“Man Drinking Tea” – Jessica Laine Morris – jessicalainemorris.wordpress.com
Closet Purge/Reorganization Project Finished
I have now finished going through my closet with my hot weather clothes, all my shoes, purses, scarves, etc. For me, this is good. Before, my shoes were all over the floor, for example. To the right of the shelves you can see my scarves and a hint of my purses.
My shoes are actually in the shelves for shoes now!
Casual tops are on the top. Dressier (as far as I GET dressier) on the bottom.)
I’ve tried everything on and have brought a LOT of stuff downstairs and dumped it in the foyer corner until I start listing and bagging things for donation to the Veterans Thrift Store in Fort Smith. THAT’S for another day, though.
I’m going to go put my feet up and dive into another book. :0)
Art From Found Objects – Take 20
dishfunctionaldesigns.blogpot.com
“Ginger” – Robot Dog – Will Wagenaar – Reclaim2Fame
Filed under Art From Found Things, Creativity
Quarterly Progress Report
My husband and I went for our quarterly checkup by our primary doctor this afternoon. We got blood tests last week and were hopeful that we would see some changes for the better.
I’ve told you my husband is a Type II Diabetic. His A1C last quarter was 7.6. (This was down a bunch from his original count of 16+, but still wasn’t normal.) Today it was 6.2 (the goal for diabetics is <7). HOOORAAAAAAY! We had essentially given up ever getting a normal reading again, and were just concentrating on eating right and getting the numbers as low as we could. We practically danced around the room!
The big difference in my numbers was in Lipid Profile (Fats in the blood, I think)
- Cholesterol was down 107 points
- LDL down 57 points
- Non-HDL down 70 points
- Triglycerides down 61 points
She said that since my husband and I are essentially eating the same foods, my exercise was the cause of my improved numbers!
She was so pleased she said I could wait to come back for SIX months. I’ve been going quarterly for YEARS, so this was super good news. If my husband keeps his good numbers in November, HE can go to every six months, too!
Tonight we’re going bowling with our good friends and having our FLEX snack for the week, a scoop of ice cream from Braum’s. We celebrated by having a FLEX lunch, as well, enjoying a couple of pieces of fried fish from our local grocery deli. We haven’t had that for almost five months now, so it was a joyous celebration, even though we’re supposed to spread the flex meals out – one per day.
We knew we had lost weight. We knew we had lost inches (though my husband won’t measure, he’s losing his tummy)
It was wonderful to have the doctor confirm with objective numbers that we’re improving our health. She said, as we were leaving, “I wish all my patients took an active interest in their health and worked as hard as you two have.”
A wonderful pat on the head! :0)
Today’s World – Take 7
Today’s World via Bill Lites
Filed under Changes, Funny Signs - Humor, Reading is FUNdamental
Fur & Feathers Project
I pretty much have the drawings I want in order to practice painting fur and feathers that look more realistic than I’m able to do now. I have most of my drawings done with the help of my new toy, a 4 LED Tracing Board, which allows me to trace most anything that fits on the board. I then transfer the tracings to my sketch book using carbon paper. Then I can concentrate on studying the Keys to Painting Fur & Feathers, edited by Rachel Rubin Wolf.
Kingfisher and Parrot are previous drawings of mine that I retraced in order to do what I hope will be a better job this time.
Amber and Molly are our doggies. I traced these from photos I took of them.
Our cat, Abby, is typically on her back or on her side, as in this picture, thinking deep thoughts.
Smoke is a much more active cat, always about to leap from one place to the next.
The bear is a drawing by Claudia Nice in the Fur & Feathers book, borrowed to try to learn to add the fur.
The last two birds I found on the net and traced.
I’m studying the book, trying to absorb enough to get started. I think I’ll try to work in colored pencils first, so I’ll particularly study that section of the book. I’m having SUCH a good time with this. I love learning new techniques!
Filed under Challenges, doing what you love, learning new things
“Mountain Flowers”
“Mountain Flowers” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Amber is Lifting Weights
I just went outside to see if I could get the texting on my cell phone to work. It’s been on the fritz for a couple of days now. I think I’ll call AT&T tomorrow to see if bringing my phone in to them would do any good.
Meanwhile, when I was on the front porch I saw one of my dumb bells in the front yard. It seems that Amber has decided to work on her arms some…
Filed under Amazing Animals, Challenges, Family
Cleaning Out My Closet – Again
Due to the nice fact that I shed one size in jeans due to my efforts with Nutrisystem and exercise, I decided that today was a good day to go through my closet again.
The last time I did a good job was in the fall, so I have a full closet of warm/hot weather type clothing now. I’ve kept some of it because it was too small and “maybe” I could wear it ‘someday.’ I’ve kept other things because they were large enough to fit me. Other things have just gone back and forth from the guest room closet to my closet and back again several times. I hate to admit that, but it’s true.
This time I’m going through everything thoroughly again, trying everything on and making the decision to keep it or donate it.
The fun part so far was getting rid of some now-too-large jeans and a pair of dress slacks that was new when Methuselah was a baby. (Do you get the idea I usually wear jeans?) :0)
I brought down a big group of clothes I’m going to donate, but I got hot and tired and decided I would rest a bit and do something else, and then go back up for another session a bit later.
This time I’m not keeping something just because ‘it’s big enough to cover me.’ I’m also looking at the color, style, and deciding if I actually LIKE it or not. Imagine that! It’ll be a while before I can have JUST clothes I like, but little by little, I’m moving toward my goal.
