Birthday Boy

A belated Happy Birthday to my hubby! Here he is spending some quality time with his favorite silly Corgi! I'm super-proud of him for devising and sticking to a plan to get his truck paid off extra early! And for really dedicating himself to the Disney Weight-Loss movement! (We are both attempting to loose weight before our September trip! He is actually succeeding!!)

Home Gym Update

My basement home gym is shaping up nicely! Freshly painted, one wall is Florida Orange. I plan to add some large inspirational quotes to that wall like.To the left we have my chalkboard that I LOVE, and my hand weights on the table! Yoga mat and rubber flooring for floor exercises and you can't see but I have a really sturdy coffee table that I use for my bench.And to the right are my treadmill, stability ball, and Mike's exercise bike.

Unseen, but in the same room are my radio and the all-important dehumidifier.

Tacky toes

I chose this color for my toenails a few weeks ago without realizing how tacky it is. It's like pink flamingo pink, VERY tacky. I thought I'd live with it until it needed redone and MAN this stuff will not wear out! It's seriously the toughest toenail polish I've ever seen!! I almost couldn't bring myself to change it because it wasn't chipped AT ALL! But I couldn't stand the bright, opaque flamingo color any longer!

Fair Time!!

It's that time of year again! Time to finish up last minute project and pick the very best from the garden to take to the county or state fair! We take our entries this Saturday, I can't wait! I'd like to direct you to my two educational posts:

Exhibiting Arts and Crafts at Your Local Fair

Exhibiting Produce at Your Local Fair

And after you've won your big prize (which I'm sure you will), take a picture and post it to our flickr group, The County Fair Revival!

Last fair project

I finished this last project for the fair. It was kind of spur of the moment, after seeing this pattern, which isn't available ANYWHERE! So I just sort of made it up as I went along, very simple! I used Moda L'amour instead of Candy Kisses.

Mini donuts

justJenn posted her recipe for mini donuts using her donut maker and it inspired me to dig ours out of the garage!So a week or so ago, we made some mini donuts! We inherited this Master Chef Donut Bakery from Mike's parents. (Ok, he begged them for it! His dad used to make them fairly regularly so they have sentimental value for him as well as being darn tasty!)
It bakes up 6 donuts at a time.
We made several variations of the same batter, plain (with a dash of nutmeg), chocolate and peanut butter.

Then we decorated them with different frostings, sprinkles, nuts and coconut. Here are the two I picked out to eat first!You can still find this donute maker on ebay but justJenn links to the one she bought on Amazon.

Don't worry, most of the time I'm still eating meals like this:Black bean and sweet potato patty (homemade) on whole grain tortilla with 2% cheddar, fresh corn and black bean salad, an apple and a 100-calorie pack of fudge stripe cookies.

St. Jude relay!

It's crunchtime now, only a few weeks until the 2010 St. Jude relay! I am doing at least one multi-day run a week in preparation for the Relay on August 6+7. I've been selling stuff and ebay and Etsy, selling plants and misc. household items at work and participating in research studies at the University (who doesn't love being a human guinea pig?) but I'm not up to $500 yet! So now's your chance! Any amount is helpful and appreciated. However, I'll run one leg of the relay just for you if you donate $10 or more!! And I'll blog about it, complete with pictures, after the relay. But most importantly, you'll be helping kids who need medical treatment!

Donate

Fair Time!

It's getting to be that time of year! July! Fair Season! If you've already had your fair or have projects done, I encourage you to add them to the flikcr group I started called The County Fair Revival. I am almost done with my last couple of projects that I'll be taking to our County Fair at the end of July.
I finished my plastic canvas turkey! I've never done a large-scale plastic canvas and I can honestly say I didn't enjoy it very much and probably won't do another.

Pajama pants-These are made out of some flannel my mom graciously gave me. I need new pajama pants, why not take them to the fair first?

I'm busy getting that Pumpkin Table Runner all bound and done!

In the works: A small basket made from old Christmas cards crocheted together.

Garden eats!

Hello, all! Here is a recent picture of me in front of some sort of airplane motor part. :) Not at all related to this post other than to show that I am down to my slimmest weight yet and I'm so excited it's summer!

One of my weekly challenges this summer was to eat no processed foods. It was hard but I loved it! And I'm still trying to limit the added sugar and such from processed foods. Summer makes it so easy because I have all the fresh veggies and herbs I could ask for!! So I've been eating meals like this:
With some green onions, chives and cilantro from my garden I made a tabbouleh salad. I read the instructions and could not believe you don't even have to cook the bulger, you just soak it in water!! What a perfect summer dish! (I had made tabbouleh before but I used quinoa instead of bulgar and had to cook the quinoa beforehand.)I made this summer squash medley with tomatoes from a recipe in Taste of Home Healthy Cooking. It was slightly Italian-tasting and I've eaten it by itself and also put it in an omelet this morning!I had a hankering for popsicles so I made peach honey yogurt pops. Three simple ingredients and they are heavenly!