Caution! Problems with a Best Press Scent

One of my quilty friends on our retreat just showed us a problem she had with the Winter Magic type of Mary Ellen's Best Press. This may have been a one-off (maybe one bad bottle) but still--be careful! I've used other types of Best Press for years and have never seen this happen with other types--we suspect it's the green coloring in this one. (Yes--she's contacting the company.) 

It sprayed on fine, but when she pressed it, the heat from the iron made the Best Press darken and stain the fabric.  

I apologize that this blog post doesn't look pretty but the Internet and cell coverage at our retreat center is sketchy at best so my iPad is struggling to do even this much! 

Fight the Funk Friday--More Recommendations

My primary way of fighting the funk this week is by being on a quilt retreat with my peeps as you're reading this! If you follow me on Instagram and/or Twitter, I'll be posting pics along the way. 

Meanwhile...

• The Weight Watchers Coaching that I'd mentioned a few weeks ago is now complete. I only needed a couple of sessions with her to get myself back on my mental game (it was all mental, in this particular instance). I found her helpful for a shot in the arm but nothing I need long-term. However, I'll have the name of the coach I had in case I need to get another shot in the arm at some point down the road.

• I decided I needed new sneakers this week when I had yet another session of painful feet during my cardio kickboxing class earlier this week. I know foot cramps can also be due to dehydration but I really don't think that was the problem in this case--it's a different kind of all-over soreness. I'd bought the Reeboks I've been wearing maybe only three months ago, but my feet have never been comfortable in them when I'm in a class. They were on sale when I bought them so I'm fine with transitioning them to a "bop around town" sneaker--they're fine when I'm just walking in them--and replacing them as my primary gym sneaker. I know some of it is just needing to strengthen my foot muscles (sitting behind a computer for years on end really does do a number on your entire body), but the right shoes can make a world of difference. Rather than going back to the minimal brand selection of my local mall, I ordered a pair of Rykas online. I love Rykas--I've had them in the past and they fit my foot beautifully. I don't know why I ever left them. They're not cheap but being able to get through a cardio class of any kind without gritting my teeth because my feet are whining is seriously worth it. 
• I also had to buy new workout pants this week. Not only were my feet whining during cardio kickboxing, but my pants kept wandering downwards and, as they were long yoga-style pants, they kept getting caught under the heel of my sneaker. Not only annoying, but just a little dangerous! In the grand scheme of going down in size and what that would do to my wardrobe, I'd never given much thought to workout pants. But yay--I need new workout pants now!
• While I'm on retreat, I'm going to focus on trying to move every hour. My BFF/BQF Lori will also be on the retreat, and she plans to take a 20 minute walk every day, so I'll probably join her for that. That largely depends on the weather, however. It's supposed to be in the 20s this weekend and the retreat center is on a lake so we could get more snow. We'll see.

• Finally, can I recommend a couple of cookbooks to you? These have quickly become my primary sources every week when I'm doing meal planning. 

The Skinnytaste blog is well known and she does post a bunch of recipes there, but the cookbooks are well worth having. My particular favorite is Skinnytaste Fast and Slow (link at left). "Fast" are recipes that take 30 minutes or less--primarily skillet or stovetop types of meals. "Slow" are slow-cooker meals. I do a lot of slow cooking this time of year, particularly now that I'm going to the gym several times a week. When I get home from my trainer I can't handle standing at the stove. I've done a bunch of recipes from this one--including this week the Slow Cooker Pollo con Potacchio which got a 10 from both me and my husband. She provides nutritional info for each of her recipes and, if you're a Weight Watchers person, she also gives the SmartPoints, although they're on her website rather than in the cookbook itself. (The nutritional info is in the book.) I just wrote the SmartPoints in for every recipe when I first got the cookbooks so I had it all in one place.

Her other cookbook, self-titled, is also very good. My favorite go-to recipe in here is the Buttermilk "Oven Fried" Chicken. It's fantastic. 

This one doesn't separate out slow-cooker recipes--it's just a normal cookbook--but it does still have some in it. There are a wide range of recipes to suit most tastes, though, including vegetarian. I pay attention to that because my daughter is a vegetarian but my husband is a meat-and-potatoes guy--so when she's over for dinner and he's gone for the evening, I get to play with the vegetarian recipes.

Having these two cookbooks on my shelf has really helped me in my endeavor to eat healthier!

(This post contains Amazon Affiliate Links--by using them you're helping to support this podcast and blog. Thank you!)

Thinking about it Thursday

This week, I'm thinking...

• that I'm back to using my Passion Planner again
  • for awhile at least
  • just to make a more complete comparison with bullet journaling
• that part of the problem was visual clutter
• that apparently not a cute-sticker-kind-of-girl
• that they ended up just annoying me and getting in the way
• that color coding even feels like it takes too long
  • even though I know it's a helpful tool
  • but I need to streamline or I won't use anything
• how much better I felt when I ripped all the added note pages and financial trackers out of my Passion Planner
• how I apparently like a clean and minimalist interface
• that I'm not keen on always having to draw my own monthly and weekly calendars
• how the Passion Planner provides all that for me
  • which is very handy
  • because I'm basically lazy
  • and I'm not someone who needs my planner to be a work of art
• how I keep waffling, though, because I can really see the use of a bullet journal
• that you're probably all getting really sick of reading about my waffling
  • so I should just keep it to myself from now on
  • until I finally commit one way or the other
  • and then I can let you know the end of the story
• how much I'm getting out of Imogene Lamport's Ignite Your Style Genius workshops
• how I took four big bags of clothes to Goodwill this week
  • because 3/4 of them are now too big to wear (yay)
  • and the other 1/4 are not good colors for me, good shapes, or good at playing in the sandbox  with the rest of my clothes so why give them real estate in my closet anymore?
• how I like having an emptier closet because I know everything in it actually works
• that I can't wait to hear back from the person I've contacted to set up a color analysis
  • because that will really help me shop smarter when it comes time to fill some of that empty space again

From Feb 2016 but it'll look about the same this year--my "Squares of Chocolat" quilt is my retreat quilt. (No "e" is intentional: Chocolat was a line by Moda that most of the quilt was made from, and it's the Square in a Square technique by Jodi Barrows)

• that by the time you read this I'll be on a quilt retreat
• how exciting it is to be touching my sewing machine again
• how I'm trying to keep myself reasonable in what I want to get done
• that I'm looking forward to the weekend with my peeps!

OT: January StitchFix

So, perhaps I really ought to be calling this the February StitchFix as that's what it really is: each month's box comes towards the end of the month before. But that'll eventually get too confusing, so I'll just consider myself as having gotten two Januarys and we'll move on from there. 

