Cancer Awareness contest

I'm entering a pair of shoes in the Pink Passion contest sponsored by Baylor and Saks Fifth Avenue. I'm actually proud of them, and impressed with how well they turned out. I found a cheap pair of shoes at Payless. Can't imagine why they were on clearance:

So, I glued little tiny seed beads all over it (thank goodness I only needed to decorate one shoe, not the whole pair!) The contest is for breast cancer awareness month, and they encouraged using teal to highlight the link between breast and ovarian cancers. I used pink, teal, clear, and silver beads. I'm really happy with how they turned out.

Totally different now:

Catching Up

So, it's been a while since I wrote anything. I think half my posts probably start out that way. I keep meaning to write more, and I don't really have any excuse not to. Let's see, since the last time I posted, I had my three-month doctor's appointment and found out I'm still cancer-free. That means it's officially been two years I've been cancer free! Obviously, I'm very happy about that. I'll keep going back to the doctor every three months for another year, which he says is pretty aggressive, normally after two years they'd reduce how often I'd go, but he wants to be on the safe side, which is fine with me, since I'm a little paranoid about it anyway.

I'm working from home a lot this month and trying to get stuff straightened up. I really need to clean my kitchen. It's just depressing, and I don't want to cook anything more complicated than a tv dinner because I don't want to spend any time in there.

I'm reading Life of Pi, it's pretty interesting, but I need to sit down and read, which I haven't been doing much. I don't know why, I just don't feel like it. I did order myself some books from Amazon, my birthday present to me, although they'll get here a little early. They were all from the 4 for 3 bargains, so relatively cheap. I got some from a series I'm finishing up, Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, kind of fantasy/sci-fi humor, and some mysteries that looked intriguing. Nothing too deep or complicated, just fun stuff.

Anyway, I've been writing this on commercial breaks as I caption, so I think I'll stop now. The baseball game I was doing went long, they're still doing postgame stuff, and I have to do the news after it, plus I have another news for another station at midnight, assuming that this postgame/news stuff doesn't run so late that I can't do the other one.

Everything's going reasonably well right now. It's been incredibly hot outside lately, and I just don't feel like doing much of anything. Even reading doesn't seem to be holding my attention. So, let's see, what's going on lately? My nephew is officially 2 years old today - Happy Birthday, Kasen! I'm going to see him later today to give him his birthday present - a sit and spin. I remember having one and loving it, so I hope he does too. He likes to spin in circles and make himself dizzy, so I think he will. It's actually a musical sit and spin, couldn't find just a regular one - he'll love it, but my sister and brother-in-law may not appreciate it so much.

I lost 4 lbs last week at Weight Watchers. I'm not sure how that happened, I didn't think I did too well food-wise, and I haven't been exercising, but I'll take it, it helps make up for the last several weeks where I gained a little every week.

I tried a new recipe for a snack that's really good. I found it on SparkRecipes.com, it's basically chickpeas roasted until they're crunchy, flavored with whatever seasonings sound good to you. Lots of fiber & protein, and I used less olive oil than the recipe calls for, so not too much fat. Here's what they look like:

They don't look that great, but they are good, really.

I've been home all week. Usually I caption the House of Representatives and have to go in to the office to do that, but they were off this week, so I've been scheduled for other shows, mostly ones I could do at home. It's been nice. I wouldn't want to work at home all the time, but I like that I get to every now and then.

Anyway, this has been a long, rambling post, so I think I'll stop now and leave you with some new pics of the kitties, just because they were being cute.

Paper Cowgirl

I spent yesterday at the Paper Cowgirl Altered Art Retreat. A couple of friends of mine, Susan & Gail, were going and invited me, and I'm glad they did - I had a great time. We met Friday evening and spent some time looking around at vendor night - they had some really talented and creative people selling some really neat stuff. We had dinner at Chick-Fil-A - can you believe that at a Chick-Fil-A, an employee not only brought our trays of food out to us, but asked Susan if she wanted fresh ground pepper on her salad? Really! They brought out a huge pepper mill and ground some pepper on her salad. Who knew that in Waxahachie, Chick-Fil-A is almost fine dining! And then, when we were done, I was holding two trays, getting ready to throw them away while Susan finished up a project for her swap, and a lady walking by, a fellow customer, said, I'll take those, I'm going that way. She not only took both trays and threw away the trash, but brought back a little gift bag I'd left on mine. I knew there was a good reason I like living in this town!

