Inspiration can come from anywhere

My daughter has a sweatshirt that she bought at college that I love.  It is a reverse applique of the college letters.  I had been wanting to try my hand at reverse applique and finally did to make this rag quilt.

I layered a piece of flannel behind fleece, cut the letters out with my Cricut and pinned them in place and then stitched around the letter.  The tricky part was cutting the layer of fleece without going through the flannel too.  I used the cutouts to put the name on the back of the rag quilt as well.

I know that this rag quilt will be a great one to snuggle under.  It has two layers of fleece which made it a bit of a challenge to sew through all of those layers.

I also made another fleece blanket that I used a quilt block as inspiration.  I am doing the block of the month over at www.craftsy.com and used the chunky chevron block as inspiration to make this fun throw for a boy.

Thanks to my dear husband for help in photographing these!!

Weight loss journey begins

Last week I made a commitment to getting healthy - AGAIN.  This time I am doing things differently.  I am developing a real plan not just winging it.  I asked my son to start holding me accountable and tell me to "suck it up" when I need it because he is very good at that. I am taking baby steps just like I have done to get out of debt.  Baby step number one was to eliminate drinking my calories - no more cokes.  I am now drinking water and tea.  Baby step number two is to get moving.  I need to walk every day or at least five out of seven days. I will be adding more steps as I am able.  It is important to be realistic and develop a plan that will work for me from now on.

My weekly weigh in days are Thursdays so I intend to post once a week to document my journey.  My starting weight on Thursday, March 15th was 209 pounds.  In the first week I only lost 1/2 a pound but I did lose and the step I was able to implement that week was to watch my calories.  Starting today, I am going to walk at my lunch hour and hopefully after work.  After work is proving to be a challenge because I am currently working 11-12 hour days.

I also have started using MyPlate on Livestrong again to track my calories.  They had a great inspirational story from a user named Glenda who has lost over 200 pounds.  Well, I intend to be another Glenda with a great weight loss story.

My target weight is 150 so that means I need to lose a total of 59 pounds.  My realistic goal of dropping 59 pounds is December 31, 2012 at one to two pounds per week.

Finally - I will get this done!!