Once again, I ended up keeping all five items they sent. There were a couple I was debating but--again--with the full-box discount and a couple of credits (thank you, kind reader!), it ended up being cheaper to keep all of them than it would have been to send two back. I suspect I see a theme developing. However, "debating" means I liked both of the questionable items at some level and could see how I could integrate them into the rest of my wardrobe--they just weren't my favorites. So I'm going to challenge myself to wear them both a few times over the next couple of weeks to allow them time to work their ways into my wardrobe-heart. 

Yes, that's a bag you see on the bottom of that box. Yay! They clearly are looking at my Pinterest board because I've probably pinned about 40 versions of this same bag.  

The one they sent is reversible, which makes it a little extra fun.  It also comes with the little zippered pouch that has pockets inside, because the bag itself has no pockets (understandable given the reversibility). I like the idea of the little pouch because it would actually fit in a few other bags I own so I could feasibly just start moving that bag to change purses. Kind of handy. I've also found that the pouch acts as a purse organizer--in other words, it's a lot faster for me to find my chapstick and reading glasses than when I'm digging through a pile in the bottom of my purse. Nice, unexpected benefit!

I like the lighter side out a little better; I think that's because of the little bit of contrast with the handles and tassel. But practically speaking, that would get beat up looking pretty quickly. It's not real leather, though, so it may be easy to wipe off. 

The only knock on this bag is there's no closure; it's just an open bag. So security-wise, not so hot. I've used it the last couple of days just bopping around town, but it's not coming on airplanes or on vacations with me. 

This was one of the two I was debating. One thing I've learned about myself by looking at all my pins and my reactions to things in StitchFix boxes is that I prefer organic, curvy prints to geometrics. This print is not one I'd ever have picked off a rack to try on. However, it's wonderfully comfortable, a great seasonal-transition piece, and can dress up or dress down. So it's an excellent addition to my wardrobe from all those perspectives. And I don't hate it. I have a lot of this burgundy in my wardrobe, as well, so I've already found one dressier outfit I can make with it; wearing it with jeans is easy. I know I'll find others. 

Can't go wrong with basic black. This is another wonderfully soft, lightweight short-sleeve sweater that will be great for work, no worries. It's just a hair on the sheer side so I need to be a little careful what I wear foundationally, shall we say. You can't tell easily in this picture but it's a hi-lo sweater (cut lower in back than in the front), so I think it could look a little more interesting with dress pants than your usual black top. 

So you may be surprised to find out this was the second item I was seriously debating--or maybe not, since you don't have the benefit of seeing the rest of my closet. But I have a couple other duster-length cardigans that I wear frequently. In a lot of ways, this one should be right in my wheelhouse. It looks darker here than it is in real life;  it's sort of a dark gray-blue (or gray-teal: it really is a bit of an odd color). It fits me really well, and I like the style of it, but the color feels like it'll be a tricky one to work with, and the hood automatically makes it a titch more casual and less flexible between work and play.

I'll definitely be able to wear it and I imagine the color will grow on me as I do. It's wonderfully comfortable!

And last...when I pulled this one out of the box, my first reaction was "ugh." It looked completely shapeless and unappealing all folded up. But when I tried it on...it immediately became my favorite. My husband and daughter (who had come to mooch a few meals off us on a broke weekend) immediately said, "that's great!" I wore it running errands today and got a couple of compliments on it too. Definitely a keeper.

So--StitchFix #2 gets a 7 out of 10 for me. StitchFix #1 was a 9 out of 10, I think--although I suspect when I first got it I would've said 7 or 8 out of 10 due to a couple of pieces I wasn't sure about, but I've worn the heck out of them so they went up in my rating system after the fact. The same is quite likely to happen with this box too!

Interested in StitchFix? Here's my referral link: https://www.stitchfix.com/referral/10141355, or just go to www.stitchfix.com.  

And now, back to our regularly-scheduled programming....

Fight the Funk Friday--Another App Review

App girl here, with yet another app to tell you about.

As I've been working on fighting my funk, there are several habits I've been trying to get into before work and before bedtime. I've been using habit tracker apps* to keep me mindful of the good things I want to be doing, but those haven't helped in terms of figuring out, for example, what time I need to get up in the morning in order to get everything done that I want to get done before starting work. Also, it's way too easy to drop into the time-suck of reading blogs while I'm waiting for the caffeine to kick in, and suddenly it's time to hit the shower to get ready for work.

I was complaining about this to my daughter one afternoon. I said, "I need something that will give me an electric shock to say, 'Hey! Stop reading blogs now and start doing your school reading! I mean it!'" She told me about an app named Routinist. 

No, there's no electric shocks involved. And yes, you have to remember to actually open the app to get things rolling. But other than that, it is actually a helpful little app. You start out by giving Routinist your "go time." Everything works backwards from the time you need to leave the house and/or start work in the morning, or whatever "go time" you need to have everything done by.

You plug in the things you want to include in your morning routine, how much time you want to allot for each of them, the number of hours of sleep you want to get, and the things you want to include in your pre-bedtime routine...and it then tells you what time you need to start your bedtime routine in order to get to bed in time to get your desired hours of sleep so you can get up at the right time in order to accomplish your morning routine before you have to go to work. Clear as mud, right? But really, it works!

As you complete each element of the routine, you check that element off and it starts counting down the next element. You can set up notifications so it goes off to remind you to start things rolling. I've found it pretty helpful...that is, when I've remembered to turn it on. (Somehow I've missed the "Turn me on!" notifications a few mornings.) 

*And a word about habit tracking apps...

I've been using the app Productive (iOS only, I think) for a long time. I chose that one after testing a bunch of different ones out, and I really did like the way it worked.

However, every now and then, when I start falling out of the habit of keeping up habits, I try to instill newness in some way so it'll feel fresh again. I've recently switched to using the habit-tracking app Today (also iOS only--sorry, everyone else!). 

It's just prettier, really. It's taking me a little while to get used to using it as the swipes are different than in Productive. I may end up going back to Productive because a lot of times simpler is more useful and pretty is usually anything but simple. But still, I needed a change, and an app is an easy thing to change, so why not? 

Just for a quick catch-up on health: No weight change this week, although I view that as a win after my husband's birthday weekend. I balanced out the extra calories with a lot of extra calorie-burn. I consider it "learning to maintain," which will be a critical skill once I do reach my goal weight. I did the cardio kickboxing and cardio step classes again this week--still love them--plus a few other serious cardio sessions at various times through the week. I've finally connected with my new trainer--for some reason, my email was dumping her emails. Anyway, here she is. I think I'm going to love her. I'll definitely be getting my Inner Tough Chick on. (Due to conflicting schedules, I can't start with her until Feb 9.)

