Happy New Year

I thought I should post something at the beginning of the year for no other reason than to hold myself accountable for what I may or may not do this year.  I'm not making any resolutions because that implies changing my life in some way and I pretty much like my life the way it is.  I do, however, have a short to-do list. Or maybe it's really more of a keep-doing list.

1. I'm going to keep exercising. My couch to 5k is going very slowly, but at least it's still going.  After almost 3 months I'm only on week 5 of the program, but that's mostly because I've been repeating weeks, not skipping my workout.  As a reward, if I'm still doing this in 2 weeks I'm going to buy myself a good pair of running shoes.  I thought I'd put my reward in the middle of January to make sure I stay motivated through any winter weather we might have.  There were a couple of below-freezing days in December (or was it November?) and I survived those with a couple extra layers of clothing, but I still haven't decided what I'll do if it rains.

2.  I'm going to keep sewing, although I have no specific plans in place yet.  I have a couple of projects I need to work on for Ashley this month then I'll do something for myself.  I have some vague ideas but I'm not ready to commit to any of them yet.

3.  I'm going to make bread.  Lots of bread.  This was pretty much our dinner last night:



I bought the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" and I'm having lots of fun with it.  Now we can have warm bread for dinner almost every night.  Good thing I'm running, to work off some of this bread, right?

4.  I'm going to clean my desk.  Ok, that's a to-do item, not a keep-doing item, but I thought I should put it on here anyway.  Every morning I say I'm going to clean my desk and then I don't do it.  I'm pretty sure I can manage to get it done sometime during 2012.  I want to clean my sewing room too.  And maybe paint it and redecorate a little.  That doesn't get it's own number on the list though because it's more of a wishful-thinking item.  I just thought I'd throw it in here so if I actually do it I can brag a little.

That's it.  That's as big as I'm going to dream this year.  Now I have to end this post because the picture of the bread is making me hungry.  Happy New Year everyone!!

December Skirt

I think I deserve extra credit this month. Not only did I finish my skirt before the end of the month, but I actually wore it to church on Christmas. Even more impressive, I bought a sweater and necklace to go with it so I have a complete outfit.  I think I've pretty much perfected this skirt pattern after using it several times this year.

I still haven't decided on my sewing goals for next year. The next few weeks will be crazy with work and church responsibilities so I may not even think about sewing until the end of January.

This is my first attempt at blogging from my phone so I apologize if things look funny. If I didn't need my computer for work I'd probably hardly ever use it since I can pretty much run my life from my phone.

November skirt

I sort of finished a skirt for November. Here's a bad picture of it.  I'm in a hurry and don't have time to try to get a good picture.  The skirt isn't hemmed so it's technically not finished, but I made the pattern myself and this is sort of a first draft.  I'm not sure I'll ever wear it so I didn't want to go to the bother of hemming it.  I'm trying to decide if it's worth the effort of taking it apart and fixing the things I don't like.  It might just be faster to tweak the pattern and make a whole new skirt.  I'll ponder that next week while I'm laying on the beach in Hawaii.  

A Cold Gray Monday

Today has all the makings for a miserable day.  Alex and Ashley went back to college yesterday after being home for five days.  It's cold in the house and I'm too cheap to turn the heat on when I'm home alone.  It's foggy outside and I may not see the sun all day.  And oh yeah, it's Monday.  But it's actually a really good day, for the following reasons:

1.  Persimmons

This picture of our persimmon tree was taken a couple weeks ago on another foggy morning.  Now most of the leaves have fallen, leaving probably 100 or so bright round persimmons on a scraggly-looking tree reminiscent of A Charlie Brown Christmas.  I decided I better pick some of the persimmons before they too fall to the ground.  I have a confession to make - I've never picked a persimmon from this tree before.  I usually let a friend pick them and have them all, but he didn't ask for them this year so I decided to acquaint myself with these strange little fruits.  I picked a few then hesitantly cut one up and ate it.  It was heavenly!  Crisp like an apple, sweet like a pear, with a little bit of a tropical-mango-type flavor.  So I went back out and picked another 20 of them.  I still have no idea what I'll do with all this fruit but I guess I'll figure something out.