Anyway, there'd been swaps that people signed up for to do Friday night, I didn't sign up for any because I didn't think I'd be able to come up with anything good enough, but Susan and Gail had signed up for the crown swap, and Gail made and extra crown for me. It's really pretty, lots of blue and green beads and vintage cowgirl pictures. Here's a picture:

She also gave me a necklace:

I went with them back to the hotel for the different swaps, and there were some really cool things people had done. I think next year I want to get involved in some of those - anything I do might not be the very best one out there, but I think I could do something presentable.

We went back to my house afterwards, where Susan finished up the aprons she made for me and Gail to wear in our classes Saturday. They're really cute. Here's mine:

Really adorable! Saturday, we started out in the Peek A Boo Cases class, where we were each given a vintage compact and lots of stuff to decorate it with, including various papers and lots of vintage jewelry and pieces of broken jewelry. There were some gorgeous projects by the time we were done. I'm pretty happy with how mine turned out, especially since I wasn't sure going in if I'd be able to come up with anything or be able to put anything together without gluing my fingers together accidentally - I'm definitely a crafting novice. Here's what I came up with:

After that, we had lunch, provided by The Dove's Nest - if you're ever in Waxahachie, I recommend it, their food is yummy. Then, we did our second class - a Vintage Memory Shadow Box. Basically, wrap a pencil box in pretty papers, and add something to represent a memory from your life, plus a few extra things to dress it up some. Mine's kind of minimalist, compared to what some other people there came up with, but I like it:

It was a lot of fun, and I'm already looking forward to next year.

Wordle

I found a new toy - Wordle.net. Actually, I found it a while ago, but I was just playing with it. It makes even grumpiness look more interesting.

May 24, 2009

So, the weight loss is not going so well, but at least I'm not gaining. I just have been having trouble sticking to my diet - I'll do okay for a while, then not so great for a while. But that's okay, I'll get back to it. Really, I will. I haven't been reading much, which is really weird for me, but today I dug out Rick Steves' Europe 101, a sort of summary of European history and art work for travelers. It's just hitting the highlights, nothing too detailed, but it takes the major things you might see while you travel, and puts them into historical context. I'm only up to ancient Greece, but there was a chapter on the stone age and cave art, and mention of standing stones like Stonehenge, and a summary of Egyptian art, since so much of it has ended up in museums across Europe. It's pretty interesting and shows a definite sense of humor, so I expect to keep reading it this week.


I was sitting in my library earlier and had the window open because it was so nice out. The cats were just fascinated by the birds outside. They love sitting in the window and looking out, and I got some decent pictures of them, although mostly they're facing away from the camera. I should have gone outside and shot some through the window, but I was feeling lazy, so I didn't. Anyway, if I can get them uploaded, I'll post a few.


Here's Peanut:

And Cashew:

And finally, can someone explain how they can be so adorable one second, but by the time I snap the picture, I get this?

Well, boys will be boys, I guess.

Good Doctor's Appointment, and weight loss!

This has been a good week, after being stressed the first couple of days of it. I went to the doctor and everything looks okay. He won't get the pap test results for a few days, but he said he didn't see anything that I needed to worry about, so that's good. Then, after missing Weight Watchers yesterday due to the dr's appointment, I went today and lost 1.8 lbs for the week, bringing the total to 12 lbs since January.

Therapy and a low-dose antidepressant medicine are really helping me feel better. It's made a big difference in how dedicated I am to really trying to lose weight, too. Well, something has, anyway, and I assume it's that. Plus, I really, really like the Sparkpeople website. I like that I can track my food and see not just the WW Points for each item, but actually see if I'm getting enough fiber (I was actually going back and forth, one day way too much, one day not anywhere near enough - I really don't recommend doing that, especially if you have to be in close proximity to other people a lot), and I've started to pay a little more attention to things like sodium and cholesterol, although mostly I'm still just trying to stay in the calorie and fat ranges it recommends. Plus, the people on there are really supportive and understanding, and it amazes me how often I'll look at someone else's message they've posted or blog entry and think, yes, I do that, that's exactly how I feel! That's one reason I like Weight Watchers in general, going to the meetings and being around other people who are working on a lot of the same stuff, but this way, in addition to that weekly meeting, I have people I can turn to all hours of the day or night. I think the combination is really going to work for me.