Vinyl Day, Sewing for ME, and other miracles

Yesterday was vinyl day. My sister J has a vinyl cutting business and came down to cut a phrase for my bedroom wall. Another sister (M) also came over, since J was going to be here. M is starting a new business and needed vinyl cut for her car.

(By the way, I haven't seen M since Christmas, and she's lost 18 pounds! She looks so great. She'd been working really hard to exercise & eat well... but was having very minimal results, so I'm glad Take Shape for Life has helped her so much. She's really REALLY excited to help others to see results too.) [end true but shameless plug]

Anyhow, after the car vinyl (it's going to have a logo on the right side as well, but it has to be ordered separately), we cut the phrase for above my bed. I'd decided on the phrase & font at least 1.5 years ago. It was going to say,

"Love doesn't make the world go round; it's what makes the ride worthwhile."

Then last month when I was preparing to give my talk at church I came to a better understanding of love, and couldn't use the quote anymore because Love DOES make the world go round (plus my sister thought that I shouldn't have the word "ride" above my bed...lol). So after a little internet search I decided on,

"I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach"

(Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

Hopefully in a year and a half I'll still like it, because it was a big job putting it up last night!!! I'm thrilled with it, though. It looks awesome, and when only my side lamp is on it illuminates just "I love thee" which is a nice thing to see (btw, did you know that "thee" is actually the informal form, and "you" is formal? but of course in English we don't use formal/informal like in other languages).

Other news: I made Megan Neilson's Maternity Wrap Shirt. I made it from a thrifted jersey sheet. I'm going to make a matching tube top, or camisole to go underneith, so I'll probably post another pic later. But the wrap was easy to sew & is pretty cute.

And lastly, the vinca plants are in full bloom and the hosta spikes are getting long & ready to open up : )

Not to sound like a broken record...

but I'm afraid I don't have much going on besides trying to stay motivated & working on exercising. The only other news around here is that I'm starting to get the itch to sew but have to get through layout first (as well as clear off the dining table since I want to sew out in the midst of things for a while). Oh, and we're all sick. HH even stayed home from work, which he practically never does. Chick sounds like Carol Channing, and it's pretty cute.

OK, so I signed up on sparkpeople.com, and am not sure what I think of it. But anyhow, they emphasize visualization. One activity they recommend is putting up visual reminders of what you want to accomplish. Here are the pictures & quotes that I found to remind me of my goals....

I love one-shoulder swimsuits. (My favorite past swimsuit was when I was about 10 & had a one-shoulder turquoise colored suit. Super cute.) I don't need to buy a new swimsuit, but I do really love this one. She's on my fridge with this quote:

"Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels."

(She's kinda preachy, eh? But effective nonetheless. I think she's right, even if she is flaunting her thinness. Maybe I should have her say "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" instead...)

Doesn't that look lovely? It's Xcaret, an eco-amusement park in the Cancun area, and I think I'd like to go there when we're in port at Cozumel.

When I was on my mission in Italy, I always wanted to ride a scooter. I love them. I never could, of course, because as a missionary we had safety rules and such...but I think it would be a blast to scooter around Grand Cayman & maybe do some geo-caching or letterboxing while we're exploring. And if the scooter was pink and cute like this one it'd be even better!

You have a choice. You can throw in the towel, or you can use it to wipe the sweat off of your face. -Gatorade

(The Suzi Chin dress is also one of my motivators--it's been on my computer's desktop for a couple of days)

The menu went well, btw, but we didn't get through all of the meals because we just had too much leftover & had to have leftovers for a couple of days. But I'm happy with how I've eaten & also with my exercise efforts. Today I wrote out next week's menu, which is similar enough to last week's that I won't bore you (but if some new recipes pan out I'll share them later).

My biggest achievement exercise-wise this week was running 2 miles continuously. I haven't done much running in quite a while, so I'm thrilled to be building up my endurance.

Don’t Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you are trudging seems all up hill;
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don’t you quit.
Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you can never tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit -
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit!
Author unknown

Dr Suess, Secrets & Lies, and Murals.

Chick picked up a medicine syringe in the bathroom (used to feed a babydoll who could drink & pee), started playing with it and said, "I'm a doctor. I'm Dr. Suess."

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A while ago I got the bug to start REALLY exercising. For several reasons, I decided to keep it a secret from HH. For 2.5 weeks I worked out religiously, and always put everything back as it had been before HH got home so that he wouldn't know. I even went so far as asking someone to lie for me so that I'd have a false alabi. I thought about going a full month before telling him, but it was just so hard--somedays I couldn't tell him anything about my day because we'd walked to the park or something like that. So I confessed.

HH has always been of the opinion that girls like to have tricks up their sleeves. I generally don't (have tricks or secrets), but maybe I should... I don't want to exercise now because the fun is gone. Too bad you can't untell a secret.

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Lastly, I painted this mural for the girls' room last year. Yup, last year. I didn't post a pic until now because I was waiting to get the trimwork finished...but life is short, so here it is.

Ah yes...Losing weight.

Well, it's almost time. I gave myself half a month of sloth, but on Monday it's time to get real & start eating right & exercising more.

As a help to myself, I'm going to have a weight loss journey blog. It's going to be private, so if you are female (yes, I'm being sexist) & interested in weight loss, then post a comment or email me, and I'll let you in.