I (Finally) Did It!

Yup, I finally did it. At first I was nervous about doing it and put it off thinking that I could do it on my own without help. Things got worse and I grew unhappier by the day so I finally decided it was time. I got my friend Theresa (who has also wanted to do it for the longest time), and we did it together. What in the blazes am I speaking of you ask? Well, we joined Weight Watchers last night! I am sick and tired of looking and feeling sick and tired! I want to be a healthy weight for my height and I am overweight. I may not be considered obese but I certainly feel it especially when I went to buy clothes, which at the moment is extremely depressing. Nothing would fit right and it was a never ending battle finding something nice to wear for special occasions.

I drew the final straw when I went to my GYN for my yearly exam and I got on the scale. I want you to know that I debated whether or not to put my weight down here but I decided that I wasnt going to be ashamed to do it. It will only motivate me to get to my goal weight so here I go. When I went to my GYN and got on the scale I weighed 176 lbs!! My height is 5 ft and a half and inch so I round it off to 5'1". Thats overweight. Since I found out what my weight was I started to watch what I ate and cut out a lot of things that I was doing like having more than one ice pop at night while watching TV and having smaller portions. So for about the last 3-4 weeks I have been doing well. I knew when I got on the scale at my first meeting last night there would be a lower number than the one I saw at my GYN's office. My starting WW weight, at last nights meeting (July 1st, 2008) was 167.6 pounds. I am off to a good start before I even started the program with an 8.4 pound weight loss! I am psyched!

Weight watchers has a couple of different programs. The last time I did it was 10 years ago and the points program was what worked for me. It worked for me the last time so I decided that I would do that one again. This time it looks like it will be a lot easier because they have what's called FLEX points that you get for the week in addition the the regular points you start every day with. They didn't have that 10 years ago. Meetings are once a week and I am hoping that by the time my cousins wedding rolls around (September 27th) I will be looking svelte. Plus our 10th Wedding Anniversary is the 26th of September so I want to be looking good for that. What I really want is to be healthy. I definitely DO NOT want to be super skinny and boney looking. I have always had curves and I intend to keep them. A healthy body weight for me from what I read of all the literature they handed out is anywhere between 102-128 lbs. Thats a huge gap but they are taking into consideration if you have a large, medium or small frame and also everyone is not the same shape. There are all those different shapes like apple and pear. I dont know which fruit I am, maybe a banana! LOL. I will keep you all posted on my weight loss journey. Now on to some knitting content!

I have been working on this scarf since December of 2007. It got put on the back burner for a while because I was busy with other projects. I finished it yesterday and I decided to add a flower with leaves on one end. I then embellished it with some gorgeous Swarovski crystals around the petals and center of the flower. Isn't it pretty?







Flower Adorned Scarf~Coming up Roses from Vogue Knitting's Crocheted Scarves Two
Rowan Wool Cotton in Off White, Citron and Petal
Size H crochet hook

This is a wire crocheted creation of mine that I made 2 days ago. I used Sterling Silver 28G wire, an H hook and some glass and quartz chip beads to make the necklace and earrings. At 16-17" it's meant to be a choker and is very comfortable, even for someone like me who doesn't like to wear necklaces to tight

Back in Action!

There hasnt been much beading since before Christmas but today I got a chance to make a few things. I am planning on having another jewelry party before Valentine's Day at my parents house. I have received a lot of requests from previous buyers that they want to do some shopping. Hooray! Because I need to pay the bills and I also need to do a big wholesale order with FireMountain Gems. Unfortunately I have to wait for my tax return to do any of that. Here are some beautiful things I made in the past week but mostly today.

Pink Crystal necklace


Moonstone Leaf Necklace


Blown Glass & Swarovski Crystal Necklace


Cobalt Blue Glass & Crystal Necklace


Lampwork beads wiith Swarovski Crystal Bracelet


Blown Glass, Glass Beads & Swarovski Crystal Necklace


I also got around to finishing these cute mittens for my son. They were so easy that I probably could have made them with my eyes closed. Well, except for the seaming at the end. The hardest part of making them were putting the felt in and sewing it up with regular sewing thread. He proudly told his teacher this morning that his Mommy made him Shark Mittens and she now wants a pair! Maybe I will surprise her with an adult pair of Shark Mitts at the end of the year. I have to find nice thick felt like the kind that came with the Morehouse Merino kit. Maybe I will just order it from them. I am in love with the Dragon Scarf they have. Right now I am in the process of making my husband the Alligator Scarf from the kit they sell. I bought all these kits when I was at Rhinebeck and they were my all time favorite purchase. The Rat Race Scarf is really cute to. These are going to make awesome gifts for Christmas next year. They are fun, fast and easy which qualifies them as good gift givers.

Shark Mittens by Morehouse Merino


I dont know why the picture is off center here. Maybe it has something to do with Flickr? It does that sometimes and its annoying because I dont have issues like that with Photobucket. The thing is, I have to have a Flickr account for my Ravelry account. Oh well.

I broke one of my rules that I set for myself already and we are not even halfway into January! I had to go to see my Oncologist for my 3 month check up. He ran all kinds of blood tests which were all normal (yay!) and he wants me to go for a PET Scan in April since my last one was the end of September. Normally I would go for a CAT Scan but when you do a PET Scan it gives you a baseline CAT Scan so there is no need to expose oneself to the extra radiation of the scan. Anyway, back to why I went for a trim. The salon around the corner from the Dr's office and I called while I was waiting for him to see if they had an appointment open. So of course when they said they did I booked it. He took a tiny bit off my ends and also evened out the back so it can grow evenly. He knows I am in the process of growing it and I told him my goal at this point is to get my hair to my shoulders. Now, I do have to wait a while to give it a chance to grow but it always looks good for a few months after he shapes it up anyway. My daughter is receiving 2 sacraments this year and the first is Penance/Reconciliation in February. My hair will look perfect for that and also in my opinion it will look even better when it gets a little longer in May when she receives Communion.

A Little Good News and Some Bad News

My Grandmother (I am going to call her Nana from now on because this is what I call her IRL) is now in a short term rehab facility recouperating from the hip surgery she had to pin her broken hip into place. Thats the good news. The bad news is that the tumor in her brain was confirmed as being metastasis from her lungs which are filled with cancerous masses (in both) which is the primary site of cancer. She had a whole slew of tests and its confirmed as being Stage 4 lung cancer with metastasis to the brain and possibly the kidney and liver. Both of them lite up on the PET scan which means the cancer is starting to spread to these areas. My husband and I asked which would be the cause of her death and the Dr believes that she will get a major infection that wont be able to be cured with antibiotics due to the cancer being rampant at that point and the infection itself will kill her. I know this sounds a bit morbid but I wanted to know because the tumor in her brain is growing quickly and the last thing that we want to happen is that these tumors grow and cause the brain to herniate which is a painful and unpleasant way to go. She has a seizure disorder to begin with and it would cause major seizures that would lead to her death. The Dr doesnt see this happening before an infection occurring that I described above. She elected not to have brain surgery because its not going to make her better. It might actually make her final days hellish especially if she can no longer speak or eat after the surgery. It can also kill her due to her heart problems. My wish is that she doesnt suffer. I saw my paternal grandparents die horrible deaths due to cancer and I dont want to see that happen to her. Personally I dont think that my other grandparents were managed with pain medications in the proper way when they died and I know that wont happen with my Nana.

We visited her today at the Rehab Facility and I was very impressed with the place. Its bright and actually cheerful if you could believe it. When we arrived there was a lady in Nana's room with a huge Blue and Gold Macaw named Calypso putting on a little show for her and my parents. The kids got a kick out of it. The bird started to get a bit shy when we arrived but what do you want with 2 small, LOUD kids? LOL. There is also another cockatiel named Ziggy that jumps on your shoulders as you walk by her cage. Every time my Mom walked by the bird would jump on her arm and took a dump two times! They say its good luck but I didnt want to be pooped on no matter how lucky it is!!

Yesterday I did something I havent done in God knows how long. I mixed up 100gms of henna powder to use in my hair. When my hair was down to my waist it was such a hard thing for me to do and it got very heavy with all the wet hair and henna mud piled on the top of my head for 4-6 hours. Its a lot easier when your hair is barely touching your shoulders and you dont have all that hair to pile on your head. My hair is nice and shiny now and with a slight tint of red that can be seen more in the sunlight. Hopefully I wont have to do it again for a while. I had a lot left over for at least 2 more applications so I froze it.

Tomorrow I am venturing into the land of beads. I am going to BEADFIESTA! Its a one day bead show 45 minutes away from my home. I just placed an order with Fire Mountain Gems but thats not going to stop me from getting a good bargain if I see one. I am hoping to find some unique lampwork beads and also my favorite Austrian Crystals, Swarovski's! I do have a few pictures that I need to post but unfortunately I didnt have a chance to download them to my computer. I also want to wait to take pics of my spoils of war from tomorrows adventure at the BEADFIESTA Muchachos! Ole!
I am also hoping to learn about selling and marketing my jewelry so I can set up my store on Etsy. There are so many possibilities and I want to do the least complicated one so I dont drive myself crazy. There are Flea Markets, School Holiday Boutiques, jewelry parties in the home (which I think is the best one) I am hoping to have enough of an inventory to have a pre-Holiday Jewelry extrravaganza. If I dont get some shut-eye soon I'm not going to be able to do anything tomorrow.
Lights out!