pictures and boring details

Here's some pictures in any order.

Mandolin's halloween costume I made for her. It's fairy wings (i dyed the thread to crochet with), a wand, and a dress. The dress is will so she has an undershirt on to keep it from itching. I needed size 2 thread and the only size 2 i could find was wool.

The dress pattern called for 5 balls and I only needed 2 and couldn't return them. I paired the wool with some simply soft in bone and made this shawl for myself called "mother of the bride" a free some from lions brand.

I also took left-over yarn and made 2 shawl pins. I bought a $20 shawl pin for myself a few years back from a free-trade org, but MissM broke it. It was beautiful but fragile. I walked around Walmart and found some items that were good for shawl pin making and bought them ($5 worth) and made a few. People ave approached me about making them for money. I am going to donate a few to the church holiday craft sale.

The blue shawl is my latest prayer shawl. I didn't have enough blue, so I put in some white stripes. When the border is on and all the ends are tucked in, it'll look nice.

The rabbit is my recent project for church. In jan, we have a baby sunday and every baby born the previous year is given a gift. LAst year they made these and they were a big hit. The elderly ladies each knitted 1-2 of them and HATED it. When you knit it, it's all knitted in one piece. I found the crochet pattern at lionsbrand and set about doing one. It took me about 1.5-2 hours and was easy-peasy. I said i'd do 5, but I might give in and do 10. I bought 2 5oz skeins thinking i'd get 3 blankies and I got 1 blankie in at 2 oz, meaning i might make all 5 in this yellow/blue. If i go back and get the purple/green then i could try and do 5 in those. we'll see. This is a small buddie at 18" ear tip to tail.

I have also been commissioned to make another "mother of the bride" shawl identical to the one i made myself for some money and i need to make a hippo for some money. I'm going to start the shawl this week and the hippo next so i can plan my christmas shopping for missM and my guy. I like to get it out of the way early so I don't have to bother with anything.

I've also offered to make something in trade for a sweing project i want but don't know how to make myself, so that'll take some time. So, if you've evere wondered what a non-desperate housewife does when she isn't watching kids, cleaning, cooking or shopping: that's it!

Normal, well according to the BMI

I got weighed today and found out that I weigh exactly 154 lbs, which at 5'6" tall means my BMI is 24.9 making me a NORMAL weight and roughly 9lbs from the end goal I set myself at the beginning of weight loss. I felt happy and sorta silly too. It's nice to say "Hello, I'm NORMAL" but really, does it matter? Fireworks didn't go off, no one around me noticed that I'm "normal" now. They saw the same me they see every day. But I like the idea of going to the dr and not being tolld "well, you could lose 5 lbs" or anything like that.

During this past year or so that I've been working on weight loss, I've given myself little treats when I hit specific goals. I'd get a pedicure or a new workout DVD or outfit for # and non # goals to celebrate making progress. Sometimes a # victory isn't as important as fitting into something that didn't fit before, or getting hit on when you weren't expecting it and should be celebrated too. The silliest thing I celebrated was when my official weight was LESS than what my driver's license stated it was, especially since I didn't lie on my DL when I had it renewed.

Someone recently asked me what I was going to do for THE BIG V and I had no idea. I'll probably hit the big one sometimes during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season and that being the case, I decided that for every pound I lost I will donate one pound of food to my local food bank. I'm not going to donate the food no one wants either, but the same type of food that I eat and that is good, like brown rice, legumes, pasta sauce, chicken broth etc. I talked to my guy about it, and he thought that was a good idea to celebrate. I could buy myself a nice gift or take a small trip, but I've done a lot for myself (especially losing weight) and it's time I did a little something for the people around me that need a little something. My sister told me to adopt a family for Thansgiving and go talk to them and tell them why I'm donating a meal, but I don't know if I want to be THAT hands on.

volunteering and shots

I had shots the other day, a D-TAP and pneumonia shot. My arm is hot and swollen and itches like hell but hurts so bad I can't lift it. All of the joints in my body ache and my neck is now stiff, as if I slept on it wrong. I also have a low grade fever BUT I've got the chills and a killer headache and severe fatigue. Earlier I sat and looked at my daughter's bedroom door and then almost cried at the though of lifting her onto her table to change her for bed and then lifting her into bed. The take-home info sheetr on the shots lists all of these things as possible side effects from the minor to moderate category, so I'm not worried, I'm just miserable.

I have signed up to work sunday school once a month for the 2yo class and I'm looking forward to it. I also joined the prayer shawl group at church and even though the other members are all in their 80s, they're a snappy bunch and we laugh a lot and I like them. Once I've been around longer, I'm going to introduce the idea of teaming up with the youth group to pass the talent on. There are over 100 teens at the church, some might want to learn.

MissM is about to turn 3 and I'm excited about it. She can tell you that she's 3 and hold up 3 fingers (Well, she put up 4 fingers and then uses her other hand to hold the 4th finger down and show you 3).

I went to the Dr the other day, a new doctor near where I live, and she was very nice. She tested my strength and said "You're VERY strong, I wouldn't expect it because you're so small" I snorted like Emma! That's when I pulled out my driver's license and showed her my 57 weeks ago and told her how much weight i've lost. People usually act like I've parted the red sea when I disclose my weight loss. I have several new friends who wouldn't know at all if I didn't tell them. I never wanted to say anything to my new friends, because why should it matter? But, at prayer shawl meeting, some of the ladies teased me for not eating the food and one made a half joking comment about "oh the new girl turned her nose up at the candy!" I chose to see it as a joke, but just in case, i whipped out the trusty driver's license and told them about my weight loss. They forgave my passing on the food and promised to not be food pushers in the future.

I am half-done my prayer shawl and i think I may need to make it bigger. We work with all donated patterns and yarns, so most of the yarn is the ugliest stuff you'll EVER see and many of the patterns are from the 1970s and before. Many of them look like a bad acid trip with vrey bright and od color combinations and tripped out models in weird poses smiling like they're demented. It took me a bit to find the least obnoxious yarn and pattern I could. Most of the donated yarn, besides being vomit colored, comes without a wrapper listing brand name, weight, dye lot, and type. Anyone who's ever looked at paint chips knows that white isn't always white. Therefore, unless someone donates a solid pound-1.5lbs of the same yarn, there's little that can be done with random skeins, unless we find a granny square shawl pattern.

One woman makes children's hats and her BFF makes mittens to match, so that gets rid of a lot of the odds-and-ends yarn and another woman makes chemo hats, so that helps too, but the rest of us are making lapgans, baby blankets, and shawls.

I completed another round baby blanket in golden yellow, creme, and light purple and i'll post pics. I've also started a baby blanket in tunisian blocks of white, chocolate and sky blue. I will then cross stitch the alphabet and numbers on the "wrong" side.

I completed a fall fashion scarf and a tunisian scarf in shades of blue with a "wave" border. And I am done MissM's fairy dress and am in the process of assembling the wings. I used a 20 gaguge wire and it wasn't strong enough and the wings collapsed, so I went back and got 12 gauge. I'll post pics of these projects as a) they're completed or b) I have time to take and post.

I've been busy trying not to collapse in bed for the past few days and trying to plan the birthday party.

they're collecting small finished hand-crafts to sell after/during church during the christmas season and the intent is to donate that money to a school out west. I have a few scarves and odds and ends to put in the pile. I asked the PS ladies if they'd be donating and most said no. I don't know how they don't have several little projects that just sit around waiting for a home, but I have a hard time getting rid of this stuff as it is!

That's it for me really. My arm huts and it's 9, so I can justify going to bed. Have a nice week everyone.