Thinking about It Thursday

This week, I'm thinking...

• that it's finally decided to be winter again.
• how I'm back to running space heaters and wearing fingerless gloves in my office.
• that apparently I'm leaning into the bullet journal thing.
• that I was ridiculously excited to get the email that my next StichFix has shipped.
• how it's almost like Christmas to open that box and see what they've sent.
• that I've got to keep myself from checking out front every day to see if my package has arrived yet.
• how it'll probably be early next week when it finally comes. (Tapping fingers on desk.)

• how it was almost as fun to get my husband subscribed to StitchFix for Men
  • because he absolutely hates going shopping
  • and his wardrobe decreased by at least 50% when he changed jobs last spring and donated all the free logo shirts he owned from the former company
  • and we joked that there would be some very well-dressed homeless men downtown doing some free advertising for said former company.
• that I was right to convince him that setting up delivery from StitchFix every couple of months would help him update his now-mostly-empty-closet without the grief of having to go to the mall
• how he whined even just filling out the stupid questionnaire (sigh)
• how right I was
  • because he actually liked a lot of what was in the first box
  • and he's keeping three shirts (the two button-downs and the flannel)
  • and he grudgingly admitted it was probably a good idea for him. I win.
• how it's like pulling teeth to get my draft thesis proposal done 
• that I'm trying not to stress because I'm supposed to be turning it in within the next week
• how I'll be spending some heads-down time this weekend because I just need to get the monkey off my back.

(The StitchFix link above is a referral link--you'd be helping to support my husband's wardrobe, LOL. If you prefer, just go to www.stitchfix.com and click on the StitchFix for Men tab. This link is not a referral link.)

Making It Monday (Scrapbook and Fashion Week Edition)--Jan 23 2017

Again, nothing in the quilting or embroidery world going on here. Still working on my class assignment. But this weekend was also my husband's birthday as well as the first year anniversary of his father's passing, so one of his brothers flew in from out of town and there were a couple of family gatherings, as well as my husband and I on our own celebrating his birthday. So I didn't get either classwork or creative stuff done over the weekend, but lots of good family memories were made.

Speaking of memories, what I can report on is that I have successfully completed my first page of a Project Life scrapbook using their new app. I believe I already blogged awhile back about how Sandi of Quilt Cabana Patterns and I have sort of a "soft challenge" going to complete some scrapbook pages--basically, we're encouraging each other forward. Since I'd never used PL before, I did a quick test page using some photos one of my D.Min. friends had shared with us from our January intensive. It took me all of about 15 minutes to create this page--can't beat that! I put a big black box over the names--the actual page looks much friendlier than this. Now that I know it works well, I'll finish the other pages I want to do in this particular album--at least, all the pages until graduation, which will have to wait until May 2018. I can complete this album quickly because, frankly, I don't have that many pictures: just enough for one page per intensive. At the same time, I'm working on the album from our 25th anniversary, but that's going to take a lot longer--hundreds of photos to sort through. I'm also thinking this would be a great way to do a quilt documentation album, which I've really slacked off on. Maybe once I'm done writing my thesis next fall...

Palette from Alphonse

The other thing I played around with had to do with my closet. It was actually very creative! I'm doing Imogene Lamport's 12 month "Ignite Your Style Genius" program, which involves activities every month on different themes to help you develop your personal style and get smarter about shopping. I know, I know. Like I have time for this. But it's something entertaining for me to do in the evenings when I'm feeling a bit fried and y'all know how I'm trying to seriously update my wardrobe. It's a lot of fun and it's already been really helpful! It's got me looking at some of my clothes differently. January has been about color--right up my alley as a quilter, right? So I've been having fun playing with different color schemes. I did one activity last week around finding an image and pulling the color scheme from it--I used an Alphonse Mucha print (he's one of my faves).  I uploaded it to Adobe Color CC and pulled a palette from it, then went to my closet. 

I didn't have much of a problem pulling together outfits with this palette--there's a reason I like that particular Mucha print. (And yes, that's Scrapabonzitude on our bed--thanks to Charlotte!)

Two of the three outfits are composed mostly of clothes I've owned for awhile but hadn't thought to put together before. The camel pants on the left are new due to a sale at Chadwicks of Boston.  But I'm still feeling my way into finding good outfits for them as they're not a color pant I've ever owned before. Seriously comfortable, though, so I'm highly motivated! I'd already worn them as part of another outfit so I'm getting there--my new rule of thumb is that if an item of clothing doesn't work with at least three different outfits, it won't take up space in my closet anymore. Makes getting dressed in the morning a whole lot easier that way!

So those are my creative endeavors of the week, along with still working on finding a planner system that really works for me but doesn't take more time to keep it up than it does getting the stuff done that's written in it! 

Announcing the Winners of the 2017 Quilty Resolutions Giveaway

Woot! Thank you all for leaving your wonderful--and often very thought-provoking--comments on the 2017 Quilty Resolutions Challenge and giveaway. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading everything you've said!

I'm pleased to announce the winners: Ozzypip! aka Philipa from Australia; Darrell; and Mary K, whose third time worked with bells on! I've emailed each of you so be sure to check your email and respond with your mailing addresses (if you haven't already--I'm writing this ahead of time as I'll be away on Saturday). 

I didn't keep a spreadsheet with entries this time around, so you're on your own recognizance. Remember what you've promised yourself to do and if you don't trust your memory, bookmark the page with your comment on it and check back in every few months to see how you're doing.

And so, until next time, go get your balanced quilty on!

Fight the Funk Friday (and some more about planners)--Jan 20, 2017

I'm trying out a couple of new twists to what I've been doing--or, rather, things that I think will work better towards reminding me to do what I've been doing.

First, I'm back to using my lightbox this week. It's been a mild winter and more sunny than usual, so I haven't used it more than once or twice all season, but I don't get out in the sun much even if it's there. Since I realized my motivation for life was starting to flag a bit, I thought it was time to get back into the habit. It is helping.

Apple Watch Series 2 Nike edition

Second, I've discovered that the Apple Watch "stand" notifier wrist buzz is far easier to ignore/miss than my FitBit Charge HR wrist buzz had been. The Charge would vibrate for about a second two or three times in a row. The Apple Watch gives me two little taps. If it doesn't register in my consciousness, it's gone. Trust me, I had everything on the watch set as high and loud as it could be set. I just need something that will almost reach out and cuff me upside the head to get my attention when I'm really focused on work. So I've started using either the straight-up timer app on the Watch--which has a much stronger vibration than the stand notification does-- or a web-based Pomodoro timer instead, which makes my computer sing to me. (For more about the Pomodoro technique, click here.) I've been moving more during the day since I made that switch.

