onions in my omlette.  It was so yummy that I went to the plant nursery and bought some green onions for my garden.

Here are some pics of my garden yesterday, before the green onions.

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