I’m hoping that when I move the warm/hot weather stuff into the guest room closet in a few months and exchange it for the cool/cold weather clothes, I’ll be able to do the try-everything-on again job again and find more things that are actually larger than they need to be.
My goal will be to have a donation ready for The Disabled Vets Thrift Store by the end of next week. I’m also working on another donation for our local library, as well.
I hope you’re having a great Sunday.
OK, My Day is Made
This is my husband. He would HATE it that his picture is on my blog or that I’m talking about him (though he’s very supportive of my blogging efforts – treating me to lobster tail dinners when I hit landmarks on numbers of subscribers.)
I told you earlier that I was able to shed a size in my jeans, and that it felt good that it was something TANGIBLE in my efforts to get the lard off. I told my husband, of course, feeling really encouraged.
When we were going through the day’s mail later, standing by the dining area table, all of a sudden he looked over at me and said, “You ARE looking slimmer.”
If you knew my husband, you would know that this is rare, indeed. I could shave my head, or change the color to blue and orange stripes and he wouldn’t notice. He’s a wonderful guy, but he’s not very observant. Plus, living together and seeing each other every day makes it less noticeable when there are changes. And, to be fair, he says “he loves me no matter what size I am,” – but NOT something I want to hear NOW…
To have him say this quiet statement this morning made my day.
Filed under Delightful Surprises, DIET!, exercise
Swans
“Black and White” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Elegance 1” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Laurie’s Creatures
“Dutch” -Laurie Schnurer – Laurie’s Creatures 2014
“Dutch” -Laurie Schnurer – Laurie’s Creatures 2014
Laurie Schnure r -Laurie’s Creatures 2017
Filed under Art From Found Things, Creativity
Something Tangible!
pngimg.com
I’ve lost almost 20 pounds now (not officially yet) and almost 18 inches down so far with the help of Nutrisystem and exercise.
I’m a ‘pear-shaped,’ ‘no-spring chicken’ (a kind description) and have been way too sedentary in the past several years. I have a long way to go in my efforts to lose the lard in order to be as healthy as I can be, but today I enjoyed another TANGIBLE sign of progress.
I like my clothes loose. This has always been my choice, even when I wasn’t trying to cover my lard. For the past several years, my sizes of jeans have increased as my “pear-shape” increased. I would have to unbutton or unzip my jeans in the evenings to be comfortable watching TV or a movie. My husband did, too. I also wear pretty large, loose tops. This has always been comfortable to me, and the same clothes I’ve had in my closet are the ones I’m wearing now, so no changes there. In fact, some of the ones I have are STILL too tight.
Today I put on a clean pair of jeans and noticed that they were definitely baggy. I rooted through my stack of jeans and finally found a size smaller. I grit my teeth, thinking this was an exercise in futility, but not only could I pull them up, I could fasten them – EASILY! I’m sitting here typing and am completely comfortable. No wanting to give myself ‘breathing room’ by unfastening them!
So, today I’ll gather up the size I had been wearing (please don’t ask WHAT size) and will take them into the guest room closet. I’m not confident enough yet to actually put them in the donation bag for the Disabled Vets yet, but if I continue to get positive signs, they’ll go there soon!
Filed under DIET!, Encouragement, exercise, getting the lard off, taking care of yourself
Abby and Smoke
As I told you recently, I’m having lots of fun with a new toy – a 4 LED Tracing Board. It’s a light box, but extremely thin, and plugs into my computer. I can trace my own artwork, grab pics from the net or books or magazines. Then I can transfer the tracings to my sketch book using carbon paper so that I can concentrate on learning techniques for adding fur or feathers to the drawings. If I had to draw each from scratch, I would be totally intimidated and the learning would be stopped in its tracks.
Yesterday I added tracings of pics I’ve taken of our doggies, Amber and Molly. Today I’m going to add these of Abby (above) and Smoke (below.) Once I get these into my sketch book, I’ll start trying to learn from a really good book I’ve had for a long time, Keys to Painting Fur & Feathers, edited by Rachel Rubin Wolf. There are drawings and hints on adding realism in various media. Since I really love mixed media, I can play with techniques to my heart’s content, learning a ton with each tracing.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, learning new things
Learning!
I took these pics of Amber (above) and Molly (below) today and am adding them to my sketch book so that I can practice trying to get fur to look more realistic with the aid of my book, Keys to Painting Fur & Feathers. I’ll see if I can get good pics of the two cats, get tracings of them into the sketch book, and then I’ll start reading and trying to do what it suggests. This is really a fun, challenging, engrossing project!
Filed under Family, learning new things
“Interesting Liana Tree”
“Interesting Liana Tree” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
More Tracing
I’m having a lot of fun adding to the tracings in my sketch book in preparation for practicing trying to add fur or feathers to drawings. I wasn’t sure I would use the new 4LED Tracing board I got enough to warrant the purchase, but I’m really enjoying being able to plug it into my computer in the office where I can work on stuff and not ‘lose myself’ upstairs. We can go shopping in the middle of a tracing, or I can stop when I’m working on transferring the tracing to the sketchbook. I can do things I need to do and have fun at the same time. :0)
Filed under Uncategorized
Caterpillar
We took down Godzilla and put up the Hookah Smoking Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland on the way to town today.
We had a good time making this one because of the 3-D quality of the tube and metal fasteners to go from his hand to the pipe. Since school starts August 13th here (can you believe it?) this will be the first of our decorations the school bus kids will see. We hope they get a kick out of it.
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, metal art
creativeartworksblog 