Third, I've also started playing around with bullet journaling this week. I'll speak to how that's helping to fight the funk in a minute.

Why am I thinking about switching it up so soon after starting with the Passion Planner? I've now taped so many extra pages and inserts into my Passion Planner to allow me to do everything I want to do with it that I'm close to breaking the binding, and I've only got January and part of February set up. No way will this thing survive a whole year of this. And it still doesn't have room for me to do everything I want to do. Don't get me wrong--I still love the concept of the Passion Planner, but I want a slightly different layout that matches the way I think better. Last week, I ended up buying the Weight Watchers journal tracker so I'd have more room to plan out my eating and such. I do my final tracking digitally using their app, but I like to plan out an entire week of meals ahead of time when I'm doing my grocery list on weekends, and it helps me to write it in every day's schedule ahead of time so I'm not making decisions in the moment but only following my own plan. Unfortunately, my compact Passion Planner wasn't quite big enough to do that. Yes, I could get the full-sized planner but the whole point to switching from my DragonTree planner to the Passion Planner was to have something I could carry in my handbag. However, I don't like having two notebooks I have to keep track of all the time.

The first time I looked into bullet journaling in the fall I got extremely turned-off by how complex everyone seemed to say it "should" be. Some people's keys/legends are--well, I won't be judgmental here, but I'll say "they wouldn't work for me" and leave it at that. I also felt like it wouldn't match the "neat-and-orderly" side of me--you know, that side that has to have all my labels on boxes match or I get twitchy. Having something as free-form as a bullet journal made me worry I'd get equally twitchy.

Earlier this week, though, I stumbled across some videos on YouTube that suddenly made it seem like it would be the perfect system for me. (She has several, I'm only embedding the first one here.)

Basically, I think I'm getting ready to get over myself about the twitchiness. I'm a brave girl: I can handle having everything just appear in my journal in whatever random order it occurs to me and using an index--or dividing each journal up ahead of time in ways that would make me feel more neat-and-orderly. I think.

At the moment, I'm still keeping the Passion Planner going at the same time as the bullet journal. This helps me really compare which one is better for me. There's still a lot of beauty for me in having pre-printed calendar items while still having space for me to go free-style. So I'm also pondering the hybrid possibility of what Sarcasm & Sweet Tea describes on her blog. (Hence looking at Daytimers and such again.) 

Since I had an unused blank book already in the house, I'm currently using that as my trial bullet journal. Pretty, but it's smaller than what I'd want to use for realsies (smaller than the Passion Planner), and being hard-cover it doesn't lay flat so it's hard to write in. But it's good enough to give me a feel for how well bullet journaling and I will get along.

What does that have to do with Fighting the Funk? Part of what I want a planner to do is help me stay focused on personal goals, most of which have to do with health and wellness. I want to be able to do quick "micro-journal" entries, as it were, about why I did or didn't achieve a daily goal or how I felt about what I did get done, etc. I'm also writing my daily "why"--why I have the goals I do--and a daily "proud moment" to remind myself not to beat up on myself. This is all critical stuff for fighting my particular aroma of funk so I want a planner system that will allow me space for that as well as tracking tasks and schedules.

What's critical for fighting your funk?

Thinking about It Thursday--January 19, 2017

This week, I'm thinking...

(Bullet Journal from www.bulletjournal.com)

• that there's way too much pressure to have a pretty planner.
• that I need to stop looking at them on Instagram and Pinterest.
• that I am about to burst the binder on my planner with everything I'm adding into it to make it work for me.
• that maybe I should explore bullet journaling.
• that bullet journals seem excitingly free-form but a bit scarily too-free-form.
• how much our personality determines what kind of planner really works best for us.

• that I may go back and look at Daytimers again as well.
  • that I haven't used a Daytimer in probably 20 years, since I got my first Palm Pilot.
    • how old that makes me feel to even say the words "Palm Pilot."
      • how some of you reading this may not even know what those words mean.
• that I really only have a couple of more weeks to figure out what I want to do more long-term about planners because pretty soon I get super-busy again
  • and a good planner will make a huge difference to how stressed that makes me.
  • and wine.
• how helpful it was to talk with a Weight Watchers "coach" this week
  • and how proud of myself I am that I sought help
  • because I tend to be cussedly independent
  • and that can sometimes make things worse.
• that I'm still waiting for a phone call from my hopefully-new-trainer.
• that my PT appointment this week hurt but helped.
• that I can't wait for my massage therapy appointment next week.
• how it takes a village to raise a Sandy.

Making It Monday--January 16

A great day honoring a great man.

(Not much being made around here except a class assignment. Tune in next week to see if I make any fiber progress...)

Don't Forget: 2017 Quilty Resolutions Challenge and Giveaway!

The Doofus wanted me to remind you that the deadline for my 2017 quilty resolutions challenge is coming up fast!

Click here for the 2017 Quilty Resolutions Challenge and giveaway. The deadline is Sunday, January 15 at midnight, my time!

The winner will be announced sometime on Monday. Maybe it'll be you! (Doofus hopes so...)

Making It Monday

I'm trying a new weekly "theme" out for this blog. Not sure I'm loving the title but we'll see if it grows on me. In my efforts to blog more frequently, and in my hopes that needing to blog about something will make me get something done, I'm going to try to post every Monday about something creative I'm working on--quilting, embroidery, or whatever. 

My school peeps

I was supposed to be driving to Boston today (Sunday) for my last set of on-campus classes for my D.Min. program. However, (1) our class doesn't actually start until around noon on Monday, (2) I realized that I blipped and never told the coordinator I'd be coming in on Sunday and therefore would need a room in the retreat center for an extra night, and (3) Massachusetts got a boatload of snow this weekend and they're not as on top of the whole snow plowing thing as we are in Western NY. All of those factors combined made me decide to leave stinkin' early (stinkin' early!) Monday morning and drive straight through, giving me a whole unexpected day today. 

Yes, I'm still getting a little laundry done so I can finish packing. And yes, I had a little more school work I could get done. Other than that, though, I'm treating my "found time" like I try to treat "found money"--since I didn't expect to have it, I'm doing something fun with it.

The other half of the story: In looking for stickers I could use in my new Passion Planner, I belatedly realized I could use all my old digital scrapbooking files and make my own stickers. Doh. I've been spending a little too much time having fun with that over the last couple of weeks. However, that led me to exploring some new digital scrapbooking sites and I discovered that Becky Higgins of Project Life now has an iPad (and iPhone) app, allowing you to create Project Life digital scrapbook pages on your iPad. I tweeted Sandi of Quilt Cabana Patterns (@quiltcabana) because I recalled she used to talk about doing Project Life. She affirmed that she'd been doing them but hadn't ever finished her third album. Long story short, we've now challenged each other to make progress on Project Life albums. We'll check in at the end of every month on our blogs with our progress. Care to join us? We could do a linky! 

Since I'll soon be out of town (by the time you're reading this since I'm scheduling it to post Monday), I spent some time today choosing which PL album I'd tackle first and uploading the necessary photos to iCloud so I could have it with me in Boston if I get random downtime and need mental recovery time.

Since we'll be taking our 30th anniversary river cruise this coming May, I decided that finally putting my photos from our 25th anniversary river cruise into an album would be good anticipatory preparation! I took about an hour today to sort through the photos and delete blurry ones, multiples of the same thing, and those that were just plain uninteresting. I won't be using everything that remains in the PL album but I figured I'd just send everything to iCloud and sort further as I go, depending on how I decide to organize my pages. 

Notes to self for 30th anniversary cruise (aka, "What I learned from wading through the 25th anniversary album"):

1. Fewer pictures of painted ceilings, please. They all start looking the same after picture number 23. 

2. Fewer pictures of random statues and fountains. See #1. (Recognize that one, @katisquilting?) 

3. More pictures of my husband and I together. We appear together twice in the 25th anniversary set. Let's see if we can beat that record on our 30th, eh? 

Fight the Funk Friday

Not much to say today except:

1. I'm sad because yesterday was my last session with my fun, motivational trainer. I'm working on getting signed up with a new one but I'm out of town all next week for my last session of on-campus classes for the doctoral program so the gym director suggested I call him when I get back. Past experience has taught me that it'll take a couple of weeks to get reconnected with someone. However, when I do, if I like her I'm strongly considering working with my trainer twice a week rather than once a week through the rest of the winter when my motivation is always at very low ebb. All that remains to be seen, of course, as I have to get connected with someone first.

2. I'm happy because I stopped waffling and decided to go ahead and buy myself a new FitBit. I'm back to the One. I love love love my Apple Watch for everything else...but FitBit and Apple are competitors in the wearables department so FitBit has certain parameters set up that make it impossible to use the step count on my watch for challenges. I'm using a 3rd party app, Sync Solver, to supposedly sync steps from the Apple Health app to FitBit. It's a bit hit and miss--I have to remember to use the Sync Solver app for the sync (it doesn't do it automatically), and when it syncs, it's not 100% and I can't figure out any sort of pattern to it. Even when it does sync, however, FitBit won't allow steps from 3rd party apps to be counted towards challenges. The putzes. Not enough people I know can do challenges through the Apple Health app, either (or, rather, the third-party apps you have to use to do them with your Apple steps). I realized in my few weeks of going without those challenges how motivational they are to me--my step count has definitely dropped now that I don't have that accountability. So I ponied up for a new One so I can be back in that game. 

3. I'm a bit on the fence emotionally because my daughter and I are strongly considering signing up for a beginning running club hosted by a sports store in the area. It trains you for a 5k. I've never actually liked running but doing it in a group may be more fun. And if both my daughter and I stick with it, it could be a nice bonding thing. They aim towards a 5k in the city at the end of April. We're going to the informational session at the end of this month--that's when I'll decide if I'll bite or not. 

4. I'm surprised and perhaps a bit naive about the fact that I haven't really been using my lightbox this winter. Part of that's because we've had more sunshine than usual. However, I'm not getting outside in that sunshine much because it's been dang cold and windy, so I'm sort of waiting for the SAD shoe to drop and for me to suddenly get cranky and completely de-motivated. I probably should be using that box preemptively. I just keep forgetting.

5. I'm a little nervous about the fact that I signed up for personal coaching through Weight Watchers. I have my first call tomorrow and I'm not sure what to expect, nor whether I'll find this useful. However, I wanted to give it a try. You see, I have a pattern in which I get to a certain weight and then start monkeying around back and forth within a couple of pounds for-freaking-ever and eventually (every time in the past) end up just bagging the whole thing. I'm at that weight now. It's tended to take on the appearance of a boogieman in my mind since I've had this happen a few different times now. I had a slight gain this week and all my mental alarm bells went off, so I sat in my car in the parking lot after my meeting and signed up for a coaching session to make sure I successfully get myself over this particular hump. Don't worry--I know this gain is pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things and it's not the first gain I've had on this journey. Don't feel you need to reassure me or give me advice on that point--my head is in a good place. It has more to do with the particular threshold I'm sitting at and years of past history. I'm not beating up on myself in any way. I'm just making use of all the tools at my disposal to make sure I'm successful. If I don't have a good vibe with the coach or feel like she'll actually be able to offer anything different than I'm already getting, I won't pursue it further. But if she does, well, hey--why not?

That's all for this week! I may not get blog posts out next week as we're in lock-down when we're in class. So, if not, I'll see you the week after....

Thinking About it Thursday: Apps, Planners, and Blog Posts, O My! (More New Year Organization)

I think it's time to return to my Thinking About it Thursday posts. This one is more wordy than they usually are but I've got some 'splainin' to do.

I saw this book referenced on someone's blog and thought, "Color me intrigued." I now have one in my reflective little hands: The 52 Lists Project by Moorea Seal. I'm an inveterate list-maker so the idea of using lists to reflect in a meaningful way seemed like it would be right up my alley. I received it on Tuesday, and did the first week's list and can already highly recommend the book. It's a beautifully designed book, the list topics are really interesting--many are pretty unexpected--and each one has a suggested action item at the end that can make even random-seeming lists make sense in your life. It's obviously designed to start in January and go the full year, but if you got it at a different time of year, you'd just start in that section of the book. The weeks aren't dated but they're organized seasonally.

Since I got this the first week of January, I started with the first list, which had to do with goals and dreams. I've done a lot of work on goals over the last few weeks (years, really), so I thought I'd already know what would come out of my pen when I sat down to write. But as I let myself go "stream of consciousness," I discovered I had a lot of other less-obvious goals, dreams, wants, or whatever you'd want to call them, that hadn't been formalized into my mind-maps in my planner. I don't believe in overloading myself with goals, but many of them were simple things, such as the fact that my husband and I have gotten into a bit of a rut with our date nights and always go out to dinner or a movie (or if we're really time-efficient, dinner and a movie). So now I've added into my planner reminders to find area events and check museum hours and such. Little things that are so easy to do but tend to get lost when we're busy!

One of the things that showed up on my list as a goal (I won't call it a resolution) for 2017 is to be a bit more regular in my blogging and podcast than I was able to be last year.

