Playing Hooky - Again!

I've been playing blog hooky again.  It started with our beach vacation at the beginning of June and then just expanded to now.  I have a whole list of things I want to blog about, though so perhaps I'll get motivated to put all the thoughts down on virtual paper soon.  I'm still a bit behind on things around the house.  My quilt guild had our quilt show this past weekend (more on that soon) and tomorrow Seamus is due at the vet for some surgery (probably no details forthcoming on that since I don't think it's of general interest - unless of course I just need to share  :-) ).  And the garden got way ahead of me as you can see:

Yup....that's a sunflower growing out of our gutter.  But I love sunflowers and can't bear to pull it out just yet.  In a few days it will die and I guess then it's time to clean out the gutter and weed the beds.

More (hopefully) later.

Making Spring

The weather here is getting a bit warmer, but the wind continues.  According to the forecast we will have one more week similar to today - grey, windy, low 50 degree temperatures and then jump up to the 70's.  I hope they're right, but the steady grey-ness was really getting me down, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and create a little corner of color to trick me into thinking that it was indeed spring.  Local stores have been stocking pansies and since they're a hardy flower that can usually withstand the light frost that is most assuredly still to come I decided to plant some outside our front door.

I see these everytime I come down the stairs and it lifts my spirits a bit to see that bright yellow and violet standing strong.

Come on, Spring!!

The Garden

This time of year requires a lot of time in the yard to keep the weeds under control and the flowers growing.  I'm a very inconsistant gardener.  My best skill is pulling weeds.  I used to keep a garden journal thinking that it would help me figure out what flowers do best where and how successful my different growing techniques turned out to be..or, more importantly, just WHERE I planted those bulbs!  Usually my garden depends on how much effort I want to give it in any particular month or year.

Every once in a while, though I do something right.  This year I got an amazing result out of these yellow Calla Lillies near my side door.  I thought they were picture worthy.  They don't last long, but they sure are elegant and pretty while they're around!

My Mother's Garden Quilt Completed!

It's been very, very hot here this week.  That combined with a lull in other activity has allowed me to return to my quilting projects.  I decided to finish the quilt made with parts of an old hobnail bedspread of my mothers.  When I was growing up we had several of these bedspreads and I came to love them.  While trying to decide just how to work this into a quilt I came across some fabric with hydrangeas on it.  We always had these showy flowers in our yard when I was young and they also remind me of my mother.  The quilt features that fabric on the front and a lily of the valley fabric on the back - also one that we had in plenty around the yard.  I filled it with a high loft batting and free form quilted around the hobnail design to highlight that.  This is the first quilt that I'm keeping for myself.  I still have a lot of the bedspread left and hope to find ways to repurpose it into some sort of gifts for the rest of my family.  I've titled this "My Mother's Quilt".

Why Do I Care What the Scale Reads?

I'm really trying to keep my focus and remain positive but I have to admit that I'm pretty discuraged today.  I feel like I"m eating much healthier and I feel like my clothes fit better, my "muffin top" is smaller and I think that the scale should reward me by showing some progress.  But it doesn't.  I have an old scale.  The kind that isn't digital so you're always guestimating exactly what the reading is.  But it's pretty obvious when you pass those big lines, like above or below 140.  And it definatly still reads above.  And I SO want it to read below.  I guess the reading on the scale is a tangable piece of data to point to and say that I'm making progress and that the whole dieting thing is worth it.  In addition to the scale disappointment, I heard from my doctor's office today about my recent bloodwork.  As usual, my cholesterol is boarderline high.  Now, it's been this way for the past 10 years or so.  It fluctuates up and down, but never down enough.  And my good cholesterol is always way high.  I was advised to follow a low cholesterol diet.  I already pretty much follow a low cholesterol diet.  When I looked online about ways to lower your cholesterol and foods and activities that help - I eat and do all that stuff.  I don't think the answer is my diet.  I truly think it's my weight.  If I could lose the weight I would lower the cholesterol.

I think it's time to identify three more things to work on.  Originally my three focuses were:  eat two servings of fruit/day; walk the dog daily; and no eating after dinner.  I'm doing fairly well on these.  I don't hit all three all the time, but overall, I would say that I'm hitting at least 85-90%.  So, I want to focus on three more while still following the original three.  My new healthy habits:  2 servings of vegetables/day; 15 minutes/day of yoga or strength training on days I don't work in the yard (since that should count as strength training in itself!) and two glasses of water/day.  I'm really bad about the water but I'm going to try.  My weight goal is still to be 135 by the end of June.  If by that time I have still failed to push my scale below even 140 I'm going to give Weight Watchers a try.  I've never done WW for a lot of reasons.  My doctor suggested it at my check up visit.  I'm just not a joiner and programs like that put even more focus on the eating which almost makes me want to eat even more!  But, if I am failing that miserably by then, I should try something and perhaps it will show me what the missing ingredient is in this whole diet/weight thing.

On another note - we are having near 70 degree weather which has made it possible for me to do some work in the yard.  I'm really enjoying that.  Today I mulched one of my large flower beds.  Tomorrow I will do one more.  Then the weather is suppossed to turn cold again so I guess I can catch up on inside projects. I'm really enjoying this retirement thing!