The reason I am so slack with my blog!

Until now I have not been ready to tell my story...actually I am not ready now, but I think it is time.  I have neglected my blog for far too long and this is why!
On January 2, 2012 I began a journey!  One that would forever change my life.  At the time I had no idea that it would change my life they way it has but looking back just 8 months ago I have come a long way.  It all started with a gift and a conversation. My hubby gave me a fit bit for Christmas, it is a little pedometer type thing that syncs with the computer and keeps track of your steps, miles, floors climbed, activity level, and calories burned.  I did not ask for anything like this for Christmas but he must have known that I was looking for some way to get healthy.  I am sure he has heard me talk to my friends about my lack of activity and how I needed to get motivated.  That alone was not motivation enough, my friend Julia convinced me through text messages and casual conversation to join Weight Watchers. I decided that might not be a bad idea...over the years I have gradually gained weight and never did it bother me until now.  Feeling sick and tired all the time was not how someone at the age of 39 should feel.  I had always said that if my health became an issue I would lose the weight, well it was not really my health but it was how I felt most of the time...little things made me so tired and I just did not want to feel this way anymore.  So I set out to find a meeting location that both Julia and I could attend.  We found one that met on Monday mornings and thus our "Monday's together" began.  The first one of the year was of course the day after New Years day.  I am not one for "New years resolutions", they are too cliche for me, but we might as well start the year off right and join Weight Watchers on the first day of January.  And so began the journey, and what a ride it has been and is continuing to be! The first meeting was a bust, they had changed the Monday 12pm meeting to Thursday's but forgot to publish the change, needless to say they had a "full house with no real meeting planned.  The receptionist said no problem, she would do an impromptu meeting  on the spot and then find us other meeting times during the week that we could attend and that worked with our schedule. I was so overwhelmed with all the paperwork they hand you that first day...OMG was it too much!  I decided not to give up before trying and to just take this first week slow!  Well to my surprise the first week was much easier than I would have thought, and I found myself eating way more food than I would on a typical day. As weeks turned into months the plan got easier and easier, I find myself really loving everything about Weight Watchers, I look forward to getting up and going to my Monday morning meetings, seeing all the familiar faces and knowing I am not alone on this weight loss journey.  I have lost almost 42 lbs in the last 8 months and would like to continue to lose more, not sure of my exact goal weight yet, but I know that I am feeling better and better everyday.  That girl that once was so sick and tired is long gone!  I have more energy than I ever thought I could have!  I am so happy that I took control of this part of my life and am making positive changes that will help me be a better me!
Here are a before and after photo.  The first one was taken on January 2, 2012 and the second one was taken September 3, 2012, exactly eight months apart.

I still have the "fat girl" feeling many days and have a hard time really seeing the weight loss, but I do know that I look smaller, wear smaller clothes, and overall feel better.  I am a work in progress and will continue to work on losing that "fat girl" mentality!  I am just doing it!!!
Don't give up on me and my blog, I will be back with more crafty stuff to share!  I just have to learn to balance my dinner planning, workout, and crafty time better...then to figure out how to blog about all of it!!!

My poor neglected blog

I did not mean to neglect my blog.  But as life would have it I have been so busy I had to make decisions about what I needed to keep up with and the blog was the first thing to be forgotten!  I have spent the last 4 months going to Weight Watchers meetings on Monday mornings and filling my week with exercise, cooking, and working...on occasion I have been able to squeeze in a little crafty time!  Not as much as I would like, but oh well!  I am doing great on WW and have lost a total of 23.6 lbs.  It is very exciting and takes a lot of time!
I promise to be back soon with more news and crafty fun!

Christmas Gift Albums

I worked on 2 gift albums for my parents for their Christmas present this year. Unfortunate for me I never start my albums early enough where I really get to enjoy the making process.  Instead I am rushing around last minute trying to get it done!  These 2 albums were no exception.  I started them about a week before Christmas and finished them on the Friday before Christmas.  So they took about 6 days to make.  Of course I really only had time in the evenings to work on them.  Work kind of got in the way!!!  I made both albums the same so that essentially I would create one page and then make a copy for the 2nd page.  That definitely made the process go much quicker.  Luckily I have hoarded scrapbook supplies for a while and I just so happened to have 2 8x8 purple DCWV albums.  Think I scored them for only $2 a piece at Joann's on clearance several years ago.  Love when I get a good deal like that and then actually use it.  I managed to only buy a spool of ribbon, a packet of flowers, and 10 sheets of cardstock.  The rest of the supplies I had at home!  I was really surprised at how much stuff I had that matched and could work with the albums.  I did decide to keep the pages really simple and not dress them up too much.  Saving time and product.  I also knew it would be quicker if I kept the pages simple.  So in no particular order here are the pages in the album.  I did run out of time so the last page of the album is a pocket page with extra photos.  And if I did not mention before these are photos from our annual Christmas card photo shoot. I was so please with them I wanted to do an entire album!

It's a New year, a new dawn, a new me!

Weight Watchers here I come!  Big news for me is I joined Weight Watchers!  I am really excited to go on this journey and am excited about making better choices and getting healthy!  40 is just around the corner for me and it is now or never!  I gotta do it!
I took a photo of myself on Sunday to start documenting where I started and where I will end up.  It is not a full body shot, but you get the point!