1. I now have a goal of blogging at least once a week, preferably twice, even if I don't have anything of value to say. I also have a goal of posting a podcast episode once a month--and if I don't have much to say, it'll just be a short one!

Looking forward to that? LOL. I'll try to keep it interesting. There will likely be less quilty stuff and more general life stuff than I like to do, but it is what it is. However, I'm hoping the accountability of seeing "write blog post" or "post podcast episode" on my task list will keep me to another of my goals:

2. Embroidery or sewing every week, even if it's only 10 minutes. (That's 10 minutes a week, not 10 minutes a day. I know my limits at the moment.)

I'm more likely to be able to do consistent, short bouts of embroidery as there are some rather obvious moments in my daily schedule that could be more productive than they've been in the past. It's more a matter of making sure I have everything at-hand where I'm most likely to use it, so it's an easy pick-up-put-down kind of thing. I will finish that dang Halloween BOM by next Halloween, dang it.

3. Change up my personal-life task-tracking system to be more readily accessible.

I've been using LifeTopix for years and really like it on a lot of levels, but the developers have focused on making LifeTopix deeper, not broader. In other words, it's an extremely feature-rich program but it hasn't increased in user-friendliness nor in expanding it's platform (it's only on Mac/iPad/iPhone). Since getting an Apple Watch for Christmas, plus looking at how I really work during the day, I decided to test out a bunch of other task-management apps and am now using a combination of Todoist and Google Calendar to replace LifeTopix. I haven't deleted LifeTopix yet as I may ultimate decide Todoist doesn't quite hack it, but so far, so good. Todoist is available on ALL platforms--so I can sit at my computer and throw a bunch of tasks on there as they occur to me, I can be on my phone or iPad, or do fast checks and updates on my watch. It's also a lot faster to enter tasks in with appropriate schedules and priority than it was on LifeTopix, so setting up my reading schedule once I get my syllabi should be a lot faster. There were some workarounds I had to find out in order to get Todoist/Google to be as close a replica to LifeTopix as possible but so far, so good. (If you'd be interested, I could do a post that reviews the apps I tried, pros and cons, and why I ultimately chose the one I did. Let me know.)

4. Using a paper planner. (No, I haven't missed the irony that this comes immediately after talking about apps!)

Studies have shown that writing something by hand really does cement it better in our memories and, somehow, makes things feel more significant an important. As digitally-oriented as I am, I really wanted the more physical experience of working with a paper planner. I'm now using a Passion Planner. Again (you know me) I did a ton of research and downloaded a bunch of sample pages from several options but really liked that the Passion Planner had a lot of ways you could customize it to your own needs. Sure, customization means printing things hard copy, cutting them apart, and taping them into your planner, but that's just a good excuse to use some cute Washi tape, right? My planner and my digital apps work in consort with each other. I sit with my planner last thing at night and first thing in the morning to review my goals for the day. No work stuff is in here--just personal goals. Task items then get added to Todoist but I also have pages in here for reflections, notes to myself, inspirational quotations, habit checker lists, and so forth. Right now I'm finding it super-useful. We'll see how things go when I get back into the full mayhem of school in session.

There are a lot of other little things I'm working on but those are the biggies. On my Fight the Funk Friday post I'll share some things I've added to my healthy-living tools. Or, more appropriately, added back in again. And by then, maybe I'll have done some embroidery to share!

A Little New Year Organization

I passed these up the first time they came on sale but when they came on sale again the week after Christmas I decided--despite really not wanting to spend any more money at that point--they'd solve a lot of other little annoying difficulties I was having, so I bit: the ArtBin cubes for their Super Satchel series. (Still on sale if you're interested!)

I'd had a couple of the ArtBin Super Satchel bins for awhile, but this fall realized they'd work better for embroidery storage than what I'd tried before. (I talk about this in episode 202 In Which I Organize Thread.) Once I had a few more bins--also bought on sale or with coupons from Joanns--I realized I didn't really have a good place to keep them all in a way that would be easy-access when I only wanted one bin at a time. Enter the storage cubes. I put them on a wish list but held out on ordering them until last week, and then got them put together this morning.

They work great. You can adjust the little sliders for the cubes to whatever size you need--as you can see, I've got three different sizes at the moment. The sliders mean that you can pull one bin out at a time--which is much better than stacking them on a shelf as I'd been trying to do before, meaning I'd have to pull three off to get at the fourth one down. Love this solution! And you can see that I even still have room to grow! Empty slots, and the middle-sized bin on the lower shelf is actually empty. Note that ArtBin has several different types of bins--it's specifically the Super Satchel series that fits in these cubes. I have another ArtBin that's too pudgy so it has to live somewhere else.

The cubes are not that hard to put together although the instructions could use some improvement. Still, if you've done this kind of furniture before it's a pretty familiar process. They also come with wooden dowels to put between the two cabinets so you can stack them two-high and it's pretty secure. (They don't recommend doing more than two as it would have a tippy-factor.)

I haven't gotten anything done over my vacation in the way of quilting or embroidery, but I'm spending much of the rest of today getting myself set up to have an embroidery project ready to go for TV time at night and maybe even finishing a sewing project or two. My last day off must have some creative work involved!

OT: My First StitchFix Box!

Don't forget about my 2017 Quilty Resolutions Giveaway!

Did I write about subscribing to StitchFix in a blog post or did I only talk about it on Twitter? Sorry--holiday amnesia, don't recall a thing. In a nutshell recap: As part of my efforts to update my wardrobe and actually have it be a wardrobe rather than a collection of random outfits that don't play nice together...I decided to try out StitchFix. This is a monthly subscription service that I'd read about on a lot of style blogs and decided I'd give it a few months' worth of a trial to see how it went. I got my first box yesterday and I just have to say, they hit it out of the park!

When you subscribe, you fill out an online form about your size, style, the type of clothes you're looking for (casual, work, party, etc.), and a few other things. They also encourage you to set up a Pinterest board where you've collected pictures of clothing/outfits you like. I did that, and it was really educational for me too as I realized I kept pinning variations on basically the same outfit over and over! Apparently I do have what is referred to as a "style formula." A stylist then chooses five items and ships them to you. You have up to three days to make up your mind what (if anything) you want to keep and what (if anything) you want to send back. They give you a return envelope and you just stick it in the mailbox or take it to the post office--easy peasy returns.

There's a monthly fee for the styling service, but that fee is then taking out of the cost of any of the items you choose to buy. The price for each item is listed on the invoice, but if you buy all five items in the box, you get a significant discount. This came into play for me on this box, as I'll describe below.

Since I work from home and I'm not traveling much for work until later this spring, I had them emphasize casual clothes for the time being. I had also made a note on my subscription form that it's very cold in these parts at this time of year. They did an excellent job paying attention! The five items I was sent work together in various ways and are great for layering. I was hosting Second Christmas (my side of the family) on the afternoon I got my box, and I immediately wore two of the items combined with one I already owned for the gathering. Woot!

(Apologies--I'm not great at styling clothing shots, so some of these might look a little weird. But you'll get the idea.)

The first item I tried on were the jeans, not really expecting much. After all, don't we have to try on umpteen pairs of jeans in the store before finding a pair that fits and is comfortable? Holy cow, these fit beautifully! Super comfortable, very flattering. The denim is really soft--I kept running my hands over my legs all evening because I couldn't get over how different they felt from my other jeans. My daughter told me I looked like a "modern Mom" in them, which I decided to take as a compliment. I wore them for my family gathering and got several compliments, especially once people found out they were mail order and fit me perfectly right out of the box!

To be clear, the price tag on these was about twice as much (and then some) as I've ever spent on a pair of jeans in my life. I'd never have bothered even trying these on in a store. But by the time I'd chosen which clothes I wanted and did the math, the discounts brought the item cost down to something much closer to my usual price-point for jeans. And these are such NICE jeans, I think I've learned a little bit of that "you get what you pay for" thing. These were definitely and immediately a keeper.

The next item I put on (with the jeans) was also immediately a keeper. I absolutely love this blouse. My husband also commented how much he liked it on me, which is saying something because the design has a paisley in it and he's always had an inexplicable hatred of paisley. The fabric is very lightweight which makes it perfect for layering now but will have a long seasonal life span. It also makes it great for wearing for entertaining when I'm spending most of the afternoon in the kitchen. I have a navy cardigan I threw on over it and had my Second Christmas outfit in the bag. 

Item number three (to be worn this weekend, and probably almost always) is this extremely soft cardigan. 

It's a little oversized on me (as I'm losing weight I'm between sizes at the moment so it's hard for me to accurately tell Stitchfix what to do), but I don't mind that for a cardigan like this, as I'd be layering it over long-sleeved shirts to ward off the chill in my home office. I hate feeling like I can't move my arms because I've got layers on--I don't think I'd have that problem with this cardigan. And the fiber blend (various synthetics) is super, super soft. Made for curling up on an armchair in front of the fire and reading, actually, which might be on the agenda for this weekend. 

I debated this one only briefly, but as I'd recently gotten rid of a big, comfy, gray cardigan that had developed some sort of itchy around the neck, it seemed destiny to be able to replace it so easily.

Item number four--another amazingly soft thing that you just want to curl up in. If I could turn this infinity scarf into a full-size quilt I would.

As you can tell, this scarf will easily go with all of the above, as well as several other things I've already got in my closet. My only quibble with it is that I'd like it to be a little longer. When I do the double-loop thing, it all sits up fairly close to my chin and I'd like a little more room there. But I've looked up different ways to use an infinity scarf so I think I'll find plenty of uses for it. And did I mention how soft it is? 

I have to say, I didn't think I had much navy blue in my wardrobe. It's not a color I gravitate towards. But when I took a few minutes to compare all four of these items to what I already owned, I found several new outfits I could make just incorporating these four pieces. Apparently my wardrobe is slowly becoming an actual wardrobe!

The final item is the only one I wasn't wowed by.

If it hadn't been for the discount, this one would've definitely gotten sent back. However, it turned out to be far cheaper to buy all five than it would've been to send only one or two back. Interesting math. That being said, I will get a lot of wear out of this sweater--just not likely in public much.

It's also super-super-soft. It's like curling up in the infinity scarf above, actually. Cozy on cozy. So I can see myself wearing it while I'm working at home, or running to the grocery store where I don't particularly care how I look. However, it's not a flattering design or shape on me. The color block makes me look, well, blocky, plus it just hangs straight; no shape whatsoever. It's a little hard to tell the color unless you're standing in certain light but it's a deep purple on top. I do have a fair amount of purple in my closet so I'd be able to mix it up with scarves and blouses underneath. I'll try styling it in a couple of different ways to see if I can make it look better than it does just wearing it straight up. 

For those of us who are style-challenged, they include a nifty little page with ideas for styling the items using other pieces. I got a couple of ideas from here for things I want to try using similar items in my wardrobe (or, at least, the same type of items--i.e., I have a dress that might work with the gray cardigan even though the dress is entirely different from what they pictured here). 

So--month one, thumbs up! If you're interested in trying out StitchFix, you could consider using my referral link here. I believe I'd get a little bit of a discount or something. Otherwise, just search for StitchFix on Pinterest or other social networking sites and check them out. I'm scheduled for my next delivery at the end of January so I'll keep you posted!

2017 Quilty Resolutions Challenge and Giveaway

Happy New Year! 

I know I'm a little late this year but that's because I've actually been spending a lot of time thinking about this!

As those of you who have been around awhile know, I have been in the habit of running a Quilty Resolutions Challenge (with related giveaway) every year. Each year I challenge my listeners/readers to come up with a few quilty-or-fiber-arts related resolutions around a particular theme, and then I draw names at random from the submissions for a giveaway prize. 

The tricky part is the theme. Every year, it's basically come out of whatever my personal challenge is that year. So this year I've been trying to figure out how to relate my biggest focuses in my life to a quilty resolution challenge. And here it is. The theme is...

Balance

• How can your quilty life bring more balance to your life?
• Do you need to address some imbalance in your quilty life?

This year's quilty resolution challenge is focused on a single concept, but there are two ways you can approach it.

On the one hand, many of us say that quilting, or embroidery, or weaving/spinning, or crochet (or, I suppose, even knitting, pshaw), or whatever, can bring us a sense of balance when our life gets busy or stressful. But we keep putting off the quilting/embroidery/fiber work until we get everything else done...which means it rarely has the opportunity to bring us balance.

On the other hand, perhaps we're getting chased by the Productivity Monster and it's our quilty/fiber life that's causing us a sense of unbalance. Quilting becomes an obligation--yet another more baby quilt to make for one more co-worker's sister's niece's college roommate, sigh. Or it becomes keeping up with the Janes-es who seem to be turning out completed projects every day and making us feel like complete slackers. Or it becomes beating ourselves up when we've been practicing FMQ for months and still can barely do a decent swirl and feeling like we may as well just throw in the towel because we'll always stink at this...

Our creative life should bring us a sense of balance. It should offer us the opportunity to grab a little zen, or work through our stresses, sadness, and even joy. It shouldn't become one more stressful task on our already overburdened to-do list nor should it be allowed to languish until that rare occasion we have a few moments free.

And yes, I'm preaching to myself here. But as I always say--I know I'm unique, but I'm not THAT unique. If I'm dealing with these questions, chances are a few of you are too. 

So for 2017, my Quilty Resolution Challenge to you is to look at your creative/fiber life through the lens of balance, and make one single resolution that will allow you--in whatever way you need to--find more balance through or within your quilt/fiber life.

Leave a comment below naming your one single resolution about balance! (Then make sure you enter using the Rafflecopter widget.)

I'll draw three names at random. Each winner will receive a set of four fat quarters--I'll choose which one y'all get! (Again, make sure you enter using the Rafflecopter widget--that's how I'll be drawing names.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Challenge ends on January 15th, 2017. 

Looking forward to reading your ONE resolution! And may we all find more balance in 2017!

Fight the Funk Friday--In Recovery

This will be a short post because I'm really, seriously, very-much-determined to get as much rest as possible today. Read: I'm allowing myself to be a slug.

Sometimes Fighting the Funk is mostly cutting yourself serious slack and allowing your body time for recovery.

No, I've not been sick. I survived an 8 1/2 hour drive through blinding snow last night and (thank God) lived to tell about it. There were honestly a few times yesterday when I wasn't entirely sure what the end of the story would be.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday in Valley Forge, PA, for staff meetings and our Christmas lunch, plus I had brought my computer down to the computer center for them to do some updates and such that they can't do remotely. December's not usually that bad weather-wise for us--our big snow tends to hit in January. I've gone down every year in December and in 15 years only had to cancel due to snow once.

Driving down was fine, but Thursday was an entirely different matter. I wasn't able to leave the office until just before 3p which, under normal conditions would get me home by about 9p. In dry conditions, it's a 6 hour drive door to door. However, I knew the forecast for my home area--"lake effect snow," which is highly unpredictable and very difficult to actually forecast. The way the forecasts were reading, I'd either have smooth sailing or I'd be in trouble.

It turned out to be the latter. Let's suffice it to say I finally walked in my front door around 11:15p, totally fried. I'd had such a death grip on the steering wheel all the way home that my neck, back, arms, and hands were aching. 

Fortunately, I had a previously-scheduled massage therapy appointment this morning so that helped a whole lot. And now I'm reading magazines and doing embroidery and watching Murder She Wrote (my other "comfort TV") until it's time to start getting ready for my husband's office holiday party tonight. Cocktail dress and heels in my future. Need to rest up for that!

The end result...

Fight the Funk Friday--Back on Track!

My first "Fight the Funk" report is to say that, as you're reading this, I'm on a quilt shop hop with some of my quilty friends! I have some vacation days to burn up before the end of the year so I'm taking the rest of the Fridays in December off. This week I'm doing the "Mom Memorial Shop Hop" with some friends. This is a trip my Mom and I did several Decembers (I often end up taking Fridays off to burn up vacay). We would to Amish country and go to a few different fabric stores and then have a fabulous Amish lunch. Now, when I have a Friday off in December, I try to do this trip with some friends in memory of my mom, hence referring to it as the "Memorial Shop Hop." Unfortunately, the Amish restaurant Mom and I always went to is now closed, so we have a less-fabulous lunch, but I still spend a day with my friends and have fun! Definitely a great way to fight the winter funkiness.

I'm happy to report that my neck has been behaving itself this week. My PT was quite pleased by my progress at this week's appointment. Unfortunately, he's now given me the Epley maneuvers as homework. For those of you not "in the know," these maneuvers are basically designed to cause head spins. They're not fun--but they do eventually work to make the head spins go away. That being said, he worked me up to these. I've been in PT for about 5 or 6 weeks now and we didn't even go near doing these until this week--until I've made enough improvement that the Epley maneuvers don't make me want to wommit. I spin, but I don't seem to get nauseous--a HUGE improvement over past times I've tried these. So, yay.

I also beasted my session with my physical trainer this week (and last week, for that matter). What's an even better sign? I wasn't nearly as sore two days later as I expected to be. My body's starting to get used to this physical stuff! Yippee! My about-to-leave-trainer is going to work with the gym director to connect me with a new trainer who will be a good match based on what she knows I like to do, so hopefully I won't have any disruption in training when she leaves. I mostly want to get on a new trainer's roster before that January rush!

It's starting to get harder to do my hourly walks in the backyard because we've had some really cold winds this week, so my daily step count has slacked somewhat. The ambient temperature hasn't been too bad for December, but the wind makes it pretty biting. I've gotten bundled up a few times to make the trek but that adds time to the walks (it takes awhile to get all those layers on!) so it doesn't happen as often. I have had a couple of days, though, where I noticed in the evening that I was within a couple grand of my step goal for the day so I just paced the house while listening to a podcast through headphones. Antisocial (my husband was watching TV in the other room both times) but productive.

Not great weather for walking outside, but perfect weather for some healthy comfort food! My slow cooker and Instant Pot are getting real workouts these days--often both for the same meal.

Here's a recommendation for you: The Skinnytaste blog has fantastic, easy, healthy recipes. For those doing Weight Watchers she has the Smartpoints listed for each recipe. I bought both of her bookbooks: The Skinnytaste Cookbook and Skinnytaste: Fast and Slow. I've used a lot of recipes out of both of them and haven't had a clunker yet. The picture is her Slow-Cooker Bolognese Sauce from the Fast and Slow cookbook. I'm in serious love. DH doesn't like meat sauce so this is all mine. Woot! The recipe made enough that I've got some in the freezer along with my leftovers in the fridge this week. I had it on pasta the first night as my daughter had left some leftover spaghetti, but I've had it on cauliflower rice (thank you, food processor) and on spaghetti squash (thank you, IP) for lunch a couple of times since. Pasta is still best, but some days we have to make adjustments where we can! The cauliflower rice and spaghetti squash do the purpose, since it's all about the Bolognese anyway. 

Meanwhile, I used my Instant Pot to do a batch of brown rice the other day and then froze what I wasn't eating for dinner in ice cube trays like these (I don't have this brand but these are pretty much the same thing). I got the idea from one of my Craftsy classes last year but this is the first time I've done it. It's a 2" ice cube tray which is the equivalent of a half-cup serving. The rice freezes really well, and then you transfer the frozen cubes into a ziploc freezer bag. You just pull out as many cubes as you need for a particular meal. Since I'm the only one who eats brown rice, this is another great way to have fast, healthy meals on tap for lunch or dinner. (The brown rice was for Mexican Chicken Burrito Bowls, another Skinnytaste slowcooker dinner that I loved!)

It's good to be fully mobile again, I've been loving having meals ready and waiting for me when I get home from the gym at night, and in general, life has been good this week. I like weeks like that.

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