2.  Exercise

I'm still plugging away at my Couch to 5k workout.  It's progressing very slowly and I've repeated a couple weeks and taken a few days off.  Last week I was wavering between giving up completely and going in for a check up to find out why I'm unable to run any length of time without feeling like I'm dying.  Today I had a breakthrough.  It's not my legs or lungs that keep me from being a runner, it's my mind.  When I'm distracted by thinking of all the things I need or want to be doing, I forget I'm running and I can go farther.  When I concentrate on time, speed or distance I psych myself out and think I can't do it.  I'm still much closer to "couch" than to 5k, but I'm making progress, I'm challenging myself to do something hard, and most of all it feels really good when I've done something I didn't think I could do.

3.  Spicy Food

I'm feeling a little bit of a cold coming on.  Maybe it's allergies instead, or maybe I'm just coughing and sniffing because it's cold in the house.  Whatever the reason, my favorite cold remedy is a spicy kimchi-flavored noodle bowl (a distant relative of cup-o-noodle or top ramen).  That's what I had for lunch today, with a few drops of sriracha added for good measure.  It was a nice hot bowl of throat-burning goodness and it made me happy.  

4.  Hawaii

Rick and I are leaving for Hawaii on Friday to spend a week vacationing with his dad and step-mom.  I really dislike flying but I think I can put up with it this time so I can trade 50 degrees and foggy for 80 degrees and sunny.  

I'm sure there are more things to like about today but it's still early and I haven't discovered them all yet.  In the meantime I think I'll start packing and I'll eat another persimmon.

October Skirt

Ok, so I'm a few days late.  I should at least get partial credit, right?  Anyway, here's my skirt for October.  It still needs a little tweaking but I could wear it as-is so I'm counting it as finished.  Only two more skirts to go!

C25K

I got a new app for my phone last week:  C25K Pro.  It was the free paid app of the day in the Amazon Android app store, which by the way I love for providing me with several great apps that I wouldn't have tried if I'd had to pay for them.  The app follows the couch to 5K training program and promises me that if I follow it I'll be running a 5K in 9 weeks.  After a major struggle with my willpower yesterday morning I got out of bed and did the first workout.  It didn't seem too intimidating at the beginning - a 20 minute workout alternating 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking.  How hard can that be?  Of course if I'd done the math I would have realized the 20 minutes didn't include the 5 minute warm up or the 5 minute cool down.  Not that it would have been a deal breaker but I should have been more mentally prepared for 30 minutes of physical activity.

I think it went pretty well for a first workout.  My running shoes are a little old and worn out, and so are my legs.  I was walking/running laps around my gravel driveway which probably isn't the best idea but if I have to drive somewhere to work out then I won't do it.  I was a little sore and tired at the end but that was to be expected.

Today is my day off between workouts.  That's a good thing, because I can barely walk.  I'm kind of curious to see how tomorrow morning will go.  I'll be battling my willpower AND my sore legs.  I think I'll need the additional motivation of my sister-in-law's wellness program (http://icanchangeclub.blogspot.com/).  Thank you Katrina for giving my that extra little push!

September Skirt

Who thought I wouldn't get a skirt done this month?  Besides me?  Honestly this whole skirt project is not as fun as I thought it would be, probably because most months I procrastinate and have to cram the whole project in at the end of the month.  I even took the whole summer off so I shouldn't be complaining now.  Even though it's been challenging at times I'm still working on ideas for next year's projects.  (Hint:  I probably won't be making skirts.)  Here's what 2 hours of effort got me on the last day of the month:

No I didn't make the shirt, only the skirt, but the skirt looked really boring without it.  It actually is kind of boring - dark gray knit with an elastic waist - but I needed something fast (since it's the 30th and all) and something that will pack well and be comfortable to wear all day.

Just for the sake of giving out too much information I'll tell you that the mirror behind the dress form is angled not so you can see the back of the skirt, because obviously you can't, but so my disaster of a sewing room is not reflected in the mirror.  I took some "before" pictures of the room a couple weeks ago which I planned on posting, thinking that would shame me into cleaning things up a little.  It was pretty bad though, so maybe I'll post some pictures after it's all clean and pretty.  Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen!