Filed under metal art, Rusted Metal Art
Filed under Driftwood Art, When Wood Comes Alive
Filed under metal art, spoon - cutlery - art
Once again I’m trying. I hope this is mainly annoying, rather than a red line for you – reading things I’ve said many times before. If the line is red, stop reading here, and I apologize.
If you’re still reading, THANKS!
My husband and I had a talk, continuing over the past several days, about our eating. Due to the weather encouraging comfort food, plus my husband trying to be ‘nice’ to me, bringing me popcorn or ice cream, and other assorted excuses (pick one. ANY one will do…. :0) ) I have regained weight I tried really hard to shed. We’re doing a lot right, but never enough to actually make significant progress in my goal to LOSE the lard.
This morning we are AGAIN getting serious. Today I’m trying a new recipe for “Keto Bread Rolls” from Arman online to hopefully take the place of the deli roll we have been eating with dinner. I’m also making “Sausage, Egg & Cheese Bake” from Suzanne Ryan’s Simply Keto recipe book. We love this.
I’m tracking my eating, drinking, and exercising via MyFitnessPal again. I have my macro set up there now (5% carbs, 25% protein, and 70% fat) so I can see how I’m doing. My personal macro is actually 14grams of carbs, 77grams of protein, and 85grams of fat daily. I’m trying to keep my calories to around 1137 daily.
I’ve entered what I’m eating today already so I KNOW I’m staying within my calorie total, plus am hitting the right percentages on lunch and dinner, with even a snack some time today. I have also entered my activity and have already started that. (I get some credit for moving more, though I don’t really make any allowances for it on how much I’m eating.)
Our lunch stays the same, except I’m not having any fruit. The only changes are at dinner – plus snacks – and that’s not bad at all.
I have found FitnessPal.com more to my liking than others because they allow you to add recipes not in their database (which is large) quickly and easily without having to list each ingredient and quantity in the recipe separately. They also allow you to repeat easily what you eat daily, rather than having to enter it all again every day. (We basically eat the same lunch every day with the exception of Lunch Bunch on Friday.) Once you enter something, when you go to the category again for each day, what you listed previously is there if you wish to check the box. NICE.
I’m motivated to stay with my plan. My husband has agreed NOT to bring me ‘goodies’ just because he likes me, so I’M in charge and the only one I can blame is myself if I don’t stick to this. So far, I’m feeling energized.
I’m going to start cooking now. Hopefully, by the end of this week, I’ll see a bit of improvement. Fingers crossed.
Filed under Challenges, Changes, DIET!, exercise, motivators
Filed under metal art, spoon - cutlery - art
Filed under Gorgeous Gourd Art, Gorgeous Gourds
I just checked my veggie garden and things seem to be going really well at this point. I could actually start harvesting some lettuce leaves, but I think I’ll let them go awhile longer.
You can see spinach, red onion sprouts, leaf lettuce, and one broccoli or cauliflower plant in this box.
broccoli and lettuce
Spinach, red onions, broccoli and cauliflower
This afternoon, I’ll mix up several two-gallon containers of KillzAll. I’ll spray some under the planter boxes and around my garden, and then move on from there – as many containers as I can during the afternoon.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I have read and poured over various lists of foods to include in our diet for our various ‘conditions/problems/concerns’ – trying to come up with a master list. I’ve tried and tried and finally officially give up.
The eating regimen that is closest to what my husband and I need is low-carb, so that’s what I’m concentrating on, starting tomorrow. There is only so far my husband is willing to go – and there are definitely two strong personalities and likes and dislikes to consider here.
One of my favorite low-carb recipe books is Simply Keto by Suzanne Ryan. She provides delicious recipes we both like without a lot of hard-to-find ingredients and without a lot of spices we can’t tolerate. I also like the fact that I can cook once and have enough for at least one more meal, if not more. I can freeze the leftovers into individual containers we can nuke, serve with a side veggie, and enjoy.
Tomorrow I’ll cook her “Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Breakfast Bake.” We like it for dinner with a side veggie or salad. I’ll also get supplies for her ‘Keto Chili.’
I’ll intersperse cooked meals with the ones we’ve been buying from Real Food and Stu’s Clean Cookin’.
I’ve lost a couple of pounds in the last few days, so I’m hoping that this further modification will result in scales that quit laughing and smirking at me.
Filed under DIET!
I feel really lucky to have someone who cares. This way I can take a virtual, instant trip to the beach whenever I need it. :0)
THANK YOU, ML.
Filed under Delightful Surprises, Family, Favorite Things, vicarious enjoyment
It’s easy to be irritable, to lash out these days. So much is wrong in the world. And who receives the hostility, the sharp words? The ones closest to us, of course. They are right there with us, sometimes the catalyst for our quick slashes, when they are the ones who we need the most to get through it.
And after the quick irritability/frustration/depression/hostility is let loose on both sides, there is the awful aftermath – silence, space, hurt feelings, lingering anger, isolation.
The thing that caused the clash is stupid. It’s only a symbol of the deeper feelings. It doesn’t matter what the catalyst, who said the first sharp words.
