Meditation through art?

I have found a new love!

Along with the other million craft hobbies I have, but this I can do in class without distracting others!

ZENTANGLES!

Check out this vid:

Zentangles are a meditative doodling that can produce GORGEOUS artwork! Try it out, grab the closest pen, give yourself 15 min of uninterrupted time, and doodle!

Here is my first, it is going to be a birthday card for a friend's little girl, she is turning 1!

yep, thats my zentangle, on top of my Human Resource Management Text... procrastinating... yep...

 

Come on summer... but lets leave the bikini in the drawer!

I am NOT the skinniest person on the planet... by any measure. But I am not huge either... Hubby says it is the perfect measure of pleasantly plump...

I am not satisfied. I have decided I need to get in gear and kick my own but into fitness.

This spring, at a doctor appointment, general check up, I discovered that I was at my heaviest, ever. I told myself I would never let myself get past a certain weight...and I passed it. But not by much.

I promised myself that even though I was not the prettiest or the skinniest, I would never let myself get over 200 lbs. I stepped on the digital scale at Doc's office, to find a whopping 200.8 lbs. DAMN!

But it was enough to get me to take a different direction.

I found myself a free Google Chrome Application that allows you to track your calorie intake and burning through a simple chart. You search a food item, find it, put in your amount, add it. Search an exercise, put in your time, add it. At the end of the day it tells you how close that amount was to your daily recommended calorie budget, and suggests changes if you need them. You can network, and make friends from your area, or anywhere in the world.

You do daily weight-ins in your own home, and they keep a graph going of progress so you have a visual motivator!

I started at 195 (as of yesterday) and plan on making it to 150 by November, thats just about 2 lbs a week. If I make it faster, cool, but I wont push myself too hard, its harder to keep weight off if you shed it too fast.

Thats been deemed as a safe weight for me at my height and build.

There is such a thing as average and plus size fashion, just not very often do you find it.

 

The end is upon us! Finals week!

The final weeks of spring term usually signal to a family that summer is here. Hot days with kids stuck in classrooms, daydreaming about chilling at the river, and playing in the sunshine...

Here it signals that we will have another Junuary, with cold temps and stormy skies well into late June. It also signals college exams, which for most college student would mean going home to hang with friends and family for 3 months of summer bliss. For me, it signals selling back my text books, enjoying 1 week of blissful free time, before returning back to school for summer term...

That's me, the constant student...

On the news front of things, my roommates are moving out, and I started a new project. Promised hubby something handmade for our anniversary, but didn't get the sweater to work. 

I am doing a HUGE blanket. not like a large throw, but like a California king bedspread! 20 granny squares, 22 in each, in a 4x5 pattern, with random striping in each square. I am using Lionbrand Homespun in Pesto, Montana Blue, Ocean, Barley, and some other random blue tone of the same yarn I found in my stash! I might add some other blues greens and browns as I run low on the colors I have.

Also, started playing with Bernat Baby Stretch yarn to make headbands and hats for babies!

yeah, I don't have photos for that...

More posts to come about that!

 

Just found a great stretchy yarn for baby hats and headbands! Check out bernat baby stretch!

Post updates soon. I promise!

Voldemort Wants Your Apples

Okay, so I don't even know if Voldemort ate apple before his belated demise, but this bag makes me want to have some fresh apples.

I won a great prize pack bag when I was skinny (middle/high school) when Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was just about to release in theaters. I went to the midnight showing at our local theater, and held on dearly to all my HP OftP Memorabilia.

Today, hubby cleaned our room, and found my old t-shirt from this set. I haven't fit in it since about 11th grade. I think it is time to move on, and let this shirt be useful!

I was looking for a fun idea, pillow cases...no, we don't have enough pillows. T-shirt quilt? No, I don't have the room to store it until I find new t-shirts. I stumbled across this great tutorial for a t-shirt grocery bag. Double take. I mentioned in my last post that local legislature is banning plastic grocery bags, right? well then, check this out:

(Photo courtesy of //Between the Lines//)

So, I went at it like a woman possessed. Now hubby is digging out all his old "bachelor daze" t-shirts for me to canabalize for the cause. 

Here is it, empty, freshly sewn and sliced.

Here we have it full of yarn.

Here is all the yarn I stuffed into it for the last pic.

It stretches back almost to it's original state when it's done.

One of the best parts, you can toss it in the wash if your strawberries spill inside, or you get a bit over zealous and fill it too much and it touches the ground.