I have even decided that I will journal my journey using a Smash book...think it is so good to write it down, makes you more accountable.  Not only am I watching what I eat but adding exercise in to the program.  Starting off slow and easy.  Trying to get something in everyday, for now it is steps and my kinect dance game. Soon I will be using my wii fit too.  Gonna try and do it at home instead of a gym...I do not like treadmills in general and find that dancing is fun for me!  So hopefully I will dance the pounds off!!!

Been hiding under a rock!!!

I really have not been hiding under a rock but I have spent the last month and a half just so busy!  I get online everyday and think I am going to sit down and type something for my silly, little blog but then I don't...I think it is the hardest thing for me to do, sit down and type about my life, my feelings, my crafts.  Think that I feel like I am opening myself up for the world to see and sometimes that can be scary!  I keep saying every year around this time that I am going to be a better blogger, but inevitably something happens and I don't do it.
Let's just say I am a work in progress and so is this blog.  I do love going to other peoples blogs and reading about their daily life. I feel I get to know them a little better when I read!  You would think that would motivate me more to write on my blog daily, but it doesn't!!!  Oh well, I just need to get use to the fact that I am a part time blogger!
November and December was very busy for the Goswick family.  We went away to our mtn place for Thanksgiving week.  It was so nice to get away and enjoy some down time.  I actually scrapbooked a couple of days while we were there.  Enjoyed a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner with family and of course did a little black Friday shopping!  The highlight was to come home feeling refreshed and relaxed!  Did a lot of online shopping for Christmas gifts this year...I think that more and more I like online shopping, drinking coffee and staying in my jammies is the way to shop!  We actually bought ourselves a little early gift, we got new living room furniture!  We were in desperate need for new furniture and I fell in love with this set!  It looks so great in the house and is super comfortable!

Needless to say since I love my furniture so much I find myself relaxing a little more then I use to!  I find reasons to sit down and watch TV now!  I did manage to do a little scrapping in December.  Over the next several days I promise I will dedicate several blog posts to show all my crafty goodness!
Happy New Year!  Hoping 2012 will be a wonderful year!!!

Been on a sewing kick!

I have lots of crafty passions and one of them use to be sewing!  I use to love to get out the sewing machine and do all kinds of crafty projects.  Then over time I got into other crafts and just left my poor sewing machine out in the cold! Literally, put it at my workstation in my garage and occasionally opened the door and looked at it.  I found that I still sewed but more than anything I mended.  I hemmed pants, took things in or out, but never really sewed any crafty projects.  Well I decided since I have not been scrapbooking lately I would pull the machine out, dust it off and get started!  I showed you last week the 2 bags that I made.  Well this week I managed to make 2 more bags, a wristlet, and a tie t-shirt.  Not to mention that I hemmed 7 pairs of pants!!!  That was a lot of sewing and I did it all in one day!!!
My ideas for the wristlet and tie t-shirt came from my obsession with pinterest, who doesn't love that site!!!!  I do have to confess this is take 2 on the tie t-shirt.  You must wash your tie before sewing it to a white shirt...I learned the hard way and found a really nice pink shirt in the sink.  So I did what everyone would do and I bought color remover and it worked until I forgot about it and left it too long so the tie became discolored.  Out with the seam ripper and took that tie off and dug through my hubby's closet for another one...without further ado I bring you tie t-shirt!

I found that this was the quickest of all the projects.  I did remember this time to prewash the tie and then I just pinned the skinny part of the tie around from the left side to the right shoulder, then started pleading and pinning.  Took it to the poor neglected sewing machine and starting sewing.  I will say that it was a little difficult to sew over the pleads as they were really thick but I just went slow and it worked well.  I am so excited that I now have another shirt to wear.  The first one was a red tie and was super cute, too bad I did not get any photos of it.  I did at least get to wear it to work once!

I made a bag like this last week and the girls from my work liked it so much they wanted one!  I sent them off to the fabric store to get some fabric and promised them that I would find some time to get it done!  Well it only took 2 weeks to muster up the energy and time!!!  I love the colors and the ribbon is so fun!  I used a plain black backpack and cut strips of fabric with my pinking sheers to 3 1/2 inches, then took each strip and basted it with the sewing machine. Then pulled the bobbin thread to create the ruffle, then sewed each strip onto the bag added the ribbon at the top to finish it off, made a fabric flower and the bow.  The bow had a pin back on it so that if you want to wash the bag you can and not ruin the bow.

 This last little beauty is a wristlet made from a men's tie.  My friend Julia actually found this on pinterest and showed it to me!  After the initial ooh's and aah's...I thought I can make this!  Well this is take 2 also...the first one was a sad excuse for a bag, but after my mistake the second one came out great!  I love that it will perfectly fit my credit cards and some cash.  Perfect for those outings when you don't want to carry a large bag...only problem is my keys don't fit or my cell phone!  Oh well, still I like it and will use it often!

As we are nearing the holidays I might find myself with little time to craft or sew.  I am even thinking about ordering my Christmas cards this year.  Usually I make them but just not sure I can find the time.  Just too much to do!!!!

Fun altered bags!

Got a little inspiration this week from my constant looking at pinterest!  It is my latest addiction!  I never actually saw a bag made like either of the 2 I made but there were other things that looked similar and just got me thinking that I could alter a bag or 2.  These are older unwanted bags that I had laying around, might as well try making them cute!!!

I have a feeling that I will be making a few more of these cute bags and giving them as gifts!  I am sure some of my family and friends would love them!!!