We need to remind ourselves that NOTHING is more important than the time we share on this planet with those we love. If we can’t stop the lashing out, we need to recognize it for what it is and do what we can to bridge the gap as soon as we can.
Life is so, so short – so little time to show the love.
Filed under love
Filed under Helen Denerley Sculpture, metal art
Filed under sculpture
Since our weather is supposed to be sunny and in the 60s this afternoon, I’m planning to spend a lot of time outdoors today. I’ll check on my new spring garden, plus mix and spray as many two-gallon containers of weed killer as I can handle today. (Good exercise, too!)
We caught a raccoon in our humane trap overnight (finally!) so we’ll go out in a bit, get our mail, relocate the raccoon, and hit the store for incidentals on the way home. Hopefully, we can fill up the bird feeders again, unless he’s part of a huge family of raccoons…
I hope you have a happy Saturday.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Gardening, Thoughts on a ________
Filed under painted glass
Yesterday I shared with you some sculpture done from a site called, tufasite.wordpress.com. I found MORE, similar wonderful sculpture by three others that seems to me to be the same or similar technique. I think it’s great, and I’m fascinated.
This sweet fellow looks calm and collected – and I’m trying to take inspiration from him.
My day has been pretty frazzled so far, and I’m getting a very late start on writing here today.
Lunch Bunch was today. My husband decided he would stay home because he is rebuilding and upgrading his computer and the things he ordered were due to be delivered this morning before noon. Lunch Bunch was small, with only Kay, Bud, and me. We had a nice time talking. I brought home lunch for my husband.
The computer stuff is still not here. I don’t know whether we’ll get it today or not. My husband is upset about it.
Meanwhile, he wanted me to help him with a financial transaction. We started an hour or so ago and are still working on it. He wants me to help, but fights me every step of the way, gets mad if I make suggestions, doesn’t want me to leave OR say anything – a continuation of the last several days. I wish we could both reboot our BRAINS…
A very nice surprise happened. When we went through the mail I brought in, I found a package neither of us recognized. It turned out to be
It’s already past 1pm here and I haven’t gotten anything accomplished. Oh, well.
Happy Friday.
Filed under Family, Friendship, marriage, Thoughts on a ________
One of the many ‘perks ‘ of getting older is trouble remembering things.
Just this morning I was reading an email from a dear friend who talked about what she was going to cook for dinner. THAT reminded me that I had neglected to take our dinner out of the freezer. I finished answering her email and then found some painted bottles online that were absolutely STUNNING.
I remembered again that I needed to go to the pantry to get our dinner out of the freezer. I got up, stopped in the bathroom, poured water in Amber’s dog bowl and then came back to the computer. I saw that I had forgotten to refill my coffee cup, so I got up and started to go to the kitchen. I stopped, grabbed my wallet and the record of our blood pressure and blood sugar we used this morning to take back to the kitchen. I put them away in the dining area and then came back to the office.
I again saw my coffee cup. I picked it up this time and went to the kitchen, refilled it, and brought it back. Then remembered I was supposed to go get our dinner out of the freezer…
My husband came in and wanted some help. I helped him and then sat back down at the computer. THEN remembered I was supposed to go to the pantry.
I got to the kitchen and couldn’t remember why I went in there. Had to come back to the office and sit down. THEN I remembered.
I actually got our dinners out of the freezer this time. Please shoot me.
Filed under aging, Challenges, memories, quality of life
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography
Filed under metal art
As far as I can tell from finding these and looking through the website, this artist specializes in building ‘skeletons’ for her projects using all kinds of things, including tires, chicken wire, etc., then covers them in the ‘tufa’ stuff – kind of a faux concrete to make the pieces last. Reminiscent of paper mache’, but light years past that.
I truly love these two pieces – all the different textures the artist created – like the hair of both pieces, the knitted ‘shawl,’ the attitude of the forms, etc. Fascinating.
Filed under Concrete
I don’t wear a lot of jewelry. My main things are pierced earrings, and I think there are never enough, though I prefer costume jewelry, rather than the real deal. The real deal makes me nervous – that I’ll damage or lose a piece, or will be mugged. I do wear necklaces sometimes, and some pins, but not often.
I found some designs that are totally new to me. I find them beautiful and intriguing, but would probably not wear them. They caught my eye, though, and I hope that SOMEONE wears them. :0)
What do you think?
Filed under jewelry
I’ve never met the man, and he is an artist in the U.K. and I truly love the fact that he can make me FEEL emotions looking at his drawings of robots.
You can see more here
Filed under Matt Dixon - Robot Art
In my travels around the yard, I went out to check my early spring raised-bed square foot garden. So far, the plants seem very happy.
“It was such a pleasure to sink one’s hands into the warm earth, to feel at one’s fingertips the possibilities of the new season.” ~ Kate Morton
I’m thankful for a warm, dry home this morning. I really got chilled on my walk, but my spirits are definitely lifted now.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
It’s cool here (45 degrees F. and a pretty good breeze), but I needed some spirit-lifting and took my camera outside to walk around and see what I could see.
“Be like the flower, turn your face to the sun.” — Kahlil Gibran
Filed under Gardening, Mother Nature, Seasons
creativeartworksblog 