I think this one is almost TOO stretchy, so I will use maybe teens, juniors, or child (L) size from now on, unless it is the stiff t-shirt material hubby is always wearing.

Check out her tutorial, seriously, what better way to use those old t's you will never really wear again, and help the eco system while you're at it.

Update: Hubby found 6 old t's for me to use... mwa ha ha ha! You'll be seeing pics soon!

Recycling trash into treasures

Local City officials are working to ban plastic bags in supermarkets and grocery stores. For obvious reasons. Central Oregon is home to Lakes, Rivers, Ponds, and Natural Springs. We are sitting atop volcanoes and glaciers. We are in the heart of the wild world of nature, and the animals who vastly outnumber us, depend on us to keep plastic out of their food and water, and to keep our world contained.

In an effort to save our environment, a woman in Bend, Or, has started her own business, in just the last year, it has taken off. Her name is Sara, and she is the proud owner of Sara Bella Upcycle. She uses a studio in a very eco-conscious part of town to produce beautiful works of plastic art. Check out her site (linked above, just click on the business name) and see the videos that she has in turn linked to.

(Image courtesy of Sara Bella Upcycle, Trench Coat made ENTIRELY of recycled plastic snack packaging)

Finding inspiration from this, I decided to give it a go... not so terribly successful, but it was a fun experience. Also, my sewing machine doesn't like un-lubricated plastic. Just sayin'.

This is my attempt at a basic bag. Not so good with the dimensions, but it turned out okay. Those flowers, yeah, I cut those from the Plantin Schoolbook Cricut Cartridge and layered them in the plastic before I melt-fused it. It will hold a bottle of wine, or a skein of yarn and some needles.

You wanna try it? Check out this tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf7alw4RN5c&feature=related

  

Book Review: Needles and Pearls

A few days ago, I posted a review for Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil. Today, I am sharing with you my review of the sequel, Needles and Pearls.

You start out the read with all the same characters as you met and grew to love in Beach Street, but you find out more and more about them as this novel moves along. Some you grow to hate, some you grow to love even more. You get to watch the development of new babies, and the beginning of new romances, and new life. 

It's hard to do a review without giving away key plot points, and I usually don't like spoilers, especially not from books, so I'll cut this down. Read it, after you read Beach Street. It's a great Knit Lit, and will most definitely be added to my permanent book shelf.

 

Stepping away from Baby zone, just for a day or two

You may have noticed, or maybe you haven't, but I do a LOT of baby themed things. I am the owner of Owls Nest Boutique in Central Oregon, and run my business in between EVERYTHING else. Over achiever? No, not really, just creative, without the space needed to keep all of my craftiness. Also, I love babies, and I love pregnant ladies!

But I needed a change of pace, I think. I needed to stretch my brain muscles in a different direction. I had a friend doing a small craft fair, and she needed some more product to fill her table. I offered to let her put some of my things out on consignment. In just over 4 hours, I churned out these puppies:

My most sincere apologies for the bad photos, I forgot to charge my camera, so I took them with my phone.

Also, you see there, I couldn't resist the pregnancy one... just couldn't.  

This was a set I made as a sampler, I also make a set that said "Thank You" and 2 blank note-card sets. If they don't sell tonight, I'll get pics, but I forgot to get them before I sent them to the market.

 

Sunshine, Bring on the Sunshine!

Poke has been soaking up the sun, here in Central Oregon, the weather has been a bit bi-polar. One day it is pouring rain, and blowing like crazy, the next we are soaking up the sun in 75* balmy bliss. I wish we had more of those days, because come July, it will be hard to get your house or car below 95* with AC.

After dark, it drops back to about 30* regardless of the day's weather. So thats when you sit down with a nice book, glass of wine, and some relaxing music...yeah right, I wish. Being the busy college student I am, I get to sit down watch TV and work into the wee hours of the morning on homework.

The show I have been watching the most (thanks to Netflix) is Castle

(Courtesy of MoviePosterShop.com)

Castle is the story of a mystery novelist, Richard Castle, who because of his friendship with the NYC mayor, gets to shadow New York's best, Detective Kate Beckett. Detective Beckett is Castle's inspiration for his newest novel series, following a similar character named "Nikki Heat".

You will never guess what hubby found in the Barnes and Noble...

Naked Heat

Cool huh. I am picking this up as soon as we have a few bucks extra to spare, probably after we move closer to school in the summer. If you're an avid Castle fan, you might wanna pick this up.

Now, off to watch another episode of Castle, and crack down on my Management Fundementals 2 Midterm... sounds like so much fun...not.